Saturday random thoughts before a walk through the city.

The preceding days have been a grind, and today's temperate weather is appreciated. I’m going outside, and you should, too.

Yesterday at the Bank Street Brewhouse construction site, we learned that the kitchen’s hood fabricator measured incorrectly, and the biggest component will not fit through the doorway as had been previously guaranteed, which may result in a wall being removed. That’s a pain, and it looks like there’ll be a discount, whether or not they know it yet.

So … we’re trying to be open in a limited capacity by February 26 or shortly thereafter, with food and drink, if not the whole treatment expected to be offered when all the dust finally settles.

By tomorrow I may have finished the preview of the food offerings being planned by our chef, Josh Lehman. For now, just let me mention how much of a pleasure it has been to get to know Josh, who’s the son of my high school classmate, Lance. There are many aspects of growing older that I don’t savor. One that’s enriching is seeing life come full-circle, and working (and drinking beer) with an extremely talented younger fellow who’ll be embarking on what I trust will be a great career adventure in our employ.

Earlier in the week, we successfully placed a down payment on the brewing system. Delivery is expected to be late April, and allowing for installation and the initial brewing experiments, June probably will be the month when beer brewed at the Bank Street Brewhouse is actually served there. Until then, there’ll be as much beer as possible brewed at the Grant Line site.

We’ve retained the services of an Indy lawyer who does work for the Brewers of Indiana Guild, and he’ll be securing the federal and state licensing for brewing downtown. He told me yesterday that he’d just met Ed Clere, our new state representative, and is impressed. That’s great news, since the Guild will be hoping to make progress in educating the stat’s legislators about craft brewing in Indiana.

Getting a bit more personal, there’s been much feedback from my Thursday Tribune column about "coming out" as a European – some of it even signed and coherent. I understand and cherish the fact that there’ll be disagreement on such matters, and I believe the newspaper does, too, but sometimes one must grapple with the inexplicable.

Receiving anonymous criticisms from people I don’t know is sad, and yet it makes sense in a way. But having a longtime customer and friend tell others, not me, that he’s decided to sever ties with me and the business, and take his American money elsewhere owing to the stridency of my views, makes no sense at all.

To be sure, he's become increasingly more conservative politically as time has passed, and yes, the Public House tends toward a more liberal orientation in most ways.

Except for this: Hasn’t he ever heard of the friendship between Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch?

I can think of five good friends off the top of my head whose political views are somewhat to the right of Attila the Hun, while I'm the contrarian leftist that you all know and (love?) ... and they’ve never boycotted me because of it. We discuss and debate, sometimes agree, and sometimes agree to disagree. Then we drink together, as it should be.

I suppose it isn’t possible to predict when someone’s inner torment and perhaps even escalating anger render them unable to make rational decisions, although this surely must be one of those times. Too bad he can’t even talk about it with me. Males are like that, and I wish we weren’t … not that I’ve ever made the same mistake.

Time to walk now. I'll take the camera, and post anything that looks worthy of picturing here.