I tried some the other night. A year later it has retained the intense malt flavor, but the fresh grainy / barley flavor has faded. It is much smoother too. Shaping up to be something I will repeat. I never did smoke any. And I'm glad I didn't.

Did you know that we have a deeply ingrained relaxation response to background bird song? Constant birdsong at around 50db triggers this instinctual response. Too loud, or silence, is a natural warning of nearby predators and triggers heightened awareness. If you're into hacking your own programming like I am, this is a useful trick if you need to chill out.

I picked enough haskaps last summer to make 5 gallons of wine from the juice. Almost a year later it is undrinkable due to some kind of astringency from the berries. I noticed a lot of non-grape based wines don't use the juice straight, and now I think I know why. So I turned the 5 gallons into 10 gallons with sugar water. Maybe in another year it will be drinkable. I had a similar issue with choke cherries (Prunus virginiana). I dealt with that using gelatin finings, and it made incredible port. The haskaps have more of a terpene type astringency, so I don't know if that technique will work.

I've been through a few of those. Overcoming the idolatry of money was a hard one. Learning to completely hand over the drive to provide by my own strength. At the time I didn't think I held money up like that, but it really did consume a lot of my energy. I'm going through the grinder this year. No idea why. So many doors slamming shut as I'm about to step through them. I keep reminding myself that I haven't lost something I never actually had. But man, whatever this lesson is, it's a tough one.

Did they drive a Prius or a moped?😂

Huh, I would have thought the opposite. Like the dudes with the lifted trucks compensating for something. A couple of times I have been interviewed by people writing extreme sports articles, and a research study that was looking into risk taking persnalities. One time when they asked the usual "so why do you do this?" I responded with a straight face that I was was so underendowed in the manhood department, that I felt this driving need to compensate for my inadequacies. That never made it to print 🤣

Well that tiny pin hole leaked over a liter of transmission fluid by the time I got it plugged. I'm surprised it was that much, and glad I went to the trouble of topping up the transmission.

Yeah it's come a long way. Back then you were basically prototyping if you wanted one, now you can purchase sets of them online including dedicated repeater modules. And I saw some the other day that you can connect your smart phone to and use messaging apps like Telegram over the network.

Forgot to mention. The fluid was transmission fluid. It gets pumped into a section of the radiator to keep it cool. Very odd timing it would start leaking right after I replaced the fluid...

All of a sudden, my vehicle has started leaking oily fluid. I was worried that one of the plugs hadn't been tightened enough and had come loose, but no, it was coming from the bottom of the radiator. I crawled underneath and there are two small tubes coming out of the bottom of the radiator, and fluid was leaking from where the rubber tube meets the metal connector. I changed the rusty clamp. No dice. So I pulled out the hose and replaced it with a section of straight hose since the actual part isn't available. Still no dice! So I lay there with a bright light and my glasses on, and I found a pin hole in the metal connector right where the rubber ends! Luckily for me, my replacement hose is a few inches longer than the original, and I was able to push it over the top of the pin hole, and double clamp it. No more leak :-)