Getting Back on the Horse

It’s been awhile since my last blog post, in fact it’s been a few weeks since I felt I’ve done something productive. Of course I make progress with tasks at work, and make small changes to web sites I maintain, but nothing I’ve worked on recently has brought me much excitement, and thus I’m ready for school to start. With school I know there will be programming assignments, and as long as they involve something new I will receive a sense of accomplishment.

Last week brought some excitement, however it wasn’t that special kind of excitement. Our house was searching for a used kegerator and last Sunday we finally acquired one. To add to the excitement we mistakenly filled a 5 pound CO₂ tank with 7 pounds. This caused the pressure relief valve to blow in the cabin of Adam’s car while he was driving. No one was hurt in the process, and I couldn’t stop laughing once I manged to get out of the oxygen less car.

The pressure relief valve, if I’m identifying the part correctly, is a plug that screws into the valve stem with a metal plate that covers a hole. When the pressure becomes too great (3000 PSI on our model), the plate bursts releasing CO₂ thus decreasing pressure, but also making the tank unusable until the pressure release valve is replaced.

Thankfully the CO₂ place had a replacement valve, so we had it repaired and filled, thus allowing us to have cold beer on tap Wednesday night. The initial thrill of the kegerator meant consuming a good quantity of beer each night until tonight which I decided to stay sober as there is no need to drink tonight.

In addition to this I purchased a pretty sweet used road bicycle which officially begins the Bryce needs to exercise so he can afford to drink beer and eat cookies movement. I now realize why bicyclists older than 18 wear helmets; these things are quite fast, and not nearly as maneuverable as a mountain bike or any other bike I’ve ridden. Once I get a helmet, some gloves and new tires, I am quite confident I’ll be bicycling all over Santa Barbara, and can eat all the cookies I want.