portrait of a master tinkerer

Charlie shared this photo from his recent visit to St. Joe.  I love how it captures EMG utilizing his >40-year-old pickup as something of a mobile shop.  And in the background - the shed on the hill farm - where he essentially ran his shop for decades.  (After building that same shed.)

At very front/bottom left of the photo is a simple rectangular toolbox - its contents are splayed across the rest of the endgate - this is the basic toolbox that was carried on shelling jobs, and elsewhere, in my 1960s-70s memories.  It was backed over by trucks several times - no problem, EMG just hammered it back into shape.

The gauge at top left sits atop an ancient air compressor - an item fired up every morning before we went off to clean out corn cribs or grain bins - aging truck tires needed to be filled, after all.

I see a couple items that didn't exist in the '70s (or at least we didn't have 'em) - witness the weed whacker, for example.  And we didn't use much plastic then - right behind that old toolbox at bottom/front left is a plastic container that I'm pretty sure doesn't contain maple syrup.

It might look a little disorganized, but I'll wager that some thought went into the placement of each item in the pickup bed.

On he goes, a classic shade tree mechanic.

peak flight

At the Modern Times brewery in San Diego - on Saturday 18 August (day after the Stone festival) - I ran into or constructed what I'm pretty sure is the finest beer flight I've ever had.  Perfect composition:  small servings of intense, complementary styles of which ordinarily I'd be reluctant to order a full pint.  Exactly what I'm looking for in tasters!

Not only that, don't they look rather amazing?

L-R:
--"Sea of Tranquility" (Fruited Super Berliner) (Special Release) 6.5% ABV
--"Nectarnomicon" (Raspberry & Guava) 3.6% ABV
--"Factory Cathedral" (Super Gose) 8.5%
--"Suggestion of Mass" (Imperial Stout) 11.3%

Stone - San Diego

PJ, CPG and I drove over to San Diego on Friday 17 August; met up with PJr, NRG, and Romie (who were spending the week in SD); then Michael C joined.  From there - drove up to the Stone tasting event - our fifth time (PJr's sixth).  Beer, food, weather, company all delightful.  This continues to be a fine event.  Smaller group nice but we missed some of the energy of the bigger group! 

On Saturday morning we three met up with PJr/NRG/Romie at Broadway Pier for coffee and donuts and fun (including scooter test runs).  After lunch we went to the Modern Times brewery and found it highly acceptable.  Back downtown; met up with Naseem; we eight walk to the D'backs-Padres game (thanks POC for lining up tickets).  All good there other than final score.

Easy return drive on Sunday except a little more freon, or whatever automobile A/C systems use these days, would have been a plus.

K's August visit

this guy seemed happy to see K

K visited us here in AZ between 9 and 14 August!  We visited a few restaurants; had a meal at each of the Phoenix-resident-family homes; celebrated Paul Jr's #31 on Friday 10 August; mostly enjoyed being together.  Spontaneous road trip to Tucson on Saturday 11 August - it was a bit of a nostalgia tour for K; visited U of A campus and the Pi Phi house; also wandered around the downtown area and enjoyed pretty amazing weather (dinner at Penca).  Played 5 Crowns and sampled some of the local breweries as we roamed.  Overnight at the local Best Western.  Fun and highly random trip!  We of course were sorry to see K leave on Tuesday 14 August.

sampling of our restaurant/brewery gatherings in Phoenix, Gilbert, Tucson (Borderlands my Tucson favorite)

Nice experience at Pi Phi - the girl on duty took the time to show K around - including seeing
her old room (upper R); K stands in just about the same spot in lower R when moving into that same room
15 years plus one day earlier (with orange doggie guarding her goods).  

one of K's Pi Phi pals designed the street-facing sign here . . . 

yes it was fun wandering around Tucson with this group (plus photographer-NOC)

dual citizens

I can scarcely believe it.  On 10 August 2018 we return from a trip to Arizona Wilderness to discover in our mailbox the envelope with Luxembourg citizenship designations for Nicole, Patrick and me!!  (And there still is time for others to join in!)


Practical value appears nil.  But the process was easy thanks to Carol et al.  Quite a few other family members are completing the process (including the fine group mentioned here).  And the symbolic value is entirely excellent - my mom and Claude Lanners must be smiling down at us with our little dual citizenship achievement here.  I like having that connection even more than I had anticipated.

Due to some administrative changes we were not required to travel to Luxembourg for the in-person interview.  Which is convenient.  But we are disappointed not to have that focal point for a visit.  (To be sure we shall find other reasons to visit, hopefully sooner than later.)

Next:  EU passports.

inaugural baseball game

Courtesy of our customary tickets-via-POC, Romie attended his first in-person baseball game on 4 August.

It was delightful to have him along but perhaps we didn't pick the best game.  The team was honoring its 20th anniversary team - meaning a lengthy battery of ex-player introductions accompanied by concussive scoreboard eruptions and raucous cheers from an immense crowd (38,000+).  That's a rather challenging introduction for a rookie.  But a fine time was had by all, even if the rook only made it through a couple innings.  You have to start somewhere.

For those of us that stuck around:  D'backs beat Giants!

All is good pregame as we buy H2O from our customary vendor.

Host-POC explains the situation to The Rookie.  Etc.

watching watching

Among other charms, I find it endlessly interesting just to watch Roman watching things.

Here's an example.  He's pretty fascinated by dogs (in this case, Pumbaa).  But what's he actually thinking?

It's a favorite photo.