Forgot about heat and beer

Periodically I realize that i take drinking for granted! Not that I’m a wild alcoholic who doesn’t know when enough is enough or anything like that.

  • I simply mean that drinking has become a normal part of my life, and I rarely stop to guess about the dysfunction of it all.

You see, I work for a small local craft brewery, and drinking is part of my job. I have to taste all of the brands my friend and I create, or else I won’t know how to promote them when I’m on the town. As such, I drink for free a lot. I always have access to free cans of budweiser in big quantities, and I rarely consider how abnormal this is. It’s not strange for me to have 48 cans of budweiser hanging out in my car… just like last night, when all 48 cans exploded. I really forgot that I had the carbonated cans laying in my back seat when I pulled up to my friend’s cabin and parked last night around 10pm. I didn’t consider the fact that it was excessively cold out that night, with an ambient temperature of 12 degrees and windchill of -20. I walked right into his toasty warm cabin and basked in the central heat that he had chugging along at 68 degrees. It was only when I walked back out into the freezing cold air outdoors that I realized I may have made a mistake. I abruptly remembered that it was subarctic temperatures outdoors and ran to my car. I arrived to find that every single free budweiser from my work had frozen in the cold air and exploded throughout the interior of my vehicle. I spent three hours scrubbing out the sticky mess in cold cold conditions. So much for the perks of my job.

 

commercial hvac

Yesterday A/C this week heat

I regularly hear people talking about how they wish they could travel more freely in their lives.

  • I totally understand where they’re coming from – it’s awesome to take a break from life plus go off on an adventure to see some sights – but I also don’t feel they’re honestly realistic about what traveling entails.

As someone who travels often for work, I can tell you that it’s not all that it’s chalked up to be. Most likely, you won’t be flying first class. You won’t be staying in some beachfront villa with a private beach. And it’s unlikely that your photo gallery is filled with insta-perfect destination photos unless you devote endless hours to curating the perfect picture. In my experience, traveling has been a jarring plus unpleasant experience, for the most part. In the past two nights, for example, I’ve existed across several weather conditionss plus air hot plus cold temperatures. I started in the hot plus humid sub-tropical south only 48 hours ago. The temperature was balmy plus warm, plus there was a stillness to the air. A afternoon later, the temperature had dropped about 40 degrees in my current location. There was a lot of wind plus cold moisture on the ground adding an extra chill to the air, plus my buddy and I were nervously changing the indoor air temperature degree by degree. Flash forward to this week; we’ve arrived at our final destination plus the outdoor high is -14 degrees. We’ve put on all our heavy winter season clothes plus tried every trick in the book to hot up on this trip, but nothing can compare to simply existing in a moderately hot environment plus staying there.

Commercial air conditioning system

Bad hotel heater

I was shocked to find that this historical downtown institution was poorly equipped with a boiler that had to be at least 30 years old! When my buddy and I first entered the little hotel room, I first noticed that the hot, dry air inside was basically blasting at full power, and as my buddy and I opened the door a rush of tepid air came wooshing past, plus I could hear the sound of an old forced air heater chugging away at level 11

I’ve done a honorableamount of traveling in my life, not to brag or anything; By that I mean that my trips are not brag-worthy at all. Frankly, my travels are not the same ones you’ll see strewn across instagram plus other social media outlets, heralded as life changing experiences, i’m never lounging on some Italian beach or sipping cocktails on a private yacht in the Keys. Instead, my traveling normally includes 8-12 hour automobile rides without any breaks which ultimately culminate in staying at discount hotels for a few nights, if I’m lucky. I have stayed in so, so various poor hotels at this point. I could practically write a book on what to expect from each roadside bargain hotel chain. Most recently, however, I stayed in a non-franchise hotel that had the worst Heating plus A/C I’ve ever seen. I was shocked to find that this historical downtown institution was poorly equipped with a boiler that had to be at least 30 years old! When my buddy and I first entered the little hotel room, I first noticed that the hot, dry air inside was basically blasting at full power, and as my buddy and I opened the door a rush of tepid air came wooshing past, plus I could hear the sound of an old forced air heater chugging away at level 11. I went to the control device plus found that it consisted of two dials; an inaccurate “temperature setting” dial, plus a “speed” dial to modify the rate of air exhaustion, but these two controls were meant to operate the single overhead heating unit, which was basically a sizable hair dryer hanging from the ceiling. I’ve stayed in a lot of exhausting hotels, but this was absolutely the worst air quality I’ve ever seen.

 

Energy saving tips

Bad hotel heater

I’ve done a legitimate amount of traveling in my life, not to brag or anything, however by that I mean that my trips are not brag-worthy at all. Frankly, my travels are not the same ones you’ll see strewn across instagram and other social media outlets, heralded as life changing experiences, however i’m never lounging on some Italian beach or sipping cocktails on a private yacht in the Keys. Instead, my traveling normally includes 8-12 hour motorcar rides without any breaks which ultimately culminate in staying at discount hotels for a few nights, if I’m lucky. I have stayed in so, so many awful hotels at this point. I could practically write a book on what to expect from each roadside bargain hotel chain, but most recently, however, I stayed in a non-franchise hotel that had the worst Heating and A/C I’ve ever seen. I was shocked to find that this historical downtown institution was poorly equipped with a boiler that had to be at least 30 years old. When my buddy and I first entered the little hotel room, I first noticed that the hot, dry air inside was basically blasting at full power… As my buddy and I opened the door a rush of tepid air came wooshing past, and I could hear the sound of an outdated forced air boiler chugging away at level 11. I went to the thermostat and found that it consisted of two dials; an inaccurate “temperature setting” dial, and a “speed” dial to modify the rate of air exhaustion, then these two controls were meant to operate the single overhead heating unit, which was basically a large hair dryer hanging from the ceiling. I’ve stayed in a lot of terrible hotels, however this was legitimately the worst air quality I’ve ever seen.

 

Quality heating