October 9, 2025 • 36 mins
Today, Doug Pike discusses the 50+ Expo, moldy cheese, and spooky shows.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Remember when it was impossible to misplace the TV remote
because you were the TV remote for you. Remember when
music sounded like this, Remember when social media was truly social?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey John, how's it going today?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Well, this show is all about you on the goode.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Helpful information on your finances, good health, and what to
do for fun. Fifty plus brought to you by the
UT Health Houston Institute on ag Informed Decisions for a healthier,
happier life and now fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
All right, here we go.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Thursday edition of the program starts right now. Thank you
all for listening. I really really appreciate it. Especially if
you listened yesterday you would know that I was out
at the fifty plus expo in Stafford at Stafford Center.
Few new friends, ran into some quite a few people
I know. Actually, I was quite surprised to bump into
some people that I've done business with, and one current client,
(01:10):
one probably soon to be current client. If I can
get some stuff done with him, and a few more
people I think that I would love to have in
this show and represent if I can talk them into
doing a little business with me. I did see Wayne
Errington from a ride bikes. He was there with three
different models of his bicycles, including or well their e
(01:32):
bikes is what they are, and he had one of
his three wheel bikes, and hey, if you're up there
and you can't really support yourself well on a two
wheel bicycle, that three wheel transportation might be just what
you need to go down to the mailbox and back,
or just cruise around outside, get a little vitamin D,
whatever it takes. And then I got a chance to
(01:55):
test fire test ride that big what is it called
the Rambo Megatron, which I think would be an ideal
vehicle for riding. The whole time I was riding around
the parking lot at Stafford Center, which is it was
still cool to be riding a knee bike. That's the
first time I've been on one. And by the way, yes,
(02:17):
I was wearing a helmet to keep my melon in
one piece if i'd happened to fall, but I didn't.
It was actually surprisingly simple to get that thing started
and then have it take over and do the pedaling
for me.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Well, it just does the acceleration and movement for you.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
You don't have to keep pedaling and keep up with
the way that thing would have pedaled to go as
fast as I was going. Anyway, Wayne provided me with
a beautiful red, white and blue helmet to keep my
head on straight, and I wore it the whole time
I was on that thing, and the whole time I'm
riding this deal, this machine, and it is a machine.
It's a big bold machine, got big old wide tires
(02:58):
on it. I'm thinking of either half the time I
was thinking about riding up and down the North Padre
Island shoreline with rod racks on the back and parking
it and hopping off and standing it up on the kickstand.
Have to make a bigger kickstand so it wouldn't sink
into the sand. There's bound to be a way to
(03:19):
support that thing. Maybe a who cares, I'm going to
be jumping off that bike and fishing. That's what I'm
going to be doing at some point probably in my life,
if I find a way to get one of those things.
And then the flip side of that, for the hunting
side of me, is that it would be ideal for
slipping through the woods just silently and then when you
need the power to haul out your big carcass and
(03:39):
the big buck on the back of it on a
little trailer. That thing will do it. As Wayne likes
to say, if it could get traction, it could climb
a wall. It's that strong. It was an impressive machine.
I got to tell you, it really was. So anyway,
he had that three wheeler there, he had a regular
bike there, and I think he had a pretty good show.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
I had a great time.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Ran into Rich Carr from Pink's Pink's window cleaning service.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
That was good. He did my house a week and
a half ago.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
I guess it was about that you don't really realize
how dirty your windows are until they're clean, if that
makes sense. Nice guy, really good crew, Another good small
business that I've come across, and I'm hoping to be
able to speak in a more official capacity for him
fairly soon, and I'll let lots more met lots more
folks who have our needs and your needs in mind.
(04:31):
I'll be contacting them for the next few days, kind
of hoping I get a chance to share what they
do with all of you. These are really good people
and it's a snapshot. Granted I haven't I haven't really
vetted them completely, and I will before I take them
on his clients.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Uh, but just talking to people.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
I've been doing this for twenty five years, and I
feel pretty confident that I can root out the ones.
There were a couple of people I talked to. It
doesn't matter who, uh, but there were a couple of.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
People I talked to.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
I thought, Yeah, this isn't really what I want from
my audience. So it doesn't matter who they are, doesn't
matter what their business was.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
It just it just doesn't seem like a good fit.
So I'll let that go.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
There's still good people, but maybe just not quite the
right business model, maybe not quite the right pricing structure
or whatever. I just I don't know. I try them
all and see if it's gonna work, and then we
move forward from there. Speaking of moving forward to the weather,
and this won't take long. If you like what you
see and feel outside today, you are gonna love the
(05:33):
next entire week. We're finally looking at a few high
temps in the eighties. Granted the high eighties, but it's
still the eighties, not the nineties. And then we're gonna
have a couple of lows here in the sixties. High sixties, yes,
but still the sixties, not the seventies or eighties, like
we had boy a few times this summer, and then gosh,
last summer, it seemed like every night it was about
(05:55):
eighty five degrees. That that was the bottom. That was rough, man,
I remember it like everybody else does. No legit, rain
chance is really in sight through at least next Wednesday too.
I didn't look any farther than that. When I can
take it all the way from Thursday to Wednesday with
the highest chance of rain at ten percent, that's all
I want to look at.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
I'm happy about that.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
By the way, that hurricane out in the Atlantic is
expected to do, as several have done so far this year,
it's kind of down I don't know, little lower than
Florida and eyeballing the East coast. But all of the
tracking models that I've looked at so far show that
thing making a hard right turn to the north before
(06:39):
it gets close, and then another hard right turn back
to the east and just heading out into the Atlantic Ocean.
Really glad to see this cooler weather on the way too.
That's we're never really out of the woods with the
tropics where we live.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
That really aren't.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
There have been named storms to hit the US mainland
and every month of the year, even December, January, and February.
If you're in the wrong spot at the wrong time,
you might take one. But so far, so good this year.
Always I'll never forget that when I talk about storms
in the golf of Mexico or in the Atlantic Ocean
(07:16):
or anywhere, I don't want them to hit anybody in
our country and US especially, we have a stake in it. Obviously,
in market news, which I didn't really get into yesterday,
it was pretty good. Everything was green yesterday This morning,
though they were kind of as much red as they
were green yesterday. Same with gold, which shut about forty
bucks but was still north of four thousand dollars an ounce.
(07:40):
Oil came down about a quarter or so last time
I looked, and likely no change at the pumps for
a while. We are going to take a break, and
on the way out, I'll tee it up with ut
Health Institute on Aging, that collaborative of providers all over town,
really mostly in the med center, as you might expect,
but there are also many of them who who travel
(08:00):
to outlying communities, outlying hospitals and clinics and offices so
that they can treat people who need to see them
and the people who need to see them because of
their special training. It's additional training to what got them
their diplomas and their titles. But they go back and
learn more about how they can apply that knowledge specifically
to seniors, and man does that help. We are very
(08:24):
fortunate here in Houston to have at our fingertips people
who specifically want to raise the level of care they
can provide to us, and they take it upon themselves.
It's not something that they have to go back for.
They go back because they want to. They want to
help us. Go to the website, look around, see all
(08:45):
the resources that are there, first of all, and then
work your way toward a provider who can help you
as well or better than anybody else in their field
to get feeling better from whatever else is whatever's ailing you.
Uh dot edu slash aging, ut dot edu slash aging.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Hell, they sure don't make them like they used to.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
That's why every few months we wash him, check his fluids,
and spray on a fresh coat o wax. This is
fifty plus with Doug Pike. All right, welcome back to
fifty plus. Thanks for listening, certainly to appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Man.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
I have all kinds of stuff that I didn't get
to yesterday. I might try to get to some of
that in a minute.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
I might not. It all depends on how deeply I
can get into what I've prepared for today. I suppose uh.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
In Shipwreck News, and if you've listened to this program
long enough, you know that I'm just goofy for shipwrecks
and their discovery and what's there at the bottom of
the sea. And this one actually goes a long ways
back and it's actually.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Well, I don't want to repeat myself and say actually again.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
But it is one of eleven ships actually out of
an armada I guess you could call it, or a
flotilla or whatever that we're headed back to to Spain
after visiting what is now the coast of Florida in
the year seventeen fifteen, which it just fascinates me that
(10:13):
something that happened two hundred gosh, three hundred, Holy cow,
three hundred and ten years ago, three hundred and ten
years ago, and there's written record of everything that was
on these ships, which is fascinating as well. The bottom
line is they found one of the ships and already
(10:34):
have recovered gold and silver coins that were on that
ship that are valued at more than million dollars. Now,
this particular one of the eleven headed for Spain when
the storm hit, all said to be carrying in total,
well I don't know how much was on this one ship,
but the total among the group of ships was about
(10:55):
four hundred million dollars in gold, silver, and jewels. The loot,
in case you're thinking about going over there with a
snorkel and seeing if you can scrape some off the bottom,
belongs to the US District Court for Florida by US law,
so no, you can't keep it, even if you find it.
Silver coins found so far have been traced to Bolivia, Peru,
(11:17):
and Mexico, which I find pretty interesting. And no word
of the origins of the gold coins they found yet.
But all of that just especially with gold at four
thousand dollars an ounce, Holy cow, everything is. Everything's getting
more expensive, I suppose, especially the things made of gold.
Not bad time to be well, I guess it had
(11:39):
been a better time to be in the gold business,
back when you could have bought it for a couple
of thousand dollars an ounce or even less than one
thousand dollars an ounce and just put it in a
shoe box, hide it under your bed and see what happens.
Because you'd been sitting pretty good right now. Let's see,
I took care of that. Took care of that. Let's
move to the peace deal so that President Trumps has
(12:01):
put together for Gaza, which is supposed to be in
motion as we speak. Actually it includes release of all
the hostages, which I think is fantastic.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
That just had to be to make it work.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Obviously, both sides, all of which is expected to come
together between kind of now on the weekend and mark
the end of that horrific conflict once the deal sign
and approved. Ceasefire is supposed to start after twenty four hours.
I hope neither side tries to get in kind of
a parting shot. Just let it go as soon as
(12:34):
it's sign sealed and delivered. Just let's just stop all
this nonsense. Hamas is tasked with release and all the
hostages as they have the one still alive, which is
about twenty by recent assessment, and then the bodies of
twenty eight believed to be deceased. But here's the issue there.
According to to Hamas. Some of the bodies may be
(12:55):
under rubble, which I guess is convenient for Hamas to
to say, but there's bound to be some accounting for
them somehow. They're gonna they need to find a way. Really,
the IDF's gonna begin withdraw within twenty four hours of
that signed agreement. They're gonna maintain a small four so
in Gaza until all the hostages are freed, and then
(13:19):
everybody back to work putting everything together. Jerusalem, by the way,
is going to release about seventeen hundred Gozins and two
hundred and fifty or sold Palestinians who are currently being held.
That prisoner release, worth noting, does not include people who
participated in the October seven attack. There are people who
(13:40):
who did things after that to get themselves caught and
tried and convicted and jailed. But anyway, this thing's been
a long time coming. I hope both SuDS stick to
the terms and regain some peace in that part of
the world. There's just no reason for it to have
gone on as long as it has, and I'm glad
there is appears to be at least resolution forthcoming. Speaking
(14:04):
of resolution forthcoming, I wish they could get that done.
With this government shut down, we're dealing with delaying paychecks
for a lot of people, a whole lot of people
who need that money. Now. Most of them, if not
all of them, will be reimbursed once the money starts
cooking again. Once that happens, they'll get their money. But
(14:27):
in the meantime, a lot of these people live pretty
much paycheck to paycheck, and it will be very difficult
for them to navigate paying a car payment, maybe just
buying groceries even for some, until this government of ours
gets their ducks in a row. The Left keeps wanting
you and made a fund all sorts of freebies for
illegal immigrants, and the longer they hold onto that position,
(14:50):
I think, the clearer the vision of Americans as to
just what the left really wants for our country. I'm
glad conservatives are holding their ground. I really, because adding
more than a trillion dollars to our national debt won't
help a single American. None of that money's going to
help anybody who is an American citizen's best I can tell,
(15:12):
and not one of us. The deeper the Left digs
in on this one, the worst they kind of look
to us all I think, and I don't know. At
the local level, even worse, we've got the mayor of Chicago,
Brandon Johnson, saying he wants to arrest ice agents now
and I've got to hunt. That won't go well for him.
It's just more theatrics, honestly, that put American lives in danger.
(15:36):
Not his because he's got a security entourage. But the
good people of Chicago already have a serious problem of
violent crime. And despite by the way, some of the
strictest gun laws in our country, strictest gun laws in
our country, there have been there.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
I hadn't let me find this. I want to hold
on to that, and I'm looking for specifically. Yeah, here's there.
How much time to have a couple of minutes will perfect.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Stories that can't explain what's going on with illegal immigrants
and what they're doing to Americans. From Fox News just
this morning, in another case of liberal judgments that spit
in the face of Americans, an illegal immigrant who pleaded
guilty to the hit and run murder of a South
Carolina college student last year is gonna be released early
(16:26):
next year of completing his sentence, and that sentence was
one year one year in prison for killing a college
kid and leaving the scene hit and run murder one year.
That doesn't sound right in New York City. Also from
Fox News, drunk driver who fatally struck and killed a
(16:49):
sixteen year old girl this past Saturday, previously deported Hondura,
an illegal immigrant with several priors for DUI, and according
to the story, this guy ran down the dead woman
and her mother. Her mother lived after they quote rejected
his sexual advances. That's what angered him so that he
(17:13):
decided to just plow into him and kill that youngest one.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
It's horrible, absolutely horrible.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
If you're a Rockets fan. I don't know whether you
watched the game last night, but if you're a Rockets fan,
you're probably in for a really good season. I think
we are. I watched the last night's game, and I
love the energy that whole team. There's a lot of
young guys on that team, and a lot of them
older and older and older.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Up to and including the addition of Kevin Durant.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
To the roster. That's clearly going to be a plus.
He didn't spend a whole lot of time on the
court last night, but I think he scored maybe twenty points,
missed his first three, and then kind of really hit
the ground running. I did talk to Matt Thomas from
Sports Talk seven ninety this morning about whether or not
Durant's legs can stay fresh for a whole season.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
And Matt, Matt pretty much said what I'm thinking.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Even if he can't go every minute of every game,
which he clearly wouldn't at thirty seven, I think he
is thirty eight thirty seven. I think everything we get
from him is gonna be at one hundred percent and
really good for this team. We've got cooking, and he's
gonna teach them so much more than they know already.
They've already got good coaching, they've already gotten good teammates
around him. But just looking at who's sitting on that
(18:28):
bench and who's going to be available to throw into
these games, it's it's.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Gonna be pretty special. All right. Let's take a little
break here, shall we.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
A Late Health is the vascular clinic owned and operated
by doctor Andrew Doe where you can go be treated
for an enlarged non cancerous prostate, usually within a couple
of hours. You're not going to go to a hospital
somewhere they're gonna bring you in there. They will locate
the artery that is supplying fresh blood to that prostate.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
And they'll cut it off. Well, they don't cut it off,
they plug it up.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
I don't know what they use to plug those arteries
when they do this this procedure, but whatever it is,
it works, and with no oxygen supply, that prostate starts
to shrivel up, and away with it go the symptoms
it's caused you. And if you're a grown man who's
got that condition, you know exactly what I'm talking about,
(19:23):
and they're not pleasant. None of the stuff that comes
along with an enlarged, non cancerous prostate is pleasant. So
there's no reason to wait. Really, just go to a
late health find out what they can do for you.
Most of what they do is covered by Medicare and
Medicaid too, So fingers crossed for you.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
On that one. Hope you can get it done if
you need it.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Seven one three, five eight, eight thirty eight eighty eight
seven one three, five eight eight thirty eight eighty eight.
Or go to a latehealth dot com that's alat e
a latehealth dot com.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Aged to perfection.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
This is fifty plus with Dougpikety.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Plus, thank you all for listening. I really do appreciate
it today.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Will, by the way, if you didn't know, thumbs up
or thumbs down on how excited you are, a straight
up thumb meaning you are thrilled to death, and a
downward thumb meaning you could not care any less whatsoever.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Today is National.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Moldy Cheese Day, and you're, oh, yeah, I should have known,
and it actually he gave it a big thumbs up.
And the actual celebration, apparently, is for the cheeses that
are by design moldy when you buy them, and there
(20:37):
are a few varieties that are that way. We're not
talking about the stuff that ends up growing on the
cheese that the chunk of cheddar that you bought and
left at the bottom of the meat and cheese drawer
in your refrigerator for too long. Not that kind of
moldy cheese, the kind that's actually bought that way. Which
(21:00):
why how that became a thing, I don't know. I
guess it's some sort of protective covering for the cheese
beneath it. But I would just rather eat cheese without mold.
And here's another little fun fact to drop in when
you're sitting around watching a football game this weekend and
it kids kind of quiet because your team's getting hammered Cowboys, Did.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
I say that aloud?
Speaker 3 (21:23):
I've got friends who are really big Cowboys fans, and
I probably don't tease them enough to let them know
that I really care, so I might try to improve
on my interaction with them. There are, after all, so
many things about the Cowboys that are online and and
critical of that team. They're actually playing very well a
(21:45):
little bit I've seen. I don't pay that close of
attention to NFL football. But the last time I watched
some Cowboys play a couple of weeks ago, whatever game
they whoever played, they played, I don't know, it looked
pretty good.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
I'll give them that. I'll give them.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Oh, pardon me, So the back to where I was.
The fun fact to know intell going into a dull
moment in a football game. The population of the entire
country of Canada is only slightly greater than the population
of California. And I don't know whether California or Texas
(22:25):
has the most people. I suspect it's California, but we've
got our share, and I don't mind if we're second
in population to California, because I would much prefer to
have the land that we have, the open spaces, the
amount of just undeveloped land, which it's actually a shrinking
(22:46):
by the day around here, it seems like.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
But I wouldn't mind that at all.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Speaking of heavily populated areas at well, that actually aren't
as of late, the tourism business in Las Vegas not
so much as it used to be. They're down considerably,
and I guess maybe as one way to attract some
attention to themselves. The El Cortes Hotel and Casino supposed
(23:13):
to be the oldest and most haunted hotel in Las Vegas,
and they're actually offering to I don't know what the
details are, you'd have to look it up, but they're
actually offering five thousand dollars to somebody who will spend
a weekend ghost hunting inside. I don't know whether you
(23:34):
have to find a ghost to claim your prize. That
would make it a little bit more difficult. I think,
to have bonafide evidence of finding a ghost in a hotel.
I don't know that I could do that. I don't
know that I would want to do that. Every now
and then I'll get caught. I catch myself watching these
shows about the strange, paranormal whatever on these TV shows
(23:55):
about that, and most of the things I see, I
can ride off to clever trickery with cameras.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
I can ride off to.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Editing and splicing and just changing things to make them
appear as though they are paranormal. But every now and
then you'll see one that just makes no sense at all.
You really can't explain it. It's rare that I can't
come up with some explanation for him.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
But it happens. Indeed, it does happen. Let's go.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Let's go to Houston, and a Houston story I saw
this morning. It clicked to Houston. I did this with
my mom's estate years ago, when she passed. We had
an estate sale and we used a reputable company. I
did my research and we got paid. The companies who
do these things demand a pretty high percentage of what
(24:54):
they come up with gets what gets sold in the
money it raises. If you don't want to deal with that,
then you use these people to help you clear out
the house as much as possible, and then everything else
just gets hauled away. Houston couple, though, who contracted with
an estate sale company, and I'm not even sure it
(25:15):
said what the company's name was in the story, have
now waited two years to collect the proceeds from that auction,
and they fear, the story said, which yeah, they probably
should be by now that they're never going to get
any of that money or any of the items that
were sold back from the company that sold them on.
(25:37):
Theirs is one of multiple cases in fact, in which
unscrupulous people claim to be a state sale that claim
to do them right way, but in fact they just
take the money and disappear very quickly. To do an
a state sale right, the story said, Number one, of course,
research that company's history and their Better Business Bureau records.
Search online for reviews of the business and its owner.
(26:01):
In this case, in this particular case, that business had
an F rating with the Better Business Bureau, and that
would have been enough of a red flag for me.
Even a C rating, I think would have been enough
for me to kind of steer myself elsewhere. And if
you do get scammed on one of these things, they
advised spiling a small claims lawsuit and applying for a
writ of execution in the JP court, which and if
(26:24):
you then pursue a post judgment rid of garnishment that
can freeze the defendant's bank accounts until you get paid.
I'm no lawyer. I don't know much more about it
than that, but there's good stuff. There's good information about
that at the click to Houston site. When you find
that story, it's pretty easy to find. It's right there
up front. Ah, take a break. Country Boy's roofing. Right
(26:44):
there we are, and still in storm season. They're they're
bouncing off Africa and rolling over this way, one after another,
it seems for the last several weeks. Fortunately no problems yet,
but if we do get one, you want to make
sure that roof of yours is going to hold up.
And that's where Country Boys comes in. John Eipman and
his son Zach are taking care of business that have
(27:05):
been for many years now.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Zach just joined the company. He's ready to go.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
He's out there learning from the best John Eipman, about
what to look for on a roof to make sure
it's doing its job, or if it's not doing its job,
how to make sure it gets fixed properly the first
time and affordably, which is very important as well.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
If you end up needing a full.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Roof replacement for some reason, John is kind enough to
offer to educators, first responders, and military past or present
a fifteen hundred dollars discount on a complete roof. And
if you don't have any of that qualification whatsoever, all
you got to do is just drop my name and
he'll take one thousand dollars off off that rate for
(27:48):
that full roof replacement. Good people, they're down there, I
think in needful right then, just in the south southwest
of Houston. But he'll go wherever you want and to
go to go check out your roof. Don't you worry
about that family owned and operated member the Better Business Bureau,
and they have a finance company they're working with right now.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
If you can't just write a check.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
For a whole roof, Country Boy's Roofing for you Boomers,
you can spell it the traditional way and it'll show
up just below where it pops up on your.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Page.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
And if you really want to go all out, if
you're a millennial gen Z anybody who likes all that
cool spelling stuff, it's country with a K, Boys with
a Z, Countryboysroofing Dot com.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Old guy's rule, and of course women never get old
if you want to avoid sleeping on the couch.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Hello, you think that sounds like a good plant?
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Fifty plus continues, here's more with Doug all right, welcome
back to fifty plus.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Who whatever that sound was, I may have missed that
one a little bit hoping on. Thank you for listening.
I really do appreciate this.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
I I don't know where I really want to go
right now, I'm gonna go. I wanna stay here in
Texas and talk about a Texas Scoreboard story yesterday shared
that the University of Texas in Austin is requiring everyone
who enrolls to study social work to complete anti racism
(29:16):
training before they can earn a degree from the Steve
Hicks School of Social Work. According to the syllabus, this section,
taught by doctor Fiona Conway on Tuesdays and Thursdays at
twelve thirty pm would be right in the middle of
our show, requires students to demonstrate a quote competency competency
(29:37):
end quote to engage anti racism, diversity, equity and inclusion
in practice. Very specifically, this requires students, and there's a
quote here too, to demonstrate anti racist and anti oppressive
social work practice at the individual, family, group, organizational, community, research,
(29:58):
and policy level end quote. And you're even as a
student then going to be assessed in there in your
competence and anti racism on a scale that goes from
insufficient progress to advanced competency. That sounds like a lot
(30:18):
of a lot of pressure on some of these kids too,
to fall in line with what the school, I guess
believes and not be able to do their own thinking
I'm not so sure that's that belongs there, and they're
(30:41):
just just presumption of all these students coming in there
and not not really towing the line. There was another
line in there speaking of that I can't recall exactly,
but it basically said, I if you don't, if you
don't do all this stuff, and you're not getting out
of the school. And that's kind of seems a little harsh,
(31:01):
and it seems a little overly pressuring these young people
to follow a certain narrative and not have discussion openly.
And these people just won't feel like they can express
their opinions. They're just gonna have to check the boxes.
(31:22):
Just check the boxes, or we won't let you out
of school, the boxes we want you to check too,
not just yours. In a new survey, seventy nine percent
of people say they have fancy items set aside for
special occasions, like fine china. Boy, there's a lot of
fine china being sold these days by younger people. Do
I feel like younger people don't have the same appreciation
(31:46):
for things like china and crystal that our generation has.
These are pieces of These are family heirloom pieces that
get passed down from generation to generation. And it might
have might have originally belonged to your great great grandmother,
and it came down to you by way of several
(32:07):
other people in the family saying maybe not, And you
appreciate it, so that's why you got it, and you
have it in a special place in your house, or
maybe it's just the silver is in a box somewhere
under a bed or in a safe or wherever. But
you appreciate that stuff, and if you have a if
you have room for it, you probably display some of it.
(32:29):
But seventy nine percent of these people who say that
have that fancy stuff probably aren't going to have many
people who want it once we're done, once they're done
with it. More than half, and I would bet they did.
They pulled mostly people our age, because it also says
here that more than half of these people would use
that special stuff every day if it were practical. It's
(32:53):
not practical, honestly, unless you want to hand wash, hand
wash a plate and a saucer and a fine crystal
goblet after you eat a cheeseburger or a baloney sandwich
and wash it down with chocolate milk. That just doesn't
seem to go together for me. I greatly appreciate the
things that I had I inherited from my mother, and
(33:17):
I know my sister does as well, And yeah, they
mean a lot to us. It's not My mother wasn't
wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, but the things
she held on to toward the end of her life
meant a lot to her, and that in turn makes
it mean a lot to me and to my sister.
This was interesting. If you're a dog lover, you'll love
(33:39):
this Florida. Down in Florida, a dog led a police
officer straight to an eighty six year old woman who
was in need of some sort of medical attention. I'm
not sure it just says woman needed help. I don't
think it was to get the lid off a jar
of pickles. I'm not sure what it was.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
It didn't Well, that's one of those ones where I
didn't read where it says full story.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
It's just it's cool enough that it just said that
she got help from that dog and the police. And
yet another attempt to squeeze a little money out of
airplane passengers, airline passengers. This Canadian airline called west Jet
has retrofitted some of its planes so that they offer
(34:23):
fixed reclined seats. Now they don't go all the way back.
They're just tilted back a little bit, but they won't recline,
so they've they've shut down that part of it. However,
if you want a reclining seat, you can get one.
You can get one. You just have to pay extra
for it, like didn't. Well, didn't Southwest Airlines bring on
(34:46):
baggage fees again?
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Or baggage fees now? Is that right? I believe they did.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
And I used to really enjoy flying Southwest because I
could get that first run there for nothing and then
bring my carry on and I could I could make
a pretty lengthy trip just with one checked bag, except
when I was taking like a snowboard or fishing rods
or something like that. I don't mind paying a little
exture for things like that so long as they don't
break them. And had I had a perfect record. I
(35:13):
built really strong rod cases and a lot from a
lot of the trips I made that the commercial cases
available weren't really tough enough. I didn't think, and I'd
known so many people who had really nice rods broken
by airlines, so I was making them out of the
schedule I think it's Schedule forty. They call it PBC
pipe and they'd just practically run a truck over them.
(35:36):
And I had a perfect record with those until I
flew up to Baltimore and somehow in Baltimore they managed
to crack and snap open a rod case made a
Schedule forty PBC pipe and it was all two piece
rods too, or that was the they were all. The
case was only about four and a half five feet long,
(35:57):
and they managed somehow to put enough pressure on it
to snow. I don't know what they drove over it
or tightened it up with, but it popped. Fortunately the
rods made it through though, because I had them pad
it inside. Double protection is what they call that. Nearly
one in five high schoolers say they are someone they
know has had a romantic relationship with artificial intelligence.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Let that sink in for a minute.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
Forty two percent of students say they or somebody they
know have used AI for companionship.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
We got to get them off these machines. That's kind
of creepy. Look into the future. All right, we'll be
back tomorrow. Thanks for listening. I really appreciate it.
Remember when it was impossible to misplace the TV remote
because you were the TV remote for you. Remember when
music sounded like this, Remember when social media was truly social?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey John, how's it going today?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Well, this show is all about you on the goode.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Helpful information on your finances, good health, and what to
do for fun. Fifty plus brought to you by the
UT Health Houston Institute on ag Informed Decisions for a healthier,
happier life and now fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
All right, here we go.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Thursday edition of the program starts right now. Thank you
all for listening. I really really appreciate it. Especially if
you listened yesterday you would know that I was out
at the fifty plus expo in Stafford at Stafford Center.
Few new friends, ran into some quite a few people
I know. Actually, I was quite surprised to bump into
some people that I've done business with, and one current client,
(01:10):
one probably soon to be current client. If I can
get some stuff done with him, and a few more
people I think that I would love to have in
this show and represent if I can talk them into
doing a little business with me. I did see Wayne
Errington from a ride bikes. He was there with three
different models of his bicycles, including or well their e
(01:32):
bikes is what they are, and he had one of
his three wheel bikes, and hey, if you're up there
and you can't really support yourself well on a two
wheel bicycle, that three wheel transportation might be just what
you need to go down to the mailbox and back,
or just cruise around outside, get a little vitamin D,
whatever it takes. And then I got a chance to
(01:55):
test fire test ride that big what is it called
the Rambo Megatron, which I think would be an ideal
vehicle for riding. The whole time I was riding around
the parking lot at Stafford Center, which is it was
still cool to be riding a knee bike. That's the
first time I've been on one. And by the way, yes,
(02:17):
I was wearing a helmet to keep my melon in
one piece if i'd happened to fall, but I didn't.
It was actually surprisingly simple to get that thing started
and then have it take over and do the pedaling
for me.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Well, it just does the acceleration and movement for you.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
You don't have to keep pedaling and keep up with
the way that thing would have pedaled to go as
fast as I was going. Anyway, Wayne provided me with
a beautiful red, white and blue helmet to keep my
head on straight, and I wore it the whole time
I was on that thing, and the whole time I'm
riding this deal, this machine, and it is a machine.
It's a big bold machine, got big old wide tires
(02:58):
on it. I'm thinking of either half the time I
was thinking about riding up and down the North Padre
Island shoreline with rod racks on the back and parking
it and hopping off and standing it up on the kickstand.
Have to make a bigger kickstand so it wouldn't sink
into the sand. There's bound to be a way to
(03:19):
support that thing. Maybe a who cares, I'm going to
be jumping off that bike and fishing. That's what I'm
going to be doing at some point probably in my life,
if I find a way to get one of those things.
And then the flip side of that, for the hunting
side of me, is that it would be ideal for
slipping through the woods just silently and then when you
need the power to haul out your big carcass and
(03:39):
the big buck on the back of it on a
little trailer. That thing will do it. As Wayne likes
to say, if it could get traction, it could climb
a wall. It's that strong. It was an impressive machine.
I got to tell you, it really was. So anyway,
he had that three wheeler there, he had a regular
bike there, and I think he had a pretty good show.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
I had a great time.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Ran into Rich Carr from Pink's Pink's window cleaning service.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
That was good. He did my house a week and
a half ago.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
I guess it was about that you don't really realize
how dirty your windows are until they're clean, if that
makes sense. Nice guy, really good crew, Another good small
business that I've come across, and I'm hoping to be
able to speak in a more official capacity for him
fairly soon, and I'll let lots more met lots more
folks who have our needs and your needs in mind.
(04:31):
I'll be contacting them for the next few days, kind
of hoping I get a chance to share what they
do with all of you. These are really good people
and it's a snapshot. Granted I haven't I haven't really
vetted them completely, and I will before I take them
on his clients.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Uh, but just talking to people.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
I've been doing this for twenty five years, and I
feel pretty confident that I can root out the ones.
There were a couple of people I talked to. It
doesn't matter who, uh, but there were a couple of.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
People I talked to.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
I thought, Yeah, this isn't really what I want from
my audience. So it doesn't matter who they are, doesn't
matter what their business was.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
It just it just doesn't seem like a good fit.
So I'll let that go.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
There's still good people, but maybe just not quite the
right business model, maybe not quite the right pricing structure
or whatever. I just I don't know. I try them
all and see if it's gonna work, and then we
move forward from there. Speaking of moving forward to the weather,
and this won't take long. If you like what you
see and feel outside today, you are gonna love the
(05:33):
next entire week. We're finally looking at a few high
temps in the eighties. Granted the high eighties, but it's
still the eighties, not the nineties. And then we're gonna
have a couple of lows here in the sixties. High sixties, yes,
but still the sixties, not the seventies or eighties, like
we had boy a few times this summer, and then gosh,
last summer, it seemed like every night it was about
(05:55):
eighty five degrees. That that was the bottom. That was rough, man,
I remember it like everybody else does. No legit, rain
chance is really in sight through at least next Wednesday too.
I didn't look any farther than that. When I can
take it all the way from Thursday to Wednesday with
the highest chance of rain at ten percent, that's all
I want to look at.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
I'm happy about that.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
By the way, that hurricane out in the Atlantic is
expected to do, as several have done so far this year,
it's kind of down I don't know, little lower than
Florida and eyeballing the East coast. But all of the
tracking models that I've looked at so far show that
thing making a hard right turn to the north before
(06:39):
it gets close, and then another hard right turn back
to the east and just heading out into the Atlantic Ocean.
Really glad to see this cooler weather on the way too.
That's we're never really out of the woods with the
tropics where we live.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
That really aren't.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
There have been named storms to hit the US mainland
and every month of the year, even December, January, and February.
If you're in the wrong spot at the wrong time,
you might take one. But so far, so good this year.
Always I'll never forget that when I talk about storms
in the golf of Mexico or in the Atlantic Ocean
(07:16):
or anywhere, I don't want them to hit anybody in
our country and US especially, we have a stake in it. Obviously,
in market news, which I didn't really get into yesterday,
it was pretty good. Everything was green yesterday This morning,
though they were kind of as much red as they
were green yesterday. Same with gold, which shut about forty
bucks but was still north of four thousand dollars an ounce.
(07:40):
Oil came down about a quarter or so last time
I looked, and likely no change at the pumps for
a while. We are going to take a break, and
on the way out, I'll tee it up with ut
Health Institute on Aging, that collaborative of providers all over town,
really mostly in the med center, as you might expect,
but there are also many of them who who travel
(08:00):
to outlying communities, outlying hospitals and clinics and offices so
that they can treat people who need to see them
and the people who need to see them because of
their special training. It's additional training to what got them
their diplomas and their titles. But they go back and
learn more about how they can apply that knowledge specifically
to seniors, and man does that help. We are very
(08:24):
fortunate here in Houston to have at our fingertips people
who specifically want to raise the level of care they
can provide to us, and they take it upon themselves.
It's not something that they have to go back for.
They go back because they want to. They want to
help us. Go to the website, look around, see all
(08:45):
the resources that are there, first of all, and then
work your way toward a provider who can help you
as well or better than anybody else in their field
to get feeling better from whatever else is whatever's ailing you.
Uh dot edu slash aging, ut dot edu slash aging.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Hell, they sure don't make them like they used to.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
That's why every few months we wash him, check his fluids,
and spray on a fresh coat o wax. This is
fifty plus with Doug Pike. All right, welcome back to
fifty plus. Thanks for listening, certainly to appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Man.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
I have all kinds of stuff that I didn't get
to yesterday. I might try to get to some of
that in a minute.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
I might not. It all depends on how deeply I
can get into what I've prepared for today. I suppose uh.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
In Shipwreck News, and if you've listened to this program
long enough, you know that I'm just goofy for shipwrecks
and their discovery and what's there at the bottom of
the sea. And this one actually goes a long ways
back and it's actually.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Well, I don't want to repeat myself and say actually again.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
But it is one of eleven ships actually out of
an armada I guess you could call it, or a
flotilla or whatever that we're headed back to to Spain
after visiting what is now the coast of Florida in
the year seventeen fifteen, which it just fascinates me that
(10:13):
something that happened two hundred gosh, three hundred, Holy cow,
three hundred and ten years ago, three hundred and ten
years ago, and there's written record of everything that was
on these ships, which is fascinating as well. The bottom
line is they found one of the ships and already
(10:34):
have recovered gold and silver coins that were on that
ship that are valued at more than million dollars. Now,
this particular one of the eleven headed for Spain when
the storm hit, all said to be carrying in total,
well I don't know how much was on this one ship,
but the total among the group of ships was about
(10:55):
four hundred million dollars in gold, silver, and jewels. The loot,
in case you're thinking about going over there with a
snorkel and seeing if you can scrape some off the bottom,
belongs to the US District Court for Florida by US law,
so no, you can't keep it, even if you find it.
Silver coins found so far have been traced to Bolivia, Peru,
(11:17):
and Mexico, which I find pretty interesting. And no word
of the origins of the gold coins they found yet.
But all of that just especially with gold at four
thousand dollars an ounce, Holy cow, everything is. Everything's getting
more expensive, I suppose, especially the things made of gold.
Not bad time to be well, I guess it had
(11:39):
been a better time to be in the gold business,
back when you could have bought it for a couple
of thousand dollars an ounce or even less than one
thousand dollars an ounce and just put it in a
shoe box, hide it under your bed and see what happens.
Because you'd been sitting pretty good right now. Let's see,
I took care of that. Took care of that. Let's
move to the peace deal so that President Trumps has
(12:01):
put together for Gaza, which is supposed to be in
motion as we speak. Actually it includes release of all
the hostages, which I think is fantastic.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
That just had to be to make it work.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Obviously, both sides, all of which is expected to come
together between kind of now on the weekend and mark
the end of that horrific conflict once the deal sign
and approved. Ceasefire is supposed to start after twenty four hours.
I hope neither side tries to get in kind of
a parting shot. Just let it go as soon as
(12:34):
it's sign sealed and delivered. Just let's just stop all
this nonsense. Hamas is tasked with release and all the
hostages as they have the one still alive, which is
about twenty by recent assessment, and then the bodies of
twenty eight believed to be deceased. But here's the issue there.
According to to Hamas. Some of the bodies may be
(12:55):
under rubble, which I guess is convenient for Hamas to
to say, but there's bound to be some accounting for
them somehow. They're gonna they need to find a way. Really,
the IDF's gonna begin withdraw within twenty four hours of
that signed agreement. They're gonna maintain a small four so
in Gaza until all the hostages are freed, and then
(13:19):
everybody back to work putting everything together. Jerusalem, by the way,
is going to release about seventeen hundred Gozins and two
hundred and fifty or sold Palestinians who are currently being held.
That prisoner release, worth noting, does not include people who
participated in the October seven attack. There are people who
(13:40):
who did things after that to get themselves caught and
tried and convicted and jailed. But anyway, this thing's been
a long time coming. I hope both SuDS stick to
the terms and regain some peace in that part of
the world. There's just no reason for it to have
gone on as long as it has, and I'm glad
there is appears to be at least resolution forthcoming. Speaking
(14:04):
of resolution forthcoming, I wish they could get that done.
With this government shut down, we're dealing with delaying paychecks
for a lot of people, a whole lot of people
who need that money. Now. Most of them, if not
all of them, will be reimbursed once the money starts
cooking again. Once that happens, they'll get their money. But
(14:27):
in the meantime, a lot of these people live pretty
much paycheck to paycheck, and it will be very difficult
for them to navigate paying a car payment, maybe just
buying groceries even for some, until this government of ours
gets their ducks in a row. The Left keeps wanting
you and made a fund all sorts of freebies for
illegal immigrants, and the longer they hold onto that position,
(14:50):
I think, the clearer the vision of Americans as to
just what the left really wants for our country. I'm
glad conservatives are holding their ground. I really, because adding
more than a trillion dollars to our national debt won't
help a single American. None of that money's going to
help anybody who is an American citizen's best I can tell,
(15:12):
and not one of us. The deeper the Left digs
in on this one, the worst they kind of look
to us all I think, and I don't know. At
the local level, even worse, we've got the mayor of Chicago,
Brandon Johnson, saying he wants to arrest ice agents now
and I've got to hunt. That won't go well for him.
It's just more theatrics, honestly, that put American lives in danger.
(15:36):
Not his because he's got a security entourage. But the
good people of Chicago already have a serious problem of
violent crime. And despite by the way, some of the
strictest gun laws in our country, strictest gun laws in
our country, there have been there.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
I hadn't let me find this. I want to hold
on to that, and I'm looking for specifically. Yeah, here's there.
How much time to have a couple of minutes will perfect.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Stories that can't explain what's going on with illegal immigrants
and what they're doing to Americans. From Fox News just
this morning, in another case of liberal judgments that spit
in the face of Americans, an illegal immigrant who pleaded
guilty to the hit and run murder of a South
Carolina college student last year is gonna be released early
(16:26):
next year of completing his sentence, and that sentence was
one year one year in prison for killing a college
kid and leaving the scene hit and run murder one year.
That doesn't sound right in New York City. Also from
Fox News, drunk driver who fatally struck and killed a
(16:49):
sixteen year old girl this past Saturday, previously deported Hondura,
an illegal immigrant with several priors for DUI, and according
to the story, this guy ran down the dead woman
and her mother. Her mother lived after they quote rejected
his sexual advances. That's what angered him so that he
(17:13):
decided to just plow into him and kill that youngest one.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
It's horrible, absolutely horrible.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
If you're a Rockets fan. I don't know whether you
watched the game last night, but if you're a Rockets fan,
you're probably in for a really good season. I think
we are. I watched the last night's game, and I
love the energy that whole team. There's a lot of
young guys on that team, and a lot of them
older and older and older.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Up to and including the addition of Kevin Durant.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
To the roster. That's clearly going to be a plus.
He didn't spend a whole lot of time on the
court last night, but I think he scored maybe twenty points,
missed his first three, and then kind of really hit
the ground running. I did talk to Matt Thomas from
Sports Talk seven ninety this morning about whether or not
Durant's legs can stay fresh for a whole season.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
And Matt, Matt pretty much said what I'm thinking.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Even if he can't go every minute of every game,
which he clearly wouldn't at thirty seven, I think he
is thirty eight thirty seven. I think everything we get
from him is gonna be at one hundred percent and
really good for this team. We've got cooking, and he's
gonna teach them so much more than they know already.
They've already got good coaching, they've already gotten good teammates
around him. But just looking at who's sitting on that
(18:28):
bench and who's going to be available to throw into
these games, it's it's.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Gonna be pretty special. All right. Let's take a little
break here, shall we.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
A Late Health is the vascular clinic owned and operated
by doctor Andrew Doe where you can go be treated
for an enlarged non cancerous prostate, usually within a couple
of hours. You're not going to go to a hospital
somewhere they're gonna bring you in there. They will locate
the artery that is supplying fresh blood to that prostate.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
And they'll cut it off. Well, they don't cut it off,
they plug it up.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
I don't know what they use to plug those arteries
when they do this this procedure, but whatever it is,
it works, and with no oxygen supply, that prostate starts
to shrivel up, and away with it go the symptoms
it's caused you. And if you're a grown man who's
got that condition, you know exactly what I'm talking about,
(19:23):
and they're not pleasant. None of the stuff that comes
along with an enlarged, non cancerous prostate is pleasant. So
there's no reason to wait. Really, just go to a
late health find out what they can do for you.
Most of what they do is covered by Medicare and
Medicaid too, So fingers crossed for you.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
On that one. Hope you can get it done if
you need it.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Seven one three, five eight, eight thirty eight eighty eight
seven one three, five eight eight thirty eight eighty eight.
Or go to a latehealth dot com that's alat e
a latehealth dot com.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Aged to perfection.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
This is fifty plus with Dougpikety.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Plus, thank you all for listening. I really do appreciate
it today.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Will, by the way, if you didn't know, thumbs up
or thumbs down on how excited you are, a straight
up thumb meaning you are thrilled to death, and a
downward thumb meaning you could not care any less whatsoever.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Today is National.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Moldy Cheese Day, and you're, oh, yeah, I should have known,
and it actually he gave it a big thumbs up.
And the actual celebration, apparently, is for the cheeses that
are by design moldy when you buy them, and there
(20:37):
are a few varieties that are that way. We're not
talking about the stuff that ends up growing on the
cheese that the chunk of cheddar that you bought and
left at the bottom of the meat and cheese drawer
in your refrigerator for too long. Not that kind of
moldy cheese, the kind that's actually bought that way. Which
(21:00):
why how that became a thing, I don't know. I
guess it's some sort of protective covering for the cheese
beneath it. But I would just rather eat cheese without mold.
And here's another little fun fact to drop in when
you're sitting around watching a football game this weekend and
it kids kind of quiet because your team's getting hammered Cowboys, Did.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
I say that aloud?
Speaker 3 (21:23):
I've got friends who are really big Cowboys fans, and
I probably don't tease them enough to let them know
that I really care, so I might try to improve
on my interaction with them. There are, after all, so
many things about the Cowboys that are online and and
critical of that team. They're actually playing very well a
(21:45):
little bit I've seen. I don't pay that close of
attention to NFL football. But the last time I watched
some Cowboys play a couple of weeks ago, whatever game
they whoever played, they played, I don't know, it looked
pretty good.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
I'll give them that. I'll give them.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Oh, pardon me, So the back to where I was.
The fun fact to know intell going into a dull
moment in a football game. The population of the entire
country of Canada is only slightly greater than the population
of California. And I don't know whether California or Texas
(22:25):
has the most people. I suspect it's California, but we've
got our share, and I don't mind if we're second
in population to California, because I would much prefer to
have the land that we have, the open spaces, the
amount of just undeveloped land, which it's actually a shrinking
(22:46):
by the day around here, it seems like.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
But I wouldn't mind that at all.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Speaking of heavily populated areas at well, that actually aren't
as of late, the tourism business in Las Vegas not
so much as it used to be. They're down considerably,
and I guess maybe as one way to attract some
attention to themselves. The El Cortes Hotel and Casino supposed
(23:13):
to be the oldest and most haunted hotel in Las Vegas,
and they're actually offering to I don't know what the
details are, you'd have to look it up, but they're
actually offering five thousand dollars to somebody who will spend
a weekend ghost hunting inside. I don't know whether you
(23:34):
have to find a ghost to claim your prize. That
would make it a little bit more difficult. I think,
to have bonafide evidence of finding a ghost in a hotel.
I don't know that I could do that. I don't
know that I would want to do that. Every now
and then I'll get caught. I catch myself watching these
shows about the strange, paranormal whatever on these TV shows
(23:55):
about that, and most of the things I see, I
can ride off to clever trickery with cameras.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
I can ride off to.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Editing and splicing and just changing things to make them
appear as though they are paranormal. But every now and
then you'll see one that just makes no sense at all.
You really can't explain it. It's rare that I can't
come up with some explanation for him.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
But it happens. Indeed, it does happen. Let's go.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Let's go to Houston, and a Houston story I saw
this morning. It clicked to Houston. I did this with
my mom's estate years ago, when she passed. We had
an estate sale and we used a reputable company. I
did my research and we got paid. The companies who
do these things demand a pretty high percentage of what
(24:54):
they come up with gets what gets sold in the
money it raises. If you don't want to deal with that,
then you use these people to help you clear out
the house as much as possible, and then everything else
just gets hauled away. Houston couple, though, who contracted with
an estate sale company, and I'm not even sure it
(25:15):
said what the company's name was in the story, have
now waited two years to collect the proceeds from that auction,
and they fear, the story said, which yeah, they probably
should be by now that they're never going to get
any of that money or any of the items that
were sold back from the company that sold them on.
(25:37):
Theirs is one of multiple cases in fact, in which
unscrupulous people claim to be a state sale that claim
to do them right way, but in fact they just
take the money and disappear very quickly. To do an
a state sale right, the story said, Number one, of course,
research that company's history and their Better Business Bureau records.
Search online for reviews of the business and its owner.
(26:01):
In this case, in this particular case, that business had
an F rating with the Better Business Bureau, and that
would have been enough of a red flag for me.
Even a C rating, I think would have been enough
for me to kind of steer myself elsewhere. And if
you do get scammed on one of these things, they
advised spiling a small claims lawsuit and applying for a
writ of execution in the JP court, which and if
(26:24):
you then pursue a post judgment rid of garnishment that
can freeze the defendant's bank accounts until you get paid.
I'm no lawyer. I don't know much more about it
than that, but there's good stuff. There's good information about
that at the click to Houston site. When you find
that story, it's pretty easy to find. It's right there
up front. Ah, take a break. Country Boy's roofing. Right
(26:44):
there we are, and still in storm season. They're they're
bouncing off Africa and rolling over this way, one after another,
it seems for the last several weeks. Fortunately no problems yet,
but if we do get one, you want to make
sure that roof of yours is going to hold up.
And that's where Country Boys comes in. John Eipman and
his son Zach are taking care of business that have
(27:05):
been for many years now.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Zach just joined the company. He's ready to go.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
He's out there learning from the best John Eipman, about
what to look for on a roof to make sure
it's doing its job, or if it's not doing its job,
how to make sure it gets fixed properly the first
time and affordably, which is very important as well.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
If you end up needing a full.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Roof replacement for some reason, John is kind enough to
offer to educators, first responders, and military past or present
a fifteen hundred dollars discount on a complete roof. And
if you don't have any of that qualification whatsoever, all
you got to do is just drop my name and
he'll take one thousand dollars off off that rate for
(27:48):
that full roof replacement. Good people, they're down there, I
think in needful right then, just in the south southwest
of Houston. But he'll go wherever you want and to
go to go check out your roof. Don't you worry
about that family owned and operated member the Better Business Bureau,
and they have a finance company they're working with right now.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
If you can't just write a check.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
For a whole roof, Country Boy's Roofing for you Boomers,
you can spell it the traditional way and it'll show
up just below where it pops up on your.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Page.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
And if you really want to go all out, if
you're a millennial gen Z anybody who likes all that
cool spelling stuff, it's country with a K, Boys with
a Z, Countryboysroofing Dot com.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Old guy's rule, and of course women never get old
if you want to avoid sleeping on the couch.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Hello, you think that sounds like a good plant?
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Fifty plus continues, here's more with Doug all right, welcome
back to fifty plus.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Who whatever that sound was, I may have missed that
one a little bit hoping on. Thank you for listening.
I really do appreciate this.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
I I don't know where I really want to go
right now, I'm gonna go. I wanna stay here in
Texas and talk about a Texas Scoreboard story yesterday shared
that the University of Texas in Austin is requiring everyone
who enrolls to study social work to complete anti racism
(29:16):
training before they can earn a degree from the Steve
Hicks School of Social Work. According to the syllabus, this section,
taught by doctor Fiona Conway on Tuesdays and Thursdays at
twelve thirty pm would be right in the middle of
our show, requires students to demonstrate a quote competency competency
(29:37):
end quote to engage anti racism, diversity, equity and inclusion
in practice. Very specifically, this requires students, and there's a
quote here too, to demonstrate anti racist and anti oppressive
social work practice at the individual, family, group, organizational, community, research,
(29:58):
and policy level end quote. And you're even as a
student then going to be assessed in there in your
competence and anti racism on a scale that goes from
insufficient progress to advanced competency. That sounds like a lot
(30:18):
of a lot of pressure on some of these kids too,
to fall in line with what the school, I guess
believes and not be able to do their own thinking
I'm not so sure that's that belongs there, and they're
(30:41):
just just presumption of all these students coming in there
and not not really towing the line. There was another
line in there speaking of that I can't recall exactly,
but it basically said, I if you don't, if you
don't do all this stuff, and you're not getting out
of the school. And that's kind of seems a little harsh,
(31:01):
and it seems a little overly pressuring these young people
to follow a certain narrative and not have discussion openly.
And these people just won't feel like they can express
their opinions. They're just gonna have to check the boxes.
(31:22):
Just check the boxes, or we won't let you out
of school, the boxes we want you to check too,
not just yours. In a new survey, seventy nine percent
of people say they have fancy items set aside for
special occasions, like fine china. Boy, there's a lot of
fine china being sold these days by younger people. Do
I feel like younger people don't have the same appreciation
(31:46):
for things like china and crystal that our generation has.
These are pieces of These are family heirloom pieces that
get passed down from generation to generation. And it might
have might have originally belonged to your great great grandmother,
and it came down to you by way of several
(32:07):
other people in the family saying maybe not, And you
appreciate it, so that's why you got it, and you
have it in a special place in your house, or
maybe it's just the silver is in a box somewhere
under a bed or in a safe or wherever. But
you appreciate that stuff, and if you have a if
you have room for it, you probably display some of it.
(32:29):
But seventy nine percent of these people who say that
have that fancy stuff probably aren't going to have many
people who want it once we're done, once they're done
with it. More than half, and I would bet they did.
They pulled mostly people our age, because it also says
here that more than half of these people would use
that special stuff every day if it were practical. It's
(32:53):
not practical, honestly, unless you want to hand wash, hand
wash a plate and a saucer and a fine crystal
goblet after you eat a cheeseburger or a baloney sandwich
and wash it down with chocolate milk. That just doesn't
seem to go together for me. I greatly appreciate the
things that I had I inherited from my mother, and
(33:17):
I know my sister does as well, And yeah, they
mean a lot to us. It's not My mother wasn't
wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, but the things
she held on to toward the end of her life
meant a lot to her, and that in turn makes
it mean a lot to me and to my sister.
This was interesting. If you're a dog lover, you'll love
(33:39):
this Florida. Down in Florida, a dog led a police
officer straight to an eighty six year old woman who
was in need of some sort of medical attention. I'm
not sure it just says woman needed help. I don't
think it was to get the lid off a jar
of pickles. I'm not sure what it was.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
It didn't Well, that's one of those ones where I
didn't read where it says full story.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
It's just it's cool enough that it just said that
she got help from that dog and the police. And
yet another attempt to squeeze a little money out of
airplane passengers, airline passengers. This Canadian airline called west Jet
has retrofitted some of its planes so that they offer
(34:23):
fixed reclined seats. Now they don't go all the way back.
They're just tilted back a little bit, but they won't recline,
so they've they've shut down that part of it. However,
if you want a reclining seat, you can get one.
You can get one. You just have to pay extra
for it, like didn't. Well, didn't Southwest Airlines bring on
(34:46):
baggage fees again?
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Or baggage fees now? Is that right? I believe they did.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
And I used to really enjoy flying Southwest because I
could get that first run there for nothing and then
bring my carry on and I could I could make
a pretty lengthy trip just with one checked bag, except
when I was taking like a snowboard or fishing rods
or something like that. I don't mind paying a little
exture for things like that so long as they don't
break them. And had I had a perfect record. I
(35:13):
built really strong rod cases and a lot from a
lot of the trips I made that the commercial cases
available weren't really tough enough. I didn't think, and I'd
known so many people who had really nice rods broken
by airlines, so I was making them out of the
schedule I think it's Schedule forty. They call it PBC
pipe and they'd just practically run a truck over them.
(35:36):
And I had a perfect record with those until I
flew up to Baltimore and somehow in Baltimore they managed
to crack and snap open a rod case made a
Schedule forty PBC pipe and it was all two piece
rods too, or that was the they were all. The
case was only about four and a half five feet long,
(35:57):
and they managed somehow to put enough pressure on it
to snow. I don't know what they drove over it
or tightened it up with, but it popped. Fortunately the
rods made it through though, because I had them pad
it inside. Double protection is what they call that. Nearly
one in five high schoolers say they are someone they
know has had a romantic relationship with artificial intelligence.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Let that sink in for a minute.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
Forty two percent of students say they or somebody they
know have used AI for companionship.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
We got to get them off these machines. That's kind
of creepy. Look into the future. All right, we'll be
back tomorrow. Thanks for listening. I really appreciate it.
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