MONDAY AUGUST 30, 2021

 MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 2021

 

This week will be a mixture of materials.

 

My “excuse” is that the letters I, O, and P function about 5% of the time, so I’m writing my blogs on my phone!!  (Plus it is my old laptop and it is slow!!)

 

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COFFEE 

 

I like coffee.  I started drink coffee in my freshman year at college.  These days many colleges have “coffee bars”- maybe even with Starbucks coffee, but then the coffee urn was free with a meal ticket.  After dinner a group would hang out in the cafeteria and just talk.  It seemed reasonable to have a cup of coffee in my hands or on the table while we talked.  

 

It wasn’t until I started teaching on the college level that I would drink more than one cup.  (Aside. - at West Grant in 1969, I went to the faculty lounge for a break only once.  It was a smoke-filled room.  But, I could take my cup and get coffee and get out of the faculty lounge.)

 

In Keokuk, my classes were on the third floor and the faculty lounge was on the first floor- there just wasn’t time in between classes to run and get a cup.  

 

But college faculty rarely had back-to-back classes so I could get a cup in between classes.  At Quinnipiac, for many years my office was directly across from the coffee/copier room.  I’m not quite sure if I liked coffee THAT much, but it was a reason to get out of my office/stretch (and ... eventually use the restroom). 

 

At UT there was a very nice faculty coffee/meeting lounge.  Al, the coffee guy, came in about 7:00 / started four kinds of coffee (one was decaf).  There was hot water, tea bags, and a refrigerator with an ice maker.  (Some afternoons I would make fresh iced tea).  

 

In retirement, I think my coffee drinking has slowed a bit.  I’ve been making a pot in the morning, having a cup then, and putting the rest in my thermos.  Depending on the day, the excess lasts a day or two and gets heated in the microwave.  I bought (what used to be the three-pound) can which last a while. 

 

Well, three months ago, I bought the “3 pound - which is really only 39 ounces” can of dark roast.  YUCK.  I thought my tastebuds were shot.  I’ve read that some Covid people lose their sense of smell and taste- maybe I had Covid.  But, frugal as I am (cheap), I kept drinking my cup of coffee in the morning.  I finally ran out of the dark roast and opened a medium roast can!  WOW - coffee tastes good again!!  Was it just a bad batch? Do I no longer like a dark roast?  I don’t know, but for a while, the medium roast will be just fine!!

 

Speaking of coffee, my friend and I agree - no to Starbucks. It is overpriced and not all that good. I actually like McDonald’s coffee!!  (So, my tastebuds must surely be off!!). And, I drink black coffee - no cream, not a latte, not gingerbread flavored, just black coffee.  

 

*****

Enough f trying t tye without three letters (although I notice, the I s wrong a little!!!

LVE WNS!!!

Karen