COPD

Today, Doug Pike interviews Dr. Gautam Sikka about COPD.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Remember when it was impossible to misplace the TV remote
because you were the TV remote. Remember when music sounded
like this, Remember when social media was truly social?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey John, how's it going today? Well, this show is
all about you, the goode.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
This is fifty plus with Doug Pike, 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 Aging Informed Decisions for a healthier, happier life.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
And now fifty plus with Doug Pike.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
All right, let's start the program. As you can hear,
my voice is coming back.

Speaker 4 (00:50):
And as long as I keep this water, keep this
water close by, I should be able to make it through.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
I had to go back to the doctor.

Speaker 4 (00:59):
This what I was doing wasn't working right, and so
I got back in there, and it looks like I'm
gonna live. And I told him, I said, look, I've
got to do another show today. I've got to do
shows over the weekend, and I have to preside over
a pretty good group of people playing in the Saint
Jude Tournament on Monday. Voice permitting and weather permitting. By

(01:20):
the way, a quick look at that, we've got a
couple of little cold spells here, or a cold spell
we're into that's going to leach into Monday's tournament. But
the rain will be gone at least, and that will
make everybody, I hope, a lot more easy to get
along with when you miss a putt or miss a
chip chili dip something. All the bad terms in golf,

(01:43):
I'm trying to get them all out of my mind
right now and hopefully make it through there. A couple
of things I want to talk about, well, that I
didn't get a chance. I spent ninety minutes so far
trying to get back into my laptop unsuccessfully. So what
I brought in today is an old fashioned tablet. It's

(02:04):
not a red chief tablet. Most of you would remember
though you didn't have those in school, did you?

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Will?

Speaker 4 (02:08):
No, they were gone and uh no number two pencils
and I.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
No, I may have talked about that already. I won't now.

Speaker 4 (02:16):
I'll ask will during the break, and if not, I'll
I'll bring it up later and any event.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
One thing I did want to talk about today is uh, I'm.

Speaker 4 (02:23):
Kind of wondering after all the craziness of COVID and
talking about these vaccines a little bit as I did yesterday.
I want to bring it back up today and see
if I can get some responses. I can still receive emails,
and I can still receive text messages if you know
my cell phone number, which isn't really hard to find.

(02:43):
And I'm wondering how many of you are just gung
ho to get all of the all of the vaccines.
The RSV is that aren't you rsvink, Yeah, that one,
the shingles virus, and pn ammonia shot, the fl I
went ahead and got another flu shot. I've been taking
those annually for pretty much for many, many many of

(03:06):
my adult years, and so far they've kept me from
getting terribly sick. I think one year I did have
real flu, but it didn't it didn't knock me on
my backside. So I'm kind of curious to see if
any of you will let me know whether you're just
and just give a quick summary thumbs up, thumbs down.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
How many do you get?

Speaker 4 (03:28):
Have you ever had an issue with the particular thing
that it's supposed to protect you from even after having
the vaccine. I'm kind of curious. I'm all for staying healthy,
but like I said, yesterday, I get more hesitant to
get just a shot for a shot. There's all sorts
of stuff in some of those vaccines. It's not entirely
healthy for us. I don't agree with some of the

(03:49):
really fringe cringe warnings about vaccines that you see on
social media because you really can't verify the source of
what they're telling you. But some of that stuff just
it just it makes a lot of sense to be
at least cautious and talk about it with your doctor.

(04:09):
The other way you can get a hold of me
today is through the talkback button.

Speaker 3 (04:13):
Just go to iHeartRadio KPRC.

Speaker 4 (04:16):
And you'll when you get onto the station listening and
are listening to the station live, you'll be able to
hit the talkback bucket button excuse me, and it will
give you thirty seconds, I think somewhere right in that
area to speak your piece, and I'll take a look
during the breaks and see if I get any responses.
I didn't tell you that yesterday. I did that yesterday.

(04:38):
I'm gonna scratch that out, by the way, I did
here this morning, and I haven't seen the clip, but
the view, the whole panel on the view is as
mostly quite liberal in their thought, quite progressive in their thought.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
And Stephen A.

Speaker 4 (04:54):
Smith was actually on there, I think maybe yesterday, and
he got into it pretty good with them when he
talked about what's most important to this country and the
view apparently took the side of a culture war and
that was what they thought was needed the most attention,

(05:15):
and Stephen A. Smith basically just said, look, it's it's
safety and just basically getting along and making sure we're
moving forward. Safety came up, and there was one other
issue he brought up. I can't recall exactly what it was,
but yeah, he went after them pretty good. Something else
I found that kind of made me feel good about

(05:37):
where we are now versus where we are for where
we were for the last four years. There was a
the J six bombers, what they called this guy. There
were bombs found, packages found outside that RNC and DNC
headquarters shortly after the election. The last the way back

(05:57):
when the Biden Trump one and Biden's administration had four
years to solve this case, four years and couldn't do it,
and lo and behold, they blew the dust off the file,
opened it up under the Trump administration and they've already
charged this guy, and I think he's going he may
he may have a court date today.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
Actually I'm not really sure. And by the way.

Speaker 4 (06:20):
If you want to look online and check it out,
Jake Tapper from CNN actually watched the ID of the
guy and it's worth going and looking at what he
said versus what's reality without getting really into it. Well,
how much time do we have in this one? A
minute and a half? Let me okay, good, the NFL,

(06:45):
I have to talk about these things that I don't
like having to talk about them, but I do. And
I'm not gonna take sides. I'm just gonna kind of
let you know what the situation is. They have opted
for some reason, well, for for a long time, the
NFL has talked about wanting to end racism and segregation
and just be just be NFL, just be people, just

(07:09):
be society whatever, Americans. But they're continuing to open the
Super Bowl again this year with a black national anthem,
and to my knowledge, no other country in the world
has more than one national anthem. I'm not sure why
the NFL opted to do this again on February eight,
and I'm not sure it's going to help ratings rather

(07:31):
than bringing all Americans together, the NFL, it appears as
trying to do kind of just the opposite. Same with
Bad Bunny for the halftime show. He's not a fan
of this country. He knows that, He'll tell you that.
And it's pretty easy when you listen to him. And
from what I hear, the NFL chose him to perform.
And I got a hunchy gonna use that platform to

(07:52):
drive an even deeper wedge between us and them, whoever
them may be, whoever we and they may be, although
I do believe we're all a little smarter than that,
and hopefully there will be some way to make it work.
All right, I got to take a little break here
on the way out. I'll tell you about Cedar Cove
RV Resort over there on Galaston Bay, right down the right,
across the street from Thompson's Bait Camp at the end

(08:15):
of Tri City b Troad. I got an email from
Al Kibbi a couple of days ago talking about how
what they have in the convenience store, which I was
wanting to know whether they had bait for fishing or not.
They keep a lot of frozen bait and if you
want something a little higher tech than that. Maybe some
live shrimp or finger mullet or whatever. You can go
right across the street and get that. At Thompson's. He's

(08:36):
got a few lures, a little bit of tackle, and
fishing licenses, like I said yesterday, which are very important
to have this time of year. Thompson's, by the way,
having a fishing tournament tomorrow morning. I don't know how
many boats are coming down, but Al offered a special
for anybody that wants to bring their RV fifteen percent
off to stay. Fifteen percent off whatever ice you want
to buy, and then another ten percent if you win

(08:59):
in the if you're finish in the top five in
the tournament, and you take a picture with him so
he can kind of brag about you on Facebook. Cedar
cove Rvresort dot com been there a while. It's it's
all electric or not all electric. All all their pads
have electric water and sewer. All everything's concrete, the roads,
the pads, all of that stuff. They got free WiFi.

(09:21):
They got a bathhouse with showers in that convenience store. Beautiful,
beautiful time of year to be on the water down there.
Cedarcove Rvresort dot com.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
Aged to perfection. This is fifty plus with Dougpike.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
All Right, welcome.

Speaker 4 (09:36):
Back, thanks for listening to fifty plus, Thanks for sharing
your lunch. Hower Will talking this segment about another one
of the acronym conditions, specifically COPD, which is chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease. COPD impacts more than fifteen million people in
this country.

Speaker 3 (09:53):
I'm reading from some.

Speaker 4 (09:54):
Stuff I learned most of them on the older side,
if I read correctly, and to learn more about D
and well, this is actually, man, it's.

Speaker 3 (10:05):
Been a long time coming.

Speaker 4 (10:06):
I finally connected with doctor Cardum seeka assistant professor at
ut Health MC Government School of Medicine and teacher of
COPD and sleep medicine, among other things.

Speaker 3 (10:16):
Welcome to fifty plus, doctor Ceca.

Speaker 5 (10:19):
Thank you, Doug, thank you so much for having me
on the show.

Speaker 3 (10:21):
Man.

Speaker 4 (10:21):
I'm glad we're connected. So I like definition, So let's
start there. What exactly is COPD?

Speaker 5 (10:27):
COPD? You know, it's as you said, it's an acronym.
It stands for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. That primary also
means lung disease. And the best way to defining it
is that it's a disease that happens over a period
of time where there's a destruction of the airways, which
is the wind types that go into the lungs and
supply oxygen to the rest of the body. And once

(10:49):
you destroy these airways, it's harder to get air out.
And when it's harder to get air out, it's also
harder to get flame out. People start wheezing, field tied
in the chest and just can't breathe. So, in other words,
it's a disease that happens over a period of time.
Often happens because of irritance and exposures like smoking, sometimes

(11:10):
some genetic predispositions, but then eventually, you know, lead to
difficulty breathing and fearing of the airwaves.

Speaker 3 (11:17):
What kind of testing? How do you diagnose this specifically?

Speaker 5 (11:22):
So you know, in modern day and age, we have
what we call lung function test. Actually it's not as
modern if you think about it. In eighteen forties is
the first time the very first pirogram was developed, the
machine that measures how well you breathe, how well you
can breathe in and out. We've just over time, we've
a we are able to diagnose now diseases with much

(11:47):
more accuracy with modern techniques. But this lung function test
tells us how much somebody can breathe out and will
be compare it to somebody normal. What's the difference there.
So that's the most common way of knowing if somebody
has an obstructive lung disease, and COPD is one of
the obstructive lung diseases. Now, certainly the X rays and

(12:07):
CD scans also help.

Speaker 4 (12:09):
I mentioned earlier that it's traditionally found in older people.
Is there an average age of onset?

Speaker 5 (12:17):
Yeah, so you know, we all lose sun lung function
with our age, regardless of our health. But then you know,
as we get exposed to these environmental triggers, whether it's
smoking or some occupacial exposures, our airways go through further destruction.
So typically when we grow older, typically older, you know,

(12:41):
in our not teenage years. But I would say after
once we start entering our forties and fifties, we start
having we see more and more of this disease, and
you know, the I would say the course of the
disease really depends upon whether we can want any worsening
or not. The people who stop getting these exposures actually

(13:05):
start having a better quality of life and longevity. But
if we don't stop the exposures is further destruction of
the airways. Then people can get into a lot of
trouble with this disease.

Speaker 4 (13:13):
For somebody just listening and not really knowing much about this,
what are the early symptoms of this disease?

Speaker 5 (13:20):
So I think the very first symptom that most people
talk about is fatigue, feeling tired. Eventually, you know, it
catches them and they say, you know what, I start
feeling short of breath when I walk. I start feeling
short winded when I walk a certain distance. Comes a
time where they might might say, it's even harder for
me to take a shower, even tie my shoelaces. I
tie my shoelaces, and then I feel tired. I have

(13:42):
to catch my breath. Those are kind of the symptoms
that most people have. Some people will have film production
and inability to clear their flem. They would say that
that's their primary symptom. Very a subset of those spaces
may also have weezing. Somebody will say, oh, you're whezing.
Your breathing doesn't says route I seem right and in

(14:02):
severe cases, they can actually have just tightness and may
go to the hospital thinking it's a hard attack. So
but early signs would be mostly feeling short of breath
and feeling tired and fatigued.

Speaker 4 (14:13):
Doctor got them SIKA on fifty plus where bless here
this afternoon, let's talk a little bit about prevention. Is
there any way to just prevent it from from your
thirties and make sure you don't get exposed? What are
those exposures you're talking about that really matter other than smoking?

Speaker 5 (14:30):
Yeah, that's the strongest exposure, right, even though you say
other than smoking. First hand and second and smoke both
lead to a development of COOPID. So if you're not
smoking on someone else's I think we need to do
something about it at least prevent that exposure to get
that risk. And then other than that, there are other
environmental exposures. When people work in you know, minds, they

(14:54):
get exposed to certain chemicals places that are not well vitilated,
even you know, not in urban areas, but in some
rural areas where people are using you know, the biogas
for cooking. Long term exposure to that from that will
also cause COPD. Now, one thing that we don't talk

(15:16):
about enough. Is anytime somebody gets an infection of the lungs,
those airways which are already struggling, will struggle more and you
might not come back to your original baseline. So prevention
of infection is extremely important people who have COOPD or
are at risk of developing COOPD, which means, you know,
simplest thing is getting a vaccine for the common bugs

(15:37):
that cause infections.

Speaker 4 (15:38):
Very good point, and back to the people who live
with COPD. What are the treatment options?

Speaker 5 (15:44):
So we you know, we've done fairly well over the
last few decades with the treatment of COPD. You know,
most of the centers equipped with the most recent know
how of what medications in healer has worked for certain patients.
In fact, there was a time where we would give
patients in halos and we wouldn't recognize that their lung

(16:05):
function is so poor that those inhalers don't even get
to their lungs. They stay in their mouths. Right, you
can't take a deep breath. All that medication is going
to just stick to your mouth, right, It's like a placebo.
But at the end of the day, now we have
neiblizer machines in fact, most recently, you know, there are
near drugs being developed which are injectables which I've been

(16:26):
used routinely for asthma, but are also catching up for COOPD,
both of which are obstructured lung diseases as much as
just one of those diseases found typically in younger people,
and there's a reversibility to it, but both of them
are air were diseases. And yes, we have these neo
class of drugs which might actually revolutionarize how we tweat
COOPD in future.

Speaker 4 (16:47):
I've never been asked if I wanted to be checked
for COPD at any of my checkups when I've gone
for routine physicals. Is this something that people my age,
let's say fifty plus, should they just ask their doctor
to go ahead and check?

Speaker 5 (17:01):
I think in the background when you see your PCP,
typically they ask you certain questions, right, how far can
you walk? You have any difficulty breathing? In the background,
they might be screening you already. If they're asking you
whether you smoke or you have any other exposures, and
whether you have any difficult degreething, then yes, But I
also believe that you know the best advocate for a
patient is the patient itself right, So yes, you know

(17:23):
being aware is important. There are these scoring systems that
are available. One is called the MMRC Medical Research you
know Council Score, which just tells you how different you
might be from a person of your own age as
far as the breathing goes, and if your number is high,
it might be a good idea to get checked. Especially

(17:45):
it asks you how far can you walk and at
what distance do you feel short of breath? So yes,
there are these scoring systems that are available. But I
think when you go to your PCB, most PCPs do
pay attention to COPD because it's so prevalent in our communities.

Speaker 4 (18:01):
Doctor gotam Cicca, thank you so very much. I'm glad
we finally got this interview in. It's been quite a while,
hasn't it.

Speaker 5 (18:07):
Thank you so very much. And again apologies for the
last time. And I couldn't make it.

Speaker 4 (18:11):
No, no, no, I quite understand your time is far
more valuable than mine.

Speaker 3 (18:15):
Thank you, sir, Thank you, thank you. Thanks Doc. All right,
on the way out, I will tell you all about
where did it go? Where did it go? Where did
I put it there?

Speaker 4 (18:25):
It is ut Health Institute on aging as if I
need a piece of paper. Honestly, I don't even have
to look at that piece of paper. All I got
to do is remind all of you the fantastic things
that the UTA Health Institute on Aging has been doing
for the better part of ten or twelve years I've
been with them. I've been speaking highly of them for
that entire time almost I think it was only around

(18:45):
for about an hour when we collaborated and sat down
at lunching and came up with a good plan to
use my show to introduce the Institute on Aging to
as many people as we could in this age group.
It's a collaborative provide from every medical discipline who have
taken it upon themselves to get more education on how

(19:06):
to apply their specific bank of knowledge to seniors. And
that's critical for us. For young people, it's okay, they
can go see anybody they want, but for me, I
want to see somebody that knows a little bit more
about seniors, and UT Health Institute on Aging gives us
the chance to do that.

Speaker 3 (19:23):
Gives all of the set.

Speaker 4 (19:24):
Chance, mostly in the medcenter as you might imagine, but
also working in outlying hospitals and clinics. And offices at
least a couple of days a week. If you don't
want to drive in there, go to the website. You'll
find it fascinating. You'll be there a long time and
then use it to springboard yourself into some of these
providers and make a few calls and get in to
see somebody if you need some help. Ut dot edu

(19:47):
slash aging, uth dot edu slash aging.

Speaker 2 (19:52):
Now, they sure don't make them like they used to.
That's why every few.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
Months we wash them, check us words, and spring on
a fresh code of wax.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
This is fifty plus with Doug Pike.

Speaker 4 (20:03):
Trying to keep this voice alive. Water helps, but it's temporary.
Because this doctor also told me to take some muse
in X and I think it's drying my entire mouth.
I need chapstick. I'm going to lift through this. I've
been through it so many times. I was telling the
doctor for the longest time. I had a good relationship

(20:27):
with a doctor who has since retired from that practice,
man who did my deviated septum surgery, which he told
me right before he retires, said, look, I'm about to retire.
I'm doing this. I'm doing this on you. You're gonna
love me for it. And I hesitated and hesitated, and
finally pulled the trigger, and it was the best decision
I ever.

Speaker 3 (20:45):
Made, one of them, anyway, pardon me so.

Speaker 4 (20:49):
In any event, the whole time that he was there,
through a good portion of my radio time, I was
able to call his assistant and let her know that
I had sinus infection and.

Speaker 3 (21:05):
It was in my chest or in my throat or whatever,
and I needed to come in.

Speaker 4 (21:08):
And I would get in there that day as soon
as possible and knock everything out and was usually good
to go.

Speaker 3 (21:17):
Within twenty four hours.

Speaker 4 (21:19):
There was a long ways to go to get through
antibiotics when they were needed and stuff like that, but
he could patch me up and at least put a
patch on the tire until we could get fresh air
into it.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
Now it's a little more complicated to get in.

Speaker 4 (21:34):
The clinics are busier, but the bottom line is I'm
still getting taken care of over there. I go to
Houston E and T, and I'm still getting taken good
care of. And this morning I was able to go
over there. I was going to come into the office
first and then go back down there and try to
get in before the show or maybe after. But I
was right there. I thought, okay, I'll walk in. And

(21:56):
I walked in and I you know, she said, Hi,
do you have an appointment? I said no, but I
kind of need one, and I explained my situation, and
one of the doctors had one appointment I could get to,
and so thankfully I got in there and got what
I need, I think, and we'll be in good shape,
fully good shape, hopefully, like I said yesterday, by Monday

(22:18):
at least, so that I can cheer when I sink
a big long BIRDY put somewhere.

Speaker 3 (22:24):
We'll see about it. Well, I want to. I wanted
to visit with you.

Speaker 4 (22:27):
You mentioned recently that your life's gonna change at some point,
you and your fiance will be getting married.

Speaker 3 (22:36):
What how.

Speaker 4 (22:39):
What do you think is different from say, back, I've
been married thirty five years. What do you think are
the different challenges maybe for young couples that I wouldn't
have gone through.

Speaker 5 (22:51):
M.

Speaker 6 (22:53):
That you wouldn't have gone through.

Speaker 4 (22:56):
I can tell you you want me to start, I
can tell you one that that my generation, and right
out of high school, a friend of mine got married
to his high school sweetheart. Okay, and it was a
few years later, they wanted to buy a house, and
this was in Jimmy Carter's administration. And I want to
say that their house loan was taking it something like

(23:18):
fourteen percent. Barely any of the money they were paying
was going actually to the note. And then from that
point forward rates came down, down, down downward in the
threes for a while, and I don't know if they
got any lower than that, but now they're around six something.
That does that make you feel comfortable that someday you'll
be able to get into a house or would you

(23:40):
like to see it? Well, everybody'd like to see him
come lower. Do you feel comfortable at around six?

Speaker 3 (23:45):
Oh?

Speaker 6 (23:46):
Well, I inst too soon to be honest. I don't
think that owning really a house is anywhere near.

Speaker 4 (23:54):
The own future. So you know, yeah, but you know
what that's it's funny you say that. Not funny, but
it's interesting that you say that, because a lot of
younger people are deciding the same thing that it's just
it's so out there that you can you can manage
your life better knowing that you just got to make
that rent payment every month and not worry about the
sudden stuff like I've got to replace an.

Speaker 3 (24:15):
Air conditioner at some point very soon, and if I.

Speaker 4 (24:18):
Can't, but I'm already kind of past the window I
think where I could have gotten it on last year's stuff.
And in fact, I'm talking to an AC guy right
now about coming on on the show and the new
rules and REGs that are going in. He said this
past year and for the last few years, he could
sell just let's say, take an average number, an average number,

(24:41):
maybe eight thousand dollars to replace an AC unit in
a modest size house. That same unit starting January one
is going to be like twelve or thirteen thousand dollars
just overnight. The rules change and the systems change and
the requirements change. And there are still, I think some
AC companies who have a few of the current units

(25:03):
out there, but on January one, those things become doorstops.
They can't sell them anymore. So that's that's a it's
a good I think renting. Renting was good for me
when I was very young and in your situation, and
I was in your situation for a long time.

Speaker 3 (25:20):
A lot of people my age were.

Speaker 4 (25:23):
But I think at some point you two will will
maybe make that move. What what are your short term goals.
Go Lee, I thought I could come up just off
the cuff with some really good questions for you. What
what concerns you most about being married over being single?

Speaker 2 (25:42):
Oh?

Speaker 6 (25:42):
Nothing, I mean, I'm yeah, I'm excited.

Speaker 3 (25:46):
Yeah that's good. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (25:47):
I mean I don't think I would have proposed, if
that's about it, marry you, but maybe not right now. Yeah,
no exactly. I mean I think we're going to be
just taking our time with it, and you know, we're
gonna maybe start looking at venues next year and seeing
what we can do. And I mean that's that's really

(26:09):
kind of the stuff that's on the horizon.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
And yeah, I presume you've.

Speaker 3 (26:13):
Told the families. Yeah, excited they are.

Speaker 6 (26:17):
They they've been very excited. They've been you know, it's
just a question that I've gotten for frankly.

Speaker 3 (26:23):
Years about it. Everybody. Oh yeah, quite literally, everybody's Yeah, when.

Speaker 4 (26:29):
You've been when you've been with somebody steadily for as
many years as you two have been together, everybody's gonna
start beating you up over it.

Speaker 3 (26:36):
And there's no reason for that. I guess they just
they're just curious.

Speaker 6 (26:39):
You know, they're just scared.

Speaker 3 (26:40):
They're scared at all.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
I'll mess it up.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
You know that's not right. You're not gonna mess anything up.

Speaker 6 (26:47):
Well, I thank you, But you know they don't have
that faith in me.

Speaker 4 (26:51):
No, I have all the faith in the world. And
you will, I truly do. You'll be fine. Both of
you will be fine. What about the teaching profession, where
do you see that going? Since you're soon to well
someday to be your wife. Not soon, You guys are
taking your time, like you said, But how do you
see or what does she tell you about how teaching
is right now?

Speaker 3 (27:11):
She like it?

Speaker 6 (27:13):
Yeah, I mean she she really likes teaching.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
She's wanted to.

Speaker 6 (27:17):
I mean, she's she's done a form of teaching, you know,
for I mean, I would say most of her life,
you know. But yeah, I mean I I have no
qualms about about the education that we'll be able to
provide for our if we do have a you know,
like a child.

Speaker 3 (27:38):
She's tripping over the words will. Yeah, it's gonna be okay.
You know, it's life.

Speaker 4 (27:43):
Will bring you whatever it brings you, and you'll you'll
be fine, you really will. The only the concern I
have with education nationally is that there's still some some
parts of the country where where the administrations of school
districts and the teachers at specific schools even just refuse

(28:06):
to go along with what's being passed down from the
top down as far as rules and regulations on what
should and shouldn't be taught to certain age kids. I
do think we need to protect our younger kids a
little bit better than they're being protected in some parts
of the country. I'm not sure exactly because I've been

(28:27):
so I'm so far removed from elementary school and middle school.
I'm not sure exactly what's going on, But I don't
hear a lot of flak being thrown at Texas schools.

Speaker 3 (28:40):
It's predominantly in the north and a.

Speaker 4 (28:43):
Little bit up in the northern Midwest where some of
this stuff's going on. And hopefully we can get back
on board as an entire country following the same rules
at some point, which would be good. Speaking of all that,
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(29:25):
fifty nine in Sugarland, very easy to find her. You
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dot com.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
What's life without a net? If I suggest to go
to bed, leave it off.

Speaker 1 (29:39):
Just wait until the show's over, Sleepy Back to Doug
Pike as fifty plus continues.

Speaker 4 (29:45):
As I mentioned earlier in the program, I have zero
access to my laptop right now, which is not not
conducive to prepping for a radio show. There was one email,
though that I found pretty interesting from our program director.
Let me see if I get to it, because I
want to pull it up and I want to see
where these things rank.

Speaker 3 (30:07):
Come on, oh here, just right here. So it just says,
are these the worst Christmas songs? USA? Today?

Speaker 4 (30:14):
Actually wasted ink and print and I guess digital space
trying to identify the ten worst Christmas songs? And according
to this from Melissa Vergary, definitively ranked says here. Let
me see if I can find the list. If it
makes me go through like a hundred different things. Just

(30:36):
give me the list number ten, it claims, and will
I want you to give thumbs up or thumbs down
on these from in Sync? I never knew the meaning
of Christmas? Have you ever even heard of that song?

Speaker 2 (30:51):
Nor have I?

Speaker 4 (30:51):
So it can't be the worst if we've never heard it.
It's just another I'm gonna skip down these Neil Diamond
Cherry Cherry Christmas?

Speaker 3 (31:01):
Ever heard of that one?

Speaker 5 (31:03):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (31:03):
For two?

Speaker 4 (31:04):
Same here the Killers? You ever heard of that band?
You think it's gonna be something crazy? Kind of the
song title Don't Shoot Me Sanna? Is that about right
for the Killers?

Speaker 3 (31:18):
Yeah? I've never heard it. You heard the song? You have?
Have you heard it? But you've heard of it? That's
kind of messed up.

Speaker 4 (31:26):
Pussycat Dolls Santa Baby. I'm sure they they ramped it
up a little bit. I have never heard it. I've
heard of them, and I've heard of the song that's
about it? Oh oh my word?

Speaker 3 (31:41):
From lou Monty. You ever heard of him?

Speaker 4 (31:44):
Dominic the Donkey, It says, the guy who popularized Peppino
the Italian Mouse, turns his questionable charm to an Italian
Christmas donkey that helps Sanna bring presents made in Brooklyn.
Of course, it says Nick wisely doesn't have much to say.

Speaker 3 (32:01):
Beyond la la lab. But it goes on and on
and it just gets worse and worse.

Speaker 4 (32:06):
New Kids on the Block. Another boy band try to
capitalize on Christmas? Funky funky Christmas? Is that on your playlist?

Speaker 3 (32:16):
Ever? You ever heard of it? Okay, that's another one.
We don't know. What's that?

Speaker 1 (32:20):
Four?

Speaker 3 (32:20):
We've never heard of he three? I think it's yeah,
I think it's four.

Speaker 4 (32:25):
We'll go to Jessica and Ashley Simpson, Simpson the little
drummer boy. We know the song, we know who they are.
We've never heard the song? Correct, that's five?

Speaker 3 (32:37):
New song? Is that a person or a band? I
don't know.

Speaker 4 (32:41):
It just shows one guy here, uh the Christmas shoes.

Speaker 3 (32:46):
That sounds like a waste of notes to me. Yeah,
neither one of us. That's what's six? Now? At least
who are Elmo and Patsy? Oh my word? Oh? I
know who they are now because of the title of
the song. And this one I know you've heard Grandma
got run over by a reindeer.

Speaker 4 (33:03):
One of the worst, you think, I'd almost have to
agree it's just so corny, although it's corny enough to
be okay, isn't it I guess I don't know. And last,
and not least, the the worst Christmas song ever, according
to this piece at USA Today, Alvin and the Chipmunks

(33:27):
the Chipmunk song Christmas Don't be Late. That's a good song.
There's nothing wrong with that song. I listened to it.
I bet I've heard it when it first came out.
I'll tell you how popular it was when it first
came out. I don't remember who bought it, but somebody
in our family bought it on a forty five.

Speaker 3 (33:46):
I don't remember what was on the B side, but yeah,
and we played it.

Speaker 4 (33:50):
Over and over at Christmas time, sat in the living
room singing it on this little, tiny little record player.

Speaker 3 (33:56):
Put it up?

Speaker 2 (33:57):
Will you go to sing it?

Speaker 3 (34:00):
Or you're gonna put it up there? Can you find it?
Don't worry about it? How much time we got left?
All right? Five minutes? Man? Oh man?

Speaker 4 (34:11):
I sure wish I had my laptop right now. I'm
going to dig into I talk with Will. The other
day I read off six different world records that were
set by people who I guess have nothing better to
do than set world records. I wonder who has the
most world records, because that's kind of useless as well.

(34:33):
Among these, the one that made me take pause the most,
I think was the guy who ran half marathon ran
a half marathon wearing one hundred and thirty seven T shirts.

Speaker 3 (34:48):
I think it might have.

Speaker 4 (34:51):
There was a picture of the guy, but I didn't
really look closely at it. But I would suspect that
by the time you put on that many T shirts
and try to run thirteen point one miles there, something's
gonna something bad's gonna happen to your body, Something really
bad's gonna happen to your body. And we both agree,
will I think that the bus driver who was named

(35:12):
the world's oldest, a guy from Texas, actually at ninety five,
still driving a school bus.

Speaker 3 (35:18):
You think the kids call him Paul Paul?

Speaker 4 (35:20):
Yeah they do, Yeah they do, or no, they call
him mister whatever his last name is, don't they Do
you ever ride a bus to school? I didn't need her, now,
I take that back. When we were in New Orleans,
I rode a bus to what was it called Sam
Barth School. It is a private school and I was
only there one year. But yeah, I'm pretty sure that's

(35:42):
where I have memories of riding the bus and it
was in Louisiana, and that was we lived in Mataie,
And I think that's how I got to that school.

Speaker 5 (35:53):
I don't.

Speaker 4 (35:54):
I don't think I ever rode public school bus in Texas,
and I attended public school all the way through high school.

Speaker 3 (36:01):
Don't regret it. It was good back then.

Speaker 4 (36:03):
We had a lot of fun, we learned a lot,
and I think the high schools have changed so much.

Speaker 3 (36:10):
I wish they would.

Speaker 4 (36:12):
I wish they would teach more of the basics and
less of the kind of non basics, if you will,
and let these kids get out of there with good
knowledge and the STEM courses so that they can get
a head start on it. Well, we can't get a
head start on anybody now. We're so far behind the
world in education in almost every subject. It's very frustrating

(36:32):
when I see statistics like that, thinking about how brilliant
some of our kids are, and how they're not being
challenged and not being really pushed in a lot of
schools to do anything other than just memorize stuff and
write it on a test, get an a and check out. Ah,
I'm not going to talk about that. Let me see

(36:53):
if there's anything else in this little notepad of mine
that I wanted to talk about. I will talk a
little bit just about the cold, and I'm going to
talk about this tomorrow, hopefully with a new or hopefully
with regained access to my computer with the cold coming on.
I'm curious to know how many of you in the

(37:13):
senior category and shoot me an email. I'd be curious
how many of you change your plans. Let's say you
make plans and the forecast says it's going to be
seventy degrees a beautiful day. How many of you change
your plans if it gets down to if it's going
to be fifty degrees, or you just shut it off

(37:34):
all together? Or do you just dress for it and
go have fun? Because I know a lot of people.
I talked to a guy the other day. Actually it
was an email in exchange in a thread that a
bunch of us are on a group that I played
golf with fairly regularly, and he said, I don't play
at lower than fifty degrees, just period into stories. I

(37:54):
don't play if it's that colt, And I'm kind of
if I'm feeling good and I'm not. I'm not achy,
I'm not tired, I'm not sick at all. I'm playing now.
It used to be probably there is a number, and
that number for me is about forty five fifty. I
can still manage. That's what it's gonna be the morning
of the Saint Jude Tournament. As a matter of fact,

(38:16):
it's supposed to go up into the sixties a little bit,
and it's supposed to be sunny as well. So what
I'll do is we're dark colors, and let all that
sunshine get on me and warm me up and keep
me warm. And the other thing I do, for two reasons,
is keep those little small hand warmer packets in my
pockets when I play. That way, I don't have to
try to bundle them up under my legs or anything.

(38:38):
When we're riding around, and when you're carrying your golf balls,
if you keep them in the pocket next to those warmers,
it really does make a difference in the flight of
the ball. The ball in fifty degrees is gonna is
gonna fly. It's not huge differences, but it's enough. I
gotta fly too, says Will six seven seven sixty five. Alright,

(39:00):
I'm gonna go nurse my voice a little bit more.
I'll be back on tomorrow on seven ninety at seven o'clock.

Speaker 3 (39:04):
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