Through the Glass

 

I was only gonna have one beer tonight, still a little worn out from the whole weekend thing getting my vax on and all that jazz. Feelin' good, just a little tired but I'm also feelin' that anger at what's going on around us and am trying to distract myself with a little beer and writing before calling it a night. 

  When I saw this one from Badlands Brewing lurking in the fridge, it seemed a necessary part of the day. Through the Glass is a solid damn IPA that rolls in at 6.5%, and brings notes of peach, mango and orange in copious amounts. Softly bitter and smooth AF, it's a beauty. That name got me though, that grabbed my eye and mind and didn't let go. I mean, we are way past the looking glass portion of this trip down the rabbit hole and with a long road ahead, some folks are cracking at the seams. I'm not talking but those Covidiots who March against masks or think it's some kind of conspiracy, they've got so many problems, I don't think anything helps them see the truth. I'm talking about you and me, the ones who've done as asked, hell, who've done more and listened to the science and the doctors and continue to do it even when we can feel that breaking us in many ways. We want to protect the ones we love and we want to come out the other side of this, not normal again, but maybe ready to embrace a new and better world where we try and address the inequalities we've seen magnified in the last 14 months.

  I don't know where I'm going with this, but I just wanted you to know you're not alone, you're gonna make it and we are gonna fill those taprooms and patios again someday. Stay safe, stay sane and take care of yourself too. Mental health is important and I know you're feeling that weight. Lean on someone you love, don't keep it all inside, people love you. Polk loves you.

Stay strong.

Polk

Beer in hand...

 

There's a time and a place for a beer.

And it's right now and in my hand.

I hope you have a good week ahead, I truly do. I know it isn't always easy, hell I go down a dark path myself every so often because it's often easier to feed that beast than embrace the little happiness we find in each day.

 It has been a hell of a year+, to be honest the last 9 years have been an incredible climb up and out of a place I found myself in. Working on my own mental health isn't a final endgame, it is a continual process of stumbling, falling and getting back up again. Failure happens, darkness happens but life does indeed find a way. The ability to write about whatever is on my mind because I drink a beer has become a great part of my own process and I enjoy stepping away from it when I'm done and leaving it to  sit and ferment while I ponder the next step. I look back and see things I know came from anger and then find ones of pure love. It's all part of the daily grind of being a human, we keep trying to be better each time we get out of bed. Be good to the folks around you when you can, be kind to yourself always and may your two beer buzz be the feeling you keep with you when you need it most. Stay safe out there and let's get to the other side of this with a little panache.

Polk

Livin' that Pilsner life..

 

Livin' that Pilsner life.

We look around us and wonder if anyone is paying attention...

I have been following the rules of lockdown for more than 14 moths and I'm fuckin' tired and I know you are too...but I also know you and I will keep doing the right things even if we are fucked mentally beyond comprehension because we care about the folks around us that we love..beer me.

You know, after more than 6 years of daily beer talk on this app, you'd think I'd understand when to post or perhaps what fleet or video would generate the algorithm love but I don't because I'm a hobo drinking and posting when he does. 

One thing I have learned is that I see the folks trying to game the system and I appreciate the hustle, but I kind of question the sanity...the beer gods see a lot, they bless less because they're fucking drunk...smile kids, the other side is a frown and a macro lager and I know we wouldn't want a beer that is the same every time and everywhere...but do we? The one thing the craft beer folks could learn is that kind of world we need is one that is inclusive and way more open minded than you thought it would be...am I doing this right? Fuck it, Polk out...

On Fuck.

S'up Fuckers.

Got beer.

Neither are questions, despite the syntax or lack thereof. While the first statement can be a question, it is most used as a greeting or introduction of sorts, meant for everyone and offensive only if you feel that the word fuck is not part of normal conversations you have everyday. It is in mine, I'd use it more often but I do work in an open kitchen that is customer facing, so the normies of the world must be kept safe from the foul language that we use to express love, hate and everything in between.

 It's just a word man.

 I used to listen to George Carlin a lot, still do but I used to too, the man understood language and I think spending most of my formative years secretly listening to him shred the thought police about words and so much more has given me the power to understand it better. Fuck is a good word. It does the heavy lifting for a lot of things in our lives, happy or sad. I like to use it because it feels like it's part of me and helps illustrate who I am better than other, tamer words. They lack the necessary punch where Fuck never does.

As for Got Beer, well let's just say it's not a question I ask but rather something I like the world to know...every fuckin' day.

Cheers and salutations from your pal with nothing better to do but drink beer and write random things,

Polk. 

Wednesday Polk

 

They've always told me I need to believe in something...I do believe I'll have another damn beer.

Nickel Brook Brewing Headstock IPA pours tonight. The best there is, was and will be. West Coast, writ Ontario, legendary and somehow everywhere...

Life is real and on the edge right now, I'm feeling that tonight, leaning into an old favourite because I seek comfort in the storm. Around me rages a pandemic, into its midst I head every workday, perhaps double masked but is that enough against the absolute unknown? We ponder mortality in a daily basis out here where I live, wondering if today is the day it all goes fuckin' sideways. We don't know, and while some folks may be quick to judge our 4th pint on a Wednesday night, they are absolutely not getting down and dirty and up close and personal with other humans tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow...Be kind and better to your fellow humans, we are just trying to get by and make it through another day. The tears shed in private, the sheer desperation and prayers to inconvenient gods to keep us safe mean little.in a world filled with algorithm posts at 9:35 a.m. because the Insta-computrom said to do it.

Everytime they say "I'm not an influencer" their influencer rank goes.up 12 points...keep it real, or don't...because at the end of the day, it's just fuckin' beer and we are all trying to keep that two beer buzz going.

  I've been there, I was there at the beginning I'm here now and I'll be there at the end...I'm still just a drunk, but with staying power.

Cheers! 5/5

Polk

Polk on Polk

 

There is no madness here, only truth.

Am I sane or am I Memorex? Is this a replay, albeit with a different outcome and characters, so perhaps a reboot? Honestly, I'm exhausted, I get it, we are all just fuckin' done with this. But we cant let up, we can't stop doing the right thing, even if our leaders have abdicated common sense and science. Is this disjointed? It feels like it, but to be honest, I'm headed back to work tomorrow amidst higher case counts, rampant variants that render the conventional masks mute and a populace broken by more than a year of trying so fucking hard. I see a lot of things, I watch, it's what I've always done, looking at the world with a jaded eye and never really investing more than I have to, but right fuckin' now, we gotta get it together, we gotta take care of each other and step up to injustice, to inequality, to the system that has been checked and found wanting. I don't have the answers, I'm at best a drunk and at worst an old drunk. But I know you gotta be kind and we gotta change the way the world works because this isn't what we want our legacy to be. Am I wandering around my mind out loud? Probably, but the moments of clarity come when they may, tomorrow could find me face to face with my own mortality and the chances I can contract the virus goes up with every shift I work. Do I drink too much beer? Who's asking? Me, I'm good with me. Be better than your nature tells you to be, the goal is to make more room at the table, not build a bigger wall. I hope and wish you have a better tomorrow, I really hope you stay safe and we can see each other on the other side of this piece of human history. 

I appreciate the folks who reach out, even when I don't know what to say, I see your comments, messages and I take em to heart. We are all in the same storm, albeit in different boats and circumstances and if we can all pull in the same damn direction, we can make a fuckin' difference. If you stayed til the end, Polk loves ya and sees ya, knows ya and hopes life gets better from here on out for ya.

Polk.

Polk the Truth 2021 - March : In like a lamb, out like a Lion.

 Three months into the very real numbers of what I drink and I am finding a pattern and comfort in my ability to use the data I am generating to have conversations with myself and the people I trust to help me navigate this life I lead. Honesty and openness has long been my benchmark and while I won't sugar-coat anything, I do feel like this is helping me get a better understanding and perhaps even a plan of action as I move forward. The raw and emotional response some have to what I do with my life does not go unnoticed and while I appreciate the concern so many have shown, I am doing much better in terms of mental health and self worth as the year has progressed. There is something soothing and sobering about confronting the numbers as they occur and that is part of what I had hoped to achieve. Not knowing what the next months will bring, I endeavour to continue to shine the light on myself and hope it does more than just help me understand my own motivations, that perhaps other people will look at their own consumption with a more honest eye.

Onward to looking back on the month that was March, 2021.

The month of vacation was a good one

 The entire month boils down to three real distinct parts as this month includes our annual vacation, albeit the stay-at-home version (times 2) of my beloved Polkapolooza tour of Ontario. As with last year, we did not travel the province, visiting upwards of 50 different breweries as it was not advisable to do so during the pandemic, we made a couple of close to home stops at local breweries and contented ourselves with a staycation at Casa de Polk. The early part of March found me a little more focused on getting to that vacation and I was really cutting back on the pints at night mainly due to working a whole lot. The first 11 days (we started vacay on the 12th) saw only 30 beers consumed or 2.72 per day, a serious drop and more in line with where I'd like to be as we move on in this year. Even better, 20 of those were unique check-ins and that meant that the "beer for just drinkin" beers were way down as a percentage of what I poured in my glass. A 28% drop from the first 11 days of February and a whopping 47% drop from the same time frame in January. I was much more aware of every beer I was drinking and I think it had a deep impact on whether or not I grabbed a go-to beer or not most nights.

More of this going forward

  The vacation beers were another story, but to be honest, it isn't a big deal a to me overall because I enjoyed my time off and cutting loose a little during a pandemic might be an okay salve on this wounded year that saw me celebrating my second locked down birthday at home, away from friends and family. There was no real surprise then that in the 9 days we were off and relaxing' my beer total was a little higher than normal. All in, I was at 52 total beers for the time off, although 34 were unique, a rate of 68% and that's a 20% difference from the ratio the rest of the month. We picked up or had delivered a whole lot of different breweries, so there were many options and I took advantage of that to enjoy them all. A daily average of 5.77 is about 43% higher than my normal average for the rest of the days in March and 24% higher than the overall average for the year. I had a good time, we enjoyed some fine beers at home and then went back to work with an eye to continue what we had begun earlier in the month.

It's good to relax on vacation

  The last eleven days of March were a little more the first 11. A sandwich of moderate consumption surrounding a 9 day stretch of a little more indulgence skewed the progress made this month and I feel like the stretch after vacation reflects that I am still a work in progress. Despite increased stress at work and the world feeling a little more pandemically challenged around me, the numbers came in with a drop of 26% from the holiday stretch with 47 beers for an average of 4.27 per day. Looking to bring that down below three as we move into April and better weather will be the next challenge but as we ended the month down 5% from January and even with February, I am encouraged by my progress using this approach to really dig deep into the why's of my not so subtle beer drinking.

The last third of the month was a little bit of a struggle

 The biggest challenge remains those evenings where there is no work the next day, primarily Saturdays and Wednesday, where I had 43% of all my beers. I wasn't really intending to end the month with a bang, but that negative Covid test gave me a reason to celebrate and here we are with that little 7 beer party skewing things a little bit, in my humble opinion.  I am trying to find a way to enjoy writing about beer while simultaneously cutting back to just the single new beers without giving up a few nights of enjoying some old and go-to faves just because. It's a work in progress and I'd be lying if I said it would be much easier to just drink the beers and not bother documenting it all, but I want to know, I want to learn and I want to change.

Thanks again for indulging my numbers and my thought process as I navigate this year and my own relationship with myself and beer. I am working on being a better person in a lot of ways and this is just the most visible one. I encourage anyone who comes to the realization that they need help to get it and while I may make a lot of jokes about getting real hammered on Twitter, I am more than the memes I use to try and lighten the mood in a dark world.

Stay safe, see you again in May.

Polk

Now for the raw numbers, nerd Polk approved...

Beers by the day 

Sunday -  15 (3.75 per day)

Monday - 7 (1.40)

Tuesday - 18 (3.6)

Wednesday - 31 (6.20)

Thursday - 16 (4.00)

Friday - 15 (3.75)

Saturday - 27 (6.75)

Unique Beers - 73/129 (56.5%)

Beers by Brewery

Nickel Brook Brewing - 11

Collective Arts Brewing - 10

Great Lakes Brewery - 6

Gateway City Brewing - 6

People's Pint Brewing - 4

Merit Brewing - 4

Spearhead Brewing - 4

Beers

Nickel Brook Brewing Headstock IPA - 13 times

Collective Arts Good Monster DIPA - 3

Collective Arts IPA No 16 - 3

Nickel Brook Brewing What we Brew in the Shadows Hazy N.Z. IPA - 3

Merit Brewing Young Rival IPA - 3

Niagara Oast House Brewers Haymaker DIPA - 3