Harris County Area Agency on Aging

Today, Doug Pike interviews Paula Johnson about services for the elderly.

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?

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Well?

Speaker 3 (00:20):
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
and now fifty plus with Doug Pike.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
AHI, Welcome Ward, Thank you all for listening to fifty
plus the show that pretty much bottom line is that
it helps seniors, okay, and that and the wonderful adult children,
by the way, who listen on behalf of their parents.
I know there are a lot of you out there
that kind of a thirty five plus range. It helps

(01:05):
us all, really, especially myself really, to learn more about
things that matter to us. There's a topic that you
don't think I've ever covered, and you can't find anywhere
in the What is it about eight hundred and fifty
now episodes will that are available by podcasts? Is that
about right?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Higher?

Speaker 3 (01:22):
Nine hundred lower? So eight fifty to nine hundred somewhere
in there. If you don't think we've covered it, you
can go check, or you can just email me or
call and let will know what you'd like to hear about,
and I will hunt down an expert and I will
get that topic taken care of. That's something I take
great pride in is having access to people who know

(01:46):
a whole lot about a whole lot of things about
which I don't know a lot. And it works out
pretty well. It has for what the better part of
ten years now. Quick update, by the way, as though
any of you might not have heard yet, the man
alleged to have shot Charlie Kirk on Wensday has been
taken into custody up here in Utah. And according to

(02:07):
what I've heard, it was this young man's father who
made the phone call to let the authorities know to
come pick the kid. While I say kid, he's twenty
two years old. Name's Tyler Robinson, just twenty two and
somehow so filled with hatred for a guy he never
even knew at all that he made a decision that

(02:31):
you know, ultimately, if he's convicted in Utah could get
him the same penalty he imposed on Charlie Kirk. Not
the same way, not the horrific way that Charlie Kirk
met his demise, but nonetheless an end of life thing
that probably get it. I don't know, it'd be years
down the road, it always says. Kirsch Murder took the

(02:51):
stabbing death of that young Ukrainian woman on a light
rail train and Charlotte off the front page this week two.
The thug who killed Irena Krutzka had more than a
dozen prior convictions and in another senseless, preventable murder, that
of Kayla Hamilton. This was two years ago, though you
may not know or remember that one, but Kayla Hamilton

(03:12):
was only twenty and she was sexually assaulted, restrained, and
strangled beyond her last breath by a seventeen year old
illegal immigrant found guilty recently. And by the way, we'll
spend a big chunk of his life behind bars, and
to make sure that she not Caleb, but somebody else

(03:32):
stays in the news. This week, during a House Judiciary
Committee debate, Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett shouted this, and I quote,
you take a situation and then you exploit what has
happened to not only that person, but you exploit those
families and you make it a game. Stop just throwing

(03:53):
a random dead person's name on something for your own
political expediency. A random dead person, that's what she called.
That's what she called that twenty year old girl, Kayla Hamilton.
A random dead person? Is that how few? That's how

(04:15):
she views the brutal taking of a human life. Is
that her level of respect for people whose lives are
taken by evil. I bring up Kruska in Hamilton as
starkly different cases than that of Charlie Kirk two. Those
two young women died at the hands of men who,
first of all, were not mentally ill. To the contrary,

(04:36):
they're very calculating, very callous. They both chose women as
they're victims because they knew there'd be little resistance. And
if after we've taught women to do what the attacker
says in Hamilton's case anyway, with the expectation that he'll
finish his vile deed and just walk away. But neither
of those killers wanted to be caught, which is a

(04:58):
product of rational thought and not insanity. Hamilton's killer eliminated
the only witness to his crime and Kruskus killer got
up after stabbing her from behind. By the way, he
didn't face her and give her any chance to retaliate.
He just got off the bus and walked away. At

(05:19):
least they got him. Charlie Kirk died for a different reason, though,
And I saw it raised on a video yesterday, and
I wish I could find that video to credit it.
It's still out there. I'm sure Charlie Kirk died because
this guy said he was different, and he was effective
at swaying people off the left and onto the right.

(05:39):
And he didn't convince everybody he talked to, but at
least he made them think. And similarly, the speaker pointed
out in this video, Kirk's killing is sort of like
those of JFK. Martin, Luther Martin, Luther King, the attempts
on the lives of Ronald Reagan and President Trump. All

(06:00):
of those men were highly influential in their own right
and highly effective at making politically powerful statements. They move
the needle in different directions sometimes, but they moved it.
The guy who did that video talked about the deep state,
and believe these killings and attempted killings were done either

(06:21):
either directly or otherwise on the orders of some convincing
suggestions of other people. Scary people who lead double lives,
he says, the sorts with public personas that are all
smiley and happy and let's all get along, and then
they have diabolical private selves that in which they do

(06:44):
their business. I'm not sure I'm ready to go quite there, honestly,
But the murders and attacks on people who have influence,
who are effective with their influence solely for that, just
for their influence and effectiveness, that's got to stop. It
really doesn't on which we always must. And by the way,
I was thinking last night about what I'd do with

(07:05):
myself if I ever do retire. Now, first of all,
I like my work. I enjoy the interaction with my listeners.
On the weekend, I get a lot of phone calls
and any emails, and I'll remind all of you that
you're welcome to call or email me a question, share
an opinion, even if it's not the same as mine.
The more ways you have to look at something, the

(07:26):
clearer your vision. Like I tell my k KB and
me audience, as long as you're not rude and you
don't cuss, You're welcome to join in. Not during interviews,
of course, and mine are very short, really, and so
I start them with a lot of questions for the
person on the line. Otherwise, just jump in and ask
or say something seven one three, two, one two five

(07:46):
nine five zero. Time. Take a little break here on
the way out, I'll tell you about Cedar COVARV Resort
over there at the end of Tri Cities Beach Road
down there Baytown. At the end of that road there
you will find Cove RV Resort pretty close to Thompson's
bake Camp if you know where that is. I do.
If you want a place to park your RV or

(08:08):
your motor home for a night a week. A full
season falls coming up, It's going to be gorgeous down there.
Nights are going to be cool, the days are going
to be not so hot as they have been lately.
Cedar Cove's got electric water and sewer at every site,
all concrete roads and slabs too. Plus they've got free WiFi.
They've got that bathouse take shower, They've got a convenience

(08:30):
store where you can get whatever you forgot. All that,
and as I've mentioned more than once, pretty good fishing
when the tide in the window. Right. He's got an
RV that he's made available for rent now too, where
you and your family can just drive your car or
your truck or your minivan or whatever down there and
then kind of experience that RV, that motor home life

(08:53):
without having to go out and buy one. And that's
a great way to sample it and see if it's
for you. It probably will be. Frankly, it's a beautiful setting,
gets sunrises and sunsets over the water, and you get
a nice quiet evening because all the noise has to
be shut down from ten pm to six am. It's
really set up to be very conducive to relaxation. Cedar

(09:17):
Cove Rvresort dot com is a website cedar coovervresort dot com.
What's life without a net? If I suggest you go
to bed, leave it off, just wait until the show's over. Sleepy.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
Back to Dougpike as fifty plus continues.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
All right, welcome back to fifty plus. Thank you for listening.
I certainly do appreciate that, and thanks you all for
sharing this front half of your lunch hour, breakfast hour.
I guess if we've got night owls out there might
be a few. We're going to talk in this hour
about something of benefit to most of you, at least
those of you who live in Harris County. It possibly
be on we'll get into that. And that's something is

(09:55):
the Harris County Area Agency on Aging. And for answers
to my questions, I will bring in Paula Johnson, who
just happens to be to be bureau chief for that
agency and part of a nationwide network to coordinate services
for the elderly. Welcome aboard, Paula.

Speaker 2 (10:14):
Hi, thank you, Doug, thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 3 (10:16):
Oh, it's my pleasure. So when did this agency come
into being?

Speaker 2 (10:21):
Oh? Wow? The Area Agencies on Aging have been around
since the nineteen seventies. As let me tell you. Let
me go back in the nineteen sixties, like right after
Medicare Area Agency on Agents were established through the Old
Americans Act.

Speaker 3 (10:37):
The Old Americans Act. Holy cal Yes, ain't that a
kick in the teeth for me?

Speaker 2 (10:42):
Anyway?

Speaker 3 (10:44):
That's all right.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
We've been around for a long time, over fifty years.

Speaker 3 (10:48):
Wow. Okay, so let's fast forward to now. How many
people are working for the agency in Harris County.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
Well, for our our agency, and actually we are the
largest area agency on agent in the state cover Hair County.
We have about total between our Triple A and the
Agent Disability Resource Center, close to fifty employees.

Speaker 3 (11:08):
Okay, well that's a pretty good bunch. Do you use
a lot of volunteers?

Speaker 2 (11:13):
We do have an opportunity to volunteer. There's some mandates
that's required by the state. We are regulated by the
state Texas Help and Human Services, but there are some
volunteer opportunities. Just there's a lot of backgrounds that have
to happen.

Speaker 3 (11:31):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, because there's a lot of You and
I both know how much problem with scammers and thieves
comes along with dealing with older people. I hate that,
but it is out there and I would I would
expect a background check if I walked in and wanted
to volunteer for you guys. So how do these people

(11:52):
who need your services? We'll get them get into those
in a second. But how do they contact you? Where
do they go?

Speaker 2 (11:59):
So we have a call center and our number is
and I'll say this multiple times, it's eight three two
three nine three four three zero one, and they're able
to connect with us Monday through Friday, our call center
goes up at eight and comes and shuts down at five.
We do have a email address, and if you go,

(12:22):
we are actually located within the Houston Health Department and
so on. Our website is also our email address as well,
and you can email us at aging at Houston, TX
dot gov.

Speaker 3 (12:36):
Okay, and let's talk about some of these service services.
You guys provide what what what's the most important and
most often taken advantage of, and then kind of work
it down the line two or three.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
Sure, so I would probably say our information Referral and
assistance services. When you call us at the eight three
two three nine three four three zero one number, you're
going to interact with the information Referral and assistance specialists
and let us know what services that you are looking for.
I would probably say next after that, most people know

(13:11):
our nutrition services. We have about thirty five congregate programs
across Harris County. We have one located in every single
multi service center that they have department operates, and as
well as our home delivered program. We do about five
thousand singers participate in our home in our congregate and

(13:32):
about eight thousand in our home delivered and My last
one I would probably say is our care coordination and
caregiver support coordination, and those are services to help older
adults that need support with activities of daily living. We
have services such as personal assistance, emergency response and for
those that don't know, that's the old commercial that has

(13:55):
come back, I fell down, can't get up. Technology is
great though, because it's completely different. And then respite, which
has given caregivers an opportunity to take a break, take
care of themselves, but at the same time make sure
that their loved one is being cared for.

Speaker 3 (14:13):
That caregiver support is so so important to the health
of not just the senior but also to the caregiver. Correct, yes,
sure so. So everybody's going to want to know who's
paying for all this, Paula.

Speaker 2 (14:27):
So I would have to say that your tax dollars
pay for this. This is federally funded through of course,
the Older Americans Act, and Congress has to approve a
budget every year to determine what our funding looks like.
Our funding is based on our demographics. But that's how

(14:48):
our funding comes down. It's so through Older Americans Act,
it comes to health and human services at the state level,
and then it's bundled down based on the funding formula
to the Triple as Paula.

Speaker 3 (14:58):
Johnson from the Harris County Area Agency on Aging on
fifty plus here, who qualifies exactly for the services?

Speaker 2 (15:07):
So to qualify for our services this is for older
adults sixty years of age or older and caregivers of
any age that those are those are our services, our
age limits that we.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
Have about how many older residents of Harris County are
signed up for the services right now?

Speaker 2 (15:29):
Oh my gosh, it's say large. On the nutrition side,
that was definitely I gave you those numbers there and
our other services. Is really funding dependent on how many
older adults were able to serve because we have to
do a budget every single year. But for example, I

(15:50):
could say probably on our personal assistant we're able to
serve anywhere between two hundred clients a year, and that's
quite a lot for us. But those services are short
term services where we can initially provide support, but then
after that we help them come up with their plan,

(16:11):
whether they're eligible for state services or they're eligible to
teach them how to do natural support. In our call center,
we probably touched well over forty thousand seniors a year,
forty thousand callers a year looking for services.

Speaker 3 (16:28):
And you mentioned being on a budget. Do you are
you tapped out or do you have room for more
people to jump on board at this point in the year, Well, we.

Speaker 2 (16:37):
Are still We're at the end of our September, the
end of our fiscal year, and so we actually just
met and are getting ready to start planning for next year,
for fiscal year twenty six, which starts October to first,
and so we are still serving right now. People can
call us at any time for our services. Some of
our services are one time only, some of those like

(16:59):
nutrition until the older adult no longer needs the service anymore.
But our information referral and assistance is open all the time,
and so we don't stop taking calls. We continually to
take calls if we're if it's a service that we
don't provide, then we look for other partners in our network,
in the aging network that may provide that service.

Speaker 3 (17:21):
And we're talking about this Harris County thing. Is this
stuff available to people outside Harris County down to about
a minute?

Speaker 2 (17:28):
So okay, no, there are other triple as, for example,
the thirteen I'm sorry, the twelve counties that's around Harris.
The Houston Galveston Area Agency on Aging is the Triple
A provider for those counties. Okay, so every single county
is covered by an Area Agency on Aging and you
can go to the state agency website and look up

(17:50):
what Triple A covers your your county.

Speaker 3 (17:53):
Anything on the drawing board coming up new for fiscal
year twenty six or do you secret?

Speaker 2 (18:01):
No, I won't say it's new, but it's time October
to fifteenth. Most people know this. It's Medicare open enrollment,
and so that's a big time for us with helping
older adults as they if they're looking for a Medicare,
if they're looking for a Medicare advantage plan. Now to
the time. We are also your ship, your state health
insurance program, and our benefits counselors who are certified through

(18:23):
the Texas Department of Insurance are there to answer any
questions that an older adult may have looking for their
plan or if they want to stay in their plan.
So that's October to fifteenth through December seventh.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
Thank you so much. Paula Johnson from the Houston or
excuse me, sorry, Harris County Area Agency on Aging they'll
take care of you if you're in Houston too. Thank
you so much, Paul, thank you. I bet eight three
two three ninety three four to three zero one give
them a call Monday through Friday. Thanks. All right, we

(18:54):
got to take a little break here. On the way out,
I'll tell you all about Country Boys Roofing. Country Boys
Roofing and owned and operated by a man named John Eittman,
who I've gotten to know a little bit on the
phone over the last few months, and every time I
talk to him or call him, it seems he is
he is helping somebody with a roof. Hold on, I
have to call you back in a minute, Doug. I'm

(19:15):
on a roof. I have to call you back. I'm
on the way to a roof. And that's what he's
been doing for many, many years now, making sure that
if there's even the slightest little defect in somebody's roof,
he'll take care of it before some big wind and
rain event comes along and turns a little thing into
a really big thing. He's getting a little help too.
He's got his son, Zach working with him now. And

(19:37):
I'm sure Zach learned I know he learned from the best,
and that's just going to help him keep that company
running all the better and help him get to more
and more people out there in this audience of mine
who are going to need their services. Country Boys Roofing.
If you are a first responder, if you are an educator,
if you are or were in the military, he will

(20:01):
take fifteen hundred dollars off a complete roof replacement. If
you don't qualify for any of that, he'll take one
thousand dollars off just for dropping my name. Be sure
to do that when you talk to him. He's a
real good guy. He'll work with you. He's got a
finance company he's working with now. If you can't bite
off that whole chunk when you get a repair or

(20:22):
replacement done. He's trying to make it easier and better
for you and everybody else who wants one to have
a good solid roof. Just in case we get something
through here. Countryboysroofing dot Com. You can spell it the
Boomer way, you can spell it the Millennial way. Country
with a K boys with a Z. Either way, you'll
get to where you want to go. Countryboysroofing dot Com.

Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yeah, they sure don't make them like they used to.
That's why every few months we wash him, check his fluids,
and spring on a fresh coat of wax. This is
fifty plus with Doug Pike. Welcome back to fifty plus.
Thank you all for listening.

Speaker 3 (21:01):
Let's skip over that, let's get to this page right here,
back to the news, and I'm gonna go with some
good news, since there hadn't been a whole lot of
it this week or in a while, I found this
early today. The descendants of the crew members of a
B seventeen during World War Two were treated to kind

(21:24):
of a surprise reunion by one of those sons and daughters,
and with help from ancestry dot Com, a woman named
Lisa Elsie. There she the woman who called said, Hey,
I would like to get these people together because our
fathers or grandfathers or I guess it would be grandfathers

(21:44):
at this point, probably because the people in the pictures
are all adults. But anyway, this plane, it was called
the Yankee Rebel, and it did thirty missions over Europe
eighty years ago, and on one of those missions it
deserved I think a Distinguished Flying Cross. I believe is
the metal those men earned. They went out made a

(22:08):
very successful run bombing run somewhere, and then before they
got home, or during that raid, or whenever, took a
whole lot of hits. They got back to base, just
riddled with bullet holes, one of the landing gears missing,
critically wounded pilot. But they all made it. They got

(22:29):
the thing back to the ground, back where they're supposed
to be, and reunited these people. I thought that was
kind of touching. It tied pretty well too. Also to
our interview with Alan Montgomery yesterday about Honor Flight Texan.
That's a very good cause. If you missed it, what
you missed is his explanation of this group. It's all

(22:52):
over the country. Really, they have a lot of chapters.
The Houston chapter specifically has made a couple of days
of these flights called honor Flights, And what they do
is take on each of these a couple of dozen veterans.
They fly them in I guess early morning, fly them

(23:14):
out a hobby up to Washington, d c. Take them
all to see the memorials that are set there for
either the Korean or the Vietnam War, whichever they fought in,
or a lot of them probably both even still today.
And then they spend the night up there in DC.
They have a little bit more activity the next morning,

(23:35):
and they come home. The next Houston flight, by the way,
if I remember correctly, is October tenth. And Alan said
it would be fantastic for anybody who can do it
to come out when these guys come back on the
eleventh and show their support for these veterans who went
and fought in those horrible wars. I don't know the

(23:58):
exact time. I think all the details are all at
Honor Flight Houston dot org. And like he said, it
would be really it would be really special for these
guys to get the welcome home that they deserved after
when they came home as young men fighting a war
that a lot of people never really understood. They didn't

(24:20):
get the welcome for their service that they should have
gotten from up in Minnesota. More good news of pizzeria
owner in this case a guy named Chris Colstad. He
noticed long ago, about six years ago, I think it was,
he bought this pizzeria and he realized that people were
eating the leftovers and the trash out of his dumpsters.

(24:45):
He put notes back there at first asking people not
to do that, but it came pretty clear to him
that some of these people really needed food and they
were ignoring his notes. And near the end of July
this year, he had a kind of a change of
heart and on Facebook he offered up a free cheese
pizza to anybody who would contact him and really had

(25:07):
valid need, just for something warm to put in their bellies.
And since then he's gotten a lot of response, as
you might imagine, and a donation leak has actually generated
more than four grand to help keep his generosity alive
and economically feasible. The guy is there to make a living,
he's not there to just dole out free food to anybody,

(25:30):
but with the help of those donations, he's able to
keep it alive. The stories of the people who are
receiving these pieces. You don't even have to you don't
even have to look us in the eye, you don't
have to see us. Just let us know when you're
gonna be there, and we'll put a piece out for you.
And it's working very well. And most of the people
getting these things tend to be legitimate families or individuals

(25:53):
who've lost their jobs or otherwise are just really down
on their luck. So there are good people in this country,
despite the way things have gone the last week or so,
and they far outweigh the bad ones. That gives me hope,
and plenty of it, honestly, is the good people keep
doing good things and regaining their voices. Thank goodness. All right,

(26:15):
we're getting close to the bottom here, will Did you
know this? Back in the day, people used to get
their feet X rayed at the shoe store to check
on the fit of their shoes. That's holy cow, man,
how much did we not know? Well? Doctors promoted cigarette
smoking back then too, that was a little different. And

(26:36):
how many seconds do I have? None? Basically three two one,
let's go. Let's go to Champions Tree Preservation. That's where
we'll go. Champions Tree Preservation located up there on the
north side of town by the way. No coincidence there.
That is Irwin and Robin Costelanos, the father and son
team who are arborists and will come to your tree

(26:57):
and diagnose your trees, every one of them, and you
d they'll probably be eyeballing the neighbor's trees too, but
they'll let you know what's wrong with your trees if anything.
If not, they'll just tell you Hey, you're good. We'll
see it in a gear or two. But if there
is something wrong, maybe they need pruning, maybe they need
bigger limbs lopped off, just in case we do get
a strong blow. And even a healthy tree, if it

(27:20):
moves enough, can beat the tar out of your roof.
It really can. So they'll let you. They'll advise you
on all of that up to an including if a
tree is just really sick and beyond saving. They have
the equipment, They had the crews to come out and
remove that tree. And then they also own a tree
farm that grows native Texas trees so that you can

(27:41):
get a new tree, a nice, healthy, young tree to
be there for as long as you're in that house
and for many years after that. Even get them out there,
let them look around, let them talk to you. I know,
when Irwin came to my house, the most the most
eye opening piece of information I got is how many people,

(28:02):
because they have a lot of other plants in their
front yards, how many people just totally over water they're
big oak trees like we all have around here, totally
overwatering those things, which causes a fungus in the roots,
which causes them to get a little bit weak and wobbly,
and a big blow might bring them down. Championstree dot
com is the website championstree dot com. Give them a

(28:23):
call to eight one three two oh eighty two oh
one two eight one three two oh eighty two oh one.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
Old guys rule and of course women never get old
if you want to avoid sleeping on the couch.

Speaker 3 (28:40):
Oh, I think that sounds like a good plant.

Speaker 1 (28:43):
Fifty plus continues Here's more with Doug. Welcome back to
fifty plus.

Speaker 3 (28:47):
Fourth and final segment starts now and ends in what
eight minutes well somewhere or seven eight minutes somewhere along
in there? Uh. A story I didn't get to earlier
comes from Canada, and I find it quite interesting and
somewhat telling about the way where Canada is right now
on crime control and on law enforcement. Up in Canada,

(29:14):
a homeowner has been charged with aggravated assault after fighting
and injuring a man who broke into his house in
the middle of the night. What's this guy supposed to do?
According to Canadian law, homeowners have the right to defend

(29:35):
themselves in their property. But here's where it gets a
little tricky up there in Maple Syrup Country. The use
of force, says here in the story, must be reasonable
given the circumstances. So some guy busts into your house
in the middle of the night, Just how how different

(29:59):
must the so circumstances be before I can defend myself
with physical force to the point that I get this
guy to stop trying to beat me up and stop
trying to take everything I worked all my life to afford.
The use of force must be reasonable. The guy who

(30:20):
broke in, by the way, had a crossbow. He's armed
with a crossbow. The homeowner grabbed a knife. That seems reasonable.
That seems just you're not going to go in there
bare handed. That probably wouldn't have held. It worked better,
And had that intruder pulled the trigger on that crossbow,

(30:44):
there's a really good chance a homeowner be six feet
under by now they can get him in before the
ground freezes. A quote that I believe is from a
local police chief said this, and this goes back to
when I was talking about those two young women who
were murdered recently. Here's what the local Canadian police chief said. Quote.

(31:05):
As it stands, we know the best defense for most
people is compliance. End quote compliance. Just let them do.
Let them take everything you got. Never mind that insurance
isn't going to pay for hardly any of it. Never
mind that you worked hard all your life to have

(31:27):
that what you have. Never mind that at the end,
who knows what they'll do with you, because you've seen
what they look like. You're probably gonna get killed anyway.
It's just very frustrating to tell people that the best
defense under attack by a guy with a crossbow is

(31:48):
to just let me grab you a couple of pillow cases,
so you tote this stuff out. I'll put on a
pot of coffee, make yourself at home. Would you like
a sandwich? What are we supposed to do? What are
we supposed to do? That that really irritated me when
I read that. I thought they were tougher than that

(32:08):
Up there in Canada. They're pretty good with the cold weather,
but apparently not so much on letting people help themselves
and defend themselves. That that shocked me when I read
who got the charges aggravated assault? And you know what,
I bet you if the guy he should he should
be found innocent first of all, and when he gets out,

(32:31):
if it happens again, he should do the same thing.
You've got to defend yourself, and nobody else was there
to know exactly how all that went down. Nobody else
was there that he's the only guy who knows how
scared he was. He's the only guy who saw that
crossbow in that intruder's hands. He deserves a little bit

(32:54):
of a break. I think I really do uh something
a little creepy that has to do with AI. I
wanted to bring up. I really was kind of surprised
when I read this. Apparently eighty three percent of employees
in our country say praise is more important than ever
in the age of AI. Ironically, though or confusingly, sixty

(33:20):
percent of those same employees say that AI tailored recognition.
In other words, you're being praised by a robot is
just as meaningful as if it came from a human manager.
I can't go for that manager can sit in there
and be as mad as a hornet, and you said, oh,
just say something nice about Doug and Will and send

(33:43):
them an email, Send them an email, tell them how
great they are. And that's that's great. But I would
rather have the manager come down and tell me what's
going on or what's wrong, what's right, and have a
discussion like that. I don't want too telling me what
I'm doing wrong. That's really weird, man, that's just really weird.

(34:06):
There was something interesting about changing times, is what I
headlined it. What are some things that kids used to
deal with? It said that would emotionally destroy them today
top of the list. And I understand because I loved
this game dodgeball, dodgeball and gym class something else that

(34:27):
kids today couldn't do. No way, babysitting infants at the
age of about twelve or thirteen, and of course no auto.
Say back then, if you forgot to hit save on something,
even not that many years ago, you're just out of luck.
I remember, I was telling somebody yesterday. I was at
the newspaper here for its first batch of computers. They

(34:51):
had been on typewriters up until a year or two
before I started there, and we would get to the
end of a column toward deadline. Not often, but it
did happen, maybe once a month or so early on,
and then less frequently as time went on and saving
became a habit. But you'd get all the way to

(35:12):
the end, and just about what I'm going to read
through it one more time, and the computer screen would
just go boom and it was gone. The whole thing
was gone. And now all of a sudden you got
an editor breathing down your neck, say, man, you got
twenty minutes of deadline. What do you got? I gotta
start over. Unfortunately, for the guys I worked with, our

(35:33):
stories weren't fact. Well, they were based on fact, obviously,
but they weren't. It wasn't critical stuff. It was fun stuff.
I wrote about hunting and fishing and golf and skiing
and snowboarding and all that stuff. So it didn't have
to be perfect. It just had to be fun. And
it was totally fun. Almost out of time, will yeah,

(35:54):
I think so, all right, let's just go ahead and
shut her down. Thank you all for listening. I'll be
back next week on Tuesday right here, and then tomorrow
morning and Sunday morning seven am and eight am, respectively,
I'll be over on KBMME talking about the great out
of Doors. Thank you also very much for listening. I'll
be back, God willing Audios