-So last night I sat down to watch the show, turned on ABC about 3 minutes before it started per usual, and there was a message on my screen basically saying DirecTV and the local ABC affiliate had not come to an agreement, so WFAA here in Dallas isn’t running any programming until the dispute is settled. Uhhh, great. Guess I wasn’t watching the show then. I can only remember this happening once before in the 14 years I’ve had DirecTV since I moved here, and that was last summer in 2019 for CBS. That channel was out for about 2.5 weeks. But some of you immediately tweeted at me to sign up at Locast.org and I’d be able to watch. Took me a couple minutes, and boom, I was watching the show live on my computer.
-I only missed the first 10 minutes, which I believe was JoJo showing up and replacing Chris Harrison because he had to go move his son into college. So not much missed there. Man, sucks for Chris. Really deprived him of a few extras days on the La Quinta links. Then again, there was that pic of Chris arriving back at La Quinta during filming and his clubs were with him. So either he played the day he got back, or he brought them to Texas and played while he was here moving his son into TCU. Either way, they’re basically paying Chris to play golf now. Because he’s certainly spending way more hours on the course than he does on this show. It’s not even close.
-Right when I started watching was the beginning of the Tayshia/Zac date. They were going to be shooting wedding photos, and Franc from “Father of the Bride’s” long lost brother is the one who was going to be helping them. As if trying on a bunch of wedding gear and taking photos as a first date isn’t incredibly awkward, trying doing that many wardrobe changes in 115 degree desert heat like they were in. Brutal. Uhhhh, no thanks. You could see Zac sweating through his shirt, and that was in the shade. If you’ve never been to the Palm Springs/La Quinta area, just know it is balls hot for about 4 straight months during the summer out there. Barely any breeze, and the sun beats down on you all day long. If you’re by a pool all day long, wonderful. If you’re trying on suits and shit, uhhhhh, no. Not the time or place, people.
-They have a mini picnic under a tree in the shade. Was probably only about 113 as the high during that part. You wouldn’t be able to tell though by the buckets of water streaming down Zac’s face. Tayshia talks about how she’s been divorced and Zac tells her for the first time that he also has been as well. Was married for about a year, and Tayshia tells him she was for a little under 2 years. So something she has in common with both Zac and Brendan. Not so much with Ivan and Ben, the other two in her final 4 men. I think for someone like Tayshia, our first divorced “Bachelorette” (I believe, right? Off the top of my head, none of the previous ones jump out as divorced), this wasn’t a negative thing for her at all. I think for some in the past it might have been. And not because there’s something wrong with being divorced. I just know some people look at it like, “The person I eventually want to marry I want to be their first marriage as well.” Plenty of people look at it that way. And clearly knowing what we know about the ending, the two divorcees are the two she’s into the most.
-At dinner, Zac goes all in on his drug addiction past, his drinking, the fact he got a DUI and his wife left him, etc. Said for 8 months after the DUI things got “pretty gnarly.” I mean, all you have to do is read this article written in 2014 that I linked to back in July and then again yesterday, to realize his addiction was quite serious. Like, when you get to the point of stealing money, making up ailments to obtain prescription drugs, and figuring out how you’re gonna get your drugs down on your honeymoon, you know it’s bad. But all the better this guy didn’t end up dead, he turned it around, and now works at the rehab center that he was once a part of.
-She gives him the rose over dinner, then they go to the make believe carnival production has set up at La Quinta. How cool. Well, sort of. I only say that because they stuck these two on a Ferris wheel and that’s so cliché. Like, really? I get that it goes slow, gives them time to talk, get to know each other, share their innermost thoughts and feelings, blah blah blah. Don’t care. You wanna test a relationship? Throw these two on the Zipper for a couple minutes and see if either of them yak up their insides after getting off. That’s when you really know if the one you’re with is your forever person. Not hurling after the Zipper. True love, I tell ya’. But no, we got the slow make out on the Ferris wheel. Boooooooooorrrrrrrrinnnnnggggggggg.
