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March 7, 2022 – At Least Once per 17 Years

March 7, 2022 /

I had a busy weekend. It seems like I always have 20 things to get done in 10 items worth of time. At least, we didn’t have anything scheduled so I was free to spend the majority of my time on stuff that needed to get done. Something that has been bugging me for several years was that our deep freezer needed to be defrosted.

After last summer, we cleaned out my in-laws freezer (20 cubic ft, which was completely full) I could barely fit the contents in our freezer. It was not like it was particularly full, but the usable space was probably reduced by at least a third due to ice buildup. This wasn’t new news to me, It just put it in perspective that something needed to be done.

The worst time to defrost the freezer is when it is full. The second worst time to do it is in the summer, unless it is completely empty, then of course it is the best time. I was giving it some time to get emptied out, but I also wanted to get it done before it was warm. Not too warm, because I needed to transfer everything to coolers while I executed the process.

We bought this freezer for $50 in 2005. In fact, we used the U-Haul that we were moving stuff from the storage unit to our house to pick it up. So, it has been plugged in since that time and this is the first time I have ever defrosted it. There have been a few times over the years that the door wasn’t shut which is what started the ice growth in the first place.

Can I be honest? This is probably the best $50 ever invested. The amount of money we have saved by buying beef at $2 / pound when the going rate was $4 for hamburger, we have literally saved thousands of dollars and ate like kings. There is hardly a day that the door is not opened. Additionally, we have frozen berries on sheets and temporarily housed stuff for others. For me, a freezer is a must have.

We have to talk about the science of freezing for a minute. When ice melts, we know it turns into water. That water is 32 degrees (or a hair higher). In effect, it insulates the remaining ice as long as it is in contact, considering the outside temperature is 55 degrees. Why is this important? It means that the first step in defrosting is physical removal of as much ice as possible. Not only is this less total mass to melt, but it translates to speeding up the time dramatically.

That seems straight forward. I used a hammer and a wide putty knife to try and get under the ice that is caked in the coils. You need to be very careful not to damage the coil or you will have a ruined freezer. In my case I had ice above and below the shelves so I tried to chisel in the putty knife and lift.

Your best friend in defrosting is actually the ambient temperature. This is partially why I waited until spring was showing to do this. The other tool I used was a heat gun. This worked really well in melting small spots and places frozen around the tubing but it was slow. Literally, all of the freezer was dripping and melting while I concentrated on a small area with the heat gun.

You want to get all the water out. That will just re-freeze and begin the whole cycle over. So, I washed the dried blood out (that was from putting a whole fresh beef head in the freezer last year) and the sticky who knows what. Then I took a dry towel and absorbed any drops I could find.

All told, this probably took 12 hours to do. I did leave for four hours in the middle to attend the gun show. While I was gone, the ice was melting away just sitting there. I also took the opportunity to clean the outside and sweep all the junk from behind and under the freezer. For some reason, there was a lot of dog food. In fact, I even found dog food in the freezer. I am not sure how that got there, but I suspect the kids had something to do with it.

It doesn’t look like that much ice in the picture. This made being able to stack two pounds of burger to now being able to stack four pounds. Granted, it wasn’t that bad on every shelf but the top shelf I had already removed all of the top ice before I took the picture. In that case, I could only stack one whole chicken high. The other added problem was that the surface was not level and stuff had a tendency to slide or fall out if not precariously organized.

My mom used to defrost the freezer once every couple of years. We tended to fill it and then empty it growing up. In my case, inventory is constantly ebbing and flowing which makes it harder. One more tip, we didn’t have a heat gun so she would use the blower exhaust from the vacuum. It doesn’t get nearly as hot, but it does push a lot of volume of air. Finally, be prepared for water everywhere. Have towels and catch basins available. I did it in the garage, so the wet wasn’t a problem but a finished floor would have been a disaster.

End Your Programming Routine: I am happy this is done and I am glad that I spent my time on it. I can see everything and I have a lot more room. Like I said, this is something I have been wanting to do for years. Maybe I won’t wait so long next time (or maybe I wont have kids that don’t close the door properly). And, everything was still rock solid in my coolers when I went to put it away – no extra mess.

March 4, 2022 – American Dream Series: Opportunity

March 4, 2022 /

Like many of these concepts, opportunity can be subjective. I have written several times about absolute and subjective interpretation. I have also landed on the the idea of absolute definition when it comes to philosophy, like I am going to discuss today. However, it is complicated.

What is opportunity in the context of America? I think that the version of what we are talking about stems from our European origins. In my opinion, it technically means that we don’t have a ruling family or class and therefore there is not a glass ceiling for any individual. Meaning, it is possible for anyone of us to do anything that we set our minds to.

Obviously, there are sometimes physical limitations like someone in a wheelchair is likely not going to play in the NBA. I think most people get that exception to that. So we are really talking about the potential to do anything that we are capable of doing. I am not putting them down, it would be analogous to someone saying I want to live underwater like a merman. It is a limitation of the human body and the application of what we are trying to accomplish.

Do we really have the opportunity to do anything we want? Well, yes and no. We have the opportunity to do whatever we want as long as it is not interfering with someone else. And, I am not talking about criminal enterprise, I am talking about once we get to a certain level we start to interfere with powerful and rich people that don’t want someone to succeed at their expense.

Do you remember when we had George W. Bush’s ‘Too Big to Fail’ policy? Pure opportunity would have let those organizations fail and some bank with less debt or a better strategy would have assumed their position. We didn’t let those banks and investment firms fail because it would have literally crushed the economy (as it is currently created). Let’s be honest if the failure would have only hurt the common man, it would have likely happened but because it effected the Oligarchs as well then it was ‘too big to fail’.

There’s that word Oligarchs… I think we know some of them Gates, Walton, Bloomberg, Musk etc. There are others like Kennedy and Rockefeller that are familiar but we don’t get the connection and still others that we don’t know. This isn’t about conspiracy, this is about stating that there are forces beyond elected officials that are influencing policy much greater than voting.

The way to disrupt the system is to not play the same game. The rise of cryptocurrency is going to eventually ridicule traditional financial vehicles. And then, we may have a new batch of Oligarchs. There is hope, technologies suck as block chain will end the graft and influence that goes along with it. This is because there is no debate with public block chain, it is binary. You did it or you didn’t. You paid or you did not. It is all a matter of what is recorded, it is all visible and transparent.

I want to end this now because there are so many other aspects to opportunity than problems a few people will deal with. Probably what most people focus on is not whether you can become an oligarch but can you get out of the housing projects. I think the answer is yes but I will not deny that it will be difficult and most won’t.

If your mother was a drug addict or in an abusive relationship, what is a six year old going to do about that? To make matters worse, when that condition becomes normalized to a child they may not even recognize that there are other options. When you can be easily distinguished by the color or your skin as different, I will say that is a potential obstacle to overcome. But If there is a spark, if there is one person to be a role model, if there is desire then there is still opportunity.

I hate to say it, but some people are not going to have opportunity. This is not because it doesn’t exist but because it was taken from them. This is analogous to having someone steal your bike. You know how to ride, there are roads, there is nothing preventing it except you do not have a bike. Therefore, the opportunity to ride a bike is not there because it was taken. No matter how much you want to ride a bike or others want you to ride a bike or the government builds bike lanes, it doesn’t make it not stolen.

I suppose that is another aspect to this. Some people will not even notice their bike was stolen. Other’s will get a job or save money or put it on a credit card. The most important thing is that they have the drive to replace it. There is a third person that spends all of their time wallowing in the fact that the bike was stolen rather than moving on. Many would probably argue that there is a forth person that wants to be the second.

Because of their circumstances, it is difficult to get a job or save money or get credit. I am being simplistic, but to me that is a form of the third. It very well may be that they are barely making it on two jobs with five kids. If we are to assume that everything is on the up and up, we can credit them for taking responsibility for prior decisions. That is not to say that they couldn’t abandon their kids and sign-up for a new life, maybe in small increments at a time.

I am not suggesting that they do this. What is says to me is that is decisions have consequences. And consequences may limit opportunity out of morality. That is definitely the right thing to do but it is not lack of opportunity. Probably the best descriptor is opportunity wasted (sorry for being harsh).

Still other’s are going to argue this term systemic racism or women are not treated equal as men. Equality is a subject for next week but in reality, equality always relates to opportunity like rights to liberty. So, I will shelve that particular aspect and we will get into it next week.

End Your Programming Routine: I will never make it as a Supreme Court Justice because I am not a black woman – that is lack of opportunity for sure Joe Biden. But, it doesn’t mean I can’t try. I could go to law school, campaign to be a judge and work my tail off. Someday, another president will actually look at all the facts when making considerations for a nominee. Opportunity doesn’t guarantee that I will succeed but that whatever I want is possible.

March 3, 2022 – Did You Know that I Hate Technology?

March 3, 2022 /

Sorry fans of Tacticool Thursday. It will be back but unfortunately, I have kind of run out of content since I have not been to the range in two months and as a result, I have not invested much thought or expense in that direction. I am going to my local gun club’s gun show this weekend. It is the first time in two years that it has been held and looking forward to it.

Two things this week irked me. The first is that we actually (kinda) have a home phone. It is not a landline but a wireless device that plugs into the phone lines and allows you to have phones throughout the house. This is truly not necessary but we got it a long time ago, when my kids were babies. It was also the time in life that not everyone had a cell phone. The intent was for the kids to be able to access to a phone or even a babysitter. I have also found that I can have a cordless phone in the shop and can see it or hear it ringing when I have machinery running. That is not always the case when my phone is in my pocket.

It is important to my wife that I am instantly available whenever she calls. Me, I like the redundancy factor that it provides. Well, it runs on 3G which is getting decommissioned. So, they sent us a new device to replace the old one (I think this is 4G). All we had to do was unplug the old device and plug in the new one. Nope, not that simple.

I had a foreshadowing that this would be problematic as my parents did this same thing about two months ago. When my dad called me to explain this problem, I really didn’t know how to help him other than call support. Two hours of phone support resolved the problem. I believe that it was something to do with our phone plan and including the new device but I am not entirely sure.

More bad news. I have been using Myki as a password vault for the last year. I have been pretty happy with it as I can share passwords across devices. Consequently, I have been pretty disciplined in adding new accounts and a lot more free with password generation. Meaning I have not been using the same one over and over. I got news that it will be discontinued in a month.

Talk about a major hassle. I spent all the time to migrate from iOS mini Keepass to this and now I need to do it again.

I spend all day in technology. Honestly, the last thing I want to do is spend my evening with technical support. I realize that technology is a necessary evil but both of these things feel a little arbitrary to the customer. I know that both have strong business cases to do what they are doing but technology advances their interests without regard to the customer.

I think that it is a cultural phenomenon. The more an entity shits on it’s customer base, the more polarizing people seem to react. Some people seem to build status in having the latest and greatest. I think about when my iPhone 6 stopped working for no good reason. My iPhone 10 really doesn’t do anymore (at least that I care about) than the 6 did. To top it off, it is bigger than I wish it was. No one from Verizon or Apple could answer why it stopped working. By the way, I was also on-call that weekend.

I am a ‘Apple’ guy because I think the user experience is better than Android. I also appreciate their stance on privacy a hair more than Google. I also think that there products are well made. I thought that my Windows phone was just fine too. However, don’t think that I am in the tank for them or that I even trust them.

End Your Programming Routine: I think what I am trying to say is that I am beyond the technological arms race. I just want stuff to work and work without hassle. Maybe we should simplify and get rid of the home phone, it would be cheaper and less hassle. I guess that is the sign of getting old and crochety. At some point, I will stop online shopping and looking for jobs, etc because it is too much hassle to keep up with passwords and 20,000 accounts.

March 2, 2022 – A True Fan

March 2, 2022 /

What do you do when your team is 3-24 this year? You go to the game to watch the band.

Of course I am being a little bit facetious It wasn’t just the band, it was the cheerleaders, students and old friends you see. Oregon State is not my alma mater, but my first love. I was a fan, listening to football and basketball games on the radio religiously when I was living at home. I was born and grew up Corvallis and the town was all about the university.

Despite my feelings towards OSU, I made the best choice for the time pursuing a degree at a much smaller, regional university. It was a far better fit for what I needed at the time I was going to school. I am a fan of my alma mater too, we simply get no real news coverage outside the region, radio is highly local and certainly no TV time. Sure, I could follow along with the internet but it is four hours away effectively eliminating any in-person attendance.

Being 47 now, there have been some ups and a lot of downs. My dad worked across the street from the University and his company were big boosters. The four founders of his company were all OSU grads in Engineering. Because of that, he would get tickets once a year and we would go to a basketball game. I saw the glory years of OSU basketball with AC Green and Gary Payton. My former boss played in the middle of those two. During those years, they were in conference title position every year.

The truth is, last year was the best year in my entire memory of Beaver basketball. Maybe not in totality, but they were an elite eight team in the NCAA tournament, really the only thing that matters. I went to a basketball game last year were the Beavers played University of Oregon and dominated the game. The Ducks were the defending conference champions and I believe made it to the sweet 16 last year as well. So, that was a statement of the quality of the team.

I checked back in the record book, this is the lowest win total since 1918 (3-13). By win percentage, this is the worst season ever. There have been some bad ones along the way. 2016-17 they were 4-24. I also remember that they lost the opening game to the local university, badly. Of course, that was the year that Western Oregon University was in the Division II final four. Maybe, it was a calamity of circumstances.

Despite their record, they didn’t play like they were the worst team in the history of the program. In fact, OSU was ahead nearly the entire game. It was only with 15 seconds remaining that the game was tied and went into overtime. At halftime, they were ahead by 12. The opponent definitely made the right adjustments and had the right strategy to exploit OSU.

End Your Programming Routine: As a true fan, I didn’t mind seeing a bad team because it was a good game and we had hope up until the last minute of OT. The last time I was at a women’s basketball game, we had to wait over an hour just to get out of our parking spot. That was frustrating. Taking my son to the game, this was a chance to imagine what college life might be like if he wanted to play in the band or just as a student. It is exciting, no matter what your record is.

March 1, 2022 – Far Eastern Cookery?

March 1, 2022 /

That seems like a funny name. Well it is the title of the latest book I finished reading. My son bought me a couple books from the local used book store for me to read for my birthday in January.

Apparently, Madhur Jaffery has had several TV shows on PBS in the 1980s. She is a James Beard award winner and primarily writes about Indian food. I have never heard of her or saw any of the shows. but definitely seems well credentialed.

What I like about this cook book is that it was written in 1990. This means that it was pre-internet and pre-access to everything, anytime we want it. Consequently, there are a lot of substitution suggestions and simple ingredients. One thing I really appreciate is not having an exhaustive inventory of exotic ingredients that get used a couple times a year.

This cookbook is a smattering of all Asian foods: Chinese, Japanese, Thai of course but also Korean, Malaysian, Indonesian, Vietnamese and also Filipino (had to look the spelling of that one up). The ingredients and the techniques are very simplistic for the most part. That makes things pretty approachable.

I plan to try a few things. I am going to make Filipino Menudo for sure. I made a Chinese hot and sour soup the other day that my family really liked. I personally like Thai, Vietnamese and Korean over the others but I am anxious to try some other cultures for something new.

It appears that book is widely available on the used market and pretty inexpensive at less than $10. Since I haven’t used it a bunch, I can recommend it yet. However, I like what I see and I think it fits well into my style of cooking.

End Your Programming Routine: The next book I am going to read is fiction. In fact, I am already a third of the way through it. I took that with me on my business trip rather than the unwieldy cookbook. Sometimes, it is just best to unplug and enjoy rather that reading for a purpose. A chapter a day and eventually I will make it through.

February 28, 2022 – Running Out of Words

February 28, 2022 /

No, I don’t mean that I am quitting. You will have to read to get to the punchline today. First, we have a long and winding path to get there, so let’s get started.

Valentine’s Day is over, so what is next for merchandizing? Why Easter of course. What does this have to do with anything? I am getting there.

When I first met my wife, I was introduced to something that I don’t see often. It is tradition called cascarón. This is where you save your egg shells be used for Easter. Essentially, you try to preserve as much of an intact eggshell by cracking off one end of the egg. You want to build up a large inventory of egg shells for coloring and filling.

This is where it get’s fun. Some of the shells are filled with confetti, flour or oatmeal and some might be filled with money and occasionally, there might even be a raw egg! What you do is run around and crack them on peoples heads. We hide them with traditional Easter eggs and then inevitably wait to get cracked. If you want to participate in this tradition, now is the time to start building up your inventory of eggshells.

You should know by now, I am going to take this a lot deeper. One of my first Easters with my Wife’s family was in 1995. We were going to school over 200 miles away and of course it was a school weekend and we had little means to travel so they came to us for the day. They brought the cascarones.

My wife was living in a townhouse with several exchange students. One of them was Japanese and this holiday was foreign. So, we invited her to join us for the meal and the Easter egg hunt. She brought a friend to the dinner whose name was Ai (also a Japanese exchange student).

After the dinner, and when it came to cracking eggs (by surprise is the best) they quickly caught on to what was likely going to happen. Ai got so freaked out that she ran to her bicycle and peddled away not to come back again that day. This was our Sophomore year and consequently my wife became really good friends with her Japanese roommate.

We have kept in contact with her roommate over all these years. Her roommate and Ai came to our wedding. Five years later, we all met at her roommate’s wedding in California. Ai studied theater in college and dreamed of Hollywood, which she pursued. Yesterday, Ai died of cancer.

We had heard that it was terminal a few months ago. In December, Ai left California to go back to Japan for her final days. To be honest, we weren’t nearly as close to Ai as we are to my wife’s roommate and dealing and our own demons concerning cancer, it was out of sight and out of mind. But, it hits that this was someone who we know that left us too early.

My wife deals with strong survivor’s guilt. She had a coworker who was our age and kids are the same age that died of cancer a few years ago, that was hard. They had even done chemotherapy at the same time. Then she had another friend who was younger than us by probably ten years die a couple years ago, that was worse. It feels like we know too many people battling and losing to cancer way too young.

I know, this is being hypervigilant. I see it one place and my eyes are open to where else it could be. But, I also can’t help but wonder what God is telling me in this situation. Not just me either, for people with survivor’s guilt as strongly as my wife’s what can she get out of the situation? Is there a message here, am I trying to make a connection that doesn’t exist or is this a fact of life that now I am getting older the probability to bad endings happen in life?

I talked about the neighbor kid that is battling last week, my mother-in-law is in her second year of treatment, people that are in my inner circle are in the fight of their lives. I’ve gone through it with my wife too. Compassion and empathy are some of my weaker areas for sure. I think I have them, but it is really difficult to express them adequately. Maybe that is what God is trying to tell me?

Yesterday in church, the sermon was conceptually about making the most of a situation (not necessarily dying). What can you do with what you have. The question of the bucket list came up. I had never really given it much thought because I have never created one. At least for me, I came down to goals and achievements are for the living. I don’t really have a traditional bucket list because I think that when that time comes, I wont want to have a final bunch of experiences before I die. I think the point of making the most of the situation actually means living before dying.

End Your Programming Routine: Of course, we are all going to face the inevitable. There is no doubt that if we live long enough, we will see our fair share of tragedy – however we define it. I suppose that I can consider myself lucky not having to witness something like the holocaust or to be born into slavery. With all things, it is not how we handle the acute situation, but the aftermath that is going to make the difference.

February 25, 2022 – American Dream Series: Liberty

February 25, 2022 /

This week marks the half way point in the values that make up the American Dream. Hopefully, this week will be a little easier to quantify than rights last week.

I suppose the best place to start is the origin of the concept. According to Wikipedia, the idea came from ancient Greece. Essentially it meant to not be a slave. That is pretty plain, either you are a slave or you have liberty. The word itself is derived from the Latin word Libertas. Libertas was a Roman goddess representing liberty. The likeness has been used in France on money and was the inspiration for the Statue of Liberty.

Now that that is done, we can look a little deeper into what it means today. If we strictly take the Greek concept, we are not slaves. If you look a little harder, notice that doesn’t mean there are no laws, it means that we are free to operate within the laws that exist. And if we go back to last week, laws in theory should be based on our rights. In theory, laws should support or strengthen our rights and never restrict them.

I don’t want to get too far out of bounds with rights again this week, however you cant have liberty without recognized rights. It would seem that in reality, Rights are far more important than Liberty. Rights are going to define the boundaries that we can operate with said Liberty.

Do we have Liberty today? I actually think that we do for the most part. The notion that someone is doing something that we don’t want them to do, we enact a law preventing it. So, we are still free to operate within with the realm of legal, we just keep redefining what that means.

I think about all of the places that I have been, I would offer up China as an example. I am not an expert, but I am pretty sure Liberty is not among their cultural entitlements. Are the people slaves – no. Can they operate within the laws of municipality – yes. Are the laws applied universally – of course not and nowhere else (including the United States) for that matter. Do they have liberty – by that definition yes.

Just using that example above, it sort of downplays the importance of Liberty. The only situations I could think of where liberty would be a problem is when the boundaries are changing without the knowledge of the population or selective enforcement. In which case, people exist at the whim of the rulers or maybe we could call them slaves.

End Your Programming Routine: I really didn’t think that this was going to go this way. I suppose that I was because I had never really taken a deep dive into the definitions. I thought that I knew what I was talking about without truly understanding.

I have to admit that when I hear the word ‘Liberty’ one of two images come up immediately. They are either Libertas (sometimes the statue of Liberty) or the liberty eagle. Those are the signs of programming and invoke emotion rather than thought and understanding. I am not saying that I don’t want Liberty but now I know it’s place in the hierarchy.

February 24, 2022 – Sanitizing and Brewing Beer

February 24, 2022 /

With all the build up, we finally got here. My batch has been going for almost a week now. I am pretty sure that it is gong well but there is nothing that can be done if it is not at this point. I will just have to wait and see.

Speaking of going well, I think there is a lot of todo about sanitation. In fact, I think it is way overblown. I will explain. Most people’s foray into homebrewing starts with Charlie Papazian’s The Joy of Homebrewing. My starter equipment kit came with a copy. My used equipment also came with one. Before YouTube and the internet, books or classes were all that we had available for knowledge. While they are great for learning and reference, they lack wisdom.

The purpose of pitching yeast is to overwhelm anything else around and outcompete the wild yeast that may be present. We want the free sugar converted to alcohol as fast as possible to ensure that we are making the beer that we expect. Once there is no food (sugar) and alcohol, you have achieved self sanitation. These drinks are part of our culture because they were safer than water.

I feel as if every text that I have read treats sanitation as a religion. Please understand there is a difference between cleanliness and sanitation. There is a role for sanitation, breweries cannot afford to take risks for instance. For the homebrewer, I feel like the emphasis is highly overrated.

With all that said, I do sanitize where it seems appropriate. Here is where I do it, handling yeast (like my starter I made) and before brewing and on final clean-up. I sanitize my carboys and cap them after I clean them. I sanitize the funnel for pouring wort into the carboy and the fermentation valve before use. I will also add bleach to my bottle cleaning. But really that is it. The rest is extra work, risk and clean-up.

I think where people get really wacko is that it is possible to post ferment alcohol. For instance, making vinegar is done with a secondary fermentation that is caused by a bacteria. Clearly, if you desire one outcome and get another that is not really ideal. One text I read said that the bacteria is ever present, meaning it is always possible. The good news is the this is an aerobic bacteria, meaning dissolved oxygen is required to convert. The other good news is that no one should be re-oxygenating the beer or wine post fermentation because that will ruin your brew from oxidation as much as making vinegar. That is to say the amount of dissolved oxygen should be consumed by the yeast initially.

A few years ago, I heard a podcast from an author of a book called Make Mead Like a Viking. His point was that there was not all the knowledge of science and even sanitation in the past. I haven’t read the book but I think it will go on the list for the future. It definitely changed my perspective on this topic and made me realize that this was one of the things that go into the time to brew and thus decreasing my joy of homebrewing.

End Your Programming Routine: Charlie Papazian was right about one thing, “relax and have a homebrew”. What he was trying to say was don’t get so wound up about the details, science and technicalities. I am a firm believer in learning takes making mistakes and practice while paying attention to what you are doing will build proficiency. Hey, I am still trying and I have a chemistry degree so I understand the science. I probably started off too technical without the experience to understand where to care and where to let go.

February 23, 2022 – I am Interrupting This Series in Brewing…

February 23, 2022 /

Stuff happens. No one plans to get cancer, especially when the person is a child. Whether you are in middle school or middle age, health disruptions suddenly supersede any plans you have in life.

My son has a friend that was diagnosed with cancer last week. They are the same age and they live two blocks away. He has been over to my house many times sometimes for an hour or two and sometimes overnight. Even his siblings have spent time over here. This isn’t really an acquaintance, but someone that we know pretty well.

Speaking from experience, when you are in treatment your life is not your own. In 2010, my wife had a near death illness and in 2012 she was diagnosed with cancer. The severity of the tumor is graded on how treatable it is. In her case it was stage 4 (out of 5) meaning it was effecting multiple locations and was not possible to surgically remove.

I was pulling weeds in the garden one day, just kind of having some alone time. My wife was in the hospital and our pastor came by. He asked me how I was doing and what I thought about all of this. Since I had been through this once before, I knew the ropes with doctors, hospitals and all that. There was little fear about uncertainty of what the next few months of treatment would look like. The fear was really what the future would look like for me and two boys aged 4 and 6.

I told him, “After the last illness, I saw her faith and ability to appreciate life grow exponentially. I don’t think God’s lesson is for her this time. I think this is for the other people in her life, like me”. I won’t say that I turned the switch on exactly at that moment, but I will say that I started removing excuses in my life to change my ways in faith.

In my mind, I grew up attending church every week. As I moved out of the home, I knew my beliefs and I wasn’t opposed to church but nothing we tried really felt comfortable. I justified that I was well adjusted in faith because I spent every Sunday as a youth in church. As a result, I realized that believing is one thing but worship and congregation are part of the deal as well. That is super tough for me because I find it uncomfortable but you cannot reach your full potential as a closet Christian.

Consequently, there is no such thing as a perfect denomination. What is more important is getting plugged in and keep an open mind. I don’t 100% agree with everything my church does, but I can’t say that it is wrong on theology. It is more about the approach and my comfort level and what I would prefer. Quite frankly, I think being challenged and uncomfortable is actually healthy in faith.

I hate to admit this but sometimes I wish that I had been the one that got cancer and survived. I wish that I had the ability to appreciate things in the same lens as someone that see’s life as a gift. As much as I can empathize with the family on the support side of the treatment, as of now I cannot have the same level of appreciation as a survivor. Let me be clear, it is not that I want it, I just will not have the same level of understanding.

A few nights ago, we went to a short prayer service for this teen that is starting his journey. It was informal and we really don’t know the prognosis. I don’t want to be the one that blows smoke by sharing my story and potentially provide false hope or sound somewhat gloating as I won the lottery on survival. I am not saying that it would be received that way either. However, I have this forum to say whatever I want to say. Maybe my writing gives someone a kickstart into finding the right course in life too.

End Your Programming Routine: This isn’t the only cancer story that is currently active in my life. It does happen to be the one that I am more hopeful for and the one that fits my story today. I don’t think that we need crisis or tragedy to change our ways. One thing that those situations do very well is galvanize where you stand and can easily push a person to one side or the other. I hope for the best here, I will stay tuned to where my lesson is in the journey.

February 22, 2022 – Making a Yeast Starter

February 22, 2022 /

I dont have my old notes anymore. They sent them with my original set of brewing equipment when I sold it. However, from what I remember, it was an Octoberfest (or Marzen style) and I used a liquid yeast. I struggled with getting the fermentation started.

It was summertime in South Carolina; so it was hot. When my yeast arrived, the icepack had melted and the package was hot and bloated a little. I think my interpretation of the instructions were to pitch the yeast around room temperature and then take the temp down to fermenting temp over the course of a day.

I had a temperature controlled refrigerator so I pitched the yeast and hoped for the best. It did start fermenting, so I put it in the refrigerator and fermenting stopped. I think I tried it two or three more times to the point where I gave up and let it finish out at ale (room) temperature.

I guess to be technical, the brew didn’t fail. It just didn’t ferment at lager temperatures. It certainly didn’t result in what I wanted, because of the temperatures and I contrasted liquid versus dry yeast yesterday. This time, I thought that I would make a yeast starter to kick start my anticipated sluggish start.

Just like making bread, you get the yeast hydrated and give it some food. This in theory makes it ready to take off when pitched. So, I thought I would give it a shot.

Making a starter is a micro beer batch.

  1. A container with lid
  2. Yeast
  3. Malt Extract
  4. Sanitizer
  5. Water

This is probably a place where using Malt Extract makes sense even if you are doing whole grain brewing. In fact, yeast can be re-used if you are going to immediately start brewing the same style of beer. It can be stored in the refrigerator, in a sanitary container for a couple of weeks. I have never had enough space or bottles to do sequential brewing but it is a place to save $12 a batch if you were going to do such a thing. Maybe with this new kegging system I will speed up production volume?

Heat up water to boiling, pour into a sanitized container. Add 1/2 cup of malt extract and dissolve. Cool the liquid down to pitching temperature. Add the yeast and top the container with a sanitized lid (that will let CO2 out). Do this two up to two days before brewing and that is it. I did it the day before I brewed.

End Your Programming Routine: The reality is, I don’t know if this was the trick or the fact that the yeast was dry, not cooked or the brewing temperature is a little warmer than my Marzen attempt. The wort was fermenting the next morning. I won’t concretely say this is the way to go but I am pretty sure this is the fastest I have ever seen fermentation kick-off. Usually, it really starts going day 2.