Sunny and 69 here in northwest Ohio....on October 26th! Not that unusual....however, the continued warm weather and lack of a freeze or frost is.....now don't get me wrong, I'm not buying into that idiot Al Gore's bullshit...old Al, the failed one, both as a politician and divinity student is a hypocrite and a fool.....his knowledge of "real" Environmental Science is not worth my time.....I spent 20 years in the business, and there are folks that know more than me about the Environment, Al Gore and his lemmings at the UN and on the Nobel committee are not among them.
Now with that non-paid political announcement out of the way...I will say, Global Warming or not, I am enjoying the Hell out of this fall weather. After another visit to the chiropractor today, I decided to mow the yard anyway...I'm sure my wife won't be pleased, especially if I am bound up and in pain tonight...but I am not one to lay or sit around if I can help it....plus it got half of my scheduled 2 hours of walking a day in.
Usually by this time, the lawn boy is cleaned and put away for the season(although I have mowed into early November in the recent past), and it's time to fire up the Snow Blower for a test run....but since no freeze, and not even a frost....I'm looking forward to "Indian Summer"(or do we call that Native American Summer now?), which should come about December 15th this year, if things continue as they are.
PHOTO
Which of these has gotten the most use the past few years???? The 1977 Buick Landau(61,000 original miles), the 10 year old 5HP Yard Machine Snow Blower, or my 6.5 HP Lawn Boy Silver walk behind? Not even close.......
I don't keep track, but my guess is, since 2002, the Buick has been out maybe 10 times...the Snow Blower about the same....but that lawn boy is like the Energizer Bunny......my guess is about 200 trips outdoors, in the same amount of time.
Return of "Little Kings"
Back when I first began to partake in the joys and hangovers of alcohol, one of the items that was in vogue was a little number called "Little Kings"...Little Kings were brewed out of Dayton, Ohio, but (the now defunct) Shoenling Brewing Company....Little Kings were so called because the were 7 oz bottles of Ale...those little bottles came in mini long necks and 8 to a pack.
My favorite Little King stories came from my days at Ohio University at Athens back in the middle 1970s....there was a little bar not far from where me and some other guys from Celina(mostly veterans) lived at The College Inn, a private apartment complex like dorm for upper classmen and veterans(who could live wherever they choose because they were a little more mature and free(or so the story goes)...no matter what class you were in(the Freshman and Sophs had to live on campus, unless you were married or a vet).
Getting away from my story here....The Long Branch(original huh?) was a rustic little dive down an alley just across from the Inn....Rick Pearson(who would become my best man later on) and I would usually meet up about 5 O'clock for "Happy Hour", which consisted of drinking as many Little King ales as we could handle in a 2 hour period....the hours from 5 to 7 also featured 2 episodes of the original "Star Trek" series(which were about 10 years old at that time)....so Rick and I(an on occasion Nick Hromish, DiPrato, Underwood, and Clint Thompson, all from Celina as well) would watch that hoke show and get half a buzz on.....you know, I never remember studying.....but guess I did enough to pass the classes I had...never lower than a "C"(because if it looked like you would get lower, you just dumped the class}.
If I recall, the happy hour price for Little Kings was .50 cents a bottle...so even on our starvation GI Bill wages, we could afford a few....I know none of us worked, but somehow we survived those poverty years.
Little Kings went the way of the quality American car many years ago...the brewery sold out and was then shut down...but now, some 25 years after it's demise....Little Kings are back.....now brewed by "Little King Brewing Company" out of Wilkes-Barre, PA.....how do they taste compared to 1977? Can't tell you just yet....I purchased my first 8 pack this afternoon....and will test one or more out later today with a good hand rolled torpedo.....
STAY TUNED!
{The Cat, my XM Radio, a MI Torpedo, and a Little King at my Antique Desk....the cat thinks this is one of her nap sites}
9 comments:
Now all you take note---THIS is the way REAL men enjoy the day---with a cold beer of your choice, and a cigar to match!
OK, so Little Kings isn't a BEER, it's an ALE! The important part is, it's got alcohol in it!
I didn't think they brewed that stuff anymore!
Great photo, except maybe for the cat, but everything else is to my liking! Never mind me...just not a cat lover...now if you threw in a dog, it would be complete!
Mushy...the Cat is an interesting story...my daughter rescued it from a certain death up at my father-in-laws place in Wisconsin. It(no longer a she) was supposed to go to a farm...but after fighting off the Airedales(who hate cats with a passion), she decided she was a dog as well...and has made herself at home for the past 8 years...and the damn thing thinks I'm it's best friend...go figure?, "The Cat" as I call her, may outlive us all....figured if she could survive the Airedales, what the Hell?
Bruno...I think Little Kings were gone for about 20+ years...I drank a couple with the cigar tonight...and yep, they taste just like the did in my college days.....they run $5 for an 8 pack...problem is, I could down a case a night and not miss a beat.
The Second Mrs. Pennington introduced me to Little Kings back in the '70s ('77, to be exact...) when she was at college in South Bend and I came to visit. Not bad at all, IIRC.
Our weather here is close to yours, Pat. It's gonna make for a hard decision today... football? Or the bike?
Where did you find that stand alone XM radio, Pat? I've got XM on my Direct TV receivers, but I'd like to have a radio up in my study. All I've seen up here in North Georgia is these things that go in your car or a radio that looks like something Michael Jackson would walk down the road listening to, wouldn't fit in my place. That radio you have looks good.
Hermit....you can find a stand alone at the dealers, but I was never impressed with them....however, mine is a Grundig Classic, which is not affiliated with XM....and the catch is, it has a AUX button and input female on the back...makes it perfect, the radio is modeled after the 1940s Grundig, but has everything you need for XM...plus it has several shortwave bands.
You plug the XM receiver in the back, hit the AUXILIARY Button and you are set to go.
I thought that looked like a Grundig. I use short wave a lot ,got in the habit while I was stationed overseas in places with no indigenous english radio or television. I still listen to it at night. Never thought of marrying up a shortwave radio with a satellite receiver, that's a good idea. Next time I'm in Chattanooga I'll go by the electronics shop I visit and see if I can put it together.
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