Coffee

Businessmen starting the day off with coffee.

The other day, I had an appointment at a doctor's office that required me to abstain from caffeinated beverages for a twelve hour period.  I never drink caffeinated beverages after mid afternoon, as they'll keep me awake at night, so normally this wouldn't be a problem, save for the fact that my appointment was at 10:30 am.

Oh my gosh.  What a horror simply abstaining from coffee turned out to be.  I'm quite obviously addicted.

I drink a pot (yes a pot) of coffee every morning.  This is a level of coffee consumption that, at one time, would have been regarded as unhealthy, but in accordance with Holscher's Fifth Law of Behavior,  no  longer is.  Indeed, ti's now known that some level of coffee consumption is associated with a reduced risk of some fairly serious diseases, for reasons that aren't very clear to anyone, and that generally you don't need to worry about drinking too much of it. That's a good thing for me, as I start off every day with coffee.

 Truck driver and sailor drinking coffee, early in the morning, in a cafe.  I've eaten in a lot of places like this early in the morning prior to the advent of business motels, so I could get breakfast. . . and coffee.

Indeed, my current level of coffee consumption is actually a reduction in the amount I drink.  At one time, I drank a pot here in my office and more at work.  I found, however, that this was making me really jittery, and one Lent I gave up coffee at work and I know completely avoid it after breakfast, with very rare exceptions.  People at work sort of now assume I no longer even drink coffee, which of course is an error, but it's probably a widely believed error, as I usually decline it whenever I go somewhere and its offered, assuming that I had it with breakfast.

But, I do like coffee.

And apparently, I'm really physically addicted to it, as I found out.

I was okay at first.  I generally get up very early, and I made it to about 8:30 before the really negative impacts began to set it.  I became extremely tired.  So tired, I could have fallen asleep at my desk quite easily.  I remained that way until about 1:00 p.m., save for the period at the doctor's office (which nicely confirmed that I'm apparently in fine physical health, coffee addiction notwithstanding).  I picked up in the afternoon, even though I never felt completely okay, but a headache had set in by early evening and by 8:00 p.m. I was so tired, I went to bed.  Pretty pathetic.  When I woke up in the morning I still had the headache, but after a cup of coffee, I felt fine.

 World War One YMCA girl passing out a cup of coffee, a welcome site, no doubt, to folks like me.

It occurs to me that I almost never go without coffee in the morning, no matter what I'm doing.  I wonder if that's a problem, but I probably won't do anything about it.  I drink it if I'm heading out to the sticks early.  I also drink it if I'm camping out in the sticks.  I have it usually before I trail cattle, if we're trailing cattle, unless the cattle, who do not drink coffee, cruelly pick up and run off before I can have any coffee.  In the 19th Century, I would have been one of those coffee drinking cowhands that figure in stories today.  And, I now understand why Plains Indians stopped wagon trains just to have them make coffee.  Had I been a Plains Indian, I would have done the same.

It's an interesting long-lasting American custom. The morning cup of coffee.  I suppose it's no longer as strong as it once was, what with so many other options, and a lot of folks who skip breakfast entirely now.  On the other hand, the high end coffee shop, spurred on by the advent of Starbucks, is stronger than ever, so maybe coffee is too. Anyhow, I now know that in the morning, I really miss it if I don't have it.