Loudermilk centers on Sam Loudermilk, an alcoholic who runs a support group at a Catholic Church in Seattle managed by a foul-mouthed priest. Sam is a cranky misanthrope who still isn't over his ex-wife, he's an ex-Rolling Stone music journalist with several published books that can't write sober, and he's played wonderfully by Ron Livingston.

This is a comedy, and although it gets silly at times, the addiction of the support group participants are almost always central to the stories, making it a dark, and sometimes very dark comedy about how managing your addiction is sometimes the easy part of life as an addict.

It only had a 3-year run on Netflix, meaning you can binge all 30 episodes fairly quickly. We finished this week, after starting maybe 3 weeks ago.

We watched The Last Tourist, which is a documentary on Hulu about how unsustainable the modern tourism industry is. I was expecting 2 hours of ignorant western tourists and their selfie sticks, and there was some of that before it went in a much darker direction, diving into animal abuse in SE Asia and orphanage tourism in Kenya, and how demand from the developed world makes these problems worse. It got pretty damn dark and depressing before focusing on some success stories and how tourism can be a force for good. The overriding message of the documentary is that tourism inevitably changes the places people are going, so it's incumbent on us to work to make sure those changes are positive. As it stands today, only about 15% of the tourism dollars stay in the underdeveloped places westerners are visiting.

I hate the idea of cruise ships and all-inclusive resorts, two things that were criticized in the movie. I don't understand why anyone would go someplace interesting like Jamaica and then spend the entire trip on a resort with other well off tourists. That sounds more like hell than a vacation to me.

I'd rather be out in the woods or at the beach in my camper, preferably with limited people around, but that is hard to accomplish sometimes.

I tried this while at a concert last weekend. I quite enjoyed it. It doesn't have the nose I would expect in a West Coast IPA, but the flavor was there. It's a worthy addition to list of NA beers you'll enjoy drinking.

More warm weather, means more cocktails and cigars on the deck. As I was perusing the virtual stack of drink recipes I've gathered over time, I came across one for a Grenadine Old Fashioned that sounded interesting.

March 1 marked the first day of "meteorological spring." The actual start of spring is still three weeks off, but the days are getting longer and warmer. The bulbs are sprouting in the garden, and the birds in the trees are active. And it's pleasant enough for a smoke on the deck. 

All the social media things reminded me that Tuesday, February 27 was "National Cigar Day." On February 27th, 1883 Oscar Hammerstein I recieved a patent for an automated cigar rolling machine. While our preference is for hand-rolled cigars, Hammerstien changed the cigar industry with some 80 cigar related patents. As an aside Oscar Hammerstein I was the grandfather of Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II, of the famous Rogers & Hammerstein duo. 

Today, February 27, is the Feast Day of St. Gabriel Possenti.

Legend holds that Gabriel Possenti was a Catholic seminarian in Isola del Gran Sasso, Italy. In 1860 he is said to have used his skills with the pistol to drive off a band of marauding soldiers who were terrorizing the town. Possenti faced the troublemakers after grabbing revolvers from two soldiers. As they laughed at the young student, he took aim and accurately shot a lizard that was running across the road. Impressed, the soldiers left the town, escorted by the seminarian, who had become the hero of the town.

Like many Saints, there's an unclear line between the facts of the Saint's life and the tradition associated with him. However, this story about Gabriel Possenti has led to him being promoted as the Patron Saint of Handgunners. The St. Gabriel Possenti Society was created for the purpose of promoting the Saint's cause. The society promoted the study of the historical, philosophical and theological bases for the doctrine of self-defense. Sadly, the founder of the group died in 2017 and it appears the organization is no longer active.


A few years ago, our parish was presented with a relic of St. Gabriel Possenti, under the title St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows. It was an exciting moment when I saw the blurb announcing the displayed relic in our weekly bulletin. Since then, I've enjoyed sharing the story of Gabriel Possenti with many parishioners. I dare say most of our Catholic friends who also enjoy the shooting sports are now familiar with the Saint and his story.

In another interesting "coincidence," my Virginia Concealed Handgun permit was originally issued on February 27, the Feast Day of the Patron Saint of Handgunners!

St. Gabriel Possenti ora pro nobis!

At noon yesterday we became a one-car family. I've been thinking about this for a while, a couple of years at least. I've been full-time WFH since 2016. Owning 2 cars has been a convenience and not a need for quite a while. My Camry has been paid off for years, so the cost of ownership is low, which has been the main reason we didn't bother to get rid of it.

However, last summer the Camry's AC system started leaking refrigerant. I ended up recharging the system 3 or 4 times over the course of the summer. The Evap. coil is leaking, and replacing that part requires removing the entire dash in the car. It's an 8 hour book job, but fairly uncommon so everyone pads those hours. I was getting $2000+ quotes. I put off dealing with it last year because I was buying a house, and I made it through summer so I wouldn't need the AC for a while.

This year, I've been tracking how often we needed 2 cars. It was once in a six week period, and we could have worked around that if we needed to. A few weeks ago I did an online quote with CarMax and the offer was fair, right in line with what I expected for a trade-in. I was just curious at that time. Last week I was more serious about becoming a one-car family so I redid the quote, as they expire in a week. Somehow, the car gained $1200 in value in a couple of weeks. I was expecting them to lower the offer after the appraiser inspection today but it didn't happen. They offered me exactly what they offered online. So I took it.

The process of selling a car to CarMax could not be easier. I was out of there in 60 minutes, check in hand.

One surprise (not a happy one) is that adding rental car reimbursement to the insurance policy offset a big chunk of the savings from not having the 2nd car to insure.

So now we start the grand experiment of sharing a car for the first time since I was borrowing Michelle's 84 Z-28 in college. I'm not expecting any issues. I don't leave the house for work, the local pub is only a mile away, and the library is across the street from the pub. What more do I need? :)

I am looking at bicycles, but that is a separate blog post.

I tried Surreal Brewing Company's 7 Mile Porter. It's not bad. It has strong notes of chocolate and burnt coffee. The chocolate notes are more dark chocolate than milk chocolate. It didn't taste bad, it just didn't taste like beer. It needed something, more hops maybe, to offset the sweetness of the malts.

Cheers!