Ready.....Row: It's Alive and I Wish I was Too

When we last left things, I was to take care of getting our car battery replaced. Besides giving your car a jump start, AAA will actually come to your car and replace the battery for you. This seem to be the easiest option, as opposed say to going out and buying a battery myself or jump starting the car again in order to get it to a repair shop. The service representative showed up fairly quickly and I told him what I wanted (a new battery). Rather then just replace it, he checked it out first and his meter showed the battery was fine. Turns out there was some corrosion on the positive battery terminal that once cleaned up allowed the car to start right up. He did mention that the terminals that attached to the battery really should be replaced sooner than later, but he would clean them and it should work fine for a while. As he was cleaning the negative terminal, lo and behold, the terminal broke off. He was a lot more calm about it then I would have been, but he said he would go buy the terminals and install them. It took him a while to locate local auto parts place (I'm not sure where he was located, but obviously not the immediate area), he returned and installed the new terminals. Cost - no charge. He said since he broke the terminals there would be no charge. Sweet.

Since Thursday I had been feeling like I was coming down with something flu like. My shoulders and neck were feeling achy and stiff and I was getting chills and headaches periodically. As we got into Saturday, I was feeling pretty shitty after rowing practice. I started popping Tylenol, which helped me get through the day. By Saturday evening though, I was feeling pretty bad and went to bed around 8:00. I couldn't fall asleep. I tossed and turned all night long. I even got up around 2:00 and watched some TV hoping it would make me sleepy. I eventually fell asleep around 5:00 and slept for a few hours before I had to get up to go race. After the races (more on that later), I came home feeling even worse adding dehydration to my list of woes. I again turned in early on Sunday to again sleep for about an hour and then was up all night long. Ann finally took pity on me and went and got me some OTC medicine to help me sleep. Needless to say there was no way I could face the prospect of work on no sleep so I called in sick. Something I almost never do. As it turns out, the guy in the cubicle next to me was also out sick so maybe we picked up the same thing. Whatever, it sucks. I'm feeling better, but only about 80%. Hopefully things will continue to improve.

Saturdays in the fall are usually reserved for college football. However there were no games on at noon or 1:00 on TV that interested me so I decided it was time to bottle the English Pale Ale that has been brewing down in out laundry room. One of the more surprising aspects that I've discovered about home brewing is the amount of cleaning involved. Everything has to be cleaned and sanitized. Since I was about to bottle, it meant cleaning 50 or so empty bottles, bottle caps, bottling bucket, tubing, etc. It sort of sucks some of the fun out of it. Below is a picture taken about halfway through cleaning the bottles. I just bought a drying tree to let the bottles dry out.

And Volia! The finished product. Just over two cases. It will take another 2 weeks or so before it's ready to be enjoyed. It has to carbonate in the bottles. I've had some doubts how this batch will turn out given the slow start it had with the yeast. I did taste a bit of it while bottling and it tasted fine (if not carbonated yet) so hopefully it's not a wasted effort.

Daughter#1 is in Quebec this week with the fiance as he gets "trained" on a new line of office furniture. Her agenda makes it look like one fun trip and I hear Quebec is a beautiful place and probably more so in the fall. I'm jealous.