Morning Rituals

This has to be quick, as I am supposed to show up at work in about fifteen minutes. But first I need to drink my hot yucky.

When I roll out of bed, I am not yet hungry. My mother is ready to eat as soon as her feet touch the floor, she says.  My father didn't eat breakfast for a couple of hours but always started the day with a cup of coffee, just one, and by today's standards, barely a cup of coffee at all.

In this regard, I am much more like my father than my mother.  He once taught me how to make his coffee for him.  Boil the water and swish the boiling water around in the coffee cup, dump it out. Put a scant third of a teaspoon of instant coffee and the same amount of honey in the warmed cup.  Add boiling water.  Top it off with whole milk.  Do not leave the spoon in the cup as it will speed the cooling process.

My own hot drink is not much stronger, but it is more delicious.  I use a half cup of warmed milk mixed in with a hearty teaspoon of hot chocolate mix and a half teaspoon of instant coffee.  Fill the rest of the cup with hot water.

My dad didn't care about the caffeine and neither do I -- it is the comforting ritual of a hot cup of something with some body to it.  My aunt Sarah drinks tea with milk and sugar in the morning, pretty much the same thing.  She makes her tea much stronger than I do, though.

The name "hot yucky" came from Sindee who heard it from her sister Andrea and we used to drink hot yuckies all the time at 30 Chilton Street -- much yuckier than what I drink now (things like Postum and other grain-based beverages).

My father used to take his coffee outside with him to the morning meeting. In those days there were none of those cups to carry coffee with the lids, etc.  That's why his coffee had to be so hot to start out.  He left his empty cup on the top of the gas tanks in front of the cottage.  The cups would accumulate there for days and days.

My cup is empty and now I need to go outside and start the day.