Hey Chris, how you doing? Good, how you doing
John? I'm so tired. Like I feel, okay, so full
disclosure, I always feel a little bit silly
telling anybody who works at camp in late May,
early June that I'm tired because I remember
what that was like. But I feel like this May
has been the closest to summer camp may that
I've had since I left. And maybe it's just because
after this, especially this Easter, I kind of
expected things to calm down and they just haven't
like they've there, there has been no zero chill
at all. And it kind of feels like it's getting
crazier. which is just really disconcerting.
Is that just more just like obviously growth
in the church that's driving that? No, I can't
put my finger on it this year. Okay. It's not
one thing. And, you know, some of it's at home
too, like Cade's baseball season felt like it
went longer. He made it to the playoffs and stuff
like that. So everything just kind of feels a
little bit like, what just happened? But, I mean,
that's partially, at least from my perspective,
why this one's coming out late. Yes. We missed
a cycle, but that's okay. It was not intentional.
No. We did have every intention of making this
happen, and that did not happen. But we're back
now. Back now. Don't know what we're going to
discuss tonight, but here we go. Not at all,
but it's going to be great. Yes. My beer is being
held hostage in a meeting right now. Yes. So
what are we drinking, Chris? I did a pick six.
Nice. Grabbed some different ones. We have the
Tufts Backyard Bock. Okay. Never had that one
personally. Sounds good. 903 Brewing. Their German
-style Bach. Oh, I really like that one. The
Sherman Bach, as they call it. Sherman Bach.
Then we have the Black Matter, brewed by Manhattan
Project. It is a coffee stout. I've seen a lot
of the Manhattan Project ones, but I've actually
never had one. So I got two of those in the coffee
stout, and then I found a Fiesta Familiar. Or
however that's supposed to be pronounced, dark
lager. So it's like a Mexican dark lager? Maybe.
I mean, it's Fiesta. It feels like it. And then
I got this one for you just because I knew. No,
that's the other dark matter. It's this one.
I knew that if nothing else, you would love to
have this one. Old Chub. Old Chub, baby. Oh,
man, it's so good. But there are two of that
coffee stout as well. So. You got to pick. It's
your six pack. Well, I'm going to lead with the
coffee stout because I want to try that. Okay,
so maybe we should both do the coffee stout.
Okay. And then like. Mid -show transition to
something else. Yeah. There you go. That works.
That way we get a true discussion of the beer.
Of the beer, yes. You ready? Let's go. Yeah.
That was nice. It smells delicious. It really
does. You got a blurb for me here, guys? Oh,
you're going to like that. Pairs well with warm
fire, ribeye, and ice cream. I'll take all three.
Wow. I have old man eyes tonight, apparently.
I got you. I got you. From the first encounter
of the aroma to the finish. I can vouch for the
first part, at least. The coffee is evident,
but not so much that it is overpowering. As the
beer warms, you will discover chocolate. Discover,
really? Chocolate, cinnamon, and even a touch
of vanilla in both the flavor and the nose. It
has a full, silky body with medium carbonation.
There's plenty of times that I'm like, oh, what
exactly are we describing here? Yes, all right.
So I definitely like it. It's hard for me to
imagine drinking this with a ribeye. Maybe that's
just because I don't think I've had anything
this dark with a ribeye. Oh, I have. Have you?
Yes. If I'm eating a ribeye, I'm not usually
thinking about what I'm drinking. Well, but if
I'm drinking beer with anything, I'm probably
going to be drinking a dark beer. So that's just
the nature of it for me. There you go. So I'm
more, I'm more like in the Shiner Bach range
with, with eating something. That's about as
light as I like to go anymore. Anything lighter
than that color. And I'm just total beer snob.
No, that's really good. Black matter. Okay. Black
matter by the Manhattan project beer company.
They, they have my, vote there that's a good
one um it's an 8 .6 i'm not getting chocolate
at least not yet i think i think like they said
it needs to get warmer and then you'll be able
to taste the chocolate okay and i do think it's
going to be more like a dark chocolate judging
by what i'm tasting slightly on the sides of
my tongue so don't think like hershey bar no
no no think uh The like expensive chocolate that
you put salt on and stuff. One of my sisters
really likes dark chocolate with salt. I mean,
I can appreciate that it's good. It's just not
my favorite. Correct. But actually, this is pretty
good. It's out of Dallas, Texas. Yeah, I'm really...
I may have to try more of their stuff. Yeah,
just saw this one, just noticed that it was a
stout, and it's like, all right, I'm willing
to give it a shot. I'm always open for more stouts.
But it is good. It's not heavy on the bitter.
Not heavy on the bitter. There's not any weird
tastes or aromas to it. Nope. It just kind of
is what it is, and I can appreciate that. I got
some coffee on that one. Yeah. Not bad, though.
I'm not normally a coffee drinker. No, you're
not. No. You're a Dr. Pepper drinker. Dr. Pepper,
you better believe it. Man after my own heart.
Yes. I would have no problem recommending this.
This is pretty good. I really like this. Yeah.
The main thing was staying away from those Russian
imperial stamps. Oh, my gosh. Don't. What I was
hoping to find. is the one that i've had at bernard's
was that that kentucky uh bourbon barrel aged
and every everybody says oh yeah i always see
it fresh all the time in the pick six section
every time i go it's never there that's what
i was really hoping to bring tonight was a couple
of those right because that one is amazing kentucky
burble burble burble burble i had no we're not
even partially into the can man okay That is
not what that is. I'm super tired. In fact, I'm
kind of fighting a headache, but hopefully the
beer will calm down my scalp. Smooth that out.
There you go. Yeah. Wow, that's really good.
It is. I'm going to have to write that one down.
Take a picture of it. They have apps for this,
evidently. Yeah, you're supposed to do all the
social media for us, man, right? I hate you.
I keep asking Tori every now and then to be like,
hey, you're going to cheese. Picture in the middle
of the show. You're in the background. Okay.
No big deal. So I keep asking her from time to
time. I'm like, okay, are you ready to do social
media for the show? No. Why not? I want my own.
It's like, hey, you got to start somewhere. you're
you're missing the point here yes girly yes yes
um yeah no i i i hate um spending more time on
it there's plenty of time when it's like okay
well i have to have to be here for this or that
or whatever and uh i don't know man like it it's
just not as beneficial as i think I thought it
was going to be when I was younger. You know,
everybody was like, oh, you're going to be able
to keep up with everybody and blah, blah, blah,
blah. No. That's not what happens. No. You just
fart around all day. Don't forget the fiesta.
Fiesta. I'm trying to get the labels in this.
We're having a little. What do you call these?
Photo shoot. There you go. Over here. Photo op.
While we're talking. So what has your month been
like? A little bit scared to even ask. I'll photo
bomb you. Photo bomb in the cans. It's obviously
been crazy with camp starting up. It's that way
every year. It doesn't matter how early you start.
Yeah. Everything just hits. All at once and you
just go, go, go, go, go. Can't really even. I
would say overall so far for this being the first
week, it's been quieter than I expected. Okay.
Usually week one, you're working all the cobwebs
out. People are learning systems and you're just.
putting out fires yeah a lot of a lot of user
error yes so that was monday but since then it
is really tapered off nice so i'm like okay is
this the calm before the storm or are we actually
going to have a quiet start to summer for once
because i've never truly had a quiet week one
before yeah i mean that's and you just always
expect week one to be a little crazy and then
Around week two or three is when some natural
disaster kills everything. And you're like, okay,
now here we go. That was last summer. Week two
is when all those big storms came through and
took out all the power. And we had multiple camps
that were down for days on end. And they were
running generators trying to keep dining halls
going. It's terrifying. I think we're off and
running well. Ethan started May 12th. So he's
kind of got a few weeks under his belt now. This
is his first week of summer as a full -time staff.
Good. Yeah, coming out of the Forge. Yeah, was
he a summer staffer before the Forge? Yes, I
know he was at the Timbers, and he may have been
someplace else. Okay. So it's good to have him.
We've got a full team again. I think he's going
to be on the worship team here. Okay, yeah. So
that's fun. Absolutely. How often he's going
to get to and work the pants off of him probably.
Yeah. Does he know what he's doing? He does.
He does. His background is more in software.
Are you saying that because he might be listening?
No, no, no, no, no. No, his background is more
software development. Okay. But he has that mind
for troubleshooting. Yes. And so right now he's
very much a sponge. Yeah. And soaking it all
up. Next week we'll really kind of dig in heavy
on training. But there's been several things
he's been able to kind of come along and observe
and, you know, just kind of watch and ask questions.
And there's been training opportunities there,
but nothing like it will be next week when we
actually sit down and go, okay, this is what
this is. This is what this is. This is how this
works. And really just kind of start to pour
that into him. I like it. So, and then beyond
that, this past Monday, my brother's oldest daughter
got married. Yeah, kind of crazy to think, but
her now husband is going into the Air Force,
and that's kind of what sped things up. They
had to be legally married by a certain date so
that once he came out of basic, she could move
and be on base with him. So they got legally
married. to cover that for the government. Yep.
But then Monday was the actual, um, wedding,
wedding, wedding, uh, went really well. Uh, I'll
have to show you the video after the show of
Garrett. They had him be the flower guy. Oh,
that is so sweet. Fanny pack and all. Oh my gosh.
Yeah. So, uh, I'll, I'll show you that, uh, him
and, uh, Brayden who Maddie, Mary, they've got
a really cool relationship to see those two guys.
Um, they kind of bring out the, uh, and the,
I would say idiot, but that sounds a little harsh.
No, I know exactly what you're talking about.
But it's idiot in a good way. Absolutely. Between
two guys. Young men, idiots. Yes, yes. So they
refer to themselves as being a bromance and that
Maddie is the side piece. Oh, wow. Okay, okay.
It's like, all right, guys. But they have a really
good time. I love seeing that. They get to have
that kind of an interaction. But yeah, eventually,
so I think he's going to San Antonio for BASIC,
and then he's then shipping off to, I think,
Pensacola to do his training for cybersecurity.
Nice. So if he can stay the course and he gets
done, when he gets out of the military, there's
a lot of open doors for him in that line of work.
Yeah. Cause he'll come with security clearance
already and can just step right in. I mean, in
a big way. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Like that's really
sought after. So I, I'm well done. Yes. I'm,
I'm excited for him and for Maddie. Well done.
So, um, so I know it'll probably be a little
difficult that you get, I think they have a week
and a half together before he has to leave for
basic. So be a little, A little bit of a tough
spell there with being separated and minimal
interaction. But as soon as it's over, they'll
be off to Florida. Which does not sound bad.
No, no. Go rough it in Pensacola. It's fine.
Yes. I'm getting trained on the beach. There
you go. Beyond that, the only other thing, and
I know we talked about a little bit in texting
back and forth, was the water incident in the
home. I mean. Chris. So carpets still pulled
up in the two rooms. We're looking at different
flooring options. Okay. At this point, I got
to believe that the shower curtain was just done
wrong. There's nothing else. Because I cannot
reproduce it. Oh, nice. I turn it on and just
put the toilet lid down and just kind of just
sit there like Johnny Bench watching and waiting
and nothing. So I just got to believe that somehow
the curtain didn't get done right. And all that
water made its way out. And it was a ton of water.
Ton of water. So, but that's been my maze so
far. Yeah, that's so hard to wrap your head around.
But again, if it's a ton of water, then it has
to happen again if it's not something like that.
You know what I mean? Yeah, if it had been a
busted drain or if it had been a busted freshwater
line, as soon as you turn it back on and you've
got it running, you'd see it right away. Yeah.
So that's not fun at all, but I'm also grateful
that it's not something else. Yes, absolutely.
Good. I'm sitting there going, all right, if
it's a busted drain, they've got to rip this
bathtub out. They've got to probably tear up
the concrete and get into all that. And it's
like, okay, if it's in the pecs, I got to rip
my wall apart. Yeah. Just like none of this sounds
good. No. So I guess at this point we kind of
got the. best option we'd wanted to replace the
carpet in those rooms anyways right but we didn't
intend for it to be this way i don't i want to
replace the carpet i don't want to need to replace
correct correct want to need to um yeah no that's
not that's not fun at all there's nothing no
nothing good about that situation no um and the
timing of it just couldn't have been worse absolutely
um golly i can't even imagine in the middle of
all that. So there's a, there's a, there's a
memory that I have of Maddie being brand new
to our house. And I am in the attic above her
room because a storm has blown in and water is
now leaking into her room. And I'm just thinking
like, are you kidding me? Like doing. I don't
remember where we were in terms of the year.
Well, I guess it would have to be in the fall
because she was brand new to our house. So the
fall storms. And Tyler, my brother -in -law asked
me one time when the rainy season was. And Tyler,
I was like, well, we kind of spread it out. You
would do. So it was in the fall, rainy part.
And I was up in the attic and I'm trying to hold
on to a bucket. to keep it like, and then try
to like situate where it was going to go. Cause
there's another leak that I'm seeing coming down.
And I remember just being like, there is no way
that this is happening right now. I can't make
it stop. Um, there's like, I'm just, we got to
get through this storm. You needed some flex
seal. Yeah. Yeah. Push this leak another direction,
baby. But. There's water damage, man. Yeah, it's
no good. That'll mess with you for a little while.
Yep. I used to really like hearing the rain fall.
Until you had a roof leak? Until I had a roof
leak. And now I'm like, I just can't calm down.
This is not good. Yep. Anyway. I know we were
talking about that. We were talking about the...
that we had here on Monday. Yeah, that was crazy.
I still don't know how it really happened. Did
some of the rain leak in and kick stuff off?
So what they think is that lightning hit somewhere
on the property. Okay. Which, again, doesn't
make a whole lot of sense because the timing
of everything was that we were... I came in and
they were already saying like, hey, the storm
is messing with the power. I was like, okay.
And like the power is kind of, it's going like
in and out in the main building, in the preschool
building, in the grade school building. Student
building is fine, but the internet is off. And
so I was like, okay. So I went up to the student
building and. restarted the uh i almost said
cloud key um udm udm because it didn't come back
on and that was weird i was like okay that's
strange but i like had to physically unplug it
from the socket and then plug it back in and
then it came back on so that was a little bit
like i don't really know what's happening there
but i didn't have enough time to think about
it because i was like just make sure everything
comes back up we got to go back in the servers
you got to restart every nick um and you're just
trying to like get things going and then you're
like okay this is working now i get to go down
to the other buildings and see what's going on
there and sure enough like the lights are flickering
and it's it's a very strange like uh so we've
got power um and it seems like there's enough
power for i mean you know there's there were
a couple people there working and they had their
computers plugged in and their monitors on and
you know printing everything seemed like it was
working fine and so i was like oh um i don't
like how this is going let's see if we can shut
everything off so then you have to move everybody
to a different location yeah you gotta like okay
the student building is fine everybody go up
there and as we're trying to figure this out
i was talking to one of the facilities guys i
was like We're getting everybody out of here,
but then we need to turn the power off. We need
to shut down breakers so that we know that everything
that's plugged in isn't going up and down and
up and down and up and down. And finally just
giving up the ghost. Aside from going and testing
a whole bunch of sockets, I'm not sure what I
would have done at that point, but it's obvious
that there's a problem. so we do all that we
get everybody moved and then i'm like okay you
take down this building i'm going to take down
this building and i walked over to the main building
closet like the great room closets where all
the power comes in initially the big transformers
out there yep um and i flip off a few breakers
individually just so that i know like those are
the ones that are off when i turn everything
back else back on yeah i know that these are
off Cause I just wanted to make sure. And some
things that already like were already like powered
down, which I was like, interesting. I didn't,
I didn't do that. Um, but then I got to open
the big breaker box and then, you know, lift
the big lever and throw. Yeah. Which just makes
you feel really powerful. Yeah. Like, bam. What
am I? Thanos. Anyway. Um, uh, I heard like this
weird. uh almost crackling noise i wasn't sure
exactly what it was um you know if you're in
a really old house the sound that it can be it
can make sometimes when things are just kind
of settling in the wind or whatever it was like
that where it was more like what was that and
i looked up and i was trying to figure out if
i was hearing something in the vents or you know
with the ac shutting down was i what was going
on but it didn't keep going and it was not it
didn't it wasn't really loud so i was like okay
i walk out of that building or walk out of that
room and then to the other side of the building
to try to find the other guy and as we go into
the breezeway area and start walking towards
the parking lot i was like do you hear that and
it was like snap crackle pop like the like serious
Oh, no, that's a thing. And it was the cables
coming into the transformer. And holy cow, that
thing was arcing like nobody's business. It's
covered. We've got wooden doors in front of it,
and then it's got its metal doors. You can see,
though, that the metal doors had been pushed
open. So in that sense, I'm like, I don't know
that something didn't just get in there. Cause
a problem. But they're saying that when the lightning
hit, we had some residual power that was finding
an outlet into the building. Okay. When I turned
the power off to the building, it didn't have
anywhere to go. So it just started arcing across
the three legs that we have. Okay. So that's
what they're saying happened. I don't, I'm not
an electrical engineer. But there was part of
me that was like, I don't think we should be
keeping this transformer anymore. But they put
new boots on. They re -ran the cable. Or not
re -ran the cable, but they re -affixed the cable.
Cables. Because holy cow. Because that thing
was on fire. Yeah, I saw one picture you sent.
There were still flames. Yeah, I was like, oh,
that's smoke. And I'm just imagining because
of the noise. I'm picturing the... jumping I
know what it looked like in there but I don't
like I can't see it I'm just you know picturing
it arcing over and over and over again so I'm
on the phone with fire department because I'm
like I don't actually like encore is not answering
because there are other problems I know there
are other problems I'm not dumb but like they're
not it's not like somebody's manning that phone
So we can't get anything turned off to just make
sure that we don't have something really bad
happen. Yeah. So call 911. I'm thinking, I mean,
maybe emergency services would have some way
of disabling something. About that time, like
I'm on the phone with the dispatch. It just goes,
boom. And then it did it again. And I was like,
um, she was like, what was that? I was like,
I think it just exploded. She was like, okay,
we'll get fire department out there. Yes, you
will. Thank you. I appreciate it. But by, by
the time they got there, it was actually funny.
There was no like big cloud. It just blew that,
uh, um, connection finally to where it couldn't
arc anymore. Yeah. Well, it could. And then it
blew again and then it couldn't. Yep. And so
they finally came out and luckily we had the
power turned off to the building or I think that
explosion would have gotten something inside.
Well, yeah. Anyway, it was a day and I didn't
even have to, like I was up there trying to make
sure everything was not damaged to the best of
my ability and then make sure that we had a way
to do. The rest of the week if we were without
power. Yeah. So there's just a lot of logistics.
But Paul actually came up and did the talking
to the Encore people and everything. Okay. Well,
I guess it is beneficial that I guess the power
that runs most of the main campus down here is
separate from the student building. It appears
that that's the way that it works. Power and
internet comes in to the student building from
a different entrance. Everything else is run
by this house. And I'm like, yikes. It's good
that something stays on most of the time. I think
probably we'll run power to the new building
down from the student building, so that'll be
good. Yeah, come off the student building area.
Because then it'll be more like half and half.
Yeah. Less than one and a quarter. Or a quarter
and then three quarters. Yeah. Man. It's just
been kind of a tiring week. On top of a tiring
month. But we're through May. Pretty much. Yes,
we are. It's the 28th. Yeah. It's crazy to think
that. the 1st of June falls into week two. Yeah,
that's weird. Yeah, it's getting to the point
where it's like, okay, do we need to shift the
weeks again? I would think. Because I remember
being in orientation at the end of May because
we didn't get out of school until almost the
end of May. Yeah, I know when Jason started 11
years ago, Trailblazing week was a week further
into May than it is now. So everything has just
really shifted back. Yikes. Yep. But, you know,
you're making it happen. It's a team effort.
It's a team effort. No, for sure. If I was on
my own, oh boy. Yeah, no, it can feel like you're
on your own a lot. Sure, sure. This is definitely
one of those. I mean, there were a few years
where it pretty much was, hey, tag, you're it.
Yeah. It's like, oh, boy, here we go. Yeah. Thankfully,
there was a lot fewer camps back then, too. Right.
I mean, yeah, there's a lot of, I mean, I got
asked a question today from another staff member,
and I remember thinking, like, Okay, you need
to do this or this or this. And I was like, I
need to let him figure out what he needs to do.
And I'm just going to tell him the end of this
is over there. You're going to need to work backwards
from that side to figure out what happened. Because
I can't do this. Can't be the only one. Working
anything that's got electricity going through
it. Yeah. But. I mean, we were in the middle
of the. Today was when the new printers came
in. I think you're getting a new printer tomorrow.
Tomorrow. Yep. For the med shed. Yeah. We'll
round out the rest of them at the end of summer.
He came by at the. Because. So we share a. printer
salesman representative salesman sales rep sales
rep count rep something like that account rep
um and he's great hey alex hey alex um not that
you're listening really appreciate you um but
uh is it's funny because he'll he'll reference
you a lot yeah whenever we're talking and i'm
like well i mean yes what we we trust the decisions
that chris makes for pine cove It doesn't mean
we're going to buy the same stuff. Sure. Much
smaller. Sure. But we did get new big printers
to avoid the price hikes. Yeah. Did you stay
Rico or did you go Lexmark? No, I stayed Rico.
Okay. I was trying to stay, especially right
now with where I'm at, I was trying to stay as,
like, I don't have to re -download drivers on
everybody's computers. Just as little change
as I can get. Did you go Lexpro? We have Lexmark
at the camps. Lexmark. Sorry, not Lexpro. Lexpro
is a drug. It might be. Lexapro. That I think
I'm on. Anyway, go ahead. Yeah, we have Lexmark
at the camps. The XM3250. Yeah. But the big...
Color machines that we have, those are still
Ricoh. After summer, that might change. We might
go all Lexmark. I would say that we have better
luck in terms of air print with Lexmark than
we have with Ricoh. These new ones that we got
seem to work pretty well. Yeah. I did the today
because we switched them all out today. I did
the settings to make sure that they were recognizable
with their. Bonjour name. Bonjour. And AirPrint.
I mean, it's funny. They have them separately
on the list of settings. And I was like, you
change one, you change the other. Sure enough,
you change one on one setting, then you'd go
to the other setting and it's already changed.
I was like, if you make me change it twice, I'm
going to know one of these is bull. Yeah. But
anyway. But went through and renamed things and
made sure that they were. Oh, I had to re authenticate
the. Scan. Oh, yeah. Scan the admin or whatever.
Yeah. Because for some reason, the password that
I had on that was not right. And so. Redid all
of that stuff. Got them where I thought that
they were OK. Then I scanned in my. huge visa
to our uh business administrator was so angry
for how long it had taken me to do it and it
was i'm not kidding it was that thick like it
was it was a sorry i'm using my hand right now
um it was over half an inch thick um worth of
paper i i really did spend a lot of, well, I
made a, I don't even say I was, this was not
the biggest purchase expenditures that I've ever
done, but in a month, but there were just a lot
of them. Yeah. Um, and so, um, that thing was
thick. Um, and then without really even thinking
about it because I was so done with it, I then
shredded the, um, the bill bill. And then Oh,
my gosh. What do you call it? The settings on
the scan were 400 DPI instead of 300, and the
file was too big. Uh -oh. So then I had to redo
all of it. But this is the kind of month that's
bad, where I'm just like, I cannot get ahead.
Correct. I can't take care of the things that
need to be done today. Yep. And every time I
feel like I'm like right in that glimmer of like,
Oh, it's, it's, Oh, Nope. So just tired. Yep.
The month's almost over though. Month's almost
over. And we got, you know, beer and yes. Speaking
of going in for number two. Yeah, what are you
going to choose? I think I'm going to take a
chance on the dark lager. Why not? I tried two
different Mexican lagers before. The one at True
Vine, was it? Yes. Yeah, that was the one that
was just kind of like, I don't think I like this.
That wasn't a dark lager. No. And then the first
one I tried. was a year ago when we were out.
Maybe it's eight months. That's close enough.
We were out in Georgia, Jacob and I, and I tried
a Mexican lager out there. That one was actually
pretty good. Nice. I mean, you know, this is
the difference between Dos Equis and Dos Equis
Amber. Yeah. Yeah. So no blurb on this one, though.
That's a bummer. Independence Brewing Company.
Very, very sad about the black matter being on.
I am going to take that old chub. I knew you
would. That's why I grabbed it. So anything interesting?
No, just the whole government warning. Hey, warning.
Hey, if you drink this, this could happen to
you. Bad things. Bad things. So they say. So
they say old chub is a Scotch ale and it's shooter.
Calm down. Brought to you by the good people
in Longmont, Colorado, Colorado, Colorado of
Oscar blues. What do you think? There's something,
something weird there in the smell. Oh, Uh -oh.
Is it salsa? No, I'm not sure what that is. Is
it flowery? Is it dish soap? I almost don't want
to say what it smells like. Oh, no. I'm just
going to take a drink. Here we go. Cheers. It's
kind of flowery. Oh, no. Not bad. Hmm. One of
those was like, do I like this? What was that?
Oh, oh, I tried a new one at True Vine. It was,
it was, oh, I can't think of the name of it right
now. I have to look it up. It was. I like, oh,
well, there was two I tried. Okay. So the one
that I like it, and I'd have no problem saying,
hey, you should give that a try. No, I can't
type. I still can't type. It is a oatmeal cookie.
Yeah. Because, you know, we tried that one. Yes.
This was a much better version. Okay. Than what
we had. And they actually give you an Oreo cookie
with it. All right, that's weird though, right?
I did not eat the cookie while drinking the beer.
Jacob ate the cookie while drinking the beer
and said it was good. Okay. Do I trust Jacob
or not? That's questionable. He does like the
Kelsey Brothers beer, the garage beer. The garage
beer that's basically for chugging and nothing
else? It's basically like drinking water. Don't
want to taste the beer, just want to chug it.
Pretty much. Yeah, no, I'm not. Okay, let's see.
What's on draft? Oh, connection. Oh, I'm on my.
Yeah, I'm not going to be able to pull that up
on here. Let me go to my phone. Whoopsie. Hey,
yeah, you're right. That is in the beer category.
Try one more time. That is a live fail, folks.
That's pretty funny. Didn't think anything about
it, and then it was like, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
I was good until I clicked on the what's on draft,
and then it kicked in and was like, oh, yeah,
you're not supposed to be here. My bad. Yeah.
These company devices. This is a new test device.
Nice. What is that? Surface Laptop 7. So it's
the Surface. Yeah, but it's the laptop. But it's
the laptop instead of the tablet. Okay, so basically
it looks like a Mac. I'm going to be open and
honest. No, it doesn't look like a Mac. It looks
like a Chromebook. It looks like a Mac. When
you put it next to, I mean, that's an error,
is it not? Yeah. I mean, to me, it's got the
chiclet keys. It's got the recess for the keyboard.
You said chiclet keys. I did. Chiclet keys, baby.
And then it's got the oversized trackpad. It's
machined aluminum. It's like, okay, guys. Is
it unibody? It is. And it's got the whole rounded
design in it. It wants to be a MacBook. In terms
of appearance. Now, part of what also makes it
like a MacBook. Still got that Windows key. There
is not an Intel chip in this. Really? This is
ARM. It's the Qualcomm chip. Okay. So it's their
competitor, if you will, to the M series. Yeah,
M series. Yes. Which Qualcomm? Because Qualcomm's
been around. The same Qualcomm that makes chips
for phones. Okay. Let me see which. It's a 12
-core. Okay. I was like, is it a phone chip?
Because if it's a phone chip, that sucks. No,
no, no. Where are you at here? Where are you
at? Where are you at? It is the Snapdragon X
12 -core running at 3 .4 gigahertz. I mean, that's.
It's peppy. Yeah. So this is my first go with
ARM -based Windows. Okay. There's a couple of
applications that I had to specifically get to
ARM -based for. Okay. So like Cisco AnyConnect,
I had to get to ARM -based. You can't run Windows.
Really? Yes. It would say, when we would push
it from the MDM, it would say success, but it
would be nowhere to be found on the computer.
And it was like, okay, well, let's try the ARM
version. Boom, it hit it the first time. Really?
Yeah. And then Sentinel -1, we had to specifically
get the ARM -based version. So far, those are
the only two things that had to be uniquely ARM.
So even our older version of Microsoft Office
works just great, even though it's running on
an ARM platform. Interesting. So I've been very
pleased with this laptop so far. This is my second
week with it, almost third. And it is done quite
well. Okay, so where are you at? Where are you
at? Where are you at? I guess they're out of
it. Bummer. So going back to it, it was a oatmeal
cookie stout. Okay. It was not bad. Okay. I have
no intentions of going back and getting it again,
but I'd have no problem recommending some people
trying it. There you go. So, the other one that
I tried, and boy did it walk the line, was the
True Vine Hey Bear. It's a dark brown ale. Okay.
And I'm like, okay, dark brown ale, you got my
attention. We're at least on the... Let's give
this a try. It said dark. You have my attention.
But the bitter? Yeah. Oh my gosh. Really? It
just walked... teetered that line of almost too
much bitter. You know, it was just like, it was
just kind of like tease and would just, Oh, I'm
going to lean over, but not quite step over.
So it's a third beer. That's what you're telling
me. Yeah. It was dead. Yeah. By the, by the third
beer, you don't care. Drink the 12. Yeah. Drink,
drink the sanctimonium round one around two and
then go hit the hay bear. Um, and then the other
one that I'm trying, this is great. Yeah, a third
beer you don't care. Where is it? Take Me Bach
to Eden. That was a good Bach. I'll give them
that. That was a good Bach. Take Me Bach to Eden.
Take Me Bach to Eden. That was a good Bach. I
think I'm going to make it weird. Well, they've
got to come up with these fun names. Sure. And
then the other two things that Michelle and I
tried, we tried the root beer. It was a little
weird. A little rooty? Finished with butterscotch.
You take that first drink. It's a little bit
vanilla. Does that make it smooth or does that
make it like... It just makes it really weird.
Because, I mean, you're thinking it's root beer.
You made it weird. You get a little bit of vanilla.
You're like, yeah, okay, fine. And then you get
that root beer and then it hits butterscotch.
And you're like, what did I just drink? Is it
like syrupy or like? No, no, no, no, no. It drinks
like a regular root beer, but just that once
you've swallowed it down and that aftertaste,
that just hits butterscotch. It was really weird.
But I do recommend the lemonade. Okay. The only
thing they're missing in the lemonade is they
need to put some ice in that stuff. Yeah. That's
the only thing that's missing. Okay. But it was
good. And the other thing that's a little off
-putting on the root beer. Bring your own ice.
It looks like a watered -down soda. It's like,
oh, you missed some of the syrup out of the bag
here, guys. This is running a little lean. This
is too carbonated. So, yeah, visually it was
like, I promise, this is root beer. Yeah, I mean,
that makes me think that it's, I mean, you know,
cream soda is kind of clear. Yeah. So that makes
me think it's root beer, cream soda -ish. It
may be. I mean, they, they straight up call it
root beer. It's, it's something that's for sure.
So, well, that's exciting. Yep. I'm, I'm, I'm
a big fan of going to the local places and trying
out what they got. Cause at least ours seemed
to rotate them. Yep. Pretty heavily. And they're
always trying to figure something out. Yeah.
I need to go back. To East Texas Brewery downtown.
It's been a while since I've been there. Last
time I was there, I was playing there. So it
was the last time you were there. Yep. Yep. Haven't
done that in a while. Yep. I had Garrett with
me that night. Yeah, he did. He enjoyed it. Yeah,
he's turning into a full -blown adult. Yeah,
he turns 21 in October. So that's weird. Oh,
yeah. Oh, yeah. They think I've got a 21 -year
-old about to be in the house. I don't. So he's
rekindled the discussions of, okay, so the day
I turn 21, we're going out for a drink, right?
Yes. Like, yes, I promised you when you turn
21 that I would take you out. I absolutely will.
I'll be your driver just in case you get caught
up and you're like, oh, I didn't realize that
it would do that. There's a lot of things to
try. Correct. And poof. Correct. So we'll figure
out where to go. But yeah, would love to get
him a little bit of tasting of the spectrum.
There you go. So, okay. Here's a light beer.
Never drink this again. I need you to know. Yes.
Don't do this. This is not good. Don't drink
that. You will embarrass me. Here's an amber.
Don't go lighter than this. Yeah. Here's a dark
beer. This is where you should live. This is
where you live. Yes. This is the good stuff.
Yeah. I mean, my wife still drinks pretty, pretty
blonde things. And, and every once in a while
it's like, well, that's what's in the house.
So this is what we're drinking. But most of the
time it's at least like blue moon now. I'm not,
I still can't even do that. I mean, yeah, I get
it. but she puts the like full orange in it and
everything. Oh yeah. It's like, that's what you're
supposed to do. I don't know. Just like people
get their Corona and they put lime. And I'm like,
if you've got to put lime in your beer, you should
drink something else. Yeah. I did the first,
first, first beer that I drank on a regular basis
with was Corona. And it was because of the lime.
You put the lime in it and it's like, well, this
isn't too bad. Like that's a problem. The fact
that you're even saying that is a problem. Yeah.
But you know, you're just trying to figure it
out. Yeah. We all have to be kids at some point.
I guess so. So the other one that he's now seen
that's new and he was like, I want the hard Mountain
Dew Baja blast. I'm like, are you serious? Interesting.
But apparently that's the thing now that Mountain
Dew has got their own alcoholic beverages. This
is when I'm really grateful that I'm not in college
anymore because that would be a problem. Yeah,
that would be the kind that gets you in trouble.
I remember the first time I had a Mike's Hard
Lemonade. It was like, oh, this is great, man.
You're three or four in. There's no alcohol in
this. Whoa. Yeah, it's like, uh -oh. I drank
that really fast. I did. It starts making the
lips go numb and you're like, I think I'm going
to take a seat and I'm going to chill for a bit.
Yeah, well, I was always sitting down. That's
when you stand up and you're like, mm -mm. That
did have an effect. It didn't feel like it had
an effect, but it did. That's hard to manage.
But that's why you need people around you that
are going to take care of you. Absolutely. When
you're starting this journey. Absolutely. I don't
think I recommend this Fiesta. It's not bad.
I can tell from the look on your face. Maybe
just me and Mexican beers just aren't made for
each other. Listen, Chicago, it's just not. It's
not them. It's you. Yes. So. Yeah. No, I'm not
really surprised by that at all. You want to
try this? No, I'm good. Remember? I'm good. I'll
let you have it all to yourself. Thanks, man.
I really appreciate it because it's so delicious.
I know you love your old chub. It's just really
good. I'm sad that there's not a blurb. I may
look online real quick. You talk for a second.
You've got to have a blurb, man. That's the whole
thing. I will be handing this laptop off soon
to my boss for him to give it a go. And I suspect
he's going to end up keeping it because he really
loved his Surface Pro back when we still had
those. And so the idea of anything Surface, he's
kind of like, yes, I would love to give that
a try. The main reason why I'm evaluating this
is Dell has had no problem pushing prices up
with the uncertainty in the market. So I was
able to pick up this for the same price as an
Air, $1 ,200. Oh, that's great. The equivalent
Dell that I would normally buy ranges anywhere
from $1 ,800 to $2 ,000. And it's just kind of
like, okay, I got that last year for $1 ,400.
They have had no problems whatsoever pushing
costs on. Okay, so specs on this thing real quick.
are it's that 12 core it's a 12 core arm uh snapdragon
x okay this is 16 gigs of ram great and 512 solid
state okay i mean so it's the standard size specs
that we would give now there's a little bit bonus
screen size this is actually 13 .8 so 14 so essentially
yes so there's a tad bit more screen real estate
and you can notice it when you when you're sitting
here using it yeah I mean, it's hard to notice
it when it's right up against the... Well, they
make a 15 -inch version of this. It's only a
few hundred bucks more. I mean, don't make me
go buy yet another test machine. Yeah, no, I,
yeah. And it's getting to the point, though,
with these that I, like, I really, I do feel
bad about 16 gigs, which is funny because they
were trying to make all the M -series chips sound
like, oh, you don't need any more than eight.
gigs of Ram and blah, blah, blah. I was like,
no, that's not going to be the case. Not when
you're trying to hold onto it for five plus years.
Well, that got disproven within a week. Yeah.
It was so bad anyway. And so then the 16 is now
the base. And I'm like, I just think we need
a little bit more. Yeah. Uh, I could see. So
the 24 is kind of. Yeah. The 24 is still the
sweet spot in terms of price. I would. I could
see within a couple of years that 32 becomes
our baseline. Yeah. That seems crazy. Yeah. Although
it seemed crazy when we went to 16 gig for the
baseline too. Yeah. It was like, we're putting
helmet trim in this machine? Are you kidding
me? Yeah. It just, I mean, you know, there for
a while they were like, well, all these like
single chip, like everything being together,
it's just going to make it so much faster. And
it did. I really, like I'm not, but it's always
the case. That as soon as that speed is there,
everything wants to use it. Yep. So, you know,
I've got plenty of M2 machines in our lineup
that are eating up. Yep. In the middle of, you
know, whatever. And spoiler alert, it's usually
messages. So just close messages. I message,
yes. Holy cow, what is that? I think the biggest
thing that I've noticed on this particular laptop
is that Chrome is by far the biggest battery
drain resource on here. Oh, yeah. When it finally...
Now, I haven't been able to get the whole 24
hours out of this that they claim. And I think
part of that has to do with Chrome. I should
probably give it a fair run with Edge. And I
could probably get that 24 hours. But I will
say I can absolutely get through a 12 -hour workday
on this. Yeah. And I'm still on the same charge.
Yeah. I can't do that on my Dell. No. No, I'm
plugging in a couple times to get through a 12
-hour day. Yeah. I have been really impressed
with the battery life on these new Macs. I was
like, oh, no, I really can. Like, in fact, there
are times that I forget, oh, I should have plugged
that in. Yeah. Because then you're, you know,
25 % and going. Somewhere where you're like,
I really wish I had been charged for this. But
anyway. Hey, Old Chub's 8 % ABV. It says seven
varieties of malt combined. Seven varieties of
malt. Really? Combined to create complex candied
figs, raisins, and toffee flavors with a hint
of smoke. Okay. Yeah. So intensely flavorful.
It'll inflate your bagpipes with every swig.
So like peat smoke? I mean, they're saying it's
a scotch ale. Okay. So it's a scotch. Okay. Smokiness
to it. Okay. So, yeah. I mean, I can confirm.
I like it the best of all the scotch ales I've
ever tried. Okay. Don't hate me, but like all
the founders, I'm not. picking them over this
that's okay that's okay we we we can have different
tastes yes we can yeah yes we can so like oh
it's so good yeah so like on this laptop i'm
sitting at roughly 50 battery 40 of that has
been consumed by chrome so draw your own conclusion
yes so there you go folks uh Chrome is not as
efficient as everybody likes to think that it
is. But if you like Windows, I have no problem
saying you should get this. It's a lot of machine
for $1 ,200. Well, that makes me wonder if they'll
do that. And it will take good care of you. Like
Lori's actually had a Surface for a while. So
I wonder if the schools will start doing something
like that. Yeah, I mean, this is... I want to
say this is technically cheaper than the Surface
Pro with similar specs. I mean, I think so. Oh,
you are the man. A gift from a friend. Dude,
is that what you had under wraps? That's what
I had. Thank you, Paul. Oh, that's a good one.
Yeah, thank you, Paul. I mean, I was going to
share this with you. Well, I'll gladly take it
home with me. Yeah. So we were joking about somebody
was having a meeting in the room that has the
refrigerator in it that I had stored my beer
in. Yeah. And so we had to come over here and
get started. Yeah. But the plan was to surprise.
Chris here with the red Jemay. Oh, Jemay red.
Because we haven't had the red in a while. No,
no, no. That one, we tried the premier in the
Grand Reserve, the blue. Yeah. And the Grand
Reserve was a little fruity, but still good.
And then I brought in the white label. White
label at one point, and we did not really enjoy
that. It was okay. It was fine. It's not bad.
It's just not. I think I like the red label the
most. The Grand Reserve is still good, but a
little fruity. And then that other one that I
tried, the gold label, that was a Doré. That
was a Spice. That was still pretty good. Yeah.
And then they have one that is essentially their
house beer. which is supposedly what the monks
drink on a normal basis. I want to try that one.
I mean... If the monks like it, it's got to be
good. Feels like that's blessed. Yes. Well, I'm
still a believer of these. I mean, you... I mean,
the whole Trappist concept. Yeah. I'm buying
amazing beer. Yeah. They get the money. They
get the money. They help people. They help people.
And they keep the brewery going. Seems like.
It's a win, win, win. We're all benefiting here.
Absolutely. So, well, I appreciate that you had
brought that. Yeah, that was the plan. Well,
something tells me if you don't open it, it'll
keep until next show. I think probably we just
put it in this fridge over here and forget about
it until we need it. Yeah. Hey, thanks for hanging
out. Enjoyed it. It's good to get back to a show.
Always good to get back to a show. Sorry we didn't
talk too much about gear, but we stumbled into
it. We snuck some in. You never know when you're
going to stumble into it. When we sit down, usually
we're going to talk about something like that.
That's just kind of the nature of it. But it's
because it's really fun to talk about. That's
why we wanted to do this whole thing to begin
with. But always grateful. Yeah, enjoyed it,
man. Thanks for the beers. Yes. Beers. Plural.
Plural. And we'll drink the Chimay next time.
Yes, I'm all for it. All right, see you. See
you, everybody. We didn't have tornadoes here
until we started putting into traffic circles.
Because on the counter, you want to know why?
When people go round and round in circles, it
causes disturbance in the atmosphere and causes
tornadoes.