Vacation

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the lack of posts the past two weeks. (The blank review has been removed, since it was...y'know, blank.)

I'm currently on vacation, visiting family in Colorado. That meant no time for posting this past weekend.

The weekend before, when I should have been creating filler material? I was off travelling, visiting a friend of mine who's going to be vanishing off to sea for nine months.

So...poor planning means I've let you blog readers down. But on the plus side, I think my priorities aren't TOO much outta whack.

Thanks for the patience, and regular posting will resume next week!

---John

Travel Mugs, Thermosae, the Worst Way to Start a Day and How to Avoid It

I haul myself into work for 4am each morning. That's...early. Really early. Especially when sometimes my other job keeps me out until 10pm. Do the math, and be appalled.

And understand why I leave home every morning with a full travel mug of coffee.

I started using Sarah's travel mug a while back because the ones I own don't fit in cupholders. Not in my car, not in the forklifts at work, nowhere. I kept setting the mugs down in the car, and getting spills. I kept setting them down at work, and forgetting them (and burning about a half hour a day hunting for the mug...not good if you want to keep getting paid).

Sarah's worked great tho. Wide top, skinny bottom. Fit into cupholders, kept 20 oz's of coffee pretty warm. I approved.

But. And there's always a but.

The lid doesn't stay on very well. If you look at it the wrong way, the lid pops off. Couple it with a sort of inherent instability (like I said, skinny bottom-wide top) and you get coffee on the floor.

I work with my hands, which means the cup gets put down a lot. I'm not an idiot, I pick pretty stable, out of the way places to put my coffee down on. Usually. But sometimes you can't. Or sometimes, a forklift will crash into the table, and rattle it enough the unstable mug falls and the weak lid comes off.

No coffee left. Not even a drop. This usually happens after a single mouthful of coffee or less.

I'd like to say this happened once before I found a solution. It actually occured six or seven times over a four month period. Once it happened twice in the same week.

Not. Good. Mornings.

I still use the same mug, but now I brew extra coffee and put it in a thermos. The thermos stays in the breakroom, so that if someone wipes out my coffee I'm not deprived of my caffeine for the morning. It's also a nice bonus to be able to refill my coffee cup...some days you just need an extra fix.

Redundancy redundancy redundancy. Learn from NASA, kids.

Vending Machine Coffee

I once spent a year in a long distance relationship. And I'm not talking about, an hour's drive away. That's not distance. If you can't make an hour or two work, you're just not that interested (or they don't kiss well...either way...).

By long distance, I mean I spent 12-14 hours driving anytime I wanted to see this girl. And yes, it was worth it each time.

And of course, I would pack my snacks (or have money to stop with). I'd buy a cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee before setting out. Once I even had a thermos filled up by those helpful guys. But eventually, the coffee you started with is going to run out; if you finish a 13 hour drive with the same cup of coffee you started with, there's a serious problem.

Now the problem I had, because I never finished with the same cup of coffee. Look at my typical route:



I travel through a whole lot of NOTHING in Indiana, then hit Chicago, then a whole lot of NOTHING in N. Illinois and Wisconsin. I mean, seriously. It amazes me that there can be so little, for so long at a time. Especially in Wisconsin. I mean, nothing but trees.

So where can I stop for some decent coffee? Maybe Chicago...but really, have you ever tried to drive through Chicago? No? If you ever do, you'll understand that once you're in the flow of traffic...you won't want to ever leave it. There's no excuse for ever pulling off the highway (assuming the traffic lets you get off the road in the first place). You'll have to merge back on...and...um. Damn. Suffice it to say it's not worth stopping in Chicagoland for coffee.

This leaves me with really just one option: Rest stop vending machines.

The trick with vending machines is to not take the standard coffee. It'll have caffeine, but taste absolutely AWFUL. I mean, gross. I mean, you'll never touch coffee again after drinking plain coffee from a vending machine. Especially if it's one in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin that gets a visit once every two weeks for a fresh-up.

So what's that leave you with? The flavored stuff. French vanilla. English toffee. I once had a memorable experience with a "Butterfinger" flavored coffee drink. They cost a bit more, but are totally worth it. You get the caffeine, but none of the truly gross flavor.

That's my official advice, the path I take whenever I'm faced with a vending machine-or-nothing situation. You're welcome to it.