Dog Days Of Podcasting 2024 – Finale

Hello, Dog Days listeners. This is Chuck Tomasi from Chuck Chad Freestyle. Once again, I know

I said Dog Days listeners, this is probably the last one you're going to get from me for

this season. As the feed shuts down in about 24 hours, I have intended to get to one of

these every day, but something, something has always come up or I have just run out

of fuel. I don't think I gave you an update since Saturday night after we got done with

the late, late karaoke and technically it was Sunday in Atlanta, but I will tell you

what happened Sunday real quick. We had our two shows, 4 p.m. We did the Topicus Trek,

wonderful time, good size crowd. I think that's the biggest one we've had so far. Granted,

it's a big room, so it didn't look like it from the picture, but we had 25 or so people

in that room, which is a good size for our show. There's been times when we've had a

lot of new faces. We only had eight, so I'm happy with the people that came. A lot of

new faces. One lady who said, hey, I came to your panel last year and didn't know who

you are or what you were talking about attended the live panel and she's been listening to

the Topicus Trek all year long. It came back this year, so that worked out well. That's

one person that was very loyal and kind enough to say so. That went well. Then we, I forgot

what we did between.

I think we wandered around, got some food, and then came back for, oh, I know what it

was. We just kind of hung out. We were looking for food. Joe was hungry, and then we found

some food right outside Trader Vic's. We also found their mixed drinks. I think one was

called a Stinger. Not too good. It was mostly orange juice. We went, well, this is kind

of bland. Then we found the Mai Tais, and the Mai Tais were highly alcoholic. I think

I ended up having one and a half Mai Tais.

I was feeling it. It was kind of loopy. That was for our 7 o'clock Comedy Forecast Technorama

and Friends show. That went also very well. Good-sized crowd, very lively, very involved.

We did a bit of a change-up for, what was it? We made Clinton's wife, Bonnie, kind of

the celebrity. She started things off, and every time we would say her name, the crowd,

would get into it and do, oi, oi, oi. Of course, we weren't supposed to know what was going

on, but of course, we read the script and rehearsed. It was fun. I know Amy had mentioned

a song that I did for karaoke. I did one Thursday night where I did Herman's Hermits, I'm Into

Something Good, and I rewrote that as I'm In For Nothing Good. I did that one. Woke

up this morning feeling my best.

There's a red shirt on my chest. Kirk told me to beam down, and I told him I would.

Okay, I'll sing the rest some other time. But that was a lot of fun Thursday night.

And then Saturday night, I played something that I wrote about six years ago called My

Nerdiest Things to the tune of My Favorite Things from the Sound of Music. My friends

on Facebook and Snapchat and Twitter, photos on Instagram, cross post to Flickr, new shows

on Netflix released in the spring. These are a few of my nerdiest things, and it goes on

from there.

I wrote the words in a PowerPoint so that the crowd could follow along, if not sing

along. And they enjoyed it. They enjoyed it. It went over really well. I had to rehearse

it a couple times, because whatever version that I used for my video, I cannot find that

anymore. And I'm so used to hearing it that way that I had to practice a few times in

the afternoon before the show, or before karaoke on Saturday, to get the meter down and the

count, because there's a certain pause.

Musicians will know what I'm talking.

And I hardly know what I'm talking about. But I got that down, and it rolled out pretty

good. So that was always enjoyable, and now I have those decks, should I ever want to

play them again. So that was karaoke. I meant to touch on that. Sunday, excuse me, Sunday

night, we kind of hung out in our hotel room with Amy and Clinton, and did a little bit

of karaoke. I wouldn't call it a grandiose amount, but just a couple of hours sitting

around, drinking.

Canned mead, and just spending quality time.

Monday, Don and I got up. We had to get out of the room by about 10, and the Embassy Suites,

it's not a host hotel, but there's been, over the last seven or eight years, an increased

amount of people for DragonCon staying there. It's quite a distance from the normal host

hotels, and normally it's filled with a combination of DragonCon and football people, as it was

this year.

But it was just a lot more people on Monday trying to check out, or maybe it was the time

of day we were trying to check out. But we had, this is the first time I've seen the

elevator traffic situation, where you've got to go up to go down, and hopefully you can

get a luggage cart in there. I think one of the three elevators was out of service, which

exacerbated the problem. It was interesting to observe. It's like, wow, we've reached

that point. So we're thinking maybe next year, we'll stay till Tuesday.

I know Clinton hung out for an extra day, Amy did, and we could just have some quality

time, roam around. There's some DragonCon stuff hanging, still going on, maybe a panel

or two. But just spend some quality time. Next year, I'm not going to have a job. In

fact, after tomorrow, I'm not going to have a job. It's finally Friday the 6th tomorrow,

where Donna and I are going to San Diego, and we'll have a little celebration with some

people in the office from two to six, or excuse me, two to four.

And then check into our hotel, and then spend some time with friends on Saturday, and then

do some Disney and California adventure next week. So looking forward to that very much.

So Monday, we flew home from Atlanta. Not much to say there. Busy traffic in Atlanta's

airport, but not overly so. And maybe I'm a bit biased because I have TSA and can go

past most of that.

So the security line is going to be there.

The security line, for me anyway, wasn't real long. Traffic in the airport, it was

crowded, but I wouldn't say it was any worse than any other DragonCon I've seen. Although

nationwide, I'm told there were more people traveling this weekend than ever before. So

yeah, I'd say it was busy, but nothing I haven't seen before. Not terribly surprising.

We got home. Tuesday was a day off for ServiceNow. So I did some work.

Painting the bathroom. We still had some of the paint left from the walls. I said,

gee, I hope I have enough. And fortunately, it covered in one coat. So I did have enough.

Actually, I had a little extra. We got the blue paint on the walls. Normally, I would prefer to

paint the ceiling first in case it drips on the walls. But I was very careful. And then tonight,

I went and bought a gallon of the paint, of the white paint, painted the ceiling. And I have

enough, theoretically, to paint the ceiling. And I have enough paint to paint the ceiling.

The studio ceiling, when the time comes, I don't plan to do that anytime soon because I'd have to

take down all the lights. I'd have to take down all the sound foam. But there are some places where

there's holes and there's patches. And it could use a touch-up. Oh, crud. I just forgot. I forgot

to paint the wall inside the closet so I could put all the studio stuff back in the closet.

I will get to that. So that is my update.

What I thought was going to be my exit interview on Wednesday. I also had what I thought was going

to be an Ask Me Anything Wednesday. Both of them turned into surprise tribute Zoom calls. So

yesterday was very, very emotional. Woke up knowing that the end was near for one of our

dear friends, Keith Lane. He passed away early Wednesday morning. Ben Raggeton, love of his life,

was posting on Facebook. He said, you know, we brought Keith.

He's been suffering for a year, year and a half with a liver condition. And we knew the end was

near. I will say that, you know, very, very sad. Very sad. And, you know, then having two

kind of tribute webinars, Zoom calls during the day, it was, I was emotionally drained by the

end of the day. But backing up to Ben and Keith, I'm very fortunate for a mishap that

happened. I'm very fortunate for a mishap that happened. I'm very fortunate for a mishap that

happened earlier this summer. We had our pool party on June 8th. And Don and I were sitting

there on June 1st, Saturday, the week before. And Ben walks up to the door with the two liter

bottle of soda. And I'm thinking, I'll bet he's here a week early. And sure enough, I go, hey,

Ben. He goes, are we the first ones? I said, yeah, the party's next week. He goes, oh,

Keith is going to be so upset because he spent so much time yesterday, Friday, you know, May 31st,

working on all the food and whatnot. They brought some really delicious stuff. I said,

you know what? Let's just hang out and enjoy each other's company. So we had a nice lunch.

We watched a little TV. We had a great discussion. We played the ukulele for a while.

It was so nice to be able to spend that time with them. Now I'm losing it.

Uh, you know, I feel very fortunate to have had that accidental. And, uh, if they hadn't,

you know, they came back the following weekend on the 8th and we, uh, but during the party,

I, you know, kind of spend a little time with everybody and we've got people from all over

and there were probably 20, 23 people that came to this party. So as a gracious host,

I'm trying to go from pillar to post rather poetic right there.

And, and I didn't get as much time as I would like. So I'm really happy that we had that,

uh, you know, happenstance that they came over, uh, because a few months later he's gone.

And another reminder, another reminder of why I'm doing what I'm doing. Uh, when I'm doing this,

I am retiring to spend time with family and friends while we're still here. Well, I still can.

And, um,

had a wonderful call last night, Wednesday night with my parents. Uh, mom, boy, she,

she looks like a new woman. She's smiling and had a spring in her step. Uh, you know,

just a few weeks ago, she was, you know, she's already hunched over like a candy cane. That all

happened in the last few years. But, um, you know, smile on her face. It was, she was just,

she was healthier and it was good to see. And, uh, we're going to see them in about six weeks.

Looking forward to that. Um, but tomorrow it's off to San Diego, turn in the laptop,

turn in the badge, see some friends and do what I came here to do. Spend time with friends and

family and enjoy life. So that takes care of it for the Dog Days of Podcasting 2024. Thank you

everybody for staying with me on this journey. I know it's probably not been the most interesting

thing if you're not that close to retirement. Uh, if you are, or if you've got any questions,

I'm always happy to share. Like always, as I go through life and I learn a few things,

happy to share them with anyone who cares to listen or share their thoughts as well.

Never above learning and passing that information on. I look forward to potentially doing Dog Days

of Advent. Don't know yet. I'll have to come up with a topic. A number of family members and

friends have been asking if there's going to be a return of Saturday Night Karaoke. They're very,

very, very, may well be.

in a slightly modified format. So that's a possibility as we head into retirement. I

might have Saturday nights popping up with a little entertainment. And now that I'm playing

the ukulele, that might make, make an appearance too. I have a way to patch that into the mixer

and we'll have some entertainment. So look forward to hearing from everybody

and seeing you all and keeping in touch. Don't be a stranger. Till next time. Take care,

stay safe, and

know that I love you. Bye.