I want some coffee!

About to start the day... How can we complain about cold winter temps when this pre-dawn sight greets us to start the day?! And yes, what we (I!) complain about for cold temps here in southeast Arizona are the basis for a balmy day in Minnesota. When I'm kinda' bumbling around getting to the casita for the morning call (an old fart in a hurry must be a scarey thing to see!) you would think I'd miss something like sunrise imagery. Even when in a rush I try to pay attention to what the day is going to offer and this is what I saw on Christmas Eve morning at 06:28.  It's just after Christmas, so dawn doesn't break here in the San Pedro Valley of southeast Arizona till after 07:30 this time of year. Oddly the National Weather Service says dawn was at 07:20 that day. On the ground, however, it happens later than that. Must have to do with Benson being in a valley which obscures the first light... ?? The sun has to rise above the Dragoon Mountain range which forms the ea...

... I just realized I haven't talked at all about coffee roasting in months (maybe longer!). And that was supposed to be the theme of this eternal essay. So it's still happening. Every Wednesday (or thereabouts) I roast anywhere from 1 to 7 pounds of coffee using the now 6 yr old Bullet R1 roaster. The Bullet moved in here in January 2019. Close enough to say that over the last 6 years this handy appliance has roasted something like 1,500 lbs of green coffee. About 683 kg of greens have gone thru the Bullet R1 roaster... about 1,506 lbs of greens. And no, the Admiral and I did not consume all 1,200 lbs of roasted coffee. Yikes!! That would be a lot of caffeine! I roast for us plus as many as 4 other people that live here in SKP Saguaro Co-op. Works out well: I get to play 'roast master' and they get to enjoy what I like to think is some really good coffee. I've mentioned this in the past: I started out with a tiny electric hot air roaster (roasted enough beans for...

... cuz the temps are down. Substantially. But then it's almost mid-December so it isn't supposed to be warm. If your habit is to walk early in the day (absolute must during the Arizona summer!) then you have to deal with some 'inconvenience'. This AM I saw a swing from 20.1°F at 0515 up to 30.5°F at 0545... 30 minute to swing +10F°. Which then immediately reversed itself and, over the next 20 minutes, headed back down to about 22°F. It's not that the swing was huge so much as how rapidly it changed. At least 'rapid' to my former water-based experience. We're still getting a pretty decent morning sky which I'll share here with my morning cup of coffee! Looking East across the San Pedro Valley toward the Dragoon Mtns; 11 Dec 2024 at 0900.