Blathr Wayne Lorentz

Todayʼs coffee is Essence of Santa Fe, from Pinon Coffee.

It supposed to have “subtle hints of creamy caramel and vanilla [to] transport you to the heart of New Mexico.” When I think about coffee in Santa Fe, I think about the seven-foot-tall barista who wrote “Stupid effinʼ latte“ on my cup at breakfast one morning.

The caramel and vanilla are subtle. Almost barely detectable. I tried it both hot-ways and cold-ways, and hot was best. But that may be because I like my coffee the way I like my women: warm and full-bodied. Itʼs good stuff, but I will buy it again if other varieties are sold out.

Todayʼs coffee is Tullyʼs French roast.

I started going to Tullyʼs when I lived in Seattle. There was a Starbucks next door to the building where I lived, but I liked Tullyʼs better because it attracted nerds and I liked to listen to their conversations and get inspired.

There was a Tullyʼs in the Xbox/Bing building across the street, and one in the REI headquarters across from where Darcie worked. Tullyʼs only existed in the Seattle area, and because of foreign investment, South Korea. Much like how Caribou Coffee only exists in Minneapolis and Saudi Arabia.

Tullyʼs is gone now. Starbucks ate Tullyʼs after it ate Seattleʼs Best. But because of those investors, Tullyʼs still exists in Seoul, and those people licensed the brand to Green Mountain, which is Keurig, which explains why I was able to find a box of Tullyʼs pods at Safeway.

Even though this is both French roast and decaf, it was really strong. Like needs an extra half-a-Splenda strong. But thatʼs OK, because I like my coffee the way I like my women: Rich and bitter.

According to todayʼs paper, you can now crush a car, operate heavy machinery, shoot a machine gun, detonate explosives, drive a monster truck, launch flaming arrows, blast flame-throwers, and drink yourself into a stupor all in one place. Because doing all those separately was too much work.

Oh, and thereʼs a brothel on the other side of the ridge.

I can only assume this started with someone from Texas saying, “Yʼknow, thereʼs just too many rules around here.”

This week the smoke has been bad. Even with all of the house air filters on high, it still smells like a camp fire, even inside.

I took a picture this morning showing the brown cloud of smoke drifting in from Death Valley. Normally I can see both ridges clearly. This morning it was all haze.

An hour later, the wind kicked up and blew it all away.

Todayʼs coffee is Colombia Sugar Cane from the Duluth Coffee Company in Minnesota. Itʼs mild. Boring. Unremarkable. Much like Duluth, itself. Not much different than youʼd get from any other random coffee company.

It is against Appleʼs App Store rules to use notifications for advertising.

Apparently, Apple has exempted itself from those rules.

Las Vegas is a different place since things have opened up a bit. Because the hotel rates have dropped so much, itʼs brought in the worst people. This is something that Darcie has known from day one, but itʼs only hitting the front pages of the local newspapers now.

Rooms that used to be $675 a night are now $100 or less. Itʼs gotten so bad that the head of Wynn Resorts went public saying that her regular customers are afraid to come to Las Vegas now. She says that some who have come to town have been afraid to leave their rooms, and wonʼt ever return.

Itʼs simply unprecedented for the head of a resort company to say anything bad about the industry, or its guests. But things are pretty bad out there now.

I went to the supermarket yesterday. I think itʼs the first time since April.

It looks like theyʼre skipping Halloween this year. There was just one small Halloween display. No aisle dedicated to candy and decorations and such. Pumpkins are only five bucks. I donʼt think Iʼve ever seen a pumpkin for under $15 here. Workers were putting together Thanksgiving and Christmas displays, but those, too, looked small. It seems like the supermarkets are mostly skipping all of the holidays this year.

Maybe because hardly anyone goes to the store anymore. It was almost vacant when I went there on Friday at 6pm. Still, even with no customers, there were still large gaps in the stock. The toilet paper aisle is about ⅓ full, which is an improvement. Still no cleaning supplies, though. Half the deli is empty. No salami or corned beef to be found anywhere, so I had to settle for pastrami. Pasta and soup sections were mostly empty. So were some other sections that I couldnʼt identify because they were not only devoid of product, the store didnʼt even bother to put up price tags.

107° today. 79° tomorrow. You don’t have to be Chief Keith to know we’re in for a windy night.

Todayʼs coffee is Kitty Coffee from Populace Coffee in Bay City, Michigan. Of course, your coffee can be Doggie Coffee or whatever you want, since Populace will print whatever you want on the bag. Upload a photo, and add some text, and youʼre done.

The price is pretty reasonable, considering that itʼs a one-off printing. I think itʼs around $22, including shipping.

That said, even though the coffee is good, this is an operation to avoid. When I shop online, I use a different e-mail address with each merchant. Thatʼs how I know that Populace sold my e-mail address to spammers, and also sold my phone number to text message spammers trying to push coffee grinders on me. This is not how you win a repeat customer.

Today I saw Darcie using the wet Swiffer mop thing to clean the kitchen counters.

She's either mad, or a genius, or a mad genius.

How to get people to turn off the emergency alert feature on their phones in two easy steps:

1. Use the EAS system to tell people to get COVID tests.
2. There is no step two.

Things like this are why itʼs hard to have work-from-home conference calls in Las Vegas.

I was on a call yesterday when this went by my apartment, and it derailed the whole event for everyone. Itʼs not just the noise, but you canʼt explain to someone in Chicago whatʼs going on. They just canʼt wrap their brains around it.

When I drove for Uber, I spent a lot of time in the neighborhoods on the eastern edge of town, right up against Nellis Air Force Base. They have to live with this sort of thing all day long, every day. Again, not so much the noise; but I found the sight of these things rocketing right over the homes disturbing.