A Week Without Coffee

Yes, I know that you read stuff like this in the papers each weekend.

I have spent two months recording J.S.Mill’s “Theory of Logic” into a microphone for an audio book. Two Hundred and forty five hours, one-third reading aloud, and two-thirds editing out burps, coughs, throat-clearing and so on. I reached out to an accomplished tenor, a friend from my Gilbert And Sullivan days and he suggested avoiding caffeine.

There is no way I am going to go without my morning coffee or afternoon mugs of tea, but I thought I might restrict myself to two mugs of coffee in the morning, and one mug of tea in the afternoon. To my surprise I spent two or three nights sleeping from 9:30 p.m. to around 5:00 a.m., without getting up at 1:00 a.m. to pee.

Tea is a diuretic.

My routine was to grab the first coffee of the day and sip it in bed while I caught up on Technical Forums and email, quenching my morning thirst with coffee. And yes, when I say “four mugs of coffee”, you have no idea of how many large teaspoons of grounds I put in the basket the night before.

This Tuesday morning I washed out the carafe, and wiped clean the outside of the maker, which for me meant I had to unplug it. And there it remains, unplugged.

(1) I have more space on my little work-counter in the kitchen.

(2) I have plenty of fresh, boiled, rain-water that is delivered to my back door by the Atlantic Ocean and its buddy The Gulf Stream

(3) Coffee has risen from $6.95 a can to $18.99 last time I looked, and that is over just three years. And yes, it will go down a bit as the two supermarkets compete, but it is not going back to seven dollars.

(4) I no longer need a caffeine-stained mug-warming electrical plate on my desk.

(5) I no longer spill beverage on or near my keyboard.

(6) I place my can of coffee at the back of the top shelf in my pantry cupboard and do not refill my small canister in the kitchen. If I want a coffee, I must venture into the 5ºc laundry, open the stepladder, unload the front of the shelf, carry the can to the kitchen and, of course, reverse the process. All this work for a cup of coffee, first thing in the morning before I have had my first mug of coffee - it isn’t worth it; I’ll drink water instead.

(7) I lasted until Friday, which was a red-letter day in my life, and made a 2-cup jug of coffee, and again this morning.

(8) I slept poorly last night, perhaps due to the coffee. Since I am drinking coffee again today, let’s see what happens tonight. Then back to water (no tea, no coffee)

(9) 

(10) 

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