Hill Country winery tour part two

Creating a beverage or meal is a creative process that speaks to a very select few individuals.
Chefs can and do become world famous for their expertise. The Japanese have elevated meals to a beautiful art form. The aesthetics are truly inspiring.
Not a lot of people think about the process it takes to produce wine. I'm going to tell you in pictures and words about my weekend jaunt through central Texas.
Our first stop was a place called Pedernales Cellars. The winery is located in Stonewall, Texas. That's about an hour away from Austin and about 15 minutes away from Fredricksburg.
I'd like to take a moment here to clarify something. Texans measure distance in hours, not miles. This may seem weird, I know. In miles, it is a little over 65 miles west of Austin. But like that Northern saying goes: you can't get there from here. It's not a straight shot. Be thankful you have a map on your phone or an app to help you find your way around. Paper maps might have become a thing of the past, but just try and imagine finding your way around without your phone. Scary thought, huh?
The second place we visited is called Lewis Wines located on 'wine' road 290 in Johnson City. That's near Fredricksburg... Some of you have no idea where I'm talking about. 'Sigh', here goes... Find a picture of Texas. Now point to the middle of the state. Imagine you're trying to find the balance point. If you were to take Texas and put it up on a huge triangle the places I'm talking about would be right where that top point would be. Got that? Good.
We then stopped for lunch in Wye, Texas, because why not? Sorry, couldn't resist. Lot of wine and local craft beers made and sold there. It's a small town and I'm not sure it's incorporated as a town. My Google-fu has failed me. However, I had a great rueben and a craft ale to wash it down with. Awesome and worth the time to investigate.
Our final stop was the Becker Vineyards near Fredricksburg. They could hold a wedding and reception out there. A gorgeous farm where they produce lavender alongside the wines. Ah, to sit in a chair on the back porch. An overhead fan gently blows a breeze of sweet herbs and fruit. You sip your wine as you gaze out over the long fields of grape vines. This whole week could have made me a fan of red wines. Indeed my appreciation for them grew with each new place I discovered. 

Back to reality

My vacation officially ended yesterday. Sure we packed up and had to check out by noon today, but we got back and put everything away, so that doesn't count. 
The dog was happy, even overjoyed, to see us. I can't say I've seen him do a happy dance with such enthusiasm before. We're settling back into things and there's tomorrow to acclimate before I head out into the 'real' world.
One of the things that make a vacation for me is doing something unexpected and outside your routine. My buddy and I went on a wine tasting tour of the Hill Country. Others in my family are bigger wine drinkers than I am, but I can appreciate quality.
Our first stop was actually a day or two before the wine tour officially kicked off. (See? There's that unexpected and outside the routine I talked about.) When stuff like that happens, just go with the flow.
The flow, in this case was Blue Lotus Winery. Our reason for the visit? They are one of the handful of wineries to make mead.
Here's the list. Sweet strawberry mead that tastes like jam. Light and crisp peach mead. We got to talking to the brew master. I had a few questions for him on how I could improve my brewing skills. After trading stories he disappears in back, returning with a glass of dark amber liquid. 'I want you to try this, it's not on the menu.'
Oooh, an experimental flavor! How cool. The sweetness of honey combined with the bitterness of hops. That's right. He made a mead and then proceeded to brew it as if it were a beer. Wonderful flavors hit my tongue and left me stunned. Now here's the lesson I've been trying to learn when brewing: Patience.
The stuff I make is all well and good, but there is something in the aging process that improves the flavor. We're talking three to five years. On the bottle it suggests the mead ages well over ten years. I don't know if I can wait that long.
On the bottom of that last link is one called the Necromancer. No arguing about it, the price is steep, but what do you get? Aged in oak barrels and caramel flavors reminded me of single malt scotches, but without the burning down your throat. We also walked away with some apple cyser that was on tap. It was such a hit we went back the next day and got three more bottles. That made the tubing down the river much better.
Tomorrow I'll post about the other wineries and places I visited.

Flood pics

Yes, it's raining. How bad, you say?

Surf's up

This is the drainage ditch behind my house. An hour ago it got upgraded to small creek status.

Water skiing anyone?

There's another stream/river going down my street. Notice the lake forming in my front yard. Here's one of the bush I planted in the front yard.

Memo to me: install gutters.

This is insane. It's supposed to clear up by the weekend. That is if my house and yard haven't washed away.

weekend marriage

One of the relatives got married this last weekend. Normally I'd post about it as soon as I got home, but my computer had other ideas. So I'm starting it now and no telling how far I'll get.
First off, Ken and Samantha make a cute couple. I've known Ken since he was a little kid. Last year his brother got married in a marina near Johnson Space Center. This time it was farther inland.
The two of them got married in a vineyard. Bernhardt winery to be exact, in Navasota, which is a little northwest of Houston.
The happy couple like board games and that was the theme of the wedding. For instance, we sat at the Skip-Bo table.

So much easier than little name tags and placards

We are experiencing rain from a tropical storm that made landfall yesterday. Also, my network adapter card is behaving erratically. Please bear with me and I apologize about the lack of posts,  both from earlier in the week and next week as well.
Looks like I'll be getting a new network adapter soon.
On with the pictures then.

Love the wedding figurines

Every table had a Lego heart

Super Jenga!

I want these dice

The ring bearer in all his glory

New tricks, old obstacles

Starting to feel back to normal. There's still the occasional cough to remind me not to over exert myself. That said, we're driving to Houston for a wedding this weekend. Oh joy!
That reminds me, Father's day cards. Sent the international card yesterday. Tomorrow I'll put the other one in the mailbox before we leave.
All our bills are paid off for June, hurrah! We can have a week or two before July's bills arrive. A whole week!
Some times we have to appreciate the little things life brings us.
I'm figuring out day-to-day problems and people are coming to me for help with theirs. Right before leaving work, three people sought me out. They needed help with putting a garage door away, but didn't know how to operate the device that would allow them to secure it before putting it up.
A co-worker remarked that she and I might live in the same neighborhood. Turns out we live a few miles apart. Small world.

I'm reading about the stuff trickling out of the New Horizons website. We're getting some tantalizing pictures and the next month only promises more. There was an interesting blog post I read the other day from Mark Showalter.
The post isn't that long and the visuals really put things in perspective for me. Pluto isn't quite a planet. More along the lines of a collection of rocks that haven't quite gotten their act together. If they did crash into one another, possibly combining into a larger whole, then we can bring up the; 'Is it a planet?,' debate.
As it is, the Pluto system is fascinating all unto itself. These proto-planets are a reminder that life on earth isn't that bad. I would get spacesick the way the moons twist about in orbit trying to establish dominance. Call me old fashioned, but I like my sun to rise in the east from the same general direction. (with Earth's axis taken into account.) 

Not healthy enough

This morning I thought perhaps I could go to work, then I tried to move. Sure, there wasn't as much coughing and I actually could breathe through the night. By habit I woke up at 5 AM and walked to the kitchen and back. It took a bit more energy than I thought. What little fuel reserves I had would be gone before I actually got moving. Not wanting to collapse at work, I called in again. Even now I feel drained. There's a nap in my future. For the past three days I've been tossing back NyQuil like it was fruit juice. My mind says to move my ass and get my crap together. The body does not agree. Unfortunately, body overrules mind at the moment.
What to do while the body heals? For starters I caught up on some reading. That's a vicious cycle because a lot of my favorite authors are coming out with their latest novels in the next week or two.
As I sit typing the wife coughs and clears her throat. Unfortunately, she is about to go through what I am getting rid of, I wish it were otherwise. Of course I passed this cold on as she laid by my side for several days now. My daughters haven't come out of their bedrooms yet. While it is summer, I can't have them sleeping all day.
This was not intended to be a pity post. I don't believe in whitewashing things. the Texas summer is upon us and while there will be fun, there is also going to be some rain on the picnic, as they say.
We'll take it in stride.
No word from my editor about the chapter I sent her. That can be good or bad. She knows it's coming. I sent it a week ago. (Maybe more than a week, the mind is playing time warp on me.) There are a few things I'm expecting in the mail later this week, surprises for the upcoming vacation. No spoilers from me. You'll have to wait and see.

Summer cold

Short update here. It seems I caught a summer bug. My head is feeling ten pounds heavier thing. The wife said she would pick up some DayQuil and cough drops on the way home. It's better that I get this out of the way now before summer kicks into high gear.
Here's some of the things I've been following.

• The lightsail cube satellite is ongoing. They're working on solar sailing rather than relying on solid propellant.
• Dawn is closely orbiting Ceres and what are those bright spots? Think about that for a second. All things reflect light. The water on our planet, the atmosphere of Jupiter. Ceres is a dark hunk of rock, but it has a couple of bright freckles on it. Ice? Salt? We're going to find out.
• As New Horizons gets closer to Pluto, the stranger it gets. In a way, the scientific community may be right in demoting Pluto to dwarf planet status. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Pluto could be considered a proto-planetary system.

I'm just geeking out at all the stuff going on. This is way more important than the headlines we've been seeing lately

In theory

Consider Schrodinger's cat. The unobserved cat may be alive or dead in the box. There's no sure way to tell unless you open the box to observe.
Monday while putting away stock, I set aside a door to be put on a top shelf. The department people are reasonably competent and know how to take care of their area of the store. When I ran that department, I made it my business to keep the place clean and orderly. It was merely good customer service. Two days later, the door is still leaning against it's fellow doors, waiting to be put away.
Last week, a shipment of corrugated roofing came in. Because I was off for a three day weekend, my coworkers assured me it would be taken care of. Monday morning, the roofing awaited for me to put it away.
There are other similar instances, but those were the last two that came to mind.
My working theory is that my store, the items inside, and the people employed there, cease to exist when I'm not around. They don't come into being until I pull into the parking lot.
When I leave on Friday, every object inside is frozen in time until I arrive Monday morning.
That is the only explanation I can think of that would account for absolutely no work getting done until I arrive.
Well, that's not completely true. My other theory, which I like less, is that they could be stupid lazy morons who barely listen to their bodily functions telling them when they have to take a piss.
The only thought I'm left wondering is that does the time lock theory extend to the entire world that I'm not in direct contact with or simply the local store I work at? It would explain a lot of what's going on.