Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | iHeartRadio | Email | RSS | More
If you’re dealing with diabetes, check out our conversation this week. Since both of us are dealing with it, understanding diabetes and how to control it can save you money and save your life.
Our other big topic is what we’re going to do now that things are opening up with the vaccination. Alan has it but Stephen hasn’t yet and we have plans of things to do.
Transcript:
Stephen 0:01
Do you like Dr. Pepper?
Alan 0:43
I really do. Is there too much of it in evidence around the trash? Can that kind of thing? Is that the Yes,
Stephen 0:52
cycle.
Alan 0:53
It’s, in fact, Tuesday is our trash day. And so all of that goes out. But I do work myself through a two liter a day. You know, and so they kind of stack up,
Stephen 1:02
you still have your teeth. That’s amazing.
Alan 1:05
You know why? Because they use a straw. It’s kind of I don’t think it’s only a rationalization, I think it really is that I haven’t browned my teeth or made them fall out. Because of diet. Dr. Pepper, I know that there are better things for me that I could be drinking. And yet at least it’s sugar free. And at least it’s one of those things that out of all the things I’m going to have to eventually give up to be a perfect aesthetic diet guy, it’s going to be the last thing to go. Kelly and I laugh about this all the time, every day, if you like her particular coffee and my particular diet, Dr. Pepper, you get something that you really love every single day. And it’s not heroin, it’s
it could be worse.
Stephen 1:53
Even though, okay, so we both have diabetic problems. And we really shouldn’t be drinking the sugary drinks, and they’re not good for anybody really, um, and the diet stuff, at least doesn’t spike your sugar, it does still have calories. So it still adds to your weight, which affects your diabetes. But also, I’ve seen several studies saying that the chemicals they use to sweeten those, they make it so it makes you want more and that makes you hungrier so you actually have to fight eating more and taking in more calories when you’re drinking the diet drinks. So
Alan 2:32
I I’ve read studies but not all in that direction. You know, the the most suspicious studies say right, yes, whatever you have with aspartame and stuff like that. And, and I think my mistake obviously this, I am not a great example because I’ve been drinking diet soda since college. You know what I mean? So we’re talking like 40 years, and it hasn’t had a horse I’m heavier than I should be. But I’m not as if I had been drinking sugary soda all
Stephen 3:02
the big calm beer belly that’s three times bigger than the rest of your body.
Alan 3:06
Exactly that and back when I was drinking, like you know, a big gulp every night you know in college conveniently I was always up until one and two in the morning because I was computer science major was and you needed to have that extra burst of caffeine. At least he didn’t need it but I sure got used to it I needed to be whatever that little bit of acceptable drug that caffeine is it sure helped me in mental Christmas and I noticed that I had to do it kind of low dose This is such a weird, druggie conversation. I did try like no dose I tried it one time for finals. And it made me so jittery and wrong you know my mouth got all the over caffeine aspects were there that it was just I can’t do a burst like that. I need to just kind of have a saline drip or something like that. And really whatever whatever moderation I do seems to work where I’m really on during the day. I not in a frantic pacing of the room way. My when I’m without it when I go hiking. The only thing that I really notice is I sometimes get that caffeine withdrawal headache you want. I mean, when I was first liking, like I was like was this this isn’t that difficult to thing. I’m like climbing up a mountain here but I shouldn’t have a pounding headache from altitude or anything. And it occurred to me it probably was that that I regularly give myself so much caffeine that having Gatorade or the equivalent, you know, some kind of energy drink in my little water bottle was a different thing than having the caffeine and after two or three days that stopped happening. So pretty sure that’s what it was.
Stephen 4:41
Yeah, Gina’s gonna same thing. If she goes too long throughout the day without a cup of coffee. She gets that caffeine headache withdrawal thing going on. She mainly she does like to have maybe a pop a day because she says it’s not so much for the caffeine. It’s for that burn. She likes The feel of drinking pop, which is okay, you know,
Alan 5:05
there were something I really I like carbonation. I like whatever it is that the master recipe for Dr. Pepper is, you know somebody a long time ago someone told me Oh, it’s prune juice, it’s like, well, that’s why I’m so regular. From what I understand. It’s not prune juice. You really, it’s that 17 herbs and spices blend whatever they got going on in there. That is, it’s much better than any of the main sodas, your Pepsi or coke or RC or anything like that. It’s better than root beer. It really hits my taste buds sweet spot for inactivates multiple things going on. And maybe it’s not only mostly sweet, there’s a little note of ginger or whatever it might be. That is that little bit of zap. But I really like I’m so happy that I found one that that’s so much works for me. Let’s put it that way. And it’s popular enough that you can get it most places. I really I never drink regular soda, you know what I mean? ever talks about? Like after you’ve had diet soda for a while when someone slips up and gives you a regular soda. It’s kind of like drinking whole milk. It’s like this is like, Oh my god, I’m drinking a milkshake. This is so sugary and obvious that it’s not right.
Stephen 6:10
But that’s kind of with everything. Because when we when I was in high school, and my father had his open heart surgery, and we cut back on a lot of salt. I mean, you’d be amazed if you really look how much salt is in food. And so the point where my mother would buy deli ham, and she’d rinse it, you know, pat it dry. Good because it’s all the salt. Well, after eating that way for a while at first, there are some things you’re like, Oh, this is a little bland. This is a little. But after a while, you start tasting the flavor of the food more than natural. And if you get like Mrs. Dash and certain other things, there’s some good herbs and spices and stuff to put in. You get all that and smell man, let me tell you, you go to a buffet or something and you go eat like ham, and it’s so salty. I can’t touch it. Absolutely. And it’s your boy Johnny theater,
Alan 6:58
like, you know, we put a tiny bit of salt when we make we pop a hot air popper. It’s one of the best investment, you know, inventions ever. It just makes perfect hot air popcorn, but you go to the theater, even though they don’t seem to douse it, they just seem to do one pass Hold on, it’s so much more salt than what we put on. There’s all kinds of stuff to win. Well, you know, there are all kinds of books that talk about how the food engineers in our world have really gotten that idea of what this salt and sugar and fat point is. That’s that perfect three point attack on your taste ones that you crave them, you’re addicted to them. When you don’t have them, they taste wrong and different. And you have to really wean yourself off of them to get back to the natural taste of of meat of a carrot of whatever else it might be. And then when you have it again, it’s like, wow, I was doing that every day. This is overpowering.
Stephen 7:55
So are you saying that the people that manufacture all the food, make it so you want more? That’s crazy.
Alan 8:04
As much as it isn’t this wonderful, benevolent world of ours, that there would be one bad actor who specializes in ham? Yes, that’s what I’m saying. Exactly. My, if I have any other addiction, it’s fast food you want I mean, like it just there’s never a time that I don’t want a Big Mac or a fish sandwich or a whopper or whatever else it might be. And that’s because they not only have buttons, they have buttons that have extra sugar in them just ask subway who you must have read this study that said in Europe, subway buns didn’t classify as bread anymore. They were cake and and everything. Like I even though I have safe fast food most of time, if I go to now I go to the subway or AAA, you really can’t control what they’re putting on. But you don’t really know exactly what goes into the things. That kind of it not only what’s being served in front of you, but there’s backroom prep or whatever like that. And I really think that the big breakthrough for me is going to be when I don’t have that as my default. Hey, I’m on the wrong ham in between things. Hey, it’s lunchtime. And I don’t think of let’s go grab a quick burger, a quick sandwich. And actually like getting away from burgers. I’m now mostly eating chicken and various other things. And even then what do they do the chicken? They don’t leave it as chicken. They might bread it, they might put some mayonnaise on there. They might I’m that’s a I don’t know. And so, in the face of all of those things I think I mentioned I’m actually you know, I got I’m I’m still concerned myself pre diabetic because I’m dancing around that 6.5 lines. And I’m determined to not go over it. And so I now that I have been taking unfortunately Metformin and jardiance to help with that the jardiance really pushed me back and I’m below. But journey is is unbelievably expensive. You know up till now I’ve been able to take a generic tour of Staton for my higher cholesterol and Metformin is really cheap. charges is like $400 a month, I don’t want to take a $10 a day pill a $13 a day pill, I don’t want to be the people that don’t have my best interests at heart are now in control of me. You know what I mean? And it is, it’s just, there’s nothing worse than having a chronic condition that you don’t die of, because there are forces in this world that are more than happy to line up and say, we’ll keep you on that edge. Maybe a one C will keep you right there for $4. And we’ve,
Stephen 10:31
we’ve talked about this so many times. And if you really sit your doctor down and say, what, what can I do if you’re 30? Before you get older, and it gets harder, and you’ve gone through years and decades of misuse? You know, what, what can I do? What do I need to do? They will say they don’t want to, but they’ll say, Well, if you eat right with more vegetables and fruits and less meats, and if you get regular exercise and are active, that will solve most of your problems. But they don’t want to say that because
Alan 11:04
people don’t want
Stephen 11:06
Americans we don’t believe and we don’t want to do it. We just want a pill to take care of it all. And that a lot of times the doctors and I know this sounds crazy, but some are good, some are bad. And I’m not saying all doctors, but some of them like well, I get an extra $100 for every patient that takes this medicine, so it’s easier to recommend it and believe me, I’ve had family, my mother, my wife, other family members that are nurses and in the medical field, and patients suck. They will yell and argue and berate doctors and nurses. So it’s like screw you Why?
Alan 11:42
telling them the truth? Exactly, exactly,
Stephen 11:44
you know, truth. And if you get a guy that weighs 450 pounds, let’s say and he goes, Doc, I’m just feeling weak and tired. What can I do? Well lose weight and get off the couch. And well, you’re insulting me saying that I’m fat. So Well, no, I’m not. You’re obviously overweight. You know, it’s ours. We joke the mastermind group I’m in on Saturday, when I joined. There was a guy before me that had left. And they laughed saying he was like the Grumpy Old Man of the group. So they’re like, so that’s my job now and then fill that slot. And they said, Well, this doesn’t work because you’re not a grumpy old man. And then we started saying, Well, you can’t say old anymore, because that’s insulting. And it’s like, well, I’m 50 years old. I’m not ancient, but say okay, well, we’ll call you elder or venerable. And you know, we still every week on our call, I changed my name to like, last week, I was old school. This week, I’m gonna be codger. So, people because more
Alan 12:40
than enough of those, you know, you can just run down the facilities list. Yeah, exactly.
Stephen 12:44
But people get so insulted. And, you know, I’ve when I was in martial arts, three times a week, one to two hours, each of those times, exercising, eating fairly good. I weighed like 170. And I can outrun most of the 20 year olds, and you know, I was in really good shape. And since I quit, you know, things have not gone as well. I’ve slid on my eating slit on my exercise. And that’s a simple thing. I know a guy I think I mentioned him that was diagnosed with gout. And he was overweight. And the doctor said, you have to hate this medicine the rest of your life. He said, screw that I don’t want it. He so completely changed his life, that he has no symptoms of gout. And he takes no medicine. But my my wife’s father was the same way. He almost died, he flatlined two times in his 30s on the table, almost died because he was so unhealthy. And he said, I’m alive. I’ve been given a second chance. He took up running, he started eating right. And the man is almost at now. And actually what’s going to kill it is a
Alan 13:51
wake up call man literally and figuratively. Exactly.
Stephen 13:54
Yeah. So it’s
Alan 13:59
no, it just, this is such it’s it’s like one of America’s passions is to talk all about the ways to do this or not do it? You know, America has become incredibly obese in comparison to 20 3050 years ago. And there’s all kinds of scientist why that is, you know, bad diet and encouraged by fast food, whatever else it might be. And there’s a lot of just the nature versus nurture thing of how much are you genetically predisposed to be of a certain weight height, build whatever else it might be, and how much of that is that you can control that? Well, I know that the stats and the various different the science, I’m always of course looking for the science in the sense of it, that it isn’t easy to do what we just talked about to eat right and exercise more and stuff like that, but that’s a reasonable path towards it. When I mentioned this, you know, on on my Facebook feed, I had all kinds of data and personal experience and anecdote and bushwa you know, that was stated and, and for me it’s coming down to I really want to have a better story. To tell them what I currently have, I don’t know necessarily what’s going to work. Because I am, like, you see me, I’m a big guy, my shoulders are not going to get any less wide because I drop some weight. And so I’m already built like a Viking Vikings, I guess could kind of carry extra weight. But how many Vikings made it to 60 has started to feel the effect of being a big old Viking, and their knees and ankles in their belly, that kind of stuff. So having said that, and I don’t know, it’s, I don’t you don’t realize how much of the inner cheapskate in you is offended until it’s like $400 a month you want I mean, that’s a mortgage payment, that’s
Unknown Speaker 15:35
a car payment.
Alan 15:36
That’s a no longer mortgage. But you know what I mean, I just can’t believe I did this to myself. And so the story that I want to tell is a little bit of what you just talked about, I got my wake up call, even if it’s not a dying on the table thing, but my the offense that I have of their people are taking advantage of me, I hate being controlled by anybody else. I hate being that it was because I was stupid and weak willed, right. And so I really want to do what I can to get back to a reasonable fighting weight, the height weight charts don’t exactly match me because of my, my sheer animal size, you know what I mean? I really am bigger than then I’m a rodent of unusual size. But having said that, there’s no reason that I should be carrying a gut, and, and extra weight everywhere because I like eating too much. I can’t be trusted with a mouth. And so I’m really trying to make some progress out of my sense of offense out of my sense of I want to I want to be in a year be able to say yeah, I got to that low point. And kind of like every other anonymous, you know, Overeaters Anonymous has the same pseudo creed as alcoholics or, you know, narcotics or whatever else it might be. And I want to be able to say, here’s, here’s what I did. And so, one, a couple people said that after they had tried many, many, many things, that what they tried, that has been a success for them, and they’ve been able to do it and keep it off. And it’s kind of like some weight watchers stories, or whatever, was intermittent fasting, that your body has mechanisms built in for like feast or famine. And you know, along the lines of, well, if you just eat less calories, your body will have less to work with. And it will start to, if you will eat itself digest itself, because it will go into your fat stores, and so forth. And depending on how you’re timing, it will do much more fat than muscle loss. And it won’t be a carb addict, like you might currently be that you’d kind of just change your body’s expectations, your body’s mechanisms for what you’re doing. And I’m a weekend, I started, you know, last Monday, and I’m two pounds down. So just doing something as simple as only eating in an eight hour window, you know, the way you can fast is to do a whole day or multiple days a week. And what seemed to be the way to experiment with ease into it was lifted the 16 eight, I’m going to eat for eight hours, you know, so when I started when I stopped was very proscribed. And then just don’t do the late night snacking. Don’t do the mindless eating that whatever else it might be that I had going on, because I can think of now that I’ve not done it for a week, man, how many times was I just, I’m gonna chill out here at 1030 at night and watch a couple hours of TV and I’m going to be on the laptop. And, look, there’s some ships, there’s even when I eat healthy, there’s some carrots, there’s some celery, I have stopped doing all that. And my body is I think kind of waking up. Oftentimes when you do this kind of thing you would do it and because your body is just interrupted in its usual things, will I hit a plateau? How far can I go down, I’m just wanting to do something that I’ve made it to 60 I want to make it to like 140, I want to see 2100. And no matter what amazing technology they’re going to come up with, they can put some nano machines in me to clean me up no matter what drugs, they come up to extend my life and make my telomeres, you know, not shorten, I still got to do my part to like, Don’t keep pushing yourself the worst crap food and with the worst eating at the worst times and stuff. And so I think that many diets I know I’m going on. But what we have noticed is it doesn’t even matter. In some cases, what diet you do, it just matters that you are aware that every time you make a choice, it’s a good choice, and that you and you’re going to let yourself slide once a while because hey, it’s the holiday or Hey, it’s a whatever it might be, but that it’s not yes or no, it’s all incremental. If I can eat 50%, healthier 80% 90% I will see results. And I will as we know now it’s a spring so it’s easy to say, well, we’re going for more walks. We went for walks consistently during the winter when there wasn’t ice on the ground and stuff like that, which are nowhere near as inspired as when it’s 70 degrees at seven o’clock at night. It’s like let’s go see the sunset. Oh my god, this is just a beautiful day. Further and you you just have a little more pep in your step. For us it might be so I’m going to take advantage of these next six months this next year. To see how well I can do, and I don’t know, this isn’t meant to become now the O L’s weight loss journey podcast, but it should still be for geeks, I want to approach it site. Typically, I want to be able to say, here’s how I’m experimenting what seems to be working and what’s not. And then it’s not just the next lean silver bullet, the next fad diet, I don’t want to be a fool about it. I want to be smarter about it. And so that’s what I’m
Stephen 20:28
gonna say with the pop. Have you ever looked at like the soda stream? Have you seen that?
Alan 20:33
Is that where like a carbonated water and you just add a little cucumber and stuff like that? I thought about that, that I really, I could really control what I put into my body by being right now. It’s kind of funny. I really do have mold soda, if you will, by that meeting. It’s It’s It’s a glass full of ice and soda pored over it. Some already, everything I’m doing is half water. So I’m already kind of diluting it. But the next step would be We’ll then put something better in there, even though I mean put water and a little bit of blueberry a little bit of cucumber and experiment to see what do I like?
Stephen 21:08
Yeah, it’s it’s hugely popular. And there are places online with recipes and try this and try that all the way from, you know, just flavored waters to different pop and soda and alcohol and things with that. And two of the things I said, Okay, well, I don’t like necessarily all the chemicals in the diet stuff all the aspartame, sucralose, even stevia things, you know, and that is big on that. But the sugared stuff isn’t great. And I don’t always want just like you say, cucumber flavored water, I want a little cover. So I found recipes and people that have used the monk fruit, which I’ve talked about before, because it doesn’t spike your sugar. And it’s very sweet. So you don’t need a whole lot. And also like maple syrup, because maple syrup doesn’t spike blood sugar, like refined cane sugar does. So,
Alan 22:04
I mean, I’m aware of that, you know, when I first started to look into keto, or at least things that are the hypoglycemic load, you know, like, for instance, I still make bread every single week. How in the world do you do that? Alan, stay carb light. Well, you make all the substitutions that say, like, we use a gobby nectar instead of sugar or honey or anything else we have, I haven’t looked into maple syrup. But I have made some breads with that. And they turned out fine. And again, I’m like, then we’re going with the How do I spike, you know, we, I add fiber to everything. We have extra hemp hearts, flax seed, you know, little millet all kinds of different things, anywhere that I can add a nut or a seed or extra fiber, those things go in and as you know, that helps things move through your system. And you might have some sweets in there. But it doesn’t have chance to like linger in your stomach and intestines and get into your bloodstream. So
Stephen 23:01
that’s what a lot of people don’t understand is and then given back when my father was diagnosed diabetic, they’re like, okay, check your blood sugar before you eat, see what it is and give yourself insulin. That was like the only thing and so they’ve come a long way. And they know now that it’s better to check your blood sugar, like two hours after you eat check it before.
Alan 23:23
Yes, yeah,
Stephen 23:23
you’re fasting but also get your I forget what they call it. But it’s like, you know, after you’ve eaten after it’s gotten into blood. But then because of that, they also found that the glycemic index and some foods spike more or higher or faster. So you got ones that go in slowly. And you can like you said, You substitutions and again, what we said earlier, you adjust your body, adjust your flavor, taste buds, and Justin, you know, he actually can enjoy it just as much as anything else for you know, people don’t believe you. But you really can. Yeah,
Alan 23:58
I’ll tell you, you know, we’ve talked a lot like I don’t know, I haven’t gone on my bread machine rant for a long time. I really have an apothecary you know, and I have every kind of flour and add in and, and herb and everything you might want. And one of the things I’ve added is car billows flower, you know, it’s flour with all of the not gluten, but carbohydrates taken out of it. And I do like half Nam substitution with regular bread flour. And it tastes fine. It rises just right, the crumb of the bread is just fine. And so especially when you find out that you can do that kind of substitution and kind of like for free. It isn’t like Oh great. Now it tastes like cardboard. Well, I’ll enjoy it anyway. No, actually, I’ll do what I can do enjoy it if you know what I’m trying to say. The fact that we’ve tried these various different things and they seem to have all the good properties and not have added negative. I’m encouraged to continue to do research into that and say, I don’t know that I’m going to go full keto because I don’t I don’t have that desire to entirely cut out carbs and go only meat and actually get to you know ketosis and not you know, I don’t want to I’ve never had a problem with ketoacidosis. But there’s downsides of that where you wonder, am I doing any harm to liver and kidneys because of, I think that anything drastic like that I automatically have a little bit of everything to moderation Benjamin Franklin in me. And so I look for the incremental, the minor repair and then the major repair and see what is working that just seems more scientific instead of being abrupt. I don’t need to shock my body, I need to let my body kind of wake up and say, you’ll, if I did this to you, how would you handle it? And some things are went out, I feel sick to my stomach. Hmm, maybe that’s not my body doesn’t like that. It’s too much of this or it’s lacking. Absolutely a thing you said earlier about, you know, eat natural things, less of them. That’s like Michael Pollan has said that in a number of his books, and it really seems to be something that we’ve already pursued, when you go to the grocery store is stay on the outsides, right, you go to the produce section, you go to the dairy section, whatever else might be necessary. Every time you venture into the canned goods, and the snack bags and everything. Anything prepared is, is loaded with sugar bowl fat, you know what I mean to make it so you just get stopped eating those Doritos? Yeah,
Stephen 26:13
I think the biggest thing for people is the time it’s like, oh, it’s just quicker to get something frozen and throw it in the microwave. You know, as opposed to getting a recipe and mixing it together and putting it in the, that just seems like way too much. But I grew up that way. I’m used to it. And actually, it’s only been more recent years that I’ve gotten away from that. And it’s time to get back to it. And I would really love to get a recipe or two from you that you’ve been getting that as good diabetic wise, because I’ve got a bread machine, I just haven’t used it much. Because I look at pizza and bread and stuff. I’m like, Oh, I really shouldn’t eat that. Because I know what it does. I mean, I’ll check my blood sugar and normal eating for me will bring it up to about 120, which isn’t bad. But when I just one piece of pizza, it’ll bring it up to 140. If I have mashed potatoes, it could be up to 190 you know, so I really have to avoid that stuff.
Alan 27:09
Avoid the worst of them. Exactly. I’m happy. I mean, like, I think I might have mentioned when I first got the bread machine, and that, you know, came with the cool booklet, Eva zojirushi, which was like, very well rated and foolproof. And that’s what I was looking for. And they have a good little manual that had probably two dozen breads for me to try and I liked that. But it’s like wow, there’s a world of bread out there. So I hopped on to Amazon went to the red machine cookbook section found a whole bunch of them for like a penny plus 399 shipping. So I have like two dozen books now. And one of them is about the holidays. And one of them is about you know, they they have various different themes to them. And in some cases, just collections of cool recipes. And I we have tried hundreds of different brands at this point and have tried to put a star next to the ones we’re like oh this is fantastic. So what do you think like we make a thing called pilgrim bread. That is the perfect thing for like a holiday if you’re going to have it with a meal. It’s got a little bit of onion in there a little bit like a big Croton if you will, but a lot of herb tastes and it’s interesting is there just being bland bread it stands up to other food if you will. So I don’t know if that’s necessarily one of the low carb things unless I make it with the low carb flour and stuff like that it but I can tell you that that everything that I’ve tried to Karbala with flour with nothing has suffered. So maybe that’s at least a big substitution and and thrust that I can name is if you get not only bread flour, but Carlo’s flour and kind of go half and half I know I’m half better than I was and I haven’t I’m still not at the place where I check my blood sugar level ever I mean I don’t have the technology to do it I don’t stick my finger etc etc. By feel I never have oh well that bread made me drowsy because I spiked and then crash and whatever else might be going with hypo or hyperglycemia I think because I’m so big that maybe it takes a lot to affect me. But having said that
Stephen 29:11
you might be having the worst time ever Yeah. I kind of
Alan 29:17
this that I’m not sure whether I can’t think of a time when I’ve had Oh, I shouldn’t have had that because that really made me maybe out of nausea. I have noticed things but that but I haven’t ever noticed where it really like knocked me out is if I bet it coma type stuff. I’m no way I’m going there. Be careful knowing that I have now the possibility of if not a predisposition I should have brought myself to it by being the king of pizza and the king of
Stephen 29:46
Kong gene does it sum to exactly and the one one of the things I’ve heard, but it’s kind of like you roll your eyes but now I’m looking at it a little different is like well, if all I did was Prepare all my food bile that you know meats expensive vegetables are expensive, it’s cheaper to buy the frozen by the box, mix it up make mac and cheese, I get a box mac and cheese for a quarter you know, you know that so, but when you balance it with
Alan 30:16
grilled cheese sandwich, I can cheese for nine cents or whatever.
Stephen 30:21
But when you balance it with paying $450 a month for medicine, well you can put that into food and you’ll live healthier enjoy it. You know, that’s I think a large part of it. I know people who are don’t enjoy things, you know, I ate when I get up and I’m so tired. You know, I’m gonna sit here I’m not doing whatever today it’s like, what quality is that? How much fun are you having? What’s the point? Yeah,
Alan 30:46
see, it’s never gone that way. Luckily for me and call it you know, we still we not only are we walking, but we’re looking forward to hiking vacations. And, and I still haven’t gotten to where I can’t climb a mountain. I can’t you know what I mean? Like I usually get foot sore. But I think that’s not really that I’m too big. And then I’m pre diabetic. It’s that as you go on your you get less padding in your feet, you know, your body’s constitution changes various different ways. And so I have better boots, I have better socks, I do things that are going to let me still do this thing. And every time that we’ve gotten to the top of a mountain, it’s really a good feeling to be like, well, we’re in our 60s. And here we are, you know, when I was doing this when I was 25. And I saw the older people, the older couples, you know, moving a little bit slower, but still able to make it. That’s what I had in my mind was doing that I am not sitting down. I am not giving up. I want to be able to still make it to the top of Absolutely. Instead of peak. Yeah. And because it’s worth it. Because the VISTAs and the feeling of I did this, I’m up here. I didn’t helicopter and nobody else up here did I’m in good company that everybody else has the will and the perseverance, the smarts, the gumption, that whatever else that is the grit to say I’m going to start at the bottom and get to the top. I like those people. You know, whenever Colleen and I go to the Banff mountain Film Festival, the other people that are there are all just healthy. They’re they’re like, I’m going kayaking, I’m going hiking, we’re I like that. This world is a beautiful place. And sometimes it isn’t just driving by it in your car. You want to be out there, you want to be smelling the deep pine forest and you want to be like up on a mountain balled where the wind is so strong that you kind of have to yell at each other because the wind takes your voice away. It’s humbling and wonderful to get out in nature where it’s like wow, I need to be smart. I need to be careful about lookout for the change in temperature or look out for you know, don’t fall here. No one’s gonna find you and they remain very cool about I can still do this. I guess that that. Anyway, that’s what
Stephen 32:53
you’re calling got your COVID shots. Gina has hers. I haven’t gotten mine yet. I need two
Alan 32:59
thirds are available now as you know, Ohio, especially they brought the all the way down to 18 or whatever like that. So right. He’s Don’t hesitate. Right? You know,
Stephen 33:06
well, we’ve got things planned. You know, I don’t want to go out amongst people with the chance that I’ve got it with, you know, sometime I’ve got several conferences. This your I’m going to I, I have a list, I can update you on that. But I want to make sure I get the shot. But let me ask you this. So okay. A lot of people misunderstand vaccinations, and they don’t realize sometimes. Now I won’t trust that really, because you probably got vaccinated for several things when you were a baby. So it’s already in your system. What
Alan 33:41
are you talking about what you must have, you know, there’s no way that you grew up in the United States and didn’t get all your standard, like 10 different vaccinations for all the childhood diseases, right? You got a triple shot of DPT or DTP, measles, and rubella and all of it.
Stephen 33:57
I just want to say, Wow, you’re right. Obviously, vaccinations made people stupid. But you know, I refrain. But let me ask you this, though, because I haven’t looked this up. I haven’t seen it. But I was thinking about most of our vaccines that we get not only took years to develop, and have been tested over decades of time to be refined and work as well as they do in that. But this one was really, really rushed. Now I can understand now that might make people a little nervous. It makes me a little nervous that, you know, we got this out within months because I was reading something in the paper. And this doctor was saying, Oh, you know, don’t worry about long term effects. It’s fine. I’m like, how do you know that we haven’t had it long enough to know what long term effects there may be? So So what’s your thoughts on that?
Alan 34:46
So there’s lots of things that go into this, but here’s why I am reassured. The way that the world works nowadays is things don’t have to always happen in real time. We have such sophisticated testing and modeling and simulation that we get to very closely recreate various different environmental or biological conditions like the human body. And we like the mRNA vaccines that have been developed, were not only developed by putting it in people testing it to 10,000 100,000 people and seeing what happens, they were created, because they’ve really come to understand the mechanics of how cells work, how reproduction of viruses work, how those things interact, the different solution that they find themselves in and how you can feed or star various different things. So they silenced this deeply. And they developed it, not saying let’s try 100,000 different things and see which one works, they said, there should be something that looks like this, that will combat the way that these guys are, you know, you’ve seen pictures of the COVID vaccine, it’s a beach ball with all kinds of spikes out of it, you know what I mean? That it has all these reception points as to how it gets into yourself. And at that incredible microscopic level, the molecular down to almost the atomic level, they know how to say, how do we imitate it? How do we interfere with it? How do we stop it from getting the nutrients that it needs? It’s kind of the same mRNA technology was first used to think about cancer, to think of how can we fight cancer at that molecular level. So it’s a it’s a technology that has multiple uses, and we’re going to only get better and better and hear about it more and more. But instead of it being that we had to put it out to 10,000 1000 a million people and see what the long term effects are. If you run these simulations in the lab and into computer and do the equivalent of a 10 million person trial, and you see this percentage of untoward effects, you know that there is randomness, mutation possibilities of impurity and what you’re trying to do, you have to account for all those various different things. But when your stats turn out to be that it’s not 51%, which at least has efficacy, but it’s 60 and 80, and 90 and 95. And you get to all those confidence levels statistically. And that, you know, you’re always looking for not only, of course, the positive effects, but one of the side effects. And they’ve run a lot of stuff. And I’ve whenever I’ve been able to read has been very reassuring about how targeted and smart it is how it doesn’t seem to interfere with other natural processes that the COVID can do to you has so many natural, terrible effects, that the more that we can get to interfere with it with interactions. And you know, it’s, it’s that nothing is yes, no, right? Wrong. It’s all a matter of numbers. But boy, this is a great odds bet the answer is going to stop you from getting it, the odds are it’s going to limit and stop the effects of COVID from from being severe, that the odds of you having it in your system and being a carrier without having outward things, that it’s much lower, like it’s a win win win for at least the mRNA, which I think is mostly the Madonna and the Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson and AstraZeneca used like older and different technologies. And now they’re finding out that it isn’t a matter of the technology. It’s a matter of the purity of the process that reproduced the Johnson and Johnson that now they’re not sure that if they had the he had to throw away a bunch of batches because they’d become contaminated. And I just read a study that said now they’re worried about it might have a clotting effect. And and it really is important to not say does it or doesn’t it it’s always well is the clotting effect 1% or a 10th of a percent or 100%. Because over the course of a population, that might mean death. But it doesn’t mean a million deaths. It means 10,000 deaths and in order to save 330 million people.
Stephen 39:00
And there’s people that would argue that though But well, so
Alan 39:05
that, but that’s how I really do think about and look at the reason that that vaccines became decried in the first place was someone created a false association with autism. And then they started to say they they Oh my god, the rush of pseudoscience to say all the reasons that vaccines are not good. There’s mercury in there. They you can see people that really don’t get it that really don’t understand and don’t want to they don’t do any kind of research that says what the truth. They started to glom on to, you know, it’ll make you grow horns, it’ll kill your children. It’ll do whatever else it might be, and warrants
Stephen 39:40
are good. What’s wrong with
Alan 39:43
the fact that you had McCarthy like going up against the function of the world, and that people were saying, I’m going to go with Wow, the the MTV remote control spokesmodel instead of you and me, and I’ve
Stephen 39:56
studied this extensively. I was on Reddit. You Yesterday and this is what they
Alan 40:01
I watched a YouTube video when the guy was very stern, I’m sure yeah. So the one study that had any kind of connection has been totally now withdrawn. It was in The Lancet, you know, British publication. And this has created such an ongoing problem for not only that, in any particular study, but now any kind of vaccine that people. Boy, there’s just such a societal problem that says, you know, we, we were besieged by influenza, polio, all these childhood diseases, until we had the breakthrough of saying, you know, the milkmaids who deal with cow pox don’t get sick from smallpox, what’s the relationship there, and then that whole idea of Can I introduce a no a dead version of smallpox, but that your body still identifies it as such, and builds defenses, all that science still makes perfect sense. And it’s still really important to understand that, you know, our body is an engine, and it will give you a stimulus response, you know, the situation, and that you can’t let people talk out of that it works and that it works well. And that if there is that sad, tiny percentage of people that have an effect, it isn’t worth putting all of us at risk
Stephen 41:16
less than it would have been with.
Alan 41:18
Exactly. And so people who don’t get odds, people who don’t get probability are the ones that say, I can’t risk if there’s any possibility. And like, look at how you live your life, you drive your car, you what’s in it, you don’t know you in every way, you are not an odds person. And yet about this, you’re going to hyper focus. It’s inconsistent and foolish, because it’s yourself be scared, like,
Stephen 41:44
it’s what they want. It’s the results they want, you know, because a certain politician said, Oh, this isn’t real, I’m going to defend that with my life. And I’ll even get my gun and shoot you. If you don’t believe me, you know, that type of thing. But the, the one that I laugh at is the people that are you? Well, I’m not gonna get it, because they say it’s mutating. And scientists don’t know what they’re doing, because they’re letting it mutate. And so the vaccine isn’t going to help. It’s like, Well, hold on a second. First of all, mutation is common. It happens all the time. Flu does it two, three times a year.
Alan 42:23
We get a flu shot every year, since 1980. And it hasn’t been that there’s our flu, there has been variation after variation to fight it, and you get your tribe Andrew quadreal in shock, and it doesn’t even handle every flu, it handles the for most the the a list for that year. Yeah. full protection. You’re getting as best as science can give you but mass produced.
Stephen 42:45
Yep. And and then what they don’t understand is that the more people that are not vaccinated, that means there’s more incubation for the virus, which means there’s more mutation going on or mutation. Yeah, exactly. Like you folks, you’re making it worse, you know, and then this, this is where I get irritated then. So you’ll get somebody that goes on and on. And one of those people that doesn’t wear a mask and yells at store employees that says it’s my right and, and I don’t like breathing carbon dioxide, okay. You people do understand that there’s more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than anything else. First of all, you’re already reading it. So come on, but those people then I is what I see is they get COVID is like, Oh my god, it’s the worst thing ever. But then they want to be off work, they want to be on disability, they want this that near thing. And it’s like, oh,
Alan 43:37
I kind of brought it on myself. But now I throw myself on the mercy of society. Like we’re obligated to save them. And the risk that they put to every frontline worker, they came in contact with every medical personnel that’s now going to have to deal with their foolishness. It’s there’s a recklessness and a selflessness that I haven’t seen this strong growing up. Yeah, it’s always great. I just didn’t come in contact with but and, and I know whatever that thing is about people yelling about freedom and yelling the term nanny state, it’s like, Can we just change some of the terminology so instead of you thinking that it’s your being the big tough rebel, that instead you’re the one that went outside of the fence, brought in the chick, the triggers the triggers and ticks and now you’re infecting the entire compound. That’s who you are.
Stephen 44:28
How. How is ignoring this, and fighting it patriotic? That’s what I don’t get that. You know, I’m gonna put everybody at risk. My kids work retail, and at least two of them. At times people come in with mass, and they will step back from the people that like what’s wrong with you while you’re not wearing a mask. They’re like, Well, so what it’s all No, I have a grandfather at home that sick if you give me COVID then he’s go catch it and he’ll die and I don’t want that and you know, they They’re very outright. They’re like, you know, Collin works at the Comic store. People come in and start arguing the mask. He’s like, you know, what, if you’re gonna stand there arguing, just leave, because we don’t want you in the store. And we have that, right.
Alan 45:11
That’s fantastic to have them doing that. Because it really, really the first time you read about that, like this is a year ago now that you hear about people demanding that they get to go into the dollar store. Yeah, like, I just, I don’t know exactly what’s happened to have people, their mind so warped, that no matter what the government is doing, they hate it, because they’re the enemy. They’re always the ones that are trying to tell me what to do. And that no matter what big business or big pharmacy or anybody smart is trying to do that instead, it’s a conspiracy to give me a microchip, you ridiculous clown to even think that it’s saved more lives has done more good for the world than you ever will and your entire family line back to the start of history. And yet, because he’s microphone. Like, it just is. It’s amazing that people not only are crazy, but they find a focus for their crazy. And then once they have that straw man, that ridiculous argument, you can’t sway them. And I just don’t get it about any number of things about Ken trails about was the way I when I have some analogy in my mind is there we are hearing a lot of the same things said, as has been said about smoking for a long time. And like the same thing, have we noticed that deadly and yet you think that there’s still a hoax, you think that the science is still out. And in this case, it’s a year we know a year why smoky we have 50
Stephen 46:36
years, right?
Alan 46:39
That this is a really bad bet to give yourself lung cancer and to harm others around you everybody that you’ve worked with everybody in your family, and yet, so addiction is a terrible thing. And so what I’ve come to is, there really are means there really are ideas that are viruses of the mind, and they spread through the population has nothing to do with truth, but having to do with reproducibility and whatever other benefits people see them getting. And if the benefit of being the foolish, anti Vax, and you know, COVID is a hoax, whatever that thing is, I am indeed a proud rebel American who stands on my own two feet at once they have that no matter what conflicting information comes in and bounces off of them because they have they have their shield up. And everything that they do. They look for more confirming information. There’s a whole meme Plex, that starts to be in people that have odd ideas that they become more dig their heels in set in their ways than if they were trying to say, I wasn’t sure when I was going in. So I’ve continued to collect information. And if I found the bulk of information was indeed in refutation of what I first thought, I will change my mind. I think that there’s a particular kind of mind or kind of disposition that lets people rush to a conclusion. But then once they’re there, they will die before they give it out. Right? Well who just been wrong is so scary to them, that they just can’t bring themselves to do it. Despite all the risk, all the recklessness that they’re putting themselves and others through. They not only make their mistakes, they drag everybody in their circle into their mistake. And like, I don’t know, if I said I don’t believe this is real. And then I had an uncle die of COVID. Wouldn’t that be we talked earlier about a wake up call. Wouldn’t that be something like my, my preacher said come to church, it matters that we gather and then 30 people got sick? Wouldn’t that be something like let’s find some compromise here. I’m pretty sure that knows I’m at home, I’m pretty sure that he knows the strength of my faith and my my doesn’t have to be that I refute science that I refute. Since there are a few reality because that’s really cascade that happens. You’re living in an unreal world.
Stephen 48:54
So looking at numbers that statistic I read was that over 40,000 kids have lost at least one parent That’s horrible. I mean that target you know, school shootings are are horrible, but when 40,000 Kids lost a parent in some of those because people are idiots that makes you want to punch people in the face. So here is my thinking the other day it’s like okay, I’m gonna be make some assumptions. I understand that and it’s very stereotype assumptions. So we’re going to say that most of the people arguing fighting against wearing the masks and the the COVID shot vaccine are the 100 or below IQ points that it’s too much for them so
Alan 49:43
lineup you know think of the average person and then realize that half the world is dumber than that.
Stephen 49:47
Exactly.
Alan 49:49
So stupid. It’s whenever all those things are that go with they don’t want to get better they don’t want to look at it’s there’s there’s a weird I don’t mind people that process Slowly, I really don’t like the people have decided I’m not going to process whatever the first thing I hear. That’s what I’m going with exactly.
Stephen 50:06
But oh, well, well, we can talk about that, because I think sometimes it goes hand in hand. You might, but anyway, so let’s say, half of our population is in that range. And a lot of them get COVID and die, they’re gone. So what’s that do? Well, that shifts the IQ range, because the average of 100 there’s more people below 100 that are not around anymore. So suddenly, the average is 120 125. So in general,
Alan 50:37
that needle from 100 to 101.
Stephen 50:39
Well, yeah, that’s very true, you know, but but then that also means for Manson’s, we’re no longer at the top 2%, we’re like the top 8%, then the numbers will change.
Alan 50:53
You know, it’s a sad thing. Like I, if someone was trying to design a plague that would take out a reckless and foolish among us, this is one of those things,
Stephen 51:03
you want to design it somebody that is that bright and reckless and foolish. You know,
Alan 51:11
it this, what I’ve also read, unfortunately, is where is it really striking? It was for a while that it was striking in places where there was mass population kind of concentrated, so it hit New York and other big cities first. And while the while it was taking its time going around the country, it people were not as afraid. And we were even saying, like, you know, let the bad people get it, we’re safe here in our more isolated existence, that you name it, whether it was Arkansas, or South Dakota, or Idaho or something like that. And then when they find out that, if it reaches you at all, if someone flies in drives through, goes to your whatever else it might be once it’s there, the virus doesn’t really care what your IQ is, or what your disposition isn’t, whether you are a freedom fighter, or, or whatever else it might be. And then it ravages those populations because they haven’t developed any of the good habits of social distancing. And wear a mask and just be Be careful about yourself and about your relationship with others. And so then it there’s a huge spike. And and then like, I don’t know, they’ve lost all of their moral high ground of well, it’s not hitting us good people. That’s good, isolated, white people here in South Dakota. And I hate saying it that way. But there really seems to be some weird virus.
Stephen 52:31
The virus doesn’t care about color, race, gender, religion, anything. It’s isn’t equality. It’s a big equality.
Alan 52:40
Whether you know, who’s getting like, hey, if the poor, black people are dying, that it doesn’t bother me as much. Oh, my God, what an ugly thought. Without ridiculous, inhuman fault. Yeah. When we when we get to really thinking that we are all brothers were all equal, we all have to take care of each other. So the laws of hospitality of, you know, treat a stranger like a friend, not an enemy. Those are a way to build a better world. And yet, we’ve got the means for isolationism and distrust. And, and I don’t know who your classic quote of, I think was Lyndon Johnson, you know, as long as the lowest white man thinks that the highest black man is still somehow inferior to him, you’re never going to convince that lowest white man, that is not true. And what an awful thing to think that that Sherm is in the United States, and that it was still and not to be weird. You know, we talked about having we learned from influenza, haven’t we learned from vaccines? And we haven’t we learned about F is the ridiculousness of racial supremacy. We fought a war about that the Nazis went over that the excuses that they use for why they are the master race bullshit from the start. And that is the stuff that was pseudoscience up to give them that appeal. To hear those things repeated, even though they’ve been so proven not true, is disgusting. It’s for the weak minded or the weak willed or the people. It doesn’t have to be that they’re weak at all. They want something so bad that they will grasp onto any possibility to act as if I guess I am the powerful one. I guess I am the one my you know, with the accident of my birth has given me an irrefutable advantage. And og, yo and I mean,
Stephen 54:28
yeah. So yeah. So with the COVID. Now, you’ve got the the shot. I know we both have a lot of plans. Here’s one that came up on mine, that me and Gina really want to go see and this is a good reason for me to go get the vaccine is Cheech and Chong are coming around and doing a tour.
Alan 54:53
You know, I really loved some of their albums when I was young. Are they still able to pull it off?
Stephen Schneider 54:58
I have no idea. It’s a totally different world than the seven
Alan 55:01
train wreck or it could be that they’re still witty? I, I’m curious. There’s I know we’ve had really good experiences with really bad experiences with seeing people kind of later in their career and whether they had lost a step or now. So you know, I mean, we, I we just saw Uncle Larry read from Chicago and he was still sharp and witty and good. And we’ve also seen like Roseanne Barr, where she really wasn’t anywhere near what she was at the height of her powers. And so I’m I’m kind of fighting those two things. Having said that, never seen Cheech and Chong. Oh, there’s something that says, I really want to be able to say, I saw James Taylor and, you know, I flood Cheech and Chong and I saw these people before we lost them, right. I want to know that you’re not getting any younger, like, I’m not.
Stephen 55:48
It’s smaller venues. So you’re definitely going to need the vaccine. But, you know, when you look at Cheech and Chong, they weren’t like, they weren’t insulting. I mean, you know, Cheech is Mexican American. So I mean, especially in the 70s. You can’t say anything about the, the demographics or whatever, because he is one of the lower demographics. So he could say just about anything, but they never really did. It was never about race and stuff. It was more about. Yes, a lot of his jokes were Chicanos in LA, and you know, stuff like that. But
Alan 56:28
that’s, you know, that really was his life experiences. Exactly.
Stephen 56:31
Yeah. But it wasn’t so insulting, as it was pointing out the absurd. You know, we talked about this last week. What’s funny? Yeah, what I’m not trying to insult I’m not trying to, I’m not even insulting or picking on white people. You know, this is just what it is. Make it absurd. It’s funny. And really, that’s what Cheech and Chong is taking the the hippie drug culture of East LA and making it comedy pointed out how absurd some of it is, you know, they went through
Alan 56:59
that your drug addled self is not your thinking self and stuff like that.
Stephen 57:04
Yeah, you know, and you got Shawn, who’s just man, he wants to play music and take drugs. And Cheech is always wanting to make a buck wanting to do something better. And, you know, always get him in trouble.
Alan 57:17
I’ll tell you what, you know, we all write the stories of our lives. If the story of your life is going to be Cheech and Chong saved me, because I needed to go see cheat sheets on my vaccine, I want you to write that story.
Stephen 57:29
There we go.
Alan 57:30
You know, and honestly, please do I, you know, whatever plans we have, they’re not going to be doable, we can go see this as in like, meals and whatever else it might be. And so the fact that I’m coming up, I’m three days away from my being two weeks. That’s my second vaccine. So I will have it in the best armor I can get currently, Colleen is after that. And I don’t know what we’re going to do. I don’t know that we’re going to go start living life like we almost did, we’re still gonna wear a mask and be safe. Here is that thing if a mask slips, if I find myself in a situation where someone’s not wearing a mask, and I don’t know whether they’ve been decent or not, I won’t have that immediate fear of Oh, my God, he might have just put me at risk of my life. Right. And it’ll be Well, I hope that my armor saved me from certain amount of shrapnel coming my way. What I mean, right, so
Stephen 58:21
So what other icy blossom is opening up for some shows.
Alan 58:26
Right? And in fact, there’s there are, you know, we have comedy shows that we want to go see, so not only Cheech and Chong, but like I said, we are going to go see James Taylor and Jackson problem, what a double bill. And I’ve seen James Taylor a couple times before. And, and I you know, as you know, I’m a big prog rocker. I love bombastic, complex stuff. But there is nothing like seeing a guy like James Taylor, who could come out on a stage and sit on a stool, and with his guitar, just have the crowd in the palm of his hand. You know what I mean? I do the same thing at Kent stage where it’s just everyone in the place loves him. Everybody is singing along. He’s still got such a great talent and voice and the stories he has to share from his long career. It’s gonna be a wonderful evening.
Unknown Speaker 59:09
I mean, I
Stephen 59:12
was one of those that people are like, oh, James Taylor. Yeah, I remember him kind of, but then you play a couple songs. They’re like, Oh, I love that song. It’s like James Taylor. You know, they don’t realize it. And it’s another one of those that everybody knows a couple James Taylor songs and knows them to sing, because it’s very acoustic and very, it’s made to sing with, you know, it’s the Kumbaya around the campfire.
Alan 59:38
Exactly. And it really are there’s some singer songwriters that have been so canny about creating those melodies. You know, Billy Joel, elton john, john, john Denver, that they just made songs that were anthems the minute that they were written that everybody to Neil Diamond, you know what I mean? As much as and I don’t know, they’re softer. Often. They it’s kind of funny. I got ticket, the test. Cuz I heard he does not as a rule rock, James. I think it’s full crock. I think it’s, you know what I mean? But but his, like, I don’t know, Paul Simon has just had such an amazing career of great songs incorporating other musics. always like, Wow, he wrote great songs for 50 years. Who else can say Randy Newman, you know that they didn’t have like a good 10 year period and then kind of became derivative and tailed off know that the fountain of their talent has continued to shower the world for so long. It’s an amazingly cool thing that people have that creative spark and that craft and talent in them that they’ve been able to like change as the world has changed with still be this cool. creator. And again, cross boundaries. You
Stephen 1:00:44
may not say James Taylor is rock, but I guarantee the heaviest metal head knows a James Taylor song or two and may have even played it on guitar, you know, it’s they there everybody. Bob Dylan is another one. You know, I mean, look at when he went to electric, and people wanted to crucify him like, Oh, that’s horrible. You know?
Alan 1:01:07
He’s not a guy. He’s continued to make only a couple more decades of great music,
Stephen 1:01:11
right? And then he just sell like his catalog for billions of dollars or something. Yeah,
Alan 1:01:19
some of the stuff we do. Is that, okay, I know, there’s a couple people that are doing that now that are saying, you know, I get to buy an island. Even Bowie sold stock in himself, you know what I mean, for, like, 20 years of his career and continue to produce so it was a good deal for everyone. I think maybe Aerosmith did a similar thing. So yeah, that they actually, the contract they signed wasn’t only to make albums, it was to kind of like incorporate themselves and say, you buy a share in our future works. And we’re going to share this risk together if you think we’re going to produce a couple other great albums and buy in, and indeed some of that beloved and elevate whatever else came up after this deal was like, thank you for making my investment. Good. Yeah.
Stephen 1:02:02
Here’s something recent, this is getting off the where we go go for a second. So Def Leppard is releasing some playlists on Spotify, I got to look for exactly what it is. But they like had the early years, which is some of their first stuff. They had won the Viv Campbell years, which is when Steve died, and then Viv came in his guitar. Okay, you know what, they had one of the playlists as the two arm years.
Alan 1:02:34
Oh my god. Everyone knows about it. Why not? just embrace the Exactly. Wow.
Stephen 1:02:48
Okay, so so we’re going camping. We’ve got probably five or six weekends throughout from now till the end of summer planned for camping. We’ve got all our stuff ready. You know, we like to go out extended weekends a couple times. Close it places things like that. So what are things are you guys doing now that maybe we can go out this year?
Alan 1:03:11
Yeah. So it’s we’re not campers, as you know, we tend to like, you know, when no matter what we do during the day, we want to have a hotel room to have a shower, out the door and stuff like that. But we’re going to do at least one trip to like Shenandoah, you know, which there’s the Shenandoah and the New River Gorge, which is a new the new National Park. And there’s other beautiful things to see around there. There’s there’s historic stuff there scientific stuff. So a little week trip we’re being very careful about So where are we going to stay? How do we find out that this isn’t? I don’t know, I often like staying in independent places because they’re a little bit more unique and more homey and stuff like that. But what I want is a corporate thing that says we have standards that say we have scrubbed your room down top to bottom, you will not have any breakfast buffet interactions with you want to meet I’m looking for safety. So but we’re probably gonna do at least that trip maybe sometime in May for a week to get out and hike around and see some sights. We really want to go see my mom and dad now even before that trip, we were playing a trip with mom and dad. And we’re probably going to put that off for a little while because I think I’ve mentioned my mom has Alzheimer’s. And it’s she’s doing okay, but not doing great. And so my dad has requested that while they’re pursuing more examination, perhaps a new drug whatever else it might be that can help to have your have more good days than bad that we not come out for a while. And so I’m I’m torn, you know, I’m almost certainly going to tear up during this. You know, so much what a respect my mom and dad and in their they have a wonderful life but I want to see my mom, I don’t want it to be that you know their mom took a turn for the worse and left us for I had a chance to say I love you one more time and so We’re going to negotiate that with Dad, you know what I mean? I’m going to see what we can do to make it are coming out there doesn’t have to be a stress or it can be that we don’t come and stay with them. But that we stay in a local hotel, we visit with him a couple hours a day, when mom needs a nap when mom needs needs to be taken care of a little bit. We don’t have to be in the way we can. We also we can help you want to meet if there’s things around the house to help clean up prepare food, or we’ll be happy to make breakfast everyday, whatever else it might be, I kind of want to convince my dad that are coming out there is not only going to be a burden, an addition to what’s going on. But but it would be an addition it would be a appelle benefit rolling the hell. Exactly. And, and so you know, already having examined, I think we can fly safely. If we can’t drive out to California in anywhere in five days,
Stephen 1:05:53
I’m going to bet there’s some places you could stop on the way
Alan 1:05:57
and see just, you know, driving to California and back gives us it’s a rocky, Utah as I’ve already this is I love doing trip planning. And I’ve already got a nice trip planned to like, go out on 80 and come back on 40 and maybe do some 70 in there. But you know, like, it’s important to put on reasonable road miles each day. But there are indeed things to see all along the way. And we’ve saved up all kinds of vacation time because of COVID. And so if it really is that we can find a way to do it safely. I’m not sure because we will be going some places where it isn’t a big town, it’s a small town, can we safely know that we even if we keep our masks on that we stop and go into subway and that it’s not like COVID Central, I have to overcome some momentum that I have of I’ve been really careful. I don’t want to blow it because I stopped in a place. Right lahoma and I was a fool. You know what I mean? So
Stephen 1:06:51
we’ve kind of done the same thing, because, you know, Gina had a huge, rough month with her mother and her nephew. And her dad still too. But and then her niece so you know she’s had a rough beginning of the year. But we’ve doubled down and we’ve got plans. Next week, we’re going out to dinner with some old friends of hers that I’ve met for like five minutes. And but I’ve talked to him online, and we’ve gone and had lunch with her brother and her sister and sibling or spouses. And we got another one planned. We’re going up to see her dad. Hey, Dad, how are you doing this?
Alan 1:07:31
You know, I kind of get in your face a minute. Are you okay with this? We mean you, you know that they’ve taken enough care that they’re vaccinated or you just kind of saying we’re done with it. Now,
Stephen 1:07:41
we when like when went to the restaurant, it was separated from anyone else. And honestly, deutz and Mark are older. So I think all the siblings Gina and her two brother and sister, they’ve had the shot and I think spouses have I might be the only holdout at this point. Maybe I have to check. But I think there was we avoided being right in each other’s faces. You know, we can see each other across the tables, there were three tables all separated a little bit. So me and Gina were at one. And maybe we talked a little louder. You know, we tried to avoid getting too close.
Alan 1:08:21
So it’s not six feet, you know what I mean? You know,
Stephen 1:08:24
I was closer to Gina than anyone else. You know, as I’m close to her anyway. So yeah, it’s it’s like you said, it’s where do you balance? And, you know, what do you risk? I guess? Honestly, I feel like I’m taking more of a risk just to go down to the Dollar General at times. The hardware store. I went to the hardware store the other day, I got a new weed whip. Okay, so there’s my new toy to play with. But I went down there. Yeah, well, I had a mask on. I’m like, so what people that work, or go to hardware stores don’t have to wear masks anymore. I’m like Jesus Christ people. So
Alan 1:09:04
I have gone I’ve been the one from college and I going out regularly, I made the provisions runs to Costco and from works and stuff like that, and have gone you noticed that you go through the drive thru window, and I keep my mask up, and they have their mask up when I noticed that sometimes it’s under the nose. I’ve written a little note on the, you know, Parker, Camry Donald’s or whatever subway app that says, hey, you know, this store will not come here. Again, if I if this is how you’re going to be lackadaisical about this, because that person saw 10,000 people at the window today. What are you doing to not have this be as strict as you possibly can make it you know,
Stephen 1:09:39
most of the times it’s a younger person, and they’ve got the biggest transmission rate going on right now, because they haven’t gotten the vaccine.
Alan 1:09:48
Exactly. That’s right. So I don’t know we’re not going to Michigan is that Scott, and I have a friend Mike, who is really good about, well, what are the real stats and odds and so I don’t want to To be that I’m also yes or no spike means that it’s 2%, no set of 1%. And so that’s still not that the whole state is just rife with it. And yet, everywhere that I can make choices to hedge my bets and keep my odds as low as I possibly can, I’m going to do that. And I’m I don’t know, we’re not, we’re not ready for dinners out yet. We we did test so we have friends that can, Kelly, that they’re kind of in our bubble. We’ve known them for a long time, they seem to have been taking as good care as we have. They have a farm out in Norwalk, so they are mostly away from people. So we’ve gotten together with him a couple times in the fall. And now where we have a picnic outside, we are indeed separated. We keep our mask on all the time, except when we’re eating, even when we position ourselves as we’re talking kind of adage, but not directly. And so I think that’s been safe. But then when you just start talking about what you’ve been doing in your life, I sure hope that for as many times as I’ve gone to marks and there weren’t people with masks on that I didn’t get cooties on me and that I wasn’t unknowingly then a carrier at the rotary or in you know, Sheltie like a dog rescue club and stuff like that. And all the stories that they tell you hope that everyone and every one of those stories was masked, because they have a totally isolated themselves. And so we get a little bit of, oh, boy, you know, you’re kind of are out here in farther west, Trump country, Ohio. You are really as Okay, as you’ve been thinking you are at portraying to us No, please, Nick and Kelly, if you listen to this, please don’t take it wrong. But you know what I mean, really ancient people. And they not everybody in your Bible has exactly the same risk, awareness and tolerance that you do. And so I, I think that cold calling is ready to go out again. Yeah, business do things. Once were vaccinated, we know where safer is we’re going to get so time to get back to World. But I kind of don’t want to be that I went to the state that really is been allowed not now for entire year has not been taken care of itself, because there really is staunch opposition. And like, there’s a lot of places to go. Besides that place, how beautify well, more the place safe. I’m gonna go to Oregon, because they have been smart from the start. And I’ll spend some time in Portland
Stephen 1:12:27
or whatever else. So, you know, here’s partly probably, from our viewpoint to a little little different, because Gina works medical, she works in a doctor’s office, she works in a cramped enclosure with like eight other women that, you know, it’s impossible to avoid. And then people come up to the window and they’re lean in on the window. They use the pens that so it’s kind of like a very impossible feat for her to say, Well, I completely avoided COVID all day, you know, when she comes home and says yeah, there were four COVID patients in the office today. Well, he often said, you know, you had one practitioner on this, put them in the room and talk to him, you had another someone come in to talk to him health and that and they went down and they walked through the hall and passed other people. And even if Gina wears a mask, and she does her hands all the time, she’s like, still, there were like four other people in the office exposed. And I you know, so we’ve kind of got the thing, like we’re doing everything we can, but you know, everything. I could stay in the house for the next year, but she still goes to the office every single day. So we did go out to eat Friday night, we went to this new place in Cuyahoga Falls, called a plus crap, and seafood. And they you know, I called and asked him, I’m like, do you have limited seating? Do we need a reservation? Do you wear masks? You know, I asked him that. They said, Oh, yeah, we clean everything. After every person needs. We keep everybody separated. All of our servers were masked the whole time. And I never saw any of the servers at the mass pulled down or anything like that. They were all up
Alan 1:14:07
taking a break.
Stephen 1:14:09
And we were nowhere near anybody else’s table. I couldn’t even hear other conversation, just a low murmur. But the reassuring?
Alan 1:14:17
Yes, I hope are doing that. When we take our walks through liquid and we see some of the outdoor cafes that because they’re outdoors. They don’t seem to be necessarily putting people far enough apart, in my opinion,
Stephen 1:14:29
right. So we did see, we had a couple times Oh, maybe we do this. We stopped one place a while back. And we looked at Gina said Oh no. Nobody in there is wearing a mask and they’re all bunched up. We’re not eating here and we love doing that. You know. So, again, you got to mitigate your own risk, I guess. And for us that you know she’s exposed every day. So she does everything she can while she’s at work. And she’s got the shot. I’m going to get the shot here soon. I have to if I want to go some of these people
Alan 1:15:01
Rossi, there’s so many websites you can now go to that you can sign up that day. And are you being a little bit further out of the city, there really are places that when they get doses, they get 1000 doses. So they don’t necessarily have 1000 people that are lined up. So you should be able to go to who’s doing in your area of Fire Department, a school, a church that might
Stephen 1:15:21
have
Alan 1:15:23
shot that afternoon,
Stephen 1:15:25
the guy down the road that does taxidermy and he sells on a little stand, they think he said, I licked it off. It’s fine.
Alan 1:15:36
It’s running through the fire a couple times, because he does some cool work out back. He’s got a good blowtorch. Hey, Tony,
Stephen 1:15:41
it was good. Hey, before we go, I have an album or actually an artist for you that I haven’t heard you mentioned before. I don’t know if you’ve heard of them. His name is Haywood banks.
Alan 1:15:55
He does those great funny stuff. Ohio, but he did like big butter Jesus and stuff like that, as I’ve told right?
Stephen 1:16:03
And wiper blades wiper blades as my
Alan 1:16:05
or whatever, whatever. Yes, exactly. So he’s really good. It’s a again, we tried to close the show with this. My wonderful discovery lately has been I’ve been going into collections, I found out that I’m missing some Simpson’s CDs. You know, not only do they have, of course, a billion episodes, but they’ve collected albums. Oh, and so I bought three I only had a couple of my head Songs in the Key of Springfield and Simpson sing the blues and they were both really good. I got the sense the movie soundtrack a little bit too orchestral and ambient, not. But the yellow album. And then the testify is just loaded with great excerpts from the show that lead into little songs. And sometimes they’re only like a minute or three minutes. But, man, that show has never jumped the shark. Yeah, they have been Vinny for 30 plus years of 3437. I’ve lost track now. They continue to be so witty and pithy perfect with word choice, and culturally right on what is worth being made fun of nowadays, you know what I mean? They’ve had all kinds of great guest stars they’ve had, they’re just, they make me crack up. Like I did have 30 songs on here, because we’re all shorter. And I must have laughed out loud at 20 to 30. They’re just so witty. I think that one of my favorite lyrics of all time, is they did a song that was a parody of the Planet of the Apes. And the guy sings, I hate every a buy see from chimpanzee, a chimpanzee. And that to think of the width that goes into that. It’s observed, but it’s hilarious. And so that’s my recommendation, folks seek out some good Simpson CDs, and they will brighten your day they will crack you up, along with Simpsons, I cannot even see. So I had to seek them out. Because I’ve heard many of his songs. I need to get his collections. So okay.
Stephen 1:17:51
Yeah, good stuff. I agree. All right.
Alan 1:17:54
So all right. Take care. We’ll see you in a week. Oh, I should mention in case you’re available Memorial Day weekend, we’ve been invited to do a live podcast down in Texas. That is a live podcast at NRG just down in Texas. So please check your schedule and be something might be out of town for the weekend. You’re talking about camping trips. I’m wondering if you’re doing one as well. And so that will be of course our will coordinate schedules or we won’t. Okay, is
Stephen 1:18:16
it is it live or virtual?
Alan 1:18:19
It’s it’s well. I guess it could be virtual if they want us to do live like we’ve been doing at Cincinnati and Columbus and stuff like Dayton. But we could do a pre taping depending on what the theme of their RG is. Focus on the theme have been and that seems to work out. Okay. That’s all. Alright,
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
