Two DAWs Walk Into A Studio And A Cat Interrupts

This Episode recorded and rendered on Reaper DAW.

Hit play on a cozy, candid ride through creative tinkering, 80s nostalgia, and the kind of gratitude that only grows after a hard season. We start in the studio where we stress-test a new workflow, recording in Reaper and Audacity at the same time to chase better sound without risking the show. That practical look at tools and trade-offs opens into a broader conversation about making independent media in a value-for-value world—keeping the feed free, leaning on community, and learning in public.

From there we move to the table—Thanksgiving memories, a second quiet dinner at home, and a cat that insists on a cameo. Music threads it all together. We found WSQK, a Stranger Things–themed internet radio station that spins 80s tracks and sly story nods, and it turned into an all-day soundtrack. The nostalgia isn’t just fun; it’s a mood shaper. That sets up a timely dive into why singing helps your health, pulling from BBC reporting on reduced stress, steadier heart rate, group bonding, and the simple joy of joining in rather than just listening.

We also chew on a science headline: the oldest sequenced RNA from a woolly mammoth calf frozen in Siberian permafrost. It’s a fascinating claim that deserves both curiosity and caution, so we unpack what RNA can reveal, what speculation might overreach, and how to love science without surrendering our questions. The emotional center lands in a personal story of recovery after a 2019 stroke—losing speech, movement, everyday skills—and the slow return of strength through prayer, rehab, family, and time. Gratitude shifts from a holiday word to a lived practice, and that’s the heartbeat carrying us forward.

Want to be part of the flock? Share a thought, send a voicemail, or drop us a line. If this conversation moved you, follow, share with a friend, and leave a review so others can find the show. Your support—prayers, talent, or a few dollars—keeps the mics on and the stories coming.

Chapters

• 0:00 Cold Open And Welcome
• 0:19 Value For Value And Free Access
• 1:05 Dual Recording Setup: Audacity vs Reaper
• 5:57 Thanksgiving Highlights And Black Friday
• 9:30 Second Dinner, Cats, And Stranger Things
• 13:20 WSQK 80s Radio And Nostalgia
• 18:00 Singing’s Health Benefits: BBC Article
• 20:45 Woolly Mammoth RNA: Science Debate
• 26:30 Gratitude After Stroke: A Personal Story
• 36:45 Why Podcasting, Music Limits, And Platforms
• 42:20 Community, Feedback, And How To Reach Us
• 44:59 Thank You For Following

Transcript

Bruce: 0:00

Singing is really good.

Capella: 0:08

Welcome to the Ugly Quacking Duck Podcast, the worst podcast in the unknown universe. Or at least that's what some people say. We prefer to think of ourselves as charmingly rough around the edges. We're passionate about podcasting and the value for value model, where creators and listeners connect directly. We believe in keeping our content free and open to everyone, because who needs another paywall, right?

Bruce: 0:30

All right. Welcome to episode 130 of our podcast, The Ugly Quacking Duck. This is Bruce.

Sunny: 0:40

And I'm Sunny. Hello, everybody. All right. Hello, Sunny. Good to have you aboard. Hello, Bruce. It's good to be aboard. I'm glad you're here.

Bruce: 0:53

Well, thank you. I'm glad to be here too. If it wasn't for me, it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have a podcast.

Sunny: 0:59

Well, that's true. It's great to be here. It's kind of cold outside.

Bruce: 1:05

Yeah, it's really cold outside. It's been uh kind of nasty for the last several days, and it's right now 33 degrees on this Tuesday afternoon, and I've started recording in my home studio, uh, which is my normal place, and we're trying to get it all together today, this afternoon, hopefully. Now we're not gonna we're not gonna promise we don't have to stop and finish it up tomorrow, but we'll see.

Sunny: 1:38

Oh yeah. No promises.

Bruce: 1:41

Thank you for your vote of confidence there, Sunny.

Sunny: 1:44

Well, you know how it is. I don't want you to get too happy.

Bruce: 1:48

Um, not sure that's the right word, but okay. Uh uh, I'll try not to get too excited. How's that?

Sunny: 1:56

Uh that works. Hey Bruce, what are you doing with two screens up at the same time? They look the same, but they look different.

Bruce: 2:09

Wow, that's a good explanation. Okay, so we're trying something different today. I've uh downloaded a new DAW program. It's called Reaper, and I'm not confident enough in editing to just throw it in line and start going and do my podcasts. I don't want to do one and then I'll be able to edit it. And I definitely don't want to do one and have to redo it when it didn't work out. So, what I've got going on, which may not work out, I'm recording on both of the programs on my Audacity and on my DAW uh Reaper. We're gonna see if I can go in and edit it and you know get it post-edited and everything so I can upload it using the Reaper. Now, if it fails, hopefully I'll be able to fall back on Audacity and do that because I'm used to that one. That's the main thing. There's a couple uh similarities to Audacity that I'm used to, and then there's a lot of differences that I'm not used to, but it's got a couple things that Audacity don't, and it does a couple things that Audacity don't, and it's supposed to be a smaller program, so Audacity's got really big, and it hogs a lot of resources and hard drive space. If this one's smaller and I can learn it, I'll probably switch over to this one. Anyhow, I've got both of them running at the same time to answer your question, Sunny. Um, so I can record and hopefully they're recording right. They look like they are. I hope they don't give each other feedback. If it records good, then I'll be able to edit it on one of them, hopefully, and I'll be able to upload it and we'll have a good episode. What do you think about that?

Sunny: 4:12

I think I don't know what to think. It's almost like you got a place to fall back on if it doesn't work, right?

Bruce: 4:22

Exactly. Yep, I've got that safety net going on, and uh like I said, it looks like I can handle the new Reaper, but there's a few ifs about editing, and I apparently it saves everything while you edit, so if you mess up, you can go back to it. But I just don't feel comfortable with with that. So I've got both programs running so I can do at least one of them. There you go. Folks, I hope we didn't bore you to death with that.

Sunny: 4:57

Oh yeah, you probably did, like you always do, but while you're talking about that, everybody we're glad you come aboard, and I hope you come back if this is the first time. If not, Bruce, take it away.

Bruce: 5:14

All right. If not, this ain't your first time, or is not, speak properly, then I hope you uh keep coming back, and I appreciate you being here to begin with. And uh you'll have to let us know if you can tell any difference uh in this uh we'll probably leave a a little bit of a hint on our uh details of this episode once we get it done, you know, the definition and everything of the episode to let you know which one we ended up with. But hopefully there won't be any difference in the sound. If there is, hopefully it's better.

Sunny: 5:53

Yeah, yeah, hopefully it's a lot better.

Bruce: 5:57

Well, that yeah, I'd love that a lot better, but it both of them are just recording. So who knows? I'll tell you more about it after we get done. Maybe after we use it quite a bit, I can tell you a little bit more of the details and some of the things I like or don't like about it. But anyhow, that's what we're doing, and it's the week after Thanksgiving.

Sunny: 6:23

Yay!

Bruce: 6:24

Thanksgiving. I want to do it.

Sunny: 6:27

I want to do it. Thanksgiving.

Bruce: 6:33

Well, that wasn't quite like what I did, but it's close enough, Sunny. Thank you for that. But I hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving. Uh it was uh really nice here where we did it, and it was just short-lived because I had to go home early, go to bed, and I've had to do this every year, I think one year, where I got to have the next day off, so I didn't have to go home early. And usually they play games and everything, stay up late. But I had to go home. And I had to get to bed early because I had to get up earlier because we opened up earlier at work. You know, it was Friday, good, what is that, Black Friday day, and everybody comes in and spends lots of money.

Sunny: 7:23

Lots of money. Yeah, that's crazy stuff, Bruce.

Bruce: 7:29

Yeah, it is, it really is. But anyhow, that's what we did. And uh, but it was still good. The food was good, the company was good, the conversation was good. We watched a little bit of football, which I'm, you know, I'm I can give or take that. I like watching sci-fi's actually during Thanksgiving, but anyway, that's either here or there. Now I hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving. Uh I hope you're thankful for uh things this year. It's been a good harvest for everybody. I hope uh many things are good and the blessings are good. The King, Father, and Creator has treated us all good. We've survived another year almost completely through this year. Believe it or not, it went fast. We've only got this month left, and we'll be in a totally new year. So wow. I can't believe that.

Sunny: 8:25

Oh yeah. Well wait here around as long as I have, and then you won't believe it.

Bruce: 8:30

Oh, really? How long have you been around?

Sunny: 8:33

Uh I'm not saying that was a slip.

Bruce: 8:37

Well, I'd say so, but okay. You're gonna have to tell me one of these days.

Sunny: 8:41

No, I don't.

Bruce: 8:43

Oh burn. You know, there's one thing that I hope I can do very well on this new program, and I do it on audacity, and it's really easy, and I like being able to do that, and that's when I pause, and I really don't pause, I just hit the mute button on my mic so I can cough or you know, scratch, or whatever makes extra noise that you don't want to hear because you're listening to the podcast, and then I hit start over again on the mic and I turn it back on. That's a long pause sometimes, and I go in audacity and take it out. It just takes a split second after I get done. But uh I don't know if exactly how to do that on Reaper, so we'll see. It ought to be interesting. But back to what I was talking about. Thanksgiving was great. This year's been eh, you know, there's been a lot of trouble and a lot of good. And I don't even know what that was. That was a weird sound, but uh I don't know if it picked it up. I'm getting a lot of noise in the studio today from the uh outer limits of the cats and uh everything. But we're back to Thanksgiving. Uh a couple days later, we had a um both myself and my wife was off, and uh our daughter was home, so we had a special extra Thanksgiving dinner, and uh she fixed she had gotten some Shannon, my wife, had gotten some turkey breasts at the store thinking that we was gonna need them for Thanksgiving we didn't. But she fixed one of those and some mashed potatoes and two or three other things, and it was awesome to have a second dinner like that. I think the cats are cutting stuff up in the other room. Anyhow, it was very nice to have that uh second dinner. It was enjoyable, it's good, and we sit down and watch stranger things. But I'm gonna have to pause and find out what's going on out there. What was that? Yeah, it was a cat, that's what it was.

Sunny: 10:59

I knew it. She wanted in, didn't she?

Bruce: 11:02

Yep, she wanted in.

Sunny: 11:04

Well, I heard her scratching, but I didn't want to tell you.

Bruce: 11:07

Well, thanks. You just waited till she got louder, didn't you?

Sunny: 11:11

Oh yeah, it was funny.

Bruce: 11:12

Okay, well, yep. Excuse the uh noise if you heard that, but uh we had a cat wanting in the studio and I had the door shut, of course. But hopefully it is quiet down now. But anyway, we've back to the uh second dinner. Um this uh was the week that Stranger Things episode season five come out, and I think what the first three or four episodes, and uh everybody was excited to watch it, so we sat down and watched it and ate dinner. And I only got to watch season or episode one, and I had to get ready for bed again, but it was quite interesting. But listening to one of my other podcasts that I love to listen to, they talked about a radio station that had um come about and it played 80s music. And I thought, well, that'd be kind of cool if it just plays 80s music. And I heard them say something about strangers things, but I didn't really catch it, you know, because I I don't know what I was doing, I was doing something else while I was listening.

Sunny: 12:18

Oh, that's what you always do with podcasts. You go do your chores, your sweeping, dishes, whatever, exercise, and then you listen to the podcast at the same time.

Bruce: 12:32

Very true, and that's probably what I was doing. But anyhow, it they talked about that, and I thought, well, I'll look that up eventually, and I forgot about it, because this has been a week ago or so. And uh the other day, daughter came in with a t-shirt that says Stranger Things, and it had WSQK on it, which was the name of the radio station that I had put into memory to look up. And I seen that and I went, wait a minute, I didn't really catch the the thing because we watched that one first episode of the season five, and they was in a radio station, and I hadn't caught that was the name of it. So anyway, uh they had produced uh Netflix and Global, I think it's the name of it, went together, put up a internet radio station called you got it, WSK W SQK, I'll get it right. Um Squawk, the Squawk, the Squawk, something like that. Radio show station, and it plays 80s music, which was the era that Stranger Things supposedly occurred in, and it has hints and side notes and inner storylines about you guessed it, Stranger Things.

Sunny: 14:09

Oh yeah, that was cool then. We had listened to it what? All one day.

Bruce: 14:15

Oh yeah. I turned it on, hooked it up and on the computer, and then I hooked it up on the TV so we could listen to it, and I like that type of music quite a bit. It takes me back to the old days and uh memories and all that. I'm not gonna say too much. Pa I don't want to date myself.

Sunny: 14:38

Too late, old man.

Bruce: 14:40

Hey, watch it. I could call you old man, except you're not a man.

Sunny: 14:45

Yeah. You don't know what I am, do ya?

Bruce: 14:48

No, no, I don't. I um so don't worry. Nah, I'm a nice person. You just said you're not a man.

Sunny: 14:58

Well, I'm still a nice person.

Bruce: 15:02

Okay. Oh well, there you go. We'll leave it at that.

Sunny: 15:07

Yeah, you better leave it alone. You might find out more than you want to.

Bruce: 15:13

Yeah, uh-huh. Anyhow, if you like the 80s music, you like Strangers Things, I dare you to go check it out. I think you have to look up Global and uh look up WSQK on their search engine, and you can listen to it. You'll have to create an yeah, you'll have to create an account. It's pretty good. I enjoy that music, like I said, I enjoy them talking about the show because the show's pretty neat. I can tell you I've enjoyed watching it, and I'm not one of those uh what do they call it, fanboys, but I enjoy it.

Sunny: 15:52

Fanboy versus a fanboy.

Bruce: 15:57

I am not.

Sunny: 15:58

Oh yeah.

Bruce: 16:00

No, now if you're talking Star Trek, Star Wars, X-Files, yeah.

Sunny: 16:05

Oh yeah, well, this show's about like those.

Bruce: 16:08

Except for you don't really travel in space. It's more like X-Files or Supernatural, and I like supernatural too, than it is uh Star Trek or Star Wars.

Sunny: 16:20

True. Yeah, I can see the similarities.

Bruce: 16:24

Okay, well, there you go, folks. Um, Stranger Things uh lesson is not very good, but if you want to hear it, you want to listen to the music, I dare you to go search it out and listen to it. Again, that's on the internet. I think AM Radio actually has a WSQK radio station on the AM radio. But this is also, I didn't mention this, out of the UK. I don't know if Global's out of the UK. I don't think Netflix is, I think it's based in the United States. But anyhow, if you're in the US or UK, you can listen to this station. I dare you to.

Sunny: 17:11

Hey Bruce, I noticed uh at the beginning of the show, the episode, that you um gave a little bitty um what, um sentence about something, kind of a hint. I kind of like how you do that. So tell me what that meant.

Bruce: 17:32

Oh, you meant the thing about singing.

Sunny: 17:35

Oh yeah, that's exactly it is good, but everybody knows that. They like listening to it.

Bruce: 17:43

Yeah. Well, it wasn't about music. That comment that you was talking about was specifically about singing. I had read an article, here we go, an article.

Sunny: 17:55

Oh, I knew you were gonna bring that in, but go ahead.

Bruce: 17:59

All right, thank you for that vote of confidence there. Yeah, I read an article and it was about singing and how that it could be or is, according to their studies, actually good for you. And this being the time of year that, you know, everybody goes out and sings carols for Christmas and they do it in groups, and they do a lot of choir practicing and stuff this time of year. That's what the story was about. And I actually downloaded the article's uh location, and I will put that up in just a second. Now, since I have both of my monitors took up by two different um DAW programs, I'm having a hard time functioning and and snapping back and forth. So give me a second. Now, this article uh is about singing, and it's found in the on the BBC's website. So if you want to look it up, and I I tell you to go ahead and look it up because it's a pretty good article, but it's why singing is surprisingly good for your health. And it like I said, it's an article, and it's talking about how it boosts the brain, it reduces pain, joining others in song can bring some wide-ranging benefits.

Sunny: 19:29

Oh, good for you.

Bruce: 19:31

Yeah, that's how I come up with that. And you don't think I did it myself.

Sunny: 19:36

Well, I never know what you're coming up with and what you're dreaming of.

Bruce: 19:42

Well, again, thanks for that vote of confidence, but no, this is actually an article that I read, and they give quite a bit of examples. Uh they even had examples why it's good for your respiratory system, for The vibrations it puts out supposed to be good for your heart rate, your blood pressure. Uh, in groups, has even found to boost immune function. So there's a lot of different beliefs and studies in here, uh, even talking about effective stress reliever. That's singing, not just listening.

Sunny: 20:25

Yeah. You have to do it.

Bruce: 20:28

Yep. Do it to it. Yay. Okay. Yeah, it's a good article. Go back and read it. Again, it's found on the BBC, and the name of the article is Why Singing is surprisingly uh Why Singing is Surprisingly Good for Your Health. It's even got a picture of some Carolers singing. Now it may be a bunch of baloney and hogwash, but most people remember times when they would get together as their friends and they just sing and dance to the music and how good that made them feel. So if nothing else, that good emotion is healthy. So there you go. Well, while we're on the subject of news articles, I found another one here a while back, and I wanted to bring it up. I saved it because it was kind of an interesting read and um scientific, and I'm not sure how to take it, but the story was found in Science Alert, and it's about uh Yucca Y-U-K-A, Yucca, Yucca, the woolly mammoth. And this woolly mammoth was just it just gave scientists the oldest RNA ever sequenced, and that's what the article's about. It goes back and talks about how this woolly mammoth that lived and died nearly 40,000 years ago, that's the first pause I had when I started reading the article. 40,000 years ago, has given us a spectacular scientific first about the species, and it's the oldest RNA they've been able to sequence. So that's what they talked about. The oldest one up until that point was a old 14,300-year-old wolf puppy. And then they found this one, and it was found, I believe, in 2010, and they uh dug it up in the permafrost of Siberia, and they was able to find a little bit of the RNA. They still had to piece it together, so the picture's not exact, if you ask me. But they was able to piece it the RNA together to give a picture of what the animal was doing physically before it died. Now they gave a good example of what the difference between RNA and DNA in DNA is. Basically, the DNA is what the genes are made of and what you know the body's made of. The RNA actually is what the genes are doing just before it died. It's a little bit more detailed, but they say the RNA does not last very long at all. So the fact that they found this and it's that old, which I question, that will give them a better picture of what this ancient mammoth, and it's a calf, they said, and in later on in the article they said it died 39,000 years ago. So they stretched the length to another or 1,000 years to make the story look better purposely, I guess, at the beginning. So because they said 40,000 years ago, nearly. So they rounded it up so you'd catch that, which I did. But they said it lived and died 39 years ago, and it was discovered in the Siberian permafrost in 2010. So I was right there. And they were able to piece this together and find out, and I thought was interesting they discovered that he uh was injured by, are you ready for it? He was attacked by a lion, prehistoric lion, and he was injured and fled to a mud hole where he died. Now, how they discovered all that by reading the RNA, I'll never know. Because uh that sounds like a lot of pre-guessing or finding evidence to fit their theory more than it does actually finding a picture that is clear. But again, that's my opinion. And that's what they do. They they form these theories and these opinions, and they make everybody else believe it, and they've really not proven anything. But anyway, that's what their article is talking about. If you want to look it up, discover more, and read more, it is found again on the Science Alert webpage, and the title of it is Yucca. I guess that's how you say that. Yucca, the whole whole mercy.

Sunny: 25:47

All right, spit it out, Bruce. You're tongue tied.

Bruce: 25:51

I guess you can say that. But anyway, Yucca, the woolly mammoth, just gave us the oldest RNA ever sequenced. That's the title. Go look it up. I made it through that.

Sunny: 26:05

No, you didn't. You just blew it out of the water, but not in a good way. You sunk your dat battleship, boom.

Bruce: 26:16

Oh, that would have been a good sound effect if I had a s a boom and a sinking battleship. I don't. You guys are lucked out.

Sunny: 26:28

Oh, yeah, they did. Believe me, guys, you lucked out.

Bruce: 26:32

All right. Well, anyhow. Yeah, that was a good article, though. I went and read the whole thing, and uh, I just talked a little bit about it. Not saying because I read it I believe all everything's in there and what they say, but it's good read anyway. Fantasy sometimes. I like sci-fi and fantasy.

Sunny: 26:53

Oh, yeah, you do a lot.

Bruce: 26:56

Yeah, a lot.

Sunny: 26:58

Well, why?

Bruce: 27:01

Well, because one thing, it's mostly not true, but it's got enough truth, the sci-fi part, got enough truth in it that it makes it tangible, and you can enjoy it and not get carried away into garbage about, you know, truth. Because I really hate watching horror movies and stuff like that that are so truthful about life that it just, you know, you just makes you sick. Uh a good point of that is when I was a young man, uh the drive-in had the Hills That Have Eyes and Chainsaw Massacre. Uh double feature. And me and a buddy went and watched uh I think it was the Hills Have Eyes that come out first. But anyway, after watching uh most of the double feature, I said, Man, I can't take no more of this. It's too much like what's r happening in real life. I don't want to be sick. Let's just leave. So we did. Um but there was other movies I went and seen to drive in that wasn't nearly that bad that I enjoyed. So it wasn't just movie seeking that bothered me, it was the type of movies. I sure hope these uh recordings are gonna come out good. I'd sure hate to try to reproduce this episode from scratch. That would not be any fun whatsoever. So we was talking about Thanksgiving, and I wanted to bring that up one more time this episode because we talked a lot about it last episode, but it has a special place in my memory and in my heart because back in 2019 in September, uh I lost my brother, and then in October ended up being in the hospital for heart problems, and ended up having a stroke and lost the ability to use my whole left side to think and to speak, and it didn't look too good for me when they uh kicked me out of the hospital, and I said that because that's the way insurance does after a certain amount of time, and um, they was really worried about me. In fact, they was worried so much about me they took me down into the rehab room and taught me how to roll around and get back up by pulling myself up because they didn't want something to happen to me when I got home. But that's how bad a shape I was in. Uh, I mean, they didn't expect me to ever be able to walk again, and they was not expecting, you know, me to turn out as good as I did. So, with that said, I actually got to leave the hospital a week before Thanksgiving. So I got to spend Thanksgiving with my family, and I was really worried about that. I was tired of being in the hospital anyway, but being able to spend the holidays with my family was really weighing heavy on me, and it bothered me because I couldn't get out of there, but it worked out good. So every year I try to remind myself of that moment, um, those few weeks, and how quickly it happened to me, and it happens quick, folks. Don't take nothing for granted. One minute I went to sleep and I woke up the next morning, and they was going to come in and walk me and get me ready to leave because my surgery was over, and it, you know, everything appeared to be good. And I think I'd been in there that extra day, you know, because that's what they do, give you a day to make sure you're healed up, and uh then you they get you up and get you walking around and they kick you out. But when I woke up, I couldn't talk, I could hardly think. Um my left side would not move, and it was it was a mess from that point on. Um, it was very uh I'm not gonna go in depth with I don't really want sympathy. However, I do want to spend a moment, be thankful to remind myself what it was like, and to remind my listeners how great the creator, the father, the savior is, because that moment happened, I couldn't do anything. I was at the mercy of the people taking care of me, my family, and the father. And through his grace, many people come in, many people prayed for me, many miracles happen, and even though they sent me home and was not happy about it, I'm telling you, the doctors was very upset, but they had to, um, because I couldn't afford it without the insurance. They was not happy because of the progress was not enough. I was making progress, but through all that, through the moment I got home, um, I had good help and I was able to do exercises and work my way up to getting better, and it took a while, and I'm still not 100% and probably won't ever be, but I'm a lot better. I'm probably, I tell the doctor I'm probably 95%, but it's probably more like 90. Especially when it's cold outside like it is. Mercy, I can't hardly walk. My uh muscles cramp up and I'm in trouble then. This time of year, I usually wait to after Thanksgiving to sit down and realize that anniversary has passed, and I made it another year, and things are still getting better. I'm still getting strong, I'm walking a little bit better, I'm moving a little bit better, I'm talking a whole lot better than I did before. And I'm actually able to thank, you know, I couldn't even use my phone, I couldn't count change out uh when they come in and tested me after that happened. The simple things like to uh read, and I I think I had trouble with that. Maybe they had to read the question to me at first, but one of the questions was, you know, show how to get from blah, blah, blah, northeast, uh, on the street. It was real simple directions. I couldn't do it. I just couldn't function well enough in my mind to put those two things together. And same way would change none of the normal, simple things like making a text come out on my phone. I couldn't even figure out how to work my phone. I had a simple push-button phone like everybody has. It was a smart phone, but not very smart, and I couldn't figure out how to use it. And I'm not trying to, again, get sympathy from anybody. I really uh don't like sharing this. However, if I don't share it, I can't give people and God the blessings for what he's done. And that's what this point of this anniversary is, because I come from all that, and it could have easily went a different direction. But through, like I said, good hands at at the hospital, good family, and people that came by, friends, uh, my wife's family and friends, and um members of the church and friends, each and every one of them come by and prayed. I could I couldn't even pray with them really because I couldn't think good enough or talk. And they'd come in and say, Can we pray? And I'd all I could do is yeah, or shake my head because I couldn't talk well enough or communicate well enough to let them know anything I needed. But they did it. And each time I got better, each time I felt better. Very many, many miracles, and just the fact that I woke up and still breathing was a miracle. So that was in 2019, and this is 2025, so you can count up how many years that is, and it's been a blessing. I've been able to, like I said, continue to grow and get better. I actually uh went back to work and then I got laid off and I moved on to Rural King, where I'm at now. And besides the limp, they probably have no idea my history. So if they're listening to this, they know now. But uh I I've gone through a couple years and not really talked about it on the podcast, but I need to again so I can give the God the glory for that miracle and bring me through that, and I can show that I'm thankful at this time of year for that. So um everybody, you know, likes to say what they're thankful for or should. Maybe they don't like to, but maybe they should. And I actually read a blog written by an elderly guy that no, it was uh it was the woman, the journalist, um, that wrote an article about the thing she's thankful for. And I read that and was very moved, and I appreciated somebody else that did that, so I thought, well, I better do that this year. So I'm thankful for all those things coming back to me and being able to grow even at my age, being able to change and mature in other ways, and strengthen in other ways, and for the family and friends and loved ones and the church people that help me get where I'm at, and above all, for the Creator, Father, Savior, and Holy Spirit that I have around me and in me that has gave me this opportunity to continue to grow. And one of the things that I always wanted to do was somehow be a radio station, or I even started a pirate radio station there for a while. I did an internet radio station, but when I found out how easy it was to do a podcast, I started contemplating that because that's very similar to having a a radio station, with the exception you can't play music. Or I guess you could if you wanted to pay royalties and stuff, and that would just drain every drop of money I have. So, nope, we're not doing that. Every now and then we'll find a song that we like that the newcomer has put out that we can share, and uh I do that occasionally, but I don't do it much because Spotify and Apple II sometimes will kick you off or kick that episode off for sure because of the music. And Spotify is really bad. They don't care if you own it, they don't want anybody's music being played except theirs. So they will boot you out pretty quick. So to keep me uh free of all that, I kind of limit what I do. And anyway, I'm ratting and raven, not really talking about what I had anticipated. But I'm thankful, and this is it made it through another year, another Thanksgiving season, was with my family. Part of them, most of them are out in other states and away from the ham home, and I don't get to see them very often, but I'm thankful for them and my children, grandchildren, and yes, great grandchildren. Don't hold that against me. I have some.

Sunny: 39:15

Oh, you are a great, great grandpa, right?

Bruce: 39:22

No, just great. No? Yeah, just great.

Sunny: 39:26

All right. I won't make you any older than you really are.

Bruce: 39:30

Well, thank you. I appreciate that. You're such a nice person.

Sunny: 39:36

Well, I'm not really a person.

Bruce: 39:39

Quit that. One day you are, one day you aren't.

Sunny: 39:42

Oh, you poor thing.

Bruce: 39:44

Okay. Well, anyway, thank you for listening to me, guys, and being part of that. And again, I am very thankful. And you probably didn't know any of that about me, and I hope you don't remember it. Forget it. Next year I'll tell you again.

Sunny: 40:00

Oh no, not next year.

Bruce: 40:08

Oh yeah. Next year. Does that mean we're gonna keep doing this? I think we're gonna try to keep doing it as long as I'm allowed, as long as I have strength, as long as I have listeners. That's important, you know.

Sunny: 40:23

All right. I want to do it forever and ever and ever.

Bruce: 40:27

Well, unfortunately, we probably won't make it that long.

Sunny: 40:30

Well, you might not.

Bruce: 40:33

Alright, well, any Oh, I don't even want to think about that. Anyway, yeah. As long as I've got people out there that's willing to listen to me, I'm gonna keep doing it. And I hope you'll take part and be part of the show by participating in the questions and stuff we have from time to time. Give me comments, yeah, email me, you know, stuff like that.

Sunny: 40:59

Yeah, participate, yeah. We like that. That way we know you're out there, we know you're listening, and we know you're breathing.

Bruce: 41:10

Oh, yeah, that's important. Breathing's pretty important.

Sunny: 41:14

All right, Bruce. That was a good story. I'm glad you shared and uh showed everybody you're human and you've been through junk too.

Bruce: 41:24

Well, uh I just want to say thank you um to the people involved, and thank you to again, my father, my savior, and the Holy Spirit, the creator of all, um, for bringing me through that. So that's the whole purpose of that, and I'm glad I was able to bring my listeners, the podcast people through that with me. And uh yeah, I haven't said it in a long time. Help has always been nice, and I appreciate that. And from the flock, if you're listening out there, come on down and let's fly together, okay? Let me know. I've checked my email uh right before I said this to make sure no latecomers have come, but I've asked you to comment on my last show. Still no comments, and you know, you may listen to it a month from now and comment then, and I'll be able to look it up and I can bring it out on the episode following that. If you want to leave us a message, it's uh the uglyquacking duck at gmail.com. If you want to go to the website, the uglyquacking duck.com, and you can uh look up stuff there, and you can leave us a voicemail on the contact page. Uh that's a pretty neat thing, man. If you got a phone with a mic, which everybody does nowadays, you can actually leave me a message there, and we can uh play it on the next episode if you want us to. If you don't, you better tell me, and uh I can answer it there too. So that's it's a pretty neat thing. We don't ever talk about it very much. We've done it a few times, but there's several different ways to get a hold of us. And if you have a newer 2.0 podcast player, there's a description on there that uh we have automatically put on our episodes. Right at the beginning, it says click here, and you or it lets you click or however it works, and you can text us. So it's a quick way to get a text to us so we can comment on it. So what I'm telling you is there's many different ways that you can be part of this show, and I'd really like it if you did. If you talk to us, send us artwork, you know, help us with comments or questions or subject matter, be great. It really would. But I hope you all enjoyed Thanksgiving, and this is December, so this is a really busy month with Christmas going around and everybody preparing for New Year's, which is less than a month now because this is the third, and it's gonna hit. It's coming around, and it's fast. I mean, this year has been fast. And I hope it slows down because guys, it's coming quick, and uh, I don't like that. I like to enjoy a little bit of you know the simple things. Anyway, I'll shut up, quit talking, and I'll let you guys get on with uh other podcasts or TV shows, whatever you do when you're not listening to this.

Sunny: 44:52

Well, I hope they listen more, come back and listen more. Cheers. Oh, never mind, we got Capella. Yeah, the AI that can tell you all about it.

Bruce: 45:07

That's right. So we're gonna say bye right after Capella tells you what is going on in life and what we're good for.

Capella: 45:15

There are many ways you can show your support for the Uggy Quacking Duck Podcast. First, simply keep us in your thoughts and prayers, and maybe send good vibes too. Second, spread the word. Tell your friends about us, even the ones with questionable taste in podcasts. Third, share your talents. If you have skills in technology, art, or anything else that could help us, we'd love to hear from you. And finally, consider supporting us financially. Equipment, hosting, and website costs add up, and any contribution is greatly appreciated. We promise not to spend it all on rubber duckies, unless you want us to. Thank you for your support.

Sunny: 45:53

Alright, that was cool. I really like it, AI voice.

Bruce: 45:58

Well, I do too. I that's why I kept it in. I may go back and change it one day and re-record uh the intro and the value for value, but right now I think it's working good, and I don't I I really like it.

Sunny: 46:12

Yeah, you did a good job that time.

Bruce: 46:15

Well, thank you. I appreciate that.

Sunny: 46:18

Well, you're welcome.

Bruce: 46:20

Okay. Let's say goodbye. You want to?

Sunny: 46:23

Yeah, let's say goodbye.

Bruce: 46:24

All right, we're gonna say goodbye, folks. I appreciate it once again. Come back, be part of the show, and above all, tell your friends about it because that's how we grow, okay? This is Bruce. This is Sunny. And we hope you uh have a good week and a good weekend and come back.

Sunny: 46:46

Yep, that's a good thing.

Bruce: 46:48

May the Father's blessing and love go with you. 73, everybody. Bye. Bye.