Bad Coffee Day

I find as I get older (which keeps happening no matter how much I complain) that hurrying becomes more counterproductive, a fact that the forty-year old who lives inside my head refuses to accept.   On Wednesday, I volunteer in a Twelve Step office, taking calls from people in need of help and serving as the all-around computer guy.   My normal shift is from 11 am to 2 pm but today we are having the windshield replaced on my wife’s car because a tiny chip caused by a flying stone on the freeway has begun to grow into a crack.  She would like me home to deal with the mobile windshield replacement people, scheduled to arrive between 2 and 5 pm.   Thus, my plan was to shift my hours to allow me to be home at 2.  Have I mentioned that as I get older it becomes increasingly hard to change my routine?   By the time I got out of bed, read some news on my tablet, did my morning chi gong and showered, I realized that I didn’t have time for breakfast.   Easy, the forty-year old in my head said.  We’ll brew some coffee while you get dressed, then pick up a muffin or something at Ralph’s Market when you stop to buy something for lunch.   I scurried (as much as this old body can scurry) downstairs and set up the coffee maker, then scurried up the stairs  (more slowly) to finish dressing.  As I carried my office paraphernalia to the car, I stopped to fill my travel cup with the coffee I’d brewed.   What I got was pale brown hot water.  In my haste, I’d forgotten to put the ground coffee in the basket.  Shit, says I.

Coffee Too

My parents were coffee drinkers.  I can remember my Dad taking his first sip from a freshly brewed cup, smacking his lips and saying, Aaaahhhh, just like a coffee commercial.  As you might expect, witnessing such dramatics from Dad would make a young boy want to try coffee, too.   But coffee was for grownups.  Wah.  I’m not sure I actually cried but I probably whined, at least until Dad said, Knock it off!   Mom to the rescue … she brought home a bottle of coffee syrup that could be mixed with milk to make a drink suitable for kids.  Naturally, I called it Coffee Too, as in, Can I have some Coffee Too?  These days, coffee syrup is a flavoring that Starbucks adds to coffee to make a flavored Vente Machiato Frappacino (No Fat Half Caff) but I found Eclipse Coffee Syrup on the web at Annie’s Good Old Days Store.  It turns out coffee milk made with Eclipse Syrup is the official drink of Rhode Island.  Who knew Coffee Too had earned such honors?