#4814 Tussin Up A Storm

0:00We're gonna get you back on the dating scene bro. Yeah, that's actually why we're here. We want to put your profile on match.com. Yeah, let's talk about your likes and dislikes. Um, how about your favorite food? What would that be? Oh, milk steak. Hmm. What? Milk steak. I'm not putting milk steak. Just put steak. I'm gonna put steak in the middle of the room. Don't put steak. Well, no, no, she won't know what it is Charlie. Nobody knows what that is. Nope, okay, all right. What's your favorite hobby? Magnets. Magnets. Okay, what? Like making magnets, collecting magnets. Just magnets. I'm gonna put snowboarding. TVTM. I'll never forget my old dad. When these things would happen to him, the things he'd say to me, what did he say? What the hell are you doing in the bathroom, day and night? Why don't you get out of there and give someone else a joke? Stop, stop, stop. Weird, weird, weird. Excuse me. Who even are you? He is. Very well put together.

1:00He is. Very, very strong. It takes care of his body in an amazing way. My motto is to catch a snake, become a snake. Think like a snake and be a snake. I don't believe you're seriously considering listening to these men. All right, hello, good morning and welcome everyone to a Monday edition of TVTL, the show that just might be too beautiful to live. It's a tuna, bro. My name is Luke Burbank. I am your host. Hello, everyone. I'm coming to you from the green mountain state and Burlington, Vermont. They're squashes are real. They're really swanky. Beautiful Burlington, Vermont, perched on the shores of Lake Champlain, where I got out and got after a lovely jog this morning. I did lose a toenail, so that's something I'll be dealing with. But I don't blame Vermont or Lake Champlain for that. I blame trying out some new running sneakers that are not fully broken in. But I will not be showing that to you on the air today,

2:01even though I could if I wanted to, because today is another edition of TVTL TV. I've never been on a line television before. That's right, this is not just an audio product. That won't go away like a bad penny. It's now also a video product that won't go away like a bad penny. A video and audio product that has arrived at episode 4,814 in a collector's series. Less a fun begin. If you've been scoring at home, I was in Florida for our last episode on Friday. And now I'm here in Vermont. I have been traveling around. Tell them it's a bet for we leave at 930. Ish ish. Which leaves me, of course, with a lot of time in my head in airports and on airplanes thinking thoughts. And I'd like to share those thoughts with all of you about a couple of things, including airport remodeling, and also the true role of the dice that renting a car at a small regional airport turns out to be. Also, I'm staying in this hotel here in Burlington, and I had a moment.

3:02I learned an important life lesson about being nice to people, even when you don't need something from them, because you might also need something from them later on. I wish I hadn't done that. It was less than my kindest, and I feel kind of bad about that. We have got to say hello to this guy before we get any further into the show. He is the longest running co-bro of the program, maybe best known for his depictions of the Talships. I mean, I'm watching him down shots of some sort of day quill, night quill. He's Andrew Walsh. And he is joining me right now. It's all the quills. I'm doing all the quills. You got to chase the day quill with the night quill. You got your Sarah Quill. Your night quill, your day quill. I wasn't sure. I wasn't sure if you could see me during that. I kind of assumed that you maybe had different screens up on your computer during the intro. But yeah, I did. Not for TBL TV, Andrew. For TBL TV, ever.

4:02You always got eyes on the monitor. This was actually not a quill. I should be honest. This was a Tussin, which looks like it's Kroger brand Tussin. It's not Robotussin. We don't have Robotussin in the money. We have Robotussin at home, sweetie. It's called Kroger Tussin. Brand, I just noticed that now. But yeah, I was kind of avoiding taking that because I was like, did you do a full body cavity search before they would sell that to you? Yes. That doesn't seem like the one does not just walk into CVS, aka, more door. And buy anything like that. Right? I assume that's behind some sort of locked glass. It's got to be. That was actually, I found that in our in our cupboard at home. Genevieve did have it behind locked glass for some reason. So I had to ask her. And she had to get, can't be too safe. Yeah, exactly. And so she had to get an associate to come unlock that for me. I, you know, late last week, I had the tiniest, tiniest inkling of like maybe like a cold, like just in the very, very back of my sciences or something. But I told myself, you know what? No, it's just allergies.

5:03Like the seasons are changing. And there are fall allergies. I don't really track these things. But that's, I've heard people say that. Yeah, that could be a thing. Yeah. And then something happened on Saturday. I woke up and I was like, oh, this is not just allergies. And then I, I went to bed at 8 p.m. last night. And woke up at 8 a.m. this morning. And I didn't think I stirred at all during that 12 hours of sleep. And I thought, wow, that would knock it out. But I'm still feeling, I was a little, I don't like taking medicine because I thought it would make me feel a little bit loopy during the show. But honestly, I feel like I needed it because I was already feeling like I told you before the show, I was talking to you, that's feeling of like talking to somebody through glass or something like that. I didn't feel fully present. So we'll see. And if this doesn't work, I got to bottle a gym meme out there too. So we'll see if that clears anything up. I just say, you know what? Let's do a little A, B testing. Let's say, yeah, is it A, B, a beverage company? That's what the test is. The B is for B. Yes, exactly. Yes, exactly. Which one? A is for Andrew. I have, I mean, certainly in my life, I have, I've tried to battle through a cold

6:08with like, you know, if it's some sort of a big social weekend or social event where I'm not feeling well, I have definitely applied alcohol to the situation. And what I can say is it is a short term solution. Sure. If you get inebriated, you are, I mean, you want to talk about talking through glass. That's what being an inebriated kind of is. But boy, how do you are paying for it later? I'm not here recommending that I'm saying it is something that I've done before in a pinch and have lived to regret it. I don't know that I've ever used it as medical alcohol before. You know what I mean specifically? I can't, I'm not trying to sound holier than that. Like I've never had a drink while under the weather. But you know what I mean? I've never intentionally said like, oh, this whiskey will help me. But I always heard about that as a kid because I think it's okay to say this on the show. Like, you know, I'm like the youngest of a very big brood of cousins, right? My dad had a bunch of siblings and they all had a bunch of children. And so, and I'm near the end of this. So I have a lot of cousins who are like older than me, like at least 10 years or so.

7:10And I remember as they were, you know, like kind of young adults or whatever, they would kind of come over and sort of wink, wink, nudge, nudge my grandpa into giving them like maybe a bottle of whiskey or something to take home because they were under the weather. And I always heard of that. And I mean, I don't know if this is one of those things that happened once, but it stuck in my brain. But I was just like, oh, wait, why is grandpa giving them whiskey because they have, because they have a cold or what have you? Is that cowboy medicine? I think so. I think Baxter Black invented it. He's a teacher and famous cowboy. I love it. Think about the different cowboys I could reference there. Genotry. Oh, that's a good one. Billy the kid. Doc holiday. Actually, Doc holiday would be an interesting case study because I believe he had what he had some kind of, he suffered terribly and miserably. Yeah, and tombstone, right? Everything I know about him, I know from tombstone and I don't remember. The valve stone were portrayal in tombstone. Right. But I remember he had very glassy eyes as I believe I have now. Yeah. And he was trying to, again, was he trying to drink his syphilis away or is that a peach

8:12song? I believe that was something that he was trying to do. But I mean, yeah, I'm sure it's kind of an old home remedy. Again, back when you just didn't have, you know, tusson yet. And also, by no coincidence, I mean, it's not exactly alcohol, but isn't there something in your stronger, you know, your stronger tussons and your stronger quills that is it's not exactly alcohol, but it kind of seems like it's doing some similar work. What does knock you, because I did take nightquill last night under my doctor's orders, Genevieve is my doctor, she said, just take some nightquill and go to bed and ask, it really what I hadn't. So quick thing I want to say about this, I think this is the first cold I've had since pre-COVID. Like I've gotten sick a couple, like back in the day, I never got like really sick, but I would get kind of colds like this a lot. But like we would work through it. And I'm not bragging about that. I'm sure it was a terrible thing, but I can't tell you how many times I probably showed up to New Hampshire Public Radio, ready to produce a talk show, feeling just like I am now. And I have gotten soft, my boy. Like I just wanted to crawl into bed all day, yesterday in a bunch of Saturday, I kind

9:16of tried to sleep this off as well. Back in the day, we would go to work and we would spread it around and we would talk into my grocery store and spread it around and we would fill the whole organization, but then we would all still come in. I'm not obviously recommending that, but I do feel like this is that level of a cold. One person could prep Laura Kanoy on that bill in the New Hampshire State House. Exactly. We all knew that Josh Rodgers didn't have the time to do it. I met him. I met him. And I found him wanting. He's got other things to do. Oh, that does remind me of a, I won't get into it now. Maybe I want to look up this story that I heard something interesting on the NPR, like news check in, the top of the hour newscast from any PR about a story from that. You're neighboring state right now that I found very famous. I feel like honestly, I feel very spiritually connected to you right now. I know Vermont is not New Hampshire, but I feel like I don't know. I'm somehow in your old stumps, even though I'm completely in a different state. Yeah. Anyway, I don't know there's a lot to say on this, but let me just close the loop because I started the loop. But I do feel like maybe it's not like I go around masking a lot, although I did have

10:20to run some air in yesterday and I did mask for what it's worth. And but I like some, I used to get little colds like this all the time and you just kind of push through or whatever, but I never got like fevers or anything heavy duty, right? And then COVID came and I think because of the new standards of, you know, going about life or whatever, little colds like this, I just haven't had them in a long time. Now I've had, I've had COVID once as you well know because we were on a road trip in Philadelphia and that felt me. And then after a TBT all of the time, I had a bad fever one time and I was in bed for like 24 hours, but it wasn't like this like these little colds, this feels, this feels like the tap on the shoulder from an old friend, Luke. I wonder if part of it is because, and I don't know if this really even stands up to even a minimal amount of scrutiny, but obviously when the pandemic came around, we became much, much more vigilant around obviously masking and, you know, disinfecting and just kind of like the idea of germs.

11:20And so the good news was there's probably much less just kind of garden variety cold and flu being transmitted in all the ways it would normally be transmitted. But then it may be kind of hit a reset for you to where now if you get it, it's, you're really feeling it like you kind of went back to, you know, you're almost like back in your sort of your Rousseau's noble savage. You've been taken back to a state of complete innocence and where you've never had, you know, you haven't built up enough resistance to these things or, you know, antibody resistance to it. And so now if you get one, it's really hitting your heart. I wonder if it has, you know, because I don't think that the grocery stores are being super vigilant about like wiping down the handles of the carts and all that stuff. You remember the special, remember the special cups of like used pens and fresh pens when you'd get to know what I think just, I didn't even notice it when it stopped happening, but now I realize it has stopped happening. And it was one of the things that really annoyed me. You know how you'd get a grocery cart and it would just have a used disinfectant wipe

12:21animals from the previous animals. I still see that sometimes. I think about, I don't see it as often, but I saw it the other day. I'm just like, what were you thinking? You sick. Well, who's the person who both wants to disinfect or wants to sterilize the shopping cart? So there, there's somebody who's, they're, they're thinking about the world, they're thinking about their world. They're not just like, you know, and, you know, they're, they're not impervious to things, but then they are impervious to thinking about other people who may have to use the cart. But that's a strange person. I can imagine the person who would never occur to them to wipe down the cart or the person. They seem conscientious if they're wiping down the cart as my point I guess. For themselves, I couldn't find my bell in the moment, but I think you really hit the nail in the head is somebody who's conscientious about their own life. They're just like, okay, well, I'm going to wipe this down and then just throw it in the cart. Then they do their shopping, then they remove their bags and they just leave it because they're not really thinking about the rest of the people. But Yeah, anyway, I am fine, but this is a weird thing and I do think that's probably For me, as a lot to do with maybe it's not even pandemic so much as having this job where

13:22I don't go into a workplace anymore. I think that is probably where I must have gotten, you know, 90% of my holds were probably from just going into work and being around people and exposing them for a long time. Like a daycare center for adults. Exactly. Hi, Ro. Genevieve for a long time did think that there might have been some social experiment where her job was really just sort of a daycare where they were just like looking after her. Looking after her. Nobody was telling her the real deal. But it's so great. Which was a young adult. She's like, I'm not even as tiredly sure this is a real job. Or if I'm just like going in and clocking in with a little fake punch card that somebody gave me just to keep me out of trouble. But anyway, I'll be fine. Here's the last thing I'll say about this because I want to hear about your trips. But the weird thing is, I sound so different in my own head right now as I'm talking to you. But I probably don't sound that different than I usually do, right? I'm going to go back and listen to this tape and I'm going to be disappointed that I sound fine. You know what? When you mentioned it, when we first styled up, you said I've got a bit of a cold going on. Because you said that, then I was listening for it.

14:24And I heard a little bit of congestion in your voice. But like, it's not wildly different than a normal day and it doesn't, it's not like, I'll put it this way. You ain't ira-glassing it. You're right. You really? Well, yeah. And I shouldn't be mean because he must have, you know, just a kind of a constitution that, you know, he gets a lot of colds. Like, there had just been some episodes of this American life where it's like, it's so distracting. I'm like, you could just throw a cast em' bound in there. Yes. That's what it now means. It's fine. You know, give us a Zoe chase. I mean, come on. I mean, I'll do respect as she might be my favorite host of the show these days. It's like, you know, don't be a hero first. Maybe we wait one week for this piece or something because it's like, you know, so anyway, you don't sound, you don't, it's not distracting in any way. And I appreciate you playing hurt and playing through and all of those different, you know, things. Thanks for being here today. I'm with you, by the way, that like, when I get, I don't get legitimately, I don't get sick very often anymore either.

15:25In fact, I've been very fortunate that I have not been a person who gets sick that much in my daily life or in my, you know, typical year, which means that when it happens, I am absolutely insufferable. I don't know. I feel like though, I was actually thinking about this because I felt like I was coming in the show feeling a little whiny today, not, not outwardly towards you, but you know, just in your head, we're just like, eh, you, everything just sort of feels like an irritant to me today. But I was thinking like, I feel like you did have a kind of a cold that you pushed through somewhat recently. And you're always like, no, I'm fine. It just doesn't sound good. I feel like in the last six months or so, maybe from flying everywhere. I think so. Yeah, I have a vague memory of that where I had, yeah, I did have something going on that I had kind of a crazy cough to there for a while. I think we had to do a lot of cool. Yeah, we did on the show because I would just go into a fit. But I guess what I mean, there's probably levels to it. Like I think the thing that I really don't handle well is fever. Yeah. Like if I get a fever, I think it's like a childhood because the same thing when I was a kid, you know, if I had like a, if I was really sick, like, like I, I think I had

16:29strep through it once. I know this, I bring these stories up and people think I'm just trying to curry. But they're whatever. But like, long before there was a maha, there was maha and pa. There was masa make America Susie again, which was, it was, let's just say it was a very, very gentle parenting style as it related to, has it related to medical intervention on things. What do my sisters did have whooping cough? I just was reading this big article in the New Yorker about the maha movement and kind of what it is, how it is that people, particularly mothers, can kind of find themselves pretty far down the rabbit hole around things like vaccines and just like standard medical care for their kids. And some of the things they were mentioning is worst case scenario, like return of whooping cough. I was like, been there, done that in the Burbank family and not for any kind of anti-vaxx reasons, just purely from being overwhelmed from having a lot of kids from those kids not going to regular school. So there wasn't that normal, like, you know, that, like my parents were not anti-vaxx.

17:33They just weren't organized. And like my sister Sarah never got vaccinated for certain things because she didn't go to school until she was in, I don't know, like, fourth grade. And so nobody said, these are, this is the list of things you have to have done before the first day of public school. But so like, reading that article, I was like, oh, some of this rings a bell. Anyway, all that is to say, like, I remember being a kid and sometimes just having these really, having a really intense fever and just feeling really out of it and feeling just kind of under supervised. And like, and then, so I think to this day, I think even as a 50 year old man, if I get a bad fever, I think I go back to that place in my mind and my emotional experience. And I think I, I think I, I regress to being a, you know, a nine year old. And I just, I don't deal with it particularly well. If I had a fever, I don't think I'd be here with you right now because I get, I remember it was after the, the T.B. Telephone when we were in your parents' basement. And I was, you and John were gone already for some reason.

18:36And I was just like wrapping up and moving all the equipment into, into the car. And Genevieve and I had like a, what, like an hour and hour and 15 minute drive home. What is it to see at all to your parents area? Like an hour and 15 minutes or something like that, probably, right? On a Friday. Yeah. Am I crazy? Didn't we do a live show with all those, we had all those lunch. Oh, we did. That was like maybe a couple of weeks later. We came up with an afternoon and did it. Yeah. Or maybe just a week later or something. But I remember having all of those, all those lunch boxes and trying to deal with them because I do remember, yeah, you, you were breaking down the equipment in my parents' house and you started to feel very poorly, right? But I, but I didn't know what was going on. And I think that's because I don't think I had a fever in literally decades. Like I don't, I never got fever. So I got sick. I'd get a little cold like this. And I remember. And so I didn't identify what the symptoms were. I just felt like heavy and like I remember, I think Genevieve drove home and usually I'll drive before driving somewhere together. But she was out there with us or something helping me maybe tear down.

19:38I don't remember what it was. But I remember I just like got home and like kind of like last night only much, much worse. Like I crawled into that bed. I was bill, wildered by what could be making me feel this way. And then I took my temper chair and like, Oh, fever. This is what fever does. Body aches. Your whole thing just shuts down. And I hadn't had that in so long. And then I got it again. I think maybe a year or two later when I actually got COVID and Philly, I don't know how I had a voted COVID that whole time. But, and so I've had like two favors in the past four years or something like that. And hardly any in my life before then. And I will tell you, I would not be here right now if we're talking about a fever. Like I just, I could not, I just remember just feeling like I couldn't, I couldn't operate at all. It's like your body is telling you you need to find a place. And yeah, you need to shut down. You need to crawl out into a hole somewhere. And then I go, leaves over yourself and see if you survive this. And I know it's super gross. But the idea of a fever breaking, like that's something I would read about or something.

20:40But again, with little experience with fevers, I didn't know what that meant until I had that fever after that thaw. And then I woke up at one, because I just came home, went right to bed, time had no meaning. I think I went into some sort of time warp or something like that. But then at one point, I woke up and it was like somebody, I'm sorry, this is gross, but you already brought up toe stuff. It was like somebody had taken a bucket of water and just splashed it on me at some point in my sleep and I slept through it. And then I woke up in the mattress. I was just, and I was like, well, I feel better, but this is astounding. How did this all come from my body? And it's just, it is like a tide or a wave breaking upon the shore. It really breaks when it breaks. Well, your body is trying to kill something off that's inside your body, right? I mean, is that a simplistic reading of it? I'm understanding what a fever is. Again, this is a very simplified version is that there is a foreign virus or a foreign virus or something in there.

21:41And it is, your body is literally trying to like, it's setting the oven on self clean. Yeah. That's even like a whole cloth that we should put. Just kind of going like, like, we're just going to cook all of this and then the, you know, the stuff that needs to survive will. And so yeah, I mean, it's, I also, I'm sure that this came up when we were talking about this in the aftermath of you getting sick that time. I know 100% what happened was your body probably wanted to be, I'm talking about when we did the first TBT Lathon independence at my parents house and their basement. I'm sure that whole week your body was going, we need to probably get sick right now. And some other higher order supervisor in your body. There was someone at the mid level who was like, hey guys, we have, we have gotten some viruses in here and we're actually kind of sick. And then there was a manager that said absolutely not under this under no circumstances. Are you under no circumstances? Are you allowed to report that up above me?

22:41We are not sick. We are doing fine. And then probably when you said, good luck to all on that Friday, then, then the mid level part of your body came up and said now and then that supervisor had already left for the weekend. Honestly, they were there on their half day, half day on Friday. And then your body just like went into full on, you know, full blown being sick mode. You know what else I did that day. And I would love to blame the oncoming fever, although don't know if I can, but as we relive that, I'm also remembering because I believe there might have also been a slight stomach thing associated with that particular one because we got done with that. You know, as you said, I said, good luck to all. And then I remember like kind of high telling it to the bathroom. And as I'm sitting on the toilet in your parents basement, opening up. That's a good, that's a good, if you have to use one, no one goes in that bathroom. And it's sort of got like, yeah, it's a good basement. It's got good basement bathroom. It's not quite a Pittsburgh toilet. No, but it's not.

23:41But it's not walls, but anyway, but I just remember opening my phone and seeing like a whole bunch of text messages from one Phyllis Fletcher saying, I'm ready. I'm standing by. I'm ready. I'm standing by. We had booked Phyllis to be on the show that Friday because there's a live show that we were streaming live and taking calls. And she and we had invited her on on Thursday. And then by the time we did the show on Friday and we're taking calls and everything, I had forgotten to call her. I wasn't even sick. They are the whole time with her headphones on and her headset like ready to join the show. Her baseball mitt. I'm just remembering that now. No, no, that she does all radio. She's using wearing a baseball mitt. It's a system that she has. So I would like to publicly say once again, I'm sorry Phyllis, I forgot. He fled. I wasn't even sick and I forgot. I didn't even have, I didn't even have a, you know, a battle raging in my body like you did to blame for it. So well, thanks for being here today again. I am, I mentioned on Friday that there was a chance that I had flown to basically Orlando,

24:43Florida and then driven another couple of hours to a place called Fort Mead, Florida. Kind of for no reason. Then that kind of ended up being the case. The lawnmower races were canceled because of the rain. It turns out the track is very sensitive. It's this like clay track. I mean, I had watched some videos. So in full disclosure, I kind of knew what it was. But if I said to you, lawnmower races, wouldn't you figure they're racing on a lawn? Big field, big field. Yeah. Feels like they should be mowing while they're racing. But no, this is, this is kind of a whole different animal. You know, these are, they don't have the blades on them. They don't have the deck on them anymore. And they're racing on this kind of clay track that's banked and everything. Actually, very cool. But it's very sensitive terrain. And if it gets, if it gets wet, it takes days to kind of like dry out. And so I don't like that. I'm sorry to interrupt. I just, I don't, I know, I knew that they wouldn't have the blades engaged. Like I knew that they weren't actually mowing.

25:47But one must ask oneself. And maybe if one were a journalist, one would, when they do do this story, like at one point, does it stop being a lawnmower? And just another motorized vehicle that you're racing. Oh, that is what I asked Wes, who is in charge of the grass car. By the way, that's a pretty good name. It's called grass car. Oh, the name of the, of the facility of the place where they, where they have the races. Although, yes, that's the facility. Not, I thought they were renaming the race. I was like, oh, so they're kind of acknowledging that it's not lawnmowers anymore. They're calling it grass car. But, but yes, they're, you're right. It's not on grass still. And I asked in the book, something that I've evoked on this show many times to the, what would you call it, the philosophical experiment of George Washington's acts? Sure, yeah, right. And that was a difficult, there was a difficult principle to try to explain when it was 97 degrees, 95% humidity. And there were cicadas and other flying bugs absolutely dive bombing us.

26:52It was the most uncomfortable I have ever been. I'm just talking physically trying to do one of these TV interviews or any interview in the, in the history of my, my career, such as I have one. Um, because the races were canceled, but there were still going to be people there. There's a guy in charge of it was there. Um, this really sweet, um, kind of granddad with his grandkids. He likes to build them with his grandkids. Also, I realized the granddad has got to be my age, maybe a year or two younger. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, I'm talking to this guy because our producer young said, oh, yeah, there's going to be a granddad there with his grandkids and they've got this, you know, this mower that they built. And I was like, oh, that's going to be great. And then when we were in between takes, I was chatting about things with the granddad and he goes, oh, we probably got to be about the same age because I was making some, you know, cultural pop cultural references. And I was like, we probably are the same age. We were probably exactly the same age. Like, I'm granddad age. I'm going to have fully granddad age at this point. You know, potentially, but so there were some people for me to interview, but it was,

27:58it was a, it was a level of heat. I mean, I've experienced this in my life, you know, in various places, but I don't think I've ever been trying to sit there and have a conversation about modified lawn mowers or doing anything. It's like, it's the kind of heat and humidity where like you get out of the car and you run into, maybe you don't run because that'd be worse. But you, as quickly as possible, try to get into the air condition environment of the store that you're going to. Like, it's not, nobody's outside. Like, it's, it's, you know, this month in central Florida is like December in, you know, parts of North Dakota or something. It's just like, you just don't go outside. It's just not, it's not hospitable for human existence. And so I'm sitting there and I'm just so wet as running down my back and I'm trying to have a conversation and, you know, everything is, I don't know if everything was taking longer or it just felt like it, probably a little bit of both because we had working with a camera guy who let's just say is on the deliberate side.

29:01So it's like, I'm seeing that I have like, I have like a thing of paper towels that I'm blotting my face down with in between every question to just try to have like one shot of me not, you know, completely like you when your fear was breaking. That was happening to me consistently. Maybe I'd have fever. Did you ask yourself? It would have been impossible to know. Yeah. You know, like, I wonder what do they do in central Florida when they're sick in the month of September because you would have no way of telling if this was environmental or if this was happening inside of you. They shift you up to West Virginia and then see if you're still sweating. And if you are, then you have fever. Then you know. And so we're going to go back in March is the big takeaway. Which actually, this was something too. How do I put this? What I realized when we got there was, oh, there's a big jam baroo in March. That's awesome. First of all, the weather in March is a lot better. You know, I guess September is traditionally very hit and miss with this because it's the

30:04rainy. It's the tail end of the rainy season in this part of Florida. So there's always a chance of rain. March, people come in from all over the country. It's like a people camp there. They have like, you know, bands playing. I'm sure that the hottest dad blues that have ever rocked the coldest. Somehow, both the hottest, somehow the hottest and the coldest at the same time. No, because they're like, oh, yeah, we have bands play. I was like, oh, man, the rock, the dad rock is called forget the granddad rock. Which is what I like now as a granddad. I'm not actually a granddad for the record. I just that I could be chronologically. There's a big jam baroo in March, which it sounds perfect, which we're now going to fly back and cover in March. Okay. Wow. March, which will be great. But I kind of what I was struggling with while I was there and I was really pushing, this isn't even the story of me being kind of a little bit, let's just say, Tetchy. That's yet to come. I just had to really battle this feeling of wanting to say to our producer, like, why

31:04exactly are we here? Like I felt like it was going to have a moment from like, I've never even seen the movie broadcast news. But I feel like I was going to have a broad, I was going to have a, you know, like a some kind of broadcast news meltdown as the quote unquote talent. Like I really, really pride myself on not bringing that energy to any of these shoots. Because nobody needs that. And also I'm extremely fortunate to get to do this job. And I don't, I just don't ever want to come off as ungrateful for that. And the thing is, a lot of other people on these shoots do way more work than I do. The camera guy is setting up lights for hours before I get there. The sound guy is setting up all this stuff that producer has been scouting things like, there is so much work that goes into it that I just need to be grateful that other people are doing. And I really, I mean that and I really believe that this was as close as I've ever gotten to like kind of being like, why are we here right now? Why are we not here in March? Why are we here right now? What is going on? Is this as fast as we, like I was having these internal moments of really wanting to have

32:06a big time, Deva meltdown. Which I didn't, I kept it bottled up. But it was the closest I've ever, well other than when I stormed off the black carpet. That was right. That was right. And that wasn't weather related. That was just because I didn't want to wait in line to talk to Steve Vy, the guitarist. I'm, this isn't your point. But I'm curious about broadcast news, which I have seen, but I have a bad memory. Are you thinking of broadcast news or do you think of network? Network is the one where the guy says I'm at his hell and I can take it anymore. But he's talking about the society, right? And then right. Is Holly Hunter in broadcast news? Yes. And William Hurt. Now I'm probably just missing remembering. I thought the whole thing was about him faking it here. I thought that was like the big part. Is there a part where he also gets really like high handed? I have not seen broadcast news. But what I'm assuming is there must be a scene where the quote unquote talent at some point is being extra less than graceful or gracious towards a producer or a script writer

33:14or something. But I'm just guessing at that. That's why I said, you might be right. But I don't remember that for what I said. Well then, well then I'm going to, I would take your memory of it over mine in that I have not seen that movie. They have a slight edge. Although I'm so wrong all the time that I almost wonder if you coming into it with absolutely tabloirosa. It is actually more accurate. It will be a point where our memories will be so bad that the other person coming to it with absolutely no experience has a slight advantage. Actually, better. No, I actually was just confused because I wasn't sure if you meant if you were talking about that, I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore, which wasn't him really yelling at his producers. It was more about him to talk about that. Yeah, I meant like a combination of both of those. Sure. Yeah, yeah. And I thought of the, I'm mad as hell. But then I remembered that that's my, like you said, a societal meltdown. He's having a meltdown about the society, not about his coffee being not hot enough for something. So I guess I just meant put in a movie where somebody is on TV, but they're being shitty to the people that they work.

34:14Sure. You were getting very on the edge of doing that. Were you with the same people who were on the black carpet with you? No, different. A whole different set of folks. So I guess I could have, I technically probably had one meltdown I could use with these folks. I get one meltdown per crew. And so the LA crew that I was working with in the black carpet, I've used that. I've played that card. I can't do it again. But so yes, so I did not end up filming any lawnmower racing. Oh, to answer your question about at what point are we not dealing with lawnmower, I think that's a valid question. I asked, I will ask many people this when we come back in March. There is, I would say that there's two different, there's two different classes now of lawnmower racing. And here is what really happened. It started off the story goes two guys in Florida. Of course, we're like mowing their lawns and kind of got competitive about who could mow their lawn faster. And they started souping up their lawnmowers. And so this thing lawnmower racing gets started where they do take off the mowing deck. The blade is gone. But it's basically a lawnmower body and it's four inches off the ground.

35:18That's the clearance. And they start souping up the motors and souping up or the, you know, yeah, they start souping up the motor on it and doing all kinds of different stuff. But it still is existing within the framework of a riding lawnmower body. And what one of the guys told me off air when I was there was eventually they just got bored with what they could do four inches off the ground. And so someone came up with this idea called FX, which stands for, I don't know what the F is, but the X is for experimental. And like this is just like actually an interesting study of human nature. We got bored with driving what were effectively still riding lawnmowers granted with like super gased up engines. Oh, by the way, you have to use regular fuel. You can't use like pure alcohol or any of like you can't use, you know, any of that stuff they do in funny cars or whatever. But basically they got bored, they got bored with how fast they could go with a regular lawnmower. And they said, well, what if we just pretended that the lawnmower companies decided to do experimental lawnmowers?

36:21Which were only two inches off the ground and which were on a totally different chassis in which in very almost no way resemble lawnmowers. I mean, we can't say that there's as I have to say, there's a non-zero chance of that happening. They might. So they basically invented a complete and obviously ridiculous and made up fantasy idea about the about John Deere deciding to release lawnmowers that only have two inches of ground clearance. So that they can then just go off and build their little fast machines. And that's that's the fastest ones or these effects ones that can go like 78 miles an hour. The guy, the land speed record was set on the Bonneville salt flats. A guy got one of these things going 98 miles an hour. They've ever driven in the Bonneville salt flats. I have driven through them, but I have not driven like, you know, on them as a part of it. It was a speed thing. You know, I think of some as myself, I think of myself as somebody who is not afraid of speed. I almost told you this one here in Ohio. Remember, there's a lot of go-cart talk in Ohio because we passed out of swings and

37:27things, which was like kind of a go-cart and baseball, a bad-encage park that I used to go to. Anyway, I have a memory of being proud as a child. And those memories don't come off in, especially for that period of my life. And it was because I was at some sort of a public go-cart track. But as you know, I was a boy who had a go-cart at home and I was not afraid of speed. And I remember riding this track with like my family was out there, other friends were out there. I don't know what it was. Maybe it was somebody's birthday party. But when I came back into the caral or whatever, the probably teenager, whoever was running the thing, but the adult in my eyes told me like, hey, you know where the break is, right? Like, you know, you know, you're going really fast. And the thing is, I wasn't really in trouble because I hadn't done anything. I didn't. Yeah. I didn't drive anybody off the road or anything. But it was almost kind of like this kid is going too fast. And I remember being like, hell yeah, like, yeah, oh, I know where the break is. But you, would you like it? Because I don't need it, my boy.

38:28And I remember feeling a little bit just like kind of cool about that. But also in my head, like kind of like, am I in trouble? But anyway, all of that is to say, even with like kind of cars and stuff like that, like you think that like, oh my God, if I'm on the salt flats with Genevieve and I were back in 2020, I think on a road trip to the Grand Canyon. So we just had our little VW of golf, which was like a little blue hatchback, right? That we're still driving today. You get out there and there is nothing stopping you from absolutely flooring it. Like there's nothing you can get. Absolutely flooring. There's nothing you can hit except for there are other cars, but everybody is so, so spread out. But the thing is, and this is going to sound almost counterintuitive or like I'm making an excuse for myself for not being a speed demon. It was so disorienting being out in this area where it was like floating in space almost. Like once you started going and making turns, you couldn't remember where you came from anymore. It is like the only place I've ever been on, like on Earth that felt like I was on a different planet.

39:29It is so incredible. And I remain a little bit bummed that I didn't like maybe we got it up to 70 or 75. But I swear I've driven faster on the road at times, probably in my youth, than I did out in the salt flats because it seems so scary and disorienting. The enormate. The flat. Yes. The flat, the flat, the flat salts. Well, you know, here's what's even sadder. I drove through them and I don't think it even occurred to me to get the lead out because like I am such a turtle when I drive now. I think I mentioned this a few weeks ago. I think much to Becca's chagrin. Like she, she is not like a, you know, a Larry lead, but although she did tell me that when she was living in the Willamette Valley after she had moved back from Minnesota and she said she got pulled over by the same cop three times. And I said, that might for speeding. I was like, hey, that means they have a pretty small police force there and whatever town

40:29that is. And like, was it, was this dukes of hazard? Yeah. Was it a Roscoe P. Coltrade pulling you over? Did you have a flash riding with him, the Basset Hound? All those becks boys done it again. Yes. I was like, also, to be pulled over, the same cop for speeding indicates you might be driving faster than you need to drive. And definitely her brothers are also just like, you know, they're not unsafe people, but they just like to drive their vehicles, you know, and they're interested in, you know, like they have cars that are sort of maybe performance cars or souped up or whatever. It's like, I don't know what is going on for me. That has never, and I was, maybe it was, maybe it was when I was driving back from the Lawnmower race facility back to my hotel that I was thinking about that, but I was like, the fact that I am totally and completely, no, you know what it was? I'm sorry, this is getting so unbelievably boring, but like, here's what I was thinking

41:30about. I had a dream after the day that I was at the Lawnmower racing thing. I had a dream that I have now completely forgotten about until this conversation. I'm going to need your applause for just one second. You know like a dream catcher came to life. Proceed? I am probably because people were talking about how fast they could get these Lawnmowers to go and also stock car racing came up and just going fast. I had a dream that I had. I was taking an Uber somewhere and the Uber was like a really nice like Porsche or something, but because it was a dream and it's insane, the driver was like in the rear of the vehicle and I was in the front. So it's like the driver was in what would normally be the kind of backseat and I was somehow in the front seat, but I remember this guy who was an older guy and he was driving this high performance vehicle and he was like going really fast, but like because he was excited to show me how fast it could go and then the dream I remember being like pretending like, whoa, oh, this is cool, but just being like this feels unsafe to me.

42:32And so I think I was thinking about the dream later when I was awake and I thought I sort of pride myself and this is a terrible place for me to derive any of myself a steam, but I think of myself as a person who is not fearful of the world generally speaking. Like I feel like I find myself in a lot of different situations and I've just experienced a lot of my life and I guess I probably feel good about the fact that I'm not daunted by a lot of things, but I think I just have to be very true and say I'm daunted by going what feels like too fast for me. Probably more so if someone else is driving and that's a control issue. That's its own situation, but even for myself, like I don't have any desire to go faster than what the speed limit is. It's not to say that I'm driving under the speed limit. I'm driving probably five miles an hour over the speed limit, but there is just, or like, you know, there's these, you know, you can go in like Vegas or whatever, you can, you know, rent these, I don't know if it's a NASCAR or a F1 car or something, but you can do these,

43:34you know, these loops on this banked track and you can go 200 miles an hour or something and people pay big money to do this. And I'm not yucking anyone's yum. I'm saying there's something off about me that like I don't, I wouldn't even feel unsafe doing that, that formula one track or whatever kind of track it is. It's not that I would feel unsafe. It's just not interesting to me. And I don't know why that is. Like it's interesting to most people and it's for some reason not interesting to me. Yeah, I would take that opportunity if I could like drive on a safe track, but like really open something up. That does sound cool to me. There was something about the salt flats that are so disorienting because yeah, there's just no point of reference out there at all. Now, you know, is this is part of your story that you're working on for CBS, like usually you participate in some way. So it's part of the story that you're supposed to get on one of these and would it be better if you actually went to Home Depot, CBS goes to Home Depot. Everybody goes everybody CBS goes to Home Depot and just buys a regular lawn mower and you're on that while everybody is racing around you because that would be awesome.

44:37Actually that would be a really funny visual and we have until March to make that happen. That's right. And to give me an associate producer credit that I'm so 100% thirsty for that actually would be really funny. That would be really funny. We should do something like I mean, I'm sure there's a plan for me to drive one of these things and for the record like I haven't been on one. I'm not does not it does not cause me any nervousness to think about driving one of these. Although I have a feeling that at, you know, your two inches off the ground, I bet you 60 miles an hour feels pretty fast. I bet you it feels very fast. Like you see, so they have like the kid level and the kids are going 20 miles an hour and it looks like they're in slow motion. It looks like comically slow. But I bet you even 20 miles an hour could feel pretty fast when you're not in a car. You're kind of like in this little thing. But I did one of the guys that was there had two different models he had. I forget the term for the original ones but the ones that had to be more lawn mowerish. And it was so cool. It was like a red riding, you know, is a riding lawn mower that had a red hood on it. It looked identifiable as a riding lawn mower and I was like, that's the one that I like.

45:39Yeah. But then the other one was all, you know, the FX one was all the fast one. It's like, I was like, is that even a lawn mower and he goes absolutely not. Yeah. Because it's not a lawn mower and I go, yeah, okay. I didn't want to, I didn't want to rain on their parade. Mother Nature was doing enough of that. But I wanted to be like, all right, we, I think we're, I think we're using a very, very, very wide ranging and generous definition of what a lawn mower race looks like here people. And aesthetically, it sounds like these new ones are probably all mountain dude up, right? Like spoilers and probably flashy colors as opposed to the more classic looking red one that you were talking about. Right. Well, they just don't look, they look like a go kart. Yeah. Okay. And that was the thing too. It's like, well, and they use a go kart. They'll use a go kart like engine. They'll like one guy builds his own chassis, but then uses a go kart engine. Everyone uses a go kart engine. I'm, it's, it's still, maybe I'll find out in March. It's a little unclear to me how it's not go kart racing. And again, which sounds really fun. And I don't care. Like again, I don't have a stake in this. I don't really care.

46:39But it just sort of like, well, it's certainly just call it something else. You know what I mean? Like call it a, you know, whatever it's not, it's not lawn mower racing at a certain point. But again, why do I care? Enjoy it, folks. It actually sounds like a fun day, whether you're on the, whether you're on these things or just watching them do it, eating a corn dog. Like why am I totally, why am I trying to ruin this with semantics? No, it sounds like, and that was the thing too. When I was meeting these, these young people, these grandkids, they were talking about how like their whole life, you know, you know, multiple, maybe about once a month, because they live, you know, a couple hours away. It's like they get the, you know, whatever the machines, lawn mowers onto the truck. And they go up for this like weekend of camping, where people are, including them, the kids are racing these lawn mowers. And there's a bunch of other kids there. And there's people are just barbecuing. And like, it's just like a hangout. And I was like, that sounds like the most fun thing that could ever happen to a 10 year old kid. And like, I just like, yeah, it seems like it seems like good, clean fun. So, so I'm again, we have to learn more about it.

47:42I don't know if I needed to be in Fort Mead, Florida on Saturday. You got those miles that you needed, though. I did. I'm building up those miles bit by bit. Link by link. I've built this chain, Andrew. And of course, we can't pay our mortgage with airline miles, which is why we need to have actual income. And that actual income comes to us as we are full time employees of two beautiful two biz. You, myself, our friend John Sclaroff, comes to us from donations. This is a 100% listener supported podcasting supported by friends of ours like Teresa Slucher. In Tom Water, Washington. Thank you, Teresa. Teresa. We've, that's a, that's a name. You know, I always make the joke that's a name I haven't heard in a long time. That's a name I've been saying for a long time. Years and years and years. We've been thanking our friend Teresa. Thank you so much. Yes. Thank you very much. Also, Tanya, Retinger is in Renton, Washington.

48:43Hey, Renton, that's where the Seahawks practice, right? That's where the 1 and O Seattle Seahawks. Oh, yeah, the V-Mac is in Renton. Yeah, well, good, well, then good job, Tanya. Thank you. You set the boys up for success this year. Yeah, every year, wine comes to Renton. That's right. What? Famously. He's doing a bunch. I feel like we've manifested Leav Schreiver back into the pop culture. Do it. Good. I'll take credit for that. Yes, for fans. What's he doing? What's he doing? He's in a new, I feel like he's in a, it's not, it's not slunk cheap. He's in some new TV campaign that I'm saying during the football games. I couldn't figure out what the product was because I wasn't really, the sound wasn't on or whatever. Oh, I had to tell you when we get to the top stories too, the political valence of sports of different kinds of sports. Actually, I don't know if it's political valence. The something valence of sports was brought so home to me yesterday in between my flights.

49:47No, sorry, I guess I was in Tampa. I hadn't, I went from Tampa to Charlotte up here, but in Tampa in the airport, I saw something that was kind of incredible. But anyway, thank you, Tonya. Thank you to Philip Brock of Richmond, Virginia. Thank you, Philip. Lovely, Rich, remember, I was there once doing weight weight and a listener and his wife brought me a thing of boiled peanuts. Oh, yeah. I remember that. And it was so nice and I think I ate the entire can on my drive from Richmond. I had to fly out of DC like crazy early the next day. And I think I ate the entire can of boiled peanuts, which I think that area is famous for on my drive back. But I'm, thank you, Philip. Thanks to Tyler DeHaven in Wichita, Kansas. Nice. That's the bread basket of America. I'm making that. And I just learned, I just learned they've, Airbus. No, I'm sorry, not Airbus. What's the French one, right? The French one here.

50:48Yeah, what's Airbus's French? There's another one that I'm forgetting that has a, a, a Bambardier, which has also got to be the French one. Oh, okay. I don't know. I don't think I know Bambardier. Bambardier has a big, has a big factory in Wichita. And I learned this because I was, there's, this is such a weird place to take this. There's a guy running for Senate. I think he's already, he was elected to the Senate and he's, he's running for reelection. He's a Republican and he's a retired. I think like obstetrician maybe. And he was like, I don't want to guess at his name because I'll get it wrong, but he's like, he was, all his campaign was like, doc, you know, so and so and, you know, doc, whatever, he'll take care of you. And then New York Times wrote this big article about him last week about how he sent hundreds of people to collections to the degree that people were being arrested for owing him $100 of unpaid medical bills related to their reproductive care, including, you know, pregnancies that did not go full term or children who were, you know,

51:52not alive anymore. I mean, just the most heartbreaking situations. And then him just absolutely turning the screws on these poor, poor people to get another hundred dollars or whatever. Yeah, like debtors jail shit. Yes. But OBGYN. Because the way they get you is there is no debtors prison, but there is prison. If you don't show up for a court hearing. So what would happen is, and these, the stories in the New York Times are just absolutely heartbreaking. And of these people that were like, we were trying to pay it off. We just didn't have enough money and they wouldn't accept, you know, of $100 a month or whatever. And again, these are people, generally speaking, the reason that they needed the help from this guy's medical practice is because something was going on that was itself probably pretty traumatic. And so anyway, it's been really fun to see him getting booed out of town halls and out of debates. I guess he was in some debate with the guy who's running against him last weekend. People are just merciless with this guy. And it just couldn't be happening to a nicer guy as far as I'm concerned.

52:53But one of the things that was reading was that another thing he's doing that's not good is he's supporting some Trump thing that's like, terrifying Bombardier right out of Wichita, which is costing Wichita a thousand jobs. That's where I'm taking the. I see. So it was Bombardier. And by the way, our Kansas City tends to send me that as well. And I read the lead of that story and the lead alone is like, are you kidding me? And I've been meaning to sit down to read the whole investigative piece. If you, if for some reason, if you need to break out of your illness by becoming furious, yeah, beyond any amount of anger you've ever known, read that article. Is Bombardier? Is that like a, it sounds like a, it sounds like a drink I can't afford or like a, like sort of a sparkling wine I can't afford. Is that like private jets, do you think or are they making, and maybe I'm putting you on the spot about something? Well, what I know is that I think they might make some, they must make some amount of commercial jets because I know, in fact, I think some of the Alaska Airlines, I think some of the Alaska Airlines jets that I fly on, the maybe the really small ones are Bombardier. I'm familiar with that name.

53:53And I think it's, you know, it's, it's a big, you know, they're based wherever they're based. I think they just have an operation in which it's not like their HQ or anything, but I was a little surprised that, that was a surprising place for them to have even a thousand employees. Sure. Yeah. Um, um, and where Tyler is. Um, Tyler, I'm hoping that you don't work for Bombardier. I'm hoping this isn't how, isn't how you hear that your job might be going away. This would be very awkward here as you're supporting us in our job. Um, thank you, Tyler. Thanks to John Williams in Midwest City, Oklahoma. I believe last time we thanked John, I said, this is definitely somebody who is in a witness protection program. Yes. John Williams Midwest City, Oklahoma. Come find me. Come find me. I dare you. He's a, he lives at one, two, three, four Bluebird Lane in Midwest City, Oklahoma. No, John, thank you again. Uh, so much for supporting our program. We really do appreciate you. Gosh, Andrew, I am watching two squirrels outside my hotel room window. There's this huge maple tree and two squirrels are just doing that thing where they just run

54:56around the trunk. And I don't know if they're trying to. Yeah, I think they're, I think they're bleep or kill each other. Yeah. But it's adorable. I'm hoping it's the first. I think it's the first one. I don't think the squirrels like to kill other squirrels. I don't think there's a need. Okay. Good. Well, they are, they are boy, I'll tell you what, Chippendale got nothing on the cuteness of these, these two squirrels. Uh, thanks. Uh, also to dad Lee, Patusik in Hamden, Connecticut, our friend, Diad Lee, who has been again supporting the program for years and years and years up there in Hamden, Connecticut. That's right. We really appreciate you. It's so nice to see your name on this list. The Adley's a doctorate or a researcher, I think. Something scientific. Yeah, I believe. And I believe also did, was there a kid on the show or did we, there was a plot line with their kid at one point. I feel like we got an email maybe or maybe there was a call in during one of our, like, you know, zoom sessions where I feel like we've gotten eyes on dad Lee's little adorable kid or kids. So thank you so much. Thank you to all of our donors for supporting TVTL and keeping us here.

55:56We wouldn't be doing this without you. Hello and welcome to Top Story. I'll try to keep all this pretty brief because you're not feeling 100% and I know that you've got some voice mails that we want to get to as well. So I'll just do a quick little roundup of this. Oh, the thing that I was alluding to about the kind of, the different, what the different kind of sports kind of say about you. So I got to the airport. I had to check out in my hotel room in Tampa, kind of well before my flight. I didn't really know what to do. So I thought, I'll just go to the airport and I'll just get some computer work done or whatever. So I did and then I went over to get some lunch. I'm sitting at the bar and they've, you know, it's the first Sunday of the NFL season. And so they've got the bucks game. It hasn't even started yet, but it was going to be the Tampa game on like multiple TVs. And everyone sitting at the bars, you know, got their favorite team and everyone's kind of chopping it up about football and the people working at the, at the bar, you know, asking each other, did you do your pick them yet? And, you know, everyone's real footbally.

56:59And this guy comes and sits down and he's, he's across kind of, there's going opening in the bar where the staff can go in and out, you know, go behind the bar, but then come out to the wider restaurant area. And he's on the other side of that for me, other side of that divide from me. And for the record, there's nothing wrong with this guy at all. But he was an older, very well put together white guy, you know, he just looked like a person of sort of a certain amount of privilege, or at least a person who was doing pretty well in life. That was like me. So picture me. Yeah, kind of imagine like you, but older. Okay. Sounds good. And he's got his iPad and he asks, he asks the bartender, if she'll put the US open on for him, the US tennis open. Uh huh. And it didn't even honestly in that moment, I was just eating my, what is it? Fried green tomato BLT. Oh, any good? Sounded, it sounded better.

58:01It sounded better than, in practice than in reality, because I wanted a fresh, delicious tomato, but fried is right there in the name. It's fried green tomatoes. Yeah. So I was like, oh, I'll have a green tomato. And then I forgot about the fried part. It was a little too heavy for me. But anyway, he's like, can you put the US open on? And the bartender is, look, she realizes that like both of these TVs have a, like, have the same game on. So why not put the US open on this other TV? And so she finds the channel, she puts it on for the guy. And I swear to God, the second it goes on, it like sends a high pitch, a little, maybe a sub audible tone out to every single person in the restaurant who worked there, other customers, immediately this guy walks up, he's like, what is this, this guy who works there? He's like, he's like, maybe does the busing of like the dishes and stuff. He goes, what is this? To his cow. Yeah, to his colleague. And he goes, and this is the guy who like buses the tables too, but he'd be even clearing, he wasn't, he wasn't worried about like, what, you know, rising above his station

59:05at this place, he felt very comfortable going like, what in the hell is this? And like, the bartender was like, this guy wanted it on. And I'm watching this, this guy go kind of like, he's sort of sitting there like he doesn't know exactly what to say. Like, and the one guy's like, it's football season. This is, this is the first day of football season. What is this? And then he like leaves. And then somebody else walks up and goes, what is this? Like, why is this on? And she has to go, a customer asked for it to be on. And it's on both TVs. I didn't think it was going to be a problem. That guy leaves. The other bartender, the guy who actually was helping me, he's been doing something else. He comes over, he now realizes, he goes, what is happening with this stuff? Fully five different people who worked there were freaking out about the fact that one of the televisions was on the US tennis open. And I just thought like, it was so, it was so interesting to see, like it was in a front to the culture of this bar in the airport in Tampa that somebody wanted to watch tennis. And of course, the tennis was being requested by a guy who looked like he probably belonged

1:00:07to a tennis club. So I find it, we could, we could be taught, we could talk about this for three hours. I'm fascinated by this. So I'm a man who sometimes does go into a bar and wants to watch a specific game, a Mariners game usually. And it's not on you have to ask for it. I, that's one of my least favorite things that and like holding an open table or chair for somebody asking a bartender, like, are you cool? That's how you almost got alcohol poisoning during the Super Bowl. That's right. Holding down a table for 14 and trying to drink for all of them. I, I turn into, I just become all belly, which I'm getting close to anyway. Like I'm just like, I'm just like, excuse me. Melored, Melady. Is there any chance that it was already in your preordained plans to change this to the baseball game? Like I am so beta about asking for it because I'm so scared. I hate asking for things. And in this case, you're asking the bartender, but you don't know who else in the bar is locked onto this thing or whatever it is. But like sometimes the TV is just on ESPN highlights or something like that.

1:01:09You're like, well, can we put on the local team? But like I'm so scared of asking for that. And then I'm so scared once the change does happen if it happens that other people in the bar are going to be like, what the heck? I was watching that Tampa Bay game up here in Seattle or something, you know? And so I'm super interested in knowing what are you, are you kind of out of the corner of your eye clocking the tennis viewer? And is he seem like he's getting smaller and smaller? Is he just like enjoying the game oblivious to all these conversations? Somehow I'm getting smaller and smaller, which is the weirdest outcome because so yeah, there's some sort of context. There was nobody where this guy was sitting. There was nobody really watching the TV that was just mirroring, you know, like the Tampa, I'm trying to remember who they actually played yesterday. Yeah, I'm curious to know if they won, too. They came out, they came out fairly strong. Everybody was feeling very excited about Baker, by the way. I almost was like, I was gonna text you like, I'm watching, I'm watching from the hot bed of Baker Mayfield support if you need any reporting on this because everybody,

1:02:11in the bar was like, oh, it was great. They love the deal that he resigned or whatever. But like, so the guy, the tennis guy, when he sits down, hey, he wasn't pushing about it at all. He just said, hey, could you put on the US open? There was no one, the closest person to watching the TV that he got changed was me. I was the closest to him. And I had another huge TV right there that had the same game on it. So like I kind of got in this weird roller. I'm now defending the bartender who changed it. You actually are in real life. Yeah. I mean, not in a, I'm not trying to be aggressive, but I'm like, so the one guy, Brian, was his name, who was my, the guy that had been bringing me food. He was like, clearly, like, not even jokingly annoyed, but like annoyed annoyed with her. And I said something like, like, I said, well, it's on both TVs. I go, it's just another, it's just the same game. It's on both TVs. Because what was, these were the critical difference to me. And I was trying to ask this woman, but there was a bit of a language barrier. And like, I was trying to find out, do you have multiple games?

1:03:14Can you, like, do they have a package where they could put on all the games? Because if they could put on like every football game, every, every early game, then the US open is actually taking up a screen that could be like a different. Yeah. Because people just want to be, and I've been, sorry to cut you off. Yeah. And I've been that person before who just wants to be surrounded by football. You know what I mean? 100%. It's sort of when you're not in a tennis or golf or something, and you're just like, that is just a waste of a screen. I can sort of see that playing out in the back of my head. But I don't think that was the case. This was just a bar in the Tampa airport. I don't think that they're spending the thousands of dollars. It wasn't even a sports bar. In fact, it was like a cafe or something, you know what I mean? Was the like theme of it? So I don't think their thing was like, we're going to have every single game known to man. So in other words, I don't think this even reduced. This wasn't blocking, you know, a game that they could have been watching. This was just one less screen with Tampa on it. And what was funny was, like I said, the guy who requested it, he wasn't being pushy.

1:04:15Once it was on though, and once everyone started getting mad at this, at this bartender who I was kind of sitting in close proximity to, I then kept wanting to clarify, there was no one watching it except me and I don't mind. I'm not mad. I can look at this thing. But it just was the principle of the matter seemed to really urk the employees of the cafe more than anyone. I'm not even customers because again, this was also wasn't like packed, you know, it wasn't like cheek to jowl. So then I am now somehow like defending this, this woman who changed the channel on behalf of the other, meanwhile, Captain privilege, totally unaffected. He has, he seems, and this is what true privilege is, I guess. He at no time seemed to be the slightest bit bothered by the fact that about five people came up and audibly chastised someone for putting the tennis match on. At no time to say, oh, that was me or hey, we can turn it off. Or like he was the least impacted by this information of anyone in the room. I was other than this woman who had changed the channel. I was the second most impacted by it.

1:05:16This draws such interesting lines, doesn't it? Like, why are, like in a certain way, I feel like I want to defend the person who put the, the tennis match on the TV. I kind of want to defend this guy if it really didn't bother anybody else. You know, when you were in the middle of the story at some point, I forgot that this is an airport too. I'm picturing more of a sports bar and an airport bar. That is almost always where they have a goal for tennis on or something like that. It doesn't, you know what I mean? Like you're not there to set for a flu. That's for a flu. That's for a flu. Oh, God. That's just like the chase. That's just like the chase. Yeah, the chase. Oh my God. It's like, it's all like social media bloopers or whatever. Oh my goodness. Yeah, they have such trash on that, like, yeah, that, that seems reasonable to me. Although like now we're in this position of like defending this guy, but that is interesting yet to be able to just navigate the world now. We just being like, yes, I want this tennis match on and I will let you all fight over it while I sit here and just watch. But again, he wasn't, he wasn't, he was weird. He wasn't pushy when he asked for it to be on. Yeah, just oblivious.

1:06:17And he wasn't like, I don't know. There was something about it not bothering him as much as it bothered me that then bothered me because I was like, I was so, now I was so like plugged into the game. And then I got into this whole thing and I felt like I needed to somehow be a peacemaker by saying, oh, I'm the only person affected by this screen and I don't really care. So, but also it was just funny that it was tennis. I mean, tennis and golf, I almost think maybe tennis, it made me think like, what is the most like, what is the most white privilege sport that you could, or kind of elitist? Like what's the most elitist? Maybe white privilege is the wrong description. What is the most elitist sport? Probably dressage. Yeah. And Rami was really involved in that. That'd be amazing if he asked him to put on dressage. That would be incredible. That would be, you want to talk about like a, a TikTok prank, just being the guy that goes into like a packed Pittsburgh sports bar during a, pits, a Monday night football game the Steelers are in and you just get them to put on dressage. Can you just put on dressage?

1:07:18Can you just put on, can you just put on dressage for me? By the way, a box didn't put up any points yesterday. I wonder if it was, if it was this bartender's fault. It was Jags 19, Buckeneers, nothing apparently. Wow, because they actually, the opening drive, they looked good and I remember it was like, it's just funny to be, it's funny to be a secret agent in sort of like, sort of like inside, and I don't want to say enemy lines, but like, but basically like, I was like embedded in another fan base for the hour that I was sitting there. And it's funny to watch the, because basically what is all these Tampa Bay Bucks fans doing the things that we do as Seahawks fans, or that I do as a Seahawk fan, which is like, analyzing everything and being really like, they were like, oh my gosh, he looks great. This is because I think the first drive, obviously they didn't score, but like, they drove the ball. Baker may filled their quarterback for the Tampa Bay Bucks, looked pretty good. I think he, you know, he completed some passes and he's looked good in the pocket. And I could just tell the energy of these Tampa Bay fans was like, this could be the year.

1:08:22And I just thought, you poor bastard, you're already dead and you don't know it. Yeah. And like, I think you mentioned this, they just signed him to a three year deal or something. So they're kind of locked in. They're like, okay, we made a commitment here. How is this going to go? And I root for him because he was, you know, he was a brown during the time that the browns finally broke their playoff drought and everything. And I just generally like him and appreciate him for that. But I did see some clips. I didn't immerse myself in Sunday football, yes, but I was kind of enjoying the fact that everybody else was like, I was dipping in here and there. I have a fantasy league. So I was sort of looking at my, my scores and kind of dipping in here and there while I was while I was putting around the kitchen. But I did see, I don't know if it was me, the kinds of somebody retweeted something like Baker's going to Baker and like, he's about to get sacked and it looks really ugly. And then he just breaks out and he somehow squeezes out and then he actually gains some yardage like something like seven yards or something. And then falls and squirts out the ball before both knees are down and like gives it up in the end zone or something. And I'm just like, that is, that is all of, I don't know, you know, like for all of the

1:09:25sports talk on this show, the fact that I'm going to take five minutes to break down a Baker Mayfield play is really, really going to a lot of people. But that does sort of summed up all of Baker Mayfield right there. Like a toughness, a bit of a squirreliness, a not give up in this, which is a word. And then also though to just absolutely shoot yourself in the foot while doing so. The other thing I was thinking as I was walking through the airport because the Tampa airport is lovely right now. The Charlotte airport appears to have just gone through a big remodel and then Portland, where I'm mostly flat off now, they just redid the whole airport and it's, it's absolutely gorgeous. I thought, I don't know if there's a physical space that gets remodeled more than airports. Is there any airport in the country right now that doesn't have some part of it under construction? I, my guess would be no, they seem to be in constant renewal. And you know, when they're done, they're quite lovely. But I thought it's so weird to me that this is the building we've decided has to always be just like a, a cathedral of glass and futuristic architecture because if I'm in Charlotte

1:10:31and I need to fly somewhere, it could be a mud pit. And then you have to stand in the mud pit while you're waiting for your airplane. And that's what you would do. It is, they have, as I always say, the airplanes, like, you know, nobody wants to be in a building that's, you know, soul crushing kind of not great old LaGuardia, although now there's new LaGuardia, which is really nice. But like, if anything, you would think that airports would be lagging so, so far behind in their sort of beautification because in most places, and particularly in like a smaller mid-sized city that has only one airport, if you're flying somewhere, that's where you have to go. They have a tremendous amount of leverage on you. And yet this is, this is the place that we've decided has to be refurbished every three years. Well, first of all, they're huge. So I wonder if that's one of those things where there's always some part of your airport that is decaying. What do they mean? Like is painting the Golden Gate Bridge? Yeah, exactly.

1:11:31Like you always have, but then also, you know, cities and, you know, whatever, multi-city's or counties or whoever runs whatever airport, whatever region, like this represents your state. You know what I mean? You just, this is the first. And in some cases, only thing people will see or have a memory of or in some cases, the last thing people will see before they say goodbye to your city or state or whatever. So I understand why it's so important. I'm thought of it that way. That's a good point. I like it. It's nice. I was actually impressed with all of it, but I thought like, you know, this is, again, the fact that like I just don't see, I think what you're saying is actually a very compelling argument for it's just it's the face of your city or the face of your county or whatever why not try to make it as nice as possible because like, the people doing is like driving to another state to fly out because they didn't like the bathrooms. Oh, another thing too, like, I can't remember which of the three airports I was in yesterday had this going on in the bathroom, but it was like right next to the urinal was like, you know, does this bathroom need attention or something?

1:12:32It's like text this number. Yeah. And then below was like, and then include this code and then specify this thing or this thing. And I was like, with these urine soaked hands. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Like, nobody's doing that. Nobody is, first of all, it was like a eight digit thing to text. So am I writing this down? Am I pulling my phone out of my, I'm at the urinal. I'm entering in that code that I'm going to then text another code to and I think even maybe one more sort of indication. I was like, I will be shocked if that has ever been utilized. If anyone has ever texted that number, which isn't, you know, again, they're trying, but that's, that's the point. It is these seem like places where they're, they're very concerned about your experience in a good way. And that's why a lot of these airports are again, really nice. I mean, the Portland airport is just phenomenal. Like, it makes, here's to your point. It makes me proud. I don't live in Portland, but I consider myself sort of culturally Portland now. It makes me really proud of the city of Portland. It is a beautiful facility. They have great restaurants and shops.

1:13:32Everything there is, if you buy it in the airport, it is the same price as it would be if you were not in the airport. That's one of their things that they've done. So, you know, it's not $20 for a bottle of water or whatever. Like, it, it is like a, there's only one bad thing that's happened, which is as they were rerouting everything because they were building it, you know, as it was going. They had created this thing where you would come out from your flight to this area that had these beautiful birch or blonde wood risers, kind of big benches on both sides, almost like a, a little mini theater or stadium. And you would just have people waiting for their loved ones to come through and they'd just be sitting on these benches and there'd be little kids running around and it was like, it was so cool. I loved it and people commented on it a lot and it was, but it was not, that's not actually the permanent exit. They were just using it while they were remodeling the airport and now they have it in the real exit and the real exit is so underwhelming, you just go out into the airport. Like they should not have had the temporary exit be this cool stadium style experience

1:14:37of seeing your loved ones because now the, the new permanent real exit kind of feels like a major leech on it. I'm like, you guys did not, you did not know how much we were going to fall in love and again, no one's ever waiting for me in these plays. I just liked it as a thing. Somebody, I have no idea what the origin of this is and so I'm probably wrong about it, but somebody I follow on Blue Sky pointed out that I don't know if some certain rules are suspended at an airport in the Midwest or something like that, but it is allowing people to get past security with out of you. You heard about, okay, good. I'm so glad you heard that. But I don't know any of the details other than an airport is allowing people without tickets to go into the past your security. Yeah. And so even the fact that you heard a little width of this makes me feel a little bit better because at least we're, we're two bros who are wrong about that. But whatever, whatever, whatever the situation is, the person who posted just was sort of fantasizing like, this is kind of cool. Like it would be nice to like when somebody's in town, take them to the airport and get a last beer with them at the airport bar before saying goodbye at the gate like pre 9, 11 stuff.

1:15:38That would be kind of cool. And then it would be sort of fun just to become a regular drunken and airport bar when you're just there every single day. If you're going through the same security, presumably, I don't see what the danger would be. I guess it could clog up the TSA lines a little bit. Maybe that would be a downside. But I don't think you're going to get a statistically significant number of people. But like, yeah, if somebody's willing to, you know, go through the metal detector, let them have an over-priced beer, let them touch these things. Let them touch these things. Oh, the last thing before we do the females, in fact, you know what? Why don't we, I'm going to activate this sound so that although, do I even have the sound here? Oh, here we go. I've got it now. I think I do. Are you looking for emails? I am. How about this? How about I play it over? Thank you. I'm trying to play it from my system. Every week. I hope that it's from a female. Oh, man. It's not from a female. The reason I wasn't working is because I had it turned down from the last time that I used it. But thank you for coming in clutch. We're here. I'm activating this so that this keeps me from going too long with this other story.

1:16:40But I mentioned at the top of the show, so I got to pay it off, I guess. The thing that I was saying about the rental cars at a regional airport is just an absolute wild west. You just don't know if there even is going to be a person there, if they're going to have cars. I don't know where you and Genevieve were when she famously uttered Yelp review of a lifetime. Atlanta. Atlanta. Atlanta. Okay, so that, that, that sort of runs counter to my, to my theory because it, in my experience, you've had a big enough airport. And it might be a hassle, but at some point there is likely to be a vehicle or I don't know, there's people working there. Last night when I came out at the, at the Burlington airport, I had a car rented because I'm actually going to Stowe, Vermont to do this interview with this no con guy tomorrow. But I had a car rented at like 8 p.m. whenever we landed and the, you know, that's the desk is supposed to be open, I think until 10 or something. There's just a sign back in a minute, there's 20 people just waiting for the, you know,

1:17:44somebody to come back and you can't call anyone because if you call it just goes to an 800 number somewhere far away. So there's no way to get a person and I waited, I got my luggage, I waited a little bit more and I was just like, okay, I'm just going to go to the, excuse me, the hotel because the hotel was like five minutes away from the airport and then I'll just go back the next day, which is what I ended up doing this morning. So I didn't get a rental car last night. I came to the hotel and then I asked the, this morning I called down to the front desk and I said, what time does the airport shuttle go back? And she said 8.30. And I said, okay. So I went down at 8.25 and I was sitting there and I was waiting and there was a tour bus, like a big huge tour bus and there was no shuttle bus and I waited to about 8.30. Two, I thought maybe they're just running behind 8.33 and then I, a through where I went up to the front desk person and I asked her, I said, hey, what, where does the shuttle bus actually go? It already left. I go to the 8.30 left. She goes, yeah, I go, I was here at 8.25. She goes, oh, yeah, I don't know.

1:18:45I guess you just thought he had the person or something. And basically I think the carryover effect of the, no one being at the rental car counter last night, maybe me being a little tired this morning. I don't know. The fact that I had this, I had a, I was spinning a bunch of plates. I needed to take the shuttle to get a rental car so I could drive to this certain part of Lake Champlain so I could go on this 10 mile training run so I could, like, I had this whole series of events that needed to happen in my mind this morning and missing the shuttle was planned. And when this person at the front desk said, oh, yeah, they, um, I guess he already left. I just, instead of going, oh, okay, I'll just call a lift or like, oh, when's the next one come? I just kind of looked at her and I just kind of slowly turned around and I just walked out to the lobby. But I didn't say anything. I didn't say anything rude, but I just didn't, I, I was making my displeasure known pretty clearly. Uh, but I just, because I'm not that kind of person usually, I will at the very least, I'll say, okay, I'll figure it out or again, when does he come again or, you know, I'll

1:19:47just call a lift. It's no big deal. Like I could have said something. I said nothing. I just kind of like, you know, obviously I'm about of exasperation. I just also, I'm in my running gear, which I feel embarrassed about, but this is because I'm going to drive to this running place and stuff. Um, so I'm like, I just kind of turn around and I'd have walked to the lobby where I call a lift, which arrives after the shuttle bus had come back. And she's the driver. She's the lift driver. That would have been amazing. But, um, but I ended up taking the shuttle bus because the lift was still five minutes away and it was cheaper to cancel the lift and take the shuttle bus. And the guy was like, hey, I didn't want to go. And I was like, okay. So then he takes me in the shuttle bus. Did you get charged? $1 for canceling the lift. Yes, but it was going to be $10 to take the lift. Yeah, yeah, and I was going to get a free ride on the shuttle bus. So it kind of seemed to math out. I don't know. This is these are the kind of decisions that be devil me though. You know, it's like a real. A train leaves. I don't know if it's a trolley problem or if it's a train leaving one town and going to another, it's kind of things that I don't do well with.

1:20:47I don't know if I made the right call or not, but can I? I ended up going in, oh, sorry, go ahead. Sorry, sorry. Please, cut you off. No, it sounds, I didn't know that you were. So you end up taking a lift to the thing. No, I end up taking the shuttle bus. Through the shuttle bus, rather. I cancel the lift and I take the shuttle bus. Yeah. I was just going to, sorry, I totally cut you off. But the whole point is which was play a voice mail here. But it reminds me of an experience that I had last week that I was stored. I'm going to maybe tell you about, at some point, I guess this is the point. But remember I told you, a few weeks ago, I was, it had this really nice little moment in Lake City where I went to get my watch repaired. And then there's a record store next door. And I bought some records. But then to pay for my watch, I needed cash. So I had to go in this bar. There's like a true dive bar in Lake City that somehow it is. But you would soldier to my other ivory berets for your hair that you would cut. So on like a Wednesday, I have to go into this true dive bar that I immediately spoke to me. But just to use their ATM, get the money and then pay my watch guy and get out of there. And I was just like, oh man, this is my kind of bar. I'd love to actually check this place out sometime.

1:21:48Well, maybe it was probably last weekend. Maybe, yeah, I think it was like last Friday after I was done with my KOW gig. And I had written the newsletter. I was like, I'm going to go to that place. It's called the back door. And that's kind of critical here. This bar is literally called the back door. But the front door is on Lake City Ave. And that's how I went in. And I guess they actually do have a back door because when it was time for me to leave, I didn't stay very long. Maybe two hours or something. Maybe that sounds like a lot to people who don't spend a lot of time in bars. But either way, I didn't spend the whole night there. I had a couple of drinks there. Watch some of the Mariners game and then it was time for me to leave in the late evening. And so I call an Uber or a lift probably. And I'm standing outside. I type in the address of this bar, which is on Lake City Ave. And I'm on the sidewalk. And I get the notification that says, you're drivers here. But there's no driver anywhere around it. I can see the driver's, I don't know, it looks like sort of a half a block away or something. And so I text the driver. They send it early now, by the way. They send it before they get there.

1:22:49And then they say the driver's there and the driver's not there. Yeah, because they want to maximize their time. And then they say, they don't want people burbanking them. Yeah, they want you standing. They want people to be Andrews and not Luke's. And so where they want you waiting for them. They say we're here and your ride's gonna leave in four minutes or you're gonna be charged or whatever. And so I text the guy and I'm like, hey, I don't see you. I'm here outside the back. I'm here, but I don't see you. And I just get a one word reply back door. And I think to myself, yeah, that's where I am. I'm in a place called the back door. And then I realize he's saying, I'm at the back door. And I'm like, oh, and I think I just texted. I could even look. It doesn't matter. I think I just texted like, oh, sorry. I'm at the front door on Lake City Ave or something. I said, I'm on Lake City Ave. Now keep in mind, when you type in this location into the mapping services and the rights here services, the address is on Lake City Ave. That's where I was expected to be picked up. Way for Lake City way, rather. And so he picks, it's the first ceremonial pitch. It's, anyway. So then he comes, he picks me up.

1:23:50We end up having a very nice ride. We chat a little bit. We're driving through the areas where there's a lot of construction in my neighborhood. And we're talking about how things are changing quickly or whatever. It's just a very nice little conversation with this guy. I get home. I forget to leave the tip. Sometimes this happens. And you get a tip, I think, or you get a notification 24 hours later via email. It says, here's your receipt from your ride with so-and-so. And if I haven't tipped at that point, I always make sure that I left a tip. And if not, then I'll tip. And I go, I'm like, oh, I never tip my guy from last night. I open up the app and to tip him and it says, oh, you were charged like, I don't know, $2 or something for being in the wrong location. Or maybe it was for being late or something like that. Oh, no. And so I was like, well, then that's your tip, buddy. I was going to tip more than that. I mean, that was it. It wasn't a big deal. But I was just kind of like, you son of a biscuit. And then I started to wonder, did he tack that because he's like, well, now I'm waiting for the, I don't know when they see tips come through.

1:24:50He was like, hey, this guy isn't tipping me. Maybe I should make my money by charging him this fee. I doubt it was that. I was just like so flabbergasted. This was a nice guy. I waited nice chat. And he's like, he came to the wrong. He did not come to the address that was listed. And then I got charged again. But again, I was like, well, OK, then that's your tip. Like, I wasn't too good. I'm guessing that they can't just tack that on later. My guess would be he has to put it on, I mean, that extra surcharger, whatever. That slunk Jeep. He has to, that junk tax. He has to put that on when he's picking you up. Because otherwise, it wouldn't, you know, I would be very tempting for drivers to want to just throw an extra couple of bucks on there. And they could. I mean, I'm not trying to impune the motives of hard working, lift and Uber drivers at all. But like, I'm guessing that, yeah, when he was waiting in back and you were in the front and he had to come back around to get you, he's hitting a button that's saying, like, oh, did you have to kind of go above and beyond to get this person, which is totally unfair. And especially unfair to you because you are so conscientious

1:25:52around this stuff. If anyone should get hit with one of those fees, it's me. Because I do play fast and loose with, I'll call the, the, the lift or the Uber, when I'm walking out of the hotel room. Because my dream is that they are rolling up right as I'm getting to the front of the hotel, because I don't want to be standing in front of the hotel for 10 minutes. I'm always trying to time it. And, and that's, you know, I really, I don't, I try to not make sure, not create a situation where they're ever waiting for me, but I try to time it. So I'm getting there right before them, or we're getting at the same moment. You are so thoughtful about this stuff. Like, no, if there's anybody I know who should not be charged for this, it's you. And it does say, it was a wait fee. It was a wait time fee applied for one minute and 55 seconds. I was like, you son of a gun. I was on the side of it. Also waiting for you to come in. And, and, and again, because now I've had this a bunch of times, I thought I was losing my mind at first. They are somehow allowed to say the driver is here and your ticking clock starts and they're not, they're rolling up.

1:26:54Yeah. Because it's not even, there was two possible entrances. I'm talking about like in front of Becca's place, there is one, one road and one road only. And we take a lot of ride shares and stuff on the weekends. And like, it'll say so and so is here waiting for you. And I'm already standing out there and I'm like, they sure aren't. No, they're, and I see the, I see the car coming down the road and then pull like a foot of the front. They should not be allowed. And I'm not even, this isn't even the driver. I mean, this is some setting in the system now, probably that it kicks on. You're right. This is in a way. This is Uber and, and lift wanting to make more money. This is the corporate overlords because what they want is, they want that clock to start ticking sooner and they want us to be out there waiting so that that driver is able to then, that driver doesn't lose any time at all waiting for us. So then that driver can drive more and drive more people and they can make more money. The corporate overlords, it's not even something the driver, I don't think probably activates. I think it's just, I'm not sure about that. I always wondered about that, whether they activate or not.

1:27:54And you're right, I should always be careful. I always assume that they're kind of like, but again, they have a lot of pressure. Like my, my, my loyalties are usually with the drivers in these cases, like, you know, and like, you know, Amazon drivers, and I, you know, I'm not even a user of Amazon, but I know that those people are working their asses off and they're on these, incredibly tight deadlines that are unfair, almost inhumane. And so like, I'm always, you know, like if they're kind of like, every now and then you get a notification, I think this is true. I remember this happening, it would be like, Hey, your thing has been delivered and then you go to the door and they're just delivering it, but there hasn't quite been delivered. They hit the button maybe as they're rolling up or whatever. Because again, they are working on these deadlines that are completely unfair and unrealistic and so they're running around. So anyway, I'm not trying to bash this guy, but again, I'm not like super mad about it. I'm just like, well, wait time fee. I was waiting for you like I'm then that's, that's got to be what it is there. Um, I had to stop that music because I realized I'm also playing the, the voice mail from my computer today. I have some voice mail. Let me just, but let me wrap this up really quick. Let me just end that story because before we started recording,

1:28:58I realized that we were going to be going a little later than we had planned. And I was going to need them to let me stay in this room longer. And guess who I had to ask for that favor. Shoot. I'm sorry. I did cut off your story. Oh man. So you had to go back and say I need more. I had to go back downstairs to the same front desk where I was praying they had had a shift change. And this is one of these things where it's like, so basically what it comes down to is there's different levels of bun voidness. And I got busted down a stripe in my bun voidness a while ago because it's hadn't stayed enough or something. And one of them allows you a 2 p.m. check out late check out one allows you a 4 p.m. late check out. Now here's the thing. I've actually gotten back into the high status of bun voidness, but it's it hasn't shown up on my account yet. So I basically it's like you can see that I have, I'm supposed to say 50 nights. I've stayed 49 nights. I've actually done more than that, but they haven't it hasn't update in the account. So what I had to do started recording was go downstairs and ask this young

1:29:59person who I had harumped out of here too. If she could look at the app on my phone and observe that I'm technically in this higher level of bun voidness and allow me to stay for an extra two hours to record this show above and beyond what she really has to do. And when I tell you I was eating some humble pie, I was praying she didn't recognize me because I'm not in my running outfit, but I don't think so. But she was so nice to me. She was like, she kind of looked at me. I think she kind of looked at me like, where are you the guy who have rumped out of here earlier? But then she was like, so you want to do a 4 p.m. check out. I was like, if that is at all possible. And she was like, yeah, I can do that. And I was like, oh my gosh, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. I didn't bring up the other thing. I wanted to say, I'm sorry that I was being a little baby earlier, but I didn't I just said, thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Lesson learned by me, which is like, I need to be careful who I harumped because I may need them. Well, you're lucky to say anything, you know, yes, I didn't. Yes, I didn't say anything. I didn't say anything rude. I just I didn't act.

1:31:00I didn't act in a gracious manner. And I regretted, well, I don't know if I regretted it. Until I needed her help. So that's actually a pretty bad commentary on me. But I definitely regretted it when I was walking on the stairs and I saw that it was the same front desk person who I'd been a little, a little less than nice too. But anyway, so that's the end of that story. Let's do some female. Well, one quick anecdote related. Sorry, I was sort of wondering whether or not to bring this up. I can make this very short, but I had sort of a similar experience. I said that didn't come back in any way yet that I know of. But I had some things to drop off a good will yesterday. And I don't, you know, good will. And I think I have a lot of good will towards goodwill, by the way. And I think that their jobs program is actually probably pretty good. I've been hearing some negative things about goodwill lately. And I'm always like, really? Are you sure that this is who we want to fight with? But anyway, point is one thing that I don't love is I feel like when I went to goodwill as a kid, if I just had a small amount of things to drop off, it was very simple. You just walk in the door. You put it in a bin or something like that. But more and more, at least the goodwill is I go to you have to like go wait in line in the car.

1:32:02Right? Like there's no like you can't just walk in and drop things in a bin. And usually I don't have very big things. So yes, I just had literally a little like kind of like it was like about a tote bag full of stuff. In the bag itself, we were donating it was like a little overnight bag sort of and a little spice rack. Um, just two little things. And I'm waiting in the car and it's like, okay, I guess I got to get in the car, you know, get in the line with all these other cars and people are dropping off furniture and all this stuff. And I've seen some behavior that I don't like from people who are like sometimes they like. They don't pull over to the right so you can't kind of go around them. Like I just I've seen some really doofy behavior in these car lines before. And I'm always trying to be as you would guess like very like kind of buy the book and courteous and letting people go around me or whatever. Um, and I just try to be as fast as possible when it's my turn to get out of the car and get my stuff out of the car. I am speeding McQueen, my friend. Like I do not I know that there's a line of cars out to the street waiting on my ass. So yesterday, um, somebody gets done in front of me.

1:33:03I pull up the car in front of me pulls up the, um, and it looks like we're both in like the area where you can drop things off now. So the guy in front of me opens his door. I open my door and I'm about to grab this very meager amount of stuff and the guy who's running the, the intake says, sorry, sir, just one at a time, one at a time, sir. And he's polite, but firm. There's no tone in his voice. He doesn't call me bro or guy or any of those things that trigger me. You know, like I'm like, okay, that's fair. I don't even think twice about it. I'm like, okay, that's fair. So I get back in my car, but then the dude in front of me opens up the hatch of his car. And he's got some sort of piece of weird furniture in there that probably at one point held in their tame and center. And then there's this conversation like, can we take this or not? So then my guy, the guy who told me to stay in my car has to go back inside and get another employee. And then they're standing outside and they're looking at it and I guess they decide we can take it. So then they're moving this furniture out. I'm just like looking. My stuff is literally by track sitting on the passenger seat.

1:34:05It's a tote bag and a spice rack. And I'm just like, all right. And it's in, I'll be honest with you. It wasn't even that long. You know what I mean? Five minutes, you know, tops. But anyway, he pulls ahead and then, you know, he gets his stuff out and I pull ahead. And then I just like as quickly as possible, like get out of the car. I even make sure that I don't have to like walk around the car. I just grab my stuff in the passenger seat and get out of my car, put it in the bin. And the guy, you know, who was told me to stay in my car is just kind of like, do you need a receipt? And I just said, nope over my shoulder as I drove away because I wanted to prove that like I could be done with this in about 20 seconds, which I did. Right. And I was thinking as fast as possible so that he realized that he did not need to make you wait. Exactly. And so, you know, it was one of those things where I just don't go around saying nope to people. You know what I mean? It like you giving this woman the blank stare and walking away. My nope was the equivalent of that. I didn't. I'm hoping that that's the harshest thing he dealt with in his job. But I highly doubt it.

1:35:05You know what I mean? Like all I did was say nope, but that's not my move. I don't, I'm not outwardly rude to people. And so as I was pulling away and as I was driving home, I really did feel bad. I'm like, that guy, like my original plan was to say, thank you for being here. Today it was a Sunday, you know what I mean? It was pretty, it was a fabulous job. And I understand why you can't have chaos there. Like it all makes sense to me. But in the moment, I had to prove that I was like Mr. Speedy and I could get out of there in time. And then when he, you know, and so I that did live with me a little bit. And now he's coming to do some carpentry in my house tomorrow. So I'm hoping that that all gets so great. Was he recommended by your old contract? Yeah, he was. Absolutely. What I can say is the goodwill in the town near me Longview. Every time I bring stuff down there and they take it, I'm like, I can't believe they fell for this. It's not even like, it's not bad or gross stuff. But it's like, I think they don't take pillows, right? There's a couple of things they don't take. Nor should they. But even just like, I don't know. I just feel like, again, it's not, I'm not trying to pass off garbage on them. But it's just something about, you know, I don't, I'm trying to even think of an example of what I've brought down there.

1:36:09But just stuff that is like, it's in my house. I don't want it anymore. It's, you know, it's used something or other. And it's just kind of like, I always just think they're going to go, who's going to buy this? Like, I really, they're going to do an analysis of it. But they're just like, all right, in the bin, and they're always the ones that I usually see are pretty nice. I think some of those folks are part of a kind of a job core program at goodwill. You know, folks are kind of like, yeah, I think, you know, they're, they're, they're getting their lives back on track and stuff. And like, again, I'm always just like, my whole thing in the line is like, they're going to say there's no way we're taking this. They're like, we don't need this spatula. You know, whatever it's like, I've always, I feel like I've gotten away with something when they accept the stuff that I'm trying to give them. I'd been rejected one time and it really irritated me. We were moving and we had some like pretty cool. Like, they were actually of the era kind of style, like kind of those puffy kind of diner chair things. You know, those sort of retro kind of diner chair things. And they weren't in perfect condition, but one of them had a little crack in it. But still, like, you would say, like, there was definitely a vinyl vinyl one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if they were sparkly or not, but like, yeah, I don't know.

1:37:10No, no, they weren't sparkly, but I think they were red. And I definitely, I don't even think it was cracked. I think it was maybe a splitting at the seam a little bit. And I was like, this is like a vintage chair. Again, like, I'm giving it away. So I'm not trying to make it sound like it was like worth tons of money. But I'm telling you, there was a time in my life where if I saw this at Goodwill, I'd be like, hell, yeah. In fact, we might have bought it that way. Yeah. We had a table, you know, I've had, I think in two different home environments, a table with those kinds of chairs. Those were very, very in style for, yeah, for certain, certain folks to have in the day. And they rejected it. Yeah. They're just like, no, we can't take the, those are the Ballard Goodwill, which is one of the intake centers for the region. And I think that they have pretty high standards. And it's a very good, good will. But here's what we're going to do. I have some voicemails that lead to good conversations that we can have, but we don't have time to have long conversations. Could we do voicemail polluse it tomorrow? Yes, but I would like to play two for you here that we don't have to react to other than just, okay. There are birds of a feather that I just love this about our show. I love that listeners think of us when they have these experiences.

1:38:10And I'm going to let Kendra kick it off. Hey, dummies. This is listener Kendra from Seattle, calling into uphold the grand tradition of letting you know. And someone sent the first to use a bathroom. This is the legal land and the ego addition. I never thought it would be me. Today it was blue water in the toilet, toilet seat up, no toilet paper bits on the ground anywhere. It was amazing. Anyway, I love you guys. Have a good day. Bye. Absolutely love that bill. The water says it all says it all. Bill and Kingston, can you top that? Bill dummies, it's a bill that Kingston here. I just tell you what you know, I'm waiting for the bathroom at the farm boy store here in Kingston. Farm boys. It's a grocery store. Little bit sort of semi hand and wait and wait and wait and wait and wait. Okay, door finally opens and who walks out but the cleaning person has got a basket full of cleaning products.

1:39:17And I go in and I'm looking at a sparkling clean bathroom. Also, and I know because there's still new foam on the top of the water in the toilet. Power out. All right, I love that. Now, that is, that's almost like a zig when you think you're going to zag, right? Because you're waiting. You're like, I don't want to use this restroom. I don't know what's going on in there. That is the number one person you want to see coming out of the restroom. It's the only person. You can see from me. And then Santa and then the iron still. No, actually I retract. You see what he, I vociferously retract that. No, that's like that's the absolute best case scenario when there's been, when there's, you know, the door's been locked or you've been waiting on somebody and then it come out and it's like, oh, the person who makes this. Yeah. Actually clean and sparkling and not gross. Thank you for your service. You may now board the airplane first. You know, you want to see maybe more than somebody cleaning it as somebody who just said,

1:40:17I just finished building this bathroom. Nobody's ever used it before. I just got done installing the brand new toilet. We just did, we just touched up the paint. Yeah, we got the last little bits of paint touched up and you, that should be a thing. And by, I would, I might, you know, that would be a raffle I would enter. They cut a big ribbon and they just go into a bathroom at, like, a new bathroom public. At a store somewhere. You get to be the first person to use. Yes, they name it after you. Uh-huh. All right, that's going to do it for today's episode. But we're going to be right back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio for all of you. I will have moved further into the, into the interior of Vermont. Actually, I don't know what part I'm in right now, but I'll be in Stowe, Stowe, Vermont tomorrow, which I think is ski country. So we'll see you from there. In the meantime, have a great Monday. Everybody, feel better, Andrew. And please remember no mountain to tall and good luck to all. Power out.