My Christmas “stay-cation” had been so far, pew-free. Finally, on Wednesday we took a family drive down to the Winding Brook Indoor Range in Ashland, VA. This is the same facility Colleen and I visited last February. Unfortunately just a few months aft…

This site went online on 12/31/1995, so it’s going to be 22 years old. Like most things as they grow up, they get more risk averse, and let’s just be honest here, more boring. However, 2017 seems to have been much busier than 2016.

Posts in 2016 – 37 …

On this night, December 25, 1776, neither the dark of night nor a freezing river deterred General Washington and his men from taking the fight against tyranny right to the enemy.
[ This content originated at Musings Over a Pint ]

As we celebrate the Nativity of Our Lord, I wish all the readers of these Musings, a most joyful and blessed Christmas season. May the blessings of God be upon you throughout the season and the whole year.The Church at Shepherd’s Field, BethlehemPhoto …

Earlier this week, Capital Ale House in Fredericksburg hosted a Strangeways Brewing “Steal the Glass” event. As reported recently, Strangeways recently entered into an agreement to begin local distribution of their beers. Tuesday’s event marked the first Fredericksburg appearance of the beers outside of the brewery. Colleen and I decided to stop in and enjoy a few good beers and some tasty food.

Four Strangeways beers were being poured this evening; Überlin Berliner Weisse, Helles Frozen Over, Tirami’Zu Brew Rum Barrel Aged Porter and Home for the Holidays Spiced Cranberry Sour.

I’ve been enjoying some sour beer styles of late, so I chose the Home for the Holidays Spiced Cranberry Sour. The attractive red beer has a refreshing tart fruit flavor with a hint of spice. The low 4.2% ABV was welcome as I emptied my glass quite quickly.

Colleen started with Tirami’Zu Brew Barrel Aged Porter. I stole only a brief sip, not wanting to disturb my soured tastebuds, but I think I’ll check that one out at the brewery soon. It was full of creamy dark chocolate aroma and flavor.

We’ve enjoyed several visits to the nearby Strangeways Fredericksburg location, where they keep around 40 unique beers on tap, so having just four options from which to choose made for an easier than usual decision process. For our next round, to accompany our meal, we simply ordered “the other two.”

This time I sipped the Helles Frozen Lager and Colleen claimed the Überlin Berliner Weisse. The Helles had a nice crisp, grassy bitterness. A lighter bodied beer than I typically drink, it went well with my French Dip Steak and Havarti sandwich.

While we were enjoying our dinner I noticed that Capital Ale House owner Chris Holder and Neil Burton, the Strangeways Brewery owner, were also in attendance to help celebrate the new distribution status. I hadn’t seen either of them for some time so took the chance say hello and enjoy a quick chat about beer in Fredericksburg.

Besides two more glasses to add to our glassware collection, we obtained a bunch of Strangeways swag as well. We enjoyed a pleasant event talking, eating, and drinking. I’m can now look forward to seeing even more Strangeways beer variety at my favorite local establishments.

This evening I attempted to help my wife upload data from her $9000 insulin pump to the crappy Java driven web app on Carelink.medtronic.com that she has to use to extract her data from the pump. I was greeted with the error screen above..

Medtronic is blocking the …

It’s that joyous time of the year when we start hearing Christmas music played everywhere. When the music is being played on steel, with guns, it adds to the fun.It looks like the folks at Black Rifle Coffee Company had a blast putting together th…

Last week, the Delaware Supreme Court ruled that a long-standing ban on guns in Delaware State Parks violated the state’s constitution. A lower court had previously ruled that the much sought after nirvana of “public safety” trumped the rights of gun owners. In acknowledging the Constitutional right to bear arms, the justices noted poignantly,

But that conclusion is based on the questionable notion — unsupported by reference to any evidence – that outlawing possession of firearms in an area makes law-abiding citizens safer because criminals will, for some reason, obey the regulations.

In other words, criminals don’t care about your “gun free zone,” be it a school, a movie theatre, a church, or even a state park.

See also  “Why legal guns can’t be banned from state parks” and “Bridgeville Rifle & Pistol Club v. Small.”

So, about that theory that by mostly quitting Facebook I’d write more here… I have been sending an email newsletter every week though.

A lot has happened since my last post back in September. The big news is that we have bailed out of the Washington DC area rat race …