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Half-Caf

I had just finished running some errands when my bad snacking habits got the best of me, so I stopped into Sheetz to grab a lil' treat. 

On my way towards the back wall of cold drinks I passed a 60-ish man happily operating the self-serve coffee machine. I paused and doubled back.

"Hey- is that actually any good?" I asked, genuinely curious. 

The guy beamed like I just asked him to show me pictures of his new grandchild. "You know - it REALLY is. It's great!"

"Here's the best part" he continued, enthusiastically- "In the old days, I used to pour half from the regular carafe and half from the decaf carafe. now I just push this button the screen that says "Half-Caf" and it dispenses a 50/50 mix right into my cup."

"Oh, that is clever" I had to admit. 

He held up his now-full YETI tumbler. "AND, if you bring your own cup, it's like a dollar sixty. They want to charge almost three bucks to use one of their cups."

"Oh, yes. That's a good tip." I started to turn away.

He stopped me with "The thing is, I have high blood pressure" as I nodded sympathetically. 

"See, my doctor, he said that I've got to cut down on the caffeine, and that I've got to cut down on the beer...So I'm cutting down on the caffeine."

"Ah!" I pointed at him with an exaggerated gesture to indicate that I appreciated this joke that he'd obviously back-pocketed for just such an occasion. Fair enough, he got me with that one. We shared a laugh and parted ways. I ended up with a diet soda in a tall can. 






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