The Impossibility of Showing Some Restraint

There's a common truism out that saying that humans are creatures of habit. Sometimes, those habits are bad habits. Thursdays are the unofficial starting point of the weekend so it's super important to start it right. For me, this usually meant going to the weekly Tap Takeover at one of my favorite haunts. I'd typically by a flight of 5 2-ounce samples along with a few more beers. Then, I'd usually stop at a beer store where I buy a 6-pack of something to take home to drink while playing video games. Because of this rock and roll lifestyle, I often forego my daily trip to the gym in my apartment complex.

It's funny how one drink can act as a catalyst of a chain of bad decisions! It reminds me of a scene in the Trailer Park Boys' "Countdown to Liquor Day" where Mr. Lahey, a recovering alcoholic trailer park supervisor wanted to celebrate a perceived moral victory with a sip of beer. His partner, Randy, was concerned and warns him not have a drink. Nevertheless, he did and you could see the alcohol turning the gears in his head. Throughout the movie, he devolves further in an alcoholic stupor. One sip of beer. After my typical Thursday, I have my typical Friday. Usually waking up hungover, I skip the gym in the morning and I usually pick up French toast sticks from Burger King. At lunch, I'll hit up the pizza parlor and get the two slice lunch special or $7 worth of varied items from Taco Bell. I usually drink my dinner. Saturdays are spent watching soccer early in the morning where I may have a few drinks which then continues throughout the day. Same could be said about Sunday, which as of late, I've usually held off drinking on Sundays so I'm not sour on Monday.

Mondays are reserved for sobering moments, such as looking at my bank account or down at the scale when I'm weighing myself. Both are gross numbers. Being somewhat observant, I've noticed some patterns obviously. Pattern recognition is simply noticing regularities in data. That data shows the good habits I've kept through the week went out the window at 5:01 PM on Thursday. Many call it ego depletion. Ego depletion refers to the idea that self-control or willpower draws from a limit pool of mental resources that can be used up. When energy for mental activity is low, self-control is usually impaired, which would be considered a state of ego depletion.

I realized it was high time to show some restraint. There are a couple of reasons for that. First one is financial. I played a game, Figure Out How Much You've Spent On Booze. There are two ways of doing it. You can just take the average month and multiply out 12 and then by active years drinking. That's probably the way I should have done it, but I looked at my Untappd app. I had logged in 1,687 beers at the time of this piece. If each beer goes for $4.50 per beer, that comes to $7,591.50 over the course of a career. But some of those are 6 packs so I did some more math. I also neglected to include the copious amounts of domestic beers I don't log, such as Labatt and Rainier. Back to the first method, on Thursdays, I would spend $12 - $25. Fridays are similar. Saturdays and Sundays are a little more costly ranging from $20-$40. I'm looking at $65 per week and about $270 per month. Surely, these funds could be allocated better.

Health is another reason to show a little more restraint. I bought a car last year and I lost 6-mile round trip walk to and from work. Over that time, I've gained 30 pounds! If left unchecked long term issues such as liver and kidney damage, or high blood pressure or even heart disease.So instead of being a fat, pale white blob, I've decided to make a few changes. Last Thursday, I went to the gym before heading out to the bar. I feel that helped where I actually drank less. This past Thursday, I skipped the bar all together and had a few pops at home, which I paid for on Friday. I still managed to make it to the gym for a little cardio. This past Friday, I caught up with a friend and had two beers at the bar and because the debit card processing system was down, I was unable to buy beer. I had a bottle of gruit beer from Banff Brewing and I was good. I showed some restraint. On Saturday, I bought a beer I haven't had before and I'll probably just stick with that 6 pack.

I'm tinkering around with my diet and drinking because I want to get the most out of my body and life. Drinking less this weekend, I have been able to produce more work than I would have if I was piss drunk. I'm sleeping better and I'm working out more. When I go to weigh myself on Monday, I should see some improvement. If not, at least I have a framework going into the next week.

Editor's note: It is Memorial Day Monday and for all intents and purposes my weekend of restraint is over. Total alcohol intake: 14 beers over 3 days (2/6/6). Between you and I, it was a Herculean feat. I had a plan and I executed. I showed some restraint. My liver, my scale and my wallet are very appreciative. If you are reading this during Memorial Day, enjoy the hot dogs and the cold ones.

Controlled Demolition

Men in hard hats walk through the empty hallways of an office building. The building used to be alive, teeming with activity but as most things, it has outlived its purpose. A foreman checks the strategic location of the munition to take the building down. As he walks past the fencing used to catch the debris, the foreman adjusts his goggles and began the countdown...3...2...1...

As I sat sweating in my car with a pounding headache in the drive-thru lane of Taco Bell, I was trying to do a rudimentary hungover math. I had 3 IPAs with an ABV of 6% and 2 24-ounce cans of Rainier, which is maybe 5% ABV. If you have a Blood Alcohol Content of 0.08, in most jurisdictions, you are legally impaired and it would take almost 5 and a half hours to completely leave your body. I thought I was doing everything right, I was drinking water and I had something other than beer for dinner. I should have been in the clear! 13 hours later, I was still feeling rough as toast!

This weekend, I was trying to control my alcohol intake. I specifically didn't go to the tap take over as I normally do and I didn't spend any money on Friday. So far, I've only spent $16 late into Saturday evening. That's shocking considering that's normally what I'd spend at the Tap Takeover. Then, I began thinking about it, there were times that I've actually planned out unbridled booze benders. A controlled demolition, if you will.

Many of the situations I could think of Buffalo Bills tailgate parties. They are a marvelous thing to behold, where people get drunk prior to kickoff at 1 PM. Most people show up around 9 AM but there have been people there before then. Some people have drunk the night before and rolled up still drunk. I cannot confirm nor deny my participation in such activities...partially because I don't quite remember. Regardless, you would buy your beer the day before because stores weren't allowed to sell beer before noon on Sundays. People would have to prepare their Jello shots at least the day before. If there were snacks being made, those also had to be prepared beforehand. I remember my ex making Bills-shaped cookies and staying up late at night making sure they were frosted correct. That's dedication and insanity rolled into a delicious cookie. We even had to plan out who was driving home. There's no mass transit in Orchard Park, NY as well as no ride sharing. If you partied hard during the tailgate, you may or may not have passed out in the bleachers. If you passed out in the bleachers, your cat nap helped you sleep off some of the booze.

When I was in college, I would take a long weekend off to play FIFA when it was released every year. I knew I was going to play as much video games as I could within a 72-hour period. I would call off of work and skip classes to go to the grocery store to buy 3 days worth of beer and some food to make sure I wasn't depleting my vitamin B stores and develop some alcoholics disease. If I had eaten all of my food, my favorite pizza place on speed dial. My phone was never answered. No one would be hurt. I wasn't driving anywhere and I only left my room to eat, piss or get more beer.

With most of my "controlled demolitions" I saw to it that I wasn't hurting anyone. If I was turning off to the world, I let loved ones know that I was doing. I always showed up to my grandmother's for Sunday dinner. I would never drive and ultimately, I would try to make sure that I wouldn't be around people. No mean words, no regrets. Just a boy, his booze and his video games. Alcohol advertisements would say, drink responsibly and it was the most responsible way I could imagine.

As I get older, I do these less and less. It really doesn't make sense to go off the rails like I did when I was younger. I no longer call off of work to play video games. I don't go to many sporting events, but if I do, I usually keep it pretty tame. I also live in a place where I have easy access to public transportation and ride-sharing, like Lyft and Uber. Even now, I'm more health conscious realizing that my internal organs have a certain mileage on them. I've began trying to fit healthy eating and exercise to allot for a few drinks. Last night I saw my 6-pack had cost me 750 calories, so I stopped my intake because I was approaching my limit for the day.

Quality Control

I can probably count on one hand how many beers I could not finish due to its taste. Hell, I'm the guy who walked into a bar and saw an unfinished shot of Jagermeister in a divey Mexican restaurant and drank it down. Of the beers I could not finish, they were concept beers. I just poured out a session IPA because of particles inside the bottle and an odd papery, pineapple, stale taste. After doing some research, Beer Advocate users rated this beer as a moderate/good beer with a score of 84 out of 100. By that score, I wouldn't have expected what I got.

When you walk into your local beer or grocery store, the fluorescent lights highlight the many rows of bottles. After 40 years after the post-prohibition adventurers such as the Anchor brewery, Ballast Point, New Albion then the second generation of Sierra Nevada and Samuel Adams; the choices of beers are the highest it has ever been. In the articles I've written and the beers I've checked in, the United States is awash in craft beer. To overcome the paralysis of analysis is a Herculean feat. If you're like me, you check your Untappd app for things you haven't tried before. However, the abundance of choice has its detriment.

The ale Americans have come to love in the craft beer age is the India Pale Ale.  The style's beginnings are quite interesting. According to many sources, there was a London exporter who was shipping beers that would take 6 months to be shipped to the British abroad in the far east of India. Some people were complaining about the hoppiness of the beer, so another brewer added more hops to their recipe, giving it the taste of freshness.  Typically, India pale ales pack a punch, with 6 to 7.5% alcohol by volume. The malt profile is light, a pale to deep amber color. However, IPAs are known for its hops.  My friend, those hops.  The hoppiness of the beer is measured in International Bitterness Units (IBUs) and the American India Pale Ales can vary from 65 IBUs and higher. I've tapped out at 95 IBU without making that whiskey face. Needless to say, this beer is made to take a punch then give a punch. It's made to travel.

Have you ever seen something in a 7-Eleven, bodega or mini-mart and known, beyond a shadow of a doubt that something has been on the shelf longer than it has. I have been there before, hell a couple of times and I've bought plenty of beer there. I've been hurt before. Those same beers that are renown for maintaining their freshness cannot stand the test of time.  How can a beer that is made to be shipped over half of the Earth go skunky in a cooler? A better question is, how can something be made locally suffer an even greater fate?

The rule of thumb is that a beer can last 8 to 12 months, if refrigerated and kept from direct light. Beers in brown bottles reflect light at a better rate than those beers in a clear or green bottle. American India Pale ales are a year-long offering, fresh-hopped beers are typically available after the hop harvest in late August and September. If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you can expect a Fresh Hop festival in October. I think it's something that the hop growers of Western New York should embrace. A fresh-hopped beer should be a beer enjoyed before breaking out the Oktoberfest and Marzen beers. The final breath of summer.

Again, I pose the question, how can such a hearty beer become so skunky? Start the clock after the bottling process where a beer can sit in a factory's store room waiting to be bought from a distributor. It then becomes the distributor's job to sell this beer to the stores. Once bought by the stores, then it is up to you, the consumer to buy said product. Normally, this process doesn't take 8 months - it should be an in-and-out process. However, we live in an interesting time. A time of ultimate choice.

Everyone has heard the story of a grandmother from Russia who came to an American supermarket and dropped to her knees, succumbed to the sheer amount of choice compared her Soviet stores of the past. I've experienced that in my lifetime. I remember a time where my mom would go to Consumer Beverage and loaded up on beer balls or cases of the American adjust lagers that our grandparents and parents grew up on. From famine to feast.

I'm not asking for fewer choices, however, I need to remember that if there is a beer I've never had before was bought ages ago. Taking the beer I couldn't finish today into consideration, the brewer intended that beer to be consumed in the summertime. Founders make a year-round session IPA and my fault is that I assumed. That papery and stale taste is from the oxidation of malt component and increases as the beer get older. Now with the choices, we have available, the onus for quality control lies with us all. Some breweries have a "brewed on" date which is helpful to the consumer because we can know how old our potential beer is. The responsibility also lies with the distributor and merchants. If merchants hold themselves to a higher standard and only sell the freshest product, distributors will make price corrections to get rid of excess product before it goes bad. Supermarkets need better buyers. Some of the larger chains will buy larger quantities thinking that people will enjoy the variety but if people buy a bad brew, how apt are they to buy beer there again? I know that I am hesitant buying beer from Whole Foods.

Quality control is all of our responsibilities.

Thelma and Lake Louise

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel only read one page."

-Saint Augustine

My excitement kept me from getting a good night's sleep. I remember helping my grandfather load the van full of fishing gear and he told me to get some shut-eye because we had a long drive ahead of us. I was maybe 9 years old at the time when I made my first trip to Fernleigh, Ontario. I had been to Canada before as a kid, going to Marineland and such, but this was the first time I could conceptualize what it actually meant to travel to a "foreign" country. Using a different kind of currency, different television shows and just doing new things were appealing to the younger version of me. In fact, they still are.

Throughout my youth, I had a sense of wanderlust, the strong desire to travel and explore the world. There were class trips to Boston and Montreal, while there were chances to go to New York City and Washington D.C. that I was not able to enjoy. Sometimes, it was a bit cumbersome to travel as my family didn't have disposable income and you can only sell so many candy bars door-to-door. Life always has a way of working itself out and when I thought I have been priced out of being an exchange student, I met someone who was involved with the Rotary Club. The Rotary Club doesn't charge an up-front price for exchanges, they find 1 to 3 families that host an exchange student and even provide a monthly stipend. All I had to do is find the airfare to get there, which my grandfather purchased for me. He'd also make sure I had enough walking around money and I was never left wanting. It was in Finland where I got the chance to travel throughout the country and into neighboring Estonia, Russia and Sweden. I was even enjoying the airport experience in Copenhagen and London where I bought probably the most expensive toast and cappuccino I will ever buy.

Traveling alone is one thing. There were road trips to Montreal and Toronto that I would do on a whim. Life in Buffalo became too mundane and I need french fries covered in cheese curds and gravy. The trip from Buffalo to Montreal was a 6-hour jaunt east the I-90, north on I-81 then east on Highway 401. Poutine Paradise! Something was missing though. Previously, I usually went with someone or a group of people. Also, this was at a point in my life where I wasn't quite as affluent as I'd like to be. Either I'd sleep in my car or just make the long drive home.

Then there's traveling with someone. It's an interesting concept because sometimes things have to be a compromise. People's preferences vary. When I was online dating, women would list where they've been (but not whom they've been with). A lot of them had pictures with them on some beach somewhere and I'd sit there thinking, "I'd never go to Thailand in a million fucking years." Apparently, they hand out trips to Bali to every basic white girl, along with a fedora and barre fitness classes. They'd always be in that stupid yoga pose where you have one foot on your knee and your hands folded like you're praying. Give me a break. *Swipe left*

Leading up to a planned vacation could cause some consternation. Planning where to stay is especially difficult. I already hate planning and I often love waiting to the last minute, but I end up shooting myself in the foot, so it's always good to have someone who wants to figure it out first. Do you know where Banff, Alberta is? My girlfriend and I didn't. It may as well have been in space but it was through one of her co-workers that gave her the tip to stay in Canmore rather than Banff in order to save money. Prices were negligibly different, so we differed to the pro. Canmore was great but you could see it in a few minutes. Banff would have been a good base as well because we'd end up going back a few times throughout our stay. Specifically for the pastries of Le Fournil bakery. They are by far the best pastries I've had and I've eaten plenty.

Your choice of travel partner is important. Look what happened to Thelma and Louise, what started as a weekend road trip ended up in with a murder and double suicide. If you were on the S.S. Minnow, a 3-hour tour turned into Jean-Paul Sartre's vision of purgatory. So, what to do during a vacation could be difficult if you're not on the same page. Personally, I have no qualms with going somewhere and just bar/brewery hop. Most people I travel with will oblige my desires. Looking back over past trips, I'm realizing that I've been pretty selfish when it comes to reciprocity. I don't think I've said, "just water for me, it's the girl's turn to let her hair down and cut loose." That might be something I look into more.

Needless to say, but the scenery of the Canadian Rockies is breathtaking. Maybe that's because of the altitude. Mountainous terrain with snow-capped peaks. Banff & Lake Louise is where a lot of the area's skiing happens. Lake Louise is the first stop for the Alpine Skiing World Cup circuit takes place. We decided to take a gondola to the top of the mount and the view was amazing but it was there I remembered I wasn't a big fan of heights. My Olympic downhill skiing aspirations were dashed right there, but we concluded that there was no real reason to get out. Japanese tourists were flashing their gang signs so we decided to head to Chateau Fairmont for a few pictures. After getting our fill of picturesque panoramas, we decided to go to my favorite brewery in all of Alberta, Banff Avenue Brewing.

We visited Banff Avenue Brewing the previous day on our way to Canmore. We had some time to kill before checking in, but we didn't drink our fill because the girlfriend thought it was a bad idea to drive drunk in a foreign country. LAME!!! So we sat exactly where we did before, with the same bartender. It was great because he was a great bartender, jovial and helpful. We got a couple of inside tips of where to eat and drink. I also got a chance to talk shop with one of the head brewers. Brewers are great people to talk to because it's one of those jobs you have to have a passion for. You typically won't hear a brewer wake ups and say "Aw shit, time to wake up and make beer." We chatted about hop profiles and all things brewing related. He also gave us a tour of their brewing setup, which was impressive given the size of the operation.

You don't realize how easy it is to talk to people, but a vacation will remind you of it. In our first night in Canmore, we were at an English-style pub and met a couple. We spent a large chunk of the evening talking about what we did for a living and after a few beverages, we turned to politics. Politics is a volatile topic, to begin with, but the current climate doesn't help things. Being the worldly man I am, I was able to deftly explain the current state of affairs as well as talk about Canadian politics. Kevin and Shelly were sweet people and I wish only the best for them. But it goes without saying, sitting on a bar stool with an open mind goes a long way. We were able to talk to bartenders and fellow bar flies. On our last night in Canmore, Erika began speaking with someone at the table next to us. He was sitting there with a sketchbook and they were talking about something. I couldn't hear initially because I'm already hard of hearing and there was a Jack-and-Jill party going on. As an aside, don't do a Jack-and-Jill party. Bachelor and bachelorette parties are already annoying for everyone except the party involved. Somehow we got on the topic of creativity and making time to create. When I have downtime at work, I like to think about topics I'd like and research them, but this blog, in particular, I have been having a hard time with. My drinking habits have changed overall but in the last year specifically. Outside of the rare occasion where I get together with friends where I go above and beyond when I'm at home, I am rarely tying one on. I'm not content to have just one or two with dinner or get the creative juices flowing. My conversation with Peter helped recenter what I want to do with this page and I decided to renew it for another year.

This trip through British Columbia, Alberta, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon was a good one for me. It reminded me of the natural beauty of the region. Specifically, when we were driving through the Columbia Gorge, I was reminded that that beauty is here in my backyard. I will definitely visit the Canadian Rockies again, however it may be during the summertime. Lake Louis was still frozen and the trails were a bit soggy. Beyond the physical splendor, it gave me a chance for repose. Away from the computer and phone screens, it was just me and the girlfriend. We had some great conversations and some sour ones. We were able to overcome those differences and harsh words because when you're among giant mountains, things seem trivial.

In my valedictory, I implore you just as Saint Augustine did to read more than just one page of the book of life. Get out there and have a beer with someone special and start a conversation with a stranger. Maybe even read and share this blog?