This Season We Give Back

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Remember when it was impossible to misplace the TV remote because.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
You were the TV remote.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Remember when music sounded like this, Remember when social media
was truly social?

Speaker 3 (00:17):
Hey John, how's it going today?

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Well, this show is all about you one. This is
fifty plus with Doug Pike, Helpful information on your finances,
good health, and what to do for fun.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Fifty plus brought to you by the UT Health.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Houston Institute on Aging Informed Decisions for a healthier, happier life.

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

Speaker 4 (00:45):
All Right, welcome to the end of the week and
what will be the beginning.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
You'll know more about that in a minute.

Speaker 4 (00:52):
If you haven't already heard by listening to us since yesterday,
maybe the beginning of a really sick child's journey toward recovery.
Yesterday and today, all of us here at iHeart Houston
been asking all of you if you can to donate
something to Saint Jude Children's Research Hospital during our annual
radiothon this year presented by Gallery Furniture and Oakcarves Financial Group,

(01:14):
who also both were major sponsors of our golf tournament
for Saint Jude on Monday up at Golf Club of Houston.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
So I'm going to.

Speaker 4 (01:22):
Lead off this afternoon by asking you, and this won't
be the last time in the hour either, by asking you,
just drop a little something in the bucket for these
kids and the hospital that's just dramatically raised the survival
rates of pediatric cancers around the world. It's nineteen bucks
a month. That's all it takes. You'll help a child
you'll likely never meet, but that child will get through

(01:46):
and the child in his or her family will get
through a terrible diagnosis at one of the most amazing
places on earth. Let me put it this way, here's
what I thought about this morning through it in front
of a couple of people around here.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
They like the idea.

Speaker 4 (02:00):
Cal who is taking over for Will today, will hear
it first. And as I tell you what I'm thinking about,
Saint Jude Children's Research Hospital should be designated as the
eighth Wonder of the World. AI I found out this
morning actually lists almost two dozen, and I'll wrap them

(02:22):
in quotes because they get kind of diluted wonders of
the world, almost two dozen, all of which are either
decrepit old, old, old buildings or structures. On that list
of almost two dozen was the Great Barrier Reef for
some reason. And when I think of all of them,

(02:47):
I'm looking at the only one that's actually anywhere close
to its original Look, that's the Great Pyramids in Egypt.
But each and every one of those things does absolutely nothing.
They just say, there you go, you walk by, you
get a picture if you're lucky enough to go there,
and you say, I went here. I went to the
taj Mahal, I went to the Pyramids, I went to

(03:10):
the Colisseum.

Speaker 3 (03:12):
But you know what, that's all they do. They They're
just there to be admired.

Speaker 4 (03:16):
I'm not taking anything away from their beauty or their significance.
But Saint Jude Hospital cures kids who have cancer. That
ought to be number one of the eight. I would think,
agree or disagree? Cal reed, I agree, thank you, I

(03:36):
appreciate that. Yeah, it just dawned on me this morning,
and I thought about it. Before I even thought of
how many of the eight or seven I could name,
it was four or five.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
I don't. It doesn't matter anymore because there's only.

Speaker 4 (03:50):
One that I think steps over all of them and
goes to the top of the list, and that's a
hospital that doesn't charge families anything to allow their sons
or daughters to be cured of horrible pediatric cancers and
in many cases, I mean cured. The survival rates from

(04:13):
Saint Jude have gone up and up since it opened
in nineteen sixty two. The one that is most dramatically
reversed as a kid killer acute lymphoblastic leukemia's blood cancer. Okay,
when the hospital opened up, the five year survival rate
for that was four percent. Four and one hundred kids

(04:36):
made it for five years. Any idea what that number
might be now? Cal ninety four percent? Wow, it's yeah,
it's it's an amazing place.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
And I could go on and on.

Speaker 4 (04:51):
I've been there, I've visited there, and it's just fascinating.
And all the research they do, all the incredible things
they find that helped them treat and cure pediatric cancers,
are shared all around the world.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
They don't keep it a secret. There's nothing.

Speaker 4 (05:08):
Once they come up with a protocol to fix some
poor broken child, they'll send it to any and every doctor,
any and every hospital that asks for it, anywhere in
the world. It's remarkable how many partners they have all
around the world who are able to.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
Treat some of these kids without even having them leave home.

Speaker 4 (05:29):
If you're halfway around the world and you've got a
child with cancer, it may not really make sense whatever
your family dynamic is for you to pack everybody up
and come all the way to Memphis, Tennessee. If you don't,
if you can't do that, then bye gosh. They'll send
the technology, they'll send the formulas, the procedures to get

(05:50):
that kid fixed wherever whenever. It's amazing to me, it
really is. I refuse to give up on this. So
what you can do today, if you like to, is
become a partner in hope. You just plaged nineteen dollars
a month and you get a T shirt and a
sweatshirt to let people know you care, which is way
better than a snapshot of a pyramid or the taj

(06:12):
mahaal or Grand Canyon. One eight hundred five eight eight
fourteen thirty three. One eight hundred five eight eight fourteen
thirty three. And yesterday I shared that somebody had asked
me somebody here it said, Hey, you think that fifty
plus audience.

Speaker 3 (06:30):
Of yours is really going to respond to this? Absolutely?

Speaker 4 (06:34):
Absolutely my audience, I told them, said, my audience is
of the generation that took care of each other.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
The generation if your neighbor.

Speaker 4 (06:43):
Needed his lawn mode, well you send your son over
there to the lawn.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
But the law would get mode.

Speaker 4 (06:48):
If your neighbor had a problem, lost job, and you
help them get something to eat until they get back
on their feet.

Speaker 3 (06:55):
That's my generation, and that's who we are. That's who
fifty plus is. So dive in if you like, am
I close? Oh two minutes? Okay, thank you.

Speaker 4 (07:05):
You can talk all you want, cal you can talk
all you want on this program.

Speaker 3 (07:10):
So if you feel froggy, you just leap in. Man.
Uh so, yeah, that's it. That's the phone number. One
more time.

Speaker 4 (07:16):
Then we're gonna move on one eight hundred five eight
eight fourteen thirty three, eight hundred five eight eight fourteen
thirty three.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
Write it down, you'll hear it again. Don't worry. Off
we go right out of the gate.

Speaker 4 (07:26):
I'd like to remind all of you who drive gray
cars early in the morning and late in the afternoon
to turn your headlights on.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
We can't see you.

Speaker 4 (07:34):
I had one behind me on fifty nine this morning,
behind two or three cars that actually had their headlights on,
and then there was just this, this gray thing just
to look like a puff of smoke coming down the freeway,
same speed all the way here. He's on the freeway
at first light. And the color he chose at the
dealership for his mid sized SUV was concrete camouflage. Can

(07:56):
you make me one of those in concrete camouflage? Well,
they did, and I could barely see them. And a
quick decision situation.

Speaker 3 (08:05):
I doubt anybody would have seen him.

Speaker 4 (08:07):
It's enough of that, all right, We'll take a little
break here on the way out. H Ut Health Institute
on Aging. This is the collaborative I've talked about now
for more than ten years of providers who who don't
just stop with the education they got to get them
out of school. They continue that education to learn more
and more on how they can apply their knowledge about

(08:30):
every facet of medical care, every facet of medicine.

Speaker 3 (08:36):
There are people involved in this who are from every walk.

Speaker 4 (08:39):
Of medical knowledge, and they go back and get more
knowledge so that they can apply what they know to seniors. Specifically, You,
me and everybody else in our age group are at
a great advantage really because we have access to this.
There are only a handful of places in the entire
country that have anything like this, and ours is the best.

(08:59):
Of course, go to the website, look at what they
can offer, look at all the different resources, and then
work your way toward a provider who, because they're a
member of the Institute on Aging, can help you get
over whatever medical hurle you're dealing with. Ut dot edu
slash aging, ut dot edu slash aging.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
What's life without a NET? I suggest you go to
bed and sleep it off.

Speaker 1 (09:25):
Just wait until the show's over. Sleepy Back to Doug
Pike as fifty plus continues.

Speaker 4 (09:43):
All right, welcome back to fifty plus, Thanks for listening,
Thanks for sharing your time with Callum and me today.
In this segment, right on the doorstep really of the
season's first real cold front.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
I'll wrap that in quotes.

Speaker 4 (09:56):
It's not really supposed to freeze, but nonetheless it'll be
down in the mid thirties and that's a pretty good.

Speaker 3 (10:02):
That's a pretty good lick around here.

Speaker 4 (10:03):
We're going to talk about managing arthritis pain in cold
weather and to provide expert answers to my humble questions
will be doctor Jennifer Colley, Board Certified Family Nurse practitioner
at UT Health Houston, Physic School of Nursing with focus
on guess what pain.

Speaker 3 (10:21):
Welcome board, doctor Cowey.

Speaker 5 (10:24):
Hi, good afternoon, Thank you for having me.

Speaker 3 (10:27):
It's my pleasure.

Speaker 4 (10:27):
So right out the gate, I like to kind of
start at the beginning. What's the clinical definition of osteoarthritis.

Speaker 5 (10:36):
So osteoarthritis really is they call it the generative joint disease.
So it's a type of arthritis where the tissues this
are the specifically the cartilage this are those tissues that
cover the ends of the joints. They wear down gradually.
It happens through time. It's not something that acutely happens

(10:56):
within a week. It happens through time. As it wears
those joints in those areas, the tissues in the cartilage,
they become rough because the bones rub against each other,
and then the joint lining starts to swell, and then
on top of that, the joint then gradually becomes stiff
and less mobile. In addition, there's usually a fluid that

(11:17):
helps lubricate the joints and protects that cartilage. But unfortunately,
what happens in osi arthritis or the giant of joint disease,
is that synovial fluid becomes thinner, so it causes decreased
cushioning of the joints, those ends of the bones, and
all that then resolves to this degeneration or breakdown over time,
and then the symptoms of pain, swellings, stiffness, and then

(11:40):
for some people even greater pain and physical disability.

Speaker 4 (11:44):
It sounds to me like this is one of those
things that nature plays all these cruel tricks on us
as we get older, and with this one, you get
a little you feel a little ache into pain one
morning as well, that just goes away. I'm just getting
little older, and you ignore it and you learn, you
create a new normal pain level for yourself, and just
think that's just all you can do, and then all

(12:07):
of a sudden you wake up one morning, Haha, that osteoporosis,
per osteo arthritists has you by the throat, doesn't it. Right?

Speaker 5 (12:18):
Yeah, those symptoms can go from something really mild to
something that can get really severe that will put you down.
And it does get variable. It can be impacted by
a lot of different factors as well as activity levels.
There are factors also that we cannot prevent, right, like
if our gender is for women, Unfortunately, they have a

(12:40):
higher risk for some types of osteoarthritis, like in the
hands right compared to men. And then those of us
who are also overweighted OBEs those unfortunately, those individuals have
greater risk factors for osteoarthritis. Those who are in the
sports field with overuse and repeated injuries, those individuals also

(13:04):
higher risk factors for us your thrice. So there are
things that we cannot help write, our genetics, our gender,
those ones we cannot change. But there are other things
too that we can then change. And that's why a
lot of this, hopefully for management, is lifestyle changes, because
it can just hit us anytime. It waxes and wane.

(13:24):
Pain is not you know, we cannot predict it from happening,
and so when it does happen, it's important for us
to be able to kind of learn how to manage
it and to also prevent aggravation of it through time.

Speaker 4 (13:36):
Doctor Jennifer Caroway on fifty plus Here, So, what's the
deal with the seeming to get this condition seeming to
get worse than winters?

Speaker 3 (13:43):
It the low pressure, the cold temperatures why winter.

Speaker 5 (13:47):
Yeah, so yeah, so the cold temperature actually increases the
joints stiffening and muscle tightening, right, And that's why when
people apply heating pads, for example, it helps with the
pain because muscles tend to relax more and then the
joints tend to move more. So that's what cold temperature does,
is it increases the stiffening of the joints, and especially

(14:09):
if you have osteouthritis, where the joints are already stiff
to begin with, then it becomes worse. And then on
top of that, for winter storms, what happens is the
atmospheric or the air pressure drops, and when this happens,
it causes more swelling or expansion of the muscles and
soft tissues around the joints. And that's why some individuals

(14:31):
with osteoarthritis say they can predict what the weather. You know.
How they say, oh, I can predict I know, I
know the storm's coming, I know it's gonna get cold,
you know, And that there's a scientific explanation to that.
And the reason is, yes, the air pressure drops, and
then it causes the body, the muscles and the soft
tissues in the body to expand and swell and then

(14:51):
causing more pain. And then that fluid. That's synovial fluid
we were talking about earlier too, that lubricant, that lubricant
in between the owns around the joint eras those become
thicker like sludge in cold conditions for somebody who has
already oscir arthritis or are already tight, and then now
you have the lubricunt which is supposed to ease movement.

(15:13):
Now you've got a sludge type of lubricunt there. So
you know, it cosses more restriction in movement, reduces physical activity,
you know, increases pain sensitivity and all of that nature.
So yeah, definitely cold weather for sure unfortunately aggravates asciarthritis.

Speaker 4 (15:30):
To keep everybody from jumping immediately to a conclusion about
whatever pain they're feeling, I'm guessing that just not every
winter pain we get is arthritis related. Any other reasons
we might roll out of bed stiff and sore on
a cold morning, I guess just the pressure in general, right, Yeah,
so there.

Speaker 5 (15:46):
Are other things that can cost pain too, so we
don't want everybody to so now it's probably just arthritis, right,
So it's really important to consult with your primary care
provider because there are different kinds of arthritis too that
need different treatments beyond just lifestyle changes. Right, So rheumatoid
arthritis also get worse during wintertime, during the cold time,
and they roll out of beds stiff and tight and

(16:08):
in pain as well, but they have a different kind
of treatment. We're not talking about just you know, lifestyle changes.
These individuals do need more intensive types of management pain
management to control their rheumatoid arthritis, which is you know,
significantly different from uster arthritis.

Speaker 4 (16:27):
All right, So don't don't laugh when I ask you
this question, But are any of those pills and creams
we see advertised on late night TV any good for this?

Speaker 5 (16:36):
Oh? Yeah, no, nothing is. Nothing is ever laughable with anything?
Okay to ask question. We get all those questions all
the time. Yeah, absolutely, So yeah. Over there's over the
counter medications as long as they take them as indicated,
and that's what we always take. You know, consult with
your primary care for that provider is always important. So
there's pain relievers and creams, but we do have a

(16:59):
lot of stuff over the counter that we may not
have the greatest evidence for it. And so again that
goes back to really making sure to have a consultation
with the provider to make sure that it is the
right medication for you and it doesn't interact with any
other disease process you might have or any other medications
that you have. Right and apart from medications, there are

(17:20):
a lot of other things that we can do for
osio authritis as well.

Speaker 4 (17:24):
I wonder I was going to ask about stretching and
maybe light workouts, but would that exacerbate the problem.

Speaker 5 (17:32):
No, No, Actually, that's what's recommended for us your authoritis,
especially during the wintertime, right that we wake up, it's stiff,
it's cold. What we recommend actually for healthcare providers is
stretching before doing any kind of movement is very important.
Just kind of getting up, sitting up, waiting for a
few minutes before you get up out of bed, because

(17:54):
this is the common time when people start just kind
of jumping from laying down to a standing and walking
position offs and they're on the floor. They fell. Now
you've got a fracture, and now you've got even more
worse stuff going on, and so really giving yourself and
pacing yourself and stretching first before you start moving around.
But definitely movement is what we really really recommend for

(18:18):
this stiff joint. It helps increase strength, it boosts energy.
This movement or exercise can increase our feel good hormone. Obviously,
we want to start slow for those who have not
been quite active, right, you want to start slow and
then gradually thirty minutes five days a week at least,
and then more than that if possible. And it's not

(18:39):
about you know, havy. Intense exercise and even walking in
itself is really important. As long as you're moving those
joints throughout the day, that alone can help really in
terms of osio threats, especially during the wintertime.

Speaker 4 (18:55):
Wonderful doctor Jennifer KYLEI thank you so very much for
your time.

Speaker 5 (18:59):
Thank you, and have a good afternoon.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
Yeah you too.

Speaker 4 (19:01):
All right, we have got to take a little joke,
joke break what we're gonna do.

Speaker 3 (19:06):
First of all.

Speaker 4 (19:06):
By the way, if you're if you're wondering what that
number was for Saint Jude, I'll tell you again, because
at our age sometimes we forget stuff. Eight hundred five
eight eight fourteen thirty three. Eight hundred five eight eight
fourteen thirty three. Elisa Brewster from Brewster Law Firm out

(19:27):
there in sugar Land. Alsa works every single day to
help clients dealing with healthcare transactions, with payer disputes, compliance reimbursement.
Also deals in business law, and she works very closely
with a lot of seniors who need advice on protecting
their wealth and drafting end of life documents.

Speaker 3 (19:44):
We all need those at some point, sooner rather than later.
Right Her office is right off fifty nine in sugar Land.

Speaker 4 (19:50):
If you need legal help, Brewster Law FIRMTX dot com.
Brewster LAWFIRMTX dot com.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
We don't make them like they used to.

Speaker 1 (20:01):
That's why every few months we wash them, check his fluids,
and spring on a fresh code of wax. This is
fifty plus with Doug Pike.

Speaker 3 (20:18):
Pretty quick trigger figure.

Speaker 4 (20:20):
You got there, all right, Welcome back to fifty plus.
In this segment, we're going to talk about interest rates
and how they're impacting home sellers and home buyers, and
to help I'm gonna bring I brought in the big guns,
the president of Kirkcombs, Chris McGinley.

Speaker 3 (20:34):
Welcome back, Chris.

Speaker 6 (20:36):
Heny, Thanks Doug, thanks for having me.

Speaker 3 (20:38):
You bet so.

Speaker 4 (20:38):
The Feds dropped the interest rate a quarter of a
point yesterday, and I'm guessing that that didn't.

Speaker 3 (20:43):
Set off an avalanche of.

Speaker 4 (20:44):
New business at least, but it was at least a
step in the right direction, right, Does that.

Speaker 3 (20:49):
Sum it up? Hut?

Speaker 6 (20:50):
Absolutely, yes, sir. Yeah, we're on that right trajectory and
I think that's the right step and looking forward to
being additional cuts, so more steps.

Speaker 4 (20:59):
Y'all's going to say your phone didn't ring off the wall,
That's what I'm talking about.

Speaker 3 (21:03):
So you've done this a long time. You built thousands
of homes over the years.

Speaker 4 (21:07):
Is there some sort of a predictable lag behind these
interest changes before the public reacts.

Speaker 6 (21:14):
A little bit, yes, sir. Yeah, and it's time at
market too. I mean, we can't have all of the
interest rate drops right now. You know, the winter time
is typically a little bit slower than your spring selling season.

Speaker 4 (21:27):
Boy, I bet the guys who put the rufs on
your houses wish it was faster in winter.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
And slower in summer.

Speaker 6 (21:33):
Yes, sir.

Speaker 3 (21:36):
What about building materials?

Speaker 4 (21:37):
You and I talked a long time ago during the
during the pandemic about how building.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
Materials had gone up so much.

Speaker 4 (21:43):
Have have those things kind of come back a little
closer to normal or did it stick?

Speaker 5 (21:50):
No?

Speaker 6 (21:51):
A lot of things have come down. You know, lumbers
definitely had stabilized. It's much more reasonable right now with
the lumber rates we're product of. Bailability has definitely come back.
You know, we still have labor as a concern, and
I think that's as an industry the next five or
ten years, that'll be, that'll be what we're we're constantly

(22:11):
trying to backfill. Is to get the right the right crews.

Speaker 4 (22:16):
Yeah, the right crew makes a big difference, especially at
the level of expectation people have.

Speaker 3 (22:21):
When they're buying something from you.

Speaker 4 (22:22):
For sure, if somebody asked you this broad question Chris
McGinley and just came up to you in passing sitting
around and said, oh, by the way, is this a
good time to buy a house?

Speaker 3 (22:32):
What was you answer?

Speaker 6 (22:35):
Absolutely, that's a great time.

Speaker 3 (22:38):
Did you ever have you ever given a different answer? Well,
you know, I understand that kind.

Speaker 6 (22:45):
Of designing and building dreams. It's definitely one where you know,
definitely take the time to design and and pull that
trigger when it's right for the family.

Speaker 3 (22:55):
For sure. Yeah, And you know you told me something.
I guess it was a couple of weeks ago.

Speaker 4 (22:59):
I was talking to you and you talked about how
one of the things that you do that maybe it's unique,
maybe it's not remind me, but you can somebody could
come in and have all their plans put together now
and then maybe build a house in September.

Speaker 3 (23:14):
Is that right? Yes?

Speaker 6 (23:16):
And that's that's really something that we've been focusing on,
is to make sure that you know, clients know and
understand that when we're designing, you know, to take the
time to design right. It might not be a right
time for the family to build, but this is a
great time to go ahead and start the design process,
you know, working with the architectural team, getting the plan

(23:37):
ready for when that right time where the buyer is.

Speaker 3 (23:41):
That makes very good sense, uh.

Speaker 4 (23:44):
Interest rates aside, talk about some of the changes in
home building and the technology and the design that have
come up since I started seeing your praises.

Speaker 3 (23:51):
What ten twelve years ago? What's new? What's cool?

Speaker 6 (23:56):
Well, I tell you sustainability is very popular, and not
just in proper materials but in design. Right, So when
we when we design for our families, we're thinking about
you know, ten years, fifteen years down the road, not
just today, and you know, having that proper design, you
know every day that that goes on. We get a

(24:17):
day older, right and well, and the goal is to
not have to remodel a perfectly good new custom home.
Yeah makes sense, right, So we want to think about,
you know, down the road, okay, maybe a little bit
wider hallways, maybe a little bit brighter light.

Speaker 3 (24:34):
I knew you were going to go. I knew it.
I knew it. You're looking at me. Not not that
old yet? That's okay, man, that's funny. Oh is Gray
still popular?

Speaker 2 (24:48):
Yep?

Speaker 6 (24:48):
Yep, Gray's right the colon right now. Now that you're
getting outside of my elements. I have a summerful design
team that helps us get into all these Southern living magazines.
But builder bag is beautiful for me.

Speaker 4 (25:04):
How much more technology is going into a home these
days than twenty thirty years ago?

Speaker 6 (25:11):
Oh goodness, it's quite a bit more. And there's a
lot of great plug and play applications, you know that.
Let's take the ring camera for instance, right, What a
wonderful technology that is. It's inexpensive, it works great, it
can be installed in a new home, it can be
installed in a used home. So that added I mean,
that's just one example of just a beautiful technology that

(25:34):
we're seeing in a lot of homes.

Speaker 3 (25:36):
Is there a lot of pre wiring done?

Speaker 4 (25:38):
Even if somebody's not putting something in now, they're just running.

Speaker 3 (25:40):
Wires all through the walls everywhere just in case.

Speaker 6 (25:43):
We do Yeah, we do have that. You know, obviously
everything is Wi Fi enabled. I mean, so that you
know you have to prepare for that.

Speaker 4 (25:53):
Security systems talk about what's kind of the latest technology
and making sure nobody's creeping around your house.

Speaker 6 (26:00):
Yeah. So there's a lot of technology systems that don't
need to be wired in, right, and so you can
have the glass break sensors, you can have those motion
cameras that are set up that don't need to be
wired into the home. Safety is a big concern depending
on where the home is. Yeah. Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (26:19):
What would you say is going to be the coolest
thing that's kind of right on the horizon in home
building but isn't quite established yet as something that's going
to stick for twenty thirty years.

Speaker 6 (26:33):
The coolest thing in home building? That's a great question.
I'm going to say that the building technology and energy
efficient designs and materials. I think you're going to continue
to be a high priority for all of our buyers. Right,
if you're an energy star builder. If you are thinking

(26:55):
about long term, you know, once you pay off the house, Doug,
you have the operation in costs. Yeah, well, don't you
want to choose a builder that that checks during the
process to ensure that you know, we're building it correctly.
It's it's very important, and I think that's that's what
you're going to see is focusing on energy efficiency even

(27:18):
more so.

Speaker 4 (27:18):
What percentage of buyers are putting in solar panels and
electric car charging systems in their homes and all of.

Speaker 6 (27:27):
That now, Oh quite a bit more than then five
years ago. For sure. Solar is popular. You know, the
ev EV chargers, you know, that's a very popular, popular deal.
We've even done some of the Tesla batteries in the garages,
very popular options.

Speaker 4 (27:45):
Oh but to dream, you know, as soon as I
win the lottery, Chris, like I've told you before, man, you're.

Speaker 3 (27:51):
Gonna hit Oh it's done. What's he want? He just
won a billion dollars or whatever that ticket was worth.
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (27:58):
I've known you a long time and I'm still fascinated
by what you do.

Speaker 3 (28:02):
I really am.

Speaker 6 (28:03):
Well, thank you very much, dog.

Speaker 3 (28:05):
Yes, sir, So how big is the team now?

Speaker 6 (28:08):
Oh great. We've got eighteen team members and you know,
designing and building throughout Texas. It's got a great, great company.
In fact, we have the company Christmas Party to night
if you're if you're free home, man.

Speaker 4 (28:20):
I greatly appreciate the invitation, but I'm not going to
do that to you.

Speaker 3 (28:25):
Does the design team ever come to you for any advice?

Speaker 6 (28:30):
Oh goodness.

Speaker 5 (28:31):
You know.

Speaker 6 (28:32):
I know my role and my laying and I keep
my mouth quiet, and that's why we've been featured in
so many magazines and winning awards. I let my team
control that a wonderful job.

Speaker 4 (28:46):
Especially if you and I sat down and tried to
design a house just the two of us, it would
look like one of two things, or maybe a combination
of the two, a hunting lodge or a fishing lodge.

Speaker 3 (28:55):
Right, yes, okay, we'll leave it at that.

Speaker 6 (28:59):
I was kind of thinking a really nice dear blind,
Doug kind of what I was thinking we could do that.

Speaker 4 (29:04):
Would be probably the best deer stand deer blind in
the state of Texas at least all right. Chris McGinley,
president and main guy at Kirk Coombs, has been forever
Kirk Combs.

Speaker 3 (29:15):
That's ky you are k because it Kirk Combs. It's
all about you, right, yes, sir, always a pleasure, my friend.
Thank you, thank you, Doug you bet audios. All right.

Speaker 4 (29:25):
Yeah, I've known that guy a very long time. He
and his sister Melanie. They do a great job running
that place. It's kind of funny. We're gonna get We're
gonna go eat some some food at a new place.
I've taken them to lunch quite a few times and
enjoyed every time. And we're gonna go try out a
new spot here pretty soon, Cedar Cove RV Resort. We're
not going there for lunch, but I can tell you

(29:47):
about what they have there, and that is just this
amazing view to start with.

Speaker 3 (29:53):
It's an absolutely amazing view all across the bay.

Speaker 4 (29:58):
Every one of their their spots, every one of their
pads over there, is on concrete.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
All the roads are concrete.

Speaker 4 (30:05):
And they have a bathhouse where you can go take
a shower if you want to. Maybe you've been fishing
in the afternoon, you kind of smell like dead shrimp.
That you can get that taken care of. They've got
free Wi Fi throughout the property. They got a little
convenience store, that's they've actually got some fish bait in there,
frozen stuff. But you can walk across Tri City Beach Road,
which is what it's on down there in Baytown, walk

(30:26):
right across the road to Thompson's Bake Camp and get
you some live shrimp if you really want to raise
the ante a little bit. If you don't have an RV,
but you're kind of thinking that lifestyle sounds attractive. Al Kibby,
the guy who owns a place, will rent you one
that sleeps four people very comfortably, and you can go
down there and spend a day and afternoon a weekend,
well not an afternoon, a couple of days, maybe a

(30:48):
full weekend, a long weekend during the holidays, and just
see what it's like to experience this lifestyle.

Speaker 3 (30:54):
It's a whole lot. You're gonna love it.

Speaker 4 (30:56):
You probably end up in January February buying yourself an RV.
Great fishing when the wind and tied or right, great
people hanging out there and enjoying that lifestyle just like
you will. Cedar Cove Rvresort dot com Cedarcovearvresort dot com.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
Old guys rule, and of course women never get old.
If you want to avoid sleeping on the couch.

Speaker 5 (31:21):
Hey, I think that sounds like a good plan.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
Fifty plus continues. Here's more with Doug.

Speaker 3 (31:40):
Hold On.

Speaker 4 (31:43):
Hi, welcome back forth, and final segment of the program
starts right now.

Speaker 3 (31:48):
Ah man oh.

Speaker 4 (31:49):
By the way, I was talking about Cedar Cove RV
resort and I mentioned to cow and how they have
that RV for rent that sleeps for comfortably. There's a
I think a like a queen size bed and it
may be, and then a sofa bed that can be converted.
And I let cal know that any sofa can be

(32:11):
easily converted to a sofa bed.

Speaker 3 (32:16):
You know how all you have to do is tell
your wife to calm down. It's all it takes. I'll
do it. That'll do it every time, every single time.

Speaker 4 (32:27):
I saw this story this morning and want to bring
it up because it's kind of a little PSA for
you and me and anybody else who is joining the throngs.

Speaker 3 (32:37):
Of people who are traveling more these days.

Speaker 4 (32:41):
This one was about the clever ways that thieves are
stealing your data when you're hanging out in the airport.
Delays almost always encourage people to get out their phones
and let folks know they're stuck, or maybe play games
or just recharge, check email, whatever, how are you going
to use it, all of which can leave your device
kind of vulnerab to somebody nearby who's just just waiting,

(33:03):
just wait for somebody to touch the wrong button or
plug into the wrong socket, something that's been allowed.

Speaker 3 (33:11):
Some of these these thieves is what they are.

Speaker 4 (33:15):
And that I've got another story about thieves I'll get
to in a second. But some of these thieves actually
manipulate the plugs in the charging stations and whatnot in airports,
and you put their own little device in there, that
then pretty much renders your phone wide open to somebody
who's sitting.

Speaker 3 (33:32):
Three or four rows over.

Speaker 4 (33:34):
You've got to be real careful that with all that stuff,
public Wi Fi is just data theft waiting to happen
to If you want a chance at all of staying secure,
first of all, don't do anything financial over public Wi
Fi anywhere. And the best thing you can do is
really turn off most of all of the apps that
open automatically on your phone. If you're going to be

(33:55):
in a place where you might trip over public Wi Fi,
stoption is going to be a VPN, a virtual private network,
which actually I'd looked, and it doesn't cost that much
when you compare it to the price of losing your identity,
of losing a boatload of money and letting somebody dig

(34:16):
into your stuff online. So pay heed, pay heed. This morning,
by the way, I checked in the market news. I
still can't believe how much gold is worth these days.
This morning it was up another sixty five bucks, four thousand,
three hundred and seventy eight dollars for one ounce of gold.

(34:37):
It's just it's mind boggling to me. An ounce of
gold isn't much. It doesn't take a whole lot of
gold to make an ounce, But if you got one
or two or ten laying around, it's worth a lot
of money if you could, if you could gather up,
let's say, a dozen a dozen ounces of gold somehow,
you go down to the local stream and and paying

(35:00):
for gold, and over a year you find a dozen
ounces of gold. You could buy a pretty decent car
with that. Just with this little handful of gold.

Speaker 3 (35:09):
It's crazy.

Speaker 4 (35:11):
Notably oil going the other way. Still, it was down
a little bit more this time, not much. It was
down less than a dollar, but notably below fifty dollars
fifty seven dollars.

Speaker 3 (35:22):
And fifty cents.

Speaker 4 (35:23):
Last I looked, I don't know what it's at now,
I know gas is down again and it's going to
go down more. In response to this, the last time
I looked out where I live, at a brand name station,
it was down to two dollars and thirteen cents a gallon.
What are you paying for gas out way out southwest?

Speaker 3 (35:42):
Goodness? Last type. I've always got rewards.

Speaker 4 (35:46):
Oh well, I don't have the only reward, I guess
being able to drive somewhere.

Speaker 3 (35:50):
Yeah, full take of gas, maybe that's Yeah.

Speaker 4 (35:53):
That's still so low though compared to a couple of
years ago. Oh my gosh, Oh guess where oh by it? Yeah,
I'll talk to you more about that in a minute.
Kiss up and out in California. You didn't hear it
because you weren't here earlier in the week when Will
was still here. But out in California it's still something
like three eighty nine or four to twenty whatever. That's
just the all tax money going into Gabin's pockets.

Speaker 3 (36:15):
Yeah, I don't have I don't want any part of that.

Speaker 4 (36:17):
In let's go back to the shoplifting news. One more
piece of it, a major ring of thieves okay, said
to be responsible for stealing a couple of million dollars
in items from home depots in multiple states. Well, they're
finally busted, and the authorities found just piles and piles

(36:39):
and piles of stuff they hadn't.

Speaker 3 (36:41):
Had a chance to sell off yet.

Speaker 4 (36:44):
And then in a very related case, there was one
woman who was determined to be behind a whole army
of other women who were going in and stealing cosmetics
stores blind. The worst part of this whole story really,
and we're talking about more millions.

Speaker 3 (37:02):
Of dollars worth of that.

Speaker 4 (37:05):
The worst part is that so many major retailers back
during the pandemic, mostly they all but abandoned loss prevention as.

Speaker 3 (37:13):
A priority in their stores all over the country.

Speaker 4 (37:16):
They just said, no, it's just really not worth it
because somebody's gonna holler that we're being we're picking on them,
or we're being mean to them. We don't understand that.
Whatever it is. They just didn't want the pr problem
that busting shoplifters was gonna pose, and so they just
let it happen.

Speaker 3 (37:36):
I've talked about this before on the show.

Speaker 4 (37:38):
I have witnessed one, two three times now, people with
armloads of product walking right out the store and nobody,
nobody even blinking, nobody even so much as saying, hey,
hold up just a second, will you.

Speaker 3 (37:56):
They just watch them walk out.

Speaker 4 (37:57):
The door, and then they turn to me and say,
you know what, You're gonna have to pay a little
bit extra here to offset what they just took.

Speaker 3 (38:05):
Like, no, I don't want that.

Speaker 4 (38:07):
There are so many things that we have to do
to really fix this country and really get it back
on track, and one is to reintroduce the notion of
integrity and honesty and if you need something, don't be
shy about asking for help, but don't just walk in
and steal something that.

Speaker 3 (38:24):
Bothers the heck out of me.

Speaker 4 (38:25):
We're talking about billions of dollars worth of stuff in
the last few years that have just been just walked
out the doors of these stores and they don't do
a thing about it. I do know that some stores
are changing that policy and just saying enough's enough, But
until they all do that, it's not going to really
work out. And something of a PSA specifically to grandparents

(38:48):
shopping online for their grandchildren, especially younger ones.

Speaker 3 (38:53):
This disturbed me greatly this morning.

Speaker 4 (38:56):
Maybe try to avoid some of the talking stuffed animals
unless you are actually able to hear what those animals.
These stuffed animals are gonna say. A lot of them
using Wi Fi now and sometimes subtly and sometimes not
so subtly, are encouraging children, even young children, to do

(39:16):
things that just aren't their best interest. Some of the
suggestions from these little toys talk about exploring ideas children
harming themselves or other people. A couple of them have
even brought up sex related topics in just tiny, little
innocent looking little toy little puppies and whatnot. That just

(39:38):
yip yip yip. Why don't you try this? Like, no,
that's not for kids. Okay, that's just not for kids.

Speaker 3 (39:45):
But it's out there, so be very very careful. Pete.

Speaker 4 (39:48):
Please, how much time do I have cal one minute? Okay,
I'm gonna finish it up with this one. Then remind
you about Saint Jude. Actually I'll remind you about Saint
Jude first in case I mess up. Be you can
become a partner in hope, just like so many people
have done for us in the last two days. Nineteen
bucks A month is going to help the kids at
Saint Jude who are facing cancer. This whole radio thumb,
by the way, brought to you by Gallery Furniture and

(40:10):
Ocarver's Financial Group.

Speaker 3 (40:11):
Both great supporters of what we're doing.

Speaker 4 (40:14):
If you send that nineteen dollars a month and commit
to that, you get the new music, give T shirt,
music gifts it should say T shirt, and you get
the Saint Jude hoodie all by just calling eight hundred
five eight eight fourteen thirty three. I told them that
my fifty plus audience would respond.

Speaker 3 (40:32):
I really hope you do for those kids, not for me.

Speaker 4 (40:35):
For the kids one eight hundred five eight eight fourteen
thirty three, just do what you can. Federal Immigration Law
Enforcement news from Arizona.

Speaker 3 (40:44):
Do. I don't have time for.

Speaker 5 (40:45):
That, do.

Speaker 4 (40:45):
I gotta go. Thank you all for listening. I'll be
back next week.

Speaker 3 (40:48):
Ideos