Today was of course a day of somber regret and desperation, as the Orange Dickhead became President again. I did not watch one single moment of the inauguration and I am not hanging on tenterhooks doomscrolling through his “first day” actions on X (née Twitter).

Instead, I focused on house tidying and other such things while idly contemplating how the lessons of Martin Luther King Jr. are willfully overlooked by an increasing percentage of our population.

I reformatted and installed fresh images on two older laptops I intend to donate to the local charity who takes such things. One of them was a Windows 10 laptop that was never going to take Windows 11 but who knows, someone might find a use for it.

I worked on decluttering and tossing out various unneeded tchotchkes that have been lying around gathering dust. I am, regrettably, an acquirer of tchotchkes.

I picked up a couple of loaves of challah that our local synagogue and Quakers were selling as a fundraiser — you pay in advance and then go get your loaves out of a cooler on someone’s porch when the pickup day comes. I’m sure it’s not that unusual, but still, it seems kind of Vermont-y to me to drive one’s car up to someone’s house after dark, crunch one’s way through the snow and up their steps, fish a couple of half-frozen loaves of challah out of a cooler, cross one’s name off a list on a clipboard, then retrace one’s steps and so on to home.

I took some caffeinated teabags to our church and put them in the big multi-compartment tea box that we put out during hospitality time. It’d gotten to the point that there was literally nothing in that box other than rooibos tea, decaffeinated tea, and chamomile tea. I am sure people enjoy those — I do, even — but there are often times that you want to have something with caffeine, especially after sitting through a 75-minute church service in a warm sanctuary. Sometimes you just have to do things yourself, so I took by some Constant Comment, some Earl Grey, and a whole bunch of chai teabags. Our long national nightmare is over.

But the highlight of the day was the beer poking at our local microbrewery, Stone Corral. I believe I can safely count myself among the vast majority of Richmonders who had never heard of such a thing as “beer poking” until very very recently. Stone Corral put out a listing in the local community forum five days ago — “beer poking from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm on Monday the 20th”. I thought the choice of date and time was odd until I remembered that a lot of folks, me included, get MLK Day off — and that if there was ever a day to consume alcohol, it would be the 2024 Inauguration Day.

What is beer poking? Allow me to quote from the event listing:

“Make the most of a chilly winter day and join us to celebrate a centuries-old winter tradition: Beer Poking! Dating back to 17th-century Germany, this practice involves heating a metal rod until red-hot and plunging it into a beer. The result? A warmed brew with a caramelized, toasted flavor that’s perfect for the season. There will be an outdoor fire, heaters, hot cocoa for the little ones, and of course — beer! Poking will be done 1pm — 4pm, don’t miss it!”

Carole and I got to the restaurant around 2 pm on a bitterly cold, sunny day. The parking lot was full of cars and smoke was rising from an open fire surrounded by curious onlookers. One had to go inside to get a mug of beer — per the restaurant, the darker the better — and then come out to get “poked”. Unsurprisingly — this is a small Vermont town, after all — I ran into multiple acquaintances while waiting in line. It was the high point of the day for everyone!

What was the “poked” beer actually like?

Well, theoretically the poking was supposed to partly caramelize the beer (hence the recommendation for a dark beer that would have lots of stuff to caramelize) and give it an interesting taste. I’m not really sure it did; it made for a warm head of froth atop the beer, but the beer itself (mine was an “Mexican Chocolate Cake Mousse” Imperial Stout) hadn’t changed that much. Still, there was some novelty value to it. Perhaps I should get a branding iron and build a big fire at my house some day and keep poking beer until I find the perfect duration to get the optimal result.