Indecision

I like coffee.

At one point in my life, I had four coffee makers - an espresso machine, a percolator, a Turkish coffee pot, and an automatic drip.

Sadly, machines break, including the human body. I can't drink extra strong espresso anymore. I'm at a latté speed nowadays. Strong coffee makes me really anxious, and makes my stomach do flips. So now the Turkish coffee pot is a wall decoration, and the other machines have gone the way of the dinosaur.

I get my coffee fix a couple times a week by visiting the corner coffee house or Starbucks. Recently though, I've decided that I need my own machine. It would be cheaper to make my own coffee. When guests come to stay, I could make them coffee in my own kitchen, rather than sending someone on a hike for coffee. As you can see, I've basically convinced myself this machine is a necessity. It is going to be an automatic drip, but thats about as far as I've gotten in the decision making process.

I read Consumer Reports write up on coffee makers, and I've read some reviews online, but I can't decide what features are important to me. Do I need a machine with a timer? Do I need a built-in grinder? Do I need the "sneak a cup" feature? What about thermal carafe? How many cups do I want the thing to make?

I went to Sears today after work to make the purchase. I stood there for a solid hour pondering the above questions. There were contenders:

1. The Mr. Coffee 4 cup - a basic no-frills coffee maker
2. The Mr. Coffee 10 cup - bigger, basic no-frills
3. The Mr. Coffee 8 cup with thermal carafe
4. Black and Decker Smart Brew plus - thermal carafe 12 cup

There were a couple of autotimer ones, but they seemed too expensive.

So I stood there for an hour. I simply could not decide what features were more important to me. So I decided to go for style. What would look best on my countertop? I have black countertops, but all of my other appliances are white. The white ones were kind of ugly though, and not all of the models came in black.

I paced back and forth, looking at all the machines, picking them up, reading the boxes, putting them down again. I tried to imagine each one in my kitchen. Every time I decided one would look ok, then I'd decide it didn't have the right features. I wondered and I perseverated, and finally I made a decision.

I decided not to decide. I left Sears coffeemakerless. Maybe my indecision is really because I'd really rather just go out for coffee.