Aristo! Aristo! A la lanterne!

Wednesday, November 6, 2024

A decent cigar and a couple Manhattans. I saved a handful of cigars, otherwise unaffordable lately, in hopes of having something to celebrate. The same for the Templeton Rye in the Manhattans.

Happier daze my friends, happier daze.

11-6-24

W: 318.8 BS: 144 Both better, but more progress is needed.

~~Gloat~~
~~Taxi~~
Laundry
Smirk
Wash my dishes in liberal tears
Chickens
Farm supply
~~More gloating~~
~~Enjoy the glorious day!~~
?

Tuesday, November 5, 2024

A glass of Rye...

Celebration or commiseration is yet to be determined, but a good glass is happening in either case.

11-5-24

W: 323.4 (%$#@!#) BS: 204 (%$#@%)

Reasons. I'll deal with it. Same issues screwed both numbers hard. Eating fancy food with flavor, but the wrong ones.

~~VOTE~~
~~Dishes~~
~~Taxi 1~~
~~Taxi 2~~
Laundry
~~Double Med~~
Vacuum
~~Fire & Wood~~
?

Monday, November 4, 2024

11-4-24

W: 318.4 BS: 174 :-(

Election tomorrow. Whoo Hoo.

~~Taxi 1~~
~~Taxi 2~~
~~Cook ribs~~
Make ~~coleslaw~~ and ~~corn bread~~
~~Bottle peach wine~~
~~Fire & Wood~~
Chickens
~~Laundry~~
Meds
~~Dishes~~
?

Some time back, wife and I spent a few rainy days in Jim Thorpe. I mean... in a bar in Jim Thorpe, because rainy. There she tried an admittedly delicious drink centered on Jalapeno Tequila and mango juice. She liked it so much, when we got home I started the Jalapenos steeping in good tequila for a few months. At the bar they had a really large antique jar on the bar itself full of such, on brass legs and with a spigot to pour from.

Last night I mixed myself a drink I now call a Bloody Maria. It's 2-1 V8 juice and Jalapeno Tequila on the rocks with a sprinkle of Tajin on top.

Top Notch my friends, simply Top Notch.

Bottled the last wine of the year. A semi-dry Peach made from fruit grown down the road. I'm not 100% on the flavor of this one. Not totally dry and certainly not semi-sweet. The peach is there, but maybe in a year it will mature. Also, it never really clarified. It has a pectic haze that won't quit. Thus the name, 'Peach Haze'.

Being the last of the year and slightly iffy on flavor, this wine went into scrounge bottles. 4 different bottles here, including Mason jars because I just ran out of wine bottles.

So, with 38 bottles of peach wine bottled, washed, labeled, and tucked away... it's rib time.

2.5 hours at 250, and time to unwrap. The rub is still hanging in there, and it helps with the whisky/BBQ sauce I brushed on. Back in the oven at 250 for another 4 hours, and then I'll re-sauce and bump to 350 till it gets crusty.

Time for the mid-afternoon slathering. I needed the oven for 30 minutes to do corn bread anyway....

I have this philosophy.... All humans are faced with a choice.

They can become students of human nature, trying to recognize the good and bad within themselves... or they can choose to ignore human nature, and act simply on drives, desires, and instincts. The former is what sets mankind aside from animals, and the latter is to act as an animal.

Making the first choice is harder, more complicated, and creates a difficult path to follow... for it's the basis of knowing right from wrong. There are those who study human nature, and themselves, and actively try to better themselves and do what is right. There are others... people who study human nature, note the flaws inherent to the unthinking herd, and use them as a means to control.

There is no danger greater than the refusal to see, and to think. Doing so leaves one a pawn to anyone awake, aware, and driven to power over others.

Robert Heinlein

"Do not confuse "duty" with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect.

But there is no reward at all for doing what other people expect of you, and to do so is not merely difficult, but impossible. It is easier to deal with a footpad than it is with the leech who wants "just a few minutes of your time, please — this won't take long." Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few. If you allow yourself to fall into the vice of agreeing to such requests, they quickly snowball to the point where these parasites will use up 100 percent of your time — and squawk for more!
So learn to say No — and to be rude about it when necessary.
Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you.

(This rule does not mean that you must not do a favor for a friend, or even a stranger. But let the choice be yours. Don't do it because it is "expected" of you.)"

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.