"We like camping better!" --Raymond Alexander Kukkee



view of the north shore Critter Pond, KOA Canandaigua NY [c] 2009 jcb

I'm addicted to coffee!

Tim Hortons - home of my coffee addiction
I'm addicted to coffee. There, I've admitted it right up front. Without my morning coffee, I would collapse to the floor, quivering and mumbling gibberish. Don't think for a minute that just one coffee would suffice, either. It's a two-drink minimum in my world, although the second coffee is always decaffeinated. Unfortunately, the details of my terrible addiction are even more sordid than you might imagine.

I work construction, and coffee drinkers hold the majority. While you might picture us as hearty beer drinkers, it's coffee that gets us going each day and keeps us revved up until the workday ends. We can't drink alcohol and use tools at the same time anyway. Beer is fine for after work, but I still prefer coffee. Some guys bring a thermos to work; not me! I did it for years and simply cannot tolerate the glassy, stale taste of thermos coffee. Yup, I'm a coffee snob.

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copyright 2008 - all rights reserved

Thoughts on a perfect camping morning

Sunday morning, middle of the holiday weekend, I found myself in a perfect camping morning-entirely by accident. Lots of people choose this weekend as their first camping outing of the summer. We couldn't go this year; there was too much else crowding the plate. But I managed to sneak in a wonderful, unexpected camping morning, anyway.

You see, I was awakened first at about 5:30 am, then second at about 6:00, by my sons' alarm clock-which was somehow set to go off as "music, then alarm" while the boys were away at their mother's house. Of course, I was angry initially, having been unintentionally cheated out of a couple hours sleep time. I was wide awake, though. Not much to do about it, but to stay up and make the best of it. It was far too fine a morning to waste in anger or frustration.

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copyright 2008 - all rights reserved