Coffee Problems and Breaking a Habit

If you are a frequent reader of this blog, or a friend of mine, you know how much I love my coffee.  Coffee is as important to me as water.  When we made our list of things to buy to have during quarantine, coffee was at the top of my list.  When there was talk of power outages, I bought instant coffee because I knew I could boil water and make some.  I have decaff coffee for nights that I crave it, but know I will be heading to bed soon.  I gotta have my coffee.

This week I had not one, but two coffee mishaps.  I guess technically, I should mention that it was the same mishap – and I did it twice.  Back when my coffee pot died, my wife and I bought each other a new pot.  It works for both of us in that it can make a pot or a single cup.

One of the things I love about this pot is that while it is brewing a pot, I can pull the carafe and pour a cup and it doesn’t drip onto the burner.  When the carafe is on the burner, it pushes up on a spring which allows coffee to drip from the basket containing the beans into the carafe.  When the carafe is not on the burner, the spring drops and water collects in the filter until the carafe is places back on the burner.  Why am I telling you all of this? It helps when I tell you about my mishap.

Twice this week, I filled the pot, put the coffee in the filter, put the carafe in place and hit the “brew” button.  Both times, I started to hear weird noises and smelled something burning.  When I returned, I found steam billowing out of the top and water running onto the burner.  Why?  Because in my stupidity, I neglected to put the carafe in all the way.  So it was only halfway on the burner.  That means that the spring was never pushed up to allow the water to flow out of the filter basket.  Instead, the basket, with coffee grounds, overflowed and spilled onto the burner and all over my coffee bar.  It was a mess!!  There were grounds all over the place.

When it happened the first time, I told myself I would be more careful.  Yet, within two days, I did the same exact thing!!  Twice I had to clean the entire pot and coffee bar.  I can’t even tell you why I did it again.  My head must not be in the right place.

Coffee Funny

So while Sam was pregnant, I was making some flavored coffee.  She asked me what I was making and I told her.  She stated that the coffee smelled like “the soap from the car wash!” You know the smell, don’t you?!

While she was pregnant, I stopped buying it.  Recently, I found a bag of it under the coffee bar, so I brewed some.  This time, Sam says, “Is that cherry?  It smells like cherry.  Is that the car wash coffee?”  I told her it was.

It made me laugh – and it made me understand the ways a woman’s sense of smell is heightened and changes when they are pregnant!

Bad Habit Broken

“Don’t bite your nails.  Your nails don’t bite you.” – Soupy Sales

I guess I have always had some form of anxiety, because I have always been a nail biter. My nails have always looked like hell.  I have always tried to stop, but have never had success.  I guess one good thing has come from this Covid-19 BS – I haven’t chewed on my nails in about three weeks.

All the talk about touching your face, and washing your hands really made me aware of every time I went to bite my nails.  It’s a nervous and terrible habit.  I became aware of just how many times I went to bite my nails over the past few weeks.  Every time I went to do it, I envisioned the Covid virus living on them.  Made it easy to stop.

I gotta be honest, it feels weird to have nails.  I am hoping that I can keep it up.  Maybe I’ll go and get a manicure when this quarantine is all over!  Pass the nail clippers….

… and pass the coffee.