Episode 12 – The Coffee Grinder is Stack I Won't

Scott: Friends with Beer.

Scott: Have an announcement.

Scott: Peter Nikolaidis could not be with us from Boston today.

Peter: Because I’m right here.

Scott: Yay, in Portland.

Peter: Peter in Portland, beer in Portland.

Scott: Peter with Portland, beer with Portland, pie with Portland.

Peter: Running with Portland.

Scott: Let’s talk about the beers that we’re doing today, because we’re actually doing the same, not only are we in the same room.

Peter: For the second time ever, like kind of.

Scott: Right, but recording in the same room for the first time ever.

Peter: If you don’t count all the times that the NSA has been recording us when we were together.

Scott: Today, we have, we both have, a bear, how would you pronounce this?

Scott: Barrelic beer?

Peter: I think it’s Barrelic.

Scott: Barrelic Beer Company, oat soda.

Peter: Doesn’t that sound good?

Scott: Bohemian Pilsner, sounds great.

Scott: Let’s see if it tastes as good as the name.

Scott: Let’s see if the name is better than the drink, make sure the drink is better than the name.

Scott: And we have Marion Berry Pie.

Peter: Oh, even better, double toasts.

Scott: There we go.

Peter: Let’s see what happens.

Scott: Oat Soda.

Peter: It’s a Bohemian Pilsner.

Peter: This is okay.

Peter: It’s not the worst beer I’ve ever had.

Peter: It’s definitely what I would consider a light beer.

Scott: Okay, let me ask you an honest question, Peter.

Peter: Ask me an honest question.

Scott: That mic does have a little bit of proximity effect, I notice.

Peter: Okay, the cat does not seem to mind.

Scott: The cat also has a proximity effect.

Scott: However, that’s known as teeth and claws.

Scott: Now, have you ever had a Pilsner that was better than just okay?

Peter: I’d have to go back to the beer reviews on the show, but I’m likely to err on the side of no.

Scott: I think that Pilsners are a nice light beer for maybe if you have a pizza or something.

Scott: But they’re really not the kind of thing that you grab if you just want to drink a beer.

Peter: Not the kind of thing you or I would grab, but I would grab one of these before I would grab an IPA.

Scott: Oh my God, yes.

Peter: But I would grab a wheat beer or a hefeweizen before I would grab one of these.

Scott: My verdict on the vegan cranberry pie is that it’s pretty good.

Peter: I’m not there yet because I am holding out hope that we’re going to pound these oat sodas and move on to something else.

Scott: So you have a pound of oat soda is what I’m hearing.

Peter: They are a pint.

Peter: So yes, actually, half right?

Peter: Half pound.

Peter: We have a pound.

Scott: The math, stay hard.

Scott: Yes, we have a pound.

Peter: How many ounces in a pound?

Peter: Yeah, no, ay, ay, ay, hey, Siri, how many ounces are in a pound?

Peter: Already the, I can’t bring.

Peter: Yeah, 16.

Peter: So we do have a pound of oat soda.

Peter: I was right the first time.

Scott: I’m sorry.

Scott: I don’t know who you are.

Peter: That’s cold.

Peter: So long time listeners, they’re probably like two of you out there.

Peter: They would recognize that deep cut, which goes back to the pocket size podcast when I would ask Siri to get me directions home or take me home.

Peter: And Siri would respond, I’m sorry, I don’t know where you live.

Peter: In fact, I don’t even know who you are.

Peter: And this was back when Siri was having a heck of a time remembering who I was.

Peter: I would go into the settings and set my contact, and it would show it but then it would forget.

Peter: And so the response really got Scott’s attention.

Peter: He’s like, Wow, that’s cold.

Peter: I mean, to say I don’t even know who you are.

Peter: I mean, that was Yeah, so that one’s been coming back because Scott has a new car.

Peter: And its carplay has been acting like it doesn’t even know who you are.

Peter: Hello, cat.

Peter: Meanwhile, Scott’s cat is attacking me.

Scott: And the funny thing about that is, is that Apple included the phrase In fact, I don’t even know who you act.

Peter: I don’t Yes, now Scott’s cat is yawning.

Peter: He’s like the molarless wonder.

Scott: My cat had 12 teeth extracted.

Peter: He had some dental issues.

Scott: Apparently so.

Scott: We didn’t know how bad his teeth were when we got him.

Scott: We knew he had bad breath.

Scott: But who doesn’t?

Peter: Who doesn’t have bad breath?

Peter: Or who doesn’t know?

Scott: Who doesn’t have bad breath?

Peter: Because I’ve met people who had bad breath and didn’t know.

Scott: People who have bad breath definitely don’t know.

Scott: But also who doesn’t have bad breath?

Peter: I mean, after a bite of this Marion Berry pie, you might not.

Peter: I don’t know.

Peter: We’re not that close.

Peter: We’re in the same room.

Peter: We’re not that close.

Scott: Yeah, and we’re not gonna find out.

Scott: So Peter, what are you thinking?

Scott: You look like you’re thinking thoughts about your pie.

Scott: The vegan part is definitely the crust, I feel.

Scott: And it’s not bad.

Scott: It’s not…

Scott: I can tell the difference in the crust, but it is definitely not bad.

Scott: It’s not a bad crust.

Peter: I think they also left the brisket out of the filling.

Scott: I’m not a huge brisket fan already.

Scott: And brisket Marion Berry pie?

Scott: That sounds ruinous.

Peter: I was really disappointed.

Peter: The first thing I did once I arrived in Texas on this leg of the trip…

Peter: The first leg of this trip…

Scott: The Texas leg.

Scott: Texas leg wears a boot at all times, by the way.

Peter: The Texas bootleg of this trip.

Peter: The first place we stopped was a barbecue place, and I had the brisket, and it was mediocre.

Peter: In fact, I think the pork that your wife made was far superior.

Scott: Did you get an oat soda with the meat?

Peter: I did not.

Peter: I had a Texas sweet tea, because incidentally, I don’t know why they describe it as sweet tea.

Peter: It’s ice tea, but it has sugar in it.

Peter: It’s just sweet tea.

Peter: That’s all there is to it.

Peter: That’s what makes it a thing.

Peter: Up in the Northeast, we don’t generally distinguish that.

Peter: We’re just like, you have ice tea, and if you want to sweeten it, you sweeten it.

Peter: But sweet tea, that’s what they call it.

Scott: Sweet tea is a thing.

Peter: Okay, so I guess I would give this beer a thumbs up rating.

Peter: I might run 5k out of my way for it, but I would not run 50k out of my way for this beer.

Scott: But you would run 5k out of your way for anything.

Scott: Yes.

Peter: Maybe not anything, but many things.

Scott: Well, some of the things you would run 5k out of your way to get to, and some of the things you would run 5k out of your way to get away from.

Peter: Correct.

Peter: Or some of them I would just run 5k out of the way for the heck of it.

Scott: That was a cat, by the way.

Scott: We weren’t beating him.

Scott: He jumped off my desk and landed on the floor.

Peter: Yeah, you’ve got a very chatterboxy cat.

Peter: He doesn’t meow that much, but he coos a lot like my cat, Mew, used to.

Peter: I had that mewster for 18 years.

Peter: I’m very…

Peter: I can still speak that dialect, you know, and I get his attention, and he’s like, Whoa, you speak cat.

Scott: When he does meow, it gets our attention because he’s either…

Scott: he either sees a bug or something’s very wrong or he is extremely hyper.

Peter: Right.

Peter: You were getting a little hyper when we were trying to set up for this recording.

Scott: I was just tired.

Peter: You were probably channeling your cat.

Peter: Well, you have reason to be tired today.

Scott: Yeah, let’s talk about that.

Scott: I was going to say earlier, what have we done in the last couple days, Peter?

Peter: Well, today we did an easy, fun 5K.

Peter: That was fun.

Peter: We, meaning me, also, well, you know, you shared, experienced some angst with respect to my travel plans, which were spurred on by stupidity and people who cannot communicate.

Scott: People who can’t even.

Peter: They can’t even, indeed.

Scott: COVID can’t even.

Peter: Well, COVID makes it so that people can’t even more.

Peter: Drivers also assisted that, and possibly driver assistance assisted the drivers assisting your angst.

Scott: Yeah, we don’t know.

Scott: Now that I have a car that has a lot of driver assists, I do wonder how many of the terrible things I see are because of the driver assist, but I think that most of it is because of the terrible drivers not using driver assist.

Peter: Possibly, but you experienced yourself the fun, question mark, of having a car slam on the brakes for you.

Peter: Yes.

Peter: But you also experienced today someone slamming on the brakes in front of us.

Scott: Did.

Peter: Maybe it wasn’t him.

Peter: You know, it’s like I hate giving jerks the benefit of the doubt, but maybe he wasn’t a jerk.

Peter: Maybe he’s just driving a jerky car.

Scott: The only reason I would say that’s probably not likely is because of how close he was to the car ahead of him.

Peter: Maybe his car had the setting the follow too close setting cranked way down, and maybe his is different than ours.

Scott: It’s very possible.

Scott: I think all cars are different.

Scott: My car on the allow closest automatic following range is much further away than my wife’s car on the, but my car is also bigger and heavier.

Scott: Maybe they took that into account.

Peter: Could be.

Peter: My Tesla likes to follow closer than yours does.

Peter: My Tesla weighs two tons.

Scott: My car is 4,500 pounds.

Scott: Very similar weights.

Peter: No, they’re similar cars.

Peter: They’re both sedans.

Peter: So yeah, you got a new hybrid car.

Peter: Like it’s still newish.

Peter: It still has that headache inducing, for me anyway, new car smell.

Scott: Yeah, but before we go there, we didn’t finish talking about what we did over the last two days.

Scott: We got part of it done.

Peter: Well, like I said, yes, we did.

Peter: Well, this is a Wandercast.

Scott: The EV mode must make.

Scott: A noise.

Peter: When it’s in reverse.

Scott: Well, it makes a lot of noise when it’s in reverse, but it makes that same noise but quieter when it’s in EV mode even going forward.

Peter: Interesting.

Scott: EV mode cars have to make a noise.

Peter: I don’t recall hearing Teslas make that noise when they drive forward, but I definitely know they make it when they’re backing up.

Peter: That I’ve heard a lot.

Scott: I was told that’s a law now.

Scott: Oh, I don’t know.

Scott: Now Elon Musk and laws go together like…

Peter: Chocolate and vinegar?

Scott: Trump insanity.

Scott: So anyway, so we did a 5K today, but that was a recovery.

Peter: It was.

Scott: What was it recovering from?

Peter: We were recovering from a 13-miler yesterday.

Peter: Your first in how many years?

Scott: Ten years.

Peter: That’s pretty amazing.

Scott: Yeah.

Scott: And I will say that I knew that my body was going to underestimate how tired it was going to be at the end, but you were doing heart rate monitoring, meaning you wanted your heart rate down in a cardio zone.

Peter: In the low zone, yeah.

Scott: In the low zone, and so that saved me.

Peter: I knew it.

Peter: What?

Peter: Because you’ve got the stamina and the endurance and stuff from all the cycling that you do.

Peter: So I knew that this was not going to be a big issue.

Peter: Like for you, it might be you might be closer to running like race effort.

Peter: But for me, I was working hard to keep it easy.

Peter: And I was also carrying a heavy pack.

Scott: Yeah.

Peter: Like 10 pounds of water and snacks and other stuff.

Peter: I really learned a lesson, though.

Peter: I did drink almost three liters of water that on that whole run, which was a lot and frankly, a lot more than I had to carry.

Scott: And see, I would have sworn that I would have drank more water than you.

Scott: But I drank probably 1.7 liters somewhere in that range.

Peter: So that’s part of the that’s part of the whole ultra marathon training that I’m doing now, though, is trying to figure out.

Peter: He’s behind me on the bookshelf.

Scott: I’m afraid he was standing on my pie plate getting Marion Barry on his paws.

Peter: Well, he’s trying to.

Peter: And then he gave up.

Peter: So one of the well, I’ve learned a lot of things about running over the last few months, just starting to prepare for this race.

Peter: And almost all of them are things that I’ve been told.

Peter: But there are a lot of things that I just don’t learn by being told.

Peter: I need to actually experience them or at least witness them to to appreciate them and take them to heart.

Peter: So some of that has been pacing myself.

Peter: Like I was still trying to primarily target speed and, you know, like keeping a certain pace in mind, which right now it’s completely arbitrary.

Peter: And if I was lucky, keeping my heart rate down.

Peter: But that doesn’t work.

Peter: You really if you’re if heart rate is going to be a factor, you have to prioritize that.

Peter: And for that reason, I had to embrace the fact that you prioritize like going slowly.

Peter: And that means walking a lot sometimes.

Peter: And so yesterday we definitely ran more than we walked.

Peter: But there was a fair amount of walking.

Scott: There was some walking.

Peter: There was a fair amount of stopping and eating snacks.

Scott: There was some peeing into the bushes.

Peter: Wasn’t going to go there, but I guess we went there.

Scott: Yeah, well, I mean, runners do that.

Scott: They have to.

Peter: Literally.

Peter: And so, but I’ve been noticing that, so for about the last month or so, I really embraced heart rate monitoring and trying to keep my heart rate down below around 130 beats per minute.

Peter: That is amazingly hard because when I put that pack on, you put a 10-pound pack on, I start walking up the gentlest of inclines, and my heart rate is up to 130.

Peter: That does not bode well for running.

Scott: It would come back down.

Peter: It did, but when I would start those long runs with the giant pack, I’m like, I’m at 135, I’m not even jogging yet.

Peter: And that got me into thinking, oh man, I’m not going to be able to do this.

Peter: How am I ever going to?

Peter: But then I forgot things like, well, on race day, you let your heart rate go up, and you exert more, and you run.

Peter: I did find out though, talking with you, talking with your wife a little bit about eating and stuff.

Peter: I know I’ve read a couple of books where, a few of them actually, where they were talking about ultra runners and what they eat while they’re running.

Peter: And there’s been all this advice about, oh, how to avoid gastrointestinal issues, and maybe don’t eat caffeine because that can cause problem, and if you hit this problem, and if you’re, oh, some people choke on energy gels like Cliff shots or Goose.

Peter: Yeah, like you start to, well, you know, either you, like their throats get full.

Scott: Like one minute they’re running, and the next minute someone’s giving a Heimlich maneuver.

Peter: Or they are like, you go to inhale while you’re putting one of those, and you literally inhale goo, and it goes down your windpipe.

Scott: Well, you gotta be careful.

Peter: Well, yeah, but apparently some people, A, actually have this problem, and B, need to be told about this.

Peter: So these are things that I generally don’t have problems with.

Peter: Now, the last time I was out running, I did inhale a little bit of M&M or Cliff bar or so, and I was coughing for a solid mile or so after that, trying to get rid of that.

Scott: That’s miserable.

Peter: But I’ve never taken, say, a whole or even half of a goo and shoved it down my windpipe.

Scott: When you’re in your mother’s womb, you might be able to breathe goo, but once you come out, don’t do it.

Peter: Yeah, good call.

Peter: So put that on hold.

Scott: Unless you’re Luke Skywalker in a Bacta tank.

Peter: Right.

Peter: Even he had a respirator in there.

Scott: That’s true.

Scott: Yeah, that’s true.

Scott: He wasn’t breathing the goo.

Peter: I don’t think that was an intentional segue to talk about how all Star Wars fans are racists.

Scott: They’re such man babies.

Peter: All of them, right?

Peter: Everyone?

Scott: Every single one.

Peter: Every single Star Wars person.

Peter: And I gotta tell you, I hate generalizations.

Peter: I especially hate everyone who generalizes.

Scott: But the Star Wars fans that become vocal on the internet are doing their best to give the impression that all Star Wars fans are racist idiots.

Peter: Well, you know, they say a few bad apples, a few vocal minorities cause problems for a lot of us.

Scott: These guys and their stupid, what other 1977 was the best I’ve ever had?

Peter: Well, okay, first off, they’re wrong.

Peter: Um, well, okay, let’s just move on.

Peter: So what other things have I learned about running?

Scott: What other things have you learned about running, Peter?

Peter: Well, I’ve learned that we’re a little over halfway through our first beer run.

Scott: Well, I’m ahead of you.

Peter: Okay, you’re way over halfway through.

Scott: You’ve been helping people prepare for their next run.

Peter: So I’ve been hearing in books and reading in books where people say things like walking is running and slow is fast.

Peter: But that’s easy to say, right?

Peter: It sounds like a platitude.

Peter: You’re like, okay, slow is fast.

Peter: What does that mean?

Peter: And I didn’t really understand that by consistently training in a lower heart rate zone, so just enough to get the blood pressure, you know, up a little bit, getting, getting the, like for me, getting the heart rate in the 120s, you know, mid to high 120s or so.

Peter: That’s my zone too.

Peter: By consistently training there, you affect your upper level heart rate performance.

Peter: So what it makes is by training in a slow zone, you’re conditioning your body and your heart to be able to better perform in the upper zone.

Scott: How does that work?

Peter: I am not a biologist, so I don’t know.

Scott: But are you a physiologist?

Peter: Not that either.

Scott: Are you a cardiologist?

Scott: Are you a radiologist?

Peter: Uh-uh.

Scott: Are you a herbologist?

Peter: Mm-mm-mm.

Scott: Okay.

Peter: Don’t play one on the internet either.

Peter: But I’ve read enough from top performing athletes and doctors who have, you know, like, said this.

Scott: Yes.

Peter: So now I’m starting to actually apply this to myself.

Peter: And again, like, I didn’t get that, right?

Peter: It just didn’t click, I thought.

Peter: And the other part was I was looking at zone three for me, which would be like 130s to 140s.

Peter: And so I was training too high.

Peter: So I recently revisited that.

Peter: And the funny part was, when I first started on this endeavor to do my, you know, 50K adventure, my coach said, well, first off, we have to determine your maximum heart rate.

Peter: So the best way to do that is to do a stress test.

Peter: You do this treadmill test.

Peter: You have someone put an oxygen mask on you and you go all out and, you know, blah, blah, blah.

Peter: The second best way to do it is you get your own chest strap heart rate monitor and you get on the treadmill and you go all out.

Peter: You do this like you do three sets.

Peter: You go all out for like a minute or two minutes and then you take a break for like 30 seconds or a minute.

Peter: Then you go all out again and you take a break and you go all out.

Peter: And I had asked if my local physical therapist who helped me recover from my foot injury, if they could do that at their office.

Peter: And he’s like, well, we don’t have like the oxygen mask thing, but we can simulate this test and it’s going to cost you like a hundred or 120 bucks or something.

Peter: And I was like, OK, I could do that or I could plunk down 80 bucks for my own chest strap monitor, have the chest strap monitor for future use, and do the test myself on my friend’s treadmill.

Peter: I chose the second option.

Peter: In the end, I actually ended up giving the heart rate monitor to my running buddy, who just today signed up to also run the 50K with me come September.

Peter: We’re getting there.

Peter: I’m building up to it.

Scott: I’m training for it.

Peter: It’s a slow burn.

Scott: You’re trying to make sure our listeners don’t rip their virtual Achilles.

Peter: We don’t want them to do that, or their physical one either for that matter.

Peter: So I did that heart rate test, and I came out to a max heart rate, like my max recorded effort of the whole thing was like 172 beats per minute, by calculating my resting heart rate that my Apple Watch calculates pretty much every day.

Peter: And my age, and using this, the K something, not the Kevorkian formula, that’s zero.

Scott: That’s zero beats per minute.

Peter: Cartuvian or something formula, I forget.

Scott: Cartesian.

Peter: No, it’s not that.

Peter: Anyway, by using that formula, I come out with a maximum heart rate of, I believe, 173 beats per minute.

Peter: So I’m off by two beats per minute, which is like 1%, which easily is within the margin of error of that chest strap device.

Scott: Exactly.

Peter: Which also coincidentally, when I use the heart rate monitor on my arm, I get within one beat per minute.

Peter: So I’m within like one or two percent error, probably not going to worry about it.

Scott: And that difference might be due to the monitors.

Scott: It might also be real.

Scott: Like that formula isn’t going to take into account subtle individual differences.

Peter: Correct.

Peter: So I’m not too terribly worried about it.

Peter: Like that’s within my tolerances for calculations.

Peter: But now, in the book Born to Run and another one too, I think it might have also been in Run for Your Life, they say the easy way to calculate your training zone, your maximum heart rate zone, 180 minus your age.

Peter: Done.

Peter: Just like that.

Peter: Just like that.

Peter: Now your maximum heart rate, your maximum heart rate training zone, which is pretty hilarious because by using these complex formulas and stuff, they come out to within about two beats per minute of that simple math number.

Peter: So I went through all this hassle, buying the chest strap, doing the test, finding this, doing that, running this, calculating that, measuring this, and I come back to 180 minus age.

Peter: Yep, close enough.

Peter: So I find that pretty hilarious.

Peter: So that’s what I’ve been doing.

Peter: So I’m struggling to keep my heart rate pretty much in the low one, the 120s or so.

Scott: See, that should be the sequel to I Hate Running and So Can You.

Scott: It’s bleep me and bleep you.

Scott: OK, so here’s what I want to know, though.

Scott: Zone 1, what is the heart range for that?

Peter: Hanging around, walking around, not doing much of anything.

Scott: Is Zone 1 a valid zone to use?

Scott: Like, is that considered a warm up zone?

Peter: Yeah, that’s like sitting on the couch zone for me.

Scott: OK, but is Zone 1 used in the course of training or is it to be avoided?

Peter: I don’t think that accounts for like anything.

Scott: OK, so Zone 1 is anything not exercising.

Peter: Yeah, like I think walking is like Zone 1.

Scott: Then sleeping must be Zone 0 because your heart rate is like…

Peter: Really low.

Scott: Yeah.

Peter: So for me, the healthy heart rate zone, which is low impact, is like 110, 120 in that range.

Scott: Yeah, yeah.

Peter: That’s like walking maybe.

Peter: But even then, like a slow walk like today, like after our 5K when we were walking back, I was like under 100 beats per minute.

Scott: Yeah, for sure.

Peter: So it doesn’t really count for much, right?

Peter: So I guess that’s…

Scott: Anything at 100 and above is kind of a brisk walk.

Peter: Yeah.

Peter: So for me, like 110 and above or so in that range is the healthy heart zone and it’s low impact.

Peter: Then there’s the recovery zone, which is like 60 to 70% of max effort.

Scott: What would that heart rate be?

Peter: For me, it’s around 120 to 134, 135.

Scott: Is that what you were doing today?

Peter: That was what I was doing today and targeting yesterday.

Scott: So today really was a recovery run because you were in your recovery zone.

Peter: Right.

Peter: Then there’s the aerobic zone, which goes up to 146.

Peter: But some people call the recovery zone like the low aerobic zone.

Scott: Do you have to wear ankle socks and weird headbands in the aerobic zone?

Peter: Don’t have to, but I hear it helps.

Peter: Then after that comes the anaerobic zone, which is like 80 to 90% range.

Peter: And then there’s the red zone, your VO2 max.

Peter: And that for me is like 171 beats per minute or so.

Scott: And above the red zone is when EMTs arrive on scene.

Peter: That’s called cardiac arrest.

Peter: And amazingly enough, it loops back around to zero.

Peter: It’s funny how that works.

Scott: Yeah, so it’s a circle.

Peter: Yeah, exactly.

Peter: It’s a circle of life and, well, maybe not life.

Peter: Hey, I had a question.

Peter: Your beer is empty.

Scott: Yes, my beer is empty.

Peter: Can we do something about that without interrupting recording, or is this where we do a PSA and one of us rambles on while the other one goes and fetches the brown too?

Scott: I think we keep going until you’re done with yours, and then we get our new beers together.

Peter: Here’s the thing.

Peter: My Marion Berry pie is mostly, it’s at least halfway gone.

Scott: Yeah.

Peter: And I really want to eat that with the other beer.

Scott: Okay.

Scott: Are you asking me to finish that?

Peter: No, I’m asking you to get the other beer.

Scott: Oh, and not finish that?

Scott: Because otherwise you’re going to have to pour it out the window, because that’s the only glass I got for you, my friend.

Peter: I’m going to finish this.

Peter: It’s not that bad that I would pour this out, like I said.

Scott: So you want me to go get the other two beers?

Scott: And bring them both up here.

Peter: See, I was trying to say that subtly so that the listener wouldn’t know that we had to pause the recording.

Scott: Okay, we’re not going to pause the recording, though.

Peter: So that means I have to keep rambling.

Scott: Well, you’ve got a lot of show notes here.

Scott: I feel like you can dive into.

Scott: Oh, boy.

Peter: Yeah, well, I can.

Peter: I mean, most of them are about running.

Scott: By the way, Peter’s iPad is in a different time zone than Peter’s.

Peter: No, I synchronized it.

Scott: Okay, talk to them about the time zone.

Scott: Oh, boy.

Peter: Why don’t you get beers while I talk about time zones?

Peter: So I’ll tell everybody that, as everyone knows, I live in the Greater Boston Area, just outside of Boston.

Scott: It’s not greater.

Peter: Scott says that because he lives on what he thinks is the best coast, everyone.

Peter: Okay.

Peter: The rest of us, we know it as the West Coast, right?

Peter: Okay.

Peter: I got to tell you, it’s not that bad.

Peter: It’s not that bad.

Peter: And I really do like visiting.

Peter: Every time I’ve come out West, it’s really nice out here, especially yesterday running out in the Pacific Northwest in Northern Oregon stuff.

Peter: Way cool.

Peter: Really pretty, lovely scenery.

Peter: The trails are amazing.

Peter: I could definitely see myself happily living out here.

Peter: So that’s, I admit that.

Peter: Notice I’m not admitting that to Scott’s face.

Peter: Well, you don’t know that, listener, because you can’t see that he left the room, but you can envision that.

Peter: Anyway, so I’m on my first real vacation since COVID times, I guess.

Peter: And I started with the first leg of this journey, visiting an old friend in Texas.

Peter: I spent a couple of days down there on the beach in Corpus Christi, had some fun, played with sea turtles, learned some interesting things there, had some okay Texas barbecue.

Peter: Yeah, all right, not great, unfortunately.

Peter: From there, came up here to Oregon, visiting Scott for the second time in person.

Peter: So it’s kind of funny.

Peter: We go way back.

Peter: We’ve known each other since, I believe, I want to say 2004, but we’ve only been physically in the same room for a couple of days and stuff.

Peter: Well, not in the same room continuously for a couple of days, but physically.

Peter: We met up back in like 2000, I want to say 2013 or so, or maybe 2012, and then haven’t seen each other since then, except over the internet, and then again today.

Peter: So here I am for a little while in the second leg of my journey here in Oregon.

Peter: From here, I am taking a flight and hopping to the Bahamas.

Peter: That leg of the journey will be continued on the Blurring the Lines Podcast with my friend Adam Bell.

Peter: That is, if I can go through all of these hoops with COVID-19 and other travel restriction requirements.

Peter: And boy, it’s a pain synchronizing all of these things and getting all to line up.

Peter: But more of a pain is the…

Peter: Can you bleep things on this podcast?

Peter: The poor communications that idiots put out there.

Peter: So I just don’t understand.

Peter: So I couldn’t find the same page today that we saw, but you heard me reading from this one yesterday, which this page very unclearly talks about the restrictions for people who have been vaccinated to enter the country.

Peter: And it implies in the same breath that if you’re fully vaccinated, you can come into the country.

Peter: And then it says, oh, but you’re going to need a negative COVID test, sort of, if you’re vaccinated, you might need to…

Peter: You can come in, and it’s fine, and there’s no restrictions, but you’re going to need to have a test.

Peter: And it’s like these people got paid by the word that they wrote.

Scott: The way they worded it was most people can come back in, most people who are vaccinated could come back in with some restrictions.

Scott: And then you look at the restrictions, the restrictions are everyone has to have a recent COVID test within X amount of hours, and they have to have the documentation from it.

Peter: Yeah.

Peter: Why don’t you just say, if you want to come back in the country, you have to have a negative COVID test.

Scott: Right, because vaccinated or not, you’re getting the damn test, and it doesn’t seem to matter.

Peter: And I believe unvaccinated, you’re not allowed in, right?

Scott: Maybe.

Scott: Can’t even tell.

Scott: I don’t know.

Scott: There’s lots of unvaccinated Americans, and if people unvaccinated aren’t allowed in, why aren’t they kicking out the people who aren’t vaccinated who are here already?

Peter: That would be choice.

Peter: This Marion Berry pie you got is really good.

Scott: That’s very good, yeah.

Peter: Are we ready to move on to round two of the beer?

Scott: Amen.

Peter: All right.

Scott: You say what this is, because you picked out this one.

Peter: I did pick out this one.

Peter: This is Worthy Brewing Company.

Scott: Which I’ve never heard of.

Peter: Located in Bend, Oregon.

Scott: Not to be confused with, you have the Bends, Oregon.

Peter: That’s different.

Peter: That’s if you inhale too much nitrogen from a nitro milk stout or something.

Scott: That’s near the coast when you go diving.

Peter: Got it.

Peter: This is their Lights Out Stout, which is a 7.7% alcohol.

Scott: Roger.

Peter: It’s only 12 ounces though, so it’s not a full pint.

Peter: So there’s a chance I can get through this and still be sober.

Scott: There is no chance.

Peter: But it’s only 30 IBUs, so it should not be that bitter.

Peter: That said, I wanted to pair this stout with something sweet.

Scott: And we all know that IBUs stand for International Business Unit.

Peter: Bitterness Unit.

Peter: We don’t all know that, Scott.

Peter: It’s different.

Scott: Now, in the weird, subtle, and almost invisible light that I have in here, because Peter and I like a romantic podcast, this looks reddish to me as I pour it.

Scott: Not in the glass.

Scott: In the glass, it looks very dark brown.

Peter: Yeah, it looks black to me, but I have untrained eyes when it comes to colors.

Scott: Peter doesn’t have colors.

Peter: The first sip of this is yummy.

Peter: Wow.

Peter: Okay, I like this.

Peter: Yeah, I read the description, and it’s like notes of coffee and chocolate and vanilla, and I was like, yeah, that sounds good, but the 30 IBUs is what sold me.

Scott: This is even darker than the mud that we were running on the other day.

Peter: Indeed, and probably tastes a lot better, too.

Scott: I would imagine so.

Scott: We were fortunate enough not to go face down and find out, but…

Scott: Yep.

Peter: Luckily, the trail was fairly forgiving, although there were some slippery spots.

Peter: But you, in those Ultra Trail Claws, those Ultra Lone Peaks that you were wearing, you definitely had better traction than me in my Merrell Trail Gloves.

Scott: Yeah, and listeners to this podcast will have heard us talking about that before, when Peter was talking about the Ultra Lone Peaks.

Scott: Five, I guess they are now?

Peter: No, six is the latest, but we got the five.

Scott: Are mine the five?

Peter: I think we have five.

Scott: I think mine’s a six.

Scott: Anyway, they are a very good shoe.

Scott: I’m so glad about them.

Scott: They’re super comfortable.

Scott: They have a big roomy toe box.

Scott: But not too roomy.

Scott: My feet don’t slip around or anything.

Scott: And I broke them in in Arizona on a hike, and they really don’t feel like they needed breaking in at all.

Scott: They felt amazing right from the go.

Peter: I concur with that because I put about 120 miles on my primary pair.

Scott: What is he doing?

Peter: He’s trying to get into trouble.

Peter: And that’s the cat Scott’s asking.

Peter: He’s not talking to himself, asking what I’m trying to do, by the way.

Peter: But I really don’t feel any difference between them and my secondary pair, which only has like 20 miles on them.

Peter: And given that most quote unquote, most manufacturers recommend that you throw away your pair of running shoes after 250 miles.

Peter: These are almost halfway to their useful lifespan.

Scott: And you can’t tell a difference.

Scott: So that’s good.

Peter: So for me, though, I tend to keep them a lot longer.

Peter: Some of the guys on the Trail Runner Nation podcast, which that’s my favorite running podcast now, they interviewed a guy a while ago, Charlie something, I think.

Peter: And he’s famous.

Scott: No, not not my.

Peter: No, not not Charlie.

Peter: And he’s famous for running thousands of miles in the same pairs of shoes.

Peter: And they asked him like, you know, Charlie, what’s your secret?

Peter: How do you do that?

Peter: He says, well, basically, the best way to do that is you buy one pair of shoes and just keep running.

Peter: And I was like, oh, there you go.

Peter: We’re both pausing for a bite of pie.

Scott: Pie break.

Scott: By the way, I used to think that marionberries were a Pacific Northwest thing, but I don’t think they are.

Scott: Do you know of marionberries?

Peter: Only for you.

Scott: Do Bostonians throw marionberries into the bay?

Peter: No, we throw tea into the bay.

Peter: Oh, and money that we could use for taxes.

Peter: We don’t throw jaywalkers into the bay, and we don’t throw people who run the red lights into the bay.

Scott: Oh, my God, man, red light running is getting so bad around here.

Scott: Today, Peter and I were driving, and we saw one light where at least five people went through after.

Peter: Okay, now that sounds bad, but that’s like the standard in Boston.

Scott: I know, but here it’s usually one or two.

Scott: But it’s every light around here.

Scott: Every light has someone running it.

Scott: But this was like five people, and they were all turning left, and they were just like, screw it, we’re going.

Peter: I’d wait a long enough.

Scott: And a lot of times they think that if they’re unhurried about it, that somehow it’s not as egregious.

Scott: They weren’t trying to be a dick about it.

Scott: They’re just kind of going.

Peter: I wasn’t going fast, so it’s okay, right?

Scott: You like that?

Peter: This beer is good, and it really does pair well with the pie.

Scott: It’s a little something-y for me, but I don’t know what…

Peter: Something-y.

Peter: That narrows it right down.

Scott: Well, it’s pretty good.

Peter: I do like it, because frankly, the reason, the main reason I like it is it’s not too bitter.

Scott: It’s definitely not bitter.

Peter: It probably tastes better than this fork, you should tell your cat.

Peter: He was just trying to chew on my fork.

Peter: Not the end with pie on it either.

Peter: He’s not the sharpest bulb in the deck, is he?

Scott: You know, our previous two cats were pretty smart.

Scott: When we first got this cat, I thought he’s a dumb jock.

Scott: Very athletic, but then I started realizing he actually is a pretty smart cat.

Scott: He just is so playful that he just wants to do stuff.

Scott: But he’s actually not a dumb cat.

Peter: He is a doer.

Scott: He’s definitely a doer.

Scott: He’s a man of action.

Scott: Now he wants out.

Peter: Yeah.

Peter: So yesterday morning, Scott’s cat came to my room, the guest room, and I left the door deliberately cracked a little bit so that the cat could open it.

Peter: Now I’ve seen this cat open doors.

Peter: I know he has the capability to open doors.

Scott: He can.

Peter: He did not want to open the door.

Peter: He wanted me to open the door for him.

Peter: So like a vampire, he wanted to be invited into my room.

Scott: Well, I’m not leaving here until you open that door for me, Peter.

Peter: So eventually after, you know, listening to him like coo outside my room for, I don’t know how long, I got up and I opened the door.

Peter: And he comes right in.

Peter: Not terribly long after that, he climbs up into bed.

Peter: And not terribly long after that, he climbs down under the sheets.

Peter: And so I’m snoozing and, you know, like I have a cat snuggling under the sheets, which is something I have not experienced in nearly 10 years now since Mew passed on.

Peter: And, you know, like, okay, and I can, you know, sort of feel, I can’t hear the purr, but I can sort of feel the purr box vibrating a little bit.

Peter: I’m like, okay, that’s cute.

Peter: And then he crawls down further and farther and he’s down near my feet.

Peter: I’m like, okay, that’s fine.

Peter: And then I feel the gentlest little little nibble on the back of my calf.

Peter: And Scott had warned me that this cat likes to bite the back of people’s legs.

Peter: I was like, okay, I now I have experienced it.

Peter: I guess I’m one of one of the family now exposed.

Peter: So he nibbles on the just once, just one little love bite there.

Peter: And then, you know, he went back to whatever else he was doing.

Peter: I’m like, okay, now I can go back to sleep.

Peter: And then I felt him flop over to his other side, face my other leg, grab it with all four paws and bite that one too.

Peter: Then sometime went by, he was like, okay, he stopped doing that.

Peter: And he’s shifting a little bit.

Peter: And then he started to coo and let out one meow, because I think he got lost.

Scott: He does get lost under the covers.

Scott: I don’t know how or why.

Peter: So I just lifted the covers up a little bit so he had some light.

Peter: He’s like, oh, that’s where I came from.

Peter: And he slowly worked his way back out.

Peter: And then he jumped out.

Peter: And then even though the door was partially open, he wanted me to let him out.

Peter: Like I said, I’ve seen him open comparable sized doors.

Peter: He pulls your closet door downstairs open with not a second thought.

Peter: But when it comes to the guest room door, he’s like, excuse me, Jeeves, if you don’t mind, I do have a schedule to keep.

Scott: The funny thing is he does the same thing with my daughter’s door.

Scott: He could open it, but he’s not gonna.

Peter: I don’t want to be rude, but could you let me out, please?

Scott: Then the next night, he came in and he walked across my wife’s head to climb next to me.

Scott: He scooted down under the covers, and it was warm in there, so I had nothing on but underwear, meaning I wasn’t wearing a shirt.

Scott: And so as soon as he realized my upper torso was naked, he took a gentle bite of my stomach.

Scott: Very gentle, just a preliminary, cautious bite.

Scott: And I thought, OK.

Scott: And then about three seconds later, he did another one.

Scott: And then about ten seconds later, he walked across my wife’s head again, and he was gone.

Peter: Well, he was just telling, he was calibrating.

Peter: He was like, Dad, I don’t know how to tell you this, but I can pinch more than an inch.

Scott: He was.

Scott: He was judging me.

Scott: He was like, OK, you ran a half marathon, but you still have some work to do.

Peter: You better run a little farther.

Scott: You should have run the whole thing.

Scott: And then he bit my wife’s nightlight and turned it on, and then it fell to the floor.

Scott: So she’s over there fumbling around trying to get the light, and it’s blaring up in his eyes, and that confused him.

Scott: So then he just stood there staring at it.

Scott: Yeah, he bit the nightlight and turned it on.

Peter: You know, the funny thing about him, though, is he’s not malicious.

Scott: Right.

Peter: I have an ex-girlfriend who had a cat, who I was telling you about earlier.

Peter: I was like, wow, this cat is really fresh.

Peter: She’s rambunctious.

Peter: And she turns to me and she’s like, she’s an asshole.

Peter: So this cat would come into the bedroom in the morning and knock over a standing floor lamp because she wanted to get fed.

Peter: And I was like, all right, cat, we get it and stuff.

Peter: So it got so bad that I bought her a ping pong ball gun.

Peter: And my ex, she loves cats, loves animals, loves them, loves them, loves them.

Peter: But she got angry enough that she actually used the ping pong gun on the cat.

Peter: And luckily, it got to the point where the cat could just see the pop gun, you know, the gun in hand, and she would run away.

Peter: Okay, that’s great.

Peter: I do remember the very first time she started to act up, she said, no, get, pop her, you know, use the gun, right?

Peter: And I meant to just shoot near her and stuff, but I wasn’t really experienced with ping pong popper gun.

Peter: I got her right on the nose.

Peter: Boom, scatter!

Scott: The nose is probably one of the most sensitive areas on the cat.

Peter: But from then on, she did not actually need to be popped anymore.

Peter: Just the threat of popping was enough.

Scott: Yeah, our cat Oliver, that died like a year before the pandemic, or the year, the end of the year before the pandemic started, he got to a point where he would bother us every morning for food, and I was getting furious with him.

Scott: Our solution was just to buy one of those automatic feeders for the dry food.

Scott: And that was enough to keep him quiet in the morning.

Scott: It restored peace.

Scott: It fixed.

Scott: My cat and I, our relationship healed after that.

Peter: That would not have worked in that situation, though, because she had three cats.

Scott: Right, but the other two, here’s what I was thinking, though.

Scott: The other two weren’t bothering you for the food.

Peter: They were not.

Scott: So you could have put it out.

Peter: Just fed that one.

Scott: Just fed that one and worried about the other two later.

Peter: Fair enough.

Peter: Yep.

Scott: Well, Amanda, if you’re listening, and I know you’re not, Quit popping your cat and buy her a food rotator.

Scott: Although that cat may not be around anymore.

Peter: No, she’s, I’m sure she’s still around.

Peter: She’s too stupid to move on.

Peter: Too annoying, I should say.

Scott: That cat’s too annoying to die.

Peter: Yes, pretty much.

Peter: At least this soon.

Scott: So you explained your COVID situation.

Scott: I did.

Scott: Did you explain that you’re going to live in the Bahamas for now?

Peter: I did.

Scott: Peter’s no longer going to live in America.

Peter: What I didn’t actually do, though, was finish the discussion about the 50k.

Scott: Yes, right.

Scott: Talk about that.

Peter: Well, just quickly, the calculations.

Peter: So by my calculations, it’s 50k, or about 31 miles.

Scott: Yep, 31.5 is what you scribbled here.

Peter: And if I read the directions on the website correctly, the race begins at 8am, and the cutoff is 6.30pm.

Scott: Can you still get a bite of chicken afterwards if you finish this?

Peter: I’ve been having trouble, I’ve been challenged with times and time zones, but I’m pretty sure that’s 10.5 hours.

Scott: Ah, his iPad keeps switching back and forth, it’s hilarious.

Peter: So I’m pretty sure that means that I need to sustain a 3 mile per hour pace to finish the race.

Scott: You can fall down over and over at 3 miles per hour.

Peter: I could probably walk it and finish this race.

Scott: You could walk it on your hands at 3 miles an hour.

Peter: So that helps too.

Peter: So I’m not worried about having to be fast to make the cutoff.

Peter: So that’s good.

Peter: And yesterday’s pace, we were like 16 minute miles, which is about 8.5 miles per hour.

Scott: Were we that slow yesterday?

Peter: Yeah, if you factor in stops and breaks and everything.

Scott: Oh, if you factor in the walking.

Peter: Well, you have to do that because the clock doesn’t stop.

Scott: There were a couple times when we were taking the walk breaks to get the heart rate back down, we were walking pretty slow and we were talking.

Scott: We were stopping, we were walking.

Scott: Well, we weren’t even brisk walking, we were just walking.

Peter: No, just moseying.

Scott: So that dramatically affected the pace.

Peter: Right.

Peter: What I’m saying is that’s almost three times the speed that you need to finish this.

Peter: So I’m not so worried about that.

Scott: Not so worried because I felt like we were pretty slow.

Peter: I mean, I might be towards the back of the pack, but whatever.

Scott: Yeah, but your goal is to finish this thing.

Peter: Just say I ran a 50K or finished a 50K ultra marathon.

Scott: And the next year you can win your age group.

Peter: Or do a 50-miler and not.

Scott: True.

Scott: You can beat the 16-year-old if you’re lucky, but I doubt it.

Peter: That 16-year-old is doing the mountain bike race.

Peter: The youngest contender in the 50…

Peter: Well, the youngest in the 50-miler is I think 23 that I’ve seen so far.

Scott: How many miles does the mountain bike race?

Peter: 50.

Scott: That’s short.

Peter: Yeah, but it’s mountain bike.

Scott: Yeah, yeah.

Scott: It could be way more grueling.

Peter: And plus there’s a relay.

Scott: A relay?

Scott: Do they hand each other off the helmet?

Peter: I’m not sure about that.

Peter: So my running buddy Greg today did sign up to actually run the 50K with me.

Peter: So, yay!

Scott: Yay, Greg.

Scott: Let’s toast to Greg.

Peter: It’s gonna be way more fun than a triathlon, Greg.

Peter: Trust me.

Scott: Have you ever barfed while you’re running, Greg?

Scott: Well, get ready.

Peter: And then Greg and I can run the one that’s right by where we live, which is four laps of the Skyline Trail in Medford.

Peter: My training route in Medford also becomes an ultra by doing it four times.

Scott: An ultra is in 50 miles?

Peter: An ultra as in more than 26.

Scott: Okay.

Scott: But how many miles is it?

Peter: Like 32.

Scott: Oh, okay.

Scott: You could do that in your sleep by then.

Peter: But there you go.

Peter: So I might just do that race too, because why not?

Scott: In his sleep.

Scott: So Greg, don’t talk to him because he’s gonna be trying to sleep.

Peter: Well, it’s funny because I recently looked at my Apple Watch health statistics, and it was telling me what did I have to look at it?

Peter: But I remember texting people pictures of it.

Peter: And I said, apparently, I’m a sleepwalker because it was saying, what was it saying?

Peter: I have to look it up because it was like it was showing that I had slept for more hours.

Peter: But I know I have to look it up.

Scott: You probably slept for many hours, including hours that you were actually running or something or walking.

Peter: Ah, I got it.

Peter: I got it.

Peter: I got it.

Peter: Because my average time in bed for the week of May 14th was six hours and 55 minutes.

Peter: My average time asleep was seven hours and 47 minutes.

Peter: So I slept for an hour more than I was in bed, almost.

Scott: Well, remembering the Weggemann’s episode, I believe that.

Scott: I think there was some couch or even front door sleeping.

Scott: As soon as the Weggemann’s guy left, you just passed out right there.

Peter: I don’t even remember exactly what happened there other than I ordered and ate way more food than I should have.

Scott: I know you were desperately drunk dialing your friends trying to get someone to come help you eat.

Peter: Don’t remember that part either.

Scott: You kept calling people saying, please help me, and they were like, please help me come eat.

Peter: Yeah, I don’t remember that.

Scott: Remember, I think you even called, was it Greg that you called?

Scott: You wanted him to come help you, and he was being a responsible exerciser or something.

Peter: Yeah, Greg was like going to Krav Maga or Jiu Jitsu that night.

Peter: And I was like, come over after.

Peter: And he was like, I’m tired.

Peter: I’m like, gee, thanks.

Peter: This is the guy I chose to be my wingman for this 50k.

Scott: Speaking of wings, hey, listen, do you still do any martial arty?

Peter: Not currently, not currently.

Peter: I took a break.

Peter: This was right before COVID, actually, because I had aggravated my rotator cuff injury in Jiu Jitsu.

Scott: Your instructor had aggravated your…

Peter: It wasn’t my instructor.

Peter: This was just a fellow student.

Peter: It was some teenager who had zero body awareness.

Scott: I swear to God that you had an instructor that basically ripped your arms off over time.

Scott: Oh, that’s right.

Peter: That was a whole different kettle of fish.

Scott: Whole different ball of shoulder wax.

Peter: Whole of shoulder wax, yes.

Peter: No, so I haven’t actively practiced martial arts other than just self, you know, just like my solo practice, boxing gloves, you know, some shadow boxing.

Scott: Oh, that’s true.

Peter: Occasionally some drills with a friend, like, you know, okay, here, pull a gun on me, pull a knife on me.

Peter: Let’s see.

Peter: Oh, I do remember how to do this.

Peter: That’s about it right now.

Scott: I hope that the gun is made out of wood or something.

Peter: It’s usually plastic.

Peter: It’s plastic.

Peter: I don’t use my real gun for that sort of training.

Peter: And if I was to use my real gun for that sort of training, A, I’d be stupid, and B, it wouldn’t be loaded.

Scott: But it doesn’t matter.

Scott: They killed Brandon Lee that way.

Peter: And Alec Baldwin killed someone with that.

Scott: Oh, my God.

Peter: Yeah.

Scott: Even Alec Baldwin felt remorseful about something.

Scott: Too soon.

Scott: I mean, that is a horrible.

Scott: I know I’m joking, but I mean, that is just horrible.

Scott: They killed a wonderful woman and doing her job, doing a good job by all accounts.

Scott: Well, not that it matters, even if you’re doing a bad job, that’s not a death sentence.

Scott: And the idiot prop guy delivers unto him a gun, you know, and I’m sure the same thing happened with the Brandon Lee thing.

Scott: The Brandon Lee thing was freaky, though.

Scott: It’s like a Bruce Lee curse or something.

Scott: It’s just insane.

Peter: Brandon Lee that.

Peter: And also, there was a CBS nighttime TV show about like spies or something like that.

Peter: I don’t remember who the actor was, and I don’t remember the name of the show.

Peter: But one of the other actors on the show was the like mentor or commander of Lee Majors, the six million dollar man.

Peter: The same actor played on this other show, and the main character who was like the spy kind of thing was also killed on set with a gun.

Scott: Yeah, I mean, I’m sure it happens.

Scott: It’s just but how does it?

Scott: That’s the thing.

Scott: It’s like, why do live rounds even come into the equation?

Peter: But but I had heard and I don’t know what the story with the Alec Baldwin thing or whatnot, but I had heard that like blanks can sometimes actually have some sort of like they have enough explosive that they can create enough of a projectile to injure you.

Peter: Right.

Scott: Impossibly kill you.

Scott: It’s not like a bullet, but it’s enough of a projectile.

Peter: But it seems like that’s a fixable problem.

Scott: It seems like all that’s preventable.

Peter: Yeah.

Scott: Like, you should only have blanks, first of all.

Scott: There should be no live rounds anywhere near the set for any reason.

Peter: File that under no kidding.

Scott: And then I guess you’re right, though.

Scott: I guess there could be a quality control issue with because at the end of the day, it is still a gun with a barrel.

Scott: And there is an explosion taking place inside.

Peter: And these days, I would think that all guns could just be CGI.

Scott: For sure.

Scott: Or at least the firing part of them could be.

Scott: Pull the trigger, let the hammer drop and frickin work your magic.

Peter: Yeah, I was impressed.

Peter: Like I saw a bunch of the I generally don’t like when it comes to movies and stuff.

Peter: I generally do not like to watch like the making of things because it ruins the movie magic for me.

Scott: I don’t care about the movie magic.

Peter: I do.

Peter: I do.

Peter: My inner 10 year old kid just wants to be like wowed and dazzled.

Peter: So I won’t watch those.

Peter: But I saw some of the like some of the Avengers movies.

Peter: And it’s funny.

Peter: Some of these acting scenes are they’re just ordinary people doing ordinary things.

Peter: Not at all impressive.

Peter: Like, you know, some of the action scenes and stuff.

Peter: And it’s amazing how much is CGI.

Peter: But one of the things that got my attention was there’s a scene where Mark Ruffalo, who plays Bruce Banner on the Hulk, he’s supposed to be in Hulk form.

Peter: And he’s talking with Dr.

Peter: Strange’s mentor, the Ancient One.

Peter: And it’s funny because they have him like standing up on this three or four foot tall platform.

Peter: And so Ruffalo is just walking back and forth with all these motion tracking sensors on him.

Peter: Beer’s kicking in.

Peter: I can’t even remember her name now.

Peter: Who plays the Ancient One is looking up at him.

Peter: And I was like, wait, that’s the scene where he was the Hulk.

Peter: He wasn’t bad.

Peter: Oh, that’s how they made it.

Peter: But they do so much cool movie stuff, which looks completely live these days.

Peter: There’s no reason to have a gun on set, and certainly nothing that could fire and actually make an explosion.

Scott: Oh, the Ancient One is a he.

Peter: In the comics, he’s a he.

Peter: In the movies, it’s a she.

Peter: Tilda Swenson.

Scott: Oh, she looks very familiar to me.

Peter: She’s been in stuff.

Scott: She’s great.

Peter: Yeah, so she plays the Ancient One.

Peter: But you hate all things Marvel, so you’ll never know that.

Scott: I hate them, yeah.

Peter: I’m glad you didn’t try to fight this one.

Scott: I was going to say it’s an IPA.

Scott: I didn’t hate it, but then the aftertaste kicked in.

Peter: Yes.

Peter: But you haven’t even tasted these, so you can’t tell.

Scott: Yeah, my daughter’s a little burned out on Marvel.

Peter: Well, there has been a lot, and I will admit that it is somewhat formulaic.

Peter: I am eager to see what stage, I don’t know, we’re on phase five is now, like what comes next.

Scott: But how can there be anything next?

Scott: They’ve already destroyed the universe and have the people in it.

Peter: They brought them back.

Scott: They killed Iron Man.

Peter: They brought him.

Peter: Okay, they didn’t bring him back.

Peter: They could if they wanted to.

Peter: That’s all contract.

Peter: It’s fiction, and death is just a sometimes temporary state.

Scott: Peter was about to say death is fiction, you guys.

Peter: In Marvel, it is.

Peter: It’s all fiction.

Scott: Now he’s drinking water.

Scott: You know, I was going to say that this beer really hasn’t affected me, but I am a tiny bit buzzed right now.

Peter: It’s 7.7%.

Peter: And I finished mine.

Scott: Yeah, I finished mine.

Peter: And I actually feel relatively sober, which is kind of…

Scott: You are.

Scott: You’re relatively sober.

Peter: Yeah.

Scott: Compared to that one time.

Peter: Well, I’m not having the same, the normal reaction.

Scott: And that other time.

Scott: Yeah.

Peter: And like most other times.

Scott: Then there was that other time.

Peter: That time.

Scott: Yeah.

Peter: Oh, and then there was the time that we don’t talk about.

Scott: Right.

Scott: Yeah, that was embarrassing.

Scott: Yeah.

Scott: A little bit awkward.

Scott: I’m really glad showers and soap are a thing.

Peter: Oh, God.

Peter: You said you weren’t going to go there.

Peter: So what else?

Peter: What other topics did you have?

Peter: You were complaining that you didn’t, like, you know, have any topics on the thing.

Scott: I didn’t.

Scott: Peter filled out our show notes, and it was all stuff that he wanted to talk about, and he informed me that I was going to talk about some of it to give the illusion that I chose some of these things to talk about, but I didn’t choose them.

Peter: I didn’t say it was to give you the illusion.

Peter: I said it was to give you the illusion of having your own choice.

Scott: Did you talk about the coffee grinder?

Peter: I did not.

Scott: OK.

Scott: So the way the day started off today was I’m upstairs, waking up, getting ready, and I knew that Peter was, I thought that Peter was awake and getting ready.

Scott: I knew that my wife was definitely awake and downstairs and getting ready.

Scott: And then I get a text message from my wife.

Scott: And it says, the coffee grinder stack I will not.

Scott: And I thought, good for you.

Scott: I wouldn’t either, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.

Scott: So I went downstairs and apparently Peter was playing defense lawyer for my wife because he advised her not to say that she broke the coffee grinder.

Peter: Correct.

Peter: So let me backfill this story just a little bit.

Peter: So I smelled for the second day in a row the sweet, sweet aroma of coffee coming from downstairs.

Peter: And I’m like, Scott’s wife is making coffee.

Peter: That’s great.

Peter: That’s an open invitation.

Peter: I am going to go down and get myself a cup of coffee.

Peter: And I go down and I find the poor woman perplexed and, you know, like hovering over a clearly non-functional coffee grinder.

Scott: Very non-functional.

Peter: Oh, so the first thing she said, and this is the funny thing I think is absolutely hilarious about this family.

Peter: Even though they’re only one floor away from each other, they text each other back and forth.

Scott: It’s very efficient.

Scott: But first of all, you got to remember things.

Scott: When we’re yelling to each other, I yell in a way that I imagine that they could hear me down there.

Scott: But because of the acoustics of the house and or particular people’s hearing, it cannot be heard whatsoever.

Peter: You also might be perceived as being angry or aggravated in the way that you yell.

Peter: So it might be good that you don’t yell.

Scott: Well, because I’m trying to be heard, yeah.

Peter: So I will consider myself like part of the family officially when the cat texts me.

Scott: Well, the cat already, I know what the cat was thinking.

Scott: We came to the conclusion that the cat was like, well, this guy lives here now.

Peter: I know he thinks that, but I don’t feel like it’s actually been officially, like I’ve officially been inducted into the family until the cat texts me.

Scott: He has done his equivalent of texting, which is to bite you.

Peter: But he hasn’t told me that he’s stacked like the coffee grinder.

Scott: That’s true.

Scott: He won’t.

Scott: He’s never going to admit anything.

Scott: He just destroys stuff and doesn’t talk about it.

Peter: Right.

Peter: So I advised your wife pretty much to take the same tack.

Scott: Destroy stuff and not talk about it?

Peter: I would not start with the opening, you know, like opening texts of saying, I broke the coffee grinder, because I wasn’t sure that she actually had broke.

Scott: I think the coffee grinder broke itself because…

Peter: You’re arguing my own point.

Scott: No, no, I…

Peter: The defense rests, Your Honor.

Scott: Right.

Scott: Because the thing is, I was never going to blame her to begin with.

Scott: She knows what she’s doing, and she definitely knows what she’s doing with respect to coffee grinders, but she’s not a person that goes around breaking things, ever, by any means whatsoever.

Peter: Not even unintentionally.

Scott: Not even unintentionally.

Peter: And that’s why I told her, I said, don’t own up to a mistake that you may not have made.

Scott: That’s true.

Scott: But the way it came across was that you were a defense lawyer, and you were acting against me before I even had a chance to…

Peter: It was in my client’s best interest, Your Honor.

Scott: Did she give you a dollar?

Scott: You have to have had some sort of financial transaction order for her to be your client.

Peter: She gave me coffee, she gave me pork roast.

Scott: No, no, no, no.

Peter: She gave me chips, she gave me guacamole, she gave me frittata, she gave me cornbread.

Scott: Trader Joe’s will give you chips, and they’re not your client.

Peter: They don’t give me chips, they demand compensation.

Peter: They make me be their customer.

Peter: So I accepted payment, not in physical currency, but in a form of food.

Peter: So tell me one other thing, too.

Peter: Let’s rewind this back.

Peter: Before we finish up with the coffee grinder, go back to running and nutrition.

Peter: This is something I’ll talk about probably with Adam on Blurring the Lines some more, but I’m curious with your first experience with on a long run, 13 miles, 13.1 miles, a half marathon, and using primarily as your form of nutrition, what was it again?

Scott: M&Ms, peanut butter M&Ms.

Peter: Also known as Reese’s Pieces.

Scott: Well…

Peter: Functionally almost no different.

Scott: They taste very different to me.

Peter: Okay, well, okay, the peanut butter M&Ms actually have chocolate in them where the Reese’s Pieces don’t.

Peter: But anyway, nutritionally almost identical.

Scott: When I ran my first half marathon, it was an actual half marathon event, the Helvetia Tavern Half Marathon here in…

Peter: The Helatius Tavern Half Marathon?

Peter: What?

Scott: That’s good enough.

Scott: Peter’s losing it.

Scott: He’s drinking from an IV bag.

Scott: That’s what it looks like right now.

Scott: He’s got an inflatable water bottle that collapses as you drink from it, which is great for portability while running, but it looks like he’s sucking from an IV bag right now.

Scott: Anyway, what I did when I ran that half marathon was I used my long bike ride nutrition.

Scott: So cliff bars, cliff shots, some pills of what do you call those?

Peter: Hydration tabs?

Scott: Yeah, whatever.

Peter: Salt tab?

Scott: Salt tabs basically.

Peter: Salt tab was also something that I had instituted for the brief time in 2017 and 18 when I had roommates.

Scott: Because roommates take up salt?

Peter: So Charlie was talking about how to reimburse me for other expenses besides rent when he lived with me.

Peter: Well, one of them was for salt.

Peter: And I was joking about when he’s using salt, I was like, well, just put it on the salt tab.

Peter: It’s okay.

Peter: If you’re going to use the salt, just start a tab and we’ll track that.

Peter: And so then all these little incidental expenses, we would joke, would be wound up on, they would wind up on the salt tab.

Peter: Later, I found out that there were things called salt tabs, which you actually use for like electrolytes and sodium to replenish your body as you’re here.

Peter: So you put it on the salt tab.

Scott: So when I ran the half marathon, I did nutrition that way.

Scott: It was the same as my long bike rides.

Scott: I was familiar with it.

Scott: It worked great.

Scott: I had no issues.

Scott: This time, I tried the M&M only method.

Scott: Now, in fairness to Peter, so Peter did the math.

Peter: You had a noon hydration tablet.

Peter: I gave you one or two.

Scott: Yeah, you gave me two of those, and I put them in my three liter water bottle.

Peter: You had salt tabs too.

Scott: Yes.

Scott: Peter said M&M’s, and he’s correct, M&M’s are the very most portable and easy to eat without compromise because cliff bars turn warm and get weird.

Scott: Other things get smashed.

Scott: Stinger waffles or waffle stingers, whatever they’re called.

Peter: They turn to dust and goo?

Scott: They turn to dust and goo.

Scott: So the dust blows out and the goo remains behind.

Peter: I was hoping to eat some of this.

Scott: But I tried the M&M’s, and the thing is that I did not feel well after eating that many M&M’s.

Scott: So I don’t think that works for me.

Scott: It is convenient and it is good, but I think that a very much hybrid approach would be better for me.

Scott: I think maybe at least one third of the M&M’s and the rest should be more similar to what I’m used to for biking.

Peter: I also think that if you had eaten genuine peanut M&M’s as opposed to Reese’s Pieces and peanut butter M&M’s, that might have made a difference.

Peter: It might have made a slight difference.

Scott: Yeah, I agree with that.

Peter: Like I said, I had problems like last week.

Peter: I’m pretty sure it was last week on the 15 miler I did.

Peter: I inhaled part of a Clif bar.

Scott: Do you still have Clif lung?

Scott: Are you okay now?

Peter: I think I’ve tested negative for Clif lung at this point.

Scott: I’m cleared.

Peter: I’m no longer positive and contagious.

Peter: But for me, it’s easier to chew M&Ms in any form than it is to eat like a Clif bar.

Peter: And it’s also easier to get them into my mouth than it is to get a goo or a Clif shot.

Scott: That is true.

Peter: Because I love, don’t get me wrong, a vanilla goo, delicious, absolutely delicious.

Peter: But I am obsessed with squeaking out every last milliliter of that bit from the container, from the foil.

Peter: And then I get sidetracked doing that.

Peter: That’s it.

Peter: I think they make vanilla-flavored M&Ms.

Peter: So I could get some of those to supplement the peanut M&Ms.

Scott: You’re supplementing your M&Ms with more M&Ms.

Scott: No, with a secret ingredient, even more M&Ms.

Peter: Now it’s complementary M&Ms.

Peter: Did we cover all the topics we wanted to?

Scott: I think so.

Scott: OK, so let’s look.

Scott: Heart rate conditioning, slow down.

Scott: Nutrition, eat while you can.

Scott: M&Ms versus Clif bars versus goo.

Scott: Walking is running.

Scott: That’s like turning left is turning right.

Peter: Well, eventually it is.

Scott: Resting is running.

Scott: Running with gear is harder.

Scott: And then you did COVID and travel.

Scott: Get your visa.

Scott: To come back home, you need to be vaccinated and get a test.

Scott: Or maybe not.

Scott: People are stupid.

Scott: 48 hours for five days.

Scott: Did you talk about the Walgreens trip?

Peter: Oh, we didn’t talk about that.

Peter: I was, yeah.

Peter: So that was one thing I left out, which was infuriating.

Peter: So to continue on the next leg of my trip to the Bahamas, I need to have a negative COVID test.

Peter: And it has to be administered within three days of my trip.

Peter: So I tried to schedule one at the local Walgreens.

Peter: And online, they say that normally you get a PCR test result within 48 hours, footnote number one.

Peter: And the footnote number one says sometimes there can be a delay of a few days.

Peter: But normally, within 48 hours.

Peter: Now we get to the Walgreens, and I’m not even going to go into the fact that there was some sort of The bomb squad, yeah.

Scott: The police dog.

Peter: law enforcement interference with a canine unit.

Scott: The dog was sniffing some weird metallic object.

Peter: We get there, and I show my ID, and the guy says, Okay, fine, we’ve got this test.

Peter: Were you told that it could take three to five days to get the results?

Peter: And I was like, No, I was told it could be 48 hours.

Peter: Like, that’s a really long 48 hours, or really short three to five days.

Peter: If you’re going to put a footnote with a little number one, oh, by the way, just open with that.

Peter: Tell people it’s going to take them three to five freaking days, and not a maximum of two days.

Peter: Oh, but maybe longer, you know, like, clearly communicate.

Peter: Why would you lie?

Peter: Why would you make me drive?

Peter: How long did we drive?

Peter: Like half an hour?

Scott: 20 minutes, yeah.

Peter: Just to find out that.

Scott: And uphill both ways.

Peter: It was uphill both ways, because we did take that detour.

Scott: Made it really hard to keep it in EV mode.

Peter: Why would you make someone drive all the way over there just to find out it could take more than twice as long as what you originally promised?

Scott: Why do you think the bomb squad was there?

Scott: Why do you think somebody was trying to blow the place up?

Peter: Could have been, could have been, and justifiably so.

Peter: Those are like those SOBs at Herb Chambers Kia back in Boston.

Scott: Peter is not going to call anyone out on there.

Peter: I especially won’t call out Herb Chambers Kia, who said that they had the Kia EV6, and were going to give me over $40,000 in trade for my Tesla, and that the car cost $36,000.

Peter: And then when I got there, they wanted to give me more like $30,000 in trade for my Tesla, and they wanted like an additional $10,000 for the car.

Peter: So essentially, changing the amount that I was expected to pay by over $20,000.

Peter: And then they were shocked, shocked I say, that we didn’t have a deal right there on the spot.

Scott: By the way, I will tell you, that is why I feel like we were super lucky with our car.

Scott: Because finding the Accord Hybrid is hard.

Scott: Finding the color I wanted is even harder.

Scott: Finding the trim I wanted in that model, I mean, I got exactly what I wanted.

Scott: And see, it’s not like this crazy markup that you and Adam are talking about.

Scott: They wanted $2,000 over MSRP.

Peter: Which now, relatively speaking, is not that bad.

Peter: But that’s not the same as saying online, and now, here, they did not say, our price is $36,000.

Peter: They said, MSRP for this car is $36,000.

Peter: Come on in.

Peter: Oh, but by the way, we’re going to charge you $46,000.

Scott: Well, to be fair, the Honda dealer did the same thing.

Scott: It’s just that the difference in what they wanted to charge above MSRP was much smaller.

Peter: Now, maybe legally, technically speaking, that doesn’t constitute bait and switch, but in my opinion, that’s bait and switch.

Scott: That’s not bait and switch, dude.

Scott: That’s beat and stitch.

Scott: I mean, that goes beyond bait and switch.

Peter: I’m just saying.

Peter: That seems wrong to me.

Scott: It is wrong.

Peter: Yeah.

Scott: That is like, you know what?

Scott: We’re going to royally screw you and you’re going to like it.

Peter: So I do not.

Peter: I do not like that.

Scott: No, I do not like that.

Scott: I cannot.

Scott: I will not.

Scott: In a boat with a goat.

Peter: So I’m stuck just, you know, continuing to funnel more money to Elon Musk and his, you know, cabal of evil.

Scott: Yeah.

Scott: Well, how evil can he be?

Scott: Has he issued an NFT against Tesla yet?

Peter: He must have issued some sort of.

Scott: He probably has.

Scott: He’s pumped and dumped enough crazy coin.

Peter: Hey, Siri, search the web for Elon Musk NFT.

Peter: Elon Musk can mock NFTs, but the Internet will get the last laugh.

Peter: Elon Musk changes Twitter avatar to Bored Ape NFTs.

Scott: So apparently Elon is actually smart enough to realize that NFTs are a scam, even though Elon Musk is a scam.

Peter: Well, I’m sure that he is smart enough to realize that NFTs are a scam.

Scott: Well, apparently he also does realize that NFTs are a scam, not just is smart enough to.

Peter: But what I’m curious is, is he smart enough to scam people with NFTs?

Peter: Because he’s scamming people with plenty of other stuff.

Scott: Right, like cars.

Peter: Cars, satellites.

Scott: Satellites.

Peter: Tunneling.

Scott: Tunneling.

Peter: Solar.

Scott: Pretending to buy Twitter in order to make its stock price go absolutely insane.

Peter: Twitter, right.

Peter: And I’m not saying he doesn’t deliver eventually, but he does so on the backs of other gullible idiots like me, who give him money up ahead of time, you know, in front, to give him totally free financing.

Scott: Peter, you are so happy with your Model S for not long enough.

Peter: Not even close to long enough.

Scott: No, because when you buy a new car, your happiness should last more than a couple years.

Peter: Absolutely.

Peter: On that note, I think we should wrap this up.

Scott: Why are we wrapping up?

Peter: Because I’m tired and I’m about to fall asleep.

Scott: You are about to fall asleep.

Peter: My body thinks it’s midnight still.

Scott: That’s true.

Scott: It’s 914 here, which is approximately 44, 45 a.m.

Scott: where Peter comes from.

Peter: Absolutely.

Peter: It’s midnight and 449.

Scott: Well, I could go for hours, but…

Scott: Do we…

Scott: Do we…

Peter: I don’t even remember what we do on this show.

Scott: We talk about our…

Scott: We say where people can find us.

Peter: Oh, that’s right.

Peter: You can find us at Friends with Beer Pod on Twitter.

Scott: On Twitter, which I’ve been using a lot less, by the way.

Scott: Almost no use of Twitter.

Peter: Well, because you thought Elon was going to buy it.

Scott: That precipitated it.

Peter: Come on, that was a factor.

Scott: It’s what started, but what made me continue barely using it is just that I just enjoy it not using it.

Scott: I feel so much better.

Peter: And we’ve talked about this before.

Peter: Twitter, for me, is very largely a write-only medium.

Peter: I don’t sit and ever, like, read Twitter.

Peter: Every now and then, I will get somebody calling something out to my attention on Twitter.

Scott: But here’s the thing about that.

Scott: If you’re only going to write to it, you’re just shouting into the void and you don’t give a…

Scott: That’s not an interaction, so what’s the point?

Scott: If you’re not going to interact with me, why should I listen to your shouts?

Scott: Honestly.

Peter: It feels good to have someone to talk to.

Scott: I know, but no one…

Scott: This is the Vic Hudson thing.

Scott: He thinks that he’s going to grow an empire by posting random things on Twitter, but he’s not actually talking.

Peter: Maybe he is.

Scott: He’s not.

Scott: I’ve seen his tweet account.

Peter: Vic, if you’re listening, I have faith in you.

Peter: I think you’re going to…

Peter: You’re going to build an empire.

Scott: No, because he doesn’t know a thing about…

Scott: He’s got 12 followers.

Scott: So, what I’m saying is, Peter, people who just shout out into Twitter, but don’t reply when you…

Scott: You know, it just lays like, why are you using Twitter?

Scott: Why would I listen to you?

Peter: Oh, I mean, if someone replies or whatnot, I will occasionally do it.

Peter: But what I am saying is, I do not spend any time doom scrolling on Twitter.

Scott: That is the way to live.

Scott: That’s absolutely the way to live.

Peter: Absolutely.

Peter: So I’d say it’s a 99% read-only medium, 1% writing.

Scott: But what I’m saying is, when I tweet something, if people respond to me…

Peter: Sorry, write only, 1% reading.

Peter: I’m drunk.

Scott: If I say something on Twitter, then I do check to see if Friends or whoever, followers, said anything back.

Peter: Well, I will get a notification when someone replies.

Scott: Oh, see, I have all notifications off for almost everything on my phone.

Peter: Oh, if someone replies, but I get it by email.

Peter: If someone replies, I get an email response.

Scott: That’s even worse.

Peter: No, it’s not, because I schedule when I check my emails.

Scott: But my email is already full of loads of crap.

Peter: I filter that crap out.

Peter: The only things that I get that’s crap that I don’t want to get in my email is generally freaking idiots who think that their email is my email address.

Scott: True.

Scott: We’ve talked about that many years.

Peter: It hasn’t gotten any better.

Scott: Hasn’t gotten any better.

Peter: No, because people still don’t know their email.

Scott: Now I’m starting to think that Adam’s right about the hack back attack.

Peter: Hack back, yeah, hack back attack.

Peter: We can talk about that on the next episode of Blurring the Lines.

Scott: Right.

Peter: But until then, people can find us at friendswithbeer.com and other places.

Scott: Friends with Beer Pod on Twitter.

Peter: And it’s Friends with Beer Pod.

Peter: It’s not Friends with Beer Pod.

Scott: No, it’s Friends W Beer Pod.

Peter: So I think we should actually register the domain friendswithbeer.ed.

Scott: I’m positive that the last time you said we should register something, you never registered it.

Peter: No, I didn’t.

Peter: But now I just thought of a different one that’s even shorter.

Peter: friendswithbeer.pod, but it’s all shortened, so it’s friendswbr.pd.

Peter: All the vowels extracted.

Peter: It’s been distilled into its Web 2.0e essence.

Peter: Even though we’re on Web 3.0 now.

Scott: Peter, this is the wrong time to become Russian, if you don’t mind my ass.

Peter: Maybe I was Chechnyan, I don’t know.

Scott: That’s true, yeah.

Peter: Anyway, friendswithbeer.com for you old timers.

Scott: That’s right.

Peter: You can find us there.

Peter: You can find a link to me on my Twitter account, Scott on his Twitter account.

Peter: You can also find Scott on other…

Peter: I don’t know where else to find you.

Peter: I mean, you can find you here in Oregon.

Scott: The Mastodons, but you can check the website.

Peter: The Mastodons, yes, exactly.

Peter: So you can find us on the website, friendswithbeer.com.