Until yesterday, I haven't posted here since April, when my wife and I, and my daughter lost our 18 year old son, Tyler. That post read as follows:
I'm not the most frequent poster here, but i do check in basically daily to see what's up, and it is because i feel like we are a family here that i am writing this...maybe it's purely just therapeutic for me, I don't know.....
My Wife and I, and our daughter lost our beautiful 18 year old son Tyler in a horrific car accident on Sunday. It is only the love and support of our family and friends that is allowing us to cope at all right now. I would like to take this opportunity to tell you all that I consider you family too and to ask you to do this TODAY...
For those of you that have children....give them a giant hug tonight and tell them that you love them..
For those of you that don't...hug your spouse, your girl/boyfreind and tell them that you love them..
Call your parents and tell them you love them...
Whoever you have and whatever it takes....do it....life is too precious and too fragile not to....
-hokietopher
Although I've been around, I haven't posted until yesterday, making a comment on the the thread about Ryan Williams and the Cowboys, and i'm literally in tears to see that the first response (from 8300A_hokie12 who i dont know from adam...) is "welcome back, hokietopher", and now Egbert, AS I WRITE THIS!!!, welcoming me back into the fold....
This truly is a special community- one we should all be thankful to be a part of. There are really some amazing people here....
I'd like to ask for a bit of help.....My wife and I , and our daughter, have tickets, and are coming from NJ for the Miami game. It's going to be difficult for us with everything that's happened if we can't have some friendly people around us to tailgate/spend some of the day with....we don't know anybody there, and if we're by ourselves all day, i don't know if we'll be able to be OK....we don't have a parking pass, and in the past, have parked & tailgated in the Warren St. apartments next to the stadium woods. If any of you have 'set' tailgates that we can stop by and maybe feel 'part of the family' for a while....well we'd be honored if you would have us...
Comments
Welcome back.
You and your family have been in my prayers.
Wow... that's rough, to say the absolute least. I can't imagine how tough that is on you and your family. My thoughts and prayers are with you guys. I'll be tailgating a good distance from the stadium, but I'll be having some friends over for a post-game "tailgate" at my apartment very close to the stadium to hang out and watch later games. You and your family are more than welcome to join us if you'd like to wait out the traffic for a bit.
I was just thinking about you about a week ago. Welcome back.
I'm in lot 8. You're always welcome.
Hokies are family. Welcome back and sorry for your loss.
Welcome back bud, glad to have you back
Welcome back and I'm sorry for your loss. I can't imagine what you are going through, but we are all here to support you through such a difficult time.
If you have trouble with parking, I can probably find you a free spot near where I live. It will be a bit of a hike (I'm in pheasant run). I will probably be tailgating with my parents who are homebrewers if you'd be interested in joining.
Welcome back. Thanking you for keeping us updated. Humbled.
So sorry for your loss. Somehow I missed your original post, but as a father my heart just brakes for you and your family. Your family will definitely be in my thoughts and prayers. Hope the game can be a therapeutic release for you and your family. God bless
I was actually wondering how you were doing recently a little before you posted. Idk If I could handle a tragedy like you are enduring. I'm glad to see you all are doing the best you can. We might not know each other, but we're all Hokies and to me that stands for something.
Welcome back and hope you are doing as well as can be reasonably expected.
I may be spilling the beans a bit here but I believe Joe and I will be doing the official TKP tailgate for that game (similar to last year's for Maryland if any of you were there). Luckily its a night game so I won't be waiting outside the hotel for an hour in the am waiting for Joe to wake up again this year.
Details to come! If for whatever reason its not the "official" tailgate you're more than welcome to come to mine.
Welcome back!
Man, I am a newcomer to the blog but you most certainly have my sympathy. May God give you and your wife strength and comfort.
Well said.
Welcome back brother! It's been 6 years since we lost our 4 month old, not a day goes by....
Terribly sorry for your loss. We Hokies look after our own.
Hell yeah hokietopher back to the barn. Good to see you
I'm sorry for your loss. Welcome back and I hope that football and TKP can provide some bright moments this fall.
Welcome back hokietopher. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family during this rough time. I have no doubt the TKP community will help you out. Thank you for sharing with us and letting us be there for you.
Glad to see you back around, topher. Hopefully some of our antics might lift your spirits a bit.
That's one of 2 games I'll get up to. I'm a chef in Charlotte and always make way to much food for myself and the one friend I go with, so we usually start talking to whoever is around us and anyone is welcomed to join us. We park in lot 18 by the duck pond and would love to keep you guys feeling like part of the family, so let me know if you want to find us. I just welcomed my first little Hokie in May and can't imagine how devastating it would be to lose a child, we're all here for you.
We are in 18 as well.
Normally one of the guys get there early enough so we are right next to the entrance closes to the duck pond.
A row of tents, there will be about 12-15 of us. Multiple-family very eclectic group. Banker, food purveyors, restauranteurs, brewer, farmers, engineer, project manager, dentist, kids. We're the loud ones.
Look for a maroon 4-door jeep. This Saturday, I expect to be there and setting up by 8:30 but there will be other guys there already.
Any of you guys want to stop by, if you are like me with remembering names just ask for the guy that's the brewer ( should be easy to remember this year) and say you're with TKP and introduce yourself.
I gotta think of a sign or something to put up to make it easy to spot.
Hi Egbert....will definitely be connecting with you....just secured pass for lot 9.
Also...knowing that you're a brewer, i'll be bringing homebrew for you to critique......belgian tripppel with bitter orange & corriander......10% ABV......(insert homer simpson drooling pic here)
Ok, ask Joe to let you have my email and I'll make sure we have comms to meet up.
Looking forward to tasting good homebrew.
Hi Egbert....question.....how do I contact Joe to get your e-mail? I cant find any contact info anywhere on the site?
I'm not Egbert, but you can contact Joe at joe(at)thekeyplay(dot)com
Ok...thanks...I had a feeling is was that simple.....
We will be in lot 18, spaces closest to the entrance near the duck pond.
I won't be able to be there until after 2 PM as my wife has patients she needs to see.
Our friends will be there starting at 9 AM so, you are welcome as early as you like. They are also homebrewers and make great chow.
If you are still interested in that, let me know we'll work out details so you can find us.
OK...sounds great.....got your e-mail from Joe......will reach out to you from home later today.....
Lot 15 stand UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
would love to meet you too.....keep lookin' for a 46 yr old guy with a grey beard rockin' a TKP shirt with his wife and 10 yr old daughter
I'll be the only FL license plate there... VT sticker on back of the 2 door genesis coupe.
This is going to be weird, but I've seen you driving on 417 more than a few times on the way home from work. You've probably seen me in the blue Toyota Tacoma with the HOKIES sticker on the back window.
Sorry to be a creeper on an anonymous internet forum, but I know you live close to me from the Key Play map, and when you said Genesis coupe it stuck out to me because that's such a rare (to my eyes) car.
that's craazzyyy small world..417 is the way to work and home in heathrow/lake mary area. ..
You ever go to Doc's downtown to watch the games?? I know there is a huge hokie presence there when games are on.
I haven't been yet this year. I'm hoping to make it out soon for one or two. The alumni group is pretty top notch when it comes to organization and putting on good events for everyone.
I want to go as well, thinking maybe the game after Miami since I will be there live for that one.
Getting ready to brew a Christmas brew. Is bitter orange something you can find at a grocery store or should I look for it a my local homebrew store spice rack. Also how much is enough to get a nice mild flavor?
I get mine from my Homebrew store. I would assume most homebrew places carry it...The recipe I use (see below) has .5 oz (dried) on a 5 gal. recipe......goes in as finishing hops 15 min before end of boil & I leave in during fermenting. Gives mine a nice flavor without being overpowering...
The Belgian Trippel recipe I use:
http://www.brewapp.com/recipefiles/BELGIAN%20STRONG%20TRIPPEL%20ALE%20-%...
He's exactly correct.
Homebrew shops would have it or a spice shop. I'm not sure how old the stuff might be at a grocery store.
I am glad you responded! I ordered and ounce of bitter orange peel with a spiced winter ale kit and was planning on adding it all along with some English dark crystal grain I have leftover (just to give it a little more depth of flavor). From the sound of it, the orange would have overpowered the batch. You sir, have saved 5 gallons of beer. Leg!
If it's not strong enough when you taste it before bottling, you can always just add more peel to the secondary and give it more time.
Leg for both of you just for continuing to talk about beer.........ok...now i gotta go have one of my Belgians with the bitter orange just cause BITTER ORANGE was mentioned again. I'm startin' to think I'm like Pavlov's dog or something........
Anyway, Egbert's right, better to be light on something in your beer and add more if you need to, and wait longer to bottle, than to over do it to begin with, and have no recourse (kind of like mixing concrete....you can always add a little more water, but if you mess up the other way, well........)
Cheers!..........
So whenever I have added spices or other adjuncts to the fermenter leading up to bottling, I have soaked them in vodka first to make sure they are sanitized. Do either of you do the same? I don't bother to soak with dry hops as they are a preservative in their own right.
Egbert can surely speak the truth better than i can on this, but i've been told by other homebrewers that it's actually pretty dang hard for anything bad to survive in the bottle......the environment is acidic, under pressure (and no oxygen)...etc.....anyway, if you don't see any trouble by the time you're close to bottling, you should be in good shape, and the vodka deal is probably un-neccesary....of course, i'm just your run of the mill schlub of a homebrewer, so what do i know......Egbert - any advice?
Depending on the thing you are adding, if you want no surprise flavors it is best to sanitize.
For many fruits, just a short soak in a small amount of alcohol and toss it all in.
Works for most but, if you are adding wood, consider just putting it in the oven at 400 degrees for a few minutes.
Whole spices such as cumin, etc, consider that the heat will bring out the aroma better, like cooking Indian food, heat it until you can smell the aroma nicely and then toss it in.
Especially fruit.
Fruit carries natural yeast and bacteria on the outside. If you do not want the possible "benefits" of the natural yeast, a 3-5 minute dunk in an alcohol is necessary. If you want, to the alcohol in toss.
Let's say you want to toss some strawberry or cherries into a stout, a quick rinse with bourbon and toss the bourbon in too. Bazinga!
LOT NINE WOOT WOOT.
Lot 9 is THE BEST. Tons of space for football/baseball throwing, cornhole, ladder golf, whatever you want to do/set up.
Easy in and easy out via Plantation Road (so you can stay at the game longer if you are concerned about traffic). See this map.
We park in the upper part of Lot 9 next to the cage on The Island (small triangular patch of grass), come join us! No idea what Dad's cooking up, but I can assure you it will be fantastic. All the people we tailgate with have the cooking gene. It's magnificent.
Ask for the weird Richmond girl. They'll all point at me. You'll probably see the truck with the Hokie magnets and Spider magnets. You're in the right place when you see Richmond Red and Blue mixed in with all the Chicago Maroon and Burnt Orange.
We'll definitely find you....We're drivin' a blue Honda Odyssey with jersey plates.....My wife & I in our mid 40's, with a 10 year old daughter...I'll be wearin a TKP shirt most of the day until gametime.....
I am coming up from FL for the Miami game as well and I think it would be awesome if we had a huge TKP tailgate like slicktrick said. IMO it looks like/sounds like a lot of out of state members will be making the trip for this game so it would be a great opportunity for a huge member tailgate. I would definitely be down to help whether its a pay tailgate or whatever. I want to make my first Thursday night game in Lane a memorable one!
Saying that I'm sorry for your loss doesn't seem like enough.
Best of luck to your family as you move forward from this horrific loss.
what a nice post.
(prayers, friend)
Sir I would be honored to have you at our tailgate! Its going to be a good one if you're intrrested! Joe if you could give him my email that would be great, orrrrr do you have a facebook?
Regardless, I'm so sorry for your loss and I really hope you guys have a safe and good time in the burg, you guys deserve it
PS were in the free student lot with 30+ people
My wife & I thank you all for your kind words and offers of company....we'll check back in as the game approaches to figure out which of you we can connect with...
Once again, our deepest thanks......
I will say one thing about those apartments and neighborhood in general that run along Stadium Woods. That's a wild scene over there on gameday. We used to always pay to park in somebody's yard back there once my buddy's little sister finally graduated and we couldn't do the apartments anymore. Lots of spirit, yelling, alcohol, and God knows what else, we always had a great time and met cool people, whether the people who lived in the house or the other people tailgating in the yard. Now we're older and a little less adventurous (bathroom situation can be pretty sketchy at a person's house you dont know) and we do Price's Fork lots. That's pretty fun too though with all the students out there.
On a personal note hokietopher, seeing you post again made me think of this thread you made. I always thought that was such a cool idea for a thread and I'm glad you and your family are heading south to be with Hokienation this fall. As a Father I'm so sorry for what both you and Rangerhokie have been through. I can't begin to imagine the pain you guys felt or how I would cope with such a thing.
All I can say is I hope y'all have an absolute blast in Blacksburg. I hope the tailgate is great and I hope we woop up on Miami like it's 2009 and you and your wife wake up the next morning in the hotel room and smile at each other and say That was fun.
Welcome back! We're in lot 3 (I think).
I might've cried a little bit.
First and foremost my thoughts and prayers are with those who have lost children! This thread really demonstraits that the Hokie nation is a family of friends that loves their team and supports their friends! Makes me proud to be a HOKIE!!!!
As a relatively new father, I cannot imagine what you and your family are going through, but know that you are not alone. You are a Hokie, so you will never be alone. I do not know you, hokietopher, but I know that you will persevere, because you are a Hokie. And if their is one thing all Hokies know, it is how to persevere in the face of unspeakable tragedy.
That's a pain a parent should never feel. You and your family will remain in my prayers. My deepest sympathy goes out to you.