The coffee bootstrap problem was particularly bad this morning.

Mark having gone off to adoration this morning at 7, planning to stop at the gym on the way home, I stumble down the stairs at quarter to eight with the baby in the sling and head for the coffee pot.

Ermph.  There’s a piece of scrap paper, old printout, stuck under the pot.  Don’t want to start a fire.  Let’s see, turn it over, oh, it’s Oscar’s schoolwork from yesterday.  One half of 14 is 7.  Wow, he spelled everything right, and the ess is facing the right way, and everything.  How lovely.

Now what?  Oh yes, beans.  Hm, we ran out of those pretty fast.  Down to the freezer to get more.  in the basement pantry, I shake coffee beans from the big bag in the chest freezer into the jar, and plod back upstairs.

Into the grinder.  The grinder roars to a start, dutifully spewing coffee grounds onto the counter.  I fumble with the lid until the spewing stops and the coffee grounds enter the approved coffee ground receiving chamber.

I bet I left the wet grounds in there yesterday.  I open the lid and sure enough, there’s a coffee filter peeking out of the top.   The words still dry wander through my mind searching for something to connect to.  I pick up the filter basket, lift it out carefully, pass it over the sink to catch any drips, and neatly upturn it over the trash can, letting the full coffee filter drop in.

Instead of going splat it goes hiss as dry coffee grounds cascade through the garbage can like pebbles in a rainstick.

Wh? I look over at the coffee maker and squint at the window in the side.  It contains seven cups of water.  Suspiciously, I pick up Oscar’s schoolwork paper and turn it back over, to the side printed with an old spreadsheet. 

Penciled along the left margin in my husband’s handwriting:  All ready to go!  Love ya!

I shake the new grounds into the coffee filter and drop it into the coffee maker and close the lid and turn it on. Then I turn around to see the filter basket on the counter.  Ack!  I turn the coffee maker off, carefully transfer the (damp) coffee filter into the basket, replace the basket, turn it on again.

OK, I think I can face the day now.

What day is it, anyway?