Leather-crafter, Musician, & Firefighter - Tim Garren

You can love the fire service and still admit it takes pieces of you. We’re joined by engineer paramedic Tim Garren, the founder of Old Town Leatherworks, for a wide-open conversation about burnout, compassion fatigue, and what happens when the calls start to numb you out. We talk about the stuff most crews joke through, sleep deprivation, ugly scenes, and the quiet moment when you realize you’re not processing anything anymore.

Tim shares the personal path that got him here: chasing music as a kid, losing direction into substance abuse, a near-fatal overdose, and a faith reset that changed how he sees purpose, peace, and daily discipline. We also get into grief and family life, what it’s like to become a dad in the middle of a demanding career, and why routines like prayer and honest check-ins can be protective for first responder mental health.

On the practical side, Tim breaks down how he built Old Town Leatherworks into a real firefighter side hustle, mostly through Instagram, with custom leather radio straps, suspenders, wallets, and guitar straps. We dig into why handcrafted gear costs what it costs, how creativity becomes therapy, and how to set boundaries when a hobby turns into a business. We also hit a serious topic departments still struggle with: forced overtime, driving a 40,000-pound rig exhausted, and the liability that lands on the operator.

If you got something from this one, subscribe, share it with someone on your crew, and leave a review. What part of the job do you wish people talked about more?

Thanks for taking the time to listen in. Please leave us 5 stars on Spotify & Apple Podcasts with a review. THANK YOU!

Transcript

New Studio Setup And Welcome

SPEAKER_06 0:09

Tim A! Tim Garren, welcome to the podcast, man.

SPEAKER_02 0:12

Thanks for having me, guys.

SPEAKER_06 0:14

Yeah, dude. Super stoked to have you here. And what is so great is Jordan, we're back.

SPEAKER_05 0:19

We're back. We're back. This is your first episode back. It's with the new uh new format here. This is uh super cool and what a great job that you have done, man. This is awesome.

SPEAKER_02 0:30

It's been a lot of work. Blown away, man. Like honestly, more than I expected, no offense. But like this is this is like this is legit, dude. I mean, you put in a lot of work to this thing.

SPEAKER_06 0:40

Yeah, I wanted to um well, because we've been doing this for so long now, yeah, right. I'm like, okay, we got an upper game here. Yeah, what what do we need to do? So let's let's get better cameras. And that's I wanted to make sure when our guest is here, it's like an experience. Yeah, right. It's something nice, it looks professional. How can we do a podcast where we have one or two people on where we can talk, but it's not like this weird shaped table where it's you know, we guess it doesn't work for cameras.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

Like you're in a therapist's office, you know.

SPEAKER_06 1:08

Yeah, so me and a guy at work built this one, dude. And it like to find something like this was six thousand dollars. Oh, a hundred dollars. To buy it. Yeah, and then it was 320 bucks and wood in just a little bit of time. Yeah, so we just made it the firehouse and and called it good. So it's um I'm still getting used to this thing. Like these two lights right here, yeah, these are new. I got these this week because I needed more lighting coming from this direction for both, you know, because there's some shadows being cast. Anyways, not to get too crazy into it, but right um, dude, Tim, welcome on. We have been talking about this for a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 1:40

Wow, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:41

And yeah, this is gonna be great. Uh, Jordan, don't be too nervous. We got this, we can do it, bro.

SPEAKER_05 1:46

I'm not nervous.

SPEAKER_06 1:47

He looks confident, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:48

Yeah, I was like, no, I just I just I'm just kind of taking it all in. It's just uh the to see where you know started downstairs on that plastic table to see where we're at now. Is uh it's been a it's been a process, and uh yeah, dude, dude did a great job. This is uh the setup, the layout. Yeah, seriously.

SPEAKER_06 2:04

I was like uh talk show host and got mugs made so when people drink out of them, you still see our logo, like product placement placement all the time.

SPEAKER_05 2:11

He sent that to me the other day. He's like, dude, check these out. You're giving me ideas too.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

I need some of this. Yeah, dude, absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 2:18

Okay, so these mugs? Yeah, um, Amazon. Oh, really? Yeah, Amazon does so much custom stuff now. Like, you know, I just said, okay, I want to make custom mugs with a logo. Yeah. And I put it in Amazon. It popped up, it said upload your image, put it on, and it was like, I don't know, 42 bucks for four.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

Delivered in a day.

SPEAKER_05 2:35

Yeah, it was three days, dude. It's like the new S money. Yeah. Yeah, dude.

Life As An Engineer Paramedic

SPEAKER_06 2:40

It worked out, dude. It worked out really well. Oh, Tim, you don't need to have that here. I'll take that paperwork and stuff. I'm sorry, dude. You shove that in the middle somewhere. Yeah, perfect. We'll leave it right there. Anyways, Tim, you've been a firefighter for quite some time.

SPEAKER_02 2:52

Yeah, eight years full time.

SPEAKER_06 2:53

Eight years. Did you do volunteer work before?

SPEAKER_02 2:55

Yep. I reserved uh out in the desert too for another agency. I did that for a little bit. I was an intern firefighter for the county right after I got out of the fire academy, and then I worked on a box for six years. So overall, 15 years experience. You're on a box for six years, six years, dude.

SPEAKER_06 3:11

A meat wagon.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 3:12

Oh you're uh you practice paramedicine? I do. Something like that.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

I saw a paramedic in my title. Yeah, hey, there you go. Get my stipend, dude. Hey, I like it.

SPEAKER_06 3:23

Bro, I hate I hate to say this out loud, but I hate being a paramedic. I'm so over it, dude.

SPEAKER_05 3:28

What do you mean, Tim?

SPEAKER_06 3:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 3:30

You love helping people. What's your what's your rank right now? Are you? I'm an engineer.

SPEAKER_06 3:33

Okay, engineer paramedic, yeah. Well, my so I can still work as a paramedic. Yeah, yeah. The funny part is that promoted because I didn't want to be a medic anymore. And it's not like being a medic's bad. No. But I tell people like that it's um there's a time and place for it, and you need to don't stay in that rank too long, right? Maybe if you love it, cool, but like move on because you kind of get burned out and you get that um what do they call it, you guys? Um burnout. No, well, empathy, like compassion fatigue.

SPEAKER_05 3:59

It's a way better way to say that.

SPEAKER_06 4:00

Yeah, burnt out, salty.

SPEAKER_05 4:01

Yeah, or it's like salty.

SPEAKER_06 4:03

I remember my last few shifts as a firefighter medic, and it was a couple people had passed, and there was like major accidents and wounds. I was like, whatever.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

Yeah, I'm promoting. I don't even well, that's just kidding.

SPEAKER_06 4:12

That wasn't even that, but it was just like you get so used to seeing all this the carnage and like people dying, you just get so numbed, or you don't even care. It's like, all right, we're eating dinner. We just saw somebody like you know hang themselves or whatever. You're like, dude, it's wild. So that's when I knew right it was time to move on. But yeah, engineer, engineer paramedic. What's what's your rank right now? Engineer. Oh man, dude, where's where's that freaking sound machine thing? Let's go, baby.

SPEAKER_07 4:36

Oh what?

SPEAKER_00 4:37

I prefer Joe Fur.

SPEAKER_02 4:40

But yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:42

Thank you. I didn't know we had I didn't know we had sound overlays.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

Dude, there's so many new things.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

We have so much now, it's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_06 4:50

I can change my voice. I guess sound like the devil on here, bro. Really? Oh, yeah, it's wild.

SPEAKER_05 4:54

Okay, so but engineer, and uh, it is the the chauffeur of the fire service. And I I don't know, I that was my favorite position working.

SPEAKER_02 5:07

So it's been good. I've been doing it for four years, engineering four years.

SPEAKER_05 5:11

Let me ask you this. When you're driving, do you feel like when you get we uh actually by the way, I married kids? Yeah, okay. So when you're when you're at home and you're not working, do you ever want to like when you're going to drive somewhere? Are you like, hey, what you want you mind driving? Or are you always jump right in? Okay.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

I I don't even think about it, to be honest.

SPEAKER_05 5:36

Okay, yeah. That's what I noticed that I felt like after a handful of years driving, where I was like, when I got home, I'd be like, Yeah, seriously, I'd be like, it's like here, do you want to drive? I'm like, absolutely not. I never even really thought about that, to be honest. I just felt like all I did was drive.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

Yeah, there. I mean, obviously, there's a lot of that.

SPEAKER_05 5:53

Yeah, yeah, which was a good part, like work-wise, I really enjoyed that position. But as far as I felt like when I'd come home, I'd be like, oh man. You know what I mean? Actually, I'd like to sit there and look around and lick the windows, you know.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

So I haven't had that issue, but they're always clean. Spotless.

SPEAKER_06 6:12

Um, is there sometimes coming home from work in the morning? Like, I'm so tired, right? Because we've had a long night, long day doing things right. I've come up to red lights and looked both ways and started proceeding through. Yes. Dude, without even 100%. Yeah, and I remember a person hit their brakes. Yeah, and I started getting mad. I'm like, what the? I'm thinking, yeah, oh my gosh, I'm in my personal vehicle.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

I'm really bad at rolling stop signs too, dude. Off duty. Yeah. I'll come down to about maybe 10, 15 miles an hour, knowing there, left, right, boom, going through it, dude.

SPEAKER_05 6:44

Well, you get you get so, and especially if where you're working, if you're busy and you're running a lot of calls every day, you know, the driving, it's just it's clockwork, you know. So it's like you another desensitized thing, whether a paramedic or driving, I guess, in this case. But yeah, you're used to it and you're moving, you're efficient and safe. But you know, when it comes to you're in your private vehicle and you're like, I do whatever. Right. You know, I actually got pulled over one time doing that. And uh the first thing out of my mouth was I was like, I just got off a 72-hour shift, and I've been driving for the last three days. You're right, I'm wrong. How do we want to deal with this? Right.

SPEAKER_06 7:21

Yeah, was it CHP?

SPEAKER_05 7:25

No, wasn't as cool as I would have liked to have been, but I get it, I understand. You know, he was alright about it. Let's leave it at that. But uh, but yeah, the fatigue of driving all the time, you know, you kind of just get in the zone. Yep. Yeah, and I could see that leaking over. I do miss that though, as I got promoted a couple years ago. And for you, man. Yeah, no, he's a daddy. He's a daddy, good, dude. We all need him. Yeah, dude. It's I'm more just like uh we'll call it group leader, you know, where everyone has a say. Yeah. No, but uh yeah, I do miss that. Driving was the best. I think it's the best position. I love it. Hey, what do you want to do? You're like, I don't know, just tell me where you want to go.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

Exactly. Yeah, you kind of just like ride the fence all day, you know. Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_06 8:09

You're middle management.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

You're there for the firemen, right? And then, you know, the captains, you kind of help facilitate what they need throughout the day and the firefighters' needs. They vent up to you, captains vent down, you know. You kind of just like duck was coming, duck was coming down from the Chiefs.

SPEAKER_06 8:24

Like, yeah, man, I'm just here. I know, man. I had a I had a captain uh years ago that I was driving for, wasn't very well liked. Um, and it was just funny because everyone would come to me with the problems that they had with him. I'm talking other stations in the battalion, BCs, even a DC at one point. It was I it blew my mind. I'm like, you guys, I I'm I'm just an engineer. Like, all I care about is my rig and where's my fire hydrant? That's it. Where are we going? Where are we going? Where's my water supply? Yeah, and dude, this guy was pissing everybody off, dude. And everyone comes, hey, they come to you. Hey Fish, why is your captain so effed up and blah blah blah? I'm like, oh my god and there was one time like our BC came and he pull up, hey fish, get your crew, go get coffee.

SPEAKER_02 9:08

I was like, oh god, yeah. Without the captain.

SPEAKER_06 9:12

Well, he was yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He was sending private emails to city council people about how screwed up they were. I'm like, dude, what are you doing? Don't do that. Never goes over there.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

Yeah, like you're not what are you doing, bro?

SPEAKER_06 9:22

Probably we're just firefighters. Yeah, nobody cares. Like, get on the rig, run your call, and that's it. Yeah, don't worry about the more involved. Yeah, no, I'm not dude. Well, okay, so you've been a firefighter.

SPEAKER_05 9:33

Yeah, 100%. Just do I tell everybody. I don't know. He's over here. You got a problem? Yeah, no problem. Yeah, I'll I'll get you. I'll be right back. You you're the gatekeeper of the information and how you want things to flow. It is it is actually honestly probably one of the most important positions of the fire service. Yeah, especially being a good engineer because I need to know how to delegate. Oh my gosh. You can take the crap coming from up, make sure it's not too bad down, vice versa, going the other way. Right. It's uh it's a it's uh you know a finesse thing. Yeah, totally. A little bit, totally a little bit finesse.

Guitar Dreams Derail Into Addiction

SPEAKER_06 10:03

But dude, you um so you've been a f in the fire service eight years, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:06

Full time in eight years. Okay, been around for 15 overall. Yeah, it took me seven years to get hired.

SPEAKER_06 10:11

I mean, what got you into it?

SPEAKER_02 10:12

Oh man, that's that's a that's a long story.

SPEAKER_06 10:15

But give me the Cliff Notes.

SPEAKER_02 10:17

Cliff Notes.

SPEAKER_06 10:18

Um if you remember what Cliff Notes were. I've said that one time and yeah, didn't catch on with some people. I'm like, am I that old?

SPEAKER_02 10:23

Yeah, yeah. Cliff Notes, Spark Notes, you know, I used to pay people in high school to write my essays for me. So get it, nerds. No, I dude. I before I got in the fire service, I was trying to become a professional guitar player. Oh no, yeah, I played in a band, a couple of bands all throughout high school. I was in the metal and stuff, had long hair, you know, all that. And so that was that was the goal, you know, uh getting out of high school. I got accepted in Musicians Institute in Hollywood when I was 18. You know, I was gonna move down to Hollywood, study guitar. Oh dang. You're a gone for that. Oh yeah, man. Like it was there was no turning back, man. I had my mind made up. But uh series of events like in my life that that led me down a different path. One of them was when I was eighteen. I know I know you asked for the Spark Notes version, so I'm gonna abbreviate it but about forty, fifty minutes.

SPEAKER_06 11:17

That's why I say like Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:18

When I was 18, I was just about to graduate, my dad got diagnosed with cancer. This is May of 2009, which we're just in like right in the middle of the recession in 2008. So, and he he lost his job because they don't want to give him the time off of work to have surgeries and all that. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

People suck, right? Yeah, people suck.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

Right, dude. It was it was and I mean, looking back now, especially with my faith and stuff, like I see like God's hand and all of it, you know. But on top of that, you know, so I couldn't go to Musicians Institute because of that stuff, like getting loans approved, you know, it's like$70,000 to go and study guitar there for a year, on top of like trying to find a place to live in Hollywood. That's another nightmare that's all super expensive, you know. So um I also had a lot of bad habits, dude. I had a I had a really bad drinking problem. 18 dudes drinking 12 pack of beer a day.

SPEAKER_06 12:08

My guy.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

I was I had a super bad substance abuse problem. Okay, right. So that all fell through, and in August of 2009, I basically overdosed on on what I thought was cocaine, but was probably something else. There's something in there mixed with leaves. Yeah, something weird, you know. So yeah. Or yeah, maybe like that or like some meth or something. I don't know what it was, dude, but something that it totally jacked me up. Thought I was having a full-blown MI before I was even in the medical field, but I thought I was gonna die. Um I thought I was gonna die that night. And I'm like, dude, I'm 18, I haven't accomplished anything in my life, and I'm about to die in a backyard at a party with a bunch of people I don't even like. You know? So that was a big wake-up call, man. And that ultimately, that that experience led me a couple months later going to church and getting saved in January of 2010.

SPEAKER_06 13:05

That's rad awesome. Yeah, that is so rad, dude.

SPEAKER_02 13:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 13:08

So it's kind of like I was like, dude, yeah, that's uh well, it's a heavy moment, right? I mean, but there's some people that will and we see it in our jobs, right? Running these calls on people and we have regulars that we continue to go on, and they don't un they don't see that uh that wake up call, right? Right? We all kind of have that at least a moment in our lives that's like that moment where okay, we're gonna keep continuing down a certain path or we're gonna change. Yeah, this isn't working, right? I mean, that happened to me some years ago, right? And I gave my life back to the Lord and it changed everything. So that's that's that's awesome, dude. I mean, that's uh that's a lot to go through at 18, dude. That is a lot. Is your dad still with us?

SPEAKER_02 13:47

No, he passed away six years ago.

SPEAKER_06 13:48

Oh, was it from the cancer? Yeah, okay. So did he go through chemo and all that thing?

SPEAKER_02 13:52

He went through all of it, man. Chemo, radiation, immunotherapy, nothing ever, ever I mean, it it prolonged his life for 11 years. Oh, dang. Right.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02 14:02

So yeah, but he ultimately passed away in in on July 31st, 2020. Oh, I'm sorry, dude. 11 years.

SPEAKER_06 14:09

That's pretty good, dude.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_06 14:11

I thought it was gonna be more like two or three. You know, you hear those stories they got the cancer, and then like two years later, it's gone.

Overdose Wake-Up And Finding Faith

SPEAKER_02 14:15

Yeah, I think they I mean, by the time they had caught it, it was like maybe stage three and all that. And like prostate cancer, usually you can you know have surgery at the prostate removed, which removes the cancer if it hasn't metastasize. But my dad was a really big guy, he was like 400 pounds most of my life. So because of his weight, they couldn't remove his prostate. So yeah, so it just led to like 11 years of just like all these different treatments, trying to see what would work. And eventually by the end of it, dude, like it was like they're just throwing spaghetti at a wall to seeing what was gonna stick. Wow. You know? So ultimately, yeah, he ended up dying from it. But did he see you get hired though? He did. Okay, yeah, that's cool. He was there at my badge pinning. That's right. That's cool. That was really cool. Did he pin it on you? Uh my mom did, but he was he was there, yeah. He was right there. So it's so random.

SPEAKER_05 15:03

Well, I'm sure he's proud of that moment for sure.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

Yeah, that's cool. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 15:07

Well, it's really what I really want to get into as well is you have a company that is I want to use the right words here. The a leather leather making leather working, yeah. Okay, because I don't want to think you're making like leather masks and just crazy.

SPEAKER_02 15:24

Nothing weird. Oh, I will tell you. I was just gonna say, I was like, well, that's an M market pretty solid action. My DMs will be flooded. Everything comes at a cost, all right? Let's just say that.

SPEAKER_05 15:37

I was like, man, let's take a dramatic turn and you're like terminal after Christ started making a media system.

SPEAKER_06 15:44

I was thinking about quality. Quality, buddy. I was like, I want to introduce this your your your business of leather working, but I'm like, dude, how do I say this right? Yeah, without people getting all weird, like, oh, does he make those masks?

SPEAKER_02 15:58

No masks, no whips, no, no chains.

SPEAKER_06 16:01

Okay, so what is the name?

SPEAKER_05 16:03

It's like, well, those are we're in the development phases, guys. Okay, chill. We keep it we keep it PG right.

SPEAKER_02 16:09

Uh, what's the name of your company? Old Town Leatherworks. That's right.

SPEAKER_06 16:12

Old Town Leatherworks. Let's go, baby.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_06 16:15

And how long have you been doing that now?

SPEAKER_02 16:17

Uh, seven years. He's on Instagram, dude. Uh I was just gonna add him right now. Yeah, started in 2019. That was when I got hired at my current agency.

SPEAKER_06 16:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 16:26

So that was just like something I started doing like uh in my time off. I was single, you know, no kids at the time.

SPEAKER_06 16:31

Yeah, yeah. And oh, we remember those days.

Starting Old Town Leatherworks

SPEAKER_02 16:33

Yeah, finally making some big boy money money, you know. And I was like, man, dude, working 10 days a month. And I came from another agency working on an ambulance, like getting forced, working like 25 days a month. So I never knew what a day off looked like. Yeah. You know, and here I am working 10 days a month, making more money than I ever had in my life. You know, so I was like, oh, find something to do with my time off. And I just kind of I would see guys with like, you know, leather suspenders and radio straps. I'm like, I think I'd mess around with some leather, you know. So that just led me to where I am now. I've only been like taking it kind of seriously for like three years, like actually running it as like an LLC.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 17:07

You know, dude, that's awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 17:09

I mean, that's kind of the you know, the I know it's more of an old school thing, kind of like a tweener time, but a lot of you know, people in the fire service that uh have the careers in there, they have a lot of side businesses. Yeah, you know, and that's also like one of the unique things to coming across working with different people and kind of you know, everyone's got a either a craft or a some version of a side hustle.

SPEAKER_03 17:30

Right.

SPEAKER_05 17:31

And um, but doing leather works, I mean I would say in the last, I don't know, would you say like five years, I've seen more people with like the radio harness straps and like different, like I even have well, I don't have the bandolero, but I have like a little radio purse. I haven't gotten one yet.

SPEAKER_02 17:52

I was like, I'll be hitting you up here pretty soon, but uh but uh lied into the DMs, brother.

SPEAKER_05 17:56

Absolutely, no, but I but it's it's cool, and then having the opportunity for the market to be with you know people you work or other agencies, you kind of have like some networking capacity to where if you're trying to upscale the business side of it, you have a lot of potential. And then, you know, I'm sure doing things like this and getting your name out there and whatnot, that's awesome. And it's like it's like you get to see like the entrepreneurial side of a lot of other firefighters out there, which I I I'm always stoked on hearing how you know what guys are doing, how they're doing, all that kind of stuff. So that's that's awesome. Yeah, thank you. So three years now you've been doing it. Have you had like an uptick in business, or what's your like standard model as far as is it just direct contact? You have a website? How do you how do you do your business?

SPEAKER_02 18:40

Yeah, I do have a website. I I I gotta put some love into that thing right now, but most of it's just Instagram, man. Okay, yeah, it's most of it. I mean, that's like 98% of like how I run my business off Instagram.

SPEAKER_04 18:51

Social media, dude.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

That's all it is, man. Yeah, that's all my orders come through. I've had a few orders on the website, um, but all of it, it's just DMing me on Instagram. Hey, I want this. Okay, cool, man. I'll shoot you over my order form, or maybe we can just talk more. Because I do custom work, so I try to like get like real intricate and like kind of establish that relationship with my customer and not just give them like some you know, belt fed, like a something off the line, you know what I mean? It's actually handcrafted, it's handcrafted, made, cut, everything, right?

SPEAKER_06 19:19

So hand tool, hand how how much customization can somebody put into say like uh a bandolero, radio strap, or suspenders?

SPEAKER_02 19:28

As much as they want, to be honest. I mean, you know, uh it just it just depends on how much you want to pay, you know. A lot of people want a lot of like really intricate custom work, but they don't realize what custom work costs because it's time.

SPEAKER_00 19:41

Yeah, you know, environment are notoriously cheap. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:45

I give everybody a hard time, man. I'm like, you guys will go out there and spend a hundred grand on a truck, yes, but you don't want to drop 350 on suspenders that are gonna last you a career, right?

SPEAKER_06 19:54

Right, right. You'll you'll go take your your you know hundred thousand dollar boat and spend a thousand dollars a day in fuel, but you don't want to pay me for for making custom suspenders like that.

SPEAKER_02 20:03

Or you go take your side chick out and then it costs you a freaking, I don't know how many years in alimony to get a divorce, bro. Come on, man. Save the heartache, just buy the dude by the strap, dude. Buy once, cry once, brother.

SPEAKER_06 20:16

Yeah, don't cheat on your wife.

SPEAKER_02 20:18

Buy the suspenders. Absolutely. That's my new business logo.

SPEAKER_05 20:21

I was just gonna say, do you have a bumper sticker yet? Because uh give me a belt. Say that one more time. Say it again. Buy once, cry once. Buy once, cry once. Yep. Dude, I that would actually be a good like uh something to write in on this trap.

SPEAKER_06 20:37

We should do a social media campaign with the old town leatherworks and just make a logo like that, dude. Right. Put both our names on it. I'm so down. I'm in sell a shirt, we're like, hey, we'll give it 20% to charity, dude. Right.

SPEAKER_05 20:48

Buy once, cry once. Don't be stupid.

SPEAKER_06 20:52

Uh so okay, let's go over all the things that you do make. So suspenders, radio straps, right? Or pendularos. Um, what what do you call the is it the belt strap?

SPEAKER_02 20:59

Bunker belts. Bunker belts. Bunker belts. Do you like helmet shields? I don't do shields. That that it's like more like a niche thing to me. Like I think uh um the guys that do that like do it very well, and on a lot of those guys, like that's all they do. Oh so that's something that I just haven't really put a lot of time into. So I kind of leave it up to those guys. Like, uh, these guys are good at it. Anytime I get hit up, I'm like, hey, hit up this person, hit up this person. They're really good at making them.

SPEAKER_06 21:22

Oh, okay. So you still were firm. You're not like, oh, I don't want anyone to get business.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

I'm not trying to take money out of anybody's pocket. That's cool, dude. Yeah, nice.

SPEAKER_06 21:30

Um, what about like a trucker belt? You seen those?

SPEAKER_02 21:32

Oh, like over the turnout coat?

SPEAKER_06 21:34

I think so. Yeah, like the truck. Is it isn't that what that is? The the trucker's belt.

SPEAKER_05 21:38

You're talking to a non-trucker talking to you.

SPEAKER_02 21:41

Well, you got fellow engine guys here, but yeah, do the IVs go in there?

SPEAKER_05 21:46

Or do you have a leather IV pouch? Where's the tank to pump?

SPEAKER_06 21:51

Yeah, dude. Dude, I'm gonna tell you right now, I tell people like the biggest stress of my day is I I always tell myself when I get to work. Chocks to take the pump. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. That's it, dude. Because when we had like our final for our engineer test, we were I remember we're doing a practice and I did great on everything. And then I failed like our last pumping test because I had to put my chalks down. He's like, he nailed everything, but it's a critical fail. You put your chalks down. So like all day when I was getting like it was my turn and I got in the engine. It was time to do my testing. I was in my head, I was going chalks, chalks, chalks, chalks. And they give me like the the card with the pumping equation or what they want you to pump, right? And I just fucking tucked it in my shirt, dude. I was like, I don't even care about that. Right. Chocks, shocks. I did my end cap, jumped out, threw those things down. I was like, I passed. Right. Pull this thing out. I'm like, ah yeah, whatever, dude. Yeah, this is a tell people I'm like, dude, the biggest thing I'll remember is just tank the pump, dude. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:48

Just tank the pump. Yeah, don't want to forget that. Sure.

SPEAKER_05 22:51

What's the what's the leather uh not remember the specific name for that belt. I'm sorry. I've been thinking about it ever since.

SPEAKER_06 22:58

There is one, right?

SPEAKER_05 22:59

Yeah, it's called a uh it's like the it's that holds your axe. It's like a scabbard. Thank you. Scabbard scabbard scabbard. Wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 23:06

Do you make axe scabbards?

SPEAKER_02 23:07

Uh so I make I make a version of them. I don't make the actual scabbard that if like you can put an axe in. What I do is I make like a like the trucker's belt that goes over the turnout coat, and then it has a big loop so you can just drop it in.

SPEAKER_06 23:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 23:19

Because the the scabbards, that's a whole I mean that's like knife, knife sheath making almost, you know. And uh just another thing that I there's guys out there that are really good at it. I just don't care to put the time into it.

SPEAKER_05 23:31

But can can we be honest about like is it totally necessary to have like the individual pouch with the top that goes over? I mean, it almost is easier if it just holds there so you can grab it and go.

SPEAKER_02 23:43

Right, you know, yeah. I mean to me, it's to me it's easier, but I I guess it's just a matter of preference, man.

SPEAKER_05 23:48

Not to knock uh scabbard making companies or anything like that. It's cool.

SPEAKER_02 23:52

That was one of the first things I bought when I got hired full time because I was like, I'm a full-time fireman, I need my own axe. Let's go, dude.

SPEAKER_05 23:58

Is that that you know how many times I've used that thing? None times. One time, okay. Once. One time in eight years. Okay, I was gonna say, honestly, dude, as one thing I've never purchased as a firefighter, as my own axe. Yeah, and um, it's because you know, we've already hit the thing, I'm cheap. And uh, or as a lot of firefighters can be, and we're supplied them. And I never was like in a position, I was never really on a truck company for a time period where I was like, I'm gonna get my own. Right. You know, it was just like, I got one there. I mean, if I gotta use it.

SPEAKER_06 24:31

We both also came from a different department than Orange County. We were in, you know, we got taken over, but like in that small fire department, you kind of got made fun of if you brought in or bought your own personal stuff. It was weird. Yeah, that's what I remember at least. Yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_05 24:44

Yeah, there was a stigma with it where it was like, Don't get your own. We have it here. What are you doing? Trying to stand out kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02 24:52

Yeah, I'll tell you how big of a fire dork I am, though, dude. I do have my own halligan.

SPEAKER_06 24:56

Hey, I'm I'm down with it. Don't bother me, dude.

SPEAKER_05 24:59

Oh, at least it makes more sense.

SPEAKER_02 25:01

It's a useful tool. I got yeah, it is. I've I've used a halligan way more than I've used an axe on a fire, right? But I was at FDIC and they had like smoking deals on the these uh council tools. Um really, really nice halligans, but I teach forcible entry for our tower. Oh, cool. So I wanted my own just to show the difference.

SPEAKER_05 25:20

You don't have to justify it, dude. It's cool. You got you, did you name it? Yes, you did.

SPEAKER_02 25:25

Barbara? Mary Kate.

SPEAKER_06 25:30

All right, dude. I think I would name mine Barbara, dude. Like, hey good, go grab Barbara quick. Go get Bapara. Yeah, they were quick. That red light's on on that camera. Yeah, it's like okay, cool. Okay, so your your halligan, is it like the normal size for irons? Because I've seen some that are smaller. Have you seen those?

SPEAKER_02 25:47

Yeah, they're like the 24-inch.

SPEAKER_06 25:49

Yeah, they're like half the size.

SPEAKER_02 25:51

Yeah, oh, yeah, like the officer's tool. Yeah, yeah, that's what it looks like.

SPEAKER_06 25:54

Uh that's yeah, so it's a you have a normal size halligan.

SPEAKER_02 25:57

Yeah, yeah. It's called a T D30, which is tuned and dressed. Dude, you're uh you're a it's average, average size halligan for you.

SPEAKER_06 26:07

It's like a toothpick, you're a large dude, man. You're all tall.

Crafting As A Creative Outlet

SPEAKER_02 26:10

Yeah, brother. Yeah, it's pretty big, dude. You gotta work at the long end of the lever there, brother.

SPEAKER_05 26:16

Um I I got a I got a question. Uh so what made you interested in leatherworks? Was it just like uh you grew up like the jackets or what you know? Like what's your model for that one? But but why?

SPEAKER_02 26:31

I think yeah, I think about it often. Like it wasn't any like real like I'm gonna get into this because of this, but it was more like just like a hobby on my days off, man. You know, working 10 days a month and being single with no kids at the time. But I I really think the love of it came from um I used to work in a guitar shop in high school.

SPEAKER_07 26:47

Guitar center?

SPEAKER_02 26:48

No, it was for it. Yeah, it was a little tiny guitar shop um in the city of Hesperia, and uh my boss was a luthier, so he made guitars out of like blocks of wood. Oh like literally from scratch. That's actually rap. Super cool, dude. That's a s and it's a dying skill. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? Like he went to violin school, learned how to make violins, and he would make his own guitars and repair guitars and teach guitar lessons all day. So I would get out of uh get out of school um and I would walk across the street, and then I would go intern at the guitar shop until five. Oh and like just working with guitars, working with my hands, dude. I've always loved it. And I think that really translated into leather. Yeah, you know, so and now it's uh it's just like a nice like therapy almost to decompress from the job.

SPEAKER_06 27:32

Well, I'd imagine too, it's probably the you're able to be creative, right? Where like I thrive in creativity just because that's how I am, because I grew up in music and playing music and um getting paid to do it for a long time. But like our our chosen profession, there really isn't creativity, right? It's just like the military, we're paramilitary, right? You fall in line, you wear the same uniforms, everyone has the same workout clothes, we've all the same SLPs, all that, right? So there's no like there's no getting outside of the square, right? Right, whereas when you start to build or create, like when I made this this studio and the table and gall these things, right? I'm thinking, okay, I want to do something different. Let me think outside the box. Right now I can kind of do my own thing, and then I start to like one thing comes together, boom, I get excited and I start thinking of something else, and then that comes together, and then this, you know, then you start moving just the creativeness is where I drive, right? It's just fun. So I could imagine that's kind of the same, right?

SPEAKER_02 28:30

Yeah, I think guys like us definitely need that creative outlet, man, for sure. And that it's it's again, it's it's helped a lot too. It's just it's become kind of a stress reliever. Now, running it as a business, I mean, that can be definitely stressful too. But you know, that that comes with like setting boundaries in your business, especially with your customers, dude. 100%. You know, when they want to hag you on price, they want to hag you on wait times, you know, it's like, well, you know, it is what it is. At the end of the day, like I don't need this because I have my fire job to fall back on, right? It'd probably be a different, different story if it was just this, right? Right. But again, I always have to remind myself like when it gets stressful and I have orders piling up and people are like, Well, how long is it gonna take? And it's like, well, you know, why am I doing this again, right? Right. So I'm I'm just I'm supposed to be enjoying this. Yeah, yeah. And and I do, I really, really enjoy it.

Getting Better Through Slow Reps

SPEAKER_06 29:18

So well, it's the same kind of like with the podcast, because everyone's like, you know, was this just a hobby? You guys making money? I'm like, why is everything have to be about money or a hobby? Like, maybe it's because I liked one to talk to people, but two, also the creativity behind it. Yeah, right. Because when you actually do something that you enjoy and you put your creativity to work, your product starts to get better and better and better, right? You learn like our first remember our first podcast? Terrible, vaguely, yeah. I mean, they're okay, but they're fun. Yeah, they were super fun, but we also were drinking a lot on them. Um yeah, that's why I didn't remember. Yeah, plastic table, but we learned as we went, yeah, right. And then we kind of figured like, hey, we should probably stop drinking it. Well, you know, because we're getting pretty hammered on there and getting a little loose, but we're getting mature, is how I'd like to put it. Yeah, and then we upgraded to like I was wasn't even, I don't think I was married then yet, but um, we put it in one of the extra spare bedrooms, and we had a nice wood table and we started doing our thing, and then we moved it up here, and it got better and better and more guests, and so it's like you just you kind of you grow with it, yeah, and you learn. And a lot of people I've talked to, they always want everything to be perfect before it starts. I'm like, no, that's not how it works, dude. And if you're getting into anything, whether it's uh your own private business, okay. If you're trying to do leather work, podcasting, musician, you want to start a hair company, whatever it's gonna be, you gotta understand you are gonna be at the bottom for a hot minute. Yeah, it does not happen overnight. And I always say like this if it does happen overnight, it's gonna leave overnight. Fast money's bad money. Yeah, I want the organic growth over time, right?

SPEAKER_02 30:54

You know, I think they're the statistic for businesses to start turning a profit is like seven years.

SPEAKER_06 30:59

Oh, bro.

SPEAKER_02 31:00

Right? That's a lot, you know. That's that's a lot, and same thing with like bands like making it, you know, or getting a big record deal. They averages 10 years of grinding. You know, it's like you think you're gonna go out there and get a little gig and just smash on your first night playing at some bar, dude. You're gonna fall on your face, man. And you have to do that. Yeah, that's the only way you're gonna get better.

SPEAKER_06 31:18

But that's how you right. It's it's that 10,000 hour rule, right? Yep, right? You're you're let's be real, right? If if I were to come into a fire department and immediately like, I need to be the chief, and I've never had any experience, that fire department is going to fail. Yeah, I'm going to fail. I'm gonna burn it down to the ground. Just like a new musician comes in, a band, and they want to be the next hot thing. It's like you haven't played in stadiums yet, let alone in front of bars or outdoor venues, and build your way up, which builds your confidence, which teaches you how to handle issues while you're playing. If some a string breaks or there's an audio sound issue, you keep, you know, learn to keep playing and go through and you build those hours and hours and hours. So when that moment comes, and now it's like, hey, we want your band to play at you know the this football stadium. You're like, dude, we're ready. Yeah, we've done this a million times, we've played in front of people. Whereas, like, if we do it right away, oh, you'd be a mess. Right, it'd be so difficult.

SPEAKER_02 32:16

Yeah, without taking time to master that crap. Yeah, I remember Vince Neil from Molly Crew talking about like dude, like I was 18 and someone handed me a million dollars. He's like, I lost my mind. You know, like it's a miracle, those guys are alive still. Oh, dude, uh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 32:31

I I I Molly Crew is wild.

SPEAKER_02 32:33

Wild.

SPEAKER_06 32:34

Yeah, well, it's funny you say that because we were talking about this at work the other day, and I told someone it was about football players, right? They're you know, 21, 22 years old, getting 40 million dollar contracts, you know, and and I remember all of us were probably that way, right? I just want to be rich now. Yep. And I look at it now as a guy who's almost 40 and life experience, right? And all this, and I think, dude, if I would have hit it big at that age, I would have been I would have been done. I would have been a mess. I would have ruined my entire life, dude.

SPEAKER_02 33:01

Bro, probably I would have been dead if I'm being completely honest. There's a high probability of that. Going back to my story about getting in a music school in Hollywood, man, like it was God was all over that, bro. Because like at 18, with my habits, living in LA in Hollywood, and just playing guitar all day and all night, yeah, I would I would have been dead within uh probably a year. Yeah, I would have been dead, dude.

Faith Practices That Build Peace

SPEAKER_06 33:22

It's wild, it's a wild lifestyle, dude. Unless you're a grounded and you are confident in yourself and your morals. I mean, it's so I know how I live for a while. It's easy, dude. It's easy to get caught up real fast. Yeah, well, everybody's fucking doing it. You know, it's like no, you gotta be able to stay on your own two feet and your own morals. And like I have I have done life without God, and I've done life with God. And I'm gonna tell you right now, it's much better with God. With God, much more peace, much more clarity, happiness. Even when something goes wrong, there's still peace, and you somehow find happiness, you know, and you realize like no matter what's gonna happen, I'm gonna be okay, even if it hurts. Right. Whereas without God, it's like, dude, there's no hope. No, very nice. I know I'm thinking, and I can see how people go down a very dark route and path and make permanent decisions to temporary problems, right? You know, so that's why I'm so big on like the firefighter mental health thing. I think I sent you the flyer for I to hope, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I hope you can go. That's like through our um Firefighters for Christ chapter. Oh, okay. Yeah, April 17th. So I'll be speaking. Oh, right on, man. It's gonna be dope. Um yeah, I'm a little Artell. Jordan, you've heard me speak. I have, yeah. Jordan, Jordan's going last two, dude. Right? Jordan?

SPEAKER_05 34:36

I'll be there. Okay on the 17th. Yeah. Do we have a time frame on that one yet? Yeah, seven. Okay, perfect. Seven thirty. Seven. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 34:44

Yeah. We'll probably start at 7 30. We'll tell people a little earlier. Is it gonna be the same spot this year? No, it's in orange.

SPEAKER_05 34:50

It's in orange. Orange. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:54

I thought I did.

SPEAKER_05 34:54

I thought you okay. I probably will have to be. I'm gonna be here.

SPEAKER_06 34:58

No, there's no argument. I'll be there. Um, yeah, I hope you can come. But, anyways, that's why I say like it's cool to hear someone like you who's creative, you got your own business, leather working, but you're also been in the fire service. We got some time on, yeah. And you're not afraid to talk about where you screwed up in your failures. And it's like, hey, I kind of did it my way for a little bit. Now I'm doing it the Lord's way, and I include him in my life. And it's like, dude, this is a lot better. Right. It's a lot that's doesn't mean it's easy.

SPEAKER_02 35:26

No, not at all. Uh, if honest honestly, it's probably harder to to do it with the Lord, right? Because like you like when I got it when I got saved, I thought I was like, oh, like, yeah, it's just gonna be easy now. It's like, right now, man, like you got a wanna poster in hell with your face on it right now. Oh, great analogy.

SPEAKER_06 35:47

That was really cool. I'm using that. I like that, Tim. I like that.

SPEAKER_02 35:50

Dude, yeah, true. So I mean, but like at the end of the day, um, you know, walking with the Lord and everything, like you have that peace, like knowing that you're inside his will. You know what I mean? It's coming back every single day, like one day at a time, like coming back, and sometimes I'm freaking terrible at it, right? But like getting in the word, yeah, being mindful, like praying, you know, and really, really evaluating, like, okay, like, is this God's will for my life? You know, compared to like, oh, I'm just gonna go out and do this, you know, and falling on your face, right?

SPEAKER_06 36:21

So Yeah, I found that uh I've spent almost I try my best, but almost every morning I start my day with with prayer. Yeah. And I've learned, like, I kind of went through this book that actually teaches you um like the proper biblical way of praying. Not saying that any way you pray is bad, but it anyways, but it starts of of like acknowledging how great God is. Right. And then going into thanking him for what you have. Right. So you're acknowledging that he's great, which already sends that into your mind, like every if he's so great and he made everything, he's powerful, I'm good. And then into thank you for taking care of me for my home, for my job, protection, right? Thankfulness. And then into the Lord guide of my day, help me. Then you go into your quest, right? It's like you're acknowledging him first before anything. You know, and that's what I kind of learned. Not saying I like again, it's not that people the way you pray is bad, but I really started digging into my faith and like, okay, what is prayer? Like, how do some of these people in the old testament, the Bible, they prayed, and you kind of look at it and you break it down. It's like, dude, they always acknowledge how great he was first. It was amazing, right? I'm like, hmm, maybe I need to start doing that, but like it's cool, dude. It's it's like uh it really sets my day on a positive note, even when like the Bible even says it like if you don't want to pray, force it. I remember reading that and I was kind of taken aback thinking, whoa, that's that's almost like pretty much a command. Like, even if you don't feel like it, force it. Yeah, like you you want to speak to your creator because he wants to know every single part of you the good, the bad, yeah, the ugly, whatever you have. It's a relationship, right? It's not religion. I am not too big on religion, but chat with him, tell them exactly how you feel. And my wife and I have gotten into that because she got saved around the same time I did. And um, dude, our the way our life is now, and to see where we came from and the things that we have been through and how we used to be, and even us being together is a miracle. Um, and now to have my little daughter, and then my son's gonna be here in a couple months. I mean, people say, you know, oh, God doesn't do miracles anymore, he doesn't like part to see like in in the old testament. I'm like, Brahma walking miracle. Yeah, there's no way, like just like stop it. Like he does do miracles every day. My daughter's here, you know. My marriage or before we even got married, relationship should have been done, but we both changed and it healed and we got better. Now to have what we have, I'm like, dude, I'm so thankful for my I love my daughter. I love being a dad. Yep. Now I'm about to have two. Jordan's in the dig of it, he's got three. I got three. Oh, you got three, too.

SPEAKER_02 39:01

Oh my god, dude. What do you got? What do you got going on?

SPEAKER_05 39:04

Uh uh six, four, and two, uh, two boys, and our youngest is a girl. Six, four, and two. Okay, I got I got all boys. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 39:11

Eight, four, and one.

SPEAKER_05 39:12

Oh, all right, dude. Yeah, they must be giants.

SPEAKER_02 39:15

Bro, it looks like WWE inside my living room, bro. Yeah, every night.

SPEAKER_05 39:20

I thought, I thought with the little girl that would have tempered the other two. It doesn't. She's just riding there with them. She's wild herself. So which is there's a lot of good and interesting, I should put it, aspects as far as moving forward. But uh, no, it's it's wild. But it's all, I mean, for as many crazy scenarios as just as many good, like this is rad. Also, kind of a self-checking thing, you know, where it's like, I'm like, oh man, I'm in charge of all of you guys, huh? Everyone's relying on me in this in this room right now. Like, this is a wild scenario. Lord, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 39:51

Yeah, I remember this comedian talking about uh like your first year as a dad, your first year as a dad, and you're just holding your baby and going, please don't die, please don't die, please don't die. I'm responsible for this thing.

SPEAKER_06 40:03

Yeah, or my dad told me, he's like, Look, but just keep her alive. Yeah, that's all you gotta do. And I was like, wait, that's like that's the only advice you have for me. He's like, Yeah, just keep her alive.

SPEAKER_05 40:14

How do I do that? Yeah, the it is a uh I mean, every day is a learning mechanism. Like there's always something new, and everything that like if when you start the plateau a little bit or you feel like you're in the groove, something changes, it's constant and it kind of goes back. And you know, like what you're talking about, like approaching the day with prayer. Um, you know, I need to do a better job personally, and I I I try, I should say I try, which isn't good enough, but still, you know, like whatever you have to do, do it. It generates that feeling of whether if you're looking for comfort, there's comfort. If you're looking for guidance, there, you know, it's not like uh all of a sudden everything is clear in front of you, but I feel like there's always that feeling of leaning on something, you know, and helping you get through the day for whatever that may be for that day. Right. You know, I mean like when you were talking about like oh the way you pray, I'm like, yeah, mine's with a Starbucks on the drive in to work in the morning. You know what I mean? But like you catch the sunrise, you're like, man, today's gonna be a good day. Thank you for everything. You know what I mean? But just like just being uh trying to be you know present in that, I think is is good and it helps set the foundations because look, the days are crazy. Whether I'm going to work and work's crazy, I go home, my my personal life is crazy in that. And uh albeit, you know, the our kids are still young, so it is wild in that way. But uh, you know, just having that is uh super important, I think.

SPEAKER_02 41:35

So well, I think even like coming back to just like starting your day with prayer, like I think for as us as like first responders, that's really helpful because it brings us into routine, and like routine is like really helpful for our mental health, you know, especially like what we deal with, you know. So um, but you know, the Bible also says to pray without ceasing, and you know, to me that means being in like constant communication with God throughout the day. And so like I'm I'm constantly like asking God questions and just like having little conversations and like yeah, I mean it's not like this like voice comes out of the sky and talks to me, you know what I mean? But like I'm always like, all right, Lord, like you know, like what about this? What about that, you know? But like that routine, um, I think is definitely beneficial for our mental health, you know. 100%.

SPEAKER_05 42:20

Yeah, if you ever see me talking to the wall, it's probably because that's my out I end up saying a lot of things out loud that are in my head. I'm like, Lord, what am I supposed to do with this?

SPEAKER_06 42:30

Hey, talking to yourself isn't bad because you talk about like having a coffee on the way to work, and there's sometimes I'm going to work and I am sipping my coffee. I'm like, dude, please get me through this day. Oh yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 42:41

Like if someone was driving next to you and they look over and they'd be like, dude, what the what's going on with that guy?

Fatherhood Chaos And Daily Routine

SPEAKER_02 42:47

Dude, I'm sometimes driving the engine at like three in the morning. I'm like, I don't know how I'm gonna get there. I know.

SPEAKER_05 42:54

Don't worry, no one else is awake either.

SPEAKER_06 42:57

You bring up a good point because I I brought this up last year at work at like a Chiefs meeting. I remember my captain like kicked me in the leg, but um, because there was a lot of forces going on in the captain and engineer rank, right? So I did they said, hey, any questions at the Chiefs meeting? I'm like, Yeah, I got a question. And then my I like of course my captain's looking at me like, don't fuck, don't, don't do this right now. I'm like, no, no, I got a question. I'm like, hey, I got forced into a 120 by accident last year, which is crazy. Um who would have thought, you know, yeah, somebody somebody messed that one up.

SPEAKER_05 43:28

I don't know how that's supposed to happen, but right, right.

SPEAKER_06 43:30

I was like, I don't know how I got into 120. Um, but you know, within that, you know, four or five days, whatever it is, I probably had a total of eight hours of sleep. So I just want to know, because when we go on strike teams, I can only drive eight hours.

unknown 43:46

Right.

SPEAKER_06 43:46

Then we gotta switch and bed down or whatever we gotta do. But if we're in county, all rules are out the window.

SPEAKER_03 43:53

Right.

SPEAKER_06 43:53

Right?

SPEAKER_03 43:54

Mm hmm.

SPEAKER_06 43:54

You we can we'll force you to keep you as long as we need, yeah, and you better not crash that rig.

unknown 43:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 44:00

And I'm thinking, you, you, you, I'm operating a 40,000-pound piece of equipment with three other people, including my life and the people on the road. I'm just dog tired. Yeah. I mean, there's times where I'm driving, do I feel nauseous? You're just kind of like, oh, like you're hungover. Yeah. But without, yeah. And you can barely see. I'm thinking, like, dude, this is so dangerous.

SPEAKER_05 44:21

Yeah, dude. Dude, I remember I vividly remember driving one time, and it was like worked an area that was very busy at night, and I was on for a couple days. And like, I mean, the crew was cool, you know. There's not a personal thing. But we had, I don't know, let's say it's the third wake-up, like right before 4 a.m. I knew where I was going because it was like a rant, like a you know, routine spot that we're going to. The regulars. And when I got in, everyone fell asleep in like the first 30 seconds of driving. You know, and it's four in the morning, there's no one out. So you got the lights on, but you're not making a bunch of noise, you know what I mean? Yep. And I'm just like panning, looking, going, you might shaking the rig, like doing a couple. I got the cabin to hit his head off the window. Yeah. I'm thinking, dude, I could end this for everyone. That's when I knew I needed to promote. But but uh yeah, I know it's definitely it's a rough go. And they'd have no answer because the truth is the gray area. And it's a huge mocha on paper, won't allow it. But we all seem to do it. Just saying, you know. I I hate to say it.

SPEAKER_06 45:32

Yeah, I bring it up because I remember the chief's like, well, you know, it's part of blah, blah, blah. Just give it away. Switch sign up for. Is that what the answer is? Well, you knew what you got yourself into.

SPEAKER_05 45:39

You know, hey, if you don't like it, promote. Yeah, that's my favorite answer from everybody.

SPEAKER_06 45:44

Well, but here's the thing, right? In any of our departments I would say any of the people.

SPEAKER_05 45:46

But fix the problem. Promote, dude, obviously. Yeah, that'll make everything better. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I want to do.

SPEAKER_06 45:53

Well, if any most of these departments, right, the department's gonna protect themselves. If you force me into a 7296 and I am dog ass tired because I haven't had any sleep, and I wreck that rig because I fell asleep and blew a light and kill somebody, they're not gonna protect me. No. I'm going to I'm going to jail, right? We're the one position that's held civilly liable. Yep. Right. So I think about this sometimes. I'm like, dog. And I I ask them like, okay, if I'm too tired to drive, can I just if it's a force, can I call out sick? Right? And then he's the you start to get a little upset. Yeah. You stop that conversation.

SPEAKER_02 46:25

They don't like being pressed very much.

SPEAKER_05 46:27

The book answer is no, you're not supposed to.

SPEAKER_02 46:29

But you gotta do what you gotta do. You know, I had plenty of nights like where I work sleeping in the squad as a fireman. Oh, you know. I've done I've done 38 calls in 24 hours. I've done I've done 196 hours. I mean, like at some point, you know, like maybe call seven after midnight, I'd just be like, okay, I'm sleeping in the driver's seat.

SPEAKER_05 46:49

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:50

You know, on the squad.

SPEAKER_05 46:51

See, I remember we had a this was years ago, a long, long time ago, actually, but I was working on a squad with somebody, got you know, pummeled. And uh I remember we were driving back to the station after clearing a call, and I was driving, and I pulled up to the stop sign, you know, or a stoplight. It was red, and I like my partner was sleeping and I dozed off. And like I was like, but we were at a stop sign, you know, and it was just like all of a sudden I look up, I'm like, right. Like, where am I? And you're like, we're two blocks from the station, right? You know, and you're just like, dude, what the you know, and it just wasn't what it was, you know. It's like, oh, you're tired, go get up, there's coffee, right?

SPEAKER_02 47:29

You know what I mean? Okay, you guys ready for the next 24 hours?

SPEAKER_05 47:32

It is, but it's not unique. There's a lot of guys that experience that, you know, so it's fun to fun to chat about it. Makes for cool stories, I guess.

SPEAKER_06 47:39

Well, hey, one thing I want to hit on with you, dude, too, before we kind of get going because we're out of time, but uh you're in peer support. Yeah, how long have you been doing that?

SPEAKER_02 47:46

I just started. Oh, yeah, because so the yeah, the care team is what we call it. I don't know if it's that's like a unanimous term. I think ours is peer support. Yeah, ours is care team where I work, but that is just is just getting going. So literally last week I just did my training for it.

SPEAKER_07 48:04

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 48:04

So yeah, I I've and it's been kind of you know, just because like the bureaucracy and departments and working with like city government, stuff like that. It's a little slow. Um, but you know, we we have guys that have been doing it and that work for other departments that are like really well trained and experienced in it that have come over to where I work now and they've been putting on the training. So I've been able to be a part of uh two diffusings. Okay. Is that a unanimous thing? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 48:30

It's like after a pretty bad call. Yeah, they do a diffusing, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:33

Yeah, and then and then we just did a CISD, which is a little bit bigger than a diffusing, right? So I've been a part of two diffusings and a CISD. So it's been cool, man.

SPEAKER_05 48:43

And you've only been on for two weeks?

SPEAKER_02 48:45

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, well, so I've been on the I've been on the team um like since last year. Oh since last year, but like we just did the training for it um officially last week. Gotcha. To get everybody that was selected to be on the team on the same page.

SPEAKER_05 49:01

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 49:01

If that makes sense. So yeah, it's been really good, man. Um like uh reaching out and taking taking advantage of the EAP through the city I work for and like seeking my own therapy to deal with like some of the stressful things that I've been through, like the things with my dad, um you know, some of my past like substance abuse and like addictive behavior and um just the the PTSD through running calls for 15 years, you know, it's been like super beneficial, man. And so I started taking advantage of that about a year and a half ago. Excellent. So because of that, I wanted to like help the people in my department, you know, and be available to them.

SPEAKER_06 49:40

So that's huge, man. I I there's nothing wrong with raising your hand saying you need help. No, there's there's no shame in that. There's nothing wrong. I did. I think that was one of the best things I I I um did for myself, and I think it was like 2022, I think or so. Yeah, it was a pretty bad call with a child, and I was like, dude, I'm done. Yeah, we we get somebody out here. I I'm I'm a mess right now. But then I went into some pretty intensive therapy after that. I remember our peer support team came out with chaplains and they were talking to us. And once I started talking, the rest of the crew opened up. Yeah, you know, it's like usually one person cracks that egg, right? Everyone's like, oh, finally, you know, so now we can talk about it.

SPEAKER_02 50:19

Yeah, because they see somebody else that's like, oh, that's exactly how I feel. Yeah. And he's not afraid to talk about it.

SPEAKER_06 50:24

Yeah, I'm really glad that you know we we did that. I did that. But dude, the the therapy is I think is huge. I did a lot of um EMDR, yep. Same. Um brain spotting and all that. It helped out a lot. You do you don't realize you carry a lot of the stuff. We're not meant to see violent things day in and day out when you go to work, right? People go to war in a military and they go for a certain amount of time, they come back and they get to defuse and you know do what they do to to come back to normal. Right. Bro, we're in it for like three years. Yeah, on top of not just our regular 10 shifts, but also the forces and the voluntary overtime, guaranteed. We know that's granted. But you know, you can't unsee things that you've seen. No, there's a famous quote from that that Detroit engineer from that movie Burner.

SPEAKER_02 51:10

I wish my mind would forget what my eyes have seen. Yeah, yeah.

Forced Overtime And Driving Danger

SPEAKER_06 51:13

And it's a tr it's so true. Yeah, I don't care how tough somebody thinks they are, like it's going to affect you. It's gonna come out somewhere. Yeah, it's gonna come out in your family or wherever it may be. And I didn't I didn't want that anymore because I was indulging in things I never should have been. And so I needed to change, and I did, and that's when the Lord definitely came back into my life. So you being a part of that is is huge, dude. Um I'm I'm really stoked that you're doing that because you're not just going to work or the guy who who has the old town leather works, but you're also giving back to your fellow crew and members, which is is huge, right? Because really, excuse me, at the end of the day, we we have to look out for each other, no one else is going to. And that sounds so calloused, right? But the reality is, and many they don't want to sell you this when you're becoming a firefighter, right? They sell you this gold nugget, like best job in the world, right? Retirement, right? But they don't want to talk about the back end of it.

SPEAKER_05 52:04

Yeah, yeah, 10 days a month.

SPEAKER_06 52:06

Yeah, they're lying to you. Get out of here. But they don't talk about the back end, and then the reality is of all of it, too, is you're just a number, dude. Like we're replaceable, all of us are replaceable. As soon as if I retire earlier, get killed on the job, or off duty, or just decided to leave the fire service, they're gonna fill my spot so fast. Probably within an hour.

SPEAKER_05 52:24

I was just gonna say if it happened on duty, it's probably within the two, three hour window of getting that uh unit back in operation.

SPEAKER_06 52:31

Right. That's why I say, like, we have to take care of each other. Yeah, you know, the department's gonna check boxes and on. This is not to say I hate my department or fire departments, suck, but I'm just giving it's like this is the reality of life. Yeah, we're all replaceable in any job that you're in. Oh, so you have to take care of each other. Yeah, you really do. So I, you know, I love what you're doing. This is pretty much what I'm saying. Yeah, it's pretty dope.

SPEAKER_05 52:49

Yeah, the peer support is uh it's a it's something that's it's I would say in the last decade has made a big move forward in the fire service. And I'm you know, it sounds like we all kind of have a similar starting point of when we started in in the industry, if you will. And uh, you know, the taboo of like kind of the you know, just shut up and deal with it vibe is you know, and there are certain things that are that's maybe good for, but for the entirety of your career and having that approach is, you know, I mean, it's not just the job, it's family life, it's personal things, it's whether, you know, and that could be you know relationship problems, addiction problems, you know, what the it's multifaceted, you know, and it's it's interesting because we all kind of not everybody, but a lot of us, we you know, we joke about it, our humor is kind of dark a little bit, you know, or morbid, should you say but it's like but look, the truth of the scenario is is that like you can run a call on whatever fill in the blank, something sad, you know, whatever that means to you, because we all have different points of view of that, but whatever that is, five minutes later from that call, you could be going doing a PR event with a council member that you know voted no on your raise, right, right, or on whatever you're requesting, but you have to put that that smile on because you're a professional, you gotta know how to do it, and you just got done seeing one of the go most messed up scenarios in your head. Yeah, and this is a reality for all of us, you know, and it's like, and then on top of that, okay, you're you know, your kids, something's something's going on at school, or your wife between you or your family or whatever, it's like you gotta have an outlet. And uh the fact that the fire service, you know, has has got at least a good aspect, I would say, is that promoting this peer support or care groups or whatever it is, and it's not like you don't need to hold hands and talk, right? You know what I mean? But dude, talking to somebody or at least someone that will listen and kind of open up ventures, and like like Tim said, you know, doing these uh, you know, critical stress debriefings after an incident, sometimes it does take just one guy. Yeah. As soon as you start talking, then you're like, you know, uh it, you know, so it's it's it's awesome what you're doing, man. And that's really cool.

SPEAKER_02 55:04

I I would say too, I think that people that are like trained in peer support or like on the team or have experience like going to therapy even and maybe not part of a team. Um, like I go back to that that quote from Benjamin Franklin, like a pound or sorry, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Right. So like if I have somebody like you, or you know, maybe you have experience or training, or just me going to therapy and seeing what help helped me and being in the station, you know, I think that would would help guys a lot too, because it's like, well, this is what I went through. I went and sought help for it. And these are these are the tools that I was given in therapy to help me get over it, right? Or help me help me to deal with it better at least, right? So um, you know, having that experience, I always try to go back and think, like, there's a reason why God called me to be on this call, right? Yeah, there's a reason why I was called here for this person at this time. And like you said, you ran a call that was kind of like the straw that broke the camel's back. It was the same thing for me. Yeah, like run running a running a call like right before my dad passed away. Um, that was that was like the card that was dealt to me that like opened the door for all these other issues that I had never dealt with in my life, you know. And I believe that that happened for a reason, man. Like God's hand was all over that, and there was a reason why I was there on that call. Yeah, you know, and ever since, uh and it's been it's been uncomfortable to deal with, but it's been super helpful, man, because who knows where I would have been without dealing with that stuff, you know?

SPEAKER_05 56:31

Absolutely, you know, and that that's that's kind of like the the crazy part about all of this is that like whether it, you know, whatever the belief structure is that it's for a reason or for a learning or whatever, but it always there always seems to be some sort of like I don't know, like guidance backing, like where at least for myself, like I always feel like I'm like, oh God, okay, all right, you showed me something today. Right, you know, and whether it was good or bad, you know, it was like, all right, well, maybe, you know, like even if something like you're praying about and it's not changing, but then it's like, okay, well, maybe it's not that I need to change, like I'm never gonna find the exact answer, but maybe this is like a lesson learning on how to operate within it, you know, and becoming more comfortable in that, you know, and which is a you know a struggle sometimes, but also it's like I don't know, it just paves the pathway moving forward. And and I think there's a lot testimony, a lot to that, absolutely, and you know, and and look being vocal, yeah, you know, talking to the guys, you know, and I'm and I know we just met, but absolutely seem like that kind of person where you're pretty open and you know it's kind of like hey, this is what I did, you know. And I think most of us in that industry, if you're not one of those types, you benefit from being around one of those types, yeah. And it kind of opens the door for things that you can share with and and stuff. So I'm thinking it's like a multifaceted approach, but that's awesome, dude. Yeah, so yeah, the one-stop shop, Tim, huh? I was like firefighter extraordinaire, peer support, and it can make a badass leather workings. I know. Cry once, pay pay once, cry later. Oh no. Cry once later. Pay once, cry later. We can't get them from talking about the gun under the gun is kind of in other forms.

SPEAKER_02 58:25

What kind of podcast is this?

SPEAKER_06 58:27

Uh um, if if anybody wanted to um order some leather working stuff, is this directly for fire or you kind of do other things as well?

SPEAKER_02 58:39

I do a couple other things too.

SPEAKER_06 58:40

Did you actually show people the wallet?

SPEAKER_02 58:42

Oh, I just made this last night. Yeah, look like alligator skin, baby. Let's go. Oh, that's sick. On the inside, we got bridal, which is cow. Okay. But I make little passport style wallets like this. I make card holders, I make long wallets with zippers in them. Um, I I two years ago I started making guitar straps, and that kind of took off too. So I've gotten to make some guitar straps for some bitty pretty big name people. Um Margan Wallen's band, Ella Langley's band, uh, Larry Fleet's got a couple of them, his whole band's got yeah. Um, so that was like a whole nother thing that like unintentionally kind of took off, which has taken me actually further in the music industry than guitar playing ever did. You know, so it's really cool being able to make like custom guitar straps for these artists that I love and like going to meet them at their shows and hang out backstage and you know, yeah. So that's right, man. Yeah, I got a couple more on the dockets for this year and we'll see where else it goes. So yeah, it's been it's been a really fun experience.

Peer Support Training And EMDR

SPEAKER_06 59:39

Oh, dude, so they can uh what's the best way for people to order from you? Is it just like you talked about earlier? Is it just go to Instagram?

SPEAKER_02 59:45

Yeah, Instagram, Old Town Leatherworks. Old Town Leatherworks. You can email me, oldtownleatherworks at gmail.com. And I just started my YouTube about six months ago, so I'm working on building on that platform.

SPEAKER_06 59:56

But your videos are cool, dude.

SPEAKER_02 59:58

Oh, thanks, man.

SPEAKER_06 59:58

Yeah, like you posted some stuff on Instagram. I'm like, I might need to take a class from this guy. This is really cool. You did one, I think you you were making something with leather, and it was kind of focused on your hands and the leather. Oh, yeah. And it I I thought that was very well done.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:12

People love the behind-the-scenes stuff, yeah. I I try to focus on that, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:16

So yeah, if you do any videos that are uh I I need to follow you on YouTube now, but if you do anything of where you're actually showing the process of making, yeah, I'm in. I watch I will watch that all day.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:28

That's most of what I it's like a vlog style. This is kind of my goal with the YouTube stuff. Yeah, yeah. So instead of like short little like vertical content like Instagram, I want like the long form of like just showing the process of everything.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:39

See, it's not that easy, guys. Yeah, see? Yeah, this is why I charge this because this is taking eight hours. 100%.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:48

So we haven't done this in a a long time. We used to ask these questions in our early seasons. Okay. Uh after, but I do want to ask you one thing. Do you have a favorite Bible verse?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:56

Proverbs 3 5. What you got? Yeah, trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understandings. All your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your path.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:05

I love it.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:05

Yeah, I just want to always gone back to you since I got saved.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:09

Dude, mine is Isaiah 43.2. When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. I I have held that verse very close to my chest for for many years now. Yeah. It's true. He's always come through. Never late. And he's never early. Right. Right on time. Right on time. Feels late sometimes. Feels late. Yeah. I have uh I've raised my head to the sky, like, bro, where are you? And then you're just like the next day something happens. I'm like, oh my bad, dude. Dang.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:40

You know better than I do. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:41

No, I like that, dude. Excellent. Uh okay. So we're gonna answer these questions and we're gonna end this podcast real quick, okay? Just to have some fun here. Okay. All right. The first one. You will answer it, then Jordan, and then me, okay?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:53

If your T if your TV remote didn't work and you were sick and couldn't get up all day, what channel would you put on for the entire day?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:03

Oh man. Yeah, that's a good question. I don't know. Maybe I'll just watch cops all day, dude. I could do that. I would watch cops all day. I could watch cops all day. I like watching cops, bro. Do you hear that, police officers? You see, a couple of fire dudes.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:20

You can tell her be one of them. No, but it's because they're like you can tell they're normal people like we are. Yeah. And they just gotta deal with these idiots. Yeah. I love it, dude. I love it.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:29

What about you, Jordan? Uh, the a channel I would watch all day.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:33

Uh yeah. Um I yeah, I mean, I could do the cop. I honestly though, I'd probably watch the NFL network. I'm just uh nerd. 100%. I'm like, ooh, what's so-and-so eating today for the preseason warm-up. I need to eat like that. Yeah, yeah. Basically, either that or yeah, cops, I guess.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:53

Uh mine would be ID channel. Oh, okay. And I would watch uh Snapped. What's it? It's like a crime channel, right? It is a crime channel. It's so good. Snapped. Oh, the women listening to this are gonna get so bent out of shape. Okay, I love watching Snapped because it's like 90% women who've lost their mind on their boyfriends or husbands and kill them, and then they gotta solve the murder. And typically the guy's been sleeping around and cheating on it. Yeah, bag. Yeah, but the women just lose it, dude. Yeah, you know, I'm like, just leave them. Don't just kill them. Just play with fire, man. Okay, uh, the next one. What would your 12-hour crime spree be during the purge? Oh man.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:35

Uh during a purge. During the purge, like we've got to be. I don't know, man. I don't I don't I don't even know if I'd leave my house to be honest. Honestly, I don't know. Yeah, same. Same.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:49

Especially in that environment.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:51

Yeah, I don't know. I've not I don't really have a big thing in me. Probably because of my past. I don't really want to be able to do that. I'm gonna be real.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:59

I was like, can I tell you guys what I would do? Yeah. Um, I would probably go to McDonald's and steal all their chicken nuggets. Okay. That's what I would do. And come back home and cook them.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:08

Yeah, that's a that's uh that's that's what I would do. It's a crime that doesn't really affect too many people.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:13

No, no one's gonna be picking up.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:14

I don't want to hurt anybody.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:14

I just like all the chicken nuggets, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:16

Right. Do you think they pre-order chicken nuggets the night before the purge? Or they're like they probably clean it out. Like your name's on the wall. They're like Tim Fisher's gonna raid this place.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:27

Probably seen this man hamburger. Well, it's either the nuggets. It's either that or I would go to Costco. I'd break into Costco because I got some pretty cool stuff I would want to take.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:39

Some might be anybody would it just be theft? Like that would be my crimes theory, like for the purge. Like, I have no interest in killing anybody. I would just I would just want to like upgrades from my house. Yeah, I'd just be I just ordered a flatbed truck just for that one night. Yeah, I'd have like all new furniture. I'll be a bodyguard.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:58

Or do you remember like breaking bad when he steals that ATM? And he's like, it's FDIC secured, it's a it's like a victimless crime. Oh yeah, go steal an ATM, dude. That's true.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:08

Yeah, I guess bank robbery, then I guess that would probably be if I'm really gonna cut to the chase, no violent, you know. Yeah, you know, I don't know. The purge, that's a crazy movie.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:18

All right here's the last one before we end, boys. And this is definitely this is our generation, so think deep on this, okay? Oh boy. All right. What are the top three 90s Nickelodeon shows that would hold up today? In your like your opinion? What top three? Just give me your top one. How about this? Don't even do three. What's one Nickelodeon show you guys would think would hold up today?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:41

Um, what was that one where it was like a like a jungle set? It was like an obstacle course and it was Legends of the Hidden Temple. Oh dude, I think that would do great.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:53

I loved watching that. I love watching that growing up.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:56

Earliest memory deep in the archives. Yeah, that was good. Dude, that show is legit. Dude, good poll. I was only thinking animation shows, dude. That was good.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:04

What do you got?

SPEAKER_05 1:06:05

What did you want? Three or ten? I watched a lot of this. Just get it going. Uh let's see. I think Doug would hold up.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:12

Oh, hundred percent.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:15

Yeah, I think that was good. I was like, Skeeter, skater, skater. Yeah, I was like, honestly, I was thinking Doubledare Skeet. That was before the meeting, James. Yeah, true. Skeeter, yeah. Uh sorry, guys. Doubledare. I think Legends of the Hidden Temple would be a better revamp today than the Doubledare show. Yeah. But I used to really like Doubledare and then what was the other Rocco's Modern Life? That was like one of my favorite cartoons.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:44

That was a very wild show.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:46

It was.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:46

It was very kind of uh it was very eclectic. It was all over the place. Remember when they went to hell?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:51

Yeah, H E double hockey stick land. Yeah. I don't think I was allowed to watch that when I was around.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:55

Yeah, that one was a that one was a little different. Yeah. I remember as a kid watching, like, wait, what? What is going on here?

SPEAKER_05 1:07:01

I used to wait. I'd have to watch it later. Like when I would go to my grandparents' house because I wasn't allowed to watch that at home either. Yeah. And then I remember that's funny that you brought that episode up because I remember the hockey sticks, they were backwards L's. Yeah. But they wrote, they're like, Welcome to Heck. Yeah. And it said L, but it was spelled backwards.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:19

And I was like, oh, mom and dad are you. Dude, that show was that show was on the edge for a cartoon, dude. Yeah. Big time. Okay, so the one I would do. Do you guys remember Salute Your Shorts?

SPEAKER_05 1:07:29

Oh, yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:30

I don't remember them. Camp on a wana. We hold you in our hearts.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:34

And when we think about you.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:36

It makes me wanna fart. Remember that? I don't remember that.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:38

Get it right or pay the price. Yeah, dude. I'm a little younger than you. You don't remember? Okay, salute your shorts. Like you guys are old as uh okay. Here's I'll give you another one. Sound like boomers. Do you remember?

SPEAKER_06 1:07:50

Hey, you remember that show? I do. Right. What about Pete and Pete? Remember Pete and Pete? Nope. Do you remember? Are you afraid of the dark?

SPEAKER_05 1:07:57

Okay, yeah. Okay. Are you afraid of the Pete and Pete? Yeah, dude. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:59

Are you afraid of the Dark? Pete and Pete. Those are the ones, but that but that's that's the one I think. I might have to look these up now.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:04

I think all those shows honestly would hold up. Rugrats was a popular one. Huge. That one was good. Huge. Nickelodeon actually crushed back in the day. Are they even popular? I know that's around still, but no, because all the producers, man.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:15

Yeah, all the producers were sleeping with the child actors. Oh, yeah, you can.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:21

We don't like them. Yeah, we don't like them.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:25

I mean, if the cartoons are real, they probably sleep with them too.

Guitar Straps Orders And Wrap-Up

SPEAKER_02 1:08:28

That's true. Yeah, that is true.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:32

Anyways, uh, dude, Tim, thank you so much for coming on our show. Appreciate you guys. Old Town Leatherworks. Everyone, please check it out. Get your leather workings for work. Nothing else.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:44

I'm gonna hit you up here pretty soon. I did not, and I did not know you did wallets too. Yeah, I need to give me one.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:50

Actually, um, do you think you could do alligator skin converse? Oh man.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:55

I mean shoes? Always a possibility. Yeah, I don't know how to make shoes. I have to leave it. Cover them. No, though.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:00

Get the shoes and he can like sew. I don't know if you'd sew it on top or just cut the piece off, the side piece, and measure it and do the same. It'd probably be expensive, and I'd pay you. Alligators expensive. You know how dope would that be to show up to the fire station alligator skin converse dude?

SPEAKER_05 1:09:14

You'd be the coolest dude there.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:18

Probably.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:19

I will be your first purchase. Or ostrich.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:22

I wear hey dudes around the station. Like I don't I don't wear station boots, like unless I'm going on a call. Yeah. Because it just hurts my back. Yeah, yeah. Oh, they're terrible. I wear hey dudes, so what I'm thinking about doing is like custom, you know, like I don't know, like some stations have different logos. Like every one of our station has a different logo, like the theme of the station. So maybe tooling in or like lasering in um, you know, the station logo on top of your hey dudes and like sewing it on like a leather patch, you know. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:53

Dude, have you made any demos yet? Not yet. Let's get a couple of uh like ideas flowing, dude. Yeah. Yeah. That's I mean, and you know, honestly, the cause like kind of like the the station slipper, if you will. Because every you know, it's like trying to keep all the bad stuff out of the station, so keeping your work boots out is pretty common now. Um that's a whole niche, dude. Oh yeah. That's pretty cool. I think it'd be great.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:18

That'd be dope, right? Well, thanks for coming on, Tim. Appreciate you guys.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:21

Thank you. I just want to show you the voice I can do. Oh, that's a voice. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:31

Tim? Internative books. Am I in Heck? Yeah. Welcome to Heck.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:38

Oh my gosh, that's gonna be that is that's pretty crazy. That is very disturbing. Anyways, uh the laugh was anyway.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:50

Life's nuts. I need some peer support after that. Yeah, it's like, yeah, we got Tim here, we can talk us through it.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:56

I just wanted to show you guys. Anyways, we do a let's go on three. You ready to do it? Let's do it. All right, one, two, three. Let's go five.