The day that we moved back into our house I decided to make a cup of coffee. It was a rainy day and I thought it would be nice to enjoy a hot cup of “proof that we have a merciful God.” I pulled out the coffee grinder and right away it smelled moldy. I started cleaning it out piece by piece and ended up disassembling it down to the bare motor and wires in order to rid it of all the mold.
With the grinder cleaned up I was ready to grind. I plugged it in and the transformer I use to power it didn’t work. It was completely dead. No problem, I had another one that would work, so I used it, and ground my coffee. I went to put it in the coffee maker and discovered that in our absence lizards had been using the water tank as a latrine. Time to disassemble and clean the coffee maker.
With a new transformer, a clean grinder, and a thoroughly sterilized coffee maker it was finally time to brew that precious cup. I turned on the coffee maker and the transformer wasn’t working properly. Another one bites the dust. Now it was personal and I would not be defeated! I figured I would just microwave the water and pour it over the grounds so I turned the microwave on. It made normal noises, the little plate spun around and the light even worked. However, no micro waves passed through my water cup and it was clear that the microwave was also broken.
I went for the trusty Honda generator – surely this wouldn’t let me down. I checked the oil – empty. Gas – empty also. I forgot that I had drained it before we went back to the States to protect it from getting fuel varnish in the carburetor. So it was out to the storage shed to find some gasoline and some oil. I found gasoline, but no oil.
I hopped in the truck, scared to death about what might go wrong with the truck, and drove to the gas station. I bought some oil and drove home. On my way back in to the house I noticed the dog had about 50 ticks that he was ministering to and the rest of the tick community (100’s of them) were plump and living on the floor and wall next to where he sleeps. Gross!
I wasn’t distracted from the coffee project, but I made a quick note that I needed to deal with the tick problem…not that it was the kind of thing I would forget as I now felt like I was covered with them. I got the generator going and finally made my cup of coffee. I was too frustrated and hot to really enjoy it, but I drank it out of principle.