Hops for the Holidays- Christmas and an unwanted gift (Day 3)

On the actual day of Christmas, not much beer was consumed.  In fact, hardly any beer was consumed by anyone in the family during the day.  I laid off of it during lunch and instead chose baklava, a tradition in Ashleys family and equally as  caloric.  Gifts were exchanged and good times had by all, but beers were far and few between.  I needed a day off.  Then I went for an evening run when we got back and my mind immediately changed.  I had set a Rock Art Vermonster (10% abv) outside and by the time I had gotten home, it was perfect.  An American Barleywine assaulted with malts.  What a barleywine should be when you can feel the malt camping out on the back of your tongue.  Probably my favorite selection from Rock Art…and I think only $6 for this bomber.

I’m going to warn you, the next few paragraphs down might make you gag, throw-up, or simply say gross. I’m sorry.

The next morning, I went for the most epic trail run.  I ran on the MidState Trail all the way to New Hampshire.  Warning sign number one I shouldn’t be running could have been the fact I ran up on three hunters stalking deer in the woods.  They saw me first and I was wearing bright red, so luckily, they didn’t think I was a deer and I waved as I slowly walked by.  I said screw it and kept going and headed for Mt. Watatic to re-do a run I had accomplished a few days prior.

Only way is up.

The trail had frozen over so it was pretty slick but the view at the top was totally worth it.  I had a perfect cloudless view of 60 miles, 360 degrees around me.  I could even see some buildings in Boston (60 miles away) and some of the other neighboring mountains.  It truly was one of those things I’ll never forget.  I thought to myself that I had come full circle with a great running cycle in prep for the Houston marathon as long as I made it to the starting line healthy.  After a few minutes of peace and serenity, I began to run down the mountain trail.  I lost my footing a few times, but hit and ice patch at one point and pretty much ate it and bashed my knees off the ice.  I laid on the ground for a second, got up, and just walked it off like I was told to do in Little League baseball.  I looked down at my tights and saw a little blood had seeped through, but nothing I should be worried about.  It must not have been that bad I thought.  So with my better judgment, I walked down the rest of the mountain and ran the rest of the 3.5 miles to Ashleys parents.  Still barely any blood, just a scratch.  I’m good.  I ran upstairs to get a quick shower, and I saw this.

Ouch.

I could literally see my knee cap.  Gross. I really didn’t know what to think.  I just stared at the gash and didn’t think it was a big deal, just a deep cut.   I just said, welp, time for the Emergency Room.  So Paul (Ashleys stepdad) and I headed into town.  I kept my cool pretty well and just figured a couple of stitches would be all it needed.  I was wrong.

Since it was the day after Christmas, all doctors offices were closed so the emergency room was friggin packed.  I waited for 3.5 hours and made sure to let the nurses and doctors know how appreciative I was of them for working on the day after Christmas.  I told a nurse, “Sorry some people are kinda assholes today about the wait.”  She replied, “Honey, people are assholes everyday.” and laughed.  After an evaluation and refusal of an x-ray, 9 stitches were put into my knee and I was good to go.  Granted, I wasn’t walking normal, but their was hardly any pain…just soreness.  I got some Tylenol with Codeine just in case but headed for home to sit on the couch and question if I would be good to go for the race.  Above is what my knee looked like a few days afterward. Crap.

I did my best not to let this mentally hinder my upcoming trip to Vermont or any other plans we had made for the rest of our vacation, but running was out of the question for at least a week.  My race was in three weeks. Uh oh.

So what did we do that night, well what else, we went to a bar.  We headed down to G-Vegas (Gardner, MA) and hit up the Gardner Ale House.  Ashley’s cousin, Lauren, was with us and she knew the brewer (who wasn’t there), but she wanted to try the beer.  So my gimp-ass hobbled down to a table, ordered some beers, and listened to the live blues band.

I have a rant, if you are going to be an ale house or brewery which makes your own beer….please don’t serves Bud Light or Coors Light.  Personally, as an owner, I’d rather risk someone not coming to my place at all because I don’t serve there beer.  Make people drink your beer.  End Rant.

I started the night with their Naked Stout, a session ale clocking in at 3.9%.  The beer was the spitting image of NABC’s Community Dark and went down just as fast.  Within a few minutes it was gone.  Very roasty and notes of burnt coffee flavors in the beer, no chocolate.

Frothy.

Next up was the Faceoff Double IPA (9.3%) delightfully poured in a snifter glass while we awaited our pizza and sweet potato fries.  Meh.  It was a mediocre DIPA, but lacked a lot of nose and decent kick to it.  Maybe it was the meds wearing off, but I just wasn’t feeling the beer at all.

It had been a long day and I was tired.  I fell asleep on the car right home (see also meds and beer), but we had a big day ahead of us en route to the ski house and Vermont and all it’s brewery goodness.