The Best Worst Coffee in Avalon

Providence and the wonderful generosity of a friend have conspired! Rebecca and I find ourselves in a wonderful shorehouse in Avalon, NJ for a nice long weekend.

So what if it's 19 degrees and a ghost town down here. It's kinda neat to see the seagulls sitting on the ice of the bay saying "What the?"

Rebecca says they could make a movie about the Rapture down here. It would be just us, cruising down Dune Drive past the salt water taffy shops and Irish flags hanging stiffly from vacant porches. The world around us sucked up into eternity! Abandoned beach balls roll down the boardwalk, brushing past our frigid feet. Us and Mr. Brady, that is.

Yes, he was the only other human I encountered this morning in my desperate search for coffee (except for the roofers working on these Avalonian mansions, but they're more like SUPERhumans - who else could smack nails into shingles in wind chills like this?)

Mr. Brady has a little shop on Dune Drive. His was the only one open this morning. "Brady's: Home of the Humongous Hoagie" - the sign caught my eye. I walked in and there he was, back to the door, fiddling with some plastic bags. "Coffee?" I mumbled prayerfully. "Not yet... Only takes two minutes."

So that was nice of him. I waited for about 10 minutes, and it was nasty coffee. But who cares. I met another PERSON, who makes humongous hoagies, and likes jazz, even though the CD kept skipping in the store. It was the best worst coffee I've ever had.

Well, after that encounter we discovered other humanoid creatures. After an expensive breakfast\lunch at Uncle Bill's Pancake House, we headed to town. To our great joy we learned from somebody at the deli that tomorrow, Saturday, Feb. 17, at 12pm in Sea Isle City, the most AMAZINGLY RIDICULOUS event is going to occur....

Hundreds of people are going to jump into the freezing waters of the Atlantic ocean, on purpose!

Stay tuned!