Up and early.

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I took my medicine first thing, too.  Ouch.  Those days I take it late lead to pretty harsh days lately, and something akin to a hangover for two or three days afterward.  My body is simply globbing onto fluid like a sponge.  I end up, by mid-afternoon, feeling like a balloon.

On the bright side, I have been getting up early, regularly.  My days and nights are straight.  It doesn't really matter, right at this moment, because I can do so little.  But in the near future that could be good.  If nothing else it is pleasing to be awake with the 'big people'.

Making my appointment should be easy enough, today.  I know that it will be a bit of a rough and tumble though, just getting there and through the day.  The added fasting requirement is going to be more difficult having waken early, but it is better to do it this way and be a little hungry than to wake later and have to rush.  At least I can have straight black coffee, or so I was told.  Bleh, but... it's something.

Oh, about coffee...  It seems easy enough to roast.  It is almost like popping popcorn.  It can crack or *pop* twice.  Right before, during, or after that first pop, you get lighter coffee.  That is the coffee most people drink.  From Foldger's standard to most other store bought blends.  And, if you buy boutique coffees, it is literally the lighter colored coffees.  That sort of roast lends to the most caffeine in the final product too.  Now, while I like the notion of extra caffeine, for me, it isn't really needed.  And I dearly prefer darker, richer, coffee.  On a major upside?  Buying green coffee beans is about half to a third of the cost, buying in smaller amounts, as buying pre-roasted beans.  Further, green coffee beans last about a year, and then once roasted can last another six months to year.  What does last mean?  Does it mean literally 'will not poison', or does it mean 'is better before'?

I will be doing some experiments before the year is out.  I am, currently, using up a pound of coffee from six months before my mother's last visit.  It was purchased, left out for three months, she put it in the fridge for three months, I put it in the freezer when she left about a year ago, and just pulled it out and started using it.  It is whole bean, pre-roasted (Columbian Roast).  Now THAT is FRESH!  :p  But, while not a perfect coffee, it is not actually all that bad.  It still beats the Foldgers she buys for her use when here.  Seriously.  Odd, too.  I figure, buying 50 pounds of beans, storing it as best I am able, pulling out a couple of pounds for roasting at a time, that coffee might last me... two or three years, realistically.  I may try several different methods of "preserving" the green beans and several methods of storing the roasted bean, with sampling over time assuming no bad indicators are present.  If nothing else, having 50 pounds of beans on hand at any one time (considering that no more than two pounds per month) would leave me some barter goods.  And, should I find a few methods of truly keeping beans for a longer period, perhaps upping the purchase to 100, or even 200 pounds, over time, for barter.  Coffee would be a serious barter good!

Well, on to... something.  Waking up.  I am almost out of the old coffee and I have a bag of new (relatively speaking, a month old) that I will soon get to enjoy.  The only major difference between new and old coffee is a slightly milder coffee flavor and the lack of that fresh coffee smell in the old coffee, when I am grinding the beans.  I feared acidity, but that doesn't seem to be a problem. 

Anyway, get your bean on then get to it.  Good day.