My $2 Coffee Cup

I'm an avid coffee drinker. As a matter of fact, I've written about it a couple times in this blog, both how I've been a coffee snob and how I lightened up (seriously, have you seen some recent commercials for Folgers? They're pretty great). Through most of my 20s I practically lived off of nicotine and caffeine, and often posted up at coffee shops racking up a hefty tab cup after cup. Even though I quit smoking a few years ago and stopped drinking quite as much coffee I still enjoy a cup or two in the morning when I wake up and when I'm out and about before lunch. The latter usually means stopping at a coffee shop, and though it's been difficult in the Age Of Covid, in an effort to reduce at least a little waste I do my best to bring my reusable travel cup whenever I go to a cafe.

Like I've mentioned before in a previous post, I've been bringing my secondhand Klean Kanteen when I go out for coffee. It's a little 12 ounce insulated stainless steel cup, covered in stickers from various shops I've been to, that I picked up for a couple bucks at a small town thrift store. It's nothing a normal person would get too excited over, but I've been over the moon about it since I bought it over a year ago because it's one of the best thrifted purchased I've ever made, and not just because they retail at like $25 new.

It keeps coffee hot for a long time. Like, painfully hot. An hour after filling it I still burn my mouth as long as the lid is closed. Most travel mugs I've had before would keep things reasonably warm for a little while, but this mug will keep coffee just about as hot as it was brewed for at least a few hours. The fact that it's like sipping molten lava for so long helps me pace my coffee drinking so I can enjoy one cup much longer.

Aside from coffee staying hotter longer, it also has saved me a little money-- not just from not having to freshen up my coffee when it gets cold. A lot of places, like Coffee Bean and Starbucks, historically have shaved off a few cents if you bring in a reusable cup, though I haven't been able to get a reusable cup filled for awhile now. I made back the $2 I spent on the cup pretty quickly in the 25 to 50 cents saved by having coffee shops forego the paper cup, so that was a win in my book.

Lastly, the environmental impact of cups steers my decision to use it. According to EarthDay.org, 16 billion disposable coffee cups are used every year, which is a lot of fucking cups. For a beverage that already has a not-so-great track record of sustainability, adding that many disposable cups into the waste stream makes things way worse. I've managed to avoid a few dozen cups and lids from getting thrown away by opting for my reusable cup instead of the disposable option. In the past year, I managed to keep at least a few plastic lids from entering the waste stream by transferring my coffee shop purchases from a lidless paper cup to the Klean Kanteen. It's a small step, sure, but I can at least do a little something to be nicer to the planet in those moments I find myself at a coffee house.

Reducing waste has been really difficult in the last year thanks to disposable masks and gloves, single use plastic wrapped items to reduce the chance to cootie transmission, and the prevalence of takeout and delivery. I'm guilty of using single-use items and getting delivery and fast food full of disposable packaging (and fast food delivered when I forgot to pack lunches at work [Popeye's is great when you don't have to wait in the drive-thru line]), but I try to be mindful of what I throw away, be it trash or money (getting Popeye's delivered is expensive), so making coffee at home and taking it with me for later in an old travel mug is one little way to not be so trashy. Little changes like that make a little difference, and a bunch of little changes add up, so I'm going to keep drinking my hot bean water from my $2 coffee cup and keep trying things to be nicer to the planet and my wallet. 

Big Ol' Kitties: A Trip To The EFBC's Feline Conservation Center

Simba, one of our stinky doofuses

My wife loves cats. We have two stinky little dorks she loves very much, and I don't think there has been a cat she hasn't immediately fallen in love with, which made it surprising when I learned she hadn't been to the Feline Conservation Center in Rosamond, California. I like cats well enough, but I really appreciate conservation and protecting wildlife, but in light of the Netflix series Tiger King and knowing a few redneck types from Rosamond, I wanted to check the place out to make sure that the California High Desert didn't have its own Joe Exotic. 

The Exotic Feline Breeding Compound's Conservation Center was established in 1977 to house endangered big cats from all over the world, and was opened to the public in 1983 as a nonprofit. They provide educational tours to inform people about the cats and their natural habitats, and they provide the cats with as much enrichment as possible by means of toys and things to play with and chew on, like boxes (all cats love boxes), bones, and essential oils, among other things. The Conservation Center is part of a global network of zoos and facilities dedicated to the protection of cats, so they aren't bred for sale and are instead bred for species conservation, which is really cool. 

Getting there was a bit of an adventure. From the 14 Freeway I headed west, past the shopping centers and the high school and into the desert with smatterings of trailer parks and subdivision housing. I then headed north on a side street toward what appeared to be some abandoned mine operation on the hillside, passing more residential housing among the sagebrush until I saw a sign with a tiger on it and the letters "EFBC" with an arrow pointing to the left. After a short drive down a dusty dirt road I came to the parking area of the compound. 

The entrance

Walking up, you're greeted by a gate with a couple cat statues on either end, which opens up to a little atrium with a memorial placard commemorating the information center and gift shop. From there, you enter the gift shop to pay the fee to enter the grounds (it was $10 for me, but $5 for kids and $8 for veterans). The shop was stocked with plenty of big cat memorabilia and toys, along with a couple taxidermed big cats, probably from years ago. After a quick speech from the shop attendant about not harassing the cats, keeping my mask on at all times, and keeping off the grass, I was set loose to check out the animals.

An unfazed caracal

There's a lawn surrounded by trees and enclosures for the cats, and since I went early in the day some of them were being fed. Chinese leopards were pacing and scoping out the staff carrying food, and a caracal snoozing on a perch acted like I wasn't even there. I got stared down by a jaguar, which was cool because there was a fence between us so I didn't have to act on my primal instinct to freak out or act on my dumb domesticated brain to want to pet his toebeans. There are informational plaques that give a lot of interesting information about their habitats, social behaviors, diets, and appearances, so you get both an educational experience and a chance to see animals that are hard to find in the wild. 

A serval and his plaque

I'll be back for sure, because even though I didn't spend a long time checking out the place I'm sure my cat-loving wife will love it and make a whole morning of it. If you like supporting the conservation of endangered wildlife and seeing big furry babies doing cat stuff but, like, on a larger scale, it's worth the adventure into the desert to check it out. Plus, with everything being put on pause last year they could really use all the support they can get, so check out their website for more information.