“I love California; I practically grew up in Phoenix.”
Today is lovely with clear, still air and a temperature of 77˚. These are the days I love the most. They invite rides along the water, stops at vegetable stands and the flower stands people put along the sides of the road. Everything is quiet. The kids are in school.
The morning didn’t start well. My half and half had lumps. It went into the trash. I couldn’t imagine a morning without coffee so I ordered Dunkin’ from DoorDash, expense be damned. The driver was here in no time but not with my order. He brought iced coffee. I checked my order just in case, no ice coffee. I called DoorDash. They gave me credit and told me to enjoy the ice coffee and offer one to the driver. I did. He said he doesn’t drink coffee. I asked him where he was from. “Africa,” he said. I asked where. “Ghana,” he said. I was so excited and told him I had lived in Bolga which surprised him. He had never been to Bolga, no surprise there as most southern Ghanaians never go north. He was from Cape Coast, a city I love. It is filled with old buildings, tiny streets and people, always people, people walking on sidewalks and the sides of the streets. How wonderful it was to talk to someone from Ghana. He said he hoped he’d have to deliver here again.
My parents used to take cruises back in the day when men wore tuxes and women wore long dresses to the formal dinners. They usually traveled with my aunt and uncle. Their cruise ships stopped at mostly Caribbean islands. At one stop my father rented a car and drove into the mountains of one of the islands. He told me how they stopped at a local place for some drinks, and he took a picture of an old woman who yelled at him. His response, ” I have your soul in my camera.” She didn’t speak English. Good thing.
When I was a kid, I loved geography. I remember a map which had tiny drawings representing what crops each country grew. I remember coffee and bananas. I remember the rice growing countries. I used to pore over each map imagining what the country was like. Holland had tulips and windmills. South America had llamas, mountains and coffee. Latin American had bananas and pineapples. Later, much later, I traveled to some of those countries. I saw the windmills and tulips. I traveled through the Andes and saw llamas, so many llamas. I don’t remember the coffee, but I do remember seeing banana trees filled with not yet ripe bananas. My geography book had come to life. I was thrilled. I was living my dreams, my imagings.
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
September 7, 2021 at 2:38 pm
Hi Kat,
This morning was clear and a little cooler. Today the low was in the low 70s and the high temperature is forecasted to be only in the mid 90s.Thankfully, the humidity we suffered with last week is now greatly reduced.
Sorry about your coffee mishap. I drink mine black without sugar so if comes out of the Keurig machine it’s probably okay. 🙂 We have a standing order, “Never run out of coffee”.
One never knows where you may meet someone who is from another country especially one you have visited. We are now living in a tremendously interconnected world. The advent of the internet in the 1990s and the Boeing 747 jumbo jet in 1970 shrunk the world by offering tourist or economy class seats available to many more people by reducing the airfare. When the Wright Brothers first flew in December of 1903 very few people on earth had ever traveled more than 25 miles from where they were born.
I was also enthralled while in school with studying geography as well as international government. I have always been interested how other people in the world live and conduct their governmental business as well as how their legal system operates. In my limited international travels I’ve discovered that everyone on earth wants to feel safe in their environment, pursue their interests and love/cherish their children and their families. Both nationally and race are social constructs. We are all members of one race, the human race.
September 7, 2021 at 10:25 pm
Hi Bob,
We too have been enjoying little or no humidity. Today felt more like a warm fall day than a cool summer day. I had uke practice outside from 6 to 7, and by about 6:30, it had started to get chilly. I was glad I had brought a sweatshirt.
I have coffee, but I really don’t like black coffee. It was the lack of cream, not the lack of coffee, which had me ordering some. Now I am set.
Meeting Ghanaians always surprises me. It is difficult for them to get visas, and the air fare is quite expensive. The deliveryman was young but didn’t have the easily remembered Ghanaian English accent so he has been here a while.
I have found that the general rules of society are the same just about everywhere. It doesn’t matter how your country is governed. People have codes of behavior, accepted norms. Sometimes that holds all of us together.
September 8, 2021 at 11:55 am
Hi Kat,
At least there were a couple of positive sides to the DoorDash coffee dismay.
Land O Lakes, Trader Joe’s, and others make shelf stable half and half. It’s good for 6 months at room temperature. You’re supposed to put it in the fridge for 6 hours before you use it but 20 minutes in the freezer is just fine. Great to have for coffee emergencies. But then you wouldn’t have had that lovely conversation with the Ghanaian DoorDash driver.
I got all that information about what states and countries produce in Social Studies. When I was in school Social Studies was a lot of geography and climate and not so much Social. We did learn about local customs but mostly we learned what minerals, major agricultural crops, and manufacturing products each place was known for.
The weather here has been beautiful. Warm sun, cool breeze, puffy clouds. Perfect days as far as I’m concerned. Great clothes drying weather, too, which is just what I need until the dryer gets fixed.
Enjoy your day.
September 8, 2021 at 7:29 pm
Hi Caryn,
Wow, I did buy some oat milk after all this because it can be stored until opened. I didn’t realize you can get half and half. Now you’ve given me a reason to go to Trader Joe’s. I have a list of some of their new items I want to try.
We didn’t have social studies. We had the individual subjects of history and geography. The geography book had great pictures.
The weather has been the same here except today was a bit humid. It has started cooling down, but I doubt it will get as cold as last night did. Rain is predicted for tomorrow. There goes my farmer’s market uke playing.
Have a great evening!
September 9, 2021 at 12:43 am
WE had those maps too and I can remember that the US had corn, oranges and wheat and Brazil had coffee 🙂 If I remember things right Sweden had wheat and oats 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
September 9, 2021 at 12:08 pm
Hi Christer,
That’s funny. We all shared similar experiences in school despite where we live.
I am still following Ran Sailing on YouTube. They are a Swedish family living aboard their sailboat. Lately they went down the coast and stopped at little towns and islands. I enjoy it.
Take care!