rdgrnr's Blog

Yep, I'm completely out of Africa Kitamu Coffee and it's annoying. That's the only kind that really tastes good to me made at home. It's made by Starbucks but Starbucks doesn't carry it. The only place that I've been able to find it is Amazon.

I always wondered why you could get a good cup of coffee at restaurants and even McDonalds and Burger King but it was almost impossible to make a really good cup at home. For years I attributed it to these cheap, plastic, Chinese Coffee Makers with the American names that we all use because there's nothing else available.

I like strong coffee. I drank Folgers Dark Roasted brands for years after trying everything else on the market but it still bothered me that I could get something vastly superior at Mickey D's or BK. I just assumed that it was the coffeemaker or that all the good quality coffee was being reserved for the restaurants and the crap was left for retail. 

But then when staying at an upscale hotel in Chicago a year or so ago, I noticed this Africa Kitamu coffee next to the requisite cheap, plastic, Chinese coffeemaker and decided to try it. It was great, just like you'd get in a restaurant. I couldn't believe it. It came in pre-measured amounts in little filter pouches.

After I got home I tried to find it and nobody had it, not even Starbucks stores or Starbucks online. I finally did find it at Amazon though and it gets top ratings in almost all the reviews. They didn't have it in the little filter bags but they had it ground or beans. I've been ordering it from them since then. It's a lot more expensive than the regular stuff in the cans most of us drink but it's well worth it to me because coffee in the morning is one of my favorite times of the day. Everything seems like it's going to be ok when I get my first cup and look out the window down the holler. For some reason I think it's even my dogs' favorite time of day too cuz they all gather around me and go to sleep making sure I can't move my feet or roll my office chair in any direction, like right now.  They drive me nuts sometimes but  I love the hell out of 'em anyway.

So here I sit with my store bought Starbucks Colombian which doesn't compare to Africa Kitamu til my order gets delivered. It's not bad though.

I'm always open to try new things though, if anybody knows of a good coffeemaker that makes a difference or another good coffee.   

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I'm on my 4th day with no cigarettes and I'm noticing little things like how nice it is not having to make sure I have enough cigarettes and my lighter before I go anywhere. It's nice just having that empty shirt pocket too (except for the electronic cigarette). I find I'm using that less and less too though. I'm really looking forward to being through with this nasty habit that I love and hate so much. I also like the aspect of not having  to do something when I don't really want to. As much as I enjoy smoking I have to admit that I had no choice; I had too. I hated that part of it.

There's something new in the air now and it ain't smoke.

Smells like... victory.

That's an old Irish drinking song - Whiskey Yer The Divil, Drunk Or Sober.

I can't recall if devil was spelled with an i (divil) but that's the way they pronounced it in the song and that's the way I picture it, so there it is.

My mother was all Irish but I've got a lot of Scotch in me too (up to a 1/5th on occasion) - Laphroaig is my favorite. But I'm also the son of a full-blooded Scot and I'm not aware of any Scottish drinking songs so the Irish ones prevail in the rotation.

I don't care for Irish Whiskey though. They all taste like cheap Scotch to me. It's like comparing Kentucky Bourbon to Tennessee Sippin' Whiskey; I just haven't found a bourbon that can measure up. I like Jack. Jim Beam tastes like perfume mixed with lighter fluid to me. I don't know how people can drink that stuff. Gack!

There are a few reasons for drinking

And one has just entered my head

If a man can't drink when he's living

How the hell can he drink when he's dead?

(An old Irish Proverb)

But the point I wanted to make was that whiskey is not the Divil for me. Nicotine is my Demon. I can get by without whiskey with no problem at all. Hell, I can get by with a lot less food without too much of a problem if I need to lose weight. I could even give up coffee if I really needed too (Please God, not that!). But Nicotine? Now that's a horse of a different feather.

Cigarettes have ruled my life for years. Mr Nicotine never rests. He roams the back alleys of my mind and haunts the shadows of my soul 24/7. Yes, 24/7, relentlessly. He makes me go out in the cold; he makes me go out at 2 AM in the morning; he makes me go out at 2 AM in the morning in the cold. He accompanies me everywhere; he doesn't allow me to go anywhere without him. I plan my life around him. I schedule my activities around him. I indulge his constant need for attention. I breathe his essence and carry his scent like an aura. But that's enough, no more.

I've gone 3 days and 2 hours without a cigarette now and I ain't going back. Yes, I'm getting help from the patch and an electronic cigarette but will eventually wean myself off those and be free again.

I guess for those who have never smoked it's probably hard to understand but Nicotine is an extremely powerful addictive substance. It makes you want to jump out of your skin if you don't have it. But if I have to jump out of my skin, so be it. I'm not going back and I take an oath on that.

One day soon I hope to climb one of my mountain ridges and stand on top and proclaim to the world:

Free at last, free at last, Good Golly Miss Molly, I'm free at last!

Gettin by in East Tennessee.

Some say tomato, some say tomahto but in East Tennessee it's maters.

Potatoes are taters.

A creek is a crick. 

Your Grandfather is your Papaw. 

Your Grandmother is your Mamaw.

What you call bean soup, we call soup beans and you eat it with corn bread.

What you call license plates we call tags and we say tags even though there's only one on the back.

Sit is set.

Piece refers to distance (up the road a piece).

Spell refers to time  (set down fer a spell).

It's not iced tea - it's sweet tea or unsweet tea. Otherwise it's hot tea.

It's not a shopping cart - it's a buggy.

Window is winder.

And a hollow is a holler and that's where I live. You'll never here the word hollow in East Tennessee. You might see it on road signs and such but it's always pronounced holler. Critters don't sleep in hollow logs here. They sleep in holler logs.

Knoxville people like to consider themselves part of East Tennessee but most of the people here don't think they are. Johnson City, Kingsport and Bristol (they're called the Tri-Cities) are considered the big cities in East Tennessee by the country people. Memphis is a world away and might as well be in Arkansas or Texas for that matter as far as any connection to the people here. Nashville is a long ride.

Well, lookin' out the window the holler is still white with snow. When you get down lower it's like the season changed, there's no snow on the ground at all. I see one of my dogs - Merle, just sittin' there waitin' for something to come out of the woods so he can chase it. If he doesn't see anything he'll be at the back door pretty quick cuz it's about 27 degrees out there and he's a Rot/Dobe mix that isn't too crazy about the cold. I love my dogs.

Well, this kept my hands busy for a few minutes without a cigarette. Now if I can just get through a couple more weeks I'll be fine. Oh yeah, no problem. Right.

Thank you for making a law that says I have to smoke these new fire safe cigarettes. It is comforting to know that I can now smoke safely while in bed drunk.

Now, if you could just make a law that prevents me from spilling the dadgum whiskey all over the bed when I pass out with the cigarette in my hand...

And shouldn't there be a new emissions control law on cigarette lighters? I'm sure I've killed at least a dozen Polar Bears from flicking my Bic thirty times or so to re-light every dadgum fire safe cigarette every dadgum time it goes out. I'm sure there must be a hole in the Ozone the size of a doublewide just over my trailer that's sending Global Warming into Warp Drive.  Please have NASA check it out. We definitely need more laws to keep people in line and obedient. Some people can get carried away with that freedom thing.

Thanks Dude, You Rock

Ridge Runner