Mickey McDougald's Story

Today, Doug Pike interviews Mickey McDougald about his life.

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, this show is all about you on the die.
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 ag informed Decisions for a healthier, happier life.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
And now fifty plus with Doug Pike. All right, two
date editions of the program starts right now. Thank you
all for joining Will and me. And in a little while,
Mickey McDougal at the bottom of the hour, we're gonna
talk to him. He is a former basketball player, went
to UT business guy. I met him and his daughter, actually, Brooke,

(01:06):
many many years ago, when she was still in high
school playing golf. We played golf together, the three of
us plus one more. Can't recall even who that was.
It may have been Art Strickland. Actually I'd have to
check with Art. He would remember. In any event, up
there at wood Forest Golf Club, she Brooke was in

(01:27):
the midst of an incredible run as a high school
golfer and then went on to play for U of
H and now out in the world. We'll talk to
him at the bottom of the hour about hydration, which
is something that ended up. It's a long story and
we'll get to it all. But anyway, it's got a
good outcome and not hydration, but dehydration is what started

(01:51):
everything that took him on the journey he's getting out
of now after a long tough row to hoe. They say,
thanks as always as I just said, for joining us
weather from texasiaq dot net, because after all, cleaner air
is healthier air, and you can find out how they
clean duct work and it's a very unique system. They

(02:14):
use it actually once it's done, which makes its value
even better. Once it's done, you don't have to do
it again for years. You don't have to get this
stuff done every six months or even once a year.
Once it's done by these guys, it's done for good.
Texas iaq dot net. Cooler air, cooler air on the horizon, really,

(02:38):
but the bottom isn't looking as low now as it
did a couple of days ago. The worst of this
front is going to impact folks a good ways north
of here, like maybe even north of Huntsville, all the
way out to the farthest northern and western reaches of
the state. Good chance of reign today, only forty three
degrees overnight, then only forty four for a high tomorrow,

(03:03):
light freeze tomorrow night according to what I've seen. Then
just cold and wet and ugly on Friday, and then
we start clawing our way back up to almost seventy
degrees by Monday, which is not bad. We're on that
thermometer roller coaster of a season we're in right now,
where it could be eighty and it could be forty,

(03:24):
and it could be anything in between. So off to
market we tried. Thanks to Houston Goldexchange dot com. The
big four indicators split down the middle earlier about an
hour ago, little up, little down. No cause to buy
or sell anything at present. Oil actually was up eighty
five cents a barrel an hour ago, about seventy one
and a half, which is higher than it needs to

(03:46):
be by about five or six bucks. And I think
some of that will will balance itself out as we
move more confidently into drill Baby Drill gold shot up
forty six dollars announce earlier today. The last time I
looked at was almost but not quite, at twenty nine
p fifty announce, so kind of like I did five

(04:10):
hundred announce ago. If you've got any scrap gold laying
around the house that you're just not using, you don't need,
there's no reason to have it there, put it in
the palm of your hand and take it over to
Houston Gold Exchange. They'll exchange it for a nice check.
Moving into the news, Gosh, I so wish I had
been here yesterday. So wish i'd been here yesterday to

(04:33):
share that insane report that came out on Social Security
and how horribly it's been mismanaged apparently for decades. Perhaps
there are the numbers of people on Social Security roles
not necessarily collecting checks, but the numbers of people still
listed as I guess active somehow and are more than

(04:58):
one hundred years old comes close to about twenty million.
And like I said, now, that doesn't mean they're all
collecting checks, but anyway, at least they're. What it says
here is that they're those names are there, and some
at least are getting paid after outliving pretty much anybody
who's not a vampire. Will do you believe in vampires

(05:24):
in a sense, in a sense, what does that mean? Yeah?
I believe witness beings out there that maybe suck the
life out of me. Those are ex wives. That's different.
I don't have an ex wife. Good for you, for
you be patient? Will you know you haven't even been

(05:46):
married yet. You're a young man and you know it.
There's there's so much talk about how half of marriage
is fail and whatnot. But that's the glass half empty.
Look the glass half full. Look is that half of
them do make it, do endure the test of time,
and it's not going to be easy, but it's doable.
And that's my wife and I've been together for thirty Gosh,
this will be thirty five years. Will not that that's

(06:09):
older than you, isn't it? Yeah? Considerably? So you know
long age, far far away. Well, you got a big
plans to celebrate thirty five. Well, it doesn't happen until
later in the years. So I got I got a
long time to make sure I don't mess it up,
and I probably should start now, and that that would

(06:33):
be my best bet, I think in getting it right. Uh,
back to where I was the the one hundred year
old's plus there are people on the on the rolls
and again not not necessarily collecting checks, but still listed
as active accounts of people up to close to two

(06:53):
hundred years old. That's a problem. All of that should
have been taken out. And if it's anything like the
the treasure trove of records we're keeping in the bottom
of some limestone mine, it's gonna take a while to
come up to speed. And I'm just so glad we've
got people in there now who are actually really looking

(07:15):
closely at some of this dreadful mismanagement it is. It's
a problem. It's a very deep problem. That line in
the American budget for Social Security. It'll get fixed. And
in footnote to that one. By the way, the Social
Security Administration's acting head woman named Michelle King, after being

(07:35):
challenged by the Department of Government Efficiency, recently she resigned.
She quit over the weekend, and honestly, that's probably her
best strategy. She probably will still be call well, how
would I know?

Speaker 3 (07:50):
Will?

Speaker 2 (07:50):
I can't even see the We gotta go Doug fix
that during the break? Will you? While I work on
the world. Will has challenged me, I learned and says
I'm not going to get the word today, and I've
accepted the challenge, so I may work on that during
the break. On the way out, I'll tell you about
late health. This is the collection of vascular clinics around town.

(08:13):
They're not a million of them, but there's probably one
pretty close to you where you could be seen to
tackle anything from well. Their most common procedure there is
prostrate artyambolization for guys who are experiencing these symptoms of
an enlarged non cancerous prostate. Not very fun, not very
fun at all if you have that, and if you

(08:36):
know what it is, you know what the symptoms are.
If you don't look them up and see if they're
kind of starting up in you, because past fifty, that's
when that stuff starts. They also handle fibroids for women,
they handle ugly veins for anybody who's got them anywhere,
and even some head pains can be remedied with vascular procedures.

(08:56):
Everything's done in the office. You don't have to go
to the hospital. It's somebody to drive you home, and
you just prop your feet up in your big chair
and watch TV until you feel better and can get
back to doing whatever it was you were doing before that.
Seven one, three, five, eight, eight thirty eight eighty eight.
Most of what they do is covered by Medicare and Medicaid,
so double check on that as well. Seven to one, three, five, eight,

(09:19):
eight thirty eight eighty eight. What's life without a net?
I suggest you go to bed, sleep it off.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
Just wait until the show's over, Sleepy. Back to doug
Pike as fifty plus continues.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
All right, welcome back, Thank you for listening. We will
work our way from here to the bottom of the hour,
after which we'll talk to my buddy Mickey McDougald about
his It's an interesting story. You'll like it, I promise
you you will. It's a kind of a medical related

(10:09):
story in that it emphasizes hydration, which I'm trying to
get better at. Actually, for the longest time, I didn't
have any trouble at all with the heat in the summertime, especially,
And that's not to say that hydration is just a
summertime deal. But I wasn't the best at drinking a
lot of water until I too, once landed on a

(10:32):
table with an IV in my arm. I can't remember
how long ago that was. That was a very long time,
maybe thirty thirty two years ago something like that. I've
known better since then, and after all the interviews I've
done on fifty plus since then about hydration, kind of
learned my lesson. But it never hurts to emphasize, never

(10:52):
hurts to repeat something that's worth saying more than once.
And that's what we'll do in the bottom of the
hour segment with Mickey McDougal. Let me get over here.
Check that box, Check that box right there. Okay, I
got to that. Yeah, here we go. Let's start it
moving into the news. I guess I do wish I

(11:13):
had done that whole deal on Social Security. I wish
I'd had that chance, but I didn't. So in other look,
what we found news comes the story of a Department
of Education program and it's been out there sucking up money,
sucking up tax dollars for a long time that in
a nutshell says that newborn babies are presumed to be racist.

(11:37):
How that is possible, I really don't know. I don't
think that anyone has ever been birthed as discriminatory toward
anybody else on the planet that But that's what that
program did. That's what that program did, and it's it's

(11:57):
just it's a classic case of left ideology being funded
and therefore proved by the federal government and that we
don't need anymore. And I think that was clearly said
in November. But wait, there's even more and more and more,
it seems so lately. For example, here's one mainstream media
okay specifically NBC actually tried to hang that horrible crash

(12:23):
of ADULTA flight during its landing at Pearson Airport, which
by the way, is in Toronto, Canada, not anywhere United States.
But they tried depended on President Trump because of staffing
issues with the FAA, which has nothing to do with Canada,
which has nothing to do with that crash. But they

(12:45):
just couldn't help themselves. That's that's their eternal it seems
like I don't know that they'll ever give up on
claiming he's responsible for anything bad that goes on. And
it's it's becoming a tiresome point that try to make Ashley,
The left in general and lots of media outlets still
refuse to recognize that their years of deception are they're

(13:09):
kind of falling like a house of cards, which is
what they've been all along. But just too many people
either were afraid to declare that the emperor was not
wearing any clothes, or they just ignored the truth, or
they were scared into becoming just staying silent for fear

(13:30):
of being canceled, which happened to a lot of good people.
And so anyway that they're still trying, they're still swinging hoping.
I guess that somebody will believe some of that stuff.
To blame our president for a plane crash during a
landing at a Canadian airport, like blaming a cloud in
Nebraska for rain and Beaumont, that just didn't doesn't add

(13:54):
up at all. They used to get away with all
that line too, Hunter's laptop, Russian collusion, the list goes
on and on, and for a while, a lot of
people believe that stuff too. They bought it all hook
line and sinker. But the masks have come off now
and the faces underneath eventually are going to be held
accountable for their actions. And that's not going to be pretty.

(14:16):
That is not going to be pretty when when punishable offenses,
when legitimate breaking of the law by some people is
brought to bear, Liberals just losing their minds over the
things DOS is bringing because they know none of these
expenses can be justified. They know there's probably some personal

(14:36):
gain that's going to turn out to be traceable, and
they really don't want any part of that, so they're
going to keep yelling and screaming like they've always done
and telling us to look at something else. Because one
of my favorite and I used it yesterday, I was
talking to some guys on the golf course. I had
my buddy Jason Fortenberry from Primo Doors out there with
me at black Hawk playing with the group yesterday, and

(14:59):
at some point, I can't remember why it even came up,
but I said, it's it's so so true, as long
as you're pointing at somebody else, nobody's looking at you.
And liberals have gotten away with that for a long time,
and they they've pointed fingers at a lot of people
who didn't need fingers pointed at them. Very good case

(15:19):
of defamation, UH rendered. There was a verdict rendered in
that defamation case against CNN this week. Something I'd really
like to see investigated and prosecuted potentially is what alleged
what's alleged to be the aiding and a betting of
criminals being played out by people who disagree with our
efforts to rid the country of violent criminals. They're they're

(15:43):
handing out information, They're they're passing it over the airwaves,
information that's designed to help criminals, especially these violent people.
That it's going to help any criminal, really, but to
avoid detection and apprehension. And that doesn't seem like like
something that ought to be legally wrong to me, for
anybody who's who's found guilty of that.

Speaker 1 (16:05):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (16:06):
And what have I got? Will? Where am I? Two
minutes three? You have a minute forty five? That's all.
Let's go to the fund stuff. Will, let's go to
the fund stuff. By the way, it is national? What day?
Let me see it? Know it? Never mind, you don't
have it up. It's not your fault. I'm just saying
it's not there. National? What will? It is national? Is

(16:29):
it a food? Not a food of beverage? A beverage national?
And what to do with it? Oh? A coffee? Enema?
Dear god? Will it's the lunch hour? What will? What? What?

(16:50):
What moment? Excuse me? What has something to do with
the beverage? It's way different? Will it's National Drink Wine Day?
Although there's a there's a no, never mind something I
read about a long time ago. But it's just even
too weird. You just you can have the weird part there.

(17:10):
Uh and it appears you've gotten a head start, so
uh hey, if you want to consider that second glass
of red wine at lunch today, you can today only
consider it an act of patriotism, because it is, after all,
National Drink Wine Day in the US of A. Now,
how much time do we have will after you startled?

(17:33):
Twenty seconds? Okay, just a real quick one. How many
pop quiz will? How many photos do you think the
average person has on their phone right now? How many photos? Yeah?
How many phonos the average person? Hundred? God, you're so
good these days. You're on a pretty good role. Fifteen
ninety eight, that's really good. What about millennials? What's their number?

(17:56):
I'm gonna say four thousand, not quite twenty five hundred.
How many pictures you got? Do you have two thousand?

Speaker 3 (18:04):
I have two?

Speaker 2 (18:05):
Two? Liar lyar pants on fire. UT's Institute on Aging
is an amazing collaborative of providers from every medical discipline.
A lot of them are in the med center. As
you might suspect, but there are also plenty of them,
both the ones in there and the ones who are
permanently stationed elsewhere in outlying communities, in outlying hospitals and clinics,

(18:30):
so that if you need their help, you can be
seen by someone relatively close to home. And by help,
I mean the help of someone who has gone to
school forever and ever gotten the credentials that they hang
on the wall in their office, and then gone back
to be to be in receipt of more training as
to how they can apply that specific knowledge of theirs

(18:52):
to seniors. And that's where the advantage comes. When you're
dealing with someone who is part of the Institute on Aging,
they're qualified already and then doubly qualified to work on
us to help fix us with whatever's broken. Go to
the website. Check it out. First, you'll see a tremendous

(19:13):
amount of resources, a tremendous number of resources that are
all senior related. Then you'll also find access to these providers.
You'll just you name it. If it's medical in nature
and it'll help one of us, then it's there somewhere.
You just have to go look for it. It's very easy.
There's a great search engine there uth dot edu slash aging,

(19:34):
ut H dot ed U slash aging.

Speaker 1 (19:38):
Now they sure don't make them like they used to.
That's why every few months we wash them, check his
fluids and spring on a fresh code O wax. This
is fifty plus with Dougpike.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
Hll right. Welcome back, bottom of the hour, start right now,
third section of four. Welcome back, Thanks for listening. We'll
talking this segment of segment about the importance of staying hydrated,
keeping that internal water tank topped off for seniors especially,
And rather than have the discussion today with a medical professional,
we're shifting instead to somebody who lived through a pretty

(20:20):
crazy chain of events that turned out far better than
what might have happened if one symptom hadn't led to
another discovery at a little tea's there. And with that,
I will welcome in Mickey McDougald, an outstanding high school
athlete who set assist records on the basketball court, graduated
from UT in nineteen and ninety two with a business degree,

(20:41):
and a man who had to visit the er years
ago because of severe dehydration after one too many rounds
of hot weather golf. Welcome aboard. Mickey, how are you, man?

Speaker 3 (20:53):
I'm great. How you doing, my friend? Long time, no talk.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
Too, I'll say quick backstory. Mickey's daughter Brooke was a
national standout golf at the Woodlands High School and then
went on to play for u of H and an
outstanding student as well and going on through adulthood. Now,
I got to play around with Mickey and Brooke up
at wood Forest back in her high school days, and
we just sort of lost touch after that, I guess,
probably because she saw how I played golf. I'm Mickey.

Speaker 3 (21:19):
That was a fun day for sure.

Speaker 4 (21:21):
And I tell you what I what reconnected us is
we just got a photo from one of the pros
out there and it just remined be of you, and
so it was so great to catch up again after
all these years.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
Indeed, yeah, I'm glad you did reach out because that
was Howard Levinson. By the way, he's still I can't
believe he's still working. He needs to just chill out
and go play, do something somewhere. So you get dehydrated
at some point during I'm presuming during the summer, you
go to the er and you're told you're, what just
one step from needing dialysis.

Speaker 4 (21:54):
Well, so let me go a little further back here,
and so let me open this up with you know,
Toby Keith hat that song that I ain't as good
as I once was.

Speaker 3 (22:02):
That's pretty much the life that I'm living right now.

Speaker 4 (22:04):
So you'll have to be patient with me through this deal,
because once you hear my story, you'll understand while I'm
pretty pretty fortunate to even be here today. So anyway, Yeah,
so the story starts basically in July of this past year,
Hurricane Barrel came through here and obviously devastated the Woodlands.
We live in the Woodlands, Houston area, and so we

(22:25):
went up to Austin. We have a place in Austin.
We were trying to get up there to get out
of the heat because nobody had any electricity, and so
we were up there, and of course, you know, you
know me well enough to know, Doug that I'm going
to play golf no matter where I am.

Speaker 3 (22:36):
So I played golf about three or four.

Speaker 4 (22:38):
Days in a row, and the last day I was
just feeling incredibly bad. I started seeing black spots and
I just couldn't couldn't really I didn't really much know
where I was. It was I said that it's the
only round of golf I've ever fifty five now it's
the only round of golf I've ever quit in my life.
And I quit because I really thought I was about
to pass out. Fast forward a couple hours and we

(23:01):
end up going to the er and in Austin there
and the doctor comes in and said, you know, how
long have you had kidney problems? And I was like,
I don't have kidney problems, and he goes, no, you're
not to the point of dialysis, but you are very
very close. And so my wife and I just look
at each other, as you can imagine, we're, you know,

(23:21):
pretty much in shock because I've never backstory here. You know,
I've never drink alcohol in my life. I don't do drugs,
I don't do anything. I'm probably just as much a
mister America as you can possibly be. But the moral
of the story is I also never drink any water ever.
I never drink water, and all those years on the
golf course apparently took its toll. So that was where

(23:42):
the kidney problems came in. And he said, I want
to I want to. I want to do a brain
scan on you. And my first inclination there was, well,
here we are in the er. Of course they're going
to do that because they're going to get some more
insurance money. That's what that's what my thought process was,
is they're just trying to get some more insurance money.
Although I wasn't making a lot of and I was
perfectly fine with having a brain scan. So anyway, fast

(24:04):
forward here, about five or ten minutes, we have the
brain scan, come back, he comes back in the er,
and the doctor was like, we have a lot bigger
problems than your kidneys.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
You have a brain tumor.

Speaker 4 (24:14):
Good and so, yes, that that's pretty pretty shocking news
in and of itself. But I will just say I
just the amount of peace that came over me during
that time was absolutely crazy. It really didn't phaze me.
It was more like, Okay, here we are, let's do it.
I told the doctor I'm a believer and I'm a competitor,
so let's go.

Speaker 3 (24:35):
What do we got to do?

Speaker 4 (24:35):
And it was a little standalone R. So I really
needed to try to get to a real R. So
he said, no, we need to get the we need
to get the ambulance here immediately. Because they didn't know
that time if it was a brain tumor or a
brain bleed, and if it was a brain bleed, that's
the emergency surgery.

Speaker 3 (24:52):
Yes, correct.

Speaker 4 (24:53):
So you know, as the good news happened after about
twelve hours, which that was twelve long hours, but we
found out that it actually was a tumor and it
was the size of a golf ball, of course, and
so got us back to Houston about about in scheduled
surgery for September the fourth, and doctor Knight and Tanden

(25:15):
here in the medical center in Houston, who does more
brain surgeries than anyone in Houston, did a phenomenal job.
It was a ended up being about an eight hour
surgery and so it was just absolutely nuts. Wasn't supposed
to be near that long, but it was. And you know,
I no cancer, which is a great thing. I'm slowly
working my way back. But the bigger picture here in

(25:35):
all of this is that without me being dehydrated for
all of those years and this causing a serious problem
with my kidneys, we would have never found this brain tumor.
But I would highly recommend to your to your listeners,
don't be me drink water. I have heard that my
entire life to drink water. But I just never really
took it to heart like I should have. We lost

(25:57):
my one hundred and three year old grandma here last year,
and that was a big thing. Is hydration. And you
think dehydration is a problem for the elderly or the
older people. But the truth being, considering your show is
called fifty plus, this is the time that we really
really need to consider that. And I can I can
tell you know, this changed my life in a lot

(26:17):
of ways. But one way is that it tremendously changed
my life is instead of drinking tea or doctor pepper
or whatever I used to drink every single day all
day long, I drink a ton of water now and
it is much much better. So it's but you know,
sometimes you have to learn your lessons the heart hard way,
and so.

Speaker 3 (26:34):
Mickey, I just never believe it.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
Go ahead, Mickey, talk about what you learned about how
much water we're supposed to drink and how Because I
learned a long time ago that if you're going to
play golf on a hot Saturday, you need to start
drinking water on Friday.

Speaker 3 (26:48):
That's correct.

Speaker 4 (26:49):
And so here's the thing my daughter broke is she's
a very bright girl, and she's been telling me this
for years. Of course, we're not going to listen to
our kids. Of course we know better than they do, right,
So that's the thing.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
Both ways when they're teenager, doesn't.

Speaker 3 (27:01):
It It does.

Speaker 4 (27:04):
All of her coaches through the years basically said, you know,
whatever amount of water that you're supposed to be drinking,
and there's a formula for that, which basically, this brain
tumor kind of took the mass skills out of my thing.
So I won't tell you exactly what it is because
I'll probably tell you wrong. But what I will tell
you is it is way way more than you think
it actually should be. What you have in your mind.

(27:24):
The thin that's just on a normal day, but then
on a day when you're out playing golf or on
the boat or whatever you're doing, it needs to be
about twice that amount. So there's a simple formula that
you can find online about that. And for me, the
difference has just been instead of drinking a tea because
I'm a Southerner textan, I'm going to drink sweet tea

(27:47):
with every meal. But that's the worst thing, right, that's
going to make you more dehydrated. I just drink a
ton of water with my meals now, and I try
to drink water during the day as well, and then
even drinking it at night. And so I don't like water.

Speaker 3 (28:00):
I never liked water.

Speaker 4 (28:01):
I know that sounds crazy, but I just haven't. But
you know, when you get some kind of news like
that where you might have to start having dialysis, I
guarantee you your thoughts change pretty quickly.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
I don't want to cut you off, but we're we're
almost out of time here. I want to talk about
that book very quickly. I've only got a few seconds.
Life is all about assists. Tell me how that came around.

Speaker 4 (28:21):
Okay, well, about two years ago, one of my high
school teammates started me with this idea to do this
on some of my assists records, and I did that.
I said, that was a crazy deal, but let's do it.
He wanted to write it, and we wrote. It just
came out about a month ago and it's on Amazon.
And it's really not a sports book. It's really more
of a life book. And so yeah, I would love

(28:43):
for people to read it because it's a great life
story on I'm just a simple guy. But in the end,
it's about helping people and how we really can benefit
more from helping others.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
You can see that on the Yeah, I can see
that on the cover of the book. Just those two
hands reaching to each other. That's just a very well
done image. Whoever did it for you? Life is all
Life is all about assists from Mickey McDougal. That's on Amazon.
Go check that book out. Thank you so much for
coming on. I really do appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (29:10):
And do tail brook me, will you I definitely well,
we'll get out and play off again some days.

Speaker 2 (29:15):
I'm ready to whenever you are, believe me.

Speaker 3 (29:16):
Okay, thanks, thank you, I'll see you, Okay, bye bye.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
All right, we got to take a little break here
on the way out. I'm not gonna tell you about
anything this time. I'm just gonna go to this break
and we'll get back and we'll sum it up and
wrap it up on fifty plus.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
Aged to Perfection. This is fifty plus with Dougpike.

Speaker 2 (29:45):
Welcome back fifty plus. Still no clock on the wall,
and I think, actually I think my wristwatch is a
little bit slow. Will what's the official time? In iHeartRadio Land?
The official time is twelve fifty twelve fifty Okay, yeah,
it's a little bit slow. I'll have to talk to
Brad about that beautiful watch. I wonder why it's not.

(30:10):
I think, you know, it may be that I just
had it, I had it moved somehow, and or maybe
our time. I don't know, doesn't matter. Now I'm syncd up,
I believe so. I know we've got about what six
seven minutes? Six minutes, Yeah, we got about we got
about some minutes. In Texas news, our state is expected

(30:32):
to become the nation's largest, most populous. We're not gonna
ever be geographically the most large unless Alaska ops out,
and I don't see that happening, but we're gonna become
the most populous. And I'm not really sure that's by
twenty forty five, it says here. I'm not sure how
that sits with me. Honestly, much of it depends on

(30:54):
whether the people who are coming here intend to become
Texans or whether they're just coming for the tax breaks
and hoping to flip our politics. If the left coast
is moving here to turn Austin into San Francisco or
to turn Houston into La Austin's not really that far

(31:17):
from San Francisco right now. Anyway, maybe we just put
a sign on iten out there around El Paso somewhere
that just says, and make it a flashing sign. Sorry,
we're full, Sorry We're full. Not sure I've got another
twenty years on this planet, but if I do, God will,
and I'd like to think the only things that are

(31:37):
going to change are our population and our popularity, because
once people get here. I've run into some people who
are from all over the world, literally, especially living out
in Sugarland where I do. It's one of the most
diverse communities anywhere, and by and large, some of these
people who who may or may not have come from

(32:01):
a very friendly environment, may have come from a harsher
place than what we live in. They're pretty nice. They're
pretty nice. They've learned to open doors and hold doors
for people. They've learned to look people in the eye
and say hello and good morning. Weren't you just complaining
about how people in your neighborhood don't look you in

(32:22):
the eye a long time ago. A few of them, Yeah,
they're like that, But overall I think I've I'm kind
of leaning back the other way now, will because I'm
coming across people who and just maybe it's just recently,
I don't know, maybe there's a change in the wind.
I hope. So I think that would be great, because
you're right, I did talk about that recently, where it's

(32:42):
mostly younger people who who don't look up from their phones.
They use those phones as an excuse not to exchange
any pleasantry with someone else. I don't. I don't see
you walking around staring at your phone. By the way,
I think you're a little more engaged than most young people.
Do you agree with that. I am looking at my

(33:05):
phone right now, are you well? Ye, But that's okay.
I mean we can't. We both have to lean way
up just to see the other's eyes speaking. I was
in a restaurant yesterday afternoon. This is gospel truth. I
sit down, I'm by myself. I was gonna bring my
wife something home. I was all my way home from
golf and I was starving, so I just stopped at
a little Mexican restaurant out in our neighborhood. And I'm

(33:28):
sitting there trying to enjoy my meal, and this woman
comes in and sits at the table across from my
or well, I'm in a booth on the wall, and
she sits in the booth next to mine, facing me,
and the top is just high enough that I can
see her eyes and her nose. And she proceeds to

(33:51):
get on the phone and talk more loudly than you
or I have ever talked in our lives, and in
a foreign language, which I didn'tunderstanding. Now, don't I don't
begrudge her speaking in a foreign language, just it's a
native language, I'm sure for her, I didn't understand any
of it. But she and her her eye, her eyes
were just rolling all over the place. I couldn't tell

(34:12):
whether she was mad or whether she was happy or
sad or whatever, but her like her head was on
a swiveling pivot of some sort, and she was so loud.
I actually ended up having to ask management to ask
her to just kind of quiet down a little bit.
That it was that bad will it really was. I

(34:34):
called the guy over there, and I said, man, I
I just can't even hear myself think. And while she
while he was standing there the first time, she got
very quiet, very quickly. She knew what she was doing.
And so when he walks away, he said, look, she's
not doing it. Now. I'm gonna walk away just where
she can't see me, and I'll see what's going on.
And just as soon as he got out of her
eye line, which was all over the over the place,

(34:56):
she was back up to full volume. And he kind
of came over and very very kindly and very politely said,
clam up. I think that's what he said. I couldn't
tell for sure. Oh my word. Okay, Well, let's go
back to your page, the fun page, and I'll save
some of this for tomorrow because I have some good
longer term or longer form stuff. Got that one out

(35:17):
of the way. Oh, this this is something before I
do that? Will How much time do I have now?
A couple of minutes? You have let's see we have
about a minute? A minute? Oh my gosh, you're wasting time.
Pit it out, man? Maybe minute?

Speaker 3 (35:36):
All right?

Speaker 2 (35:36):
Here we go, uh play it again, photo op or
spell check. We already did that spell check. Somebody asked,
what is the one word you can never spell correctly?
If you can get one of these three, I'll be impressed.
The one word that you can't spell correctly. Yeah, there
are three words that came up most often and they're

(35:58):
all very easy to spell if you decision. Oh, good lord, no, maintenance, maintenance, definitely, definitely.
And diarrhea can you spell that? Diarrhea? D I A
H No wow r r h e A. Everybody knows

(36:24):
that will maybe not. Now, how much time do we have? Uh,
you've got about forty five seconds. Oh that's too much
for that. A useless world record than some Marty grand
news and eighty seven year old man in Oklahoma just
scored the Guinness World Record for the largest brick collection.
You know how many bricks he has, not including the

(36:46):
one that he calls his head or yeah, this guy
has collected eight thousand, eight hundred and eighty two bricks.
I need to count the ones on my house. Maybe
I'm close, Maybe I don't know. All right, very quickly
the Marti Gras News. Some company somewhere has created and
I think this is kind of genius, actually biodegradable Marti

(37:10):
Gras beads. Oh so you can eat them? No? No,
it didn't say edible, will it says biodegradable? You done? Yeah,
we're done by for three two one. We gotta go.
We'll be back tomorrow. Thanks for listening to audios,