February 4, 2015: Why I Like Rye

Today is Wednesday. Hard to believe that I have been out here in California for almost two weeks already.  This is, by far, the longest that I have ever been on the west coast.  I am pretty close already to having been here longer in this one single trip than I have been in all of my previous trips combined.  I was in California in 2001, 2012, 2013 and 2014, each time for two or three days and then three days in Seattle in 2014.  That is my total west coast time coming out to twelve days total!  So this twelve day trip will equal all of those.  This exactly doubles my time out there and more than doubles my time in California.  It is really weird to me, considering how little I had been to California over the course of my life, that I have been in California every year for the last four years.

I got up this morning around three and turned on the air conditioning.  It was warm enough that I was not able to keep sleeping!  That is something that I was not expecting.

Had another good day in the office.  It was cooler again this morning and the walk in was quite nice.

For lunch today I just took myself to What’s Up Dog again.  I love being able to get food from a hot dog stand that is vegetarian!  That’s just awesome.

After work we had a happy hour again up the street at Thee Parkside.  Had a good time there but did not stay too late, only till around seven.

I learned this evening from my cousin that I am related to, but not directly descended from, two notable Americans on my mother’s father’s line.  One is a “many” great uncle Abraham Oberholtzer (aka. Abraham Oberholt) famous for his rye whiskey being part of the Jim Beam family and sold, still today, as one of the most widely available rye whiskies in American under the name Old Overholt Straight Rye Whiskey.

The other, and much more famous, relative is my second cousin, five times removed Henry Clay Frick.  Frick, famously the most hated man in America, ran Carnegie Steel and was the founder of the Pennsylvania Railroad!

I put in a few hours working on Ruby stuff tonight.  Then at nine thirty I went across the street for the last time to get food from Custom Burger.  A salmon burger and mozzarella sticks.  Then I got into bed a few minutes after ten.  Being well rested is one of the primary benefits of being on the Pacific coast.  I played some Trivia Crack and then did my daily DuoLingo lessons before drifting off to sleep.  I put on the air conditioning again tonight, it is still a little warm for sleeping.

Tomorrow I have all of my meals scheduled all day.  Only one more full day in California now.

I read more of Bill Bryson’s “One Summer” throughout the day today.  I am really enjoying learning about all that happened in the summer of 1927.  Quite an interesting year.