Too Lazy to Drink?

Is it a bad sign when you are too lazy to drink alcohol? So there are all these articles about how a glass of red wine a day has health benefits. Seemed like a good idea. The first few days were fine, but like so many other health kicks, that went by the wayside. It’s one thing to be too lazy to go to the gym. It’s something else entirely to be too lazy to drink.

It’s probably just as well. Don’t get me wrong, I like a good drink and occasionally have a few. My concern is my family history with alcoholism. Fortunately my mom and dad rarely drank and that’s a good thing. Let’s just say that other members of my extended family should have never started.

I like a good beer, but discovered they are bad for gout. No beer tastes good enough to overcome the pain of a gout attack. Too bad, as I really enjoying brewing beer, but it’s less fun when I only rarely drink one.

That leaves plenty of other drinks. I’m a simple man. Give me a bottle: scotch, rum, bourbon, whatever, and a glass. Don’t bother mixing it. Most of the time I don’t even want ice. Of course, if you are drinking booze strait up, quality matters. There’s no hiding a cheap booze behind fizzy sugar waters and fruity flavors. It is what it is.

Since I’ve been dealing with a leg infection I’ve been avoiding alcohol. Booze weakens the effects of antibiotics. That’s not a great idea when trying to get well. Then there’s the fact that I’ve been taking over the counter pain meds. My liver is busy enough dealing with those. No need to make the poor thing work harder. You miss your liver when it’s gone -but not for long.

I really do enjoy a good drink. The thing is, I want to keep enjoying it. I don’t want it to take over my life and kill me. Frankly, with my family history, maybe I shouldn’t drink at all. On the other hand, I’ve successfully avoided the major pitfalls so far.

Alcohol is too powerful a chemical to take lightly. Fortunately my frugality and sloth provide natural protection.

-Sixbears

Kill it with whiskey

There was a few days of feeling deathly ill. I got well enough that, with the aid of over the counter medication, I could pass for human. My lovely wife also had a bout of what I had. We were quite a pair.

My daughter had a Christmas party at her house with a Yankee swap gift exchange. I told her I was not 100% yet and might not go. She told me that everyone in town was dealing with the same cold so come anyway. She said I could “kill it with whiskey.”

So my lovely wife and I showed up. I poured myself a glass of double barrel single malt scotch, just like the doctor ordered. We had a good time and got to see a lot of friends and family. We stayed long enough for the gift exchange and a bit later.

I ended up with really nice camping flask. It should come in handy should I ever have to “kill it with whiskey” once again.

-Sixbears

Socialist Booze

My lovely wife and I were in search of a bottle of rum. (Why is the rum always gone?) Normally we leave New Hampshire with a half gallon and it gets up through the winter. We aren't big drinkers, but we like the occasional sundowner. It's also nice to be able to offer people a friendly drink. This year we hit the road with just a wee flask of the holy water.

Today we finally got around to picking up a bottle. We were able to find a bottle but rum isn't exactly exotic. These privately run liquor stores around here all look kinda shabby. Maybe it's the bars on the windows. Mostly it's the poor selection. Heaven forbid if I wanted a decent bottle of single malt scotch.

I miss the liquor stores in New Hampshire. They are clean, well lit, have excellent selection and helpful staff. As a special bonus, the prices are some of the lowest in the country. They are also a state run monopoly. When prohibition was finally repealed each state took their own approach on how booze was going to be sold. New Hampshire decided to handle liquor sales in state operated stores. They do a good job of it too.

One of the saddest liquor stores I saw was in Kentucky. The county we were in had been a “dry county” that prohibited liquor sales. The store was basically a pile of boxes on the floor with some industrial shelves where a few items were haphazardly stacked. Pretty sad looking. I hope it got better.

Now I understand there are plenty of people who should not drink. I can respect that, but please respect that there are some of us who can take a drink without having to see the bottom of the bottle. Then there are those who against booze for religious beliefs. Fine. As for me, I believe I'm going to have a drink.

-Sixbears

At the Shellbar

I can't call it a sandbar. That little strip of land consists of more shell than sand, so shellbar it is. Of course, will all the sundowners drunk out there, one could call it a booze bar.


Finally, we have a day worthy of Florida's reputation. Temperatures rose over 70 and the sun came out. After days of cloud and cool nights, it's a relief.

This will be our third night here, on or next to the sandbar near Cayo Costa. Winds have been unfavorable for southward sailing, but no matter what we are heading south in the morning.

The boat's battery had been severely discharged. I'd left something connected that I thought I'd unplugged. Combined with a couple of cloudy days, battery voltage dropped too low to do anything.. Thanks to a day's sun on the solar panel, there is enough power to run the laptop again.

On the bright side, I've pretty much lost contact with “the news.” That's fine. The longer I'm out on the water, the less sense the rest of the world makes to me.

I had a nice talk with a guy who sailed a small open boat all the way down from the Florida Panhandle. The weather has been cold and wet at times. All the guy has is a small tarp to sleep under. The guy doesn't even have a VHF radio. His rig is designed to slip under most of the bridges. A 9 foot clearance swing bring had him stopped, but I was right behind him and talked to the bridge master. Like us, he plans to sail down to the Keys.

I guess I'm not the craziest one out here.

. . . or maybe we are sane ones.


-Sixbears

Trip Prep

The boat is loaded up and ready for our trip. The van isn't fully loaded yet, but we ran out of daylight. However, I did load up 30, 4.5 gallon jugs of waste veggie oil. That's 130 gallons of alternative fuel. It replaces about $500 worth of diesel. Not too shabby.

Last minute errands have been run. The post office knows to forward my mail. I did some business at town hall. Final supplies were bought -including 1.75 liters of 12 year old single malt scotch. New Hampshire has some of the lowest liquor prices in the country, so I had to stock up. It fits in nicely with the gallon or so of rum on the boat. That pretty much rounds out the medical kit. Snake bite is a terrible thing.

We had some friends over to help us empty out the refrigerator. Nothing like a good meal before a road trip.

The neighbors know we'll be gone for the winter and will keep an eye on the house. We turn the heat and power off, so all the plumbing has to be drained and winterized. Time spent on a proper shut down saves grief when restarting the place in the spring. Some people keep their houses heated when they go south for the winter. I've a couple problems with that. For me, one of the reasons I can afford to go south is that I'm not paying for heat all winter. Personally, I think it's more risky to keep a place heated that to properly shut it down. A missed fuel delivery, a furnace malfunction, or even an extended power outage and all the plumbing freezes and is destroyed. Insurance is supposed to cover the damage, but I've heard horror stories from people who've tried to collect.

If I miss a day or tow of blogging, is because of travel. It shouldn't be any more than that.

Wish me luck.

-Sixbears

Haphazard Brewing

Making your own potables isn't magic. This photo shows a couple of my fermenters and other miscellaneous brewing supplies. They are stashed in a particularly cluttered corner of my cramped home office.

As you can see, I've got a small batch going in the glass fermenter. About 90% of my brewing supplies were donated. Lots of people try home brewing or get kits as gifts. They may brew one batch or two then give up on it. The glass fermenter was found in a yard sale by a friend of mine. He didn't do anything with it and eventually gave it to me.

I recycle beer bottles -by putting beer in them. Much more energy efficient than shipping the bottles to the recycling center. When people visit and bring beer in recappable bottles, I clean and save them. Not much I can do with bottles that have twist off caps. Only those that need a bottle opener can be reused. Any cardboard six pack holders and 12 pack boxes will be put to use. That funny looking red thing in the upper left corner of the photo is a cheap bottle capper. Caps are pretty inexpensive at the brewing supply store.

There are plenty of good books out there on how to home brew. I'm certainly not going to try and duplicate the great information in them. The idea I want to get across is that brewing isn't all that difficult. Things don't have to be perfect to produce good drink. Cleaning everything thoroughly will prevent most problems. I'm also blessed with having a good spring as my water source.

Once you get the basic brewing equipment, don't hesitate to experiment. I once made a perfectly drinkable red wine from concentrated grape juice and bread yeast. It would not have won any awards, but went down well with a big plate of pasta. You can do something with just about anything that contains sugar. It will ferment.

For example, hard cider can be made with apples, water, some sugar, and yeast. Brewing yeast is great if you have it, but it's possible to brew with the natural yeast that lives on the skin of the apple. There's less control, but it can be done. Being able to make do with what's at hand can make the difference between having something and having nothing.

This time of years there are lots of fruits and berries ready for picking, many for free. Can't make much cheaper drink than that.

Back in the old days, if a brew didn't turn out quite right, it could always be distilled for the ethanol. If it wasn't great after one run through the still, the second pass would do the trick. By then it'd be 90 - 95% ethanol. I'm not going to tell you how to build your own still and break the law. Plenty of other sources on the 'net for that info.

Making you own drink is a darn good skill to have. I save a bundle and enjoy experimenting with different brews. The occasional alcoholic drink can be one of life's little pleasures. Be careful not to become dependent -that takes the pleasure out of it. On the other hand, too much moderation is bad for you.

Funny thing, commercial booze gives me headaches. My own doesn't. Kinda makes me wonder what happens in those commercial breweries. If my haphazard brewing methods produce a better product, I can't help but be a bit concerned.

-Sixbears