WANDERING MIND

Wandering Mind

Perfect Florida morning. Bit humid, 77 degrees, clear sky, sitting in my porch swing. My house doesn’t have a back door, it has two front doors, a front front door facing St. Andrews Bay and a back front door looking out on Patty’s Garden. My porch swing looks out on Patty’s Garden. On the table beside me is the blue hydrangea Linda bought at Fresh Market yesterday and my cup. 

My coffee is made by a marvelous magic machine. It takes a minute or so to heat up then signals that it’s ready for a product to be selected: press a button for a small coffee, a medium coffee or a large coffee. Pressing the button causes beans to be ground with an enticing whirring, grinding sound, followed by a loud “chunka-chunka” as grounds are compacted into a tightly compressed, biscuit-sized form of ground coffee. Hot water is then forced through the coffee, the amount of water depending on whether small, medium or large was pressed. Large has never been used on my machine lest it pour me a weak cup of coffee. But pressing small twice and medium once yields a series of three deliciously mouthwatering, whirring, loud chunka-chunkas that produce a perfect mug of frothy first-cup-of-coffee-in-the-morning.

During the whirring grinding this morning my wandering mind pondered shaking a sprinkle of black pepper into that first cup. In my ships the mess deck chiefs always added a pinch of black pepper to the huge coffee urn to get classic Navy coffee. Drink it black.

Both Navy warships I served in spent time in the shipyard for overhaul. CORRY, the destroyer, also spent time alongside a destroyer tender. When yard or tender workers were aboard for regularly scheduled or emergency work there was always extra work the chiefs wanted done -- work the Navy hadn’t authorized, hadn’t scheduled, and wouldn’t pay for. It got done anyway by cumshaw. Cumshaw was barter and a cumshaw artist was a petty officer, usually a CPO, who knew the ropes and could get anything done. Anything. Invariably the cumshaw agents were coffee and black pepper. Memory fails me as to the weight of the package, and whether it was sacks or cans, but for months before a shipyard or tender visit the ship’s chiefs would save up coffee and pepper for cumshaw. The coffee is easy; the black pepper escaped me all my twenty years in the Navy, because who needs or uses that much black pepper? Nevertheless coffee and black pepper.

But the mind wanders. The June morning is perfect, today's cuppa exquisite, the blue hydrangea magnificent, the swing comfortable. Thank you God. Thank you Linda W. Thank you Ann Y. Thank you Mary S. Thank you Patty. Thank you Tass & Jeremy. And thank you Fresh Market for the variety of decaf whole bean coffee. 

Life Is Good. It don’t git no better’n ‘nis.

TW+