Satisfaction

It's dark and it's chilly; my computer weather widget says it's 39 degrees outdoors. The clock says it is 5:19 am, but in the time before the clocks changed, that would be 4:19.

When I got up earlier, the clock read 4:52 am, but that was in the old configuration of time. In the new configuration of time, I would have been up since 3:52 am. That frightens me and makes me nervous and I'm shivering. But that...the shivering...may be due to the thermostat setting, which is intended to save energy and make a down comforter über-appealing.

I have my Powell's Books coffee mug at my side, filled with very dark, strong black coffee, which tends to make me feel like the world isn't such a bad place. I grind just enough beans to make six cups of coffee (by the coffee carafe's measure), which is only two and a half mugs' worth, if that. It's all I need most weekend days. On weekdays, I wait until I get to the office, where I drink criminally commercial coffee. It's only fitting to drink subpar swill at the office, I think. It fits the environment. One wouldn't have medium-rare leg of lamb with fresh asparagus and gargonzola-rich potatoes at Dairy Queen, right? And one wouldn't have coffee made from freshly-ground Lola Savannah ultra dark French roast beans, at least not often, in a dingy office that promises a day of paper-pushing and not much else. Lola Savannahh is a company in Houston that, I gather, imports coffee beans and roasts them. The stuff I drink is a blend, but I don't recall just what beans they use. I don't really care much; I just like the coffee.

We held a garage sale yesterday and got rid of lots of stuff...but not enough. We only made $179.40 from the sale, which ran from 7:30 to 3:00, which translates into $23.92 per hour, or $11.96 per hour each. And then, of course, there's the value of the stuff we sold. It was a success only to the extent that we got rid of some crap we didn't need cluttering up our house. And it prompted me to do a modest amount of clean-up in the garage, something I haven't done in more than a year. Sadly, the garage sale did not provide the funds required for an early and immediate retirement.

After the garage sale, we took a break and went for a long, aimless drive that took us from Carrollton to Garland and places in-between. Not a long drive, but interesting, nonetheless. We stopped for an early dinner at Vetoni, an Italian restaurant in old downtown Garland. I was surprised as how cheap it was, and it was actually quite good. I had linguine with red clam sauce and my favorite wife had chicken picatta; hers was especially good, with a wonderful lemony flavor. It was covered with an enormous number of capers, one of my favorite things in the world. I recommend the place only on the basis that we enjoyed it...and it was very quiet for our VERY early dinner around 5:30 pm.

I will not complain that it's too chilly for me to work outside (at least work COMFORTABLY outside) today. Chilly is not something to complain about. Chilly is a good thing. Chilly is the antithesis of stiflingly hot, the latter about which I have been known to complain.

Enough of this drivel. Back to my dwindling supply of dark, rich, strong, satisfying coffee!