If you haven't figured it out, I'm on vacation this week. It's my family's annual trip to Houghton Lake with my wife's family: 40 in-laws for seven days. I actually enjoy it (click here for article that marked my softening stance toward the annual event; previous links about Houghton Lake: 1, 2), though I probably wouldn't select it as my preferred vacation spot (my preference: staying home). My wife's family has been doing this for 50 years. It's a kind of family "staying power" that you simply don't witness anymore in the modern world. Truly remarkable, and it's a politcal shot at all big government types. I've been reading Michael Burleigh's Earthly Powers, and he points out--echoing de Tocqueville and Robert Nisbet and many others--that totalitarians (and wannabe totalitarians, like FDR and LBJ--my editorial aside) hate the family because it, along with the Church, is one of the two biggest intermediary institutions that insulate individuals from the state.
Notwithstanding my immense respect for a vacation week that isn't my ideal week, I didn't get here until late Monday night because my son Jack had a little league playoff game. He opted to miss the first two days of vacation because he didn't want to let down his team . . . and he flat-out loves to play. He wanted to know if we could drive home for Friday's game, then drive back up Friday night. I informed him I simply wasn't willing to spend $100 and eight hours of driving so he could help get his team to the semi-finals, where'd they meet one of the league's two gorilla teams, just so we could squeeze one more day out of vacation. He hung his head a bit but he understood.
Beer has been abundant. My landlord for the week reads TDE. He left me a six-pack of some righteous ale:
I drank four of them Wednesday night. The other two were commandeered by marauding brothers-in-law. The rest of the week, I drank Leinenkugel's Honey Weiss.
I wish I could post more brews news, but my Internet connection is slower than a drunk snail. It makes surfing is painful, and vacations shouldn't be painful. I plan to resume regular postings on Monday.
