Ode to the Heater

With this school semester being so busy, I often found it difficult to motivate myself to trek all the way to North Beach after a long day of school, work, or both.

I'd try to think about coffee. Oh, the gloriously rich and bold flavors of espressos and lattes that awaited at Caffe Greco. This thought alone usually got me going. Some days I would use gelato to motivate me. Sometimes the weather would suffice; the skies always seem to be a lot more blue in North Beach.

But weather can also be detrimental to my motivation, too. Earlier in the semester, it was freezing! Sometimes it would be raining. Coffee and gelato are great and all, but when it's cold, windy, raining, or a combination of those factors, nothing can really measure up to staying home bundled up in warm blankets. But North Beach apparently already addressed this concern with the overhead heaters they have at virtually every cafe, restaurant and bakery in the neighborhood. These ingenious little inventions are turned on when the cold weather even slightly pushes patrons away from North Beach establishments. These things draw humans in like a moth to a flame; it stops them dead in their tracks and makes them pause for a moment to bask in the glory of warmth even with arm fulls of groceries and a list of errands left to do.

I now have no plausible reason to stay home instead of go to North Beach, and neither do you!