Before Keurig

A long time ago, my Mom & Dad bought me an electric espresso maker, Krups Style 963 made in Switzerland. (Vintage 1980s.)

 I had no idea what to do with it because at the time, I was used to drinking coffee from an aluminum drip maker. Producing the beverage entailed placing a filter full of coffee in between the water vessel and the coffee vessel. But first, the water so crucial to the whole exercise had to be boiled in a pan or a pot. So, it was a process (no microwaves to boil the water fast). Looking back, I realize it was a ritual, but I did not regard it so at the time. Just. Wanted. Coffee.

 Uncurious, I put away the espresso maker.

Fast forward a couple of decades and my sister Elizabeth and I start meeting for lunch occasionally in Downtown Pittsburgh at La Prima Espresso (they have a really nice logo) on Liberty Avenue (now shuttered). Late 2000s, I guess. There Elizabeth, with cosmopolitan sensibilities acquired in our nation's Capital, introduced me to cafe lattes.

Delicious.

At some point in our lunching adventures, it occurred to me to pull from storage, or I stumbled upon it in a fit of tidying up, the Krups Style 963.

It has been part of my morning ritual ever since. The grounds vessel holds about  a tablespoon of Starbucks espresso, which I prepare in the evening. Morning, I fill the maker with water, and press the red "On" switch. Then I microwave half a cup of skim milk for 90 seconds, froth it with the Aero Latte (because the Krups frother no longer works), mix in the espresso and a dash of cinnamon.

Thanks Mom and Dad. You knew what I wanted before I knew I wanted it!

Cold commute & a bridge in Pittsburgh

Roberto Clemente Bridge & plaque. Feb. 10 2017

 When I first came to Pittsburgh in the early 1980s, I wore contact lenses. Painfully. There was so much construction going on Downtown then, that any excursion from Shadyside bus stop to office in the Clark Building meant walking through clouds of grit and dust. All those nasty particles always found a way to float into my eyes and scratch my lenses.
I don't wear contacts anymore, and don't work Downtown anymore and I miss both.

Friday I had the chance, thanks to Port Authority light rail issues, to hop off Downtown and walk to work on the North Shore. Even without corrective lenses, I could see a lot has changed in the nearly two years my office has been on the other side of the Allegheny.

Sak's Fifth Avenue store site on Smithfield now flat and teeming with bulldozers. Honus Wagner, Mamma Mia's and a third store whose name I can't remember on Forbes transforming into a space for Point Park University. Walked past the former Kaufmann's building and thought how much I missed shopping there.
I also noticed a plaque on the Roberto Clemente Bridge, one of Pittsburgh's Three Sisters spans, I had never seen before, honoring its design and construction. It is a pretty bridge, a bit rusty these days and weighted down by "locks of love" (dislike intensely).
It would have been a perfect bit of transit serendipity if it hadn't been so cold!

On the other side of the Allegheny, statue of No. 21 outside PNC Park.