Morning coffee emergency

Dear Congressman,

I am sure along with that first cigarette that you wake to every morning that there is an accompanying first sip of coffee. Both of these events (at least from what I remember from my smoking days) remind us why we enjoy life so much. That first hint of nicotine and caffeine coursing through your veins is irreplacable, unless you manage to give up the smoking part, and then that just applies to the caffeine. Not that I am nagging you, Congressman, but that really is an unhealthy habit.

But I digress...

Sometime last week our purchasing department decided it was time to upgrade the CDS (aka: caffeine delivery system, coffee machine) in the administration department's kitchen area. So during the day yesterday, one of the technicians from the Building Maintenance department brought his ladder and tools, popped out the panels to the hallway ceiling just outside the kitchen, and began to re-run the electric and the water line that serviced the old CDS to re-route it to the brand new CDS.

Now the old system had 1 brewing area complete with burner, a hot water tap, and two extra burners to allow us to have 3 pots of coffee available at all times. In it's place, the new CDS has two brewers/burners and a hot water tap, with the difference being that the brewers had self contained vats allowing larger amounts of coffee to be brewed and then released to the individual coffee carafes as needed. (a burner is java speak for the hot plate you keep the coffee on) With the new system it would cut down on the waiting time for regular and decaf if one or the other was empty.

Only one problem... when people came filtering in this morning they found the old CDS unhooked and the new one with a note stating that a part was needed and the new CDS would be hooked up sometime today. What Building Maintenance did not take into account is that their bosses in Ops Admin would be coming in around 7ish to find that there was no coffee available until later in the day.

Needless to say the same person who unhooked the old system is currently in the hallway, on a ladder, temporarily re-hooking the old system back up. Additionally, there is a gaggle of people in the lunch room with empty mugs chatting with each other waiting for this task to be completed, including the technician's boss's boss.

Starting a work day at the Airport without coffee? How un-American!!!