29. It's the 2 Fat Guys

Tonight's episode brings Sebastian to the mic.  Shawn was on vacation, so Sebastian filled in.  So the 2 Fat Guys sat down and discussed being fast (or not), ways to get sick of eating pizza, Automotive repair, and how two manly men get soft for animals.

*Some Adult language is used.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello everybody. Welcome to another little show we call the Sour Patch Hour. This week you have Reeve, and because Sean has decided he wanted to go to Vegas and spend money, I guess. I don't know. Yeah, I think this time he's actually going down to the NASCAR, or not NASCAR, IndyCar. He was going to IndyCar. And I was at he was supposed to be down there already. And I have set up a way that I could call and talk to him on the phone and everything. And I just sent him a text and said, Hey, I'm going to be calling you here in a little bit. And he says, Don't bother. I'm getting ready to get on a plane. So he said his flight got delayed this. I'm at oh because of everybody's. I just now realized why. Yep. Because the whole government shutdown thing. So he got delayed. He's in Dallas, headed. So he said, Don't bother. I have to get on a plane and I won't have service. So we will not be talking to Sean. But so you don't have to sit and listen to me talk for, and you know me, I can talk. So I'd probably end up talking for about three hours. So you don't have to listen to listen to me talk for three hours. I brought a buddy in. His name is Sebastian. Sebastian Belfior. Belfjord. He's uh he's actually the buddy that started working with me full-time here at the shop. So we see each other a lot, and he does a lot for me. And he does does probably more than I do anymore right now. Well, it's good to it's good to know that I'm appreciated. Um so Sebastian, just so everybody knows who they're talking to, why don't you give us a little history lesson on Sebastian?

SPEAKER_03 1:45

Um Sebastian Belfier, I'll be 60 years old this year, which is kind of a life-changing uh birthday for me. Never thought I'd make it this far. Born and raised in Nebraska, lived in Daytona for a while, lived in Columbus for a while, had several different jobs over the years, kind of a voice come back to the blue-collar type of thing, manufacturing, doing welding with Reeves, and that. Um let's see. Father full-blooded Italian, mother is full-blooded Irish.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Remember, full-blooded Italian, and if you got a full-blooded brother uh father that's Italian, you know it. Yeah, you know it.

SPEAKER_03 2:25

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

That's like having a full-blooded Irishman being your dad. My dad, I do not think my dad is full-blooded Irish, but enough.

SPEAKER_03 2:32

I learned real soon, real early in life, you don't cross him. That was pretty much whatever goes goes. Uh got one son, 40 now, been married twice, uh, looking to maybe get married again.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

That's right. You are maybe getting married again. Oh he says maybe, he's already bought her the ring, so yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:50

So I guess it is That's kind of a definite. Yeah, it is a definite. It's just a matter of setting a date around when everybody works, they're gonna do nothing. Uh um 60, she's in her fifties. I won't give her age, she'll probably be mad if I do.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

But uh it kind of comes down to See, if you didn't want to make her mad, you should have said she's in her thirties.

SPEAKER_03 3:10

Yeah, and then I would have heard, who is that you're talking about? I I pretty much know how that works. Yeah. Um, but we're just gonna do a small ceremony, probably in the backyard at the house. Uh we live in the country, and just something quaint, small, have everybody over, set and drink, and sit and drink, throw a few pieces of rice at you, and then uh go home. It's about life history there. I mean, you know, nothing super exciting. Done a lot of things, learned a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

Yeah. Well, part of part of the reason part of the reason Sebastian and I are I'm gonna just say put together right now is because well, number one, I needed a need for a welder. And before, before I threw out the fact that I needed a welder, I had I well, what a lot of people don't know, and I it's not anything embarrassing or anything like that, it's just I didn't say nothing because I thought if I started talking about it, I would rant and rave about it and be really pissed off and throw a bunch of people under the bus that you know what, who what good is that gonna do? The guy that done it, I don't think he done it on purpose. I think in in the end, I think the guy's probably a good guy, but he really pissed me off because when I went to Sturgis last year, the motor and my uh new more the motorcycle I bought this last year, or well, no, let's it's been three years since I bought the bike, but I just started riding it last year. The motor blew up. I call it blown up in it, but it's there's more technical term to it. But the motor went out of it, let's say that. And uh, so when I got back, I got a hold of Sebastian and I said, Hey, will you because I knew that he had worked on motorcycles in the past in Daytona, and he rides a Harley himself, and he's always telling me a lot of information that sometimes is way over my head, and so I thought Sebastian might be able to tell me what's wrong with my bike. So we threw it up on a lift, and he says, Yeah, your motor's screwed, dude. And so from that, there he went home that night, and I thought, I think that we maybe need to open up a little shop together. That that maybe if Sebastian runs the show and can teach me some stuff, maybe we have something here. So I called him up and said, Hey, you wanna maybe do this? I have kind of a crazy idea. And he's like, you know, I kind of was thinking a little bit the same thing, but I didn't know if you'd be serious or not. And so that was like I said, when I got back with Sturgis, and here we are. It is now March of the next year, and hopefully, I'm thinking fingers crossed, I'm almost 100% positive. I'm gonna say 99.5% sure. I would say Monday of this next week, we should. I'm gonna put it this way I've got three bikes that are already scheduled to come in. Mine, my wife's, and my daughter's. Not in that order. It goes my daughter's, my wife's, then mine. But we as of Monday, I think that we're gonna open up our little doors, and all we're gonna do is starting out. We bought a tire machine, a tire bouncer for motorcycles. We're going to offer that. We're gonna let people bring in their own tires if they want to buy one off the internet, and if they can prove what year it is, we'll put it on there for them. Um, we're gonna do oil changes, we're gonna do handlebar swaps. Um, we're gonna work what okay. Here's here's the name of our shop. And I don't I use the word shop loosely because I don't want to get we're not gonna tear down bikes and do a bunch of motor work and shit like that, especially at first.

SPEAKER_03 7:08

Let's let's just say our endeavor. Yeah, our our endeavor is this.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Yep, it is called Two Fat Guy Customs. So if you pretty soon out in front of my shop, there's gonna be a nice little sign. Well, I still have to get one up for my welding shop, but eventually there's gonna be a sign that shows up that says two fat guy customs, and that's Sebastian and I. Yeah, we're a couple of bigger guys, but a little bit, you know. If you if anybody that's listening to this obviously knows me, otherwise, you you're probably not listening, but you're only listening to be nice to me. And that way, when you run into me and I say, Hey, do you hear the podcast? You can say, Yeah, that's the only reason you're listening. Yeah, you've become background noise at that point. But uh that's that's our little endeavor, if you will. We are gonna try this. And again, here's how we look at it. We don't plan to get rich, we're not, we don't plan to make a whole bunch of money off of it. What we plan to make off of it is a retirement plan. Whereas if we can just when we're done working our ass off, if we can come dink around in the custom shop for a bike's two or three days a week and stay ahead of the game, that's what our retirement plan is.

SPEAKER_03 8:21

We want to keep putting, you know, yeah, but as long as it puts food on the table after we decide to hang up this fabrication gig that we uh are doing now, um, or turn it over to somebody else and we can babysit that. Yeah, and that'd be the best. Yeah, and play and play in the and play in the back with bikes, that's great. Um I've rode for over 20 years. Um Harleys here and there. Started off on an old sportster that was an AMF Sportster, leaked oil, and didn't run worth a damn after it got warm because it needed seals, but I rode it. Um yeah, I mean I think our our whole goal is to provide fast, friendly service. And I'm I I you know, I mean, I I hate to say it about the mothership of Harley Davidson, but we're not out to make a killing off of people. Yeah, you know, I don't I don't wanna I mean if you want to give us more money, we'll take it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, you know, if you want to leave you leave a healthy tip in the tip job, we're not gonna say no. Yeah. We're we're you know, there's only two of us to split it, so just keep that in mind. Um but you know I guess I I I'm sorry, go ahead. I didn't mean to cut you off. Go ahead. I I just I we honestly believe that you know what there's there's a need for somebody to provide service other than the dealership, yeah. And provide good, trustworthy service.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Well, the FFC is what we're gonna push is the fast friendly service. The FFC, if you can remember that, if you can remember big fat well, big fat custom, big two fat guy customs with the FFC, you're gonna know that we're gonna try to get it in and out fast. I mean, these dealerships get so far behind that you take it in for an oil change, and three weeks later you're finally getting your bike back. So we're gonna try to push it a little faster and get your tires changed and things like that. Uh, I would like to say when Sebastian and I say this is our endeavor, our wives are very much, very, very much included in this. My wife has well, let me just say she has been writing checks that she does not necessarily like to write, but she's believes in the fact that this can work out. And if you know my wife, sometimes that's a hard sell. So she believes in this, so she's writing the checks. I mean, the tire machine and balancer, not the cheapest thing in the world. We bought a you know, a real nice lift, yep, and and then I had to do a little bit of remodeling to the shop that I'm in. Um, keep in mind we're in the same building, but we're separated out, so the the motorcycles will never see grinding dust or anything like that. Right, and we have big plans. This is I am if you know where I'm located at, I have a huge ass building that I kind of have access to. If I can make this work out, we can I mean we have dreams of this. Yeah, I would love, I think not only do I think that we need this in town or these custis custom style and the oil changes and the FFC, we also need an apparel store. We do not have a leather riding or any kind of like women's helmet sales, nothing. Yeah, anything nothing in this town, and I think it needs to happen, and so that's my dream, is that's that's where I'm headed. And I I want to utilize this building, but I just can't for what I just want to say for what the guy what the price tag is, I can't justify it until I have the means, and so that's our dream.

SPEAKER_03 12:16

We'll develop it slowly and make it into what it is, and then our why our wives are gonna start doing hydro dipping.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

And my wife has kind of started working on it a little bit. I didn't tell you this, I forgot I was supposed to tell you this. Oh, okay. Um, she finally got her new heater, you know. She's having problems with it. Oh, yes, yep, I do hear you saying that. She was she went, I don't know, uh they're called tank eaters, and they're supposed to warm up to over 100 degrees. And I I'm not for sure, I don't know if they're for cattle tanks or what they are, but anyway, she bought two from the same company and they both burned out within minutes of being in the water for some stupid reason. So she bought a different one and it's still working. And she tried, she hydro dipped a couple things last week. Oh, nice. Um, she I mean, she knows that it all comes with practice. And I gave her a couple from the videos I had watched and what I could see. I gave her a couple, not that I've ever hydro dipped, I'm just going off of videos I've seen. Right. And so I gave her a couple hints of what I thought maybe, and so she's gonna work on that, you know. And so I should thing is, my wife is one of the people, these people that'll wake up on Saturday morning and say, I'm gonna try this today. And so I don't ever know her schedule. Otherwise, I'd say, you know, could Jeannie's coming down to paint for us this weekend, but um as soon as they start, you know, Sarah starts honing in, you know, you guys learn those two learn together. Hydrodipping, I think, can be big around here.

SPEAKER_03 13:46

I think I think we have the ability to introduce it into the shop and make it something that we can provide that really that I don't know of a anybody in the area that provides it.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

I I I don't know of anybody, but that doesn't mean it's not out there, but I don't know of anybody. We also already offer powder coating. Um and with that, Sebastian and I, because we we fabricate, we're gonna get into making sissy bars, and I want to get into making highway pegs or highway boards or running boards, if you will.

SPEAKER_03 14:23

So we have a lot of dr dreams, we have a lot of ideas, we have the knowledge, and as we go along, I see us developing the getting what we need to make it happen. Yeah, I I agree.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

Where's really not between the two of us we could sit down and knock a lot of ideas out, you know, and see where Sarah and I's problem has always been we don't play well with others. And and so that'll be the art that'll be our our you know cross to bear throughout this is we we have to work with someone else. And honestly, I think that's the best thing for me, is because then not all the weight's on my shoulders, and I can say I need you here, and if we get busy enough where you're five days a week finally doing that, then then I'll hire someone else to help me in the you know on the uh in that side. So I'm excited, I'm scared. I've spent a lot of money to get this going. So I want it, I want it in the worst way to work out.

SPEAKER_03 15:31

So well, it'll work. We'll just put our minds together, and you know, you just you gotta do what you gotta do.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

Yeah, that's that's that's the thing. It's in the end, when it comes to business, and if Sean was here, he'd be piping in right now, too. When it comes to business, you find a way. Yep, you know, if you want to succeed, there are people that obviously get into business and mean mean to do great things, but they come off the rails somehow.

SPEAKER_03 15:59

You know, I I honestly believe, and and I've learning this, God, I've known you for how long now? You know, a little history between me and Reeve. I I've worked for him on and off part-time and evenings. Um he bought a brake press a few years ago. Yeah. And the maintenance I did not know how to I didn't know how to run it. Yeah, but I bought it. The maintenance, really, that's how I think how we ended up.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

It is how we met. He told he goes, Hey, I know this guy at work named Sebastian. He'll come help you run it if you want.

SPEAKER_03 16:28

Yep, and that was a giant learning curve and a couple of a couple of iPhone calls and chats, and but we got things up and running and and and it works.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Yeah, parts with it. When I say I didn't know, I wanted a break. I have I never at any time in all the years of me running or uh being in a factory, did I ever set up or do anything with it? I mean, I used to run it, I used to be the operator, whereas somebody else set everything up and they said, Here, put this in there and bend it. That's all I ever done on the break. But I knew I wanted one, and so when I bought it, my wife looked at me and was I bought it. You know how to run it? I go, no. She goes, Well, you better figure it out. And so, my seriously, my first call was to Kenny. I said, Kenny, do you know what if you he goes, I don't know how to do that. And so, long story short, it was hey, I talked to Sebastian at work, and he says, Do this, and he says, do that. And then I think where I really got to know you before you worked for me, you come over to the shop because you're trying to get the damn thing to run. Yeah, we couldn't get it to run, we couldn't figure it out, and so you come over and you say, Well, I ah, geez, I don't know what's going on here. This should work here, and this should work here, and so then Sarah somehow, I don't know. You're starting to find out. My wife, when she gets something in her brain, she's like a dog with a bone, she does not quit. She found a guy in Texas of all places that she I don't know how she met him or knows him, but she's like, Here, call this guy. I if I remember right, his name was either Earl or Ernie, one of them. Earl, Earl, Earl, call Earl. He says he can help you. So we call Earl, and I bet we was on the phone video chatting for probably two or three hours with trying to figure this out.

SPEAKER_03 18:18

Yeah, it was a long time. I mean, and he's out on the road and he's in his motel. Oh, is that what it was? Yeah, and he spent like two hours with us. Yeah, I think he does a machine repair, if I remember.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

Oh, no, that you're right, he does. And uh um he finally threw up his hands and said, I can't figure it out either, guys. But here, called this guy, and it was actually a guy in York. Yeah, he says, if you get a hold of this guy, he should be able to help you. And we call and that guy came over and he was there for I remember this is my introduction into what it costs to run equipment. He I think it costs, if I remember right, he was there for like three hours, and that bill was like fifteen hundred dollars, but I'm still running it, it's still going, so the guy was worth every dime. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 19:06

So, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's I that is kind of how we well, Rich, we had met our paths had crossed one time before, though. And Reef doesn't remember it. I I do every time you remind me, I remember, but yeah, and you I I I he was working for a manufacturer here in town and and he was a supervisor in the on in the weld area. And I came in to take a weld test and uh with him and another good friend of ours. That and I ended up working there, oh, I don't know, I suppose probably within months of when you left.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

Yeah, yeah. But so in other words, I didn't hire him.

SPEAKER_03 19:40

Yeah, so I didn't get hired out of that deal, which was fine, you know. But I ended up coming back there again and got hired, worked I I spent six years there.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

Yeah, you did. You know, and and you how long have you been getting been out of there now?

SPEAKER_03 19:54

Uh July 28th.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

So not not a year yet. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 20:03

Yeah, not even a year. Yeah, July 28th was my was my day out. Really? And uh I started the following next workday or you know, scheduled workday at another job, which I loved. I mean, I I ran I ran CNC milling machine and and a lathe. I loved it, but it wasn't very long before I realized that there's that, you know. I mean, I don't want to sound negative, but I'd been pigeonholed into running a certain amount of parts, and at that point there was no creativity. I was a button pusher, and I don't I don't do well as a button pusher.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

I don't think I could either, man. And you know, that like you said, it's a gr it's a great job for uh to me, it sounds like a kid that's just out of college, that's been to school to do tooling, that you can set him there and he can start learning stuff out of there. But now for a guy that's 60 years old, that's done it for years, that you know, not it's not something that's the company's at, it's just that that was a job they had for you, and it was perfect because it was like five minutes from your house. Yeah, and when you come to me, and you come to me because you you met your the gal you're gonna marry, and you moved to York, basically, well, Utica. Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_03 21:20

Well, just outside of Way. I don't know if anybody knows where Waco, Nebraska is, but basically, yeah, I'm like halfway between Waco and Utica in the country.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

And so he moved over there, and then I put out on Facebook an SOS saying that one of my guys, my guy got hurt and I needed help. The next day he pops in my office and says, Won't you hire me full time? I'm like, wait, stop. What that means you're driving back this way again after being home being see. My thing is I would almost stand there and push a button because I'm five minutes from home. I hate drive. I seriously, I live 20 miles from shop now. I hate the drive every day on in and the way home. I freaking hate it. I'm I'm I'm real close to trying to talk Sarah into moving to Columbus.

SPEAKER_03 22:03

Well, uh we'll we'll we'll see I'm not gonna give up my four and a half acres of my country life. I don't blame you. Yeah. I mean, uh I don't want to offend anybody, but if I want to go check the mail in my underwear, I can. There isn't a there ain't a neighbor to carrot.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

Um especially the one dear what north, south?

SPEAKER_03 22:20

Yeah, my neighbor to the north of me is North or South? North. North. Oh. He's about a quarter between a quarter and a half mile north of me on the other side of the road.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

Uh he's a character.

SPEAKER_03 22:32

Colorful, colorful guy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

Um we won't get into his history. We we won't tell his story for him, but no. He's a character. Good guy. Yeah. Just makes bad decisions. That's the best way to put it in. Yes, yes. He's yes. We will say that. Yeah. And I'm only hearing him secondhand, so I I can only imagine what they are coming out of his mouth.

SPEAKER_03 22:53

Um Yeah, he's, you know, but and and and I heah that was the first thing out of out of re out of his mouth was are you sure you want to make that drive? Well, I lived in York and drove for three years up here every day to go to work. That's uh you did, and I couldn't do it. That it's that drive is kind, and this this drive's a little bit shorter. There's probably 15 miles less in it from where I am now from there. I moved to Columbus for a while, and I yeah, that was a five-minute drive too. Oh, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

It was you know, and then you moved to Utica and was driving from Utica or wherever, you know, Waco, and then here. Yeah, so I guess you're a guy that liked to drive, I guess. So I'll let you. You know, there are people, there are people that love it because it gives them time to decompress. It really geared up on the way there, get geared up for work, and on the way home, decompress. And then then your wives or whatever don't have to listen to your bitch.

SPEAKER_03 23:46

So right, and you know what? That you I never really thought about that, but you're you're absolutely right when you say that. There's a lot of times that I can just kind of yeah, you kind of unwind in the car, you know. I mean, I'm not gonna lie, them first couple that first couple weeks, it was fight to keep my eyes open because I you got used a little bit more physical. Yeah, yeah. C and C machining, you're standing there pushing a button, loading parts in and out of the machine, you know. I I basically got paid 20 minute cycle, I got paid for 20 minutes to set on my phone and serve the serve Facebook. Uh and then at my job before that, which was the same place that you had worked, um, I had worked my way from the production floor to fabrication supervisor and then into the um outside office basically and doing nesting of parts and inventory control and that. So I was doing the robot too. Doing the robotic welding programming and stuff. So I I got rather hence part of the two fat guys deal, you know. I mean Yeah, I've been fat my whole life. I well, so have I, but I like to blame it on something.

SPEAKER_01 24:52

Mine mine's because I don't put my fork down, man.

SPEAKER_03 24:55

Well, my heritage is part of it, you know.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

You because you eat a lot of pasta and you're in your past, there was a lot of pasta.

SPEAKER_03 25:03

Yeah, there was a lot of pasta, a lot of you know, yeah, good food. And Irish, let's face it, Irish people eat well too.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

So yeah, it potatoes. I'm a potato, I'm a potato potatoes and bread. But you know what? I got off bread. Well, Sarah and I there for a long time. Well, when we had kids in the house, we always had a loaf of bread. And so I'd always find myself eating a piece of bread here and there, you know. When I was younger, I'd eat a loaf of bread by myself. But uh when the kids left, Sarah and I, we wouldn't eat bread and it would just mold, so we quit buying bread. So, and you know, now we're kind of let's just pretend we're still on that Sarah is hardcore harn of Rada because that's all she can barely eat anymore. I like to say I'm on the carnivore diet so that she thinks I am. But well, it's not like you're no, I but I I mean I do I do well, I don't do great, I don't do fabulous, I do well. I don't eat a lot of carbohydrates throughout the day and stuff. But I will say before the show today, I ate an ice cream sandwich. Um I wasn't gonna say anything, but genie, he didn't. He was really good.

SPEAKER_03 26:13

I was perfectly good, but you know, that that's not my wrapper.

SPEAKER_01 26:19

But uh, so what we've done since we've gone to this carnivore diet, one of our treats is is homemade bread. I I will eat homemade bread till you know how we was talking about these ice cream sandwiches, how you find a reason to eat it. I find a reason to eat homemade bread. I there's I I'm walking in the kitchen. Oh, I should have a piece of bread. You know, so Sarah, Sarah has one of them bread makers. And so she's yeah, she's been making a loaf of bread on Saturdays, and uh I find a reason to eat that, but you know, I notice you never bring any on Monday, so it must be Sunday. Um I'm not joking. That's just I guess I'll remember I'll have to let you know on Friday that you know, hey, I I might take a piece of that. I'll maybe I'll save you a piece or two. Um, but uh you know, one thing I learned, and I and I I I don't know that I learned this from watching Joe Rogan or if I learned this from I can't remember where I learned it, but I'm gonna almost say I probably learned it from Rogan that the bread we eat in this country that we buy in the loaves is the most horrific shit you could ever buy. It is they got so much crap in them that you should not eat. And so I'm kind of glad we quit doing it that way and making our own. Because it in all honesty, you it used to be I'd eat a piece of bread, now it's feel like dog crap. Well, I eat this homemade stuff and I because my blood sugar jumps up, but not because I mean my my joints and stuff used to hurt after eating that stuff, but eating this this other bread don't affect my joints so much.

SPEAKER_03 27:56

You know, a lot of that go I think it all goes back to natural is better. You know, I mean we talked we had this conversation the other day about how you know you go back to the 1800s, people didn't live to be 90 years old. And that's more for the advent of medical technology versus what we eat. Yeah. Because what we eat now, it's horrible it's gotta be a hundred times worse than what they you know. They made everything from scratch. It was whole, it was natural.

SPEAKER_01 28:23

You do when you go home, do you home 8th Street or do you go home down the highway and out?

SPEAKER_03 28:28

I go down down 30 and then down I go down the main street.

SPEAKER_01 28:33

Okay, so you go to like the super saver and then next time just take a take a look at the Burger King drive-thru and the because it's five o'clock.

SPEAKER_03 28:42

Oh, I know.

SPEAKER_01 28:43

They're they are I I cannot believe the amount of food those people. I mean, I mean I can understand it, but I Sarah and I when we owned the bar, we it was at our worst because we were always working and doing shit that that we were never home. So it was like fast food. Fat and then when I started cooking at the bar, you know, all that food there, you know.

SPEAKER_03 29:11

And that's not always the best. I mean, it's better than it's better than McDonald's, but you know not better, like but let's face it, we all like a good greasy burger, you know. Yeah, I get you.

SPEAKER_01 29:22

But uh um we have always just cooked supper at home, and it bothered the kids for a long time that they never got to eat out very I mean we take them out once in a while, but not like you see a lot of these people, you go and they're constantly eating what were we eating at tonight? Burger King, McDonald's, Subway, da duh. Even Subway bread's not good for you, man.

SPEAKER_03 29:45

What do you want? I'll stop and pick it up on the way home. Yeah, yeah, you know, and I I really got spoiled too, like with Jeannie. She cook, you know, she's home cooking tonight. I'll have when we get done here, I'll have leftovers when I want them. You know, and and with me, when the on the whole bread thing, I don't think I really realized. I mean, I I knew, you know, modern bread's not good for you, but I don't really miss bread a whole lot. Um, unfortunately, she's gluten allergic to gluten. So everything that we do that way is gluten-free, and generally gluten-free is better for you.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

Yeah. Well, they're bread, their bread tastes like shit, but yeah, no, and yeah, and it's a different texture.

SPEAKER_03 30:26

You gotta trust me, you gotta learn to get rid of us to it. It's kind of like a shoein' on a shoe like a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 30:31

It's because Elizabeth wouldn't Elizabeth is supposed to be allergic to gluten. Let's just say she does she pretends that she's not. So I we went through the whole, you know, we'd buy gluten-free pizza and stuff like that. Honestly, the gluten-free pizza doesn't taste bad. I don't mind the gluten-free pizza, but um, see, that's the one thing is when my son was at home, the four years he was in high school, my wife, she would on some Wednesday nights, it's you Wednesday nights, she would do choir, and so then it got to be she wasn't gonna cook when she got home because she didn't get home till you know 8, 8:30. So it'd be Ben, what do you want? So it turned into pizza night. Every Wednesday night was pizza night, and I got to the point where I couldn't stand even looking, I can't even stand looking at pizza. Well, he's been gone for a couple years, and we don't eat a lot of pizza anymore, and so now I kind of crave it once in a while, and it's not uh so we've gone to buying these. I don't know, you the uh the you buy them at uh I buy them at Menards, they're they're Monza, Maza, uh oh I yeah, I can't think of the brand name, but I've seen it. They're bigger and they you don't have to add nothing to them. They got plenty of cheese and they're they're awesome. So we'll throw one of them in once in a while and eat them, and so it's not so bad.

SPEAKER_03 31:56

We do pizza, it's gotta be gluten-free crust, which um believe it or not, of all places, Wally World, she's found some cauliflower crust, which I was like, absolutely hate cauliflower. You put cauliflower in front of me and I'll, you know, I'll get up and drive away. I just don't like it. But this cauliflower crust, it really is like a thin crust. And it it cooks up nice and crisp.

SPEAKER_01 32:18

And is it cauliflower or is it what's the green one that looks broccoli?

SPEAKER_03 32:25

Is the other one, but I don't think it's a big one.

SPEAKER_01 32:26

I think cauliflower's fake. I think that in other words, it's man-made. Well it's either it's either broccoli or or one of them two. I I want to say I want to say it's cauliflower though. That it's not real. In other words, in other words, it was produced in a in a uh laboratory, and so if by chance there was uh some some type of disease that took it out now, we would never have it again. If they if we would never have it. I want to say it's cauliflower, but it might be broccoli, but I don't remember.

SPEAKER_03 33:06

Well, I've seen broccoli plants, but now that you bring this up, I don't know that I've ever seen well you grow it now because it, I mean, they took they took part of uh I'm gonna say it's cauliflower.

SPEAKER_01 33:19

So let's just say they took a piece of their broccoli and some other and they put it together and they plant that.

SPEAKER_03 33:25

Oh, so it's like a hybrid.

SPEAKER_01 33:26

Yeah, so it's a hybrid type thing, but so in other words, having being man made like that, it wasn't made by Mother Nature. It wasn't completely natural, yeah. So if something came through and eliminated it, we'd never have it again.

SPEAKER_03 33:43

Wow. Yeah, I did.

SPEAKER_01 33:44

I I want to say it was like in the 80s when they made it.

SPEAKER_03 33:47

Huh. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 33:48

70s, 80s, somewhere in there.

SPEAKER_03 33:49

That could be. Very well could be.

SPEAKER_01 33:51

I'm I'm not real versed in that, but you know, here's yeah, hit the Google machine. I'm gonna oh shit. Um, I just looked at my blood sugar. Oh no.

SPEAKER_03 34:03

But that's nice after that.

SPEAKER_01 34:05

It is extremely high right now. I better jump up and take some insulin here. Uh so what what's the question I want to ask? Uh is here. Is cauliflower man-made?

SPEAKER_00 34:19

Yes, cauliflower is a man-made vegetable. It was developed through selective breeding of wild mustard over many years, with humans choosing plants with specific characteristics.

SPEAKER_01 34:30

Okay, there you go.

SPEAKER_03 34:31

So I was right. Saying he sells himself short. He's got all this random knowledge running around in his head. You know, I like to tell everybody I know a whole bunch of useless facts as well.

SPEAKER_01 34:42

But I don't honestly, the only reason I know that the only reason I know that one is because I think I was uh again, I'm not sure, but I think I heard it on Rogan. Well, I think so. Nothing wrong with Rogan. He he's uh he's a character himself, but well, so give me two seconds, you keep you talk. Yeah, yeah. I can I can kind of voice from over there here.

SPEAKER_03 35:09

But as far as you know, for the cauliflower thing, uh it I just learned something new, which is good. Like I said, you know, you're never too old to learn. But uh, you know, I can remember a few years ago at Thanksgiving, long story, long incidents, you know, different incidents with cauliflower. My uh brother's wife, his uh or her uh hers her brother's wife brought mashed potatoes made out of cauliflower. And I was like, I'm absolutely not gonna do this. Because of course, cauliflower and me do not get along. I don't get along with with canned peas either. You give me peas that are green and mushy and it's not gonna be a pretty sight. But long story short, I thought the but the to I guess maybe to the better of my judgment or whatever, I tried some, and honestly, side by side, I think you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference.

SPEAKER_01 36:05

Did you fart when you were done though?

SPEAKER_03 36:07

Uh yeah, I don't recall, but more than likely. And and our and our Thanksgivings, when for a while we combined them with her family and my family, my brother and and his wife have been together since high school. So Oh really? Yeah. They're their high school sweethearts got 35 years worth of marriage behind them. I'm looking to get into my third, so I don't know where my parents just recently celebrated 62 years together, you know, so I don't know where that that whole gene went awry in my life, but it did. Um so it was always a combination of like an Italian Thanksgiving and a traditional Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_01 36:50

Yeah. What's an Italian Thanksgiving?

SPEAKER_03 36:53

Well, there's not a lot of difference. You do Turkey, the stuffing and Italian stuffing. Now you have to remember that my grandparents immigrated over here. So my dad is actually first generation born in the United States. Oh, okay. Anyway, but I can remember him talking about the first time that he went to Thanksgiving with my mom after they got married, and they brought out the traditional bread stuffing. And you know, what is this? They're stuffing, and it's they cook it in the turkey, and it's actually hamburger, rice, raisins, and seasoning, and they make it into like a meatloaf and they put it in. Raisins? Yeah. Cooked raisins, aren't that bad? Yes, they are that bad. I don't care what you try to sell me. Okay. Well, I guess at a very young age, I learned to like them for that reason. I suppose. Um, along with figs, you know, figs were kind of an Italian thing. Um, but uh, and they cook it inside the turkey with the turkey, and that's their stuffing. Wow. And it does add a little bit of a different flavor to the turkey, and and the hamburger picks up kind of that turkey sea. I guess like doing a turduccin or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 38:04

It's just ground beef.

SPEAKER_03 38:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:06

Hey, I gotta take one quick second here. Give me one break. So we were talking about the Itali Italian Yeah, some of the Italian, you know, traditions.

SPEAKER_03 38:18

Just like people are gonna think we're crazy, but you know, uh homemade lasagna at Christmas time.

SPEAKER_01 38:25

Really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:28

Really? Yeah. That's your like Christmas Day.

SPEAKER_03 38:31

Yeah, that's well, we do Christmas Eve at my mom and dad's. That's just been always kind of the thing.

SPEAKER_01 38:36

Kick that door open. It might be a little warm in here. Those guys next door sometimes start working, so but it's kinda warm in here, so just kick it open and leave it just like that.

SPEAKER_03 38:44

Anyway, they do we do we do it at mom and dad's on Christmas Eve. Really? Yeah, do lasagna and then uh red yellow uh bell peppers that are uh charred skins off of them and then you fry them.

SPEAKER_01 38:59

Really?

SPEAKER_03 39:00

Sauf saute them in a in a pan with uh olive oil and garlic and a little bit of onion. Yeah, it's different. Yeah, huh? Just different ways you're raised. I yeah here's go ahead. It's all you know, I mean, I I was I grew up that way. Uh we was born in Omaha. I was probably around eight years old. My father worked for Nebraska Public Power and he transferred out of the power plant in Bellevue to the transportation center because he had always worked as a mechanic on and off and as a mechanic out there.

SPEAKER_01 39:35

Pull that mic just a little closer to you.

SPEAKER_03 39:37

And we uh turned around and moved out to York, and at least the weather was horrible, or there was a school activity every Sunday. We drove back to Omaha to have Sunday spaghetti with my grandmother.

SPEAKER_01 39:50

No shit. Yeah, my dad is the other one. Sunday spaghetti.

SPEAKER_03 39:53

Yep. And yeah. My grandmother spoke the very basic English. Hi, goodbye, thank you, help please. Otherwise, she spoke Italian her entire life. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 40:07

I mean that's that's that's a rush to hear that. I mean, think about it. That's one generation out. I mean really that's it's how I mean how fast in one generation things can shift. Whereas you probably can't speak any of it.

SPEAKER_03 40:22

No, I speak very little. Um very yeah, very, very little. Um I want to learn it. My father knew it after my grandmother died. You know, my dad's 92 now, so he hasn't spoken Italian. Oh, I think I was ten or twelve years old when my grandmother died. So yeah. So, you know, I mean that's been I'll be 60 years. So it's been fifty years ago. Yeah, fifty years ago, easily.

SPEAKER_01 40:48

And so he hasn't spoken in fifty years.

SPEAKER_03 40:50

Yeah, so he's lost a lot of it.

SPEAKER_01 40:52

Now, was your was your grandpa still alive, or did he die?

SPEAKER_03 40:55

My grandfather died when my dad was eight. My dad was the youngest of uh seven kids. Really young. Yeah, as far as they know, that the you know, and I mean this would have been well, my dad was born in 34, so this would have been what early 40s. Um they're pretty sure it was like liver cancer. Oh, yeah, you told me that. Yeah, he was a big guy, very big guy. Large icon, yeah. Yeah, large Italian guy. Fat Tony. Yeah. Not another fat Sebastian. Where'd they come up with the name Sebastian? Well, it's actually Sebastiano. Oh, that's right. You told me that. Yeah, Sebastiano. So that's where you get it. And that is actually my name. I go by Sebastian, it's much easier. Um, and there's no O in it's it's I A N O and not I O N O.

SPEAKER_01 41:46

Huh.

SPEAKER_03 41:47

Um, I guess kind of one of the weird things or whatever about it, but how many kids do you say your d your dad was in his family?

SPEAKER_01 41:54

He was the youngest of seven. See, and my dad was the youngest of eight. And my my dad's father was six my dad was sixteen when his dad died, and he died of a heart attack. So, I mean, and so you know, you think about the the threads of you worry about them certain things, and so far my thumper still goes pretty good, and and I got it all checked out, and uh Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:21

So has there been any other cancers that they think in your family or um I've had I well yeah, I've had uncles pass away of cancer. Um two of my dad's sisters, two of my aunts, both went with cancer. Um yeah, on my mom's side, diabetes heart attacks run pretty hard. Yeah, you're you're a diabetic dad. Yeah, that's how I ended up being a diabetic. My dad's a diabetic, my mom's a diabetic, you know. It's just my brother's not and my son's not, but your son's not? No, and you told me he was a thicker guy. Yeah, he's a pretty good sized boy. But as of right now, you know, he still when he comes out once in a while, he's like, uh, let me see your meter. You know, stick his finger, and I'm like, there's no way that's what your blood sugar is. Well, it's your meter. I'm like, okay, yeah. God dang it.

SPEAKER_01 43:08

Didn't that just I'm not not not to be unfair, but doesn't that almost piss you off when guys I'll see guys twice my size and they're not diabetic. I'm like, motherfucker, are you kidding me? Or they don't have back problems and shit like me, you know. It's just like I don't understand why why did God beat me around like that?

SPEAKER_03 43:29

Yeah, I you know, and so I'm hoping that I'm you know that generation that it skips. Um, but it kind of scares me, you know, because uh they had this conversation here a while back with my dad, you know. I'll be sixty and I'm lucky I still have my father. You know I mean both of my parents to be honest with you. Yes. You know, my mom's eighty six. Yeah. And you know, I I feel very lucky for that. But then I look back and I'm going, Well, wait, maybe they're the ones that are lucky. Yeah, that Living long time, you know. Maybe it's not a good thing. Yeah, maybe yeah, maybe it's not a good thing, you know. That's why I said that you know, I'll soon be sixty. I think it'll be a milestone, you know, birthday in a way. Maybe not, I don't know. But yeah, I mean you that those the diabetic thing, you know, I I agree with you. I kind of feel sometimes that, you know, why did I get this curse? I know where it came from. I can I mean I have cousins that had juvenile diabetes. They were born, you know, shortly after they were born, they've had diabetes. Wow. Um, I've had relatives lose limbs to infections because of diabetes, you know, and that's of course a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 44:37

I forgot my phone was connected. Sorry about that.

SPEAKER_03 44:40

You know, a long time ago it wasn't near as controlled as it is now, you know. And I I like I said I totally agree with you, and I really feel that as a diabetic, you're diabetic, and I went for a period of time without insurance, and what diabetic medication cost you is stupid. Stupid. Because everybody has it. Sorry. Yeah, it's not it's not an uncommon disease. It's not like we're we've got developed some genetic disorder.

SPEAKER_01 45:13

Back in the back in the eight seventies and eighties, sixties, seventies, eight, even before, you know, before before eighties, I want to say. Uh before nineties, not this many people had it. No, it's and it's because of what we can put in our bodies. You know, think about it. Back in the early 80s, you it was not common for kids to drink straight up soda.

SPEAKER_03 45:40

Oh, live on it.

SPEAKER_01 45:42

Yeah. But now you just go to the gas station, buy it, get it. You we didn't have Walmart back then. I remember I remember when mom took me to a superstore, which considered considered super box store, if you were, and it was in Norfolk, and it was like everything was no name brand. It was just it was just bulk. It was a bulk store, but it was none of it was name brand and shit like that. And that's what our Walmarts were. But I'm sorry, I keep kicking you. No, you're fine. Um, it's it's uh it didn't, it wasn't like Walmart where you could buy other stuff, it was only food. But now you go to it's so convenient to go to Walmart and buy. I will say this though the Snap program here in the state of Nebraska, they've done away with you can't use food stamps or snap and and buy Twinkies and and junk food, if you will, or soda. And honestly, I'm sorry if you disagree, no care. I'm still gonna be here tomorrow. I don't think that's right. I I think it's a hundred percent right that you cannot buy.

SPEAKER_03 46:47

Yep, I I don't disagree with you.

SPEAKER_01 46:49

Because if I can't if I can't afford it, if I if I get if I run my checkbook down to bare minimum, I can't, I I can't afford it, so I don't get it. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 47:01

Yeah, we're we're not yeah, taking advantage of of a luxury. Well, no, I wouldn't maybe not a luxury, but let's say, let's say taking advantage of something that you're supposed to buy as a need and buying a want with it.

SPEAKER_01 47:16

Here's what I say about that. And taking advantage of a system that's supposed to be temporary, not a staple.

SPEAKER_03 47:25

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 47:26

That's where I I mean, if if they weren't taking advantage of everything and living on this stuff years upon years, I wouldn't, you know, so what? You know what, you're having a rough time. Go buy your soda, go buy your Twinkies, but you know, because next week you're gonna have a job. They don't even look for jobs anymore.

SPEAKER_03 47:46

No, yeah, we've become a society of well, you know, they they can't help it. No, uh it it kind of comes down to this, and I I this is kind of an odd parallel, but it just jumped into my head. Okay, you jump off into a new marriage, you have a kid, and you run into financial problems, and you get that help, that's fine. I mean, I'm I'm not gonna lie, when my son was born, we got help. You know, I mean, we were very young, and it it it did help, but we were determined to take that and use it as a stepping stone and not say, well, you know, this is pretty simple. I can't wait.

SPEAKER_01 48:27

We should have another kid because you'll give us more money.

SPEAKER_03 48:29

Yeah, you know, I I I can I can live off of this and you know, not have to uh take the easy way out. And it it's kind of you know, it kind of parallels us, you know, we're both we're both kind of a little bit on the apprehensive side about opening this new business venture, and we're not taking any help, but we also know that you know failure is a possibility, but uh maybe it's the older society or whatever, but we have the mentality of let's make this work.

SPEAKER_01 48:59

Yeah, because too many I mean, I don't know, maybe maybe I've matured over the years, I don't know. Uh I feel like I've always busted my ass. My wife points out the facts that I've left jobs and shit like that when I probably shouldn't have. But I there's uh maybe I've matured a little bit, but I feel like the young kids these days give up way too fucking easy, just way too easy.

SPEAKER_03 49:27

Yeah, I I think and I agree with you. I think, and I mean, you know, I'm a child of the 80s, you know, and again, probably back to my heritage, but you know, that's you were born to go to work, make a living, provide for yourself. Yeah, my dad, my dad put a sign in the yard on graduation day, and I mean I know he wasn't serious, and he said it for all the years that I was in high school. He said, But you know what? Today it's set in the front yard breaking two plates and changing the locks on the door. Literally, there are pictures of that sign in our front yard. Um when we came to York, uh, we went to a Catholic school.

SPEAKER_01 50:09

Well, he said two plates because your your brother graduated.

SPEAKER_03 50:12

I was just gonna say, and when we went to the Catholic school, I was a year ahead of my brother. And we're this is another weird fact, I guess. Run it down to my you know, whatever, but my brother is exactly a year and two days younger than me. Daddy was quick. Yeah, you know, he tells he used to and it used to bother me as a child, you know, as a young kid. Well, my kids are nine months and ten minutes apart, but um which you know we all know isn't really possible, but it's funny, isn't it? Yeah, so and I I know that was a joke when he put that in the in the deal, but you were always kind of raised that you know what? I made a living, I provided for you, you're gonna go out and make a living and provide for your children or your family. You know, it was and I've lived at home for a total of two weeks since a week after I graduated.

SPEAKER_01 51:09

Really? I and some people may say I I'm just I have a stick in my craw, if you will, because Sarah and I had two kids, and when we when we owned the gym, we had a year in there that was horrendous. It was like first coming out. We couldn't we actually got foreclosed on our house because I can explain that story some other time. It was it was kind of a mix-up, but it was uh almost a blessing in disguise. But we got foreclosed on, and so here we are. We have no money, we just lost our house, and we and this goes back to not giving up. And I give credit to my wife because I was ready to throw in the towel. I'm not gonna lie, I was like, I'm not, I can't do this to my wife. I oddly enough, I do love my wife enough. I didn't want to drag her through the mud. I said, let's just close the gym, let's just figure this out. I'll go back and get a job, you know. What and she's nope, we're not gonna do that. We're gonna give up the house, we're gonna keep running this gym. She says, I know we can make this gym work. Well, long story short, we did, but in that little period, in that little period where we were basically making popcorn so the kids could eat, I went to go, well, I should say my wife went to go get help from Snap. Couldn't get it because we made too much money.

SPEAKER_03 52:38

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 52:39

When I was barely able to eat, I made too much money for them. And so yeah, I gotta I and I see these guys that drive nicer cars than I do, they have brand new fucking phones, they drop it and crack it, that we get a new fucking phone, and they wear nicer clothes than I fucking do. And I'm not supposed to be upset that they're on Snap. Come on.

SPEAKER_03 53:04

No, I I totally agree with you. I mean, uh and you know, we got we got well, we really got more help with the financial end of of the birth, you know, the expense of that. She ended up having to have a C section in that to have my son and that. And you know, I and we didn't have to pay it back, and I always felt kind of guilty about that.

SPEAKER_01 53:25

You know, I and I don't I think that if you needed the help, you needed the help. There's again, as long as you would you weren't there every month with your handout at the end of a few, you know, a year, a year, all right. I'm I'm on my feet. Thanks. Yeah, you know, it is but you know, my old buddy Scott. Oh, yeah, he says when he first moved to the state of Nebraska, somebody said, you know, go here and they're gonna help you get set up on Snap and stuff like that. So he goes, he gets set up on Snap, and then he goes and he gets a job. Well, then he goes and tells him I don't need it no more, and they wanted him to pay back everything he took.

SPEAKER_03 54:08

Really?

SPEAKER_01 54:09

Yeah. That they say, Oh, you lied to us. You said you couldn't get it, you know, because he had a couple months where he couldn't, and you gotta get it, yeah. They want they wanted him to pay back. It was it he got taken, they actually garnished his wages to pay that money back.

SPEAKER_03 54:27

That's uncallful.

SPEAKER_01 54:28

No, because I mean keep in mind, I'm getting the story from him. I didn't talk go and talk to them, but that's because the way the government works, I believe it. You know what I'm saying? No, I don't, yeah. I I mean I they but they did make you, I do know they garnish his wages, but he tells me it's because that when he got a job, he went to them and says, I don't need your assistance no more. And they said that you signed a contract, that you were gonna have it for X amount of time or something like that, because he was taking classes or something like that. And so he signed up to take these classes, and then he got a job, so he couldn't take their classes. And the what the class was is to learn how to get a job, and he said, I got a job, so I didn't need their class. Well, they wanted me to pay him back for that that, and then also paying back for the snap I got. It was it was a mess.

SPEAKER_03 55:18

That's so yeah, but it sounds like red tape. It does that you know that you'd have to. Well, it's the way the system works. I'll be honest with you. It does. It's like, oh, well, we'll give you this and don't look a gift horse, you know, in the mouth. I well, I don't mean it as a gift horse, but you know what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01 55:34

And don't don't question what we're giving you. And and on top on top of that, we have people working in these offices, in these social offices that are teaching people how to beat the system.

SPEAKER_03 55:52

Oh, definitely, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 55:54

You know, if you do this, I had a friend and she was a she worked at Pizza Hut. She was a waitress at Pizza Hut. I this was back in the early 2000s. She was a waitress at Pizza Hut. And they and she she had three or four kids of her own, and then she was also watching one of her sister's kids, and so she was always strapped for cash. And she did not live the lap of luxury, and and so if there was there was one person that I feel like maybe she needed some help, it would have been her, it was her. She she kept her job even after the person at the social service office said, you know, if you quit your job, we can give you more money. Yeah, oh I and and she goes, I I'm not gonna quit my job, and she never did, she never did quit her job, but she did get assistance. But I I felt like she wasn't lift kicking a gift horse in the mouth, she was actually saying, I'm gonna do my part, I'll take care of, you know, and I agreed with that.

SPEAKER_03 57:00

And I and I I totally agree with that. I'll I'll have all the admiration for somebody like that that says, Okay, I need a hand, but I don't need it forever. Yeah, and I'm not gonna learn to live with it.

SPEAKER_01 57:12

Well, she did. I mean, don't get me wrong, she had to live with it because she had so many kids in her house, but she still worked, right? But what you know, I mean, that now people are like, well, this is easy life, so let's do it. Now the rule is you have to put in 10 hours a month or 10 hours a week, uh, just just to volunteer, even, and they'll let you have it. And people are pits and a moaning about that, yeah. And it makes no sense.

SPEAKER_03 57:35

So why not go volunteer at the place that's giving you a hand? Yeah. That's not a bad thing.

SPEAKER_01 57:41

And I'm not saying every single person complains about it, and I'm not saying every single person that gets snapped is taking advantage of the situation, but um, I will say this if you're not, you're an outlier, you're a person that is not the majority of it, you know.

SPEAKER_03 58:00

Yeah, so yeah, and you know, I mean, it can it and our government, I honestly believe our our entire government is geared that way. And I will use this as an instance. I never did join the military, wasn't in the military. Um, military runs pretty deep in both sides of my family. Oh, really? Yes. I never I never guessed that. Yeah, my dad was in the military. Uh your dad was in the military? Yeah, he actually uh served during the Korean War, but he served in Europe. So did yeah, he was in the European theater, uh, behind the scenes motor pool type stuff, supplying stuff to Korea, but never seen any action in Korea. Really? But my cousin, out of high school, kind of being, I don't know, I wouldn't say I don't think he was near as bad as he says he was, but he joined the Navy. Which is fine. Navy on my mom's side runs pretty deep. Um spent his time on a ship, ended up part of well, part of the the love of firearms on that side of my my family is my grandfather retired from the railroad, became a gunsmith, always hunted, always fished. My grandparents on my mom's side grew up very poor. Uh eight kids out of that deal. You know, I have twin uncles that can tell you well, neither one of them are here, they both died from agent orange exposure in Vietnam.

SPEAKER_01 59:31

Oh no shame.

SPEAKER_03 59:32

I had an uncle that died of that. Yeah. Uh one went with pancreas cancer, the other one committed suicide, and they were twins. No kidding. And they kind of did something that most people don't do, but they were able to serve together as twins most of the time. Oh, no kidding. Most of the time the military will split up sibl siblings. Twins are not, they will separate you. Somehow they managed to get that done. And they worked in the water purification, which in that part of it probably was where they got seen a lot of the Agent Orange because they were purifying water. What is Asian Orange? You know, it was a defoliant that they sprayed to kill the jungles. So that's what I thought.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:13

Yeah, I I didn't want to speak out of term, but I thought that's what it had something to do with.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:18

And they just sprayed it from Huey helicopters with booms out, like they spray hair, you know, with helicopter, never thought anything about well, this well, if it kills vegetation, that's all it kills. They never thought it killed people. Yeah. But but I mean, again, go I'm sorry, I cut your story off. I want to come back to that, but go ahead. Yeah. But anyway, my one uncle died of of pancreas cancer, and it was horrible. And his twin brother lived about another three years, and nobody really knows the answer to this. There's been several, but I have a feeling that he had a cancer diagnosis as well. See what his brother went through and said, I'm not doing this. Really? But long story short, my cousin served in the military, served in the armory on a ship, gets out, so he goes and gets some get a little veteran's benefit. Got hearing loss, he got, you know, hearing aids and that, had some back problems due to the military, got a little bit of supplement for that, which I'm not, I am not knocking him in any way for this. You know, I mean, he served our country. He I I honestly believe we don't do enough for that. Yeah, but on the same hand, he runs across the guy that he served with and he says, Well, I'm on a hundred percent disability from the Navy. And he's like, Well, how did that happen? Well, here, I'll give you this girl's name at the VA. Goes in there, six months later, he's got 100% disability. She's sitting there in the interview. Well, I see here that while you were at sea, your ship collided with a supply ship. And he said, Yeah. And she says, Did you receive any counseling for that? He's like, No, we just went about our way, you know. Oh, well, you have PTSD because you didn't receive. And literally, this person for the government got him 100% disability. Um, every medical issue, he's oh well, you had a stroke and you worked. Oh, well, you're exposed to these chemicals. And he did, he had a small stroke a couple of years ago. Um Well, you were exposed to these chemicals, and they create they that they can cause a stroke. He's on 100% disability from the government. And at 58 years old, send him back to school. He's gonna learn to become an ATV mechanic. Bought him tools, the whole nine yards. Here's and I'm not knocking the veteran thing, but what I am knocking is that lady at the veteran set him up, set him up.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:45

No, and I mean this how do how do I want to say this? I have said I I ever since I was a little kid, I thought this is the way it should be. So I might take a different look at it than you do, but that doesn't mean nothing. I almost feel like every person that serves should get full benefits, no matter what doctor you want to go to, no you don't have to go to the VA. I think you should be allowed to see whatever doctor you want. I think that you should you should get money maxed out or whatever for the rest of your life, whether it's only if it's you know four thousand dollars a month, whatever, because dang it, they done something that I was not willing to do. And so, I mean, I understand your point. I do, so don't don't think I'm going different than you. My only thought is we have to do so much more for our guys in the military.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:50

Oh, yeah. I and I don't I do not disagree with that statement at all. My thing is with uh that whole rant that I just went on, is our government is designed to give you free help, yes, not free help, but but designed to push, you know, to push that. I I mean, do I think he deserves 100% disability?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:10

No, do I think he deserves veteran benefits because I'll agree with you on that one. Um, but you take somebody like me, and not and I don't I don't like to talk about it a whole lot, but you you see me on a daily basis now.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:28

Yeah, I do.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:29

If there's my let's just say I'm speaking to my wife right now, and my wife is talking through me right now. If there's any person that deserves to be on 100% disability, it's me.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:40

Dude, I watch you struggle every day. And you know what? And you say you say, hey, I'm a hard guy to work for, I can be an asshole, whatever. But I also know that, and I've seen it, I have seen you come to work when I worked for you part-time and barely be able to walk around with a walker and still try to work and weld. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:03

Again, back to you figured out. Yeah, well, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:07

But that determination is something that a lot of people don't have, and they don't. I mean, I I'll be honest, I have the utmost admiration for you for that. I don't do it for that. I know you don't. I know you don't, but the majority of society does not have that drive.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:26

And and what bothers probably my wife, maybe more than me, I guess. I ain't gonna say it doesn't bother me at all. But we had a discussion here a while back whether I should go try to get on a hundred percent disability, and or at least get some type of disability. And my doctor's like, he if there's anybody that deserves it, it's you. But he says, just so you know, the first time out, they're always gonna turn you down. Yeah, they will always turn you down. It's okay, you can you can crack it, nobody cares. It's it's only a diet pep.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:59

It's only a diet pep. I was gonna say I I'm diabetic, so like if I have a Michelob light, I'm spoiling myself.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:06

But uh um and see that's what bothers me is is a lot of these people they don't ever get turned down, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:14

So um I have a former girlfriend that ended up getting breast cancer and oh that one that yeah when you first moved back. Yeah, and she went through chemotherapy with that, got cutter to chemotherapy, and the breast cancer rheumatized metabolized into intestinal cancer. Literally, she was within centimeters of having to go on a colostomy bag, did another two months worth of chemo, and you know, chemo's not good stuff. You know, people don't realize the chemo, oh, it's already cure cancer. Originally chemotherapy drugs were designed to kill people. It is, uh huh.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:51

That's what people don't realize. It's actually a dis it's actually a poison.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:55

Yeah, it's it's designed to kill people, and they're just giving it to you in a dosage that supposedly kills cancer, but it left her pretty much unable to to work. Every doctor she had turned it into disability and says this woman deserves disability. She had to go get an attorney and hire a disability attorney for the second time through to get disability. Well, and I'm not you know, I I'm not saying that the system I think that is a direct result of the amount of people who are trying to get disability that don't deserve it.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:34

Yeah, yes, a hundred percent. Because even my doctor told me he goes, you can go try, he goes, do the paperwork and everything. He says, But I'm I'm gonna guarantee you they're probably gonna turn you down the first time. He said, but he says the majority of the people that actually end up getting it is the ones that hire a lawyer and let them fight it for you. He says you normally get it then.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:54

So right, and that's what she did, and then and then that you always get a back settlement. Oh really? Yeah, and he took a small part, really. It wasn't it wasn't a horrible amount, you know. People are like, Well, attorney's gonna get half of your back settlement, and it wasn't that. But at the same time, you know, the guys, I can guarantee I'll get it.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:12

Well, and and the thing is, uh, here's I would look at it is if you were to get a back settlement, and but in the long run, you still get paid, and you you if you really can't work and you're getting a back settlement, but you still don't have to go to work and you still get paid, it's worth the back settlement to pay the lawyer, if you ask me, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:08:28

You know, so and you'd be surprised what she made on disability was not phenomenal money.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:34

Oh uh. It's not nothing like getting disability from from like your cousin, yeah. Whatever. It's not like that. I mean, my dad, he he was 39 when he had a major heart attack. In 1979, he had a uh quadruple bypass surgery. Okay. Now, I guess I didn't realize this. You're the one that told me this, that they still crack you open. I I thought maybe they found a new way of doing it, but I guess they still crack you open. And uh, but my dad was split like right above his belly button, clear up, right up underneath here. There was a scar all the way down. Call it the zipper. Mm-hmm. And uh they cracked. I mean, he was I don't know if I could do it. Well, the suck thing is he had to do it a year later for the second time.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:23

Yeah, he was barely healed.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:24

I don't I don't know that I could do it. I don't my dad was had to be the toughest guy because when I say they cracked, uh if nobody knows what we're talking about, is they take a saw and they cut your sternum. What not just your skin, they cut your sternum and they take your ribs and they so they basically break all your ribs almost, I think. And I will they stretch them to the point where they're about to crack anyway, you know, and you're and it takes a lot to heal from that. And so, um, why was I telling the story?

SPEAKER_03 1:09:55

Just people who deserve disability, you know, or yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:59

Yeah, so so you know, I was telling you the day my dad had that artery underneath his heart, yeah, that you couldn't get to. Well, because he had this arrhythmia, he could never have a full-time job like like uh and my dad was a blue-collar guy, if you will, and he could never hold another job because of the medication he was on and stuff like that. He couldn't be safe in a in that environment. And when my dad and back in 1979, when my dad got sick, we figured up one time that with my dad's because my dad at that time he was he made uh at in Newman Grove, okay, they had a cheese factory.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:40

Oh, yeah, yeah. I and I never knew that until you told me that.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:43

And my dad was the plant manager, and so with all my dad's bonuses and things like that, um he I think we figured up one time and I think in 1979, he was like making like$35 an hour. My dad was banking.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:59

That's yeah, 79, that's killer.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:01

I hate to think what that is today. He was banking, and then he got sick. Well, we and not only that, when he was doing that, we had moved out to Spearfish, South Dakota. Not yeah, Spearfish. We moved out to Spearfish, Rapid City. Where are we living at? Well, we lived in Okay, here's what it was. We lived in Sturgis. Okay, we lived in like uh have you ever been you've been to Sturgis, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:11:27

Yeah, it's been years ago.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:29

But if I said Boulder Canyon, I know where that's at. Okay, we lived in Boulder Canyon. Back then, it was nothing. We there was two trailer houses on this hill in Boulder Canyon, and we were one of them. And so there was four kids, two parents, and so that meant us kids all shared rooms and stuff. Right. And uh my dad was running a cheese factory for my uncle out by Rapid City, South Dakota, right? Oh well, the guy that owned the cheese factory in Newman Grove kept calling my dad and asking him to come back. If if I fly, I need some help here to do this because this guy don't know what he's doing. What if I flew you back? And my dad didn't my dad didn't fly, and especially not a prop plane, and so the guy finally, and the reason he ended up paying getting paid so much money was because he finally offered my dad enough money to just move back and run a cheese factory for him. Oh wow, yeah, and so but when my dad got sick, he was unable to work. He tried to work that next year, you know. He's saying he tried, but then they said, Well, you can't do it, you just it's too much on your heart, you can't do it. And so my mom got disability, you know. He was on 100% disability, if you will, however you want to slice it. They were barely, barely scraping. And when they when they when the guy moved my dad back, he not only gave him all this money, he also gave him a house to live in. Oh we lived in a let me count the bedrooms one, two, three, four, five. I think it was a six-bedroom house. And it was uh huge bedroom. Oh, it was huge, it was a beautiful house, absolutely beautiful house, a huge yard. The yard was it was on a quarter lot, it was a beautiful house, and um uh so my dad was making this money, had a house to live in. As long as he was working, he could live in this house. Well, then my dad got sick, and the guy was nice enough to let dad live there for so dad got sick in 79. He tried working until 1980, didn't work. We ended up moving in 1982, so the guy let him live there, you know, a couple of years, yeah. A couple years after, and everything. The guy loved my dad, the guy absolutely loved my dad, but uh it was so tight for mom and dad after dad lost all that money and everything, and living in a house that you know. I mean, I'm sure I'm sure mom and dad paid some rent. I'm not sure what it was. I was too young, I was only 10 years old when all this went down, but uh not even 10. I would have been in so that was a 79. I was born in 72. So what is that? You'd have been seven. Yeah, yeah. So I was seven when this all started falling apart, and so mom had to go get a job, and she was until the day she retired, she worked in a nursing home. She worked at nursing homes in Newman Grove, she worked at nursing homes in Elbion, uh Columbus. I mean, she worked at a lot of nursing homes and uh St. Ed. Um, but that's how they made that's how they lived was with dad's disability check and then what mom made, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:43

So yeah, it's not I mean, you know, it's not it's not easy. No, it's definitely not easy, but you know, and like you, you know, you deserve disability. Can I ever see you on disability? Maybe when you're older, but not right now. Because you know what? You'd go stir crazy at the house. I absolutely would. Yeah, it's what's funny. We all we all say, God, I want like three weeks off, but I can guarantee you after the end of a week, I'm I'm I'm like, hey, can I come back?

SPEAKER_01 1:15:10

Yeah, so like I I shouldn't say this on here, but the doctor said, just so you know you can't make no money when you're on disability. I said, Well, I don't. My I I write, I absolutely cannot, for the past six years, you cannot find a paycheck to me. As far as I know, I'm unemployed. And you know what?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:29

That's really a sad statement. But there's a lot of small business owners out there that have to do it that way, yeah. They they really don't, you know, oh, you own your own business, you know, and that sounds great, but you know, you've opened up some things to me, you know, and it's like, wow. No, and you don't think about those things, you don't.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:52

Um, my my my banker and because Sarah and I was talking about buying an acreage and stuff, and my my my wife makes did I say my mom or my wife? I don't remember what I said. You corrected yourself, okay. My wife makes excellent money. Well, she's kind of your mom because she's the only one. She's in line right now. That's why I had to correct my yeah, because a lot of times I call her Ma, so it sometimes goes that way. But uh she makes excellent money, so she doesn't need me to buy a house or anything. So that's the reason I'm able to do what I do. But uh the banker said you need to start writing yourself a check so that if I think is what he was getting alluding to is if your wife ever kicks you out, you can go get a house. Because if you don't, you don't show any income, so you can't go buy a house, you can't do nothing. So you have no real I'd have to live in the shop. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:47

Which some days there's not much difference because you're here until you know I third days I don't leave till 8 30, 9 o'clock. Yeah, and that's the other, you know, that's the other thing with owning a business. People don't realize the commitment to it, you know, and I I see it a lot more now that I'm with you than I did before. Yeah, you know, and I'm and I'm and it's and I guess I wasn't stupid to it, but you just doesn't dawn on you.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:10

It doesn't dawn on you because you know, when if you're not the reason it's resonating with you now is because we're friends. Yeah. Whereas before you you weren't friends with the guy that owned the company, so it's easy for you to walk out and just say, I'm going home for the weekend, you know, for the night or whatever, and not even give it a second thought. But because we're friends, and probably more of I send you a text at nine o'clock at night, and you could tell I'm just leaving the wool shop or something like that. Yeah, or I know, yeah, I know you're barely home and cleaned up. Yeah, yeah. So, but here and my wife kind of made a snide comment the other day that uh about you know, I'm always at the shop, and she was just she didn't she didn't mean to make it sound snide, but she made it sound like you know you're at the shop a lot, right? You know, basically is what she was saying, and uh I just told her, I said, look, and I I let it kind of stew in my brain overnight. That's the kind of guy I am. I'll let something stew overnight or whatever until I find the right words. And I the next day, it was Sunday. I said, I I I want she was getting up, she's she we weren't even talking about this. Not it, it wasn't even not even in the air. She gets up, she walks in front of me, goes, I go, I go, I want to say something to you. I said, I hope you understand that I'm putting in all these hours right now so that hopefully in five or six years, I don't have to. I said, I'm trying to get established right now, and and I'm not thinking I'm gonna make all the money right now. I said, I want to get established now so that in five or six years I'm not doing all this. And she goes, What the hell are you talking about? And I go, What you said yesterday about me, and she goes, I know. I go, okay, you said it kind of snugged, so I just wanted to make sure. Yeah. I'm asking for forgiveness. Yeah, yeah, basically.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:02

Yeah, and and I and I'm really lucky because with Jeannie, you know, she's like, I got you a hundred percent, and I know, you know, I mean, there's nights I've rolled out of here at 7:30, quarter to eight, you know, and she's like, I come home and and and she's like, I'm like, I'm sorry, and she's like, No, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:21

Well, I mean, she knows you're getting raised. I mean, yeah, and here's the thing. I I complained a little bit earlier about writing checks and stuff like that. You are gonna be a partner in this. You're not writing checks, but what you're doing, you're what you're bringing to the table for me is not only an education, but also you're gonna be the guy that I lean on when it comes to hey, how do we do this?

SPEAKER_02 1:19:44

No, so that's fine.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:45

I mean, that's when I said that earlier, I didn't I just now thought of that. That wasn't a dig towards you at all. No, and I didn't okay. I mean, I didn't take it that way. Okay, all right.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:55

I mean, we we decided we're gonna do this right now. You know, you've you've provided the place, and it thank god things worked out, and you were able to use part of this building, uh didn't really, you know, didn't really know if that was the way it was gonna work or not.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:12

We had we had it when we started this, we had a different idea where it was gonna be. Yeah, but all of a sudden, when we move things around, it's like you know, that'd be a perfect location. Why don't we do it there? And it's working out perfect for that.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:22

So yeah, and it's gonna be a nice little area, it's gonna work out really nice.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:26

And if things work out right, we have room to grow, actually. You know, I'm saying this is a big building. We got other people in the building, but there's still room to grow.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:35

Yeah, yeah. We're already kind of putting together floor plans if this happens or that happens. Yeah, and the other way that this may go is a very in larger communities, it's a very popular thing. And I think really here it will be as well.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:53

I think so.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:54

I don't I don't see where yeah, we may not be looking at 300 bikes, but you know what? We couldn't handle 300 bikes, so it's probably good. Right. But you know, I mean there there's there's dealerships that offer storage, and I know that they're going, yeah. Yeah, that and that's kind of something we're looking for storage.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:13

But here's the thing. It and that, like he said, that's another dream we have is is storage for your bike during the winter. And not for he said we don't have enough for room for we do have enough room for 300 bikes.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:24

Well, we do, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:25

If if I went to my landlord and said, Let me rent the rest of this building, he would rent me the rest of this building if for the right amount. I could put over 300 bikes in this damn building. Oh, yeah, no, I don't disagree. And so so that I mean I don't see why we couldn't bring bikes in from Lincoln and Omaha, to be honest with you. Well, you know, I mean, if yeah, yeah, if we could figure out a way to, you know, transport them, transport them, which we could, but we got an enclosed trailer and a dolly and everything else.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:52

So it's a lot of days one bike at a time, but we could get her done.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:55

We could buy the thing is though, if you could buy something bigger. I say if it turned out that it could be something big, I'd buy a bigger trailer.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:01

So but I know, you know, um I purchased a bike from a uh from a local Harley dealership in Omaha, and they offer winter storage, and right now if somebody doesn't give up their spot, you're waiting three or four years to find a place to get it. What's it cost, you know? I do not know. I don't remember. This would have been in uh 2018, 2019 that they had it and they asked me if I would be interested in it, you know. And I said, Well, you know, no, because I had a garage and a place to keep it, and let's just face it, I don't trust anybody else with my bike but me.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:39

Or not, you know, I mean, I'm it's no, I I if I can't see my bike, I have an issue. I can walk into my garage and there's my bike.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:47

Yeah, exactly. I can I walk through my garage into my garage every day to leave for work, and I look over, and right now there's two bikes sitting there, and I go, those are mine.

unknown 1:22:57

Fuck yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:59

And then and then you start them every so often in the winter to keep them, you know, keep the oil up in them and everything, and then I can go out there and hear two bikes running this winter. I'm like, hey, it's gonna be really hard to let Audrey go.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:12

Oh, you color Audrey? Yeah, I uh I uh I'm gonna shift gears just a little bit here. Sure. Did I tell you you reminded me you walk into the garage and shit like this? Um did I tell you the other day I was I was standing by my glass door, the sliding glass door, and I thought I heard something in the garage. And it sounded like a crying of some type. I I don't know what I he was like that's weird. So I kind of stepped out on my deck, and it was what in the hell is that? And it sounded just like somebody crying, and so I got a little closer. You see, you you know my crew, yeah. So I kind of took a few more steps. Got that, well, I'm not gonna walk in on a raccoon or something and attack me. So I walked a little closer, and sure, it kept getting louder as I got closer. I said, Well, shoot, it's in the damn grudge. So I real slow, I opened up the door, and I peeked around, and I'll be goddamned if it wasn't Fiona crying because I wasn't riding her. Well, I hear you.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:17

I hear you.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:18

Sometimes they sob, you know. They do, man. They're like, let's go ride.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:21

Yeah, well, Sunday, for instance, you know, it was just it was ungodly windy Sunday here. And I still managed to take both bikes out for well, I didn't go far. I was trying a different windshield on the new one. Well, it ain't new, it's new to me. How's that? Um, and so I rode about 10 miles to a couple of different directions because cross went head wind wind behind me. Ended up going back to the other windshield, which I think is ugly, but it is what it is. It is what it is. And then I looked at her and and I said, What do you think? And she's like, huh? I said, should I pull Audrey out of the corner and just yeah, get on her? I said, I haven't poor bike's been sitting since about the other one. You know, but I try, I try to at least if it's 55 or 60, I try to get a bike out at least once a month.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:10

See, like mine, not very far, but you know. You know, I said earlier you you this is a when I said my bike about needing to be worked on, that's kind of a I probably sideswiped you on that one because you didn't see that one coming, did you? What's that? The Fiona. Oh Fiona. You oh, I guess we did just buy a motor for Shrek. Shrek, yeah. Fiona underneath Fiona, great big oil spot. So we have to fix, find the oil spot, the oil leak, and fix the oil leak before I can ride it.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:38

Yeah, so it's towards the front.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:40

I think it's more, I think is what it is, is possibly you know, where how I'm so terrible in turn. The you have to take it apart basically. The take the primary off and shit. There's that one little seal, the quad seal and the transmission.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:59

Yeah, I think that's what it is. I have seen them done. I've never done one. Well, we're gonna learn it's not the worst job in the world. I mean, I got everything we need to break it loose.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:10

About through I think two or three years ago, Eric at uh bikes and trikes. Yeah, yeah, he told me, he says, I think that's leaking, and I think he's like, he goes, It is something you can do if you have the right tools. So I guess what we're saying is, I'm gonna buy the right tools. Uh I got the lock blocks, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:32

I got the lock blocks and stuff, and then the worst part of it is is the primary's got to come off, and let me tell you what.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:39

That's not easy.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:41

Uh that front nut on the compensator sprocket, you will be hanging off of one of your three-quarter inch bars to get her broken. Yeah, that's probably a good thing, but it's like 180 foot pounds torque. It's it's nuts. You go, that's how does this little motor have to have something that tight? But it is what it is.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:59

Right now, that's what I think it is, but I don't know if it is or not. So, but yes, she's she's crying because I haven't rode her, and that's part of the reason I haven't tried to get her out when it was warmer, is because I didn't want to deal with the whole oil leak and shit.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:12

Well, you just put some more oil in the charity and I could have.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:15

Uh Elizabeth is oh my god, she's she's climbing up my butt wanting that bike done. She's foaming at the mouth. Three weeks ago, she's at the house. She's like, How soon do you think I'd get my bike in? I'm like, give me some time. I got some stuff to do yet. So that's why I'm not joking. Next week I gotta get her bike down here.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:35

We'll get her in here. I mean, I know I gotta do a carb and probably some other maintenance.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:39

The thing with that the thing with her is she would absolutely love if if we're doing it after work, it would be perfect for her because she wants to come.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:50

No, that's fine. You know what? Yeah, because I'll be really honest with you, and I've worked on a few other people's Harleys, you know, and I don't You know, I guess friends and family type thing. Yeah. Um, but the more you know about your bike, the better you are. Yeah. I mean, I'm not saying you gotta know all the technical stuff, but and and she's learned by trial and error. Yeah, you know, that bike has given her some fits here and there. And and that's good though.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:18

And right there in front of her apartment, she has changed her own oil and everything. She is she's she she's and the thing is I mean, I can't.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:29

How about this? I don't want to cut you off. No, we don't want people like that, but it's good to know.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:35

She she always wasted the last second, though. She's getting ready to ride. Where was she riding to?

SPEAKER_03 1:28:41

Oh, she was going to that deal down south, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_01 1:28:43

No, she oh no, I don't I don't think she ever planned it.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:48

I don't remember. Didn't she drive to something that she wanted to ride to?

SPEAKER_01 1:28:54

Yeah, now that you say that, but I think this was something else. I think this was earlier. She was she was going to a rally or something. It was maybe she was going to the rally down in Kansas or something. I don't remember what it was. But she waits till the night before to change her oil. Why do you wait? That always scares me. Well, then she got in a situation where she couldn't get her her oil filter off. Well, I said, you'll be fine this time. You changed, you drained the oil, you done all that, so you should be fine. And so I think she wrote it that time, but she, I mean, she's done a lot more on her bike than when I I I'm really proud of her. Yeah, but she wants to come down and learn, and so that's a thing. If we do it, so yeah, I I maybe that's what we ought to do is start offering the bring your bike in and you can help us do it. And you know, maybe maybe that's a sales tactic. Who knows?

SPEAKER_03 1:29:55

So, yeah, do you want to learn what you did wrong? Come here. And I mean, and and to be honest with you, as somebody who's done automotive repair, and that sometimes it's not a bad deal. Yeah, you know, I mean, there's there's a lot of times you see something and you go, Well, that's because they're riding their clutch or they're breaking this, you know, breaking wrong here or stopping this. And it's it's knowledge. I mean, we're we're all I I here's my thing, and and then again comes from my Italian father. You know, he said the day that you think you don't need an eraser on the pencil, you're in trouble. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:30

Everybody learns until the day they die. It's funny, these old guys, they have they all have these anecdotes like that. Because when I was I was still in my 20s, early, just learning how to weld, basically. That's where I learned how to weld is at Maylands for the I mean I actually weld, let's say that, you know, put in I got paid to weld there. And uh, and you know as well as I do, you can learn how to weld, but until you start getting paid, you don't really learn a lot because when your paycheck depends on not getting fired, you learn how to weld a lot better. Um, this old guy, he used to work for the rail rail yard in it was Omaha, I believe, but they would bring in rail cars and they would had to refurbish them before they went back out, and he would he could stick weld like you like dude, it was like butter seeing that guy. And uh I was we were just working one day together, and he and he at that time, he worked at Superior, which would have been Greystone at the time. I ran into him again and I worked with him there, and uh, but I he looked taught me this at Balin's. He's like uh he said there will there should never be a day if you're honest with yourself and you're doing a good job, there is a never a day that goes by when you're welding, you don't learn something new about welding. He said, whether way to hold your gun, way to run a piece you know wire into a certain location, things like that. He says, if you think you know everything, you are sorely mistaken, then you're just half-assing it. He said, When you if you think you know everything, you you're not doing a good job.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:18

Yeah, so yeah, and to to take that to a to a different height. This weekend I had the pickup we were in town on Saturday, and my check engine light came on. So we're going by O'Reilly's, you know, and I'm like, they'll do that shit for free. So pull in there anyway. Turns out I got a bad gas cap, so that was an easy fix. And I I walked when I pulled up, brand new four four-door pickup. Sorry about that, guys. Beautiful truck. Okay, and I look on the back of it, it's got a welding rig on the back of it. Oh yeah, they all got brand new trucks. Well, yeah, and I mean this thing's on 20-inch and scadoys, and I look back, and the welding box is wrapped around the back. It's curved. Oh, it's beautiful. Oh, yeah. I love them, and it matches and it matches the the line on the deal, and that and there was a young kid in there, and and uh uh he was looking for something to do with the air ride that was on that. Was he Hispanic? No, no, no, he's from Texas. He was from Texas.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:20

I bet you're just one of the same guys that was here in town. I don't mean to cut you off, but I bet it's one of the same guys because I know the I almost think I know what the truck you're talking about. It's black. It's black.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:28

He hasn't painted the back of it yet. It's it's rust colored on the back. It has not been painted on the back. And the thing that I thought was really cool about it is he had two lids on the back on each one on each corner in the back, and that's where his welding cable was welded. He rolled it up inside the deal. They were still it was a really cool deal. And I asked him about it, and he says, Well, he I said, you know, what in Columbus? I said, I I work for a welding shop in Columbus, you know, and I've welded a good percentage of my life. And no, he says, I'm just up here trying to make a living. He says, Learned a lot about welding being up here. He says, I've been welding fence all winter long. He says, That'll teach you how to weld.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:09

He's been working at a feedlot or what?

SPEAKER_03 1:34:11

Yeah, I don't know. He didn't, he said making fence. Yeah. So well, and he was in York, so I I'm gonna assume it was somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:19

Did it must it maybe wasn't, but I know that that crew that came to here that was working out at uh the corn plant, right? They were running that, you know, they're running this exhaust thing out to the mountain, and they were here for quite a while, and they all them guys, all of them were driving these brand new freaking trucks with these Lincoln rigs, you know, welding rigs on the back of it. I mean, in Lincoln, you can sometimes run three welders off of one off of one unit, three uh stinger, I mean, off of one unit, and they all got beautiful trucks and everything else. But I and I'd be lying if I didn't say I got a little bit jealous once in a while. But here's the one thing that always brings me back to home. My truck is paid off. My a good percentage of all my tools are paid off, you know what I mean, except for the one I just bought. My baby, you know, and and the truck that came along with it. Other than that, every truck I own, I own three trucks, two of them are paid off. Um my tools, except for the one I just are all I mean, so that's what brings you back to home is they can drive all that new shit. Because you cannot tell me that that$150,000 truck, because they were ex because it wasn't just a truck, they lift them all, and they all were dually, and they all had brand new fucking rims on them. So a hundred and fifty thousand dollar truck, they don't own that fucking truck.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:51

Yeah, and people go, no way they got$150,000. Go price a top of the line pickup. I somewhere I seen some pickup, it was a Ford. Happened to be a Ford, not that's that's your most common, yeah. Ticker price was$93,000.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:04

And then, like I said, they all put brand new rims on them. And if it's a dually, you know, you got special rims for that. And then the that welding bed that he had on there, that was easily a$5,000 bed. Oh, if not more. Yeah, so the we you know what I don't understand about them, them beds is and I asked because I wanted to do this, because it takes up it, it doesn't take up so much room on your bed. Is they're taking the oxygen and settling and laying them on their side and putting them in. If you look, there's like hole they have on the side.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:39

Yeah, I see I okay, so that's what that is.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:41

And so I asked, I went to Matheson and I said, I was always taught not to lay a settling on the side. They go, Yeah, you should never lay a settling on the side. I said, Why? They said, Because the settlement in there, you don't get it all because of the way it's laying. You you should never lay it on the side. I said, tell explain these rigs to me then. I don't understand why they all have their torches and stuff laying in there on the side. I said, Explain that to me. And they go, they can't. They said we don't know why they do that. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:09

See, and for the longest time I never realized that a settling bottle had concrete in it. At the bottom? In the whole tank. That's part of the reason they weigh so much.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:18

I guess I didn't realize they're bad.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:20

They pump that gas and it and it holds it like a sponge.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:23

I guess I didn't realize they weighed any more than another bottle.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:26

Oh, yeah, you take a little settling bottle, you know, they're what, half the size of a full-size bottle and they weigh damn near as much. Do they? Yeah, they're pretty damn heavy. I guess I've never known it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:35

But I was always told when you get to my age, heavy's heavy.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:38

Yeah, well, yeah. I hear you kicked enough bottles around, you just don't care. That settling bottle's nice because it's got handles. Yeah, yeah. Um, but yeah, you know, and that like I said, you know, this kid's like, yeah, learning a lot up here at Weldon Fence. I wonder what he was working at. I don't know. He might have been passing through, too. I mean, you know, maybe. But he was looking for a Schrader bell for his air ride or something on that truck, and he was in there and he was telling this guy. See, they all got air rod. Yeah, he's like, Oh, I know I've bought him here before. And of course the guy at O'Reilly's can't doesn't know anything past what he was trained.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:13

Yeah, what year is it? What motor's in it?

SPEAKER_03 1:38:16

Yeah, that's what the computers tell him. I'll never forget.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:20

I I get tired of buying bulbs for my headlights, and it's what motors in it. Does that really fucking matter what motor's in my fucking truck to get a headlight?

SPEAKER_03 1:38:31

I will never my my son kind of has my sarcasm. And I will never, he was probably 18. And we were in on O'Reilly's, and I don't remember he needed something for his truck, and the guy's going down through the list of questions, you know, and of course he's he's 18, and at that age, you know everything. And and the guy gets done, and he goes, Oh, and it's blue if you need to know that too.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:56

But that's how you feel, yeah, because they don't know how to just step out from behind the computer and say, What did you need? They just they have a rhythm of what they do, and it always starts with, What was it on? What year, what motor, is it four-wheel drive?

SPEAKER_03 1:39:11

I mean, it's just right. I well, I ran into it. And it was at an auto zone when I lived in Daytona Beach. And I was married at the time. My wife's aunt ran a beach concession on Daytona Beach. And the guy that delivered their bread, good old Southern boy, his name was Billy, and they caught it and he delivered bread. He had his own bread business called Billy Bread. Well, she kind of hooked me up with him and said, Well, you know, he knows how to do mechanical stuff. So he brought me a bread truck and he's like, it gets hot. And he said, It just runs god ungodly hot. I'm like, all right. So I popped the hood, it's got a 350 Chevy in it. So one of them Grummin's step van, a bread van, you know, basically. I walked into AutoZone, told him I need a thermostat for a 350 Chevy. The guy's like, What year? I said, Well, as far as I know, it's the same thermostat from about 1955 all the way up to like the mid-90s. Well, yeah, but what what's it in? I said, a Grumman step van, a what? A one-ton Grumman step van. Well, okay. Uh, is that a three-quarter ton, a one ton? I said, I don't know, it's a Grumman step van. It's a 350. I need 180 degree thermostat. Finally, the guy just looked at me and said, our thermostats are over there. Oh, for God. Yeah, I was like, okay. From that point on, when I lived down there, I walked into that auto zone and just went behind the counter. Thank you. Yeah, yeah. You know, I know what I'm looking for. But yeah, they and I can't you can't knock some of these kids. It's their first job. It's probably their first look into the automotive world.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:52

Not true. A lot of them guys grew up with their dad working on cars. That's how they work at auto. That's that's they all got their hats turned on backwards and they're all cool. And you know, they they all act like they've been working on cars. They've all if you look out in the parking lot, there's always a Mustang or a Camaro or something. They've worked on you, can't tell me that's the first thing they know about a halfway lifted pickup with four different body colors on it. If you walked in there and you see my son working behind the counter, you're gonna say, Oh, this guy don't know he's gonna need the computer because that's it. I mean, you can tell a grungy kid, a kid that's grungy, and when I when I say grungy, there's nothing wrong with finger dirt on the fingernails. That means you've been working on your own shit. Right. I would rather walk in and see a guy with dirty fingernails working behind that counter because I know he knows how to work on his own shit and he can answer the questions without the computer.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:42

Well, he's got common sense. Yeah, common sense, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's listened to us. We're off on these old guy ranting raids. That's what I'm actually having a lot more fun today than I thought I would, to be honest with you. Well, yeah, yeah, I'm doing all right. I was kind of a little bit nervous about this whole podcast thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:59

I uh that's uh no, like I said, once you start talking, you look, you kind of start, we start you look at each other, and then the only thing that's underway is the mic stand. And then once you get used to talking, I mean you and I both can blow smoke pretty hard. So well, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:14

The next time though, I'm gonna get a more comfortable chair.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:17

You know what? I've got two chairs sitting out there. I've got to mesh the two together. I'm I've got one out there like this I want to have sitting in that one. Is kind of uncomfortable. Yeah, it's not bad. So, you know. Anyway, well, we have been talking for an hour and 45 minutes. Nice with a break in there. Yeah. When I had to go find insulin. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:35

Luckily, I am not there yet. There's days you scare the hell out of me, guy. I hear your thought going, beep. Well, my insulin's low an hour later. My insulin's low. Go take a goddamn shot. Jesus. I don't want you falling out on me.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:49

No, when I say when my sugar is too low, that means I need to eat some sugar. Yeah, because it's too low. Yeah, too low.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:55

You need to go eat.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:55

I'm just like, I don't want you dropping out on me. Thing is, I usually get if I'm working on something, I hate stopping to go because you because if you get bad enough, you gotta sit and just not do nothing for a minute and drink a pop or something like that. Well, then we're minutes ticking away. That's like I gotta be doing this. I this I don't have time for this.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:15

Business owner. That's the business owner.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:17

But you know, in all honesty, one of the best things for me is you start working here because you take that lunch hour. And although I never used to take a lunch hour. Yeah, yeah. I used to just work all day long, but it's nice, it's easier on my back if I can come sit down for a little bit and chill. Well, yesterday I fell asleep on you. That's no big deal. I was exhausted yesterday, man. You don't snore too bad, regardless of what your wife says. Was I snoring? Yeah, a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:42

But you're like me. You sleep with a CPAP, and if I don't have a CPAP on, I will wake my own ass up snoring.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:49

Yeah, I'm trust me. I know.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:50

You know, you get that who is it? Who is that? Who is that? Yeah, somebody, somebody cutting wood here. I shouldn't say this, but she did. She sleeps with a sleep C PAP.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:02

Oh, does she?

SPEAKER_03 1:44:03

Yeah, right after we right after we met and got, you know, moved in together. I'm like, you know, you snore really bad. Yeah, I know. I said, you know that's a sign of sleep apnea. Well, I had I said, and this is the weirdest thing how I found out I had sleep apnea is due to a fight that I had gotten into, which you told me. Yeah, which really wasn't a fight because the guy was running from me like a kindergartner the entire time and it was over his girlfriend, which you know I was having inappropriate ideas about. Anyway, um he wanted his car keys back. He kept telling me that he was gonna kick my ass, and he never did. And if I dial this phone, you're dead. You know. So as I handed him his car keys like a dumbass, he sucker punched me, broke my nose. That didn't end well for him, and it didn't end well for me because I ended up with a nose that was snapped sideways. So long story short, the um went to the emergency room, and the PA, the guy in the emergency room, is like, well, here's what the deal. He says, You're going to a specialist on Monday because I can't do nothing with this. So I ended up in Lincoln. Seeing seeing a specialist that fixed broken noses for the University of Nebraska, and he says, You got three options. And I'm like, Okay, he says, I'll just grab your nose and set it. He says, but he says, Your eyes are gonna water and you're probably gonna pass out because it hurts. I'm like, okay. And he said, I can numb you up pretty good, do the same thing. He said, and you're probably gonna get the same result. He said, He says, Your nose is broke that bad. I said, Okay, so what's the third option? By this time, I'm pretty scared.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:58

I would say I'm done about yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:46:00

He says, Well, he goes, We can't leave it this way because it's gonna affect your uh breathing breathing. And I'm like, okay, he says, I come to York and he says, I do a outpatient, you know, specialty clinic every Wednesday. He says, You can schedule for next Wednesday, and I'll put you under and do it. You had to wake down, didn't it hurt? Yeah, it hurt. And I was black and blue, but after a while, if you don't touch it, it doesn't really, you know. It gets better.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:28

You would be surprised how often a person touches their nose throughout the day. You're not gonna lie.

SPEAKER_03 1:46:33

I am not gonna lie. And let me tell you what, sneezing is not pleasurable. Oh my god, that had to hurt. And you learn to sleep on your back because if you roll over, yeah, it's anyway. Long story short, I went in and had the outpatient surgery. And I was in the recovery room, and the anesthesiologist comes in and he says, You did fine. He says, but you have sleep apnea. And I said, I do not. He says, I said, I sleep fine. And he said, I don't think that, you know, I do. I said, you know, he says, No, you have sleep apnea. He says, I can tell when you're out that you have sleep apnea. And I'm like, Yeah, and he says, All right, he said, I'm gonna ask you one question. You wake up with a headache. No, he said, Do you dream? And I said, Once in a while. He says, When was the last time you remember having a dream? I said, I don't know, it's been a while. He said, I can't give you a day, you know. I said, I can't say it was last Tuesday or whatever. He goes, That's the first sign of sleep apnea, because we if you have sleep apnea, you never reach REM sleep, and REM sleep is where you dream, and that's where your best rest is. I was like, huh. That's kind of weird. So I went out of sleep study, and they're like, Oh yeah, you need a sleep apart. But with Jeannie, I told her that, and I said, Do you dream? And she's like, No, I just fall asleep, wake up in the morning. I'm like, You got sleep apart.

SPEAKER_01 1:48:01

But you know what's what's funny is Sarah swears she never dreams. Now I know it's not true because she'll giggle in her sleep and she will make fun noises in her sleep once in a while. And but she says she doesn't dream, doesn't remember him anyway. Right. And um, so I don't know how Jeannie done her sleep study, but Sarah had to go and get something at the hospital at the yeah, at the hospital, and then she had to wear something at night. That's the way Jeannie did hers. And then that was bullshit because I had to go sleep and I had to go to the hospital and sleep in a room and yeah, and you sleep for four hours. Put the camera on you, so you couldn't touch your dick or nothing because you scared somebody so you touch your dick. I mean to wake up with a heart, huh? Yeah, exactly. So I didn't know my nurse was cute, so I mean I don't remember. I done mine when I was 27 years old. I I but that's not fair. But is what was weird is my wife, you know my wife. Yeah, when it comes to camping, you don't fuck with her camp time. Right. My wife loves to camp. Right. We'll say glamp because she sleeps in a camper. Now she had made plans to go to the camper that same night. So what does she do? She she calls when she found out that she had to take this home and that she had to return it by a certain time the next day on a Saturday. You know, she goes, Hey, are you working this weekend? without telling me the whole game plan. I go, Well, yeah, I kind of thought I'd go in, but you know me on a Saturday. I don't rush around or not like this. And the thing had to be back by 10 o'clock in the morning. I go, and you know, we are campers over at Silver Creek.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:50

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:49:51

And uh I go, Yeah, I kind of planned on working. Why? She goes, Okay, good. Here's what needs to happen. He's like, Oh. You dog. Because then I had to be at the hospital by 10 o'clock and to drop it off. But she she'd use that, but they told her she doesn't have sleep apnea.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:08

Wow. I that's the I that's what the anesthesiologist told me. And I but yeah, she was able to do the at-home study. When I got mine, oh geez. I think I was in my mid-30s. Really? Probably. And yeah, I had to go to the hospital. Yeah, I did too. You got to try to sleep for four hours in a hospital bed, which I don't know anybody that sleeps really good in a hospital bed.

SPEAKER_01 1:50:33

See, mine wasn't in a hospital bed. Mine, they actually had a you done it here in town?

SPEAKER_03 1:50:38

No, I did mine in Osseola.

SPEAKER_01 1:50:40

See, this this I think at this time, I think I'd done it here in town, if I remember right. I think I'd done it here in town. But I think it was in the old hospital. I think it was before they built a new hospital. Um I think you I went in and they had kind of a room set up. It was like a hotel room, and they just hooked you up to all these wires and all this bullshit. And you that was about they put things all over your head, all over your stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:05

Yeah, you had to go home and peel it out.

SPEAKER_01 1:51:07

And then go to sleep. Okay, number one, I don't sleep, I don't go to sleep easy in you, and you had to get, like you said, at least four hours of sleep. Well, well, it it didn't go over well. Uh they they basically said what you did sleep, you've got sleep apnea, and uh um, but the reason my wife made me take the sleep test is because when we got married, she's like, You know that you don't breathe when you sleep, right? I'm like, What are you talking about? She goes, she goes, and she after a while she got she didn't do it, but when we first got married, she said there'll be times I'd be just about ready to hit you to wake you up and you start breathing again. It's like I have gotten that from former relationships when I yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:51:52

So how do you stop breathing at night? I don't stop breathing. You know, you don't you don't but I always say, Oh, do I? Okay, yeah, there's there occasionally, it's not very often, usually when I'm sick. I'll toss it off, you know, toss the mask off in the middle of the night. And I do get shoved, put your mask back on. I got that the other night. But uh, yeah, and then like for my sleep study, I think it was four hours I had to sleep without it, and then she comes in and she puts this thing on my face, so it's like covers your whole face because they don't yeah, yeah. And okay, so I tried to I think I finally did fall asleep. And I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:52:29

They never gave me nothing from my face. Oh, really? They just said what my sleep study was is they put all this shit all over your head and then go to sleep, and then they were what mine was is they were gonna test how much I didn't breathe and how much I actually didn't sleep. And they said I didn't sleep all eight hours that I was there, but if they'd done the math and done all this bullshit, they said in an eight-hour sleep, if I were to sleep for eight hours, I basically slept two hours of it. Yeah, and let me tell you, it I remember before I got my sleep, my my CPAP, I would literally be no matter if I sat down for two minutes, I was out.

SPEAKER_03 1:53:10

It was like you had a button on your ass, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:53:12

And then the other thing was there were several times. This was during the time Sarah and I we actually she worked at six o'clock in the morning also at another company, so we just ride to work together. And there were days because we rode together, my wife would never let me miss work. Yeah, but my head literally felt like there was somebody inside trying to push your brain out. Oh, I know. It hurt so bad, but then after you after I got to work and I started breathing, you know, it you can't and what they said, it was because you were um carbon monoxide in your brain all night long. Lack lack of oxygen, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:53:50

So and with me, I would find I the other thing, and I didn't never it never really dawned on me. I guess I knew, but if I got in a car and drove for two hours, there'd be times I'd wake up on the shoulder. I was going down going down the shoulder. You know, you're like you hear the rumble bars.

SPEAKER_01 1:54:11

I I will say this that ever since Sarah and I basically been together, ever since I can remember. So I mean I started dating her when I was 16. So I wouldn't say right when we started because I was the man, you know. Right, right. So but after she started after she went to college and I was working a full-time job and we would travel together, I'd always make her drive, but I'd be out asleep.

SPEAKER_03 1:54:34

Yeah, couldn't ride very well.

SPEAKER_01 1:54:35

Yeah, I could not ride without I couldn't ride from here to Skylar without falling asleep. And so, but now I do decent. I mean, there are still days it's like fuck I'm tired.

SPEAKER_03 1:54:44

Well, and that's just work, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:54:46

I suppose.

SPEAKER_03 1:54:46

But yeah, and but no, they've stuck a mask on me and said, Okay, now we're gonna see. And and it maybe it's because I didn't sleep very much, so yeah, and I woke up just like feeling like somebody was shoving an air hose down my throat. And the nurse is like, and I ripped this mask off, and I like I said, I eventually did fall asleep with it on, and then she just kept turning the thing up, you know. She's like, Well, you were just about to rich. That's that's gonna be your setting. I'm like, no, I'm about you know, you're about to blow my asshole out with this thing. I can't, and but now you wouldn't sleep without it, do you?

SPEAKER_01 1:55:21

Oh, I can't sleep without it.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:23

I have um 10 minutes, 15 minutes, maybe half an hour.

SPEAKER_01 1:55:27

If you're lucky, yeah, I'm the same way. Um, I have I have buddies that that are now that at the age they're finding out they have it, you know. They didn't for years they just snored, but they're finding now that they have it, and they're like, I can't sleep with this damn mask. And my this is what I tell them. Try if I said you have a recliner at home, yeah. I said take the mask out by your recliner and sleep, because you can fall asleep at any time with in your chair, and and you never I said start sleeping because the other thing is like you, you're a stomach sleeper, yeah. I am and they I was told you're gonna have to learn to sleep on your back with this, and that's what they're they're they still tell people that, and so that's what bothers a lot of guys. I said, You just gotta work on. I said, take it out to the recliner and you sleep on your back in your recliner, so wear it in there. You'll start getting used to it when you're in your client recliner, and you'll get used to wearing it while it because you're sleeping in the recliner, you always do. It'll transfer to the bed after after about six weeks. If it takes that long, take it to the bed, and I bet you 10 bucks. And I've nobody's ever said it didn't work, so maybe but maybe it didn't. I don't know. I that'd be my suggestion to most people.

SPEAKER_03 1:56:42

And I'm yeah, I may have to retrain myself because I still I don't sleep the entire night on my stomach. I have to fall asleep on my stomach, but a lot of times I wake up on my side, which is that works too.

SPEAKER_01 1:56:53

Yeah, it does, yeah. But the thing is about sleeping on your side, that's gonna be hard on your back because then you're you're and the only reason I know this is because of who I am. But you know, your knees are together, and so that puts pressure on your lower part of your back. Whereas if when you fall asleep on your stomach, if you put a pillow between your legs, that way when you end up on your side, you're not putting extra pressure on your back when you wake up on your side.

SPEAKER_03 1:57:16

Well, I'm a fat guy with big thighs. Well, you know, so I always have a pillow between my legs. If not, I have she she throws a blanket on the bed. Uh on the I am with a comforter. I'm and I'm the kind of guy that you know I can sleep with a sheet and I'm happy. So I always have like a chunk of that blanket wadded up.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:57:34

And we did something, oh, it's probably been six months ago. Probably the best thing I have ever done. And I never thought that I would say that I would sleep on a memory foam bed. Because I bet on a couple of memory foam beds.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:49

That's why you're so fucking hot, though. I'm telling you that right now.

SPEAKER_03 1:57:52

Those things can't hold a lot of fucking heat. Well, it's supposed to have some special cool top on it.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:56

Oh, well, then okay, I'm wrong. I don't know. I mean, I I sleep.

SPEAKER_03 1:57:59

It might yeah, I and I'm not warm when I sleep. But well, maybe it is what you know. I don't know. Nah, I've never slept. I've always slept kind of pretty much naked with a sheet, doesn't matter what time of the year it was. Yeah. But uh it's it's a combination coil springs and memory foam. And I kept seeing them advertised on, of course, you know, the good old Facebook marketplace. There's a guy in Lincoln that works for he didn't wouldn't say who he works for, but basically these are the ones, you know, you try it for 99. And well, you know, they send them back, they steam clean them, they sanitize them. This damn thing came vacuum-packed in a roll about oh shit, well, it just fit in the back seat of her car. Yeah, and I'm like, and it was like 700 bucks, which isn't bad for a used one. I'm not gonna name the brand or anything, but it was probably about a$1,300. Well, it's better than what we're sleeping on, and it was king size. Brought it home, and it was cold. And it just kind of whatever. He says, Leave it in the house over here. Yeah, you gotta leave it, yeah. Yeah, and then he says, when you open it, he says, It's gonna be like a jigsaw puzzle. He says, 'Cause I really can't tell you how that but it comes rolled in like eight layers of heavy plastic.

SPEAKER_01 1:59:21

Oh no shit.

SPEAKER_03 1:59:22

And then they vacuum suck this thing down. So and he said, Be careful when you cut it open. He showed us where the seam was, cut that thing open, and it literally unfolded out of fours and unrolled itself. And I'm like, Yep, we just got this ain't gonna work. Really? Yeah, and I'm like, and it says you could sleep on it in four hours. So I got home from work, we opened it up, nine o'clock, been about four hours, you know. And I'm like, get on it, and I'm like, well, it ain't bad, I don't mind it. Then this is by the next night, it'll be what it is. That damn bed, dude. I'm telling you right now, is amazing. So it's like you sink into it, right? No, no, it supports you. Really? It really does support you, and then it's got an extra layer, you know, like along basically from about your rib cage down to about your knees, that gives you extra support. So like when you sleep on your side, it doesn't bend your back.

SPEAKER_01 2:00:18

Well, there you see there you see that's awesome that they have beds like that now. Like I said, I sleep on one of them adjustable beds because like I was telling you, my stomach's been bothering me, so I sleep like I'm sitting in a chair.

SPEAKER_03 2:00:31

So But yeah, I was and I used to wake up, you know. I I like I'm one of those pillow huggers. You know, I sleep on my side, I fall asleep on on my side on my stomach, and I got pillow wrapped up underneath me and my arms crossed, and I used to wake up with sore shoulders and a neck, you know, stiff now, and I don't do that anymore. I was really, really shocked. But you know, I was that traditional, oh, I gotta have a mattress with 800 springs in it and a pillow top, and it's gotta be as hard as a rock. And and this thing really is very firm. And when we bought it, he said, I just will let you know that this is this mattress is really designed for side sleepers and back sleepers. If you're a stomach sleeper, you're probably not gonna like it. Well, at least he was honest, yeah. And to be honest with you, I don't mind it. I could fall asleep on my stomach, and then I it's it works for me to sleep on my side and in a regular bed. I had a hard time sleeping in on my side. I was I was really yeah. I was like, huh, technology ain't so bad. You see them advertise and you go, uh uh.

SPEAKER_01 2:01:32

See, I was I pushed Sarah for quite a few years to buy me one of them adjustable beds, and it's not that she wouldn't buy it, it's just they're expensive. They're they are very expensive. Well, she found a place on the internet and and it was shipped to the house, and her and Ben assembled it because I was out with my back at the time when she got it. So her and Ben assembled it, and uh I will never I I can't say that because our camper, it's a flat bed, but I told her I said before I go camping next year, we're putting one of these. At least she don't need one, she don't like them actually. We're gonna put it because it comes our we have a king-size bed, but it's in two halves where we can each we can each have our own. And so I said, We're at least gonna get my half made in, you know, so that I can sleep in the camper, because when I first started sleeping in the camper after my hips were done, um I I just slept in the recliner. I just and and you know what I know it sounds stupid after being married for 30 years I do like sleeping next to my wife. It's not that I have to, but when you're in a camper and she's at the other end of the camper and you're in the very back of the camper, and it just kind of sucks to know that we're not sleeping together. Does that I mean I totally get it? I mean it's it's not that I have to. I mean now if she travels, it bothers me more than if she's at the other end of the camper because I know she's along, you know. Right. But I I prefer to sleep in bed with her if I can, you know.

SPEAKER_03 2:03:13

No, I I totally get that. I mean, because there's nights that I and it hasn't happened in quite a while. I actually since we got to bed. But there were times three o'clock, get up, I'm done, I'm up. Yep, yeah. And I'd go sit out, try to sleep in the chair, and sometimes you fall asleep in the chair, you wake up and you're like, Oh wait, I'm not in bed.

SPEAKER_01 2:03:30

This is kind of usually yeah, just kind of nice, but and I I still sleep in my chair once in a while just because I fall asleep there, and so she just leaves me.

SPEAKER_03 2:03:40

Yeah, yeah. Well, usually I get I get hammered on the side of the shoulder. Let's go to bed. Okay, you've been snoring for the last five minutes. Let's go to bed. Yeah. But we uh last year in May, she went to a convention in Kansas City and she spent three days down there for a convention that she had to do with her job. And it was weird for those, you know. I mean, I wake up in the middle of the night, reach over, there's nobody there, and I'm like, I'm in the middle of the bed, nobody's mad. You know, I just didn't know you just couldn't get comfortable, or there's something about that.

SPEAKER_01 2:04:14

This sounds really weird, and I know it's something that is probably uh hopefully when I say that's a man thing, it there's something nice about when you are when my me and my wife go to bed. Like I said, we're in two separate hemispheres because my bed does something different than hers. So we're in our own bed, we're in our own beds, but we're next to each other. But she has gotten in the habit is if I'm in the room and it's with her, she she's not supposed to sleep on her side because of her neck, but she flops over and she takes the hand and she puts it on my arm like right here on my arm. So it's like I know she's there almost, you know. Right, right. And I've gotten so used to that that it's almost like that's my wife, you know. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_03 2:05:00

Yeah, I I'd say more with us. Uh I know she's there when I get that cold butt on my butt. You know, it's like, okay, we're looking for warmth, but I know you're here, so that's good. Yeah. Yeah. And I and our cat sleeps with me, so I become as human.

SPEAKER_01 2:05:20

Our cat starts out the night. Either it used to have a spot right next to Sarah's head where he'd sleep. There was every night he'd lay down, put his head next to hers, and take his paw and put it on her face like that. And so she's like, What is this fing cat doing? So she so but he'd fall asleep there just like just like uh it was that was his wife almost. He'd like right on her same pillow and everything. But he's got to the habit of he sleeps, starts out the night in between her legs, and then when I lay down, and I'm there for I don't know, a half hour or so, he comes over and he must like the blanket I have because he lays, he wants to climb up on top of me, and I oh yeah, I don't like that pressure. As he starts it, yeah, as he starts to climb up on me, I just push him right to my side and he lays down next to my side, and he's usually not there more than 10 minutes because he wants me to pet him, and I'm not doing that when I'm falling asleep. So then he'll get up and he'll bother her again, and then he'll get off the bed. And the only reason I know this is because I'm awake usually for at least an hour when I lay down. But that fucking cat he has a routine, and his routine is wake me up at four o'clock in the morning, and so he gets mad because he wakes me up because he wants me to pet him. Well, you wake me up at four o'clock in the morning, I'm going piss. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I I push him off, I go take a piss, and when I got back, he's gone.

SPEAKER_03 2:06:51

So ours, my this the cat that we have journey is a male, and you know, that cat wandered on to the to the to the place. And before I was around, yeah, and I don't know why it became as human, but he I usually throw an arm up above my head when I'm falling asleep on my stomach, and you'll I'll look up and he's laying there, and I got both paws are over my over my arm, and it's and his head's laying over my arm, and he's burned and he's out. Really, yeah, that's funny. And then I don't know if I toss and turn enough in the middle of the night, but sometimes he's gone. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and he's looking at me, but most of the time now she gets up before me, um, and I can hear him yelling because he's dying.

SPEAKER_01 2:07:34

Oh, he wants bed.

SPEAKER_03 2:07:35

Yeah, well, here's the thing our our dogs will not mount will not touch that cat food. But the minute we go to bed, we lay there, usually we talk 10, 15, 20 minutes before we go to sleep. And if we're quiet, you can hear one of those dogs get up and you hear the claws on the wooden floor go. And then you hear him eating the cat food. Yeah. Well, by this time he's in bed, he ain't getting up. But he gets up in the morning and he's dying. He, you know, like he'd been in the Sahara Desert for 20 years.

SPEAKER_01 2:08:05

We have an auto feeder for our cat so that at 5 30 every morning you can hear it feed him. And no matter where that cat is at, he's usually if if if I haven't got out of bed, he's usually laying next to me, and when that feeder goes off, boom, he's gone. He's gone. Yeah, and sometimes if he wakes up and it's five o'clock, he will let it. He they have a clock in their head. Oh, yeah, they're not. He goes and he sits right in front of that food bowl until 5 30. And that's and he does it, and and then we feed him a little bit again at like 6 30 at night. Same thing at 6 o'clock, he'll go sit in front of that dog, that food until it drops, and then what he's happy. And but uh um he uh it's funny, he I've gotten a bad habit of my wife buys me string cheese because car carboh, you know, the whole carnivore thing. And so I made a mistake of one time, give him a little piece of that cheese, and it last night it was hilarious. I said, okay, I grabbed some cheese out of the fridge and he was in the kitchen with her. And I go, set the timer. So I go, I go in, I sat down, and I took it out of my pocket and I went like that. I opened it half. That cat was in the living room before I was done pulling. He knows the sound.

SPEAKER_03 2:09:27

I made the mistake about four months ago. And we were I was in town, and she's like, Hey, can you pick up cat food and dog food while you're in town? Like, yeah, I can do that. So I stopped by the bomb guards and they got canned food on sale. It's 49 cents. We'll see if the damn cat likes it. Loves it. So instead of feeding him soft food, which I don't like to do, we kept him on the hard food. So every night he will you'll get up to go get a drink in the kitchen or something, and you look, you'll come around the corner, and you know our refrigerator. You come around the corner of the cabinet and you look down, and that cat's just standing there staring at the goddamn refrigerator. And there's been a couple times I'll call her, I say, You gotta see this. And she's like, What? He's just staring at the refrigerator. And then when you open it, he goes stupid. Starts meowing. Yeah. And I sometimes I I mean, I don't know if it's mean or whatever, but I'll let him go an hour before I go back out there and feed him. And he's still standing there, too.

SPEAKER_01 2:10:29

It's like cats are hilarious.

SPEAKER_03 2:10:32

And now we can't go to you can't forget to feed him because he'll meow after you go to bed if you haven't given him a soft food. And it's not, I mean, I give him like a tablespoonful is all.

SPEAKER_01 2:10:41

Yeah, but that's his treat. Yeah, that's his thing.

SPEAKER_03 2:10:44

But it's just funny, you know. It's like I don't know if the cat well, the cat trained me, I think, probably more than anything else.

SPEAKER_01 2:10:52

But yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:10:53

But yeah, the dogs always look like, why is he getting special food?

SPEAKER_01 2:10:58

Because he's mine.

SPEAKER_03 2:11:00

But they get usually they get cheese. Uh she'll take cut a cube of cheese, because the one dog is she's getting old enough now that I think I don't know, she's on doggy prozac. Really? Yeah, seriously. She's weird. She'll follow you around the house like you're gonna leave her forever in the morning. So I mean she follows. Yeah. And of course, Charlie, the our big dog, the Mastiff Pitbull mix, he's just got arthritis so bad, you know. I mean, he's we figured it out, he's 12 years old, which is really old for a mastiff.

SPEAKER_01 2:11:34

I would imagine it's pretty old for any dog to be honest with you.

SPEAKER_03 2:11:37

Well, big dogs usually don't make it past nine to ten years. Anyway, and so he's on like a conjoitant for his arthritis and stuff, so she they get their little cheese wad with their pill in it at night. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:11:51

When then when that dog goes, it's gonna be the most heartbreaking thing, though.

SPEAKER_03 2:11:55

Oh, that'll put the I'll tell you what, Charlie has got me. That dog can look up at me. And it's like, okay, I'll I'll stop and pay. Yeah. And I mean I can have a handful of shit. And it's like I gotta pay.

SPEAKER_01 2:12:05

When when we had Poncho and we lost him, we had to put him down. It was the most I did not think I was attached to that dog. I did not.

unknown 2:12:14

I cried like a little girl.

SPEAKER_03 2:12:16

Yeah. Well, when I lived when I was with Patty and she well, it was part golden retriever and I don't know whatever else. There was some lab in there or whatever, but it was a female dog and they called her spot. And she didn't have a spot on her. But anyway, yeah, she finally she got to acting really kind of just lethargic and stuff, and she'd had a couple letters of pups, and we took her to the vet. And uh actually it was the vet and Skylar, and they called us and said, You need to come back. And we're okay, you know, and done or whatever, you know, so we'll keep her, you know, for a couple hours and keep an eye on whatever they need to come back, come back. And we walked in, and the vet's like, I got really bad news, and he pulled up an X-ray, and they'd x-rayed her. He said, You see all these white spots? It's cancer. So that dog literally is just riddled with cancer, and she's you know, she's giving up. So we decided to have her cream aid. I balled like I balled like I lost a relative. Uh you know, I mean I uh I'm a big kind of manly guy. I hate to admit it, but I I balled, you know. And you know, we brought her home in a plastic bag, and she bought this little display thing. You put a picture of the dog in, and her ashes are in it. You know, which was kind of I guess, yeah, well, she did it. She had an autistic son, so she did it more for cold.

SPEAKER_01 2:13:39

See, we when we had Poncho put down they I don't I know that we asked to have him cremated and Sarah must have paid extra for it. I don't know. I I don't remember the whole thing, but but he has its own little urn and everything that he came in. That's how we got him, and then what we didn't know, and Sarah's got it somewhere, and we was always gonna give it to Elizabeth for Christmas or her birthday, but Sarah keeps forgetting to do it. Um, but I told Elizabeth at Christmas we have it. Um they took after he after they put him down, they took his nose and they put an imprint of his like a like a fingerprint and then his paw also. We got that too. That's that's totally awesome, man. And you would be surprised looking through pictures, you see a picture of that old dog, and I'll shed a tear once in a while because he was just always there, you know.

SPEAKER_03 2:14:31

Yeah, it becomes a becomes like another part of the family, yeah. A companion. I mean, I know that's certainly a companion.

SPEAKER_01 2:14:37

It sounds cliche, but it's just like I can't believe Uncle Poncho's gone, you know.

SPEAKER_03 2:14:42

It's it's yeah, you can't yeah, you don't want to admit that you've got attached to yeah, you don't want to admit it.

SPEAKER_01 2:14:49

Yeah, it's a hundred percent true.

SPEAKER_03 2:14:51

But yeah, yeah, they did the same thing when with Spot, but we got her in I mean, and I don't want to sound crude, but she came in a little cardboard box and there was a bag inside of that with her ashes. And and the only reason that happened is because she's like, I'll order something off of Amazon because we wanted to put a picture with it cheaper. Well, and she wanted to put a picture with it, yeah. And so they did that. And I mean, I I'm totally cool with it. I thought it was a great idea, but yeah, it's hard.

SPEAKER_01 2:15:20

If you come into our house, Poncho's still sitting on our like our television, he's still sitting underneath our television.

SPEAKER_03 2:15:26

Yeah, yeah, it's gonna be hard when when you know, and we've taught we've had that decision, you know, or I had that discussion. You know, is it time? You know, should we put you hate to but there's days around yeah, there's day, you know, he does a lot of laying around, but he's happy. You know, there's days I'll pull up tonight, and if she's got the dogs out, he'll come running down the driveway, follow the car, you know.

SPEAKER_01 2:15:47

The the thing about Poncho when he went down is he had a stroke. He uh Sarah said he she came home from work and he met her at the door, and so she, I mean, she was carrying groceries and stuff like that in because she had been to Walmart, and when she walked in and out a couple times, he followed her into the kitchen and then never followed her back, and she'd been in and out a couple times, and he was laying in a weird position by the by the fridge, and he she thought, that's weird. Well, then she reached out and pet him, and she could tell that he couldn't get up. Oh, and so she called me, and it's like something not right here, and he there was something because he would call there was something weird going on to her. I don't know if he's hearing things or what, but he kept he kept acting like there was something over here, you know. I don't know if that was part of a twitch that he got or what, but it was it was just so heartbreaking because we all had to go to work the next day and we had to get him into the vet and all that type. And so my one daughter that we didn't even know had feelings for this dog, she was going to I think she was in school. I think she was still in school at that time, if I remember right. She came home and spent the afternoon with him so that he wasn't alone. And then yeah, and then when we all got off work, Elizabeth came down and we took him in, and yeah, that was a hard day. I'll tell you what, to see your daughter Well, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:17:25

I mean, and that's like with her, it's you know, when when Charlie goes, even Bianca, when Bianca goes, yeah, there's days you just wanna just you that dog, you can't you stop and she's running up your butt, you know, and it's like but yeah, we're gonna miss her.

SPEAKER_01 2:17:42

Yeah, you know, it's just I still get emotional thinking about it.

SPEAKER_02 2:17:45

Oh yeah, I I hear you.

SPEAKER_01 2:17:46

I mean well, dude, it is after eight o'clock at night, and you got an hour drive. Pretty close, yeah. Yeah. So, and we've been talking for two hours and twenty minutes. Yeah. And with a break. With a break. So I think that go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 2:18:03

Nobody's ever gonna accuse us of not being able to bullshit.

SPEAKER_01 2:18:06

We know how to blow smoke. Yeah. Um, we've grown accustomed to not doing a whole Midwest goodbye. I don't know if you want to have a Midwest goodbye, or do you just want to say goodbye and be done with it and we can do that?

SPEAKER_03 2:18:19

Oh, I'll just say goodbye and let everybody know that I plan on being back here. Well, you know.

SPEAKER_01 2:18:24

We had a good time, man. I I had a really good next time we'll try to call someone since I spent money on this thing. So maybe next time you can call me. All right, buddy. All right, see you guys later. Yep.