it goes together, like beer and....bike jerseys?

When it comes to alcohol, I'm not a big drinker. My doctor keeps telling me I ought to drink a glass of red wine every night to combat cholesterol, and I can't even do that. I have one every now and again, but one glass a week is closer to my wine intake.

I'm not much more of a lush when it comes to beer either. I've had a few lately, because I tend to drink beer while watching football with friends, and I've been doing a lot of that...especially at a buddy's house where he has a humongous screen TV, which is something we lack in the lumberyard, while the Jaguars were in the playoffs. He always seems to have the cool beers. When I buy beer, it tends to be of the Coors/Budweiser variety...sometimes Michelob Ultra. When I'm feeling provincial, Yuengling. When I'm stepping way out of the box...Budweiser Select. When I was in my 20's, I was more of a drinker and more of a beer connoisseur. I knew obscure imports like the back of my hand, but those days are long gone. At his house though, there's always a different variety of brew I've never heard of that's pretty tasty.

It's with all that in mind that I went grocery shopping this past weekend. I was passing the beer section thinking, it'd be nice to be able to offer my "cool beer" buddy something equally cool when he's at my house. I should find something like that, and I did...based on name alone. I found Dogfish Head India Pale Ale. Nine dollars a six pack...ouch! But hell, I buy beer once a month maybe. What's a few dollars.

I got the stuff home and started reading the information on the label and the box holding the bottles. they have a website! So I'm checking that out while sampling the beer...tasty stuff. It's brewed in Milton, Delaware, and they have restaurants in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware and Gaithersburg, Maryland (mental note, right along our driving route when we visit the ancestral lumberyard home). They also have an online store, so I'm window shopping in the clothing section and a link says..athletic wear. Hmmmmmm...so I'm curious. They have three things there, but the only one that I'd call athletic wear (unless a sweatshirt counts because it contains the word "sweat") is, of all things...a bike jersey. It's a very cool (but very expensive) bike jersey at that. For reference (because they aren't a cheap piece of apparel), it's $100. Google, the fine company that brings you this blog, sells one for $62.50. I own 6 bike jerseys now. Three were free, and none of the other three cost more than $50, but I'm thinking...gotta have the cool Dogfish Head jersey. I showed the wife and said, "I want this...for my birthday." She looked at me and said, "A hundred dollars...for a bike shirt. That's stupid." I said, "Well, maybe to you, but I like it and we can do it for my birthday, and at least you know it's something I'll use." We'll see where that goes. I mean really. Do I look at her and say, "$75, for dead flowers to be delivered to you at work in front of your coworkers? That's stupid." Absolutely not, because even though it's something I wouldn't appreciate if Mr. Flower Delivery Guy showed up with a dozen roses at my desk, I know it makes her Valentine's Day.

Still, I was a bit taken aback. Of all the singular "athletic wear" things to sell with your logo on it, with all the possibilities out there, these guys pick...a bike jersey. Consider that Under Armour makes a whole line of athletic wear, and it sells like crazy, but one thing they don't make is bike jerseys. Click Clack. I mean, it works for me, but what about runners, or bowlers?