"Espresso! My Espresso!" An Ongoing Internet Novelette by Randy Glass - Copyright 2004 - All rights reserved E-mail me at EspressoMyEspresso@gmail.com

72 Another Turned from the Dark Side      Part of our quest is to perform a "Show and Tell" for anyone who shows the least bit of interest in coffee. It doesn't take much to get me started. Any mention of a South American country sets me off. It's sort of like the "Niagara Falls" Vaudeville routine.      Someone says, "Coffee..."      And I go into, "SLOWLY I roast, crack by crack...."      Still, my favorite thing is to supply someone who has never had "hand crated" coffee with a half pound from the Hottop. Most of the time is is from a bucket filled with about fifteen or twenty pounds of mixed, surplus beans from my roaster friend. We call it "Floor Coffee" as much of it was literally swept up from spills and torn bags.      A class from the local university turned our community into a research project as they looked into fire and water and its relation to community planning. I am not really sure about much more than that, but neither were they. They stated that a rural, mountain community had never been studied quite in this way before, and that their project is still ongoing.. anyway...      Since my wife is working for the local FireSafe Council we had a few opportunities to visit with some of the members of the class and get to know them a bit better. Polly has been over a couple of times for coffee, dinner, hiking, and conversation.      Another member, Adam, called to invite me to be part of a panel discussion, and while on the phone he mentioned that Polly talked glowingly about my coffee.      "Oh. You like good coffee?"      "Sure. I hear yours is quite good."      And after about twenty minutes discussing coffee, and he not having hung up on me, I told him I would bring a half pound to the meeting just for him.      A few weeks went by, and as finals were winding down the class invited us to their wrap-up presentation. On the way to the campus we walked through downtown Chico for dinner, and it took us past the Starbucks ("the.." Starbucks? I am not sure how many there are in this little town, but I do know of at least two). The people sitting at the little green tables along the sidewalk had a look on their faces as if they knew something about coffee.. or maybe it was just me      Onto the campus, and up the elevator to hang around in room 503 in Butte Hall. Adam walked in. He came over, put his stuff down, and his face lit up. He looked at me and said, "Oh, Man. Your coffee rocks! I rationed it out and it got me all the way through finals"      After my ear-to-ear smile wore off and I could use my mouth for speaking once again, I told him all he needed to do was to pick up the phone and drive on up for some espresso.      Another one turned from the dark side to the side of goodness.