Whiteout Memories

The night goes quiet when the snow starts to fall—until the trees begin to crack. We open with the 2003 Colorado blizzard that sealed doors and turned roofs into playgrounds, then jump to the eerie 2021 freeze where waterlogged branches snapped like glass and crushed cars in the street. There’s levity too. A quick, honest take on Predator: Badlands—surprisingly fun, PG-13 cleverness, some iffy CGI—and a running birthday gag.

If this hit your nostalgia, made you rethink winter driving, or gave you a new prank idea, tap follow, share it with a friend who loves storm stories, and leave a quick review telling us your wildest snow day memory.

Attorneys For Freedom Law Firm
Attorneys For Freedom Law Firm: Attorneys on Retainer Program

Podpage
With Podpage, you can build a beautiful podcast website in 5 minutes (or less).

The Mick and Pat HQ
Check out our website.

Audible
Signup for your free 30-day trial of Audible now & get your first book for free!

Karl Casey a.k.a. White Bat Audio
Music by Karl Casey @WhiteBatAudio

Primary Arms
Primary Arms is who we trust for our firearm related purchases!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Transcript

Snowstorm Ambience And 2003 Blizzard

SPEAKER_04 1:37

You hear the ambient snowstorm? I do.

SPEAKER_03 1:40

Is it peaceful?

SPEAKER_04 1:41

It's fitting. We finally had ourselves a snowstorm. Alright. This is one of the later ones.

SPEAKER_03 1:50

Later what?

SPEAKER_04 1:51

Snow s like first real snow.

SPEAKER_03 1:55

Yeah, but it's supposed to be a bag big one. Supposed to be uh Nina, like heavy, heavy snow this year. That's what the farmer's almanac says.

SPEAKER_04 2:08

Those come in like those like late February, March ones. Yeah. The like final angry one before April. Because it was it was 2021. When we had that last big one.

SPEAKER_03 2:21

It broke everything, all the trees and stuff.

SPEAKER_04 2:23

And we had it was that one was one of the biggest ones in like the last 15 years. It was like the here it was was it 30 inches here? I know in Cheyenne it was 42 inches in Cheyenne, because I had an employee who lived there and he couldn't get to work for four days.

SPEAKER_03 2:45

Where were you in the year uh of our Lord 2000? Actually it would have been 2003.

SPEAKER_04 2:54

I had just moved to Colorado Springs. Oh, so did you I had I got the big one. You got the big one.

SPEAKER_03 3:00

That was the that was awesome. That was the best childhood memories of like winter I've ever had in my life.

SPEAKER_04 3:07

Oh yeah. My dad was just out there shoveling for hours, and we were digging snow caves, and it was it was great.

SPEAKER_03 3:15

Yeah, I was I was down in like South Denver area at the time for that one. And I remember my mom coming downstairs telling me, like, all right, let's say a prayer for some snow because it's supposed to snow heavy enough that you know you might not have to go to school tomorrow. It was a Sunday, it was the Sunday before spring break. Like the week, the next week would be spring break. And so I was like, yeah, that'd be cool. Snow day. And then I have to go to school one less day this week before spring break, that'd be great. And then we woke up and like the doors were sealed. Yeah, it was five feet where we were in Denver.

SPEAKER_04 3:59

It was drifting up in spots like that's crazy.

Snow Tunnels, Slush Traps, And VHS Nights

SPEAKER_03 4:01

Dude, yeah, it was it was to the point where like because we had a single story house with a basement, and so it was a low-sitting house too. Like it was not a very tall single story. Um and so the snow went all the way up past the gutters from like how how far the roof sloped down on the sides. And so that was that was pretty cool because I could just like we should shut the roof. Yeah, we shoveled out stairs basically and then climbed up those onto the roof. My grandfather worked for Channel 4 News, and they were stuck down at Channel 4 for like two days. Oh man. And they had to walk across the snow that had built up in Denver. Um it was funny, like, because like the they couldn't get out the front door, so they like had to again shovel upstairs so they could climb up onto the street and then walk across, you know, the four or five feet of snow on the street to the Mexican restaurant, and they had called and they were like, Hey, is anyone there? And they're like, Yeah, we're snowed in. They're like, if we walk over, can you make food? And he was like, Oh yeah, for sure. And so they walked over to the Mexican restaurant across the street and like climbed down into the Mexican restaurant and ate food there. And like, I just think it was crazy because like in my head, I thought that was uh that was like the movie of uh the day after tomorrow, you know? Uh-huh. Snowstorm just annihilates like most of the most of the northern hemisphere. And I just remember thinking, I was like, oh, this is it. This is this is the thing they tell talk about in school. This is the global warming. Yeah. And then it was like a week later, all of it was gone. Compl classic Colorado, all five feet, melted away. And then it was a week of spring break, and it was baller. I loved it. I had two weeks off of school.

SPEAKER_04 5:52

Because I had just come here from Texas. And my I'm glad you experienced that. It was awesome because that was like once in a century. It was, it was it was so crazy. And my my parents had gotten with my one of my best friends from Texas and flown him up here. Oh nice. Until he got here, and then that storm hit. So they surpr I remember too, they surprised me at school, like getting out of school, like he was there with my parents, and I was like, they surprised me. I was like, what the heck? Hunter's here. And then we uh went home, then it snowed like crazy. And yeah, we just and then because he was standing up with us for all spring break, and it was so fun to have that wild storm.

SPEAKER_03 6:34

So was that so it was the week of your spring break on the springs, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:38

Yeah, yeah. So we uh it was probably like a week earlier than yours because we had basically we went right in the spring. That was the way they all were, but it was different counties. We just I just remember making t snow tunnels.

SPEAKER_03 6:49

Yeah, dude, that was good. That was we did snow tunnels uh trying to get across the street to our neighbor's house. Um, my neighbor across the street was my babysitter, but she was also like really cool tomboy in high school, was teaching me like how to skate ball uh skateboard and like you know play baseball and stuff. I I in my head I remember her being like very conventionally pretty, but she was so tomboy that like I also remember her just kind of being more like a very cool older brother almost. You know what I mean? Yeah and she was the single she was the only daughter of like a war vet dude and stuff, so like she he had pretty much just raised her to be like very, you know, independent. Um but anyways, so we were like, oh yeah, let's go, let's get across the street and see like what they're doing if they want to hang out. This was like two days of us shoveling, trying to navigate these tunnels and like popping up periscope-wise, and then giving feedback to one another to try to get across. This is my stepbrother and I. And uh, I'm like, all right, I'm just gonna try to sled across. And so I like go to the top and I sit on one of those like circle sleds, and I start pulling it across on the snow with my hands. And I'm like, I remember seeing the van, our van that is parked on the street. It was like a big camper van. So it had like, you know, I could see just through the uh tops of the windows, the curtains of the back of it, and the ladder going on to the top. And that's how I knew I was like at the street. And I don't know why. I don't know if it was the heat, the like stored energy of the heat and pavement, or if it was like the sewer system and stuff, but when I hit the street, I fell through the snow. Oh no, like a like less than a foot of it, like it was snow on top of water. And I went into like the slushiest, wettest snow. Like it was it, I felt like I was very wet. Oh, it felt like I was in water, like liquid water, right? And so I like remember going and flaying my hands around and finding the sled and like holding onto it, and I couldn't pull myself back up because it kept on sinking into the slush with me. It was like quicksand snow. Yeah, and so I found the like I kept on like struggling to get over and grabbed a hold of the ladder to the van. I climbed on top of the van. And I was like, what the hell? And I was looking and like it kind of didn't move super liquidly, like, but the snow, the way it packed down on it again on the slush, it just looked like it wasn't there at all. There was like, yeah, there's no way to tell. And I was like, oh my god. And uh my my stepbrother, we'll just call him V. I was like, V's about to hit that, and so like I started like heavy foot stepping off the van back into our yard and going back to the tunnel entrance. I started crawling through, and I was like, V, stop, stop, it's all water, and like I remember he's like, What do you mean? And I get there, like, don't dig any further, it's gonna, it's water. And he's like, No, dude, it's snow, look, it's right, it's snow. He like hand scooping with like a beach shovel, you know what I mean? Like a little like sand castle shovel, scoops the snow away, and it just like starts spilling out, like vomiting, this dirty, wet, slush snow, splashes past him, starts like flooding him in the face, and I'm like, Oh, we gotta get out of here. So he turns around, we start crawling out of the tunnels as they're filling up with water and just like collapsing behind us. And when we got out, it was it looked pretty cool because you could see the tunnel system, how it collapsed from the slush from the street just spilling into it, right? But that was like in my brain, did you ever see that movie Ants? That's what it was. Oh, yeah. It was like when they hit the like the pond or whatever, or the sprinkler system while they're at the ants are digging and the whole all the ant tunnels flood. In my brain, I was like, we're gonna drown down here's like the movie Ant. But it was such a good time, dude. It was that was easily like one of the most amazing, magical because I also was just like, whenever we were done, we were just watching home recorded video VHS tapes.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 11:05

So it was like everything we had recorded on VHS from like over the years, so it was like I had Dinotopia. That was a great one. Dinotopia, that was a good one to watch. It was like so long as a kid that it couldn't keep my attention, but like it was great to put on and then play with my dinosaur toys while I was playing. Watched uh I'm trying to remember, um, we VHS recorded Oh, we VHS recorded the um uh Batman movie with um Oh, you got his name in my head right there. I know, but I got both their names. Um Birdman. Birdman. Actor who played Batman. He was a great Batman. Um then the guy who played the Joker was um Jack Nicholson. That one was almost like a horror movie to me as a kid. Like, because Jack Nicholson was so scary in it.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 11:59

It was very scary in that movie. Yeah. Um Yeah, those are those are great, that was a great time. Did you guys did you and your buddy do anything crazy? Like anything like borderline dangerous because of the weight of the snow and like how much there was.

SPEAKER_04 12:17

I mean, just the also being from Texas, it was just like the the sheer amount of snow was just incredible. Can't comprehend it. And just and being in what's crazy about when you do make a snow tunnel, when it does collapse in, you are kind of stuck in there. People that's how people die. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:35

And like that's how people die in avalanches.

Sleeping In A Snow Cave: Safety And Awe

SPEAKER_04 12:37

Or like the next day when you come into your snow tunnel, and it's got smaller. It's like because it shrinking, it's collapsing. Yeah. Have you ever slept in a snow cave?

SPEAKER_03 12:47

No, never.

SPEAKER_04 12:48

It's uh I've done it before and it's it's pretty wild.

SPEAKER_03 12:52

We uh I would I mean I get the concept and I think it'd be cool. But I'm also just like it's not really realistic in Colorado, you know, like but you'd have to go into them hills to really do it. And I think like if you were to do it, it'd make more sense like further north into like Wyoming somewhere where they get, you know, we we just don't get the same amount of snow drift because we have so much to break it up.

SPEAKER_04 13:18

Yeah, yeah, you definitely have to go up in the mountains for it. But the um we went to this spot that had these like 15-foot-tall drifts. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 13:28

And uh we we hiked in there and dug into it, and uh it is it's like probably I bet it was like dried drifts, like packed dry ice borderline.

SPEAKER_04 13:39

Yeah, it was it was it they were pretty packed, and it was we worked up a sweat make it. What the crazy thing about digging a snow cave is how much you can get yourself in trouble is one, you work up a sweat digging it. And so if you don't fin if you don't like unlayer while you do it and or get it done in time, like you're just gonna be you're gonna be freezing cold. And so we where we were, it was the it was starting to get uh towards the end of the day, like we weren't quite done with it yet. Me and my cousin were just getting sweaty. It was like, man, we gotta finish this thing up. And then a cross-country skier came in there, and really we had hiked in where there's really gonna be nobody back there, but there is a trail through there, and a cross-country skier came and he was coming, and he came over to us. We're like, hey, hey, wait, wait, because he was coming over the drift where our cave was, and we're like, Oh, wait, hey, could you stop right there? Like, don't go forward at all. Because we just built a snow cave just beneath where where your where your skis are. He's like, Oh, okay, and like he's talking to us for a second, and like our plan is we had hiked like it was a mile or two from the car, and we were gonna sleep in there that night, and it's like the sun's starting to go down, and this guy's coming over, and after we get done talking with him, we're like, hey, but like just reminder, like, there's a snow cave right in front of you if you could go around, and he was just like, Yeah, okay, and goes straight over it. And it was like thinking about it, I was like, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, like maybe he just completely did not understand what we were talking about. Yeah, or but then also he thought it was closer, or maybe he's just a like he's a road biker of the snow, yeah, just a D-bag. All skiers, yeah. Just well, just the cross-country skiers, you know, whatever his deal was. But then I realized I was like, if he had collapsed that, it was starting to get cold enough and windy enough, and we were soaking wet from working, I was like, we could be all of a sudden in a really big pickle. Like, it's time to hike back to the car quickly before we freeze. But we we crawled in there and we got in, and we'd actually we'd built it with um two shelves to sleep on, and we dug in some like little tiny uh uh little alcoves around it, and taken our ice axe and we connected a hole down, or we did about five holes around the edges, and we put candles in there, survival candles in there and lit them, like an eight-hour candle, and then lit them. And um first with an ice cave, you you get it real, you get it, you light a fire in there, get it hot, and then or you light candles, get it hot, and then take them out, and then you let it freeze and it forms like an ice barrier. But then, and then when you light those candles, one you gotta have the scary thing about snow cave is yeah, you gotta be careful like expending too much energy to make one. If you're in a real struggle situation, it's like you spend a lot of calories, two, you gotta ventilate it. So like those holes are super important because you can um just die from using up all your oxygen, having no oxygen in your cave. Um, and then but then two is like if it collapses, it's like most of the night I was like kind of waking up like, is it getting closer? Is it gonna because we had this snow cave, we had about at the peak of it, we probably had five to six feet of snow on top of us. And I was like, That's a lot more than you need. It's more than you need, but it's so but it's also like that's a lot of if that thing falls, we're gonna be in a pickle.

SPEAKER_03 18:30

Yeah. That's what I mean. Like, that's why like there's like a rule or something about I remember reading it for like when you're making your own igloo, essentially, like about like how much weight you should have on the top third or something like that. There was somewhere ratio. I'm sure someone can look it up.

SPEAKER_04 18:49

But it was so quiet and warm in there. Oh yeah. And then when I woke up in the morning, I opened up our little makeshift door and the wind was whipping like uh 50, 60, 70 mile an hour winds. Whoa. Which makes sense why the snow drifts were there in this area because of how windy it is. But in the cave, dead silent. Yeah, yeah. Which also, if it collapses on you, your screams will also be dead silent. Yeah. So you gotta be careful. But um, it's a pretty fun experience to go go sleep in old snow cave. So, but yes, but my my uh imagination or my uh wonderment about you know making snow tunnels started that day back in the 2003 spring break, just being like digging a cave and going in. It was pretty fun.

SPEAKER_03 19:39

You ever been able to do more? Well, I guess yeah, that was one that was a snow cave you did because you said you guys drove in there. Because I just don't think there's ever been a weather like a snowstorm big enough for us to do anything similar to that. Not in town. You gotta go under the boonies out on the sticks.

SPEAKER_04 19:55

And we did build one once. This is the it's a you if you pile the snow and then dig it out, man, that's a hard dig. Oh yeah. Because it's so compact. But we have done that once.

The 2021 Breaker: Trees, Cars, And Cold

SPEAKER_03 20:07

But that one also is like if you do it, you know, when you don't have enough snow, just looks ugly. Yeah. Because you just got grass poking up through where you removed it all, and then you got like this weird, abominable pile of snow. Um, okay, but that one in 2021, 21, 2021, um, I remember that one because it had been so cold. It was so cold that like no one was expecting the that snow. It was like well, well, well below zero. And um, I remember I woke up because I heard while it was snowing that night, the like cracking popping of the trees because it is so quiet. It was you you know, when it's snowing like that, it's so silent and it's a dampener. And so then when you hear something as loud as like a tree limb snapping or splitting from the weight, it's pretty loud. And I heard it and I wake up and it's like 2 30 a.m. I think it was actually like three, and I get up and I go outside and I hear this limb snap and crash into a car. And I'm looking around our street to see like which one just had like a limb fall in it, and I start hearing all the other limbs kind of snapping and cracking, right? Like they weren't breaking entirely yet. So I go and I woke my roommates up like, guys, we need to move all of our cars away from the trees.

SPEAKER_00 21:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:34

And like while we were going out there to get our cars and move them, limbs were like snapping and falling down onto other cars. And this is the crazy thing, too. It was so cold that a ton of cars, I like I think their batteries were dead because their alarms weren't going off after the trees fell on them. And uh, or fell through the windows, right? And it was it was one of those things that was pretty crazy because I remember my roommate uh call him Jay, and he was moving his car, his car did not have four-wheel drive when we were having to push his car to get it started to get like out from the snow, um, packed around it and get it enough traction on the street. And as we were doing that, we had just pushed him and he's kind of curving around to a spot where there's no tree limbs hanging over, not big ones, like if they broke, they wouldn't break his car. And as we were like stepping back on the sidewalk and kind of directing him, probably like 30 seconds after we had moved, the tree right above his car essentially, you know, split down the middle and like just crushed into the street where like he would have been. And it was such a it was like that was like the last week of spring. The other one back in like 2003, that snowstorm was like beginning of spring. So that was like first week of March. This one came after like all the trees had gone real rubbery and already were blooming and their leaves were in full bloom. And so like they were full of just liquid, and when that freezing temperature came in, they started like. Actually, like freezing themselves, like in the interior of the limbs and stuff was freezing because they were so wet. And then the snow came and that just made them brittle. And they were snapping and breaking like glass. I remember that was like the weirdest thing. The way they were like breaking and falling off was super strange. Um, but the sounds were crazy, dude. And I remember we like we're like, whose car just got crushed because we heard the glass shatter and like walked down the street and we found this limb going through this car's like sunroof into the like you know back of it. And uh I was shocked. I was like, all right guys, we should go back inside. It's pretty cold. And I didn't realize, but like in pushing the cars and stuff like that, I had cut my hands up. Oh, right. It was so cold that like your skin like felt like tissue y. And the blood, I didn't know my my hands didn't sting from cutting them, pushing on the bumpers and stuff, but they were so sticky, and that's how I noticed they were bleeding. Because I was like, what is that weird, like tacky stickiness? Because your blood was freezing. And I looked at my hands and they were just covered in like icy sparkly blood. And my buddy's hands too, because you know, just we were both pushing on the same car bumpers. And that was like, I was like, maybe we should get inside. Like it was if it's that cold, like you're actually at risk of like getting a frostbite pretty quick. But it was magic, I mean it was very beautiful, but it was very eerie looking around, and everything was perfectly still and there's no sound, and because of how cold in like the time of night it was, there's no one out, but everything was glowing from the reflection of like the lights and stuff off the fresh heavy snow. And it was like you'd hear something snap and fall, you'd turn around and there'd be no movement, but all of a sudden there'd just be an extra branch, and it was it was very creepy, it kind of felt like the trees were attacking you almost, you know.

SPEAKER_04 24:59

It was crazy, and you know it's a big storm when a road grader gets stuck. Yeah, like there was like it was just like stuck on side of like things like that, just couldn't move. And I was I was kicking myself at that storm because oh literally four weeks before, I'd almost pulled the trigger on putting a plow on my truck and getting contracted, and I was like, man, it's gonna just like it's just like two, too much money, like it was like five grand for this whole setup that I don't want, and I was like, I didn't do it, and I was like, I would have paid that off in one day. Oh yeah, just going around, yeah, just backdraging people's driveways, whatever, but um, and that storm was crazy. I shoveled out the shop here, and I just got done shoveling out the shop, came inside, and then all the snow off the roof fell off, and then I opened the garage door and it was the white wall. Yeah, five feet tall. Yeah, but this was the avalanche snow, so it was and it was like I was like, oh my god. It would have killed you, dude. It filling you. That's true. I was glad I wasn't out there, but it would have squished me a bit. I was like, oh, time to start shoveling. We shoveled so much because at that time I had about 40 VRBO properties that I was in charge of maintenance on. Oh, really? And we were shoveling our butts off, dude. Oh my gosh, we were just shoveling forever.

SPEAKER_03 26:19

Dude, that is a that is a one thing too that is such a young man's job. Yeah, like shoveling snow in the middle of the night, like no one realizes how insane that is until you do it for like eight hours. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04 26:33

Yep, yep. And if you're an old man doing it, you've made some poor life decisions. Do you remember that the one of the craziest that was a crazy amount of snow, but the craziest storm I think I've seen here was the bomb cyclone in 2019. It was March in uh early March 2019, and it dumped like 10 inches of snow in like no joke, like like 30 minutes.

SPEAKER_03 27:04

Yeah, I mean I was here for it. I guess I just don't remember it.

Bomb Cyclone 2019 And Property Mayhem

SPEAKER_04 27:07

It was the only reason I remember the reason I remember those because I was a maintenance man. Similarly, I had a bunch of properties that we had been out shoveling and taking care of, and it or or we were just not doing maintenance, but then all of a sudden this like it was like all hell broke loose because we had typically when snow snowstorm happens, you you go out at night and you shovel all the properties and the morning starts and then everybody's stuff's clear. Yeah. But these were all commercial properties, and like everybody's calling, like, where's the snow removal guys? But it was like it was we were driving down the road and it went from just like kind of a little bit of a cloudy day to literally white out condition. Yeah. Similar to the trees break, this one had broke a lot of trees too, and a one at one of the properties, one of those 200-year-old cottonwoods. Oh, yeah, like can't wrap your arms around big, fell just across like five cars and like just flattened them. And I'm and I was I I've been out and I was taking pictures of all these things and showing my boss because he was like, Hey, could you get out there and clean some snow up and clean some branches up? Hey, could you get out there and do your job? Yeah, hey, can you clean the snow up and clean the branches up? And I was like, I texted him these pictures of like the war zone, and he was like, uh just kind of do it. Don't die. Yeah, it was kind of like, well, put some ice melt on the injuries, get out of there. I was like, Yeah, dude, this is crazy.

SPEAKER_03 28:27

Um, I think I do remember that one because uh um that was the time when I was working uh at the jail where I had just left the jail. Uh yeah, I think I actually had just stopped working at the jail. It's hard to it's hard to keep track of. But anyway, oh no, no, no, no. No, it was. I was I I was working at the jail. But yeah, it was that was a stressful time, dude. That was uh that was definitely a stressful time because I remember just how many trees were broken on my drive to work and how many cars were in town just spun out. It's like everyone woke up the next morning and was like, oh, I guess I'll still go to work. And it was like, hey, bud, like if like it, if it, if the streets aren't plowed yet and it's still white out, like you can you could call your boss and be like, I'm gonna be late. I guarantee you your boss is gonna be late. You know what I mean? But I that was a crazy because I had to go, you know, law enforcement, you just have to go. Yeah, like there's just not a choice. So, and I remember going and just seeing how many cars are spinning. It was crazy.

SPEAKER_04 29:34

And okay, look at this picture though, real quick. This is the bomb cyclone from the um Oh yeah. It's literally a hurricane snow across the whole country, but look at where Fort Collins is.

SPEAKER_00 29:47

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 29:48

Right in there. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 29:53

Yeah, that was a crazy time. Um last night though, dude, I was driving home from the movie theaters. Oh yeah. Um, and I was uh driving north on the highway, right, and I see the snow plows, and like if you live in any like town or any city, not city, I guess, if you live in a state that has like a dedicated snowplow service for the highways and stuff, you often see them getting rolled out, and sometimes you're like, Really? They're rolling them out already? Like, there's nothing. And there had been flurries for several hours, but nothing sticking, dude. And in one mile, it went from flurries and nothing sticking to complete white out, and I couldn't see the highway anymore. And I got like ran off the highway by a semi that didn't know where the road was. Oh my goodness. Yeah, dude, he like he was coming up behind me so fast, and I was like, dude, I I can't see anything. I couldn't see exit signs. Like that's it, that's how that's how blacked out it was from the snow. And uh, I remember going slow enough, and he was coming up pretty quick and went to I think trying to pass me, and I s I noticed the semi itself starting to tilt because he was going off the highway on the easement, and then he came back and kind of corrected. But he corrected too sharp, so I had to break, and I just got over until I felt it wasn't like the snow didn't wasn't so thick that like on the it didn't fill up or stack up, I guess, on the pavement enough that you couldn't feel the the bumps, right? You know, from the shoulder. So once I felt those, I just kind of stopped and let that semi get ahead. But I swear to God, Pat, like probably 20 feet in front of my car, his taillights were gone. It was unreal. It was the it was like it was probably the craziest I've seen, like not in the mountains from like nothing to like absolute blizzard white out. I was probably I just went 25 miles an hour and four-wheel drive the rest of the way on the highway. And uh then it's scary about someone coming up behind you. That was the thing. I was like, I was like, I don't know if they could see me, so I just threw it on flashers. I was like, hopefully they'll see the pattern. But um the uh I mean you you know like my exit pull-off for my little town just north of us, right? And I it was so dark and so white out, dude, that I couldn't tell if I passed that exit and was on my way to Wyoming. So I I had to like pull over again and put on maps. Oh man. Because it was like, and I you just couldn't see. And you couldn't see the streetlights on overpasses. There was nothing, dude. It was surreal. I debated, I was like, maybe I should just like four-wheel drive off the highway. I know there's a county road, and it's a lot safer to be on the county road at night than on the highway in a white out. But it was it was also like by the time I got home, it ended. Like by it, so in that like usually it's like a 15-minute drive home. In that like 45-minute drive home going super slow on the highway, it was there and done. It was it went from nothing at all to 10 inches of snow dumped to being over.

SPEAKER_04 33:07

Yep. It that happened to us one time when we so when you duck hunt, bad bad weather is good weather. And this big storm was coming.

SPEAKER_03 33:20

It was um But don't the ducks not want to fly in bad weather?

Whiteout Drive, Semis, And Survival Choices

SPEAKER_04 33:23

No, it gets them all gets them all horny, gets them all turned on. They want to be fine. They want to have sex? Uh not really. They want to they want to get out, they want to fly around, they want to flock up. It gets their migration instincts going. When cold, wet weather, windy weather, um it'll give it'll it usually stirs up the wildlife. And so um all the all the lakes and ponds around here were frozen, and there's this spot out east where the there's these sloughs where the water doesn't freeze. And it was like negative 17 um out. And we it's too cold, bro.

SPEAKER_03 33:59

How do you how can we I can imagine some of that shotgun ammo isn't gonna fire?

SPEAKER_04 34:04

It's uh we so so we we load up the truck, we're like, all right, we're gonna go. Um, we're gonna drive late at night, we're gonna drive over the drive there, we're gonna actually get it, we got it, we're gonna drive east, get a cheap hotel, sleep for 10 minutes, wake up, go hunt. Um, but on our way out, we're going out 34, out of Greeley. And this it was the craziest drive. First of all, we were um Instagram Live had just literally just become a thing that week. Uh huh. So like lots of people were using it, and it was and and it was easy to get a lot of people watching you because it was just it was so fresh. And so we were in these we load up with all the duck stuff, and we're in the truck, three of us, and I'm driving and we s and the roads were true white out on the the snow was coming down so hard there was just no road.

SPEAKER_03 34:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:59

And once you get out past Greeley, it no lights, no nothing. Like it's just there's nothing. You're just blind. But there's 18 wheelers trucking, and so similar to how you're saying the visibility is horrible, but there's these 18 wheelers that are coming and passing us in the snow and just hauling balls. But we so we had to be going I had to keep it going like 60 just so we if we wouldn't get run up on. And so we just got flashers on going 60. We literally cannot see any, you can't see more than 20 feet in front of you. Yeah, yeah. That's how it was last night. And we're just hauling, and we had our Instagram live going, and we had like like I think we had over 100 people, just randos, just watching us, asking us questions, and when these 18 litters would pass us, it would put you in a snow cloud, it would last for about 30 seconds, you just couldn't see anything. We just hold it straight and hope you don't run off the road, keep going. Yeah. And we ended up, we did end up going hunting um out there, but uh it was cold that morning. It was so cold that we uh um it was cold enough that the the guns started to not work after your first couple shots just from condensation. And it was cold enough that when you get out of your waders, you can hold them for two seconds and let go and they stay standing up. Yeah. It just it was a cold day. But the the drive out there, it was one of those drives too where it was like did that in my 20s, I would not do that probably now.

SPEAKER_03 36:25

Yeah, that's how I am with a lot of a lot of the drives I've done. I'm now like, I'm like, I have precious cargo. Like in my 20s, I was like, so what if I die? And nowadays I'm like, if I die, that will seriously set back all of my wife's plans, that will ruin my family's plans for retirement, that will destroy many lives.

SPEAKER_04 36:48

And it's okay to want to kind of live yourself now that our that our prefrontal cortex is fully developed, you know. Just kind of like some self-preservation.

SPEAKER_03 36:57

I still don't have a ton of self-preservation of like I need to live.

SPEAKER_04 37:01

But you're probably not as like as gung-ho to like go rock climbing and get real hot and like or drive 110 or 100.

SPEAKER_03 37:09

I tell you what though, too. Like I also am like when I'm driving Billy Jean or my dog or any like friends or or family, my mindset has just completely shifted of like I don't want to be the person who has to tell any of these people's families that uh they're dead from a car accident I was responsible for. Yeah, you can't do you can't do jack dick about like someone else you know flattening you, but I'm just like, you know, I I got precious cargo now. And I see it that way.

SPEAKER_04 37:41

My my catch 22 with that for me is that when I'm driving by myself, I don't get road rage. But I get road rage now. Yeah, if I'm by myself, I never get it. But when I have people in the car I care about, yeah, I get a little I then my road rage comes out a little bit. Which is therein more dangerous for the people I'm trying to protect. It's like so it it just sometimes it messes with you gotta yeah, I gotta slow down and remind myself why am I mad? Oh, because I want to keep these people safe. That's why I'm actually mad right now, because that wouldn't have pissed me off before. So take your foot off the gas, don't chase them down, like just like just like don't get in the whatever it is, it's just it's a funny thing that the very thing I'm trying to do gets excuse me, gets messed up because you your your whatever, the your brain, my lizard brain takes over and then that protective instinct.

SPEAKER_03 38:38

Yeah, I I mean I'm the same way I do. Like if someone almost runs me off the road without using their blinker and cutting so far over that like they would have hit my front tire with their passenger door. I just break and I'm like, oh, oh gosh, man. Uh I bet they weren't paying attention. I honk, but it's not like the screaming while I honk.

SPEAKER_04 38:59

Let you know I was here.

Duck Hunt In Negative Seventeen

SPEAKER_03 39:00

And I'm just like, yeah, like well, it's the reactionary, like, please don't hit me, please don't hit me, as you're trying to merge over. But then it's like, I'm like, I wonder who it is. And I'll kind of speed up just to see who the driver is, but no aggression or anything. And then I'm like, alright, like, well, glad that didn't happen. That would have been crazy. And then as soon as Billie Jean's in the car, or like oh yeah, any any any other person, my mom especially, because my mom almost died in a car accident. And so, like, anytime I'm there and someone does that, I'm like, it might have better it's fucking I'm I'm riding them off the road. Like, and I'm like, I literally, while I'm driving the car, I'm never like you know what, you know what, you know what I should do in response to that? Hit their car with my car. And then illogically, yeah, absolutely illogically, when I have someone in my car, I'm like, I'm I want to make sure it's a is safe. When someone almost cuts me off and you know crashes on the highway going 80, I'm like, I'm gonna end you.

SPEAKER_04 40:03

Your decisions have rendered your life forfeit.

SPEAKER_03 40:06

I've never been more okay about sacrificing my vehicle as an asset.

SPEAKER_04 40:10

Like oh yeah. I've may or I may or may not have um uttered some of the most heinous uh homicidal language in front of my wife and kids.

SPEAKER_03 40:19

Yeah, yeah. I've never done anything stupid in the world.

SPEAKER_04 40:22

I've done it, but I've said some things I regret.

SPEAKER_03 40:24

Yeah, no, but like, I mean, I I see like some people's road rage, you know, it's just insane where they actually are like pulling their gun out of their console or something. I'm like, you I've never been there ever to that point of anger or like boiled like red vision, the red mist where I'm like it is out of my control how I'm going to like take a step towards violence. And the most of it ever is is like I just actually am really swearing and cussing, and that's really all it is. Like I've never I've never been in that thing because I but I have seen some people. I have been in the vehicle with some dudes who were like, I'm gonna fucking shoot this guy. You know, I'm just like, bruh, like dude, chill the fuck out, you know, and it's never who you I thought it was gonna be. It was never my homies who were like out-of-state students from Texas, and they had their they had their M9 in the glove box. It was always dudes who were like, it was always dudes who are business majors and like kind of like more fratty boys, and I was just like, bro, like I've seen you shoot. You should not be reaching for that gun and trying to shoot it while going 80.

SPEAKER_04 41:40

And uh so about I will say with road rage and snowstorms, one of the times I did I I did come off the handle a bit, uh, and I did not have someone in the car. The um it was one of those one of those mornings where it's early morning, not a lot of cars on the road, and the snow has covered there's no lines on the road. There's so everybody knows the rules of when there's no lines on the road. Rule one, kind of do your best and stay in the tracks that have been established, you know. And so we're coming up to a um like I'm I'm following the 18-wheeler cutout before it's covered up. Yep, and so we're on a it's on a it's on a city street but a main road in the city, and we're coming up to a double turn lane, and so I get over into the first turn lane, you know, like get over a little bit to the left into the first turn lane. There's a further turn lane further left, and I guess I guess I was maybe a little bit in the middle of the two of them. Like I said, it's all white that's like whited out. So then I'm on the phone with one of my employees, and this guy is I'm stopped, and this guy's coming past me, and he comes to my to my left to get in the other turn lane, and he just he bumps my window. Which I'll say, I actually I knock windows with other big trucks. Quite a bit. He bumps your window. Or sorry, bumps my mirror. So I'm saying window. Sorry. He bumps my mirror. Our mirror slap. Oh, because you got you got mirrors that stick out far. Their mirror sticks out really far. So when I'm in the when we're like there's tight traffic and like something happens, like I've tapped mirrors with other guys or they tap my mirror and it's kind of like you just look at each other and you're like, peace sign, like hey, like, yeah, keep rolling, you know. We got the big big truck mirrors, all right.

SPEAKER_03 43:32

So well, and those mirrors can bend out that way. They can bend out without breaking. Yeah, and it's just not like you're like most people's wondering, they're like, how does that happen without your mirrors exploding? Right. Because most mirrors don't go that direction.

SPEAKER_04 43:43

They're made, they're made to be tapped a little. Yeah. And so a little mirror tap's no big deal. But he taps, he he it's not that there was no other cars around, and he had room to get further left. But he wanted to stay in his what he thought was the lane as much as possible. And I was I thought it was the lane as much as possible. But he hit my car, which everybody knows the hitter is guilty of the hitting. Right. So I don't even I don't even care. He he whacks my mirror, I'm like, ah, whatever, I'm on the phone with my guy. And then he rolls his window down. So then I pull up because I'm like, oh, this guy wants to talk to me to well, if somebody's he's gonna wave you down.

SPEAKER_03 44:24

He's like, hey, let's pull sorry man, let's pull up.

Precious Cargo And The Road Rage Mirror Tap

SPEAKER_04 44:26

What would somebody say, yeah, if uh if someone taps your mirror and you see their them roll their window down, probably just a hey, sorry, or you know, you know, what you know, just just a quick apology, hey, you know, sorry about that, everything good, you know, whatever. So I pull forward a little to where his window's down, and he just looks over at me and then goes, I don't know what to tell you. I was in my lane, and then something in my brain just snapped and flipped. And it was the the arrogance on this guy's face and like just the the the douchery that you that you can't put words to. And when someone says something, it's not the words he said, it's how he said it, and the things he and the he the fact that he took the time to roll the window down to anti-apologize was just like it it boggled my brain so it literally snaps me and I'm on the phone with my employee, and I proceed to yell a few things out the window about um uh my you know a phallic nature and where I'm gonna put my stuff and what he can do with his mouth, you know, and I'm just screaming this out, you can do it, fucking just letting him have it, and my employees going, and the other side's going, oh dang Pat, get him! Yeah, get him! And I was like, and and then and then the dude just peels off, and the the roads are packed with snow, it's super dangerous. I'm like, but I just at this point I had my flip hit switch, and I was like, oh my gosh. And so I did try to, I was like, I was like, I'm gonna find this guy, you know. I tried to follow him, and he was because I also I decided late to follow him. I was like, I'm gonna f oh definitely I'm following him. He was and he was too far gone at that point. But um the emotion that overcame me in that moment, afterwards, like debriefing with myself, I was like, I was trying to figure out why did that make me so mad? And that's what I was talking about, just the fact that it was like go out of your way to anti-apologize. It just it just got me, man. It got me right in my honor, honor issues, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 46:31

But yeah, oh my god. No, yeah, there's nothing it I think, especially when you're like already mentally there of like, you know what, this guy's gonna make peace, and I'm gonna make peace too.

SPEAKER_04 46:42

It's no big deal.

SPEAKER_03 46:42

You've already broke you've mentally reached the journey that like I am also gonna be the big man and make peace too.

SPEAKER_04 46:48

This was not even a big deal to me at all. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:51

And then and then like when they're cut, it's like as someone's coming up and they're like extending their hand to shake yours and be like, bygones be bygones. Oh, yeah. And instead of like that, they like you know smack you across the face with it.

SPEAKER_04 47:05

They he told that's he told me it was my fault that he hit my car. And I just was like, Where you get off? Um anyways, road raging, dude.

SPEAKER_03 47:18

The reason I was driving home last night was because I went and saw Predator Badlands for a buddy's birthday. And it was really good. It's actually a good movie. It's definitely like how I will soft introduce my child or children to Predator. All right, and then I'm going to show them the actual Predator 1985 movie with Arnold. But I'm not gonna let them see what it is. Like, I'm gonna go put it on and start playing it and just skip past the intro with the Predator ship come coming on to Earth. Yeah. Just so that way when they sit down to watch it, they're like, Oh, an Arnold action movie, yeah. Maybe I'll have like put on commando before that, so they see the movie Commando first, and they're like, This is what Arnold does. And then they'll be like, What the hell? What is killing all these people? And then it'll be revealed to be the predator, and they'll be so shocked. Because in in Predator Badlands, uh your your main character, your protagonist, is a predator. And I genuinely think it will be a predator that has that will win over hearts and minds of children. It's a PG-13 movie. I was about to say everything in it is tailored to be very violent without being uh like violent against humans. So like all the people who get killed in it are like synths. And that's how they get around it. They're like, it's not actually blood, it's just a bunch of white goop coming out of these synths. And when they get their heads taken off and they get you know flayed into pieces and you know, body parts ripped off, it's not people, it's robots. And it's uh I call it the the samurai Jack effect. Uh samurai Jack was able to kill everything and everyone in a Y-7 show. Yeah, in a Y7 cartooneric primetime show because everyone was a robot and just like spewed out oil instead of blood. Uh and it was awesome. Um, and that's how this movie is, too. And uh it actually had some really good comedy in it that wasn't cringe comedy, like Marvel comedy. Good. Um, the acting was, you know, not great. Uh, but part of me thinks that's more because uh there's no humans, so everyone's supposed to act like a robot. So maybe that's just why the acting, like acting like a robot felt kind of hammy and I don't know. But it was it was good, it was it was well done. Um at some points the CGI was a little too much. Like, did you ever see the uh Black Panther movie? Mm-hmm. You remember the final fight scene in that movie where there it's just a hundred percent CGI fighting in Wakanda subway, and they're just they don't even look like remotely like actual people. They're just like CGI cartoon fighting. That's like uh there's like stuff like that in the opening where some predators are fighting, and you're just like, This doesn't even look like people in costumes. Like this looks like too the the way they're moving is too fluid that it takes me out of it when I see them moving in costume. You know what I mean? Like, oh, that's not how that's not how um smooth and fluid the user is the w the character is when it's a guy in a costume running with a mask on. Right. And he's not jumping like that, you know, when he's in costume, it's a lot more stiff and you know, big guy a guy in a costume. And so it was just there's a couple parts like that, but it was alright, it was tolerable. Um the movie overall, I'd get I'd give it like an eight out of ten. Nice. Um, but anyways, so that for my buddy's birthday. This buddy of mine, he you know him. But uh every year for his birthday now, for three years or so, I think two or three years, another friend and I, we've come up with a very harmless, very hilarious bit in that uh we know our we know our friend is like a classic rock kind of guy, 80s, 90s rock as well, he enjoys it. Um but we like to really over-emphasize and uh act like somehow like at some point he or someone else, like his wife, told us that he's a Dave Matthews band fan. And every year we get him Dave Matthews band stuff. It's like we started out small with like just getting him a shirt and signing like hey, to the biggest Dave Matthews fan we know, happy birthday. This year was his 30th birthday, and I like asked his wife, I was like, Do you guys have a record player? Because I we have forgotten. I was like, the only thing I could find that's Dave Matthews is like this uh double set vinyl record. And she's like, No, we don't have one. I was like, damn. I guess he he would if I bought him this and gave it to him and he's like, Oh, I don't have a record player, then we'd have to take it back. And it could spoil the bit. Because while we take it back, he could be like, you know what, I'm happy you're taking it back as well, because I'm just not a Dave Matthews fan. And I'm sorry I haven't told you sooner. Oh, so he's he hasn't said that he's not a fan.

SPEAKER_04 52:37

And you know he's not.

Predator Badlands Review

SPEAKER_03 52:38

Yeah, that's the funny part. Right. Because he's playing like kindness, he's just kind of he's just being kind, so nice and kind, and can't he can't bring himself to tell me and my other buddy that he's not a Dave Matthews band fan. Oh my god. And so we just keep getting him stuff and signing the cards. Like, uh, there's a Dave Matthews band song called Samurai Cop. So on this album I said, you know, happy 30th birthday to our favorite samurai cop from Jay and Mick. And I was like, I also like I read I was like, and Botchi this vinyl before I found out you didn't have a like record player, so we got one too. And so now he we bought him like a record player. And his only record is named Matthews like double set album, and it's like it's just big enough, you know, of a thing. Because it's it's like a modern-day record player, it's not like it's like a four thousand dollar vintage record. Like, where do I put this thing? It well, it's a portable one, and it can also be used like as a Bluetooth radio and stuff, so it's got like actual reutility, which is kind of nice to give him that as like a 30th birthday gift. Because I kind of feel bad if I gave someone like on a milestone birthday, an actually completely useless gift. That's true. But so we we got him that in the record, and now like his wife's kind of in on it, and I'm just like, you know, don't have to lie, but I do need you to like make sure he doesn't tell us that he doesn't like Dave Matthews. Like, if he's ever talking to me, he's like, this is too much. Like, I gotta tell him so they can get take this back and get their money back. You have to be like, no, like they they they asked me about it. Like they clearly really put a lot of thought into this. Like, so what we at least have a record player and we just won't play the Dave Matthews album. We'll just we'll just go get other records, you know. And I just wanted to keep on digging in because like sometimes I'll like we'll go over and we'll see the Dave Matthews shirts in his closet. She's like, I bet those never get worn. You know, and like the whole point, too, is that we're working up to the next time Dave Matthews goes on tour to get him tickets for his birthday. And so like he's like so insanely like accountable to keep with the bit and just play along. Who knows? I would there's nothing more I would love than if we were at the Dave Matthews band concert. He's like, you guys, you know, I got his own is kind of funny. I really wasn't a big Dave Matthews band fan until you guys like kept giving me stuff year after year. And now I'm just happy to be here with my friends, and the music makes me think of my friends. That would be the best part, you know. Kind of like, you know, uh Pavlovian uh or uh what's the one where you come to love your kidnapper?

SPEAKER_04 55:24

Yeah, Stockholm Syndrome.

SPEAKER_03 55:25

Stockholm syndrome, a little bit of Stockholm Syndrome with Dave Matthews band and his buddies. But I think it's so funny, and I when we were Billy Jean was wrapping the record player and the record up in like you know, some Christmas wrapping paper because his birthday's so close to Christmas, and uh I could not keep it together, dude. I was like crying laughing every time because I tested it out, made sure everything worked, but I was just like, this is such an insanely harmless, but hilariously like funny uh bit. And oh dude, I like I still I get watery eyes just thinking about it.

SPEAKER_04 56:05

Um that's great.

SPEAKER_03 56:06

So he's he's trapped in that, and I've been getting messages, he just opened it, and the and his wife just messaged like the first thing he said to me is like, what the fuck is up with this Dave Matthews bandit? Like, what is going on, like what is going on? And so I'm like, that's perfect. Yeah, like you don't even have to you you'd be like, you don't even have to be like, what honey you told me? Because like, don't lie. Because if he's like, I've never told you that, like, don't do that, but just be like, well, it's still thoughtful, even if you don't like Dave Matthews band, like that's so and those are some there's some good songs on that album, you know? So it's excellent, dude.

SPEAKER_04 56:39

I love it so much. Here's some things I've found. Dave Matthews bobblehead.

SPEAKER_03 56:44

That's a good one. Um that'd be interesting.

SPEAKER_04 56:46

Get it, get it for his desk. He works at a desk. Uh Dave Matthews band album cover Woodburned onto a cheese board.

SPEAKER_03 56:56

Like a charcuterie board? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 56:58

That's funny. Then we have uh we do have a Christmas ornament. You have wrapping paper with Dave, it's Christmas themed wrapping paper with Dave Matthews' face on it wearing a Santa hat.

SPEAKER_03 57:11

So that one I feel like would be hard because I don't think his wife would want that aesthetically underneath the tree.

SPEAKER_04 57:17

Yep, yep. But you could wrap his present in it.

SPEAKER_03 57:20

Well, then he would know. Because here's the funny thing. I think he opened up the record player first. Oh. Because it's a lot bigger. And I think he was like, Wow, they got me a record player. That's kind of random, but that's really nice and sincere. And then he's like, Oh, I wonder what the first record is. And he opened it, it is a double zette Matthews. He's probably like, This is all bit, this can't be real.

SPEAKER_04 57:44

What you could do, this is a great, we used to do this just for fun. And like in high school, we had a band room, and we'd buy like broken instruments from pawn shops, and then sign them with like rock stars names and just put them on the wall.

SPEAKER_02 57:59

That's cool.

SPEAKER_04 58:00

But you could get a guitar that's jacked up, just get a$30 guitar from a pawn shop. It looks all used as a pawn shop, and just like sign it with Dave Matthews and make a fake like authentication, like form with it, and and just be like, and and and and make it make it like don't don't say how expensive it was, but make it clear in the authentication that like this is from his, you know, what the guitar from his peak to or what like it's like and just uh that'd be insane. Just see what he oh man, but uh also Dave Matthews concert. I mean, hey, you'll enjoy yourself at that. It'll be a good show.

SPEAKER_03 58:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 58:40

Um that is a great bit. Oh, that is hilarious.

SPEAKER_03 58:43

And then by then he will have enough t-shirts that we've bought him that we can all wear him.

SPEAKER_04 58:48

You can all wear his ban shirt, yeah. Oh, that is hilarious. Is this the same guy you did the mint thing to?

SPEAKER_03 58:56

No, no, that was that was a dude in my Bible study that I was a disciplining. He was a that guy was a lot younger. This is a dude who I like was peers with in college. But anyways, it's such a classic, classic, harmless thing. And like I want to start learning the other band members of Dave Matthews, like their names. Just start getting him like inside jokes like about like the band members. It's like like get him a coffee cup or something that says like don't talk to me until I've heard the black guy who plays a saxophone. He's a ginormous, like dreads black dude that plays a saxophone and hands go marching.

SPEAKER_04 59:46

What is his name? His name's Rashawn Ross. Don't Oh wait, no, yeah, he's the trumpet player.

The Dave Matthews Birthday Bit Escalates

SPEAKER_03 59:57

Who's the saxophone guy? Jeff Coffin. Jeff Coffin, yeah. Don't talk to me until I've heard Coffin play the sax and I've had my coffee. Like, imagine that on a mug. So niche. And someone would be like, what is that? There's no way he could explain it to anyone who asked him about it without sounding like a mega Dave Matthews bad nerd. Yeah. He'd be like, I'm not that big of a fan, but my friends got it for me. And everyone, anytime he would say that, people would be like, Alright, buddy. Sounds like you're a big fan, but like it's not anything to be ashamed about.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:34

Oh, that is hilarious.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:37

Oh, that's a good bit.

unknown 1:00:40

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:41

And it's rather cheap, you know. Like, I think all said and done for his 30th birthday, we spent like 130, 150 bucks with a real record player in it. Real record player and a double set, you know, best hits album.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:59

That's funny. Those things bring joy. They do good cleaner harm. Good clean fun.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:07

They're harmless.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:08

Mm-hmm. I bet you could get on the Dave Matthews band Reddit.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:14

I was debating that. I was debating like, hey, does anyone got any like stuff they want to get rid of?

SPEAKER_04 1:01:21

Oh man. Why is there a Reddit feed for everything?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:26

Dude, there really is.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:28

Whatever you want to go learn about. People right now on Dave Matthews Band Reddit feed are sharing their because Spotify Rap is coming out. Yeah, yeah. There's lots of Spotify raped coming out. People bragging on here about him being their top artist. This person spent 41,000 minutes listening to Dave Matthews band this year.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:52

That's more than how many days is that? That's more than my wife's total combined Spotify rap play. That would be 29.17 days. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:05

That's someone who listens to it 24-7. A month of their life.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:14

You know, when I think about it though, I've probably spent over a month of my time this last year listening to audiobooks. You know what I mean? Yep.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:24

That's right. I was in because I I I wish I had Audible wrapped. This guy's the 89th top listener. So there's 88 people for him to pass this year. Who's the top listener? You need to get his login for his Spotify and just every night on one of your devices play Dave Matthews on nonstop and make him the top listener of the year on Rap. Number one Dave Matthews. He wouldn't even know what is happening. Yeah. Oh my gosh. The uh you know, another another band, like it's kind of like a Dave Matthews band, like there are a lot of like people like love him or hate them types, and there's been this big resurgence with like Creed.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:25

But yeah, because of that Running Up the Hill song by What's Her Faves, that Creed covered, and Creed's cover is pretty good. It's a good cover on uh Kate, what's her name? Kate something. She's the original artist who did Running Up That Hill. I don't remember her. Which all that became popular again because of the Stranger Things.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:48

But but there also there's also like resurgence in dad rock in general.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:52

Or butt rock is what it's also called. Why butt rock? I forget why it's called butt rock, but it's called butt rock.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:58

A bunch of dads with their plumers crack out at concerts. I can't remember why it's called butt rock. But oh, sit on you, you sit on your butts the whole time. Like you're there at like the field, the stadium, and you're just sitting in chairs the whole time.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:09

I don't know. But um the deal with it too is like Nickelback and Creed got so overplayed. When when we were young. Yeah, it's it's part of what ruined it for so many people. And now it's gonna happen. It's like, I wonder if these bandwidths like, oh my god, it's gonna happen again. Because it's on every TikTok video, every YouTube short has has these these Creed songs in it and like Creed memes and all this stuff. And it's like, I'm just like, and I've I've always stayed loyal. I've always listened I like Creed, I like, I like Nickelback.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:42

Hey, get at me. You said that, and now I'm gonna weaponize it against you. That's fine.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:46

But now it's like it's coming back around, and now it's like they're gonna do it again. They're gonna freaking ruin butt rock again. And butt rock uh likely originated from the 90s hard rock radio campaign with the tagline rock, nothing but rock. So now they call it butt rock, nothing but rock. Now it's people call it nothing, yeah, but butt rock. And so that's why it's called butt rock. Because of your, you know, your dad's your construction worker dad's radio station. Just 9999, nothing but rock.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:19

I get it. There you go. Yeah, I think I mean I like that as resurgence because I truly do think that there's less good music than there was in the 90s and 80s. Like, I still listen to 80s hairbands. Like, I don't think I truly don't think there's a band that has come along that has produced better music post 2010 uh than Van Halen. Like, I think Van Halen music is so insanely good for almost any vibe. And I think that just because like I didn't grow up listening to Van Halen, like I discovered them, you know, when the ability to stream music started coming on, like post iTunes. And so, and I I mean I had heard their songs before, right? But I didn't know them, and that was their song. Same thing with like uh, you know, ACDC, Metallica, like all of them were stuff that I heard at times playing in the radio as a kid growing up, but I never knew I couldn't tell you an ACDC or Metallica or Van Halen song. And uh then I was like, dude, this is good music. And I remember like that was when I went, like, I just stopped listening to like modern hip-hop and rap. And I pretty much like that was also when I was phasing out of modern country because like modern country just felt a little repetitive.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:47

It already it AI'd itself. Yeah. Like even before it was like like uh uh country song, top country song hit uh this last week was an AI song. Hit top of the charts. What the heck's up with that? That's also fake news. Is it fake news?

SPEAKER_03 1:07:05

Well, it's not fake news, it's fake because the top of the to be the top of the chart only requires a count of streamed. So and you can fake how many times it was downloaded on stream by just having it.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:19

It might have been the numbers might have been the books might have been cooked a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:22

Well, it's also low numbers. Someone did the math on it.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:25

It only takes like 3,000. To hit it and to hit it for like if it goes viral, people look at it, that doesn't mean it's been that's that's true, because it's different than like in 2002, if a song was on the radio for three months straight and being played. Right. But yeah. But the um But yeah, yeah, modern country got so canned, like it just canned music, it's all everything, it's all it's all the same, it's all the same stuff and down the hill for sure, and and that. But the um and I think with I mean they've been using you know autotune, drum machines, different things for a very long time now. And that's where those old mu those old songs don't have any of that in there.

Butt Rock, Creed, And Music Nostalgia

SPEAKER_03 1:08:11

And they also just to me feel like uh, you know, they do feel like a time capsule in a way. Because it to me makes me feel like I'm listening to the music that my mom grew up with and you know, bought her first cassette player to listen to, right? And stuff like that. So I enjoy listening to that experience because there's like some nostalgia to it. But it's also like I just genuinely believe there was like overall better songs at a higher quantity than there is today. And don't get me wrong, there's still a lot of bangers that get made like to today and like over the last 10-15 years, but I just don't think there has there's as many consistently like good songs, or songs of today, how long do they stay at that level of being a banger?

SPEAKER_04 1:09:03

About three weeks, you know, till something else pops up.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:07

Consumption too has changed though. Like I you used to buy an album to share it with your friends and play it in the card together, right? And nowadays, like you send a link to a song that you like on Spotify to a friend and they open it up at their house away from you. It's not as much of like a communal thing together, you're experiencing it. Like there was a there was a this band called Family Force 5. And they were like this kind of like oh like borderline like disco rock, techno punk. They're kind of like daft punk to a degree, but like uh more um like kind of goofy, silly songs, um, and they really like niched out a little bit of themselves for it. But I remember they released this album, Dance or Die, and my buddy had bought it, he's like, You guys gotta hear this. This is crazy. And I remember he was playing it in his Honda Civic for us. We were like, dude, this this music is baller. And we were just like dancing to that song in a parking lot playing out of his speakers of his car. Um, you know, it was at the time when that this word came into existence called krunk, and it was like we're getting crunk, dude. Like, like, dude, uh dude, I'm getting I'm getting crunk on this right now, dude. Like uh, it was so but that was like no when's the last time you saw a group of kids? It's when crunk hit the white people, yeah. When's the last time you saw a group of kids like dancing to car, like a music blasting out of a car in a parking lot? Like I haven't seen it since I was the kid doing it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:55

No, for real. Yeah, I have not seen or like I'll say in college once, it was like a Tuesday morning. I'm riding my bike from one of my classes, I'm a freshman, and I'm passing one of the sophomore guys' houses. And there's just loud music coming from in there. Like, loud, loud. I'm like, what's going on in there? And well, everybody's like, well, everybody's in uh, you know, para-church youth ministries, you have access to large speakers for youth events. So they had taken all these speakers and rigged them up, and they were just they're playing like Lil Wayne or something.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:33

Yeah, but and Lil, I'll also say Lil Wayne was one of my like he was one of my sunset rappers. Oh yeah. He like as I was losing my interest in rap, he was like one of the last ones I really like enjoyed listening to.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:46

And so I walk in this house with this raging music playing, and there's just there's no girls. It's Tuesday morning, and there's like 25 guys just dancing their faces off in this house. That might be the last time I I saw such an impromptu dance party, strong impromptu social dance party breakout. With no um, like, and the fact that like in general, like, why do dudes dance at the clubs? It's an act of peacocking and prospecting. Sure. This was while the lyrics may not have been so pure coming out of out of the speakers that we use to tell people about Jesus usually. The the act of this man dance party was was very pure. Yeah, which I get that. Reminds me of a the Bruce Willis SNL skit, boy dance party. Did you ever see that?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:40

I don't think I ever saw that one.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:41

I'll show it to you later. It's a good one. It's basically the same premise, just it's a boy dance party. Yeah. And it's uh that's it. It's just pure.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:49

Those are some of my best memories as a kid. Boy dance parties. Dude, also, this is one I thought about this at the movie theater last night. But I remember Friday, school's over, waiting for someone to pick me up so we can go to the movies. We would get to the movie theater like two hours early. So me and my friends, who are you know, we were all arriving in like different cars because we lived across like different areas of South Denver, and we'd get there so we could dance to um on the like DDR machines and compete. And uh we would do that for like two hours before the movie started, right? And that was exhilarating. It was so fun. Even if you weren't good at DDR, you were there to just be hype for you know the the ultimate like kind of bracket challenge. There would always be the Randos who like were like in their 30s and they were like at the movie theater and like, hey, let me get in on this. And like they come and dance against you, and it was so fun. It was so funny and fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:52

Yes, it was. That reminds me of one of the first viral videos. This is when, you know, this is like early YouTube and like beginning of this is when mostly like uh um most viral videos were being sent by um email, right? Yeah. Was fat kiddr. Dude, I remember that one. Yeah, that was a good one. And just it is the incredible speed with which his feet are moving, but his torso is not moving. Yeah, it's hips down, stomping, gyrating, yeah, and then he's just focused. And then he he messes up and falls at the end and pushes the machine and it moves under him. Yeah. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:35

The best of dancer in our group was a kind of fat kid too. He was he was lightning on them steps.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:41

Mm-hmm. Oh man. There's a lot of good old the uh used to not take that much to go viral. Maybe it doesn't take that much now. Say in uh in effort. Well, or in like uh I'll say silly things go viral for no good reason. I don't think you well but but there's so many people trying to go viral, it is very hard to go viral.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:01

Yeah, you know, I do think back in the day, too, it was also like you could never plan a viral video like on early YouTube days.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:08

Like the Hide your kid, hide your wives guy, you know. Yeah, Charlie bit my finger.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:14

Dude, no one ever was prepared for that.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:17

They weren't ready for it.

Communal Music, DDR, And Early Viral Internet

SPEAKER_03 1:15:18

I smell like beef. Yeah. Oh uh good stuff. Well uh good, good, good nostalgia episode of just remembering childhood stuff and stories and harmless, harmless bits. Um going into the the holiday season. We uh we we should talk about, you know, in an episode here again, like kind of the recommended holiday gifts for you know the man you know in his 30s. Yes. And do something like that. Because we did we did a gift giving episode last year or like recommendations going through stuff. And honestly, like in the last year I've gotten a lot of those things either from people as gifts or like for myself. And so now it's like, okay, kind of gotta come up with a whole new list. And I'm actually struggling. Like Billy Billy Jean is on my case. She's like, You haven't made your Christmas wish list yet. Oh yeah. I need to know what you want so I can send it out to you know the family.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:17

It is hard, like, where it's just like the and we'll get into it when we talk about the episode, but it's like you but mostly you just want some somebody to get you something that's meaningful that they put things that they put thought into. No one ever buys me bullets or guns. Yeah. Well, there's the thoughts I want. There's like the some of the the things on my like as a kid, your largest desires could be met on a birthday or Christmas. Now I cannot ask for a$3,000 shotgun. I cannot ask for a hundred thousand dollar ski boat. I cannot ask for a hunting ranch.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:54

If you really love me and are happy that I'm a part of your family, then just like commit to shelling out like enough for dual dual nods. Exactly. Like, just give me dual nods. Just a quick 15,000 dual nods. Exactly. Don't you love me? No, no, it's it is that that is the dilemma of like, I don't want Knickknacks. It was so funny because we were in the line to buy the record player and record from Barnes and Noble. And Barnes and Noble, the front of the line is like the same as any store where it's just trash. And Billy G was like, I just love uh what was the word she used? She used this word that I never heard. Uh Totskis. She's like, I just love Tchotskis. Like I like to look at them in the assortment and how cute they are. I'm like, but it's trash. She's like, yeah, but it's so cute. And I'm like, don't buy me any of this, please. It's like such disposable trash. Are you 85 years old? Are you are you my grandma? But you know, I mean it's it is super sweet that like because I never look at that stuff while I'm in line and think like, oh, this would be a good gift for so and so. But like that is how she thinks, and like I think that's very sweet and innocent, but I'm also just like, don't spend our money on any of this. It's disposable Chinese garbage or like poison candy. Like, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 1:18:14

So the uh my grandparents uh well it was like like great great-grandparents' chotskis were as a as an assortment of uh salt shakers, salt and pepper shakers, but they were all like African American, um with some of their features um exaggerated, exaggerated. Yeah, it was like and there's like they like it's one of those things they had, you know, for and then like when they pass away, you're like, We gotta throw these out.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:42

We can't have these.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:48

I did tell her I was like I was like, don't spend any money on tchotskis. Instead, spend money on a gift card to Schlotskis. Because I love Schlotskis. Love me a circle sandwich.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:59

Albuquerque turkey. Yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:03

Anyways, thanks for joining us, Ken. Hopefully, you're thinking about, you know, childhood snowstorms and stuff and fun things you got to do when you had snow days or impromptu, unplanned, fun times with friends, music from your childhood, dancing with your buddies. Uh yeah, and be thinking about what you want for Christmas. Because honestly, here's the truth. Here's the truth. It is an act of service and love to go out of your way to make a list for your loved ones to then get you those things. Because then they get to relish in the moment of I got you something that you wanted, and I got to deliver that to you, and I get to now see the joy on your face. And that itself is a gift you can give them that gets given back to you. So do it. Uh my opinions changed because I was such an anti-Christmas gift person. I know we've talked about that before of like, don't give me anything because I don't, it's not what I want, and then I have to fake like I want it. And nowadays I'm in the mindset of like, all right, I will buckle down and I will really do the research and digging to find something you can get me so that way you get to experience the joy of giving me something I actually want. Um, and I encourage everyone to do that because it does show consideration and love for your for your uh friends and family when you do that. So uh, anyways, be thinking about that, Ken, and start making that list. And uh I guess, Pat, you got anything else?

SPEAKER_04 1:20:35

Don't forget to get crunked listening to that Dave Matthews music. Yeah, get crunked and listen to Dave Matthews. Yep. Till next time, folks.