All Fun And Games Until Coffee Maker Gives Up The Ghost

Two weeks ago I read on Facebook about a woman from my hometown of Hancock that wondered if anyone had a coffee maker she could use until another could be bought. Her machine had passed over into the place used grounds go, and was thinking about where to get the next cup.

It truly made an impression on me when a woman in the village offered to bring her a cup on the way when the kids were taken to school. Another offered, in light of COVID still being a real concern, to bring her morning coffee and just leave it on the back table. No contact delivery! Small towns are known for that type of living and caring.

That post came to mind this morning as I went about my routine of turning on the coffee maker and then going about our home opening curtains and shades. I picked up the morning newspaper from the front stoop and pulled a mug from the kitchen cabinet. It was then I noticed there was no aroma of coffee to welcome me to another day. Instead, I was greeted with an error message on the machine which when translated from Google into frustrated caffeine-deprived lingo equaled ‘buy a new machine’.

James gave me a Burr coffee grinder for Christmas, with this photo from January 1st also showing the famous Yankee bean pot used back home in Maine. Also pictured is the recently departed.

While hot water was boiling for my French press, I needed to again be mindful of what a coffee expert suggested.

I then pulled up my favorite business in the entire world, Amazon, and started to pursue new coffee makers. Once the boiling water was added to the freshly ground magic from last night, I asked Siri to set a 4-minute alarm. Just as the alert was audible I noticed smoke was being strongly smelled in our office.

While I was in the throes of a coffee crisis James’ spring-form pan for his homemade lemon-vanilla and blackberry cheesecake with a ground pecan and molasses crust had a small drip, drip, drip onto the hot oven. Smoke was created of the type one might expect prior to a singer stepping through it to wow an audience in a stage production. With swift moves, the oven was wiped clean and a ‘hot-water bath’ style of baking his creation was found.

It was then I read an email from a man who was to install our outside french doors Tuesday morning, alerting me to a forecast calling for rain. The project, understandably, was delayed for later in the week.

This all occurred before even the first sip of morning coffee. Well, it is Monday, even if a Holiday.

The serendipity part of this story is this long weekend I am reading The Coffee Trader by David Liss. This author writes his remarkable stories with equal intensity with both history and finance. I am enthralled with his abilities with storytelling.

Amsterdam in the 1690s – a boom town with Europe’s biggest stock exchange and traders who will stop at nothing to get even richer. Lienzo, a Portugese Jew, stumbles across a new commodity – coffee – which, if he plays his cards right, will make him the richest man in Holland. But others stand in his way – rival traders who do all in their power to confuse the exchange and scupper his plans, his brother who is jealous of his financial wizardry and even his brother’s beautiful wife who both tempts and spurns him in equal measure.

I have seven chapters left in the book and if my Adirondack chair does not fall apart as I sit down, or a large branch of a tree let go over my head, or an errant neighborhood frisbee smacks me in the head the rest of the day looks better.

I can say that now since I have finished my first cup of java!

National Coffee Day With A Touch Of History

Today is one of the fun events to participate in–though for most of us our ritual with the namesake of the day will be much like yesterday or what follows tomorrow. Because when it comes to life one of the daily pleasures is making a pot of coffee, smelling the rich aroma fill the kitchen, selecting a mug, and then filling it up. Repeatedly.

National Coffee Day is being celebrated today in the United States and International Coffee Day is October 1st. Wherever you may live, and this blog has daily readers worldwide, I fill a cup with you!!

My days of loving coffee started when I would go to my grandparents across the road from where I lived as a boy.  Grandpa would snack before doing afternoon chores, and since I wanted to help throw the corn to the pigs I would sit at Grandma’s table and ask for some of the coffee that was being served.  I wanted to be like the adults, and so in a cup that was far more milk than the coffee, I had my first java experience.  Grandma always told me coffee would stunt my growth but in time the ratio of coffee to milk soon ran more in my favor and in time I was drinking it black.

Meanwhile, at home my parents had a glass percolator maker that had a metal insert for the grounds.  Regardless of the type of maker or where the cup was served one thing was always constant in my life about coffee.  The best conversations and memories have often surrounded drinking a mug of coffee.

And with our conversation about coffee, and given my desire to put some history into this day, I offer the following nugget.

The ever-charging President Teddy Roosevelt was a voracious coffee drinker. That might be a part of the reason he was always so animated, though his character and resolve played the central parts to his robust personality. It was in 1907 when TR was drinking coffee at the Hermitage, a famous Nashville resort that was originally Andrew Jackson’s home, that a quote became part of our national lore. While drinking Maxwell House TR stated it was Good to the Last Drop.

From there the advertising world took over and the imagery started for this brand of coffee.

I made coffee this morning with a choice based on the cool seasonal temps. If you have not made your cup…..get up now and head to the kitchen and celebrate National Coffee Day!

NO Coffee For Impeachment Trial!!

When it comes to the impeachment trial now underway for Donald Trump in the U.S. Senate there are many avenues to travel for conversation.  From constitutional law to the political impact the proceedings will have on the electorate.   We can disagree with each other over much of what is now happening.  But I suspect, in this time of partisanship and political tribalism in the land, there is one spot, however, where we all can find agreement.

We are now all aware that only water, sparkling water or milk can be consumed on the Senate floor.  Coffee is forbidden.  Only Senator Romney seems not to care.  That rule not allowing coffee for the senators who are listening to the trial is one step too far.   While I love traditions and long-standing procedures there are times when logic and common sense must rise up.

Yes, we have all sorts of bluster and rhetoric to use on the other side of the aisle, but for crying out loud it seems beyond the pale to not allow the ones who are required to sit and listen to the trial not at least be able to enjoy a hot cup of java.  Friend or opponent, this is one time we all should be able to agree on something.

All my readers are aware of how much better any situation is when there is coffee to sip.  We know how much more attentive we become, how the thought process becomes more engaged.  We also know how sluggish and dispirited we can become when deprived of our cups of coffee.

This past week it was noted in the press that water has largely been the drink of choice, but at least two senators — Burr and Cotton— were spotted with a glass of milk.

For history buffs let it be known that the allowance for milk stems from the 1950s, when it was thought to be a good treatment for ulcers.  That nugget came this week from Senator Cassidy, a doctor.  According to the Senate Historical Office, Senator LaFollette drank eggnog during a 1908 filibuster, and Senator Thurmond of South Carolina, while still a Democrat in 1957, drank orange juice during his record 24-hour filibuster against the Civil Rights Act.

If I were a senator I would have a trusted aide bring me a cup of my favorite coffee with three spoonfuls of raw sugar and meet in the Senate gallery.  I would not be on the floor and have no rules to follow other than to listen and not talk.  And there I would take in a slice of history with the proceedings below me as I drink coffee and become alive in the moment.

 

 

Letter From Home “Coffee Smiles” 1/8/20

I had a morning appointment on Tuesday in preparation for a surgical procedure in a week.  Nothing major or concerning, but when a nurse asked what I was planning for the rest of my day I told her something far removed from the world of medicine.

Once back home I made a pot of coffee and spent the bulk of the day in our annex–the third floor of our home.  It is fast becoming a place James and I can often be found.  Or should I say not found?  No phones are allowed and television has not been on once since July. And that was only to set it up with station locators.

The majority of the time when I am up in the annex I sit in the window seat with cushions all about reading and gazing off at Lake Monona.  That location seems to have almost been designed to fit me back in the day when it was constructed.

Yesterday, however, I spent the large part of the day working on the second episode of my podcast, Doty Land.  My broadcast studio is located there and Monday I had two guests for a recording session.  Needing to free my mind from medical thoughts I hunkered down and spent about six hours doing one of the things that warms my heart.

I could have been given $10,000 and not been happier than I was while clipping audio, recording connection pieces for the podcast, and making sure voice levels were all normalized.   And then, of course, uploading the final product to my platform.

Throughout my life, it has always been the little things that have made for smiles and allowed me to know that there is way too much to do to ever think about being bored.  I do not take for granted we have the third floor to a house or a place to set aside for broadcasting.  I know I am blessed in many ways.  These are not little things, to be sure.  But it is the decades-long pleasures I have found from having a special reading nook or knowing that the charm of broadcasting can lift my sails even on a day I needed to see a doctor.    Those ever-present parts of my DNA are the little things that still are very much alive within me.

And that feeling continued this morning as for the first time I used the alarm clock setting from Siri on my iPad to make a cup of French Press coffee.  I came to learn that this alarm was possible from a friend this weekend.  Yeah, I am tech-savvy to the point I can use a computer program to create a podcast but I needed to be informed that an alarm function would allow my coffee making to run smoother!

There were smiles here when Siri alerted me to plunge down the press.  I do love the little things in life.

National Coffee Day!

My day started off a bit earlier than normal as family was visiting and I wanted to be alert and ready.  So the coffee pot was on and brewing away as the aroma wafted about on a rainy, gray morning.  As I made Blueberry Crumble for myself, and then a different blend for the company later in the day, I knew it was all good.

Because today is National Coffee Day!!

My days of loving coffee started when I would go to my grandparents across the road from where I lived as a boy.  Grandpa would snack before doing afternoon chores, and since I wanted to help throw the corn to the pigs I would sit at Grandma’s table and ask for some of the coffee that was being served.  I wanted to be like the adults, and so in a cup that was far more milk than the coffee, I had my first java experience.  Grandma always told me coffee would stunt my growth but in time the ratio of coffee to milk soon ran more in my favor and in time I was drinking it black.

Meanwhile, at home my parents had a glass percolator maker that had a metal insert for the grounds.  Regardless of the type of maker or where the cup was served one thing was always constant in my life about coffee.  The best conversations and memories have often surrounded drinking a mug of coffee.

Legend has it that coffee’s great potential was discovered by an Ethiopian goat herder who noticed how happy his goats were after eating the coffee berry. After he alerted local monks, word about the berry’s effects spread quickly, eventually reaching the Arabian Peninsula where it began to become the social touchstone that it is today.

I trust your steaming coffee mug was a nice part of your day, too.

In Memory Of Mom, Geneva Humphrey

There are scores of pictures of mom.  From over the decades at reunions, or weddings, or on vacations.  But there is one picture that has always been my favorite as it best sums up who she was.  It also best sums up what I miss most about her these 12 years later.

Mom loved a hot cup of coffee, and better yet, the conversations that flowed as people gathered around to chat.  Many a Sunday after dinner dad would leave the table to watch 60 Minutes, while mom poured the two of us another cup of coffee as the conversation continued at the table.  The home kitchen was where countless cups of coffee were poured and seemingly endless back-and-forth about every topic under the sun.

At the time of the family estate closing I wanted some personal items–nothing large or expensive.  I wanted memory pieces.  As such I took one of the matching mugs in 2011 when leaving the family home for the last time.  On this date, and also on mom’s birthday, (Dec. 31st) I bring that mug from the top of the kitchen shelves.   Today the mug will be filled again and again–just like she did in her kitchen–until the coffee pot is finished.  Then the mug is washed, placed back on the upper shelf, and used again in December.

 

A Historical Cup Of Coffee Makes For Smile At End Of Very Hard Week In Nation

This has been an awful week in our nation.   From Parkland on Tuesday to the reports about efforts to undermine our democracy make news today.  This just proves we need something different–at least for one post on this blog–to lift spirits.

Everyday I spend an hour or so with a book about history.  I am working my way through–and loving each moment–of Master of the Senate by Robert Caro.  (How many ways are there to say brilliant?)  Richard Russell, Jr. was a famed senator in the 20th century–a Senate Office Building is named after him.   But it was his father, Russell, Sr., which makes for the smile I had and wish to impart to others who no doubt need something to lift their sails.

Richard Russell, Sr. was a judge and not far from the house where he lived with his wife and 13 kids—she spent the first 20 years of her marriage mostly being pregnant—was a train stopping point.   And that is where we find this account……….

On mornings on which the judge had to travel to court in Atlanta, one of the children would station himself at a curve about half a mile away to wave his handkerchief to flag the train down. Catching a glimpse of the train, he would shout, “Round the curve!”  “Round the curve!” The word would be relayed by another child to the house, where judge Russell sat regally at his table, refusing to be rushed through his breakfast, and then, at the very last moment, the judge, a lordly figure.. would stride out to the station, still holding his coffee cup.   Often he would not get there quite in time, and the train would be passing the station, but he would wave at the engineer, who would put on the brakes and then back the train up so that the judge could board, taking a last sip as he stepped aboard and handed the cup down to one of his children.

 

 

Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE) Saw Me Coming

While shopping tonight in Madison James and I stumbled onto an item I was not aware was even marketed.  But there it was on the shelves beckoning to be picked up.  Always looking at coffee and thinking what might be fun to explore in a mug made the item mighty easy to place in the cart.

I had a genuine laugh when I saw the TCB–Taking Care Of Business— logo on one package renamed Taking Care Of Breakfast.   Meanwhile James is snickering about me being easy picking for marketing. (James said I should feel like a Trump supporter!) We will see what he says in the morning when I am buzzing about the house cleaning, doing laundry, dishes, and  my hand shakes unsteadily as I try and pour the last drops from the carafe while saying, “I think I can paint the house today, too”.

I do want to say in my defense, however, I did not buy the peanut butter and banana flavored package of coffee.    That all might be fine to combine between bread in a fry skillet but there are limits to good taste with coffee.   I think E would agree.

Life is good.  And it is even better with coffee!