After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 3

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That's BetterHelpHELP.com slash positive. The PBP, Voices of Baseball, is a podcast about the art and craft of play-by-play, and we're in the middle of an amazing season. Catch up on episodes with Joe Buck, Joe Davis, Pat Hughes, and more, and learn along with me, Matt Spiegel, how the job is done. It's not just home run Bryce Harper and the Phillies lead.

To really do it justice, you gotta widen the lens. What does this home run mean? The PBP, Voices of Baseball, I bring you the people who bring you the game. Listen on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Always good to have you with us on The Hump Show. We tend to get a little off the beaten path. We tend to get a little goofy, color outside the lines, if you will, and even though it's a weird work week for me, it may still be your Hump Show, and I'm glad to share it with you. That's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. A couple things that jump out at me over the last few hours on our social media, I guess going back to Tuesday afternoon, it blows me away the number of people who think that I am supremely rich and would never have a car loan.

I can't get over it. The number of people who've written to me about my really fat radio salary, Jay, where do you think they got this idea? Do you think they googled radio host salaries on the internet and somehow decided?

I don't think so. I don't understand where that idea comes from. We do not work in TV. We work in an industry that is shrinking. Think about the number of broadcasters right now who are out of work, who've been laid off, who've been fired. If you're paying any attention at all to the radio industry, know there are local stations all over the country that continue to lay off their own hosts. They either bring in hosts that make almost no money or they come completing a podcasting, which at this point is cheaper. They replace their entire local broadcast with a network broadcast instead or they completely change formats so they don't have to employ a bunch of talk hosts. Our own company, and I don't know if you're paying attention to the headlines, our own company is perilously close to bankruptcy, so our parent company, not CBS Sports Radio Network. Yeah, it's a shrinking industry like many of the others around the corporate world where there are fewer people doing more work and the same type of challenges with morale and with the quality of the work.

You know me, I'll complain about the equipment that we have around here or the fact that there are not enough people to help get the work done. Now, I don't know where people have the idea. Jim Rome is a hall of famer. He's been in this business for a long time. Yes, there are people out there, there are radio hosts out there that do make millions. That's not the norm, right? We're not all Pat McAfee who has a sponsor, not a sponsor, but a corporate partner who poured millions into his show and because of his popularity had been picked up by another network, though weirdly enough that network will not carry his show.

Don't ask me. But if you are watching or listening and you are, maybe you have favorite broadcasters, whether on TV or radio, you recognize it's a very uncertain, unstable business. You can be here one day and go on the next.

I do have a contract, it's a fully guaranteed contract for which I am grateful, but hear me, please, I still essentially live paycheck to paycheck. It's radio. If I got into it for the money, I would have been in the wrong business and I tell young people that I mentor.

If you're getting into it for the fame, the fortune, if you're getting into it for your social media, you're getting into it because you think it's the quickest path to being rich. You want to have a cushy life, radio's not for you, especially when you first get into it. The hours are long, number one. Number two, you very often work nights and weekends. We still work nights and weekends, so I've been in this business nearly 25 years and I still work nights and weekends. Now, I've chosen to work nights and weekends, but you don't get to pick and choose what you cover when you work at network. You have to work when the sports are taking place and so the reason I continue to work nights is because I prefer to talk about everything right after it just happened.

It's, yeah, it is laughable and I have laughed out loud at some of your comments about how I should never have a car loan because I have a cushy radio salary. Jay still lives with his parents because that's how much of a cushy radio salary he has. I mean, I'm telling you, my mom is for the good portion of my career, I've either had multiple jobs, in fact as recently as three years ago I had a second job.

I have an accounting degree that I use to supplement my income, but a lot of people that have to cut corners somehow, especially during the pandemic, so people have moved home. A good portion of our newsroom still lives at home. I mean, it's younger guys, but a good portion of the people that work for CBS Sports Radio behind the scenes still live at home because it's expensive in the New York City area and the company does not pay a whole lot and it's not exclusive to our company.

Yeah, it's the same thing for my previous network and the people that I've worked with. You don't get into radio to become rich and famous. Sure, there are a few that do, but that's not why I got into radio. I don't care about money, but it was a huge deal to pay off my car loan and yes, I had one going back to 2017. Oh, six years at the community payoff Princess Leia. I mean, I bought a house three years ago, it was the first time in my life that I ever owned a that I've ever owned my own house. That should tell you about my cushy radio salary.

And I had to say five years to do that. So you all are cracking me up with it and not all of you. Some of you appreciate the fact that I'm not that different from you. Do I have what I need? Yes.

Do I get to travel, visit family? Sure. Can I blow money like it grows on trees in my backyard?

It grows on trees in my backyard? Heck no. And because I grew up, we grew up, we grew up pretty poor when I was a kid. Yeah, and I have an accounting degree. I'm pretty careful with money and pretty frugal with it. So I don't even like to just spend money. I feel guilty even sometimes just spending money, even if I did have it. So I'm always looking for sales. Yeah, I rarely buy anything that's not on sale. So I'm much more like you than you might think.

Don't believe the hype about cushy radio salaries. So thank you for those of you who are really excited for me. I do appreciate that.

Others of you, somehow you've got delusions of grandeur. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Half hour away from Ask Amy Anything. No, I'm not going to tell you my salary because it's not important. We, you know, in mixed circles, in mixed company, we do not talk about finances.

Eh, it's a little tacky. So for that reason, I should apologize to Producer J. I'm sorry. I don't think anyone, it's a surprise to anyone that you still live at home, right? We've talked about this before, but I apologize because for the second time tonight, maybe I've gotten a little personal. Are you mad at me in there? I'm not bashing, I was not bashing you.

Come on. I do not bash you. My nieces still live at home. Well, one of them is still lives at home. A lot of people still live at home or moved home during the pandemic because it was really expensive. But I, that's probably not my story to share.

Although I think we've talked about it before, right? And actually this week Jay gets to have the run of the house. No dog, no family, no nothing. Well, if I didn't live home, I couldn't work here. So that's about how that works. Yeah.

So that's the point is it really is, you don't get in this business because you think you're gonna make a lot of money. It's a, it's a bad idea. But I am sorry, Jay, if that came across as too personal. No. Okay. We're good. All right.

Thank you. Thank you for understanding me. So that's Jay and I. We're pretty much in the, well, not exactly in the same boat. That, that wouldn't be fair because I'm a lot of experience and I am a host. My name's on the show, which means I get blamed when things go wrong. So, so yeah, we tend to make it a little more when we are the, I'm using my air quotations, the talent because we're the ones that also get fired when things don't go well or when ratings are down or when companies are seeking to trim salary and trim expenses.

We're the ones that get, does boot again, as you know, from some of the layoffs and cuts that are taking place in the sports broadcasting industry. All that to say, I've seen your messages and you make me laugh out loud, but there have also been the opposite and I wanted to acknowledge these, why can I not speak? Acknowledge these, sorry about that, though I will not single them out, nor will I read them on the air. A couple of times over the last 24 hours, I have come across messages on either Twitter or Facebook thanking me, thanking our show for being a lifeline late at night. And they've touched me and I've written back to one listener who reached out and I will write back to the other. In both cases, the listeners who reached out indicated that they have suffered a severe loss of a loved one, painful loss of a loved one in the past few months.

I'm not sure exactly how recently. And in both cases, these listeners wrote that our show has offered a distraction, has offered some humor, has been an opportunity to, at least for a few moments or a little while, forget, if you will. And I know that that's a misnomer when we've lost someone, when we're suffering through any type of a difficult, painful, heartbreaking situation. And it doesn't have to be the loss of a loved one. It could be a health challenge.

It could be anything. Life flat out sucks sometimes. It really does. But if we can offer a lifeline, if you will, if we can offer a connection so that you know that you're not alone, that means the world to me. It really does. I know that there are times where I, in my own life, because it's been a tough stretch. Maybe I'm not sleeping well, or maybe it's the other extreme. When we lost Grammy Helen last summer, or even in times of natural disasters or man-made disasters, mass shootings, or something else that weighs heavily on, not just me, but on many of you who listen.

When it seems like our society, our United States of America is blowing up before our eyes. I know that there are times where I struggle because it feels like sports do not matter. And and where it feels almost fake, it feels disingenuous and inauthentic for me to sit down here and talk about sports and laugh and be goofy the way that I am. But I do that because over the course of my 10 plus years here, and over the course of my time at my previous network, and really over the length of my career since I've been a talk show host, people will reach out to me and say, I needed to hear your show during this difficult stretch of my life, or I needed the companionship. It's one of the things that I love about radio that's very different from TV. And I'm not saying you don't feel like sometimes you really know the anchors or the personalities on TV, because if actors or anchors, reporters are good at their jobs, you do feel like you know them.

In radio, though, we have the benefit of time. And when it comes to a regular show like ours with four hours a night, I work really hard at establishing a connection that's really become my goal with the show going back to the pandemic. When I was working from home, staring at a corner in my spare bedroom for three and a half months and feeling like I needed a connection because I lived alone other than the zoo.

And they all sat there and stared at me every single night. I understand what it means to be isolated or be by yourself or to be going through a painful stretch. And so I want to use my show to connect with people.

And I want you to feel as though you have a companion and that I care, because I do. And it's impossible to personally communicate with every one of you on social media. And I really don't trust social media anyway, but I do my best to reply to let you know that I've read or I care. I mean, you should know, I read every single tweet that is sent to me, every single one of them, even the nasty ones.

I do mute and block liberally, but I also read them first. And many of you are personally invested in my life, in the show. And that means a lot to me. And as I say, if we can let you know that you're not alone, we're honored to keep you company. If that's what you need, while I don't always understand how this show can help, right, just being in the middle of it, it seems so unfathomable to me that it could be a light in the dark, so to speak.

I am honored to have that role. And I'm so grateful that some of you reach out at times and say, hey, I wouldn't have made it through without your show. I mean, I've heard that and I've seen that before. Again, it blows me away.

I don't even know how that can possibly be true. But for that reason, I show up here. And even when things are really hard, I want you to know that we try, right? We try to insert some joy, some humor, some light, just an opportunity for you to know you're not by yourself. And so thank you to those of you who sent the tweets, even those of you who are woefully ignorant about what type of money I make in this job. And why does that even matter?

I have no idea. But if what happens through the show is that we let people know they're not alone, we make connections, you can rely on us. You can let people know that you're not alone. You can rely on us. We're consistently here providing that companionship.

Well, that is more than I could ask for. It's so much more important than talking about sports. Gosh, that's what I say when it seems like sports don't matter. I try to focus on the connection, the companionship, the relationship, the human element, because that is what matters. Sports come and go. Events come and go.

Scores, champions, they come and go. People are the most important thing. And I'm glad that comes through in some way, shape, or form.

I'm glad it shines through. We're about 20 minutes away from Ask Amy Anything. Oh, see, be careful what you wish for.

When you say you want to get to know me more, just be careful. So send your questions to our show Twitter After Hours CBS. Coming up, Texas Rangers may not be quite as hot as the Los Angeles Dodgers, but boy do they seem to be in some kind of a groove right now while the Angels are going the wrong way.

And I mean drastically falling off the map. At least they've got company because the Yankees, oh yeah, they're also backpedaling like nobody's business. It's a little more diamond drama. Straight ahead here After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio.

You are listening to the After Hours podcast. Oh and one to Seager, the pitch, he swings and hits one high in the air to deep left center field. Adams back at the track, the wall leaps up, that ball is cut or did he catch it? No, it's a home run. First pitch to Seager, he swings, hits a high fly ball to right field, Renfro turns, he watches, that one, long gun. A majestic home run off the bat of Cory Seager that touched the moon. The pitch and Cory lines one to center, there's a base hit. One run is home, here comes the round of the play, then he will score. It's a two-run single for Seager, a five RBI game and a 71 Rangers lead.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. The Rangers may not have nine wins in a row but they're just as hot as the Dodgers right now and remember this is with the move made by the Houston Astros to put pressure on them, bringing back Justin Verlander and since that point not only have the Rangers seen Mad Max Scherzer revert to vintage form but the offense is on fire right now. Cory Seager since returning to the lineup, he's been locked in three for five, a pair of home runs, five RBI on Tuesday night.

That's the Rangers radio network, it's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. Now you could point to the offense and they're definitely blasting the Angels, we'll get to you Phil Nevin but how about Jordan Montgomery? On Tuesday night, going six innings allowing a single run, he strikes out nine and if the Rangers are going to get that kind of pitching when it's not Max Scherzer, I mean this is part of the reason why they've been able to stay on top of the AL West because they've also had the pitching to go along with the pop. Great work by Mani and mixed it up well using both sides, changing speeds, induced a lot of ground balls, just a really nice job of pitching out there and good competitor as you have seen since he's been here. I think once the staff builds some momentum it kind of you just want to go out there do your job and pass off the ball to the next guy so when you got as many starters as we do that are as talented as we are, you can build some momentum for sure. Remember how Jacob DeGrom was supposed to be part of this starting rotation?

Yeah. The Rangers still have a three and a half game cushion over the Astros and they've now won again eight of their last 10. In their brand new home they have the best home record in the American League right so they've got the brand new ballpark at Arlington, best home record in the National League even better than the Baltimore Orioles and the Tampa Bay Rays. As for the Angels, it's going from bad to worse. It's actually getting worse.

I said to you last night that I wondered whether or not this was rock bottom for the Angels. Messy, messy. I looked up and every five seconds messy is on my screen. I'm so sorry that was one of those where it's the power of suggestion. You know how you go to the movie theater and they put up the gorgeous, and I mean just scintillating, big old tub of yellow buttered popcorn. It's accompanied by your favorite fountain drink and it looks beautiful as they're pouring it out of the cup and it's bubbling all over. Oh it's just wrong.

Don't do that to us. It's the power of suggestion. Subliminal messages and subliminal advertising. So every time I look up I see a pink messy on the screen and that's just what came out. Well now I really want movie theater popcorn. Yeah well I had some as my pregame meal. It's turning into a regular thing with me.

Okay not messy. Back to Shohei Ohtani. Finding out that Ohtani will miss his next start because of fatigue. Yes they've had pitching issues for gosh as long as I can remember going back to their last playoff appearance.

It's easy to point to Lucas Giolito. It's clear that this at least right now isn't working out for the Angels. He gives up three runs in the third inning for the Rangers but what about the offense? They're not just they're just not at this point generating enough to be able to keep up with some of the better teams in the American League. To score runs I mean that's the best way I can say it. You know we're taking the swings and hitting balls at people for one and just not mounting anything early with less than two outs. So we get base runners on us usually late in an inning and you know one more swing is how it gets you out of it.

So we're just not mounting anything together. We face some tough pitchers yes but you know you got to beat the good ones too. Phil Nevin is frustrated you can hear it in his voice but what are you gonna do? They've had a few stretches where they've all been pulling together but you're missing one of the best players in Major League Baseball. There's still no timetable for Mike Trout's return. Shohei Ohtani is exhausted which isn't a surprise. He's doing he's been doing everything all season and now when you get to the point where the heat is at its height the heat the humidity at its height in the summertime the travel that they're doing it's impressive that he's managed to be productive in in both the batter's box as well as on the mound to this point. Not that the Angels are asking for him to do this but he does want to contribute in both ways and we've seen the fatigue start to creep in now.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. So at least the Angels have company. You know that misery loves company. Well there's plenty of misery for the New York Yankees who right now are getting blasted on the road in Atlanta. Severino in his mind you'd imagine thinking please don't give up another first inning run.

He has been going through those battles all year. He's been lit up early and this is a drive to center field may just let him up again to the wall. Bader that is gone. Three run home run on the first inning rampage continues. One one on a deep drive to center. Bader back to the warning track.

Bader to the wall and goodbye. Straight straight away center field a two run homer for Ronald Acuna. Five nothing Braves. On Braves radio and they're pounding the Yankees pitching. You hear the the comment there about Luis Severino and the Braves offense is tough to be sure.

But when you can't get a quality starter or quality start from your starter I guess would be a better way to say it. The Yankees right now are are sunk. Meanwhile Bryce Elder fantastic allows just a single hit. In fact he's the only one who gave up a hit among the Braves pitchers. I think there were three of them two relievers after him. So you have a single hit off Elder and the Atlanta pitching was just as dynamic as the hitting on Tuesday night.

They are a juggernaut right now. The past couple weeks I was kind of getting I would almost like out groove my groove. I don't want to call it loose focus but it was like I would get a couple grand balls and the next thing you know I'd walk the guy and I was down too well and it was just happening quick.

So tonight just kind of even though I walked a few I thought they were walked in good spots and managed them well so I was I was pleased with it. Yeah so Bryce Elder is fantastic. It's a shutout combined shutout over the Yankees. The offense puts up three runs in the first against Severino which right away takes some of the pressure off the starter.

Marcel Ozuna with his 24th home run. I'll just I don't think this is a revelation but I just can say it there's no way anybody in the NLEs catches the Braves. As well as the Marlins and Phillies have played in stretches there's no way.

Of course that's not a guarantee of anything. Last year the Braves won the division and 101 games and still were out short of the NLCS. As for the Yankees at this point playoff hopes are fading.

Since July 4th land of the free home of the brave red white and blue go USA. Since July 4th they're 12 and 22. They are 10 games below 500 since July 4th. All kinds of problems and now they're actually back to 500 so there's 60 wins 60 losses. It's been decades since they were sitting at 500 this late in a season and keep in mind Aaron Judge is back in the lineup. Not a loss you know we're not showing up that's what it comes down to we're not showing up you know when we need to you know especially down the stretch right now and you know we got every opportunity to you know keep ourselves in the race you know we're you know not capitalizing what you need to so that's all I got on that. No one's happy about it you know you know but it goes back to the beginning of the year you know every game is important you know starting off the year you know you gotta you gotta come out of the gates hot you know but there's still we've got quite a few ball games left. Yeah it sucks I mean this is you know we're just simply not playing well enough and you know that's you know starts with me and and on down we got to be better I mean that's a broken record right. Aaron Boone's quote is going viral it's definitely clickbait on social it's like a broken record it is what else can you say I feel the same frustration and crankiness from both Aaron Boone and Phil Nevin they're in lockstep right now you could substitute the quotes one for the other and you wouldn't know the difference sometimes you just can't get the ship turned around. All right coming up your chance to ask Amy anything is part of the hump show last couple minutes to send your questions to our show Twitter after our CBS or to our Facebook page so producer J is on the lookout you know it's your favorite time of the week well it's Lisa's favorite time of the week she's one listener who every single week says my favorite time of the week yay at least one of us is happy. You are listening to the after hours podcast this is after hours with Amy Lawrence time to ask Amy anything sort of. Since we are asking you a question on this edition of the show more like a fill in the blank or that's the form the NFL season will be a success if what and you're of course answering for your team though I can't guess who your team is so try to make it obvious for us it's after hours with Amy Lawrence poor producer J his hair is currently on fire there's a lot going on it's blowing up behind the scenes and behind the double pane glass but I think that he's breathing now and is ready to go with ask Amy anything press on your questions I gotta start here this one caught my eye one of the first ones I came in tonight and I wanted to ask it I've been waiting for it okay Mike wants to know what was the worst weather event that you ever had to experience firsthand oh gosh I've been through a bunch of them growing up in the northeast but also with a grandmother well grandparents but a grandmother when I was an adult who lived in northeast Ohio I remember at one point driving from where I was living in Rochester New York to visit my grandmother it was late at night and I was going out western New York and then down south from Erie to go into Pennsylvania or in Pennsylvania south from Erie to to get down to interstate 80 and then over into Ohio so for people who who don't know um it's interstate 79 if I remember correctly and it's up in the corner um no it's maybe it's not 79 anyway it's it oh actually it is because that's in Erie sorry uh so interstate 79 and you're talking western New York and lake effect snow and there was a white out blinding blizzard conditions white out uh situation that I'm driving in my car does a 360 in the middle of the highway thankfully there were no other vehicles around this was again late at night um every now and then a semi would pass me but that was pretty much it I did a 360 in the middle of the highway thankfully the car did not get stuck but I couldn't see farther than the end of the hood of my car that's how bad it was and there was no place to stop because you're on this desolate stretch of the interstate uh just south of Erie and it's yeah it's there's snow piling up so fast that you really can't do anything about it so that was scary I mean I had to just keep going and I'm I'm inching along but I can't see anything in the middle of the night so that was one that's horrifying it was horrifying not the first snowstorm I've been in but definitely blizzard white out conditions it also happened one day when I was driving back to Syracuse not long after I'd graduated it's springtime and we hit a snow squall on the throughway the New York Thruway up headed toward Syracuse so going west towards Syracuse same thing middle of the daytime though whiteout conditions can't see a damn thing cars are not only driving off the road but there's accidents everywhere I mean it was it was also very scary and I would say the other one the craziest weather event I've ever been in um this goes back to my days living in Connecticut working in my previous network we had a hurricane come through and it was not just the rain um but because it was October it was so cold that the rain it was essentially an ice storm it was a hurricane but it was an ice storm so we in my town we got hit harder than any other town in Connecticut nine days without power nine days now I had it was cold outside so I could put a lot of what was in my fridge out into the snow and the ice on my back porch um I also had not a wood not a fireplace but a wood stove that heated the entire downstairs but I'm not kidding it dropped to the 40s in my house and I had no power for more than a week I was going to work and so I would take my phone I could access the showers there at the gym I could charge my phone I would work but yeah the first night of the ice storm I had to sleep on the floor in one of the studios because I couldn't get home there were trees down all over the place but then even when I did get home it was 42 degrees in my house at night and I slept upstairs and so I would pile on a bunch of blankets now thankfully I wasn't as ill-informed as some people who were using their gas grills inside to warm themselves up that's not what that's gonna do I swear to people died because they lighted their they lit sorry their gas grills in their homes to try to warm up their bedrooms wow and then they died honestly from the carbon monoxide crazy I mean not even that way just not having heat in that sort of cold like an elderly or younger yeah I know it's scary that's right nine days without power I remember I was in the basement and I was scooping cat litter in the daytime and all of a sudden I realized the light was on I started screaming on the phone with my mom oh my god we have power we have power we have power I just gotta ask you quick before we move on here have you ever been in a tornado or seen a tornado in Oklahoma oh yeah absolutely I I've seen multiple tornadoes bit and then the effects of them at nf5 and the swath of damage it leaves a mile wide at the base and yeah it's it's pretty scary all right moving on to the food portion here oh okay so nohemi asks do you eat breakfast before going to sleep or do you eat breakfast food when you wake up in the afternoon no I eat it before I go to bed so every morning when I get home I am so hungry my stomach is growling it's a routine thing I try to bring enough snacks healthy snacks but my stomach always starts growling in the final hour of the show like clockwork and I love breakfast food so when I get home I have a rotation oatmeal cereal with blueberries and then eggs and so this morning it will be three eggs a whole wheat wrap mozzarella cheese and some salsa that that would be my breakfast see I plan for it uh yeah I do love breakfast food so every morning when I get home I eat breakfast I think you just inspired me for my breakfast I inspired you you're welcome brian asks which fast food french fries are your favorite oh this is so tough I gotta go with mcdonald's I do love wendy's fries but I feel like mcdonald's has they've captured the essence of what it means to be a perfect fast food french fry I don't think that shoot what's the oh my gosh it's gonna drive me crazy it's a restaurant chain oh my oh red robin yeah they have amazing fries but I don't think that counts as fast food right um some might I've never been actually to a red robin so I don't think that counts as fast it's more of a restaurant yeah I'd say than a fast food but yeah the mcdonald's fries the perfect food I think in general Jay Jay would live on fast food if he could perfect fast food and convenience store food well our friend Matthew also wants to weigh in he wants to know which fry regular or curly I go with regular regular seems to keep their heat longer curly fries I feel like they get colder quicker but I could I could just be making things up but I do love curly seasoned fries actually my favorite if I'm going any kind of fry would be sweet potato fries those are my absolute favorite good yeah last one here in the food Gary asks do you or have you ever used an air fryer no I don't have one although Bob has one and is trying to convince me that it's a necessary kitchen appliance I just use my oven or my microwave I don't know they're all right I do have crock pots and stuff my my sister-in-law also loves her new air fryer she got one at Christmas time it's her favorite thing now so this one comes in from David who wants to know how does going to church help your life and your career oh that's a good question well it reminds me that faith is my foundation it also connects me with people who have the same values and faith that I do it certainly gives me the opportunity to serve so whether I'm serving as a Sunday school teacher which is what I have been doing now for about eight years fourth and fifth graders that's the age group I teach right now or whether it's about serving by welcoming people and being a greeter or whatever it happens to be so it just reminds me that the world does not revolve around me it gives me a chance to exercise my faith in God and to connect with people who do the same I get to sing get to hear wisdom preach from the bible so yeah there's there's lots of ways but mostly I would say it's just a weekly reminder of serving other people and how important that is but and giving of your time and energy but also reminds me that no matter how tough things get in life whether it's family whether it's work whatever is going on faith is my foundation and is the reason why I am who I am nice a different David now asks a different David how do you know it's a different David last name oh yes that would give it away a different David asks what is your favorite airline and why that's a good one probably Delta though I don't fly it as much as I used to because the number one airport I use United is the hub but I do like Delta I feel like it's more comfort it's also more on time though I guess that's relative these days and also my American Express is connected to Delta frequent flyer miles right now I'm sitting on 71,000 frequent flyer miles that I will be using for a vacation in 24 but yeah I've been collecting them since before the pandemic and so I've got a free plane ticket right there I gotta I gotta use it has to be something epic Jay I can't just use it to you know go to Atlanta or something it has to it has to be epic you're racking those up that's gotta be used for like a once in a lifetime trip yes something like that yes speaking of which Phil asks do you have any plans for your next vacation yes wait does Houston in over Labor Day weekend count probably not so no it does not come on you're not home you're it doesn't matter it's not a vacation it's it's a break before football season starts yes Thanksgiving on the beach in South Carolina that's the next that's what I'll classify as the next vacation that's yeah that's most of Thanksgiving week not all of it but most of it so I'll go with that Frank asks did you ever have a pair of Chuck Taylor Converse All-Stars I didn't however I used to admire people that did I didn't have fancy sneakers like that my favorites were when they were green celtic screen that was a follow-up Larry Bird Larry Bird and celtic screen he wore white mostly I guess but I do love the bright celtic screen of their vintage now yeah they're still they're actually around a lot more really yeah I've never had a pair all right we'll end here with a little rapid fire crossword puzzles or word search crossword puzzles or word search oh word search actually I'll go word hole I still love word oh I'm doing it still any street going I actually forgot to finish yesterday so no I'm back to zero lawn darts or cornhole cornhole watercolor oil paint oil paint learn German or learn French Italian magic carpet or witch's broom what would you rather fly on I'll go with Aladdin magic carpet explore space or explore the ocean explore the ocean have a pet snake or a pet turtle I had a pet turtle I love turtles no electricity or no running water no electricity travel for five years in an RV or five years in a sailboat an RV you can explore more things that way last one hang out with Tom Hanks or hang out with Harrison Ford Tom Hanks is my all-time favorite gotta go with Tom it's after hours CBS porch radio