On The Itenerary

The first thing I did after coffee time was get the car washed. They always do a good job with it here. I'm bringing it back in another week or so for a hard-wax, there's a car show at the end of the month and I want her to look her best.

After that I needed some flour and wanted some Drifter Pale Ale, so off to the store I went. Imagine my discombobulation to discover that in the spot clearly marked "Drifter Pale Ale" was this instead. Search as I may, there was no Drifter to be found.  So I got this instead.

I was not disappointed. In fact, I will have to compare it side-by-side with Drifter to see which is preferable. Either one is a good brew.

This afternoon I have this to keep me busy.

Tonight Boy is dragging me off to skating rink hell, where I will likely do some homework and then wander about the internets on my newly-batteried laptop while he pretends that I am not there until such time as he wishes his friends to see him in a convertible Mustang.

Life is good.

Taste Test

They changed the label on the Drifters, but it didn't fool me. I found it!

And since I was happy I found my brand, I thought I'd try out another.

Shipyard IPA.

Not a fan.

Mundanity

This morning I finally made an appointment to get my eyes checked. I'm probably going to need the kind with lines on them, so that's something to look forward to.

Nothing planned this weekend, no running off to Roanoke like we have done the past couple of weeks. This weekend we will just hang around the Refuge. Bob is probably breathing a huge sigh of relief.

Roberta X had a post about how if the balloon went up most of us were done for. I was reminded of it as I was cooking supper, most of what I was doing was mixing up pre-packaged ingredients. She's probably right on the money, most people living in the US today have never really known hardship and don't know how to do things from the ground up like our grandfathers did.

My mother was a good cook and usually prepared everything from basic fresh ingredients, but these days it's much easier to open a can, jar or bottle and mix it with browned hamburger, or combine it with the contents of the powdered spice package...you get the idea. Home-cooked has certainly taken on different meanings since I was young.

Fortunately the chances of things really going sideways are vanishingly small, but small scale natural and "man-made" disasters are always a possibility, and time and again political and financial systems have crashed and burned, leaving strewn wreckage in their wake.

I don't really know what I would do, but I'm far enough out that I could probably get going farther if need be, I have firearms and a fair bit of electro-mechanical skills that would end up being useful when the immediate danger was over and some sort of effort at rebuilding was being made, but things would certainly be dicey for a while. Hunker down and remain in place or run for the hills, that is the question. The answer would likely depend on the situation.

But for now this is just an exercise in brain-stretching, luckily I have nothing pressing on my schedule, the lights are on, and we are all warm, dry and well fed. Things could change in an instant, and you never know if or when, so the best thing you can do is be prepared as much as you can, pray for the best and plan for the worst.

So for today we are having a bit of the mundane life, there are kids to be picked up from school and groceries to buy. I checked out a new grocery store that has just opened and they have my brand. I also picked up some of this, I'm not usually too fond of lagers but I do like the redheads.

And since we don't have anything planned this weekend I think I'll have a few.

Wasting Time

Today as I attempted to put the crown molding up in the spare room, I managed to create $100 worth of scrap wood. Since my wood budget for this project is now busted I am considering it a bad idea and going for option 2 after the wedding.

Option 2 is baseboard mounted upside down and topped with quarter round. It doesn't have to be mounted at an angle like the crown molding, so it's easier to cut for 45 degree corners and 13 degree ceiling slopes.

Other than that, I have discovered a new favorite beer for the Refuge. The new favored beverage is Drifter Pale Ale, although Sierra Nevada still remains in second place.

Steaks on the grille topped off the day, so it wasn't all bad.

Rough Days

The wife has been sick for the past week.

Her stomach has never been a pleasant companion, even in the best of times. The chemo really kicks things up a notch, and she had chemo a week ago last Tuesday.

The stomach problems didn't start until Monday, which is usually about the time everything is over. So, off to the ER we go (did I mention it's snowing?) where the kindly doctor ordered some X-rays and determined she had a blocked bowel.

In other words, she's full of sh!t, but we knew that anyway. Now we have documented proof.

The good news is that she is now unblocked and feeling much better, all the household chores are done, and I have Sierra Nevada Golden Bock.
















Life is good.

Aftermath

The snow started before Boy went to bed, and he was excited. Dad, not so much. The snowfall continued through the night and into the early morning hours when, as expected, it turned into sleet and freezing rain. That's the part that Dad was particularly looking forward to, you bet.

The snow accumulated three inches where there was pavement and six inches where there was not. This picture was taken 12 hours after the snow had stopped, so I don't know if it had melted any during the day. What I do know is that I have not had to shovel snow in a long time.

But that's why I have fine young sons!

I called my parents who still live in Iowa and told them about our massive snowstorm. My mother gleefully informed me that the storm had gone south of them into Missouri so they didn't get any snow out of it. My dad reminisced about a snowstorm so bad that they didn't even bother plowing both sides of the road, so there was only a single lane highway for the last 20 miles of the trip (we had gone to Grandmother's house that weekend and gotten 24 inches).

The power is on, no one has to work tonight, so I have no reason to be out and about (I am the designated chauffeur whenever the winter weather hits). My plans for tonight include the following items:

Have a great night everyone!

Official Announcement

The official brewery of the Refuge is Sierra Nevada.

I highly recommend the Pale Ale and the Celebration Ale.

Don't blog drunk.

Budweiser American Ale

Eh, not bad. I still prefer Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, but I could get used to one or two of these as well.

Heh. Is this a great country or what? Here we are, faced with certain death because of the credit crunch/Obama presidency/McCain presidency/big atomic collider thingie, and I have time to drink beer.

Maybe we should follow Jimmy Buffet's advice.