Summer 2014 August 7 Thursday (Coffee)

80 degrees this morning.  Thunder, lightning, light rain.  Walked 57.43 minutes, weights.  Rode bicycle yesterday morning about 41 minutes, adjusted somewhat to the wind!

Had a nice birthday “day”, Aliene made meat loaf, went to Outback for dessert.  

Coffee is one of my interests and I like to say my only vice.  For years (at home) I only drank Starbucks “French Roast” on a regular basis.  I even keep a backup coffee maker in case something happens to the one I am using!  

A friend (who also prizes excellent coffee, and is a little more likely to experiment with his coffee than I am) gave me a package of Starbucks Cafe Verona and I have decided to switch my regular coffee.  Since I have been drinking Starbucks “French Roast for at least 13 years and possibly as many as 25 years (I really can’t recall drinking any other kind at home, but of course I have), that is a major decision for me!

I”m not sure what the difference it.  It is slightly smoother and has a little more flavor than French Roast.  Anyway, I like it and I”m glad the Sams here has it!  Actually, for some reason, in Memphis, Costco had Starbucks French Roast, while Sams only had  Starbucks Medium.  Strange.  

Same with Peanut Butter (my favorite food).  Sams had Jif Crunchy, while Costco only had Jif Creamy.  (I like either one, but Jif Crunchy is my favorite).  

By the way, none of this name-dropping is “sponsored”. (I wish!)

Back for Coffee, I still have a package of Starbucks French Roast, so I’ll need to decide how to handle finishing it while still having Cafe Verona on a regular basis. 

Eating out, when I want coffee, is always an adventure, since after the morning period, many restaurants don’t know how to serve coffee. I have found Starbucks and McDonalds almost always have acceptable coffee.  In most cases, at McDonalds will make a fresh pot of coffee if you ask  if there is any fresh coffee available and McDonalds has the ONLY cup that I feel comfortable drinking coffee in the car.  I have tried a number of “car cups”, but none of them seem to work, that it is, they spill, or the ones that don’t spill are impossible to drink out of.

Starbucks and McDonalds have excellent coffee.  Steak n Shake has wonderful coffee in the morning or when when they make a fresh pot.  IHOP (based on limited experience) seems to have excellent coffee.  TGIFriday’s coffee tastes like bad instant coffee, so I never drink coffee there and in fact rarely eat there  anymore. On the Border and most Mexican Food restaurants just don’t have good coffee.  J. Alexanders coffee is lukewarm (they keep it in metal coffee servers which don’t’ really keep it hot) and is undrinkable.  Firebirds (Memphis) has great coffee if you get it fresh.  Outback normally has good coffee, although last night it was lukewarm and I couldn’t even get a refill.  Bonefish almost always has excellent coffee or will make it right if is isn’t.  

Coffee is one thing I will send back if it is even slightly cold or old!  I don’t drink carbonated beverages (Coke etc.), or   so coffee is really the only thing I like.  (I do like ice tea if it is strong enough, I hate ice tea when it  is more like water!)  My best bet is probably just to save the money and don’t order anything but water!  

I do always try to rate restaurants on “Yelp” on their coffee, if it is bad, good, fresh, old and how many refills I get.  

Anyway, I love coffee, especially strong and  hot coffee. Now, if I could just find a coffee cop so I can drink coffee while driving!  

That’s it for now, Thursday, August 7, 2014.

Spring 2014 5 27 Tuesday

72 degrees this morning. Looks a little like rain.

Flat tire on my bicycle this morning coming up the final hill home. I know I ran over something and started hearing a "bump bump" and then then tire went flat. It doesn't happen often, thank goodness. I take my flats in to be fixed, so it is a little hassle, but not nearly as much if I tried to change my own! (I have tried, and I am just mechanically challenged).

I probably will go ahead and get the "Armadillo" tires or something like that, they are supposed to resist punctures well. One puncture and I'm ahead.

Maybe I will use this as an excuse to buy another bicycle so I have a backup!

Back to the apples. While I still can't bring myself to try apples yet after getting two packages of bad ones from Costco, I did take the bad ones I got Saturday back to Costco, if nothing else just to let them know. They not only refunded my money, they also refunded my money for the bad ones I had gotten the Monday before and threw away. When I returned the second package, I causally mentioned I had thrown away an earlier package (hardly expecting a refund) and she actually looked it up and refunded my money. A reason who Costco is so successful, I believe. However, I still can't stand the thought of apples, the last ones were so bad.

May be rain today, an end to the beautiful weather. It was a good weekend, even if "every day is a holiday" now for me. Had some friends over, went to a friends house etc.

Getting my MacBook Air out of the Apple hospital this morning, or at least today. Hopefully I can get both of them setup so all my pictures are on a hard drive and I can work off that hard drive, hopefully resulting in less duplication.

Six months ago last night I officially (so to speak) became unemployed. I wrote some thoughts on it, but mothballed my comments for right now. I can always publish them, but I can't take them back.

I wasn't too worried, I figured I would get a job soon.
What I didn't expect was the overwhelming age discrimination (much blatant) in my search for employment. I don't really have a problem with people wanting someone younger, professionally I feel that a Board/Council should be able to select whomever they want as City Manager, but it really doesn't blunt my resentment or, sometimes, rage, to be targeted strictly on my age. However, it falls into one of those categories that I can't do anything about it, so I won't worry about it. However, if the opportunity to help persons who experience age discrimination ever arises, I will grab it. I don't have any desire to work somewhere with someone like that, so I don't worry about it. I know it is illegal, but proving it is something else.

I do plan to make a detailed summary of my job search (no names, I'm not out to get anyone), and hopefully someone will see themselves as discriminating or being discriminated against. Well, hopefully, but not likely.

I wish AAA had bike protection where someone would come out and change your tire. It would be worth the money. I understand they do have it in Portland, and a few other places. Not likely to come to Lakeland, where the spoiled brat politician mayor and board of fools turn down $1,000,000 for a badly needed bike and ped path.

Going to be one of those days where I wish Lakeland also had Task Rabbit or a similar service, taking the bike tire to be fixed, picking up the computer and a mismash of other small errands that take up time.

I am so glad Summer is here. I love my patio, especially sitting out here in the early morning and just Summer in general. I hate to wast time on non-productive tasks.

Some nibbles/bites on the house. We know we have to sell the house and get out of this town (even if it is just across the street), but we hate to leave our wonderful house. Life isn't always what you want, and it may be our next phase will be even better.