Old Guy Talk

Episode 10 of THE GRIPE drops you right into the kind of unfiltered, laugh‑through‑the‑pain conversation only two retired guys can have. Stitch Mainville and Rick Gary swap stories about knee surgeries, metal implants, surprise medical scares, and the strange reality of getting older when your body starts collecting more hardware than a Home Depot aisle. From retirement routines and carnivore‑diet confessions to bourbon habits, morning eggs, and the eternal battle against sugar, this episode blends humor, honesty, and the kind of friendship that only deepens with age. If you’re navigating life after work, dealing with health curveballs, or just love real talk between two men who’ve lived enough to have something to say, this one hits home.

Be sure to check out this episode's blog written by our MTC Studio staff writers! MTC Studio BLOG page

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Welcome back to the Gripe with your hosts Stage Mainville and Rick Garrett. In this episode, Rick and I ease into the kind of conversation only two retired guys can have. It's unfiltered, honest, and already halfway in progress before the mics even warm up. We dive into the realities of getting older. Surgeries that come with hardware, surprise medical scares, the strange comfort of routine, and the unexpected peace that comes with slowing life down. It's the kind of talk that reminds you how much life changes when the alarm clock stops running your world. And how much you still need a friend who gets it. So how was your knee surgery?

SPEAKER_02 0:56

Well, the knee surgery went well. But uh after the nerve block wore off is when it got bad.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

You sent me that photo. Oh my god, when I seen your knee and escape, I was just like, but then I showed it to Nadine. Nadine did like this. I said, hey, check out Nick Rick's knees. She's like, I was like, damn.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

I uh I sent it to I sent it to Kate, my oldest daughter. And she she she sent me some kind of uh not an emoji, it's a it's a face with a woman, a girl's face going. I started cracking up.

SPEAKER_03 1:35

I'm like, where do you find this stuff from?

SPEAKER_02 1:38

She said, no way, not her. She's she said if she could break her knee or something fall off, she said she ain't having that surgery. I said it looked painful as hell. It did. It was painful. Like I said, after the nerve block wore off, and it stayed painful for the first week. And then it started wearing off. And then when I fit started physical therapy, it got it started getting better. You know what I mean? But it still hurts if I if I try to bend it too far. Yeah the pains. But they told me don't do that. You know, they said just pull it back, and then when the pain starts, just leave it there and then rest it.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

Have you tried flexing it? Does all that much fucking hurt?

SPEAKER_02 2:14

Y'all, it does, man. Yeah, it does. Anything like that, because it hurts all the way up through your thigh, the back of your thigh.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

But they didn't do a total knee, right?

SPEAKER_02 2:22

No, they did partial. Because uh they even showed me the X-ray. I got I got a metal plate in my femur down here. And then the other part, my kneecap, they put me, gave me a brand new kneecap to fit over that. I think it's either they uh they didn't use plaster out, I think, because there's little things going down there, so they probably nailed it on or whatever. That's probably where the pain's coming from.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

Fucking orthodox, they use screws and screwdrivers, hammers, man, yeah. Everything else, yeah. They're like fucking carpenters.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

Well, see, they probably uh if he didn't have to do a total knee, they'd that's where they'd have had the hammer and the chisels and stuff like that. So thank goodness they didn't they didn't use and they used the robots. Remember how they did the robot with my hip. Was it the Mako or something? Mako, yeah. They used Mako for this too. Wow. Yep. So but yeah, and um, because I said, well, wait a minute. After I seen the scar, it was from here to here, I said, he probably did a total knee. And then when I went back, his PA said no, it's only partial. And then she showed me the X-ray and everything.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

But they had to open up the whole area.

SPEAKER_02 3:25

Yeah, yeah. Yep, that's what it was, man. It's crazy. All right, now that's the second major injury, major surgery I've had that involved bone recently, other than my shoulders a long time ago. But still, man, they um Marie told me she said pretty soon you're gonna be the six million dollar man. I ain't gonna have a natural body part of my body. Everything. I got so much steel, man. I I gotta carry a I gotta carry a special card with me. Cause I set off metal detectors. Oh no shit. Wow. Yeah, man. Got an artificial knee, artificial hip, and I got both my shoulders got anchors in them. But the anchors, my anchors and my shoulders are plastic. So even if you walk through a walk, they gotta scan areas that aren't. I got you. Yep, yep. Because I when I get up there, like even when you go in the hospital and stuff like that, because I had to go, I had to go to the hospital a little over a week ago. They sent me, they wanted me to go because I'm on blood thinners and my leg stayed swollen and it was hurting and everything. They told me to go to the emergency room to see and get them to do a Doppler so they could check to see if I had blood clots. No blood clots, everything's fine, they said. So I said, that's good. So when we got there, you gotta walk through a metal detector. I said, I'm letting you know I got two metal implants in me. He said, Oh, that's fine. So that's that's what I've been doing the last three weeks.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

I I've been losing my fucking mind. Yeah. Um, turns out that uh I thought my kidney was all done. I went in and they they usually do a scan, and when they do a scan for my kidney, they do it from like here to here. Yeah. And usually what I'll do is I'll like rub and get my dick. Then you can see it. You can see it on the on the scan.

SPEAKER_03 5:12

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

So I try to make it like run down my leg. Anyway, yeah, yeah. Anyway, they did it a little higher. And they caught the bottom of my throat. Uh-huh. And the scan picked up nodules on my throat.

SPEAKER_02 5:23

Oh, well, it's probably a good thing they did that.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

Yeah. But uh, it kind of set me into a worry because they found it accidentally. No. No, when they did when they did my kidney, they found that accidentally, and it turned out to be cancerous. Oh, yeah. So I went in and I got this looked at. They did an ultrasound on it, and then the ultrasound results came back saying that we found several small nodules that we're not worried about, but there's one large one that we're kind of worried about. We want to take a closer look at it. That's the one that got a biopsy. So they're gonna biopsy it. Yeah. So I was asking, I'm like, well, what's what's involved with the biopsy? Oh. They're gonna take a freaking needle and they're gonna stick it in my neck. Are you gonna be awake? I hope not. Because it's it's an in- it's a it's a it's a walkout, it's a it's a same day per. Like, I'm gonna walk into a clinic, I'm gonna sit with the doctor, and the doctor's gonna do an aspiration in her chair in her office. Yeah. So they better know me the hell up.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

I was getting ready to say, I'd tell her, uh I'd ask her, am I gonna feel this?

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Because I I don't want to, I mean, holy shit. Anyway, so they're gonna stick the needle into the to the tumor and then aspirate something out of it, and then they'll be, I'll know for sure then. Right, right. But everybody's like, oh, it's nothing to worry about, it's nothing to worry about. But you know, you said that about my kidney, motherfucker.

SPEAKER_02 6:38

They shouldn't tell people that until they can find out what's going on. No, let's just be honest.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

Look, we're concerned and we want to take a look, but we don't know what it is yet, and then let's leave it at that.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

Not like don't be concerned. Yeah, right. Well, I guess basically they're telling you don't be can don't worry over something you don't know nothing about. I'm turning it back to you, but I mean, like I said, it's too familiar to me. Yo, man, I'd be worried my ass off right now. You know what I mean? I mean, not tell and tell you to. No, I I am trusting, I am. If you're if you're that's only human. You know, the natural thing is to do, you find out you got a tumor in your neck, you're gonna worry. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Well, they don't even call it, they're calling it a nodule.

SPEAKER_02 7:13

Yeah, yeah. Well, hopefully that's all it is.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

Um yeah, if it's if it turns out to be nothing, cool. Yeah. You know, once a man reaches a certain age, his health becomes one of his primary concerns. Not just for the ailments he recognizes, but also to be diligent in trying to ward off further health concerns. Cancer can be a concern. Knee and hip replacements are concerns. But erectile dysfunction? That is on the top of a man's list. There's something going on. Like a lot of these people drink uh soy products. Soy helps produce estrogen in your body. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. If you're a dude and you're drink you're eating soy products or drinking soy products, you're actually loading up on estrogen. And what does estrogen do? It pushes away your testosterone. Exactly. If you don't have testosterone, you're not a man.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

Yeah, no shit.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Yeah, and that's why you can't get boners.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

Oh, damn. Well, I don't think it's affected me. So I'm gonna quit drinking that shit.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

Oh, no, yeah, you don't want that.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

See, I'm a milk lover, but I said, okay, I'll try it. It tastes good, but Marie drinks it all the time. So I'm just start buying my other milk.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

Yeah, get regular milk. Yeah. And before I'm telling you what, you don't need Viagra, you don't need tadalafil, you don't need fucking apple morphine. What you need is two over easy eggs every night, an hour before you go to bed. Really? I swear to God. I love it. I swear to God.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

That's what I get when I go to eating park.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Over easy eggs. Yep. Yeah. Cook yourself some over-easy eggs and then eat them. Don't even like break them or eat them with toast. Just to scoop the whole yolk and go, and just I eat two of those every day. Really? The because you figure, egg is like a superfood. Yeah, it is. Got a lot of protein and everything. Yeah. It's got a lot of good cholesterol in it. Yeah, it does. And your body needs cholesterol. It converts your cholesterol into brain tissue, into nerve endings. Yep. And also, it helps within the boners. Okay, I didn't know that. You eat two, I swear to God, you eat two eggs at night an hour before you go to bed every night, right? Yeah. And within two or three days, you'll be waking up with morning wood that you can fucking use as a pickstand. You can cut diamonds with that motherfucker. I swear to God. You would no one would need a fucking Viagra pill if they would just eat two over easy eggs. I'm gonna try it. Or I they say do raw eggs. I can't do raw. I used to. It's like sucking out a snot, huh?

SPEAKER_02 9:41

When I was when I was playing football, I used to do raw eggs.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

But yeah, if if you do two raw eggs, and if you can't do raw, make them over easy, just so long as the yolk isn't cooked. Okay. And man, you will see a difference.

SPEAKER_02 9:55

I'm gonna try it. Because a lot of people don't like them. Like, you know, Marie don't like them runny legs. Runny eggs. Runny legs. The runny eggs and stuff like that. She's not a real big egg. She'll eat them scrambled, that's about it. Yeah. But I love mine, man. I love them ones. You can dip your toast in and everything else. Because like I said, every time we go to eat and park for breakfast or whatever, over easy. That's it. That's all I want. I miss dipping toast. I love love.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

I miss bread. What I've done now to bring my weight back down is I got rid of all breads, all grains. Oh, okay. Most vegetables and fruit. Um because fruit's got a lot of sugar. Oh, it does. Yeah, yeah. So all I eat now is like fish, beef, chicken, with the skin. On the bone. Um, and and eggs in the morning. That's it. You should have seen my breakfast. Shoot. That made nice. I had four eggs for breakfast. Yeah. Over easy. With uh six ounces of steak, two Italian sausages, and a half a pound of beef bacon. Wow. Dude. I was eating like that when I was doing the carnivore diet. Okay. And I lost weight doing that. Because there were no carbs involved. It was just all protein. It was all protein. And I wasn't snacking throughout the day. I wasn't uh looking for food. I wasn't picking that little The minute I would pick up a piece of candy and go, hmm, and eat it, that sugar gave me like a rush, and I'd be like, I need more, I need more, I need more. Oh shit. Yeah. So I try to stay away from anything that produces sugar.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

Right.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Grapes were my fucking downfall. I love a good grape. Now, are they full of sugar sugar too? Hell yeah. Oh shit. Eating two grapes. I love grapes, man. We buy them all the time. Two grapes is like having a big bite of a snicker bar. You serious? That it it's that equivalent with sugar, yes.

SPEAKER_02 11:48

Oh, damn. And we buy grapes all the time. We keep grapes. Yeah. Grapes, cherries, and oh, and Marie eats nectarines. I don't eat nectarines. But we I eat the grapes, the cherries, and uh it's been a long time since I had apples. I love apples.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

Apples are full of sugar too. I used oh, and bananas are full of sugar. Well, bananas are sugar and carbs. And the carbs convert to sugar, so you're getting like a double amount of sugar.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

And the thing about it, when I was working before I retired, every morning I go upstairs to the cafeteria to get my coffee. I'd grab a banana every day. Yeah. Every day. Well, you know, when we're out and we're young and we're walking around and we're busy, that doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

Yeah. Yeah, because I was on my feet all day anyway, so I probably burned it off. We're not as busy as we used to be. Oh, hell no. Like my tea. I don't put any sugar in my tea anymore.

SPEAKER_02 12:36

Yeah, you put wiggle. White.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Yeah, I put bourbon in it now. Put a little wiggle in your tea. How much sugar does that have? Well, you're right. Um, yeah, there's a lot of of sugar. But here's the thing. I only drink on the weekends.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

Yeah. And I'll see that helps too.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

So yeah, all during the week I'm not doing anything, but I'll I'll take a little bourbon and I'll stick it in my tea. And I'll yeah, I'll get that car brush. But it's not like I'm fucking pounding them down all weekend long. Right, right. And maybe like today, she'll come back from wherever she is and she'll say, Hey, you want to order Chinese food? On the weekends? Absolutely. On the weekends, I'll eat like a regular whatever. But all through the week, fish, meat, eggs.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

That's it. Right. That sounds that sound like a good old diet, though. It's working.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

Yeah, it got me down a the lowest I got doing that, I went from 287 pounds and I went down to 219. Oh shit, that's good. And then when I would fluctuate from 219 to 225 after fourth, and then when Nay said I was too skinny, I got to 233 and stayed there. And then I would cheat more than I would diet. Right. And now here I am at 250. And I'm like, all right, I gotta go back. You can't go no faster. I'll tell you what, this is high octane, but it's got a good taste to it.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

I can tell I haven't drank anything for a while. You feel it hitting you, right? No boo.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

Yeah, that's why I'm only sipping on this motherfucking IPA.

SPEAKER_02 14:08

Mm-hmm. I needed that break though, because I was drinking beer every day for a while. Just about, you know what I mean? More than I should anyway. You know what I mean? After I retired, oh man, I shouldn't have retired. I shouldn't, I should still be working. Said no. So I said, you know what? When I get my surgery, I'm gonna I'm gonna quit. Because I had to quit. They told me, you know, I wasn't allowed to have nothing. I wasn't allowed to take ibuprofen, aspirin, nothing. I had to cut all that stuff out. They said no alcohol at least five days before your surgery. So I just took that whole week. And then after my surgery, Marie wouldn't take me to get none. So you had no choice. So I said, fuck it. I don't need no beer, man. Yeah. You know, so I said, this will be a good rest for me. So I went like three weeks without even drinking. See, that's that's good. You don't need it. No. You know, I didn't, in fact, I might have even lost a taste for it for a while. I said, but I know as soon as I drink my first one, I'm gonna get back into it. But I'm not, I'm still not drinking a lot, though.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

I've never had a taste for beer. I mean, I don't I don't hate it, yeah. But like, I don't crave it. I I don't crave this, but like if I was like, I want to drink, beer's not the top of my list. That is. No. I'll go for the bourbon.

SPEAKER_02 15:24

I hear you.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

I mean, beer's all right, but I'm after like three beers, I'm like bloated, I'm like, I'm like burping all the time and shit.

SPEAKER_02 15:32

You see, the thing about it, I'm afraid that you see my bar. If I stock that bar up with everything you got, yeah, I'd be dead.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

Well, I don't drink it. Yeah, I know you don't. Mind you want to for sure.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

But see, I'm I'm I'm I'm weak like that. You know what I mean? Because I'm still behind it and watch my watch TV. You know, I got stools back behind the bar too. Where my stereo and stuff is. And uh I sit there and watch TV while I'm leaning on the bar. I'd either be on my laptop or the phone or something like that, and I'm watching TV. If I had all that down there, I'd be like, what am I drinking today?

SPEAKER_01 16:09

But what I do is whenever I go when I go grocery shopping, yeah, um, our giant eagle over here has a liquor store attached to it. And then you go into giant eagle, and as you're walking down the registers, right at the end is liquor.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

Liquor display.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

Like a steak store. Yeah, yeah. And you go in there, and dude, they got wines, they got bourbons, they got whiskies, they got rums. So what I'll do is I get all my shopping done first, yeah, and then I'll go park my cart right outside the liquor store, and I go walk and I'm like, hello, fellas. I go up and down the aisles and I just look for stuff. And I usually wind up in the bourbon area, and I'll say, okay, what's new? What don't I have? And I'll just look for stuff. Okay. And I'll grab a bottle, like that bottle I showed you earlier, not even opened yet. I uh I like having it, and again, it's just to collect. And like sometimes I'll be wondering, like, like I got that bottle of blantons there. I really, really want to bust into that blantons. But it's an expensive bourbon. Wow. I don't want to fuck with it. And the one that I have, you really can't find that often is the S, the last one, the S. Okay. So that's why I really don't want to open it and ruin it.

SPEAKER_02 17:15

Yeah, I know what you mean. Yeah, yeah. But unless you find another one.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

I want to find other blantons to spell out blantons.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

But, like I was telling you about my throat thing. Yeah. If this comes back and everything's fine and there's nothing wrong, I'm cracking that motherfucker open and we're gonna do a shot of that. I don't care.

SPEAKER_02 17:32

Well, let me know.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Yeah. So what else has been going on with you, man?

SPEAKER_02 17:38

Not a whole lot. You know what I mean? Since I since I retired, I'm a boring ass person.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

But isn't that good?

SPEAKER_02 17:45

Yeah, it is good. You know, it feels good not to have to get up at 5.30 every damn day and go to go put in a 10-hour day. I don't miss that at all. Yeah. Trust me. You know what I mean? It feels good to be able to get up. I drink, get up, drink my coffee, get on the computer for a little while, then I go downstairs. You know what I mean? Marie stays up here and she does her thing. She'll go to go to Goodwill or wherever she wants to go to look and see if she can find some flowers. That's what she's been doing. She's been working in the yard all the time. She goes out, she goes out there all, you know, every day. And just like, she'll buy some flowers and stuff and plant them and everything. She's into getting the front yard uh looking nice. I take care of the back, but I can't do it now because I can't, I'm not allowed to mow the grass.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

I I normally take care of the back. I haven't touched my backyard because I got those contractors coming to fix the retailers. Oh, yeah, yeah. So I'm just letting it go until because what they'll do is when they're all done, they'll clean up and take all that shit out. Yes, they will. Yep. But uh here's what I I here's what I do in my retirement. I come downstairs, I sit on my computer, and I have this game called PGA Golf Tour.

SPEAKER_02 18:50

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 18:51

And I play 18. On the computer. On the computer. Yeah. And then I do some one-on-one things and you know, play against other guys that are on there. And then I'm then I get and I focus on my work that I gotta do for that day. But when I go, when people are asking me, hey, how's retirement? I'm like, I love it, man. I play golf every morning. At least you're not looking like you do. I'm like, hell hell yeah, I get in 18 holes every morning. Everyone shine, it don't matter. And I mean you're not mad.

SPEAKER_02 19:24

Oh shit. You have to show me how to get that. Because I maybe I'll put it on my computer. Maybe I can do that too. Shit. Yeah, it's not hard.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

It's just an app. Well, it's an app for your phone.

SPEAKER_02 19:35

Does it cost your phone?

SPEAKER_01 19:36

Oh, it don't cost nothing? It's an app for your phone, but But see, you got an iPhone too. Well, no, it's for any phone, but um it shows up like on my games. Yeah. And this is the game right here, PGA Pro Golf. Okay. All right. But I don't play it on my phone because my Apple computer finds my games, and I can play it on my computer. So it's made for this, but I play much better when I got the mouse and this. I got a big screen that I can sing. Exactly. Yeah. So, but like this morning, I got up. I was up at 7 o'clock this morning. I came downstairs, I made a pot of tea, I went over and I sat down, I pulled up my game, and played 18 holes. Wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 20:22

How long did it take you to play 18?

SPEAKER_01 20:24

30 minutes. That's all. Oh, jeez. Because here's the thing. If I really went out to the golf course.

SPEAKER_02 20:31

That's four hours.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

Four hours to play. Because you gotta, yeah, after you're bullshitting with your friends, you're setting up, you're going one at a time, and then you gotta walk the whole course to get to your ball. And then by the time you're done, you gotta wait for the people in front of you before you can. Yeah, if you if you're behind some snowballs. So, but no, I I I play in a computer, and for me it's just as exciting, and I'm really good on the computer. That's yeah, I I'm in a I'm in a league right now, um, and we're doing, I just did the second of four rounds. Okay. So every day it's another round. And uh I'm in fourth or fifth place. Really? That's that's not bad. Out of 36 holes, I'm negative 27. Okay. Damn, that's damn good. Yeah. Shit. 27 under par. Yeah, but I'm gonna do it. Now if I was playing out for real and I was playing 36 holes, you'd be 27 over par. I'd be 127 over par. Oh, man. I tried playing golf for real, man. It doesn't work for me.

SPEAKER_02 21:40

I hear you. I I got into it. It didn't work for me when I first started. But I I enjoy it.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

Yeah, I enjoy it. I love it now, man. When I was married to my second wife, her little cousin, his name is Ben. Kid's a fucking golf genius. He was really he was 14 years old playing on golf league.

SPEAKER_02 21:56

Yeah, man. Them them them young kids, man, they start out with golf like that. They'll whip your ass, man.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

Take me to the par three over there at uh Scallies. And we go to the par three. And he was like, no, do this. Do this. Do like that. And then I was hitting them and I was enjoying it. Like, my long game is good. I can I can whack a ball and it can go far and I can walk up to it. But then when I as I'm trying to be more precise, your short game, yeah. Then when I'm on the green, I can't put. I don't know how to read the green. Yeah. None of that shit works for me.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

I'm usually pretty good. Once I get to the green, I'm I'm not that bad, but I'm not perfect. Last time I went golfing, I went with Kate, and she was mad because I never missed a putt. Really? I got on the yeah, I got on the green. I was putting my ass off. She was hitting the ball better than me, especially her short shops. Yeah, short, short ones. Yeah, she was getting on the green before me, but once I got there, I beat her.

SPEAKER_01 22:55

But I love going out to the golf course.

SPEAKER_02 22:57

I do too. But there's so much uh stuff that you need to know. You know what I mean? I found that out, and I I asked questions, you know, with the guys that I used to golf with. Well, I still golf with them once in a while. And um I ask questions. They tell me, but I have to ask. You know, I never had nobody show me how to do it. I didn't know anything about leaving the club face open or close it. You know, in fact, my cousin told me about how to close it. He said, your ball goes straight. He said, you leave your club open too much. That's why you that's why it's going up or it's going this way or that way or whatever. He said, close that golf club. And and I was like, okay, what do you mean by open and close? You know, I didn't know. I was just starting out. Yeah. This is like 20 years ago. So he told me, you know, keep it straight and close it. Like, aim it this way. And he then I hit the ball and it went, yeah, just went straight.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

That's how that little kid was talking to me. When um when I was putting, he's like, You're you're looking at this side of the ball to hit your putter against. He goes, Don't look at that. He goes, look in front of the ball. Really? So when I didn't know that you're going to putt, you want to go, because you want to you don't want to like tap it because it's gonna wherever. You want to move with it.

SPEAKER_02 24:09

Move with it.

SPEAKER_01 24:09

So if you aim in front of the ball, you're gonna go for that aim spot and that's gonna push the ball straight.

SPEAKER_02 24:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 24:15

See? Oh yeah, you you learn stuff too. We should just go out, the two of us. We should go to the uh Marathas. We should just go to Maratha.

SPEAKER_02 24:23

I don't know what that's it.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

Route 30 off Clinton, uh outside Clinton.

SPEAKER_02 24:26

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

Yeah, it's called Maratha Golf Club.

SPEAKER_02 24:28

So it's a golf course. It's a golf course.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

It's a nine holes.

SPEAKER_02 24:30

Did you know, you know, there's uh uh driving range? Yes, Kennedy. Scalys. Is that what it's called? Yeah. Yeah, up there. Because uh I've been out there a couple times.

SPEAKER_01 24:41

Scalys has the driving range and then they have a par three. Oh, do they? We can play the par three, nine holes of par three, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:47

Oh, well, we can do that if you want to do it. Let me know. Yeah, that'd be awesome. As soon as my leg, as soon as they tell me, they release me and tell me I'm able to do stuff, man. We can do that.

SPEAKER_01 24:55

Yeah. I got these clubs and they're collecting dust. I don't I don't play anybody. And you know what? I'm really good on the computer, but maybe this will humble me a little bit. If I actually hold a real club in my hand, you'll have fun. Walk around.

SPEAKER_02 25:09

Yeah, you'll have fun. And think about it, um, Marie got me a new golf bag for Christmas. Oh, did she? Yeah. Nice. I didn't even ask for it. I was like, I was surprised as hell. Because she knew that my golf bag, the whole bottom, it was old. The whole bottom came out and I taped it up with duct tape. And it didn't hold. It didn't hold. So I guess she thought about it. She said, Oh, I thought about it. She said, I he needs a new golf bag. So she gave it to me at Christmas, and I didn't even know what the hell it was. I said, No, you didn't. She said, I knew you needed one. I said, Oh shit, yes, I did.

SPEAKER_01 25:45

Only thing I would need is a sleeve of balls, because I I have a bag of teas.

SPEAKER_02 25:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

I have all my clubs. I have a bag.

SPEAKER_02 25:52

You'll need more than a sleeve. We're gonna have to go shopping for golf balls. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Because I need I need some more. I I keep at least like 12, 15 balls or whatever. One time in my life, I'd golfed 18 holes with the same ball. Holy shit. Once. Never lost it. I hit I was hitting good all day. Yeah. Yeah. I I mean, hey, I patted myself on the back, man. Everybody said, You want you didn't lose a ball. I said, nope, that's the same ball. And it was uh it was a Nike one. Nike, it was a Nike golf ball, number one. And I kept that, I didn't use it after that. I didn't I never use it, I kept it in my in my golf bag. I said, I ain't using this no more. But guess what? I ran out of golf balls. I had to use it. I had to use it. And I lost it. I got the sun shining on my ass for one day. I did good. I really did. I played good that day. And I kept the same ball. What's your best game? Oh God, I don't know. Under or over? It was over. I have never been under. I've never went under. I've never broke a hundred. Really?

SPEAKER_01 27:00

I've always nine holes or eighteen holes. I never broke a hundred.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

Um shit. I don't know. I think I used to play nine holes when Kate was younger. I used to go to Morgantown. Go back down there, and there's a nine-hole course. And we played it. I think our best game might have been like 40 something.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

Which ain't it? Because you figure nine holes is only like 70 or 30.

SPEAKER_02 27:30

Yeah. 32 and 30. Usually like 72 for twenty for 18. Yeah, so so I was still over. You know what I mean? But I think that was my best one. I I'm pretty sure it was in the 40s. And she's beaten me a couple times. Yeah. Yeah. That's gotta be humble, huh? Oh god. But see, she was she was taking golf lessons when in fact, I think she was trying, I don't want to speak wrong, but I think she was thinking about being on the golf team when she was in high school. But she she took lessons. She used to take lessons when she was a teenager. I remember that. So she hissed the ball. She's pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 28:10

Yeah, I wouldn't need to go to a driving range for a couple hours first.

SPEAKER_02 28:14

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:14

Because it's been, if anything, it's been like 27 years.

SPEAKER_02 28:18

Okay, that's still a long time. Okay. Well, it probably it's probably like a bicycle. You'll remember. You know what I mean? It'll come back to you once you start swinging.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Well, I never I never I can never ride the bike to begin with.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

So we'll go to the driving range. Yeah. You know what I mean? See how I would do.

SPEAKER_01 28:37

Get a couple buckets and then you just fucking whack them. There's a isn't there a place down off of 79 where it's like a nightclub where you can have drinks and hit balls. Uh, what is it? Is it some kind of it's called golf experience or something?

SPEAKER_02 28:53

Okay, now. I don't know out there. Oh, you're talking about uh top golf. That's it. Yeah, we went there. We went there uh year before last. Yeah? Yeah, because I didn't have nothing for Father's Day last year. Year before last, Kate came and made reservations out there. It's out Bridgeville. Yeah. Yeah, it's out in Bridgeville. We went out there. They serve good food, yeah. Good drinks, and you have a good time, man. Yeah, man. Hey, I'm always willing to go out there. Marie even likes it. She don't even swing no clubs. You just get like a booth, and there's a bunch of chairs in it. There's a table where you eat. Excuse me. And um, and then there's the balcony. Yeah, well, they got like different levels. Tiers, right. Different tiers, yeah. And then uh out there, there's a bunch of holes, and you aim for those holes, and your score comes up on the screen right there. Oh, it does it. Yeah, that's awesome. I didn't know that. I'm serious. Yeah, I mean you you type in whatever, you push whatever uh competition you want or whatever. You know what I mean? And then um you go that, you put everybody's name in it, and then whoever goes first, whatever, they go and whatever, and it'll come up on your screen what kind of score you got, and then at the end, it tells you who won. So wait, puts it in a hole like this, or is it like a big bullseye? It's a big, big, big ass bullseye. Oh man, real big. And you gotta, they got one here, maybe here, then right here, and then out there. It all depends. You just aim for whichever one you want. I wonder if the balls have like radios in them. They must have, because they must have. How would it know what you put it in there? Exactly. And then how do you get your ball? You take your club and there's a little thing, there's a there's a like a box there. I guess that's where all the balls are. You take your club and stick it in front of that scanner. Oh, okay. And your ball comes out. Oh. Yeah. Whenever you want a ball. And I had never been there. That was my first time there, so I guess uh Kate and M used to do that all the time, I guess. I don't know, because she's the one that showed me how to do it all. She's one that showed me how to do it all. That sounds like something I'd like to try. Yeah, man, it's fun. It really is.

SPEAKER_01 30:59

You know, hanging out here and having drinks and shit, that's cool. Yeah. But I mean, we should do more than just fucking hang out and drink. Heck yeah. I mean, we can still drink.

SPEAKER_02 31:08

Yeah. Every place we go serves drinks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shit, I ain't gonna care. If I'm going out, I'm having a beer. I don't give a fuck.

SPEAKER_01 31:21

As our conversation comes to a close, I can't help but offer this reminder that aging isn't just about the aches, uh, scars, or the doctor's visits. It's about perspective. The things we laugh about today were once the things we stressed over. See, retirement doesn't mean life slows down to a stop. It just shifts into a different gear. One where gratitude hits a little harder. And the small moments matter more. Hold on to the past. Appreciate the present. And remember that every season becomes a story worth telling. Pick it up again when you return to here.

SPEAKER_00 32:04

The gripe. This has been an MTC original podcast produced by Leo Mainville. Like, share, subscribe, and leave us a five star rating. And thank you for listening.