Unfortunately today's world is moving too fast and folks don't stop and smell the roses,... or in this case the wood smoke as much as they should. We now have phones that could probably launch a nuke with the right app, cars that can parallel park themselves and a host of other "modern technological advances" that have quite frankly taken a lot of the fun little things out of life.
I enjoy having a good meal and talking to my family as we are gathered around the dinner table but these days I'm about the only one in the house that isn't texting, tweeting or watching a streaming movie on an Ipad. I enjoy driving (and working on) a car but when I pop the hood I don't even see an engine due to the computerized crap covering it along with all the wires and sensors that go along with it and I don't need a computer to park my vehicle for me,... heck we're almost to the point of not needing a driver at all with some of the systems that are being developed in the auto/motive industry and that will one day be stock in every car or truck.
Everything in our lives today are made push button easy but in many ways more complicated at the same time and for the sake of some sort of convenience we have given ourselves MORE stress and LESS enjoyment in our lives. One day there'll be an app for starting and maintaining a stick burner too I suppose or a pit that will just run itself and take away the need for a pit master but I hope I'm dead first.
My suggestion to the OP is to slow down and learn to enjoy the "art" of BBQ. Go and get the cheapest, leakiest, most difficult to operate stick burner you can find at one of the box stores, modify it if you need to and learn how to make good BBQ with it. When that pit is second nature to you then get with Paul at Shirley or Chris at LSG and have a quality pit made that will be easier to use but will still require a human being to operate it. During that learning process you'll find an enjoyment that you'll never get from anything else because at the end of a cook the finished product will reflect the work, skill and patience that YOU put into it.
Once you get the rewarding feeling of seeing family and friends enjoying the food that you spent all day cooking you'll realize that you've grown to love the time and work that you put into your cooks and you'll never want to give up your stick burner, nor would you imagine cooking with anything else just because it's "easier" to use.
Ice down some beer, throw on some good music, tend your fire and make a day out of your cooks. The little enjoyable things in life are few and far between these days and we should slow down and soak them in.:wink::-D
I enjoy having a good meal and talking to my family as we are gathered around the dinner table but these days I'm about the only one in the house that isn't texting, tweeting or watching a streaming movie on an Ipad. I enjoy driving (and working on) a car but when I pop the hood I don't even see an engine due to the computerized crap covering it along with all the wires and sensors that go along with it and I don't need a computer to park my vehicle for me,... heck we're almost to the point of not needing a driver at all with some of the systems that are being developed in the auto/motive industry and that will one day be stock in every car or truck.
Everything in our lives today are made push button easy but in many ways more complicated at the same time and for the sake of some sort of convenience we have given ourselves MORE stress and LESS enjoyment in our lives. One day there'll be an app for starting and maintaining a stick burner too I suppose or a pit that will just run itself and take away the need for a pit master but I hope I'm dead first.
My suggestion to the OP is to slow down and learn to enjoy the "art" of BBQ. Go and get the cheapest, leakiest, most difficult to operate stick burner you can find at one of the box stores, modify it if you need to and learn how to make good BBQ with it. When that pit is second nature to you then get with Paul at Shirley or Chris at LSG and have a quality pit made that will be easier to use but will still require a human being to operate it. During that learning process you'll find an enjoyment that you'll never get from anything else because at the end of a cook the finished product will reflect the work, skill and patience that YOU put into it.
Once you get the rewarding feeling of seeing family and friends enjoying the food that you spent all day cooking you'll realize that you've grown to love the time and work that you put into your cooks and you'll never want to give up your stick burner, nor would you imagine cooking with anything else just because it's "easier" to use.
Ice down some beer, throw on some good music, tend your fire and make a day out of your cooks. The little enjoyable things in life are few and far between these days and we should slow down and soak them in.:wink::-D
