Top 6 Home Holiday Preparations

This is episode number 270 or 269. We're not really sure. It's a number. There's a number.

Homeowner Show!

There's a lot of them. That's right. Uh, thank you for tuning in today. My name is Kevin Haggett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to Homeowner Show. We're so glad that you could join us for another live episode. We're actually doing one on location here at Pedro's.

We are.

Which we just got done having some delicious queso.

Yes, we did.

And I'm having a beverage.

Yes, you are. Good, except our video feed is not really working. Oh, the bumpity bumps.

The bumpity bumps. Hadn't heard those in a while. The video feed's not working?

No, the video feed, uh, it's kind of like in and out.

In and out.

Yeah, it's just the way it is.

Okay, but it's— we're still live?

Yeah, we're still live. It has not kicked us out yet. Okay, so far so good.

Experimental feed.

So yeah, because we're live at Pedro's And there is a networking event tonight, but we are doing our weekly podcast ahead of that, and we're using their Wi-Fi. So it's always going to be, you know, a crap show. Yeah.

So pay attention later on this evening for another crap show that I'll be doing. Yeah.

Tune in later for that.

Oh, so one, we didn't do an episode last week, mostly because I was sick as a dog.

You were.

And so sorry about that to everybody. 2, we had a response, and I forget where it came through, but this guy sent us, and I think it was just a comment on one of our video clips, which by the way, if you're not subscribing on YouTube and Facebook and all those places, it's a good place to connect with us because we actually see the comments.

That's right.

So we did the story of the guy in California where the gal lived in his guest house for like over 570 days.

Ridiculous number.

So this guy writes in and he goes, that's nothing.

What?

He told, he told me that he's like on day 900 with some squatter.

Holy cow.

It was some, it was, it was some crazy number like that. He was just like, that's no big deal. Because he's like, he's still in the middle of it and living it.

Hold my beer.

Right. Yeah.

That's horrible. Yeah. Oh man.

And it seems like there's more and more stories like that because— not because— and here's the fear, man. I was actually afraid as we were talking about it. I was like, okay, we're giving the playlist to these losers, right?

We told them what to do.

What to do.

Yeah.

And I don't think that's it because this has been going on for a while.

They know what to do. Yeah.

And I'm actually curious if there's YouTube videos about how to be a squatter.

There probably is.

Either that or there's got to be a Reddit thread. Or somewhere, something like that.

You know, it's like, okay, I've said this for years, and, and I don't— I'm gonna sound like I'm besmirching a moment, but I'm not. But like, if you told me right now, Kevin, you and your family have to go on food stamps for the next 2 months, right? I wouldn't know what to do. I wouldn't know where to go. I wouldn't know who to talk to. I wouldn't know what to do, right? Because I've never done that before. I wonder if it's a similar type of thing. It's like these squatters, they, they don't— like, if you don't know what to do, you don't know what to do. But the people that do know, the people that do have to be on food stamps,

like, they know the system. It's a system. Sure. They know the system in and out. They know when to be there, what to do, how to get it, because they need their food.

Right.

And, and the squatters are probably similar. Like, they know what to do.

Right.

They've talked to each other.

Well, and it's— I mean, like, to your, to your point with the, with the food stamps, I mean, you are institutionalizing people.

Right?

Oh, yeah.

Absolutely.

So it's, you know, like, the heck?

Siri tried to talk to you on your watch.

I just accidentally answered a phone call on my watch, and it was like a sales call. Sorry. Yes.

To my point, you're— yeah.

Like, when you— I mean, like, to your point, when you do those things to people and you, you You're institutionalizing them. You're training them how to behave, and they're gonna— like, people are like deer, man. They're gonna go to the path of least resistance. And so, like, if you've been on food stamps before and you're in a tight spot, you're gonna go back to them. And that's not to say that food stamps are a bad thing, but because it's there, it keeps people from trying to get away from them.

Yep. It's almost like a system that keeps you there. Yeah, right. It, it keeps you coming back. Um, and, and it— and I, and I think that on some level, like, if you're a squatter, okay, and I, I'm— trust me, I am not being defensive towards them, but if you're a squatter, like, that's what you have to do because you're not out working.

Uh, most likely you're not out working, right?

Because if you leave— we talked about this— if you leave the then the homeowner or the, the whoever owns the property could come in and, and, and change the locks if they want to. Now, who knows what that would cause on the back end of things, but they could if they want to.

Right. Right.

So I, I, you know, it's a weird system, dude. Like, I wouldn't even know what to do with all that, but—

Oh, me neither.

It's crazy stuff.

Yeah. It's, it's, it's such a, it's such a weird— to me, it's, I mean, you, you talk about, like, a crime that really, really affects people. I mean, it's theft is what it is.

Oh, absolutely.

And so, but like, it's like theft and breaking and entering all in the same—

At the same time.

But like, for whatever reason, we've written our laws to where it's like, well, we want people to break in and steal.

Yes.

We want to incentivize that, in fact. And, you know, and And people can get weird. And I don't mean weird in the sense they just get weird about people kicking them out of a house.

Right.

And so they get very fight or flighty about it. And that's the thing is you don't want to be on the receiving end of crazy.

No.

Because crazy will do anything.

That's right.

So, and I, this is, I don't know that you can do this with short-term rentals and Airbnb and VRBO and all that kind of stuff, but I was talking to my brother-in-law and he's got a couple of rental properties and he was saying, he was like, look, a couple of years ago we just made the decision to make the requirement for renting our property to have a minimum credit score. And it's pretty high.

Interesting.

It's pretty high. And he goes, it's never failed us since we've implemented that policy.

That's an interesting tactic. So are they running credit scores on these people? Interesting.

Yeah. And I think it was like a 720 or something like that. Wow.

That's pretty high.

Yeah. And so he was like, he's like, look, people that have a high credit score tend to be responsible, tend to pay their bills, tend to do, I mean, they just tend to manage their lives well. And he goes, Every time we've, we've made the decision to rent our property to someone with a high credit score, it's always been a good situation for us.

Interesting. I mean, Dave Ramsey couldn't do it, but they would turn Dave Ramsey.

I have my own opinions about Dave Ramsey.

So, I'm sure he's a nice guy.

Well, I mean, he's, he's a freaking millionaire.

Way more than that.

So, I mean, like, he obviously knows something that a bunch of us don't.

He knows a lot about money.

So he knows some things about money.

He's good at it.

He's good at it. Yeah, no, he's good at it.

It doesn't really matter how you feel about him. He's good at money.

I mean, look, here's the thing with Dave Ramsey. The dude has made and lost multiple fortunes.

Of course. Yes.

I don't know if you know his story.

I do.

But he's been a millionaire, lost all of it, been a millionaire again. I think he's lost it twice.

I think so too.

And he's doing really good right now.

Doing fine.

Because he's in the education game.

Yeah.

Private education.

Yep. So it's working. It's—

that's a lucrative, lucrative, lucrative thing.

That's exactly right. So, well, I'll tell you what else could be lucrative: not doing something to your house that would cause it to burn down.

Oh, well, that— yeah, that's good advice, Kevin.

It's unsolicited and weird, but it is the only thing that I can think of to lead us into our actual topic for tonight. Uh, so, so we're— I mean, it's holiday time, uh-huh, And so Merry Christmas, everyone. Yes, Merry Christmas. Uh, because it's the holiday time, uh, there are some things that we think you should at least consider doing to your house to prepare for that. Now, we could give you our opinions, but instead—

Is this, is this one of the infamous, infamous top lists?

Well, it is a top list.

Okay.

Top 6 things.

Top 6.

Although we got this off— this isn't— you, you'll have to tell us whether or not you agree We haven't done a top list in a while. It's been a while. Uh, whether you agree with these things or not, and we're going to tell you whether we agree with these things or not as well.

Okay.

Um, but at the end of the day, there's some— there we go.

No, yeah, I'm ready. Um, where's Steve when I need him?

Exactly. Um, we're, we're going to talk about these, these top 6 things that you should do to prepare for the holidays, prepare your house for the holidays.

And, uh, so, okay, so we're gonna— this is the top 6 things, top 6 things you can do to prepare your house for the holidays. Yes.

Okay, now that—

which, as of today, December 11th, that's right, happy birthday, Brandy.

That's right.

Love you. It's my wife's birthday today.

That's right, happy birthday.

Yeah, I'm gonna have to buy her something really pretty to not be in trouble for doing a show on her birthday.

That's right.

Um, but anyway, so like, you don't have that much time.

No, no. And And honestly, the things that we're gonna talk about tonight are probably a little bit different than what you probably thought about.

Okay.

Um, but I think they're, I think they're worth considering for sure.

So, um, let's get into it. Yeah.

So we'll start with, and they're no particular order.

Okay.

Okay. So the first one is to clean and declutter your house.

Is it? So is this number 1 or number 6?

Number 6.

Are you counting them down?

In no particular order.

In no particular—

okay. Number 6.

Okay.

And I think this is truly number 6, clean and declutter your house.

This is actually an interesting question. When people do a top list, do they want them to count down or do they want them to count up?

No, you gotta count down.

You gotta count down?

Yeah, you start with the worst thing.

Is that then the assumption that number 1 is the most important?

Yes.

Okay.

I think so. All right, well, we're gonna find out. Do you disagree?

No, I don't disagree. I just want to find out what your number 1 is.

Okay, well, I don't know if these are in particular order, but I'll tell you this, the first one we're gonna talk about, which is number 6.

Okay.

is to glean, clean, glean, clean, and declutter your house. Now, um, I think that there— the, the point that the writer is trying to make in this article is that you're probably going to have people over.

Yeah.

I mean, it could be family, it could be friends, it could be like that holiday party for your office or for, you know, your neighborhood. Who, who knows, right? Right. But the idea is like go ahead and clean your house. People are coming over.

Yeah. If you're gonna do it one time a year, right now's the time.

It's like a deep cleaning idea, you know? And, and there's probably multiple reasons. I mean, for us, I, I don't know about what y'all do, but like we have holiday dishes and we have some—

You mean like dishes that you only use at holidays? Or like, are you talking about things that you cook?

No, no, no, no, no.

That's specific, like dishes. No.

Although I did, I did, uh, Eric, you remember Eric? Oh yeah. Eric.

Eric said, I saw this.

It's a great clip. The great clip of, of the things that I don't like. Yeah.

Holidays.

Anyway.

And that you don't love baby Jesus.

Yeah, exactly.

That is, that is the—

that's, that was the last line.

Well, yeah, that's, that's the math checks out, right?

Well, yeah. Look at my life. Anyway, so, but I mean, for us, we have dishes that we eat on that only come out at Christmas time.

Okay.

And so if you're going to take dishes out of your cabinets—

Talking about like a reindeer plate or something like that?

Exactly.

Okay, I got you.

Then it's snowmen, by the way. But yeah, my wife loves snowmen. So therefore, by proxy, yes, you love snowmen. Yes, I love snowmen so much. So it is a good time if you're going to take stuff away, clean before you put something in its place. Right. That, that's kind of the idea.

I, I would think that part of it is like, look, Santa is about to dump a bunch of junk on this house.

It's gonna happen.

We need room.

That's true.

So we're throwing out all the old crap.

So this is, yeah, this is kind of like go through the old toys that you don't use, get rid of 'em.

Yep.

You gotta make room for the new toys.

Wow. Or you're not getting the new toys. Or that's what I tell my kids. You ain't getting nothing till you throw some stuff away.

Ooh, that works. Totally works. Yeah. And, and that is also an interesting thing. It was like, are your kids good at cleaning, like decluttering their own stuff? Like, no, no, mine either. In fact, I don't know if we, we talked about this at one point. Like, there's, there was someone that very specifically was like, look, if you are the type of person that goes into your children's room, uh-huh, and like throws stuff away, yeah, you are the worst.

No.

And here's the reason. I think we talked about this on an episode one time. The reason is like, you would hate it if someone came in and got your stuff and threw it away without talking to you, right? So it is inhumane basically to go to your children's room and throw stuff away without having a conversation with them.

That's not even a fair compar— they're not even fully human yet.

I don't disagree with you, but here my, my point is they don't have—

They're gremlins is what they are.

They don't have reasoning skills yet. Like, their reasoning skills—

They can't even dress themselves.

Not even—

yeah, it's like, you remember, uh, if you can tell me what shoe size you wear, you might have some say in the stuff in your room.

That's right.

And they don't even know that.

Do you remember the show Big Daddy with Adam Sandler?

Oh, oh yeah, yeah.

He's like dressed as like an Aquaman or something. He's like, I don't care. Like, the kids don't know how to dress themselves. It's what it is, you know. My son comes out all the time and I'm like, oh, orange and red, huh? Yeah, you're wearing orange shirt and red shorts. Good job, buddy. He doesn't care.

One comes from the other.

Yeah, but they don't, they don't look good together, but he doesn't care. Right. So anyway, my kids are horrible at it. My daughter is a hoarder.

So look, like, my, my kids do not believe in the boogeyman because in real life there's a 55-gallon plastic trash bag that they know things have gotten serious when I start dragging that thing around the house because I'm, like, I'm just, I'm, I don't care.

It's gonna go in there.

Like, look, you've left it on the ground for 3 months. I know you don't care about it.

You don't.

So I'm gonna care enough to throw it away for you.

That's right.

Because clearly you don't like it enough to put it away.

Yeah. So, uh, I got a, uh—

It's my favorite game.

And you're good at it.

I'm good at it.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

Uh, we had a— our, our staff Christmas party the other day, and one of the, one of the gifts that I got was a— it was like a round holiday box. You got the lid, takes it off, and it, it was full of like change. It was awesome. People are like, I don't want that change. I was like, give it to me.

Give me, give me the change.

It's real money. And my daughter was like, hey, what are you gonna do with all that change? I was like, I'm gonna turn it in for money. Like money that I can put in my bank. Like I don't have to carry around in my pocket because I don't want to do that. She's like, what are you gonna do with the box? And I was like, probably throw it away. She's like, I need that box. And my wife goes, no you don't. You will not have that box. She's like, I need stuff to put stuff in. And she goes, no you don't. You got way too much in your, in your room. You know what her response was? I can put this stuff that needs to go somewhere in my room in

the box.

She's not wrong.

She's not wrong. But you're not getting the box.

This is, this is an opportunity that you missed, Kevin.

Okay. Please.

You know. So if there's, if there's something that you've wanted, then was the time to ask your wife for it.

Okay.

Because you had leverage.

Oh, that's true.

Like, look, I wanna do this. And if I don't get this, I'm giving her the box.

The box is hers. The box is hers. I will take it out of the trash and give it to her.

And then you can go in and take it from her.

Good luck.

And I will watch as you make her cry.

See, you suspect things about my marriage that isn't true. I don't need leverage over my wife in any way, shape, or form.

I figured since you got her to marry you.

It's exactly right.

You got something.

It's convincing, really. It's really— yeah. It's It's unfulfilled promises, most likely, but it's all good. All right.

Number 2.

Number 2.

No, number 5.

Number 5. Number 6.

Don't do it wrong, Kevin.

I won't. I won't.

It's a countdown.

This is, this is one that I'm going to let you talk about.

Okay.

Number 5 is call pest control.

Call pest control. Okay. So, yes, it's a good time to do it. Okay. Well, and I think, I think most people, I I think this is probably a list geared more towards people north of the Mason-Dixon line.

Probably.

Um, because bugs are definitely going to be moving inside where it gets colder.

Super cold here.

It's like, it— like last night it was in the 30s. It was. This afternoon it was in the 70s, right? Like, it's just Texas, and Texas is going to Texas weather.

That's what it's going to do all year long. That's right.

So it doesn't— here it's like, yeah, but you need it like year round, right? Um, I will say this though, I have been going out on more rodent calls.

Oh.

Than anything.

Interesting. Like, what, which kinds of rodents?

Mostly rats.

Okay. Yeah. Rats have been crazy this year.

And, and so they're, they're just getting in people's houses. But like, there's people are like, well, let's just seal up the whole house. And I'm like, well, like, slow down. Let's not spend 10 grand sealing the house up. There's way cheaper options to actually solve the problem. Yeah. Like, if you wanna seal your house up, I'm not gonna stop you. We'll do it.

Right.

But I mean, like, there's, there's like, allow a professional to come in and make recommendations. Or like, if you're not having problems, like, it might not be a bad time of the year to just have somebody come in and give it the once over.

Sure.

Like, look at it and make sure that you don't have problems.

Yeah.

Because sometimes you can have stuff going on and you just don't realize it because you don't cook in your kitchen but once every 3 weeks.

Right.

You know? And, and so like, you could have something going on and it's just like, the only thing I do in here is make coffee.

Right.

Well, I mean, you could have a problem in one of your appliances or something like that. And so it's not that expensive to have a professional come in and just look over everything.

Right.

Because they're gonna, one, they're gonna look at it with different eyes than you would. And they're gonna be looking in places that you normally wouldn't look.

Sure.

Because they know through experience—

What to look for.

Unless you're dealing with an idiot, which is always possible.

Always.

You know, they're gonna know through experience, like, where problems typically occur. particularly ones that homeowners don't pay attention to.

Sure.

Um, and, and most of those honestly tend to be things like dishwasher, microwave, refrigerator, and, and, but like, not like, you know, you open the refrigerator, you're not gonna see bugs in there. That's not where the bugs are gonna be on your refrigerator.

Right.

Um, so, and there's just other signs that, you know, professionals can, can pick up on that most people just don't notice. Right.

So yeah, and, and so it, it, you know, it's one of those deals where— I mean, this, this is going to sound weird, but, but insects and bugs and stuff, they get cold too, right? So they're going to come in where it's warm.

They, they will respond to temperature change. Yeah, yeah.

So I mean, they're, they're going to go where they are most comfortable, right?

Right.

And once they get in, they're going to probably find something they want, uh, typically.

Yeah, yeah. So bugs need pretty much what you need.

That's right.

So they're gonna—

Food and water.

Yeah, food, water, shelter.

Yeah, they're gonna find it.

And yeah, and typically in your kitchen.

Yeah, and then guess what else they're gonna do? Reproduce.

Yep. So you know what the one is, the one that's been grossing out people a lot lately? Okay. And like when I tell them this, they're like, oh, is it— it's that, um, when I go into a— because a lot of times people will tell me that they have ants in their bathroom.

Okay.

So the place I immediately go and look is where they're keeping their toothbrush.

Oh, interesting.

Because most people's toothbrush has like a layer of gunk at the bottom, and most of that is sugar. And ants will get into your toothbrush and eat that stuff.

Disgusting.

And also like the food particles that it catches out of your mouth.

I will tell you this, like, it doesn't take but 3 extra seconds to dry your toothbrush. Dry it off.

Well, I mean, but like, you got to get that stuff out of there.

I know.

If you're using like a traditional toothbrush.

Sure.

So, and I, like, I, I will tell everybody right now, if you want to keep ants out of your bathroom, one of the best tools that you can have to clean your toothbrush is a toothpick.

Oh, okay. That makes sense.

Because you can get in between all those gaps and get everything. And once you knock it loose, you can hit it with some hot water.

Good.

And, and just get everything cleaned out. Or go buy a new toothbrush.

Right.

Throw that, throw that one away. I know you've had it for 2 years.

Too long.

But like, no one recommends that you keep it that long.

No.

And it's nasty.

It's disgusting. So, well, and the other thing that I would say is like, look, for most people, you just need to do year-round pest control. Because if you do year-round pest control, like, you know, quarterly services and such, you got the person coming out on a, on a, you know, 4 times a year checking things, making sure things are looking good. And oh, by the way, like, once you do that for about a year, you're gonna stop seeing the bugs.

Yeah.

I mean, it just is the way it is. You keep— and I like the way y'all do it because y'all spray the out— I mean, you'll initially spray the inside of the house, but really spray the outside of the house.

Yeah.

Make sure that the bugs aren't coming in to begin with.

Yeah.

You know, so it makes sense. So, all right, the next one is number 4. Number 4, gear up for increased usage. Okay, now here's what they mean by that. Um, there's a lot of things that you're going to change the way you use in the wintertime, which typically happens around the holidays. So things like the amount of electricity you're using.

Uh-huh.

Okay, so you're going to be adding Christmas lights and, you know, holiday decorations that inevitably you got to plug in, right?

There's horrible inflatables.

The inflatables.

Yes, I think those use more power than lights.

I have no No doubt. We do have a broadcasting error, by the way.

Oh, no. Is it still recording?

Yeah. I can do continue recording. So I'm gonna do that. So we're just not live anymore.

Lovely.

So, but yeah, I think they take up a lot of power. I mean, you're running those motors.

Yeah.

You know, I mean, for a lot of people, I know that you've probably been using the same Christmas lights forever and ever and ever. And partly because like when LEDs came out, they were that awful blue color. Nobody wanted that. But now they've got like good, nice colors available. And I know it costs an extra, you know, amount of money to buy the LED lights, but it, you know, you're gonna use a significantly, a significant less amount of energy to, to run those on your Christmas tree, on your outside of your house, all those sorts of things.

Right.

Um, so that's one. Uh, plumbing, like especially with gas, you're probably, if you've got a, a gas furnace or anything like that, um, or a gas water heater too, you're going to be using an additional amount of gas. And so like, just be ready for that, especially whenever it comes to like your bills at the end of the month. Like, I, I know that that's one of those things with, you know, we don't like to get into people's finances in any way, shape, or form, but when it comes to like Christmas time, and really Thanksgiving is when it starts, you buy a lot more food at Thanksgiving than you need.

Mm-hmm.

And then you get into Christmas, you're buying all the things for other people. and then you get hit with a double—

yeah, double energy bill.

Yeah, I mean, just be prepared for it. Like, I don't know, know that it's coming, know that it's coming, and, and be ready.

And unless you're Scrooge and you don't put any lights out, well, in which case you got other problems.

Definitely happens.

You might be visited by some ghosts.

That's true, that's true. But what are some things you could do? Like, I, I think that timers are really good.

Timers are huge.

Yeah. And, and this is a good opportunity to talk about like Lutron for a minute.

Yeah.

Because, uh, Lutron's really been a great supporter of our show, and they offer some incredible products. And one of the products that we've actually got is an outdoor plug that, first of all, it's weatherproof, but also you can control all of it from your phone, and you can time it out to be like, look, come on at this time, go off at this time. You can set multiple in and out points.

Yeah.

And, and you know, at that point, like, you're not using more than you need to. You're not forgetting to turn them off during the day. And It's not just consistently running. Yeah.

No, it's a fantastic product.

Yeah, absolutely. And I, I think smart, uh, thermostats are really smart for this as well because, um, you don't need to heat your house during the day if nobody's there. No. In fact, today I literally went on— so I've got an Ecobee. I went on today and I realized for the majority of the day I've got my heater set to run. Uh-huh. Because my wife used to work in the house. She doesn't any longer.

Right.

So when I change it over to heat, I had to go in and readjust the schedule to go, nope, she's out of the house and I am too. Nobody's in the house. And so we, we bump it down to 64 and maybe you can go even lower than that, but we bump it down to 64 during the day and just, there's no reason to run your heater.

Never.

No one's there.

Yeah.

You know? So I think that there are some things like that that you can do to really kind of raise the efficiency of your house during, during times like that.

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

Cool. All right, number 3.

Hey, before we get to number 3—

Okay, let's do it.

This episode is brought to you by Lone Star Appliance Repair. That's it, our favorite sponsor.

They are. And here's how you can get a hold of them: 936-647-2364. That is 936-647-2364. And I, I'll tell you right now, man, like, we actually— one of, one of the things that is, um, on a lot of lists, it's actually not on this list, Um, is the idea of checking your appliances. Yeah. During the holidays. A lot of that is because, again, increased usage, especially if you're not, you know, if, if you're the type of person that eats out a lot or, um, you're not using your appliances regularly.

Like, yeah, like a schmuck.

Exactly. Uh, especially with— oh man, it's so expensive to eat. But yeah, um, you know, if you do have any issues, you don't have to buy a new appliance most of the time.

Yeah.

Just get it repaired.

Getting it repaired is way cheaper than buying a new one.

Way cheaper. And not only that, I don't know about you, but I'm used to my appliances. Have you ever bought a new appliance? I don't even know how this thing works. There's so many new things on this. And it's like my last one, I just punched the button and it worked. You can still use that one.

My stove has a sabbatical button and I don't know what to do with it.

Sabbatical or is it Sabbath?

Sabbath.

Sorry. So literally you can set it to where it doesn't work on Saturday.

Yeah.

That was—

I mean, I know the— I know like what that is, but like I don't under— like, like why do I need to press a button in order to keep me from using the stove? Like shouldn't I have the own enough personal dis— if that's my religion?

Uh-huh. Like you shouldn't— well, depending on how rigid you are, you can't even push a button.

Oh yeah. Yeah. It's like I should just know not to use it. Like why do I need a button to like—

today's the day I don't—

like I'm gonna be so tempted to walk over there. It's like, dang it.

Dang, I shouldn't have touched Shouldn't have turned it on.

I don't, I don't get it, but you know what, that's me.

Yeah, anyway, Lone Star Appliance Repair, it is definitely worth giving them a call if you have any issues, if you need anything, uh, repaired or taken care of.

Steve, he said, he said it twice, so you gotta, you gotta drink up.

Okay, all right, prepare yourself, gird your loins. That's right. All right, our good friend Steve just popped in. So if, if you need your appliance repaired, yes, If you need your appliance repaired, the best way to get a hold of them, Lone Star Appliance Repair, 936-647-2364. And you can text them to that number, 936-647-2364. Text them, and it's pretty incredible that you can just text them. Yeah, I love that. Anytime.

They'll get you taken care of.

That's right, that's right. All right, um, number—

Number 3.

3, consider keyless locks.

Yeah.

Okay, now this is interesting because why would this be on a holiday list? Well, Again, many people do, uh, like they have people come over for the holidays and they'll stay for a day or two, a night or two, family coming over. And if you need them to get in and out so that you don't have to always be the one like supplying a key— do they lose it? Do they stupid hide a rock? Right? Like, and those things are, man, those are not safe. Like, people know where to look for those types of things, you know?

I know it every time I see one.

Exactly. They look not like a rock. Yeah, they just don't.

Um, I also know the gnome trick, so all you guys out there—

Yeah. Oh, I saw a really funny meme today. It was a, uh, it was an elf and a gnome. They looked almost identical, and, and there were 2 doors, and one of them said, uh, like, like holiday Christmas stuff, and one of them said hang out in the garden, and they said choose your door wisely. Yeah, anyway, pretty funny. But, um, I don't know, like, I, I just think that if you're allowing other people to come and go from your home, keyless locks that have, uh, you know, the automation where you can just send someone a, you know, a code, right, or something like that, you can, you can monitor when that code works and when it doesn't. Um, man, there's just—

Which is great because like if you have a relative that you don't want to stay longer than they've agreed to, you can, you can give them a code that only lasts until the day they're supposed to be gone.

Then you gotta leave.

And then it becomes inconvenient for them to be there.

Yeah, exactly. Sorry, the code ran out. I don't know what to do. I don't know how to work this thing.

Yeah, it's my kid.

That's exactly right. Yeah, so anyway, as people are coming and going, you know, you can, you can absolutely do that. And you never know, you never know, like, when people are gonna show up, right? Maybe you're out holiday shopping and, you know, Aunt Susie shows up and is like, um, just hang out in your car till I get there. No, I'll just open the door for you.

Yeah.

Yeah, super simple for sure. Number 3 is probably my least favorite on the list. I like it, uh-huh, but I don't think it's like necessary.

It's something you probably should have had done on your house a long time ago. Yeah, you should already have.

Yeah, this is, this is definitely—

Welcome to the future.

That's right. So, uh, what's interesting is this list, like many lists out there, um, number 2 is actually number 2, 2 and 3/4, 2 and a half, whatever, then actually 2. What and 3/4, 1 and a half, number 1. Like, there's multiples here. Okay. Okay. So, uh, the, the overarching idea here is don't forget about fire safety.

Uh-huh.

Which is, I mean, really, really smart during, during these times.

I do think during Christmas you're— I think it's a, it's a time when you're more likely to burn your house down than pretty much any other time of the year.

Yeah. And, and so first of all, check your fire alarms.

Yep.

I mean, you should be doing this. I mean, the, the, the old adage, right, is like check your fire alarms, uh, at daylight savings time. Yeah, because right now that's still in effect. Um, and it's a good time, you know, just change the batteries out twice a year, make sure everything's running really, really well. We actually, uh, one of the things I was happy about whenever we moved into our new house is that there we have wired fire alarms. I love it because you don't ever have to check the batteries. Yeah, they're all—

you don't get that annoying beep.

Exactly. Or chirp, whatever.

It's awful. They're the worst.

They're the worst. So, um, getting that taken care of, uh, making sure your fire alarms are, are taken care of is really, really good. Um, but another item that they talked about here was buy items that automatically shut off, right?

So like, you talking about like lights and—

Yeah, lights that, that go off automatically. If, you know, uh, curling irons that, you know, you're not using, they turn off automatically. Um, irons, you know, if you still iron your shirts.

Dude, we have an electric kettle that does that.

Oh, really? Yeah, that's cool.

So like, if the water gets too hot and starts like, like in a full roll boil, it'll shut off.

Yeah. And that—

And I think it has like a— I don't know if it's like a heat sensor or what, but like it knows.

That's interesting.

If the liquid gets too hot, which I mean, that, that could cause all kinds of problems. Fire is probably not one of them. Yeah, but, um, it can cause all kinds of other problems.

Yeah, I mean, it— I mean, look, look, what if you had something like that and like it, it boiled over somehow and caused a water issue? Now you've got water problems. Like, oh yeah, there's so many things that could happen.

You just have like a kid walking by. I mean, I could just like burn them.

Jeez, that would be the worst, you know? Yeah, because of your irresponsibility. Yep, yep, that's it. Uh, the next one is— and this is kind of the last one, um, the number one. Yeah, this is number one. is don't overload your extension cords.

Oh yeah.

I mean, which is my—

like, I think, I think made famous by the Christmas Story scene where you're trying to plug the leg in. Yes. And everything like sparks and smokes.

It's so funny. But, you know, I mean, especially whenever it comes to like these blowups you were talking about or these outdoor lights where you're like having it, it's like, okay, well, I got 4 extension cords. Or this is, this is the thing that is a big no-no. Do not do this. Please, please, please do not do this. Do not take one of those 6-outlet like, what are they called? Like power strips?

Yeah.

And plug an extension cord into that and the extension cord into the wall.

Right.

I'm trying to follow your scenario. You were never supposed to— well, so a power strip is always supposed to only plug directly into the wall.

Oh, okay.

Do not plug that into an extension cord.

I got you.

And then the extension cord into the wall.

Yeah, but everybody's gonna do that anyway.

Yeah, don't do it.

But they're gonna.

Don't. This is bad. Don't overload.

Everyone does that.

I know. Don't do it.

I'm not saying it's a good idea. I'm just saying like, we can tell people not to do it all they want. They're gonna do it.

Yeah, don't do it. Please don't do it. There's, there's other ways. I don't know what they are, but figure it out, right? Um, or, or, but I mean, there are some specific products out there that are made to, to branch off in certain ways. And so, um, like for example, I know that there's some of those like, like stakes you put in the ground.

Oh, that have the multiple plugs?

Exactly.

Yeah, yeah.

And you're supposed to plug that into an extension cord and then that goes out from there. So, like, there are some products out there that are made specifically to, you know, to branch off from there. But, don't, don't— I mean, and the other thing is, like, make sure your extension cords match. If you're gonna, if you're gonna, like, daisy chain them, make sure they match. And definitely, definitely don't take, like, don't, don't put the largest one on the device and the smallest one on the wall.

Right.

Put the largest one on the wall and the smallest one on the device.

Well, they even make, like, outdoor extension cords that have, like, a 3-prong strong at the end.

Yep.

You know, for that kind of stuff, you need that.

So I mean, if you're, if you're gonna use it, just be smart. Like, don't— I mean, here's the thing, the last thing you need on Christmas Day is a spark to happen, right?

Yeah.

And, and an easy way to do that is by making poor choices with how you're plugging in your lights. So, or your outdoor equipment. There was a guy in, um, when I lived in Arkansas We called his house the Griswold House. Um, he had over 100 blowups in his, in his yard. And this guy was like in a regular neighborhood. This is not like some big house, regular neighborhood.

Yeah.

And, and I asked him, I was like, what are you, what are you doing? Like, how are you, how are you generating this much electricity? He said, well, I've done a couple of things. He said, I've, I've added the maximum amount of breakers that the city will allow me to have. I run a generator and I've changed every one of the light bulbs and everything I can over to LED. And he said still my— his bill was about 30 times more every December than the rest of the year.

I don't understand that.

No, at all. And he sat in a in a Santa suit in his driveway and handed out candy canes.

I don't, I don't understand that. Yeah, I don't. Well, I mean, like, good, good for you.

I don't get it either.

Random stranger in a Santa suit. Yeah, but like, I know, would never.

I mean, you gotta have a storage unit just to keep that stuff. Yeah, his garage, his 2-car garage, it was completely filled with, um, Christmas villages. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, the ceramic Christmas village. Like, he had 6-foot tables all over the place that are just— I mean, he probably had 300 Christmas villages. Yeah, in here, or those little houses.

It's like, that's like the guy's houses that you walk into and they have like a whole city built out of Legos.

Yeah, exactly. It's a red flag. It says something.

Yeah, but we can't hang out.

But don't do that, man. Like, okay, if you're gonna— like, thankfully he, he was smart with his electricity. that he was using. He was using a generator for backup, different things like that. But like, just be smart with your electricity because it can go bad quickly, and when it goes bad, it's not gonna be good.

Yeah.

So that's the last of the list.

So I mean, you mentioned Arkansas, and I have a question for you that I was trying to—

it—

because this may have made Arkansas my new favorite state. Oh, um, what professional team What professional sports teams are in Arkansas?

There are none.

Yeah, it's my new favorite state.

The Arkansas Razorbacks is as close as it gets.

Okay, so I was doing some research because most people listen to the show know I'm shopping Arkansas.

Yeah.

And one of the things that it was a list of why you shouldn't move to Arkansas, and they were like, look, if you're really into professional sports, this ain't your state because there's not any. There's like minor league teams and things like that, but there's—

there is a— there's only one minor league team.

And they said, but most everybody treats the Arkansas Razorbacks like their professional team.

Yeah.

I'm like, I can get down with that. Yeah.

No, I can get down with that. It definitely is. It definitely is like their own professional team. In fact, at church on Sunday morning, you could tell a definite difference in the crowd between whether the Razorbacks won or lost. Oh, like legitimately. Okay.

Yeah, I dig it.

I dig it.

Get rid of them. No pro sports.

As an A&M fan, you're okay with it?

Oh, I do. I like— I am an A&M fan.

Correct.

I don't know if we've lost to the Razorbacks in the last couple of years.

It's been a while.

I mean, I know we have.

Yeah. Well, y'all played— y'all had that big, like, 6-year contract.

Well, they play— I mean, they play each other every year, I think. Yeah. Ever since they joined the SEC. It's like the Southwest reunion or something like that. Yeah, but that's not why. I mean, no, it's just like, I could live somewhere there where there's not stupid professional sports.

That's funny. That would be it. There's not that many of them.

So not that many what?

Like states that don't have something or something nearby.

I bet you there's more than we think. Yeah. I mean, if you think about it, do you think more than half of the states have professional sports?

Well, no, because, well, No, because I mean, there's—

And like, I think you could go across all the, the 3 big ones: basketball, baseball, football.

Yeah, because like in football there's what, like 30? No, in baseball there's 30 teams, I think.

Okay. And many, many states have 2 teams.

Exactly. Yeah. So yeah, that would be, that would be the case.

So it's probably half.

Probably.

So there's half of America I could live in happily.

All right, Craig, see you later.

Hey, it's Uh, yeah.

As long as you don't, like, leave your full-time residency in Texas, as long as you just vacay.

Oh, yeah. That's the plan. I'm not, I'm not ever gonna not live in Texas.

I hate myself a little bit that I said vacay.

Vacay?

Yes. I hate, like, I just a little piece of me.

Did you throw up in the little back of your mouth?

Yeah. I died a little bit. Right, exactly. Wow. That, that marks the end of the episode, really. Like, we have nothing more to say.

Kevin turned full millennial.

Yeah. That was ridiculous. I cannot believe that just happened.

Oh, that's COVID.

Yeah, somehow we're losing. Uh, I will tell you this though, uh, it's not long before, um, the live show is going to happen. So yeah, stick around if, uh, you're interested in that. But, uh, for all of you who are listening to our audio podcast, uh, thanks for sticking with us because the video podcast stopped because of—

Hopefully you use this time to catch up from the part that you missed live when it went down.

That's exactly right. Uh, for everybody else who has not already done so, please like and subscribe to our episode. Uh, go, uh, give us a 5-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts. We really, really appreciate that. And, uh, thanks for being here. Till next time, we'll see you later.

See ya.