It actually took some doing to get me to like the taste of beer. It surely did not come to me naturally. When I first started going to live music shows, I mostly stuck to Gold Schlauger. That got really expensive really fast. Once it became apparent that my interest in live music would not begin and end with Phil Pritchett and that it would become a regular thing, I decided to economize. Not only was beer cheaper, but it lasted longer. I'd learned the hard way what happens when your primary drink is something that can be consumed in seconds.

The Firehouse Saloon then was not the Firehouse of today. The air conditioning was wholly insufficient for a Houston summer. The beer was cold and wet in a rather warm environment and I correctly strategized that my taste buds would associate beer with refreshment - I'd pulled off the same trick with Diet Coke months before. A cold beer in a warm environment is what got me in to it to begin with.

Idaho, to say the least, is not as warm as Houston. The warm drinking season is also considerably shorter. However, I have now been introduced to the cold drinking season.

Camille and I took a trip to Jackson, Wyoming over the weekend. The weather turned a week or so back and there was much snow on winding roads with grades of 10% and greater. At one point on the way to Wyoming we had a little bitty bit of trouble getting past an ice-patch that had kept an oil truck stationary for quite a while. I think the second or third sentance out of my mouth when we arrived was to thank our generous host Linus if he had any beer. Man, did I need a beer. On the way from we were going downhill on snowy and icy road. I wanted a beer then, too.

The weather has been white ever since. The 50-minute drive home from work actually took 75. Not because it was a relaxed drive. Whereas in Houston I associated beer with hot and sunny weather, I'm increasingly associating it up here with the cold and snow.

Man, do I need a beer.