A Little Drinky

If any of you watch my Beer O'Clock video reviews, you know that during the COVID-19 lockdown, I've been supporting my local craft breweries by ordering online and receiving doorstep deliveries.

To date, I've ordered beer from Stray Dog, Dominion City, Flora Hall, Nita, and Tuque de Broue. I've also ordered from Collective Arts, which is in Hamilton, but they were the exception to my buy-local commitment (damn them for being one of my all-time favourite breweries, and for being located so far from my home!).

And while I'm happy to support the folks who tirelessly craft the brews that I like so much, I'm beginning to notice that my overall consumption of beer and other alcoholic beverages has gone up.

Working from home, I no longer feel that I have to wait until after office hours to enjoy a pint. It also doesn't help that my desk is in the basement, a mere four metres from my fully stocked beer fridge. These days, it's not uncommon for me to make my lunch and take it downstairs, to my desk, where I wash it down with a cold pint.

In the afternoons, during meetings, I might open up another can while I dial in. I've even had my camera on while I sip a brew. And on most Fridays, my team, which is spread out over Ottawa-Gatineau, California, Krakow, and beyond, gather during various happy-hour time zones to share a drink and to chill.

And then there's after dinner, when I relax with wine, beer, or (DW's pandemic-go-to drink) margaritas. (Together, we've consumed more tequila over the past seven weeks than we have over the last 20 years—Mexico, last year, not included.)

Before the pandemic, I would generally consume between five and seven pints per week. For the past three weeks, I've averaged about 14 or 15 pints, plus the aforementioned wine and margaritas. (Oh yeah, I'll also have the occasional limoncello, too.)

I'm not quite at a level where I worry about overdrinking and I'm not worrying about becoming an alcoholic (denial?). I do find that if I consume more than three drinks in a day, I don't like how I feel the next morning, and I'm old enough (wise enough?) to know that I don't want to feel that way, and so I avoid more than two drinks at a sitting.

I also strive to get at least a half hour of exercise each day, so I'm not worried that my waistline is growing. In fact, I've noticed that my beer gut has even shrunken a little (yay pandemic!).

I attribute my thinning out to the fact that my family and I have virtually stopped eating out: no take-out pizza; no drive-thru hamburgers. We're cooking healthy meals. When we do our grocery shopping, we go with a list and stick to it so that we can get in and get out as quickly as possible. There is no impulsive junk-food temptations that we faced when we used to linger in the stores.

I think that when this crisis is over, we may continue to shop in this manner. We'll support our favourite independent restaurants (I'm taking the family to the BVR as soon as it is safe to do so) but I don't think I'll return to fast-food drive-thrus.

We'll see.

And while I'll continue to support my local craft brewers (they truly are amazing), I won't continue the deliveries at the same pace, won't order the quantities that waive the delivery fees. I'll only order online from breweries that are out of my way or that have limited releases that I simply must have. In that, alone, my consumption will go down.

Until then, I'll consume, not upsy-freeze, but a little drinky.

Look them up: I'm not Merriam-Webster. Cheers!