It's Friday. Yeah.

I'm done. Out of energy. For regular work anyway.

So, in my mid-afternoon, post-lunch daze I turned to Google for some entertainment.

Today's search would be for that most sought-after product, that dream come true item for us hikers and backpackers who enjoy a cold malt-based beverage but can't or won't carry the damn cans along on the trail. Enough to satisfy anyway. So we make do with a road soda on the way to the trailhead. And a pub stop post-hike.

But what if? What if someday, someone would, could invent "dehydrated beer"?

Makes my imagination run wild. You too?!

Imagine stopping into Hannaford to buy groceries for your next weekend backpack. And along with your Lipton noodles, oatmeal and tea bags, you toss in a six-pack of dehydrated beer packets.

Later on, miles up the trail at your pretty lakeside campsite, you mix up a Nalgene bottle full of cold mountain water and a packet of the precious dehydrated Geary's or Gritty's or Sam Adams, shake well, and enjoy.

OOOOOhhhh. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

Carey! Carey! Wake up! It's all a dream!!

NO! Say it aint' so, I tell you.

But it is, sorry to say.

My Google search for "dehydrated beer" brought a brief flicker of hope when I came across a site called DehydratedBeer.com. But then, slow as my synapses are firing on this Friday afternoon, I knew I had been duped.

"Master crafted with genuine dehydrated water." Damn if I catch you mister!

And so the search, the hope, the dream continues for this parched hiker...