0239: Gary Lezak Returns

We welcome back meteorologist and dog lover Gary Lezak to talk about weather, life, and of course, dogs. His last visit is one of our most listened to episodes. Listen here.

You can follow Gary on Facebook and order his book “It’s a Sunny Life” on Amazon.

Gary’s predictive weather modeling platform helps users anticipate weather events, not days or weeks before they happen, but months in advance. Check out Weather2020.com.

Celebrate 5 years of Rosie Fund by supporting our campaign to sponsor 50 dogs. You can donate at RosieFund.org or through our Facebook page. You can contribute by making a purchase from the store on our website or buying a t-shirt at Bonfire.com. Also check out our page on BarkYours, the online mall with gifts for people who love their dogs.

Music for this episode is provided by alternative string duo, The Wires. Visit them at TheWires.info. Learn fiddle and cello-fiddle online — even if you've never played before — from Laurel Morgan Parks and Sascha Groshang at FiddleLife.com. Join The Wires as they explore new music on their show Sound Currents.

The transcript for this episode is available on the Dog Words Buzzsprout page: Buzzsprout.com/840565.

Make a donation at RosieFund.org or through our Facebook page. You can contribute by making a purchase from the store on our website or buying a t-shirt at Bonfire.com. Also check out our page on BarkYours, the online mall with gifts for people who love their dogs.

Rosie Fund online:
RosieFund.org
Facebook.com/rosiefund
Instagram.com/rosiefund
YouTube.com/rosiefund

Transcript

GARY  0:03 
Dogs teach us how to live in the now. Dogs have unconditional love, because all that matters to them is right now.

PHIL   0:13 
I'm Phil Hatterman and this is Dog Words presented by Rosie Fund.

Today, meteorologist and dog lover Gary Lezak talks about the weather, life, and of course, dogs.

If you're new to Dog Words, in each episode we explore the world of dog care and companionship. "We save each other," is the motto of Rosie Fund, which simply means the more we do for dogs, the more they do for us. And they already do a lot.

If you love dogs, you'll love Dog Words. We welcome your comments, questions and suggestions. Go to the podcast page at Rosie fund.org to share your thoughts. Please download, follow, rate, and most importantly, share Dog Words.

Celebrate five years of Rosie Fund by supporting our campaign to sponsor 50 dogs. You can donate on our website or Facebook page. You can also contribute by making a purchase from the store on our website, buying a t-shirt at Bonfire.com, or buying our note cards and shirts on BarkYours.com. Links are in the description. Your donations and purchases help fund the Rosie Life Starter Kits that make sure these senior and harder-to-adopt dogs have some of the items they'll need in their forever home.

Please follow Rosie Fund on social media. Subscribe to the free Rosie Fund YouTube channel that offers great videos Rosie, Peaches, and shelter dogs, including some exclusive content, like the wonderful KC Pet Project dog featured in our latest post.

Next time on Dog Words,  photographer Penny Adams tells us about the difference she's making in the lives of shelter animals and how you can, too.

The mission of Rosie Fund is to provide humans with the resources and education they need to give senior and harder-to-adopt dogs a better life. Thank you for joining our mission.

Today on Dog Words we are excited to welcome back meteorologist Gary Lezak to the show. How are you doing Gary?

GARY  1:59 
I'm doing fantastic, Phil. Great to be here. Great to be on Dog Words and we'll talk about lots of things about dogs and life.

PHIL   2:06 
Well, you did a better job last time. You set the bar very high on the weather. We were able to do the interview on our deck.

GARY  2:13 
That's right.

PHIL   2:14 
But now we're bunkered down in the basement studio. Because today you decided we needed thunderstorms.

GARY  2:21 
Yeah, we had thunderstorms. We had a storm moving by. And we'll talk about Weather 20/20 and the LRC, my theory. The weather pattern sets up every fall right around the first couple weeks of October. And here it is, first couple weeks of October and when we're recording this and boom, a brand new pattern that's never happened ever before has just started.

PHIL   2:42 
You introduced us to LRC, Weather 20/20 last time you were on. And that business is still in the works. I will link to Weather 20/20 in the description. Is the approach of the beginning of October for you the way the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is for most other people.

GARY  3:07 
Well, the holiday season is coming. But the weather pattern is just fascinating. It sets up now and it is a very exciting time for for me and for people that understand my theory, the LRC. The pattern that sets up now, last year was a 46 to 47 day cycle. And right now we're day six, seven of it, of what this year's pattern is going to be. Will it be a 45 day cycle, a 50 day cycle, a 60 day cycle? We'll find out in the next few weeks. But once you know what the cycle length is, you can make predictions. So this storm that just hit Kansas City with two to three inches of rain. It affected the Chiefs game. There was a lightning delay and all that and the Chiefs lost and they're gonna win the Super Bowl this year. So it doesn't matter, right?

PHIL   3:51 
Just a blip.

GARY  3:53 
But, uh, but the pattern that just came through and produced the storm system that impacted that game, it'll be good to go back and remember it because, "Hey, remember the lightning delay at Arrowhead? Well, guess what. We're in that part of the pattern right now." There was a series of four storm systems when this pattern began. And that four system series is coming right back. Now whether it's December or January or February, whenever it returns, the chance of these being snowstorms is pretty significant. So we'll be monitoring that closely.

PHIL   4:22 
The weather radar when you live in Kansas City, you can roll it through like for four hours or whatever and see, you know, what rain is coming or precipitation. And I look to the west. And sometimes it's coming down from Nebraska from the northwest. Sometimes it's coming from the southwest, Kansas and Oklahoma moving through us. The other day, I was looking at rain and it was coming east to west. And sometimes after a system moves through because it's rotating, it appears if you're just locked in on Kansas City, that it's going east to west but it's just the clockwise rotation of something that's already moved through. I panned out and it didn't look like that. It just looked like these waves of rain moving from east to west. Was I just not looking big enough? Or is this something unusual that sometimes does happen?

GARY  5:15 
That happens every year. There'll be storms where it'll cause the rain to move from east to west. But this one was right at the beginning of this year's weather pattern. There was an upper level storm that formed in Arkansas, near Mississippi. It moved north into Missouri. And when it was fully formed, it had a whole circulation around us. You have an upper level low pressure circulation, which is counterclockwise flow. And around lows, the flow will be from east to west on the top of it and west to east underneath it. So as it was moving into Missouri, Kansas City went into this easterly flow around that storm, and it caused all the rain and the clouds moved from east to west. It was fascinating. But that's going to return, too.

PHIL   5:56 
I'm sure a lot of people got tripped up just by glancing at the radar map and not actually rolling it through and looking to the west. It's like, "Okay, nothing's coming."

GARY  6:04 
I know.

PHIL   6:04 
"I'll go ahead and go to the golf course or walk my dog." And then boom, they get dumped on.

GARY  6:08 
I know it was fun to show an area of rain and thunderstorms off to the east near Sedalia, and I tracked our way from the east. So it was pretty cool.

PHIL   6:17 
That would be unusual for you. So again, Weather 20/20, it's fascinating. If you have a business that is in any way related to weather conditions, you need to check out Weather 20/20. Last time we talked about if you're planning a wedding. Maybe an individual wedding party doesn't buy your program, but a wedding planner, or a wedding venue that has to think about, "Do we need to have indoor opportunities available for our outdoor venue?" Any number of other businesses, which of course, we discussed last time and you're well aware of—construction business, sports leagues, any number of...

GARY  7:00 
I know. The top verticals for the business, you know, even though I've been very accurate in predicting people's weddings. So if you need a wedding forecast, just give me a call. I'll give you that forecast months in advance and it'll give you some peace of mind. But yes, Weather 20/20 we're really targeting saving lives with this technology and helping businesses generate revenue and say mitigate loss. So when you have construction businesses or insurance companies, or really into the energy field, natural gas, propane and agriculture, those are directly impacted by weather. We are being able to predict what's gonna happen 100 days from now as accurate as forecasts are seven days. When you look at a seven day forecast—or now I'm KSHB 41 we have a 10 day forecast—and when you look at that 10th day and the forecast, it's about five to six degrees off, even when I make that forecast. A hundred days? I have a computer model now and it's developed by this guy Max Conrad and it goes out six months in advance for the entire world.

PHIL   8:04 
Wow.

GARY  8:04 
And the forecast at six months out, when we get to January, we get to July, August, September's forecast, they're as accurate as our 10 day forecast is. So you can rely on it. It's pretty amazing.

PHIL   8:16 
So check out Weather 20/20. Regular listeners to this show, certainly if they listened to your previous interview, know that you're a dog person. Or if someone lives in Kansas City, I'm sure everybody watches you on KSHB, but even if they're loyal to a different channel, they know Gary Lezak and they know Gary Lezak loves his dogs. How are they doing?

GARY  8:37 
We should have started the show with the dogs and then got to Weather 20/20 later. I love my dogs. My dogs are my life. Andy, my partner of 22 years, knows that my dogs are life.

PHIL   8:51 
I was gonna say, yeah, I wasn't worried about, I guess I was worried, does Andy listen to Dog Words? Is he gonna find out that he's not top billing?

GARY  8:59 
He knows. Dogs give you unconditional love. Andy does, too. Right, Andy? I guess. I don't know. Human beings are tough on unconditional.

PHIL   8:59 
But you gotta—for Andy to give you unconditional love...

GARY  9:12 
Yeah?

PHIL   9:12 
...you have to be open to that. You have to give him the opportunity to love you. A dog? It doesn't matter.

I know.

Their unconditional love isn't contingent on you opening the door to them in your life.

GARY  9:26 
Right.

PHIL   9:26 
They're ready to love you regardless.

GARY  9:28 
Last time I talked to you, Rainbow was one. She's now two. Sunny is now six years old. So she's in the prime of her life and she's doing fantastic. I mean, I could go into each dog. It's just incredible—the relationship, how they rely on you. They're living their life. And you know Rainbow has her life. Sunny has her life. I have my life. You have your life. Andy has his life. And we have our lives together. We're a family, the dogs. And Andy will tell you that he takes the dogs out more than anybody. And I think I do. Because around my neighborhood I don't see hardly anybody taking their dogs out. They must be inside all the time. But for me, let me just tell you, I take them out 5, 6, 7 times a day. If I'm on vacation, 10 times a day. I mean it's ridiculous. I'm like, what if you had to go to the bathroom, you know? Just...

PHIL   10:21 
And you relied on someone to take you every time?

GARY  10:23 
Right. So I give them every single opportunity. And I like to take them to the dog parks. And they go everywhere with me. But, but Rainbow, she's a black lab mix and mostly black lab. But she's mixed with something. I probably should do a DNA test, she's probably Greyhound Whippet mixed with black lab or something thinner. She's really athletic and fast and she's gotten bigger. She weighs 61 pounds. And she's enough, she's enough of a force if she comes running towards you at full speed. And poor Sunny. Sunny is 56 pounds—she's probably about five pounds overweight. Sorry, Sunny, but we'll get you there. But she's great. But if she's not watching, Rainbow will come raging towards her just to play and Sonny is—Sunny's almost always paying attention so she'll like sidestep just as Rainbow gets there's and Rainbow whiffs and misses her but my gosh, sometimes there's a collision like, "Oh, watch out, Sonny!" Sonny's Australian Shepherd mix. And these two dogs...

PHIL   10:30 
She has some athleticism with that breed. But she also has the smarts. She knows play smarter, not harder. Instead of work smarter, not harder. So I'm going to play smarter. I'm just gonna sidestep you.

GARY  11:32 
Yeah, her hard playing is when she was by herself and she'll play frisbee all day long. She can catch it with their paws. She's just an acrobat. She's just really, really talented. And Rainbow now catches the Frisbee, too. But I have to hold Rainbow if I want Sunny to be able to catch the Frisbee 'cause if Sunny, if you throw the Frisbee to Sunny, Rainbow will start raging after it and Sunny won't go get it. So you have to let her do it by herself.

PHIL   11:55 
I'm not gonna bather.

GARY  11:56 
And I probably need to get some alone time with my dogs. I always take them together everywhere. And they're inseparable in some respects. But I think one of my goals for this next year is to take some time and have Sunny, it's you and me for the next 15 minutes outside. So then maybe Rainbow can be next.

PHIL   12:16 
Well, think about people's children. You can't just do all the same activities together. Because one might want to be books or movies and the other one wants to play sports. And there are things you can do together. But they also need that bonding time with you and meet them on their own terms. And before we started recording, we were talking about living in the now.

GARY  12:39 
Right.

PHIL   12:40 
Dogs help with that so much.

GARY  12:42 
Absolutely. Andy and I were on a walk just the other morning. Yesterday! Yesterday morning. We took about a 20 minute walk with the dogs. And we're just walking through this little area into this park and Andy, he started asking me about so how do I feel about myself and my life right now? And I'm like, "I'm just all about now look at Rainbow and Sunny. They're just walking, enjoying the trees. Look at that tree there." He goes, "No! I wanna ask you a question!" I'm like, "No, Andy! I just want to be in the now!"

PHIL   13:10 
Let's enjoy this. I recently got back from a trip with my wife, Dawn, and Peaches, and a friend of ours who lives in Michigan. We went to her house for a couple days and then went up to a cabin in the Upper Peninsula. And there's just beautiful trails and lakes, obviously, and streams and waterfalls. And it was peak leaf season in the Upper Peninsula. Gorgeous. We took pictures. But there were so many people who seemed to be there exclusively to take pictures. Yeah, you want to capture this moment. But don't you also want to be in this moment?

GARY  13:50 
Right.

PHIL   13:50 
Look at the waterfall. Not through your phone

GARY  13:53 
Right.

PHIL   13:53 
Just look up at the waterfall. Feel the mist on your face. Breathe the forest smells. They talk about forest bathing.

GARY  14:02 
Right.

PHIL   14:03 
Enjoy this moment. So that years from now, when you look at the picture, your memory isn't going to be of taking a picture.

Right.

Your memory is going to be of that experience.

GARY  14:12 
I think there's a good balance. You just said something so important. I think so many of us get our cell phones and we just take pictures and videos and constantly do it rather than an experience. Take a couple pictures and then put the camera down and experience. So then you have it documented if you want to go back and look at it. But yes, put the camera down and look around and enjoy right now. Enjoy the fall colors that are coming out. Enjoy the experience. I agree with you. It's so easy to get caught up with that.

PHIL   14:41 
Yeah, if you're having these few moments, whether it's out in nature, or it's a party with friends, which would you rather have, hundreds of photos of that event and not actually participating

GARY  14:56 
Right.

PHIL   14:57 
Or zero photos but you were completely engaged in that moment?

GARY  15:02 
Right.

PHIL   15:02 
I would forgo all of the photos...

GARY  15:05 
Right.

PHIL   15:06 
...to have that experience.

GARY  15:07 
Exactly.

PHIL   15:07 
With that in mind, like you said, find that balance. Take the photos, do the videos, as just sort of a bookmark of this event that you can come back to and don't forego the event.

GARY  15:22 
Or the bookmark. You might not even want to go back and look at the picture. So why don't you just experience. Experience right now. That's the answer to life. I'm mean right now I'm looking at your sign, "Dog Words. Just talking about dogs." That's really what we should be spending this entire segment on. And dogs teach us what we're talking about. Dogs teach us how to live in the now. Dogs have unconditional love. Because all that matters to them is right now. They're not thinking about what's going to happen next and worrying about it. And they're not thinking about what happened in the past and worrying about it. So that's why when the dog does something bad, Rainbow the other day, you know, chewed up a pen. And I let her know. That she probably thought that's the 100th time you've let me know. Or right then and there you just have to tell her once. And that's it. Because she's not gonna remember anyway. So have in her memory that she's not supposed to do that pen The next time you might think about it. But she's in the now. They teach us how to be in the now. So Dog Words. Just talking about dogs. And dogs teach us these lessons. The dogs are there to teach us these life lessons. And we're experiencing our life through our dogs and our dogs are experiencing their lives with us. It's just amazing.

PHIL   16:45 
On one of our walks on a trail on Tahquamenon Falls, there's a upper falls and lower falls. There's this beautiful river in the Upper Peninsula. And they have these great trails where you can get different views of the falls. And you can go down steps to get closer to the river and closer to the falls. And because I was with Peaches, who's 15, I'm not taking her up and down a bunch of steps. And so Dawn and our friend Jennifer would sometimes go down the steps and Peaches and I would go up the trail a ways. And they have little side trails that were undeveloped and they weren't paved...

GARY  17:19 
Right.

PHIL   17:20 
....or fenced. And we would go off on the side trails and come back and then Dawn or Jennifer would say, "We'll take the dog because this one is worth going down as well. That one was nice, but it's not worth delaying the rest of our journey for you to go down." So we would move on. So because I was waiting and going back and forth, I would see people multiple times. And it got to the point where we would cross paths with someone and they would go, "Hi, Peaches!" And Dawn and Jennifer's like, "What? Do you know them?"

"I met them 10 minutes ago. They know Peaches. They don't know me."

GARY  17:48 
Right.

PHIL   17:49 
But there was an older woman who had a not-as-older woman with her. But she was mobility challenged. And you could tell she needed lots of breaks and she's resting and, and she kept eyeing Peaches. And so one time I'm walking by her, and I slow down enough and she kind of reaches out and says, "Is she friendly?"

I said, "Yes. Peaches is friendly." We describe her as friendly but not affectionate.

GARY  18:13 
Right.

PHIL   18:13 
She'll let you pet her. But she's not going to roll over and show her belly and start slobbering you with kisses and stuff. She's very refined.

GARY  18:20 
Right.

PHIL   18:21 
And the woman says, "Oh, that was, that was my dog that oh we, I just lost her a couple years ago." And so she's petting Peaches and Peaches is kind of then sliding up beside this woman who's sitting on a bench beside the path. And it's this beautiful river, this beautiful forest with the changing leaves. You can hear the waterfall in the distance. And she's in the now with Peaches.

GARY  18:42 
Wow.

PHIL   18:42 
And when we finally decide to move on, I say "Well, thank you for giving Peaches some love." And she looks at me and says, "I'll never forget Peaches."

GARY  18:53 
Wow, amazing.

PHIL   18:55 
So part of her, her trip to the Upper Peninsula and being in nature was sharing it with a stranger's dog.

GARY  19:03 
Right. And she didn't even have to take a picture. Yeah.

No. But she's never gonna forget Peaches. And it's not just about remembering Peaches. She's gonna remember everything about that moment,

Right. That's a great, great thing. You know, I just moved.

PHIL   19:17 
Yes, I know you're a Northlander now like I have been for years. So welcome to the Northland.

GARY  19:24 
You must have inspired me last time.

PHIL   19:25 
Yes. That you sat on our deck and thought I want some of this God's country. I'm gonna move north. How much did the dogs factor into the move? When you're shopping for where we're going to be? What kind of house, apartment? What are we close to?

GARY  19:40 
It was probably one of the top deciding factors. We've lived in this really beautiful luxurious home years ago on a golf course. Moved to the Plaza in a very, very nice high end condo. And I wanted to—you know a few years away from retirement—and I wanted to save, save, save. So I was looking for maybe an apartment. So we looked around. Found some nice apartments. And around the Plaza we found some but it wasn't really the greatest dog experience. And Andy came up over here and found the Landing of Briarcliff apartments and my first day when I walked up there I was like, dog utopia! They have a little off leash dog agility course fenced in right across from our building. They have a 24 hour fitness center. I'm giving them a whole plug.

PHIL   20:34 
Yeah.

GARY  20:34 
But I brought the dogs there and I just loved it. It's right near the railroad tracks. It's near a couple of dog parks.

PHIL   20:40 
I was gonna say there's great dog parks there by Macken Park and then there's trails and then—I don't know if you've been there long enough to know—at Briarcliff Village we love Headrush Roasters, give them a free plug, PhillyTime, give them a free plug.

GARY  20:51 
Yeah.

PHIL   20:52 
Trezo Mare. So you have all this great commercial stuff right there.

GARY  20:54 
I've been there about 10 times.

PHIL   20:55 
So across the street where there's that pond.

GARY  20:58 
Yeah.

PHIL   20:58 
And then the trail that goes up into that neighborhood, that's a great walk.

GARY  21:01 
Right.

PHIL   21:01 
So you have all kinds of trails, right. And then...

GARY  21:03 
I've been there a few times.

PHIL   21:04 
And then the trail that goes to Parkville and then you're accessible to Parkville...

GARY  21:08 
Yeah.

PHIL   21:09 
...Riverfront with that trail and then west of Parkville Riverfront, there's that dog park that's a couple of acres.

And the new one at the Argosy's a dog park. And so if you've been to that one, yet?

No.

GARY  21:18 
There's a new dog park there that's got the small and the large dog all fenced in right and you can walk over to the Missouri River. But...

PHIL   21:25 
And Bar K is right across the river.

GARY  21:26 
And Bar K's there. It's just, I love it up here. The dogs love it up here. We feel so good about our decision to move into this experience in an apartment and loving the Northland. You know, it's great. The dogs are very happy.

PHIL   21:43 
So what was the transition like for them? How long did it take them to get used to this is home now?

GARY  21:48 
Well, we're used to living in condos. I said it was high end so the walls are thicker. The walls are thinner in apartments. So you got to be where you can sort of hear a little bit. And it doesn't bother me at all. However, the first week, the first three days we were in our apartment, I'd go to work and he'd go to work and the dogs would be alone in there. And we came home after three days and there's a note on our door. "Your dog never stops barking." Okay, and so, "Oh, no!" And there was no like apartment 108 or apartment 314.

PHIL   22:20 
So, yeah.  Could be four floors down.

GARY  22:21 
We had no idea who did—you know, we want to go apologize. We want to apologize. We don't want to—I'm sorry but it was only three days after we moved in. So our master bedroom in the back has an extra wall and as long as you close the windows. And it's probably Sunny barking but Rainbow's capable of barking but Sunny mostly. And so once you put them back in our master bedroom, if the windows are closed, they can't see anything outside. They don't bark.

PHIL   22:47 
Nothing to distract them.

GARY  22:47 
So it solved the problem after three days. But we still have no idea who sent that note. But that was when we first moved in and it was them adjusting. The dogs had to adjust to the new living environment. And now I think they love it there. You know why they love it there? Because they just love life. You can bring them to an apartment 25 floors up and..

PHIL   23:08 
It's not based on the square footage or anything like that. The view.

GARY  23:13 
No. No. We can have one room and they'd be happy. So they've adjusted quite well. I think they're loving it.

PHIL   23:20 
Well, I'm glad that they're enjoying the move, enjoying their new digs. You talked about Rainbow last time being just a year old and you're gonna start coaching her up on maybe some new tricks, new moves. How is that progressing?

GARY  23:37 
Great. And they do tricks together. You get them together. I do the double dog shake. "Double dog shake!" and they both shake my hand at the same time. "Double dog down!" and they both go down. And then I go "Legs!" and Rainbow goes through the legs. Rainbow will go through the legs like 10 times. And then Sunny'll dance and they do this whole routine together. It is really cool.

PHIL   23:59 
You really kind of, I wouldn't say, you didn't make a name for yourself but you made a name for Wendy when you would obviously have her on the air but then also going out to schools and events with Wendy. For the last two years you've not been able to get out of the studio much. Rainbow doesn't care because Rainbow doesn't remember that. Does Sunny know the difference?

GARY  24:25 
No. Sunny, Sunny. We're gonna probably start going to schools again here very soon. You know, it's been a rough two years with the pandemic. But before the pandemic Rainbow, at six months, seven months old she was still half the size she was. She would go to some schools and mainly she did her tricks already. We hadn't refined the double dog shake and the double dog down, yet. But she would go to schools and enjoy it and say hi to every kid. Now she's a little bit bigger so I got to watch her if we do that. But I can see me taking both dogs to more public appearances coming up sometime soon.

PHIL   25:03 
That's something to look forward to. And I mentioned last time you were on, and I just want to make sure I mention it again, when I got to meet Wendy in studio.

GARY  25:13 
A long time ago.

PHIL   25:14 
That was a long time ago. She was great and I did not have a dog at the time. My wife and I both grew up with dogs on farms and then moved to the city and said, "We can't have a dog in the city. That's not fair to the dog."

GARY  25:28 
Right.

PHIL   25:28 
And we evolved on that as we started getting our dog fix by volunteering at KC Pet Project and realizing, like you said, dogs don't care. You're projecting your issues onto the dogs. Just make the best life for them that you can. But I think that had some influence seeing here's this great energetic smart dog who has adapted to this environment. I'm a television studio dog and I don't cause a fuss. If they need me to do something I'll do it.

GARY  25:59 
Right.

PHIL   25:59 
And was just great in that environment.

GARY  26:02 
Wendy the weather dog back in the 1990s, I adopted her 1991. She was about a year and a half and then she became my first dog on the air. I never thought I'd have any kind of gimmick at all. I just love weather. But Wendy became quite famous in the 1990s. She was on The Oprah Winfrey Show. She was on Animal Planet. She met you in the studio. She would come to the studio an awful lot. And she would just walk around and she was so great at that. Sunny at work, when I do take her at times, Sunny will whine a little bit so it's hard to have her in the studio. Because she'll sit there and look over me while I'm getting ready to do the weather or the anchors are doing their thing and all Sunny does is, "Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm." And if somebody's telling a serious story about some murder or something on the air. And all of a sudden you hear, "Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm."

PHIL   26:54 
Yeah, that's not the tone.

GARY  26:56 
You can hear Sunny in the background. So I keep her in the back. But yeah, we probably could eventually get back to that. But yeah, I had Wendy and Stormy and Wendy and Stormy and Wendy and Breezy all together. And Wendy died then we got Sunny. We had Stormy, Breezy, and Sunny and then Stormy died and Breezy died and Sunny experienced Breezy's death. We brought her weather when we put Breezy down. It was really an interesting experience to watch her go through that. So she like knew she was gone somehow. And then it was Sunny alone. And for about four years I had Sunny alone and Andy's like, "We have to get her another dog now. She's young. Let's get her a dog now." And he tried for a couple years to get me to go down and get one. I just wasn't sure. I just Sunny and I had this little thing and then but then all of a sudden at the Plaza Art Fair a couple years ago here comes this lady up with this dog 11 weeks old. She goes, "Can you make an announcement? We just won this dog from Pets Unleashed auction last night and you can use see if somebody might want it?" And I'm like, "I might want it."

PHIL   27:59 
Someone might. I think I know someone.

GARY  28:01 
It was love at first sight. I called Andy and he goes, "Yes!" And so we met, we met, uh Rainbow...

PHIL   28:06 
Why are you wasting time on the phone with me? Close the deal!

GARY  28:08 
So we put her on the air that night. Should I adopt this dog? Sort of just for fun because we had decided already. So we got like 500 responses from people and everyone said, "Yes, you should adopt."

PHIL   28:21 
Any no vote is someone who wants the dog for themselves.

GARY  28:23 
Well, the no vote was for my aunt Sylvia. Because she said that I have too much on my plate.

PHIL   28:30 
Wrong, Silvia.

GARY  28:30 
There's always room for more unconditional love.

PHIL   28:34 
I think that's an interesting point. It's been said if you want something to get done, give it to a busy person.

GARY  28:41 
Right.

PHIL   28:41 
It's because they know how to get stuff done. That's why they're busy. Having a dog I think helps with that. If you have a lot on your plate, but having the dog to give you the mental focus, the de-stressing, the therapy that having a dog around provides, helps you then address all that stuff that is on your plate.

GARY  29:02 
Absolutely. I mean it's amazing. I'm a pretty busy guy and I've got a lot going on with my business Weather 20/20 with KSHB 41 chief meteorologist, with all the responsibilities around town being involved with so many events with animals and other agencies and I'm just really busy. But dogs are just amazing stress relief and you come home and they love you and Andy has his own love affair with the dogs. It's just amazing. Just last night Andy sent me a picture of, "Sunny's being on ornery, right now. Look at this." And it was really nice, because remember it was the lightning delay night last night and I was at work till 1:15 in the morning. So it was really cool to get a picture of Sunny with this little orange piggy in her mouth. It's a little squeaky toy. And by the way, it's usually Rainbow that brings the piggy So Andy was like, "Oh my gosh, look at this. Look what Sunny is doing. I can't believe it." Because Sunny is a grown up. Sunny's six years old. She's the mature one. She looks at Rainbow, "What are you doing with that piggy?" But last night about midnight, I wasn't home, maybe that was a factor. But Sunny got the piggy and brought it to me and says, "Look." Cute.

PHIL   30:19 
Yeah, they open up a part of you that might not otherwise be open. And they help you make connections that you might not otherwise make. Like the woman on the trail, I probably wouldn't have talked to her...

GARY  30:21 
Right.

PHIL   30:24 
...if I didn't have a dog. I probably wouldn't even have noticed her because she wouldn't have been noticing me.

GARY  30:35 
Right.

PHIL   30:36 
And if I had a child with me, I don't think that would have been the same. She wouldn't say, "Can I talk to your child?" We wouldn't have had the conversation about a child that you do about a dog. Like, "Oh, how old is your child? Oh, I lost my child last year. Can I touch your child?" That's not going to happen. That would be inappropriate.

GARY  30:56 
That's not gonna happen!

PHIL   30:55 
That would be creepy. But with a dog, that's perfectly natural. You want that connection. It's like, "Oh, you want to talk to my dog? You want to touch my dog? By all means. Thank you for asking. And now I've connected with that person. I've made her life better. I feel better. I think it made my life better getting to share Peaches with that woman on the trail.

GARY  31:16 
Right. I love that. Now Rainbow gets real super excited when she sees anything. So it could be a child, it could be an adult, it could be a rabbit. She wants to go say hi to that rabbit. Maybe she wants to chase that rabbit. I don't know what she would do with it. But she just is so excited with everything she sees. She gets overly excited almost. Now remember, she's like 61 pounds also she can, you gotta watch her.

PHIL   31:40 
And still has that puppy energy at two.

GARY  31:42 
And I don't want—and it's natural for me to just let her have that energy but it's not honestly safe. You literally have to discipline her and say, "Rainbow sit. Rainbow sit. Stay. You wait, wait. Wait there, Rainbow. Wait there! Calm down!" So 'cause Rainbow literally gets a little crazy, excited, and happy. It's all happy. It's all great energy. So I'm sure she's gonna mature. She's when she's three and she's four, she probably will settle down. But she's always going into love everything. Now, the one thing Rainbow has trouble with is in dog parks. She is, oh, she's absolutely friendly. And she's completely submissive. So she'll go up to even the smallest dog and turn over upside down to go say hello. That's so, that's totally safe. But when the dog starts to play with her, she gets a little concerned. She's like, what are you doing? I'm not so sure about that. So she probably needs a little more socialization there. But it's all from a good place. It's not a real problem. I just love to see her relax and enjoy it more. Where Sunny at dog parks is like, "I just want to do the agility course."

PHIL   32:50 
Yeah, get these other dogs out of my way.

GARY  32:52 
Right.

PHIL   32:52 
What are they doing in my park? Well, Gary, thank you so much for updating us on how your dogs are doing and Weather 20/20. That's gonna be linked in the description. So check that out. And listeners might not think, "Well, I don't know that I would need Weather 20/20." Check it out. It's just, it's fascinating. And you might think of an application once you look at it that, "Oh, hey, wow! This is something I should check in with you and see how we can use it."

GARY  33:19 
Yeah, Phil it's really, we're looking for bigger businesses to have bigger impacts and so we're going to look in that direction. But in the next few years to decades, what we have discovered is that the river of air above us is cycling regularly. That's what it's all about. We have the ability to predict when significant storm systems will return. So we predicted this year, the worst hurricane disaster is Hurricane Ida that moved inland and killed a whole bunch of people in New York and New Jersey after it moved inland. But it blasted into Louisiana. And we predicted that months before. Months before! And so it's an evolving technology. Weather 20/20 with the LRC is an evolving technology. And next year when I come back and meet with you, I'm expecting tremendous success for us.

PHIL   34:05 
I am expecting that. I look forward to that update and hearing more about what's up with Rainbow, Sunny and maybe another one. Who knows? A lot can happen in a year.

Another one? Not yet.

GARY  34:17 
Not yet. But I love Peaches By the way your  dog Peaches is just wonderful.

PHIL   34:21 
Thank you. She's a sweetheart. Well, thank you again, Gary, and we look forward to talking to you again soon.

GARY  34:26 
Thank you. Thank you for having me.

PHIL   34:32 
I'm Phil Hatterman and you've been listening to Dog Words presented by Rosie Fund.

Thank you to friend of Dog Words Gary Lezak, for joining us today. Links to Weather2020.com and Gary's Facebook are in the description.

Next time on Dog Words photographer Penny Adams tells us about the difference she's making in the lives of shelter animals and how you can, too.

A big thank you to alternative string duo The Wires, featuring cellist Sascha Groshang and violinist Laurel Morgan Parks for playing the wonderful music you've heard on today's and previous episodes of Dog Words. Supporting The Wires supports our mission. Now you can join Laurel and Sasha as they explore new music and delve into the inspiration behind each work as hosts of Sound Currents on 91.9 Classical KC. Click on the Sound Currents link in the description for more information. Learn more about The Wires, including their concert schedule at The Wires.info and download their music on iTunes. Check out FiddleLife.com and learn to play fiddle and cello-fiddle online from Laurel and Sasha, even if you've never played before.

Celebrate five years of Rosie Fund by supporting our campaign to sponsor 50 dogs. You can donate on our website or Facebook page. You can also contribute by making a purchase from the website store, buying a t-shirt at Bonfire.com, or putting some of our merch in your cart when you shop at BarkYours. Links are in the description. Your donations help fund the Rosie Life Starter Kits that make sure these senior and harder-to-adopt dogs have some of the items they'll need in their forever home.

As always, please download, follow, rate, and share Dog Words. This helps us with sponsorships. Then Rosie Fund can help more dogs. Support Rosie Fund by following us on social media and please subscribe to the free Rosie Fund YouTube channel. Our latest post features a wonderful KC Pet Project dog looking for a forever home. Send us your comments, questions, and suggestions at RosieFund.org. And let us know if you would like to be a sponsor or guests of the Dog Words podcast.

Thank you for listening and remember, we save each other.

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