Morbidity & Tangents

Be healthy and pay attention.  Drink whiskey if you'd like.  Dark humor is morbid, funny, and rampant in this episode.  It's a hodgepodge of chatter, just like you like.  Also, click that Patreon link and help defer costs of this…whatever this is.  Thanks.  Unless you don't do that, then bugger off.  But still keep listening, and do it in a way that isn't as pleasant as if you'd paid for it.  Thanks again.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Want to start?

SPEAKER_02 0:05

Yeah, we might as well just get this going.

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Welcome to uh what is this? Gray on the Rocks.

SPEAKER_02 0:11

Yeah, Gray on the Rocks, episode three, season one.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Third episode. We've had some feedback. Nobody likes the show. Um, they think this is the worst format we've ever had. And uh we should never talk, not only should we not do the podcast anymore, but we're barred from talking to each other. Uh that's the feedback that we've had. So it's been fun. Uh thanks, guys. 26, 27 years we've known each other, but no, I'm I'm kidding. Thank you guys that are watching, listening. Um, quick, quick fix thing. I messed up the first video that I posted, but I've got it fixed now. Actually, everything is linked to our YouTube page, which is in the the comments here. Um, and uh Facebook is out there and Patreon, we'll talk about in a little bit. But how are you doing, Mike? How's things?

SPEAKER_02 0:57

You know what? Doing good. I uh just got back from coaching before we started talking. I had uh all of my Saturday coaching, had a workout before that. Um, cabins coming along slowly. Electricity's hooked up. They're nice. Gonna be out on Monday to hook up electricity to the pump in the well. So I gotta be out there at like eight o'clock in the morning on Wednesday.

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Let's you know what? Let's talk about your retirement. So it's August 1st, by the way. Uh Saturday afternoon that we do. And uh, so Mike's you've been retired. Okay, when was the first time you retired? How long has it been?

SPEAKER_02 1:33

Uh, so it was August 7th, I think. Because I had major on first for a full week when I retired. Okay. Yeah. It was uh first week of August 2014. I would my official retirement date was 31 August or 31 October 2014.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

So that's uh 12 years ago. You you've been retired for 12 years, and and all so that's not quite half the amount of time I've known you. And you've been busier since you retired than any other time, other than I mean, when you were in the sand, you were pretty busy. I were busy, you guys. You were pretty busy, yeah. Uh, but you just don't you don't stop, you can't stop, you won't stop. Uh and and you're you're doing tomorrow, you've got the band balance.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

Yep, I'm on the band balance tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

You're kind of looking for a job just because you got like two or three extra hours per week that you need to fill in.

SPEAKER_02 2:25

Yeah, so a friend of mine sent me uh two job listings for companies that were looking for um threat, insider threat and investigation managers.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

All right. Um you can you can provide insider threat. I I can give you all review inside and outside threat. Yeah, all over.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

So in the my resume fits it. I had to retool my resume a little bit and read a cover letter for both, but one of the job listings I've made it through the second round of resume review for whoever is doing it, eight, whoever in HR is doing it. Probably the next step is waiting for to see if I get an interview.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Yeah, four or five more rounds, and you'll be past AI. You'll actually talk to a person.

SPEAKER_02 3:15

So that's yeah, that's a big thing with that. I had to research about freaking resumes. Yeah, it's terrible. Um, so yeah, the next step is waiting to see if they they want to do um a video teleconference, like a Teams meeting interview. And it's like 130,000, 35,000 a year, uh 15 travel, but it's everything listed in my my resume. Like they want somebody who's led at uh at uh a high level, they want somebody that's been in high threat situations, they want somebody that understands international politics and global threats, and somebody that's uh conversant in European economy and threats and and can and can concisely uh put together reports about that to senior management.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Yeah, so you've you've done these things, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:08

And they wanted somebody with a degree in criminal justice, criminology, or intelligence. Oh yeah, got check.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

Yeah, well, if you don't get it international security studies, got you if you don't get it, then somebody else is more qualified. I mean, that's uh what are you gonna do? So that's that's your that's where you're at. And I'm like I'm oh yeah, and the short department. Oh, and the and also the yeah, yeah. Jesus Christ, and and your your body is shutting down, so all of the stuff that you're doing, and you're broken from military activity, and and to be fair, choices you've made. Uh also true. Yeah, some of it was military. I mean, that was kind of the start of things, but uh yeah, we we do damage. Um, so and I my I think talked uh well, I know I talked in the last episode about my job situation, and I gotta be honest with you, my my givea dang is gone. I'm I'm short timer for sure. I'm doing the job. Uh I'm gonna take time off as much as I can. We need to talk about that uh early September trip, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 5:14

Let's do we need to get something on the books, hash it out here.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

Um, I'm really hoping it would be it would be great if we could work it out to go do the uh um what's the stuff called? Let's get tour bour bourbon, yeah. The book bourbon tour. Uh but uh yeah, so anyway, we've got that. Uh and I my job's done November 6th, and there's there's not a chance I'll stay with the current company, so I'll be looking for something. But uh yeah, maybe I should try retiring, then I can get all these cool jobs like you.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

Yeah, if you just would retire, then you will get super busy. Yeah, I've got several money, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Yeah, well, that's there's that. Uh so yeah, okay, let's let's talk about that then. Let's let's get into the Patreon thing. I just checked our numbers and we're in a whopping zero members and zero gifts so far. And gentlemen, uh, and if there's any ladies that watch, yeah, ladies, you thank you. Thanks. And glad you're all here. But uh, you know, we we've got other things that we could be doing. We love talking and we love putting it down on on tape, as they they said back in the 1900s. But uh uh we we do want this time to let you know that this we're we're intentionally recording weekly, and we're gonna put these shows out, and and we want you to know that we're putting the effort in, and we'd like to know that you appreciate it. The the checking in is great. Love seeing the comments. Yep. Uh love talking to people on the street when we're out and about about what the the things that we talk about here. Uh, just need you to know that if you could click that Patreon link and uh uh show us you appreciate the money that we're spending on keeping the shows out there, um the equipment that we've got set up. Uh Mike, you went from uh shitty laptop to an awesome desktop system here, and it wasn't you didn't spend money on this this time. Like you and I both put a lot of money into the the pre previous show getting things set up, so whatever.

SPEAKER_02 7:02

It's it's that was all two new monitors, yeah. So is a little uh as my an old old the old game gaming desktop that I had, which has a great graphic card and it makes this better, yeah. But I did get two new monitors, and I need to get a green screen up and a blackout curtain and set things up in here so it's better, yeah. Yeah, which costs time and money.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

Yep. So please, if you could, um we're we're gonna keep talking about it uh until we get what do you think? Let's so we're gonna have to do these ads for ourselves uh at least a few times per show until we get uh what a thousand bucks a month. No, I'm kidding, it's not, but that would be great. We will never mention again if we can get to that point, yeah. Uh I I would like to get to a point that I don't need to look for a job by November. So that's truly the goal. Uh, and I'll share a little bit with you, Mike, um, as well. So thank you. 50-50. Skunk and Gator Creations is the umbrella organization for our podcasts and other online things that we do. So uh we do share it that way. Uh, what else? Um, I was gonna talk about my doctor visit because I'm an old man.

SPEAKER_02 8:12

Yeah, well, you know, it it at a certain point in our lives, it becomes extremely important to go to doctors' visits. I mean, it's it's important for regular health checkups.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

It is, and and that's that's why I wanted to, yeah, for sure. You and so you, Mike, you're at the doctor like all the time because you've got yeah, you're out of warranty and you got parts that need to be replaced, and all these man at this point. Yeah, um, but but for us normals, uh civilians, that didn't get yeah, that didn't get broke like that. All of us, we need to go into the doctor. Now, my my brother had butt cancer, and that means that I go in every five years for the the uh scope uh colonoscopy, and uh that's uh American Sign Language for colonoscopy, by the way. I thought it was something else. Yeah, that's a different visit. That's the dentist, maybe yeah, dentist does that. Um, but anyway, so every five years, and we just talked about it. I went to the doctor for my my annual physical, and when I say annual, it's 18 months, sometimes a couple years in between them, or if something comes up, I'll go in, right? Um, but I go in, he's the one that signs off on uh Lexapro, and I continue with that, and we had that conversation where where things are at, and it's and and this isn't a mental health thing I want to talk about. And and I I don't know all the answers, so this is not medical advice, but I can tell you this there are times that I think I'm really doing well, and and I have this thought, I haven't taken action on it, but I've had the thought I'm doing really well. Maybe I should get off the medicine and see if it'd be okay. And then I realize that I'm having that thought because I'm in a good place. I don't need to not be in a good place, and there's there's not a there's not a side effect that's been impacting my life that I know of. I mean, if I die three days earlier of natural causes because I was on Lexapro, worth it, right? So so that's there. Um uh the the numbers are good, you know. I'm still I'm I'm more than 50 pounds overweight. I I recognize that. And I've I've done the the running and I've adjusted the intake of food and uh the thing that I've not given up yet. And this was a discussion I had with the doctor is the alcohol, right? The the the empty calories. And uh I again don't have all the answers. All of my numbers are good. I had a couple cholesterol, though the bad cholesterol numbers were bordering on outside of good, right? Like they were little and they were high. And I'm okay. My heart is in good condition, that's a concern. My my butt innards are in good condition, that's also a concern. My thyroid is good. Uh, my daughter had hers taken out from cancer, and that was the first time that that's happened in our family. But obviously, you know, any of these things uh connect. Um, and and alcohol abuse has been an issue in our family too, and and I feel like I'm in a good place. Had that conversation with my doctor as well. So, no reason to lie to him or her. Uh, no reason not to do it. If you have insurance, go. If you don't have insurance, negotiate and go. It's it's like pay for that before you pay for our Patreon, uh, but also pay for our Patreon. All of those things are important to take care of, just just to know and don't be don't be scared. I hear so many people say that I don't want to go to the doctor because he might find something.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

Good.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

Damn it, do it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:26

Hopefully they do find something and they can treat it. Um so we just had my uh Aunt Mel out here for a week. She came out to visit, she comes out once a year. We call her Mama Mel. Um, I'm really, really close to her, and I was um close to my uncle Greg, uh, her husband, who passed away two years ago now of cancer. And um, I love that man dearly, and it was a that was that was the rough year two years ago when a bunch of stuff happened. But he was a guy that didn't go to doctor visits either. Uh and then when he finally did, it was you know, it was because he wasn't able to keep food down, and then it was a cascading effect because there was cancer and it was colon, and then it spread in his lymph nodes, and then it was in his lungs, and then it was in his brain. And legitimately from February to July, that was it. I just had another uncle, my dad's last brother passed away from throat cancer, and again ignored it for a very, very long time until it got to be too much, and unfortunately, he passed away. And you can have genetic disposition for certain types of cancer as well, but you know, my family alcohol and tobacco use, my dad's been smoking since he was I don't I don't think he smokes now, but he vapes. Like you're 78. One, don't vape. You're 78. Stop it.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

Is it the uh cotton candy scent? Is that I hope not.

SPEAKER_02 12:57

But um, it's it's actually worse. Studies show that it's worse because you use it more.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

Right.

SPEAKER_02 13:04

Um, but uh my uncle L was my dad's last living brother. So my dad is it at 78, and um and health conditions were the reason that all of them passed away, and not just end of life. So in our stage of life, in your 50s, we are like 66% of the way through our life. We're over 60% of the way through. At 50 years old, you have 26 more summers, 26 more on average, 26 more Christmases.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

You know, that's if you think unless unless you get a membership with our Patreon, we'll add another year for every thousand dollars per month that you spend. Uh maybe. We'll get a hold of Elon. No guarantee. Yeah, yeah. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 13:49

It's just if you really you have to start thinking about that stuff when it comes to health because we are at a point, and not to be morbid, but we are at a point in our lives in our 50s where life is taking more than it's giving at this point. Now I grandkids and all of that stuff. Uh that's a gift that life is giving me right now, which is awesome. And I may there's a possibility I might have three grandkids born next year. What?

SPEAKER_00 14:19

Yeah, like are like you have do you have like legitimate insider knowledge of this, or are you just kind of guessing based on life stage?

SPEAKER_02 14:27

Nope, I actually have insider knowledge on all right, yeah, like video, audio.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

I don't hey by the way. I saw your uh speaking of things that that are weird looking, I saw your son on TikTok the other day for the Honda place.

SPEAKER_02 14:45

Yeah, how the hell are they do everything together?

SPEAKER_00 14:48

It was a weird, yeah. I didn't I I was not the the the demographic they intended.

SPEAKER_02 14:54

Everything is not a two-man job commercial.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

Yes, that's what it was.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

Yeah, I found it funny because I've seen a couple of other ones of that where people are doing yeah, so it's kind of a trend, but it was it was cool to see Hunter on a video for the place where he works, a commercial where he works.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

Good on him.

SPEAKER_02 15:12

I mean, I did give him some crap for it, but yeah, you should. Um yeah. Speaking of which, talk to him regularly. Oh, nice, yeah, and his mom does too. And he swung by to see Aunt Mel and big hugs, and it it was just it was it was awesome. Like my heart kind of wanted to explode.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:35

Um, and if you don't know, that's okay. I'm not gonna talk about it right now, but yeah, it was it was really awesome. Yeah, it was a really awesome moment, and and he's back into working out, so common language for us, right?

SPEAKER_00 15:44

Excellent, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:45

So we'll get a chance to talk about that. Um, he's got some goals long term that he wants for working out, one of which is to move more weight than me. So well fucking luck, buddy. Well, sooner or later, sooner or later, he will pass me sooner or later. Yeah, and that shit ain't this year.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

He got goals. Uh, so I okay, I want to I want to talk up my grandson. His 17th birthday was yesterday, and he got a bass guitar. Oh, and he's a he's he's a big guy, right? Lee, he's always been a big guy, he's tall, he's big, and him slinging that bass on and and learning everything. I man, I'm so excited, I can't wait for that to uh come to fruition. That's gonna be awesome. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:32

Hell yeah, man.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

Yep. We're already gaming together, so uh let's add music in. And yeah, that's that's my that's my like retirement. I just want to sit around and game and play music with my family. You know what that'd be uh the bib overalls. Uh and then I am playing that bad guitar. Woo! I love it. I love it. My fingers, my fingers hurt. I can't feel the tips of my fingers anymore.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

Well, that means you're doing it right, baby.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

Yeah, that's it. That's exactly it.

SPEAKER_02 17:00

Uh a couple more years before I can game with Odin. Right now we're playing things like Minecraft, where he likes to build zoos, or at least he calls it animal enclosures, because he's been saying that since he was like two.

SPEAKER_00 17:11

Yep, yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

Odin wants to grow up and and work at a zoo and then take care of animals. We're getting closer to him understanding what a veterinarian is, and I think that's where his head is, but he doesn't quite understand he wants to take care of animals.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

There's a real downside to that. That one there is. I couldn't, my heart couldn't take it. Um I mean, it could if I had to.

SPEAKER_02 17:32

I just yeah, well, it's like working in EMS, right? Nobody wants to be around death and in injury, but and and I certainly don't because I've been around enough of it outside of being a medic, but uh it's different. It it honestly it's different when I'm a medic. Some of the calls I carry with me, yeah, but it's different in that role. But right now Odin and I are playing like Minecraft and Big Little Kitty Big City.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

Oh, that's a fun game. Can you both simulator can you both play little kiddies? Or is it just like one of the things?

SPEAKER_02 18:03

Yeah, yeah, we I just help him through the some of the tasks and stuff while he's playing.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

This this is embarrassing, legitimately. This is a show code thing here. I legitimately played that from beginning to end and absolutely enjoyed that game. It's a little kitty that falls out of the out of the high rise and and survives, but then has to do all these things and make all these friends and do kitty things to get back up to the top of the I was disappo I was disappointed when the game ended because I wanted to keep going. I it's man, I don't know what it has not ended. I'm straight, I promise. Okay, good, yeah. Yeah, um, so that is a fun game. And I so I legitimately, I want to go quickly back to the doctor thing. I legitimately and I texted you this thought. Um what like how did they determine that sticking a finger in the butt I remember that test was was the like the way to determine that there was cancer? Were they already in there and like, oh, that's a different size? Yeah, or or like how did that come about? Because other tests seem more naturally like recurring, like, well, we're already taking blood out. Oh, we can find this, or I can look in your mouth, and like that's not that intrusive generally. Um, but but every time my dentist sticks his finger in my butt, I question no, it's my doctor, yeah, whether or not I have oral cancer. Doc, you're going in the long way, trust me. Um, but everything, but we we didn't do that. I guess they and they really don't anymore. I think it's more of a blood thing that they check and stool samples. The he did say that I could do that instead of a colonoscopy. And I mean, doc, I'm paying for the full thing. If you need me to start tipping, I will, but I I want that nap.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

I don't remember anything anyway when I have one, so it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

Yeah, I don't that's okay. So let's talk, let's back to back to the public service announcement about that. Uh whatever your fear is of having something in your butt, you number one, you don't remember, and number two, stop it. It's a medical procedure. Um, and and if you're really worried about that, you got some other things that you should be thinking about. Um, it's it it's if you might get you might get a boner. It's fine.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

And you might actually fairly normal, right?

SPEAKER_00 20:11

I would think so. I mean, that's the the meta, the male G spot is up in there. I haven't found mine yet, but I'm not for lack of trying. That's not true. That's not true.

SPEAKER_02 20:18

Broomhandle and all.

SPEAKER_00 20:21

What's her name? Broomhandle.

SPEAKER_02 20:23

Uh oh, it's broomhilda. Sorry, she's broomhilda. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's true though. Stop. Just stop having that stigma against it because I, on the flip side of that, run into people in my job that routinely ignore their health until I show up at your door with whatever I have in my ambulance and try to save your life because you've ignored all of this stuff for so long that it finally comes to fruition and you're dying in your house an hour from the nearest hospital.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:00

And that sucks. It sucks. Not, I mean, not I'm it's not personal for me. Like I pour my my whole, you know me, 100% to every patient. I want it's their worst day. I need to be on my best day for their worst day. But for your family, right? That's standing there watching that happen when it when a lot of it, so there's so many comorbidity factors with disease that can be avoided with diet and exercise. And I and I know there's a stigma with diet. I'm not talking about going on a juice fucking cleanse or whatever. I'm talking about your nutrition, your hand-to-mouth habit every single day. There's so much that can be avoided by just your hand to mouth habit and being active. And I'm not talking my kind of active, I'm active, I'm active like I am for very specific reasons. Right. Because I'm trying to outrun a very lethal disease. Right? And it sounds morbid, but it's true. I know how this play ends for me, but I want it to end on my My terms. I was just telling my Aunt Mel, said, I want to leave this world exactly how I came into it. Naked, screaming, and covered in somebody else's blood.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

That's how that's why you're on the on the ambulance. I get it.

SPEAKER_02 22:13

Every time. I might be in an assisted living home and I might be naked running through the hall, throwing the juice box at somebody that's grape, so it looks like blood. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

Might be a church, maybe the grocery store. So never know.

SPEAKER_02 22:26

The world's my oyster right now.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

So my my prayer for you is that you only have to do that once. Like I hope you don't have any misfires. Yeah, I thought I was dying. Sorry, Pastor. Um, I'm gonna go put my clothes on and take a shower. Uh better luck next week.

SPEAKER_02 22:46

Mike, um, that's not kind of the kind of wrestling we do at this gym. So when you sent that text out, I was coaching. That's why it was so funny to me. Like, we're we're in a nogi series in jujitsu, and so we don't we don't have our fight pajamas on, we just have shorts and uh and a rash guard. And so I got that text, and I forgot to silence my phone, which I normally do when I coach, and bing, and went off. I'm like, oh, I'll give it better go check that.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

That is, yeah, that's important.

SPEAKER_02 23:14

Yeah, because it might be important because usually there's there's a core group of people that will it will even when I have it on silent or do not disturb come through. Yeah, and so I'm like, oh shit, I should probably go check that real quick. No, but it was a finger up the butt while we're wrestling. It was awesome.

SPEAKER_00 23:28

Well, while you guys are checking each other's oil, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

I can neither confirm nor deny. Yeah, there was a whole tried taking my lunch money uh last night. So maybe he might have got an oil check.

SPEAKER_00 23:39

There's a call on the radio. Oh, yeah, what happened there? We got a there's a call on a radio show that I listened to. The guy called in, and and I can't remember what they were talking about. Something he gets he is a guy that some people like to fight, right? Like, there are people that actually get jazzed up about fighting, and he got he likes it's a sexual thing for him. And and he said, like he punches somebody, or when he's getting into a fight, he gets wood. And and their sugg oh, it was uh it was when they were doing advice, and uh their suggestion was well, maybe you should try like martial arts. And he said, Yeah, I tried that, but nobody wants to wrestle with a guy that's got wood.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

I guess I never thought about that, but yeah, all you gotta do is wear a cup. If you wear a cup all the time, then it's we just assume it's a cup.

SPEAKER_00 24:18

Well, that's the secret, it's always hard, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:20

Yes, exactly. Yeah, I do know some people that wrestle with a cup on, it's weird because that could be uncomfortable because there's some people. It can be a lot of tournaments though in wrestling require that you have a cup on, and so when they do a cup check, you just knock the side of your leg, and the judges know that you're lying, and you know that you're lying, but they'll let you on anyway. And if your sack gets squished, that's on you, dude. But I mean, I've been in jiu-jitsu now, this is my 23rd year, never worn a cup. Now, have I had some people put their shin up my taint? Yeah, absolutely. And I've wanted to vomit and it has stopped the roll fairly quickly. But yeah, everybody last night tried taking my lunch money again. So every once in a while I try, damn, this is a weird tangent. Every once in a while I try to uh I not try, I I videotape my my rolling because I want to go back and I want to see how I roll with each level because I go from white to my brown belt. And you can see the it's funny. I I I watched it last night after I got home. I was watching the video, rolling the tape, and you can see how playful I am with my white belt, a little playful with my blue belts, purple belts. Fuck you guys, because you're trying to take my lunch money. And then there's Paul who's my brown belt, and it is super serious, and we're working, but it doesn't look like we're doing anything. Like you see very little movement, and then there's a scramble, and then there's a pause where we're one of us has got a good position and we're waiting for somebody to do something. It was just kind of neat. And I I get a chance to see where my timing is, and you know, how am I doing with the new people? You know what I mean? Because that's really important to me. I want them to have a good experience and come back and want to keep coming back because we've got had an influx of new people into the gym. So and I don't normally wrestle with new people.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

Yeah, I was thinking that. I was gonna ask you about that. Uh you've you've decided, I guess. I mean, you're the you are the coach. You are the coach, right?

SPEAKER_02 26:12

There's there's some that I won't. They've got they need a little more seasoning, right? And then I'll want, I'll, I'll watch some brand new people wrestle with my blues, purples, and browns, and they're super controlled and relaxed. And if they get smashed, you're like, oh, that was crazy, man. I can't believe you did that to me. And then they keep going. Those are the people that I'll go, okay, you know what, you and I can play around.

SPEAKER_03 26:32

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

Um and I did that with several white belts last night. Man, so our our manager, Brianna, is a two-striped white belt in jujitsu. All right, and she's been coming on a regular basis. She usually comes to lunch, lunchtime classes, but she tries to hit Wednesday nights and hit some open minutes. She legitimately tried to fucking steal my lunch money last night. It was crazy. Yeah, it was good. It was really, really good. But anyway, yeah, so go get a finger up your button, bung hole and get checked.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

That's a long story longer.

SPEAKER_02 27:03

Yeah, but it's just health, man. Do don't try to eat the elephant in one bite. And this is a conversation I have with people all the time because on top of being a jujitsu coach and a karate, you know, a fifth-degree black belt and karate and teaching that stuff, I'm also a personal trainer and I have been one for for two decades. I'm a CrossFit coach, I've been one for almost two decades. I got a uh certification and fitness um sports nutrition, and I'm an Olympic uh lifting coach. So I have these conversations with people all the time because they want to do these big things and get in shape and change everything right away. Do not do that because you will not continue to do that.

SPEAKER_00 27:42

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_02 27:44

Yeah, but little baby steps, change a thing. We've talked about that. Like, hey, maybe go out and start walking.

SPEAKER_00 27:49

Right. And that's the the overwhelm. That's that's part of my tism. Like the if there's a divergence that I could trace a lot of um issues in my life, bad decisions and and long-term bad habits, it's the overwhelm, the idea that uh I don't know where to start, I don't know what to do first, therefore I do nothing. And and doing something the the the one less uh one less plate at dinner. If you're having two or three, don't right, just take a little bit back and and and cut back a little bit on the portions and do a walk. Uh, you know, the the dogs have made a big difference for me, but bigger than that is getting on the treadmill um and preparing for something in September. Like I'd have that goal, those things are important.

SPEAKER_02 28:35

So yeah, because well, we were we were gonna run a 5k, learn very quickly, still can't run. Yeah, I've been rocking, yeah. Um, so I'll be rocking it, but we're we're trying to figure out.

SPEAKER_00 28:48

I've I've talked to uh some of the folks that have committed here in Bismarck too. I don't know if we're gonna actually do the formal Bismarck marathon event because you got to pay for that. Yeah, and some of the guys were like, uh, so we could from my house, and I I looked at this the other day, from my house to church is uh four kilometers. It's exactly four kilometers. And I thought, well, if we're if we're all rucking, it doesn't, you know, uh no, not it's four miles, my bad. Four miles, so you know, closer to uh ten than a five, whatever it's four miles. So we could but we could do that. We could all ruck from here to there and maybe have a uh a cookout or something. We have our church. I don't mean to brag, but I'm gonna brag. We have a hot dog roller at our church. Uh we did that for Ben's group a couple minutes ago. Yeah, we just put the hot dogs on, drive back, walk out.

SPEAKER_02 29:38

Well, and those who want a medal can do a virtual 5k.

SPEAKER_00 29:42

Yeah, we could sign up for that. There's uh what's that what's that place called?

SPEAKER_02 29:45

Uh there's a ton of them.

SPEAKER_00 29:47

Yeah, there's well, there's one that does really good, like they actually send you the medal and and and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 29:51

Um, so I usually I will go with um uh stop 22, which is for veteran suicide. That's the one that I do a lot. All right, I do their five kids a lot. Really cool medals.

SPEAKER_00 30:04

We could easily get by and for that.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

This is my pledge to people to listeners. I will find a list of virtual five kids.

SPEAKER_00 30:11

Oh, there you go.

SPEAKER_02 30:12

All right, and I'll I'll put it up. So just keep me honest about it. If I if it's not up in a week, hit me up on the Facebook page and remind me because I have a ton of them saved as bookmarks because I like to do virtual 5Ks because I'm not much of a go out and do yeah, there's too many people. Yeah, yeah, it's very people.

SPEAKER_00 30:31

Yeah, we've we've done that a couple times, you and I. Uh I man, I remember that turkey trot we did. It was so cold that November.

SPEAKER_02 30:38

It was, and we were stuck inside the elks for a while. Remember? Because it was so cold and they couldn't start right away.

SPEAKER_00 30:44

Man, I was so numb. Numb and dumb. Numb and dumber. That's what we did. So just be healthy. So just be healthy. Yeah, there you go. Let's let's put a pin in that one and move on to the next thing. Yeah, this was sent in by uh one of our one of our longtime fans. Uh, shout out to L about this news article that that he wanted us to discuss. And I'm excited to talk about it. It's uh if you haven't seen it, um, first off, ground news is a great source. Ground highly recommend it. Fantastic app, uh, great website. Uh I I've I've uh I pay for an annual, like one of their levels so that I get a little bit more um control about what I see and a little bit more information, uh statistics and things. At any rate, uh Ground News, uh, we saw this, the water system hack. Uh, and the first place it was it was uh brought up was in Minnesota. Like there were several, I think there were like 30 communities that were hit by uh uh uh an attack, a cyber attack on the water systems. Now, since then, since it initially came out, I've followed I've followed the story, and there have been six states that were involved in this cyber attack. And uh from what we can tell, none of the water supplies were directly impacted. So this was the kind of like poking and feeling to see how far they could get in. And I don't know all the details, but that's what we know so far.

SPEAKER_02 32:06

One of I I just watched a story about this, actually, a news story about this. And uh the one in Minnesota, they did say that a lot of the communities had to go to their stored water and their water towers because the treatment, the the water um plants were not pushing water out.

SPEAKER_00 32:23

Okay, so they were yeah, they did it like that. Not in not impacted as in there was no uh nobody drank bad water. That's what I yeah. So, like it it so public, don't worry about it. But those companies or those those uh utilities did have a lot of work to do to clean it up, and then obviously they'll have to step up their security.

SPEAKER_02 32:43

Well, they had to go into the reserves into their water towers, and that's a very finite resource for towns, yeah. Uh, and it it's like a couple days, that's it. I mean, water towers don't, and that's if everybody stops fucking showering. Like I'm not saying don't shower, please shower. You know, long showers and baths and and washing dishes and stuff, flesh and the toilet. You've got a couple days of that with water towers in towns. And if it if the treatment plant fails or the water plant fails and can't get out clean water, then if it's a you know more than three days, in the words of Saint McGregor, you're fucked.

SPEAKER_00 33:25

Yeah, three days from now, three days, what does life look like if you don't have water? And that's that's the thought that that gets a person to take action. And you you fill up some containers, you have those stored. Uh, you think about uh I have I have life straws that are readily available online, not even that expensive, and you just keep those on hand for those emergencies. We almost had to use one of those to transfer gas from your motorcycle to my motorcycle on our Canada trip. We didn't, uh thankfully, but uh we were almost there. Found a guy to siphon out of his lawnmower.

SPEAKER_02 33:57

Like a hundred Canadian dollars. I still don't have fifty for us or something. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 34:02

I think I think I could have bought a house or paid for a couple liters of gas, and I don't even know how much a couple liters of gas is. Like, I don't, I could have I could have I could have made it like a mile and that would have been it on that much gas. I have no idea.

SPEAKER_02 34:15

But it was really neat though that he was like, Oh, yeah, I got some spare gas and just went into it. I was gonna mow my lawn today, but I don't have to. And he gave me the gas, which got us to a gas station.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 34:24

Yeah, and now I'm selling my bike.

SPEAKER_00 34:28

Oh, that's yeah, son of a bitch. You with your vertigos back to safety, back to safety because you had some vertigo on what'd you say three rides this year, yep, that you took. And uh, if you're if you're not confident, um everybody, every motorcycle rider I know is either riding or dead or got to a point where they said I've outrun my luck, and that's really what it comes down to. And uh, and I I mean I I hate to be you know, morbidity more morbidity is our is our theme today. Uh, but it's it's true. I've I've known riders that I mean, and you could say they died doing what they love, but it still sucks. Yeah, they they went past their luck. So uh back to the the story with the ground news and water systems. Here's here's the thing that story morphed, and and it's a problem with our society. Old man yelling at clouds, it morphed from this happened, and here is what we know about it, to president says this, governor says this, these people all have opinions, and either you're with me or you're against me. Yep. Um and and it, I mean, uh it just confounds me that that we're at that stage. And the only thing I could do right now is hope that uh in the next um regime or the one after that, that maybe we can come back to center. But I I don't believe that what's what's it gonna take? It's going to take somebody hacking our water and not being able to drink for us to come together, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:07

Um sucks because the pendulum swings so far and right and left now to it it doesn't correct itself anymore, but it it did get politicized very quickly. There is some preliminary information that the hackers could be tied to the Iranian regime, which doesn't surprise me because this is not the first time Iran has tried to hack into systems, the Israelis routinely hack America. Yeah, they are actually so. If we're gonna talk about that region real quick and this threat, um the most aggressive collector in that area against the US is Israel. They're our number one threat, intelligence threat, against us in the region, and I know because of my previous life, yeah. Number one threat. Like Iran has okay-ish hacking abilities, Israel has fucking phenomenal abilities, and then there's Russia, Russia, of course, big threat, China, solid threat, but the immediately it was connected to Iran, and there was no explanation given. So I that that's just another kernel in there that just says it's very politicized, and we need a reason to be fighting a war that we should not be fighting whatsoever.

SPEAKER_00 37:26

Which was weird because Trump was the one that came out and said it wasn't Iran, it was uh the incompetence of Minnesota. Like that was that was well, of course, because it's a democratically run state. Boom. Yeah, it's it's very blue, and uh I don't it that doesn't like that that part of it, it just becomes noise. And when we add that um lack of ability to have discourse to the inability for many of us now and for sure coming up, not knowing what's real or AI, yeah. I I I really don't know how we're gonna survive this, and it's why we stopped doing the gray man podcast because we just kept talking about the same thing. But but here we are, here we are. And I mean, if if we need a reason for why Iran might have done that, uh well, we didn't declare war, we just did it. There was no declaration, we just started bombing them. And I still, you know, there's whatever conspiracy theories, but there's obviously discussions happening at some level, and we're just bombing each other, and things break down and we bomb each other again. That's just part of the conversation. It's it's chess pieces moving, and it's it's the pawns right now. We're not even breaking out the the back row on either side, we're just moving some pawns around, and sometimes people die.

SPEAKER_02 38:40

And we're doing it at such a we're we're we're we're we're bombing Iran at such a rate that we are precariously low on missiles for the US. Our surface to air and surface to surface missiles are at an all-time low because we keep fucking shooting. And I get that they've bombed Oman and they've bombed Kuwait and they've hit oil refiners and Saudi and the UAE, and they've they've hit an American base in Jordan that I actually helped set up in early 2002. Um but they didn't do any of that before. And they weren't doing any of that, and they were quite contained. And yes, Iran funds Hezbollah, and Hezbollah was funding the Palestinian resistance. But the only people that really need to worry about that is Israel. There's no fucking reason we need to be involved. If Israel can't handle Israel's problems, and that's Israel's problem.

SPEAKER_00 39:44

But that goes back to they their information, they're not just looking for information uh because they're bored, they're using it as leverage to keep us uh in line, right? Yeah. Like that there's there's uh a pedophile in the White House. There's uh, you know, there's a list of all the power people that are that are um having to bow down to the information that's out there. And uh, I mean I and again, I'm not trying to make it political. It's not the president is this or isn't this or caused this or didn't cause this or didn't do what it's it's just the lack of ability for us to have uh conversation and do and man, I hate to say it this way. I I don't want to be this guy, but to just do the right thing, and we're just not well. We could have had a secretary of defense that had a clear vision and combat experience and long-term um strategic values and ideas, or don't or or or here we go and are yeah, an anchor, a news anchor that's so I mean a subpar officer in the in the army, yeah, who's got a um a combat infantryman's badge that is honestly suspect.

SPEAKER_02 41:02

Whole nother subject for another podcast, but um yeah, right back to the back. Right back, we're back, baby. Yeah, so anyway, as a guy, as a grandpa, and uh and as a dad, and as a a dude living in North Dakota, a lot of this shit just bugs me because gas and and I put this up the other day. I just took a picture of gas prices, and it was it's $2.99 a gallon. Oh, that's cheap.

SPEAKER_00 41:31

Wow, that's that's cheap.

SPEAKER_02 41:33

I'm I'm coming up to get gas. Sorry, it's almost three. $3.99. Maybe $3.99 would be better. $3.99 a gallon.

SPEAKER_00 41:39

All right, not better.

SPEAKER_02 41:41

A lot of people are like, well, it must be nice to have gas prices that low. Fuck it's fucking relative, first off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you live on the West Coast and you're paying eight bucks a gallon, that's on you. Um, but if you're in like Arizona or Nevada or any place like that and you're still paying high prices, that's because of fucking transportation. I will tell you that four bucks a gallon in Minot, North Dakota, is the same as eight bucks a gallon in California.

SPEAKER_00 42:06

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:06

Hurts us in our wallet. It's really everything is relative. Yeah, it's purchase power parity for the dollar based on where you're living. And to have gasoline at almost fucking four bucks a gallon here, that's not winning at all.

SPEAKER_03 42:23

No.

SPEAKER_02 42:23

And in and the president and and presidents always try to accuse other presidents of you know that, like, you know, the gas prices are high because of the president. No, the president doesn't control gas prices, the oil companies do, but they control the policies that affect the oil companies, and that's why gas. And what makes me mad is we've got the Bakken oil field up here, and we are pulling so much oil out of the ground, but we don't refine it here. It gets sent to Texas.

SPEAKER_00 42:48

Well, and all the all the natural gas that just gets burned off just because we don't have the infrastructure to deal with it.

SPEAKER_02 42:53

Yeah, well, and that's why heating is so cheap up here if you have natural gas in your house, because there's so much going on.

SPEAKER_00 42:58

But yeah, I could I could drill down like five feet and just get natural gas myself if I were to do that.

SPEAKER_02 43:02

Well, I you know, I could just have Mexican food and have natural gas.

SPEAKER_00 43:06

Well, plumbing that into your house isn't gonna do well.

SPEAKER_02 43:09

Uh also true. Here, so the fact that this got politicized very quickly is not a surprise to me and is unfortunate because we don't have any we're uh we are not given in the public any concrete information that directly links it to Iran at all.

SPEAKER_00 43:26

Well, here's I just got a notification. Did you get this one too from ground news? Trump insists vandals damaged uh reflecting pool, blast DOJ four dropped charges. That's what we're getting. That's the news that we're getting is this reflecting pool debacle. It's just like everything except what's important and what's real. Yeah. Uh the and it's not about, and I we joke about it, and and it's constantly comes up, right? About the uh uh oh, what's his name? The files, uh Epstein files. Yeah, that's and like we don't joke about it, it's just it's real. And it just keeps getting bypassed and and shuffled over. But that's that that's why we have alien videos now. That's why we have a war. That's why we have a reflecting pool. Like there, there's things, and that's just one thing that's important. How many news stories, how many things are happening that we're not being fed because we're in a society of all the information all the time and fighting, like in fighting? The internet is, and I'm just gonna throw a number out there. Let's say it's 80% bots just trying to rile us up and get us fighting against each other.

SPEAKER_02 44:31

Fucking trolls, man.

SPEAKER_00 44:32

And yeah, yep, and and that's that's what it is. So you know, the dream that we had in the 90s of this internet bringing us together. Um, I want to go back and and say you failed. Let's try it a different way.

SPEAKER_02 44:43

Yeah, well, in in what do presidents do when their numbers are low?

SPEAKER_00 44:47

Historically, yeah, rattle some sabers.

SPEAKER_02 44:51

Yeah, absolutely. Because nothing brings Americans closer together than a foreign enemy that's threatening our way of life until now.

SPEAKER_00 45:02

Yeah, well, right. Now nothing can it just and it really feels that way, and it's well, because if everything is an emergency, then nothing is an emergency.

SPEAKER_02 45:10

I used to say this all the time as an officer. And people will come to me as a leader. If everything out of your mouth is an emergency, then nothing becomes an emergency, and I just brush you off.

SPEAKER_00 45:20

Yep. Can I give one piece of professional advice? I need people to hear this, people that are watching. I need you to share this with others. If you're calling a meeting, and I don't care if it's a board meeting that you volunteer on, I don't care if it's a work meeting, if it's a family meeting, if there's not an agenda, it's absolutely a waste of time. I need a goal and I need an agenda. Why are we doing this? And what are we going to talk about? If you don't do that, I don't want to participate because I'm just going to check out. Um, that's that's one piece of advice that that I would give to every company, every nonprofit, every time we get together. Uh, this is and when we did when we did the gray man, we had an itinerary. This one we specifically said we're not gonna do that because we're going in, we're just gonna wander around. Uh, but but I'm telling you, if you're calling, especially board meetings, business meetings, yeah, if it's a half hour, if it's an hour, if it's four hours, what are we talking about? I need to print it out, or I I mean, I would love to just say I'm gonna ignore you, but I'm too much of a people pleaser to do that. I'm just gonna be pissed about it and probably not pay attention.

SPEAKER_02 46:26

So when I was uh when I was a leader, I uh I like to have my meetings like domino domino speech of 30 minutes or less. And we had an agenda every time we went around the room. And then if there are any re-attacks that were not substantially impacting the rest of the group, you could come into my office afterwards.

SPEAKER_00 46:42

Yep, take it offline. That's that is absolutely my favorite. Yep. If I'm running a meeting, that's exactly it. You take that offline. You're having a side conversation, get out of here.

SPEAKER_02 46:51

If you're we're not gonna bitch in public, you can come to me in my office and you can bitch all you want.

SPEAKER_00 46:55

Yeah, when we walk out this door, we're all on the same page. Yeah, this is it. This is what we're doing, this is our goal. We've accomplished it. Get the fuck out. I got other things to do.

SPEAKER_02 47:03

Speaking of meetings, um, I'm gonna give a shout out to uh friend of mine, Jeremy Wells, former chaplain uh in the Air Force. Now is a licensed therapeutic counselor, and he's in Wisconsin. And uh, got a chance to speak to in a group uh to uh there's like 30 some licensed counselors and psychologists and psychiatrists that are in this group. Really well-run meeting, clear agenda. Um, even when they let me talk, and you know how I wander when I talk, because it was really about my mental health, men's mental health, and yeah, and um trying to talk about my story and walking through my mental health journey still kept me on track. I mean, it was awesome. Yeah, I gotta give him props for that. Man, it was it was really good. Kept me on track.

SPEAKER_00 47:53

Nice mental health is uh another subject that we could talk about uh eternally on this podcast. Uh important for both of us. Some days are better than others, man. Uh, you you I remember you used to talk about all the time uh keeping the horses in, yeah, right? Don't let the horses out, don't get the crazy out of the barn. And uh, you know, there's there's some truth to that, and there's also the pressure that gets built up from those horses staying in. And eventually, whether you want them to or not, it's gonna get out. Um, so if you don't deal with it, it's gonna come out at some point. And and another reason to visit with a doctor, somebody that cares, somebody that can listen. I I believe therapists, uh, whatever their title, therapy a therapist, a counselor, uh a psychiatrist, psychologist, all of those. It's a paid best friend. It's somebody that you sit down with, and from the very first time you talk with them, the all the all the shields are down, the walls are down. Yeah, you're raw. And if you don't do that, then you're not getting your money's worth or your insurance company's money worth, or more importantly, your time worth. That's an hour, which usually is like 45-50 minutes. You just just start from start from raw. This is me, and and you get the the crazy out that way rather than letting it come out when you're uh angry and running around church naked, covered in blood, trying to die.

SPEAKER_02 49:14

I have been in all of those stages where I did not control crazy in the barn, and it's escaped, and we've talked about that many times.

SPEAKER_00 49:21

Verizon, there's still there's still a guy at Verizon that's traumatized. I remember.

SPEAKER_02 49:27

There is, yeah, and and to now where therapy has become a very important part of my life. And it's true, man. There's a stigma with men and therapy, just fucking go. Just go. Life itself is traumatic. As a child, even if nothing happens to you as a child, being out of control of everything in your life, right, will affect you long term and how you view things. I'm not saying that everybody everybody needs to be in therapy, but eventually in your life, you're going to encounter something or do something or be privy to something or have something happen to you that requires you to deal with it at a level that you're not used to, and you should talk to somebody about that that is educated there and can help you through that. Because I have a great group of people in my life. I have a best friend that I do a podcast with. I mean, I'm very blessed in my family, but there are things that I don't talk to anybody in that realm about at all because I feel more free and open and honest talking to a therapist about it.

SPEAKER_00 50:38

Well, and it's someone that, yeah, not only are they not uh carrying any baggage into it, the good ones, their their education is to help filter out the bullshit and figure out what the real problem is. Like that's that's a thing that not a lot of people just have a natural ability to do. Like that's it's it's seeing through. I I know Mike that you've talked about this the last five times you've been here. That's not the issue, right? You understand that it's because of this that you're doing this or feeling this. Um, I've I've had bad experience with counselors, and I think that's worth calling out too that just try to give advice, they listen a little bit and then say, Well, here's how you're gonna fix it. Um, try this, do this, do this. No, no, no, I'm not here for you to tell me what to do. I'm here to get my stuff out. And if you see something that I'm missing, you can fill in those blanks, please. But if if I just show up and you're gonna tell me to try these things, here's your homework for next time. That doesn't work for me. Maybe it works for others um that are looking for that in their life. But I I, you know, I struggle. My biggest struggle going to a counselor is getting over the people pleasing. Like, I want to show up and show them what a good person I am and how awesome things are, and I have to overcome that. I really have to work hard to show my real heart, my real soul, and get to the crap that's at the bottom. Like that's real work for me.

SPEAKER_02 51:59

And mine is survivor's guilt. I don't want to get in there and talk about why I deserve to be here because it, you know, for a long time I didn't feel like I did, right? So, yeah, my first experience in counseling, I really, really good therapist. She I remember her listening to me for an hour and then we were done, and we came back the next session, and she listened to me again. And at the very end, she said, Mike, you are very emotionally intelligent, you're very connected to what's going on in your brain. Yep, but that's not the issue.

SPEAKER_00 52:31

Yeah, yep. Yep. I was in a I was in a group uh of of guys that were struggling with similar things as me. We had a whole group, and there was uh the the regular counselor, and then there was a student that was uh kind of interning, and I remember I still remember the way she looked at me, and when she said, It's gotta be really hard to be you, like the so many levels of understanding, like okay, I felt heard, but also you sound like you're trying to martyr yourself. Shut the fuck up and let's talk about what's real. Like, all of those things hit me at once. Like, it was so and there, there were other things. I had my very first actual psychiatrist that I met with him for the first however long we met. And at the end, I said, So, how long is this gonna take for me to get this all worked out? And and his answer, this is a lifelong thing, and I just the injected, and and then eventually the hope that came with that that we can we can actually work on this. It's not something that I have to stay, like I don't I don't be this, I can I can grow, I don't have to be whatever it is that I was at the time. So, anyway, that's man tangents. This is morbidity and tangents. I think that's gonna be the name.

SPEAKER_02 53:37

That is a great that's a great one because we've covered quite a bit, and you know what we haven't talked about yet?

SPEAKER_00 53:42

Uh food. Oh, sorry, fat kid coming out. Uh we haven't talked about the bourbons we're drinking. We haven't, so uh you you brought yours up. What was yours? Widow widow Jane.

SPEAKER_02 53:52

So mine is uh widow Jane, lucky 13. It's a 13-year-old aged widow Jane. Sorry, it's a little blurry.

SPEAKER_00 54:00

Yeah, well, it could be the whiskey talking, yeah, it could be.

SPEAKER_02 54:03

Um they make a couple different okay versions of this. The youngest version is called Baby Jane.

SPEAKER_00 54:09

Oh, makes sense, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:11

And uh it's got Baby Jane's got a bit of a punch to it because it's the youngest of the whiskeys. Sure. Widow Jane is the oldest at 13, and it's it's smooth. Um, it's hot at at the beginning, yeah, but it's smooth after it coats your tongue and and and stays that way through the rest of the glass, which I like.

SPEAKER_00 54:31

That would be a good one with uh with a mild tobacco, probably, then right?

SPEAKER_02 54:35

Like that'd be a really good one with mild tobacco.

SPEAKER_00 54:37

Yeah, all right. Yep, yeah. Nice. So good. And I just went with uh the reason I I have knob creek uh nine year today is because uh it was on sale, so I have another bottle uh waiting on my on my uh bar upstairs. Um and this one uh so let's start with where I'm tasting today. So first thing I actually smelled the soap when I was taking a shower this morning. That doesn't happen very much to the day. I've actually I've actually got a little bit of of flavor going. Um, and and this is so this one I've got the heat. I definitely feel the heat. This I would say the one thing I know about knob creek is it's very rarely smooth. Like this one's gonna stay hot, it's gonna it's gonna bite a little bit all the way through. And I like that. We've talked about that before. Um, as far as unique flavors, I'm not picking anything out today. Um, but uh um it's a good, it's a good now. This one I didn't even put ice in this one today. This is just straight. Uh let's hit hit it with all we've got and uh uh the rest of today. So after this, we're planning to game a little bit, and then we both got things we're we're doing later on. Um, you're actually on the ambulance tomorrow. Part of the reason that we're we're getting through things here today. You're you're you're doing bamboans and tomorrow. And uh how long is that gonna so okay, whiskey good? Are we done with whiskey?

SPEAKER_01 55:55

Yes, we're we're we're good with whiskey.

SPEAKER_00 55:57

We've got how long's how long's the uh ambulance thing gonna go, do you think? And uh you don't need to give a specific answer. Is it something that's on your on your mind that uh you know if if you can't ride motorcycle, can you ride ambulance, right?

SPEAKER_02 56:11

I can because I don't drive the ambulance as the medic, which is you know kind of a nice place to be.

SPEAKER_00 56:17

Yeah, um and there's always if if you're on the ambulance, there's always somebody else there, right? There's somebody that and are you the lead medical person? Yes. So if you're in a situation and and it like you're in a unique situation, you you you talked about you exercise, you keep your body in as good a shape as you possibly can, and you know you've got this health condition. Now, something dramatic is happening, and you feel that that that vibe that uh uh is like I was riding motorcycle and I knew I shouldn't anymore, and you're in this situation, you've got another person that you can guide that you can that you can most of the time.

SPEAKER_02 56:50

Yeah, otherwise I call for a medical intercept. I'll call for um the the service that I work for most of the time is rural. And so I what I'll do is I'll call for a medical intercept from the nearest the nearest city, which is my not, and I'll call for their main ambulance service to do a medical intercept with me. I know I've I've not had to do it except for not for personal reasons so far.

SPEAKER_00 57:19

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 57:20

I've had to do it a couple times for patients that I just couldn't do everything on my own because for me, um most of the time in the service that I work for, the driver that I have, the ambush driver is like CPR certified, AED, first aid, that kind of stuff. They're not in it. It's rare that I get an EMT. Yeah. Um, even though I'm trying to recruit people to come work for us. Um but I get an ambulance driver, so I'm in sure I'm in charge of the entire rodeo show. Um, so if there's ever comes a point where I feel like I need additional help, I'll call for a medical intercept. But if it ever comes to a point where I feel like it's because of my own personal issues, I'm done. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so far, I haven't. I haven't had to. But when that day happens, yeah, I'm out. Yeah, I I I can't do that to other people.

SPEAKER_00 58:10

And to be clear, you're when you when you're doing ambulancing, whatever, uh, it's like most of the time, there isn't someone there, right? That's that's waiting on call. So when you're doing it, it's kind of a extra feature. Like normally, if somebody has an issue in that area, they would be waiting for my not to show up, uh, or for someone to show up that might be volunteering that has to drive from no, actually, where I'm at, it's it is me.

SPEAKER_02 58:37

I'm there the entire time waiting for the colour.

SPEAKER_00 58:40

But I'm but I'm saying if you're not working, like if you're not on shift, it's not 24-7. There's it's not 24-7 that someone's there. You're they're all volunteering, yeah. They're yeah, so so it. I mean, that that you get what you get. I did see an article, something about I don't know this is worth talking about, but I did see an article that uh the North Dakota state is expanding rural uh funding, rural medical funding. Yes, like that that's continuing to move forward.

SPEAKER_02 59:04

So it's because we're losing money in the EMS field based on calls and insurance, and which is another topic in insurance and and payouts and things like that. But um, it costs a lot of money for me to be in an ambulance and treat you. It's not it's not yeah free. And that socialized medicine, whole nother conversation, but right now it's not free, right? So it there are services that are losing a ton of money, they're hemorrhaging money trying to help their community and still doing it. So we need um additional funding from the state, and the average lifespan of an ES EMS worker is like six years.

SPEAKER_00 59:44

Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm sure that's that's amazing. You know, uh my wife was an ICU nurse for decades. Yeah, and seeing people go through, yeah, that it takes a special person to be able to do that type of work, any of that type of work. I mean, even uh uh somebody that works on feet. I mean, at some point you you gotta get to a point where it's like, yeah, I can't, I can't, I just can't take it anymore.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:07

Um yeah, I've already beaten the average as a medic.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:10

Yeah, so you've beaten pretty much every average at this point. I don't know. You you need to fucking relax.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:15

Just be average, fuck, man. Can't you just be average?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:18

Yeah, that's not good.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:19

Well, that's what I talked to my therapist about.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:22

Round and round we go.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:23

Yeah, man, it's true, though. It's true. There's a there's a thing, there's a thing inside of me that just can't be the unseen little kid.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:31

So so here it is. We're at a point in this show where either we're gonna talk about that for two hours or we're pretty well done because that is all. We should be done.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:39

I'm not ready to talk about that.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:41

Well, I got a pee anyway, so this is gonna be one of those times where either you got to talk to yourself for a couple minutes or uh we're gonna be done.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:47

No, I think I think we're good. You know what? We've covered it's funny. We've taught, we've just rambled and talked about a lot today.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:53

That's the plan. That's it, man. That's that's the stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:56

Family and health and Iran and and water plant hacking and EMS. Jesus, we never covered this much stuff on the gray man.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:05

Yeah, you take you take that little chunk and put that out there, and that's that's the show. That's it right now. Perfect. Yeah, um, so that that's that's that's it for this one. We'll be back uh next weekend and the weekend after, and we're just gonna keep doing this. And we both have stuff coming up on weekends. We're gonna figure out a way to make it happen. Check out that Patreon uh link. You could just look up uh Gray on the Rocks on Patreon. If you're not signed up, it's real simple. Uh and and connect up your uh your your bank account, and we promise not to take more than 120 percent uh of what you no, I'm kidding. It's it's all it's actually real legit Patreon. I I didn't know about it until some years ago, and uh I've looked into it and they're they're a legitimate company for sure. So it's all good. Uh thanks for listening. Thanks for engaging with us. If you need some advice, uh post it in the comments and and we'll or or if you see other news articles uh or anything you'd like us to talk about, um, just be safe. Go see your doctor. Uh keep your brains um on track, man. Yeah, exactly. It's all it's all good. Um, that's that's what you got, right? That's your that's your deal. Be a good human. Yep. All right. That's it. What else you got? Cheers? How about a cheerlead? Take care of me.