cheapest single malt in the liquor store Wednesday, April 6 2016
It was another unseasonably-cold morning, with continued snow throughout most of the forest. I took the dogs up the Chamomile Headwaters trail to nearly the Stick Trail. A little south of their intersection (near 41.923243N, 74.104259W), I found a largish skeletonized Chestnut Oak fallen nearly to the ground. Starting on its branches, I cut up pieces of ready-to-burn firewood using my small battery-powered chainsaw. The resulting load came to 88.6 pounds, which was a lot for the kilometer-long hike back home. It's getting to the point where I have to range that sort of distance to find ready-to-burn wood, at least along the Stick and Gullies trails.
Back home, I took a recreational 50 milligram dose of Vyvanse (the ADD-fighting amphetamine molecularly bound to lysine so as to prevent the kind of abuse people like me might attempt). I find Vyanse a fun recreational drug just the way it is; I don't actually need a more intense onset than it provides, and the only real downside is how long it lingers in my system. This was why I took it early in the day.
This afternoon I loaded up all three dogs and went for a drive. First I went north on Dug Hill Road and then over to the Tibetan Center to see what treasures could be found in the thrift store. There wasn't much, so I bought a large drawer pull handle, a box of small citronella candles, and a box of old skateboard wheels and axles that has been languishing at the Tibetan Center since the last time I was there. I wouldn't use the wheels for an actual skateboard, but they'd handy for making an automated door or the kind that slides on tracks (like a pocket door).
I then drove out to the Home Depot on 9W to buy just the materials needed to make one of my copper pipe menorahs. I wanted to see what the raw materials for such a menorah would cost. I bought two contractor packs of half-inch copper T-fittings, two contractor packs of half-inch copper L-fittings, ten feet of half inch copper pipe, $10 worth of solder, and nine half-inch-sweat-to-half-inch NPT fittings. Those fittings were for the tops of each of the menorah's candle-holding prongs. In the past I'd used half-inch-to-one-inch adapters, but those cost $4.23 each, and the NPT fittings cost only $2.57. Even with these cost savings, today's purchases came to over $70 (though, admittedly, I probably bought too many L and T fittings). It's looking like any copper pipe memorah I make will end up costing at least $200.
On the way back home, I stopped at Miron Wine & Spirits to get some distilled essentials. I was disoriented at first; since the last time I'd been in there, the gin and vodka had been moved from the west wall to the east wall. I got my usual half gallon of cheap gin and, as a way of celebrating my new job, a 750 mL bottle of the cheapest single-malt scotch in the store: Finlaggan. Its price was about $26. The other day Ray had said that one can't go wrong with a single malt scotch, and I wanted to see if he was right about that.
Later, back at the house, I started drinking my Finlaggan. It had that oddly-nostalgic medicinal peat quality I remembered from other fine single malt scotches, though there was just the hint of a flavor (mostly bitterness) in there that didn't seem quite right. But perhaps this was entirely psychological, something in my brain reminding me that the thing I was drinking was the cheapest single-malt scotch in Miron Wine & Spirits.
Meanwhile, it seems that my new job wants to fly me out to Los Angeles for my first week of work. I'm looking forward to the adventure.
Sarah Poiron kept suggesting Miley Cyrus videos for me to watch tonight, and I enjoyed some of them. Here Neville and Ramona play to this odd laboratory soundtrack.
