There’s something very unusual about the recording of this episode but you dear listener can’t tell what it is not until I tell you what it is and I’m about to tell you what it is and then you’ll know what it is.

It’s this.

I am recording this episode while wearing glasses.

Your Daily Lex.

Many people wear glasses.

That’s not interesting in any way Lex Friedman.

Well, first of all, hold your horses.

Second of all, it’s a little rude to one of your favorite podcasters, don’t you think?

Here’s the story.

You’re going to figure out where this is going pretty quick because you’re smart and because I’ve already given you a spoiler but the story starts years ago.

I was on a cruise with my family.

Nope.

Actually, I was on a cruise with just my wife who is also part of my family and part of our cruise ticket room, whatever, included unlimited access to the ship’s thermal spa.

This was on an MSC cruise ship and the thermal spa had all these different saunas and steam rooms and hot tubs, whatever else, and I really enjoyed it.

We had a cold room.

I really enjoyed it.

I was on another ship of theirs and I enjoyed it there too even though it was all different things.

It included, you know, some similar saunas and also a snow room.

The snow room is crazy.

You put snow on yourself.

It’s cold.

Anyway, after that first experience, I had said to Lauren and to anybody else who would listen, man, I think I should get a sauna.

I really like that and then I went on another one of those cruises where I again was doing it and I was like, man, I should really get one of these saunas.

I love a sauna.

The problem is it’s hard to buy a sauna.

First of all, they can be insanely expensive.

Second of all, they all tell you that every other sauna will kill you.

Many of them talk about how they have infrared light and then Finnish sauna people tell you that infrared has nothing to do with saunas.

Some of them use one form of heat.

Some of them use another.

Some of them tell you, oh, the wood from those other companies will leach poison into your skin, whatever.

It’s crazy.

And like the prices can range so wildly and several of the companies, including some of the most popular ones, don’t even list their prices.

Like they make you fill out a form so then they can call you and email you.

And it’s just, it’s a pain in the ass.

So, um, a buddy of mine knows that I’ve been in the market for a sauna and doing not enough about, I was gonna say nothing about, I’ve been doing things about it, just not pulling a trigger.

And my local buddy, Craig, uh, texted me a couple days ago and he’s like, Hey, I just got this one and I’m liking it so far.

Uh, he bought it off Amazon for 130 bucks and he’s like, it’s insanely cheap for a sauna, which indeed that is.

It’s a one person sauna and it’s got, you know, a fabric exterior on a metal pole system.

And he uses steam.

You have the thing of water on the outside and you pour your water into it.

And then, uh, through a tube, it goes into your tent basically and fills it up with steam and gets hot.

Um, and he’s like, I’m loving it.

And I was like, you know what, Craig, I’m going to do this.

And so I said to Lauren, Hey, Craig did that.

And so I ordered one.

She’s like, don’t order one.

I’m like, no, I already did.

She’s like, don’t do it.

I’m like, I already did it.

Uh, because indeed I already had done it.

And, uh, today was my inaugural use.

I was nervous about assembling it because some of the reviews said it was hard to assemble.

And I texted that to Craig and he’s like, it took me 15 minutes.

So I was like, all right, now I know it should take me 15 minutes.

Then I had one challenge near the end where I couldn’t get the lid off the thing that you put the steam in.

And he’s like, Oh, I had the same challenge.

I even brought out a screwdriver, which it turns out you don’t need at all.

They ship it with the lid upside down and making it quite difficult to remove.

But after that, it’s fine.

Got it all set up, turned it on.

Then I texted Craig again.

So I felt bad now that he had been my guru because now I was asking him so many questions.

And I’m like, how long do I have to wait before it starts actually steaming?

And he said, 10 minutes.

I texted him after five minutes.

The second I texted him, it started clearly boiling.

Then I went in and I had a great half hour.

You get drenched, not specifically sweat drenched.

You get the steam from it, drenched and sweat drenched.

And the steam is actually, I think a factor like the, the it’s that affects how your skin interprets the temperature.

And that’s part of the effect.

Whatever.

It was fun.

It was pleasant.

Then I got out and I was like, I’m going to shower.

And I like to take out my contacts when I shower.

Um, because I couldn’t take my contacts out.

They were, uh, shellacked to my eyeballs.

Um, that can happen sometimes when you’re around steam.

And I thought about that only after, I mean, I actually thought about it before I showered.

Uh, no, but before I saw on it, but I was like, it’ll be fine.

My dear friends, it was not fine.

Um, so I was, you know, doing what you do when your contacts are stuck in your eyes.

You put in the eye drops, you wait, you put in the eye drops, you wait, you rub your eyes around gently and you wait.

I could not get them to budge.

I called the eye doctor’s office because I wanted to make sure I called them before they closed.

And I said, I think I got to come in and have the doc help me.

And they were like, oh, well don’t come in yet.

He’s behind, but you can come in at five 15.

Okay, fine.

I’ll keep you posted.

I’ll call you if I get them out.

And if I don’t call, then I’m coming in.

And they said, okay.

And I tried a couple more times.

Couldn’t get them to budge.

Learned a valuable lesson, right?

Don’t wear your contacts in the sauna.

Then right when it was time to leave, my alarm went off on my phone.

I was going to go to the doctor.

I was like, let me try one more time.

Boom.

Got him out.

And now I’m wearing glasses for the rest of the day.

So what have we learned today?

Don’t wear contacts in saunas and never give up.

Never surrender.

Thank you.

Buzz Lightyear space Ranger.

Goodbye.