PoolLab 2.0 - Pool Water Tester Review

This is episode number 329 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We are so glad that you could join us for another live episode here in the studio. How you doing, Kev?

Oh, you know what? I'm, I'm doing all right. It's been a long few days, but man, I don't know. I'm just, I'm ready. I'm glad to be back into a routine.

Yeah.

And, you know, kids are back in school and which I, I don't really care one way or the other about that, but my summers are just all over the place.

Uh-huh.

And so, uh, obviously, I mean, I've been absent here as well. You're like, who is this guy? Yeah. But it's been nice, man, to just kinda wake up and know the same thing is happening every day.

I think—

here's the thing.

Routine is helpful.

Yeah. I think— here's the thing. Like, my entire life, I've been like, ah, I love being spontaneous, which I do. And what I mean— here's what I mean by that. If someone comes to me and says, hey, you wanna go do this? I'm probably gonna say yes.

Sure.

'Cause I'm a people person. But I still want things to look the same pretty much every day. I think we all do. I think we're like creatures of habit types of things.

Sure.

Yeah.

I mean, I think there's something to be said about a disciplined routine.

Yeah.

But there's also something about having the flexibility to sway away from that when you need to.

Oh, of course. Of course. Which I'm fine doing. I just, I feel like I've been doing that for about 3 months now. And so I'm kind of ready to—

The people that bother me, man, I feel like, I feel like, I'm just gonna say this right now. I feel like I'm a little bit looser lipped these days. Like I don't care as much about expressing my opinions. Yeah, that's saying something. That's saying something. The people that bother me is when you can't break the routine for the dumbest reasons.

Oh, OK.

You know what I mean?

Your excuse really doesn't match the reason.

The gravity of the situation, for sure. It's like, I can't come to the thing because I have to brush my teeth at 8:00 p.m., and I've been doing that since I was 5. Yeah, that's messed up.

That's dumb. That's dumb.

You can brush your teeth at 9:00.

Yeah.

You're not gonna get a cavity. And your world— the world isn't gonna get tilted off of its axis if you don't brush your teeth at 8:00 p.m.

I'm sorry. Well, and I'll tell you, like, I've been guilty of this one, but kids wind up being an excuse for anything.

Sure.

And like, there've been a lot of times whenever it's like, no, we can't do that because my kids have to get in bed. Which again, I will tell you, you know this, my kids go to bed early.

Right.

They always have, 'cause my kids wake up early. It doesn't matter what time they go to bed, they're waking up at the same time in the morning at like 6:00, 6:30. even if they stay up late, they're still waking up at the same time the sun comes up, they're up. And so, you know, we've been guilty of that. But I will tell you, if you keep your kids out late, and they stay up late, wake up early, they'll be fine. Yeah. I mean, it'll work it out, work itself out. Yeah, eventually. It's not gonna be the end of the world.

No.

Anyway, all that to say, Life's pretty good. How are you, man?

I'm good. Um, uh, you know, back to school is always different for our family than it is pretty much anybody, 'cause we're still out. Yeah.

I mean, you, you have a different schedule.

Yeah. And that, again, like, that's probably like why I'm kind of like opinionated in like, like when, when people can't be flexible because we've created a life where we can be pretty flexible.

Yeah.

Like it doesn't really, And like I'm saying, I'm not saying it doesn't matter. I'm saying like for our schedules and for our lifestyle, it doesn't matter if our kids actually go to school.

Sure.

Like, because they can do school on the road, they can do school in another state and the school that we participate with, they're flexible. Yeah.

Yeah. And y'all aren't homeschooled. So y'all are kind of at a hybrid place. Yeah. It's exactly what it is. Yeah. So I mean, that's just to let people know, like it's not that y'all are homeschooling and not that there's anything wrong. We have plenty of friends that homeschool, and they're pretty flexible with a lot of things as well. But y'all's is a little bit different still.

Look, dude, sometimes homeschoolers can be the worst.

No doubt.

I mean, sometimes those are the most regimented people on the face of the planet.

You're actually not wrong. Hey, so have I—

well, I'm an equal opportunist annoyer. Sure. Well, sure.

And, you know, one of your best friends homeschooled for their lifetime.

Yeah.

And it is what it is. But I will tell you, so every once in a while I come across a t-shirt that I'm like, I shouldn't wear that. But this one I bought.

Right.

And I still don't wear it because I feel like it's not appropriate.

Sure.

But it says, homeschoolers have no class. It's pretty funny.

I dig it. Yeah.

But I have to be very careful about where I wear that.

It's kind of like the one I got when I was working in churches. I had a t-shirt that said legalism rules.

Yeah, that's really good.

Yeah, I still have it. I don't wear it anymore, mostly because I'm a little bigger.

Well, there you go. There's that reason. T-shirt, man. The other, the only other one that I've, I've, I was like, man, I wish I would've bought that one. But again, I was like, I just don't want to wear that kind of shirt. It said, uh, where am I going and why am I in this handbasket?

Pretty, pretty good.

Pretty good.

So should have seen that one coming.

Yeah, exactly. You should have, but, but clearly you didn't.

So, well, I know, I know we're doing product review tonight.

We are.

Um, but I, there's these bugs flying around.

I know. I don't know what's going on.

Golly.

Aren't you the bug guy?

I am, but I don't do anything with this room.

Clearly.

Uh, so I've got, uh, so we just got back from San Antonio.

Yeah.

Um, Bernie specifically, but we went and did, uh, SeaWorld on Saturday.

How was that?

Which was awesome.

Okay.

Um, there was hardly anybody there the first half of the day.

Oh, that's interesting.

Well, it's, it's back to school week.

Yeah, exactly.

And so it, and honestly, it was, what was funny is it was, uh, homeschooler, like, appreciation day at the SeaWorld.

Oh my gosh.

Which, which totally makes sense. It's like the weekend after school starts. Like nobody that just went to school wants to go do anything.

Right.

That weekend. And so like, it was a lot of homeschoolers.

Sure.

At SeaWorld. And so it was packed. after like 1 o'clock in the afternoon.

Right.

Because I assume most everybody that was there is like season holder, season ticket holders.

Yeah.

Which, by the way, man, we got our entire family into SeaWorld for $52.

What?

Yeah.

You have like 7 kids in your family. Like, how'd you do that?

So if you can buy, When you buy season tickets to SeaWorld, you immediately get 4 guest passes.

Oh, okay.

And so we bought 2 season passes and then put them on a payment plan.

Okay.

And the payment for right then was $52.

Oh, nice. So you got everybody in.

Everybody in.

That's fantastic.

And then we get an additional 8, uh, visitor passes throughout the year.

Oh my goodness. Yeah. So when are we going to SeaWorld? That's the question.

Well, so we only bought 2 season passes. And so the guest passes—

Are all for your kids.

Are all for my kids. Yeah. I mean, I probably won't be going when they go the next time. It's just like, it doesn't usually work out for my schedule. They like to go during the week. Yeah. When nobody's there. Right. But man, like it's such a blast.

Yeah.

Like, and I still live to go to the shows. I know people have issues with like the orcas and all that kind of stuff.

Yeah. Whatever.

Look, it is what it is at this point. It is like they're—

they've made it at this point. They've made adjustments. Yes, they have.

They've done— they've done the best they can.

Yeah. Um, but like, and still having animals, so.

Yes. Well, and like, they're— they're breeding in captivity. I mean, like, so like SeaWorld's figured something out. I mean, I don't know if— who knows if they're happy, honestly.

No, no, but no one ever does.

Who knows if they have the capacity to be happy?

Sure.

Um, they're animals.

Yep.

Um, they're intelligent, but like, who knows?

Yeah.

Um, they're freaking gorgeous though.

They are. Uh, they're unbelievable. And, and I'll tell you, one of the, one of the most amazing things I've ever done was do a whale watching tour in Alaska where we got to go out with, with orca. Yeah. Oh, it was unbelievable. Dude, this is unbelievable.

Like when, when they tell you that they're the size of a bus.

Oh yeah, they are.

It's like, it's just mind-boggling the power that, and the speed that those guys, I mean, like they, I mean, like when they say that they're an apex predator, they're not kidding.

No, they're, yeah.

They, but they just so, they look cuddly.

They do.

And so people just get disarmed by that, I think.

Yep.

Um, even though they're like not really like hunting people.

No, no, but they're gonna rip up whatever it is that they find.

Yeah.

They're gonna rip it to shreds.

100%.

Yeah. Hey, uh, did you know, That if you lay a blue whale from end zone to end zone, the game's over.

A blue whale?

Yeah. If you lay a blue whale out on a football field from end zone to end zone, the game's over.

Just because there's a whale there?

Yeah.

Okay. That's the worst.

Yeah. There you go.

It's my dad joke for the day. All right.

Now that we've got that out of the way, we can keep moving. Well, y'all had an experience at a pizza place too.

You want to share that? That was yesterday on our way back from, uh, my, my daughter and I went and led worship at a church. Um, and for those of you that don't know, I'm a secret musician. Um, secret musician. What was that? Oh, it fell off the wall. That thing fell off the wall behind you. We'll fix that later.

Okay. Um, there's always something.

But yeah, we went to, um, gosh, it was called Darkside. Okay, Darkside Pizza. Okay. Um, and it is, if you look online, it's, it's, uh, a Star Wars themed pizza. I mean, that's what they have most of their memorabilia.

Which makes sense. Dark side.

Dark side. There you go. Um, but you go inside and it's like a lot of '80s movie props.

That's cool.

But like, it's in Bernie, like of all places. And like, you go inside and it is incredible.

Really?

Yes. I mean, right as you walk through, like as you walk up, there's a patio and on the patio there's a life-size Yoda on a fountain in this patio. And it's, it's like a legit Yoda.

Wow.

Um, you walk through the door, there's Luke Skywalker, Yoda, and R2-D2, life-size, like just lounging in a display.

Wow.

Um, and then right across the way from that, life-size Darth Vader. Up above the bar, Marty McFly and Doc Brown. Um, a full-size Jaws. above one of the table we were sitting at. Wow. Life-size Teen Wolf above the Darth Vader.

Oh my.

Above the pizza oven, there was a life-size Stormtrooper on a speeder, like from the Endor battle. Yeah. What else? Oh, like the full-size— I don't even know what it was. It's the white monster that, like, attacks Luke on the ice planet.

Oh, yeah.

Like full-size that thing up in the ceiling. Uh, those things are huge. There was, uh, uh, Cobra Kai red jacket, um, life preserver from Jaws, uh, Eddie Murphy's Detroit Lions jacket from Beverly Hills Cop.

What?

I mean, and just like stuff.

So the question is everywhere, how— I mean, obviously some of this stuff not authentic, but how—

I have no idea if it was or it wasn't.

It would be very interesting to see if this was just like their display of stuff.

It—

what, you know what I mean?

What it looks like, it looks like somebody's private collection that decided to open a pizzeria.

But that, that's kind of what I'm thinking. Like, like, hey, look, we've got all this stuff. What are we gonna do with it? Yes, we might as well open up a business.

Like a life-size Terminator.

What?

Like the— but like with the flesh coming off, it looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Like that. Like that's in there. And like they're all like really, really well displayed. Like, not like corny or hacky or like, I mean, like it's corny 'cause it's like the '80s.

Right.

But like, it's still like, it's well done. And the pizza was good too, man. And like, I'm not saying it's like the greatest pizza I've ever had in my life, but the pizza was good.

It was in a way— I mean, the experience was good too.

It was the experience. Yeah, experience. Like, it's worth the trip.

Sure.

Like, it's worth the squeeze to go.

Interesting.

The pizza was good enough to go check it out. It wasn't, the pizza wasn't super interesting, But most of what they have going on is like a build your own pizza kind of thing. So they don't have like anything like super unique. Sure. Like flavor-wise. Sure. And then, but the menu was small and which I, which I love.

Yeah.

And it was wood-fired oven.

Do what you do well.

Pizza, which also like probably my favorite.

Oh yeah.

Um, for sure. So the ingredients were good. Like nothing was like cheap ingredient by any stretch of the imagination. Um, but while we were there, so like, Go definitely go check it out online. Like, you, you can just look at the pictures online. It's, it's super cool. But they're also opening a cocktail bar next door.

Oh.

Uh, called Darkside After Dark.

Oh, cool.

And we asked them, cuz it wasn't open, and I was like, what is that? And they're like, oh, it's gonna be a cocktail bar, uh, for, you know, only 21 and up, uh, to go. But it, it's gonna be Predator themed.

Predator themed?

Yes. Interesting. So apparently they have a lot of Predator stuff.

Interesting.

But like, it's, it's gonna like— and like the sign is red. Okay. I was like, okay, is it gonna be like a jungle? Like, yeah, like what? Like, I'm not a Predator fan. Like, it's not my favorite franchise or anything like that, but like, I, I can appreciate the homage.

Of course.

Um, especially if it's going to be well done. I'd, you know, it'd be fun to check out.

Well, that's interesting. We, uh, so we, we had a pretty long trip this weekend as well. Went back to my, um, my hometown that I grew up at. And we were surprising my parents as a whole thing.

Right.

And so instead of going to my parents' house and staying with them, long trip, I mean, it's about 7.5 hours away, we stayed in Big Spring, Texas, and it's about 45 minutes from where they live. And so we just got a hotel there and Uh, we got there and we're like, hey, we're hungry, let's get some food. We found this one place we wanted to go try and it was closed. Um, they said they were closed basically for 2 months for vacation.

Oh geez.

It's like small town, you can do that. Um, but then we— but it was pizza that we were interested in and I'm always interested in pizza, you know that. Um, and so we found this other place called Pizza Inn. It's a buffet. And I was like, hey, this is a buffet. You wanna try it? And my wife was like, sure. Uh, let's do it. And so, um, so we, we go in not knowing anything about this place and dude, it was delicious.

Yeah.

I mean, it's one of those things where like, which is tough on a buffet. Well, there's, and there's not that many buffet pizza buffets left. You know, whatever was left, like COVID killed most of them. Right. And you're right. Whenever you're putting out pizza at mass like that, like it's not all that great most of the time. This was, it was delicious. And one of the things I really loved about it was they, if you, if you want a certain type of pizza, they'll make it.

Awesome.

And then they'll bring it to you, give you as many slices as you want, and then take it and put it on the buffet. And they had, they had salads, they had pasta. Um, they had dessert pizza. Oh my gosh. They had this chocolate chip. dessert pizza that was to die for. So delicious.

Sounds like old school CC's.

It does.

Or Mr. Gatti's.

Mr. Gatti's. It felt more like a Mr. Gatti's, only much smaller in scale. But the pizza was better, a lot better. Right. And so I told my sister, I was like, yeah, we stopped at Pizza Inn. She was like, oh my gosh, I love Pizza Inn. I told someone else at church the next morning. I was like, yeah, we ate at Pizza Inn. They were like, we love Pizza Inn. And so anyway, if you're in— there's one in Snyder, Texas. There's also one in Big Spring, Texas. If you're ever going through either of those 2 places, which I don't know why you would be, but if you are, I mean, Big Spring is on 20. So, I mean, you know, if you're heading to Midland or if

you're headed to Lubbock, you know, you can go through Snyder, stop into the Pizza Inn. There may be others. I don't know. I just know that there's 2 there. So it was delicious.

But not to be confused with like the chain Pizza Inn.

No, I know it was not the chain Pizza Inn. This was something completely different.

Okay.

So anyway, there you go.

So I actually do have something I've been, I've been waiting to share with you all summer. Oh yeah.

Okay.

And it's, it was just for you.

Okay.

Yeah. You ready for it?

I don't know. Ready or not.

All right, here we go.

Okay. Oh my gosh. Are you kidding me?

I literally, they've been in the box. for like 2 months.

Oh my gosh, you've got— what is this, like pair number 4, 5?

I think 4.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, they love me.

For those of you that aren't watching on, you know, video right now, yeah, Craig got another pair of boots from Georgia Boots.

Thank you, Georgia Boots.

They've, they've not sent me a single pair. Yep, they don't care about me.

No, they don't.

I don't understand. Those are Those are awesome. Yep.

Here you go. I'll let you, I'll let you, you know, take a gander.

All right. I'm gonna— dang, dude, that is a good looking boot.

Yeah, it's— I mean, like, it's a work boot for sure. Of course. Um, it's got like the, the ventilation at the top, which is kind of new. Um, like some new tech that they're— Oh yeah.

All, all this is ventilated. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay. Um, so it's supposed to keep your, keep your leg a little cooler. Um, I'm excited about trying them out.

What kind of sole they got on? All right, I'm taking this little thing out.

Check the sole out. All right, how, how—

so they've— oh, that's memory foam. Yeah, that is not, that is not just a regular Justin boot right there.

No, no, no, that's memory foam. They've done a lot of upgrades on their, on their products this year, so I'm, I'm, I'm stoked.

All right, Georgia boot.

Yep.

And like, look, it's time for this guy to get a boot from me. Well, I mean, I want a pair.

Or, you know, stick with the guy that's making it happen.

I mean, look, I'm the— I will talk you up. I will talk you up. Give me a boot. Yeah, that's a good looking boot right there.

Yeah. Uh, Breeze Mesh, that's what they're calling it. Um, so anyway, this was the newest, uh, cowboy boot, work boot that they've got. A lot of the other work boots, like if you just need like legit work boot, work boot.

Yeah.

But if you're not like, you know, a little vain like me and it's like, no, I'm only gonna wear a cowboy boot.

Sure.

Um, they have a lot of good options. That was actually the first pair they ever sent me was like just a lace-up pair of work boots.

Right.

Um, they didn't look great on me, but they're a good work boot.

I, I prefer a not lace-up boot.

Sure.

I prefer a, a Western boot.

I, I used to be a big fan of, of the lace-up boot. Like, I, I still have like an old pair of Justin's Um, that I occasionally wear like when I'm riding or something like that.

Yeah.

And they're, they're great for, for that. Um, just, I mean, cuz they, they hug your foot a little tighter. Sure. Um, but I, I'm with you. I like a pull-on way better.

Yeah. Um, I mean, now I, I will tell you, Georgia boots, that I do, I'm, I'm a little bit snobby in a, I mean, Say what you want to about whatever you want, but I love my Ariats. Love them.

Yeah, no, they're great.

And that's, and that's, that is going to be my go-to 90% of the time. But I would, I would like to be proved wrong, but I won't know until you send me a pair. Yeah, that's all I'm saying.

Well, I mean, like, the, the Georgia line is, is really more like the working man's boot. I mean, sure, Ariat, Ariat really kind of has the lockdown on like the cowboy market. Sure. Georgia is really kind of like trying to hone in on like the working dude.

And I, look, I'm fine with that because honestly, like, so I, I wear boots a, a decent amount of time, but where I really, really will not, I will not work unless I have boots on. Like if I'm going to do anything work related, I'm taking boots.

Yeah.

I mean, in fact, I, I pack my steel toes whenever I go to Honduras because I'm not losing a toe. No. And I, I'm, I'm just, if I'm working, I'm putting boots on just period.

Yeah.

So I, man, it's my turn. I'm gonna contact them.

So, and like, I, the, the second pair that they ever sent me is a pair of pull-up cowboy boots.

Okay.

I still use them.

Yeah, sure.

I mean, like, I mean, I've had them for 2 years now.

Yeah.

And like, look, I can wear out a pair of Ariats in 2 years.

Yeah.

I mean, I just can.

Yeah.

And, and this, this pair's kind of hung in there.

That's nice.

And they're still comfy. I think I, that was, that was the pair that we talked about where I wore them the very first time I wore them was like all day.

You all the, in, uh, Silver Dollar City.

Yep.

That was crazy. 'Cause that, that place has got a, some undulation.

Yes. Some hills all over the place. Yeah. And it was freaking cold. Let's won't do that again.

Don't do that again. Yeah. Well, all right. Well, let's do this. You've got, like, we've got an interesting story that we want to talk about.

Yeah. We want it. Well, we, okay. Let's, let's, I mean, we should, this shouldn't take too long because, I mean, school's up and running now.

Yeah.

But like, we, we've been made aware of the Calfee Middle School situation where Calfee Middle School, brand new middle school. It's a Willis ISD school, which is like our neighbor to the north.

Yeah.

Here in Conroe. And, but for whatever reason, the city of Conroe, not to be confused with Conroe ISD, But city of Conroe had been given jurisdiction of their water, or they had asked them to take jurisdiction of their water.

Right, right.

It was something like that. And so it was 2 weeks. Well, at the time when I found out about the story, I think it was like 3 weeks before school was supposed to start.

Oh, yeah.

And the water hadn't been turned on at the school.

No, when you first told me about it, because I hadn't heard about it yet, When you first told me about it, I, they had no water and I'm sitting here going, well, teachers, yeah, are going back in like 2 days.

Mm-hmm.

How are they not gonna have water?

Yeah.

I mean, that's a big deal. Yeah.

It's, it's a really big deal. I mean, when you start talking about like how many, how many staff it takes to run a public middle school in this area. Yeah. You're talking about hundreds of people.

Right.

You know, and, and so you, you have them all showing up to get their rooms ready. to, you know, do all the prep work that they have to do to get the year going, and they can't use the bathroom.

That's not okay.

They can't even get a drink of water. I mean, like, it's a problem.

Yeah. And look, I, like, I, I know that there, there's plenty of people that are probably, you know, even listening to this going, well, you know, like, we're, we're privileged and all this kind of stuff because we have— okay, look, I've been in places where where they don't have running water. I've been in places where they don't have air conditioning, but they, they build their life around that culture.

Mm-hmm.

Okay. That, you know, when I went to Trinidad and West Indies one time, they don't— they didn't have air conditioners. A lot's changed. There— more places have air conditioners, especially with the invention of these mini splits. You've got one in here.

Yep.

It changed a lot of things for people. That being said, they built their homes with holes in them so air could pass through them.

Right.

Like, people that don't have running water, they've got systems set up to how they do get water, right? Our schools are not built to not have water at them. So it's a big deal. This is a huge deal. I mean, yeah, you're gonna have to have running water at a school and you've got hundreds of kids planning on showing up, let alone teachers showing up. So it, it was a big deal, but it sounds like they've got it all kind of remedied at this point, right?

Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, and, uh, we actually, we, we reached out to, uh, Mark Keough, who was the one who was making a big kerfuffle about all this. Yeah. Um, and cuz he went and spoke to the, uh, Conroe City Council.

Right.

And basically told 'em like, look, y'all need to get your stuff together and get water over to the school. And the city council's response, which I think is fair to a certain degree, is like, look, the proper paperwork, all of the jurisdictions, there's laws in place that prevent us from coming in because Willis hasn't handed everything over. And it has to do with utilities and rights. And there's There's a lot of stuff going on.

Right.

And so I think, I think everyone needs to take a big old breath on this. I mean, as of right now, water's on at the school.

Right.

School's open. Kids are there. Like, look, the staff just didn't have the time to prepare like they usually would, which sucks.

Yeah.

Sucks for them, sucks for the kids. I mean, like, it's all around just sucks.

Yep.

So, but it was able to open.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think one of the things to keep in mind here is It didn't sound to me like anybody who was— who wasn't providing the water did anything wrong, is what it sounds like. Yeah, it does sound— and what I mean by that, and so again, this is where everybody's got to take a big breath.

Yeah.

It sounds like there was fault on, on the, the builder side, the permitting side, the, the side that says This has to be done a certain way. And the city's going, we will do this once we get this stuff in place. Now, that being said, the city wasn't all— they were not moving any, like they weren't trying too hard to get it pushed through.

That was, that's exactly what I was gonna say. So it doesn't seem like they were all that interested and or motivated, right, to do anything to make it go any faster than how it was going.

It, there's fault on both sides, I guess is my point. Yeah.

So, but I don't, I don't even know that there's necessarily fault on the city of Conroe, but like, you can, you can—

Willis.

No, on, on Conroe.

Oh, okay. Yep.

I, I, I, I, it just didn't seem from what I saw, it looked like a lot of people wanting to do CYA on a really bad situation that they knew was gonna make them look bad regardless. And, and so, and, and now they were having to cover up the fact that like, look, Yeah, we're doing everything by the book, but we probably could have done more in order to make sure that this happened, to make sure that the teachers and the administration and the kids had water ahead of when school started, because I think they only ended up getting it turned on on the— was it the 5th?

Yeah. Oh yeah. I mean, it was well after they should have already been on.

Yeah. And like, I also kind of want to know, Like, what if— and I'm— because I'm assuming that at this point all the water turned on the ship.

Sure.

Had we not gotten the i's dotted and the t's crossed, would you have just— had we not gotten the i's dotted and the t's crossed, would you have just said, well, tough luck, go pound sand?

That's the problem. I think that's where— that's where I think the people that are upset Mm-hmm. Uh, on especially like parents and, you know, administrators, teachers, like, is like, look, why would you not do what it took to figure this out?

Before now?

Before now. I mean, it's not like, it's not like one day the city went, oh, they've known. So know that, well, I would think they would know if they didn't get that school opened. Can you imagine what that would've been like? Dude.

I mean, but not just like, there's also the kids that just really need it.

Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

There's so many. There's families that plan around their budgets, their kids actually getting fed because they get to go back to school.

Right.

And I feel for the families that that's their reality, but oh my gosh, Like, you know, you're— those, those kids are probably more excited about getting back to school than just about anybody.

I would think so.

You know, and I, I'm, I'm, I'm fully aware that there are people in our community that live without electricity, that live without running water in their homes.

Yep.

Um, you know, and so getting to go to school is like exciting for some of these families.

Yep.

Um, which is sad, but at the same time, like, what if that hadn't happened? Right. What would those kids do? Yeah. You know, one, they probably would've gone on doing like they've been doing before during the summertime. But, you know, it sucks.

Yeah.

To think that that wouldn't have happened. So, and again, like, I'm no fan of public education.

Yeah.

It's just not.

Sure.

And, but at the same time, I also understand it's part of our culture. It's part of what a lot of people are used to. It's part of everybody's routine. Um, and dude, I mean, look, I, I kind of feel like that old Brian Regan bit where like he's, he's calling the electric company and he's like, you, you want me to come down there and flip the switch?

Yeah, flip any of the switches.

I'll flip it.

Exactly.

Who, who do I need to go— like, who— like, do I need to turn the valve?

Yeah.

Can you turn the valve? I'll go turn the valve. It's like, what— where does it come on at? Yeah, yeah.

I love Brian Regan.

Oh, that guy's so good. Yeah. It's good stuff. But anyway, we gotta, we gotta, you brought a little package.

I did.

Into the studio tonight. Yeah.

So, what, so I, I've actually, it, with, with all of my absence, I've had a lot of things, multiple things. I, I mentioned it, I, I guess it was last week, some things that we're gonna review.

Mhmm.

And, and some pretty cool stuff. And one, one of the things that That we're here to review is a pool water tester. And so let me give you some backstory here why I even have this thing. So when we moved into the current house, we wanted to get a pool and we didn't already have a pool, didn't wanna go pay for an in-ground pool, although some one day, one day I will. Uh, but we bought a very large above-ground pool. It's 11,200 gallons. I mean, it's, it's pretty large for an above-ground pool. And I just was like, okay, well, I'm, I'm gonna have to figure out how to take care of this thing. You know, how—

Right.

All the chemicals. I've never owned a pool ever, ever, ever in my life. I've never— my parents didn't own one. We just always went to a pool somewhere. And so I had no idea what I was doing. So I, I did what I think a lot of people wind up doing whenever they get a pool, uh, is they, they take a water sample to Leslie's Pool.

Mhmm.

And the— that is a brilliant business model.

Sure.

The— you take a free water sample to the, the store, they test it completely free, and they give you a printout, and that printout tells you This is— these are your numbers. This is what you need to get your numbers in check.

Mm-hmm.

And oh, by the way, those things that you need, they're right over there on that shelf. You can just buy it right here. And if you use our products, these measurements are perfect. So you buy the product, you take it home. Not only does it tell you what you need to put in, it tells you how much of it you need to put in, and it tells you when to put it in. So like, for example, um, let's say you need to, you know, get your, your pH down, so you got to put dry acid in. Okay, I didn't even know what that was whenever I started owning a pool, but that's what you do

if you got high pH. You put dry acid, brings the pH down. Uh, but you also need chlorine. Well, you can't just dump all that in there at the same time because they don't work well with each other.

Yeah.

So They tell you what intervals to do it in and all that kind of stuff. So it's super, like, easy. It's dummy-proof.

Uh-huh.

There's— and, and there's people there that you can talk to and go, okay, this is my, my pool. Like, one of the things they ask you is, what does your pool look like? It's a little bit, little bit cloudy. Okay, well, maybe you should do this or that, right? So it's great. The problem is I hate driving to Leslie Pool just to test my water.

Sure.

I mean, they're just— it's just inconvenient. I mean, the closest one to where we live is probably 20 minutes away.

Okay.

And so, you know, unless I'm on my way to somewhere else—

That's nearby.

Yeah, is nearby. It's a, it's a trek, and it's just one more thing to do. And when do you get in, you know, your pool ready? It's in the summer, which is super busy for me. So I started thinking, I was like, all right, there's gotta be a way for me to do this. But I've, I've looked at like pool testers before and it's like, well, it'll give you like, like test strips, you know?

Yeah.

It'll tell you, you know, what range it is or whatever, but then you have to figure everything else out. And I'm like, I don't, I'm not a chemist.

Mm-hmm.

I don't know anything about that kind of stuff. And so one day I got a wild hair and I got on ChatGPT and I was like, hey, is there anything there out there on the market for consumers, just regular old people like me who want their pool to be in balance, but don't have the skills or knowledge to get it done? So I was like, well, yep, there's actually a few different products out there. And they actually, there's some really cool products out there. There's one product out there that if you have a traditional in-ground pool and you're running a skimmer system and the whole normal pool, in-ground pool system, you can literally put this thing in there and it is constantly reading your water

and it'll pull it up on your phone. perfect. And it's, it's awesome. But I don't have that system, right? Because I've got an above-ground pool. It's just not the same system. And, uh, I was like, okay, well, that's not gonna work for me. What else is there? And he's like, well, there's this other product. It's called the Pool Lab 2.0. And I was like, all right, what is that? And they're like, well, it's, um, it's this really cool product, but it's pretty complicated.

Yeah.

And it's like, but it's the best. And I was like, I do. But it's the best. And I was like, I do like best. And I was like, I do like best.

I really, I really, that's my problem.

My problem in life is I do like best. So that's my problem. My problem in life is I do like best. So I was like, well, tell me best. So I was like, well, tell me what, what do you mean? It's, it's It's diff— I was like, well, tell me, what, what do you mean it's, it's, it's difficult? What is it? What, what do you mean it's, it's, it's difficult? Was it— they said, well, difficult. Was it— they said, well, they being ChatGPT. Uh, they said, well, they being ChatGPT. Uh, they being ChatGPT. Uh, it's difficult to set up. It's difficult to set up, but it's difficult to set up, but up, but I can help you.

I can help you. And I was like, huh, what do you mean I can help you? And I was like, huh, what do you mean? So, so long story short, I decided I'm gonna buy this thing. Now it's not long story short. I decided I'm gonna buy this thing. Now it's not cheap. I decided I'm gonna buy this thing. Now it's not cheap. I'll tell you right now, not cheap. I'll tell you right now. They're so I bought it directly off of their website. If you go, I'll tell you right now. They're so I bought it directly off of their website. If you go to their website, they're so I bought it directly off of their website. If you go to their website, we'll link it up in the show notes. Go to their website. We'll link it up in the show notes.

Poolab.org. Um, but we'll link it up in the show notes. It's poolab.org. Um, it's poolab.org. Um, you can buy it right there. You can buy it right there. But what I learned very quickly is this is a— you can buy it right there. But what I learned very quickly is this is a, uh, but what I learned very quickly is this is a a German-based product.

Okay.

And it's actually, there are retailers all over Europe, all over. In the United States, there are 2 retailers for this thing, and they're on opposite coasts, opposite coasts. One's in California and one's up in like Maine or somewhere like that. One's in California and one's up in like Maine or somewhere like that. And so, um, so I was like, okay, well, that's weird.

Yeah.

But I'll go on Amazon. I'll look for it. So if you go on Amazon and look for it, you can find it, but they're, they're branded differently. Branded differently. So if you go on, if you go on the Pool Lab website, there's a picture. So if you go on, if you go on the Pool Lab website, there's a picture on there. And up in the, the screen, on the screen, it says Water ID. Well, if you order it in America, it says something different, and I'll show you that in a minute. So I was a little bit confused. I'm like, is it the same product or is it a knockoff? I really don't know. It's the same product. It's just branded different, a little bit differently in the United States. So, um, so I was

like, all right, we'll figure it out.

Mm-hmm.

So just Part of the reason that I decided to get this is this product, it perfectly measures your, your water chemistry and you can— water chemistry and you can put in whatever product you have and it will, it will calculate exactly what you need. The only thing it won't do is tell you the intervals at which to put it in.

Okay.

And so I asked ChatGPT, I was like, well, what am I— I still don't know the intervals. Like, this still isn't a complete fix. To which, uh, ChatGPT said, ChatGPT said, that's why you have me. And you just tell me what the numbers are and I'll tell you exactly when to put it in and what to do. And I was like, Huh. All right. Let's go for it.

Okay.

So, so I buy the thing, I get it in, and, uh, I'll just show you, like, you, you mentioned a case, like, it comes in this really cool case.

All right.

And inside the case, uh, it comes with the actual pool tester. So it looks like this.

That's kind of fancy schmancy.

Yeah, it is. Um, and up here is where it says Water ID on, uh, the ones that I guess come from Germany. Uh, there's nothing on these, so I'm like, uh, is it the same thing? It actually is. But this thing comes off and this whole thing is waterproof.

Okay.

So it's got batteries. You put batteries in the back and you literally go dip water out of the pool with this.

Okay.

Okay. Now there's a couple different ways you can do it, uh, but the easiest way is— it's a little bit an add-on But there's this little device right here and it says Pool Water Lab on it. It fits down in these, in this, uh, little container here.

Mm-hmm.

And it squeezes out the right amount of water. So you can only have a certain amount of water in this for it to test perfectly.

I gotcha. Okay.

So this thing is perfect. You put it in there and it squeezes out the water. You're good to go. So comes with this, it comes with, uh, these little packs of reagent tablets.

Okay.

And it comes with some stir sticks. They look like this. No big deal, just a stir stick. And, um, and that's it.

So you got a syringe in there.

There is a syringe, and that's because you need to put exactly 10 milliliters of water in each of these chambers. But if you have this thing, uh, this little black thing that squeezes the water out, you don't need it. It's exactly 10 milliliters.

Okay.

So you don't need it. So it comes with, with a syringe. You don't need it unless you just wanna— I mean, you can, you can go dip water out and use a syringe and put it in each one, but you don't have to. So the most difficult thing about this entire thing is setting it up, and it did take some time because Uh, you have to input a lot of information. So what— one of the reasons I went with this thing is it actually will test up to 24 different water parameters.

Okay.

So, and those, I'll just tell you what they are. Some of them I've never heard of before. Uh, it'll test active oxygen, ammonia, aluminum, alkalinity, uh, and that's Couple different types of alkalinity, bromine, chlorine, chlorine dioxide, cyanuric acid, iron hardness, potassium, copper nitrate, ozone, pH, pHMB. I don't know what that is. Phosphate, sulfate, hydrogen peroxide, zinc, and urea. So it, it'll test for all of those things. Uh-huh. And all you have to make sure that you have is a reagent to react with the water so it can test it. So you basically set up what of those things you need, which I didn't know at all. Mm-hmm. But basically most pools need to know pH, alkalinity, and chlorine. Those are the 3 main things.

Okay.

Uh, hardness, if you're, if you've got an in-ground pool. Um, if you've got an above-ground pool like mine, I don't have to worry about that. Um, and then you've gotta put in the products.

Mm-hmm.

So you've got your dry acid, you've got, you like, uh, I use, um, muriatic acid also. You've got your chlorine, you've got all like alkalinity stuff. You've got, sometimes you got clarifier if you're your water's getting cloudy or anything like that. You put all of that stuff in and you have to basically tell it— you have to read the label on those things and go, okay, it's got this much of this, this, and this. Because if you go buy chlorine at Leslie's, they actually have like 3 different types.

Mhm.

If you go buy chlorine at Walmart, you've got the Clorox brand. You've got— if you go to Sam's, it's something different. They're all slightly different. It's kind of like Um, like if you, you know, like weed killer.

Yeah.

They're all slightly different, you know, and, and some of them work on certain types of weeds and others different. All of them kill stuff. It's just slightly different, right? So you, you just put those parameters in and then whenever you're testing your pH, for example, I have 2 different products for that, dry acid and muriatic acid, and it'll tell me you need this much dry acid or this much muriatic acid. It's pretty easy. They've got tablets that you just, you put in the water, uh, the little chamber, crunch it up, and then it mixes. Uh, and then they've got drops. And, uh, it comes with the, with the tablets, but you can buy the drops because eventually you're gonna— the drops are a lot easier.

Okay.

Because they're— you don't have to crunch them up. They just stir in. Um, but dude, it tell— like, literally, you, you— it— there's a range of what you want those, those parameters to be in. Like, you want your pH between 7.4 to 7.6. Um, you want your chlorine to be between 2 and 3. Uh, and those are—

I mean, and like, it's, it's giving you, it's giving you that feedback, like, hey, it's not this, it's this.

Yes. Okay. And, and so the cool thing is it's Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled.

Mm-hmm.

But I've got mine set up on Wi-Fi because I do it at my house and I've got Wi-Fi there. After the, uh, the test is done, it— I just press the Wi-Fi button and it sends it to the cloud, free cloud service that comes with it. And then that is connected to my phone.

Mm-hmm.

And so on my phone, is where all of the levels live.

Is there like a separate app or?

It's an app. Yeah.

Okay.

It's just an app and it, it, that's where all the calculations are done.

Is it their, is it their app or is it?

It's their app.

Okay.

It's their app. It's proprietary. Um, and by the way, they've got complete manuals, like online manual of how to, like video of how to do all of this stuff. Oh, really? It, it, it takes a little bit of time to set up. It probably took me a couple hours to set it all up, which, okay, maybe that doesn't seem like forever. It felt like forever. Um, especially when I was like, I don't really know.

2 hours is a long time.

Yeah. And I was like, I don't know what I'm doing. So, um, but dude, so the cool thing is it, it puts all the stuff in the app. Mm-hmm. I know now here's what my level, here's what my numbers are. It'll calculate, tells me it needs this much of this product. to put in it. I literally go to ChatGPT, that same chat that I started with, like, which one should I go with, all that kind of stuff. I've, I've got that chat saved.

Mhmm.

And I, it's called pool testing is, is the chat name. I go back to it. I say, here's my, here's my numbers. Here's what it says I need. What do I need to do? And it'll say, boom, boom, boom. You got this many gallons of water. You've got, in which you input that into the system all.

I imagine that's an important number.

It is. And it's in the, it's in the calculation that they give you. It just tells me, yeah, put this much in, put this, this time. And, and there have been times whenever I'm like, look, it, it says that I need like 150 grams of, of chlorine, but my water's green. Like it's starting to turn green. And I'll say, oh yeah, you probably need a full shock. You need to do this, this, and this. Like first you need to brush it, then you do this. You need to run your pump for this amount of time. Like chat's telling me all of this stuff.

Huh.

And I had no idea. to do. In fact, you know this, the past couple of years I've just drained my pool and refilled it a couple of times because I'm like, this is stupid. I can't figure it out.

Yeah.

I haven't, I haven't even come close to that. And I've been gone on a lot of trips. I've— there have been some trips where I come back and I'm like, did y'all even look at this pool while I was gone? And the answer was no.

Yeah.

And it started turning green. And there have been times when I'm like, dump it. Because I'm on pool, I'm on like a well, I can just refill it. It's not that big of a deal.

Sure.

Um, but then you got to set it up again. It's a whole thing.

Yeah. This year, hadn't had to do that.

Nope. Hadn't had to do that.

I wonder, I wonder how many pool services are aware of like that ChatGPT will like walk you through how to like fix a pool.

And that's a great question because here's what's cool. I think you can put an unlimited number of homes in this thing. So you could use this for commercial.

Oh, okay. I see what you're saying.

You could absolutely buy this thing. And, and, and I don't know what other— I know a lot of, of companies, they use the test strips and they teach their, their employees the chemistry and all that kinda stuff. This, I'm telling you, man, like, you don't have to know all that kinda stuff. You put it into chat, it'll literally tell you exactly what to do.

Yeah.

It's incredible.

Well, this is— one of the things that I think people need to be aware of is all the different uses that you can use AI for around your home now.

Oh, it's so amazing.

You know, because so many people are using it to make, like, dumb images or, you know, whatever. Like, they're just using it for stupid stuff. Sure.

It's a toy.

Yeah, it is a toy. But, like, there are professional uses for this thing. Like, I, I will tell you, I can't tell you the number of nurses and doctors that I've talked to that use, specifically ChatGPT for differential diagnosis.

Oh, I don't, I don't doubt that.

You know, they, because in their head, they're going, okay, I know this symptom does this and this symptom does this and this symptom does this. I'm thinking this. Mhmm. And then they'll put all the symptoms into the AI and go, what do you think this is?

Yep.

And then it'll, affirm and/or deny their diagnosis.

Sure.

And, you know, if it affirms it, they're like, okay, now I'm good.

Yeah.

Which is bizarre.

It is. It is. Right. I mean, it— I had an intern this summer, and he's, he's an engineering biochemical engineer. He was taking a specific class that required some coding. Right. And his professor told him, told the whole class, if you're not using ChatGPT to help you with your code, you're gonna fail this class.

Yeah.

You should be using it because I'm making this— he's, he said this, I'm making this class harder because I know that—

You're gonna do it anyway.

Yeah. And, and you need to know—

A lot of teachers are doing that.

You need to know that this is out there, so use it responsibly. And man, I'm just telling you, they're— I'm not joking. There, there have been times when my, my, I thought my pool was not gonna be fixable.

Mm-hmm.

It's looking pretty bad. And in the past, I'm like, I don't know what to do about this.

Yeah.

And it would say like, in, in the past, I've gone to, to Leslie Pool and gone, it's green. They're like, all right, we'll put this much chlorine in it. I do, doesn't fix it. So with chat this time, I was like, look, it's green. I even, here's what's even crazier, Craig. You won't believe this. One time I just took a picture of the pool and I uploaded it to chat. He goes, oh yeah, I know exactly what this is. It said, you need to triple the amount of chlorine I told you to put in it.

Oh geez.

And I said, are you sure? Is that not gonna screw up all my numbers? And they said, if you want your pool back, you're gonna do it. And I was like, all right. And so I did.

Hold your pool hostage.

I did. And 2 days later, my pool was clear again. Like, man, it is unbelievable that you can upload a picture of what something looks like. In fact, here's what's even crazier is that, oh, it looks like there's some debris at the bottom of your pool too. You need to brush it. I was like, oh, you're right. You saw some leaves in the bottom of that thing. Like, pretty, pretty crazy. And here's, here's why I love the, the product. Now, first of all, let me tell you, It was, uh, a little over $300.

Okay. That's not terrible.

If I'll tell you, for me not to have to drive to Leslie's every single time, here's the other re— the, here's my other justification for it. Leslie's pool products are expensive.

Oh, okay.

I mean, they're, they're more expensive than if you were to buy it at, at Home Depot, for example.

Can you buy pool cleaning supplies?

You can buy all kinds of pool cleaning supplies at Home Depot.

I did not know that.

You can buy them at Walmart.

It's just an aisle I don't go down.

Yeah. It's, it's, you know where it is? It's in the garden center.

Oh, okay.

Yeah. It's back in the garden center. And so—

That makes sense.

Yeah. So you, you can buy cheaper product that does as good of a job.

Mm-hmm.

And so all of a sudden I'm going, okay, I can buy cheaper product. I don't have to drive just to get my, my pool checked. Like that $300, you're gonna save it pretty quickly.

Yeah.

And so, but more than that, like I've actually enjoyed taking care of my pool more than I ever have because I've learned some things. Before at Leslie's, they would print stuff out and they would say, do these things to your pool. And I was like, okay. And every once in a while they would say, well, your alkalinity is too low. You need to do this, this, and this. I'm like, I don't even know.

I don't know.

You told me a number. I have no idea what that means. Now I could talk intelligently to somebody about it because I've learned so much just by using ChatGPT about what needs to be done.

Right.

And I've, I've set this thing up. I know what the parameters are. I know what my, like, what the, uh, the things that I need to test for are, what pH is, what alkalinity is, what chlorine. I figured all that out and I'm like, I can do this. It's honestly, it's worth every penny.

Yeah. I'm actually surprised more companies aren't using like those 2 things in tandem because, I mean, one, there's no licensing for pool cleaning.

No.

You know? And so like all you really need are guys out in the field that could operate one of those things and have a phone with ChatGPT on it.

That's it.

You know?

And a brush.

It's like, they could just kill it.

Yep. I mean, it, it would not be that difficult. And it, I mean, the other thing is it's not that hard. I mean, like, that isn't, that is a job that as long as you can follow some pretty simple instructions, it's not difficult to do.

Sure. Yeah.

There's so many people out there that don't have time to take care of their pool. They don't want to take care of their pool. They don't want to go to Leslie's.

Yeah.

They don't want to, you know, I'm one of them, man.

I don't take care of my pool.

Sure.

You know?

Yeah.

And it's not always like great, but it's better than how I'd take— I don't know what I'm doing.

Sure. Thank you. And it— but also, if something happened, you can be like, okay, come back. It's not, it's not great. They'll come back and take care of it or whatever. But, um, it, it's been, it's been really wonderful. I've been gone more this summer than I have since I've owned a pool. I've been gone almost— I was gone almost 5 full weeks this past summer. And I, I definitely thought I was gonna lose my pool at some point. I thought I was gonna lose it. And it's, it's pretty unbelievable. It's pretty— I'll tell you the other thing. I don't know if we ever reviewed this product. I told you about the robot skimmer I have.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We may have reviewed it.

I don't remember.

Solar powered? It's solar powered. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, it's solar powered and you can plug it in if it dies. But dude, that, that's a, I mean, you are blessed because you don't have, unless the wind comes and does crazy things, you've got a roof over your pool. Most people don't.

Sure.

Um, especially right now, whenever it's dry and a lot of leaves have been falling, I don't really have to worry about it too much because that skimmer just, just gets all the leaves.

This is actually like one of the things I don't understand about Texas is Me growing up in Florida.

Yeah.

Most every, if you had a pool, it was mo— usually it was screened in.

Yeah. Yeah.

And so you didn't have that problem with leaves and all that kind of stuff.

Yep.

I don't know if it's because we have more like pine trees here and a couple, like one or two since I've lived here, screened in pools.

Well, you know, we had the first house that we lived in when we moved here. You remember it had that screened in like atrium?

Yeah.

Dude, pine needles got stuck in that like crazy. and you can't get them out. Like, it's— there's nothing you can really do. Um, and that, that may be a major reason for it, but—

That's the only reason I could think that people wouldn't want it. Yeah, but like, not having to clean debris out of your pool—

Oh yeah.

All the time.

Yeah.

Like, that's got to be annoying.

It is annoying. Uh, but I will tell you, with the combination of a robot skimmer and a robot cleaner, like a, like a vacuum type thing, yeah, It really isn't. It's not all that bad.

Okay.

So, and you know where I live. I mean, I got trees everywhere.

Yeah. You don't have a lot of pine trees though.

I do. Do you? Yeah.

I thought you had more like sweetgums.

Uh, I, I've got both.

Okay.

And I've got some oaks too. Um, but yeah, right now I've got, I mean, I got a lot of pine trees that are dropping their needles and—

Are they dropping them early this year?

They are, but okay. Well, they, I didn't know if it was just me, but They, I would say they are, but last year they were dropping 'em constantly.

Mm-hmm.

And the year before constantly.

Most because it was so hot and dry.

It was so dry.

Yeah.

This year we've had a, it's been an unusually dry August because a lot of times, I mean, we're in hurricane season and most people don't realize it. We're in hurricane season.

Mm-hmm.

We just haven't had any hurricanes.

Well, there's the one that's fixing to hit the East Coast. Yeah. Was it Karen?

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

That's what, yeah.

Yep.

And Aaron is right by, But then maybe that's the one I'm thinking of.

Aaron. Maybe Aaron. But either way, like, yeah, I would tell you this, uh, we'll, we'll put, we'll put the, uh, the show notes, uh, the link to the show notes. But if you take care of your own pool and you really want it to be worry-free and not— I mean, you still have to do the test, you still have to, you know, do the reagents and everything, but it, it takes a, it takes a few minutes once you figure it out, once you get it set up, and then you do it for a few times. It really, I've taught my wife to do it. If she can do it, not having been the one to set it up and figure out how to use it and all that kind of

stuff, anybody can do it. It's really not that difficult. I could teach her, I could teach my kids how to do it. In fact, I probably should. They might actually get a kick out of it.

They need a new chore.

They need a new chore, yeah.

Speaking of which, we need to thank some people.

We do.

Yeah.

We haven't done that.

So we saved it for the best for last.

That's right.

Yeah. Let's do it.

You wanna start with?

Yeah. Let's start with Lone Star Appliance Repair. All right.

Let's do it.

Yeah. Guys, listen, if you have an appliance in your home and it needs to be repaired, don't throw it away. Just give it the opportunity to have a second life with Lone Star Appliance Repair. And it's always way cheaper to get it fixed. Well, it's usually more affordable to get it fixed than it is to replace it. But if it's not, they're gonna let you know and be honest with you and say, like, look, this thing's just, it's seen better days. Just go get a new one.

Right.

You know, and all that takes is just a quick inspection by one of their techs. Guys, they've saved my butt on countless occasions. I'll give you, for instance, we had an oven in the guest house and he walked in, looked at it and said, I can't fix that. And I was like, why? And he goes, it was discontinued. They don't make the parts for it anymore. I mean, I'd love to fix it for you. I just can't. And it's like, oh my gosh, this is so frustrating. But I'm happy to have the knowledge now. I just need to move on with my life.

Right.

You know, so, but give them a call. They'll get you on the schedule. Talk to Darlene. They'll get you all set up. What's the number?

Number is 936-647-2364. And next, we have got True Texas Solar and Roofing. And, look, these guys, I, I've been so impressed with them recently. The solar industry has, has continued to be interesting because there was a point in time when we thought it was just, who knows what's gonna happen with it. But So far, everything's still moving with solar. Everybody's still doing solar. It's still very viable. You're still getting incentives to be able, you know, to get tax breaks to, to get solar on your home.

Mm-hmm.

To have that, that freedom from the, you know, the powers that be with the electricity. Uh, you can own your own electricity, and they, they have whole systems to, to help you set up with that. The, the solar panels, the backup batteries, the generators, everything that you need. They can get you set up with all of it. They're very, very knowledgeable. But on top of that, and this is where they, they've really been leaning into this in a really big way, is they've got a roofing side of their business as well. And they can, they can take care of any kind of roof. It doesn't matter if it's metal, if it's shingle, if it's clay. It doesn't really matter

what it is. They can take care of it, commercial or residential. And look, if you're thinking about doing solar, Go ahead and have them check your, your roof. They're probably gonna tell you one way or the other. If you can get your roof changed and get solar, a lot of times you can lump all that together and make a, you know, one, one payment out of it. Josh and his team, extremely knowledgeable. They're gonna help you. They are so frustrated with people out there that are scammers. They do not wanna do that. They're, they're above that. So give them a call. Look, even if you just wanna chat about it, figure it out. Uh, one of, one of the coolest

stories is my brother was thinking about getting solar. He lives in Amarillo. We're in Houston. Josh and his team at True Texas Solar and Roofing are not gonna do solar for someone in Amarillo for a residential home. But he called him and he was like, here's, here's what the guy that was trying to sell you sold. That's not what you need. You need this, this, and this. And if they're not gonna do that for you, you need to find another company. And he did that for free.

Yeah.

He, truly cares. He's trying to get rid of people out there scamming people. So give him a call, 936-286-8325.

Yeah, guys, and listen, we also have a couple of special events coming up. Kevin and I are going to be live out at Sawyer Park on August— I think it's 25th, um, with The Net. Yeah, uh, that's going to be a fun event as always. And then also we're going to be out at the Montgomery County Home and Garden Show. We're going to be out there with True Texas.

That's right.

And I think that's September 5th and 6th.

Yeah, so yeah, I think that's right.

I think that's right. Um, so if you want to come see us, come hang out with us, those are 2 places we're gonna be.

That's right.

Live, uh, rather than here in the old fuddy-duddy studio.

With the bugs. That's right.

So still, still good lighting though.

That's right.

Um, probably why the bugs are here.