Welcome. Welcome to the Kindness Chronicles, where once again, we hope to inject the world. Please don't do that. Hope to inject the world with a dose of the Minnesota kindness that it desperately needs. this is part two of our two part visit with Nick Flood. Back to Vince. When Vince started becoming famous and let's face it, he became famous. Oh yeah. One of the things that struck me about him, and I'll never, ever forget this, is he used to do, a book signing at Harmar Mall. At the Barnes and Noble. So I showed up and you know, Vince once Upon a Time was a, it was a good buddy of mine. I mean, he was never first tier, second tier friend, but you know, he was at my wedding for God's sake. Yeah. So then he made that, you know, he was in that, that circle. Yeah. And I waited in line to, to have my book signed. Yeah. And when I got up there, he is like, why did you wait in line? Why didn't you just come up here? And he gets up and he gives me a hug. And you know, he was a little weird about human interaction because he would always get sick when he would do these. When he would do these. He learned, well, just the germs, I mean, shaking hands with everybody. And I'll just never forget how. Just, I thought, what a great guy. And he was damn famous at the time. We ran into him at the state fair one time and I had my, the little kids were with, and I mean, he was just, he was, he was kind of like your mom in the sense that he would talk to those little kids, like they were real people and wanted to actually get to know them. He made people feel special based. Yeah. And feel like they matter. Loyal. Loyal would be the word. I'll Nick, you were about to say something. Yeah. He just, he just had this way, I think of making everyone that he encountered feel comfortable. and it was. You, he would, he would talk to me about the same thing after every book tour. Oh yeah. I know I'm gonna get sick because is, you know. Yeah. And, um, but Well, and that impacted him, you know, at when he was actually sick. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Like he couldn't tour the way that he used to because he didn't, uh, he didn't tour for I think the last book or two for sure. Um,'cause he was just, I mean, being conservative and airing on the side of caution, which, who can blame him there? Yeah. So to go with the, your stories, my, my wife told me a story. So my wife worked at Care Levin for a while and she was in the studio and she was always there when guests came through. She was a part of the in studio production. And Vince Flynn came through as a promotion for one of his books and she said. Not only is he charming and good looking, but he made friends with everyone in the crew. He talked to everybody. That's so cool. He walked around and just, you know, not in the, in the most genuine way she goes, he left and everyone was just like, oh man, that guy, everyone just loved that guy. Yeah. Yeah. And it, it wasn't a show. That's, that was the best part about it., Like you said, he was the same guy when he got famous as he was when he was serving drinks at, at O'Gara. It was interesting, um, you know, at, at certain points, um, when you get to be that famous, so many people are reaching out for this and that, and, you know, there was a couple times where, where we'd get a, a text with a group of friends going, okay, don't give anyone my cell phone number, please. Mm-hmm. I got, I got too many people reaching out right now. Yeah. Um, but boy, he always, and he always, he always loyal to the end. Um, I believe Sue Shere was the, he always had to be the first, yeah, the first radio show that Right. That he went on. And, um, but I mean, he was, he seemed to have an incredible memory too.'cause when he would go on to IUs or Carol Levin or whatever, he would say, I remember when I was here at, on this date and this time. And they're like, wow, you have a better memory than me. And I'm thinking, well, that's probably his dyslexia, his gift that he called it. And probably just his research. And it's probably just all. Like top of mind. So he started connecting dots and was just better at it than anybody could be. Yeah. Yeah. He also had this, you know, not only, a great writing talent, but just verbally telling stories. The guy would tell a story and that I was at You were a character. Yeah. He'd be telling, you know, six or seven people and spinning this yarn and I'd be sitting there going, man, he's making this sound way better than it even was when, when it happened and we were there. That's yeah. Why ruin? Uh, there we go. You know, good story with the facts. His brother's good storyteller too, so. Oh yeah. I wonder if it's a, it's the family. I, oh yeah. I think, I think it is. And, and you know, you talk about the, the memory for details his oldest brother Dan mm-hmm. Is incredible just. Remembering things, remembering, especially having to do with athletics and statistics. And I mean, even down in yardage from games that were 15, 20 years ago, I mean, that, that he didn't play. And you know, if some of those, when you're playing them, you're like, oh yeah, I remember that. But he, he tells us stories about when we were in high school and he was in college, you know, and I'm just like, why were you even at that game to start? But how do you remember this? How do you know when I ran? Yeah. Yeah. Let's talk about, um, let's talk about you Nick as a friend. Now let's keep talking about Vince. No, no. But let's talk about, um, there's something special about Vince's writing that involves this gentleman. That's right. Absolutely. Yes. Tell us General flood. Yeah, yeah. General flood. You are a character chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Yeah. So what do you think of that when you heard that or saw that? Okay, so when I read the book in, in three ring form? Yeah. Okay. this is Vince in a nutshell, and anyone knows Vince will get a kick out of this story, but I'm reading all of these characters, you know, I talked to him about this at one point and I said, Vinny, tell me about the characters. And, and what he wanted to do was, you know, there's a lot of, um, there's a lot of people and there's a lot of positions and there's a lot of government people and so he used all of these names that, that we grew up with so he could keep'em all straight. Absolutely. Sure. Visualized blood. Was your dad probably general? No, general Flood was me. Oh, he was? Okay.'cause when he, pardon me. Well, no, here's the deal. When I read the book and I'm like, oh, general flood chairman of the joint Chief. That's nice. Yeah, I got a mention in Vinny's book. And the next line is a description of flood. An ex-college athlete carrying too much weight these days or something like that. I'm like, God. So there it is, jackass. There's, yeah, there it is. There's my nice friend giving me a spot and then giving me a, a cuff upside. The head with, he pulled the rug. He did a compliment. But, and then doesn't rookie talk about the fact that there's a dog named Rookie Yes. In one of the books? Yeah, there's a, there's a dog rookie. There's, Tracy, Steve Akin, was Mitch Rap. Eric Rap? Is that where that name came from? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't know for a fact, you know? Yeah. And, and he would, he would do different things like, Mitch's wife was Anna O'Reilly. Yep. And that's a combination of a girl named Anna Written and Kristen Riley that were both friends of ours and school. So school keep for him to keep it all straight school all to keep the characters straight. Yeah, that makes sense. And his plan was, um, he told me, well if I, if ever get published, I'm just gonna go and change the names. And then he thought, well, wait a minute, they're all good character names. They're all people that I know. Yeah. Everyone seems to get a kick out of this. why not? I'm just gonna leave it, I'm just gonna leave it as is. So General Flood was, chairman of the Joint Chiefs and I think it was maybe the fifth or sixth book where I listened. I listened on the way out to Boston to transfer of Power chapter one. Two minutes, 50 seconds into it. Situation room Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, you are six foot four, 240 pounds and you are Jack Flood. Okay. Because at one point, uh, is her name Kennedy? Um, yeah. Irene Kennedy. Irene Kennedy. Irene Kennedy. Yeah. She, she's consulting with them and it's two Generals together. Now, I don't know if that was the first book. I'm still wading myself through the 14. I So, so it was the first name, it was Jack Flood that at one point they said, Jack, what do you think? And you, you, you said, yeah, go ahead. So I was like, picturing you,'cause I had met you at the, the Mason event and I like, I had you in my mind when I was, you, you talk about moments of kindness. Um, my wife and I had a stillborn son. Mm-hmm. At 22 weeks, Jack Thomas Flood. Oh, Jesus. Whoa. And, and you know, you think about this, um, when something like that happens, I. It's, it's all you. You're just something you're facing. Something that you never dreamed you'd be going through. Yeah. So my whole thought in this thing was, okay, well we're gonna, we're gonna have this service and I'm gonna call five six of my closest buddies who all ended up kind of being STA guys. Yep. Um, but you're not gonna reach out to too many more people and go, right. Would you like to? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So Vince started spreading the word to all sorts of Oh boy guys. My wife and I walk into this church, for the service of our son and between my huge family and. Friends spreading the, this church out in Waconia is almost full to the the back. Oh my. Oh God. What a great for a child that we never took home from the hospital. What a great friend. Oh, yeah. He, I am telling you, he was, wow. He was a fantastic friend. And, and what's interesting about it is, is it wasn't, um, it wasn't this, Vince, you're my best friend Nick. You're, you know, right. I mean, we would give each other hard time, more than, more than any, you know, so, I mean, at, at, um, I, I think the best compliment he ever gave me was, um, he asked me to be in his wedding. And I said, yeah, absolutely. I'd, I'd love to do that. And he said something to the effect of, you've, you've been a great influence on my life. More than you'll, more than you'll ever know. Oh God, Vince. And, but yeah, I mean him, him taking the time to, you know, so that's a tribute to, yeah, I guess. General Flood ends up having the first name jack of our, of our son. Oh. Oh my God. So yeah, that's kind of a downer story. No, it's be beautiful story. I have another one. Sorry, I don't, I don't wanna hog it or anything. Well ahead. John already taken over. No, you let just for it brother. Do you want another Yeah, just you're our prepared. So I can't remember her name, but I found an article in the Catholic Spirit, uh, and you took her to a military ball. I did. I did. Yeah. So can you e expand on that? Because she wrote about a dedication that he gave to his wife Lisa, and it was very sweet. Yeah. So the, the woman's name is, is Kathy Schneeman and she and her husband Eric, um, were good friends with, with Vince and Lisa. Eric. Eric was an STA guy. Oh, good for you. Oh, good for you. Right. I think I know this story. He was a couple, he was a couple years older than us. Um. But he and Vince got to be very good friends after college age and, and with their wives being friends. So, um, yeah. So Kathy, her maiden name was McDonald, but I, I took her to a dancer too in, in high school. And then she went to St. Thomas. Wait a minute. Was, what was her mom's name? Ce. Yeah. Wonderful woman. Yeah. Listen to this worlds are colliding here. I know. I, I figured they would, when you get worlds are colliding. Wow. So I show up on Saturday morning at the breakfast at, at, I was meeting somebody for breakfast at Joseph's Father Malone, Joe Nassif, who owns Joseph's. Sure. Uh, Steve Fritz c McDonald, who's one my mother knew'cause she took classes at St. Thomas at the same time. I, I, what the hell? What the, who are these? The, the east side All stars or something. Honest to God. Wait, was your mother taking classes at that time? Yes. No kidding? Yes. With CCE McDonald? Yeah. I used to love running into Mr. So I walked in and my mom, Mr. You know, Mr on campus, she was fantastic. If you're going to, she says if you're going to uh, Joseph's, I'm sure CCE is gonna be there with Father Malone.'cause I wanted to ask Father Malone to be on this and crazy as I'm, and I'm like, which one of you two there? So there were two ladies there. I said, which one of you two is CCE McDonald? And she's like, well, that'd be me. How do you know that? I said, well, my mother said to come looking. Who's your mother? Patch Whites. Which patch? Whites? Because there's, yes. Two pat in family. In my family there's actually three. Pat married a, a guy named Pat. And then my mom pat. Well that's confusing, but the fact that, that you went, I mean, my God. Yeah. Worlds are colliding people. Yeah. Welcome to Saint Small. Yeah, it is Saint Small, but so to answer your story yeah. Kathy's article was, was fantastic. It really hit Vince on the head. I think, she explains how, you'd be in Murray Hall, which is kind of the Gathering union when we were there. And you'd hear this loud voice from across the room. And of course you'd turn around and it would be Vince. He's telling stories and spinning yarn, telling story, giving somebody a hard time, yucking it up. And absolutely a, a legendary guy. we lost him at, what was he like, 47? Um,'cause what do you now 50? Yeah, I would that 2013. So. It'd been about 12, seven, yeah. Four years ago. 40. Yeah. Holy smokes. But man, too young. He lived, he lived a life. He did. And he influenced a whole lot of people. And uh, yeah, we're still talking about him right now. Well, he's had how many episodes on this? Our show? Well, he gets mentioned often'cause he's, you know, the closest thing to a famous person that we know other than kg. My, my big question is, is there things we can learn from him and his example? And that, that's why I took the time to read about him. And I thought for someone to be that magnetic of a person and to just have that aura, what is it about them and is there things we can, you know, learn from that? When you look at this, and, Vince not only sold his book, he sold himself, I mean, he, he started going around to privately owned bookstores in the Twin cities, the B the local Barnes and Nobles, the local B Daltons out of Danny Wicker's basement, and San here. Can you put these on your shelf? Let's see. And, and he did, um, friends of ours, Mr. And Mrs. Tracy held a, a book signing event at their house, and they invited a bunch of their friends, and Tom invited a bunch of his friends and, and so he had a lot of determination about his, his product. He'd go, and you give your 20 bucks cash and he'd give you a book and sign it. He signed mine. My wife's name is Jill, and he made a mistake and signed it, Julie. And he's like, oh, no, gimme that thing back. She's like, no, Vince, it's no big deal. Well, she held it over his head for, of course. Yeah, he should. And, and he would. So when he would call the house, he would ask for to ask for Julie. He would, he would. When he got the answering machine, he'd start going, Julie, Julie. And then that was until our youngest daughter was born. Uh, her name was Theresa Claris. After her, after her grandma, I. And when I sent out the text to my buddies that, you know, Jill had our, Jill had our daughter and said the name Vince right away calls me and goes, did you really call your daughter Clarice? And I said, no, no, Vince, it's Clare. But every time he called the house after that, you, hello Clarice. How many children do you have? I've got four girls. Okay. So four girls. Wow. Holy girl. Dad. It's a girl, dad. Yeah. You know, I'm a girl. Dad. How old are the, uh, the girls? Uh, well, the oldest, the oldest turns, um, 28 tomorrow. Oh, wow. She and my wife share a birthday. Oh wow. Big birthday tomorrow. Yeah. And then the youngest is, um, is 17. So we had, we had four in, in, uh, in. 10 years. What? High school?. my oldest, um, went to Holy Family out in Victoria. Oh, lovely. Yeah, I live out in Waconia. Oh, okay. Wow. And, um, then the other three have all gone to, um, a little school called Mayor Lutheran, which is Oh yeah, about five miles west of Waconia. Okay, cool. Yeah. Great, great. Cool. They, you know, it's kgs, uh, comic another girl dad. You're a girl Dad. Yep. Too KG iss a girl dad. Yep. Yep. Um, one of my boys are kind of girly boys, but, uh, your, your dad, Nick. I read a little about him. Kg said Santa Cla and I didn't know if he, and so I found him, uh, just through research, but he did, I think I found your dad did. He had a big beard, but it looked like he did a bunch of, um, pioneering work for girls sports. He, he kind of did, you know, St. St. Thomas College at the time. Now the university, um, went co-ed in, um, I wanna seventies, I say 78 maybe. Yeah. If that sounds right, John. Right around there. Yep. My dad had been there, you know, for a number of years at that point. he had coached hockey, which none of his sons ended up being hockey players he coached men's golf, he was involved with football for a couple seasons. He did. Um, wasn't he a track coach? Track? Yeah, he did, he did some track and field, I think like the shot put and the discus and that kind of stuff. He, he coached that. When they went coed, you know, and this is long before the, oh, we have to do a national Title nine Search for Coach. Late seventies it seemed like. It was like, okay, we're now co-ed and we're gonna, we're gonna have a, a girls' golf team. And my dad coached both the, the men's and the women's team. Um, and then, uh, ended up giving up the men's and, and coached the, coached the women's for, I think, until he retired. Um, I appreciated that as a dad with daughters. I read that and I just thought, what a good guy, you know? Yeah. Yeah. It, and it, it, it was interesting because, and it's probably not politically right to say this, but you coach, go ahead. You coach men and women differently, you know? Yeah. I coached, I coached all my girls in basketball and I coached, you know, probably four years of boys basketball when they were in junior high. I mean, the boys. They'll take every inch. You get'em. I mean, they, you, you gotta, you gotta keep the, keep it run a tight practice. Yeah. Different psychologies, but Yeah. Yeah. When they start screwing around, you get'em on the line and run'em to get their attention and Yeah. Um, girls, yeah, you, I definitely, uh, you know, was a little different approach. I was definitely a little softer and it was, I basically was like my dad.'cause I think, I think he was the same way that way, but, um, anyway, I had all brothers and now I've got all daughters. So it's, it was a learning experience. It's, it's a, it's a lifelong learning experience. So you're probably with familiar with, you know, what we think is as guys, I can't tell you how many times I've heard from the five women in my life. Yes. Girls just don't do it that way, dad. That's right. That's not the way we do it. Exactly. It's like, okay, good enough. Uh, okay. So I have one more question for Nick. First of all, thank you for coming down here. What does it, what does it, first of all, what does it feel like to be sitting down in here? Is this what you imagine? It'd be like, this is where all the magic happened. It, it really is. Yeah. And, and yeah. I, so, so to answer, you seem really comfortable doing this, that's why I'm asking. Well, I appreciate that.'cause yeah, I was a little nervous, but I mean, it's nervous. Yeah. It's nice little comfortable. Jeff gave me a comfortable chair. Yeah. I mean, what more can I ask for? Um, okay. It's great to be here because I, I, I do wanna, now I know the room. Yeah.'cause I do, I listen every single week. I know you do. I'm not kidding. I, I didn't find this podcast until, and it's the first podcast I've ever listened to, by the way. What? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, and I'm, I'm not a technology guy in all this. Not, and I mean, not the podcast or cutting edge technology these days, but I found this originally, um, when you had JB Lloyd on talk about Vince. So I listened to that one and, um, and I thought he did an outstanding job. You did? And, um, well, I'm, I'm a traveling salesman. I handle five states and I, I pretty much drive all of'em. I don't like flying very much. Okay. Um, and it's a athletic sports courts and stuff, right? Yeah, yeah. So it's, it's, it's ma basically wood, wood gym floors. Oh, cool. So u you know, UST basketball court. I sold that Williams Arena to the gophers, the St. Thomas Academy. Wow. Hill Murray did not buy from me. What, what? Yeah. Gotta talk to somebody, John. Yeah. Anyway, um, so I started listening, and I'm not kidding. I listened to all of your Kindness Chronicles podcast. In about a three, I would go on a a a a eight hour road trip and I would listen time. I remember being, listen to this story I killed Dear North Dakota at midnight, and I'm cutting through and I'm listening to a podcast of The Kindness Chronicles. And your friend Julia is on it. I cannot remember her. Oh, Julia cannot remember her last name. Jacque. Okay. Okay. So I'm listening to that. And you know, your guests are all outstanding. Yeah. All she's from Canvas Health and they're really great people. Yeah. And, um, so anyway, I'm listening to that podcast and it's the first time that I'm hearing that, that you bring your own butter to, to I do. To the movie theater, right? Yes. That's wrong. And KG goes and buys. And you were talking about, um, oh, you were on this. Sideshow of a mental health superhero. Your idea, which is a phenomenal idea for Steve. Oh, by the way, Steve's, he's um, pointing at Steve, by the way. I can't remember what you Yeah, I'm sorry, Steve. I can't remember this, but Oh, okay. So they were talking about mental health and, and, and, your idea was what about a TV show that instead of having this Yes. You, you have this mental health hero that Yes. So you're, you're going down this road. I forgot about that. I'm talking about, you're talking about movie popcorn. Yeah. And I'm, it's midnight and I'm laughing out loud because I'm wondering if Julia is even there anymore. If you guys had said goodbye. It was well, it was so funny. No one said we were professional, but that's why I'm, that's why I wanted to ask you, so this isn't being self-serving. I appreciate your saying. You like the show. But I wanna know, because John gets feedback all the time. I have like two friends and most of'em are on my, on the show now. Michael Dempsey. He's the one that listens as well. We're on a need to know basis over here. But you have more than two friends. No, no, I'm just saying that, that, that are interested to know about the show. Oh, I, I'm desperate to understand, um, what, like, what would draw you to wanna listen this much? We're not that funny and we're not comedians. We're, we're, we are who we are. But what is it that is drawing you to wanna listen so much? That question? Is it the St. Paul stuff serving Well, no.'cause I wanna understand, I think he wants to know what should we do more of? Yeah. What, what is the audience want? Okay. So, so first of all, I would say you guys are funny. I, I laugh out loud. Every, every single episode that I listen to, your self-deprecation just cracks me up. What are you talking, John John's? I, I laugh at Johns. Uh, yeah. Um, and, and, uh, Steve. And in my opinion, you come across as this sweet guy too. Serious kind. No, he's, he's a sweet guy. I, I know. And, and, um, you don't know me, Nick. Well, here's the thing. No, you're, when I listen, I'm not looking for a compliment. I just wanna, I wanna know when I listen, it seems a hundred percent genuine to me. Okay. And now being That's because there's no show prep. Yeah. And well, that and being here now, it, you know, and you know, I'm thinking when, when Jeff was at it, I'm like, oh, they've got a 55-year-old intern. Intern. Alright, well that's great. Yeah. How did you show up here in the first place? I, um, yeah, we'll talk about, I, it's okay. So it's another interview. Maybe it's a long story so to, so to an Yeah, to answer, to answer your question. I love the fact, I'm not feeling like, like there's anybody putting on a show. I don't feel, I love the fact that we, that we, now I'm part of it. Yeah. You're, you're part of the, now you don't, you don't talk, you don't talk politics. It's not right wing, it's not left wing. It's, and I'm sure everyone has their opinion on these things. Mm-hmm. But that's the last thing we need to hear right now. Yeah. Is more opinions on, on. Right. On why we're right and somebody else is wrong. Mm-hmm. And, and you're, you know, the, the fact that at some point, um, every week I know. And, and I'm, I'm getting really, you know, blubbery as I get older. Sure. But I mean, every, bring it on, man. Every episode. I know there's something that's gonna hit me in the heart. And, um, you know, whether it's, that's very nice. It's whether, I mean in, and, and I look, it's kind at some of this and I think of the, the strength of, of your guests, you know, the, the couple that lost their son Oh. Are now I are known the mom who, who started, we need to send stuff to the troops and next thing you know, her house is Yep. Is a warehouse for stuff going to the troops and she's running to UPS how many times a day. Yep. I mean, I, I just love it's inspiring. I, I felt the same way. Fantastic. Yeah. It's fantastic stuff. Yeah. Well, could we hustle this up? Uh, Jesse Waters Prime Time is coming out on Fox News here. You're the boss. Good. Anyway, Nick, it's been an absolute pleasure to have ya. Absolutely. Yes. We certainly have given them more than they deserve on this one. Wow. Um. But, uh, please keep listening and we wanna check in with you'd and come back and tell us how we're doing. If we've got enough course, we wanna hear from you. Yeah. And, but, and before we do, I just want to tell, I mean, I'm not the only one here that's lost a friend. I, I know you, you've lost a lot of Hill Murray buddies. Oh, God. You know, totally the police officer that, you know. Yeah. Ronnie or Ryan. You start bringing up guys and you're like, yeah, he's not with us anymore. I mean, that's, no, it's, uh, that's heavy. Tough deal. So, I'm, I'm sorry for, you know, we're, I know we're not young, but we're not old enough that we should be, you know, no kidding. Losing friends right now. And it's funny that you should bring that up. I, you know, because I'm in the, the business of, of dealing with old people. Mm-hmm. I am a professional funeral goer. I know the words to all the songs. And for whatever reason, I always feel an obligation to make an appearance at a funeral. Yeah. I just feel like it's the, it's the final opportunity. Even if, I don't know a single soul, if I knew that person, I just wanna be at their funeral because what did Yogi Berra say? If you don't go to their funeral, they're not gonna come to yours. That's right. Right. Great line. But, um, I find myself every single day looking at the obituaries be, and I'm struck by my God, there's a lot of people that are younger than me that are passing away. Yeah, I know. And it's really, you know, and it's, uh, to me it's just good practice because again, if, if I were to miss somebody's funeral, I'll give you an example. On Saturday I went to the, so I went to breakfast at Joseph's. I go to this Masonic function and one of the brothers comes up to me and he said, oh my God, you hear Bill Callister died? I'm like, what? And Bill Callister was a guy that I knew very well. I would have lunch with him once a month. I. Former,, pilot in the service. He was a, a, a pilot for, Northwest Airlines, just the greatest guy. And I was just like, oh my God, when's the funeral? It's at 11 o'clock today. Oh. So I got in my car, I left my thing, and I drove down to Cannon Falls and oh my God. Didn't know soul, but I knew Bill. Sure. And I, for whatever reason, I just feel you need to be there for those things. So the, the lesson for today is take the time to make it to funerals, because I do think that it, it just, it means more to me than it would be to them. You pay, I agree. You pay your respects, you support their loved ones and their family members. And I've, I've lost two brothers and I, I can tell you, it means more than anyone can ever imagine to have some guy that you haven't seen for 15 years show up just to support you and your family. Absolutely. You know, it's so, it's a great thing. Yeah. If there's, I'll just add on. I agree with you on the funeral because I. That's you lost your brother. That's the time when people are saying things that matter. But it should impact you on, am I living my life correctly and how can I adapt? But I'll say one other thing before they die, if there's something, uh, left unsaid, go say it. Oh, get, get it out there.'cause you, you just, if there's something that's, that needs to be said between the two of you. Take the initiative and do it. Yeah. Well, one thing I would, I would say, um, and it actually does you good too, if you can Totally. If you can make that final visit. I, I went and saw Vince at, at the end and, you know, he's, he's on the machines and all this kind of stuff and, and knowing it's not, definitely not gonna be long. His brother, Tim, I will always love him for this, but he's, Tim and Tom Tracy both called me within an hour each other and just said, Nick, I think, I think you should get here. Today. Wow. Which I did, and I'm, I'm very happy I did. And it actually gave me comfort and peace of mind that it's like, okay, this is, this is gonna happen. And the way I see Vince in this bed right now, um, it's probably gonna be a, a good thing at this point. Right. You know? Mm-hmm. Right. Mm-hmm. So it, it did me, it did me some good to get there. Um, and I'm just gonna share one more quick story. Yeah. Please. I was at a wedding over the weekend. Mm-hmm. Okay. And another buddy of mine from STA, John Steans there, and he's got his, you know, one sport coat on that he wears to, to weddings, to wedding. You know, we don't wear'em that much anymore. Right. So he's got his, he's got his, his uh, his wedding and funeral sport coat on. Right. Here we go. So know where this is going. He's got, and my wife was laughing'cause it's almost like he's got the wedding. Programs in one pocket. Ah, funeral and the funeral cards in the other. Right? Oh boy. So I had introduced, my four girls were also at this wedding, and um, so I'd introduced the oldest three. So it's Julia, Katie, and Megan. Alright. Solid names by the way. Yeah. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Um, don't have to fog. No, no fog warning. Okay. So, so anyway, um, Theresa was up getting a, a soda and so she comes back, well, John Steven had pulled out his funeral card. Oh my God. And right on the top is Elaine Flood. And so my daughter Theresa comes back and sees John holding this funeral card, his filing cabinet of funerals and weddings. Yes. But on the top. Is her grandma. Wow. And she's like, who is this guy? And why is he holding gr funeral card? My gosh. At a wedding reception call. And how about take your coat to the dry in a while? Well, I don't think he sweats like we do. Right? I Is that chosen one? Yeah. You know, but it is funny that you should say that because I, I do not wear, I don't like wearing sport coats and suit coats and stuff like that, but I have a friend whose wife sells J Hillburn and I always get hit up. So I have a lot of suits. Um, those are nice ones too, because they're very nice. But, um, because I don't, and you know, a person of my proportions needs to have a custom made suit because. You know, you try and get a suit that fits your man breasts and that the sleeves are hanging. You know, I mean, it just, I'm, I'm, I, I look, do they sell man's ears by the way? They, they bros. It's bro. Oh, sorry. Okay. There's your Sinal reference. There's, there you go. We were waiting for it. But anyway, um, I happen to have a coat hanging in the back of my, uh, vehicle when I found out that I was gonna be going into this funeral, and I reached into the pocket, and the last time I wore that coat. Was at the last funeral. We'll it a funeral receipt. It's a funeral receipt. Yeah. There you go. There you go. No, but you know what, this has been fantastic. Yeah, we gotta have you in more often. We probably should have you in less often. Oh, I, I think I've worn out my welcome there. So, no, thank you so much. Jeff. Can I, you know, can I just say for this opportunity, Jeff, Jeff is the one that gets it back on the rails. Does right? He does. That used to be my job and I gave up. Yeah. Right. Can I tell you honestly Jeff, you have brought something to this podcast that it desperately needed. You have always been, you have brought a rhythm as a musician that might be to the podcast. You brought the rhythm. We are gonna do this every week, whether you like it or not. And the fact that you actually do some research really does bring the, bring us back on the rails. Yeah. So I appreciate you, Jeff. I really do. Well, I really, there's some nice lies I doses when it comes to all your text messages, but my God, Vince died. Um. My brother died shortly after Vince, and then it, and I, I was just, for whatever reason, drawn to his story and then I got sucked in and I was like, this guy's an amazing person. And so anyway, I just, I am all about role models and following in people's footsteps that have done great things. I can clean something. Yeah. So, well, all you gotta do is go to YouTube for letting me to be, be here. Absolutely. All you gotta do is go to YouTube and put in Vince Flynn. And there are so many great interviews that he does. And like you said, you know, not only was he a good writer, but man, he was a gregarious speaker. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Really was. He does one I think at the Reagan library. I don't think I've seen that one. I'll have to look that up. It's out there. It's excellent. He brought his best friend, uh, or not he, he, you. I don't, he, he said my best friend in high school, I think he referred to. Yeah. But a guy stood up that, that would be Tomm. Tracy. Tom Tracy, okay. Yeah. And, and, uh, joke, but they were talking about being a Reagan kid growing up, and I'm like, I feel like I'm a Reagan kid. I remember all the stories that he was, but he was trying to, and I, he brought me right back to my high school time. He was four years older. But it, it was such a great talk. Just if you look it up, it's, it's worth listening to. I like to think of myself as a Clinton kid. You know what I mean? I think I heard that. I think I heard a story about that one too. Yeah. Well, he talks about meeting meeting clin. Okay. This has gone on. We should, we should include part two of I know. I have to pee. Okay. This has been terrific. It's great. Before, before we do, I just gotta tell you, and I don't remember what you call it, but you're, I love your, your idea of, um, the etiquette for high school. Oh, civilian project. They're still doing it. It's fantastic. Yeah. We just did one up in Duluth. How did it go? It was fantastic. And you know what's super fun?, The feedback that we get from the parents that are there. Yeah. We use the YouTube videos and stuff that really sort of amplify the message that we're trying to send. What I wanna do is I wanna get some young athletes to be the people that put on this program because I think it's much more impactful coming from somebody that sort of looks like them than some, you know, old sweaty guy. And man, is he a sweaty guy up there doing it. Seriously. Yeah. I appreciate that. And, and it's, it's great stuff. I, we've got one, we've got one scheduled or we we're planning on doing one in Red Wing. We've got one in Farmington, we've got one coming up in Mankato. It's, it's a tour. Are are you doing one every month or two now then, or how far from? So I have, so we have people for that. I don't know. You need a tour shirt now John, you guys are going on tour. That's right. That's right. You a tour shirt. Tour shirts. As long as it's, I can get a medium. That's all that we need. Welcome to the sausage casing. Big guy and a little shirt, fat guy. And a little shirt. Alright, and with that, thanks Nick. Off we go. Thank you Nick