Picture this, its 10:00 p.m. on a Friday night in mid November. You’re so excited that it’s hard to get to sleep. As you snuggle into your nice warm bed you reach over and set your alarm clock for 3:00 a.m. sharp. Just as you feel yourself drifting to sleep your quickly awakened by the “bonk . . . bonk . . . bonk “ of your recently set alarm clock. You slowly come to reality and realize that it’s time to wake up. You quickly dress in your warmest attire, then before heading out the door you flip the switch and drop the lid on the already prepared Bunn coffee maker. The steam arises and the aroma heightens you senses. Once the brew has dripped its last drop you carefully pour the fresh steaming brew into your thermos. You quickly realize that there will be extra coffee so you polish off a single cup with a piece of toast before heading out into the brisk fall air.
Hopefully this weekend this brief little dream above will be a reality. I remember the days when my own father took advantage of this same practice. After all it’s the same thermos that he used over 15 years ago. Interestingly enough as I was preparing ahead earlier in the week I took the thermos out just to clean it up a bit and realized that it still had coffee inside. I can’t even begin to think of the last time that we used that thermos. Luckily it still smelled like coffee and no green things were floating on the surface. I guess that’s a testament to an airtight thermos.
This year I will be able to follow this little tradition prior to braving the cold wind in Northern Missouri. The main difference is that this will be the first time that I take my own son out into that same environment. So no staying up late on this coming Friday night; we will be anticipating the same feeling that most children feel just before Santa comes down the chimney.
Beware, Bambi’s relatives!
Update: The coffee was great today, I brewed it at 3 a.m. and it was still warm at 7:30 p.m. How warm? Warm enough to still use non-dairy creamer. I'm impressed on the vintage thermos. Oh, no meat for the table though, but we all had a good time, and we have the thorn pricks and blisters to prove it. Considering that my son has been in the shower for 20 minutes now means I better go!