Coffee and chatting

Last weekend I was in Atlanta and spent time with my family who are generally based in the east. I am the western outlier.  We spent a lot of time reconnecting, again, mostly me as I was away or so long. This was done with a beverage in hand most times and a lot of the time it was coffee.

There is something about talking to someone, really connecting with them, over coffee.  I remember a fair few years ago, drinking “International Roast” in a canteen cup at some bridge site, demo range, or other training site in Germany really enjoying the conversations.

In Europe of course the coffee was great but, as I look back, I realize I didn’t in general, drink coffee and chat to people. And because of this, I never did have those deep conversations. I must exclude my time sailing here, that was a whole different level, both in coffee and conversation.

Back here in the states, it is different. People really do talk over coffee, a deeper conversation then normal. Perhaps it’s the caffeine enhancing my awareness? What ever it is, I forgot how much I missed talking over a cup of coffee. My work colleagues appreciate coffee and we have great conversations here. Mostly work related of course, but other topics come in to play as well.

All this really hit me this morning as I was drinking a coffee with someone and realizing how deeply into the conversation I was, how it was both visceral and cerebral at the same time. You don’t get that with juice.

Not coffee related, just a great shot of Sacramento.

A Grey Overlay

Fog. Not a big fan, at all.

In Zurich, there was fog, quite a bit of it. From September until November, a seemingly solid blanket of fog descended on the valley. This was the same in Zug as well. So, for months, if you lived under the fog line, you would be in this grey soup wondering what happened to the sun and beginning to suffer rickets.

OK maybe not that bad, no one got rickets.

There was an escape however. You could live above the fog line in one of the higher towns and villages, or on the weekend take a train to a mountain village and soak up as much sun as you could in a few hours. This was quite common, the weekend exodus to the sun. This dichotomy led to the saying “Unter grau, oberer blau”, which translates roughly to gray below and blue above.

Where"s the city?!?

But hey I live in Sacramento, that is all behind me now.

Ah, sorry, no.

Sacramento fog it turns out is just as bad, well not really. It does try to clear out in the afternoon, not very successfully though. The past few days (weeks? months? eons? – OK it’s been two days…). It is a thick fog as well. Some days I can’t see across the street. Damp, dark and spooky. Meanwhile, I have a friend at the edge of the central valley sending me pictures of piercing blue skies. Rub it in.

Unter grau, oberer blau indeed.