Road Trip

When I was in the Marine Corps, I was stationed at (now closed) MCAS Tustin.  This is in the heart of Orange County, California, and everything was close by.  I could be at the beach in less than 30 minutes.  Disneyland was less than an hour away.  I could be in the mountains or the desert in about an hour.  LA was about an hour away, San Diego was about 90 minutes away, and I could be in Tijuana in less than two hours.  Every weekend was a road trip.

One weekend night, I loaded up my VW Bus with a bunch of my Marine buddies for an evening of cruising Newport Beach. Relatively early into the evening, I saw a young woman, obviously quite intoxicated, staggering around a parking lot.  She was in bad shape!  She could barely stand, she was slurring her words to the point where I could hardly understand what she was saying, and her pants were missing.  I knew that if she didn't get home, something very bad would probably happen to this young lady.

I convinced her to get into the van with us, letting her know we were taking her home.  This was before the days of cell phones.  I asked her where she lived, and she slurred "Inshunithus."  I couldn't understand what she was saying.  I asked again, and she again slurred "Inshunithus!"  I asked her to spell it, and she replied "E... I... N... I... Inshunithus!"  She then passed out in the lap of one of my buddies, and she was down for the count.

I had one of my buddies dig into her purse and locate her driver's license to find her address.  She was saying "Encinitas," which was over an hour south of our location. One of my friends grew up in Oceanside, which is close by, and knew how to get to that city.  Once we got there, we were able to wake her up, and she was able to give us directions to her house, where we dropped her off and waited by the door until she got safely into the house.  Again, it was before the days of cell phones, so we didn't have GPS to guide us.  We were fortunate that she was just coherent enough to give us turn by turn directions to her place.

When we looked at her license, we learned it was her 21st birthday, which explained why she was so snot slinging drunk.  It didn't explain her missing pants (or skirt, whichever it was.)  To this day, I have no idea what happened to her after we dropped her at her door, and I have no idea how she got so far away from home.  I can't help but wonder if she had a "Dude, Where's My Car?" scenario.  And if so, did she ever find it?

All I know is that we planned an evening cruising the beach, and we ended up taking a road trip to E.. I... N... I... Inshunithus!  We had hoped to pick up some chicks, but not exactly like this.  As is usually the case though, the best road trips -- nay, the best stories -- are the result of an unexpected twist of fate that changes your plans.  Kind of like another road trip, where my buddy Fred and I decided to drive to San Francisco for a newspaper and a Coke, and to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, not realizing that San Francisco was eight hours away.

A Labor of Love

One of my favorite aspects of summer is fresh produce.  I love making fresh salsa, cucumber salad, and homemade pickles.  Iowa sweet corn is the best there is!  Right now black raspberries are in season.

I've had a small patch of black raspberries in my back yard for almost as long as I can remember.  You won't find black raspberries in stores, because they have a very short shelf life.  But I've made a small tradition of taking my kids to the back yard to pick black raspberries with me, and then my grandkids.  In the early years, the patch was small and only produced a few berries, so we'd just go out and eat them straight off the vine.  Since then, I learned how to tend the canes and the patch has grown noticeably.

A couple of years back, I discovered a wild stash growing in a woody area close to my house, and everything changed. I suddenly found myself with enough berries to do more than eat a small handful every couple of days.  I decided to try my hand at making jam.  I actually started out making a simple sauce to pour over ice cream, using only the berries and just enough honey to lightly sweeten the reduction.  The pivot to jam was a natural progression; I just had to mildly tweak my recipe.

The process was as much about learning as anything else.  For starters, I was not interested in a jam that contained as much sugar as fruit.  But I also learned that a certain amount of pectin, sugar, and lemon juice are all necessary for the jam to gel.  I made three small batches of jam last year, sharing the product with family and close friends, actively soliciting feedback, and refining accordingly.  My final recipe uses about 1/3 of the sugar of recipes I found online, and I believe it's far superior because it focuses on the flavor of the berry instead of maximizing the sweet.

This year's harvest has been the best so far.  I've harvested over a gallon and a half of berries, which will yield about 30 quarter pint jars of homemade black raspberry jam, and the season is not quite finished.  Oh, quick side note, I also found a patch of wild blackberries this year.  I hope to not only harvest them, but also I hope to propagate and transplant a few canes to my back yard.

This is definitely a labor of love.  The short shelf life of a black raspberry means that I need to forage at least every other day.  Daily foraging is better.  Mosquitoes are out in force, especially in the wild patch in the woods.  It's hot, and the wooded area blocks the breeze.  The raspberry bushes in the woods are mixed in with nettles.  Between the nettles and the thorns on the canes, I have to wear jeans.  And it's getting hot!  There have been many times where I've been out foraging in 90+ degree weather with Iowa humidity stacked on top of it.

And the labor doesn't end with the foraging.  I have to freeze the berries so they don't rot.  The foraging window is about a month.  So I have to keep the freezer clear for that time.  Then there's actually making the jam.  I have to do it in small batches, making only six or so jars in a batch, and each batch takes about an hour to an hour and a half to make.  This doesn't include the cost of the sugar, pectin, and jars.

The funniest part is that, while I love raspberries, I don't eat that much jam.  I might eat 3 or 4 jars over the course of a year, but the overwhelming majority is given away.  To me, this is a hobby.  I love the idea of being able to harvest wild edible food, and I enjoy preserving fresh, local produce for use during the cold winter months.  My favorite part though, is sharing my culinary talent with friends and family.

I know several people who can food, but compared to the population at large, even in rural Iowa, I possess a relatively rare skill.  When I give someone a jar of my black raspberry preserves, I share that I forage the berries myself, that I can the jam myself, and that it's my own personal recipe.  I say point blank that what I'm sharing is a labor of love.  It's universally well received and highly appreciated.

It's Not Just Gaming Consoles

I read an article today that said Microsoft is increasing the price of the Xbox console.  I already own the Xbox, and I'm a very casual gamer, so to me this in and of itself isn't a huge deal.  It is, however, a result of a larger supply and demand problem, and the root cause is Artificial Intelligence.  In a nutshell, the AI boom is creating a huge increase in demand for RAM... specifically the RAM needed for video cards.

The thing is, increasing RAM production is not a simple process.  It's wildly expensive to build a new manufacturing plant, and the ongoing costs are expensive as well, because most hardware requires an environment that's for all intents and purposes cleaner than a hospital.

The economic law of supply and demand indicates that if demand increases and supply does not, prices must increase to maintain purchasing equilibrium.  This makes suppliers want to increase supply so they make more money, but as I said, it's not easy in this case.  The end result is that we have higher costs for everything that uses RAM.  This means that gaming consoles and computers cost more.  It's not just gaming consoles.

My big questions are "Is it worth it," and if so "to what extent?"  We as a society are spending billions of dollars to build data centers.  These data centers are consuming vast amounts of natural resources to continually power and cool these data centers.  The payoff is still unproven, and the most widely-seen consequence is a massive disruption in the labor market.

So... big companies are making money hand over fist... real people are losing their jobs... real people are paying higher prices for everything from computers to electricity to water.  I say again... it's not just gaming consoles.  I ask again, is it worth it?  And if so, to what extent? 

Another Personal Best

I bench pressed 160 lbs today.  This may not sound like much, but it's more than I weigh, I'm in late 50s and I've never bench pressed this much in my life.

KISS and Trump

I had a random thought the other day.  Donald Trump is the non-musical version of the band KISS, specifically Gene Simmons.  Think about it... KISS and Trump are both willing to put their name on anything if it will bring them a buck.  KISS toilet seats?  Check.  Trump steaks?  You betcha.  KISS and Trump both think they're the greatest thing since sliced bread.  People that love them, REALLY love them.  People that don't like 'em REALLY don't like 'em.  Simmons and Trump both say they don't drink, smoke or do drugs.  I'm sure there are other similarities.  Feel free to add your own.

I'd love to see a venn diagram of KISS and Trump fans.  I bet there's a lot of overlap.

Tires

I've been driving for well over 40 years.  During that time, I've had too many vehicles to list, and have probably driven over a million miles.  It always kind of amazes me how much of an impact fresh rubber has on how a ride handles.  I got new tires on my Ultra last weekend and man, it almost felt like I had a sport bike.  The handling is so light and responsive!  I'm really looking forward to Tail of the Dragon next month.

My Chair

One of the few things in life I'm finicky about is my spot in the living room.  I have a reclining love seat that's got the perfect view of the TV, great acoustics, and an end table next to me for my beer and snacks.  It's probably the one and only stereotypical behavior I share with TV dads.  Hell, I even defy the stereotype by sharing the remote.

Late last week, the recliner cable broke.  I've developed a habit over the years where I'd kick the recliner into its upright position when standing up, so my redneck repair was to use some creative cable kinking and a little masking tape to hold the cable in an extended position, so the recliner would not stay in the upright position.

The deeper discussion was what to do about the loveseat.  The material is a combination of leather and vinyl.  The vinyl has started to crack and flake away over the years.  The cushioning has collapsed in places, so I sit at kind of a cant.  In the grand scheme of things though, I'm not a "throw it away" guy.  The chair still meets my functional needs.

So, for Father's Day, I ordered a new cable, and it arrived today.  My Father's Day gift to myself was replacing the cable so I can recline again.