Starting to Fall

This weekend wasn't as blistering as the ones before it. The grass is merely dead and not kindling waiting for a match. Last night it got down to the mid sixties. It seems we turned a corner here in mid-Texas. We equally enjoy and complain about the heat. I know, that seems like a contradiction. Now is the time to plant a fall garden here in what is generally considered the Hill Country. It took me a while to figure that out. July and August is the don't you dare plant anything months. This is just a reminder for me to purchase some dirt. I think I figured out how to get the lawn to come back. Now I need the materials to do it. Throwing money at a problem to make it go away. Seems like the thing to do.
I'm thinking of putting my herb garden back in order. About the only thing that survived was the rosemary bush. We had some truly massive rainstorms over the course of the summer and my oregano took a beating. I want to say it's 85-90% dead, but trying to make a comeback. I like to remain hopeful.
We kissed our cable goodbye. AT&T raised their prices again after promising us they wouldn't. This is called voting with your wallet and you'd be surprised at how effective it is. This is exactly why I love it when there are cable and phone companies trying to compete for my hard earned dollars. If a company can't give me what I want or doesn't do as they promised, I take my business elsewhere. We've entered a new phase here in my household. No Time Warner. No land lines, We're streaming our favorite programming over the internet and video on demand services such as Netflix and Hulu. There are drawbacks to be sure. Not all of my favorite things are available, for example, the TV series Firefly.
I enjoyed watching all the episodes on Netflix. (Another black mark against Fox for cancelling a great show.) But where was that movie, Serenity? That was supposed to tie up some loose ends from the show before it was cut by the evil bean counters at Fox. Who did Joss Whedon piss off over there in Rupert Murdoch land? The movie isn't on Netflix or Hulu and it was released ten years ago! I smell contract dispute, that or someone is being pissy.
So I was having a conversation with my daughters and we were talking about the Beatles. I wanted to bring up Yellow Submarine on Netflix, but to no avail. Has Paul McCartney not given permission for it to be shown? I've noticed B movies and a lot of straight to video stuff is on Netflix. Stuff that was released a year ago, not so much.
This gives me the opportunity to refocus my time and energy, at least that's the way I'm looking at it.
In a few days I'll be taking the wife to the mead fest and play in that sandbox for a bit. When company comes in October, I want to have the chance to show the stuff I made.

Mad brew

My kids don't like when I talk about my home brewing hobby. I can see their side of it, (through the rolling teenager eyes of course.) When I bought tickets to go to a local mead fest, my daughter pointed out; 'People go there to get drunk.'
Well... yes and no. The same could be said for any popular dance club on a Saturday night.
The wife and I are going to see what other home brewers are doing. We're going to have a few tastes and network with people who are doing what we are considering going into.
Let me start with a preface: We are not quitting our day jobs. I like eating and having a roof over my head. That said, our jobs are not enough. They've kept the lights on, and we're not going hungry for the most part, but we can't go on living like this. A long time ago we both realized that we are one accident away from ruin. There's a mad scramble when a car breaks down, but if I were to be hospitalized for a hernia, things would get pretty dire.
This is for my family. 
Wouldn't it be nice to say, 'Put it on the credit card.' rather than count out pennies and dimes at the supermarket? Wouldn't it be nice to have a credit card?
I'm at the point where I need to enter a contest or county fair with what I'm making. Now that I've gotten the hang of it, I can unequivocally say what I make doesn't suck.

This is the dangerous one

 When I made this, I thought three Serrano peppers might not be enough. Oh, how wrong I was.
You smell the capsaicin oil as you tip the glass back, but your taste buds tell you this is a sweet drink. Then a tiny scorpion will proceed to dance on your tongue for twenty or thirty seconds.
Nailed it.


So many friends asked about this next one I think I'll be making this regularly. My prickly pear mead, Lady Jane's time out.

A new flavor of awesome

Yes, I named this with a nod to my stepmom, whom I think the world of. It started off as a joke, but the more popular it got, the more the name made perfect sense.
As of this writing I have a handful of friends who are waiting in line for me to declare this batch is ready. The first time brewing this I gave away over sixteen to eighteen bottles. The others became wedding gifts, white elephant presents at Christmas parties and so forth.

The next one caught my eye when I read about it in an online forum. There were no recipes or they varied so much I had to use my best judgement and I think I came fairly close to what I wanted.

Not a typo

This is a pineapple ginger mead. After a lot of thinking, this might be best described as a dessert beverage. I'm tempted to describe it as candy sweet.
My daughter who does the teen eye roll over her dad's weird hobbies actually came up with the name for this one.

But there is a bigger purpose. I want to do more for my family. 
A long time ago I thought I could use my natural physical abilities to earn a living. What I learned was everyone has a number. No matter how good you are, no matter how often you perform a feat/trick/routine, there will be a time where it all goes wrong. If we're lucky, we live through it.
So now I have the ability to make things people like and it's not nearly so death defying.
After perfecting the recipes, my next step will be to enter a contest or two, get some exposure. In mingling with the home brew crowd, I learned they are all about sharing ideas and promoting the hobby. No trade secrets, no copyrights per se. It's more of an artistic endeavor. Fortunately it's one that can translate to a capitalistic venture as well. 
The wife came up with the name B&C meadery. Easy enough to change in the computer when a batch of beer comes out to B&C brewery. Beer is easy, mead presents it's own challenges. Right now the operation is very small. Looking over to the corner I have approximately forty bottles corked and aging on the rack. The rack is overflowing and I'll be building another winerack in the near future. I sense a weekend project coming up.
Saturday I invited a few friends over for an informal tasting of my latest creations. This is not simply an opportunity to show off. I'm recruiting. That sounds bad when I put it out like that. There is a meme that pops up online every so often and it goes like this:

'If you want to sail the ocean, do not hire woodworkers to build your craft. Instead, teach them the love and longing of the sea.'

A few of these friends have abilities. A few of these friends have contacts. Every one of them knows things I don't.
While doing this out of my garage has convenient access to the tools I need, I require a more structured work area. I'm going to rebuild my porch while letting my brother-in-law know if he can locate a shed for my backyard. Temperature control is critical for this to work and I'll have to run a water line out to said insulated, bee proof building. Making mead attracts bees, go figure.

I'm imagining a building in the future. It looks like a country barn from the outside, but inside there is a gift shop and more than a few tables both inside and on the enclosed porch. A small delicatessen/tea room style restaurant with snack foods to compliment the honey wine I produce on the premises. Who knows? I might have to hire a beekeeper. Right now I get the honey from a local beekeeper. I want to keep things local. The standing offer with my friends is bring me your empty wine bottles and receive a bottle of mead in return. We've made a deal recently for a healthy supply of bottles. Barter makes the world go round.
This is where it starts and things will begin slow, but progress will be made.

The greatest gift

And now for something not so silly.
My friend Nick Sandora heads the Culinary arts program at Lake Minneola High School down in Florida. He put up some photos on a wall of his students who have gone on to greater achievements.
 It may just be getting started, but that wall is going to get awfully crowded. Having his students succeed is the mark of a great teacher. If the measure of a man is by his deeds, then my friend Nick is well on his way to greatness. These students will become business owners or leaders in their community. When they get an award or commendation, they will remember who got them started on the path to greatness. It will go along these lines:
A woman gets up on a stage to thunderous applause. She is handed a shiny award for her work as a business leader. In her acceptance speech she thanks her teacher, Nick Sandora, who gave her the inspiration to become the person she is today. I can think of no higher honor than to be remembered by your students as a great teacher.
I am proud to be your friend Nick. You are awesome!

'Tis the season

Ah, Labor day. The day where we work our tails off in complete irony. Today was supposed to be my day off, but just as there is no such thing as vacation during a holiday weekend, there is no such thing as a weekend off during a three day weekend. For years I worked a flex schedule and never questioned the significance of not having a weekend. Saturday held no greater importance than Tuesday in my retail/ server mode of thinking.
For the last few years I've worked Monday through Friday and enjoyed the same thing as the rest of the world. Friday night football games, mowing the lawn on Saturdays, sleeping in on Sundays. I wouldn't trade it for the world. One of my managers suggested I go back to a flex schedule and I'm very proud I kept a straight face and didn't tell her to go to hell. Once you give a person a taste of freedom, (or in my case feeling like a human being.) you can't make them go back. Well, you can force somebody to do that, but historically it's a bad idea. Revolts and revolutions have started for less.
Today was supposed to be my day off, but hold up there cowboy, everybody works today. Especially when a truckload of appliances comes in. Not for nothing, but it was my third truck this week. The belts they give us leave a lot to be desired. The only reason I haven't gotten a hernia yet is because I change them out often. My back is still messed up and my fingers are falling asleep typing this post. Just a reminder to keep looking for a better job.
After we took care of the truck (we're good at unloading it, but we still hate to do it more than once a week.) we went where ever there was work to be done. Paint this. Mop that. Carry, pull, push. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Then the epiphany hit me. The realization a cashier ten or fifteen years my junior, was ordering me around like I was her servant. A few people treat me as an equal there. They work with me or have a conversation and realize: hey, this guy is okay. Still, for every one person I impress, there are three who think less of me. I haven't lost any sleep over that, but one more reason to get out.
Here's the problem: I've tasted freedom and seen how other people live. Is it any wonder I'm having difficulty going back into the tiny mind set? 
Why do I stay? The powers that be want money and this is the quickest way to pay them off. We recently had a meeting with Social Insecurity and it may lead to a reduction in the debt I owe. I'm not going to apologize for feeding my family or keeping a roof over our heads. Still 300 bucks a month goes back to da guberment. That money may not mean a lot to others, but I could make a lot of stuff happen with that amount of cash.
I may be working in retail purgatory, but it could be worse. And perhaps, just perhaps, there is a part of me that wishes to pay the government back for keeping me alive and my family together. Still, if it's a few years off my sentence (penalty box?), I'm going to take it.
I suppose this is why I'm brewing and writing, because I can't keep going on being in the herd. Friends of mine have had heart attacks and seizures and they can only find work in the big box stores. What's wrong with this picture? The current economic mindset is killing our brightest minds.
Later in the month there will be a mead festival in Gruene, Texas. Right next to where family and friends vacationed a few months ago. The wife and I will be going. I want to network with these folks and see what there is to see. Pieces are falling into place.
A chef who could design a menu around what I brew.
Friends who know about the restaurant industry along with my knowledge and experience.
A computer savvy person to help design the infrastructure.
And finally, a location where I can produce and sell what I brew. 
I'm thinking a tea room brunch style place. Mead and sandwiches sort of stuff.
The kids may not care about what I'm making, but I'm refining recipes people like. Perhaps there is a way for this to become profitable.
If you're not the lead dog, the view never changes.

A better person

Moving on.
Those words can mean so much and at the same time, nothing at all.
We get on with our lives in one way or another. There are a few major events people refer to as milestones. First baby tooth pulled. Start of college. Moving out of your parents house. Buying your own house. Marriage. Divorce. Grandchildren. The cycle goes on.
I'm looking for a word to describe what happens to me every few weeks. Somewhere in between the big and small things in life.
If marriage is an event and finding a twenty in your winter coat is a happy moment, I'm searching to describe what occurs in between those two.
The euphoric relief you have after accomplishing a daunting task. A sense of pride after repairing a broken appliance.
I feel happy after I've fixed a child's toy, or replaced the disks on the truck, my toy.
With the changing of the seasons, I muck around in the garage for a bit, trying to bring order to chaos. (I'm writing this to put off that particular task.) There's a discard pile that is bigger than my hang on to pile and it must go. My garbage man is going to have a retroactive hernia one day because of me.
Still, I'll feel good when I can look at the bare concrete floor again and not the obstacle course it is now. So this is where my daughters get it. Any burglar breaking into our home would trip and kill himself if he tried to navigate certain rooms in my house. When said robber hits the floor he will be immediately set upon by our dog. He may make it to the hospital to remove Legos from his feet and a fork puncturing his backside, but doctors will note his face will have been licked clean by our faithful companion. 

So there's nothing more to say, fall cleaning has come. I'll be happy when it's over and we're battened down for the winter. 
Today I started my Oktoberfest beer. Hopefully when it's done around 10/10, it will have a pecan flavor and color. So yes, I have a fondness for pecans, caramel, and honey in general. I threw out one full garbage can full of trash, so that's my reward.

Continuing fallout

I was afraid of this. There have been several suicides, resignations and careers ruined because of the Ashley Madison leak. Even my own city isn't immune to the controversy. Our own Police Captain Micheal Gorhum took his own life after it was discovered his work e-mail was linked to an Ashley Madison account. Here's the link to that article.
Lawsuits have been filed. Lawyers are having a field day. Politicians are resigning or at least backpeddling. Okay, that last one made me smile a little. How can you tell when a politician is lying? His lips move.
But enough of this Puritanical bullshit. Not everyone deserves to be outed like that. When things like this happen, I'm reminded the world isn't black and white. People have reasons for wanting to have a friends with benefits arrangement. In reading the last few articles from one of my favorite columnists, Dan Savage, he explains some of those reasons. Here is where I first found out about people taking their own lives over this.
I'm not apologizing for others or trying to explain situations away. As one of the letter writers points out, a marriage without intimacy is on occasion a reason.
Okay, politicians get off on power. I get that. Having a mistress is a power trip. It certainly feeds the ego. Then there is, 'Oh we sleep in separate beds because our sexual needs are different.' I'm calling bullshit on that one.
If you or your spouse don't love each other, why the fuck are you married? For the children? Get a clue! Kids are way smarter than anyone gives them credit for. Don't hide behind your kids as an excuse for your failings.
People change. Hopefully they learn and grow. The reasons are many and varied. I'm not one to judge on this whole thing. If I'm angry with anyone, it's with this Team Impact group of hackers. They are amputating a limb to treat a sprained ankle. Who appointed them judge and jury?
My day job is taking it's toll on my body. As I sit here and write this my neck and back are loudly complaining for painkillers and alcohol. After I post this I'll do one or the other, I haven't made up my mind yet. I have no trouble getting excited over personal quality time with the wife, but I have a problem staying that way. When I went on vacation during the summer (Not straining and exerting myself.) I had no intimacy problems start to finish. The back muscles and nerves are just about shot from the heavy lifting I do every week.
Go to a chiropractor you say? I did and I really need to continue going, but I can only afford him in small doses. Yes, my hands fall asleep while driving to work and I'm still paying off the last adjustment. Catch 22, to be sure.
My wife has been in pain these last few weeks. A turned rib that makes it almost impossible to use her left arm. We both lay next to one another in pain and barely holding hands. Does this mean we have an excuse to dally around? Hell no! We're a middle age couple in love and our bodies are out of warranty. We do manage to cuddle very carefully. We both have to get to a doctor because deep down we know this is not healthy or how it's supposed to be.
Yes, hypocritical assholes and pray away the gay politicians need to be taken down a peg or two. There is no problem outing Josh Duggar. I feel sorry for his wife, but it looks like the pod people got to her and sapped the self-respect away.
The rest of us normal folks? This is certainly a life changing experience, but not a life ending one.
There are many colors in the world, not merely two. Team Impact and the Right wing nut jobs would be better to remember that.

Names and Places

The last few days have been interesting in an instant karma kind of way. A group of hackers released around thirty gigabytes of names and profiles from the online company Ashley Madison, a company that promotes cheating and infidelity. Unlike most people I wondered who claimed responsibility for the hack. The go-to group was the hacktivist group Anonymous, but it wasn't them. A little Google-fu revealed the name. A group calling themselves Impact Team attacked two sites, Ashley Madison and Exceptional men, both owned by Avid Life Media. In reading the Wired article it states Impact Team was morally outraged at the websites and the practices they condoned.
The first big data dump was last Tuesday. Journalists and social media bloggers have been poring over that data and came up with not only government employees using their work e-mails but the current king of hypocrites, Josh Duggar. There's that karma thing. People thought he was a douchebag before, but it was so much bigger.
But Thursday and Friday there were two more data dumps of far more importance. The proprietary source code and seventy three gigs of repositories. Now any hacker worthy of the name can look for exploits. From my perspective, Impact Team just drove a stake through the heart of ALM.
The first word about a data security breach at Ashley Madison was on July 19. The hackers had already gotten what they wanted. Impact Team contacted ALM and demanded they shut down the sites in question or else. Ashley Madison reportedly made 115 million last year so ALM wasn't about to cave in to what amounted to what they saw as a terrorist threat. Thirty days later, August 19th, the hackers made good on their threat.
In reading the article, the hackers may get away with it. If they covered their tracks and took precautions, and it appears they did, authorities won't find so much as a foot print. Here is the full article from Wired. 
Part of me is cheering for Impact Team and their smack down on a company that promotes infidelity and was poised to become an IPO. (What does that say about society?)
Another part of me worries about these cyber bullies and what they represent. Some people might call them vigilantes, and they'd be right. My concern stems from the old trope: 'Who watches the watchers?'
Many years ago, a few well meaning computer literate beings wrote a virus-like program that was designed to seek out child pornography and report the IP addresses, names and numbers of people who downloaded it. The intention was to take out child molesters. Unfortunately that's not how it works. The police couldn't use that information because it violates a number of constitutional rights. Not only that, but the manner in which the information was obtained opens a whole can of Orwellian worms. Sorry, the law doesn't work that way.
It's a slippery slope where people can expose the private information of people who pissed them off. It is another matter entirely to bring down and destroy a multi-million dollar company.
So Impact Team has stepped on a cockroach that angered them. The only thing you've taught these lowlifes is to burrow into the shadows a bit deeper. Despite our public disdain, ALM, or a similar company will crop up to take Ashley Madison's place. When they do, you can bet your ass the security will be beefed up.
If I can use an analogy. Let's say I get a speeding ticket going down a certain road on my way to work. I pay the fine and knowing the police officers are fond of catching motorists on this certain stretch of highway, I take an alternate route to my job. Ask yourself, 'What has this accomplished?'
The scum at ALM will still be bottom feeders. Lying cheating bastards like Josh Duggar will go on living. These two types of dirt bags will always find a way. Impact Team may have felt morally outraged and they have the skill sets to bring the assholes down, but have they really brought them to justice? Hardly.