Man, I was exactly the same way. Drove past the whiskey barrel chips at the store for years thinking it was just some marketing junk. Then a buddy brought over a rack of ribs he'd smoked with cheap rye whiskey soaked chips and I had to eat my words. That sweetness in the bark is no joke with longer cooks, especially on pork shoulder around that 8 hour mark. Tried it myself on a brisket flat with some bourbon and definitely got a richer crust than just water soaked chips alone.

Honestly, I switched to poly brushes and immediately scratched my face on a flue pipe, proving I'm the real hazard.

Yeah, that second-guessing thing is brutal. I think what gets me is how much of it is just timing and luck, not even skill. Like, you could make the same exact choices but be a year off and end up in a totally different spot. I've got buddies who went the college route and are still paying off loans, and others who skipped it and are doing fine. But then there's also the guy I know who dropped out and now can't get a steady job because he doesn't have that paper. It's like, you can't ever really know if you made the right call until years later, and even then you're just guessing based on how things turned out for you.

Bro, it's writing prompts not rocket science.

Man oh man that sounds like a proper nightmare. I had a day like that last summer where I showed up to install some privacy screens and realized I left the entire box of screws sitting on my workbench at home, then my drill battery died on the first screw and my spare was also dead. Just sat there for ten minutes staring at the fence posts like a total idiot while the customer watched from their window. Sometimes I swear the universe just picks a day to mess with you for no reason. Hope this week treats you better man.