That’s not the exact phrase, but in my case, it’s accurate. My ‘gig’ job of taking care of my elderly grandfather is over, and I’m moving all my shit cross country again, in a short period of time. It’s really not great, but I covered that in another post recently. In short, I’m anxious as hell, most of my stuff is stacked nicely in the garage waiting for the time to go, and I’m wondering about the stoutness of my truck’s 220,000 mile V-10 engine. There’s lot going on.
Instead of freaking out, I decided to come down to the place I’ve become fairly comfortable, La Cumbre’s Westside location, to get a pint and some pinball. There’s something about that first big drink of a hoppy IPA that soothes my nerves, and it’s not the ABV. The hops seem to work immediately on my nerve center. I’m sure there’s something more scienc-y going on, but I don’t really care to think about it today. I just know that a Project Dank is the right thing for my frayed mind right now, regardless of what the nerds say. And there are a lot of nerds out there, I’ve run across one recently that posts anti-alcohol ‘science’ facts under beer-related content around the internet lately, and it’s as annoying as you’d think.
The future. Hahahaha
I know better than to make serious plans, especially when it comes to big moves. Things happen. I’ve covered off a lot of the possibilities, but in my life, weird shit tends to find a way into my circumstances, so I’m hesitant to say much about my near future in Portland – except I can’t wait to try all the beers! Oh, the joy of having some selection staring back at you through the cold case door, I have not known thee since my last visit. I wish I didn’t have actual responsibilities when I get to beervana, but I’ll have to hold off on any big beer days for a while after I get there. People (my doctor) keep telling me I should see what happens when I cut out beer for a week or two. Just because he’s right doesn’t make it any easier to follow his guidance.
I’ve paid for this platform for a while so I don;’t think I’ll be going anywhere in the metaphorical sense, so don’t worry about that. I’ll still drop in for updates and my thoughts on things, and I swear I’ll get that Pak-Tek gripe off my chest someday. I’m sure someone else will beat me to it…speaking of other writers, I’m going to plug my friend Jeff Alworth here and tell you to visit his Beervana.com real world blog. The stupid google machine is finding ways to take our written material and turn it into ever more AI slop, and he’s going to miss out more than I do since I pay for my site out-of-pocket and he’s sponsored. I can honestly say I find his content compelling, and often leave a comment about the current topic. I hope I’m not too obnoxious when I do.
As to the future, in general, I’m moving back to the Portland area. I’ve got another gig lined up doing automotive stuff of various flavors. We once tried to start a podcast about car stuff (autoneurotic.com) and got through zero hours of recording because of time constraints, I’m hoping to revive that idea so I can grieve about how modern car culture has died. Without having to care for an old man every so often, I’ll be free to sit down and get in the zone for long period of time. Hah, as if.
What could have been
I wanted to explore more of ABQ, and more of New Mexico in general, but never had the time to get away, it seemed. Even when there was someone else to care for grandfather, it didn’t mean I could just take off for a couple of days to Las Cruces or Farmington or Durango. The brewery in Los Alamos will remain a mystery to me, since I couldn’t justify the 3 or 4 hour round trip drive on any given day. I couldn’t even get an hour up the road to Jemez Brewing, and that’s a drive I enjoy. There are several ABQ local breweries I had planned to visit at some point, but plans aren’t worth the post-it note they’re scrawled on in my world.
I’m going to miss my weekly get-together with friends, something I strongly recommend to my readers they set up. That weekly session over pints and fried food has become essential to my mental well-being, and I suppose I’ll have to set something similar up when I get to Portland. It’s one thing to visit breweries ‘to write’ like I do, but it’s another to have a group of friends show up and hang out for 2 hours – you really get a feel for the service and the beers and just a general vibe. If your group of 7 gets shitty service and everyone sees that, you can justify that crappy Google rating (yes, I do Google reviews). I like to have multiple data points before I bury a joint with a bad review. Usually that requires multiple visits, both alone and with friends, so I feel like I’ve gotten to the best of it down here, and ABQ had a lot to offer.
With that said, I’ve decided on Flock Of Moons Brewing as my last choice for Old Man Beer Hour (OMBH) next week. Their theme is celestial bodies – moons – and the beer is usually light and refreshing, but they’ve got a few higher-ABV bangers that pop up from time to time. They’ve got a killer outdoor space and there’s several food options nearby, so they can focus entirely on the beer, and they excel at everything they’ve released IMHO. I tend towards the IPAs but they do some Belgian styles that are truly amazing, so there’s something for everyone in my little group. I’d invite anyone reading this to join, but all 3 of you aren’t in ABQ so don’t worry about it. Go ahead and comment below if I’m wrong, and I’ll try to get back to you about the actual time and date of our meetup.
Sniffles
I’ve met some good people here in Albuquerque this time around; it hasn’t always been like this. ABQ has a rightful reputation as being a tough town – but underneath that reputation is a bunch of people with big hearts, if you show up and do what you say you’ll do. It sounds crazy, but there’s still room left in this world for good people and good deeds to shine through all the darkness. Or maybe I’m just dumb enough to believe that could be true. I’ll be missing beer hour, and movie night, and the actual parties my adult friends throw. I’ll miss the beer, for sure, but that’s easy enough to replace where I’m going. The people, though, will be hard to replace. Maybe. We’ll see.
This has been another incredibly personal entry in this little blog ‘o mine. If you like it, share it. I’m just writing for funsies but it’s really nice when people actually show up and comment. THANKS.