FourBux

I do feel a little dirty about it

So, folks, I’m a little embarrassed. I did something last night that I haven’t done in a very long time. At home, and by myself no less. After waiting until my wife had gone to class, I changed into something comfortable, turned down the lights, turned up the LastFM station, and went to town.

I made a pot of coffee.

What did you think I was talking about?

Yes, dear readers, I admit it. I had to read the side of the package to remind me how many scoops for how much water, but I did it. And it wasn’t bad. I didn’t even mind the fact that I wasn’t required to wear shoes or a shirt, even though I had both on. “Pace yourself” is my own personal mantra. Click on the photo at the right for a close up to that uber-sexy old-timey Starbucks logo.

Maybe it’s because I was thinking about starting to pack up the kitchen, but when I went to the coffee cupboard, there were at least six bags of coffees from around the world. See, everyone who knows me knows that I like me a good cup of coffee. Friends send us beans from Hawaii, or from Africa, or deep south America, and while I love to drink it, it just never tastes like I imagine it would, so we don’t make it much at home.

It got me thinking about what will be the next big thing that sweeps through our culture, whether overtly or passively. Coffee shops are everywhere, with of course Starbucks being the big kid on the block. On every block. Sometimes twice a block.

I thought about how all the way into the seventies (in the U.S.) that people changed their own oil. Sure, there were the service centers where the guys come out and did the Full Service thing on the car while you filled up, but I think you all deserved it. I mean, you were dropping four dollars on a tank of gas…there had better be some perks that come with it! So the Quickie Lube place was born. You need your oil changed, maybe an overpriced air filter, but no gas? We’re your place!

Same thing with the car wash. Used to be that on any given weekend, neighborhoods were filled with cars in the driveways, along with buckets and hoses and folks washing their cars. Not anymore. We seem to treat the car wash like it’s a child having a tantrum: “If I have to stop this car so help me…”

So what’s next? What do we do at home now that people will determine we need a place specifically for the activity? Do we even do anything at home anymore? About all I do there is sleep and eat, both of which are easily paid for elsewhere. Maybe a place where all you do is watch TV? Or perhaps a couch store, not where you can purchase a sofa, but where you can just go in and sit with your feet up?

I’ve got nothing.

Any suggestions?

Only slightly off-topic, if you like coffee and you like to feel like you’re making a difference, order up some joe from The Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee. Remember the movie Hotel Rwanda? That genocide left millions of widows and orphans, and this coffee company was started to give the widows a way to make a living, and a portion of every sale goes right back to them. And it’s good coffee, too.