Coffee Please

I know i could've had tea, but this morning i really wanted my caramel swirl coffee. but our ol' coffee pot called it quits. it's been a good one for i-dont-know-how-many-years, so i wasn't too, too upset (except that i was up early and really wanted my coffee).

when i saw the high prices of the new ones, it became obvious that we must've had this one longer than i thought! and depending on the brand name, they went anywhere from $25 up to $200. wait, WHAT? they all squirt hot water over coffee grounds and produce brown, flavored water, so why the drastic-difference in price? beats me. but i thought it best to get the same exact brand that just died since it served us well and i could still use the permanent "gold" filter and 100 paper filters that of course i just had restocked.

packaging nowaday is another whole topic! by the time i got the new coffee maker out of the box, took it out of the plastic bag, got a cardboard cut trying to peel all those inner cardboard inserts off, unwrapped the tape holding together various other parts, and a few other procedures, not dissimilar from outpatient surgery, i set it up and poured the plain water in to clean it (before seeing if i could salvage my caramel swirl coffee grounds from 6:30 this morning, since the water hadn't touched them).

new pot now on and ready to produce hot water, i proceeded to break apart the box and other cardboard for recycling while miss dusty (cat) had great tent-fun in the box. okay. all the trash and recycling taken care of...now, dump the hot water and it is now, finally time for some real coffee.

WHAT TH'???!!! wait a minute here! NOTHING! NO water dripped through. well, THAT's just GREAT! that gives me NO JOY! go get all the cardboard, reassemble the cat's tent, put the whole stupid thing back together again, back in the bag, back in the car, back to the store. customer service wasn't too crowded.

the customer service woman was from the Caribbean, the woman in line behind me was from India, and then the Caucasion with the defective re-packaged coffee pot. WELL! we had the nicest conversation amongst the three of us! it was as if we had just poured a defective cup o'coffee and sat down for a nice chat; who liked coffee, who liked tea, where they grew up, the best place to buy a coffee maker, which brand to stay away from (namely, the one i was returning...and the woman from India had already returned one just like it), which brand was best and where to get it. honestly, i felt bad breaking up the coffee-clatch, but another woman joined us then and not only did she seem perturbed by our chatting at the cust-service desk, but by adding another Caucasion, she threw the balance off. so off i go, disappointed only that now by going to the recommended store to look for the recommended brand, i would lose my senior citizen discount.

BUT! fear not! the recom-store had the recom-brand...AND IT WAS ON SALE! so i got a better coffee maker for $8 LESS than my sr-citiz-disc had me spending! and, yes, i'm just finished my first cup of caramel swirl and it's everything i had hoped it to be ten hours ago. funny how things work out, isn't it? what nice ladies i met today! now THAT is JOY!