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# Friday
- URL: https://thedailyeudemon.com/6112/
- Published: 2008-06-27T10:40:36.000Z
- Updated: 2008-06-27T10:40:36.000Z
- Author: Eric Scheske
- Tags: TWE, #wpChunk

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](http://www.catholicexchange.com/2005/07/20/96268/?ref=thedailyeudemon.com); previous links about Houghton Lake: [1](https://thedailyeudemon.com/4779/), [2](https://thedailyeudemon.com/5576/)), 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:

![honkers_left.jpg](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ea/fd/eafdb338-c9b6-4f87-8363-78ab94cc3a18/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/honkers_left.jpg)

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.