coffeeneuring challenge 2015:3 - coffee as an aid to prayer

Round three: Still woefully broke, I made coffee at home, popped it into my battered thermal go-cup and set out for shul (synagogue), where I had signed up to help lead services while our Rabbi took a couple weeks off after the High Holy Days and Fall festivals.

Havurah Shalom is a cooperative effort, meaning that congregants take turns helping with everything from collective self-governance (lots of committees!) to stuffing envelopes to leading services and music.

I enjoyed an unusually warm morning ride into town; it has been unseasonably warm and dry so far this fall, with average highs in the 70s. Today, I rode to shul in a short-sleeved bamboo t-shirt and slacks, and felt the humidity that let me know rain might finally come. And it did, during services, when the sky darkened and big drops went plit! plat! against the skylights in the roof. Afterwards, I slipped on some raingear for the ride home.

I hadn't thought of taking the good camera, so my photos had to come from my cheesy phone camera.
Still, a lovely ride in the rain, and today it finally felt more like Portland than it has in awhile.

At shul before services. I was the first one there and had time to sip my coffee in quiet calm. At Havurah we're allowed to bring closed beverage containers into the sanctuary and can sip from them as long as we're discreet. So I enjoyed the last of my Nossa Familia after I finished leading my part of the service, sipping between blessings.
Blessed are You, Eternal One, for the blessing of Coffee.  Oh, yes.

Raingear of choice: Burley rain jacket, Rainlegs and Rivendell Splats. They all work just fine.

NW 6th Avenue, looking south towards W. Burnside Street.

Near home, crossing over I-5 at NE Ainsworth Street. Surpisingly heavy traffic on a Saturday. Sirens told the story: an ambulence and police car were trying to cut through to race to Emmanuel Hospital. It definitely slowed everything up.


Total distance: around 11 miles.
And I beat the heaviest part of the rainstorm home by about half an hour.