Two-cupper

I buy a small coffee maker for home. I have a normal one in my office, but need something for the weekend. Its a two-cupper- they used to sell these at Canadian Tire.

One time, long ago, when I was working at Canadian Tire, an old man came into the store. He came up to me as I was putting boxes on shelves and asked me where the "coffee drippers" are. I could have just sent him down to aisle 7, but something special about the man made me put down the boxes and lead him there.

I took him to the Kitchen appliances aisle and showed him the rows of different coffee makers. "Do you know what kind you want?" I asked.

He looked at a loss for choice. His eyes widened, and it seemed to me he was scared. The world moves too fast for an old man. Too much change. Too much choice. I pulled one off the shelf. "They're all basically the same sir. This one should do. Some let you set a clock to start making the coffee in the morning, but most people don't use that. You can tell time, right? Sure you can."

He looked, almost sadly at the box I showed him. Then something caught his attention. His eyes locked, with a twinkle, on something on the shelf in front of him. He went to a display model two-cupper and lifted the carafe off the hot plate. He tried it for weight and balance, turning it over in his hands. Then holding it, fondling it protectively, he whispered to himself, "Just right for me."

He looked up at me with a big smile. "Just right for me. It's just right for me."

I don't know if it was just right for him because he was a small man, or because he was living alone in a big world, or for some other reason altogether; but I do know that he left the store much happier than when he came in.

My new two-cupper is just right for me. Or so I thought when I left the store with it. There are problems. The carafe is like a normal carafe that has be shrunk, in exact proportion, down to two cups. The problem with this is that the spout, (if it is even called a spout) is proportionally small. But the coffee is not proportionally less viscous. And so it doesn't pour well. Perhaps it pours proportionally less well. I can't be sure about it, but what I am sure about is that I keep pouring non-proportionally way too much of my proportionally less coffee all over the counter.

I wonder if the old man from Canadian Tire had the same problem.