I have been watching the pre-race shows since 1100 this morning and it’s 1400 and the race still hasn’t started. In fact the drivers aren’t even in the race cars yet. They didn’t start until after 1415 and the first caution flew at 1430…
Other than the final race of the Sprint Cup championship and my new bike getting started I don’t have a lot to talk about other than beer.
I have a new favorite beer. I used to prefer Shiner Bock for a long time because it had so much more flavor than your typical American Pilsner. Well my new favorite is still broad by Shiner, and it’s still a dark beer, but it isn’t a Bock it’s Shiner Black Lager. It’s made from an even darker roasted malt than Bock, but it’s brewed lager style which gives it a lighter body than a bock. This ends up with a beer that has a flavor similar to a bock but is as drinkable as an American Pilsner. The only problem I have with the beer is they are so proud of their imported Czech hops they put so much in they almost completely overshadow the flavor of the malt and yeasts. I should say I’m not a big fan of hops, in fact before I discovered the joys of dark beers my favorite was a beer I can’t remember the name of that had the minimum amount of hops to be classified as a “beer” in the US. It was cheap but they spent more time on their malts and yeasts to bring up the flavor without the bitterness of the hops to cover up shortcomings in the rest of the brewing process.
Mrs. the Poet has emphatically stated that she is NEVER going to ride in anything resembling the Sprint T I was discussing back during the summer in this blog. Her requirements are a windshield and roof with roll-up windows and AC and a comfy seat. Mine are more about going, stopping, and turning with enough range to last as long as my bladder does. While these requirements are not diametrically opposed, meeting Mrs. the Poet’s requirements does add weight which makes meeting my requirements more difficult, especially the weight of the roof and windshield raising the center of gravity of the car which does no favors for the “turning” requirement. I think I might be able to make us both happy if I take a shell from an ’80s era econobox, blow out the floor leaving the dash and everything else intact and slapping it on a tube frame with a V8 and decent suspension. Or I could take that econobox and put in a modern high-output 4 cylinder engine and upgrade the suspension to rally standards (gravel rally) to get the handling and braking up to my desires. Using a 1980s era ‘box instead of a new car takes about 1000 pounds out of the equation right off the bat whichever strategy I choose with the modified econobox.
As has been pointed out to me my suggested changes to the tax structure would result in a decline in tax receipts because of a lack of taxes on the lower tax brackets, and that if I kept the S0 and S4 and S5 brackets and dumped the S1, S2, and S3 brackets (or rolled them into the S4 and put in a large standard deduction that went down as the S classification went up) I would get what I wanted for the “takers” of the economy while not impacting the “makers” negatively. Even my suggestion of reducing our military spending to just the first 3 behind us in combination instead of the next 10 we still couldn’t balance the budget on the tax brackets I had initially proposed.
And the race has gotten real exciting now that the sun has set…
And now the race is over and Denny Hamlin won the race and Jimmy Johnson won the championship.
PSA, Opus
Witch on a Bicycle 