Fall 2014 October 5 Sunday (Caffeine)

Fall 2014 October 5 Sunday (Caffeine)

63  degrees this morning,  55:34  minute walk ;2 earthquakes  in last 24 hourFs

Turned out to be  beautiful day after staring out as a chilly morning.  

Got some of my paperwork organized so I will be prepared when I am ready to go out in the field on my own  Also, I am starting to arrange my records for my taxes, which I expect will be complicated this year, with several jobs, job hunting expenses, moving expenses etc.  

I decided I am tried of dealing with car dealers.  I am just going to rent a car when I need one until I decided I absolutely have to buy a car and then I am going to try to avoid dealing with typical car dealers who appear to have at least five car prices for each car and then try to change the terms after their original offer.  (It was suggested by a reader that I will try the Sams or Coscto route and avoid the “variable price” trap and that is what I will do when I decide to proceed to avoid the “dealing” hassle.)

Decided not to continue reading the Janet Evanovich, same old plot and story and even characters.  

Started reading a book about coffee (or rather caffeine) instead (Murray Carpenter, “Caffeinated”.  It is an interesting book.

When I was in China, much as I loved China (and the tea), I almost never found a good cup of coffee (except once in a hotel restaurant and in Starbucks).  Otherwise, what they considered coffee was some kind of brew that resembled warm milk.  

The book explained that, in China, most coffee is actually instant coffee with “three tubes”, one instant coffee, one powdered milk and one sugar all mixed together with hot water.  It tasted as bad as it sounds.  I didn’t even continue drinking it as something that remotely resembled coffee.

One good thing about this was that I really came to appreciate different Chinese kinds of tea, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to enjoy it.  

I was also able to get a good cup of coffee at Starbucks.  Logically enough, Starbucks in China has a lot more tea than coffee, but at least they had some strong coffee that was just like the Starbucks in the United States.  

One thing I haven’t done since I returned from China (in addition to getting my pictures organized) is my plan to experience some different types of teas.  Maybe this winter I will have the chance.  

I really liked the “leaf” tea and letting it brew in the water.   Much of it was almost as storing as coffee.

One thing I really don’t like in tea (or coffee) is “citrus” favor or “orange flavor”.  I’m not sure why, it just isn’t my “cup of tea”, so to speak.

Kali asked me about teaching her to play tennis.  That will be fun.  I haven’t played tennis for a long time (measured in decades, not years), so it will be fun to do.  I actually used to play racket ball at the Y, but even that was longer ago than I care to think about.  

Actually, when I was in grade school and high school, I played a lot of “wall ball”, which was fun.  

I hope to start letting weights soon (I currently life barbells, but I want to get a barbell so I can do more variety of weight lifting  I also am going to set up my “heavy bag” and “punching bag” and see if I will use it enough to keep it.

That’s it for today, Sunday, October 5, 2014.