Suit Yourself: Real Talk on Summer Traditions & The Bathing Suit Struggle

Summer is finally here, but let’s be real—it comes with a unique set of challenges and traditions. In this week’s episode, the ladies are peeling back the curtain on the highs and lows of the season.

Pam and Lisa are sharing their favorite cherished summer memories and the traditions they hold dear—from the perfect beach day to those questionable seasonal habits we just can't quit. Then, we dive into the inevitable (and often hilarious) struggle of the annual "bathing suit try-on." We’re getting vulnerable about body confidence, the hunt for the perfect fit, and why we’re reclaiming the joy of summer regardless of what the dressing room mirror says.

Don't miss our weekly cocktail conversation - a perfect drink for that back yard BBQs. And talking about back yards, the ladies dish on their adventures in their yards.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

And I must have put it on, I was still a little jet-legged, and my boobs were like left and right hanging out the side and the halter was in the middle. I'm like, okay, this is not going to work. Welcome back, everybody. It's Pam and I'm here with Lisa. Good morning. Good morning. How are you today? Good. How are you? Well, I'm okay. I'm kind of in a mood. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

You know what? That's funny that you say that because when I was walking the dogs this morning, I was I was thinking, I don't even know what I was thinking, work, you know, or whatever. And I'm as usual, I'm having an issue at work. And I always try to start off, you know, very pleasant, but it can go sideways really fast. Yeah. When they are not responding the way that I want them to respond to, or I'm not getting the information that I expect. So yeah, it's um so you're anticipating that this morning that you're going to. It's already, it already went sideways from yesterday, you know, like something that I uh another project, or not a project, a problem that I'm I'm tackling. But what you said, you know, like this morning, we always when you greet people, hey, how are you? Everybody says what? Great, how are you? Yeah, you know, how are you? And you really don't want anybody to be honest, let's face it. Because there's a radical we don't want to go down. Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

I I I don't know. I woke up kind of in a I have a lot of things I have to do today, like it's like annoying things. So I'm just trying to stay positive and make a list and just check things off, you know?

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Yes, yes, yes. Then I'll be okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Once everything's done and I can just relax and have a good time. So yeah, it'll be fine.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Hopefully. See, we gotta keep the positive attitude. That's right. So did you bring a cocktail to the porch this morning? It's 'tis the season. Um my raspberries are starting to come in. Really? Already? Yeah. Well, just starting, you know, like so. Usually it was always like around July 4th that they would pop. And I um would have uh what I don't know the technical term that you called it, but they would they produce they would produce twice in the summer.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Oh, they like a second blue, whatever that's called.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

And then July was like the first round, and then you know, late summer was the second round. But um boy, do I love raspberries, you know, especially fresh raspberries. So I have this cocktail, it's called raspberry collins with vodka in mint. Ooh. And since I have raspberries and I have I grow mint, and I have vodka, I figured, hey, I got I got all the makings here, right? And as per my type of cocktail, easy peasy. Yeah, I don't like overly complicated. I like it, you know, short ingredients. So we start off, you know, with a couple of shots of vodka, um, a shot of lemon juice. We reiterate this every single time we talk about cocktails, fresh, fresh, fresh. Makes a huge difference. Some simple syrup, a little half a shot of simple syrup, um, raspberries, mint leaves, bubbly water unflavored, mint to garnish, raspberries to garnish. So basically, you just you, you know, you you muddle the raspberries into the simple syrup. And then you just kind of put everything together, shake it right up, pour it in a glass, top with a little bubbly, voila.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

So you don't muddle the mint with the uh raspberries.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

You know, I think that's a personal preference. You know, I I like more of a hint of mint. I know you're you're kind of heavier on the mint, so maybe you would, you know, somebody like yourself would like to muddle some mint in. That sounds great, actually.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

It's versatile like um a mojito with raspberries and yeah, and no rum. Well, it's nothing at all like a mojito, but it sounds like a mojito.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Nothing like a mojito. It's sort of like the drink that you ordered the other night that was supposed to be a mojito, but came came something we couldn't identify, but it was enjoyable.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

It was very nice, yeah, actually. Yeah, oh that's awesome. Great. Okay, that sounds great for those summer barbecues. That sounds really fun.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Right. And you know, in season, you know, if you grow your mint, or mint is plentiful in the grocery stores, people like myself who have raspberry patches or go to the farm, or it's definitely would be better this time of year because they're fresh. And you can make a big picture of it, easy. Yes, yeah. A lot of the the cocktails that we talk about can be batched, which is nice. You know, just I hate shouldn't say hate. That's a very strong word, but you know, when you finish your drink and you go, oh, I gotta go make another one. You know, when you can just pour it, so easy. So much easier.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

And they and it's a messy game, bartend. Like bartending is messy. I don't I can never make a drink without making a complete mess on the counter. Like, why is there liquid everywhere on the counter? Right. Really?

SPEAKER_01 5:18

And do you ever watch them like the bartenders? I I do enjoy watching people create their drinks. But like I said, not only is it messy, but they're getting messy. Like their hands must be so sticky all the time.

SPEAKER_00 5:29

Oh, yeah, that would yeah, I don't like that. That's the part I don't like about cocktails. I like a neat countertop.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

Yes, okay. Well, that's why we're not bartenders. We just are the on the other side. Yeah, we're patrons.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

Yes, patron of the arts. The raspberries are really a summer thing. I'm surprised they're ready so early. But you know, I've been back in New England for a week or so, a little bit over a week, and I have to say I love being here in the summer. It's so beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

Yesterday, yeah, you but you're you are here at the very cusp of summer, so it hasn't got that hot, humid, miserable part yet.

SPEAKER_00 6:09

Yeah, it's been really nice. But yesterday, I didn't have any milk, so I went out to get a coffee and a bagel, and I went down to um the beach. I went to Hammond Asset in Connecticut. I don't know if you know where that is.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

Did you take me there? You took me there once. Yeah, I took you there. Yeah, yeah, it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

Yeah, it's so beautiful. So I went down there. I was the only person there.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Oh, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

And I had my coffee and bagel, and I'm looking around and I'm like, it's so pretty in New England in the summer.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Yes, you can't beat New England.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Yeah, you really, it's so pretty. It's so pretty. Pretty picture perfect, postcard pretty. Yes. And I was thinking about like those things that really make summer, like you, the things you have to do before summer is over or you regret that you missed all of summer.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

Yes. Do you have any of those? Well, I was just kind of filing through my my uh mind index there of the things you did in the summer. But you know, and uh one of the things that really popped up rather quickly is how things have evolved as we have aged. You know, what we did for summer when we were young and single versus when we had young children or then, you know, older children and then childless. And, you know, things have certainly changed, you know, what you're doing. I when my kids were little, you know, I always made the trip to the beach. You know, I'm not a beach lover, but I I brought them to the beach because that's summer, you know, you gotta go. Uh for me though, going to the beach is more of a fall and early spring thing because I like the quietness of the beach. Yeah. Like how you described it yesterday morning. Yeah. That's perfect. Nobody there, um, especially in the summertime. It's not hot yet. You know, it's just so quiet and peaceful. And you can't replicate that.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

Yeah. So yesterday it was very foggy and it looked like it was gonna rain. So I think that's why people stayed away. But you know, there's so many things iconic. Well, you know, I live on the shoreline. So fried seafood to me is summer. You know, that's something you eat in the summer, fried clams or and do you do you do fried dough? No.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

Where do you get fried dough? Oh, that's huge around here. Like every every fair, every carnival, everywhere they have fried dough. And some some places might call it a funnel cake, but it's not really quite the same. I mean, it's literally you get like dough. Yeah. And my my father-in-law actually makes really good, they call them dough boys. They're just different variations. But I think most people, when they think of fried dough, they're gonna like get the dough, you know, flatten it out, throw it in the fryer later. It comes out, they put like, you know, sugar or cinnamon sugar, powdered sugar. Yeah, I've had them at fairs.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

I thought you meant like throughout the week you can go and get a fried dough someplace.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Of course you can. Yeah. You can absolutely well, it's it's it's Rhode Island. I could probably name a hundred places, but it it's not hard to get one at all. It is a very, but to me, that is a very summer thing, even though you can probably get them all year long. Uh and and I have to be honest, I haven't had one in a very, very long time because fried food and I don't get along anymore. But that these are some of the like the summertime things I think of and rituals and well, a state fair is a is a something that you only really see at the end of the summers, you know.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Yeah, carnivals. That's a summer activity that's really fun.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

Well, they call them feasts around here the because they have them at the churches. So it's like St. Anthony's Feasts, St. Rocco's Feasts, you know, what Saint whatever feasts. So there's some a lot of um very iconic feasts that happened annually and have been for a trillion years here in Rhode Island, and people just go out of their minds waiting for it. And they do have like the Carney rides and the games, but they have like the the food, and it's just really yeah, it's very I think it was probably initiated, you know, because it was a very neighborly thing that you know happened in certain neighborhoods, but uh yeah, people will trek to certain feasts because they just are known to be, oh, that's the best feast.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

It's funny because we're only one state away, it's so different. Rhode Island can be a completely different entity.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

I'm not a born and bred Rhode Islander, as you well know. And so, um, and it doesn't matter that I've lived here for 40 years, maybe. I will never be considered a Rhode Islander because I was not born and bred here. Rhode Islanders are weird. They're very weird, and they do not like to cross town lines, let alone state lines.

SPEAKER_00 10:59

Well, maybe that's why all of the traditions and the food stay within Rhode Island, because it doesn't they don't they don't migrate out. No, they don't.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Because the people don't migrate out, really. You know, yeah, it's it's so bizarre. Yeah, but I was just you just touched on a point that I never really thought of before. Like some of the things that we have here really aren't known in other states.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

No, no, even Connecticut, you can't go to any place and just get fried dough. Yeah, well, you can get it at a fair, like I've had it at fairs, but that's it. Like once a year, maybe if you go to a fair, maybe you get maybe a fried dough. Like it's so rare. You couldn't just go down the street and get it. Do you guys have the frozen lemonade? No, we don't have that here either.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

You know what it is, though, right?

SPEAKER_00 11:43

Yeah, but that's another summer, summer thing. I guess you guys have it all year, but that's a real summer thing.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

It's a very yes, very much a summer thing. Uh the the the famous one around here is Dell's lemonade, and they would have you know seasonal stands. Uh I again never been a fan of it unless you put vodka in it. But but um that's the cocktail for next week. Dell's yeah. Yeah, and I'm trying to I have no knowledge if you can get it at other times of the year other than you know, spring and summer. But that is very much another big summer tradition. You know, people I I I go by the stands and people are lined up. Okay, ice cream, that's everywhere, right? Ice cream stands. I mean, honestly, you can have ice cream all year long, it's not hard to get, but there's just something about going to an ice cream stand, yeah, eating the ice cream outside, like on a picnic table or leaning against your car, or that is something about that is very summer-ish. Even though I can have a bowl of ice cream in January, it's just not the same.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

It's not. You're right. That is a really it's so uh satisfying. But that leads me to um the next summer thing that I've been experiencing lately is bathing suit shopping. That has been, oh my god, so painful. So before I got here, I ordered two bathing suits from a company that, you know, Jansen, the dancewear line. They make great bathing suits. So I'm like, and I bought bathing suits there before, and I bought two, and I was so excited because I know my size, I know, you know, what they're you know, they're great, they're great bathing suits. So I get home and I try the first one on. It's a little like low, but I'm like, yeah, it's okay. You know, it's a pretty color. So I keep then I try the second one on. And the second one has like this weird neck, like it was more like a high neck, um like a halter, like a halter. And I must have put it on. I was still a little jet-legged, and my goops were like left and right hanging out the side, and the halter was in the middle. I'm like, okay, this is not going to work. So I was very, very discouraged. I'm like, oh, a peekaboo bathing suit.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

It was very much a peekaboo.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

And I'm like, what happens if I go for a swim? They're just gonna flop all over the place. So I was literally gonna return them. And I I said, you know what? So a coup a few days later, I was like, all right, I'm gonna try it again. Maybe I just didn't, maybe it was operator error, maybe I didn't put it on properly. I'm like, it can't be real. So I put it back on. And I actually it was operator error, and I actually like tightened it properly, and it's it's actually very beautiful and comfortable. So I'm cute.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

That's good. Glad you gave it a second shot, yes. But has there ever been a time in your life that bathing suit shopping wasn't a horror show?

SPEAKER_00 14:47

No, yeah, no, so I've been so I was with you and we went to like a Marshall's and I bought three bathing suits, I think. I returned two of those. The other one I should have returned, but I haven't, but I should have. I'm keeping it because you know I will get skinnier. That's my goal. Yeah, it will fit better. And then I went to Marshall's here and I bought three, and I returned two. And I bought, then I went to Cole's because I'm like, maybe they have something. So I go over there and they have a and I've been looking for a bikini, not because I have a bikini body, but because they're so much easier. And yeah, there's not so much fabric. It's bathing one piece of bathing shoes can be heavy. Yes, they can be, they're never dry, and I don't know, they're annoying. So I'm like, I just want a little bikini that I can like wear like underwear if we go to the beach, and then you can, you know, it's just a little lot easier. So I saw this cute bikini, and I'm like, I didn't try it on in the store. So I go home and I try it on, and the bottoms fit great. I'm like, okay, good. This is a good sign. It's really cute. And then the top had lots of strings, let's just say, like strings that wrapped around, strings that crisscrossed in the back, yeah, strings that went around the neck, like at a cross. It was very like I'm I I couldn't even get it on the first. I mean, I got it on, but I'm like, this, I this is a workout. Don't you wish you could film that and like show it as a comedy? Like, I'm gonna leave every time to ask my husband to help because it was too convoluted.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

Yeah, you need an assistant to get into a bathing suit top is probably not the right bathing suit for you.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

It's not easier, the whole point was easier. So I was I'm like, I'm gonna return this. So I went yesterday to Coles and I walk in and they have all these bikinis, like that are more like you know, there's always a lot of bikinis, but not appropriate for my age or body type. So there were all these bikinis. I'm like, oh, this is what I was looking for, like a simple clasp of yeah, simple, simple. So I bought one and I I returned the strappy thing, and I I I tried it on this morning and it fits perfect.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

Oh, that's great.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

Yeah, so I'm gonna go back and get another one.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

I I think that is uh a word to the wise here. Bathing suit shopping is always been awful. And when I think back when I thought it was awful when it really wasn't, because I was younger and everything was in its appropriate place. And um, and even then you you thought, oh, I look terrible. I look terrible. But one of the uh key things is you gotta try it on at home. Yeah. You go into those little sitting rooms that have the worst lighting in the world. You're like surrounded by mirrors. That's already a horror show when you walk in anyhow, and then you're like, you're getting undressed and you're like, oh my god, what is that? And then you're putting on a bathing suit, and like, what are you literally given? Two seconds, maybe? And you're like, oh, this looks terrible. And you take it off. You don't take the time like you did with that first bathing suit, even though you had it at home, you were frustrated and tired or whatever. Just like sometimes like taking a that a beat and you can readjust things, like put the grooves in the bathing suit. Yeah, but you know, I found anyhow personally that I would never give it that kind of time in a store. I just yeah, I was horrified and wanted to get out.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

Yeah, it's this whole self-loathing of the bathing suit trying on because for me, I've always never really loved my body in a bathing suit. But I've gone to the beaches and I look around and I don't see anybody who looks good in a bathing suit. There's not one single person that you go, oh my god, look at that. I mean, maybe once in a blue moon you see someone who's in their 20s with a great body.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

But for the most part, and they shouldn't be on your beach in the first place. There are designated beaches for that crowd. Exactly. There are the schools at high rises, rooftops. You go to the hot beach down the road here. We're this is my beach, this is the senior beach. Get out, this is the old lady beach. Yes, exactly. I always thought the same thing. I I remember years ago when I used to, you know, work for the weight loss company, and I would you know that would always be brought up, people being uncomfortable in bathing suits. I said, listen, guys, if you want to feel better about yourself, go to the beach. Yeah. You know what I mean? You look around and you're like, holy shit, I don't look that bad.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

And you always see in the older women, well, in France at least, everybody wears a bikini. It's like without exception, the older women, the overweight women, the underweight women, like everybody wears a bathing suit. I mean, a bikini. It's crazy. And it's like, no shame in the game. Like, whatever. This is my body. I don't care.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

Do you think, or do you even know, like the people over there, uh, do they have like the body image issues that we seem to have in this country or the body shaming?

SPEAKER_00 19:59

I don't think it's the same. I noticed it also in the UK when I lived in London. They I was shocked. Like, for me, uh, my relationship with food, eating, eating in public, admitting what I eat was always very shameful, like my whole life, even now. But I remember working and working with younger women, and it would be lunchtime, and they're ordering huge meals, you know, and I'm like, you know, trying to eat my little salad and behave, you know, and no shame in what they ate. They never apologized for having a cookie or five or six drinks. Like, there was no shame in what they ate, how they looked, what they were going to put in their mouths. And for me, it's always shameful. I don't care. From the minute I get up in the morning to the minute I go to bed, everything I put in my mouth, I judge it against my worth, you know, like shouldn't be eating that. You're such a bad person. Like, always have been like that. So that was enlightening to me. And I was like, damn, these girls are they have it going on, you know, like no shame in the food.

SPEAKER_01 21:13

Do you think it was uh like that's how it was for every generation or or younger generation?

SPEAKER_00 21:18

I don't know. I just was so impressed, and maybe they do that privately, but I never saw that. Yeah. And I just couldn't believe it, you know, because for me, I'm always like, I would never eat that in public. I would never admit that I wanted to have, you know, big chicken katsu curry for lunch, even though I would want to, but they would just eat it and be like, no problem. Yeah. So I always was admired that. And I think the French have a different relationship with food. I think it's more so that is the relationship with their food. You know, like food is such a big part of French lifestyle, and uh, you know, it's so important what they eat and it's how they eat it too, like when they eat it, when it's appropriate. Yeah, it's eating food. They're not snacking all day.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

It's like more of a oven uh event.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

Yeah, it's appreciation of the food.

SPEAKER_01 22:07

Even the coffee culture over there, which was telling my husband, like uh Paris was different. I mean, I think cities are going to be different, but when you get into more uh of the suburban areas like that you're in and you go to you, I said to him, I go, you do not see a takeaway cup. He goes, What's a take? He goes, What's a takeaway cup? I go, Oh, that's just me being European. I mean I said, you don't see you don't see people in their cardboard or styrofoam cups having a coffee. It would put like they would probably be like mortified. Yeah. If you did that. You go to a cafe, you sit down, you enjoy your coffee, you drink it, you socialize, or you're having it by yourself, reading a book, scrolling on your phone. But it's not like part of like, I just got to get my coffee and run in to do the next thing. Even that's so different. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:59

You don't walk around with a coffee coffee.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

You just don't see it. Like, and here, you know, we've got people with their ginormous, extra super large cups, and those freaking Stanley cups drive me up a wall, you know, those big like I do see a lot of memes like on TikTok, like husbands mimicking their wives, like drinking their water, and they get like those big Poland spring jugs. They like they glue a strap on it or they put a straw in it, and like they're walking around because that's what some of these people look like. Like they really enormous.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

That is ridiculous, to be honest. I agree with you. I don't understand when it became so important to carry around a gallon of water all the time. We never did growing up, and I we we're in our 60s. I think we did okay. You had like a sip of water every four hours, you know, maybe like from the bubbler, you know.

SPEAKER_01 23:53

You had well, no, in the summertime, where did you get your water?

SPEAKER_00 23:56

From the hose. Oh, from the hose. We weren't allowed in the house, so the only water source was the exterior hose that also like watered the cow pen. So yeah, yeah. What a drink of wine, get go get the hose.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

Can I have water? There's a hose. Go get the hose.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

That is really funny. Parents would probably be arrested for child abuse if they did that with the house. Probably, but that was yeah, I don't know what kids do nowadays. I don't want to know, I think.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

But they used to, yes, you do. They they're on their devices or yeah, inside. They you you don't hear very much, you know, the kids playing, but when I do, I love that sound. I love listening to them play. Well, you have where you are in France, you have that playground right up across from you, and that's awesome. I love hearing that, you know.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

I love hearing that too. I you know some people wouldn't like that. I when I lived in London, there was a school across the street, and uh there was a playground right across the street, and all day long it was recess. You know, it's because they classes go up for recess. It was constant. I loved it. I know people would be like, it's so annoying. I'm like, oh my god, it's so joyous. Like they're having so much fun. They're laughing and it's kids scream all the time. That's all they do when they play. It really surprises me. Like, what do they scream? It's so funny. They're like screaming for joy, you know, they're playing and chasing. Yeah, cute.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

You know, like as we're going further into this discussion, these are the things that are represent summer. Yeah, for sure. You know, like listening to the kids playing outside. Um, maybe the ice cream truck would used to come, or you know, going to an ice cream stand, uh, the feasts, the fairs, the yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:43

The fireflies. The other day I was sitting and I I was kind of the room was kind of dark and I hadn't turned the light, and there was all these fireflies outside my window. Oh, you don't even really see those anymore. Or lightning bugs. I guess we used to call them either lightning bugs or fireflies. I know you don't see them that I mean, I remember catching them as a kid, like we used to catch them in a jar. Yeah, and there was one like right outside the window, and it was so bright. I'm like, oh my god. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

Yeah, being just able to I I have a porch. I love just going on my screen-in porch, listening to the birds, as we had mentioned in another time, or just I can sit out there and just enjoy it because the weather is so nice, and that is very much a summertime thing, right? Like that's one of the things you look forward to.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

I I love summer, and in New England it's it's so pretty here. Really is really pretty. I really appreciated it. This this trip. It's so green, and it's just kind of there's a energy in the air that's different, you know, because we don't have summer all year long, it becomes very special, you know.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

It's like Yeah, yeah. People are trying to get in, you know, having a lot to do.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

The season is very short. Well, I think summer officially starts in a couple days, right? Yes. Enjoy the summer while it's here because short and fleeting. What do you have for a hot flash today, Lee?

SPEAKER_01 27:07

I don't know if you really want to call it a hot flash, but maybe more of a tale of caution. Oh, okay. Okay. So uh Sunday I was out working in the yard, puttering around, and I decided um, you know, things are getting overgrown, and I gotta go clip back some bushes and shrubs and stuff like that. I should know better because at this stage in my life I know what happens. Didn't pay any attention, got poison ivy. Oh, that's another summer thing. Yeah, and I am highly, highly allergic to poison ivy. No. Like so I was exposed to it on Sunday. And the reason I say it's a tale of caution, and I should know better. I should know better that I shouldn't be out there unless I'm wearing gloves, long sleeves, and pants, because it's not my first rodeo in my own yard with dealing with poison ivy. It just and where is it on your body? Um, on my face, my ear, my neck, my hands. I can't see it. No, because it yeah, what happened was exposed to it Sunday, Monday night, around two o'clock in the morning, I woke up and my hands were itching. I'm like, oh my God, they're driving me crazy. And then my face, I I just have fat it so many times, I knew what it was. I'm like, I got poison Ivy. So I called my doctor and I said, I need you to give me uh calling a subscription, a prescription to Predazone, because I I just know where this is going. So I got ahead of it. For the first time in my life, I got ahead of it. So I've been on the Predazone, it's a six-day course that I always take. I think that's what has kept it at bay. So I'm not really uncomfortable, but I I mean I've I've had it so bad that at one point when I was young, uh my eyes were swollen shut from it.

SPEAKER_00 28:58

Oh God.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

It was awful.

SPEAKER_00 29:01

Well, I'm surprised you don't have any rituals after you work in your yard. Like I was told whenever I used to work in the yard, which I don't do anymore because I'm not a gardener, but you wash your body with dawn dishes. I did.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

I did. I went right in and I took a shower and and I guess I just was exposed.

SPEAKER_00 29:20

No, you have to use the like dawn. So it takes the green the oil off. Oh, yeah, yeah. And then there's also a soap that they sell at the hardware store. They always sell it. It's some poison ivy soap that you, if you were working in the yard, you wash with that soap and it part, you know.

SPEAKER_01 29:35

My bad. I know what what happens, but it's been knock on wood, you know, a good many years since I've had poison ivy. So I think you just kind of forget about, you know, like what happens. I just literally was not paying attention to it. I didn't give it a second thought until I woke up all itchy Monday night going, what an idiot. That's the worst. So, you know, there's uh the tale of caution, not just the poison ivy, but it's like almost like sometimes you you forget what your actions can produce. So whether it's physical actions or emotional actions or whatever. So, like, you know, try to try to be a little bit more aware of you know what's what I what am I doing now and how is it going to play out later. Yeah. What's yours?

SPEAKER_00 30:22

Remember how I told you the other day I wake up to the birds? Yes. So the day before yesterday, I woke up to a to a woodpecker. On the house. Well, it was on the it was on the tree outside my door, outside my bedroom window. And it was loud. You know, they're loud. I don't know how they do that and not knock their head off. It's anyway. So I'm like, oh, the woodpecker's back. So then later in the afternoon, I'm sitting at my desk and I hear it above me on the house. Yes. And I've seen a woodpecker there before, like years before, in the same spot. So I'm like, oh no, like it's bat. There must be something up there. So I go, I go outside and I look. There's a huge hole in the soffit. Like they had oh no, they had pecked right through. So I'm like, oh god. So I mean, there must be something in there crawling around that they like, or but we've had this house, this place checked so many times for for any type of termites or there's other like beetle things that are down here by the water. And every time they say no, you don't have anything, there's nothing in your walls, there's nothing in the basement, there's nothing. So we're like, okay, but there is a one spot on this house that the woodpecker liked. Anyways, we called our guy and he patched it up. And I'm hoping that will be the end of it.

SPEAKER_01 31:45

But it's hopefully just so like, oh no. They are well, that's very summer for woodpeckers, truly. They're so cool though. I love them. They're I like watching them, but yeah, but we had one one year and it would be it it it did the gutters, it was pecking on the gutters, so it sounded like machine gun. Well, how is but that's metal? What are they doing?

SPEAKER_00 32:09

I don't know, stupid. I don't know. I think they just peck. I think they sometimes peck in spots, but I was afraid like I had a hold now that like a squirrel would get there and oh yeah, yeah, that's just asking for trouble.

SPEAKER_01 32:20

Yeah, yeah. That woodpecker hung around all summer and he would just he woke me up every morning, but that was that was a rough, a rough summer with that woodpecker. He was and then I thought it just became him purposely doing it. He had a vendetta against me. Haunting you. That's summer, that's summer in a nutshell.

SPEAKER_00 32:41

Enjoy it while you can, woodpeckers and all. Exactly. And and poison ivy. Hopefully that's gone from you. Oh, yeah, another summer ritual for some of us.

SPEAKER_01 32:51

All right, I'll see you later. All right, everybody have a good week. Have a great one. Bye. Bye.