Mourning Coffee

Dear Morning Makers:

I woke up this morning to our furnace functioning quite efficiently, and while its humidifier unit underfunctions a bit on cold winter days, we bought a large console floor model which works quite well, and despite its age we can still find filter wicks in stock at both Menards and Home Depot. Our hot water heater is a few years old, but it works great and seems significantly more responsive than the one it replaced. When I went to the basement yesterday, the green indicator light on the freezer shone brightly, and it’s partially full of a variety of rock-hard frozen foods. Meanwhile, upstairs in the kitchen, our refrigerator’s freezer continues to belch out ice crescents with amazing regularity, and when I open the door to get cream cheese for my toasted bagel, that little light pops on and illuminates the shelves wonderfully. (Whoever thought it was a good idea to put a light in a fridge should have a statue in her honor.)

The dishwasher is just a little older than the microwave, but despite a few repairs to the upper rack bearings, it’s needed surprisingly little attention and still runs quiet enough for conversation to occur in the kitchen, something we could not say about its predecessor without shouting. As for the faithful microwave, how long do these things just keep working? It’s the last non-stainless appliance in the kitchen, but it seems quite comfortable with its fading white finish, and the other shinier appliances seem not to mind.

We got a new coffee maker for Christmas. After nearly ten years, the old one had become inconsistent, brewing a variety of pots, some wonderful, some inexplicably odd. I did a little online research using my aging laptop, which still works great, and ordered a new coffee maker with five-star reviews from people who seemed to know what they were talking about. It’s been two weeks now, and from the first pot the coffee has been unfortunately bad. We’ve cleaned it, adjusted the brew settings, run it with and without the disposable water filter, but nothing seems to improve the odd plastic-bitter taste. It’s also hard to fill without dripping water on the counter.

Which appliance do you think is currently controlling my mood?

Sipping what currently passes for coffee in our house, I scroll my morning newsfeed, which has clearly been curated by people who must have bought the same coffee maker this Christmas.

Trying to see the world beyond the coffee, I remain,

With love,
Jonathan Krogh
Your Pastor