So much for beercycling ... now it's back to the circus.

Ars longa, vita brevis … art is long, time is fleeting.

All good things must come to an end, and so after two glorious weeks absorbing the vital lessons we all might learn from everyday life in Europe, it’s now back to lancing the twin boils of Philistinism and Luddite Envy right here in New Albany.

(Geez … is this really what I want to be doing with my life?)

How long will the sedate afterglow persist this time around? There’s no telling. I expect to be too busy to notice, at least for a while.

For the moment, there is much to do, not least among them preparing for the annual Harvest Homecoming party at the homestead this Saturday. There’ll be craft beer and a place to watch the parade, which will include NABC representation for the very first time in the form of the fire truck we used for the St. Paddy’s Day parade in Louisville last spring. I won’t have time to cook this year, so bring snacks and we’ll improvise.

If readers are in the neighborhood during and after the parade, feel free to drop in, say hello and have a Progressive Pint as we discuss the merits of the Bailout Plan (New Albany Mix), which is a proposed bond $10 million bond issue to appease the troglodytes by resettling our little band of obnoxious leftists somewere in Europe.

Sweet Home Netherlands, any one?

Also, next week during booth days, there’ll be the inaugural NABC Fringe Fest (i.e., “Harvest Culture on the Skids”) with beer, food, music and art under the big top in the parking lot of the future Bank Street Brewhouse on Bank Street. More on that will be coming later. Just to prove that there really isn’t any rest for the weary, the following weekend (October 17 & 18) is the kickoff for the annual Lupulin Land Harvest Hopcoming draft beer showcase at the Public House ... and, of course, there's still a brewery to build.

Trip stories will follow when there’s time, but for now it’s worth noting that in both Netherlands and parts of Germany (varying somewhat regionally by province in the latter), July 1 was the advent of an indoor smoking ban. Perhaps not coincidentally, Bavaria’s long ruling Christian Social Union received a profound drubbing in the polls this past Sunday, losing 17% of the vote since the last election in 2003, and being forced into a coalition government for the first time since the late 1960’s.

My beer drinking friends in Bamberg blamed the CSU’s debacle on the smoking ordinance. Not that I want to beat a dead (?) horse or anything … but never mind; I have a bicycle to catch to work. If you were paying $9 a gallon for gas, as in the places we just visited, you’d be peddling, too.

Here, as there, I’d rather spend the excess on beer. And do.