The Power of Consistency

I purchased a nice espresso maker several years ago. Since then, it has mostly been taking up space on my already too small townhouse kitchen counter. I love espresso but I couldn't get the machine to produce a shot similar to a good cafe. So, there the machine sat. I regretted purchasing it. I am frugal by nature yet I will spend well for something that I enjoy. I avoid spending money on things that have a short pay-off like fast food.  I loathe buying shoddy goods. I will spend more to get more. That is why I will buy Honda cars all of my days.

I am working out a plan for the Fall of how to get better use out of my kayak. I already am using my bikes several times a week, although I did have to switch to my street hybrid rail trail bike and trails since last week rather than mountain bike and rides because I had a pretty bad crash and bruised some upper ribs pretty seriously. Not breakage besides the reflector on the front of the bike.       

This Summer I decided to really figure out why the espresso machine wasn't drawing a good shot. I watched videos online, figured out finally which pieces of the equipment should be used for each format of the coffee delivery system (i.e Pods vs Nespresso vs Ground Coffee etc, many possible combinations). I thought through the grind...to use my burr grinder on the finest setting and then pulverize it further in my blade grinder to make it powdery. Better, but still falling short.

Buying ground coffee is tricky as it goes stale a lot quicker than whole beans. More surface area to get oxidized essentially. So, I was pondering it some and I talked to a friend who is very detailed oriented and a discrete thinker. He opined that the grind was not uniform enough, thus creating the lack of unity when the grounds were subjected to the hot water under pressure. It is the idea that the larger granules of coffee provide less resistance to the flow than the smaller granules. That'd create a weak shot. Consistency is key.

That made sense. Even though the grind appeared to be uniform to my eyes with my own grinding techniques, it became obvious in retrospect that the unevenness was likely the issue. So, I ordered an organic espresso ground coffee online and then combined it with an airtight container where the lid slides and presses down of what is in the container, leaving no pockets of air in the container. This is super crucial to keep it fresher. So, those two things have created cafe-level espressos the last two days. The last three years wasted but finally have arrived in Espresso Promise Land. Evidenced by me drinking 7 or so shots in the last two mornings. 

This got me thinking about consistency in general. How the heat and pressure of life can brew a uneven or weak cup. That is the technique is not up to the challenge and how consistency really addresses that concern. I think there are unusual times where extreme effort and excellence is needed to attain a goal. More often than not though, the consistent grind of uniformity makes the day in and day out difference as to whether our efforts pan out.

In my diet (I drink my propriety E-8 every morning, been avoiding extra Carbs through meal planning, and have dropped 15 pounds since the end of June), beer drinking (stop at 2 or 3, and design the day and night to make it possible), exercise (3 days of lifting, three days of aerobic conditioning), reading (a Novels and Bible, both daily) and regular tasks such as household chores (paying bills and laundry on Saturdays), I have worked to enhance my consistency this Summer. To leave less up to chance but instead think through and plan how to be systematic to permit a good flow of life. I know it is a lot easier being single. If a person is married and has kids, it is a lot more challenging to have control yet I think structure (as long as it is not stifling) is very good for families. To have routines to avoid chaos.

For example, I was a brewpub yesterday out of town after a pretty challenging bike ride. A family was at one of the tables; it was a small place, Both parents were admonishing the children to be quieter and to not do this or that. And it had little effect. The parents, despite their words, were not enforcing their expectations to their kids. So, the kids rowdied up the place and were disturbing other patrons. Some youthful exuberance is to be expected yet the dad was chuckling at his kids antics. I think he may have been a bit tipsy.

I think consistency and creativity are actually needed to bring out the best in each other. Creativity without consistency is chaos. Consistency without creativity is too controlling. Jesus had a divine ability to be open-ended and creative with those who he came across, yet I always get the sense that he is centered, not confused, and has clarity. In other words, he was consistent. The same yesterday, today, and forever.