October 15, 2025 • 35 mins
Today, Doug Pike interviews Michael Andrade about public transport around Houston. This is the 900th episode of 50+!
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Episode Transcript
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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 3 (00:20):
Well?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
This show is all about you. This is fifty plus
with Doug Pike.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Helpful information on your finances, good health, and what to
do for fun. Fifty plus brought to you by the
UT Health Houston Institute on Aging, Informed Decisions for a healthier,
happier life.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
And now fifty plus with Doug Pike. All right, here
we go Wednesday edition. Wednesday edition of the show starts
right now. I just got a text message in Okay,
I got.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
That show that you know.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
Honestly, I just feel like we try to share anything
and everything of interest to people who have just made
it this far, and they're are you know.
Speaker 5 (01:09):
I thank God every day that I've made it this far.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
When I was half my age, half the age I
am now, I didn't think i'd make it this far,
and I had some Well, my dad passed away five
years younger than I am now, and so I feel
sometimes I almost feel like I'm living on barred time.
But then again, I look back at his history and
his medical history and realized.
Speaker 5 (01:35):
That he didn't.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Have the knowledge about what cigarette smoking and what alcohol
drinking would do that I have. And so I'm I'm
blessed as the next generation to know better than to
make mistakes with my diet, my exercise, no smoking, no drinking.
(01:58):
I don't hardly ever, can't remember the last time. I
can tell you the last time I had alcohol. And
it's not like I'm bragging about it. It's just something
I've chosen not to do. But the last time I
had it was after Hurricane Beryl, when my power was
out of the house, and a good friend, John Paulis,
offered a room in his house where he had electricity,
(02:19):
and he let me stay there with his wife. And
there was another couple who were in the same predicament
I was, and they fortunately had a house big enough
to accommodate a saul and so there I was. My
wife and son were secured elsewhere, and it worked out
very well. And at dinner each night for the two
nights I was there, I had a glass of wine
(02:41):
with them. They offered it and I accepted it and
it slept pretty well too. Anyway, got word from will
Melbourne yesterday that today from when we began. The weekday
version of fifty plus marks the nine hundredth episode of
the show. And they're all correct me if I'm wrong, will,
but they're all available at the podcast. Yeah, you can
(03:03):
pick from any of nine hundred and the little descriptions
of them don't tell the whole story. They're kind of
the highlight, if you will. There, The spotlight is on that,
but in an hour of content, there's going to be
a lot more than just that. So feel free to
start on episode one and just work your way through
(03:24):
and binge listen.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
Is that? Do people binge listen to anything? Will you think? Yeah? Podcasts,
I guess obviously. Yeah, anytime you'd like.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Just dive in spin the wheel, just pick a number,
pick a number from one to nine hundred, and go
listen to that one.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
We'll kick it off today with the glorious weather we
have outside.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
If you haven't been out of the house yet, haven't
been out of wherever it is you are, go outside
for a little while. Get there, however you can too,
or at least get somebody to open the curtains. If
you can't, If you physically can't leave where you are,
at least we open the drapes, the blinds, the curtain,
whatever that's not letting the sunshine in, and just soak
(04:06):
up a little bit of it. A couple more of
these days on the horizon, then hopefully, hopefully a little
bit of rain heading into the weekend. Well we could
use actually we could use a little bit more than
a little. But I never wish for lots of rain,
because bad things can happen if you do that. And
you know, I've got something else to tell you about
(04:27):
that in just a second. The market news good across
the board. As you heard a minute ago, the Dow
has dropped a little bit from an early morning spike.
It went up another one hundred and fifty one hundred
and seventy five points something like that, and now it's
kind of settled out to where it's actually down a
little bit. But the other three indicators I watch all
in the green.
Speaker 5 (04:46):
So that's good.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Oil was down a few ticks, about fifty eight hundred,
not fifty eight hundred, fifty eight dollars and change around
ten thirty. And gold, holy cow gold continues to just
work its way up, up fifty five dollars an ounce
this morning to forty two eighteen. That's a lot of money.
(05:09):
That's roughly double what it was worth in March of
twenty twenty four. Think about that for a minute. If
you had the smarts, the luck, whatever you want to
call it, to look at a little pile of cash
you had somewhere and go, you know, I think it'd
be kind of fun to own little gold. Let's buy
(05:30):
an ounce or two or three or five or ten
or a pound. By a pound of gold, it would
be worth double what it was worth just a year.
And what a year and a half ago. Silver also
up a nice chunk in the past year. By the way,
I was looking at that, just out of curiosity to
see if silver was keeping up with gold at the
(05:51):
rate of ascension. And indeed it is. It's up pretty good.
So start looking for those old dimes and quarters anything.
I believe sixty four is the final year that they
were made from actual silver. Oh, sixty four or earlier,
if you can still find one. When my son was young,
he for an hour and a half was into coin
(06:14):
collecting and looking and studying all these coins. And we
would go to the bank and get rolls of coins
and then bring them back home and try to fill
in the spots in the books, and we did pretty well,
and then he lost interest, and then I don't know
where those.
Speaker 5 (06:29):
Coins are anymore. And one of the craziest how much
time do I have?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
One minute?
Speaker 5 (06:34):
A minute and a half.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
I'm gonna sit on this for a minute, and I'm
gonna come over here.
Speaker 5 (06:41):
Where's that new piece of.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Paper I went and got I didn't go get it yet.
Heard me had a little cough there. I'll tell you, well,
I'll just do this as fast as I can. And
one of the craziest things I've ever seen a TV
anchor do. On click to Houston's main page, anchor Evan
Conflinty has declared the twenty twenty five Houston hurricane season
to be done. It wasn't me, it was him, Like, oh,
(07:05):
come on, Evan, you didn't really do that, did you?
Speaker 5 (07:07):
No chance for another storm?
Speaker 4 (07:08):
He says, And while there is some historical data to
kind of back that up, I'm presuming he well, I'm
guessing he didn't really check with or if he did,
they just said, oh, please, don't do this. Check with
Anthony Jannes or Justin or Caroline or Dodgy or Britney
anybody in the weather Department probably would have told him
maybe just hold off on that, because it's never really over.
(07:31):
If you want to use historical data as your evidence,
then recognize that there have been named storms that hit
the US mainland during every month of the year.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
So I hope he's right.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
But if something pops up mid November as you're sitting
down to the Thanksgiving table, all in good fun, of course,
I'm just messing with him, But dang, Owen, we're so
close to clear and you had to drop that definitive
declaration on us. Yeah, Will's dropping the hand on me.
I gotta go take a little break here. Maybe Caroline's right,
we're gonna get a cool front pretty soon. I'm gonna
(08:07):
go read what she's got to say. I like that
Cedar Cove RV resort over on the Bay. You'll like
that too, especially as the weather cools down a little
bit more. There you will find all concrete roads, all
concrete slabs throughout the park and throughout the resort. And
you will find water, electric and sewer at every site,
(08:27):
free Wi Fi. There's a bathhouse with showers. There's a
convenience store. I've told you all about this stuff, and
if you haven't yet experienced what it's like to go
to sleep to the sound of waves lapping up on
the shoreline, maybe a breeze rustling through the palms or whatever.
The smell too, of the bay is just something that
(08:48):
I'm drawn to it, I really am. I like the
smell of salt water. It just makes me feel at
home for some reason. If you don't have an RV,
if you don't have a motor home, if you don't
have a pop up trailer or whatever, all you got
to do is call over there and talk to Al Kibby,
the guy who owns the place. He has an RV
that he will rent to you so that you can,
(09:08):
as we'll put it.
Speaker 5 (09:10):
Take advantage of a B and B on the bay.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
You can rent the RV, rent the space, and without
having to buy a motor home, experience what it's like
to do that, to have the peace and quiet guaranteed,
because there's a rule in the RV resort where you
have to be quiet starting at ten pm and you
can't start making noise again until six am. So that's
(09:36):
a nice eight hour chunk of time where everybody's just
kind of chilling and relaxing, and then maybe at six fifteen,
six thirty you hear somebody hooting and hollering because they
just caught a big redfish right out their back door.
Cedar Cove Rvresort dot COM's at the end of Try City,
Try City Beach Road, near Thompson's bake Camp, right there
on Galveston Bay and the beauty that that bay is
(09:59):
about to become the fall.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
It's it's magnificent over there, Cedar Covearvresort dot Com.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Dawn.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
They sure don't make them like they used to.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
That's why every few months we wash him, check his fluids,
and spring on a fresh coat of wax.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
This is fifty plus with Doug Pike. Welcome back, Thanks
for listening, certainly to appreciate it. On this beautiful, absolutely
drop dead gorgeous, beautiful Wednesday afternoon.
Speaker 5 (10:25):
I want to go here. I want to go there.
I talked about that.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
I just can't believe he did that. I really can't. Evan, Evan, come, Flinty.
Hurricane Season's over. I didn't say it, he did. He
said it's over. So beware. I hope, I hope that
jinxes aren't real, but man, if they are, we're.
Speaker 5 (10:48):
Going to be in for a long winter.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
Moving forward from the south of the border. From south
of the border, increasing evidence that the major car tells
because their supply lines into the United States have pretty
much been shut off. I'm sure there's stuff still coming
across the border in the thousands and thousands of cars
(11:12):
and trucks that come into our country every day, not
every one of them, it's just somebody who was over
there as a tourist. We know that, we all know that,
that's why we have such a presence along the border.
But darm, what I'm hearing now is that the cartels
are offering bounties of up to fifty thousand dollars for
(11:35):
killing people involved with ice or customs and Border Patrol
or Department of Homeland Security. Pretty Much anybody who stands
in their way of doing their illegal business has a
target on their backs.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
And one of the issues.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
I have at present is that we also have a
lot of Americans who are so opposed to cleaning up
our country that they are revealing the identities and addresses
of some of these agents. And when you lay those
(12:12):
two things together, you get a recipe.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
For horrible, horrible outcome.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
If any one of those officers or their families gets
hurt or killed as a result of their identity being docked.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
I think is that the word we'll docked? Yeah, I
think that's it.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
I just hope our justice system tracks them down and
prosecutes them, anybody responsible for just laying out a road
map that leads to violence against anyone who's out there
trying like crazy to get this country back on a
better track and get people who aren't supposed to be
(12:50):
here out. It's a frustrating thing when I read about
how many people on the other side, I continue to
say that, well, these people aren't criminals. They don't have
any criminal records, and as the Department of Homeland Security
and ICE will point out very quickly, being here without
(13:14):
coming in the lawful, legal way is against the law.
Speaker 5 (13:19):
And I know it's to some people that's not a
big deal.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
But when you stop and look back at the I
don't know, ten eleven, twelve million people who were let
in over the last four years and realize that most
of them really weren't accounted for, really weren't vetted, and
you realize that many of them, like tens of thousands,
were young men unaccompanied from one hundred and something countries,
(13:50):
many of which are sworn enemies to the United States.
Speaker 5 (13:54):
But they're all here.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
And I don't know what's going to come of this,
but I know it's going to be it's going to
be a long road to hoe before we can regain
some stability in our country. Even heading end of the
chaos that ICE is dealing with in some cities trying
to get illegal migrants out of here, the far left
(14:16):
states and cities are actually threatening to prosecute. Now they're
going to process and this is Chicago and Illinois. They're
going to prosecute federal law enforcement officers sent there to
lower the overall crime rate in those cities and well
Chicago and others, and they're just going to make sure
the needs of Americans are being put before those of
(14:38):
people who did not enter our country illegally. That's what
we should be doing. But now what they want to
do in Chicago, what they want to do in Illinois
with pritzkerh and Johnson, is put the put the people
who aren't supposed to be here and whatever. I don't
know what rights they have really if they're illegally here,
(14:59):
but they they don't want that, and they're threatening legal action,
they're threatening arrest of ICE agents, and I.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
Just can't imagine.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
They're taking a hard stance against President Trump's order, and
every bit of the posturing and chest pounding that they're
doing only hurts the Americans who live in that state
and other states that are taking the same direction. They
are absolutely one percent not putting their residence and those
(15:32):
residents rights, the lawful residence rights, Americans rights ahead of
those people who just happen to show up.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
And get in. It's very frustrating to me.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
Even some people on the left are finally conceding that
their cities need help. New Orleans raised a hand, Washington,
d C. Got a hand reluctantly, and in turn became
very thankful that they got it because crime is dramatically
down there. These one by one, these cities that are
(16:03):
just failing to provide for their residents are getting the
help they.
Speaker 5 (16:06):
Need, whether they like it or not.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
And once the results are shown, it tends to work
out better for the people who live and work and
shop and just want to get out and just hang
out in a park on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon.
And meanwhile, the enemies of this country are just you know,
they're just sitting back and smiling watching all these violent
(16:28):
protests against the lawful removal of people who, some of
whom are our gang members or drug smugglers or human traffickers,
been living among us and profiting from a very backward
previous administration that funded their criminal activities indirectly, perhaps, but
funded them nonetheless with free housing, free food, free medical care,
(16:52):
free transportation around the country. These people were basically on
our dime and conducting unlawful business all the way down
to the shoplifting level. And that's something I'll actually talk
about a little bit later in the show. I'll tell
you what. Let's get to this first break or this
second break a little bit early so I don't get behind,
(17:13):
because we're gonna be interviewing a man from Houston Metro
Michael Androd Androtti. I think Andrada. I'll ask him, We'll
ask him when he calls, and I'll get it right
for sure, because names matter, they do. Spelling and pronunciation
of names is critical to getting a story right. And
speaking of John Eitman, that's perfectly pronounced. I know that
(17:36):
because I talk to him all the time. And he
is the owner of Country Boys Roofing. We are not,
contrary to what Channel two weather man or Channel two
anchor said, we're not exactly out of the woods yet
for storm season. But even still, even if we are, luckily,
that'd be great. Even if we are, it doesn't hurt
anything to call them and get them out to do
(17:59):
an inspecting, your inspection of your roof, and if they
find something, they're going to tell you about it. They're
going to tell you how they can fix it, how
long it'll take, what materials they'll use, what it's gonna
cost you, which.
Speaker 5 (18:10):
Will be a very fair price, very fair and honest price.
They're gonna They're not going to take advantage of any situation.
That's not how you stay in business.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
You stay in business like Country Boys does, because you
do the right job at the right price, and you
back it up. Country Boys Roofing, also thanks to John,
also offers a fifteen hundred dollars discount on a complete
roof replacement to educators, first responders, and past or present military.
(18:38):
If you served in the United States Army or Air
Force or any other military branch, get you're entitled to
a fifteen hundred dollars discount on a full roof. If
you're a teacher, if you're an administrator in a school,
if you're a first responder, you get the same discount.
And if you're none of those things, you can still
get one thousand dollars off that full roof replacement just
by dropping my name. That's all you gotta do. They
(18:59):
by the way, Doug told me to use you guys.
What do I get now?
Speaker 5 (19:03):
You get a thousand dollars off Here you go.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
Financing is available for those of us who cannot just
write a check for a whole roof. And his son,
Zack has joined the team right now. So if Zach
comes to your house, know that he has been trained
by the man who started the company, the man who
owns the company, and the man who runs it very
proudly and very ethically and very honestly. Countryboysroofing dot Com
(19:29):
is the website for you millennials and gen zers and
all you young people. It's country with a K, boys
with a Z. And you're probably not surprised from a
boomer's Just spell it the way you normally spell it.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Spell it the way you do it.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
If you were in a spelling Bee.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
And it'll still pop up about one or two little
notches down from the top. Countryboysroofing dot com.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
What's life without a net? If I suggest to go
to bed, sleep it off.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Just wait until the show's over. Sleepy Back to Doug
Pike has fifty plus continues.
Speaker 5 (20:00):
Welcome back, Thanks for listening. Certainly do appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
On this beautiful Wednesday afternoon, thanks to the end of
time for sharing your day with Will and me. In
this segment, we're going to talk about new twists on
kind of an evolving theme, which is public transportation around Houston.
And to take the reins on this one, I'll welcome
make Michael Andrade, vice president of Specialized Transit Services for Metro,
(20:26):
Welcome a board.
Speaker 5 (20:26):
Michael.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Thank you for having met.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
Uh, you're kind of breaking up, can you? I don't.
Speaker 4 (20:34):
Can you hang your head out the window or let's
see if we can get it tightened up.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Oh yes, sir, can you better now?
Speaker 4 (20:40):
It's way better. Yeah, speakerphones, whatever that was, it's fished.
It's fixed now. I did some research this morning, by
the way, and found out that public transportation in Houston
started in eighteen seventy with this Houston City Street Railway Company,
then horse drawn street cars. I'll fast forward through the
rest of it up to almost seventy seven million rides
(21:01):
in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 5 (21:03):
For you guys. That's pretty impressive, man.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
It is.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
And you know, one of the things that we pride
ourselves on here Houston Metro is accessibility. And you know,
one of our milestones that we had was back in
April of two thousand and one where we were able
to achieve one hundred percent wheelchair accessibility and that was
really a game changer for our seniors and disabled here
in the city. And of course, adding our rail line
(21:31):
in January of two thousand and four, and then the
extensions of the Red and the Green and the Purple
lines in twenty fifteen again really set us up well
to provide mobility around the city for our customers.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
I read something this morning in the information I got
about metro Lift and Curb to curb.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
What are they great?
Speaker 3 (21:55):
So curb Actually, Metro Lift started actually back in nineteen
seventy nine, before the ADA was signed in nineteen ninety,
so Metro has had a standing relationship with the disability
and senior communities since nineteen seventy nine and Metrolft is
basically a shared ride service that complements Metro's fixed route service.
(22:18):
So Metro Lift serves as a safety net for seniors
and disabled customers that cannot utilize Metro's fixed route services.
Now we operate comparable hours to the fixed route buses,
basically twenty two and a half hours a day, seven
days a week, and we cover eight hundred and eight
square miles, which is a big area. Customers can travel
(22:42):
anywhere in the service area as long as they're approved
through an in person eligibility process. Now, once the customers
are approved for service, they can book one day in
advance and get service. They can go anywhere they want
to go within the service area at a dollar twenty
five for our base fair two fifty for our expanded
(23:04):
service area. And with this service as well, one percent
of our Ada Metrolist service is wheelchair accessible. So again
that's what Metro has been focused on, is accessibility and
making sure that our customers get the service that they
that they need.
Speaker 5 (23:23):
I saw something else, Michael about micro transit.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
What is that?
Speaker 5 (23:27):
In community connection? How does that work?
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Right?
Speaker 3 (23:30):
So let me start with curb to curb Herbcurb. Yeah,
so Curb to Curb is for the general public. Now,
disability customers as well as seniors love this service as well.
So basically what it is, it's an on demand shared
ride transportation service in specific Houston communities like Acres Home,
(23:53):
Cashmeir Maxi, Sunnyside, Missouri City, and Hierum Clark that connects
riders to local destinations like metro facilities. When within defined zones.
It allows users to book rides through a mobile app
or by calling in. We have a set fare. Now,
(24:15):
what it does is it provides a convenient way to
get around the area not easily served by fixed route buses.
So again it connects customers within their communities. Again, all
of these vehicles are one hundred percent wheelchair accessible. The
fare for this service is a dollar twenty five as well,
and something that we just added with the Metro Now
(24:37):
initiative in April is that whenever we have high demand
or peak time areas on this service, we're able to
introduce uber and Lyft as an option through the app,
and the price is the same a dollar twenty five.
We operate seven days a week, five am to seven pm.
Speaker 5 (24:57):
That's incredible. It really is, Michael. That's incredible, no idea.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Yeah, and now let's move over to micro transit. Now,
micro transit is another service that Metro offers, and again
it's part of the Metro Now initiative. And this is
all community Connector and it's an on demand micro transit
service that provides first and last mile transportation to help
(25:25):
customers connect with major Metro transit routes and other destinations.
Basically a similar to curb to curb, but this fleet
uses electric vehicles to operate within defined zones. Now, these
zones are a little different. They're in the downtown area,
the heights near north Side, second Ward and third Ward,
(25:47):
and these are again services is simply connect riders with transit.
Speaker 5 (25:53):
That's fantastic, man, I had no idea. I really had
no idea. Believe it or not.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
We're down to one minute and I have a half
a pay your questions here. I'm going to have to
get you back on at some point because I do
want to go through a lot of the rest of this.
So what what's the main message you want to get
across to this whole audience of mine, mostly seniors.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
Absolutely, So basically, what we want to communicate to our
seniors and people with disabilities, is that Metro is here
for you. We have several different programs. We have discounted
fairs that we can go into next time. But again,
one hundred percent of our fleet is wheelchair accessible and
we want to make sure that our our customers are
(26:34):
well served. Call seven one three six three five four
thousand if you have more questions. But we're here to
serve the community. With a Metro Now initiative. We're going
to be focused on accessibility, making sure that our buses
are clean, enhanced safety, all of the different things that
we've been focused on with the Metro Now initiative, and
(26:57):
we're ready to serve the community.
Speaker 4 (26:59):
I'm going to get into that safety and stuff in
our second interview and we're gonna do one for sure.
Speaker 5 (27:03):
I want to do that.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
Ride metro dot org is the website. Go check it
out there. Ride metro dot dot org. Thank you, Michael,
Thank you so.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Much, man, Thank you appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
You bet all right, we gotta take a little break.
Care on the way out. Champions Tree Preservation will come
to your house. I'll sen well, somebody from there, meaning
an arborist, somebody who is a professional tree whisperer, tree doctor,
tree uh whatever, it's gonna come to your house, take
a look at those trees and say that one's good,
that one's good, that one's good, that one could use
(27:35):
a little work, and that one back there.
Speaker 5 (27:38):
I'm sorry, but it's gotta go.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
Or they'll just say your trees are all great, you're
taking good care of them, or.
Speaker 5 (27:44):
Maybe it's it's better or worse.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
The bottom line is you're gonna get a very accurate,
very professional assessment of those trees, not just some dude
who shows up with a ladder and a chainsaw and says,
I'll trim your trees for you. They'll probably they're probably
gonna do it wrong. Champions Tree Preservation will do it right.
They send whatever crews are necessary to do whatever changes
(28:05):
are necessary to your trees to make sure that they
can withstand a heavy tropical blow, that they can withstand
a harsh winter, they can withstand a hot, dry summer.
All of those trees of yours are very valuable assets
to your home, and you want to take care of them.
You want to make sure they're gonna be ready for
anything nature throws their way. And Champions Tree preservation can
(28:27):
do that for you in the unlikely event that a
tree just can't be saved, and that happens. Sometimes they
own a tree farm that grows native Texas trees, and
if you're ready for that, if you want that, they'll
bring a new tree out shortly after they take out
the old one and get you started on some brand
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(28:51):
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zero one. Or go to championstree dot com. That's championstree
dot com.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Old guy's rule.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
And of course women never get old if you want
to avoid sleeping on the couch.
Speaker 5 (29:07):
Okay, well, I think that sounds like a good plan.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Fifty plus continues. Here's more with Doug.
Speaker 5 (29:14):
Appreciate that I want to go here. I'm gonna go there.
I saw that one already.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Let me go to.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
This frightening socialist to his front runner to take control
of New York City as new mayor.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
I got a friend who lives up there.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
That's the only reason I really look at all this.
This Zorhan zorn mad Mamdani, get his name right, said
he would arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin.
Speaker 5 (29:41):
And Yahoo if he came to that city.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
If this guy is the future of New York City,
there is no future for New York City. His plans
are just they can't possibly succeed every one of them
government grocery stores. Who's gonna pay for all that? Taxpayers?
Speaker 5 (30:00):
Right?
Speaker 4 (30:01):
But if taxpayers are paying for all of that, and
these these people are left with minimal choices of what
they can buy and what they can't buy in the
grocery store, guess what's gonna happen to those grocery stores
of his, the ones that are run by the government.
They're gonna get shoplifted as bad or worse as the
ones that are already having to close because.
Speaker 5 (30:23):
They can't stop shoplifting.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
And I can assure you, in a government run grocery store,
there's gonna it's gonna be a free for all. The
people are just gonna walk in there, fill a bag
and walk out and and blame it on their their
lot in life. They just say, ah, we just can't
afford food. So even at that government price nickel for
a loaf of bread, and I will just steal it. Uh,
And after the higher taxes come in to try to
(30:48):
pay for all the things he wants. Free bus rides,
free subway rides, free food, free everything I get, well,
not free in the grocery store, but state run, where
the choices are gonna be very limited, not anything like
what you're seeing in any of the grocery stores we have.
Speaker 5 (31:06):
People are gonna leave.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
They're gonna bail out of there faster than the people
are leaving California, and there don't nobody needs to be
surprised when that happens.
Speaker 5 (31:15):
Either.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
The once most magnificent city in the country under his
watch will be dismantled very quickly. He's gonna get rid
of the police, He's gonna do a whole lot of things.
And if you thought Californians were leaving that hot mess
in a hurry, wallill you see what happens if this
guy becomes mayor.
Speaker 5 (31:34):
They're not gonna stand for it.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
Most of the big companies up there already have exit plans,
and that I'm getting from some people who work up there,
or people who have worked for companies based up there
but that have branches down our way. And it's just
a total hot mess, total hot mess. I saw something
military related and I thought i'd share it.
Speaker 5 (31:57):
It's attributed to, Oh, where is it? What's that guy's name?
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Gouty, the former South Carolina senator. But it wasn't from him. Okay,
it turned out it wasn't from him at all. Yeah,
Trey Goudy, that was his name, and there's actually no
evidence he ever said it. He came right out and
said in a quote I saw that. I have no
idea where that came from, but it wasn't me. But
(32:24):
what was who said it really isn't as important as
what was said, and what it said about transgender in
the military was.
Speaker 5 (32:33):
This is this?
Speaker 4 (32:37):
Allegedly the CNN reporter asked Gouty once why transgender people
shouldn't be in the military, and his answer, which we
know it wasn't now, but somebody wrote this down and
it's worth hearing and it's worth thinking about. And I'll
paraphrase because that answer was very lengthy, but in a nutshell,
it led with the fact that the military is not
a club, it's not an equal opportunity employer. Its sole
(33:01):
mission is to defend our nation, and if war breaks out,
that mission becomes to win the war, and already our
military rejects all kinds of people who would like to
be in the military for any number of reasons. They're
poor eyesight, they're flat they've got flat feet, they're overweight, underweight, overheight,
under height, can't meet medical, minimal, physical fitness requirements, all
(33:25):
kinds of stuff that will preclude you from being welcome
in the military because there's a job to do and
it has to be done by people who can do it,
and it does allow I look this up too. It
pretty sure I read correctly. Although the law currently doesn't
allow transgender people to enlist, the transgender people who are
(33:47):
already there and can meet the specific requirements required to
do their jobs up to an including in times of war.
If they're in there and they can do that, fine,
they're not going to be booted out. Whoever wrote that
speech added this to the military has one job, winning war.
Anything else is a distraction and a liability.
Speaker 5 (34:10):
And that's quite true. If we have.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
A military made up of everybody who wants to be
in it, and only half of them are fully capable
of meeting the current requirements, then that's a whole lot
of people we may send into war that probably aren't
going to come back.
Speaker 5 (34:30):
We need people who can I want to see.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
I don't care about as a soldier's personal life for
at least as long as that person can shoot straight,
they can keep up and if necessary, they can drag
a wounded comrade to safety.
Speaker 5 (34:46):
That's not fair.
Speaker 4 (34:47):
Well, war's not fair, okay, And there just aren't any
special exemption special exceptions for anybody. There are a lot
of people I'm sure who would would love to serve
in our military, but for whatever reasons, they just don't
meet the requirements.
Speaker 5 (35:02):
And that's okay too.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
That if you want to serve your country, there's a
lot of ways to do it other than in the military.
Speaker 5 (35:08):
And I can assure you that if you're.
Speaker 4 (35:09):
Enthusiastic and you want to do that, some part of
the government will welcome you in there to help.
Speaker 5 (35:15):
Oh, mercy, should adult a ween be a thing? I
saw this and I just put a little check mark
by it.
Speaker 4 (35:23):
Fifty four percent of adults think that we should get
our own right to celebrate Halloween without involving the kids.
Speaker 5 (35:31):
Well, there is a way.
Speaker 4 (35:32):
To do that, and it's to send the kids over
to the grandparents' house, let them trick or treat in
their neighborhood, probably get better candied and get in your neighborhood,
and then you and your spouse go out and have
some fun.
Speaker 5 (35:43):
We'll be back tomorrow. Thanks for listening. Audios
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 3 (00:20):
Well?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
This show is all about you. This is fifty plus
with Doug Pike.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Helpful information on your finances, good health, and what to
do for fun. Fifty plus brought to you by the
UT Health Houston Institute on Aging, Informed Decisions for a healthier,
happier life.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
And now fifty plus with Doug Pike. All right, here
we go Wednesday edition. Wednesday edition of the show starts
right now. I just got a text message in Okay,
I got.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
That show that you know.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
Honestly, I just feel like we try to share anything
and everything of interest to people who have just made
it this far, and they're are you know.
Speaker 5 (01:09):
I thank God every day that I've made it this far.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
When I was half my age, half the age I
am now, I didn't think i'd make it this far,
and I had some Well, my dad passed away five
years younger than I am now, and so I feel
sometimes I almost feel like I'm living on barred time.
But then again, I look back at his history and
his medical history and realized.
Speaker 5 (01:35):
That he didn't.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Have the knowledge about what cigarette smoking and what alcohol
drinking would do that I have. And so I'm I'm
blessed as the next generation to know better than to
make mistakes with my diet, my exercise, no smoking, no drinking.
(01:58):
I don't hardly ever, can't remember the last time. I
can tell you the last time I had alcohol. And
it's not like I'm bragging about it. It's just something
I've chosen not to do. But the last time I
had it was after Hurricane Beryl, when my power was
out of the house, and a good friend, John Paulis,
offered a room in his house where he had electricity,
(02:19):
and he let me stay there with his wife. And
there was another couple who were in the same predicament
I was, and they fortunately had a house big enough
to accommodate a saul and so there I was. My
wife and son were secured elsewhere, and it worked out
very well. And at dinner each night for the two
nights I was there, I had a glass of wine
(02:41):
with them. They offered it and I accepted it and
it slept pretty well too. Anyway, got word from will
Melbourne yesterday that today from when we began. The weekday
version of fifty plus marks the nine hundredth episode of
the show. And they're all correct me if I'm wrong, will,
but they're all available at the podcast. Yeah, you can
(03:03):
pick from any of nine hundred and the little descriptions
of them don't tell the whole story. They're kind of
the highlight, if you will. There, The spotlight is on that,
but in an hour of content, there's going to be
a lot more than just that. So feel free to
start on episode one and just work your way through
(03:24):
and binge listen.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
Is that? Do people binge listen to anything? Will you think? Yeah? Podcasts,
I guess obviously. Yeah, anytime you'd like.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Just dive in spin the wheel, just pick a number,
pick a number from one to nine hundred, and go
listen to that one.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
We'll kick it off today with the glorious weather we
have outside.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
If you haven't been out of the house yet, haven't
been out of wherever it is you are, go outside
for a little while. Get there, however you can too,
or at least get somebody to open the curtains. If
you can't, If you physically can't leave where you are,
at least we open the drapes, the blinds, the curtain,
whatever that's not letting the sunshine in, and just soak
(04:06):
up a little bit of it. A couple more of
these days on the horizon, then hopefully, hopefully a little
bit of rain heading into the weekend. Well we could
use actually we could use a little bit more than
a little. But I never wish for lots of rain,
because bad things can happen if you do that. And
you know, I've got something else to tell you about
(04:27):
that in just a second. The market news good across
the board. As you heard a minute ago, the Dow
has dropped a little bit from an early morning spike.
It went up another one hundred and fifty one hundred
and seventy five points something like that, and now it's
kind of settled out to where it's actually down a
little bit. But the other three indicators I watch all
in the green.
Speaker 5 (04:46):
So that's good.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Oil was down a few ticks, about fifty eight hundred,
not fifty eight hundred, fifty eight dollars and change around
ten thirty. And gold, holy cow gold continues to just
work its way up, up fifty five dollars an ounce
this morning to forty two eighteen. That's a lot of money.
(05:09):
That's roughly double what it was worth in March of
twenty twenty four. Think about that for a minute. If
you had the smarts, the luck, whatever you want to
call it, to look at a little pile of cash
you had somewhere and go, you know, I think it'd
be kind of fun to own little gold. Let's buy
(05:30):
an ounce or two or three or five or ten
or a pound. By a pound of gold, it would
be worth double what it was worth just a year.
And what a year and a half ago. Silver also
up a nice chunk in the past year. By the way,
I was looking at that, just out of curiosity to
see if silver was keeping up with gold at the
(05:51):
rate of ascension. And indeed it is. It's up pretty good.
So start looking for those old dimes and quarters anything.
I believe sixty four is the final year that they
were made from actual silver. Oh, sixty four or earlier,
if you can still find one. When my son was young,
he for an hour and a half was into coin
(06:14):
collecting and looking and studying all these coins. And we
would go to the bank and get rolls of coins
and then bring them back home and try to fill
in the spots in the books, and we did pretty well,
and then he lost interest, and then I don't know
where those.
Speaker 5 (06:29):
Coins are anymore. And one of the craziest how much
time do I have?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
One minute?
Speaker 5 (06:34):
A minute and a half.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
I'm gonna sit on this for a minute, and I'm
gonna come over here.
Speaker 5 (06:41):
Where's that new piece of.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Paper I went and got I didn't go get it yet.
Heard me had a little cough there. I'll tell you, well,
I'll just do this as fast as I can. And
one of the craziest things I've ever seen a TV
anchor do. On click to Houston's main page, anchor Evan
Conflinty has declared the twenty twenty five Houston hurricane season
to be done. It wasn't me, it was him, Like, oh,
(07:05):
come on, Evan, you didn't really do that, did you?
Speaker 5 (07:07):
No chance for another storm?
Speaker 4 (07:08):
He says, And while there is some historical data to
kind of back that up, I'm presuming he well, I'm
guessing he didn't really check with or if he did,
they just said, oh, please, don't do this. Check with
Anthony Jannes or Justin or Caroline or Dodgy or Britney
anybody in the weather Department probably would have told him
maybe just hold off on that, because it's never really over.
(07:31):
If you want to use historical data as your evidence,
then recognize that there have been named storms that hit
the US mainland during every month of the year.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
So I hope he's right.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
But if something pops up mid November as you're sitting
down to the Thanksgiving table, all in good fun, of course,
I'm just messing with him, But dang, Owen, we're so
close to clear and you had to drop that definitive
declaration on us. Yeah, Will's dropping the hand on me.
I gotta go take a little break here. Maybe Caroline's right,
we're gonna get a cool front pretty soon. I'm gonna
(08:07):
go read what she's got to say. I like that
Cedar Cove RV resort over on the Bay. You'll like
that too, especially as the weather cools down a little
bit more. There you will find all concrete roads, all
concrete slabs throughout the park and throughout the resort. And
you will find water, electric and sewer at every site,
(08:27):
free Wi Fi. There's a bathhouse with showers. There's a
convenience store. I've told you all about this stuff, and
if you haven't yet experienced what it's like to go
to sleep to the sound of waves lapping up on
the shoreline, maybe a breeze rustling through the palms or whatever.
The smell too, of the bay is just something that
(08:48):
I'm drawn to it, I really am. I like the
smell of salt water. It just makes me feel at
home for some reason. If you don't have an RV,
if you don't have a motor home, if you don't
have a pop up trailer or whatever, all you got
to do is call over there and talk to Al Kibby,
the guy who owns the place. He has an RV
that he will rent to you so that you can,
(09:08):
as we'll put it.
Speaker 5 (09:10):
Take advantage of a B and B on the bay.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
You can rent the RV, rent the space, and without
having to buy a motor home, experience what it's like
to do that, to have the peace and quiet guaranteed,
because there's a rule in the RV resort where you
have to be quiet starting at ten pm and you
can't start making noise again until six am. So that's
(09:36):
a nice eight hour chunk of time where everybody's just
kind of chilling and relaxing, and then maybe at six fifteen,
six thirty you hear somebody hooting and hollering because they
just caught a big redfish right out their back door.
Cedar Cove Rvresort dot COM's at the end of Try City,
Try City Beach Road, near Thompson's bake Camp, right there
on Galveston Bay and the beauty that that bay is
(09:59):
about to become the fall.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
It's it's magnificent over there, Cedar Covearvresort dot Com.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Dawn.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
They sure don't make them like they used to.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
That's why every few months we wash him, check his fluids,
and spring on a fresh coat of wax.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
This is fifty plus with Doug Pike. Welcome back, Thanks
for listening, certainly to appreciate it. On this beautiful, absolutely
drop dead gorgeous, beautiful Wednesday afternoon.
Speaker 5 (10:25):
I want to go here. I want to go there.
I talked about that.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
I just can't believe he did that. I really can't. Evan, Evan, come, Flinty.
Hurricane Season's over. I didn't say it, he did. He
said it's over. So beware. I hope, I hope that
jinxes aren't real, but man, if they are, we're.
Speaker 5 (10:48):
Going to be in for a long winter.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
Moving forward from the south of the border. From south
of the border, increasing evidence that the major car tells
because their supply lines into the United States have pretty
much been shut off. I'm sure there's stuff still coming
across the border in the thousands and thousands of cars
(11:12):
and trucks that come into our country every day, not
every one of them, it's just somebody who was over
there as a tourist. We know that, we all know that,
that's why we have such a presence along the border.
But darm, what I'm hearing now is that the cartels
are offering bounties of up to fifty thousand dollars for
(11:35):
killing people involved with ice or customs and Border Patrol
or Department of Homeland Security. Pretty Much anybody who stands
in their way of doing their illegal business has a
target on their backs.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
And one of the issues.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
I have at present is that we also have a
lot of Americans who are so opposed to cleaning up
our country that they are revealing the identities and addresses
of some of these agents. And when you lay those
(12:12):
two things together, you get a recipe.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
For horrible, horrible outcome.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
If any one of those officers or their families gets
hurt or killed as a result of their identity being docked.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
I think is that the word we'll docked? Yeah, I
think that's it.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
I just hope our justice system tracks them down and
prosecutes them, anybody responsible for just laying out a road
map that leads to violence against anyone who's out there
trying like crazy to get this country back on a
better track and get people who aren't supposed to be
(12:50):
here out. It's a frustrating thing when I read about
how many people on the other side, I continue to
say that, well, these people aren't criminals. They don't have
any criminal records, and as the Department of Homeland Security
and ICE will point out very quickly, being here without
(13:14):
coming in the lawful, legal way is against the law.
Speaker 5 (13:19):
And I know it's to some people that's not a
big deal.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
But when you stop and look back at the I
don't know, ten eleven, twelve million people who were let
in over the last four years and realize that most
of them really weren't accounted for, really weren't vetted, and
you realize that many of them, like tens of thousands,
were young men unaccompanied from one hundred and something countries,
(13:50):
many of which are sworn enemies to the United States.
Speaker 5 (13:54):
But they're all here.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
And I don't know what's going to come of this,
but I know it's going to be it's going to
be a long road to hoe before we can regain
some stability in our country. Even heading end of the
chaos that ICE is dealing with in some cities trying
to get illegal migrants out of here, the far left
(14:16):
states and cities are actually threatening to prosecute. Now they're
going to process and this is Chicago and Illinois. They're
going to prosecute federal law enforcement officers sent there to
lower the overall crime rate in those cities and well
Chicago and others, and they're just going to make sure
the needs of Americans are being put before those of
(14:38):
people who did not enter our country illegally. That's what
we should be doing. But now what they want to
do in Chicago, what they want to do in Illinois
with pritzkerh and Johnson, is put the put the people
who aren't supposed to be here and whatever. I don't
know what rights they have really if they're illegally here,
(14:59):
but they they don't want that, and they're threatening legal action,
they're threatening arrest of ICE agents, and I.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
Just can't imagine.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
They're taking a hard stance against President Trump's order, and
every bit of the posturing and chest pounding that they're
doing only hurts the Americans who live in that state
and other states that are taking the same direction. They
are absolutely one percent not putting their residence and those
(15:32):
residents rights, the lawful residence rights, Americans rights ahead of
those people who just happen to show up.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
And get in. It's very frustrating to me.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
Even some people on the left are finally conceding that
their cities need help. New Orleans raised a hand, Washington,
d C. Got a hand reluctantly, and in turn became
very thankful that they got it because crime is dramatically
down there. These one by one, these cities that are
(16:03):
just failing to provide for their residents are getting the
help they.
Speaker 5 (16:06):
Need, whether they like it or not.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
And once the results are shown, it tends to work
out better for the people who live and work and
shop and just want to get out and just hang
out in a park on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon.
And meanwhile, the enemies of this country are just you know,
they're just sitting back and smiling watching all these violent
(16:28):
protests against the lawful removal of people who, some of
whom are our gang members or drug smugglers or human traffickers,
been living among us and profiting from a very backward
previous administration that funded their criminal activities indirectly, perhaps, but
funded them nonetheless with free housing, free food, free medical care,
(16:52):
free transportation around the country. These people were basically on
our dime and conducting unlawful business all the way down
to the shoplifting level. And that's something I'll actually talk
about a little bit later in the show. I'll tell
you what. Let's get to this first break or this
second break a little bit early so I don't get behind,
(17:13):
because we're gonna be interviewing a man from Houston Metro
Michael Androd Androtti. I think Andrada. I'll ask him, We'll
ask him when he calls, and I'll get it right
for sure, because names matter, they do. Spelling and pronunciation
of names is critical to getting a story right. And
speaking of John Eitman, that's perfectly pronounced. I know that
(17:36):
because I talk to him all the time. And he
is the owner of Country Boys Roofing. We are not,
contrary to what Channel two weather man or Channel two
anchor said, we're not exactly out of the woods yet
for storm season. But even still, even if we are, luckily,
that'd be great. Even if we are, it doesn't hurt
anything to call them and get them out to do
(17:59):
an inspecting, your inspection of your roof, and if they
find something, they're going to tell you about it. They're
going to tell you how they can fix it, how
long it'll take, what materials they'll use, what it's gonna
cost you, which.
Speaker 5 (18:10):
Will be a very fair price, very fair and honest price.
They're gonna They're not going to take advantage of any situation.
That's not how you stay in business.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
You stay in business like Country Boys does, because you
do the right job at the right price, and you
back it up. Country Boys Roofing, also thanks to John,
also offers a fifteen hundred dollars discount on a complete
roof replacement to educators, first responders, and past or present military.
(18:38):
If you served in the United States Army or Air
Force or any other military branch, get you're entitled to
a fifteen hundred dollars discount on a full roof. If
you're a teacher, if you're an administrator in a school,
if you're a first responder, you get the same discount.
And if you're none of those things, you can still
get one thousand dollars off that full roof replacement just
by dropping my name. That's all you gotta do. They
(18:59):
by the way, Doug told me to use you guys.
What do I get now?
Speaker 5 (19:03):
You get a thousand dollars off Here you go.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
Financing is available for those of us who cannot just
write a check for a whole roof. And his son,
Zack has joined the team right now. So if Zach
comes to your house, know that he has been trained
by the man who started the company, the man who
owns the company, and the man who runs it very
proudly and very ethically and very honestly. Countryboysroofing dot Com
(19:29):
is the website for you millennials and gen zers and
all you young people. It's country with a K, boys
with a Z. And you're probably not surprised from a
boomer's Just spell it the way you normally spell it.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Spell it the way you do it.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
If you were in a spelling Bee.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
And it'll still pop up about one or two little
notches down from the top. Countryboysroofing dot com.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
What's life without a net? If I suggest to go
to bed, sleep it off.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Just wait until the show's over. Sleepy Back to Doug
Pike has fifty plus continues.
Speaker 5 (20:00):
Welcome back, Thanks for listening. Certainly do appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
On this beautiful Wednesday afternoon, thanks to the end of
time for sharing your day with Will and me. In
this segment, we're going to talk about new twists on
kind of an evolving theme, which is public transportation around Houston.
And to take the reins on this one, I'll welcome
make Michael Andrade, vice president of Specialized Transit Services for Metro,
(20:26):
Welcome a board.
Speaker 5 (20:26):
Michael.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Thank you for having met.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
Uh, you're kind of breaking up, can you? I don't.
Speaker 4 (20:34):
Can you hang your head out the window or let's
see if we can get it tightened up.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Oh yes, sir, can you better now?
Speaker 4 (20:40):
It's way better. Yeah, speakerphones, whatever that was, it's fished.
It's fixed now. I did some research this morning, by
the way, and found out that public transportation in Houston
started in eighteen seventy with this Houston City Street Railway Company,
then horse drawn street cars. I'll fast forward through the
rest of it up to almost seventy seven million rides
(21:01):
in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 5 (21:03):
For you guys. That's pretty impressive, man.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
It is.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
And you know, one of the things that we pride
ourselves on here Houston Metro is accessibility. And you know,
one of our milestones that we had was back in
April of two thousand and one where we were able
to achieve one hundred percent wheelchair accessibility and that was
really a game changer for our seniors and disabled here
in the city. And of course, adding our rail line
(21:31):
in January of two thousand and four, and then the
extensions of the Red and the Green and the Purple
lines in twenty fifteen again really set us up well
to provide mobility around the city for our customers.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
I read something this morning in the information I got
about metro Lift and Curb to curb.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
What are they great?
Speaker 3 (21:55):
So curb Actually, Metro Lift started actually back in nineteen
seventy nine, before the ADA was signed in nineteen ninety,
so Metro has had a standing relationship with the disability
and senior communities since nineteen seventy nine and Metrolft is
basically a shared ride service that complements Metro's fixed route service.
(22:18):
So Metro Lift serves as a safety net for seniors
and disabled customers that cannot utilize Metro's fixed route services.
Now we operate comparable hours to the fixed route buses,
basically twenty two and a half hours a day, seven
days a week, and we cover eight hundred and eight
square miles, which is a big area. Customers can travel
(22:42):
anywhere in the service area as long as they're approved
through an in person eligibility process. Now, once the customers
are approved for service, they can book one day in
advance and get service. They can go anywhere they want
to go within the service area at a dollar twenty
five for our base fair two fifty for our expanded
(23:04):
service area. And with this service as well, one percent
of our Ada Metrolist service is wheelchair accessible. So again
that's what Metro has been focused on, is accessibility and
making sure that our customers get the service that they
that they need.
Speaker 5 (23:23):
I saw something else, Michael about micro transit.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
What is that?
Speaker 5 (23:27):
In community connection? How does that work?
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Right?
Speaker 3 (23:30):
So let me start with curb to curb Herbcurb. Yeah,
so Curb to Curb is for the general public. Now,
disability customers as well as seniors love this service as well.
So basically what it is, it's an on demand shared
ride transportation service in specific Houston communities like Acres Home,
(23:53):
Cashmeir Maxi, Sunnyside, Missouri City, and Hierum Clark that connects
riders to local destinations like metro facilities. When within defined zones.
It allows users to book rides through a mobile app
or by calling in. We have a set fare. Now,
(24:15):
what it does is it provides a convenient way to
get around the area not easily served by fixed route buses.
So again it connects customers within their communities. Again, all
of these vehicles are one hundred percent wheelchair accessible. The
fare for this service is a dollar twenty five as well,
and something that we just added with the Metro Now
(24:37):
initiative in April is that whenever we have high demand
or peak time areas on this service, we're able to
introduce uber and Lyft as an option through the app,
and the price is the same a dollar twenty five.
We operate seven days a week, five am to seven pm.
Speaker 5 (24:57):
That's incredible. It really is, Michael. That's incredible, no idea.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Yeah, and now let's move over to micro transit. Now,
micro transit is another service that Metro offers, and again
it's part of the Metro Now initiative. And this is
all community Connector and it's an on demand micro transit
service that provides first and last mile transportation to help
(25:25):
customers connect with major Metro transit routes and other destinations.
Basically a similar to curb to curb, but this fleet
uses electric vehicles to operate within defined zones. Now, these
zones are a little different. They're in the downtown area,
the heights near north Side, second Ward and third Ward,
(25:47):
and these are again services is simply connect riders with transit.
Speaker 5 (25:53):
That's fantastic, man, I had no idea. I really had
no idea. Believe it or not.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
We're down to one minute and I have a half
a pay your questions here. I'm going to have to
get you back on at some point because I do
want to go through a lot of the rest of this.
So what what's the main message you want to get
across to this whole audience of mine, mostly seniors.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
Absolutely, So basically, what we want to communicate to our
seniors and people with disabilities, is that Metro is here
for you. We have several different programs. We have discounted
fairs that we can go into next time. But again,
one hundred percent of our fleet is wheelchair accessible and
we want to make sure that our our customers are
(26:34):
well served. Call seven one three six three five four
thousand if you have more questions. But we're here to
serve the community. With a Metro Now initiative. We're going
to be focused on accessibility, making sure that our buses
are clean, enhanced safety, all of the different things that
we've been focused on with the Metro Now initiative, and
(26:57):
we're ready to serve the community.
Speaker 4 (26:59):
I'm going to get into that safety and stuff in
our second interview and we're gonna do one for sure.
Speaker 5 (27:03):
I want to do that.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
Ride metro dot org is the website. Go check it
out there. Ride metro dot dot org. Thank you, Michael,
Thank you so.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Much, man, Thank you appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
You bet all right, we gotta take a little break.
Care on the way out. Champions Tree Preservation will come
to your house. I'll sen well, somebody from there, meaning
an arborist, somebody who is a professional tree whisperer, tree doctor,
tree uh whatever, it's gonna come to your house, take
a look at those trees and say that one's good,
that one's good, that one's good, that one could use
(27:35):
a little work, and that one back there.
Speaker 5 (27:38):
I'm sorry, but it's gotta go.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
Or they'll just say your trees are all great, you're
taking good care of them, or.
Speaker 5 (27:44):
Maybe it's it's better or worse.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
The bottom line is you're gonna get a very accurate,
very professional assessment of those trees, not just some dude
who shows up with a ladder and a chainsaw and says,
I'll trim your trees for you. They'll probably they're probably
gonna do it wrong. Champions Tree Preservation will do it right.
They send whatever crews are necessary to do whatever changes
(28:05):
are necessary to your trees to make sure that they
can withstand a heavy tropical blow, that they can withstand
a harsh winter, they can withstand a hot, dry summer.
All of those trees of yours are very valuable assets
to your home, and you want to take care of them.
You want to make sure they're gonna be ready for
anything nature throws their way. And Champions Tree preservation can
(28:27):
do that for you in the unlikely event that a
tree just can't be saved, and that happens. Sometimes they
own a tree farm that grows native Texas trees, and
if you're ready for that, if you want that, they'll
bring a new tree out shortly after they take out
the old one and get you started on some brand
new shade for the rest of the time you're in
that home. Two eight one three two zero eighty two
(28:51):
zero one two eight one three two zero eighty two
zero one. Or go to championstree dot com. That's championstree
dot com.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Old guy's rule.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
And of course women never get old if you want
to avoid sleeping on the couch.
Speaker 5 (29:07):
Okay, well, I think that sounds like a good plan.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Fifty plus continues. Here's more with Doug.
Speaker 5 (29:14):
Appreciate that I want to go here. I'm gonna go there.
I saw that one already.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Let me go to.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
This frightening socialist to his front runner to take control
of New York City as new mayor.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
I got a friend who lives up there.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
That's the only reason I really look at all this.
This Zorhan zorn mad Mamdani, get his name right, said
he would arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin.
Speaker 5 (29:41):
And Yahoo if he came to that city.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
If this guy is the future of New York City,
there is no future for New York City. His plans
are just they can't possibly succeed every one of them
government grocery stores. Who's gonna pay for all that? Taxpayers?
Speaker 5 (30:00):
Right?
Speaker 4 (30:01):
But if taxpayers are paying for all of that, and
these these people are left with minimal choices of what
they can buy and what they can't buy in the
grocery store, guess what's gonna happen to those grocery stores
of his, the ones that are run by the government.
They're gonna get shoplifted as bad or worse as the
ones that are already having to close because.
Speaker 5 (30:23):
They can't stop shoplifting.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
And I can assure you, in a government run grocery store,
there's gonna it's gonna be a free for all. The
people are just gonna walk in there, fill a bag
and walk out and and blame it on their their
lot in life. They just say, ah, we just can't
afford food. So even at that government price nickel for
a loaf of bread, and I will just steal it. Uh,
And after the higher taxes come in to try to
(30:48):
pay for all the things he wants. Free bus rides,
free subway rides, free food, free everything I get, well,
not free in the grocery store, but state run, where
the choices are gonna be very limited, not anything like
what you're seeing in any of the grocery stores we have.
Speaker 5 (31:06):
People are gonna leave.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
They're gonna bail out of there faster than the people
are leaving California, and there don't nobody needs to be
surprised when that happens.
Speaker 5 (31:15):
Either.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
The once most magnificent city in the country under his
watch will be dismantled very quickly. He's gonna get rid
of the police, He's gonna do a whole lot of things.
And if you thought Californians were leaving that hot mess
in a hurry, wallill you see what happens if this
guy becomes mayor.
Speaker 5 (31:34):
They're not gonna stand for it.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
Most of the big companies up there already have exit plans,
and that I'm getting from some people who work up there,
or people who have worked for companies based up there
but that have branches down our way. And it's just
a total hot mess, total hot mess. I saw something
military related and I thought i'd share it.
Speaker 5 (31:57):
It's attributed to, Oh, where is it? What's that guy's name?
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Gouty, the former South Carolina senator. But it wasn't from him. Okay,
it turned out it wasn't from him at all. Yeah,
Trey Goudy, that was his name, and there's actually no
evidence he ever said it. He came right out and
said in a quote I saw that. I have no
idea where that came from, but it wasn't me. But
(32:24):
what was who said it really isn't as important as
what was said, and what it said about transgender in
the military was.
Speaker 5 (32:33):
This is this?
Speaker 4 (32:37):
Allegedly the CNN reporter asked Gouty once why transgender people
shouldn't be in the military, and his answer, which we
know it wasn't now, but somebody wrote this down and
it's worth hearing and it's worth thinking about. And I'll
paraphrase because that answer was very lengthy, but in a nutshell,
it led with the fact that the military is not
a club, it's not an equal opportunity employer. Its sole
(33:01):
mission is to defend our nation, and if war breaks out,
that mission becomes to win the war, and already our
military rejects all kinds of people who would like to
be in the military for any number of reasons. They're
poor eyesight, they're flat they've got flat feet, they're overweight, underweight, overheight,
under height, can't meet medical, minimal, physical fitness requirements, all
(33:25):
kinds of stuff that will preclude you from being welcome
in the military because there's a job to do and
it has to be done by people who can do it,
and it does allow I look this up too. It
pretty sure I read correctly. Although the law currently doesn't
allow transgender people to enlist, the transgender people who are
(33:47):
already there and can meet the specific requirements required to
do their jobs up to an including in times of war.
If they're in there and they can do that, fine,
they're not going to be booted out. Whoever wrote that
speech added this to the military has one job, winning war.
Anything else is a distraction and a liability.
Speaker 5 (34:10):
And that's quite true. If we have.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
A military made up of everybody who wants to be
in it, and only half of them are fully capable
of meeting the current requirements, then that's a whole lot
of people we may send into war that probably aren't
going to come back.
Speaker 5 (34:30):
We need people who can I want to see.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
I don't care about as a soldier's personal life for
at least as long as that person can shoot straight,
they can keep up and if necessary, they can drag
a wounded comrade to safety.
Speaker 5 (34:46):
That's not fair.
Speaker 4 (34:47):
Well, war's not fair, okay, And there just aren't any
special exemption special exceptions for anybody. There are a lot
of people I'm sure who would would love to serve
in our military, but for whatever reasons, they just don't
meet the requirements.
Speaker 5 (35:02):
And that's okay too.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
That if you want to serve your country, there's a
lot of ways to do it other than in the military.
Speaker 5 (35:08):
And I can assure you that if you're.
Speaker 4 (35:09):
Enthusiastic and you want to do that, some part of
the government will welcome you in there to help.
Speaker 5 (35:15):
Oh, mercy, should adult a ween be a thing? I
saw this and I just put a little check mark
by it.
Speaker 4 (35:23):
Fifty four percent of adults think that we should get
our own right to celebrate Halloween without involving the kids.
Speaker 5 (35:31):
Well, there is a way.
Speaker 4 (35:32):
To do that, and it's to send the kids over
to the grandparents' house, let them trick or treat in
their neighborhood, probably get better candied and get in your neighborhood,
and then you and your spouse go out and have
some fun.
Speaker 5 (35:43):
We'll be back tomorrow. Thanks for listening. Audios
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