I Had A Tree Removed

A couple updates from me, Austin. Two Fridays ago, my family attended a birthday party for one of my daughter’s classmates at Chuck E. Cheese. Chuck E. Cheese rules if you haven’t been in a while. Don’t go if you don’t have kids. That’s weird. But if you have kids, go take a stroll through memory lane. It’s very different now, but still awesome. I set the high score in BOTH the basketball thingies. Shout out Chuck for getting my kids hyped on penny prizes. Like… everyone’s trying to leave but my kids racked up a bunch of tokens/points and they gotta cash them out and they’re looking at the prize wall like its all gold plated vinyl records worth a million dollars each, yet unbeknownst to them, mom and I will most likely throw away all the trinkets by the weekends end….

Oh yea… so… we all got the stomach bug or flu or c*vid or something from our birthday trip to see Chuck. Other than being AWESOME, that’s the place to head if you need to test your immune system. First my daughter, then my oldest, then me, then my middle kid and then my wife. So today… about 10 days removed from getting “The Chuck,” we’re almost all on the mend. 

Secondly, we had a tree removed from our front yard last Thursday. It was a beautiful 30+ year old Mulberry Tree (or something like that). Beautiful addition to our front yard. Perfect shade. We loved that tree. YET, the roots have been destroying our driveway for the past 10 years. The tree was planted eerily close to our main water and sewer lines. AND there’s a crack in our garage slab that’s most certainly from one of those pesky roots. Our tree dude swung by to look at it before starting the project and confirmed our suspicions. No chance to just trim and prune the tree. It’s gotta go. We shed a few proverbial tears about the tree. But adios, it’s gone. The lynchpin to my front yard improvements, we now get to replace the driveway so there isn’t a 9” drop off where the roots lifted the concrete. We’d also say “we want to do_____” but first the trees gotta go. “Oh! Lets do this” but first the trees gotta go. WELP, the tree is gone! And those pesky roots!

It’s a little deferred maintenance on our end. We knew the tree needed to go but didn’t want to admit it. But sometimes you gotta destroy something beautiful before it tears apart your water line, breaks your garage slab in half or worse. Roots are weird, man. They are strong. They are stubborn. But sometimes you gotta rip them out and start fresh! There’s a lesson to be learned in that story. I’ll let you imply the implications.

Back to music. Thanks for subbing to our newsletter. It’s becoming less and less fun to pop onto social media these days. If social media’s taking a toll on your mentals, just know you don’t have to use those apps. I’ve been a bit appalled at the dichotomy between seeing someone share a story about a murdered man and then their next story is a “come to my show!” post. It’s freakin weird. Real talk for a sec: Take care of yourself. Be safe out there. If you’re feeling like you’re “at your limit” (to quote the shirt guy from The Chair Company), know you aren’t alone. If you need someplace safe to hang and chat about music and movies, our discord is most always open (promo xxx). 

Chuck E. Cheese -> Tree Removal -> Chair Company reference about being sick of social media. Naturally. 

We might not be as active on socials. Socials just wanna push us to be content creators. We’re a band. We want to make an album. Obviously we gotta play the game a bit, but we’re gonna do it our way. 

Johnny’s Video Game Corner: Keeper

Odd. Atmospheric. Beautiful.

Trying to figure out what message to take from Keeper. Never give up? Help those around you? Follow your dreams?

Double Fine makes another weird game that just…works. There’s a rich story but zero dialogue. Spinning cogs show gratitude. Giant turtles reunite. A faceless lamp yearns for a beacon on a mountain. None of this is making sense but Keeper is an acid trip you just have to experience to understand.

I rate this game 5 Twigs.

(Editors Note: Yeeeesh, we’re on one today)

Shows and stuff: Yoooooo. I started watching “Primal” by Genndy Tartakovsky - this is the most metal thing I’ve ever watched. If you’ve seen this and weren’t pestering me non-stop to watch it, shame on you.

The Rewatchables with Bill Simmons just did Zodiac, so I’ll most likely be watching Zodiac again this week. 

Don’t forget we have some CDs in our merch store. 

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