Coffee Crisis Escalates

It is amazing how a seemingly minor thing can really cause the day to get off to a bad start.

Coffee--or the lack of it.

As I rolled out of bed this morning Chris announced she was having an issue with the Keurig--it wasn't brewing. I made a glib comment about her always having problems with the electronics in the house and proceeded to the kitchen where I fully expected the sometimes temperamental machine to function perfectly.

It didn't.

It sat there humming--it sounded constipated.  But no coffee was coming out.

I ran through the short troubleshooting checklist--put it back together and expected success.

Nope.

Nothing.

Time to bring in the serious guns--the white vinegar for descaling.

It remained constipated at which point Chris told me to go out for coffee since we were out of whole beans to press the old tried and true coffee pot into service. And out I went. To the Super Fresh store which will be closing in July to buy beans.

When I returned home--the Keurig was still constipated--seriously.  Nothing was running through it.  I was beginning to thing it was dead.

And then the next crisis--"Bob, what did you do with the plastic part that I told you went to some coffee cup?"

"Well, since it was broken, I threw it out," I replied.  Turns out, it was a critical part of the back up coffee pot which allows the coffee to flow out of the basket and into the coffee pot.  Ugh!  It isn't even 8 AM in Sunday morning and already I have two worthless coffee brewers and no COFFEE!

The crisis level of the day was reaching Cuban Missile Crisis levels.

And then, magically two things happened--

Vinegar began coming out of the Keurig (finally) and I figured out how to make the old coffee pot basket drain onto the pot.

The mood in the house improved dramatically and the sense of impending doom subsided.  Coffee began brewing in the old coffee pot and the smell of coffee began to help with the caffeine deprivation that was beginning to cloud our reasoning capabilities.

As coffee happily brewed, we began the four-hour (yes, 4 hour!) descaling process in the Keurig.

That first cup of coffee never tasted so good--actually it was awful! I was immediately chastised for the beans I bought with the statement--And when did Super Fresh become a coffee boutique?

But it was coffee!  And it smelled good.

Crisis solved!  And the Keurig should be back in service about noon!

And it is only 9AM--what is the rest of the day going to hold?