Fred at Rick's Coffee

 

Heavy silence fell when an elderly man with a cane came in to buy a coffee.  The customers in Rick’s Coffee remembered him well.  Oh yes, they remembered him.

He called himself “Fred”, but no one ever knew his true identity.  An air of inaccessibility surrounded him, which was just the way Fred liked it.  All that anyone knew was that Fred was superb at tracking. Did something like that in his military days. Animals or people, Fred was on their trail while foot prints were still wet.

Some said Fred could find a mosquito hiding in a free standing rotting tree, during a raging sand storm.

When “Fred” left, walking slowly with his cane, all exhaled. They had not wanted a repeat of the last time he came for coffee.

No.  They did not want that.

 

The italicized underlined Wednesday words are courtesy of River, who was handed the baton from Wed. Words writing challenges, Delores from Under the Porch light. This post is from 2015, along with the sentence prompt. 

100% beef on a sesame bun

 

I'm lovin' it!

So here we were: sitting in a line of 20 cars at McDonald's, because the debit machine was broken.  Grumbling is at a mild roar.

Since my gr-daughters have helped me become more tech aware, I used my android to visit Google: What is in McDonald burgers? It tells me 100% beef, and shows a site where more info can be found.

Going to a non-McDonald site, we learned much in our ten minutes.

What is actually in their hamburgers?

  After you watch the first minute or so, skip to 6:37 where you will see more.

This is just in case the video itself gets blocked.

Beef by-products are meat and fat scraps, connective tissue, and bone bits.  These are the ingredients of the absolute cheapest dog food.  BUT, add some ammonia and voile’! There you have 100% beef.  And, by all definitions, it IS 100% beef with a secret pink sauce added. 

EEWWW

The bun consists of 28 ingredients. First three are flour, water, and barley flour. The rest are unpronounceable words, all science stuff. 

I then looked at Chicken McNuggets. This info is guaranteed to be nauseating.

Our turn came up and we drove off with diet Dr. Pepper.  Yes, it is chock full of chemicals.

Coffee and soda are our usual purchases.  Now I know why.

Vintage 1970s commercial

P.S. Nearly every web site visited, I encountered all sorts of blockades, and videos simply disappeared.  Some sites I had just visited had been removed or an error message appeared.

This is a repost back from 2012, after sitting in a line and reading the above. Diet coke, decaf coffee, ice cream cone, and that's it: I order these items and maybe a pie. 

Since this reveal was opened up a decade ago, the McD industry has done a lot of backpedaling. I am sure the factories no long have ammonia in the pantry.

Wednesday Words: mmmm...good coffee...

mmmm...coffee....

Heavy silence fell when an elderly man with a cane came in to buy a coffee.  The customers in Rick’s Coffee remembered him well.  Oh yes, they remembered him.

He called himself “Fred”, but no one ever knew his true identity.  An air of inaccessibility surrounded him, which was just the way Fred liked it.  All that anyone knew was that Fred was superb at tracking.  Animals or people, Fred was on their trail while foot prints were still wet.

Some said Fred could find a mosquito hiding in a free standing rotting tree, during a raging sand storm.

When “Fred” left, walking slowly with his cane, all exhaled. They had not wanted a repeat of the last time he came for coffee.

No.  They did not want that.

The italicized underlined words are courtesy of River, who is providing Wednesday Words for the month of December.

Please click on her name to access her site and enjoy how other writings have used these words and the sentence prompt!

Coffee

Source: jdeboer

Black viscous liquid dripped

From a spigot into a cup.

Regular or Decaf?

Regular, I say.

Go for the gusto.

Regular.

I say again.

Live large.

High octane.

Coffee.

Lists of Happy Thoughts

The past year has been hard for my family. Over the past 15 years, we lost two brothers, our father, and now our mother. The rural area that had been ‘home’ for generations dating back to the 1820s, now has no ties for us. When our mother died in April 2011, there went the last reason to return to the farmlands and small towns. Most probably, we would never again drive down those country roads we once knew so very well.

All this made me realize how truly wonderful life is in general, and my life in particular. The things and events that have made me stop and reflect have been small in the large scale of life, but significant. This list may not make sense to anyone but me, but here goes:

1. The smell of angel food cake baking.

2. The sound of a violin solo and getting goose bumps

3. The jasmine blooms winding over the front door

4. Holding hands with my husband in a dark movie theater

5. Churning homemade ice cream under a maple tree on a hot summer day

6. That first cup of coffee (or tea) in the morning

7. Holding a baby

8. Walking on the beach with the tide washing over my feet

9. Watching a smiling young couple pushing a baby stroller

10. Writing anything

11. Singing the “Hallelujah Chorus”

12. Reading poetry aloud in an empty house

This is my list.

Do you have a list? What would be on that list?