April 7, 2021 • 33 mins
I talk about the unexpected weight being lifted off my shoulders after getting my first Covid shot and exploring the media's obsession with bad news and doom and gloom and how that affected my mood and attitude. I share my story of the last year and my mental health and how the fog has been lifted at least for me
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Unknown (00:14):
It's hard to speak your mind these days. voicing your
opinion is tough and a climatewhere you're either seen as an
ultra conservative or a bleedingheart liberal. But what about
our perspective? What about theGen X perspective? Hi, I'm Tony
a latchkey kid from the 80s and90s. Now I'm in my 40s, wearing
cargo shorts, collecting StarWars figures and reminiscing
(00:35):
about the days before my firstcell phone. The jennex
perspective as for us caughtsomewhere in between boomers and
millennials, or we see things abit differently. I'm tired of
staying silent. It's time torant, discuss a load and debate
join Tony and his guests as theytackle the topics of Pop
Culture, Sports, religion, andyes, even politics. If life's a
(00:57):
Rubik's Cube, we've got theexperience to tackle it. Welcome
to the Gen X perspective withTony Randazzo.
(01:17):
Hey, how's everybody doing? Soit's been a few weeks since I've
done a done a recording. We'vebeen really busy in, in the Gen
X perspective world,traveling back from a vacation,
and then being super duperridiculously busy at work,
(01:41):
because it's now springtime,which means that we're pruning
grape lines and hiring seasonalstaff. And everything is
happening all at once gettingready for summertime, which
we're hoping and expecting to bereally exciting and really busy
(02:01):
this year. So I apologize. Andwe're working on some cool
stuff. So I'm hoping tobe a little more on the
regular circuit, meaninghopefully every week or every
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other week, getting a podcastdone, and we'll see kind of how
that goes. So with that beingsaid,
I wanted to kind of check inand, and share some observations
with my recent travels, and thevaccine, and the media, and all
(02:44):
this stuff that I feel tornabout even talking about because
it's just one of those thingsthat's every day kind of in our
minds. And I listened to a lotof podcasts, so that maybe I'm
not listening to this stuffevery day. But it's such a big
piece of our reality that I findit
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hard to not have it on your mindin the reason that I'm bringing
it up is the day that my wifeand I got home from traveling.
We had the opportunity to getour vaccines when we got home
and was like, oh, okay, rightaway. That's fine. We'll do
that.
(03:28):
And my wifeand I were both kind of torn for
different reasons about gettingit or not getting it. You know,
I mean, part of us were like,okay, yeah, but you know, I grew
up of the age of having abasically a vaccine card to get
into elementary school. And HighSchool, you didn't get to go to
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school unless you had all yourshots. So it's been a part of my
life growing up as somethingnormal.
And then as an adult, theimportance or, or maybe it's not
important of getting your flushot and jury is always kind of
been out on that one.
So I've been a little moreregular and getting that in my
(04:12):
later 40s will say, and so it'skinda I don't know, it didn't. I
didn't think about it a wholelot. It was like, wow, they're
really quick on it. They cameout with it really fast, but I
don't know. You know, it's itdoesn't seem like
too uncommon, at least for mygeneration to be getting a
(04:34):
vaccine for something. And thelittle bit of research that I
did personally, that theyalready kind of had the DNA
worked up on this virus, blah,blah, blah without getting too
technical, because I'll fuck itall up. As you know, it seemed
like they already had a headstart anyway, so I kind of felt
comfortable with it.
(04:56):
What I didn't like is New YorkState
is giving this kind of feelthat to be able to do anything
or participate, that you'regoing to need to have this
vaccine and proof of thevaccine. So we work in
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the public facing world, right,so the winery and vineyard
normal summers, we have staffthat travel to shows all over
the state, and they're in frontof other people. And it feels
like and seems like the state isleaning towards probably
requiring at like,these big events, everything
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from private food and wine showsto state run things like the New
York State Fair, that goes forlike, almost three weeks now, if
they do it this year,that they're going to require
either getting tested,often during that event and or
proving that you have yourvaccines. So for us, it was kind
(06:00):
of like, well, it's going toinvolve work, it's going to
affect the ease of what we'regoing to do. And again, these
are assumptions, but based onthe history and kind of how the
state has been posturing throughthis whole thing. It seems like
that's going to be what's goingto happen. So we got our first
shot. What I didn't expect, andI've heard this from a couple
(06:22):
other people, I've heard this ona couple podcasts as well
is I felt like I was a prettywell adjusted human when it came
to the the virus and how itaffects people differently.
How the lockdown,and how that affected people in
(06:43):
different ways. And and I kindof early on just like everybody
on the planet. We were allterrified, right? This kind of
lurking invisible thing wasgonna come get us when we least
expected it or. And if we gotit, God forbid we were going to
(07:03):
give it to somebody else. Soearly on, I think so many of us,
including myself, had this greatfear and anxiety about getting
this virus and dying.
Well, pretty quickly. on earlyon, I kind of got to the point
(07:24):
whereI was kind of seeing a different
perspective.
I understood that this was adangerous virus. I understood
that it was affecting a lot ofpeople I understood. Being in
New York State watching what washappening downstate in the city.
I understood that this thing wasserious and real.
(07:47):
Butwhere we are in the state where
we are in the country in a veryrural area kind of out of the
way. Our numbers stayed very,very low. I mean, I mean, in the
middle of summer, there werepoints where we didn't have
anybody hospitalized at all inour Tri County area up here. But
did change towards Christmas,but
(08:12):
it was just kind of like, Okay,well, it's here. We're being
safe. We're wearing masks, we'redoing what we're being told to
do. Andall right, whatever. You know, I
don't have any anxiety overthis. I mean, I get it. I'm in
mind you. I'm watching the news.
I'm watching Cuomo, ourGovernor's press conferences
(08:33):
every day, mostly because ofbusiness because things were
changing so much. But at thesame time, being immersed in
this negative The world isending news every single day.
You get kind ofI wouldn't say numb to it, but
you definitely get used to it.
It's still happening today. Ijust watched the nightly news
(08:54):
tonight. Not local news. Butnational. You'd figure the world
is ending. Butso I went in and I got the shot
in my arm, the first shotand another one to go here at
the end of April. And I got homein this really weird thing
happened like this weight waslifted off my shoulders. What I
(09:16):
realized was I was holding on tothis stress
and anxiety that was so kind ofnormalized. I didn't even know
it was there. So I it was kindof this weight lifted off my
shoulders. Like I could breatheagain almost. And it was just
(09:37):
this really on a personal level.
And I've heard this from otherpeople, not from everybody. You
know, I talked to my dad who gothis shot and it was kind of
like, whatever Yeah, okay, lifeis gonna continue on and
whatever. But it really hit methat I realized I had all this
(09:59):
under Stress,which was affecting me
personally, professionally, etc,you know, and then you start
kind of looking back at the lastyear and your behaviors. And it
really affected me a lot morethan I was willing to maybe
admit early on. And then it wasreally hard to.
I mean, to even notice that thiswas happening until I got that
(10:23):
first shot. And now I know thatYeah, okay, I can still get it.
Jury seems to still be out on ifyou become a carrier or not a
carrier, and the CDC is changingthe recommendations, and kind of
their data regularly. But youknow, they've been doing that
(10:44):
for a year as well. So thingsare changing. But this weight
was lifted off my shoulders thatI didn't realize that I had,
then I kind of started realizingother things like
the pandemic is,is like a drug for the media
companies, the big mediacompanies primarily, but media
(11:06):
companies like it's bad news,like, Oh, my God, the world is
ending. So when COVID in a lotof ways started getting under
control, or maybe wasn'tthe the, the biggest topic of
the day, now there, they get toreport on the new variant and
the new strain in the new thisin, it's still going to end the
(11:30):
world and they're going to lockdown things more in there's this
constant kind of doom and gloomand the world is ending from
these media outlets. I mean, I'mprimetime, I'm talking not i'm
not talking fox news or CNN or,you know, kind of the the
extreme right and left politicalpeople. I'm talking like, the
(11:52):
ABC, NBC Nightly News, you know,Laura O'Donnell, and what's the
other guy there that does thenews all the time on the other
channel there, Lester Holt,these guys, they are talking
about the world literallyimploding
every day. So you know, nowthere's a crisis on the border
(12:14):
that they're finally talkingabout.
And admitting so you know, earlyon in, in our president's
tenure, you know, he kind ofreversed back a lot of the Trump
era laws about the border. Andthey kept saying, Oh, it's not a
crisis, you know, there's not aproblem, there's not a problem.
And now they all they can talkabout, I mean, again, bad news,
(12:37):
porn, so to speak, they get totalk about the crisis at the
border. And that's all they canharp on. So now we have new
variants of the virus in thiscrazy fucking news about, you
know, 20,000 a day, whatever thedamn number is, migrants and
children coming across theborder. And folks, that's a big
(13:00):
damn problem. It's not like,back in the 80s. From my
perspective, as a kid, a lot ofit was primarily Mexicans would
cross the border, and it wasprimarily men, not all but
primarily, they would come overduring harvest season, they
would come work on the farms,they would collect their money.
And then they would go back homefor half the year. So half the
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year, they were in the USworking, the other half of the
year, they would take all thatmoney they saved, and they would
go back to Mexico.
Not all Mexicans. But primarilythat was my experience in what
California saw. And they wouldgo back and forth and back and
forth, well, then it startedgetting harder to go back and
forth. So they would staylonger. So that they were
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traveling less so it wasn't, youknow, a semi annual thing turned
into an annual thing turnedinto, Well, I better just bring
my family here and stay here.
Which, again, growing up inSouthern California, that was a
norm it wasn'tit was just the way it was in
Southern California. And it wasthat was okay. I mean, it
didn't. I mean, maybe there wereadults and people running around
(14:09):
that were all pissed off aboutabout it, but it was really
generally accepted. They weredoing these jobs that
middle class SouthernCalifornia, folk didn't want to
do anyway, and they were happyto do it. They got paid to do
it.
(14:31):
And, and then the laws startedchanging and it started getting
more dangerous started gettingharder to cross the border. So
they stayed, we kind of createdthat problem, really, if they
want to look back, at least inCalifornia, at least in what my
understanding of it was at thetime. So
the self created Nightmare onthe border is happening for many
(14:56):
different reasons. I you know,tonight again,
On the news, you know thatthey're, they're coming from
these third world countriesfurther down in South America,
it has a lot to do with, youknow, back to back hurricanes
and these small farmingcommunities being decimated, and
war and crime and holy crap, andthey're just trying to get
(15:20):
somewhere they can raise theirfamily or their kids and maybe
have a shot at it. And, youknow, and then we have this
crazy situation going on at thesouthern border. Now, I'm from a
family of immigrants, just likemost people in the US.
I've only been here or ourfamily has been here now. I
(15:40):
would be thefourth, the third generation
born in the US. So my greatgrandparents were born in Italy.
And they came over asimmigrants.
They came over through EllisIsland.
And I know times are different,and it's fairly unpopular to
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have this belief. But, you know,if people want to come that bad,
why don't you create a way forthem to come into the damn
country and be able to live andwork and not fear getting kicked
back out of the country so thatmaybe they work through the rest
of their immigration process andbecome US citizens, if that's
(16:24):
what they want to do, or if theywant to work visa. So they think
going back and forth, let themdo that too. Or in addition to
or instead of whatever, insteadof this kind of polarized
nightmare, where you haveextreme right and extreme left
arguing about it, nobody'sgetting anything done. Because
(16:45):
right now, it's the democrats inpower in an office and they're
making all their rules, byexecutive order. So the next
time a republican gets into theoffice, he can just reverse all
that stuff, just likeBiden did to Trump. So Trump got
into office, wrote a bunch ofexecutive orders, pushed a bunch
of crap through, not pushed itthrough, signed it through.
(17:09):
And thenPresident Biden was able to go
in and undo it.
So you kind of have to involve,you know, the legislative bodies
and get both sides together. Sothey can create laws and things
that will stay on the books andnot be just reversed by the
swipe of a pen. I don't know,just my opinion.
(17:34):
Just my perspective, I don'tknow just seems like common
sense. But we're not talkingabout common sense right now.
We're talking about fear andbeing scared. And that is what
the news has been totallyharping on. You know, now, since
this whole pandemic really hashappened. So the news has to
(17:55):
keep up with this crazy newsaddiction that
that we have, or the sphereaddiction. So now it's
these variants. And now New YorkState, along with a couple other
states has got the largestpopulation of people getting
infected with this new variantnow that's more susceptible to
(18:17):
younger kids, andthey tell you that you need to
go get vaccinated, but at thesame time, that's really the
last thing that these mediaoutlets
want to talk about is because ifthere is herd immunity,
and everybody gets vaccinated,then they gotta go find new
news. And you got to realizethat with Donald Trump out of
(18:40):
office, all these news outletskind of had to shift their
profile to find otherother stuff to talk about,
because we all know,you know, agreeing with the last
administration or totally notagreeing with them, they
definitely gave us something totalk about literally every day.
(19:04):
Because, you know, agree withTrump or not agree with Trump or
like him or hate him. He surelygave us all something to talk
about good lord every day.
If that was a supporter ortotally opposed to, he
definitely gave us good. Goodnews, for sure. Good lord. So as
(19:30):
he gets out of office, Bidengets into office, this new cycle
is in this kind of horribledeath spiral of doom and gloom.
We're stuck in the middle of it.
And then all of a sudden, TonyRandazzo gets his first shot of
Madonna, I think is what it was.
And this kind of weight waslifted off my shoulders. So all
(19:51):
of a sudden now I'm looking atmy job a little bit differently.
The family businessstarting to feel a little bit
differently was like, wow, Ikind of feel like I'm coming out
of this fog or this weight orthis oppression, or suppression
almost. And I'm starting to feelbetter. And I'm starting to feel
(20:13):
more motivated. And what can Igo get done, which is timing
wise is great for our businessbecause it's a very busy season,
getting the vineyard kind ofopened up, there's a lot going
onfixing tractors and you name it,
you know, you're plantingflowers, hiring people,
(20:34):
winemaking is probably theslowest thing right now. But
even then I'll start gettingbusy again. But you know, the
winemaker is doing hismaintenance and cleaning the
winery and doing this andeverybody's doing their projects
and getting things done. Becausesoon enough, there's going to be
a ton of people here. And we'regoing to be really busy. And,
(20:54):
and then it'll be winter again.
But I won't talk about that toomuch. That's a little too much
doom and gloom coming from me.
So I'm going to stay in themoment, the moment is,
you got to look in on yourself alittle bit, I think, and realize
how this whole thing isaffecting you.
(21:18):
On a real personal level, and Iknow a lot of people that have
done you know, they domeditation, and they they're
doing yoga, or they're doingwhatever it takes to kind of get
groundedwith themselves and kind of get
control back of your life. Andsome people are still I've
talked to that,you know, they haven't left
(21:38):
their house in a year. Becausethat is what they were told to
do.
And, and that's okay. Everybodyhas their own take on that. And
everybody I think did it fromthe extreme, never leaving their
house tothe other end of that spectrum
where you know, we had to leavethe house every day, our
(22:00):
business stayed open. Being afarm, we were working, our staff
was reduced, but we workedthroughout. So if those were the
two extremes, staying at homeand never leaving the house for
a year, and orgetting out there and having to
work in the public eye.
(22:23):
And during the pandemic anddoing what they're asking you to
do to be safe.
If those were the two kind ofextremes, and I could go with
the extreme of not wearing amask and doing whatever, but
that didn't that happen in suchan isolated way. And really only
happened early on in thepandemic, for the most part that
it's not even worthy of reallykind of talking about, we all
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have our horror stories forwhatever reason. But seriously.
So it I found thatthe people that kind of got the
mental help that they needed,and tended to stay healthier and
more grounded. I really found itinteresting, as well, that the
media, were so concerned withtelling you what to do and what
(23:11):
not to do. So wear masks stayhome, you know, don't go to big
gatherings don't go anywhere forChristmas, don't do don't go to
spring break, blah, blah, blah.
But they never really talkedabout what would you could
control and do to controlyourself and your own health.
(23:32):
And anybody that knows me knowsthat I've been on a roller
coaster of weight gain andweight loss my whole life on
extremes, you know, hisheaviest, 350 pounds,
as late as 167 pounds ineverywhere in between, which is
where I am now I'm creeping upon the high end of that. And
(23:57):
really, in my own research, andI talked to my general doctor
about this.
You know, there was really not alot of talk about vitamin D and
the importance of that inregards to COVID and some of the
stuff that was coming out insome of the research etc.
And they never talked aboutgetting people outside and
(24:19):
exercising. During COVID in inhealthy lifestyle stuff that
never really came up. It wastalked about kind of in the
fringes. And in some cases whensomebody brought it up if they
weren't really careful about howthey talked about it. They were
banned or kicked off Facebook ortheir content was taken down
because it was kind ofinadvertently contrary to what
was being said in the mainstreammedia or by the CDC right or
(24:43):
wrong. I'm not quite sure butthey didn't talk about kind of
self health and how to take careof yourself during this whole
thing either. They You know,there's been more stories about
you know, the COVID 20 or theCOVID 40
I've heard both about that. Andthat being how much weight you
gained during it, but theydidn't talk about was the people
(25:06):
that got healthy and lost weightand got their kind of their,
their levels, their their bodychemistry up to where it was
supposed to be, so that theycould be the healthiest they
could be, which meant that thelikelihood of them getting
severely ill or dying fromCOVID, or anything else for that
matter, could have been greatlydiminished and bring any of that
(25:29):
up. I'm pretty comfortabletalking about it, because I'm a
classic example of a stresseater, and somebody that's
overweight and doesn't take careof him damn self. And I didn't,
and I let it affect me in thatstress of everything going on,
it directly impacted that. And Ican't tell you if it would have
(25:52):
worked or made a difference. Itmakes a difference now where I
hear about it. Andintellectually, it makes sense,
when I hear people talk aboutgetting healthy and having
appropriate chemists bodychemistry, will greatly diminish
the effects of COVID or anyother illness on the body won't
we all know that if you'rehealthy,
(26:16):
the likelihood of you gettingseverely ill or dying from
something like COVID, or the fluis greatly greatly reduced. Not
always, I know it would takethree seconds on Google to type
in healthy fit athlete dies fromCOVID sure, or from the flu, or
(26:36):
from tripping on the sidewalk,anybody could essentially die
from anything. Yes, it doesn'ttake a long time to you know, if
you want to argue the point withme, but at the same time.
Globally, healthy people.
Well, chemistry balanced people,um, you know, vitamins,
(26:58):
minerals, healthy diet, healthybody. And I'm not talking
skinny, I'm talking healthy,different subject.
Being healthy, taking care ofyourself, it's going to help
your brain in your mentalstability, but it's also going
to help you physically. Andthere has been a lot of research
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that is now starting to comeout. Although
the news isn't, of course,picked up on it or talking about
it. I don't know why. Butthey're not that there's a lot
of benefits to being healthy andtaking care of yourself. And
we're not focusing on that we'refocusing on being scared and
being controlled and being kindof locked down still, mentally
(27:45):
and physically. And it's worthlooking at. During COVID, I
starteddoing some meditation, but
primarily doing yoga, three daysa week, and
it's made a huge difference inmy kind of mental stability, my
(28:07):
health as well has gotten a lotbetter as well. That is a bonus
for sure. And that was part ofthe reason I was doing it. But I
just had to go do something. Andin the middle of winter, in the
part of the world that I live,you know, it's a little harder
just to go out for a walk at,you know,
(28:27):
10 below with the wind blowingon the river, it was a little
easier to go seek out yogaclasses and I was taking private
classeskind of one on one stuff because
I wanted to learn and get backinto understanding yoga and
getting active in it again. AndI liked the idea of going to and
just being one on one withsomebody. And I wasn't
(28:51):
comfortable when they allstarted allowing classes wasn't
kind of comfortable wanting tobe around other people. Again,
I worked in the public eye butspending an hour in a room even
with only the yoga studio that'sclose by was they were told that
(29:12):
when they were allowed to openwere 10 people, Max, or it was
eight people or 10 people maxin normally the same room would
hold I think 30 I think was thenumber it might be 20 but
20 or 30 a lot of peoplecompared to very few people but
(29:33):
I was even still like You knowwhat, I don't know if I want to
be around people for that longin a room that I don't know.
Which is really funny since Iworked all summer around all
sorts of people I didn't knowbut I you know, I don't know, I
guess different mindset.
So started doing yoga. Startingto get my body chemistry kind of
(29:57):
straightened out. Realizing thatI
I was putting things in my mouththat I shouldn't be eating that
was making me gain weight. Andnow I'm starting to struggle
through another cycle of gettinghealthy.
And we'll see how that goes,we'll probably talk about that
in the future. I'm not gonnaharp on that one too much right
(30:18):
now. But you know, hey, it iswhat it is. That's what I got
going on. Soto kind of wrap it up.
And I talked about a bunch ofdifferent things, but really,
the bullet points being to kindof round round this thing out or
be aware of the input that'scoming in, and how negative it
(30:39):
is all the time. And be awarethat, that there, there's
probably a huge underlyingstress that you don't even
realize is affecting you.
That you may not even realizeuntil you either get COVID and
get past COVID and or getvaccinated. And then the people
(31:02):
that are out there that aren'tgoing to get the vaccine, I have
people in my family, they're notgoing to get it and they have no
desire, and they're not going todo it. I haven't had people in
my family thathave health issues, legit health
issues, that if they get COVID,it could really be bad,
potentially, and they're notgoing to get
(31:26):
the shot. So it's not foreverybody, you know, and God
Bless America, right, we allkind of,
we get to choose and control ourown bodies and minds. And that's
one of the kind of principles ofour country, if
you know, at least I believe itis still. So keep that all in
(31:49):
mind. And really look in onyourself and, and give yourself
a gut check and see what's goingon. Make sure you're being
healthy and covering all thebases so to speak. And
I'd love to hear from you guys,check out the new website just
kind of made some changes tothat. And it's got kind of a new
look and feel and if you feellike you'd like to reach out to
(32:12):
me go for that and, andhave a wonderful week. I look
forward to talking to you guysvery soon. And
been sharing some new stuffthat's getting ready to happen,
at least in the podcast world.
So y'all Take care of yourselfand we will
(32:34):
we will chat soon. Peace.
Thanks for listening to the GenX perspective. Bye Tony
Randazzo, where we see things abit differently. Let's get
social. Find us on Facebook bysearching Gen X perspective,
Twitter, at Gen X underscorepodcast and on Instagram at Gen
(32:55):
X perspective. You can also findus online at Gen X perspective
calm and reach out to Tonydirectly at Tony at Gen X
perspective.com. to maybe youcan talk strategy on how to beat
Super Mario Brothers three.
Don't forget to subscribe to theGen X perspective wherever you
get your podcast. Thanks forlistening
It's hard to speak your mind these days. voicing your
opinion is tough and a climatewhere you're either seen as an
ultra conservative or a bleedingheart liberal. But what about
our perspective? What about theGen X perspective? Hi, I'm Tony
a latchkey kid from the 80s and90s. Now I'm in my 40s, wearing
cargo shorts, collecting StarWars figures and reminiscing
(00:35):
about the days before my firstcell phone. The jennex
perspective as for us caughtsomewhere in between boomers and
millennials, or we see things abit differently. I'm tired of
staying silent. It's time torant, discuss a load and debate
join Tony and his guests as theytackle the topics of Pop
Culture, Sports, religion, andyes, even politics. If life's a
(00:57):
Rubik's Cube, we've got theexperience to tackle it. Welcome
to the Gen X perspective withTony Randazzo.
(01:17):
Hey, how's everybody doing? Soit's been a few weeks since I've
done a done a recording. We'vebeen really busy in, in the Gen
X perspective world,traveling back from a vacation,
and then being super duperridiculously busy at work,
(01:41):
because it's now springtime,which means that we're pruning
grape lines and hiring seasonalstaff. And everything is
happening all at once gettingready for summertime, which
we're hoping and expecting to bereally exciting and really busy
(02:01):
this year. So I apologize. Andwe're working on some cool
stuff. So I'm hoping tobe a little more on the
regular circuit, meaninghopefully every week or every
(02:22):
other week, getting a podcastdone, and we'll see kind of how
that goes. So with that beingsaid,
I wanted to kind of check inand, and share some observations
with my recent travels, and thevaccine, and the media, and all
(02:44):
this stuff that I feel tornabout even talking about because
it's just one of those thingsthat's every day kind of in our
minds. And I listened to a lotof podcasts, so that maybe I'm
not listening to this stuffevery day. But it's such a big
piece of our reality that I findit
(03:07):
hard to not have it on your mindin the reason that I'm bringing
it up is the day that my wifeand I got home from traveling.
We had the opportunity to getour vaccines when we got home
and was like, oh, okay, rightaway. That's fine. We'll do
that.
(03:28):
And my wifeand I were both kind of torn for
different reasons about gettingit or not getting it. You know,
I mean, part of us were like,okay, yeah, but you know, I grew
up of the age of having abasically a vaccine card to get
into elementary school. And HighSchool, you didn't get to go to
(03:49):
school unless you had all yourshots. So it's been a part of my
life growing up as somethingnormal.
And then as an adult, theimportance or, or maybe it's not
important of getting your flushot and jury is always kind of
been out on that one.
So I've been a little moreregular and getting that in my
(04:12):
later 40s will say, and so it'skinda I don't know, it didn't. I
didn't think about it a wholelot. It was like, wow, they're
really quick on it. They cameout with it really fast, but I
don't know. You know, it's itdoesn't seem like
too uncommon, at least for mygeneration to be getting a
(04:34):
vaccine for something. And thelittle bit of research that I
did personally, that theyalready kind of had the DNA
worked up on this virus, blah,blah, blah without getting too
technical, because I'll fuck itall up. As you know, it seemed
like they already had a headstart anyway, so I kind of felt
comfortable with it.
(04:56):
What I didn't like is New YorkState
is giving this kind of feelthat to be able to do anything
or participate, that you'regoing to need to have this
vaccine and proof of thevaccine. So we work in
(05:17):
the public facing world, right,so the winery and vineyard
normal summers, we have staffthat travel to shows all over
the state, and they're in frontof other people. And it feels
like and seems like the state isleaning towards probably
requiring at like,these big events, everything
(05:38):
from private food and wine showsto state run things like the New
York State Fair, that goes forlike, almost three weeks now, if
they do it this year,that they're going to require
either getting tested,often during that event and or
proving that you have yourvaccines. So for us, it was kind
(06:00):
of like, well, it's going toinvolve work, it's going to
affect the ease of what we'regoing to do. And again, these
are assumptions, but based onthe history and kind of how the
state has been posturing throughthis whole thing. It seems like
that's going to be what's goingto happen. So we got our first
shot. What I didn't expect, andI've heard this from a couple
(06:22):
other people, I've heard this ona couple podcasts as well
is I felt like I was a prettywell adjusted human when it came
to the the virus and how itaffects people differently.
How the lockdown,and how that affected people in
(06:43):
different ways. And and I kindof early on just like everybody
on the planet. We were allterrified, right? This kind of
lurking invisible thing wasgonna come get us when we least
expected it or. And if we gotit, God forbid we were going to
(07:03):
give it to somebody else. Soearly on, I think so many of us,
including myself, had this greatfear and anxiety about getting
this virus and dying.
Well, pretty quickly. on earlyon, I kind of got to the point
(07:24):
whereI was kind of seeing a different
perspective.
I understood that this was adangerous virus. I understood
that it was affecting a lot ofpeople I understood. Being in
New York State watching what washappening downstate in the city.
I understood that this thing wasserious and real.
(07:47):
Butwhere we are in the state where
we are in the country in a veryrural area kind of out of the
way. Our numbers stayed very,very low. I mean, I mean, in the
middle of summer, there werepoints where we didn't have
anybody hospitalized at all inour Tri County area up here. But
did change towards Christmas,but
(08:12):
it was just kind of like, Okay,well, it's here. We're being
safe. We're wearing masks, we'redoing what we're being told to
do. Andall right, whatever. You know, I
don't have any anxiety overthis. I mean, I get it. I'm in
mind you. I'm watching the news.
I'm watching Cuomo, ourGovernor's press conferences
(08:33):
every day, mostly because ofbusiness because things were
changing so much. But at thesame time, being immersed in
this negative The world isending news every single day.
You get kind ofI wouldn't say numb to it, but
you definitely get used to it.
It's still happening today. Ijust watched the nightly news
(08:54):
tonight. Not local news. Butnational. You'd figure the world
is ending. Butso I went in and I got the shot
in my arm, the first shotand another one to go here at
the end of April. And I got homein this really weird thing
happened like this weight waslifted off my shoulders. What I
(09:16):
realized was I was holding on tothis stress
and anxiety that was so kind ofnormalized. I didn't even know
it was there. So I it was kindof this weight lifted off my
shoulders. Like I could breatheagain almost. And it was just
(09:37):
this really on a personal level.
And I've heard this from otherpeople, not from everybody. You
know, I talked to my dad who gothis shot and it was kind of
like, whatever Yeah, okay, lifeis gonna continue on and
whatever. But it really hit methat I realized I had all this
(09:59):
under Stress,which was affecting me
personally, professionally, etc,you know, and then you start
kind of looking back at the lastyear and your behaviors. And it
really affected me a lot morethan I was willing to maybe
admit early on. And then it wasreally hard to.
I mean, to even notice that thiswas happening until I got that
(10:23):
first shot. And now I know thatYeah, okay, I can still get it.
Jury seems to still be out on ifyou become a carrier or not a
carrier, and the CDC is changingthe recommendations, and kind of
their data regularly. But youknow, they've been doing that
(10:44):
for a year as well. So thingsare changing. But this weight
was lifted off my shoulders thatI didn't realize that I had,
then I kind of started realizingother things like
the pandemic is,is like a drug for the media
companies, the big mediacompanies primarily, but media
(11:06):
companies like it's bad news,like, Oh, my God, the world is
ending. So when COVID in a lotof ways started getting under
control, or maybe wasn'tthe the, the biggest topic of
the day, now there, they get toreport on the new variant and
the new strain in the new thisin, it's still going to end the
(11:30):
world and they're going to lockdown things more in there's this
constant kind of doom and gloomand the world is ending from
these media outlets. I mean, I'mprimetime, I'm talking not i'm
not talking fox news or CNN or,you know, kind of the the
extreme right and left politicalpeople. I'm talking like, the
(11:52):
ABC, NBC Nightly News, you know,Laura O'Donnell, and what's the
other guy there that does thenews all the time on the other
channel there, Lester Holt,these guys, they are talking
about the world literallyimploding
every day. So you know, nowthere's a crisis on the border
(12:14):
that they're finally talkingabout.
And admitting so you know, earlyon in, in our president's
tenure, you know, he kind ofreversed back a lot of the Trump
era laws about the border. Andthey kept saying, Oh, it's not a
crisis, you know, there's not aproblem, there's not a problem.
And now they all they can talkabout, I mean, again, bad news,
(12:37):
porn, so to speak, they get totalk about the crisis at the
border. And that's all they canharp on. So now we have new
variants of the virus in thiscrazy fucking news about, you
know, 20,000 a day, whatever thedamn number is, migrants and
children coming across theborder. And folks, that's a big
(13:00):
damn problem. It's not like,back in the 80s. From my
perspective, as a kid, a lot ofit was primarily Mexicans would
cross the border, and it wasprimarily men, not all but
primarily, they would come overduring harvest season, they
would come work on the farms,they would collect their money.
And then they would go back homefor half the year. So half the
(13:24):
year, they were in the USworking, the other half of the
year, they would take all thatmoney they saved, and they would
go back to Mexico.
Not all Mexicans. But primarilythat was my experience in what
California saw. And they wouldgo back and forth and back and
forth, well, then it startedgetting harder to go back and
forth. So they would staylonger. So that they were
(13:48):
traveling less so it wasn't, youknow, a semi annual thing turned
into an annual thing turnedinto, Well, I better just bring
my family here and stay here.
Which, again, growing up inSouthern California, that was a
norm it wasn'tit was just the way it was in
Southern California. And it wasthat was okay. I mean, it
didn't. I mean, maybe there wereadults and people running around
(14:09):
that were all pissed off aboutabout it, but it was really
generally accepted. They weredoing these jobs that
middle class SouthernCalifornia, folk didn't want to
do anyway, and they were happyto do it. They got paid to do
it.
(14:31):
And, and then the laws startedchanging and it started getting
more dangerous started gettingharder to cross the border. So
they stayed, we kind of createdthat problem, really, if they
want to look back, at least inCalifornia, at least in what my
understanding of it was at thetime. So
the self created Nightmare onthe border is happening for many
(14:56):
different reasons. I you know,tonight again,
On the news, you know thatthey're, they're coming from
these third world countriesfurther down in South America,
it has a lot to do with, youknow, back to back hurricanes
and these small farmingcommunities being decimated, and
war and crime and holy crap, andthey're just trying to get
(15:20):
somewhere they can raise theirfamily or their kids and maybe
have a shot at it. And, youknow, and then we have this
crazy situation going on at thesouthern border. Now, I'm from a
family of immigrants, just likemost people in the US.
I've only been here or ourfamily has been here now. I
(15:40):
would be thefourth, the third generation
born in the US. So my greatgrandparents were born in Italy.
And they came over asimmigrants.
They came over through EllisIsland.
And I know times are different,and it's fairly unpopular to
(16:01):
have this belief. But, you know,if people want to come that bad,
why don't you create a way forthem to come into the damn
country and be able to live andwork and not fear getting kicked
back out of the country so thatmaybe they work through the rest
of their immigration process andbecome US citizens, if that's
(16:24):
what they want to do, or if theywant to work visa. So they think
going back and forth, let themdo that too. Or in addition to
or instead of whatever, insteadof this kind of polarized
nightmare, where you haveextreme right and extreme left
arguing about it, nobody'sgetting anything done. Because
(16:45):
right now, it's the democrats inpower in an office and they're
making all their rules, byexecutive order. So the next
time a republican gets into theoffice, he can just reverse all
that stuff, just likeBiden did to Trump. So Trump got
into office, wrote a bunch ofexecutive orders, pushed a bunch
of crap through, not pushed itthrough, signed it through.
(17:09):
And thenPresident Biden was able to go
in and undo it.
So you kind of have to involve,you know, the legislative bodies
and get both sides together. Sothey can create laws and things
that will stay on the books andnot be just reversed by the
swipe of a pen. I don't know,just my opinion.
(17:34):
Just my perspective, I don'tknow just seems like common
sense. But we're not talkingabout common sense right now.
We're talking about fear andbeing scared. And that is what
the news has been totallyharping on. You know, now, since
this whole pandemic really hashappened. So the news has to
(17:55):
keep up with this crazy newsaddiction that
that we have, or the sphereaddiction. So now it's
these variants. And now New YorkState, along with a couple other
states has got the largestpopulation of people getting
infected with this new variantnow that's more susceptible to
(18:17):
younger kids, andthey tell you that you need to
go get vaccinated, but at thesame time, that's really the
last thing that these mediaoutlets
want to talk about is because ifthere is herd immunity,
and everybody gets vaccinated,then they gotta go find new
news. And you got to realizethat with Donald Trump out of
(18:40):
office, all these news outletskind of had to shift their
profile to find otherother stuff to talk about,
because we all know,you know, agreeing with the last
administration or totally notagreeing with them, they
definitely gave us something totalk about literally every day.
(19:04):
Because, you know, agree withTrump or not agree with Trump or
like him or hate him. He surelygave us all something to talk
about good lord every day.
If that was a supporter ortotally opposed to, he
definitely gave us good. Goodnews, for sure. Good lord. So as
(19:30):
he gets out of office, Bidengets into office, this new cycle
is in this kind of horribledeath spiral of doom and gloom.
We're stuck in the middle of it.
And then all of a sudden, TonyRandazzo gets his first shot of
Madonna, I think is what it was.
And this kind of weight waslifted off my shoulders. So all
(19:51):
of a sudden now I'm looking atmy job a little bit differently.
The family businessstarting to feel a little bit
differently was like, wow, Ikind of feel like I'm coming out
of this fog or this weight orthis oppression, or suppression
almost. And I'm starting to feelbetter. And I'm starting to feel
(20:13):
more motivated. And what can Igo get done, which is timing
wise is great for our businessbecause it's a very busy season,
getting the vineyard kind ofopened up, there's a lot going
onfixing tractors and you name it,
you know, you're plantingflowers, hiring people,
(20:34):
winemaking is probably theslowest thing right now. But
even then I'll start gettingbusy again. But you know, the
winemaker is doing hismaintenance and cleaning the
winery and doing this andeverybody's doing their projects
and getting things done. Becausesoon enough, there's going to be
a ton of people here. And we'regoing to be really busy. And,
(20:54):
and then it'll be winter again.
But I won't talk about that toomuch. That's a little too much
doom and gloom coming from me.
So I'm going to stay in themoment, the moment is,
you got to look in on yourself alittle bit, I think, and realize
how this whole thing isaffecting you.
(21:18):
On a real personal level, and Iknow a lot of people that have
done you know, they domeditation, and they they're
doing yoga, or they're doingwhatever it takes to kind of get
groundedwith themselves and kind of get
control back of your life. Andsome people are still I've
talked to that,you know, they haven't left
(21:38):
their house in a year. Becausethat is what they were told to
do.
And, and that's okay. Everybodyhas their own take on that. And
everybody I think did it fromthe extreme, never leaving their
house tothe other end of that spectrum
where you know, we had to leavethe house every day, our
(22:00):
business stayed open. Being afarm, we were working, our staff
was reduced, but we workedthroughout. So if those were the
two extremes, staying at homeand never leaving the house for
a year, and orgetting out there and having to
work in the public eye.
(22:23):
And during the pandemic anddoing what they're asking you to
do to be safe.
If those were the two kind ofextremes, and I could go with
the extreme of not wearing amask and doing whatever, but
that didn't that happen in suchan isolated way. And really only
happened early on in thepandemic, for the most part that
it's not even worthy of reallykind of talking about, we all
(22:45):
have our horror stories forwhatever reason. But seriously.
So it I found thatthe people that kind of got the
mental help that they needed,and tended to stay healthier and
more grounded. I really found itinteresting, as well, that the
media, were so concerned withtelling you what to do and what
(23:11):
not to do. So wear masks stayhome, you know, don't go to big
gatherings don't go anywhere forChristmas, don't do don't go to
spring break, blah, blah, blah.
But they never really talkedabout what would you could
control and do to controlyourself and your own health.
(23:32):
And anybody that knows me knowsthat I've been on a roller
coaster of weight gain andweight loss my whole life on
extremes, you know, hisheaviest, 350 pounds,
as late as 167 pounds ineverywhere in between, which is
where I am now I'm creeping upon the high end of that. And
(23:57):
really, in my own research, andI talked to my general doctor
about this.
You know, there was really not alot of talk about vitamin D and
the importance of that inregards to COVID and some of the
stuff that was coming out insome of the research etc.
And they never talked aboutgetting people outside and
(24:19):
exercising. During COVID in inhealthy lifestyle stuff that
never really came up. It wastalked about kind of in the
fringes. And in some cases whensomebody brought it up if they
weren't really careful about howthey talked about it. They were
banned or kicked off Facebook ortheir content was taken down
because it was kind ofinadvertently contrary to what
was being said in the mainstreammedia or by the CDC right or
(24:43):
wrong. I'm not quite sure butthey didn't talk about kind of
self health and how to take careof yourself during this whole
thing either. They You know,there's been more stories about
you know, the COVID 20 or theCOVID 40
I've heard both about that. Andthat being how much weight you
gained during it, but theydidn't talk about was the people
(25:06):
that got healthy and lost weightand got their kind of their,
their levels, their their bodychemistry up to where it was
supposed to be, so that theycould be the healthiest they
could be, which meant that thelikelihood of them getting
severely ill or dying fromCOVID, or anything else for that
matter, could have been greatlydiminished and bring any of that
(25:29):
up. I'm pretty comfortabletalking about it, because I'm a
classic example of a stresseater, and somebody that's
overweight and doesn't take careof him damn self. And I didn't,
and I let it affect me in thatstress of everything going on,
it directly impacted that. And Ican't tell you if it would have
(25:52):
worked or made a difference. Itmakes a difference now where I
hear about it. Andintellectually, it makes sense,
when I hear people talk aboutgetting healthy and having
appropriate chemists bodychemistry, will greatly diminish
the effects of COVID or anyother illness on the body won't
we all know that if you'rehealthy,
(26:16):
the likelihood of you gettingseverely ill or dying from
something like COVID, or the fluis greatly greatly reduced. Not
always, I know it would takethree seconds on Google to type
in healthy fit athlete dies fromCOVID sure, or from the flu, or
(26:36):
from tripping on the sidewalk,anybody could essentially die
from anything. Yes, it doesn'ttake a long time to you know, if
you want to argue the point withme, but at the same time.
Globally, healthy people.
Well, chemistry balanced people,um, you know, vitamins,
(26:58):
minerals, healthy diet, healthybody. And I'm not talking
skinny, I'm talking healthy,different subject.
Being healthy, taking care ofyourself, it's going to help
your brain in your mentalstability, but it's also going
to help you physically. Andthere has been a lot of research
(27:21):
that is now starting to comeout. Although
the news isn't, of course,picked up on it or talking about
it. I don't know why. Butthey're not that there's a lot
of benefits to being healthy andtaking care of yourself. And
we're not focusing on that we'refocusing on being scared and
being controlled and being kindof locked down still, mentally
(27:45):
and physically. And it's worthlooking at. During COVID, I
starteddoing some meditation, but
primarily doing yoga, three daysa week, and
it's made a huge difference inmy kind of mental stability, my
(28:07):
health as well has gotten a lotbetter as well. That is a bonus
for sure. And that was part ofthe reason I was doing it. But I
just had to go do something. Andin the middle of winter, in the
part of the world that I live,you know, it's a little harder
just to go out for a walk at,you know,
(28:27):
10 below with the wind blowingon the river, it was a little
easier to go seek out yogaclasses and I was taking private
classeskind of one on one stuff because
I wanted to learn and get backinto understanding yoga and
getting active in it again. AndI liked the idea of going to and
just being one on one withsomebody. And I wasn't
(28:51):
comfortable when they allstarted allowing classes wasn't
kind of comfortable wanting tobe around other people. Again,
I worked in the public eye butspending an hour in a room even
with only the yoga studio that'sclose by was they were told that
(29:12):
when they were allowed to openwere 10 people, Max, or it was
eight people or 10 people maxin normally the same room would
hold I think 30 I think was thenumber it might be 20 but
20 or 30 a lot of peoplecompared to very few people but
(29:33):
I was even still like You knowwhat, I don't know if I want to
be around people for that longin a room that I don't know.
Which is really funny since Iworked all summer around all
sorts of people I didn't knowbut I you know, I don't know, I
guess different mindset.
So started doing yoga. Startingto get my body chemistry kind of
(29:57):
straightened out. Realizing thatI
I was putting things in my mouththat I shouldn't be eating that
was making me gain weight. Andnow I'm starting to struggle
through another cycle of gettinghealthy.
And we'll see how that goes,we'll probably talk about that
in the future. I'm not gonnaharp on that one too much right
(30:18):
now. But you know, hey, it iswhat it is. That's what I got
going on. Soto kind of wrap it up.
And I talked about a bunch ofdifferent things, but really,
the bullet points being to kindof round round this thing out or
be aware of the input that'scoming in, and how negative it
(30:39):
is all the time. And be awarethat, that there, there's
probably a huge underlyingstress that you don't even
realize is affecting you.
That you may not even realizeuntil you either get COVID and
get past COVID and or getvaccinated. And then the people
(31:02):
that are out there that aren'tgoing to get the vaccine, I have
people in my family, they're notgoing to get it and they have no
desire, and they're not going todo it. I haven't had people in
my family thathave health issues, legit health
issues, that if they get COVID,it could really be bad,
potentially, and they're notgoing to get
(31:26):
the shot. So it's not foreverybody, you know, and God
Bless America, right, we allkind of,
we get to choose and control ourown bodies and minds. And that's
one of the kind of principles ofour country, if
you know, at least I believe itis still. So keep that all in
(31:49):
mind. And really look in onyourself and, and give yourself
a gut check and see what's goingon. Make sure you're being
healthy and covering all thebases so to speak. And
I'd love to hear from you guys,check out the new website just
kind of made some changes tothat. And it's got kind of a new
look and feel and if you feellike you'd like to reach out to
(32:12):
me go for that and, andhave a wonderful week. I look
forward to talking to you guysvery soon. And
been sharing some new stuffthat's getting ready to happen,
at least in the podcast world.
So y'all Take care of yourselfand we will
(32:34):
we will chat soon. Peace.
Thanks for listening to the GenX perspective. Bye Tony
Randazzo, where we see things abit differently. Let's get
social. Find us on Facebook bysearching Gen X perspective,
Twitter, at Gen X underscorepodcast and on Instagram at Gen
(32:55):
X perspective. You can also findus online at Gen X perspective
calm and reach out to Tonydirectly at Tony at Gen X
perspective.com. to maybe youcan talk strategy on how to beat
Super Mario Brothers three.
Don't forget to subscribe to theGen X perspective wherever you
get your podcast. Thanks forlistening
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