Kindness toward seniors

After a cross-over episode of KG's Wooden Sticks, the KC Crew discuss the need for connecting with our elders, especially those in Senior Care facilities.

Transcript

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Welcome to the Kindness Chronicles where we hope to inject the world with the dose of the Minnesota nice that it desperately needs It's been really cold out lately. Yeah, and Oof. Yeah, Steve. What do you got? Just seem very excited you introduce Steve Brown is here. Yeah. Hi Steve and then Kevin Gore is on the call. Where are we calling yet? Beautiful Richfield, Minnesota. Um, great little, uh, as you guys both know, great little town, uh, over here and, uh, just, uh, doing. Doing God's work for these dogs. John and I have our significant others out in Tahoe skiing. We're doing all the heavy lifting back here at the Ho Oh front. So, I'll be getting some, uh, a crate of food for the, uh, little guys we call Fenway and Brooks. So, Richfield's where you have to go to get it, and traffic was, of course, just perfect at this hour. Not my best planning, but here I am. What do Fenway and Brooks eat? Do you, do you, like the farmer's dog, or what kind of Are you feeding them? It's kind of like that. Okay. Is it soft? Yeah, it's soft ID food. It's this, uh, special blend of, uh, it's a prescription diet and it's, uh, and they both got sensitive tummies. You know, they're little guys that have some issues and that's okay. They're 11 now. Which is 77 in people years. You gotta make sure that whatever you're giving them, it's easy on their digestive system. And so this is where I go to get it. And, uh, I should have been over here hours ago, but in a world where I procrastinate almost everything, I waited until rush hour and it took me 45 minutes to get from Minnetonka to Richfield. Well, you know, it just dawned on me, our theme for today's show after we do a little bit of banter is Kindness for the elderly and the fact that you're showing some kindness to those elderly dogs. Yeah, we think about it that way I mean, how can I wait a tired in? It all counts like the elderly generally like to have soft food, you know, pureed. Yeah. Yeah So the theme of today's show is kindness for seniors and we're gonna get into that in just a second But first of all It wouldn't be the Kindness Chronicles without an element of wooden sticks. What you got going on this weekend, KG? Well, it's a big weekend for hockey lovers. It's the hockey holiday we call Hockey Day Minnesota. And it's this Saturday, the 25th, out in Shakopee. It's going to be held at an amusement park at Valley Fair with actually five or six rides as the backdrop that are going to be Operational. I think it's going to be spectacular. Thank goodness. The weather's going to turn out for it to be in the mid twenties and not 10, 15 below, like it was a couple of days ago. And, uh, the marquee game is Maple Grove, Shakopee on the boy's side. Um, I'm working the first two games outdoors, including Hibbing, taking out Eden Prairie at eight 30. And then we've got the Gopher women against Bemidji state at 1130. And then I'll hustle over to St. Paul to work the six o'clock. Uh, wild game when they take on Calgary and. I was talking to John before we started recording, Kirill Kaprizov is back for Minnesota this week. And, we've, it's been a month without him, and while they're great fun to watch, but they're always way more fun when they're superstars on the ice. And I can't wait to see him this weekend. You know, when I think of Shakopee, I don't think necessarily of hockey. I think of, uh, Valley Fair, of course. Yep. Women's prison. Canterbury. There's a women's prison in Shakopee. And then Canterbury. Is there anything else from Shakopee? It's growing. Um, you know, when all of us were in high school, Shakopee didn't have an indoor rink. They had a bubble. And, you know, my long time girlfriend, high school sweetheart, Heidi, was a Shakopee. Uh, well, back then they were the Indians. Now we can't have that, so they're the Sabres. Oh, yeah. But I went to two proms at Burnsville with her and two proms. in Shakopee with her. And I vividly remember going to watch a high school game because she was a cheerleader. I could not believe how cold it was now page forward to where we are in 2025. They have this unbelievable facility, multiple sheets. It's tied into this community center with this incredible workout facility, indoor soccer facility. It's state of the art and Shakopee is booming. And so now, of course, their sports programs are booming. And, you know, Burnsville, where I played back in our glory days, we were great. Now we can't field our own team. We're blended in with Apple Valley, our neighbors and rivals, and Shakopee's got a top 10 team in the state, and they've got these giant classes like we had in the 80s. So that's kind of the way things work in certain parts of Twin Cities. Yeah, they've definitely got it going on. Burnsville is no longer the suburb it once was. Mm, mm, mm, mm. And the times, they are a changin as our friend Bob Dylan once said. Hey, is Ed Lozell, didn't Ed Lozell, wasn't he a coach at Shakopee? Remember Ed from St. Thomas? Of course I do. A Duluth, Duluth guy, really good defenseman on our teams at St. Thomas, and for, uh, many years he was, uh, one of the coaches in Shakopee. I don't think he is on the staff anymore. But Ed put in eight, ten years there with, uh, with that program for sure. I wonder whatever happened to Ed. Maybe we could do a checking in with Ed segment at some point here in the future. Super nice guy. He would fit the profile here on Kindness Chronicles. I I always enjoyed my time with Eddie. I think he was a Duluth East guy, wasn't he? Yep, he was a hound. He was another program that's gone the wrong way. They had such a good program as recent as maybe five, six years ago, and now last time I looked they're like four and fourteen this year. That's spookta. They're all going to Hairman Town, right? Isn't that where all the hockey players go? Of course, yep. Hermantown has become a state power. So, I take it, you know, KG is incredibly happy. He's just living hockey all weekend, right? All weekend. So are you just excited? You're living it up. You're doing Yeah. You know, hockey day, all weekend, and then the wild game. What, I mean, can you be happier? This is as good as it gets. And it is a fun production because it's, it takes months to get ready for it. It's the one thing we have, Steve, where everybody Um, at our company, everybody on the side of the Minnesota wild, they're all involved. So it's a big team effort to get this thing up and running. And then just to see how the town celebrates it. They're so proud to be the focal point. And especially now when Shakopee is in kind of their glory days to show off the program and how well they're doing. Um, and I, I just think for Valley Fair, I, you know, I grew up going there as a kid. I took my daughters there, all three just loved. Um, going out there. And so I've got great memories of that place. I haven't been back there in years. I I've gotten to the age now where I am a curmudgeon. And if I go on a ride that goes over like six miles an hour, I get sick to my stomach. So, but I have great memories of that place. I think they're going to do a wonderful job. I am excited. To see the whole thing play out. So, John, I have a question for you. Do you embrace winter? Like, like, Kevin is embracing the winter. Um, I see that there's a big, um, ice maze in Egan. Yeah. Near the Vikings thing. And, you know, Hockey Day is a great representation. People in Minnesota really embrace winter, and I, every year I go, I'm going to embrace winter, and I, I typically haven't, I had a plan to go, I'm going to go to that ice, um, event in Egan at some point, but I want to ask you. Do you embrace winter like, like our friend KG here does? Not a bit. Yeah. I do like to keep a clean driveway. So when it snows, I like to keep the driveway all the way down to the pavement. Okay. Well, wait a minute, a couple years ago, didn't you put a rink in? Yeah, we, for many years, we had a hockey rink. But, you know, I don't have children around to use them. And, as I've said, I'm not a very strong skater. Well, I'm telling you, it is, it's harder, as I get older, it's harder to embrace winter when it's so, it's, there's so much. I know there's a lot to do. Well, it was 25 below zero a couple days ago. It's frightening. The only thing is No one's embracing that. No. No. Except it is strangely cleansing when you walk outside and take a deep breath and it's like your lungs Oh, it's cleansing, alright. are kind of freezing. It's very crazy. Yeah, I find it terrible. Okay. You know what? It's miserable. I'm not trying to be negative. I just wanted to know how much you embrace winter. I don't embrace winter. Because I have a hard time doing it too. It sounds like KG embraces. Well, KG's a different guy. He is. He's a hockey champion. Well, the dogs kind of forced my hand, Steve, to be honest. I'm out a lot in the winter, but it's because of Fenway and Brooks, and I have a vision of John surprising Becky at some point, now that the kids are out of the house, and maybe not the same scale and size, but putting a small, uh, outdoor rink back in that beautiful lawn of yours, and then maybe try to recreate it. Uh, the movie Ice Castles with you and Becky and, um, There's a reference in 1976. Oh, I love that movie. So cheesy. Robbie Benson. So good. Robbie Benson. Minnesota. Something Johnson. Something Johnson. Was that the girl that was blind or? Yeah, she went, remember? She wasn't blind the whole movie, but something happened. There was an accident. And now she's blind and she's out there doing her routine. And I can still just vividly. Remember the music and the drama. It was so good. I prefer the movie with, Farrell, uh, as the figure skater. Oh, yeah. Blades of Glory. Blades of Glory, yes. Oh, God, that's funny. That's an odd movie. It's odd. It is very odd, but, uh, it's a movie that's worth watching. Yeah. It is. Okay, well, enough about the winter talk. That was, Wooden sticks for you. I wanted to talk today about, being kind to seniors. So I work in a facility that is attached to a, senior care facility. And one of the most heartwarming things is watching people interact with seniors that just don't have the visitors that you would hope that they would have. I'm going to give you an example. It was right before Christmas. There was a group of, uh, people from the class of 1986 Hill Murray. Of course you gotta mention Hill Murray, of course. And my mom, yay. Pioneers class of 1963. My mom and dad and some of their friends, and my uncle and uncle and Aunt Pat and Pat. Yep. Their names are Pat and Pat. Uhhuh And my mom is Pat. So there are three Pat Sch Whites is at this, uh, at this event. But anyways, we went to the St. Paul's Monastery. For the nuns. Yeah, yeah, you told us about that. Did I talk about this already? No, you just said that you did. I can't remember if you told us any story about it. And I gotta tell ya, you know, the, the number of nuns that are at that monastery, I think they're down to like 18. And there aren't It's a big building too. There aren't Oh, it's a huge, it's a beautiful, relatively new building. Yeah, architecturally it's cool looking, but we had so much fun with those nuns I went and I picked up fried chicken from Cub Foods. Yum! For 48 pieces of fried chicken, it was 62 bucks. That was the best 62 bucks anybody could ever spend because let me tell you. Those nuns, they love them some fried chicken. Yeah, of course. And you know what, they all love the little drumstick thing. They're fighting over it. Oh yeah. You mean the wishbone? Not the wishbone. Oh, the drumstick. The leg. The drummies. The leg. Okay, okay. Fighting over the leg. These nuns are fighting over the legs. Jerry. Um, but then we played bingo. It was so much fun. That is cool. That's I mean what made you guys do that because you knew someone there No, my mom said we got to do something for the nuns Oh, and she said could you get some of your pals and I'll get some of mine and we went up there and that is cool It was very cool. I will say though John. I've been around you at your place. Yeah At the home and on a comb at the Masonic home. It's my sonic mu h my sonic. Yes My point is you actually work with them and work with so many people around so many people you Know how to speak with older folks. You have many friends that are older folks So my question is this could be a thing for all of us like I think people are just they don't know what to say To to older people sometimes people love talking about. Yeah, they're where they came from Talk talking about their past one of the things that you have to remember is when you're talking with seniors Yeah, you got to talk very loud Yeah And I find myself, when I'm on the phone with anybody, I'm like screaming into the phone because I'm so used to, you know, screaming. But we got this one woman that lives at the home. She's 105 years old. She's an absolute, she is hilarious as can be. She loves talking about all of the dates that she had. But she saved herself for the one that she married. It's just so sweet. And she's just full of P and V and my god is it fun. I think it's, I think it's awesome. I think you have a certain character. You bring a lot of stuff out of, out of them. I think most people do maybe feel a little weird about it. If they don't have a relative there, like how, how would you go about, I mean, do they just accept people? Like, if we're going to have people Do this kind of thing where they've actually business. Are you thinking a challenge one of the Steve Brown? Yeah, that's that's challenges But let's ask KG, KG's been spending an unusual amount of time in a senior care facility Your dad has been in a care facility in Burnsville, Lakeville Apple Valley, yeah, starting way back in late August and you know when I was much younger. I did some community service and so I had spent time there and to John's point, they truly do really appreciate it, especially if you're outgoing and have some fun with them. But, uh, yeah, going to see my dad, you know, 234 times a week at this facility when I find myself when I walk in and look in these rooms to see if People have visitors. I'd say 90 percent don't and then I feel so bad, right? Because my dad has regular visitors and he's, you know, he's 85. He's only been there a few months, but I just, I, I don't ever want to be in that position. So if you can share some kindness or some levity and help any of those folks out, I know would be greatly appreciated. So I try to do that when I'm over there. I'm always running around getting my dad. Fresh ice water and if I see somebody out there I'll try to have a conversation or make a joke or make them laugh and they're they're just craving any conversation All kidding aside KG and I know that you hate when I bring this up. Does anybody in the senior facility recognize you as the guy from TV? Well, both the roommates my dad has had so far have, have definitely, um, watched Wild Hockey and had recognized and, and just said, hey, you know, ask me questions about the team or whatever. So that's been kind of fun. That's great. Most of them there don't. Like, you know, I mean Most of'em there are sleeping. I mean, I get there, my, my job, uh, because my, my mom and my aunt spend a lot of afternoons there. I come in the mornings and my dad loves the, uh, hotcakes and sausage. Oh yeah, we've talked about, that's sausage and then an extra, a roadie, sausage for the road. I take an extra for me, I'm not gonna lie. And uh, I bring a little coffee and then we have a little chat and, uh, I get the weather on the news. He loves having the news on in the morning. And yeah, that's kind of how we try to start his days. Um, you know, it's been an adjustment. The holidays were tough and when I was walking around there, we were there on Christmas Eve because that was always the day that my parents would host. So we had everybody there. All the grandkids were there and all of us and then I looked around and not everybody had people there and I just felt so bad. Um, you know, I think, I think they're easy to forget about, right? Like, they're such a valuable part of our world and anytime you can spend there, if you've got the, An extra even half an hour, 45 minutes a week, you could do something on the volunteer side at a place where there are elderly men and women I know would be greatly appreciated. And I try to share my time as best I can when I'm there. But it is, I'm telling you, it can be. It's a lot when you see that like it just it hits you. I think sometimes doesn't it John? Oh, it's it is very it's heartbreaking when you see people that don't have Regular visitors. There's no question about that. I have to tell you about a fun Party that was put on by actually it was put on by The, uh, Chief Marketing Officer that we have, so Lauren, who, uh, I'm not sure if he's, she's a listener or not, but Lauren drives me insane. She is, she is a go getter like nobody's business. She is a bull in a china shop. As she says, um, I'm not for everyone, which I think is just an absolutely great line, but I got to tell you, she is, you know, not only is she great at her job, but she loves the nursing home. She loves interacting with the seniors. Her mom passed away recently. She was in our, in our memory care. But on New Year's Eve, she organized along with, uh, Suzette, who's one of our activities directors and Nate, who's actually the director of our, uh, activities program. They organized a, uh, a New Year's Eve party and they had the hats and the, it was, it was quite a show that they put on, had all kinds of food and stuff like that. And the part that I love the most about it is that, so people from our assisted living, from our longterm care, from our independent living, uh, Homes, you know, all participated in this thing and they, uh, they rang in the new year at the hour of 2 PM, 2 in the afternoon. That's their, uh, that's, that's their time. Oh, come on. I think they rang in new year, like Hong Kong as you know, whenever Hong Kong had their new year. That is fabulous. It was, and it was just so such a, and you know, they, they, they did it on their own and they did it just because they, uh, They wanted to show these people some kindness and, a couple of, it was last week I was invited to the, uh, the, the men's breakfast that they have. And my objective was to go down there and just BS with, uh, these assisted living guys and went around the table and asked, you know, how old they all were. And, you know, they're everywhere from like 86 to 97 years old and just got them talking about where they were from. And I think that. You know, you ask, what do you talk about? And I think that that's a perfect example of an, where you should be, just be interested. Yeah. You know, you don't have to be interesting. Be interested. Yeah. Ask questions. Get them talking about their past. Get them talking about what they did for a living, about their families, all those things. And it's just, it's just such a delight. And what's great is, is in one of those, in those facilities, it kind of creates its own community. So these guys, there's a women's group that, that, that comes down from our assisted living and then there's this men's group and it's just very neat how they take care of each other too. Well, okay. This is, this brings me, in talking about this, it brings up a show that I watch and maybe you guys are watching it, Ted Danson's A Man on the Inside. Have you seen that? It's on Netflix, KG? No, I have not. It's like a transgender thing? No. Maybe on the inside? It's Careful now. It ties in exactly what we're talking about. Ted Danson, uh, is a, is a widower. Okay. And, um, he sees an ad in the paper. He's really, has this tidy life. He's sad. He's got a daughter that lives not, not far away, but he doesn't see, you know, he's just lonely. Yep. And he takes a job as a private investigator who wants to solve a crime on an, in a nursing home. Oh. Uh, some thievery is happening. So Ted Danson's like, why not? So he loves this idea, he's like a secret agent. He checks in as, uh, an elderly, you know, he's an elderly guy. He checks in as he's gonna live there. And then he gets to know everybody he's investigating. It turns into this really Oh, how sweet. Great story. And it's very sweet and very touching. Yeah, it's very well written. It actually puts you in the perspective of if, if you were to move into a senior home, what elderly people think about the, the fun that they're having and the kinda the sadness that they deal with. And it's really a good show. And, uh, where, where is it streaming? It's, it's on Netflix. Oh it is? Okay. It's called a Man on the inside. It's okay. It's kind of. It's very touching. A couple parts you'd be like, it's very fun and sweet, but there's some sadness to it. Is it a limited series? Is that what it is? I don't know. I don't think so. I think it's going to continue because it's done really well. Well, that's great. Um, it's very upper pole of our conversation here. It is. I would recommend it. Yeah, I have to. Highly. This, uh, the last couple of days we've been doing. Uh, performance appraisals for all of our key leaders. First of the year, right? Around the first of the year. Yeah, new year. And the people that choose to work in a senior care facility are a special group of people. Yeah, of course. No question. I, I often think about young people that, that want to get into nursing and the experience that they have before they actually, get into nursing is probably watching Grey's Anatomy, you know, the ER, there you go, from the nineties or Chicago Med. Those kind of shows, and that is an exciting type of nursing. Yeah, it's not what they expect, probably. All the doctors are, very handsome. Yeah. They're not that handsome in real life. I mean, there's a few. It's a lot of paperwork and, you know, puke, probably. But, senior care nursing. is very different. Yeah. Because it's much more relationship based. You know, if you're working in an emergency room or critical care, yeah, people are in and out in a couple of days. But if you're in a nursing home, you develop relationships with those people that you care for. Yep. And their families. And, you know, we've got these social workers that are, you know, really essentially advocates for the patients, for the residents that are living there. And, I'm telling you, it is the most. Heartwarming. It's got to be rewarding for them because it's not financially. I mean, they're these are people that could go and work in big hospitals and make a hell of a lot more money. It's a calling, right? It is a call. It sounds trite, but it's true. It's the same thing with people that work in hospice care because they, oh my God, they don't, obviously people imagine it's, it's my, my dad went to a hospice and, uh, people there were incredible and the, the, how they have to, uh, yeah. They're actually amazing with families. That's really who they're working there with. They're there for you and your family and just dealing with such a sad moment in your life. It's, it's, it was great. The great experience. The fact that they have, they're able to have conversations that none of us want to have. Yes. With anyone and they do it with such grace and it's just very cool. Yeah. So, okay. So if this is our challenge, um, it sounds like this is, this is a perfect challenge for this. Month. Well, I mean it. Yeah, we've had challenges in the past. Well, can I go back and just ask? The challenge that I laid out I think is before Christmas, which was Phone a friend call a friend someone do you think about reach out and find out how are they doing? Did you do that John? I did. And who did you reach out to? Well, I started by calling a whole bunch of old girlfriends. And that wasn't really the challenge. No, I'm teasing. Good God. Becky was trying orders and stuff. No, I, uh, I reached out to, uh, to an old relative that I hadn't talked to in some time. It was a Mike Benz. He was our guest last week. Matt Benz. That was Matt. That's your cousin. No, I was thinking because I, anyways. Yeah, the Benz family. But I also reached out via LinkedIn to their sister Katie and their brother in law Don. And it was fun to connect with them and just see what's going on in their lives. So it wasn't exactly what you were looking for, but Connecting with Matt. Family works. Connecting with Matt kind of gave me, you know, the warm fuzzies. Because I love the Benz family. And they're just great people. they're all just, uh, solid, solid citizens. Yeah, he seems like a good guy. Oh my god, and let me tell you, the feedback, I'm sure you get all kinds of feedback on that episode. I've gotten great feedback on that show. People just loved hearing sort of the, uh, the insiders, uh, Perspective. Oh, it's fascinating. And it's different than your insiders perspective, Kevin, because these guys are, you know, they're right there. They're right there. Yeah. You know, they're washing things that, you know, we'd rather not wash the grime of it all in the, probably the glory that, you know, sitting there with hearing the feelings and hearing everyone's actually feeling about the game as it's going on. That's pretty cool. KG, do you phone a friend? Yeah. I did. Um, it was really cool last week. Um, the Burnsville Apple Valley combo team did a recognition of our 40th anniversary from our state championship. So I phoned one of my teammates. Herm Finnegan was one of our star players up front. He was a centerman. He was a captain and his parents. We're best friends with my parents. So before and after the game, they were cocktailing it. They were over at a place called green streets where you threw your peanut shells on the floor and the moms would sit up at center ice and my mom would pull out the rosary and the dads would sit on the glass in the corner, usually by my net. And critique us and passed away about 10 years ago. Um, a little bit of trivia on Herm's dad. He was one of the air traffic controllers that went on strike when Ronald Reagan was in office. I remember. He called their bluff and Doug lost his job at that point. I had to go into a different line of work but uh Janice is still alive. She's 84 years old. She was at the party at the arena with us. It was so fun to connect with Hermian and his mom and then I got some great pictures and brought them to the facility to show my parents and it really warmed their heart to to see Janice at that event and for all of us that were there. It's just a handful of us and our coach Tom It was really neat. The rink is still just beautiful and the same. The hockey isn't with the team being combined and all that. But uh, really nice of them to have that that night for us. We did a team picture. With the current team, they did a thing and, you know, drop the puck and center ice. Ceremonial puck drop deal. It was, uh, So my phone a friend turned into something completely different and, A great idea by you, Stevie, and it took me a while to execute, but we got her done. So how many, just curiously, uh, how many guys from the team were able to make it? Just a handful, you know, because a lot of our guys live out of town. And I think we'll probably do something a little more formal. in March when the tournament comes around. So, this was just a hey, can you swing by the rink and we'll recognize you. We'll do a puck drop and take some pictures. So, um it was just a few of us which is fine. It was great. Um but coach was there. He's eighty five. Um he's had multiple knee surgery so he doesn't move around as quick as he used to but he still plays golf two three times a week and uh he was always such a great athlete anyway so I'm not surprised. It was great just to sit and talk with with coach Owen. Um, you know, I, you know, we were actually talking about all the great coaches that were involved in that era of hockey in the 80s and we just lost one of them. Yeah. Legendary coach at a diner. Um, I didn't realize he retired from coaching when he was 58 years old and he did so with eight state championships and over 600 wins. He left at the very top of his game. I didn't know him well. Uh, my team has competed against him and but I knew him and later in life, you know, I would always say I don't mean if there was a big game at Bramer Arena, uh, even into his late 80s, he was there and uh, just a terrific guy and an unbelievable coach and player back in the day from Evelyn Gilbert. Yeah, he played with John Mancich, didn't he? Correct. They, when, when Willard was their goalie, they went to four straight state tournaments. The last three, And uh, he still has the record for five shutouts in a, in a high school career for a goalie. And then he went on to be an All American goalie at Michigan with the Wolverines. I saw a picture of him in the paper wearing a Michigan hat, but his hat was legendary. Hey, we're back on wooden sticks. We're back on wooden sticks, the companion show. How about the fact that Willard Aikala. Who to me was this old coach was our age when he retired from coach. I'm going to be 58 in less than a month and when I saw that I about fell over. How sad is that for us? But you know, did you, did you read, did you, I don't know if you read in the paper, he Uh, that hat that he had, he wore that, it was the same hat for all those years. He didn't want to buy a new one. Yep. All those years. It cost him five bucks. That was his trademark. Superstitious. I know. I know. And you know, for a guy from the, from up north, and back in the fifties, five bucks is probably a lot of money. Well, I'm sure he took it to, uh, you know, a hat cleaner from time to time. God, I would hope so. Steve, did you phone a friend? So, I do this often. If I think of people more than a couple times a week, or, you know, within a, I do call people. I, I love reconnecting with people. Old classmates. Yeah. People I used to work with, so I do that often. The attempt that I made for this exercise, um, I didn't have luck reaching the person. His name is Steve Allen. He's a good friend that I used to work with. He's a photographer, really talented guy. I really miss him and I haven't seen him forever. I wonder how he's doing. So I'm gonna, I'll keep trying him, but I didn't, I didn't get it to happen then. But I've met up with like, Pete McGurn and people that I found online like over the summer. Handsome Pete. God, he's a good looking guy. The Hill Murray kid. Handsome Pete. I love that nickname. That's cute. Handsome Pete. He was always very handsome. He's a great dude. We talked about him last time. But anyway, I, people like that. I, old classmates and music people that I bump into. I love do that. I like sitting down having a cup of coffee with people. I love that. And you know, When we had breakfast at the, original Pancake House with, brian Johnson. Brian Johnson! He's listening. And, uh, remember we called, uh, Joe Thomas? Yeah, that's right. Shared a fun story with him. Oh. That was a great story, but it is fun to reconnect with, and I didn't know Joe very well, but, uh Yeah, so great reason to do that, but but I'm glad that you you guys did and got a chance to do that Well, it was a challenge and you didn't even know Did you really try I did I tried okay, and I will keep trying because I really miss that guy But um on to this next challenge, let's just set this up a little bit We're challenging our listeners to volunteer some time at a senior home. So whether you have a parent or a grandparent there, um, that it's obviously easier than, cause you already know where to go and you don't feel like a creep walking in, but how would you suggest people do that, John? Like, what, how is it, um, maybe there's a volunteer organizer. You call up and say, I'd like to spend a little time. Yeah. Can I come in there? You can't just walk into many places. I mean, they, they. For starters, the, they have to check you out. You just can't go in and volunteer. Like they have to do a background check because we don't want creeps going in there. But yeah, a lot of places have a volunteer coordinator. Um, you know, you call and talk to the administrator of the home and they can find somebody. What are you doing? What's going on? I'm having trouble with my, my, my deal here is like, it's gonna break off. Uh oh. deal's just fine. Um, so, you know, I was thinking maybe we should do, uh, next episode. Let's tee up some old pals, you know, let's call them while we're, uh, while we're on the air. KG, we could call Heidi. That's a great idea. I got news for you. We're not calling Heidi. I haven't seen or talked to her. I think the last, this is the weird thing because she's still in town. I don't think, I know, I haven't seen or talked to her since the early 1990s. So there will be no Phone call to the high school sweetheart. I'll tell you that just real quick. She did she works for care 11 I think she did and yeah, she worked for care 11 and channel 5 for Minnesota Masonic charities She did cuz she's done that there's a vein of that vein company that they do this up Some work with veins, uh, once in a while I'll turn the TV on in the morning looking for the news and there'll be this infomercial on. Uh, her, her married name is Heidi Bodine. Um, her last name in high school was Wormerskirchen and I'll never forget when I was in Des Moines playing for the Buccaneers, she would ride down with my parents a couple times a month. To spend the weekend and if we had home games they'd come to the games and yada yada yada. And my teammates called her Worcestershire sauce because they couldn't pronounce Wormerskirchen, which was 17 letters long. Sounds like you can't pronounce it either. It's been a few years. Well, she could have ended up with the gorg last name and that would have been gold. Jerry Gold. Oh good. Alright, well I think that we've entertained the people get out and and go visit, uh, a senior home. Go and, or visit a senior relative. You don't have to go through the process of, uh. of being, uh, okayed by the state of Minnesota. And it is, it is cold, people can't be outside. We're, we're all, we think we're cooped up. These poor folks are really, they really are. They're shut ins. They're shut ins. That's literally what they are. They need, they need some attention. They need someone to talk to. No question. Yeah, I think that's great. I think my 88 year old mother in law is spending the night, uh, here tonight, so I'll probably have to go upstairs and entertain her for a couple hours. There you go, you can start tonight. Is she really? I think she's, she spends, when she's in town she stays here. We've got a, uh, the extra bedroom that, uh, well, that's so cool. For Connie. Yeah. For Connie. Yeah. I love that the challenge begins tonight. John. The challenge begins. She's a senior citizen. Yeah, she's Of course, she's a she's getting around. Oh God. She's unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. Alright, well, kg you have fun at Hockey Day, Minnesota. Steve, you take you whatever it is that you're going to do this weekend. I'm going to try to stay warm. Yeah, I'm heading to Florida next week. Really? Yeah, we'll do the show. But I'm going down there for work. Okay, it'll be fine, but I'm going to visit. My friend Scott Berg is going to be down. Well, you know, it's been snowing in Florida. I know Alabama. At least it's, uh, New Orleans. You know, we should address the topic of, uh, Climate change. Maybe we could do that. Being kind to the climate. Um, Okay. And then, uh, we could talk about, uh, the power of pardons in, uh, the United States these days. They seem to be Don't get me going on that. I got news for you. You're not going to want to bring that up. Because I've got some Opinions, John, you and I might not agree on some of these. I mean, it's that pardon door is swinging both ways and it's swinging hard. Yeah. Yeah. I don't care for it on either side of the ledger, but I don't either. It's insanity. It's got to be too much. And you know, it's kind of a product of the world we live in right now. It's all about. Rather than doing the right thing, it's all about getting back at the other side, and I think we need to slow that down a little bit. It's the whole point of the show, right? We're trying to put things on a little more positive, because there's so much crap out there. Try. Please people, just try. You know, I don't think that you should be able to beat up a cop and then have the when you're pardoned, it's not just like they're commuting your sentence. A pardon means it never happened. I mean, it's taken off your record. And, you know, the idea is of, uh, preemptive pardoning, what's that all about? How do you preempt, how do you preempt pardon somebody that it's wrong. It's all, it's all insane. So I, here's my prediction. There's going to be pardon reform over the next couple of years. You wait and see. Pardon me. Pardon reform. And on that note, off we go.