Venti mocha frap, add shot, no whip.

If you're one of those anti-big-corporation pundits out there who are philisophically opposed to a coffee company that has thousands of locations worldwide thanks to a repeatable model, too bad. I like Starbucks. And one drink in particular plays a big part in making each of dad's days better.

One of the problems that cancer patients fight is the side effects of the drugs that fight the cancer. And so the docs prescribe medicines to counter those side effects. But those have side effects too, and so the docs prescribe meds for that. Guess what? More side effects- and on and on. The massive volumes of medications for pain and nauseau that dad takes have one major side effect- exhaustion and fatigue, unlike anything I've ever seen. And anyone who knows dad- a man who climbed the Matterhorn and scaled El Capitan, just for starters- knows he's a pretty high-energy guy.

So about several weeks ago when I was at Starbucks, I thought, hey, coffee drinks have this wonderful tendency to make you perky and keep you awake. I ordered a Starbucks Mocha Frappucino for dad- he liked it. It didn't have the effect I was searching for, so I did the natural thing.. I asked for two "add shots" (espresso) blended in to the next one. ET VOILA. Dad was back to reading books on French history, walking a mile or two, and actually able to enjoy giving the occaisional guitar lesson.

And so we do 1-2 of these a day. And what's better? We can get the same drink, made the same way, at any Starbucks. The caffeine inside this magic elixir gives dad more hours in the day. And if there's one thing I've learned from my dad in the last few years, every hour of every day is precious. So my thanks go out to Mr. Schultz & Starbucks for making this little bit of happiness possible. Don't run out of coffee. I'll be back in later today ;)

P.S. I told the docs at USC Norris about the add-shot mocha fraps. They said, "wow, cool" (yeah, literally) and suggested I keep it as part of the pain management protocol.