Copper Coffee Pot, Ventura

The pandemic has given me the excuse to walk pretty much everywhere within a five mile radius of my house, and my dog and I have done exactly that. I've seen some interesting things on my walks, including this morning's "Nature in Action" moment, as I watched a small hawk pin down a pigeon in the middle of Main Street. Two large crows flew overhead, also with an eye on the struggling bird. 

A burst of traffic was released by a green light a block away, and the hawk was forced to temporarily give up his prize in the face of oncoming cars. He flew atop a telephone pole, and my dog and I paused our walk and sat on a wall on the opposite corner to watch nature unfold. The pigeon flapped his wings, but was unable to leave the asphalt, and the two crows flew lower, but also could not land due to the traffic.

A small break in traffic caused the hawk to spread his wings, but he opted to stay where he was when a bus swerved to miss the struggling pigeon. More cars followed until a large, black pick-up truck absently crushed the wounded pigeon with a squishy pop. The hawk seemed to look disappointed in his now flattened meal, and then flew on

My dog and I had enough of natural selection in action, and continued our walk.

The Copper Coffee Pot is part of Valentino's Take-n-Bake Pizza, located right next door.  Both are situated on the corner of Main and Seaward, next to the fire station and Foster's Donut shop. They have the least expensive coffee of the coffeehouses in the neighborhood, using locally roasted Calioh Coffee, which this morning cost $2.25 for a 16 oz. cup. Interestingly, today's coffee was the best I've had there, a slightly smokey brew with a strong taste of chocolate, and I'm wondering if after a year they finally figured it out. When I set out to write this, I was going to say that I always found their coffee a little thin, without the full body of a good dark roast. Today that wasn't the case.

The CCP people are always nice to my dog, so that's why I go there. A few of the high school/college kids working there even know my dog by name-not me, but the dog. They do have several reasonably priced breakfast items, but I've never had any. The CCP shares a kitchen with Valentino's, and everything looks and smells good, but I'm usually at the start of my walk, and I just want a coffee to go. There is seating both outside and in, and usually a few locals hanging about.

Today I'd have to say it was one of the better cups of coffee in town, and now I'm wondering what gives-which one was the fluke? The good coffee of today or the average coffee of most days.

Watch Gang-First Watch-Aeromat

 Later, I will write about my first Watch Gang watch. But before I do that...

The Harlem Globetrotter watch you see is the first watch that I owned. It was a Christmas present from Santa that I received in 1971, and it still runs! I was wearing it yesterday.

I remember picking it out of the Sears catalogue. I was in third grade, and was very excited that I could tell time and that my parents thought I was old enough to have a watch. I was torn between one of my favorite Saturday morning cartoons, The Harlem Globetrotters (a quick note on the Globetrotters cartoon-the theme was written by Jeff Barry, music supervised by Don Kirshner, and featured three relatively famous African-American actors doing voices, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Scatman Crothers  and Robert DoQui-ask your parents if you don't know who they are), or one of my favorite toys, Hot Wheels. I remember thinking long and hard about it, but went with the Globetrotters.

I wore that watch every day, even breaking it twice, and for reasons unclear to me now, my Mom would take it and have it repaired for me. Around the Bi-Centennial, I remember switching the band for this great red, white and blue strap that I had on it through high school. In high school, I had more 'grown up' Sears diver-style water proof watches, but would still pull the Globetrotter out of a drawer once in a while to wear to change things up. 

Years later, in '90 or '91, I was on Melrose at Wanna Buy A Watch, looking longingly at the cases of vintage watches, and there was my Harlem Globetrotter watch! They had it for $200 at that time. That seemed like an awful lot for a character watch, (currently there is a 'Dudley Do-Right' listed for $750), and though mine is hardly mint, I dug it up, had it serviced, and put it on, alternating it with several other watches.

Which brings me to my Swatches....

As many people will tell you, I'm not very prompt. I've gotten better about it over the years, but punctual has never been a character trait of mine. I saw this watch in the case of the Broadway in 1984, and had to have it. It spoke to me! But I didn't have the $30 it cost, and had to wait until my next paycheck. Then when I was paid and went back, they were all gone! The nice girl at the counter said that she thought the next Swatch shipment was supposed to come in the following Wednesday, and the following Wednesday, I was there. I asked a different counter girl about the Swatches, that I wanted the one that said 'Don't Be Too Late,' and she said she didn't know if they'd gotten anymore of those, that she'd heard that Swatch made limited amounts, but she'd check.

I waited an agonizing few minutes as she walked to the back, but then she brought one out. Success! I had my first Swatch!

I've bought several Swatches over the years, but nothing struck me the way that this one did. It must have hit a lot of people the same way, because on eBay they still fetch a pretty penny. It was my every day watch from 21 to 28, and as you can see, I beat the hell out of it. I was surprised that it still ran, but with a fresh battery, my near 40-year-old Swatch fired right up. I've tried changing the batteries in a few others that I own, and though the watches ran fine many of the straps deteriorated to the point of being unwearable-and for a few of the Swatches, the bands were an important part of the design.

Swatch has re-released the "Don't Be Too Late," design like this (same design but words are different colors), and this (same message, but much less subtle). I might buy the first one for old time sake.

Watch Gang

A friend of mine belongs to Watch Gang, and he's been sporting some cool watches-but some not so cool ones, too. I looked on their website, and I've been going back and forth on it for months. I've read reviews, and watched people on YouTube, and couldn't decide. But I had a little extra money this month, and decided to pull the trigger. I signed up for the 'Black Level', figuring that I spent $99 a month on junk anyway. They list two other levels, "Original" for $49.99 and "Platinum" for $299, but I've heard that there's one more above platinum for those in the know. I figure I'll give it six months, and if it isn't working for me, I'll cancel the subscription. They do three giveaways every week, one for a Rolex, one for an Omega and one for a Tag Huer, so I'm crossing my fingers-I'd really like an Omega...

The watch came in an unmarked box, which I'm pretty happy about. We don't have too much trouble with 'porch pirates' in my neighborhood, but no need to tempt fate. Opening the packing box brought me to the actual watch case. The watch is an Aeromat. I've never heard of them, which implies that they're a small brand that most likely outsources their movements. So the question is whether they're using Chinese, Japanese (better) or Swiss (best) movements, though the difference between Japanese and Swiss is marginal. I unzipped the case.

Searching the Aeromat website, I found the watch pretty quickly. It's a Type GMT Black Bird, and has a list of $250! Over double what I paid-score! Except...

I can't find anyone that sells them, so I don't know it's true value. Apparently, a few others went out to Watch Gang members, because there's a two on eBay as I write this, one for $250 and one for $200. 

But as I well know, the value of something is correlated to what I'm will to pay, and would I have paid $250 for this watch? Or even $200? Well, no, not really. 

According to the website, this watch has a Swiss quartz movement and a mineral glass crystal, both good things. It arrived running, which wasn't a good thing because I don't know how much battery life was lost. It does have a certain heft to it, which I like. I've mixed feelings about the band, leather on the inside, canvas on the outside, which confuses me a bit. A thick leather band would have been cool. Leather always adds a little class. That the leather is hidden on the inside seems a little odd, though. I do like the engraving on the back.

When I look at the face, though, I'm not crazy about it. The size is good and seems like it would be easy to read, except that it's grey on black, meaning not much contrast. There does seem to be some luminescence, but I'm not sure how bright. The extra red hand is a 24 hour hand, designed for pilots crossing time zones, and that's actually pretty cool. There's no magnification on the date, and though it is in a contrasting color, it's tough to read because of it's size.

Looking on the website, I prefer the face of every other GMT watch to this one.

I don't know that I'd have paid $99 for it, but it's not a bad watch. I'll probably wear it when I'm feeling the need to be dark and moody.

Let's see how the next one is. Check back next month.