The Daily Bicycle

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Dave Feucht
The Daily Bicycle

The other day, we took a large load of books to Powell’s to sell, so we biked them over to the bus and then took the bus down, as it was raining and we didn’t want to ride all the way there.

Books are heavy. Powell’s is good.

With the money we got for the books, we got a coffee grinder.

36

Coffee is also good. Especially when it’s rainy.

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  • Citygirlrides

    that coffee grinder is beautiful. what books did you sell?

    • http://pin-hole.tumblr.com Dave

      Oh man, I don’t remember for sure, there were a lot of books. We sold stuff that we didn’t feel we’d be likely to read again, even if they were nice books. I think there was Dante, and Lord of the Rings (I have read it 8 times, I probably don’t need to read it again), Great Gatsby (you can see in the photo) – but we had basically three full grocery bags of books that we got rid of. We still kept a lot, it’s amazing sometimes how much stuff you can collect that you really never use.

      We’re loving the coffee grinder – it’s a high-quality adjustable burr grinder, that will go from super coarse to powder-fine, so you can use it for anything from french press to turkish coffee. Powder-fine requires some elbow grease, but just for brewing in our Chemex, it’s hardly any effort.

      • Citygirlrides

        it’s  liberating living with less and not worrying about “stuff.” i just started giving away books i no longer read, i’m experimenting with this idea at the moment. that coffee grinder is a great investment btw.

        • http://pin-hole.tumblr.com Dave

          Yeah, it really is liberating. Over the last 8 years, we’ve been continually paring down further and further – not that we never buy stuff, but we’ve been getting rid of more than we’re accumulating, and it feels good, because you then end up with stuff that you really like, and stuff that adds value to your life, and doesn’t just clutter it up.

          We used to always keep an extra copy of certain books, like Le Petit Prince, or The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, just in case we met someone wonderful who we thought would enjoy them as well :)

          I’m excited about that coffee grinder. It’s another thing we’ve started doing, along with paring down on stuff, is doing more for ourselves. From riding bicycles to cooking for ourselves, to grinding our own coffee to sweeping our own floors – it just feels nice to be directly involved in making those things happen, to be connected with all the little details of life. Because we want to be more and more connected to life, not more and more detached and removed.

    • Lancepoehler

      Where did you find this coffee grinder?

      • http://pin-hole.tumblr.com Dave

        Coava Coffee on SE Grand and Main.

  • Anonymous

    I wish there was a Powells around here. None of the very few used bookstores I know are buying right now. I suppose I could sell on the Internet, but that’s it’s own slew of problems. I end up donating books when I’m done with them or doing bookcrossing and leaving them random places.

    Nice coffee grinder. I recently got rid of an electric burr grinder that was so big and too noisy, but this looks like neither.

    • http://pin-hole.tumblr.com Dave

      It is pretty super handy having Powell’s around. They basically take anything, and what they don’t buy in order to sell again, they just donate to companies that re-distribute books to schools and other things. But trading with other people or just giving them away randomly works too. Maybe you could start up a kind of official book exchange or something, where people can just leave books, and take ones they’re interested in – like at a local coffee shop or something?

  • http://urbanadventureleague.blogspot.com/ adventure!

    Ah, I love those cute old-school burr coffee grinders!
    Burr grinders are so much better. I have a more modern hand-crank one that I got from Green Bean up on N Mississippi. Great coffee making.

    • http://pin-hole.tumblr.com Dave

      This one actually is brand new – we got it at Coava Coffee on SE Grand and Main. It’s been fantastic so far – it’s great with the burr grinder being able to adjust the grind for different purposes.

      • http://urbanadventureleague.blogspot.com/ adventure!

        Dave, re: my “old-school” comment, I was referring more to the style of the grinder rather than its actual age.
        Coava? Should check it out. Can’t keep up with Portland coffee shops and bike shops anymore.One thing I really like about Portland coffee shops/culture that has happened recently is the newfound emphasis on “coffee” and the bringing back of other ways of making joe.

        Don’t get me wrong: Portland coffee is and has been good, and I’ve been satisfied for the most part. But up until recently most coffee shops concentrated on how well they could pull an espresso shot. If you wanted “regular” coffee, it was drip coffee made with a Bunn coffee maker, the same way they would make coffee in a corporate cafeteria. So good to see that the emphasis is shifting to “a cup of coffee” again. And now so many shops are doing French Press, pour-over, Chemex, etc.

        • http://pin-hole.tumblr.com Dave

          Coava is great, and brews their coffee in a Chemex pot. Their beans are delicious (they roast in-house), and they’ve kind of become our preferred ones to use at home. We first had them at Crema, on 28th and Ankeny, for espresso, and were kind of flabbergasted. They make a really nice french press or chemex pot too, though.