There's a joke about how the secret of life can usually be captured in various analogies about beer. Early in life I subscribed to that philosophy and it wasn't until sometime between a high school party and parenthood that I discovered beer didn't hold all the answers to life's great mysteries though it had come close on numerous occasions.

In 1986 I signed on for an HVAC tour of duty and found that beer was indeed critical to the success of our industry. I was having a difficult time understanding the concept of the refrigeration cycle. My good friend and mentor, Jeff Britain, sympathetic to my thermodynamically challenged brain, enlightened me over a glass of beer with a long story about beer.

Air conditioning systems that run hot and cold are much like a guy and gal who meet in a bar. My friend related this to rising temperatures and pressures, etc.

Suffice it to say, things get hot between the guy and gal, at first. After way too many cold beers, things cool off substantially - the heat is gone.