gifting horses.

i'll begin with an admission: i like beer. beer tastes good. two pints of it generally gives a warm feeling; maybe a bit more willingness than usual to speak about what's on my mind. while it hasn't helped me dance, as the bumper sticker says, it has given me another outlet for one of my favourite hobbies: snobbery. some might not agree with me that this is a generally good thing, but i say that without snobbery, i'm quite close to nothing. being one who avoids absolutes, i tend to aim for the middle of the beer continuum. porters, browns, reds, ambers, and pales. i don't like many "american lagers", which are like "american 'cheese'". budweiser, miller, coors, pabst blue ribbon, rainier, all of those canned beers. hand me a "spaten pils" and i'll drink it. elysian's "perseus porter"? done. PBR, though? gives me heartburn. this isn't a metaphor. it seriously gives me heartburn. don't think i haven't tried to like it. hipsters dig PBR. bike snobs dig PBR. ski bums dig PBR. musicians dig PBR. i drink it and i regret until i forget and then try again, cycle after cycle.
i'll continue with another admission: i dig tips. i don't get tipped very often in the bike world, but i do in the ski world. i haven't figured this dichotomy out, but i also haven't really tried. i bring it up every time tipping arises in conversation, but i don't really listen to anyone's thoughts or provide my own, and thus remain voluntarily ignorant and a bit hypocritical. which are two more of my hobbies.
i'll add a story: last april i made an adapter plate for a customer so he could swap his alpine and tele setups easily while using one pair of skis. it involved a demo binding, some steel plating, a drill press, some rain and 8 hours of labour. when i was done, it was a passable setup, if a bit janky. fast forward to today, and a customer walks in with a similar setup, this using a UHMW plastic sort of materièl in place of the steel plating; otherwise it was identical. today's customer, however, had broken the demo plate part of his binding, causing what i'd call an "awesomeness void". my boss happened to be skiing with him, and his term for the incident was a "crash". i loaned the customer my own skis, sent him on his way and set out on the attack. details aside, it took three hours of wrangling, some free-to-the-customer parts and a lot of dremel grinding before i yelled "i win!" and handed the customer his skis back. my boss said it was a learning experience and sent the customer on his way, free of charge. NOW. . .were i in the customer's position, say in girdwood AK, i'd have proffered what cash i had in my wallet in gratitude. not so, this customer. he simply grunted and walked away, returning a few minutes later with a twelve of PBR. no pepto, just PBR.
i'll add a conclusion: unless things have changed, SHITTY BEER DOESN'T PAY RENT. while i have seen a couple cans of rainier in my landlord's fridge, the only non-currency currency i've found that i can use in lieu of rent is free-range, farm-fresh eggs. in the 18 pack.
that is all.