Last weekend, while I was briefly out of town, we lost power for a minute or two. It isn’t enough to cause any issues but enough to reset every electronic device in the house. That includes my grind and brew coffee maker. For over a week the thing was on mild strength instead of bold. When I realized this I turned it back to bold, and the oddest thing happened.
The coffee was weaker or tasted weaker. I do not know what happened. When we lost power overnight last night and I woke up to my coffee maker being on mild again I decided to go with it, sort of. I raised it up to medium. Interestingly enough the coffee tastes stronger this morning.
Now if I were brewing coffee the old fashioned way and wanted to increase the boldness I wouldn’t increase the amount of grounds. I would increase the brew time. I wonder if that is what is happening here because it seems like an inversion of the desired effect.
It could also be that since I got the grind and brew I am using higher quality beans and there is less uniformity with them and one day I am getting the fuller more roasted beans and the next slightly less roasted. I have no answer other than my tastebuds tell me that the mild and medium setting deliver a bolder cup of coffee than the bold setting. My theory is contact with water.
When it comes to other parts of my life where up is down we have my investment portfolio. It could simply be that I am the idiot and the rest of the world are geniuses, but I wonder what people want or expect.
Monday it felt like the gates had opened and we were off to the races. Then Tuesday came and was basically flat. Not basically. It was flat. It was the least movement I’ve seen. Honestly it was amazing. Yesterday another report released and one of the fed board of governors spoke and the market went down and down and down some more.
The world might be full of crazy people because one explanation I heard were bond yields. Only in a country of the innumerate would 5% appear to be better than 11%. But with bond yields up the bond prices are down and maybe that is the rotation. I don’t know. If I could explain the answer I would already have a much better portfolio.
The real answer this morning is to drink my coffee, enjoy a good book, and stop trying to make the world make sense.
