Greetings, and welcome back to ZacCast, your official podcast for local government nerdery. I am Chad, that's Pat, and, uh, I don't know, we're talking about some water stuff today. Pat's got a couple of episodes, or a couple of topics related to water, so buckle up, 'cause it's gonna be... It's gonna be a thrill ride, I think.

It's gonna be a little nerdy today, for sure. So, well, how was your, uh, Thanksgiving?

My Thanksgiving was, was wonderful. How about you?

It was better- it was a little better than mine, although the family time was, was great. So really enjoyed that. Uh, got to go see Aledo kill a team from Amarillo, uh, in football. We drove three hours to go watch a basically 60 to 6 game. Um, and, uh, yeah, it was good, and then, you know, my weekend was a little-

You could have driven three hours-

... not as great

- to watch a game that felt like it was 60 to 6.

It did not feel like it was 60 to 6. It felt like watching a Texas team that is going to get demolished by Georgia this weekend.

Yeah, I don't think so. I, uh, I re-watched the game. It did feel closer on rewatch.

Mm-hmm.

Um, like, in the moment, that second half felt like we were still moving the ball really well, we just made a couple mistakes in the red zone. But, like, it could have easily been 31 to nothing, you know, going into the fourth quarter, but we just kinda kept-

But-

... letting y'all's hang in there for a, uh, for most of the game, really.

I think that game d- came down to a couple different things. The game certainly came down to fronts. Uh, our offensive line, injuries caught up to us, and we did not perform as well.

We lost our starting left tackle, first-round draft pick, in the first quarter.

You still had four of your five starters who've started every single game of this season.

I understand, and the, the sophomore who came in to replace him was the second-highest graded offensive lineman in entire college football for this week.

Yes. So he, he did very well. Um, but, I mean, we, you know, we've got a lot of injuries on our defensive line, we've got a lot of injuries on our offensive line, and then we have injuries in, in our running back corps.

Yeah, we do, too.

Um, yeah, which is-

Our quarterback was hobbled. Our starting receiver has a bum ankle-

Yeah

... can't make a s- he can't stop on a dime. Like, he can't even run routes.

You-

Uh, we've lost our starting running back the whole season. Actually-

I-

... we've lost three running backs this season. I mean, come on, it's football.

I'm stealing this from Doug, but I th- I thought there for a minute when, when Quinn was taken out, he was gonna go ahead and enter the transfer portal when Arch Manning came in there on that, uh, little goal line movement that you guys had. I, I honestly think that your offense works better with Arch Manning. I'm just gonna say it out loud. It, it's a better offense.

I think that it'll be-

Quinn had a terrible game. I mean, I don't know.

His first quarter was rough. We had a hard time.

His passer rating had to be ridiculous.

Yeah, he-

It had to be low

... at one point, he was four for six for negative six yards in the first quarter.

Yeah.

Uh-

Correct. I mean, with, with a pick, six.

That was at the end, that was in the end of the game.

Basically. Yeah, and then-

His, his QBR in the second quarter was something like 210.

I don't know, but I'm sure that Orange Bloods was very excited. You know, you guys were thrilled. Uh, I mean, I hope... You know, look, I've told you this before, I, I hope that Texas does well against Georgia. I just don't think you're built to beat Georgia. Um, you know, maybe your offensive line shows up this time. I think that's what made them a lot better was that Georgia game. I think playing Georgia earlier in the season was a really, really good thing for y'all, uh, 'cause it created a level of physicality on y'all's line, and I, I felt like your line, your offensive line specifically, played very well. And y'all's running back, I mean, I cannot say enough about the guy who runs the ball for y'all. Uh, just an absolute incredible, uh, running back. And I mean, he... I, I, I don't, I, I mean, I think it was, like, third or fourth tackle attempts, right? Every time he was getting tackled, it was, it was nuts. He was bouncing off the first two guys defensively at the line of scrimmage almost every time. So, um, yeah, I was impressed with that. I just felt like if we, if our offensive front had played better and our defensive front had played a little better, um-

And if he'd scored any points

... we, well, I mean, look, it, it came down to-

If, if, uh... What do they say? If onlys and buts were candies and nuts, then we'd all have a happy Christmas.

Well, let's, let's not, let's not forget that if we kick the field goal... That was the other thing, I felt like not kicking that field goal in the fourth quarter was a mistake. If we kick the field goal, what, we're, we're sitting behind by three-

No, it'd be seven down

... Well, seven, but we'd be at midfield, right?

What?

I mean, if you, if you look at the way the fourth quarter was rolling out, we had opportunities, we just could not convert in that red zone, and we had-

If you kick the field goal at fourth and one from the six-inch line, then it would've been a seven-point game with four and a half minutes left.

Correct, and then y'all would've went three and out. You went three and out after that, right?

No, no.

So, and then we-

We got a couple first downs.

But either way, you, you-

You guys got the ball back with a minute and a half left.

Okay, either way, you were rotated out of the game. We would've been on the field, it would've been a punt, we would've been on our 20, we would've had, like, two and a half minutes at that point to drive the ball. So the full field, which I didn't think our offense was performing the way it needed to. Real excited about signing day, which is today, by the way-

I know

... if you're paying attention to that.

I had, and I figured-

Yeah

... honestly, I thought that you wanted to do this episode so early because you didn't wanna be distracted by signing day stuff.

Uh, we're, we're doing really well. We got the five-star wide receivers-

Oh, you guys have closed on some good-

... that we thought we were gonna get

... good players.

Yeah, we, we got a great five-star offensive lineman.

Rogers from, uh, Missouri.

Um, yeah. And then, um, you know, we got the Texas kid, too. Um, so I mean, you know, there's some, there's some really good line depth in our class this year, but really what we struggled with against y'all was we didn't have a lot of downfield threats. I mean, you took away our big, you know, tall six-footer.

Our second area is-

We only have one

... lights out.

... Yeah, they're very good.

Like, it's like 180 degrees from last year. That was our biggest weakness last year.

Yeah, there's no doubt. But there were, and, you know, Herbstreit pointed it out a couple of times, right? There were a couple of times where Marcel Reed-

Didn't see it.

Didn't see it-

Yeah

... right? And-

And he made some good throws, too

... for all my Aggie-

He made-

He made some good throws, but I, I've- I've gotta be honest, for all of my Aggie friends out there, okay, this is a kid, you know, obviously a highly touted recruit, really, really good. Grew up an Aggie, okay? And I, I hate to say it like this, but when you grow up an Aggie your whole life, and then you go to A&M, and then you start in that game, I- you could see it. Like, you could see the pressure of that game on Reed. You just could. He played tighter. He played more worried. There... You know, the ball he threw downfield for the interception in the red zone, I mean, you gotta remember, right, we turned the ball over fourth and one in the red zone, and we turned the ball over, you know-

He had three, fourth down stops

... in the red zone on a, on a throw he shouldn't have made. I mean, but all of them in really bad positions on the field for us, where we could have kicked field goals-

So is-

... successfully.

So what's the difference with Quinn, though-

Oh

... who grew up a Longhorn fan, wanting to go to Texas, decided at the last minute to go to Ohio State?

Quinn's not a freshman. Quinn's not a freshman.

By the way, I saw a funny stat.

Yes.

Uh, the only, the only signee from Ohio State's 2021 class to beat Michigan was Quinn Ewers.

That is actually a pretty good stat. Uh, you know, h- honestly, gonna... But to answer your question clearly-

I know

... just so everybody can hear this one more time-

He's a, he's a-

He's not a freshman

... he's basically a senior. Well, I guess he's a-

That's correct

... yeah, he's a redshirt junior.

And, and, and Marcel is, like, legitimately a spring enrollee, just showed up on campus, and got through a season. He's, I mean, he's been there less than a year, and he's playing at a level of football at Kyle Field that, you know... And I, I hope that you guys bring the environment that we brought next year. I, I really do. I, I, I thought that was excellent. I need to have a shout-out to Sark. I, I think Sark's handling of the win was, was very Texan, even though he's not technically Texan, right? It was, it was very respectful. Uh, I cannot say the same thing about you on the text message machine- ... Mister.

Yeah, after that- After that blocked punt, I, uh, I, I, I, I-

Chad planted the flag

... I poured-

Planted the flag-

After that blocked punt

... metaphorically on my phone

... I started to get a little bit nervous, and I, I, I poured one little extra dram of whiskey, and it got to me. When that game was over, I unpopped that cork, and, uh, I, I felt bad about it, but, you know.

The best part is, is so you sent me an apology. I was sitting in church- ... when, when you sent that on Sunday morning, and I let you stew on that all day.

Yeah, and then Monday morning, you send me a couple of passive-aggressive texts, and, like, that's it.

I did.

Then I don't talk to you-

I did

... till Monday afternoon, and I'm like, "Ah, he probably is really upset with me."

I'm not, but I called Doug, like, right away to let him know I was gonna do it. I don't know if he let you in on it, but...

He did not.

I just... There's, there's one thing about Chad, that i- if I had to explain, like, something about Chad's personality is, like, when Chad does something that he feels like is over the line, and most of the time it's not over the line, and really, your text messages weren't over the line, but when he does, he goes into, like, this, "Oh, man, I really..." Like, you know, sometimes I can get a little, um... Like, you can get a little touch of the tism, and you start getting worried about that you went over it a little bit, right?

Oh, yeah, I get super in my head, very introspective.

Yes, and so if you leave him in that, it's an amazing thing.

Yeah, it's the worst thing you can do f- to me. Um- ... I, I thought that what went over the line was the "Poor Aggies," 'cause I threw that-

Ah, you-

'Cause I know that that's like a, that's a touchy one for you guys, and so I threw that in there-

It, it-

... with a very light... Like you said, like, "Okay, I'm going to bed." I was like, "All right, night, little brother." I was like, "Ah, poor Aggies."

Yeah, I get it. I get it. I get it. I get it. Yeah, I, I mean, I'll be honest with you, I, I don't really pay attention to much of that anymore because, uh, I feel like it's a pretty level playing field, right? I feel like 20 years ago, there wasn't really a level playing field between the two schools, and I feel like now there is a pretty level playing field. Like, we, we have the same ammunition that you guys do to go recruit. So if we're losing, we're losing. It just is what it is, and, and that's kind of where we are right now. And, uh, but there are some things that excite me about Texas. I mean, Elko made some mistakes, you know, uh, for sure, and, you know, there are some things that excite me about this rivalry against Texas-

It was-

... over the future years

... it was fun to have the game back.

It was really good. Man, it was really good for the state of Texas. Like, it, it really was. It was... It, it put Texas on display. It's gonna help recruiting for both of us. I, I don't, I don't think there's any doubt about that. We picked up some massive recruits after that game, after that Kyle Field experience that we had. I'm sure it's gonna have that impact for y'all next year when we play in Austin. But yeah, I, I thought it was a good game. All right, let's move on to some business.

Some business.

You ready? Some business.

All right, set the table here.

Well, I mean, to set the table-

Don't rock the table.

Don't-

Don't tilt the table

... tilt the table?

Set it for us.

Don't tilt the table. There we go. Yeah.

That was, that was pretty good, right?

So I- That was pretty good, yeah. So I- we were driving, uh, my wife was driving for Thanksgiving. We did a ton of driving. Uh, went to Houston, obviously Thanksgiving traffic going through Waco and everything else. A Houston drive takes, like, five hours. So going to Houston to see the family, drive the five hours, drive the five hours back, so Wednesday to Thursday, we drove 10 hours. Friday, we had to drive to Snyder, Texas. Shout-out to clients in Snyder, uh, and Scurry County, by the way. I got to see the Scurry County Courthouse, um, to which for my Aggie friends, my wife says, "Ooh, I really love that courthouse." Yeah, she's an Aggie who basically got her education, she's a mathematics degree, and went into, like, Zachary and Blocker, if you understand the, the A&M campus. The Scurry County Courthouse is built in, like, the 1960s, '70s, like, postmodern-... form. It's not like your standard historical courthouse.

Mm.

And my wife loved it, and I'm like, "That is, that is the most aggie thing I've ever seen."

Oh, I gotta look this up then.

We've torn down most of that campus at A&M, but, um, it's just, like, concrete tilt, block wall, modern-

Sort of modernist, brutalist.

Yeah, just, you know, but, hey, uh, cute little downtown, though. Uh, yeah, exactly. That's, that was my response. Uh, but if you go look at, like, the old Zachary building-

You go through, you go through all of these old, uh, these old courthouses in these smaller counties, and they, they all have, like, a very similar look typically.

Well, a lot of them have the same architect.

Yeah.

Right?

And none of them look like this.

None of them look like her, yeah.

It looks like the LBJ Library.

Uh, uh,

Which is so ugly.

Very similar, yes. It's so ugly.

No, sorry to say that, guys.

So-

Sorry.

Yeah. Um, so anyways, uh, we're driving, and, uh, you know, obviously just a ton of hours on the road. I- I start reading this story, and I'm mind-blown by this story, right? Uh, USA Today wrote this story about this study that was done, and it basically said, "The Earth has tilted 31.5 inches," so whose fault is that? And when you go into this study, it looks at the pumping of groundwater and how that has... The pumping of groundwater has changed the poles, right? So it's changed the Earth's tilt because we're pumping groundwater, then we're sending it through a municipal sewer system or something like that, and then that's being released into a river, which eventually releases into an ocean. So we are little by little shifting water from underground, right, and then putting it into the oceans, and the Earth is tilting, which is having an effect on climate because obviously when the Earth tilts, the poles and the polar caps move differently and have a different impact on sun, and sunlight, and all that type of stuff. And so you start to see these weather changes that have occurred. Now, Ponytail John was a, was a guy that I went to college with at A&M, and he was... You know, this is back when global warming was the big thing, and he would always say, like, "People, you can't just look at today's event and say that it's global warming. You have to look at the holistic view of, of what's going on." And, um, so I, I don't think, like, this comment that I'm about to make is the same, but I've been saying now for, like, six or seven years, that I feel like our winter has shifted in Texas, right? That especially in North Texas, I feel like we're, uh, half a month to a month behind with where winter normally is, and I feel like in summer-

I think that's true in summer, too

... we've had, like, a, yeah, we've had, like, a heat shift, where July is a little bit more moderate-

Mm-hmm

... weather-wise, uh, than it used to be. And then, like, in late August, and then in early September, we start to get a little hotter than we used to be. Um, and so I just look at it from a standpoint of my kid plays football, and when it's too hot, uh, it's really funny if anybody's in the UIL stuff, but, uh, they have this, this thing called the wet bulb measurement, which tells you how hot it is versus humidity, and all this other stuff, and how safe it is. It just sounds terrible, right? Like, "We're gonna check the wet bulbs today." Take that however you want. Uh, but the reality is, is that it seems like my kid has to practice a lot more in the morning now than he did before, right? And that we don't have afternoon practices, 'cause we can't meet the proper wet bulb measurements. I'm gonna keep saying that word, 'cause everybody hear it. But this Earth's tilt thing, it was just... For me, it was, like, a fascinating, like, backup of, wow, I kind of- I can kind of feel that. But what's shocking to me is it doesn't talk about greenhouse gases, or cows in a field, or, uh... Which the whole cows in a field thing, by the way, there's been a lot of study on that that's doesn't really show what people say it does. But we're gonna sound like Rogan today. This is like a Rogan conversation, by the way.

Did you hear, by the way-

It's kind of scary

... that Onion, the Onion bought Infowars?

I did-

Okay, we can talk about that later.

... which is, yeah, let's, let's put, yeah, let's put a pin in that one. That's, that's another good one. But, um, but anyways, I, I just, I was fascinated by just the human activity of pumping groundwater and how that is changing, basically, the, the tilt of the Earth. Uh, and, you know, if you look at places like Houston, uh, and other communities that are, you know, near sea level, you know, they have things called subsidence districts, where the whole... There's a governmental entity that's set up to try to prevent the sinking-

Yes

... uh, from occurring there, right?

Yeah. How much has Houston sunk? It's significant, isn't it?

Oh, it's, it's significant, yeah. I mean, like, full-on inches significant. Uh, that's a, that's a Google question for sure. I'm sure you could-

I, I'll look that up-

... figure that out

... while you're talking.

Um, but it, it makes a huge difference. Uh, you know, obviously, my dad does real estate in that area, and you, like, you really have to pay attention to that, because, well, property in Houston is-

Some part, some areas of the Houston/Galveston region have sunk as much as 12 to 13 feet.

Yeah, yeah. And inches make a difference there, right? So, like, if you buy property, it could be one inch above the floodplain, right? And so if subsidence is occurring, eventually you could buy a piece of property. If you don't develop it fast enough, you could be selling property that's in floodplain, right? Then you have, uh, detention retention regionalized, which will also take stuff that's below the actual flood table, but will take it out of the floodplain because it's, it's held back or it's got levee district or something like that attached to it. It's just, it's a uber complicated thing, but a lot of, a lot of that subsidence in the Houston market is because of groundwater pumping. Whereas in, you know, west of Fort Worth in Parker County, you may get a well that, you know, pumps anywhere from 8 to 80 gallons a minute, right? In Houston, they have wells that are pumping 800 to 1,000 gallons a minute.... and so these subsidence districts were put in place basically to transition Houston into surface water, to get them off of groundwater. And so the, all these mud districts that are in these areas pay 25 cents to 50 cents per thousand gallons to basically create these regionalized entities to bring in surface water, uh, so that they can get off of groundwater pumpage. Um, 'cause it has such a negative impact on the livability of the region. I mean, this is, this is, like, a real issue, and that- But to put that issue together with actual weather and climate change, I thought was... I don't know, it sent me for a loop, and I was like, "Wow!" I had to read the article, like, three or four times, and then, like, Jennifer's like, "What? What? What? You look like you're, like, all red in the..." Like, I got full Irish in my face- ... when I was reading the article. Um-

It's wild to me, though-

And I don't know why it hit me-

... the circumference of the Earth is, like, 25,000 miles.

Mm-hmm.

So, like, 30 inches is nominal.

Agreed.

So it's wild to me that we can even me- I mean, uh, uh, we have very precise measurement tools. I understand that, like, we can do it, but both that we can measure a 31-inch shift in the, in the axis, but also that it would have that tangible of an impact. It's amazing how delicate, I guess, is what I'm trying to say.

I, I know you've watched it 'cause you're in love with Matthew McConaughey, but you've, you've seen Interstellar, right?

All right, all right, all right.

Yes.

Yeah, I've seen Interstellar.

Yeah.

I've only seen it once.

Okay.

It's one of those movies that I wanna go back and re-watch, um, 'cause I don't think I fully appreciated it-

It is-

... but it's, I think it's kinda long, and I haven't just had the time when I can go do that.

It's very long. Yeah, it's very long. So my, my nephew is a teenager. He's, like, 16. I asked him what his favorite movie was this, this weekend at Thanksgiving, and he told me Interstellar, and I'd never seen it before. So when we got home and I had a free moment, I, like, you know, flicked on Interstellar. Of course, Jennifer falls asleep, like, 45 minutes into the movie. She can't make it through a movie for the life of her. Uh, it's my pheromones just put her to sleep every day. So -

It's something

... anyways, so we... Yeah, it's something, right?

One of those smells.

I'm not as cuddly as I used to be, so it's gotta be that, right? Um, anyways, so watch this. Uh, that's a fascinating movie, and you're right, you could watch it, like, three times, and you're gonna get different things out of the movie each time. And obviously, it's Hollywood, it's not science, and there's a lot of things, you know, that are different to it, but it's, it is a fascinating movie to, like... You know, you were joking about, do we have these measurements? And, and my comment was gonna be, there are, there are literally still people in this world who think the, the Earth is flat, right?

Like Kyrie Irving.

I mean, just saying it like I'm saying it, right? Um, but yeah, so I mean, but from 1993 to 2010 is what they've measured this from, right? So the, the reality is we were pumping groundwater way before 1993, and so, um... And then in a lot of the developing world, so even in, in, in our area, uh, if we were to take people into, like, desalination and move to, to that way of serving water to municipalities, and we got rid of groundwater pumpage, um, I, I still think it would be very tough, 'cause the developing world, you know, they, they don't have that ability. I mean, uh, you know, it's, if, if you go into Africa, most of that water is coming from groundwater, uh, 'cause they don't have the treatment ability, and so groundwater is the safest way to, to grab water. And if you watch the show Naked and Afraid, you would understand that.

Yeah.

You gotta dig a hole so far down to get water.

Also takes a lot of, uh, takes a lot of electricity, so you gotta have a, like, a super stable and reliable and power grid that generates enough electricity to desalinate that water. That's the biggest problem, is the cost benefit right now. Is that not, is that not true?

Uh, no, that, that is very true, because basically, if you desalinate, you've gotta do two things. You've gotta squeeze that water through basically some, like, really, really tight sponges, right? Uh, that's the membrane process that's there. And then you have to use RO to strip the water of all the mineral content and the salinity, and so... And then you have to- the other, the other hard thing with desalination, too, is you have to be able to drop that salinity somewhere far enough into the ocean that it doesn't have an impact on marine life. Um, and so it's, yeah, I mean, there are some difficulties there, but there are countries that, you know, have spent gobs of money to improve that, you know, uh, especially in the Middle East, where it's actually cheaper for them to try to snag water through desalination than it would be otherwise. It's basically all of Dubai, right? It's, the whole city was basically formed through desalination. And so, um, but it's gotten a lot cheaper. Uh, and if you can create, uh, electrical... If, if you can create the ability to generate electric at a, at a cheap rate, then it actually could be a little cheaper than, than other forms of, of, uh, water. Uh-

Just a little pocket nuclear plant that just serves the desalination.

C- Well, yeah, there's another good article on that today. I actually thought about sending that to you, too, uh, talking about the tech sector and pocket nuclear plants. There's a big fight in South Texas right now over uranium mining, because I, I didn't know this, but we used to... Did you know that we used to get most of our uranium that powers our nuclear plants in the United States and in the West came from decommissioned Russian nuclear missiles? I, I did not know this.

I didn't know that either.

Yeah. Obviously, uh, with the Ukrainian war, uh, that has stopped, and so now we have to basically go and mine, uh, you know, radioactive materials again. And so, uh, apparently, areas of South Texas are, uh, very, very full of, of those materials, so we can go and mine those. But, um, yeah, I mean, I, I, I think there's a big push again, and mainly driven by the tech sector, there's a huge push to, to really, to move into nuclear power stronger. Uh-

Yeah, Microsoft's investing in it pretty heavily right now.

Uh, quite a bit. Uh, and, and the kind of the thought process is not to build, like, huge, uh, power facilities, but to build more, like, micro plants-

Mm-hmm. All those data centers, man

... a smaller facility.... Yeah, for sure. I mean, data centers are a huge power draw. Uh, not as much a water draw as they used to be. They used to use a tremendous amount of water, too, but, uh, the different cooling systems now kinda take them out of the water game as much as they used to be-

Yeah, I had a-

Which is, which is good for local municipalities.

I had an in- really interesting conversation with a dance dad recently, who does, uh, like, designs and builds a lot of the, that HVAC cooling systems for data centers. Like, the stuff that-

Okay

... they're doing now is pretty crazy.

And pretty cool.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, like, yeah, really, and, and the things that they're doing for data systems will eventually change the efficiency level of AC systems in homes as well, right? Uh, so there are some kinda cool things that are happening there. Kinda like, you know, this, when we needed to go to the moon, NASA developed a ton of technologies to go to the moon, and then eventually that's integrated into our normal life, right? Uh, I think the most common is GPS, right? That's one of the things that, that we've got there. But, um, I think it's, I think it's cool to kinda see where that's going, um, and where technology is drawing us to go. I'd be curious to see what AI does for us as we go there, but a lot of this is pushed by the computing power of AI. You may have some data on this, but to generate, like, one AI photo, it's, like, some crazy amount of power that has to be used, uh, right now within the system. I can't remember exactly what it is, but it, like, powers your cellphone for, like, an entire year or something like that. Um, yeah, it's one of those crazy things to be shot out. If I was smarter, I would've had that data before I sent it out. Now you've gotta go fact-check it for me.

Uh, it takes as much energy to fully charge your phone, according to-

Okay

... technologyreview.com, the MIT Technology Review.

There you go.

So not for a full year, but just to charge it.

Not for a full year.

Which is... I mean-

Okay

... that's still substantial to make one image.

Yep. On that note, I'm gonna move to my other water article.

Okay.

'Cause we talked about desalination and where that is, and this is an argument that I've had with my mother. My mom drinks bottled water. Pretty much that's all she drinks, okay? She drinks a very specific bottled water. She drinks the Red Ozarka labeled bottled water, which is currently in Chad's hand. And where is it made, and what is the source of that water?

So the 100% natural spring water, proudly Texan.

Uh-huh. And where's the source of the spring? Tell me.

This source is, uh, Pineywood Springs, Wood County, Texas, and/or Moffett Spring, Walker County, and/or Rohur Spring, Henderson County.

Yep. So this article that we're talking about, uh, specifically is referencing a scientific study. Uh, it's a BBC Science-focused magazine article. Um, but it's basically saying that drinking bottled water is much worse for you than tap water, which is the conversation that I've had with my mom for years. Um, but it goes into the fact that tap water, specifically in the United States, tap water is, uh, heavily controlled in its treatment, and Chad and I can attest to this. When you run a utility-

I think all of our listeners can attest to this.

Yeah, most of them can, yeah. When you run a utility system, it's very well known that you have to meet both TCEQ and EPA standards, and you are constantly performing tests daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually. You have to perform these tests, and then you have to put out a water quality report to show that you're meeting all of these standards, and if you're not meeting an EPA standard, sometimes that means you have to shut the tap off. Uh, you know, like, if it's chloroform or something like that, you know, that those are boil water notices that you'd receive. Obviously, if you had, like, a break in a line for longer than a couple hours, um, you'd have to go do a boil notice, and then treat that water, and get it to the point of safety again, and get it tested before you could release it back to the public for consumption. So for the- so the city of Ennis just had a deal where, you know, they had a big, you know, 18-inch water main that broke, and, uh, they had to go to a boil water notice, uh, for a couple of days. 'Cause that process takes at least two to three days to, to get that wrapped up. But anyways, this is specifically talking about bottled water doesn't have to meet that same standard. Uh, bottled water is, is, like, a more of a, a food and drug item. It's like an FDA item. It doesn't come through the EPA, and so it's, you know, not sounding like Robert F. Kennedy here- ... um, but the reality of it is, is that when we consume things in the United States, that is different than what the standards are in the EPA. Uh, and so there is not as much control in the consumption of food product here, um, as there is in the consumption of public water. And the public water side, controlled by both the state level TCEQ and EPA, we have to meet those very strict standards, whereas the bottled water doesn't. And so obviously they went and tested lots of bottled water from across the world, and they found out that it's not up to the same standard. Uh, and it, you know, basically carries... What do they say? Microplastics. What was the other thing they talked about in this one? Uh, let me see.

Phthalates. I can't s- I can't say this.

Yeah.

P-H-T-H-A-L-A-T-E-S, phthalates. Or maybe the PH is silent, I don't know. Let me ask Google how to say this.

And, and the big thing... Yep, phal- yeah, I think it's phal- phthalates-

You hear that?

... is the way to say it. Chemicals used to make plastics more durable, but basically the leaching of the plastic chemicals of the bottles themselves are probably the things that impact you the most.

Yeah, so that's not so much the water as it is the phthalate, so the PH is silent.

Correct.

Uh, it's not so much the water then as it is the, the medium.

Correct. I thought this was in-

So what about, what about the, the bottled water that comes in, in like the aluminum-... but, I mean, uh, wouldn't that be, wouldn't that be true of anything that we drink in bottles, like sodas? You know, you get tea, you get anything else, like, it's all gonna- it's all the same material.

Same thing, yeah. Um, it's-

Milk. You buy milk in plastic cartons.

Look, I think we're, I think we're learning a ton right now. It's like the 1960s all over again right now. We're learning a ton about plastics, right? I think, I think we're learning a lot about BPAs and plastics and... You know, I always look at, like, what are the things that are in right now with, like, babies and bottles, and you remember when our kids were young-

BPA, whatever

... it was like, "Don't use, don't use anything with BPA in it," right? And so I think we're learning a lot about that. Um, but, you know, microplastic contamination is, you know, it's, it, it's associated with a lot of immune issues. It's associated with a lot of, um, you know, colorectal issues, uh, specifically, like within, uh, younger populations, people that are our age, right? Um, you know, people are having a lot more colorectal cancer in our age because of processed foods. There's a lot of studies out there. These are not just like, you know, this is not conspiracy theory, it's just the way it is. But there's, um... We just don't eat, uh, a higher fiber diet anymore because of the processed foods that we, we eat, right? And because we've lowered our fiber intake, there's a higher risk for colorectal cancer. Um, you know, for people who don't really understand what that is, but when you don't eat a high fiber diet, you're gonna develop, uh, polyps. Polyps eventually grow to a size that develop cancer cells. Those cancer cells can then spread to lymph nodes, which cause other cancers within your body, and it's a very common form of cancer in younger people. Um, so, like, they're recommending that, you know, people go in and get a colonoscopy a lot earlier than they would have otherwise, right? Uh, so, like, we were recommended to do it at 50, and now-

Mm

... we're recommended to do it at 45, right? So, um, you know, it's kind of a, kind of an interesting thing to, to look at. And, you know, if you have a previous, obviously, uh, family history of it, then you would go in sooner, uh, to take a look. But I, I think this is just another area of we probably are not doing a great job on what is in our food processes and what is in our water processes, and this is just one of those things. Like tap water, I've always said this to my family because I've managed water systems for so long, tap water is healthier. You, you know, you can control it. Like, people are like, "Well, it, it, it could possibly have lead in it." I'm like, "Well, we test for lead and copper." We're required by law to test for lead and copper at both the source and the tap, right? We have to do lead and copper samples. Um, my personal home is on... Now that I don't work for the city anymore, my personal home is now officially on the lead and copper sampling site, right? Um, so, you know, I, I think those are things, and if you live in a house that was built after the late '80s, probably not gonna have to worry much about that anyways. Um, but these are the things that, you know, we just I, I don't think we really think about. Europe does a better job of this, though, right? They think about this. This- th- they were talking about tap measures or tap water, um, is stricter in the UK, Italy, and Singapore than it is in the United States, uh, and in, in a lot of areas of the EU as well. Uh, but I was fascinated by this: The World Health Organization says that 73% of the world's population has access to clean drinking water that is free from contamination, and 92% of the population in the US receives water from systems that meet health standards at all times. Um, that doesn't mean that the other 8% doesn't have access to clean water. There's probably some people who don't. But there could be the other 88% that, you know, the other 80% that have access to a water system, yet that water system may not meet all EPA standards, may have high copper levels, may have high, uh, radium levels, uh, radionuclides that are naturally occurring within the ground, or other things that, you know, systems get waivers for. So not to be a crazy conspiracy theorist here, but I, I do, you know, recommend to our listeners that are not city people, if you have a private well, get it tested. And in Texas, it's really easy. You can go to your local county extension office, and you can submit a bottle, and you can send it off for testing through the county extension office. But, um, if you're on a private well, I, I always say get your water tested, especially if you're using that water for consumption. Uh, but yeah, I, I thought those two water articles were very interesting. Water is responsible for contaminants being passed to you, and water is also responsible for the Earth tilting. How about them apples?

Who'd have thunk it?

Who'd have thunk it? All right, we put a pin in something. What did we put a pin in?

The Onion buying Infowars.

Yeah. Um, sorta sad, sorta funny.

Uh, well, it's sad if you relied on Infowars for your news, but it's funny because the accuracy of the content is probably not gonna change very much.

Uh, yeah. I, I would agree with that. Um, uh, it's, it's, it's gonna be funny 'cause obviously The Onion's gonna put out crazy stuff there. Um, and, you know, I, I, I feel like The Onion's pretty funny, but they bought this with the families of the Sandy Hook, the Found- the Sandy Hook Foundation. Um, they bought this with that, and I guess their, their goal here is to use the old Infowars, uh, stuff to, to put out information in satire. You know, uh, which going back to, like, the Reformation, has always been a way to get information out there, I guess you could say. I mean, uh, this is, this is gonna be really interesting to see kinda what-... what they do with it- I would say before then, I mean, Liz Strauss- If they get it, they're being sued though, right? Alex Jones is technically suing them, trying to keep this from happening. That's not gonna happen. Yeah, but, you know, it's, uh, it is, it is interesting. So in other sad news, Chad- Yes ... we do need to mention, we have worked with a single employee of the Texas Comptroller's office for more than 10 years. 10 years plus, yeah. Yeah. Um, and it, it is sad news, uh, but John Ramirez, uh, was our direct data contact with the Texas Comptroller's office, and, um, this weekend, unfortunately, uh, he was killed, uh, in a, in a tragic, uh, accident, uh, on the side of a roadway. And, um, you know, we just wanted to take a minute and send our condolences to John, John's family. Um, we've known him for a long time and, and to put this in perspective, this is the guy who has provided us our data and also information, and responded to us daily at times when, when we needed it. Um, he has a family, he had a fiancée, uh, had a young daughter, and, uh, obviously his family at the Texas Comptroller's office. Um, you know, we worked very closely with the Texas Comptroller's office, and this is, uh, this was very sad news when we found this out. So just wanted to send our condolences to him and- or to his family. Well, man- I don't know, I don't know how to pivot off of that, so- Yeah, I know. It's pretty sad. Well, you got anything else, Chad? No. Um, no, we should probably keep this short. I do have to get this out, 'cause I will be out of, uh, out of the office Friday, so I gotta get this turned around before tomorrow. Chad's going back. Can we tell people where you're, where you're going? I'm going to Atlanta. Uh-huh. And you're gonna go... Have you made your sign yet for game day? Not yet. I'm not sure if I want to make them and then take them on the airplane. I don't think... I don't know. Yeah. Are you taking a kid with you? I'm taking my oldest. Okay, nice. He went with me last year to the Big 12 Championship Game- Okay ... which we won handily, so I expect that he'll provide the same amount of luck this year. I'm gonna eat these words, but this ain't the Big 12, bud. Well, I, I really just wanna go mark this historic moment when, for the first time in the history of the SEC, a team from Texas is represented in the championship game. I, I think it is a historic moment. Uh, I'm not gonna lie, it hurts. Um- Does it hurt worse that we beat you to keep going? No, it, it hurts... I think what hurts for me is that we, we lost a game we shouldn't have lost, right? On Friday- And then we lost- Or Saturday? No, no, no, no. We lost the- Auburn. ... Auburn game. Yeah. 'Cause if we don't lose the Auburn game, we probably still have a shot at a playoff spot. Oh, a playoff spot. And I think that's the hard thing for me, 'cause I, I think if we... Because here's the, here's the deal, if, if we go into it, we, you know, we beat Auburn handedly like we should have, and we did our job there, and then even if we lose to Texas, and then you guys go beat Georgia, we probably have a pretty good shot of still getting a playoff spot. Uh- But you'd have, you'd have three losses, but it'd be to Texas, Notre Dame, both of whom are playoff teams- Yeah ... and then South Carolina, who's like a bubble team. Well, South Carolina would probably not, you know, they, they, obviously they would be there- They're not gonna get in, but they are- Yeah ... they're, they're on that cusp, having- I think they, I think they may- ... Clemson and like six in a row to end the season. I think if Clemson- They look pretty good. I think if Clemson beats SMU, I think South Carolina gets in. No, it looks like Alabama. Man, that's just, that's... I just don't think Bama's that good. I mean, I hate to say it- I don't either, but neither of those teams are playing this week. That's the stuff I used to complain about. And Alabama right now is higher than- Yeah. That's like the idea that Alabama- The idea that Alabama's gonna get in is crazy ... Like I hate the fact that you guys are a top five team when you don't actually beat anybody. Like that, to me, just irritates the hell out of me. I know, every game we've had, including this weekend, was against a cupcake that we handled easily, except for Georgia. You can't help yourself. You just had to get that one in, didn't you? Yeah. So- I mean, you can't have it both ways. I'll just remind you- You can't tell me that we haven't beaten anyone- Georgia utterly- ... and talk about how good you are. Georgia utterly dominated y'all. We gave them very, very short fields, and they scored in them. Yeah. Something that y'all couldn't do. You gave us short fields, we just couldn't convert those short fields. Just FYI, put that out there. That's on us, man. We, we had the opportunities to win that game, we didn't do it. That's 100% on us. Um, I think what I'm excited about is, is what came out of that game, from a recruitment standpoint, was there are clear guys that know that they can come to A&M and make an impact. If you play the O line, you play the D line. Uh, and we have a great D line, it's just injured, right? But the reality is, if you do that, and if you're a great wide receiver, and you look at a guy like Marcel Reed, you've got some opportunities. Um, and so I think, I think that's what I look at and say, "Okay, yeah, we're gonna have some really cool things here, some things that are gonna happen." So, uh- Can I, can I apologize for one more thing? Yeah. Oh, okay. October 27th, y'all just beat LSU. Uh-huh. And I sent a group text, and I said, "You know what? I had been kind of poo-pooing you guys, but you look better and better every week, and this game against y'all at the end of the season is gonna be like the mo- like, probably the biggest game in the history of this rivalry." I don't remember exactly what I said, but I, I, I praised you guys for looking better and better each week, and for sort of defying my, my initial view and expectations. And you're apologizing to yourself for that praise? I'm apologizing to you, because after I sent that, you didn't win an SEC game. Well... So I, I apologize for that jinx that I, I, that I placed on you guys.... Yeah, we- look, at the end of the day, we did it to ourselves, man. Like, we, we were built to win some games, and we just, we could not finish ball games correctly, and that, that got us in trouble.

Hey, you did get- you guys did better with your first-year coach than we did with our first-year coach.

I, I would agree, and, and look, I'm a, I'm a big... I mean, you've heard me say this. I'm a big Mike Elko fan. Like, I love our defense right now. Uh, and, and that's the thing, is you can build a lot when you've got a great defense. Colin Klein's got a lot of work to do on the offensive side, and on himself from a play-calling standpoint. Not really sure why you're calling a up-the-middle play on fourth and one or fourth and six inches. That's a terrible play call if you tried it twice before. Um, and you have a quarterback that runs a 4.4 40 to the edge, and you guys are packing the box with nine or 10 guys. Like, just run to the edge. I just don't understand it. Make them make a play on you. Um, but, you know, it is what it is.

Colin Klein's never beat Texas.

True.

Eight years.

Yeah.

He could be seven to Kansas State-

It'll be wrong for next year.

Seven to Kansas State, one to A&M.

But I, I would, I would put Mike Elko's defense on, on par with RC Slocum. Like, I, I think we've got some great things coming from a defensive side. Those guys flew on the field and, and really played a very talented... On, on a lot of teams that we played, played very talented offenses, and, and we were still able to make some things happen. And we've got some playmakers. We've got a really good, which, you know... This is, in our text string, you guys got really upset about the, the cornerback or, sorry, the safety, uh, technically it would be Will Lee, who ran the Texas guy into the sideline, and it was like, "He's hold-

I get upset about that.

"He's holding him!"

I got upset about him-

He's-

... grabbing-

He's holding him

... grabbing the face mask of, I think, Matthew Golden-

Uh-huh

... and flinging him to the ground, and, um-

You gotta see what Golden did before that. You know what I like, though? I liked the leadership that that kid showed. Things were not going our way, and he was finishing plays.

Ah, he was getting frustrated and lashing out.

And finishing guys into your sideline. He put that guy 10 yards into your sideline, and it was beautiful. As a football guy, I love every bit of that. That passion right there is what you need to have, and it's hard to find that in college football. So-

It is hard to find that, especially now that everyone's just getting paid. But-

Yep

... it didn't really, didn't really amount to much, so.

Yeah, but don't worry, Ted Cruz is gonna fix that. Didn't you know? He and Tommy Tuberville, they're gonna fix the whole NIL stuff.

How?

I don't know. We'll see. He's so good at fixing everything else, so I, I think we'll see, we'll see a great fix here.

That sounded like sarcasm.

Yeah. I, I love how... Didn't he graduate from Texas, by the way, but he shows up to the game, and he cheers for both teams?

He cheers for whoever he-

Oh, interesting

... thinks will benefit. Let's see. I don't think he graduated from Texas.

Populism at its greatest, by the way. So anywho-

Um, he went to Princeton and then Harvard Law School, so no. He went to an Ivy, but not to the public Ivy located here in the great state of Texas.

Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. That public Ivy was so hard, you didn't last. You had to go find another school.

Uh, I did find another school, but not because I couldn't handle it, but because I needed a change of scenery.

How do you feel like the whole keep the receipts for the T-shirts conversation going on right now?

Huh?

In Texas.

What do you-

Like, it was the, like, "We're gonna keep the receipts for y'all's T-shirts." I don't know, something-

What, what are you talking about?

I don't know. It's like the... It's like the thing that, you know, people are saying to Texas fans. It's like the new you're a T-shirt fan.

What people are saying things-

Did you keep, did you keep your receipt at Walmart for the Texas T-shirt that you bought?

Mm-hmm. Um, yeah, I mean, if you guys wanna continue running with this idea that it's a good thing to not have any fans outside of people who went to your school, then go for it. That's a good way to, like, grow your brand-

I-

... is to say, "No, no, no, you can't be a fan of ours unless you went to school here," unless your name is Drew Brees, apparently.

How expensive do you think the ticket's gonna be in College State or in, uh, Austin next year?

In Austin? It depends on... Uh, part of it was because it was the first one, first game in 13 years.

Okay.

And part of it was because-

That sounds like a hedge

... of the hype of the game.

That sounds like a hedge.

No, no, no. Part of it was just-

Those ticket prices were, those ticket prices were 11 or 1200 bucks, like, nine weeks ago. I think I even sent you a screenshot of it. Yeah.

I mean, are, are you trying to make an argument that it won't be as expensive because it's in Austin?

I am making that argument. We'll see. We'll see what numbers show, but I'm just saying I, I don't think Austin is as an enthusiastic a stadium environment as College Station.

Okay.

You would admit that.

Well, Will Anderson disagrees.

No, you would, you would admit that, though.

Will Anderson disagreed.

But you don't disagree.

At a day game, an 11 o'clock game, he said that was the loudest place he'd ever played, and he's been to, he'd been to Kyle Field.

Yeah. Yeah.

We'll see, bud.

Man, merry Christmas.

There's always next year for you guys. There's always next year. You got 360-ish days to talk your trash, get hyped up-

Yeah

... so we can beat you again, and then you gotta start it all over.

See, Chad, you do that. You just take it too far sometimes.

What?

That right there. You hurt my feelings.

That was... That hurt your feelings?

That was too far.

Of all the things that I've ever said to you, that hurt your feelings?

That hurt my feelings. I'm not gonna talk to you for a day-and-a-half now.

Okay, well, yeah, this is, uh, this is probably gonna be the last pod for 2024.

It is!

So we did a, we did a pretty decent job of keeping that bi-weekly schedule.

We podded better this year. We, we had kind of, like, a month right here during the holiday season. It's been a little rough, but, uh, we, we, we did a better job of podding this year, for sure. Yeah, I'm proud of us.

Sure.

Yes.... um, it's been-

Well-

From a company standpoint, though, let's talk about that real quick.

Do you wanna do, like, an end-of-year state of the- state of Zach?

It's, it's been madness. Uh, just brought on a new, uh, CFO, uh, signed two new CFO clients in the last two days. Um, as a co-

So, so real quick.

Yep.

You didn't bring on a new CFO employee.

No, no, no, we brought on a new individual who's helping-

We brought new Zach Finance clients.

Zach Finance clients, and we brought on a new employee to help us with-

Yes

... Zach Finance clients, yes. I call them the CFOs. Sorry, it's just my, my lingo internally. Um, so we have, um, again grown... So for the past three years as a company, we've grown north of 40%. We, again, have met that threshold. Uh, in the last four weeks as a company, we've grown by almost 9% in annual recurring. So, uh, it's been a wild November, December. U- uh, very unusual, by the way, um, just a little tidbit about us, like, December is historically our lowest billing month of the year. Um, mainly 'cause love all our city people-

It was working.

... we were this way, too. You just don't work in December. So, uh, December's kind of like holiday period, um, full and whole.

I loved... I, my, my favorite week of the year was the week between Thanks- uh, Christmas and New Year's.

Yeah, it was pretty awesome.

I would always volunteer to come in and work, well, especially before we had kids.

Yeah.

'Cause no one's there, and no one's bothering you. You can actually get stuff done. It's quiet. It's glorious.

I, I kinda recall us playing a lot of video games and cornhole during that break.

We... Well, so we always did our Wii Bowling tournament.

Yep.

And then, yeah, we'd have our... We switched that over to a cornhole tournament.

Right, 'cause we-

It's funny, uh, Doug was telling me he went to, uh, he went to some party on Saturday. Like, they were watching the, the Texas, uh, A&M game, and they had this cornhole thing up, and it was, you know, winner stays.

Okay.

So, like, if you win, you get to keep playing.

Doug never left.

And he was like, "I was there for, like, two and a half hours." I was like, I told him, "You're welcome-

Yeah

... 'cause even though you always beat me, I always gave you a challenge-"

Uh-huh

"... when we would play."

Doug is-

So-

Doug is really good at cornhole

... he's getting really good.

Yeah. Like, maybe you should go play some.

If you see him at a cornhole, do not go challenge him, or if you do, at least don't put any money on it, 'cause you're gonna lose.

You're gonna lose, for sure. So, um, but yeah, merry Christmas, man.

You, too. Merry Christmas.

Yes, and uh-

And a Happy New Year.

And a Happy New Year. I'm excited for 2025, though. I really am. I think we're gonna do some really fun things in '25. I think we have some good topics. Um, you know, maybe talk about some federal-level stuff, 'cause '25 is gonna get crazy. But I think, uh, I think it's gonna be a really interesting time for everybody, and exciting. So I'm looking forward to it. I'm real excited.

All right, man. Well, we'll see you next year.

Next year. Bye.