SPEAKER_01: So, did you know there were three men at the gates of heaven and there was only room for one of these people?
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: So Saint Peter was there and he asked each of them how they died and to tell the story as best as they could.
SPEAKER_01: So the first guy says, I was just adamant that my wife was cheating on me, and I came up to my apartment on the 24th floor and I walked in only to find my wife by herself.
SPEAKER_01: I was pleasantly surprised till I saw this man hanging off the edge of the balcony.
SPEAKER_01: So I went over with the hammer and I hid his hands until he let go and he fell into some bushes while he was still alive.
SPEAKER_01: So that didn't work.
SPEAKER_01: So then I grabbed my refrigerator, I lifted it over the edge so it would fall on top of him.
SPEAKER_01: And after all that heavy lifting, I died right there on the balcony of a heart attack.
SPEAKER_01: Oh no.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's terrible, St.
SPEAKER_01: Peter said.
SPEAKER_01: And he turned to the next man and he said, How about you?
SPEAKER_01: This guy says, Well, I was on the 25th floor on my balcony, and I was doing some yoga and I managed to fall over the edge.
SPEAKER_01: I was hanging on to somebody else's balcony by just my fingers when this man comes running over.
SPEAKER_01: I was so relieved, but then he started hammering my fingers and I fell in a bush.
SPEAKER_01: I was alive, but very sore.
SPEAKER_01: Well, then he threw his refrigerator over the edge on top of me, and so here I am.
SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's also just terrible, said St.
SPEAKER_01: Peter.
SPEAKER_01: How about you?
SPEAKER_01: He asked the third guy.
SPEAKER_01: The third guy says, Well, I was actually hiding in a fridge.
SPEAKER_00: This is enormous with your hosts Harley and KC.
SPEAKER_02: That's a funny joke.
SPEAKER_02: It's kind of good.
SPEAKER_02: But it's a funny joke on different levels because there really is a moral morality there.
SPEAKER_01: There's morality, there's the only one that gets into heaven, in my opinion, is the yoga guy, right?
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't doing anything wrong.
SPEAKER_02: Right.
SPEAKER_01: Really.
SPEAKER_02: Then you hear the backstory and you think, well, it shows you better get your facts straight before you take action on anything.
SPEAKER_01: Before you go dropping a refrigerator on someone, you should think about what it is you're doing.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, true.
SPEAKER_02: Will you turn my headset down just a hair?
SPEAKER_01: You asked me to turn it up earlier.
SPEAKER_02: I know.
SPEAKER_01: See how you are.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, now it's down.
SPEAKER_01: How is it?
SPEAKER_02: It's perfect.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: You sure?
SPEAKER_02: Perfect.
SPEAKER_02: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm not turning it again.
SPEAKER_01: That was it.
SPEAKER_01: That's all the twists your knobs get.
SPEAKER_01: You can turn mine.
SPEAKER_01: I'll turn my own knob.
SPEAKER_02: Do it.
SPEAKER_02: I dare ya.
SPEAKER_02: So how have you been since the last time we've recorded?
SPEAKER_02: Oh shitty.
SPEAKER_02: How about you?
SPEAKER_02: Not my best.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I have to say that.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I want to sound all happy.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: No, and it's not that bad, but it's not, you know, things aren't wonderful right now, are they?
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: I'm happy to be in the studio.
SPEAKER_02: I'm happy to be recording.
SPEAKER_02: I'm happy to see you and spend time with you.
SPEAKER_02: But as far as the world goes and life in general, it's a little weird.
SPEAKER_02: It's kind of scratchy right now.
SPEAKER_02: I got up really early today to go on my Thursday morning walk.
SPEAKER_02: And uh my walking partner stood me up.
SPEAKER_02: Good reason.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I wasn't I mean, I wasn't mad at at my walking partner, but um he said that some friends were coming over and help him put up Christmas decorations.
SPEAKER_01: If yeah, I mean it's it from I don't know him, all I know is what you've told me now and in the past.
SPEAKER_01: And I would say if you were mad, I would say that's on you.
SPEAKER_01: And so you should expect that every now and then at this point in time, because that's the way it's always been.
SPEAKER_01: So these days, there's so much more things to be mad about.
SPEAKER_01: Certainly that we shouldn't be mad about that.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_01: If we're mad about that, we're misdirecting our mad is how I see that these days.
SPEAKER_02: The glimmer of hope is that I'm I'm hearing and seeing more people talking about living life in the present.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: You know, this whole mindfulness movement of focusing on now and not worrying about the future and not, you know, constantly living in the past.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_01: And also we well, we just had this conversation about uh things like the going to the movies and the movie theater and how doing for a while it seemed like, well, maybe with streaming and watching at home and you know, instant availability and stuff, maybe they weren't gonna last, but starting to look like that probably will, because that is kind of another way of going back and getting your mind singular on something else and put the device down and don't have input from anything else, just yeah, only what's right in front of you.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes that's important to do too.
SPEAKER_02: Well, isolating yourself in a space where there are no distractions except the movie you're watching, right?
SPEAKER_02: And where getting up is sort of uncomfortable because maybe you have to walk in front of someone or miss part of the movie.
SPEAKER_02: You can't pause it like you can at all.
SPEAKER_02: If you've become truly engaged in it, yeah, then you kind of don't want to.
SPEAKER_02: And you get to see how everybody reacts.
SPEAKER_02: It's like this group sense of enjoyment.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it brings you together as human beings watching the same story.
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
SPEAKER_02: It's it's like going to a Bronco game.
SPEAKER_01: That's you know, there's the group mentality there.
SPEAKER_01: That's fun to do.
SPEAKER_02: How would you feel if there was technology that could stop the cell phone from working inside the theater?
SPEAKER_02: The hallways would be fine, everywhere else would be fine, but in the theater your your cell phone was blocked.
SPEAKER_01: I I feel fine about that.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think it'll come anytime soon.
SPEAKER_01: I think people will find reasons to say they need to have their phone readily available in case their kid needs to get a hold of them or some you know, some reason.
SPEAKER_01: But I would love it.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it'd be fine.
SPEAKER_02: Do you think phones will ever have a pager feature?
SPEAKER_01: I'm surprised they don't now, really.
SPEAKER_02: I mean they are.
SPEAKER_02: Kinda.
SPEAKER_02: They kinda are.
SPEAKER_02: If you send a text to someone and you have it set to vibrate, vibrate, yeah.
SPEAKER_02: It's kind of like a page.
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
SPEAKER_02: I'm wondering if it's possible to have a pager setting that that's all you can do.
SPEAKER_02: Receive a message.
SPEAKER_02: That's it.
SPEAKER_01: I just think really that each person should be responsible.
SPEAKER_01: If you're gonna go to the movies and sit there, yeah, that's that's what you're supposed to do.
SPEAKER_01: But we know that's not true.
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: That does bring an interesting point up, though.
SPEAKER_02: I heard about a new movie, and I'm you know, I'm not really up on all the current things, but uh somehow I got in this loop.
SPEAKER_02: I guess it's promoted in in my channel, whatever my channel is.
SPEAKER_02: A brand new movie called Rental Family.
SPEAKER_02: Have you heard about this movie?
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I've seen I think I saw uh Brendan Fraser talk about it s somewhere on TV.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know where, but some some a talk show or something, you know.
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_02: Well, for our listeners, it will have been released already.
SPEAKER_02: Um Rental Family was directed by Hikari, who co-wrote the script with Stephen Blayhunt.
SPEAKER_02: Blah, do you know that person?
SPEAKER_02: Nope.
SPEAKER_02: I really quite honestly didn't know either of them.
SPEAKER_02: Stars Brennan Fraser and apparently some very famous Japanese actors.
SPEAKER_02: But do you know the premise of the movie or what it's about?
SPEAKER_02: Not really very much, but I think it's more comedic, right?
SPEAKER_01: Um no, actually.
SPEAKER_01: No?
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: I thought it was just because I thought that Brendan Fraser wanted to do something not so heavy as whale after he did that.
SPEAKER_02: It's I didn't see whale, but from what I understand, it's probably not as heavy as whale.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: So here's what I'd like to do if you're up for this.
SPEAKER_02: We'll watch the trailer, we'll s and then we'll be back and we'll discuss this movie because it's something that I really want to see, and I'd like to know what your thoughts are on it.
SPEAKER_01: Through the magic of podcasting, we can stop and then come back.
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
SPEAKER_02: So we will see you all in a moment.
SPEAKER_01: How do I turn this thing off?
SPEAKER_01: And we're back.
SPEAKER_02: We're back.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, we are back.
SPEAKER_02: And we watched the official trailer and a couple little mini interviews.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, featurette type things.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: What do you think?
SPEAKER_01: It looks very interesting.
SPEAKER_01: Not what I expected it to be at all, actually.
SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01: What did you expect?
SPEAKER_01: I wasn't sure what to expect, but uh but not much like the main character didn't know what to expect.
SPEAKER_01: I I felt the same thing, I guess.
SPEAKER_01: Did you get the gist of the movie?
SPEAKER_01: How would you explain it to someone?
SPEAKER_01: I have questions yet.
SPEAKER_01: I don't quite understand what what I'm gonna see.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: I don't think this is gonna be a spoiler.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: Rental Family is based on a service that exists currently in Japan.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02: They have rental agencies, and you basically rent an actor by the hour to be whatever role in your life you want it to be.
SPEAKER_02: I think there's some rules like only hand holding or or hugging, you know, it's not a sexual thing.
SPEAKER_02: So Brendan Fraser is an out-of-work American actor living in Tokyo.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: And this rental company needs a white guy to play a specific role.
SPEAKER_02: And so they find him and offer him a job.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: And that's basically the movie.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, then when he gets hired, the whole family knows he's a hired character to be inserted into their family.
SPEAKER_01: I that's what that's what I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I don't understand that part.
SPEAKER_01: And that and that might be a spoiler.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: If I knew the answer.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm conf I was a little confused there.
SPEAKER_01: I did it didn't turn me off from watching it.
SPEAKER_02: It made me curious to find out what's seeing a therapist in Japan is not something that's accepted.
SPEAKER_02: Uh mental health is definitely hidden.
SPEAKER_02: Um people don't want to know that they're struggling with something.
SPEAKER_02: So this is a way that they can the society has sort of worked around the the restrictions, you know, the social or uh you know, the cultural restrictions that they experience and come up with this service.
SPEAKER_02: So you could rent a friend, you could rent a child, you could rent whatever whatever whoever you want.
SPEAKER_02: And I guess it's sort of like it's it's I guess it's sort of like uh um what do you call role playing in therapy.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: Where where I'm having trouble accepting my mother or something.
SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_02: And so the therapist will play your mother.
SPEAKER_02: Right.
SPEAKER_02: Or you or you will play your mother and the therapist will play you.
SPEAKER_02: I feel like we better go see it.
SPEAKER_02: The director wanted this to be so honest and so true that instead of filming a documentary, they wrote a script.
SPEAKER_02: So it's a scripted movie about a situation that in concept really exists.
SPEAKER_01: It's a real life situation.
SPEAKER_01: That's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_01: Also, that Brendan Fraser's committed enough that he took Japanese-speaking classes for quite some time to learn the phraseology and how to say a lot of things.
SPEAKER_01: And for me, the final takeaway is what he says in the in the interview, and that that family is who we are uh include, not who we are assigned to.
SPEAKER_02: So if you could rent a character for your life, who would it be?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: That I'd have to think about.
SPEAKER_01: It's not in the realm of my concept of things to I've never thought about it before.
SPEAKER_02: Isn't it wild?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: It seems like it seems like a totally made-up fictional situation that exists.
SPEAKER_02: It's very interesting.
SPEAKER_02: Pretty wild, huh?
SPEAKER_02: I'm very I'm very excited to see it.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, me too.
SPEAKER_01: But did you really hear me when I said family's who we include and not who we're assigned to?
SPEAKER_01: Meaning like that really should speak to us.
SPEAKER_01: And especially right now, you know, like many of us are having trouble with our family who we are assigned to, yeah, you know, at birth.
SPEAKER_01: But we luckily many of us have our chosen family.
SPEAKER_01: That's kind of what's getting us by right now.
SPEAKER_02: So I showed Sarge the trailer and and I asked Sarge, what character would you like to rent?
SPEAKER_02: He says, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02: I really hadn't thought about it.
SPEAKER_02: It's a new concept.
SPEAKER_02: He said, Who would you rent?
SPEAKER_02: And I said, Well, one of the first things that comes to my mind is my father.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I was gonna say my dad too, but that but I but that's because I want my dad.
SPEAKER_01: I really wouldn't want to want to have some time and some talk with my dad, my really dad.
SPEAKER_01: So I don't know if that counts.
SPEAKER_01: What about your mom?
SPEAKER_01: It that'd probably be uh fair, you know, we're we're kind of on the outs.
SPEAKER_02: I think there's a lot of lonely people in the world right now.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: We don't get physical contact with people, we don't even talk on the phone anymore to most people.
SPEAKER_02: So I think the society at large is pretty lonely and feeling individual.
SPEAKER_02: So a service like this could potentially be an alternative to AI as a friend, a confidant.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_01: It makes sense.
SPEAKER_01: Back to being gay again.
SPEAKER_01: I like I seem feel like I keep making myself special by well, I'm special because I'm gay, and this is the circumstance.
SPEAKER_01: But think about this for people our age and where we came from, and then 2020, where we all got separated from each other, and then trying to come back together and now trust other people.
SPEAKER_01: We kind of came from a time where we learned to be guarded and not trust people.
SPEAKER_01: So it we're in a weird spot right now.
SPEAKER_01: We're in a really weird spot.
SPEAKER_02: I thought of one other character that I might like to rent.
SPEAKER_02: A kid.
SPEAKER_02: I always wanted a family, I always wanted children, and I would love to live out that fantasy.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_02: Even though it wasn't real.
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
SPEAKER_01: I think been lucky to have kids around a lot.
SPEAKER_01: You know, when I when I was at school teaching, I had a lot of kids, and and I was lucky that that those kids liked me, so so I I really had them.
SPEAKER_01: You know, they were my kid.
SPEAKER_01: I spent four or eight hours, you know, two, four-hour shifts with some of my students.
SPEAKER_01: They were there all day.
SPEAKER_01: So I spent easily probably more time with them than their parents did.
SPEAKER_01: So I so I got to have that.
SPEAKER_01: And then like having my niece and nephew here for a few years when they were little, that was kind of like being the grandparent, sort of a little bit, you know.
SPEAKER_01: And so I and I kind of miss that still.
SPEAKER_01: I still wish they were here.
SPEAKER_02: I think I would like to rent a kid that I could drive to soccer practice, that I could spoil, that I could teach science to who would get really excited by it, or introduce a brand new concept.
SPEAKER_02: Right.
SPEAKER_02: And then it would be fun to rent an older child who had kids that were my grandchildren, that I could just spoil.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: We liked it because there were things that we could do that like go to the amusement park and ride a roller coaster.
SPEAKER_01: Now, us two old grown adult men kind of mm-mm, you know.
SPEAKER_01: But if you we wanted to ride on the merry-go-round, mm-hmm, well, but we can take the kids and go do that, and we did.
SPEAKER_01: The twins were a boy and a girl, so that was fun.
SPEAKER_01: We could go to the store and buy boy clothes and girl clothes, and you know, they got they got pretty spoiled because we liked doing all that stuff too.
SPEAKER_02: What if you never had that experience?
SPEAKER_02: Would you do you think if it was culturally acceptable to rent kids, you would like that so you could know the experience firsthand?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: I did learn that you can rent the same character for three years.
SPEAKER_02: Huh.
SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
SPEAKER_02: So as far as children go, a lot of growing up can happen in three years.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, in one.
SPEAKER_02: Actually.
SPEAKER_02: How much could it cost an hour?
SPEAKER_02: Oof.
SPEAKER_02: That'd be at least a hundred bucks, I'd imagine.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's it'd be expensive.
SPEAKER_02: Let's do this.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: Let's promise that we'll pick a date.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: And we'll see the movie, and we'll come back and do a review on it.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's a good idea.
SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, we're back from our little break.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, Casey, you had a story that you were gonna tell me last week, and you held back on it because you wanted to record it.
SPEAKER_01: I did, and I don't know, I don't know if I can eloquently record it, but I just wanted to tell you my strange uh cathartic realization I had recently, and that, and that was that uh Mister and I do go walking in a cemetery around Metro Denver at least once a month, sometimes twice a month.
SPEAKER_01: So this is kind of a backstory for the listeners.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that it's just a thing we do, and uh I've always enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_01: I've had a little fascination with death and dying, and you know, took classes in college, and I think it was effacing my fear because I was afraid of it when I was a kid, or afraid of funerals, and I didn't like all that.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember as a little kid, you know, if you drive by a cemetery, I'd look the other direction.
SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't I wouldn't want to even look at it.
SPEAKER_01: No, I wouldn't even want to look at it.
SPEAKER_01: And I think there's a an unlocked memory there of my mom and her best friend going to the drive-in movie.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: My mom's best friend had a a kid the same age as me.
SPEAKER_01: So here we are in the backseat, right?
SPEAKER_01: Seeing some scary cemetery movie that we probably shouldn't have seen.
SPEAKER_01: And so I think that's where that all came from.
SPEAKER_01: But then sometimes something happens and you have this total reversal.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's a facing your fear, or you know, just cut to me later as a younger adult, you know, at the mortuary, looking in an empty casket, digging out the fluffy part to see what was underneath there, because I was curious.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, just a total reversal, you know, just kind of really facing that.
SPEAKER_02: Do you take the dogs when you go walking?
SPEAKER_01: We do now, yes.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so it's the four of you.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Uh what time of the day do you do you walk?
SPEAKER_01: Usually in the morning.
SPEAKER_01: Early, early?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah uh w in the heat of the summer earlier.
SPEAKER_01: Uh in the fall a little bit later, but usually still before noon.
SPEAKER_02: Right.
SPEAKER_01: We do it.
SPEAKER_02: I'd never walked in the cemetery.
SPEAKER_02: I probably had similar childhood feelings about it as you.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: And then about, I don't know, it was before COVID, I met with a group of people that have Parkinson's, and we all walked like at 7 or 8 a.m.
SPEAKER_02: together as a group around this a cemetery in town.
SPEAKER_02: And I loved it.
SPEAKER_01: Well, there's things I wonder about that too.
SPEAKER_01: Like I wonder, do we uh when we ourselves become closer to death, maybe we want to experience it.
SPEAKER_01: Or I don't know, we just it's not it's just something that kind of you face it better when the reason why my group walked in a cemetery was because there was no traffic.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: So it was a safer place if someone were to fall or to that makes sense.
SPEAKER_01: That makes sense.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what I had realized with it was this past year I realized how much it calms me down and and relaxes me and and centers me and it doesn't That brain drain kind of thing, where I'm somehow I managed to not be thinking about all the outside forces of the world and everything that's making me crazy and grind my teeth and all that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And what I thought was, I wonder why that is.
SPEAKER_01: Why is why is it that I like this so much and I look forward to doing it?
SPEAKER_01: And then I realized I tried to think about what am I thinking about while I'm there, or what do I do?
SPEAKER_01: And and I I realized my mind was training in a direction.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_01: Like I would have the thought process of is there political affiliation here in the cemetery?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: There's not.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't matter anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't matter what your politics are or what you believe in or stand up for.
SPEAKER_01: That that's not showing here.
SPEAKER_02: I think there's an exception though.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: And that's a religious differentiation.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there is that.
SPEAKER_01: And you can definitely see that in many of the older ones where there's separate areas of the but even that it doesn't matter anymore.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Now, when you die, do you want to get do you want to be buried?
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: No, I don't.
SPEAKER_01: But that's kind of a separate thing, I think.
SPEAKER_02: As you walk around, do you still see which headstone you would imitate or what you would create if you were buried?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, what I yeah, I see what I like and what I don't like.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, me too.
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's quite, it's quite interesting.
SPEAKER_01: I find myself looking at the dates.
SPEAKER_02: Me too.
SPEAKER_01: And seeing when people were born and when they died, and kind of doing the mini math on that.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I have a page on my phone that I look at, and it's uh kind of a an American history timeline.
SPEAKER_01: Really?
SPEAKER_01: And then you say this person, you know, was 30 years old during World War One.
SPEAKER_01: You know, that's interesting.
SPEAKER_02: What was the price of bread?
SPEAKER_02: What was the standard of living?
SPEAKER_02: What kind of cars did they drive or not drive?
SPEAKER_02: Right.
unknown: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Uh so I hadn't gotten that enough.
SPEAKER_01: So I just I think I just get relaxed because you just start to come to realize everything comes and goes, it all comes to pass.
SPEAKER_02: Now I think you know of a service that you can actually look up headstones.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Do you remember what that's called or what the web address is for that?
SPEAKER_01: Well, the there's uh uh an app kind of for it that's it's find a grave is what it is.
SPEAKER_02: And is there a charge?
SPEAKER_01: Uh no, I think there's a there's different tiers.
SPEAKER_01: You can probably pay for it if you want.
SPEAKER_01: You can pretty much you have to know a little bit of information, first name, last name, maybe where, you know, the locale of where the cemetery is to find somebody.
SPEAKER_02: When my mom died, there was a a big family feud, of course.
SPEAKER_02: And even though I was next of kin, my aunt decided that she was going to make the decision of what kind of tombstone to put on my mother's grave.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02: And I think she misspelled my sister's name, who died ver very early very soon after she was born.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: One of my sisters.
SPEAKER_02: And uh is she in the same place, the sister?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, buried buried next to my mom.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02: So on the on the same tombstone.
SPEAKER_02: And my mom's best friend is buried in the family site.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: And so I don't remember how that was addressed, but I think you found it.
SPEAKER_01: I looked, I yeah, I did I didn't realize that your it was your sister there as well, but I did I do, yeah, I still I still have the email.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody sent me an email.
SPEAKER_01: Because you can contact people through that too.
SPEAKER_01: And it if there's a record and a picture, it will show through that app or on their website, they also have a website.
SPEAKER_01: If there's not, there's a community of people volunteers that that go around and and take pictures and or try to get information, you know, dates and and stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that great?
SPEAKER_01: It's it's fascinating to me.
SPEAKER_01: Some people probably think that's morose and morbid, but to me, I I think it's quite fascinating.
SPEAKER_02: So I never saw a picture of it.
SPEAKER_02: But I would like very much to change the tombstone.
SPEAKER_02: And of course, Sarge thinks it's a big waste of money, but it would make my heart feel better.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, it's a personal thing.
SPEAKER_01: It's a personal thing.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they are expensive.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I I I couldn't I wouldn't give I wouldn't dare to give you advice on that.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's personal and you have to decide.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I think that since you're far from there and you don't get to see it, that makes it a little harder.
SPEAKER_01: Because I feel like if I did it, I'd want to be able to go see it.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, I would now and then would you go?
SPEAKER_02: I would go see it for sure.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, uh I'm gonna make at least one more trip back there within the next few months uh with Sarge and do a little driving tour.
SPEAKER_01: I'll tell this story because people will think it's probably a little crazy that with me and my brother and my sister when my mom and dad's was being created, and of course then they put it on a big, you know, flatbed truck that has a a winching system on it, you know, that they can lift it off of there and whatever.
SPEAKER_02: It's so industrial.
SPEAKER_01: And yeah, where we live in Iowa's part of the family farm is uh a major highway.
SPEAKER_01: We knew going, you know, to the hometown where the cemetery was that it would probably be traveling there.
SPEAKER_01: And and I happen to be home at this point in time because we knew it was coming.
SPEAKER_02: Right.
SPEAKER_01: And we and me and my brother and sister wanted to see it.
SPEAKER_01: And uh my brother called and's like, I saw it, I saw it go by on the highway.
SPEAKER_01: He happened to be out in the field.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and he saw that big, of course, recognizable, you know, big flatbed semi-truck with this, you know, winchy thing on it.
SPEAKER_01: And he got a hold of both of myself and my sister, and and then we all went to town together to the cemetery to s to see it there.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh, a big old, you know, presentation of it, and we were excited about it.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: It is exciting.
SPEAKER_01: And my dad's side has a a cow and carved in it and a barn and a silo on his side, and my mom's has a a horse and a and a and a little foal on on her side, you know, so we customized it kind of to their the things they liked.
SPEAKER_01: But I just showed you today a cookbook I had just gotten.
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: Now, had you sent did you send me the link to the uh I think I sent you something.
SPEAKER_02: There's a podcast called By the Sporkful, or maybe it's just called Sporkful.
SPEAKER_02: Something like that.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it's a it's a food thing.
SPEAKER_01: But there was an article on their website about this uh lady that traveled around and took pictures of uh stones with recipes on them.
SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
SPEAKER_01: So if it's mom's recipe or or grandma's recipe for something, I ordered the cookbook and I had just gotten it.
SPEAKER_01: So it's pictures of the stone and then a a little article about the person.
SPEAKER_01: The writer of the book actually did a little research and would talk to family members or find out about the person and what it was about this particular snicker-doodle cookie that made it special, and then and the recipe is then on the stone, which that cost a little bit.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Because that's a lot of letters to carve into their stuff.
SPEAKER_02: That's what I could do.
SPEAKER_02: I could potentially have it modified.
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02: And that wouldn't be nearly as much.
SPEAKER_01: No, they'd go do it.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you don't have to replace the whole thing if there's room to do what it is you think you want to do.
SPEAKER_02: And I would put a recipe on there.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: If the and the back side of it might have nothing on it, so you might have a whole blank canvas on one whole side of it.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if the pictures, um we'll have to look again on Find a Grave.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if the picture shows both sides of that stone or not.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: But I know what recipe I do.
SPEAKER_01: I was just gonna ask you that.
SPEAKER_02: My mother was known for a particular biscuit recipe, and I don't think it was, you know, she's from North Carolina.
SPEAKER_02: So biscuits would be big in her book.
SPEAKER_02: But uh, she had a recipe for what she called angel biscuits.
SPEAKER_02: And I wonder if Big Fatty knows what angel biscuits are.
SPEAKER_02: I bet he does.
SPEAKER_02: That's our podcaster friend who's in Charleston, South Carolina.
SPEAKER_02: Right.
SPEAKER_02: So you think it's a kind of a southern recipe?
SPEAKER_02: It's a biscuit recipe, but traditional biscuits are made with flour, uh, maybe buttermilk, baking powder, and baking soda if if they're buttermilk, because you want the you want them to rise more.
SPEAKER_02: But angel biscuits also include yeast.
SPEAKER_02: Oh.
SPEAKER_02: So they're a cross between a baking powder biscuit and a yeast bread roll.
SPEAKER_02: So they must be pretty fluffy.
SPEAKER_02: Oh my god, are they good?
SPEAKER_02: They're fluffy and soft and they're the best.
SPEAKER_02: I do love a biscuit.
SPEAKER_01: Do you have you have that recipe?
SPEAKER_02: I have that recipe.
SPEAKER_02: When she was in the hospital, there was a period of time when she she opened her eyes and she said, The angels just came to me and they said it wasn't time yet.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: So she thought she saw angels.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe she did.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I I don't know.
SPEAKER_02: I can't, I was I'm not her.
SPEAKER_02: Right.
SPEAKER_02: So there's that connection of her and angels.
SPEAKER_02: And I thought that would be a really nice student for her.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: And share that wonderful recipe with the world.
SPEAKER_02: So I didn't think that the cemetery talk was gonna bring up so much for me.
SPEAKER_01: But let me wrap up the cemetery talk and tell you that my ultimate takeaway for everybody is uh, you know, if if you're of a mind to do it, go ahead and take a walk there and realize that uh we all came into this world, we're all going out.
SPEAKER_01: It all cycles around.
SPEAKER_01: Good things and bad things come and go.
SPEAKER_01: They always have and they always will, and we come and go, and so take a deep breath and take a walk and relax.
SPEAKER_02: Fantastic.
SPEAKER_02: So I was just thinking about something that I'd never thought of before.
SPEAKER_02: A cemetery is a park that was built out of love.
SPEAKER_01: And it is a park.
SPEAKER_01: Before there were national parks.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: That's where people went, you know.
SPEAKER_02: Think about this.
SPEAKER_01: They had a picnic in the cemetery.
SPEAKER_02: The reason why somebody spent all that money and went to all that trouble to mark their history as a human on this planet is based in love.
SPEAKER_02: So every one of those tombstones is just an expression of someone's love for that person.
SPEAKER_02: An honor of them.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that beautiful?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Why wouldn't you want to be there?
SPEAKER_01: Now is a good time to go walk around there too.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because uh fun stuff to see what what people do.
SPEAKER_01: Even generations old.
SPEAKER_01: And then in January, then all those wreaths are in the trash cans around or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: I always tell Mister, uh, I've got it.
SPEAKER_01: Look at those humongous pine cones.
SPEAKER_01: I've done that.
SPEAKER_01: They're eight inches long.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna take them home.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, No, you are not taking, you're not bringing anything home that might have anything else attached to it to our house, so he won't let me.
SPEAKER_01: So I don't, so I never bring anything home.
SPEAKER_02: When I was walking in the cemetery, and that time of year came up when the cemetery crew actually cleared things off.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Um, I would pick through the trash and see if there were any baubles or pine cones.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of stuff.
SPEAKER_02: Anything, you know, carved things.
SPEAKER_02: Right.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, people put a lot of things on those roofs.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm not allowed to bring any of it home, though.
SPEAKER_02: So I'd make a wreath out of it.
SPEAKER_01: It's a wreath of love.
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01: True.
SPEAKER_02: A wreath of love.
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_02: That'd be a great drag name.
unknown: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: And all of our hats could be wreaths.
SPEAKER_01: Good idea.
SPEAKER_01: Like the ghost of Christmas past.
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
SPEAKER_02: Well, let's take a little break and come back and do a couple more things and then we'll close up.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: And we're back.
SPEAKER_02: Well, speaking about not being ready, do you have a song for the soundtrack of our life?
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's funny because I just, while you were talking just now, I just looked up my song because I did have one and I looked at my chart.
SPEAKER_01: I've already chosen this song.
SPEAKER_01: So no, the answer is no.
SPEAKER_01: I have to pick one.
SPEAKER_01: Did you look at my chart?
SPEAKER_01: I can look at yours.
SPEAKER_01: Would you see?
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: So through the magic of podcasting again, let's take a little momentarily break.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'm gonna whisper you the song.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, hold on.
SPEAKER_01: Hold on.
SPEAKER_01: I can put it on pause here.
SPEAKER_02: We're back again.
SPEAKER_02: We are back.
SPEAKER_02: And I just want to say something real quick.
SPEAKER_02: Say it.
SPEAKER_02: We are both very fortunate to your mister and my Sarge are what we dreamed of.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Really?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Somebody to commit.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's hard.
SPEAKER_01: That's a it's a hard thing.
SPEAKER_01: It is a hard thing.
SPEAKER_01: I'll tell you you want to know what?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not easy.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you ever realize this about me, but I'm not easy.
SPEAKER_01: Do you think I'm easy?
SPEAKER_01: Well, not that way, but yes, that way.
SPEAKER_01: Um but to live with, I know I'm not uh I'm not an easy individual, so I can't.
SPEAKER_02: So I have to really say I I wouldn't say it was lucky, but I would say it was good fortune because we work on it.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, that's the next thing.
SPEAKER_02: We don't always feel like, oh, I love my husband.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's not hearts and rainbows, and some days the roses and some days are the thorns.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the fuck you days.
SPEAKER_02: And fuck you too.
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so Casey, you have a song.
SPEAKER_01: I do.
SPEAKER_01: I have picked one.
SPEAKER_02: Tell me and our listeners what that song is.
SPEAKER_01: Well, recently on Dancing with the Stars.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, God, that's so it was Prince Night.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you're kidding.
SPEAKER_01: So they honored uh Prince by doing by dancing to Prince songs.
SPEAKER_01: I honor Prince every day when I frame them.
SPEAKER_01: Uh that's a different kind of prince.
SPEAKER_01: Is that a dad joke?
SPEAKER_02: That's really a dad joke.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, sorry.
SPEAKER_02: There's your dad joke for the day.
SPEAKER_02: So there's a Prince song that had some major impact on your life.
SPEAKER_01: Well, really thinking about it, I'm surprised I haven't had a prince song in the list already because he the he kind of did.
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01: Really.
SPEAKER_01: And I think I've talked about him on the podcast before seeing him at the Rainbow Music Hall, which is no longer here.
SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01: It's a Walgreens now, where that was when he was brand new and kind of nobody knew who he was.
SPEAKER_01: Did he have his shirt off?
SPEAKER_01: He had no shirt and he had no pants.
SPEAKER_01: What was he wearing?
SPEAKER_01: He was wearing like black, like low-rise bikini brief underwear.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01: High heeled go-go boots, and then a long coat.
SPEAKER_01: But it was open.
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, so he was, you know, he's not he was not very tall of stature of a person.
SPEAKER_01: So he was very good.
SPEAKER_02: He was he seemed shy, but he was very self-assured.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he yeah.
SPEAKER_01: But anyway, he was little, but a a cute little man.
SPEAKER_01: I did like looking at him up there.
SPEAKER_01: And of course it was quite shocking because that was a new thing.
SPEAKER_01: We hadn't really seen anyone dress like that.
SPEAKER_01: A couple danced to Little Red Corvette.
SPEAKER_02: Oh love that song.
SPEAKER_01: I do too.
SPEAKER_01: And then they and then sexy.
SPEAKER_01: And then very much.
SPEAKER_01: But off-handedly it said I'm embarrassed to say this now.
SPEAKER_01: Someone said off-handedly, when it was all said and done, they said, I think one of the uh one of the hosts said, uh, this song is not about a car.
SPEAKER_01: And that made me like, what?
SPEAKER_01: It's not because I really I'm embarrassed to say I did think it was about a car.
SPEAKER_01: I did too.
SPEAKER_01: But it's not about a car.
SPEAKER_01: That you said the song is very sexy.
SPEAKER_01: Well, yes, it is, because that's exactly what it's about.
SPEAKER_01: But it took me a while to know that.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know it.
SPEAKER_01: I was this this many years old, as they say, when I learned that that song is not about a car.
SPEAKER_01: So that I'm choosing little red corvette.
SPEAKER_01: Uh go back and listen to it again and realize that it's anyone who is like me who didn't who thought it was about a little red Corvette.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe because I always wanted one.
SPEAKER_01: I thought that's what it was about.
SPEAKER_01: And that it's not about that.
SPEAKER_01: Also, watch the official video because it's pretty good.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: I don't think I've ever seen the video.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, watch it.
SPEAKER_01: It's sexy.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and you, did you pick a song?
SPEAKER_02: I did pick a song.
SPEAKER_02: So my song this time is for good.
SPEAKER_02: And when you listen to the words, don't read lyrics.
SPEAKER_02: Go ahead, read lyrics.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: I've heard it said that people come and go in our lives for a reason, bringing something we must learn, and we are led to those who help us grow if we let them, and we help them in return.
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
SPEAKER_02: If we let them, our heart space has to be open to allow that change and that love to enter us.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_01: You know where that's a really good place for us to end today, too.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Is to say things are tough right now, but don't let your heart space not be open because something good might come into it.
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
SPEAKER_01: Until next time, remember to be kind and like us, keep it enormous.
SPEAKER_03: Just enormous.
SPEAKER_03: This podcast is a proud member of the Pride forty Eight Podcasting Network.
SPEAKER_03: Check out more great shows at Pride4ty.com.
SPEAKER_03: Are you finished?
SPEAKER_03: Not yet.
SPEAKER_02: A wreath of love.
SPEAKER_02: That'd be a great drag name.
SPEAKER_03: Oh, I'm finished.