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“Simon says, Hands on Coffee!”

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Hands on Coffee
Hands on Coffee

I have been out in my workshop for the last couple of hours. Lately I haven’t had much time for fun projects what with my job, this blog, my wife, and something we refer to as “life in general.” Start with twenty-four hours, subtract sleep and then the rest of what I just mentioned, and that doesn’t leave much for leisure-time projects.

While I was finishing up my latest handicraft project and putting my tools away, I thought to myself, sure, I could go out and buy the piece of furniture I was building, a simple set of display shelves, but modifying an old, small bookshelf that was my grandparents and re-purposing it for placement where I will now see it every day led me to coffee. Not as non sequitur as it sounds.

The rewards of a hands-on woodworking project like that is very much like making coffee at home. Something you make yourself offers rewards that cannot be given a monetary value. A small bookshelf costs $49.95 in town. A latte costs $4.49 at a chain coffee shop. But what is the value of a bookshelf I made with my own hands from wood which is over 50 years old? What value can you put on a food product that you produce at home, from scratch, with your own hands? Would you rather have a fast-food hamburger or one you grill yourself in the backyard? A latte in a paper, take-away cup or one you have made, exactly as you like, in the comfort of your own kitchen?

My workshop is a set of tools I have accumulated over more than fifty years. Sure the table saw was a big investment, but when I bought it I did not know there was a remodeled kitchen in the box! Sure, there is an initial investment in quality coffee-making equipment, but over time there is the value in the satisfaction you get from making yourself a delicious espresso beverage, or even better, handing a friend a cappuccino and saying, “I made this just for you.” There is monetary savings in making coffee at home which we will go into at a later date, but this is not about the bottom line. This is about quality of life and the rewards of not only something you make yourself, but of the value of taking the time to slow down, stop, and reap the intrinsic value of making something special with your own hands. The bonus is being able to also sip a fresh, hot, coffee beverage.

And the shelves? They will be for displaying some of the beautiful coffee cups I have collected over the last decade. Each cup a memory of a place, a person, or an event upon which to meditate as I sip a cup of coffee which I made myself.

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