Tag: #Coffee

  • ODDS and ENDS: Coffee, Tea, and Cookies

    (Oh, to feel love’s sting…)

    I have loved coffee for as long as I can remember. As a kid, coffee was the key to adulthood; it’s what all grownups did in the morning – drank coffee and ate breakfast, or complained about what their day was going to be like. I can see my parents, coffee cup in hand, watching me and my brothers opening Christmas gifts. It’s what my Uncle Ron drank all the time, especially when he would visit and smoke his pipe – the only person who was allowed to smoke in our house. I got my first coffee mug on Valentine’s Day, when I was in the 6th Grade. It was a corny mug that had a heart shaped handle and said “The Luv Mug” on it. My Ma gave it to me. I was the only twelve year old who was drinking coffee and reading the paper before school. I’m not the type of person who gets a headache if they don’t have their coffee in the morning, and I am also the type of person who can drink coffee all day, and it doesn’t affect my sleep, but I am the type of person that if I don’t drink coffee in the morning then I feel like the day isn’t right.

    Over the last two years, I have started drinking tea in the afternoon. Actually, 4pm to be precise, and only from October to March. You know, the cold months around here. I don’t know why I started doing it, and it would be easy to throw my wife under the bus on this one, as she does like a peach tea from time to time. But I got a box of Black English Tea, made a cup with a little milk and sugar, and it became rather satisfying in the afternoon. I even have a specific mug that I use for my tea. Funny how before, I only viewed tea as something that one drank when they sick, like had the flu. Tea was like coffee, but not as strong, so it was more water and less caffeine, you know, what sick people need.

    I have to go to Trader Joe’s today (Woop! Woop! On 125th!) to pick up a few things for the weekend. I know I shouldn’t do it, but I will buy a bucket of cookies. I woke up this morning knowing, to my core, that I would walk into that store, and get that plastic container of chocolate-chip cookies, and eat most of them over the next two days. For no other reason than I want to. I have been good about going to the gym, and sticking to my running two miles three days a week, and I started to notice that my shirts and pants aren’t so tight, and my energy has been up, and I do feel more focused. And I am focused on eating cookies all weekend long.

  • I Bought Bitcoin

    Did you know that you can buy Bitcoin through Venmo? If you didn’t know, now you know. I thought it was a scam at first. I mean, Bitcoin sells for like $60k a share, and I clearly don’t have that much money to throw around. I also know that Venmo really isn’t selling shares. I think it’s more like renting shares.

    Anyway, I was checking on my Venmo account, which I rarely use. Before the pandemic, when I would go out with friends and have to split a check, that’s when I would use it. And for the fantasy football league that I play in. So, I was checking the account, and I saw that I had forgot that I have $35 in it.

    What to do?

    Now, I am not endorsing buying Bitcoin through Venmo, but I bought Bitcoin through Venmo. Currently, I have made three dollars.

    And it still feels like a scam. I do know how cryptocurrency works, so please don’t explain it to me. In a philosophical sense, anything can have value, and this is a thing, and people say it has value. Maybe it’s the Tulip Crazy all over again, or the Roaring Twenties, or whatever.

    I find it odd that I have purchased something that can make me money, but is not physical. I feel like I have purchased a belief in something. The Ethereal Value.

    It’s conceivable that in one year, I could have $300 of value. And then a year after that, $3,000 of value.

    And it’s also conceivable that someone could say, “It’s just a tulip,” and it all goes away.

    But as of right now, I can go and buy a good cup of coffee.  

  • ODDS and ENDS: Coffee Mugs in Cars, Nothing But Ads, and the Last Weekend

    “Odds and Ends” is my continuing series of random thoughts and follow ups…

    There are many things that I don’t get about this world. One of them is people who take coffee mugs, full of coffee into their cars. I’m not talking a thermos, or a travel mug. No, what I am talking about are people who take a normal, regular coffee mug with them in their car. How do they stop it from spilling? Is there a secret to this? It just seems like uncovered vessels that contain liquid in a car is a recipe for a disaster.

    Not that I spend a bunch of time on FaceBook anymore, but I was scrolling through this morning, and I noticed that about half of the postings on my feed were sponsored posts. I have one from NEWSMAX, which if the algorithm was working correctly, should know that type of post would find not purchase in my feed. I am sure this has to do with my lack of interaction with the site. So, if I keep up this level of inactivity, in like two years, my feed with be nothing but sponsored posts?

    So, not that this is a big deal, but this is the last weekend of Summer Vacation. Eleven weeks went flying by, and we are ready for school to start on Monday. We got the school shopping done, talked to the kid about have to wear a mask all day. The wife and I talked about what the morning routine will need to be, because we haven’t had to do this since March 2020. It also means the end of Dad teaching school, and playing board games, and Barbies. No more pirate ship and puppet shows. It needs to come to an end, as the kid needs to be back in school and around her friends. This was a special time together, and I don’t know if I will even get this much father/daughter time again. But the other side of this is that she will get that spark of excitement of learning, and the daily victories and defeats that come with friendships. She’ll start becoming her own person, independent of her parents, as it should be.

  • A Rainy Day in New York

    What’s left of Hurricane Ida has arrived in the northeast, and currently it’s just a light rain. More, and heavier rain is coming; chubby rain. I know that the chance of flooding is out there, hence why we are just stay in, watching tv and playing with Play-doh on the living room floor.

    I have been searching the news, and friends post for something to write about. And there is a lot going on out there which is weighing on my mind.

    But, it just feels like a lazy rainy Fall day. Maybe read a book and make an extra cup of coffee?

    There are chores and things to do. Lunches to make, and a pediatrician visit later today. I will need to boost the kid’s Bravery Quotient as she most likely will get a flu shot today, and shots are still very scary to her. We talked about it this morning, and she’ll bring one of her stuffed animals with her, for some support.

    Maybe me and the kid will do some math, or read one of her books? Maybe we’ll finish watching Captain Marvel, or make a puppet show? Maybe a puzzle followed by a pillow fort? Maybe even a nap?

    We did make it to September, and though Summer isn’t official over until Labor Day, today feels like an Autumn preview. I might but some jeans on instead of shorts? A sweatshirt, too?

    Not every day is life changing, but some are a little life affirming.

  • Supporting the Local Coffee Shop

    We got a dog way back in February of 2020. It was a birthday gift for the kid, and we just beat the huge rush of people getting pets before the Covid lockdown. We love our little dog, and it has been great having a little furry animal to snuggle and play with. The dog is great with the kid and people. She wags her tail when people talk to her, and she lets them pet her. But if another dog is near, our little girl turns into a ragging killer, as our dog hates all other dogs.

    Well, the other day on our morning walk, I saw that a store front which had butcher-paper over windows, was now opened as a coffee shop, and a local coffee shop at that! Not a chain, but an actual local coffee shop. My first thought was that this is great, as now we have a place to get a real cup of coffee, that was not corporate, or, no offense, a crappy bodega coffee that could have been sitting around for days. Then I was struck by the solid courage that this person has for opening a new business, a food service business non the less, in New York City during a pandemic. That right there has made me a fan of this place.

    And I look forward to going in to it. One day.

    Though the coffee shop is dog friendly, as I have seen other people with their dogs getting a cup, but If I were to head in there with my dog, and another dog were to enter, then all hell would break loose, and I don’t want to be that guy.

    But, you know, I don’t leave the apartment for leisure. I don’t leave the apartment unless I have a task to accomplish. I don’t know when I will visit this place regularly. This coffee shop is such a temptation for the life of normalcy that is very, very close to becoming a reality. I will get a cup of coffee in the joint to support of this proprietor, but what I want is to go to the place, get a cup of coffee, and just talk a walk in the city again, and drop in shops, and see places, and be social.