Welcome back.
We are on episode number six of the Dan Time podcast.
Hey, I'm your host, Dan McCardell.
And no, this show is not about me.
I have probably let too many episodes go by without reminding the listeners,
some of you for the first time, that the goal of this podcast is not to promote
me, it is to bring you impactful people, interesting people who have done things,
are doing things and have a story to tell.
So just in case you were wondering, because it might look like a vanity
exercise on my part and it's not.
If you'll notice these intros, I try to keep them short and get
straight to the conversation.
Now I have largely achieved my goal of introducing Dan after Dan and a Danny.
And maybe there was going to be a Daniel or another Dan.
We've done a lot of those in a row enough, I think that we can begin to
introduce some different names.
It's okay.
It's fine.
And this week we get back to a non Dan, but someone who knows me very well and
has a great story to share today.
I'm really happy and excited to bring to you my conversation with Chris Furmeister.
Chris and I go back many, many years.
His career in journalism goes back about 20 years close to it.
Chris reports on the residential real estate and restaurant industries
for the Atlanta business Chronicle.
He's been in that role for almost the past four years.
Prior to that, he was an editor with Eater Atlanta, writing breaking news
stories and feature stories covering nightlife and restaurants, technology,
politics.
Chris was also the managing editor for the official Auburn blog at SB Nation.
Ours is a friendship that many of you can probably relate to where you got to dial
back to your early twenties, mid twenties, different time in your life,
across roads, perhaps.
But you found someone who you like to joke around with.
They made you laugh.
You made them laugh.
You like to hang out together and you just kept the line open.
You know, networking is all about keeping the line open with people who are
interested in you for you, not because of the car you drive or the house you live
in or the stuff that you have or how appealing you are at any given time to
anybody else.
They like you because you guys have a connection and they're interested in
your success and vice versa.
I would of course appreciate if after listening to this episode, you download
and subscribe to Dan Time on whichever platform you listen to so you don't miss
an episode as they come out.
The Dan Time podcast now has an official YouTube channel.
Check us out on YouTube.
That's where you can find all the Friday challenge videos in every episode.
All right. Let's go now to my conversation with Chris Furmeister.
Chris, how's it going, man?
D-Mac. Good to be here.
I think that's the first time I've heard D-Mac and, um, well, probably since our
annual Blue Wahoos game.
Yeah. Down at the ballpark.
Chris, this is just great to reconnect with you.
Not too many months go by without a text message about a ballgame or a current
event of some sort.
This is, as I alluded to, just a dear old friend of mine, Chris Furmeister.
And I'm just super excited to have you on the show today, Chris.
Yeah. I mean, seriously, thanks for having me.
It's, uh, we do connect over the text message.
That's our, I guess, our most common connection.
But yeah, I like it when we're able to get together down at a Blue Wahoos game
down at the ballpark.
So I'm beautiful.
What is that?
Is that on Pensacola Bay?
Yep.
Pensacola Bay.
I'm fortunate to have the in-laws down there.
So make a trip down to D-Mac world once or twice a year.
Yeah.
It's a, it's a destination ballpark for sure.
If you're a fan of baseball or if you're just a fan of, I mean, minor league
baseball, Chris, I think we've talked about this for a long time.
It's always been pretty affordable.
Even if you've got one kid or three kids to just go out and have a great time,
you can usually find, and I don't know if this is true of every city, but street
parking, if you want to save on parking, you can eat at home before you go out.
If you don't want to spend a lot on food, it's a pretty good bang for the buck.
It's so good.
It's, it's, you know, you can get out in and out for like 20 bucks, maybe all in.
Uh, if you're just by yourself, maybe a little more of your, if you're feeding
the kids, it's definitely cheaper than your, than your major league event.
But have you, have you, uh, seen the news about the Wahoos stadium becoming
a, a possible Airbnb rental?
Have you, have you considered maybe spending the night there sometime?
I did hear about that.
And, um, it's been, uh, it's been a while since I've thought about
possibly doing something like that.
I mean, that's, man, I guess you got to throw it on the bucket list.
You can get you and 90 or pals.
Um, it says there's one bedroom, but 10 beds.
I think that means that there's 10 beds in the clubhouse.
Um, and it's only, you know, $5,143 a night.
So maybe split that 10 ways seems like a pretty reasonable, uh,
time out at the old ballpark.
I wonder what kind of damage waiver.
I don't know what their insurance policy is.
I mean, we've got a fantasy football league of me and nine other guys.
I'm sure there's, there's been a group like that.
I mean, can you get your draft, you know, the computer screen of your
draft, just up on the scoreboard and you can have your fantasy draft at the
Y who's stadium, maybe you're dispersed throughout the ballpark and the
bleachers, maybe you're all lined up on the field together.
Maybe you're in the dugout.
I don't know.
I mean, it seems like a pretty good time.
Yeah.
This is dream world type stuff.
Chris, I think it was, if I'm doing the math about 17 years ago in August that
we first met first became friends at the old Birmingham news building, which
if I remember correctly, and I don't know how long this was going on throughout
that summer, but there was no air conditioning.
No, no AC.
I started that year.
Uh, I think I started about six months before you in, I think it was February.
It was, it was nice and warm and toasty during the winter time, but during, uh,
during the summer months, it got pretty hot.
I remember there were air conditioning units in the building.
Um, and they showed the temperature next to the unit and the temperature
was regularly in the, in the eighties.
And that's, you know, directly next to the, to the unit that is blowing cold air.
So it was, they call it the old building for a reason, I guess.
Yeah.
They moved to the new building, which sadly they're gone from the new building now.
Yeah.
Not a long run at the new building.
Um, and I'm sure that's true of other municipalities around that time period.
If you, if you look at the first three or four or five years of the 21st
century before the market turn, I mean, there's so much optimism carrying over
from the nineties and, um, the success of the tech industry.
And then it just, wow.
I mean, I'm sure a lot of investments were made in similar facilities only
to have it come crashing down a few short years later.
Yeah.
Nobody, uh, nobody figured that the internet would have any sort of significant
impact on the, on the newspaper industry and how newspapers make money.
Turns out it was a decent impact.
Well, it wasn't long after September 2008 that, that I left the Birmingham news.
And now you stayed through the transition from the print operation
to the mostly digital operation.
What are your, what are some takeaways from how it once was to
that transition into how it is today?
And are there things that you miss or are you pretty much on board with the
way we produce journalism and how consumers watch and read?
It was definitely the early days of the Birmingham news and, and AL.com, which
is probably the more known publication at this point.
Um, those were the early days of embracing the internet.
I, I don't think that really most of us had much to do with actually putting
things online.
I think I remember it was Mike Perrin was like our digital guy.
He was the one seemed to be responsible for collecting everything that went into
the newspaper and putting it up on the internet.
But I, you know, these days, I mean, I am actually working for a publication
now that has a print product.
So print does still exist, but obviously you can't really turn back the clock
and turn back the influence of the internet.
I mean, it's, it makes total sense to have everything as a, as a digital
first publication these days.
I mean, I just remember I worked at the news for, for five years.
It seems like every six months or so, the actual physical newspaper itself, not
the number of pages, but the, the sheets of paper would just get smaller and
smaller and smaller until it was getting down to being close to CVS receipt size.
Yeah. And, um, when you hold both hands out to hold a newspaper, I mean, the
way that somebody would have done that in the, even in the early mid 1990s is
drastically different than how it was.
And I mean, the few papers you can get your hands on now, a few daily papers.
I don't know how many copy inches we've lost.
Yeah.
I mean, if you were sitting in a park on a bench, trying to, trying to
spy on somebody, you just, you didn't, didn't have enough, enough paper to be
peering up over it, it wasn't going to hide your face.
You're going to be getting away.
You used to be able to really obscure yourself.
Those days are over, you know, wrapping your fish, putting your, uh, you
know, training your training, your puppy.
You're just, you're going through a lot more paper for those things.
Chris, you and I both, um, and one of the reasons we've become great friends
is we're just huge sports fans.
And, uh, earlier in your career, you reported a course on Auburn football
for SB nation and, um, covered some other sports as well.
What, what do you enjoy the most?
I know that right now in your current role with the Atlanta business
Chronicle, you know, you're mostly covering it's real estate, the food industry.
Do you have two loves at the same time or is sports just,
I mean, so in terms of, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,
the coverage and, you know, professional work I've, well, I do, you know, some,
some real estate stuff now, but it's mostly been my career has been some
sports writing and then uncovering the restaurant industry.
And it's, it's kind of, I think that they impact my interests in those things,
um, in two different ways.
Cause I love sports, obviously, as you mentioned, um, I do consider
myself a bit of a gourmand.
I love to cook.
I love to eat.
I love going to restaurants.
Working in sports kind of always took away the enjoyment of sports
because it really did make it work.
You know, you don't really get to, to crack a few cold ones during a game.
If you're having to cover that game, not, not quite as a fun of an adventure.
It is a fulfilling definitely, but, but it definitely takes the fun out of it.
Whereas covering restaurants, I mean, that tends to mean that I'm just going
to be talking to more restaurant people, maybe going to restaurants more,
trying to find out what's going on in the industry and the local scene.
So it actually kind of adds to my enjoyment of, of eating and
dining and all that stuff.
So they definitely, they definitely have different, different impacts on
my, on my interests in those, those things.
I like how you put that because when we were younger in our early twenties,
it's hard not to dream of a career in sports journalism.
But speaking for myself, I know as I've gotten older, it's probably as nice
for you to just be able to enjoy games and not have any other stake in them or
not have to treat your hobby as an assignment and how covering the, the
restaurant industry is more enjoyable because it's, it's just a little different,
I guess, than being a sports viewer and someone that wants to keep up with all
the intricacies of sports as opposed to writing about it.
Sometimes there's some other podcasts I listen to sports podcasts and there
are times where the, the hosts sound like they, they're delivering great
information and like the Chicago Cubs, for instance, but it sounds like, wow,
they are just burning the midnight oil at how could you possibly enjoy
every pitch of the game?
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, I, you know, I covered, I think I was in the middle of a
football season, but I, you know, I covered Atlanta United, our local
major league soccer team here in Atlanta for a season a few years ago.
That's really my only experience being an actual beat writer for a team.
It is a grind game days are you're going to be there at least a couple
hours before the game and you are at the stadium long after, long after all
the fans have left, you are, you're down in the bowels of the stadium doing the,
you're going into the locker room, talking to the players, you've got to get back
and you've got to write stuff, which trying to try to write something that
has all the, all the information that you want in and is also, you know,
well written and something that you would like to put out in the world.
It's kind of tough when you're, you know, on hour eight and it's maybe
midnight and it's something where obviously sports writing is a dream and
yeah, you shouldn't complain about it, but, but it is, it is harder work
for them than I think maybe a lot of people realize.
Yeah.
I think the, the best of the best probably just make it look easy.
But like, like you said, I mean, they're not getting to really watch and absorb
the ball games the same way that the sports fan on their couch is getting to
do and you're up early and up late, not joining your wife for dinner and that
sort of thing.
Chris, I want to transition really quick to your role, your current role with
the Atlanta business Chronicle, specifically some of the impacts of the
pandemic and what you've seen out there with, with entrepreneurs that have had
to open restaurants and then shutter the doors in a, I don't know, 18 month
to your span, you've had to see a lot of that.
I'm sure that's pretty emotional obviously for those folks involved.
Yeah, it's, there's probably not been a more difficult time for, for restaurant
owners, really for a lot of business owners or, or just business people in
general, but that was pretty unprecedented back in 2020 going into 2021, especially
there were, I think in the state of Georgia, there were thousands of
restaurants that closed, but there's been a lot that have opened the industry
has been, I think more resilient, resilient to them than I expected it to be.
And I think it kind of gets down to the fact that restaurant owners,
restaurateurs are exactly, as you said, they're entrepreneurs.
And so they, they tend to, to find ways to make it work and figure out a
way to, to keep things going.
And if, you know, if they do have to shut the door on, on one thing, you
know, they might, they might try again down the road.
There's been a lot of, a lot of innovation in the industry, you know, a
lot of figuring out new ways to serve people.
Whether that's in the restaurant itself or in new delivery models, new takeout
models, there's been, you know, I know that like in Atlanta, at least we've
had new city laws changed where, where you can, you can take a cocktail to go.
You can get a cocktail or a beer or a glass of wine or something in your
takeout order, for example, I mean, just like these, these little things to help
keep, keep restaurants going when we're at their, really on their knees.
So it's obviously been extremely tough, but a lot of restaurant owners are, are
figuring out a way to, to get through it.
And, you also reported on downtown Atlanta, basically transforming from
just that office business only, I wouldn't say sterile look and feel to
more of an entertainment district or more of a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a,
a, a, a vast entertainment district.
How has that been unfolding here the past few years that, you know, that we're
kind of getting some, some distance from COVID and, and the restrictions
and all that sort of thing.
Yeah.
It's, I'm sure that you probably had the same sort of perception of Atlanta that,
that I did, you know, growing up in Birmingham and you, you would probably
make it over to Atlanta for, for maybe a Braves game if the Cubs were in town or
maybe there was a concert or something, or, you know, maybe you were going to go
see Alabama play in the SEC championship game.
I know that those were the kinds of events that brought me to Atlanta,
though it would be Auburn and the SEC championship game, obviously.
But if you're that kind of person, you know, you, you go, the event is downtown.
You're probably going to stay somewhere downtown and Atlanta is actually a pretty
vibrant city and just about all of that vibrancy is outside of the actual
downtown core and it's something that I know business leaders here and, and, you
know, city planner type folks, city government folks have been wanting
change and there has been a lot of development interest down there.
It has, you know, there's been momentum.
It's, it's hit some snags this year with, with obviously the current interest
rate climate, you know, financing for construction and development has
gotten a lot more difficult.
And some projects that were in the works have, have been put on hold.
But it is, it does feel like that there's at least, you know, the idea of
momentum to, to really sort of revitalize downtown within the next few years.
There are, there are some grand plans in the works that haven't really been there.
You know, at any point in the past.
Yeah.
And I was recently in Atlanta.
We didn't get to catch up because I was only there for one night, but went to the
battery and truest park.
I mean, just what an electric atmosphere.
I know the, the Braves are red hot.
So that's part of it.
I mean, the fans are just ecstatic about what's going on with the team.
Speak about the battery and how that that's kind of the new prototype for
major league baseball and maybe other sports, maybe what fans seem to want
out of their experience and what you might see in new ball parks being built
in the next 10 or so years.
Yeah.
I think any new ballpark stadium, arena, whatever, for, for any sport, basically
any, at any point going forward, that's, that is the model.
You want to build in all this entertainment around the actual venue itself so that
there's revenue for the team before the game, after the game, even not on game
days.
I mean, the Braves make so much money off of all the stuff that's going on up there.
So it's great for them.
I mean, obviously I, you know, I live a little further south of that.
I'm in the city.
I'm over here in East Atlanta.
So I was, I was pretty disappointed when they left.
I actually, the day that we found out we were moving to Atlanta was the day that
the Braves announced that they would leave downtown Atlanta and move out to
the Burbs.
So I was pretty disappointed in that.
We got a, we got a couple of years with, with the Braves still playing at the
Ted, you know, the old Turner field, which I loved, like it was great.
But I, yeah, I've been to the battery a few times more for, uh, working things.
Um, I actually have yet to go to a Braves game at the battery.
So I'm, I'm well overdue, I guess.
You know, I, what I must say, and this is just maybe me showing my age, but I
went to a number of games at Turner field.
And once you were inside that ballpark, I know there wasn't a lot outside the park,
but the games and the experience there was pretty spectacular.
I mean, I saw a couple of playoff games there and it wasn't a whole lot wrong, in
my opinion, with just the experience inside the park, but I know that the
consumers, sports consumers and, uh, you know, your family, there's probably a
lot of people going to Braves games who are not watching to see if there's going
to be a hit and run.
And so they need a lot more entertainment.
There's a lot of stuff for the kids, but I, I'm kind of a little old school.
I'm, I listened to a podcast recently about mall parks, M-A-L-L, uh, the first
time I've heard that term being used.
And I guess that's referring to the battery and what we're probably going to
see more of, and again, it's, it's very exciting.
It's good for the whole family, but I'm a huge baseball fan.
I love the game itself.
So I don't, I don't really need all of that going on, but I think that for a lot
of franchises who are coming up on a, do have an old ballpark, they're probably
going to move in that direction.
Yeah.
And I'm with you.
I'm more old school in my mindset, uh, as well.
I mean, you know, my favorite, my favorite ballpark is Rickwood field, which.
That's about as bare bones as it gets, you know, purely baseball centric.
There is no other entertainment whatsoever, unless you want to go like
throw some of the gravel in the parking lot around or something, but, but it is,
I mean, you can't argue with success.
And I mean, the Braves have had tons of success with that model.
I know there's been, um, they've done a similar development, I think, out,
uh, it used to be the staple center.
I think it was renamed to a cryptocurrency firm and has maybe been renamed since
then, but you know, where the Lakers and the Clippers play, they, they built up a
big development around that to do a similar sort of thing.
Um, you gotta, there's a lot of revenue streams out there.
Maybe they figured that out.
Yeah.
Yeah. I talk about the Rickwood classic.
Um, I've posted about it on the Dan time Twitter page and you and I have been to
at least a couple of those Rickwood classics together, Chris, there is just
nothing like a ball game where there's, there's no dizzy bat race, there's no
zany PA announcements, there's no modern music, there's a jazz band.
That's your only music.
It's just, there's an old jazz band behind home plate.
I mean, folks, if you've never been and you're, and you love baseball, you're
literally going to feel like you've been transported back in time.
I can only imagine that's what it was like watching a game in the
1950s or sixties or earlier.
And, you know, we're just, you're never going to see that again.
It's a big, big production these days.
And a lot of district, even when you're just trying to watch the middle of one
inning, there's a lot of stuff going on.
So depending on where you're sitting, it'd be very easy to lose track of the
gameplay.
Yeah.
At Rickwood, you're not going to, there's not going to be a foul ball that goes
out of the stadium.
And then you hear the sound effect of a car window being smashed to come over
the PA system.
They don't have that there.
That's it's a, I mean, you, you watch a game at Rickwood and you feel like you
are in an early episode of Ken Burns baseball.
I mean, it's, you really do feel that step back into time.
Chris, I'm going to start careening off a cliff here.
I've got a few questions and we might recover or we might just stay in, um,
Bizarro world.
I'm not sure.
I guess about 15 years ago, you wrote a, a hot corner of, I don't know what the
last time you heard that phrase.
About 15 years.
Folks, when we worked together, this was quite a privilege.
It was kind of a new thing.
Also, we get to write fantasy baseball advice.
A stardom and sit them section that would appear alongside the, the game capsules.
But the reason I bring this up, Chris is a hot, a hot corner, 2008 on Zach Grinke.
Not really important that you said stardom or sit him, but Chris, Zach is
still in uniform in major league baseball for the Kansas city back with the Kansas
city Royals, but I got to get your thoughts on this.
This man is, has a record of one and 14.
Is it time for Zach to hang it up?
Well, if the Royals are still starting them and they're still, uh, signing the
paychecks, then he's still got the love of the game in him.
And then I don't know why it would.
He's obviously eating innings.
Somebody's got to do it.
I don't know that they have any other better options.
It's been quite a career for Gricky.
I mean, he's, he's going on what?
20 years now.
What are your, in general, what are your thoughts on this?
Professional athlete hanging around, as they say, long past his prime.
Are you okay with it in all instances?
Do they need to shut it down?
I think it depends on the situation.
I think that in most situations, somebody who's hanging around, if they're still,
I mean, maybe Zach Grinke is an exception here because one and 14, it's not a great
record, but in most situations, if they're hanging around, that means somebody's
still, still signing up for the paychecks.
Somebody's still, still signing them.
So they've still got something to offer.
So, you know, keep, keep on keeping on until, until that door closes.
The only problem is, is that when it's, when you get maybe an aging superstar who
is maybe beloved by the fans and really hangs around past, past their prime and
they're not contributing, but the, but maybe the team feels like they, we, we
can't let them go.
We can't, we can't cut them because like the fans upset.
That's really the only time that it, that it can be a problem for anybody.
I think.
Chris, are you in favor of bringing back the player manager to major league baseball?
I would love to see the player manager.
I think that's a, the manager can't rely on, if his players aren't getting it done
and he needs to get out there and do it himself, then he needs to have that power
to do it.
You got to take matters into your own hands.
Now I'm really going to be shooting off into some pretty strange directions here,
but Chris, your patience level, patience level for slow moving pedestrians at big
box stores, walking from the parking lot into the store and causing you to, to
wait a little while.
Uh, I can lose my patience on that.
It, uh, I try, that's something that I, you know, as I've gotten older, I, I
recognize my, you know, my strengths and my faults and getting a little bit of a
hot temper out of nowhere.
Um, getting really annoyed about something that probably I shouldn't get too
annoyed about that could be one of those things.
So I try to, I try to not to get upset, but if I'm having a not great day or
something, then yeah, I mean, I'm not going to yell at him or anything, but I'll
definitely be sighing and muttering under my breath.
When you are picking up food to bring home or running through the drive through,
does it bother you when a bag of food is handed over to you, but it does not come
with a thanks, have a great night.
Thanks.
We appreciate you just the handing over the bag, no eye contact, maybe.
And just here you are.
Or do you just take the bag and go?
I think I tend to, I sort of flipped the, that situation on its head and I really
just, I lean into it and I've taken the bag and I'm like really forcing the eye
contact and I'm saying, thank you.
I hope you have a great day.
And it's sort of, I create the, uh, the moment.
I love it.
Chris, if you and your wife are walking down the street and it's pouring down
rain, or maybe it's, it's stopped raining, but it's been raining and you're about to
go over a crosswalk and there's a giant puddle.
There it is.
Is there ever a time where you would take off your jacket and throw it in that
puddle for your wife to walk on?
I realized the answer should probably be yes to this.
And I apologize to Sally if she's listening, but I mean, you know, first of all,
though, I I'm not, I'm usually not prepared when I'm walking in a rainstorm.
I usually don't have a rain jacket on, so there's really not going to be the option.
And, you know, Sally is usually more prepared than me and she's typically
wearing rain boots if it's raining outside.
So I think that she's covered and I'm going to be the one who's soaked anyway.
Chris, when you've got, when you've got one attempt left at guessing one of your
passwords on one of your bill pay sites, and you're just thinking what in the world
is it, I mean, I got the same variation of, of this password, what's going on?
Here are you, you're down to one shot.
Are you going for all the marbles or are you throwing in the towel and hitting
that reset password link?
Oh, I'm resetting the password.
Don't take a chance.
Yeah.
You can't, you can't do it.
It's just, it's not worth, not worth the pain.
I don't want to be locked out for eight hours or however long it's going to be.
You really don't.
It's not a good move.
Cause then I'm going to forget to pay that bill.
So that's just my fan, my fan.
Financial life is going to be in ruin.
One more silly question.
I've, I've never actually gotten down into silly season and then climbed back out of it.
But I, I'm going to try to ask one more just junk question.
Well, it's not junk.
This is important stuff.
Give yourself some credit D Mac.
All right, Chris, when you are applying the toothpaste on your toothbrush, are
you going for one dab or are you just putting a messy glob on there that's just
going to somehow stay on the brush or are you trying to get that perfect toothpaste
spread like you might see in the old Aqua Fresh commercial with the hook on it or
whatever you call it, what's your style?
So I have a, an electric toothbrush.
It's got that little round head.
So I don't, I don't have the opportunity to, to do the, the Aqua Fresh sort of
the Aqua Fresh sort of spread and, and lifted off the little peak, the stiff peak
there at the end, uh, it's more of, more of a dollop.
Um, what I find that tends to be annoying is that I start brushing my teeth and it's
like the little blob of toothpaste flies off into my mouth and it's like, it's just
sitting there and not getting dissolved.
So I really, I work really hard to make sure that that the toothpaste gets really
dissolved and frothy before, before I really get into the, into the hard work
of brushing my teeth.
That's a, that's a great strategy.
Yeah.
Chris, I got to ask, this is me climbing back up out of the gutter.
You got to be a dad along with your career.
You work really hard.
Are there times where your work is calling on you over a certain period of time of
the day or the evening and your daughter would really love to have your attention
and you just can't give it to her.
How does it go with saying, Hey, hang on, give me another 30 minutes, give me another
hour and I'll be right there.
How does that go over in the Furmeister household?
Well, I think it probably goes about as same in my household as it
does in most households.
I'm sure that you know how it goes.
It's a, you know, I might go back to our little home office that we have and try
to do some work in there, but I don't think that door locks.
So there's an exercise bike in there that, you know, my daughter will, will come
in and really start climbing all over the exercise bike, which she never does it any
other time.
It's only, only if I'm back there working.
So she's, she, you know, she understands that I need to be working, but she really
just can't help herself.
Right.
They, they can't at a certain age.
Chris, I can relate at my house as well.
Do you have any advice for young dads or really any dad that's got a three year
old, a five year old, a seven year old.
And I mean, they really test your last nerve, but just to do what you do, be
great at what you do, but also have fun being a dad.
I mean, cause it can get, it could get really stressful, really annoying.
With these little monsters, but are you still able to, to just have fun with your
child?
So I will admit that having one child, I think it makes it easier for me to, to
have fun and not be as stressed.
I would, I would think with three children, there might be a little more
stress, um, than, than fun, though I'm sure there is still fun in there in that
situation.
I would, I, it, you know, I would, I would, I would, I would, I would
always, you always got to remember that your kids are going to remember what,
what their childhood was like, like what your, your parenting is going to mold
them and make them into, into who they are.
Um, but in terms of, you know, if you're dealing with stress, and for me, this was
much more when, when my daughter was, was a newborn and an infant and those, those
probably that first year or so I sort of always, I just tried to stay on an even
keel when, when times were tough and when I was really peak stress, um, I would
just try to tell myself, you know, this is going to get better at some point.
Whatever is going on right now will end and things will get better.
I can get through this.
And when times would be really great, I would definitely enjoy it.
Um, but I would also say, you know, it's great.
It's not going to be great forever.
It's going to be stressful again at some point, like be okay.
It gets stressful again, um, cause it will.
So it's really, it's really about staying on an even keel.
I think that's really great advice for me.
I know that the cliche take it day by day.
It's, it really applies because like you said, today might be just wonderful.
It's beautiful outside.
Everybody's happy.
Nobody's angry about anything at the house, but you just never know what the,
what the next day of the next week or what challenges you're going to face.
So try to be ready, be present and, and be a good example.
Yeah, that is the number one thing.
Be a good example.
That's obviously like the most important thing.
Do you have a podcast or a couple of podcasts that you really enjoy right now?
I do.
I, yeah, I, I try to squeeze in a few, a few podcasts when I can, obviously
downtime is the, at the top of the list.
Uh, that's the best one out there.
Well, of course.
If we're going like anything aside from the obvious best, just a,
uh, a distance second, yeah, a distance second, like best of the rest, clearly.
Um, there are a couple of, of college football podcasts that I like.
One is called the shutdown full cast.
One is called a split zone duo.
They're, they're very different.
Uh, shut down full casket is very, uh, bizarre is probably how the best way to
describe it and oftentimes very much goes off the rails and is really not even
about college football at all.
Um, splits on do is much more of a, you know, you get the sort of analytics, you
get sort of the insider stuff, but, but it focuses on really all of college
football and not just like basically the top 25 teams that you can get news and
information for, um, pretty much anywhere.
Um, so yeah, those are a couple that I, that I really enjoy.
And any music that you're listening to, or do you have much time to just jam out
or, I know there was a time in my life where I listened to almost exclusively
music in the car and now it's, I'd say mostly podcasts, but yeah, do you have
anything that you're rocking to?
I agree with you.
I tend to find myself listening to podcasts in the court and in the car,
um, or now as well, you know, you might be in the same situation that I am.
I, I think that a lot of, a lot of folks as they, as they get older, um, I used
to really try to keep up with a lot of, a lot of new music.
I was really into some of the, the indie and the underground type stuff, uh,
some, some punk rock, some emo these days, it's really hard to, uh, to keep
up with what's new.
And I find myself just listening to a lot of the same stuff that I would've
been listening to 10 years ago, 20 years ago, it's, it's tough to keep up with
the new stuff.
Um, but I do, you know, I like Jason Isbell a lot.
Um, I like Jenny Lewis a lot.
She used to be the, uh, the lead singer of Rhylo Kylie.
She's had a, a nice independent, uh, solo career for a while now.
Every now and then I'll, I'll be able to find a, find a new album that I can
tuck into and really enjoy.
But a lot of it is, a lot of it is listening to the old standards.
I think, uh, I really enjoy singer songwriter stuff and really a long time
ago when lead singers or the primary songwriters of my favorite bands would
split off and do a solo record.
I would really get into that.
And in some cases I like some of the solo albums that lead singers have done
more than the primary band.
I mean, of course I've talked about them before, but driving and crying out of
Atlanta, Kevin Kinney solo catalog is, I don't know if I like it more, but I just
really like everything he does.
Yeah.
I mean, I guess DMACC, what I would ask you is what's on your iPod.
That's a, uh, folks, that's a question that we used to get.
I wanted to talk about this, Chris, our zones experience every Wednesday night,
15, 16 years ago, uh, we would tackle a section of the, of the community sports
section, so the zones would be North, South, East, West, I think a student
athlete of the week, that would always be the question, what's on your iPod.
And what was the most common answer?
Uh, everything from Blink 182 to Green Day, or everything from Garth Brooks to
George Strait, which not, not a lot of daylight, but no, you would get the very
narrow answer like that, or you would get the other classic anything but rap or
country.
And it, yeah.
Oh yeah.
Chris, what I'm listening to in the car right now, and I never thought that this
would, that I would be in this place, but a lot of children's music, because my
kids have figured out that we could basically pull up anything on demand.
And so we're listening to Danny Goh songs.
We're listening to Blaze and the Monster Machines.
I mean, you name it.
Let's see, there's, um, the Frozen soundtrack.
Uh, yes, very familiar with that.
Now when I don't have the kids in the car, there's this, uh, Irish songwriter,
Celtic acoustic, um, I'm screwing up the genre here, but Dan McCabe and hey, Dan,
if you're listening, I would love to have you on the podcast.
Come on the show.
Come on the show anytime, but yeah, Dan McCabe, just some, some excellent stuff
there.
I feel like I've been missing out on the whole Irish music scene all these years.
Yeah.
Irish music is great.
It's, I mean, if you like the singer songwriter stuff and being from the south,
being from sort of the tip of Appalachia, you know, the Southern, I mean, that's
a lot of Appalachian folks came from Ireland and a lot of Appalachian music is,
you know, derived from, from Irish music.
A lot of those sort of folky tunes.
Yeah.
Irish music is very nice.
Uh, one last question, Chris, we could go on and talk about
what's happening on.
Obviously this is so awesome.
Just catching up with you during the pandemic.
I remember we talked at the last ball game.
You started cycling.
Are you still on your current schedule?
Are you still tracking however many miles a day?
Yeah, I'm, uh, I'm still cycling.
I managed to, uh, dislocate my shoulder recently.
So that was, that was great.
You know, it really, and it wasn't even from like a, you know, an interesting
crash, I literally fell over on my bike.
Uh, I was, I was clipped into the pedals as you do on a road bike and, uh,
sort of lost my balance at a stoplight and fell over and dislocated my shoulder.
But aside from that little hiccup, uh, yeah, I love riding.
It's, you know, I try to, I try to ride five days a week if I can, but, you know,
life often gets in the way of that.
Um, but it's, yeah, it's a pretty great, pretty great sport.
Pretty, pretty nice way to get some exercise.
You see, see different parts of, you know, the area where you live that you
probably wouldn't have seen before just riding around on the roads.
Um, it's fun.
It's, I don't know what it is about it, but yeah, I love it.
It's, uh, it's the closest thing I've ever felt like to like actually flying.
I'm going down the road and I've got some good speed and I'm feeling good.
And I can feel like the, the electricity in my legs, like really pumping the
pedals and projecting me forward.
It feels pretty amazing.
Wow.
I, I have got to get on board.
I've been saying that.
Let me ask you also, I mean, are you out there riding when it's 105 degrees?
I try to go in the morning if it's going to be, uh, you know, morning is
usually the, the best time to go anyway, um, whether it's a weekday or a weekend.
Um, I mean, definitely when it's going to be a summer day in the South, uh, it's
tough to get out in the middle of the day.
I did recently, I rode in Auburn, um, a few weeks ago when it was during one of
those terrible heat waves, um, we rode 62 miles and it was like a hundred degrees
by the time we were, you know, in the thick of it.
That is insanity.
It was pretty, it was pretty rough, but you know, cycling, um, kind of the main
ethos of the sport is the idea of suffering.
So it was sort of what it was all about.
I guess if you're feeling like you just about killed yourself and you're like,
okay, that was a good ride.
Wow.
Well, Chris, this has just been fantastic.
And let's do it again.
Sometime I say that to a lot of my guests, you know, all we got to do a second
episode and really, if you're going to be on Dan time, I probably think highly
enough of you to invite you back on.
So Chris, thank you so much for being a part of the show and everybody, please,
if you haven't already check out Chris's reporting on the, uh, Atlanta business
Chronicle and what's the website again?
Yeah.
The website is biz journals.
That's B I Z journals.com slash Atlanta.
We've got, you know, publications in like 40 cities across the country.
So if you happen to be listening from another American city, check out your
other, your local business journal, cause we all do great work.
And if people still enjoy the print version, can you subscribe?
You can subscribe to the Chronicle online.
Uh, you go, um, you can subscribe to a digital only, uh, package if that's
your more of your style, but yeah, we still, we do a weekly, uh, print edition
comes out every Fridays.
I think it's definitely worth opening it up and kicking back and reading, uh,
you know, an actual physical newspaper every now and then.
I love it.
Okay, Chris.
Well, I hope you have a wonderful weekend and thanks for joining the show.
And guys, remember when your wife is after you about cutting the grass or picking
up your clothes off the floor or just helping her out around the house.
I mean, get yourself up off that chair, pause that game.
You can, you can pause everything nowadays and give your better half a
hand, get yourselves up and get things done.
Happy wife, happy life.
Nobody knows that better than me and my buddy, Chris.
Yeah.
And if you're, uh, you know, if you got to go do some yard work, why not put
those earbuds in and maybe listen to the latest episode of Dan time while
you're doing it.
There you go.
Okay, folks, that's it for Dan time.
We'll see you next week.
Thank you, Chris.
Chris, Thanks, Dimak.