Sitting down with Jason Lowy

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My guest this week is Jason Lowy a life long friend, best man at my wedding, father of two, husband to one of the greatest women I know, and an all-around good guy with all those nice things being said about Jason we spent about an hour or so getting caught up life during the pandemic and what's basically been going on the last 10 years since my wife and I moved to the East Coast. We had a lot of fun reminiscing and being nostalgic about our younger days pre-spouse and pre-children and also talk about the joys of growing old chilling out and just getting comfortable in our own skin. Sit back, relax, and enjoy.
Tony Randazzo

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Episode Transcript

Unknown (00:13):
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 Gen X
perspective as for us caughtsomewhere in between boomers and
Millennials are we see things abit differently? I'm tired of
staying silent. It's time torant, discuss, unload and
debate. Join Tony and his guestsas they tackle the topics of Pop
Culture, Sports, religion, andyes, even politics. If life's a

(00:56):
Rubik's Cube, we've got theexperience to tackle it. Welcome
to the Gen X perspective withTony Randazzo.
Hey, how's everybody doingtonight? So before we get

(01:17):
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(02:21):
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What is Gen X? What is thesilent generation? What do
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(02:43):
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slackers, Karen's are notmentioned at all. In some cases,
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to destroy ageism by bringingall these voices together. And

(03:07):
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And let's see how much we havein common after all.

(03:27):
Hey, guys, this is john. And I'mFrank from the basement search
you may have heard of us. Westarted off slow in season one.
COVID tried to stop us in seasontwo, but Frank's too stubborn
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turned up the volume the volumenow from Brooklyn, New York,
this is a basic search.

(04:43):
So I have a very good guest inthe studio with me tonight and
not actually in the studio butvirtually in the studio with me.
This is my arguably one of mylifelong friends Jason Lowery.
Also the best man in my weddingetc.
And so on and so forth. Soeverybody, this is Mr. Jason

(05:03):
Lally. And without further ado,what's going on, man? How are
you? I really, you're just gonnasit there quiet.
You're cut outwhile you cut out. Okay, well, I
mean, I've had to use that appfrom you. He Oh, that is not
fair at all. I mean, I mighthave been the one that moved.
But you know, phone calls workboth ways, man. I'm just saying.

(05:29):
Alright, so this is, obviouslywe're doing a podcast, we're
video recording it as well,which is kind of fun and weird
and neat. But, um, sowe've, I mean, what, what year
was it that you move to Oregon?
When did we meet? I mean, sowhen did you? How long did you
date, Julie? I mean, I'm jumpingall over the place here. But our

(05:51):
timeline is kind of like 92. SoI moved to Oregon in October of
93. Okay, and Julie and Istarted going out.
February 15. Okay, 94. And youwere on our first day?

(06:15):
Well, yeah, I guess I was withand it wasn't just me. So people
are like, that's kind of weird.
But so there was a whole groupof us that were very over
protective. What we were overprotective of all of us. And you
were kind of this weird, crazy,California and outsider guy that
was taking I was taking ourfriend on a date. And so we
decided to tag along sorta, Imean, we weren't on the

(06:38):
disorder. We were, you know,we're a couple tables away. It
wasn't Denny's. It was thatother restaurant that was down
the street from Denny's, butbasically was the Red Lion.
Right. Yeah. The red line and Idon't know. Are they Is it still
there? That restaurant? Ichanged No. Yeah. It's like,
it's Yeah, it's a big bear dineris still the Big Bear diner. It

(07:02):
was like that before I left. Soyeah, that was that was fun. I
don't remember is it was you andJosh, Justin, Judd, and Tracy,
and Alicia.
And you had Justin sat there,glaring at me. And sharpening

(07:24):
your knives.
I don't remember the knifesharpening. But that doesn't
surprise me at all. Wow. Yeah,that was, um, Julie was so
pissed off at us that day.
But just one of many times thatshe was so mad at us. So for
everybody that's listening. SoJason and I obviously have known

(07:44):
each other since 93.
ish. And we were, we were all apretty tight group of people. So
Jason was kind of the kind ofcore original group of our
friends. You were really thelast one to kind of join that.
Really? I mean, for the mostpart, yeah, we were kind of the

(08:05):
original group. And then there'sbeen people that have come and
gone in and out. And I mean, mywife and I are now on the east
coast. So we've kind of gone outor at least
got married and had girlfriendsor boyfriends or, or, or Yeah,
or bottles or whiskey orwhatever their thing is these
days.

(08:26):
But yeah, so.
So last time, I was in Oregon.
Year, your boys were were littleboys. I mean little. Let me When
was the last time you were herefor me as graduation? Yes. So
that was her high schoolgraduation. And they must have

(08:48):
been It was 10 years ago now.
Right? Yeah. 10 or 11. Now?
Yeah, that's right. Yeah. 10. SoHarry would have been eight and
Jackson Five. So Jackson has norecollection of us. I assume. He
probably has no clue. If he sawme walking down the street. He
wouldn't even stop. He would notknow who you are. Not at all.

(09:08):
That's just so crazy. AndHarrison, I'm you know, he was
still a little dude runningaround at that point. But I
mean, I would recognize himwalking down the street and
stop. I don't know if he wouldrecognize me. I don't know that
you would know because we werepretty much gone. Gone. Gone by
then. Out here acting likefirst off. Jackson is almost six
foot tall. Seriously, and, andhas hair down below his

(09:35):
shoulders? Oh my gosh. How didhe wait a minute. Wait a minute.
How did he get six feet tall?
Can we talk about that for asecond? Because you're 58757 and
Julie's shorter than both of us?
five, eight on a good day. Arewe talking about the mailman or
what's going on here? I mean, Iwas he's six feet tall.

(09:57):
Seriously, where's that comealong and
Yeah, really? Where's that comefrom? Do we know? Nobody knows?
Just know. Random? Extra? Yeah,whatever is nobody in my family
has over 510. That is justcrazy.
Well, from what I understand inhere, they're both doing really

(10:18):
well. I mean, Harrison got intoyou. You have Oh, right. Is that
right? Or what? Where did he endup? Oh, I see Oregon State,
Oregon State. All right. Sounfortunately, with the
pandemic, he's still at homeright doing virtual classes
right now. Are we hoping toactually go soon tech.

(10:38):
He took the semester off, sohe's just working, okay. And is
reevaluating what he wants tomajor in. Oh, dear.
While knowing those boys, I'mguessing really high brainy
stuff. They got a teacher and ayou know, I mean, basically,
Julie's now basically runningthat newspaper, the bulletin for

(11:00):
the most just the back. Yeah.
So she's out Harry wasoriginally going to go into
chemical engineering.
But now he wants to go into foodscience. Food Science. What was
it like developing?

(11:22):
What is food science? What iswhat is developing new foods,
new flavors, new stuff? That'sYeah. Well, I mean, in the
sciences like that. I mean, theycan kind of
figure I mean, he's got, I mean,that degree is, what, six, eight
years and then what you inthat's usually you go for your
PhD and your math, you go forthe whole shebang. When you get

(11:43):
into that kind of right. He'dprobably go for at least a
Master's. God bless him. Well,the kids got good genes. I'll
tell you that. I mean, you and Imean, you and Julie are, are
they don't wear jeans? Well, youknow, well, right. Well, they
don't wear dresses, do they?
Although it's okay, nowadays, Igot to be kind of careful about
what I'm saying. But you know,if I want to wear a dress, it
was like, Harrison only wearshorts. Okay, that he got from

(12:06):
you. He got that from you. AndJackson only wears sweatpants.
Okay, well, so what generationare the kids now? So they're
not? They're not millennials.
Are they? No, they're Gen Z.
They're z. Okay. I don'tunderstand Gen Z, which means
that we're old. By the way.

(12:29):
I mean, just looking at you. Imean, you get you look like a
crazy old man right now, dude. Imean, seriously, well, what is
up?
I like the beard. It's actuallyshort right now.
Yeah, I grow my beard once ayear during hunting season. I'll
admit that right in likeOctober, a grow it from
September, I stopped shavingthrough

(12:51):
January, February until I can'tstand it anymore, and then it
gets lopped back off, but it'smine. My beard is greater than
yours. So now I catch a bunch ofshit. Because everybody thinks
that I color my hair when I growmy beard. And because it is, you
know, white as Right. Yeah. Somy hair is still kind of dark.
What's left of it?

(13:13):
Well, yeah, and that's thelongest I think your hair has
been since the early 90s. Maybeprobably.
Dude, you got that crazy hairgoing on again? Yeah, I did come
over. That was kind of yourshirt. Registered Trademark
there for a while was crazy hairif I remember right.
Yeah, I had to play with thatand weird hats. Remember, that

(13:37):
stupid. Those stupid beanie hatthings we were wearing? that
were basically underwear on ourheads. What the hell are those
things called? Yes.
Like they were a Buddha,something I don't remember what
they were. But I think I stillhave my cow. My tie dye one
somewhere.

(13:57):
But now we were the same thing.
But it's like a sleep. Right?
Well, yeah. And everybody wearsit as a face mask now. And you
know, basically, they took itoff their head and put it on
their face. So whatever. Thingsare weird.
So how's Oregon? Yeah. How's theOregon these days with the whole

(14:18):
pandemic? Are you guys open backup or closed? Or what are people
doing out there?
You know, we opened and then weclose and then they open again.
And then we take close. Oh,yeah. So yeah. Well, your
governor and my governor arebasically on the same correct

(14:39):
track of crazy for the most partanyway. So although Oregon has
got a little more, a little morecrazy in it, the New York does.
That's hard to believe but itdoes. It's um, I know. You guys
are in the news when they'remore safe than sorry.
Is it is so everybody watchesthe news.

(15:00):
Everybody assumes that Portlandis burned to the ground, and
it's full of a bunch of thesecrazy people. And I know better
that the news is always superslighted and you don't know what
to believe anymore. I mean, youcan still go to Portland and go
have lunch and hang out atCOVID. That is true. None of
that's true.
Wow. Yeah. I was in Portland amonth and a half ago. Yeah. And

(15:23):
you wouldn't know that anythingwas going on? Right? I mean,
just whatever. There's oneblock, wherever that people are
deciding. This is crazy.
Literally one Park downtownwhere there's still protesters.
But other than that, it's nothow the media portrays it, as
usual. Yeah. So you cast a lotof like public art that people
have put up? Well, and they'vebeen doing that all along,

(15:45):
though. I mean, like that wholethat live art Trump deal that
was that was actually in Bend.
You know, it was a few yearsago, obviously now, but I mean,
Oregon has always beenprogressive that way anyway,
with you know, people speakingtheir mind. I mean, God bless
them. That's kind of what it'sall about. Right.

(16:05):
You know, some people 10fortunately, Portland is still
there. But yeah, right. Can youstill go get Voodoo Doughnuts
can see. So nothing's changed.
It's still there. Still,everything's good. It's now pals
books still open. All that stillhouse books is still open. So
nothing's downtown is stilldowntown. Beautiful. That's what

(16:25):
I like to hear. That's goodstuff. And then bend is just
getting bigger from you know,talking to Alicia. And you know,
my wife follows the newspaperthere or whatever, all the time.
She's constantly coming intelling me what's going on. But
so it's growing like crazy. Andjust normal. Bend. Yeah, things
happening. When I moved here, itwas 25,000.

(16:53):
Rand now they're, they're notthe new census numbers yet. But
they think that it's going to beclose to 125. Yeah, that seems
about right. Because it was aYeah, I mean, it was, it was
still a small town that wasspread out. So it felt like a
very small town, depending onwhere you were, you know, West
Side, East Side, downtown,whatever. And that's kind of

(17:15):
with that growth. I mean, it'sjust basically filled in all the
gaps. I mean, you know, betweenbend and redmon still open land,
or is it pretty much filling upbetween the two now? It's still
up andit creeps a little bit closer
together every year? Well,how's um, how's Julie doing?

(17:37):
She's good. She's been workingat home for a year now. She's
been working at home and you'rehanging out at home together
with the boys at home.
Something like that. Or Julie?
Oh, I feel bad for herthat she has she tried to kill
you in your sleep yet?
A couple times. Okay. But I knowthat you're, you know, doing the

(18:00):
dishes and cleaning up the houseand helping with chores and all
the stuff that you always do,right? Of course. God bless you.
You're such a good boy.
So, you know, it's beendifficult, but yeah, it sucked.
The pandemic has been brutal.
weed. We were considered aan essential business, because

(18:22):
we make booze. And we're a farm,right? So. So when people were
getting laid off a year ago, andwe were hiring, trying to hire
people for theto work in the vineyard, and
then they started offering crazymoney for unemployment, and then
all my staff quit. Because theywere making, like 27 bucks an
hour on unemployment, and youcouldn't blame them. I mean, I

(18:46):
was pissed, but you can't blamethem, right? It's like 27 bucks
an hour. It's more than they'remaking coming to work. And they
can sit home and watch Netflixand play video games or whatever
the hell they're doing in theirlife. But
it was brutal last year. Andthen we've been we didn't stop
until Laurie and I, we decidedto go down to Florida for a

(19:09):
couple of weeks. We rented ahouse down there. And that was
another one of those reallyinteresting things. Because if
you watch the news, you'd assumethat everybody was dying of
COVID in Florida and the placewas imploding and burning down
because they had no governmentrestrictions. They had lifted
all the COVID stuff. But everyrestaurant you went in every

(19:29):
grocery store, you walked intoevery retail store, everybody
required CDC guidelines, soeverybody was still masked and
social distancing and do whatthey're supposed to be doing.
The only thing that was kind ofweird down there is they didn't
have limits on like, if you wentinto a restaurant at six o'clock
at night or whatever, it couldget packed. But Lori and I just

(19:51):
did a bunch of takeout. I mean,you know, we're in Florida where
there's a restaurant, it wasawesome. We hung out by the pool
the whole time, you know? Right?
That was the first time that wewere had had stopped working,
you know, in a year. And it hasbeen. But to watch kind of
the implosion in New York State,it's been wild and being tied

(20:14):
into the restaurant industry,how many restaurants have closed
and how many people are out ofwork and it's in our governor
was brutal.
In he hasn't lifted anythingyet, for the most part, and
it's been really wild to, tokind of go through that and see,
I mean, because we know tons ofpeople like you guys that are,

(20:34):
everybody's working from home,everybody stuck in the freakin
house. And for that first sixmonths, like you were
legitimately freaked out to goanywhere. I mean, you didn't
want to. You weren't over ityet. But yeah, you didn't know
what to believe to. And it wasso freaky and scary. And nobody
knew what to believe. And Istill don't think anybody knows
what to believe, necessarily,but it's gotten maybe more

(20:55):
normal, which is shitty, thatit's normal. that we've been
doing it for the new normal.
Yeah, normal changes every fiveyears.
Just like every cell in yourbody every seven, right? I
remember that example. See, Iremember stuff. So you still see
Justin and Carrie, you still seethe group you still see Alicia

(21:17):
and all those crazy people. Oris it more like holidays now?
Well, I saw Alicia this morning.
I talked to her yesterday. Sheneeded a ride to work as well.
Some things never change.
So you gave her a ride to work.
I did. Awesome. A nice friend.

(21:40):
Harry gave her a ride dooryesterday.
So Alicia hasn't changed for themost part. She's still doing
Alicia things. And I know thatbesides, I talked to her pretty
often so she's been goingthrough a rough time. Yeah.
Yeah, that'sbut that's kind of par for the
course. I mean, she's she alwaysthat always happens. So now like

(22:02):
Lexi you guys still see Lexiand, and she's still dating that
same guy. She's been with forlike 10 years that was living in
a storage unit. Last time I wasliving there. I don't know what.
Oh, no, no, no. She and Robbiebroke up. Okay. Robbie. Thank
you. Yeah, she is in.
She's a Boston right now. She'sout here. Well, out here. She's

(22:27):
close. She's only like eighthours away. I should call her
make her come visit me.
All right.
She's just visiting rightnow. Yeah, she's just okay.
visiting her parents. She stillhas her house over on the side
and still all that stuff.
Awesome. 20 years. Good. SoI haven't seen Judd in forever.

(22:54):
I heard that he's crazy. longhaired mountain bike guy now.
He's a long haired mountain bikeguy. I heard nice. He gotten a
road rage issue with some guyand around about
took took his axe to the guys.
He did not know. Yeah, he did.

(23:17):
Oh, he's gonna be in bigtrouble, isn't he? He is in big
trouble. Oh, no. Okay, well, sohe's snapped.
He's always had a couple. Yeah,I suppose. Wow.
So we see, you know, Justin andCarrie, typically three or four

(23:41):
times a year. Really? It's gotwell, near life. Right. So yeah,
that's crazy. We haven't seenhim lately. Just because COVID
Yeah.
Right. I he texted me yesterday.
And he's working again, though.
He's doing massage stuff, Ibelieve. Because he said he had
to work and he was had to gogive a deep tissue massage to

(24:03):
somebody. And I told him I'd buyhim a plane ticket if he'd come
out and do it for me, butso he's working. I don't think
he works a lot. Right.
But he's worried but he's stilldoing that for a while there he
hits he had started his ownsalon did near his own own deal
for a while there didn't henever

(24:26):
really was doing deprivationtanks does or am I thinking? Oh
yeah, they had they had thedeprivation tank business. Did
you go do it?
I did once How was it? It was itwas you know, interesting. So
you float in saltwater with nosound and no light right? Or do
you have right now? She's justyou're floating in water in the

(24:51):
dark? Yeah. That's a duck.
That's just a weird.
It's a little weird. Do you talkto yourself? So
Am I always talking aboutmasking?
So you got nothing out of it iswhat you're telling me? It was
just weird and you were wet. Oh,my goodness.

(25:13):
Yeah.
Okay, so they're not doing it sobad. Okay, business. Four or
five years ago, I think three orfour years ago. Wow.
That's nuts. And how's um, how'syour mom doing? She's still in
California. Yeah.
She's still in California. Iwent and visited her in January.

(25:35):
Okay. And I'm going to get herein two weeks. Did you fly or do
you drive?
I drove in January. Okay. I'mflying in two weeks as a new
airline flying from Redmond toBurbank. Oh, perfect. And they
had introductory fares. I got around trip ticket for 60 bucks.

(25:56):
You kidding me? Could youimagine how much trouble we got?
I would have gotten into if thatwas like that. Back in the day.
We'd be flying down there on aSaturday for freaking burger. I
mean, seriously, how muchtrouble we would have gotten
60 bucks. 60 bucks. Even backthen. We could have figured that
out. I mean, come on, even bycollecting cans back then. That

(26:19):
would have been big trouble.
So she's doing well.
She's finally cancer free. ofkidney. She had cancer. I did
not know that. Yeah, she had arare blood cancer. Okay.
Well, it's gonna be rare. She'sthe one. Yeah. Right. She was on

(26:41):
chemo for like, two years.
Really? How did they do that forblood cancer. I mean, is it
like? I mean, it can't be it'snot like they can do radiation
for that. So well, chemo. Okay,so they can do chemo because
that's through blood. There's noradiation. It was chills. And
King Ivy's. Whoa.

(27:03):
And shots.
Well, and you're still cancerfree, because you got the
pleasure of doing that. We wereyoung. I mean, you were. You
weren't even in your 40s I was39. Wow.
And you're still healthy andgood. And yada yada, yada. All

(27:23):
that good stuff. 12 years. Wow.
Congratulations.
Yeah, cuz you guys were in thathouse. I remember that. Now. I
remember when you were home andsick of the bastard just moved
in to this house. That's right.
Wow, that's really, reallycrazy. And your dad, he's still
in Bend still with Sharon.
Right. Stone band still Sharon.

(27:46):
They got evening on Saturdaygoing to Mexico for three weeks.
So they get married ever.
Yeah, they got married.
maybe one or two years afterJulian did and I did.
Really? I don't even while Idon't remember that. But that's
okay. There's gaps in the memorythese days.

(28:10):
Because I got married in Hawaii.
Okay, I remember that now.
Actually.
Wow, how time flies. Does hestill have that little house on
the west side? DK. He kept thatas a rental, didn't he? Did you
finally get rid of that thing?
Or does he still he's stilldown. He still lives on the west
side. And then that one that hebuilt? Yeah, the house that he

(28:31):
built that tall? cfcc. Yeah, hestill has that. Okay, cool.
Yeah.
Wow. So talk to me about I'mguessing you're What? What year
were you born now? You were bornin 77. So that makes you a

(28:51):
boomer, right? You're not a GenX or you are Linux six. Gen X
was six, and 6065.
You know, I have a podcastcalled Gen X perspective. And I
couldn't tell you the fuckingdates. Seriously. Gen X is
typically 65 to 79. Alright, soyour Gen X, sir. So I'm still

(29:13):
playing video games. I knowthese things. But it's more fun
to ask you because we're on apodcast and we got to at least
keep people interested. A littlebit, right? Yes, I play video,
by the way. Yeah. On yourintro to your podcast or the
exit to your podcast. And ittalks about you beating people
at Mario Kart three.

(29:36):
I don't say I say call me foradvice. It doesn't mean it's
gonna be good advice.
They asked me if I wanted tokeep that in or keep it out when
we were recording that andfiguring out when I started this
I'm like, and I actually thoughtof you. I'm like, that's gonna
piss Jason off. I'm gonna leavethat in because it's totally
ridiculous. Like, cuz that's theone thing that I don't I mean, I

(29:56):
play video games once a month,where
I'm guessing you play them damnnear still every other day every
day whenever you get a minutekind of deal, right? Yeah. You
still play an Xbox guy blow off?
Yeah. Drink. Yeah. So you'reprobably doing, you're doing
more of the co op stuff whereyou're playing with other

(30:17):
people, right?
I'm fine as much anymore. No, Imean, most of the people I
played with really don't playthat often anymore. Okay. Yeah,
cuz I never got into that. But abecause I sucked compared to you
guys. When I would jump on Iwould get just decimated

(30:38):
continually. And then I don'tplay enough. So I like to go on
and I'm playing you know,playing story mode or playing
whatever. And although I guess Ican play you can get on those
video games you can get on Xboxand still play live, but not
play with anybody. You'd beplaying against people. Is that
right? I don't even know how itworks really anymore. I pay for
the goddamn service. But I don'tever use it. Right story of my

(31:02):
life. So you're still Xbox,right? Because
I haven't gotten the new oneyet. Because I can't find one.
But they're not. You can't.
They're not available yet. Iknow that. PS five has been a
big issue for people. But Ithought you could get the xboxes
were easier to find. They go onsale go on sale at Walmart at
like noon. And they're sold outby 1203. Oh, cuz it's all online

(31:25):
and pickup, right? Yeah. Wow. Igot one.
I got really lucky. And it wastarget. And it was right place.
right time. I was actually inWatertown, where target is in an
alert came up on my phone. AndI'm like, oh, let me try. I

(31:46):
didn't even think about it mightjust have heard of the. And I
lackadaisically literally put inmy information. I had nothing
pre stored in it, and hit thebuy button. And usually you get
kicked out they booted out ofyour cart. And that had happened
and it went through and Istarted laughing I'm like, Oh
crap, I gotta pay for it. Shit.
So I went and picked it up 10minutes later and brought it
home. Right. And it was rightaround Christmas. I think it was

(32:07):
right after But yeah, I gotlucky enough to get one and it
is. The graphics are reallyout of this world. I mean, I
that's what I noticed because Ihave a TV over my shoulder here.
Rain. Right there. I got it.
Yeah, and that's a 4k TV. Andit's unbelievable how good the

(32:28):
damn resolution is and howsmooth it is. I mean, it's
frighteningly detailed. Andright. It's really kind of cool.
And then I have been reading alot about the PS five two and
apparently that's really gonnahold its own. And they can be
well I mean, everybody's gottheir own camp. So either or PS

(32:49):
person or I'll probably do likeI did last generation I'll get
my Xbox and then two or threeyears down the road. I'll get a
PS fi Do you have Do you playboth of them?
Yeah, I have a ps4 right? Youdo? Well, I thought about doing
that but it gets hard to starthiding that stuff in here.

(33:10):
So I won't get in trouble. I'llthere were
exclusives on PlayStation that Iwanted to play that I was sure
that it made sense. So so Igotta tell you that this my
little man cave we're in righthere. I have everything zoomed
in pretty good on me because I'mfat and ugly and just headshots

(33:30):
better. But I kind of took overthe guestroom and I'm gonna see
if I can turn this one cameraon. I'm gonna put my hand first
but I have a GoPro on a cord andI gotta show you around me turn
the light on it goes on.
Andso I took over that my the guest
room for the most part let'ssee. Okay, so my GoPro Yeah, see

(33:53):
that's on so there's my there'sthe board and so if you go up
so all my Star Wars crap look atall my servers for years I could
finally got to the point in mylife where I could go buy
freakin Star Wars figures.
Right? I got the MillenniumFalcon. Over there, check it

(34:14):
out.
It's got Han Solo and Chewbacca.
And that cool. I actually got itall out and I don't you know, I
don't play with the figuresbecause I'm you know, 48 but I
could and but so yeah, I tookover the whole room. So back
there on the back shelf is threeshelves of Star Wars crap. And
there's a circa 1980s boombox onthe second shelf that Laurie

(34:38):
bought me for Christmas, becauseI needed a boombox and I had to
go out buy tapes.
And then yeah, so I still havethat futon. That futon was in
our guest or in that bonus roomthat we had in the last house we
lived in upstairs that nobodyever sat in. I sat sit in that

(34:58):
thing more now than wehave since we've owned it. And,
and then because I you know,because I ride mountain bikes
and bicycles all the timebecause I'm in such good shape I
have them hung up in here aswell art.
So I've officially taken overthe guestroom in its entirety.

(35:19):
And in Laurie was it when youbought
like a 15 $100 mountain bikewith your tax return? Oh, yeah,
you're gonna have to Yeah,right. One of the good, good,
good young adult choices that Imade in my life. That mountain
bike was a I think it was agiant is what it was. And I

(35:42):
don't think it was it was Yeah,it was like $900 or that it was
a lot of money. But what elsedid I I don't I don't think I
had a car then.
I don't have that you had like asix month old baby. Well, yeah.
Do we ever make good choiceswhen we were that? I mean, look,
I had my daughter how I was, youknow, well, yeah. A little

(36:05):
better. Maybe? Depends. But soyeah, so she was I was 21 when
Mia was born. And I mean,arguably, I can say that I
haven't been out of work. Exceptin 2009. When I got laid off
before we moved out here tostart this business. I hadn't
been laid off. I'd been I workcontinually and you know, raise

(36:27):
the kids. So that was probablythe last stupid kid.
Well, I mean, yeah, probably thelast stupid money stupid money
kid thing that I did. Before Iwas kind of done doing that was
that mountain bike? I don't evenknow what happened to that bike,
which pisses me off because Ican't remember for the life of
me. I had it. And I have it mybrain that I had it. And then it

(36:48):
vanished. And I don't know whathappened to it.
And now I got two more, but Iknow where those are. They're
hanging on the wall thereWalmart.
Hey, I brought one of them toFlorida with me and wrote it.
My mouth. Wow, I did I you know,I tried. I'm working on it. And
I'm trying to get rid of theponza it's sucks. But you know

(37:09):
when you're 20 you live in theYeah, the COVID freakin 20
million. I am.
So I gotta tell you that thislifestyle of living in upstate
New York has got the fooddiversity of prineville. 25
years ago. There's like tworestaurants here in the winter.
So I'm not talking about summerbut in the winter. There's a

(37:31):
what's called it's a diner,basically old diner restaurant.
very bland meat, potatoes. Andthen if you want anything else,
you got to drive 25 miles. Sofood, diversity and then
culturally food you go to thegrocery store. You can't unless
you want to eat potatoes. No, Imean, there's some vegetables
there too. For the most part inmeat. You are kind of out of

(37:54):
choices.
Unless you drive to Syracuse anhour and a half, two hours away.
What are you doing? I had to getmy charger. Oh, well.
So do you still have a videogame room? Do you have a man
cave? Or did you lose a mancave? The children's rooms? It's

(38:14):
the man cave to children turnsOkay.
Well, we decided that it wasmore important for the boys to
have their own space. Yeah, youthink so? My sister's got five
kids.
So the first two Christianbrought with him. And once
actually, he's been working forme for almost the last year. And

(38:37):
he's gonna he ships off for theNavy in like,
two weeks, 14 days. He startsboot. And he's gone. And then
his younger sister. She's inhigh school. And then the three
little ones are like little justgetting out of diapers.
Sebastian, he's the youngest.
And then the other two are inmiddle school. She's got her

(38:59):
damn hands full dude, I'll tellyou what. I had one. And I
thought that was crazy. You hadto and I thought you were crazy.
And she's got five and guesswhat? She is crazy. Straight up,
dude. There's just no, I can'timagine dude. It's like it was
you go in the house. And it's soloud. And there's so much

(39:19):
happening and they have two dogson top of it. So two dogs, five
kids. And not a one of themknows how to talk at like,
normal volume or they do butthey're all competing to talk at
the same time. And God forbid ifthey want your attention because
it's like full blown jumping offthe back of the couch. Karate
Kid meets freakin wrestlingneeds screaming all the time,

(39:40):
like day and night until they goto bed. I couldn't do it. I
can't even go over there andvisit like I can't handle it.
I'm like my add and my weirdnesskicks in and it's just too much
stimulation or something crazyhappens. I can't handle it.
Thank God, I don't have morekids.

(40:00):
So we have a dog. Well, we havea dog and two cats. So my wife's
turning into a crazy cat lady.
And she got to me. Yeah, she gottwo cats and,
and they hate me. They tolerateme for whatever reason. And then
we got the dog, which is wedownsized from our last one. We
got a border collie now andhe's, he's still a mama's boy

(40:23):
for sure. But, you know, he goesto work with us every day, which
is awesome. The dog has neverstayed home in the apartment
while him were in the apartment.
But still, he's never stayedhome almost his entire life. I
mean, I can count probably onone hand, the days that he was
left it at home. Every day hegets to go to the farm. And in

(40:44):
the summer he gets obviously torun around a lot more but it's
pretty good dog life for sure.
So we are Yeah, doing thatcraziness.
I just lost my EarPods both ofthem are just one of them. Just
oneWell, those are nice curtains. I

(41:07):
can tell you that.
You found it.
Yes. Oh, so we have two dogs.
Yeah.
Gurney who is a goldenretriever? Yeah. And flash who
has a havanese I think you Whendid you get Gurney?

(41:30):
I think it was after we left2010 it was after you after we
left? Because we had HarveyHarvey That's right. You had
Harvey before that? Yeah.
So yeah. Wow. Any you guys havealways had a kid Julie's always
had a cat today is a cat howmany cats?
two cats. two cats. We just gotanother cat actually. Oh, very

(41:51):
nice. I suppose.
Yeah, the boys wanted a kitten.
How long was that cute lastedbefore you ended up having to do
all the work.
We got the kitten about a monthago. Okay. She was five months
old. So rd litter train. Oh,perfect.

(42:14):
So they needed a PE bought oneof those self cleaning litter
boxes. do they work?
Oh works great. Doesn't really?
Yeah, I tried to talk Lori underone of those but we haven't got
any I justchange the box. Like every three
or four weeks. That long?
Seriously? Yeah, and it works.
doesn't stink. does all the workdoesn't

(42:40):
smell Wow. Nothing. That's kindof cool. It doesn't use like
kitty litter uses like thiscrystal stuff.
Oh, cuz that kind of washes thator does something weird, right?
I have no idea.
Well, so umwhat is uh, you guys are
obviously in that sameneighborhood in that house,

(43:03):
which is kind of south south.
South East southeast. Yeah. Andwhat have you guys remodel?
Because I know that Julie cannever sit still. So I'm guessing
the entire interior and exteriorthat house has changed in the
last 10 years.
Let's see. We redid the floors.

(43:26):
We took out all the carpetingput in bamboo. Oh, nice. Cool.
Yeah.
And you did that? No. Painted,right? Yes. Well, of course.
Yeah. You guys had been doingpainting long before I left too
because there was hired somebodyto come in and paint. Really
nice. Okay. Painting saw so andthen. Over the last like

(43:52):
I'd say 2018 to 2019 we've beendoing the kitchen. Oh, okay. So
remember we had that island Itwas like two tiered Yes.
Now at once now it's all one Oh,just one flat level Island.
Yeah. So put in new countertopsand new flooring and new stove

(44:17):
and all of it. Oh, awesome. Soyou've been busy. Busy busy
busy. Now did you make move thestove and put it in the island
in the middle? Or did you justkind of Oh, that's where the
sink was now. Yeah, that's wherethe sink was. Okay, so this is
still there then.
Right? Nice. It was a cheapupdate. It only cost us you
know, like five or 6000 Okay, afull update would have been like

(44:39):
25 stupid money right? Well,yeah, to get a new roof and a
new furnacethat goes along with buying
houses. So what's happened to mein the last 11 years is
electrically plumbing ah backtractors.

(45:00):
motors, like all the stuff thatlike Judd could do back then,
like I do all that stuff nowwelders and crap, I mean, I
basically fix or can remodel orredo every in anything and have
more tools and crap than I everthought I would own or know how
to do, just by nature of owninga business that has lots of

(45:21):
machinery, and then tractors andequipment. It's, it's been
really cool from thatstandpoint. And, and when I
first came back, I was stillinvolved with the construction
business, it was kind of windingdown, but we were still doing
stuff. And like the apartment,we did a full rent on that we
just renovated the downstairs,which is kind of a satellite

(45:44):
location. For us. It's more oflike a lounge and bar. We've
remodeled that twice in 10 yearsnow and can go in and do all of
it. I still hire out like superawesome, super, like finished
finished work on certain thingsI'll have somebody else do but
yeah, just the ability to knowhow to like just,
you can't afford to paysomebody, I mean, then to do it

(46:05):
anymore. You got to kind of knowhow to do all that stuff. So you
know we have a car, I have a carleft I Why does anybody need to
own a car lift is really dumb,but I have one because I need it
because of tractors and our TVsand it's just crazy stuff we do
all the time. It's just reallywild. from living in Bend and

(46:27):
working for somebody else orworking for Sage walk working
with kids, you know, working inthe at risk youth or the youth
arena, going from that to whatI'm doing is it was such a
drastic change. It's reallyoverwhelming to think back out
how kind of where my skill setand mindset

(46:47):
back then compared to now andjust on just the ability of
things you got to do every day.
It's totally different. Thatdoesn't even take into account.
Being a business owner and beinginvolved with a family business,
which is just about thestupidest thing any human can do
it from a hard level.
But yeah, it's been crazy. Soyeah, it's I kind of lat like

(47:10):
last week, I was building thiscustom spray rig to be able to
spray pre emergent for weeds andhow I learned how to do any of
that stuff. I just likeseriously, where did this come
from, I guess, crammed in myhead. I remodeled a street lamp,
that was another one of like, Iwanted to do it for fun. So this
is when you know you're old andweird, is I bought a street lamp

(47:34):
that was kind of from the turnof the century in Watertown new
they had taken out all the oldcast iron lamps and lamp posts,
and they put in you know,concrete or whatever. And this
guy had had it for 25 or 30years when they got pulled out
and I took it and strip like 19layers of paint off the the
light itself and redid all theglass and all the brass inside

(47:55):
of it and took it back period,correct and made it look
original and repainted the wholething and welded it and fixed
it. And we put it up at my dad'shouse and in his driveway. And I
sit back and like a How the helldid I ever learned how to do any
of that. And be winded, I liketo do that.
What is happening?

(48:17):
You know, I mean, you know, andI was another conversation I had
with somebody and I know thatyou weren't always a big fan,
but you used to participate andplay with us, we'd you know,
we'd go out and target practiceand shoot guns and you can't do
that anymore. Because ammunitionis basically $1 around on
average, if you can even find itand you haven't been able to buy

(48:38):
it for over a year, two years,four years, whatever it's been,
and you can't go out and do thatanymore. So that fondness kind
of went away. And and that's awhole different crazy subject,
but it you know, that we usedto, you know, go out and hang
out in the woods andyou know, break beer bottles on
rocks and be stupid kids,although we didn't do a whole

(49:01):
lot of that stupid stuff. Butyou know, we used to go camping
and backpacking. I mean, thelast time I still have that
picture that you guys all signedwhen we moved of our last
camping trip on the coast.
And that was I don't rememberthat. I mean, that was well it
was pre 2000 it was probably2009 I'm guessing was that there

(49:22):
we were in gold beach.
Maybe it had the really coolkind of side house. And we were
picking Harry's down at the edgeof the driveway. It's called
beach. It was gold beach. Thatwas a cool place and they'd set
up the swimming pool in thedriveway. Right? Remember that?

(49:42):
That was the last time that wewere
I think all together wasn't it?
Was that trip? I mean reallykind of Brittany link Yeah,
time. Do you guys do any ofthose trips or to do that stuff
with people anymore? Do you guysjust do more of the family trips
and go do whatever we do. I meanwe always go once a year with
everybody You do?
It used to be we would go rent ahouse now we go camping. Okay

(50:12):
it's a little cheaper we didJulian I didn't go last year was
just like Justin Carey andAlicia cuz of COVID Okay, but
the year before Yeah.
We were a little cultus Wow. Andeverybody brought an RV or
trailer.

(50:33):
Well who the hell wants to sleepin a tent on the ground Dude,
seriously, it would take me Jessand Carrie went out and bought
an RV it would take me 45minutes to get off the ground
and I do. And I'm gonna say thisout loud. I do yoga, and it
would still take me 45 minutesto get this fucking broken ass
old body up off the floor.
Seriously. Oh my god, it wouldhave to be an RV or a camper or
some borrowed Steve's cab overnice. Oh, and knowing Steve Oh,

(50:57):
he bought that. Well, he boughtthe first one when I was still
living there. Because he boughtthat about a new gas truck and
had all the bells and whistleson it and he's upgraded it since
my in laws bring their fifthwheel their coach out every year

(51:18):
that income last year butthey've come every year, just
like they did in Bend but theycome here and they park in my
farm. I cut out a big area andwe're actually adding gravel to
it this year and I gave themhookups so they can hook up the
RV while they're there and theylive out of that thing just like
it's their Taj Mahal Palace butthey upgraded from they had a
mini Winnie kind of little onewhen they were coming to bend

(51:40):
and now they have one of the bigfancy
fourslide out monstered RVs thatterrify me that
that it's so big how they driveit and get it here but they do
every year that you know andthey're excited to come this
year. So it'll be it'll beinteresting. Have them again
this year. Yeah, we'rewe're already talking about what

(52:02):
we're going to do forthe camping trip this year.
Steve got Steve sold his camper.
So yeah, so what are you goingto do? The rent something? Well,
yeah, like the one 800 rv.
You better do it now becauseit's that was I was talking to,

(52:23):
again, we do RV space rentals atthe winery. It's they're not
really space rentals, but we dothis thing. It's called harvest
host. So they come they'reallowed to spend like two nights
is the kind of the expectationtwo or three nights they come no
hookups. But the expectation isthat they buy something from the

(52:43):
store or the winery or thewherever they're staying at
these different farms. It's kindof a cool deal. Right? So this
last summer, I was full everyday. For three months. Somebody
was in my parking lot everynight with an RV. Usually two or
three RVs took off this wholedeal because people thought well
the best way to go on vacationduring a pandemic is be self

(53:05):
sufficient. Makes sense. Thissummer is slated to be the same
way. And I was talking to someone of the guys was a national
RV retailer basically and saidthat stocking inventory last
summer it just evaporated itdidn't exist. It all sold
everything all back stock. Theyjust they couldn't build new
stuff fast enough. People werebuying up RVs like crazy RVs and

(53:29):
boats and mountain bikes wasanother one but boats up here
for us that was a huge one too.
There was no inventory youcouldn't buy a boat at all
anywhere has an inventory ofanything. Yeah, our our hot tub
broke.
Yeah. Which you know, was 25years old. So yeah, whatever
they want went out or whatever.

(53:51):
It wasn't the pump it it's likeoh, you know you watch those
cartoons and the big brotherdrove the car and then they
stopped in a fall apart that'swhat happened to that that was
no so we went out and got a newone.
And the soonest we could get oneis July

(54:16):
July as in February, July's andcoming up for the summer when
nobody wants a hot tub.
Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah, timehas been crazy. Like some of the
places were 1012 months out.
Yeah. backordered on parts.
That's been another big thingfor us is
like, even like the most randomthing you wouldn't even think

(54:38):
about that you need so you know,go to the hardware store and
like half of the stuffs gone offthe shelves even now and but get
on online and buying things thatwe need like, like few fuel
filters for one of the tractorsand not an it's not some super
specialized thing, but youcouldn't get them. So when they

(54:58):
came in, I bought enough soI had enough for a year. So the
people everybody starts doingthat, then all of a sudden, you
can never find anything anddefinitely part of the problem.
But it's it's really, you getkind of nervous when it's just
the most average of mundane,everyday things that there's a
bazillion of and now you can'tget it all of a sudden. I mean

(55:18):
toilet paper was whatever. Butlike when you can't buy a screw
or earn a certain nail, becausethere's a shortage on them
because of whatever it's like,it doesn't make any sense. It's
like, seriously, this is gettingJackson. Jackson had some
friends spend the night Fridaynight. They wanted burritos for
dinner.

(55:40):
So I went to the Mexican storewhere we always get our
tortillas. Because they havelike 18 inch tortillas. Sure.
They didn't have any she saidshe hasn't had any for six
months. Yeah. Can't get them.
You can't get them. That'sright. Well, you know, you back
up the Suez Canal. And then LongBeach harbor gets jammed up. And
most of all that stuff out ofChina, in Europe is sitting in

(56:01):
boats or containers, and theydon't have the people that
unload them. So that's part ofthe problem is the stuff is
there. They just can't get itinto the system. Which is crazy.
To just think about that alone.
But yeah, it's been some weirdsstuff. And that's what gets me
kind of more freaked out thananything is people are spending

(56:21):
money like crazy housing marketis on fire. people buying new
cars, they're spending moneylike crazy, but the economics
behind it don't make any sense.
Like, now I'm scratching my headsaying this just doesn't. How is
this happening this way? Weshould be in a full blown
recession right now. Ask me whatmy house is worth right now.
Depression. Oh, it's worth overa million bucks. Your house? No,

(56:42):
no. Well, I bribe 75. JesusChrist. So bought it 10 years
ago for 280. Yeah. Oh, yes. Doif I were to hold on to my house
that I Oh my god, I can't eventell what my house on the west
side. Shit, that thing was worth$1,000,000.15 years ago. And
what it's worth now I can't evenimagine. But that is happening

(57:05):
here too. Like, there was ahouse
that was built and it was abend. I call it a bend house.
It's like the only Craftsmanstyle house here that was brand
new build. And it was builtprobably 10 years ago here. And
it's sold for the first time for250,000. And I've been watching

(57:25):
this house randomly. It's soldfor 250 then went on the market
again and soldfor 250, then it sold for 350
like a year later than there wasa gap for a few years. And last
year, it sold for half a milliondollars and just went on the
market five days ago, and soldfor over 625,000 it wasn't even

(57:46):
on the market for days.
A house that was literally worth250,000 on a good day, in
normal, normal house times.
doesn't make any sense. Some ofour real estate. Here's like the
building, you know, it's acommercial building and a
commercial area downtownHistoric District.

(58:09):
My uncle sold his building,which is roughly the same size
for 400,000. And I'm guessing Icould turn and sell this thing
commercially right now for justshy of a million dollars. I
mean, it's just stupid money. Imean, and I don't know where
people have it or where it'scoming from. But again, it just
doesn't make sense. It's likehow is how is this? It just? I
don't know. I don't get it. I'mnot I understand. It's a worst

(58:32):
thing ever did was sell thathouse on the west side? Well,
who would have known back then?
Um, you know, I mean, seriously,even people that were paying
attention, I mean, I was what Isold that I was in my 20s I sold
the we bought it for 60,000 Ithink I sold it for 80,000
and then it's sold for it got abasic renovation. I don't think

(58:55):
it was a full gut or anything init. We hustled for half a
million and that was again like15 years ago over that. And I
think it's sold after that foreven more money and who knows
what it would be worth now. Afriend of mine that I worked
with Sarah Casson. She owns ahouse at the end of that street.
It was kitty corner of therestaurant. That breakfast joint

(59:17):
that was there the big one isit's all there aside. Is it
still open was still there. It'sgone now. Wow. It's a brewery
now. Really? I mean, that cafe Imean, they were always busy now
whatever. But she's got a housekitty corner to that and it's
got to be worth stupid money nowcuz she bought it back. When she
was 20 years old for I think shemight have paid 40 grand for it.

(59:41):
I mean, nothing. I mean, Aliciawas telling me her dad was being
crazy last week about his house,walking around and saying he's a
millionaire now because heappraised for just that crappy
house on the west side. That wasjust a basic dog turd is worth
over a million dollars. Now. Imean, granted, he renovated
Then the place is beautiful, I'msure from end to end, but wow,

(01:00:04):
it's just some wooden shingles.
I mean, seriously, what the hellis wrong with?
It's like I don't. Florida houseprices were like that they were
selling houses to go on themarket. And they'd have 60
offers for cash 100,000 overasking all day long. I mean, it
just I don't Yeah, it's wild. Idon't know. I don't get it, man.

(01:00:27):
I don't get it. So I'm waiting.
You know, when the kids aregone. I'm selling.
Where are you gonna go? Wherecan you afford? You can't afford
to stay in band. If you sell itganja. I can downgrade to like a
condo or a single level. Two orthree bedrooms. Yeah. Well,

(01:00:49):
isn't the idea. Yeah, yeah. Getget the kids out. And then
downgrade to one guestroom andthen they can never come back
home? Isn't that how you'resupposed to do that?
Yeah, I guess well, so. So me asI went to college, my parents
rented my room. That's right. Somy. So it sounds like Mia might
actually be moving out here thissummer. Her husband boyfriend

(01:01:13):
are talking about it activelyand talking to us about it quite
a bit. So I'm hopeful that thatwill happen. It'd be nice to
have the grandbaby here. That'llbe fun. So are they gonna move
out there permanently? Or justYes, summer No, move out. Yeah,
I mean, because it's just, youknow, she's such a, just have a
whole bunch of friends. Andshe's been basically raising him
and staying home and she's readyto not be home because this is

(01:01:36):
his first year he was in school.
And she's ready to just work andget out of the house. And I
think she realizes that there'sopportunity for her here with
the family business, like shecan't be involved with the
family business unless she'shere. And she sees her cousins
are all going to reap thosebenefits and she's going to be
the dumb one living in Bendbroke. And I think she thinks

(01:01:56):
that it maybe it makes sense tocome out and
maybe work in you know, juststart living again, instead of
just basically being a stay athome mom, which there's nothing
of course wrong with that. Andhe's ready to get out. I'll have
four young kids there, you canalmost open your own school.
That's right. Well, there youhave it, right. So I'm gonna

(01:02:19):
and he is I mean, he's a he's asalesman kind of guy. He's kind
of a go getter that way. Andthat's he's always been in
sales. And, you know, so he canpretty much work anywhere. And
he's looking for a change aswell. So I'm hoping that it
works out and that they come I'mnot holding my breath. Because,
you know, it's me as mo she'llget cold feet and be done and
not do it. SoI you know, and I compared in

(01:02:39):
compared to bend, it's a littlecheaper to live here.
Just a little bit. So I'm hopingthat that way, they can maybe
get a leg up, or at least have ashot at it. Because, yeah, you
know, it's expensive to liveanywhere. But it's definitely

(01:03:00):
they're having a I mean, they'vebeen okay, but it's not cheap to
live in Bend, as you know. Yeah.
So you don't if you don't ownyour own home and you're paying
rent, I can't imagine what likeapartment rental prices are in
Bend anymore. I've got to be inthe 1000 plus range for a small
little crappy nothing.
two bedrooms is about 1400bucks. God damn.

(01:03:23):
I mean, I remember reading thatwith with Mitch, that those
apartments were fully furnished,fully furnished two bedroom
apartments. I don't think wewere paying 600 a month, maybe
650. By 50 or 650 a month forthose places. The only thing
that we're missing with regardto MTV.

(01:03:45):
Those were over the you know,the first house, Julie and I
rented was 400 a month. But onthe west side, wasn't it? That
the Yeah, that kind of in smalland narrow. It have you guys had
a fire in there. Right.
And when we were moving in Yeah,the kitchen. That's right.
Right. There was a box.

(01:04:06):
Right?
Remember that now? Oh, my God.
Well, you know, she thoughtabout it better. She could have
burned up all your comic booksin one fell swoop and been done
with it to saying, Yeah, but youdid it. Yeah. And I regret to
have four long boxes. I bet youdo. And I regret. Well, I Well,
I'm happy that they went toJustin but I regret getting rid

(01:04:29):
of all the comic books that Ihad at the time.
And not that I know what I woulddo with them now but I kind of
miss them and I'm sure they'relong since gone. Although I
don't know what he's. I don'tthink Justin captain. No. Who
knows what he did with anything.
He still has that big assbasement though. full of stuff,
I'm sure now was my big assbasement. It was your big ass

(01:04:51):
basement.
And then you guys swappedhouses, right? Because they were
in your house right? They ownthat house.
And they didn't like theneighbors didn't Lana? Right. Is
that what it was? Right? Theywere fighting they were they
were renting it.
Really? I thought they boughthouses or they were living in

(01:05:14):
the house on eighth Street.
Yep. Right. Justin's firsthouse.
Right? Yeah. Then they movedover here. Right? they'd only
been here for about a year.
They didn't like theneighborhood. That's right. What
you're right. They were toouppity, too uppity to normal, or

(01:05:34):
whatever, to move people intheir business telling him to
put the trash cans away andhandle it. Which of course,
doesn't settle well with any ofus. But yeah, he they weren't
liking that. I remember thatnow. So they swapped with you,
basically. Well, they boughtyour house from you. And you
guys bought that one, whichseemed to make more sense at the
time, butand they still have it right.

(01:05:55):
Probably the same backyard. Samehave they done anything to that
house? I mean, I don't thinkthat they had added a Jacuzzi.
Oh, okay.
And they always have big plans,but never really do anything.
Got it. Okay. Yeah, well, it iswhat it is, I suppose. You know,
it's a good size house for justthe two of that holy well, and

(01:06:18):
with a full basement I meanthat. Yeah, I because it's if it
was three bedroom, right, threebedrooms down that hallway or
two, three bedroom, threebedrooms. three bedroom, one
bath. One and a half. Right.
Because the half bath was offthe kitchen. Right? On the right
side of the house. Right. Yeah.

(01:06:38):
And then there was a bathroomdownstairs in the basement.
Okay, that's right. Which waskind of half remodeled sort of
by remember right.
And then there was a walkout inthe basement to go up the stairs
into the backyard. And then youhad that weird game room that he
continued keeping a weird likeDungeons and Dragons room or

(01:06:59):
whatever. In the corner there soI don't know how to even use it
anymore. Carrie uses the tospare bedrooms and
Xbox upstairs right he'sprobably got she's probably got
our office is one of thebedrooms now cuz she's gonna be
working from Yeah, right.

(01:07:21):
Well, Charlie's head it was likeone was an office the other was
like all her belly dancingstuff. Oh, yeah. So is she still
valid? No now to damage done ina couple years.
right cuz you guys were allhanging out with them Quinn too

(01:07:41):
for a while, right? They werekind of they were hanging out
and around and her husband. Theystill
didn't see him. They were coolpeople. I didn't get to know
them very well. Butyeah, they were seemed like
really cool people. And thenand you know who I've been
talking to at least on Facebooklately and kind of paying more
attention to his gland all of asudden, he's been. I've been

(01:08:03):
seen him in my feed all the timenow. And it just right. Like,
all of a sudden he was gone andkind of doing his own thing. And
now he's kind of just I'm notdirectly talking to him, but
he's like, I see him on Facebookalmost every day, it seems.
Yeah, it's just kind of weird.
is on Facebook a lot. I think. Ithink it's because his daughter

(01:08:25):
is old enough that she'sactually in school. Okay, right.
Because he got married. They hadan they had a baby.
Oh, that's crazy. Yeah. And he'sliving in Redmond. Is that
right? He wasn't in Bendanymore. If I
came buzzy, were that Redmond orMadras? Wow. Her family's all in

(01:08:47):
Mount Madras. That's right.
Yeah, yeah, no, I rememberthat's he went to Madras for the
wedding. Wow. Right. I we weregone by then.
Yeah, yeah, that was all happenafter we left and
and so that was kind it's kindof neat to be seeing him he's
aging very gracefully he's avery good looking

(01:09:09):
he's kind of got that GQ olddude luck going on now. Yeah,
Always. Always been that guy. Iknow I am.
Sure, man, I'll tell you why.
Butoh man, so everything going are
you are you just kind of takinga break? Are you looking for a
job? Are you gonna stay in theindustry and stay a teacher?

(01:09:31):
What are you going to do whenyou grow up? I guess
really decided Yeah, I mean, cuzyou did say that I want to teach
anymore. I'm kind of burned out.
Well, and you've been doinglike, not mainstream teaching
because you've always kind ofhad you know, you were at the
youth you're with the girlschool. Right? And then before

(01:09:53):
that you were you had been doingthe Youth Challenge stuff, right
freakin ever. I know you hadsomething in between there too,
but It's been always alternativeeducation stuff.
I mean, would you know, ofworking with broken people?
Yeah. Well, yeah, I can tell youfrom experience, it's
a kid the joke has always beenor has been for a while now that

(01:10:15):
I spent 15 years getting kidssober and I'll spend the rest of
my life getting adults drunk.
They're kind of easier to dealwith.
And easier to deal with. So it'sa Yeah, it's interesting.
Getting people drunk is wayeasier than getting kids sober
that Yeah, and and nowadays, andI'm gonna this totally makes me

(01:10:36):
sound old. But holy crap.
They're screwed up wicked. Like,it's it's really heartbreaking.
To see kids. Yeah, what they'regoing through anymore nowadays.
It's so it seems so much morescrewed up than we were. Yeah.
Well, right. So perceptionchanges in age and time Ray, and
I still hang out. No, you know,two of the therapists that I

(01:11:00):
work with closely at Sage walk.
Hismother has a place here in the
1000 Islands. So up until lastsummer, they I'd seen them we'd
had dinner with these guys andseeing them every year since
we've been here. They come upbecause they spend a week here
on vacation. And so I've gottenthis kind of stay tied into that
world and the people that I knewthere, and they're all still

(01:11:23):
doing the same thing, just butthose programs have just
modified and changed how theywork with kids based on kind of
the norm of society. Right?
Whatever is acceptable anymore.
I actually applied for one outhere.
It's called college Excel. Yeah.
is there's a college Excel therenow? Yeah. Well, they're owned

(01:11:47):
by are they independent? Arethey owned by another company or
bigger healthcare company? Doyou know? I have no idea. Oh,
well, that would beOh, yeah. It wouldn't be too far
out of what you have been doingon whatever level so
maybe you couldcall his Pegasus books still

(01:12:09):
downtown?
Yeah, it really is still in thesame spot. same spot. So I'm by
Duncan, really still working inthere?
Yeah, you could go work there.
That'd be your dream job.
It might not be in the bills,though.
Yeah, he started writing a blog.
Okay. Now seven or eight yearsago that kind of took off?

(01:12:33):
Really? He got kind of famous inthe industry for his blog, in
the comic book industry.
Yeah. What's the blog about?
What's he doing?
About comic books in a way incomic book store in a small
town?
Wow. Well, that is I was askingmy wife and I were talking about

(01:12:55):
it. Laura and I were talking toMike, I wonder if it's still
there. You know, I mean,the real estate alone is gotta
be worth stupid money. But yeah,that comic book store had been
there forever. When I moved toBen, in 92. And 92. It had been
there must have been there. 10years at that point. Easy. And
is it still dark and packed fullof stuff? I mean, I remember it

(01:13:19):
just always be in just full Imean, full full, it's worse,
worse.
He started doing used books.
Okay, so he has books in thereand comics? And can you still
have your your box, your weeklybox or month, whatever it is
where you go pick up yourcomics? Now, I haven't done one

(01:13:39):
of those in a long time.
I found it easier to justcollect
the graphic novels instead ofthe individual issues, because
it's all there. Yeah. So I wentinto a comic book store when I
was down in Florida, and Ihadn't been in one in 10 years.

(01:13:59):
And I happened to be this comicbookstore did game night, where
you can rent the tables and goplay d&d, or whatever. And it
wasreally funny to walk in there
and see that unfolding in frontof me, where you got, you know,
14 year old nerds hanging outwith 50 year old nerds, all with
T shirts that are too small, andlots of butt cracks and pizza

(01:14:22):
and soda pop. And it's like timehas stood still in doing that.
And I just kind of chuckled andwalk through and ended up buying
I think two or three graphicnovels because I was like, you
know, I gottado something on the drive home
because I was thinking Lori wasgoing to drive home and I didn't
want to be on my phone the wholetime or whatever. So I bought a

(01:14:43):
couple and and started lookingthrough them and the artwork is
absolutely still just so kind ofyou forget about it. When you're
away from it and coming back andlooking at it. It's like God,
damn, I mean, just alone.
Thethe quality of the art is just
on spiring and yeah, I was happyto I bought it was I bought

(01:15:07):
Constantine What else did I getsomething else random
I don't even remember what itwas now but it was really cool
to just look flipped through andand a few years back Lori got me
the The Walking Dead series, thegraphic novel the big ones the
five series or four series aboutYeah, that are like three inches

(01:15:29):
thick each. And I haven't gottenthrough all of those and I have
them on my shelf in here andDamn, I mean that's another one
that was just really kind of youjust can't you forget, you know?
because everything's on yourcomputer now.
Right here I am in technologyheaven and Kenner Star Wars toys
from 1978 all in the same room.

(01:15:53):
Oh, you know, it's good to havethat stuff. Yeah, indeed. I'm,
you know, I could never affordit when I was younger and wanted
it and have had the opportunityto we do a flea market every
Sunday at the winery. And thatgets me in trouble.
Because also now now the Junkersknow what I like to and they buy
it and bring it and expect me tobuy it.

(01:16:14):
A couple weeks ago, Harrison wasout with his friends. Yeah. And
you know, there's nothing to door to do in Bend. Everything's
closed. Right? So they wouldwalk around Walmart. Okay. And
he calls me and he says,Do you want a those with those
big headed?

(01:16:38):
figures? A pop? Yeah. Yeah.
I said, Well, who is it?
It's john McClane.
He didn't even ever that was DieHard.
Oh my god. I said sure. So hebought me a john McClane doll
and he's got his gun. His wifebeater tank da. Bear fee? Yeah.

(01:17:03):
Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah,those are awesome. Yeah, I
didn't realize that those.
Laurie realized it before me. Ihad no clue how popular they had
gotten in how like, I mean,people go crazy collecting super
rare ones. And it just likeanything. I could go off the
freakin deep end. But yeah, Ihad no idea that that was the
thing.
I don't want you know, I'm old.
I don't pay attention closelyanymore. I have to. You have to.

(01:17:26):
I have Tom McLean. Yeah. And IBatman. Oh, that makes sense.
I'm trying to think I don'tthink I Oh, I think she did by
me one. I think I have one ortwo in the other room that
haven't made it in here on ashelf yet. But I'm because I'm
kind of out of space. Really.

(01:17:47):
Julie has Wonder Woman andsomebody from Game of Thrones.
Wow. Yeah, I had no idea thatthose would become this crazy
popular thing. So whatever gotto be kind of outdated on
something I suppose. So yeah.
Wow. Nuts.

(01:18:10):
Well, dude, I gotta go eatdinner.
Sorry, dinner. It was goodseeing you.
You gotta you got to not beafraid to call me. I'm just
saying.
Just Just not afraid to callyou. Did you never do. You never
write you never call. You nevercall me. You never said Did I
not text you on your birthday?
You did?

(01:18:31):
You did? I'll give it that. I'llgive you that. I mean, I'd say
in this last six months. On mybirthday.
Yeah. Did you know?
My phone? Said Happy birthday onFacebook. Well, so that counts
these days. Dude, that istotally legitimate. Happy
birthday. Seriously. So I didsend you a message. And then how

(01:18:55):
can I forget that Justin'sbirthday when that was until he
sent me a message?
It's the same fucking day, isn'tit? Yeah. It says what? It's a
Marvel thing. Yeah, it's amonth.
Right? The 19th? No, we're thesame day. Yeah, but he's he's
me. He'sHe's me. Right. Exactly a month
different. He's may night. Yeah.

(01:19:16):
Yeah.
Right. Because he's made Julie'smade. Jackson's been Alicia's
man. Like, we would always throwone party and we just keep
having more may people allright, April, May people. That's
right. It was kind of the startoff, isn't it? Laurie? May? She
is may 5. Cinco de Mayo. Yeah,yeah. So she would start we

(01:19:37):
would start off with mybirthday, I think was kind of
the start of the birthdayseason. I don't remember how
that worked. But yeah, are theywe seem to all be kind of
together. So cool.
So um,so next time I make you come on
the podcast and torture you. Wehave to pick a topic. So I'm
gonna let you think about that.

(01:19:58):
Okay. And we can do that.
I want to talk about the factthat
of the three new release moviesI've watched this year. Yeah.
One of them was Godzilla.
And then auto combat. Which onemore Mortal Kombat?

(01:20:18):
That's not out yet. Is it? Thenew Mortal Kombat movie comes
out on Friday. Oh, God onFriday. That's right. Yeah.
We can definitely do movies inthe last two months. I've seen
movies that I watched 40 yearsago. Yeah, yeah, remix. Yes. We
can do that. Let's get we'llschedule a time. After that
comes out. Let's schedule a timeafter that comes out. And I'll

(01:20:40):
make sure I'll make sure I watchit obviously. And, and we'll sit
down with HBO Yeah, right. I HBOmax the same day that it comes
out in the theaters now we canwatch the shit at home, which I
like. Personally, I love that.
And we will schedule the timeand we'll sit down and we'll go
We'll do a movie review on thenversus now. So you're gonna have

(01:21:00):
to watch the old one to justsaying. So to download it.
Figure out where it is. TheGodzilla on I didn't watch the
whole thing. I got distracted.
Okay, watch Godzilla vsqinggong. I didn't watch the
whole thing. I got distractedhalfway through to like my phone
ring or something happened. Igotta go back and watch it
again. But it was pretty damngood. I mean, you know, I

(01:21:21):
enjoyed it. Yeah, I mean, Iremember watching the original
one. I must have been five orsix. Saturday afternoon, right.
KTLA channel five at La.
Southern California shout andthey both go off a cliff and you
see King Kong swimming away inthe ocean and no Godzilla.

(01:21:43):
Right.
I'll have to go watch thatagain. Because I don't remember
the ending, Really? Butyeah, well, let's do that. I
want to do that one with you.
Because that sounds like a lotof fun. And it'll give us an
excuse to talk regularly, whichI want to start doing with you
anyway. So totally. Thank youfor coming on in. We got to get

(01:22:05):
you on a laptop. Cuz I'm gettingfreakin drunk watching you. We
got to get you more on somethingelse here. It it wouldn't matter
if I was on a laptop. I'm stillbe going to be bouncing.
I just stopped watching you onthe video then.
Alright, brother, well have awonderful evening. And we'll
talk soon and get to. And Iwould say hey, give out your

(01:22:28):
socials and what you're doing.
But you don't have a podcast orany socials or anything weird
where you want people you don'tknow to start stalking you.
So if you want to hear me, Jasonand Tony's conversations, then
just listen to my damn podcasts.
Don't bother Jason at home. He'sgonna weird like that. So.
Alright, brother. I'll talk toyou soon. Have a wonderful
evening.

(01:22:49):
All right, you too, buddy. Okay,bye. Bye. Bye.
All right, so you just got tolisten to me sit and chat with
my buddy Jason Laue from theolden days. And you'll hear more
from, from Jason and myself incoming episodes. And thanks for
listening. You guys have been agreat audience. Peace.

(01:23:15):
Thanks for listening to the GenX perspective by Tony Randazzo,
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(01:23:35):
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