Of coffee and cups….

It's really 3/8/2015.  Doing this offline for upload later.  Can’t get to the Blog right now.  Don’t have the money to pay the internet bill, so they’ve limited access.  One of the sights they’ve closed off is Blogger.

Would of thought they’d close down FaceBook first.  That’s the one I’d really miss.

It’s sad, but I’m only human.  I waste a LOT of time on FaceBook.  It’s part of the Ritual of Morning Coffee.  I get up, hit the head, get dressed for the morning, set the coffee maker, and take the dogs out.  I come back in, if I’m awake enough, I check the water bowls and refill as necessary.  Some mornings that step gets moved down the line.  I make the first cup of coffee….

Yes I say make.  Cuz there’s a process.

Steve, my Deary Departed, corrupted me.  I was a non-coffee drinker before I met him.  He introduced me to the joy of the hot, sweet, creamy drink coffee could be.

Anybody who drinks coffee knows that it’s not creamy or sweet all on its own, creamy and sweet takes sugar and half & half or milk or creamer.

We used to make jokes about turning coffee into hot chocolate.  Or ‘do you want some coffee with your cream?’

Yes, I know, I’m not a real coffee drinker.  I don’t like it hot, strong, black, and bitter.  I like it hot, strong, light brown, and sweet.  Though, I’m getting better.  Lately I’ve been drinking it without the half & half.  I can drink it black, but I’ve gotta have sugar.

Steve’s coffee could get up and walk around the block.  It had to be strong to stand up to the mixing.

And there is a precise mix.  Back in the day, it was a large cup of strong coffee, preferably Colombian.  Steve and I were Folger’s fans, I still am.  Tried some others.  Kinda like the Costco, Kirkland Signature brand, and I will buy that most often cuz you can’t beat 3# of coffee for $9-$10 bucks.  But I prefer the Folger’s, made with a heaping scoop for every 2 cups of water.  So, now it’s 6 cups water, as marked on the coffee maker, and 3 not so heaping, cuz I try to make the can last as long as possible, scoops of coffee.

That gets me 2 cups.

It’s the Morning Ritual.

Mix strong coffee with 3 teaspoons of sugar, back in the day it was add half & half till it was the right shade of tan.  Now, it’s 3 teaspoons of sugar, 3 teaspoons of powdered creamer, and a slug of half & half to get it the right color.  I added the powdered creamer shortly after Steve passed as a cost cutting measure.  Right now, I’ve got half & half, but lately I’ve been doing without.  Skipping the half & half keeps the coffee warmer longer.  On these cold mornings that’s a good thing.  Even the cheap half & half is about $2 bucks now.  It’s something I can do without.

It’s changed a little, but it’s still the Morning Ritual.

Back in the day, it was 2 cups and out the door most mornings.  We’d have a few minutes to sit together and then we’d be off.  On the really good days, when neither of us had to be anywhere, we’d linger over 2 cups, on weekdays there’d be old studio cartoons on TNT.  MGM, Warner Brothers, and Paramount, all the old cartoons that played before movies back in the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s.  Bugs Bunny, Popeye, Droopy, all the old Harmen-Isings.  On the weekend there was 'The Tick', 'The X-men', 'Scooby-Doo', 'Beakman’s World', or 'Art Of the Western World' and the 'Victory Garden'.  If we had cable, it might be the Discovery Channel or the History Channel, back when they were serious.  We’d talk, hang out, enjoy each other’s company.  Sometimes we’d make more coffee….

Now, I make the first cup of coffee and hang out on FaceBook.  I keep track of my friends.  I read interesting stuff.  I repost things.  I play 2 games, Treasure Madness and Pet Rescue.  I don’t watch a lot of the videos, Max doesn’t like them.

It’s not the same.  But, it is enjoyable and can be thought provoking.

It’s still the Morning Ritual.

After the first cup, I’m in a flexible state.  Depending on the day and what needs to be done, I often do some stuff around the house between cup 1 and 2.  Often, if the animals haven’t gotten water they get it in this space.  If I’m working, I take a shower between cup 1 and 2.  There’s often been hours between cup 1 and 2.  I have a tendency to side tracking….

That’s the Morning Ritual.

And the Morning Ritual needs a special kind of cup.

Believe me, it’s been a struggle to find the right cups.

Cuz, standard sized cups, the size cups they mark on the coffee pot, are cups for Munchkins.  Note above, I put 6 cups water into the coffee maker and I get 2 cups out.  A standard size cup, the size cup everybody sells, ain’t gonna cut the mustard.  With a standard size cup I end up with 2 over full cups and then, not even a half cup, generally wasted, cuz there's not enough to bother with.

There have been frequent hunts for the right cups.  Good cups don’t last.  They get chipped and cracked.  Many have lost their handles.  Our cups almost always matched.  We’ve had…

Gary Larson:

That was Steve’s.  Mine was the Lobster being thrown into the pot yelling ‘Auntie Em, Auntie Em!!’

Don’t know if I still have that one…

And then there were Ducks…

Mine said ‘Bills, bills, bills…’ and had a similar cartoon of a Duck.

I think I still have that one.  Somewhere….

Then came cows…

Steve’s mom bought us those.

The last set was solid color…

As you can see, I still have most of them.  These were not the sort of thing that either of us felt good about throwing away.  There’s energy and memory in those simple every day objects.  They’ve been recycled for other uses.  But, they are still useful.

And they evoke memories of many, many good days.  Coffee at dawn, before packing the car for camping.  Coffee in the evening sitting next to an open fire.  Early Christmas eve mornings and quick cup before heading out the door for Christmas shopping.  Lazy Sundays at home doing whatever we felt like.  It's all right there....

We got to the point where we were always looking at cups.  Just to see if there was anything suitable, to pick up and hold in reserve.  I still check out cups.

And the search was on.  Cuz my last cup…

It’s a cartoon, of himself, that Steve drew for a film project in Collage.  Had it made on Café Press shortly after he passed.  It was kinda of like having coffee with him every morning….

But it was running out of time.  It had a fair sized crack and a few chips.  Retirement was upon me.

And I couldn’t find the right cup.

I thought about having another one made.  But, I don’t really have the money to be spending $12 or $14 dollars on something that could cost me as little as a $1.

And it seems a little clingy.

So, I decided to try to find something else.

And, the hunt was an on going failure.

And then I found a new cup in the most unlikely place.

I stole it from a friend.

I told her I was stealing it, so is that really stealing?

If she had objected even mildly, I wouldn’t have taken it.

But she didn’t object at all.  So thanks to my awesome friend Rose, I have an awesome new coffee cup.

It’s about the most perfect cup I’ve ever had.  I get two perfect cups of coffee every morning.  No need for careful stirring, no sloshing.

And now, it’s kinda like having a cup of coffee with Rose every morning.

 Today, the Morning Ritual, with my awesome new cup, included editing and uploading this post!

March 27, 2015

Today the Morning Ritual includes an addition to this post...

My awesome friend Rose finally read the Blog this morning....

                                  

And she added some Bob into the mix.....



And it's a perfect addition.

I Grok this song.

This is a Steve Song.  Something that reminds me of him and my experience with him.

And it did make me cry.

But that can be a good thing....

I was blessed to know him.

And miss him still....