3.30.2020

Monday morning adventures. How to mess up your car with coffee...

It's not sunny here. But I like Pikachu and I put him at the top of the blog to 
spark oceans of sunny joy for my readers....

So, I have a friend who is a restaurant owner and because of the current crisis he and his wife/business partner decided early on to close down the business temporarily. Financially they'll be fine but he's such an extrovert that the "social distancing" was getting to be a burden for him. We texted each other and he invited me to come out to his place and do a long walk. I'm a tiny bit of an extrovert as well so I jumped at the chance to change the scenery...

I made a mediocre cup of coffee at home, along with some pancakes, then tossed a camera and my phone into my car and headed out. As I drove up our street, my senses still stinging from having to endure such a below average cup of coffee, I remembered that our neighborhood coffee shop was still making coffee to go. I pointed the Formula One worthy Subaru Forester Race Car in the right direction and 30 seconds later I was at the front door. I bought a medium coffee to go and, in an ongoing attempt to support Trianon Coffee's business, I also bought a pound of Organic, natural Ethiopian coffee beans. 

I opened the passenger side door of my ultra high performance vehicle so I could put the coffee beans on the seat. A seat already crowded with a Sigma fp camera, an iPhone, a small notebook and pen, a rain jacket and two Bob Dylan CDs ("Blood on the Tracks" and "Highway 61, Revisited"). I was in the process of leaning in over the seat to put my beverage in the center holder when I gripped the top of the cup too hard, the top started to come off, and fresh hot coffee gushed out over the resident contents of the seat. 

Grrrr. Sigh. I had a swim towel with me and started mopping stuff off. It was raining so I put the Sigma fp on the hood of the car to let the mist and gentle drops clean off the coffee. I sprayed off the iPhone with some alcohol. Luckily, most of the liquid was caught up by the rain coat. 

The owner of the coffee shop must have seen my minor catastrophe because he came out and handed me a second cup of coffee (which I did not spill...). After a bit of a wipe down I headed the exhilarating and svelte Subaru toward Dripping Springs, Texas. 

I met up with my friend at his ranch/house and we suited up in rain jackets; his pristine, mine painted with fresh coffee, diluted with half and half, and headed out into a mild misting rain. During our hour walk my rain jacket got cleansed and my attitude improved mightily. But on my way back home I discovered an as yet, sinister further downside to the crisis: With all the places closed to customer traffic there are no places with available restrooms. So, you've got a 64 year old guy with three big cups of coffee sloshing around inside and no place to pee. Actually, that would make for a really funny short film---if it wasn't starring me. 

I made it back home with seconds to spare. Could have been tragic. I can deal with spilled coffee....
Ah, the indignities of progressively becoming more "mature." 

I've swabbed down the Sigma fp now and hit the passenger seat in the highly competitive Forester so everything is back to normal in my little, secluded chunk of the universe. 

By the way, "Blood on the Tracks" is the best of all Bob Dylan's work. If you've never taken time to listen to it now might be a great time to become a renewed fan. Nobel Prize. Just sayin. 

19 comments:

Gordon Lewis said...

As someone who is part of your cohort (photographer, over-60, coffee connoisseur), I could easily relate to the, um, "pressure" you were under after consuming three cups of the stuff. Your coffee-related misadventures made me laugh so hard I had to seek relief my own damned self. Just thought you might like to know.

Jerry said...

Time Out of Mind is the equal to Blood on the Tracks for me. Love them both. Did you listen to Murder Most Foul?

MB.Kinsman said...

As Gordon said in his comment, I too am in that “mature” bracket and can sympathize with the dilemma. With the current crisis, planning any outing incorporates that important restroom consideration - can we make it without access?

Don Parsons said...

I feel your pain. Glad that I'm not the only one that happens to, glad that you can be upbeat about it.

Is the Sigma okay? It seems like every time there is a downturn in the economy, all my tech stuff picks that time to fail.

Anonymous said...

Phew. I thought you we’re going to relate how you drove off and forgot about the Sigma on the hood....

Max from Oz

Kirk, Photographer/Writer said...

I knew I forgot something. That must have been the crunching "thud" I heard as I engaged the mighty engine on the Subaru.... Damn.

(Not really.)

Anonymous said...

Bringing It All Back Home
Highway 61
Blonde on Blonde

from what we used to the call the middle period...

B

Marvin G. Van Drunen said...

Re comfort stops: As I travel about in our new world reality all I can find are lavatories in gasoline stations. They range from pristine to putrid.

Unknown said...

Kt,
Time to enter the US Grand Prix Formula 1 race. Maybe the Forester could be the pace car? Coming your way in October.
Jb

jiannazzone said...

I had the great fortune to seen Dylan in a small venue during his Blood on the Tracks tour. It was so good I went back the second night.

For a brilliant depiction of the post 60’s male dealing with middle age and the too much coffee problem I recommend Richard Ford’s “The Lay of the Land”, the final book in his Frank Bascombe series, which should really be read in order. For better or worse, a lot of has time on our hands.

Jim Metzger said...

Hi Kirk,

I live in the NYC area and my wife is an EMS so I am hypersensitive to the C-19 problem. I hope you were taking Social Distancing precautions out there. People handing you items that then go to your mouth is an issue. We transfer coffee (I have the worlds best coffee two doors down) from paper cups to our travel mugs, dispose of the paper cup and wash our hands. The coffee place will not handle your travel mug. They wear face masks and have gloves on.

Please take care, we can't afford to have you sick, how would we spend the first part of our mornings?

Regards to you and the family,

Jim

Abacus Photography said...

Shock horror! Kirk Tuck turns out to be a human being and makes a mistake! I admire the way you dealt with the situation, I think I would have filled the air with expletives. As I'm in the same demographic as you I sympathise regarding the "restroom problem." What gets me is the way that within what seem to be milliseconds of thinking I really ought to find a restroom (or loo as we colloquially call it in the UK)the situation escalates to I DESPERATELY need to find somewhere. Indeed, the pleasures of a
becoming "mature!"
All the best and stay safe!
Nick

Anonymous said...

Fortunately you haven't consumed green tea - this stuff causes much worse "pressure" than coffee!

Roger

Anonymous said...

I was in college taking a course in the economic history of the U.S. in 1975. We had a mid-term exam just a week after Blood on the Tracks came out. The exam had a section that was a list of terms that we were supposed to identify and write a few paragraphs on. The list was about eight items long and we were to write about four. Blood on the Tracks was one of the terms. I'd had the album on my turntable for a week, so I wrote a three or four paragraph review of the album and got full credit.

Lee

Chris Beloin said...

Greetings from Wisconsin Kirk:

Blood on the Tracks and others are available free for those who have a Amazon Prime account.

Sometimes we forget those subscriptions we all pay for.

Stay safe and coffee-free, on your clothing at least.

Chris

Mike Mundy said...

One solution: use the empty spilled coffee cup. Open one of the back doors, lean in and make it look like you're looking for a spare rain parka. Utilize the empty cup. End of story.

Kurt Friis Hansen said...

Bush, Tuck?

Chuck Albertson said...

Back in college, we all thought "Idiot Wind" was political as hell. Turns out it was a breakup song. Who knew?

Anonymous said...

@Chris Beloin:

Thanks for the reminder about Amazon Prime! I just listened to BOTT during my walk.

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