The High Desert Yields Another Jewel: Granite Mountain Brewing

 
What do you do in Prescott Arizona if you are Woody? Why of course! You look for breweries. You ask Mr. Google. You peruse the websites. Then you go and sample the brews.

But wait! One of them is funded with Kick Starter. Now that gets my attention. A brewery funded with local money, and exceeded their goal. This is definitely worth a closer look.

Sally and I dropped in one afternoon during the Prescott arts festival and found the GMB quiet and not crowded. Very casual seting with comfortable easy chairs, seating groups and a beer garden out back. And, a nice locally made bar. The brewery is behind the bar where everybody can watch

Michael, the brewer, work his magic. We tasted the IPA and ordered a pint each. Nice color, hoppy up front, nice nose and mouthfeel. Hmmm, I thought, this is a good start. We sat in the beer garden and enjoyed our brew with an order of GMB nachos. Good combo. I talked a bit with Audra while we were up front and she enthusiastically explained the origins of the brewery. She is the “business" partner and everything else too. She keeps the books and keeps the whole operation on the rails. I asked to talk to Michael when he had a break (cleaning kegs).

He joined us in the garden as the samples of their dark brews arrived. We chatted about his background as a home brewer turned nano brewer. Guys like Michael have a passion to brew, and when the combination of supportive spouses, funding and community come together it is a beautiful thing to see. Audra and Michael now work full time at the business while their partners have real jobs. Well, they go to work and earn a salary while Audra and Michael go to the brewery and play. Don't get me wrong here: running a business and making barley magic is very hard work, but, the passion I see in these young entrepreneurs glows, and that is what makes their work "play".  And, the spice also help out at the brewery from time to time.

Back to the dark brews. We tried the Muddy Wash Milk Stout, Mr. Smith's Espresso Stout and Honey Vanilla Porter. All had a rich dark color, nice mouthfeel and lingering tastes. The milk stout was flavorful and just a slightly sweet but not cloying taste. The porter delivered its promise with subtle aroma and taste of honey and vanilla. Personally, I would save this brew for a snifter after a good meal, but many drinkers will make this their first choice.

The final surprise of the day was the espresso stout. Brewed with locally roasted organic beans, this is a masterful blend. It is richly flavored and malty with a slight hoppiness that combines to really please the pallet. It is the kind of brew you want to swirl around in your mouth forever, dreading the moment when the glass is empty. I noticed that Michael won a gold medal as a home brewer for a vanilla bourbon porter. So, he knows the beauty of bourbon and brew. I would love to see him get a freshly drained bourbon barrel and fill it with Mr. Smith's Espresso Stout. After a few months of marriage I believe this would produce a nectar worthy of the gods. Worst case? Fifty gallons of good coffee bourbon stout.

All in all, Sally and I had a great afternoon at Granite Mountain Brewing, had some fine brew and met some dedicated and nice folks. Couldn't get any better. Don' miss it if you get near Prescott Arizona. You won't be disappointed.

Images ©Granite Mountain Brewing, used with permission

Just Pisses Me Off, Thats All

President in front of paid for  $4.5 million building, but killing jobs.

Just got an email from the CFO of my former University. The bottom line is this: TU is outsourcing maintenance. As I understand it, all the maintenance staff will go as of the end of June. Then a company takes over. They may or may not hire some of the staff back.

Doesn’t matter. This is a small-minded nasty decision at any time, but in this economy even more so. Even worse with so many of the staff long-time employees.
This is strictly business, someone will say. This is bullshit I say. Loyalty should count for something, even if it costs a bit more. The de-personalization of TU began several years ago with expedience favored over compassion. My advice to everyone left up there is this: Watch your back, because for sure no one else is. And job hunting probably wouldn’t be a bad idea either.

Just saying.

Image: http://www.thomasu.edu/uploads/images/president-in-front-of-s-b-hall-cupola-web.jpg

Thank Everybody for Helping Me

I got an email from a Ph.D. student wanting help with a dissertation. She ended her email with the following:

"Happy moments, praise God. Difficult moments, seek God. Quiet moments, worship God. Painful moments, trust God. Every moment, thank God."

This, I think, is part of what is wrong with things in this country. Now wait a minute. I am not about to take off on religion. I am about to take off on individual responsibility. In this woman’s life her god takes care of everything. Where is her personal responsibility? Praise, seek, worship trust and thank. No room for responsibility.
The thing is, if someone wants to give their life to their god, great. Unfortunately I think that leads to mindlessness of the worst kind. You see it all over the place; “God’s Will”; “Maktub”; “Karma” etc. No point in thinking because some god or other has already taken care of the details. So don’t bother to think. Just Praise, seek, worship trust and thank. I would offer the following secular version of the above:
Happy moments, enjoy them and be glad you have them
Difficult moments, seek guidance from experience and friends
Quiet moments, worship nature and your partner
Painful moments, trust your self, your partner and your friends.
Every moment, be thankful for your life, health and relationships. AND THINK!!!

Lots of places in the above to personalize, but you get the idea. Personal Responsibility.

Image: http://rlv.zcache.com/personal_responsibility_try_it_button-p145143719044086676b2378_328.jpg

 

Ten Tors A SUCCESS!!!

Wet, tired and happy

If you don't remember the first Ten Tors post, you probably should review it here (http://searchesworld.blogspot.com/2013/04/ten-tors-not-outing-for-casual-walker.html) before going on.
There, up to speed? Ok, so the team of 3 men and 3 women set off in what some described as the worst conditions ever for the Ten Tors event. Rain, fog and cold. Visability often down to 100 meters or less. In this morass of weather, the team set off on a Saturday to hike and finish the 45 mile course in 2 days. They had to carry all their gear, navigate and get to the finish line by 5PM local time the next day. It was a miserable 45 miles. Wet gear is heavier than dry gear, and by the time they broke camp Sunday morning everything was wet. Wet feet are awful for walking, and everybody had wet feet. But they persisted.
Five hundred of

Team dried off on podium for award

 the 2400  who started dropped out during the event. Our team had no dropouts. Everybody finished. And, they finished 10 minutes before the deadline, at 4:50 local time. Wet, tired, hungry and exhilarated at the same time. Finishing within the time with no dropouts is the Prize. Knowing that they gave their best effort, and overcame awesomely bad conditions and finished intact is the Prize. The ages of this team are 16 and 17. Tough little buggers, eh?
A gigantic "WELL DONE TEAM" to all.
YOU DID IT!!!!!
Images from Godfrey family

PLEASE DO NOT TOLERATE INTOLERANCE. PLEASE?

I went to public school with black kids. From 4^th grade (1950) to graduation from high school (1958). I traveled with students from my high school in ’56, ’57 and ’58 all the way down to the Florida Keys, before any interstates. In New York we heard of racial discrimination in the South, and there surely was discrimination in New York. But our schools, transportation, restaurants, hospitals and other places certainly were “mixed use.”  So, when I saw the KKK billboards about Niggers and Kikes and Spicks  in South Carolina and Florida, and when I saw the drinking fountains and bathrooms marked “white only” I was dismayed and sad. I went to school in Miami in 1958, and the city was segregated. This was 4 years after Brown, but well before the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

And then the other day I downloaded a list of really dumb things Republicans have said over the past 40 or so years. Just today, after reading the little blurb below, one of them struck me like lightening.

First integrated classroom In July 1955, six black children completed their first week at Griffin Elementary, a one-room schoolhouse in rural Monticello, Ky. It was the first public school in the state, and by some accounts the nation, to become racially integrated. (AP Photo)

 
I went back to the list to see if I remembered it correctly. Yes, I did. This one is from Dwight Eisenhower, President of the United States

36. “These are not bad people. All they are concerned about is to see that their sweet little girls are not required to sit in school alongside some big overgrown Negroes.” ~ President Eisenhower commenting on racial segregation after the Brown vs. Board of Education decision.

He was talking about White parents opposing black children being integrated in Public Schools in the South. And I thought OMG, if the President held that philosophy in 1955, it is no wonder we needed the Civil Rights Act. Throughout this period I was mostly oblivious. A White Boy from New York, liberal and integrated early. Even after experiencing the South as a high schooler it didn’t really sink in. It did in the 60’s though. And stuck. That is why I hate intolerance.(is that an oxymoron?).  So don’t get me started.

But think about where we were a scant few decades ago, how far we have come, and the forces that (who) are now working to attenuate the progress. Please, think about it. And please for whatever you hold Holy, DO NOT TOLERATE INTOLERANCE. Of anybody. For any reason. Ever.

Thank you.

Image: http://brianmengini.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/intolerance.jpg

Fusel Oil and My Father

Max and I (remember Max from some older posts? Old high school bud? Band of “Mad Scientists”?) decided to make some kick-ass alcohol stuff based on apple cider. In those days(1955) on Long Island there was a thriving local orchard industry, and several nearby orchards produce their own apple cider. In the winter only. In three days it was a bit fizzy and in a week it was positively intoxicating. It was really alcoholic. You could get a buzz from a pint or two.

We decided to get a couple of gallons and make “apple jack”, a concentrated liquor made by “freeze distillation” or freezing the liquid until only the alcohol and sugary water was liquid. Then you poured off the “liquor” and got a serious buzz. My father warned us about “fusel oil” and the blindness and sickness it could produce. Yeah Pop.

So we froze the stuff, poured off the syrupy liquor and drank it. Whee!! Got a real buzz, but a terrible hangover too. We moved on to other things and did not become the kings of illegal liquor. But, I was talking to a friend of mine today, a natural products chemist, and asked about “fusel oil.” Blank expression. No idea what it was. So, when I could, I “Googled” it. SHOCK!!!

Old Dad was RIGHT!!! Fusel oil, AKA fusel alcohol (a toxic mixture of several organic alcohols and other crap) is a byproduct of fermentation and toxic as hell in concentrations above normal fermentation. Specifically it is really concentrated and toxic in “freeze distillation”.  We only did that one batch and neither of us went blind. But old Dad was Right. How the hell did he know that? Simple. He was the product of the Great Depression where millions of people made their own booze, and a bunch got into real trouble with fusel oil. Sorry Pop. You were right. But you were DEAD WRONG about the other cause of teenage blindness. My vision is still 20/20.

http://swagreasons.com/i/AppleJack.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applejack_(beverage)

People Who Are Not MORONS are Under Attack

 

So, and atheist student in Oklahoma requested that copies of the 10 commandments be removed from the walls of all the class rooms. Predictably Christians from all over, including the Westboro Baptist Church, screamed “Foul”. “Christianity is under attack” and other nonsense.
What if that same boy had wanted to post a humanist statement in all the classrooms? Or a Muslim student wanted to post some rules from the Qur’an in all the classrooms? I bet the Christian parents and students would have a fit.
That is because they are not for religious freedom; they are for religious imposition, but only their own. One parent said: “If other kids don’t want to read the Ten Commandments, then they don’t have to,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean that they have to make everyone else do what they want.”

See the problem? This parent really wants exclusive rights to display religious crap. This is absolutely UNAMERICAN. It really pisses me off, but then I am only an American who believes in religious freedom, not one who believes that this is a Christian Country that has the Right to Impose Religion on us all.

Just saying.

Read more: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/05/12/atheist-and-christian-high-school-students-protest-over-ten-commandments/#ixzz2TNtyNATu

Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZhOJQxLhjsVs0mzx3NiZSmudXYj3E7h4KA8tNndPKcah_JKUNLJjppgaUyVOTm-EqmPmcSqXxZYXTkhC57O8YRU2MOj7Lu9pnekHiVQWa-5V97tqxMKNRR5uAJywwUxNtfrEWlXEhjjmZ/s400/Oppression.jpg

Valley Fever? Be Glad You Didn’t Get Histoplasmosis!!!



Histo clusters like a starry night

Valley Fever AKA Coccidiomycosis is a fungal disease found world-wide, but is endemic in the American Southwest. You get it by breathing in the spores from ground dust. It can be deadly or debilitating, but often goes undiagnosed. Bad breathing problems as lungs swell and squeeze the air out. With swollen lungs, breathing enough air in and out becomes difficult and anoxia results. Not a pretty picture.

Transition to a group of students and faculty from Thomas University returning from a field trip to Nicaragua which included visiting some abandoned silver mines with plenty of bats. A few of us got sick on the way home while others had a delay of a few days. A few didn’t get sick at all, damn them. Two nearly died, and the rest, 10 or so were sick in degrees. Sally and I were really hit hard. High fever, low blood oxygen, swollen lungs so we couldn’t breathe and coughing. The group became a study group for the CDC which was quickly called in to help diagnose and manage the outbreak. A savvy Doc in Thomasville  recognized the cluster of people getting sick and called for help. The Florida Department of Health and the Georgia Health Department also got brought in. We were all very sick puppies.

The CDC doctors knew it was either Coccidiomyciosis (valley fever) or Histoplasmosis but the symptoms are nearly or exactly the same. So they put us through many tests and finally concluded the disease we all had was Histoplasmosis.  Not good. No real treatment except “experimental” drugs that insurance doesn’t pay for, that don’t work all that well and have nasty side effects. The good news is that most people eventually get better, while some eventually die. In our case (Sally’s and mine) our immune system got the upper hand finally and we were left with many little nodules in our lungs, places where the fungus was walled in by health tissue and kept sequestered by the immune system. But we were warned: if your immune system gets reduced, you will probably have an outbreak that, along with whatever caused the immune system to fail, might just kill you.

So we group of hardy adventurers now carry the seeds of a real disaster in our lungs. Which leads me to the advice in the banner: Vally Fever? Better that than good old Histo. (Some of the participants of this adventure  will read this. Hopefully you are all still going strong. We are. But I will never forget the remark of the radiologist who read our chest x-rays: “Looks just like a starry night. See all those little white dots? That’s the bug!!!” He was thrilled. We were less so. )

Article on Valley Fever: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/05/13/181880987/cases-of-mysterious-valley-fever-rise-in-american-southwest?ft=3&f=1001&sc=nl&cc=nh-20130513
Image: https://pathwiki.pbworks.com/f/chest%20xray%20calicified%20densities.jpg

 

Cicadas: 17 year Boon or Government Cover Up?

Here is a 2004 excerpt from a satirical website:

In 2004, the harmlessness and notoriety of the cicada prompted Brandon Breeden, head writer of the website Cicadaville.com, to spread satirical rumors about how cicadas are "vicious killers seething with deadly venom," and how "children are [cicadas'] primary source of nutrition." As a result, Breeden received emails thanking him "for the truth about cicadas the government's been keeping secret."

Then, as now, wackos cried “chicken little” and blamed the government for not protecting the people. It is beginning again, and probably the same wackos who see a government plot behind everything are getting upset. Here is an Obama administration person on the subject:

 The Obama administration currently has no plan to suppress the 'cicada invasion,'" an administration official tells me. (Partly because, as off-putting as they sound and appear, cicadas are good for plants and the affected environment.)

The reproductive phase of this critter doesn’t have mouth parts, so can’t bite or feed on anything. The females have a strong shape prong they dig into tree branches and lay their eggs in the furrow. Then they die.  The trees heal and the grubs fall into the soil, attach themselves to roots and begin a synergistic relationship which benefits both. So the next time you hear someone worrying about the “17 year locusts” (they aren’t locusts which are related to grasshoppers), tell them to worry about something else. If they tell you it is a government cover up, walk away. You know for sure they are MORONS.

Information: http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/05/political-history-cicadas-ronald-reagan
Information: http://ideastations.org/cicadawatch
Image: http://static.ideastations.org/nymph-adult-promo.jpg

A Father's Regret: One of Them Anyway

I don't remember what prompted the angry outburst. Maybe when I found my plate block stamps helpfully separated into single stamps so I could use them easier. Maybe when we were cleaning out the nook under the house and he dropped an antique punch bowl. Maybe something else.
But I remember what I said in anger: "Matt, if you do that again I will cut off your fingers!!!". Then within microseconds of the words coming out, I realized a couple of things; One, it was a hollow threat because I would never do that and; two, he will realize I didn't mean it. But I said quickly "I am sorry I said that. I would never hurt you. I just got mad."
The words were out before the brain really engaged. A frontal lobe failure. And not just some brain, but MY brain. And he was a young child. Maybe he didn't know that I wouldn't hurt him.
I know probably most parents say things in anger to each other or their kids that they don't really mean, and mostly the things we say get forgiven. But obviously not all of them get forgotten.
The lesson in this? Try to be very careful what you say. Because even if you follow up something nasty with "I'm sorry", the words may cut too deep to be excised.
And I am truly sorry.
Please, just be careful.
Image: https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/p480x480/922870_484950154909697_353493361_n.png