Rainy Day Thoughts

After a not so good night's sleep (heavy rain on the roof of an aluminum shell can be pretty loud people) we are having a low key day of reading and just hanging out. Last night we watched a program on PBS's Independent Lens series called "Black Gold" about the coffee producers of Africa. As they state at the beginning of the program, on the world market coffee is second only to oil in trade. OIL. Are you with me on that? Coffee is a really, really big deal. The next thing you need to know is that a lot of people in certain regions of Africa, Ethiopia in particular, are completely reliant on coffee as their countries most prominent source of income. Millions of people are involved in a life or death sort of relationship with coffee... and I don't mean people who think they will die if they can't drink a whole pot of coffee every morning before they start their day. Coffee prices are at a 30 year low and the producers literally make next to nothing off their product they take so much pride in and work so hard to maintain. Why am I telling you this? I dunno...just to get ya thinking about it I guess. A gentle reminder to actually consider where the stuff comes from and there are humans at the other end of our cups of joe we get from Starbucks or wherever. Billy and I try to buy fair trade coffee when we get coffee for home. It is a lot easier to find even at your regular old grocery store anymore than it used to be. But I will admit to (especially this winter) being a junkie for Caramel Macchiatos from Starbucks. I paid around $3.00 apiece for those drinks and the person at the other end of the spectrum is making like 50 cents a day for the work they do to produce the beans. It sure does put an ugly dent in the pleasure factor when you know that. It's something to consider when you buy coffee or for that matter chocolate or any other number of harvested, hand crafted products. If you are interested in learning more about Fair Trade products THIS is a great website to check out.

Ok...I will step off the soap box now. I don't think I will have too much exciting news to post this week. We are sticking close to home and working for the most part. Billy is painting right now indoors (because of the rain.) My best friend Michelle is coming this weekend from Martha's Vineyard to spend a week with us so we are trying to get ahead.

I will leave you with a picture of Grill Master William McLane cooking on our new "little girl." We had been discussing buying a small propane grill for awhile and I had shared this idea with my Mom. A few days ago while on the phone with her she asked me "So what's the story on the little girl?" And I was all...."What little girl? What the Hell are you talking about?" Yah...obviously she had said GRILL not GIRL...so there you have it. We christened the little girl with tofu dogs and corn.