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Thread: The joy of small, important pleasures

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    Senior Member FredRydr's Avatar
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    Default Re: The joy of small, important pleasures

    Another coffee story?

    When I was 21 and dating my new girlfriend that I met in Arundel (on the south coast of England), I was in her parent's kitchen after we came back from a pub. She asked if I wanted coffee and told me to "pour the coffee out." I saw a saucepan of cold coffee on the counter, so since we Americans drink fresh coffee, not day-old stuff, I naturally poured it out...right down the kitchen sink. She couldn't believe what I'd done and protested, but it was too late. You see, her mother made coffee the evening before she drank it in the morning. She still married me. She drinks tea, anyway.

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    Default Re: The joy of small, important pleasures

    Quote Originally Posted by AzJon View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by soretailedcat View Post
    I will never forget visiting a Friend in Milwaukee WI for a weekend when her Mother asked if we wanted coffee after dinner; she poured water into a pan, added coffee & an egg white with the shell & put it on her stove top til it boiled. I had grown up with percolated coffee, drip made makers & finally settled on French press as my favored choice but that cup of coffee was delicious!

    I expressed surprise & asked if she had always made her coffee this way @ she said yes, it was the way HER Mother had made it & she saw to reason to change. They lived in a lakefront house @ least 7,000 square feet in size, so obviously the cost of a coffee maker was not the reason for her choice of method, it was just that she saw no reason to mess around with any method that was more involved than what she had grown up with.

    When I returned home I mentioned my coffee experience to my Mother when she laughed & said she also had grown up with same coffee, except her Mother wouldn't have used the egg white but instead relied on the remaining egg white in the shell to provide the necessary white to "settle the grounds."

    I was thus introduced to old fashioned "boiled coffee;" It was made on a gas stove but surely similar to "cowboy coffee."
    Egg coffee can be surprisingly delicious. The shells and the eggs bind to the bitter compounds in the coffee leaving a nice, sweet, cup.
    Tried it this morning. I'm amazed. The subtle chicory taste remains, but not one whit of the bitterness; just a remarkably smooth dark roast. Half a century of drinking coffee, and today I learn how to make it correctly...
    Online arguments are a lot like the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
    As soon as the audience begins to participate, any actual content is lost in the resulting chaos and cacophony.
    At that point, all you can do is laugh and enjoy the descent into debasement.

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    Default Re: The joy of small, important pleasures

    It had occured to me that my taste for coffee has evolved so that I prefer it no longer to be black. Using creme and eggs apparently indicate that I am not alone.

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    Default Re: The joy of small, important pleasures

    My relatives (I had many aunts and uncles) often put egg in coffee, but I never knew why! Thanks for this new light on a bit of my childhood.

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    Senior Member FredRydr's Avatar
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    Default Re: The joy of small, important pleasures

    Then there are the relatives who put salted peanuts in Coca-Cola.

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    Default Re: The joy of small, important pleasures

    Quote Originally Posted by FredRydr View Post
    Then there are the relatives who put salted peanuts in Coca-Cola.
    This is one of life's simple and inexpensive pleasures. Salty and sweet deserves more respect...LOL!!

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    Senior Member VertOlive's Avatar
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    Default Re: The joy of small, important pleasures

    Quote Originally Posted by FredRydr View Post
    Then there are the relatives who put salted peanuts in Coca-Cola.
    Or putting potato chips in a PBJ.
    "Nolo esse salus sine vobis ...” —St. Augustine

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    Senior Member FredRydr's Avatar
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    Default Re: The joy of small, important pleasures

    Quote Originally Posted by VertOlive View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by FredRydr View Post
    Then there are the relatives who put salted peanuts in Coca-Cola.
    Or putting potato chips in a PBJ.
    Philadelphia's Sally Starr advertised banana slices smothered in Bosco chocolate syrup. That didn't catch on with me.


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    Senior Member FredRydr's Avatar
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    Default Re: The joy of small, important pleasures

    Quote Originally Posted by VertOlive View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by FredRydr View Post
    Then there are the relatives who put salted peanuts in Coca-Cola.
    Or putting potato chips in a PBJ.
    Philadelphia's Sally Starr advertised banana slices smothered in Bosco chocolate syrup. That didn't catch on with me.



    I imagine Jon would have loved it. Or her.

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    Senior Member Jon Szanto's Avatar
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    Default Re: The joy of small, important pleasures

    Quote Originally Posted by FredRydr View Post
    I imagine Jon would have loved it. Or her.
    Come on. Who doesn't love an attractive, left-handed gunslinger?
    "When Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Publick;
    and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter."

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    Default Re: The joy of small, important pleasures

    As a child big time vacation events often included a weekend drive and of course as the eldest son I helped dad prep for the trips. Common things that were added even for day trips would include a fan belt, a second spare tire, a puncture kit and hand pump, distributor cap & rotor with plug wires and plugs, two bottles of recycled oil and a headlamp. And I can also remember when we actually needed to use some of those items on most every trip.

    Each of us kids had to show we could handle most common road-side repair issues before we were allowed to drive on our own. Even the girls learned to change tires on their own, replace plugs, plug wires, distributor cap & rotor, tighten a loose fan belt and replace a broken fan belt, replace a headlamp or tail light bulb, wipers or even a wiper arm.

    By the way, we also learned to drive backwards. Dad made us learn to drive all around the neighborhood in reverse, stopping, starting, making turns, dealing with hills and always with a manual transmission three on the column. Only when we showed we could maintain lane position and start/stop control we we allowed to turn around in the seat and drive forwards. Man, going forward so much easier.

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    Default Re: The joy of small, important pleasures

    Most of my adult working life was spent in a career that invariably garnered the reply, 'I hear that's a really stressful job', when I told anyone what I did. There was, and is, nothing so small and important pleasure as enjoying a nice 'cuppa' and a few moments of inner quiet at the end of a trying day.

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    Default Re: The joy of small, important pleasures

    Agreed on the cuppa. Always morning sometimes afternoon, rarely at night. Occasionally the evening sip is a bit of a decent Scotch (usually Islay single malt) or Tincup Whiskey. I've been enjoying bike rides withe my daughter. Nice to get out and about and feel a bit stronger and more fit and clearer of mind.

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    Default Re: The joy of small, important pleasures


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    Default Re: The joy of small, important pleasures

    I never cared much for appreciations; be it big or small. When I became an engineer, gotten a job, birthdays, or any other goals, I never celebrated. Always immediately on the go towards the next goal. I guess the problem was I have never failed in life. Anything I wanted to achieve, I worked for it and got it. Never depended on anyone, never brown nosed my way into anything, always me, alone, against the world, always winning, against all odds, coming from shit childhood and objectively shit parents.

    But ever since my daughter was born, I have really started to appreciate the little things. Both she and my wife nearly died at birth, and the doctors told me that I should name her "Lucky" for coming out completely fine. I was completely powerless and dependant on others for the first time in my life. All I could do was sit in the hospital corridor and wait.

    The hug when she comes back from the kindergarten now means the world to me. The happy little dance she wants first thing in the morning, only with her dad, after a "good nights sleep" of no more than 3 hours, well that's the best thing that's ever happened to me.

    Corona pandemic also taught me a lot. I don't know if it's some wisdom period people normally go through when they hit 30, but I can barely recognize myself anymore. And I'm happy for it.

    After she comes from the shower, we're making pancakes. I can already tell you I will feel more satisfaction from that than the time I've designed parts for space travel. Or solved issues with a submarine engine. Or that one time, when I helped design some stuff for a nuclear reactor. I'm having nutella, but she likes strawberry jam. I'll also give her some of my homemade kompot

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    Default Re: The joy of small, important pleasures

    Quote Originally Posted by adhoc View Post
    I never cared much for appreciations; be it big or small. When I became an engineer, gotten a job, birthdays, or any other goals, I never celebrated. Always immediately on the go towards the next goal. I guess the problem was I have never failed in life. Anything I wanted to achieve, I worked for it and got it. Never depended on anyone, never brown nosed my way into anything, always me, alone, against the world, always winning, against all odds, coming from shit childhood and objectively shit parents.

    But ever since my daughter was born, I have really started to appreciate the little things. Both she and my wife nearly died at birth, and the doctors told me that I should name her "Lucky" for coming out completely fine. I was completely powerless and dependant on others for the first time in my life. All I could do was sit in the hospital corridor and wait.

    The hug when she comes back from the kindergarten now means the world to me. The happy little dance she wants first thing in the morning, only with her dad, after a "good nights sleep" of no more than 3 hours, well that's the best thing that's ever happened to me.

    Corona pandemic also taught me a lot. I don't know if it's some wisdom period people normally go through when they hit 30, but I can barely recognize myself anymore. And I'm happy for it.

    After she comes from the shower, we're making pancakes. I can already tell you I will feel more satisfaction from that than the time I've designed parts for space travel. Or solved issues with a submarine engine. Or that one time, when I helped design some stuff for a nuclear reactor. I'm having nutella, but she likes strawberry jam. I'll also give her some of my homemade kompot
    Thanks for this story, made me smile.
    Sandy
    We don't know what we don't know

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    Default Re: The joy of small, important pleasures

    Quote Originally Posted by adhoc View Post
    I never cared much for appreciations; be it big or small. When I became an engineer, gotten a job, birthdays, or any other goals, I never celebrated. Always immediately on the go towards the next goal. I guess the problem was I have never failed in life. Anything I wanted to achieve, I worked for it and got it. Never depended on anyone, never brown nosed my way into anything, always me, alone, against the world, always winning, against all odds, coming from shit childhood and objectively shit parents.

    But ever since my daughter was born, I have really started to appreciate the little things. Both she and my wife nearly died at birth, and the doctors told me that I should name her "Lucky" for coming out completely fine. I was completely powerless and dependant on others for the first time in my life. All I could do was sit in the hospital corridor and wait.

    The hug when she comes back from the kindergarten now means the world to me. The happy little dance she wants first thing in the morning, only with her dad, after a "good nights sleep" of no more than 3 hours, well that's the best thing that's ever happened to me.

    Corona pandemic also taught me a lot. I don't know if it's some wisdom period people normally go through when they hit 30, but I can barely recognize myself anymore. And I'm happy for it.

    After she comes from the shower, we're making pancakes. I can already tell you I will feel more satisfaction from that than the time I've designed parts for space travel. Or solved issues with a submarine engine. Or that one time, when I helped design some stuff for a nuclear reactor. I'm having nutella, but she likes strawberry jam. I'll also give her some of my homemade kompot
    You have provided the members here with a reminder to take time out to 'smell the roses' as we hurriedly travel the road of life.

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    Senior Member jar's Avatar
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    Default Re: The joy of small, important pleasures

    Enjoy, it's all too short. Remember your wife's job is to keep her feet on the ground while you teach her to soar.

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    Default Re: The joy of small, important pleasures

    Quote Originally Posted by adhoc View Post
    I never cared much for appreciations; be it big or small. When I became an engineer, gotten a job, birthdays, or any other goals, I never celebrated. Always immediately on the go towards the next goal. I guess the problem was I have never failed in life. Anything I wanted to achieve, I worked for it and got it. Never depended on anyone, never brown nosed my way into anything, always me, alone, against the world, always winning, against all odds, coming from shit childhood and objectively shit parents.

    But ever since my daughter was born, I have really started to appreciate the little things. Both she and my wife nearly died at birth, and the doctors told me that I should name her "Lucky" for coming out completely fine. I was completely powerless and dependant on others for the first time in my life. All I could do was sit in the hospital corridor and wait.

    The hug when she comes back from the kindergarten now means the world to me. The happy little dance she wants first thing in the morning, only with her dad, after a "good nights sleep" of no more than 3 hours, well that's the best thing that's ever happened to me.

    Corona pandemic also taught me a lot. I don't know if it's some wisdom period people normally go through when they hit 30, but I can barely recognize myself anymore. And I'm happy for it.

    After she comes from the shower, we're making pancakes. I can already tell you I will feel more satisfaction from that than the time I've designed parts for space travel. Or solved issues with a submarine engine. Or that one time, when I helped design some stuff for a nuclear reactor. I'm having nutella, but she likes strawberry jam. I'll also give her some of my homemade kompot
    My twins were born at 26 weeks and so, I can appreciate your story.

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    Senior Member Jon Szanto's Avatar
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    Default Re: The joy of small, important pleasures

    Quote Originally Posted by adhoc View Post
    I never cared much for appreciations; be it big or small.
    Doesn't matter, you do now. That is all that counts, and the endless love you give back to those around you. Thanks for sharing your joy.
    "When Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Publick;
    and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter."

    ~ Benjamin Franklin

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