Coffee

I was nearly forty-five when I began to drink coffee.  It took a while to acquire the taste.  Lots of milk, much like the way I and the English drink tea was the trick.  I first started having coffee at work.  It probably has to do with managing a few million dollars for a non-profit. A dry job at best.  Coffee made the job more palatable.

Over the years, I would grab coffee on my way to work, drinking most of it in the car.  I paper cupped it back then, too.  I did carry a water bottle, to my credit.

Then one day, I discovered a coffee shop in town.  A newly renovated one.  I was invited to sit with a few friends and we would visit for fifteen minutes before I left for the twenty-five minute drive to work.  Even the gym I used had a coffee shop.  My weekend routine began with my early morning work-outs and stop for coffee and a chocolate chip bagel afterward.  It was my treat for a successful work-out and a nice way to start the weekend.

I even talked the owners into trying chocolate chip bagels.  They insisted they would not sell.  But were they surprised!  They couldn't keep enough on the shelf.  Often, by the time I got into the bagel shop, they were out of my favorite bagel. 

When I moved south, I looked around for a coffee shop.  There was none here.  A year later a bakery opened advertising natural food.  Not organic...natural.  Their coffee was good and their bakery and cafe was wonderful.  It was the talk of the town.  Everyone frequented the place.They ran the cafe for almost ten years.

Suddenly, the owners made a business decision which meant they would relocate their bakery to a larger city, more central to their business.  Former employees gave it a try, but their inventory and staffing wasn't adequate to sustain the business.  In time, customers went elsewhere.

Enter another company in the same space who made it known that profit was more important than customers.  The baked items are sugary and prices way too high for a small town.  The other coffee shop in town isn't great.  Bathrooms are consistently dirty as is the place.  Few of my friends will even walk through the front door.  The place does not keep consistent hours, either.

So what is a gal to do?  It is well nigh time for a change.