Esterific!

The plan was to get dropped off, write a 3 hr exam, jog ~5ish miles, pick up groceries, and carry them ~3ish miles home.   Jog/walk (realistically, mostly walk), and not bike, because it would be too hot to bike (those hills!) ugh

Actually, my exam started late, which was fine for me but apparently embarrassing for the institution that proctored my exam: they gave me a voucher for a free hotdog, chips, and drink.   Woo-hoo!  However, I rarely drink pop unless it's ginger ale or tonic water and so I was a bit bewildered by the array of pop at the dispenser, but I didn't want to hold up the super cool caf staff who were in the process of shutting down post-lunch, so I grabbed some mello yello.  Why haven't I been drinking this stuff all along?  But it'll never taste as good again: imagine trudging through a sandy forest with a backpack and the temps at, ugh (the humidex was over 40 C), and an icy cold citrusy fluid tricking down one's esophagus, its flavour and its chill both a gloriously artificial revolt against annoying, annoying nature.  It was amazing, even more so because I had a bag of Miss Vickies in that hand too--this left my other hand free to shovel chips down my gullet.  Unfortunately, the hamburger/hotdog substitute was already bunned/glutened and wrapped, and somehow Pandora never works in that part of the forest and so I was without tunes...but my situation was still AWESOME.

Until I got out of the forest and onto the roads.  I used to cut through a bit of the brush and across some communal condo property to get to a road, but the last time, I was so distracted by malfunctioning Pandora that I took a "wrong" turn somewhere, which led right to a road.  I knew I had to not overthink it to get to that way again, but I still messed up a bit and ended up on the disc golf course...anyway, I eventually got to the road, where I began to sizzle.

Jog?  nah

It was quite a long walk, especially after I picked up the groceries.  We're part of a farm co-op and we get a box of local stuff every week.  Now it's melon season...the advent of big heavy fruits and vegs season.  :/  No squashes yet, but they're coming, but meanwhile, there are small sacks of potatoes too!  Yay!

But it felt so hot that the wall sort of melted, I guess.   I just shut my brain off and kept going

going


existing in a formless fog of vague and remote discomfort





until I got home and had to cool off.  I had a killer plan: cold shower + ice + ethanol.

I also have a bottle of Pinnacle vodka at home, the cotton candy flavour.  Why?  I was in a bit of a rut, my toss back-feel not taste-plain old room temp Luksusowa, which is super stuff for purists/deep philosophical debates, and thus never boring, but a bartending relative recommended Pinnacle vodka.  When I go artificial, I really like to go artificial, and what's more artificial than cotton candy?  And the flavour is great, but it's not exactly accessible because I don't enjoy sipping plain vodka.  I tried it over ice, which felt insufficient, but when I got home today and started foraging in the fridge for electrolytes, I found a can of 2%.  This delicately peach flavoured drink is even more refreshing than Mello Yello.

What I ended up with was a ethereal wisp of cotton candy hovering above a limpid floral peachy words fail me.  NEARLY PERFECT.

Unfortunately, I'm now out of 2% and must find another accompaniment.

Take 2: a bit of peach balsamic vinegar, water, cotton candy vodka, agave syrup, and ice.  NOT BAD, except the colour looked dingy.  A drop of raspberry flavouring = LESS IDEAL (not a great flavour to begin with, not a great flavour mix, and not much effect on the colour.  A dash of cranberry juice = flavour change negligible, and colour improvement to a pale rose/peach.  I really wish I hadn't put that raspberry stuff in because it has totally bogged down the cotton candy gossamer.  Not all esters are created equal.  However, a promising approach might be to dilute the right sort of flavoured vinegar--a hint of sour is so refreshing.

---or maybe I should mix the Pinnacle vodka with Mello Yello ????  If this works, I'm calling it Fucking Long Walk.