From Joann's Fabrics to the USPS: Navigating Change in America's Institutions

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What happens when a seemingly simple fabric store closure ripples through the trucking industry? This week on The Outer Belt, Patrick, Vince, Buttermilk, Eric, and Jerry dive into the unexpected domino effect of Joann's Fabrics going out of business. Their closure creates a surprising challenge for truck maintenance – where will companies source the specialized vinyls needed for seat repairs when online color matching remains frustratingly unreliable?

The conversation flows naturally into an exploration of another American institution facing transformation: the United States Postal Service. As email has replaced letters and online payments have eliminated mailed checks, the USPS continues searching for financial stability. The hosts share fascinating insights about recent service changes affecting rural communities and debate whether the postal service will survive long-term. Their discussion reveals how deeply mail service has woven itself into American culture – from the community connections with local mail carriers to nostalgic traditions like chain letters and physical birthday cards.

Along the way, the conversation meanders through delightful cultural touch points, including Conan O'Brien's Oscar hosting performance, the death of physical media like cassette tapes, and favorite TV shows for long-haul drives. Throughout it all runs a common thread: how digital transformation continues reshaping American institutions, traditions, and daily life – especially for those in the trucking industry who witness these changes while traversing the nation's highways.

Whether you're a trucker looking for practical industry insights or simply enjoy authentic conversations about American life in transition, this episode delivers with humor, heart, and unexpected connections. Join us on The Outer Belt, where the roads may be long, but the conversations make the journey worthwhile.

Ready to connect with us? Email [e-mail] or call 833-HYFIELD to share your thoughts or learn about joining our team.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay, say it again, I just caught that.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hey everybody, welcome to the Outer Belt.
I'm Patrick and you're all myfriends, shirley Buttermilk,
eric, zucca, d-bread and Jerry.
Oh man, what a show, what ashow.
We got a great one for youtonight.
We're going to be talking aboutall the things you're not
supposed to talk about, like theages of women.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
No no.

Speaker 4 (00:33):
Skip.
Yeah, you don't ask women herage.
Come on, you know that, patrick, why not?
Even Jerry knows that.
Weight, age and religionExactly, just don't mess with it
.
I wonder what Zucchini Breadwould say.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Oh, but she's not here, she can't give her opinion
.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Exactly, exactly, exactly.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
She's leaving me hanging, the only woman to fight
this cause.
I know I don't care if peopleask me my age.
It's not a big deal.

Speaker 4 (00:56):
How old are you?

Speaker 3 (00:57):
I am 49 and I'll In the fall.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Really.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
Yes, sir.

Speaker 4 (01:04):
Oof-ah.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Oof-ah.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Time for a trade-in Speaking of trade-ins.

Speaker 4 (01:11):
I forgot you could hear me in your headphones.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
It's too late for the warranty.
Wow, wow.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
Yes, it's the last year of the infamous 2-2.
Year 11.
That's awesome, going outstrong.
Yes, it's the last year of theinfamous tutu Year 11.
That's awesome Going out strong.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
I love it.
You got your fabrics, your tool.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
No, my dress comes in this week.
I'm so excited because, well,some of you may know, joanne's
fabric is going out of business.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
So you're excited.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
No, I'm excited that the dress is coming in so that I
can go match material andhopefully get a discount.
Yes, Because I don't know howelse to match colors online.
Because I don't know if you'veever shopped for color-y things
online.
But the little square they giveyou online doesn't always look
like what you get in the mail.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yes, I have noticed that there's actually a very
cool YouTube channel thatservants a lot.

Speaker 4 (02:08):
There is a very cool YouTube channel.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
That we watch.
That talks about this verything?
Yes, it does.
And the Patagonia colors,what's it called?

Speaker 4 (02:19):
Pantone.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
Pantone the.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Pantone, which to me sounds like a cool 1950s record
label.
It does it does it really does,or?

Speaker 1 (02:27):
the Pentatonix.
Is that what you're thinking of?
No, no.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
I'm thinking of, like it's the Weezers on Pantone
Records.
Notice the disc it's greennumber seven.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
So yes, there's.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
Half as Interesting H-A-I Half as Interesting on
YouTube.
We talked with them last weektoo.

Speaker 4 (02:47):
We can't discuss them again this week, can we?

Speaker 3 (02:49):
I don't think they're sponsoring the show but anyway,
yes.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
But if you'd like to, you can subscribe to Nebula.
Yeah, exactly Nothing but loveto y'all.
We love your stuff.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
Just want the outfit to come in so I can hopefully go
get some material beforeJoanne's completely clears out
some of their stores.
There's two that I have in mind.
Third is a backup.
There are five in our general40-mile radius.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
I'd like to not go to all five to find all the
material I need.
Have you been to them?

Speaker 3 (03:21):
lately I've not.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
I'm curious how thinned out they're getting.
My plan is and I probablyshould do this tomorrow honestly
so in our trucks, the seatmanufacturers or not seat
manufacturers, the sleepermanufacturers.
Yes, they do like the customupholstery and they use these
leathers and vinyls, and theonly real place to get them

(03:42):
locally is Jo-Ann Fabrics.
Yeah, and so so like if we havea seat come back and it's
ripped or something, we're ableto go over there, get a matching
vinyl and fix it.
Sometimes you've done full-onum upholstery changes.
Right like you completely, havere-wrapped all of it and make it
look great.
Um and so this is like thatwe're losing this ability.

(04:06):
So we brainstormed the otherday at your house and kind of
decided let's go buy up theremainder of the vinyls yes, the
basic colors, the core colors,so colors cream, gray and black
are kind of the core colors thatwe use on those seats.
My thought was and I think Ishould do this tomorrow, yeah,

(04:29):
so hopefully, when you'rehearing this it's done is, if
you give me the numbers, I'll gohit all five stores and come
back with, you know, bulk, bulkvinyl, so that over the next,
you know, six months, we aregood to go.
Can I interject?

Speaker 4 (04:46):
No, I'm going to, because we just did a truck a
couple weeks ago.
I want credit for this too,because I helped her.
It wasn't just a buttermilkproject.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
It was a buttermilk and chili project.
You're a great stapler.

Speaker 4 (04:59):
I am a great stapler.
I've heard stories.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
I've heard stories of your stapling.
You're not allowed in staplesanymore, not on wood.
He hasn't got my finger.
You have to shop at office, maxand office depot staples I'm
just too good for.

Speaker 4 (05:12):
They got jealous.
They did my skills um, andwe're.
We're getting this fabric thelast time.
And she says to me should webuy, like this whole thing?
Because this was when therewere just rumors of stores
closing, it hadn't beenofficially announced.
And I looked at her and I saidhow often do we do this?
When's the last time we didthis?
A year and a half, two yearsago?

Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah, it's not common .

Speaker 4 (05:35):
We're going to be okay, they're built.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
well, it's not super common.

Speaker 4 (05:37):
We're going to be okay, and then, a week later, we
have another one.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
We have another one, yes.

Speaker 4 (05:43):
And I told her not to buy the extra fabric, and now
you're telling her to buy theextra fabric and I'm like, from
now on, just ask Patrick.

Speaker 3 (05:50):
No, and I agreed with you too, because it had been so
long and again at the time thatthat had happened that we had
our discussion.
We did not know that they weregoing out, but the lady in the
store told us that they weren'tordering more vinyl, like
everything was on hold.

Speaker 4 (06:05):
You can kind of get a vibe, they had stopped ordering
and then, when they wereallowed to order again, the
manufacturer didn't have whatthey needed.
What they needed, yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
So that's when I told vince maybe we should buy up,
and he and he's like well again,when's it been?
it's hard to match fabricsbecause it is you know we went a
completely different color onthe last one but it goes with
the theme of the truck.
Um, so we're matching the restof the fabric styles in the
truck.
But it's just really hard and,like you said, how long it had,

(06:38):
how long had it been since thelast one.
And it made sense.
But then when that next onecame the following week, and
then their notice of bankruptcyand closing stores and I was
like I don't know where we'regoing to, maybe a marina boat,
maybe they'll sell us a coupleyards of their fabric, like I

(06:58):
don't know where else to goonline.
But again there's that tutudilemma that I was just talking
about.
But again there's that 2-2dilemma that I was just talking
about.
How do you match color from asquare pixel on an iPad or a
laptop or computer?
It's so hard to tell what colorYou're like.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
Okay, so my iPhone it looks like this.
On my iPad it looks like this.
On the computer it looks likethat, but if I pull up the
Windows computer it looks likethis Totally different.

Speaker 5 (07:24):
And if I cast it to the television, which one of
these do you think it is?
The answer is none.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
You order cream, it comes back.
Banana yellow.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
I'm nervous.
Numbers associated with thecolors.

Speaker 4 (07:38):
Well, Pantone does, but you have to license the
Pantone number from Pantone inorder to publicize it.

Speaker 3 (07:44):
And fabric doesn't come on the backside of the
fabric that says Pantone, colornumber, whatever, no, it comes
back like Jim Bob's vinyl,exactly 722.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
And then you have to cross-reference it If you ever
go to Napa to cross-reference afilter?
It's cross-referenced from themanufacturer to Wix W-I-X, which
is a filter company.

Speaker 5 (08:07):
I know it's a computer thing, y'all are
confused.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
But to Napa Gold, to Die Hard, to Binford Tools, to
Craftsman's Executive Series, toCraftsman's Basic Series, to
the one you want.
And throughout that process itchanges ever so slightly.

Speaker 4 (08:23):
So by the time you get it you're like well this is
not what I ordered, and it couldbe that Jim Bob's vinyl has
created a whole different namefor that color.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
Absolutely, and it's you know, Martha's Kitchen
Purple.

Speaker 4 (08:34):
Yes.

Speaker 5 (08:35):
Right, yes.

Speaker 4 (08:36):
Well, you can't find Martha's Kitchen Purple anywhere
, because it's licensed strictlyor it's copyrighted or
trademarked by Jim Bob's vinyland it just throws a whole
wrench in the works.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
So we found these fabrics at work.
That's why I'm thinking Justbuy them.

Speaker 3 (08:51):
We can go, that'd be easy.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
I pop into the store.
I want this.
What do you want?

Speaker 3 (08:56):
The whole scheme, everything you have left.
And then they go and theymeasure it.
They call it a.
Oh on those, I don't know whatthey call them.

Speaker 5 (09:05):
Because it's a roll.
It's a roll.

Speaker 3 (09:06):
It's not like fabric, where they call it a bolt.

Speaker 5 (09:08):
Jerry, you were going to say, I was just going to ask
have you tried any other storeslike Michael's or anything?

Speaker 3 (09:12):
They don't have vinyl .

Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yeah, and the thing with they don't have a lot of
those fabrics are UV protected.

Speaker 4 (09:28):
Right, so inexpensive .

Speaker 2 (09:30):
It's very similar to.
You know, I can't think of whatit's called Witness protection.

Speaker 4 (09:38):
Right.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
Yeah, but UV protection is for the UVs, not-.

Speaker 4 (09:44):
It's protecting the UVs.
It's protecting the UVs Well,actually from the UVs.
Yes, so it's not at all like it.
No, it's different.
That was a bad, terribleanalogy.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
Bad Patrick, Sorry.
So yeah, a lot of that stufflike Sunbrella and all that.
It's great.
So in the back of my house Ihave a couch that's sitting in
direct sunlight Bad afternoonsun, it's just, it's the worst
thing you could possibly.

Speaker 5 (10:09):
Scorching, scorching.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
It's the worst thing you'd possibly want for outdoor
furniture.
You'd never do this, but I havea couch out there, like an
outdoor couch, sofa, whateverit's called, and the fabrics on
it are sombrillo.
They look dead on the exactsame way they do when I bought
the couch seven years ago.

Speaker 3 (10:29):
Right.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
You go buy something from Walmart and put it out
there Without it, you know, acouple years in the sun it's
bleached.

Speaker 5 (10:35):
It looks totally different.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
So Sunbrella is a big maker of that kind of vinyl
fabric and all that stuff.
It's just way overkill becauseour trucks the vinyls are inside
they don't need any protection.

Speaker 3 (10:48):
I don't know what the so it makes it drastically more
affordable.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
So, yeah, I agree, I want to go up and work with you
and get those numbers and then,I'll go do the rounds while
you're on phone calls.

Speaker 5 (11:01):
It wouldn't hurt also just to ask them whenever you
go.
Maybe they can give you hintsor places that you could order
online or that you could checkout other stores that might work
too.

Speaker 3 (11:11):
You know, maybe we can take QR codes or your
supplier.
Absolutely, get themanufacturer and reach out to
the manufacturer.

Speaker 4 (11:20):
They probably won't sell you small quantities, but
they might tell you where elsethey sell it Absolutely, and
they're like you're in tell youwhere else they sell it
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
You're in luck, we sell it right there in Nashville
.
Oh, that's super close Nowlosing joint fabrics is a tough
blow.

Speaker 3 (11:38):
It's a blow.
I don't go often, but once ayear, but when I go I spend a
lot of money.
Several hundred dollars to makethese tutus and I'm very sad to
see them go.
Well, if you shop more often.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
You don't do enough crafts, so for me it's really
brutal.
You could say so for me inBaton Rouge.
My mom, she, was a seamstress,and so as a little kid I would
get dragged around to all thesefabric stores small independent
fabric stores, none of which arestill there because it's hard

(12:16):
to be a small independentanything.

Speaker 4 (12:17):
These days.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
We'd go to all these fabric stores and we used to go
to a place called Cloth World.
I remember them.

Speaker 3 (12:23):
Yeah, was there a place called Cloth World I
remember them?

Speaker 2 (12:25):
Yeah, was there a place called House of Fabrics?
There was a place called Houseof Fabrics, but not in Baton.

Speaker 4 (12:30):
Rouge.
We didn't have one.
That's where my mom went allthe time.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
Yes, and so we went to Cloth World and then one day
they were taking the sign downand they were putting a brand
new sign up, Joanne Fabrics.
And we're like what is Joanne?

Speaker 4 (12:45):
Like y'all got bought out.
Who is this, joanne lady?

Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yeah, like y'all got bought out and they're like we
were actually bought out likefive or six years ago.
We're just now getting aroundto changing the sign out.
Wow, it took them that long, butlike it was a place I went to
literally every week for as longas I can remember my childhood
and I remember I bought Pufkinsthere.

(13:08):
I don't know if Pufkins theywere very similar to Beanie
Babies.
It was a whole fad that wasgoing on back then.
I remember it was one ofMelissa's, my sister's, one of
her first places to go apply fora job and go and do that with
her and just all theseexperiences.
I have all this memory, allthis Americana kind of feelings
towards it.
It's not a place I shop now,but seeing it go it's a little

(13:32):
sad.

Speaker 3 (13:33):
It's a little like a piece of my mom is kind of
eroding away.
I did two Christmasesback-to-back in my childbearing
raising years One I did apronsfor both the adults and the
children, so it was like aChristmas my childbearing
raising years and one I didaprons oh yes, for both the
adults and the children.

Speaker 2 (13:51):
So it was like a Christmas present, so I did go
buy.
Were the children tripping onthem.
No aprons, aren't they long?
No, I made children's size.
I made children's size aprons,but they were matching and they
matched the family's.

Speaker 3 (13:59):
you know the family crest, not necessarily size
aprons, but they were matchingand they matched the family's,
you know.

Speaker 4 (14:04):
The family crest.

Speaker 3 (14:06):
Not necessarily the family crest, but like what the
family was interested in.
I think I did cats on one.
There was cats on one of theaprons and things like that.
And then the next big project Idid where I had to go to
Joanne's was I did tie blankets.
So it's two pieces of the heavyfleece material and you could
get really, you know, dialedinto what people liked.

(14:28):
I know, with the boys I did onewith like a football theme on
one side and their favoritecolor, you know, camouflage on
the other, because they havethat type of material.
And so basically you're justtaking two pieces of fleece and
putting them together.
It's no sew and you just tiethem together.
And that was really importantto me.
So again, I have shopped overthe years at Joann's in my last,

(14:50):
again, 11 years.
It's only been once a year forthe two-two, but they've always
had what I need, you know, andI'm very sad to see them go.

Speaker 2 (14:59):
I understand a lot of people are buying online.

Speaker 3 (15:03):
I don't know how they're matching fabric colors.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
Well, that's the thing.
They're not just a fabric store, they really are a craft store.
They are.
They have beads and everythingyeah they have a huge fabric
selection, but they really are acraft store.
Yeah, and Michaels, and reallyI mean the Gauntlets Hobby Lobby
, right.
Yeah, they just do everythingelse so much bigger and nicer

(15:28):
and better, and then the rest ofit you can buy on Amazon, yeah,
so it's a tough space to befighting in.
And if you want to save money,you can buy it at Walmart Like
they have.

Speaker 3 (15:39):
so much, or the Dollar Tree or wherever else.
Oh, that's right, dollar Treehas a lot of that stuff.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
Yeah, yeah, I remember going there quite a few
times too.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
Well, speaking of going out of business, what do
you think about the post officegoing out of business?
Do you think it's going tohappen?

Speaker 2 (15:51):
It's not going to happen.

Speaker 3 (15:51):
I saw an article.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
I did too.
It's not going to happen, andhere's why I don't think the
post office is going Because itis a US government-owned branch.
It is, However.

Speaker 4 (16:07):
It is completely independent financially.
Is it Air quotes for thoselistening.

Speaker 2 (16:15):
So if you know anything about the post office,
they haven't made money whichthey're not supposed to make
money, they're not supposed tono.
But they haven't paid their ownbills in a long, long time.
They have been consistently.

Speaker 3 (16:30):
Probably didn't back on the horse and pony day either
.
Huh, they did.
There was a time.
There was a time, sure, therewas a time.

Speaker 2 (16:36):
Sure Jerry was very young.

Speaker 5 (16:39):
No, it was 1892.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
No, there was a time that they were not so bad off,
and really the modern age ofcomputers and email have just
wreaked havoc on them Sure.
For the past couple decades it'sbeen a while Someone's going to
fact check and be like ithasn't been 20 years, it's been
17.
Whatever.

(17:04):
But for a while they've beenlosing money like crazy and, uh,
we've been bailing them out andhelping them out and all this
stuff.
But, um, they are their own,self-funded, just like amtrak
self-funded, uh, entity that'sair quotes for those of you that
are listening on the podcastyes, pure sarcasm, uh.
And so they have had to modifyand change with the times.

(17:26):
So, if you look back in 2013,the usps was trying to eliminate
saturday delivery.
Uh, they fought that battleuntil 2016, 2017 and they
finally gave up because congresswouldn't let them.
They tried so hard and theycouldn't get it approved.
Um, so us they've been tryingto find ways to cut services and

(17:47):
or make more money.
Their one-day packages I'mtrying to remember, I think
one-day overnight service is nowa FedEx product.
So if you go into the postoffice, I think under one-day it
actually says FedEx, right?

Speaker 1 (18:00):
Or something.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
There's something like there's a partnership with
FedEx, where FedEx handles it,so USPS doesn't handle the
overnight stuff anymore, likethey used to Vince Amazon.
They were doing somethingspecial with them, right.

Speaker 4 (18:16):
Yeah, the post office was doing last mile delivery,
basically, where Amazon woulddeliver packages to the post
office and then the post officewould deliver them all the time
really.
But they also did it onSaturdays and Sundays delivered
parcels which they weren'tdelivering mail, but they were
delivering Amazon parcels.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
That was a big deal because they didn't work on
Sundays.
Right, exactly, not working onSundays.

Speaker 4 (18:39):
And then Amazon, once they got their own fleet up and
running they stopped using thepost office for deliveries.

Speaker 2 (18:46):
Yeah, so the post office has been in some form of
turmoil for a while now.
And they're really trying tofigure everything out and become
profitable again.
I had a family member thatworked for the post office and
they were talking about howAmazon and these other companies
were complaining, because theywanted to know when a package

(19:06):
was delivered at your house.
They could send you an emailimmediately saying your package
has been delivered.
I mean, I love it because I getthat email and it shows me a
picture.
So, like on my street where Ilive, sometimes they'll put the
package at my neighbor's houseor there's another address about
half a mile from me.
That's similar so they'llsometimes put it over there, so

(19:27):
that picture helps outtremendously.
If I don't recognize my frontdoor, wrong house.
And my uncle was like so dothey want us to scan every item?
Like blowing his mind,ridiculous level.
How could that possibly happen?
But UPS and FedEx and nowAmazon have been doing that for

(19:48):
a long time Long time.

Speaker 5 (19:50):
They've had that feature for a long time.

Speaker 2 (19:52):
So I kind of feel like they've been a little
behind the times.
Plus, I mean, with emails, youwould think like, oh well,
there's less mail going throughthe mail system, so it should be
more efficient, right, becausethere's a smaller quantity,
right, it should be easier tohandle.
Sure, but what happened is theylost all that revenue.

Speaker 4 (20:12):
They lost the revenue and then they couldn't invest
in the infrastructure to be ableto do that real-time stuff.

Speaker 2 (20:19):
Yes.

Speaker 4 (20:19):
I mean USPS.
Still today you get a packagedelivered to your mailbox by
USPS and the next day you getnotified that your package has
been delivered.
Absolutely Not even the sameday.
It's the next day when you getnotified it's been delivered.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
Well, even for where I live.
I have signed up for thatservice where every morning I
get an email with what's beingdelivered today, and it's always
for tomorrow, it's never fortoday.
They're like here's what'sgoing to be in your mailbox
today.
And then I look at it and I'mlike I'll see you tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
I'll see you tomorrow , I'll see you tomorrow, plus
all the junk mail.
Imagine having to document allthe junk mail that shows up.

Speaker 4 (20:55):
Well, that's a big thing too, is the post office
lost a lot of that businessbecause it wasn't profitable for
junk mail companies anymore tosend it.
We still get a lot of junk mailin the mail, but all those
mailers went away.
Magazines went away.
A lot of people aren't sendingletters like they used to.
We're not sending checksthrough the mail to pay our

(21:15):
bills anymore, so there's a lotof revenue that went away with
the post office.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
We're not really sending birthday cards or
Christmas cards?

Speaker 1 (21:21):
No, we're not, not to mention the bills that come in
through the mail, right, oryou're just not doing it at all.

Speaker 4 (21:26):
If you're going paperless.
You're not seeing that bill inthe mail, right?
No, what did you say, Melissa?
I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (21:34):
Birthday cards and Christmas cards.

Speaker 2 (21:35):
It seems like a tradition of the past.

Speaker 3 (21:37):
It has, I'll send some stuff through the mail.
Still, I just sent a couple ofpackages.
It was just after Thanksgiving,after we came back from a
vacation in Orleans.
I had some socks to mail and Ichose to mail them through USPS.

Speaker 4 (21:55):
Well, we mail like— and I think they got there
yesterday, you know they do givea tracking number so I can
track.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
Sure, they do.
Again using website and we sendout, like with trucking, if
you're not in the business ornot in the business yet, with
trucking there's a lot of likestickers you've got to put on
the side of the truck or thingslike that, that you have to have
the physical sticker.
I can't email you a sticker,right, correct.
So we have to send a lot ofstuff out and we used to use

(22:26):
FedEx and overnight and, oh mygosh, at the end of the year
you'd be like, how do we spendforty thousand dollars with
FedEx?
Like, are you a PS?

Speaker 1 (22:31):
and five average forty five dollars a pop.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
Yeah so we moved to using the USPS and um have saved
a tremendous amount of moneybecause of that um.
But outside of that, if it's apermit that doesn't need to
physically be mailed, it's donevia email.
It's done via email or we have areally cool website now that's
out where our teams, our drivers, can go in and actually pull

(22:59):
the permit straight off thewebsite and then send it to like
if, if they have printed on thetruck, print it themselves or
send it to the truck stop andhave them print it.
I was going to say Kinko's, I'mstating myself, our FedEx
office Stating yourself so.

Speaker 3 (23:15):
I still think it's pretty cool, though, that if you
wanted to write a letter, youcan do a little paper envelope
and mail something to someonefor a very nominal fee Our
postcard or I did those when wewere on the road.

Speaker 4 (23:31):
She did postcards that went on the road.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
yeah, I did postcards , so 2019, we were in Italy and
I got some postcards and sentthem back to my mom and a couple
other people from Italy andthey arrived there, you know,
two weeks after, I did, sure, uh, but it was still very yeah, I
remember as a kid my aunt anduncle who was very close to they

(23:55):
went to Cozumel and they sentme a postcard in the mail and
again same thing.
I got it after they got back tothe country.
Uh, but that meant a lot, likeyou know, that thinking of you
kind of concept, and we've hadsome exciting things within
Highfield that were a verysimilar concept, because it does
feel so good to get that I likemail, mail's fun.

(24:17):
When it's not junk mail.

Speaker 4 (24:21):
Or blackmail.

Speaker 2 (24:22):
Well, depends on what side of the blackmail you're on
, it's true, it's true.
So, like even at the house, 90%of my mail is junk mail.
Sure.
Oh, yeah, and only one or twoor three items are important.

Speaker 4 (24:37):
You know it's funny.
I went to the mailbox yesterday.
I don't get our mail very often, but yesterday I got out of the
car.
I took the trash out, grabbedthe mail from the mailbox,
talked to the milkman yeah, Ihad to have a conversation with
him because I noticed we hadextra milk, yeah, so I'm not
sure why, but apparently we hadextra milk yesterday.
Anyway, so I take the mail out.

(24:59):
There are four pieces of mail.
Two pieces were addressed tosomebody different at our
address, or current address orcurrent address or current
resident right.
One piece was actual junk mailand one piece was addressed to
Melissa, which I think was alsojunk mail.

Speaker 3 (25:14):
It was.

Speaker 4 (25:15):
So you know all our mail yesterday was straight in
the recycling bin.

Speaker 5 (25:21):
I have a love-hate relationship with the mail.
Our mail here in columbus sucksat our house is the worst,
absolutely horrible service Ihave ever seen in god's creation
.
Like I'm signed up for uspscomas well.
I get the notifications everyday, literally.
Don ordereda phone case, theprime example.

(25:43):
It was supposed to come thispast Wednesday Every day.
Literally it was supposed tocome yesterday.
And he opens the door and themailman's walking up to the
front of the house and he handshim his mail and it's not there,
like it's never.
Nothing arrives at our houselike it's supposed to Never.
Now, with that said, and asmuch as I despise the US Postal
Service, going back to youroriginal question, I don't think

(26:06):
it's going to go anywhere, andthe reason why I say that is
because you have all of the lastplace, last mile places that
FedEx and UPS does not go toCorrect.
You have all the little bittytowns in Arizona and Wyoming and
these little bitty placesthat's got 20 people that live
there.
Usps is the only place thatgoes and also on top of that,
you bitty places that's got 20people that live there.

Speaker 2 (26:24):
Usps is the only place that goes Absolutely.

Speaker 5 (26:25):
And also, on top of that, you've got to have
two-thirds of Congress toapprove it, and that's never
going to happen, right.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
Absolutely.
It's very unfortunate.
Not unfortunate, but it's justthe way it's built.
If you want those bluemailboxes, you ever wonder?
You see the blue mailbox on astreet Right.

Speaker 4 (26:44):
Not the mailbox, like your mailbox, but the blue one.

Speaker 2 (26:46):
You ever see one and you can see that it's like this
mailbox was installed in 1948,because all those have dates on
them.
And you'll see some really oldones and you're like has there
been a single piece of mail putin this?

Speaker 5 (26:57):
box in 20 years.

Speaker 2 (26:59):
And when you're driving over the road you'll see
it.
Sometimes your local placesyou're like oh yeah, people use
it.
But when you're driving overthe road you'll see some in
weird spots and they're stillthere.
And the reason they're there isbecause of what you said.
It's very easy to get a mailboxinstalled, but if you want one
removed, it takes Congress andnobody, no congressman, is going

(27:21):
to say take this mailbox away.
That's possibly serving myconstituents, sure, because it
costs the USPS an extra $5 a dayin gas to go out there and
check it Like no one's going tosay that, and so it ends up
costing the US Postal Service afortune of money.

Speaker 3 (27:40):
I still think it's an alternative.
Alternative, though, to FedExor UPS.

Speaker 2 (27:45):
It's a good alternative.
It's an affordable alternative.
They are maybe not quick, butthey're relatively reliable.

Speaker 5 (27:54):
They're relatively reliable sure Don's family to
this day.
You're talking about cards andstuff.
Don and every one of hissisters, his mother, his father,
birthday Christmas Easter.

Speaker 3 (28:08):
And that tradition.
But it's a traditional thingand if that's something strong
in your core values of beingraised odds, are you're going to
continue that?

Speaker 5 (28:16):
I've often asked like why are you going to?
He'll be like I've got abirthday coming up, I've got a
credit card, Christmas is coming, Easter is coming, this is
coming.
I'm like why do you do that?

Speaker 2 (28:26):
That's just what our family does.
Well, you can tell the PostalService leans into that, because
when you go into the postoffice they've got a whole wall
of cards.

Speaker 3 (28:33):
I might have been a sucker too for those.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
I like them.
I dig the stamps.
You know what I mean.
We typically buy stamps by the100 packs.
You get the roll, but it's nodifference in price to order the
regular stamps.
Sometimes I go in there and I'mlike, oh, we're doing Star Wars
, we're doing Star Wars.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
I'll take 100 of the Star Wars stamps.

Speaker 2 (28:58):
That's always fun and it's cool that you can order
exactly the number of stamps youwant, so you could be like I
want 106 stamps and they willcut that thing up?
Yes, they will, and they willgive you your 106 stamps.
It's really cool how that works.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
I worked for a property management company and
we used to mail packages out andI didn't realize this until I
worked for them.
But there are stamps of manydenominations, not just your.
I guess they're calling themforever stamps, which is your
base rate for standard cards.

Speaker 4 (29:33):
First class mail.

Speaker 3 (29:34):
Yes, and then there's postcard stamps.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (29:38):
But there are denominations.
You got one cents, two cents,seven cents, I mean like there
are.
There's like 52, 75.
I'm just rambling, I don'tthink they're all of this, but
we at this property managementcompany had to stock all these
different denominations becausewe had a wear and we would weigh

(30:01):
the mail Yep scale.
We'd weigh how much these were.
You have to configure how muchit was going to be and then we
would put stamps, because it wasquicker to do it that way than
to take all the mail down andhave it individually scanned and
weighed and paid at the end.
So we were.
We were doing it on our end, soall you had to do was go
through the drive-through slotand throw it in the box.

(30:22):
But I didn't realize there wereso many different denominations
of stamps.

Speaker 2 (30:26):
Did you have Forever stamps back then or no?

Speaker 4 (30:29):
No, that was before Forever stamps 2009, 10, 11, 12?
.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (30:34):
Somewhere around there.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (30:35):
So I don't know if Forever was quite there yet.
There yet.

Speaker 2 (30:39):
So when I was a kid, I remember going to the store
and actually this happened morerecently than that.

Speaker 4 (30:47):
Going to kid.

Speaker 3 (30:48):
I remember going to the store and actually this
happened more recently than that, going to April 12, 2007,
before every stamp started, soit might have been then.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
So I remember going and doing the stamps, for I
think back then a postage stampwas 35 cents Does that sound
right.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
I think it was 35 cents for a while.

Speaker 2 (31:04):
And so you would get the 35, you know cent stamp on
there.
But then with postage wouldchange like hey, there was a
rate increase, so it went from35 cents to 38 cents, so you get
the extra.
So you got the three one centstamps to put on there and then
give it to them until you ranout, until you ran out, and then
when you had the new 38-centstamp, it was fine.
So when Forever Stamps came out, I was like, oh my gosh,

(31:25):
amazing.

Speaker 3 (31:26):
Right, we don't have to worry about that, because you
can jack up the price whenever.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
Yeah, I could buy 10,000 Forever Stamps and never
worry about.

Speaker 3 (31:32):
Do you think they're losing out on money?

Speaker 2 (31:33):
No, I think they're just happy.
People are using their service.

Speaker 3 (31:44):
But I have gone to the store where we did a Forever
Stamp and Eric and I wereconcerned is this too heavy?
Yes, like sometimes you cantell, and this feels a little
heavy Sometimes I'll just throwan extra one on there if I think
that.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
Well, instead of doing another Forever Stamp, we
did one Forever Stamp whichcovers us at 52 cents, whatever
it is right now, 73 cents, 73cents.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
Yeah, that's how much a stamp is.
Now I'm on the website rightnow.

Speaker 3 (32:00):
Back then I think it was why didn't you realize
they'd gone up so much?

Speaker 2 (32:02):
Oh, when this happened, it was 50-something
cents, okay, and they waited andthey said, yeah, it's going to
be like 60 cents.
And so they actually, insteadof putting that little white
sticker that they printed offtheir shelves, they actually
grabbed a nickel stamp andslapped it on there On a credit
card.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
So I'm sure the swipe fee cost more than 15 cents.

Speaker 4 (32:24):
How?

Speaker 3 (32:24):
much are forever stamps now 73 cents.

Speaker 4 (32:27):
Oh my goodness, how much do you think a postcard
stamp is right now?

Speaker 2 (32:29):
Just for the record 15 cents is what it used to be
when I was a kid.

Speaker 3 (32:32):
I think the last time I knew it was like 42 cents or
something, but I haven't beenkeeping up with how much they
are.

Speaker 4 (32:39):
Yeah, postcard stamps are 56 cents.

Speaker 3 (32:42):
I do not think I paid that much when we first started
trucking.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
I don't think we did.

Speaker 3 (32:46):
I've got a roll of those in the drawer.
I haven't mailed a postcard andI guess I'd have to double up.
So what are some otherdenominations?
Just curious Baptist.

Speaker 2 (32:55):
One, two three, four.

Speaker 4 (32:56):
There's Southern Baptist One, two, three and five
cents One, two, three.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
Oh you're funny.
One, two three and five, Jerry,you knew it was coming
eventually.

Speaker 3 (33:04):
Okay, what else Is that it?
Somebody had to say it.

Speaker 4 (33:07):
That's all I've seen, so far Well, there's bigger
ones.
Well, if you're doing anexpress mail package, you can
buy the express mail prepaidstamp.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
The flat rate ones.
The flat rate yeah, interesting.
Very Well, jerry, it'sinteresting you mentioned, uh,
how they serve the ruralcommunities, those little small
towns and everything, becausethey do.
And uh, I was just reading anarticle.
It's so weird that you wouldmention this, melissa and jerry
uh just reading an article wherethey are uh making some, um,

(33:42):
delivery adjustments to theirstandards.
So, like the post office hasthese standards required by
Congress, you must do X, y or Z.
You must deliver the mail insleet, snow, rain, hail.

Speaker 3 (33:55):
In a covered wagon.

Speaker 2 (33:56):
Whatever it is, you will do it six days a week.
There's these rules that theyhave.
You will have five days to geta package delivered.
I think that's their currentstandard.

Speaker 4 (34:08):
First-class mail five days, yes.

Speaker 2 (34:11):
And so the US Postal Service is actually changing a
standard which is no longerdoing afternoon pickups.
They're changing theirstandards to where they won't be
doing afternoon pickups anymore.
Now if you think about how mailworks, a truck shows up 4 or 5
am in the morning from the majordistribution center and they

(34:32):
unload the truck, they routeeverything to the local Jeeps
that go Jeeps, the localgrooming long-life vehicles that
deliver the mail.
And then people go out anddeliver the mail and while
they're out delivering they'realso picking up fresh mail and
then they get it back to thepost office, they sort it all up

(34:53):
to which distribution centerit's going to and then a truck
comes in that afternoon, picksup all the mail and brings it
back to the distribution center.
So you have a truck twice a day, one in the morning, one at
night, right, and the next dayRinse and repeat all over again.
So what they're doing is inthese rural areas when there's
not the quantity of mail that'scoming and it costs more,

(35:16):
because less packages Means it'sa higher transportation cost,
they're going to move tostrictly morning Pickups and
delivery.
So when you send a letter outand the postman picks up your
letter at your house then goesto the post office at the end of

(35:37):
the day and unloads all the newmail.
It will not get picked up thatnight, it'll get picked up the
next morning.
So they're going to unload thetruck and then reload it and
send it back to the distributioncenter and that's all they're
going to have for the day,whereas before, like I said,
they would then come back thatnight and pick up.
So it is for those rural areasgoing to add on one day.

(35:59):
Basically of time they say theycan still meet the five-year.

Speaker 4 (36:05):
Five-day, five-day, five-year.
We'll still get there for youin five years, folks, don't
worry.

Speaker 2 (36:09):
Yeah, they'll still meet the five-day requirement,
but stuff that maybe would havenormally taken two days will now
take three.
So they'll take three days andnot take four, et cetera.

Speaker 3 (36:20):
So mail your birthday and Christmas cards an extra
day in advance.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (36:25):
Make sure you're online doing bill pay so your
bills won't be late.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
Exactly, exactly, which I mean don't a lot of the.
I'm trying to remember backwhen I wrote checks and sent
them in Most of those likecredit card companies they would
go by the postmark date, right?
Yes?
So, in theory, if theory thatwon't change because it's still
going to get postmarked thatnight at the post office.

Speaker 4 (36:48):
Right, it just won't go out until the next day
Exactly.

Speaker 2 (36:52):
So they are saying that by doing this it's going to
I love the way the article putit it's going to improve
productivity and save at least$3.6 billion a year once fully
implemented, or $36 billion in10 years, and I'm like that

(37:13):
seems like some easy math.
I don't know that we had tobreak it down like that.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
I was looking at that , as you were reading it
thinking yeah, $3.6 billiontimes 10, $36 billion.

Speaker 4 (37:23):
Yeah, it3.6 billion times 10, $36 billion.
Yeah, it seems weird.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
It seems like when they normally say things like
that.
It's like buy one for $5billion or get two for $7.

Speaker 5 (37:31):
Exactly.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
It's such a weird way of saying it.
It really is, but they say,through transportation, mail
processing and real estate costreductions, that it's going to
save that much money Makes sense.
So it's pretty cool.
Of course, there are a lot ofpeople.
I shouldn't say it's prettycool, it's a change.
There's a lot of people thatare against it.
Obviously, people living in therural communities don't like

(37:52):
that.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
Right.

Speaker 2 (37:54):
There is a postal regulatory commission that
doesn't like what they're doing.
They actually have accused theUSPS of overestimating the
savings and that it's really notgoing to save that much money
and they're being overlyoptimistic and things like that.

Speaker 3 (38:12):
I don't think an extra day, a delayed day, but
still getting there in time isgoing to.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
Yes, and they did say they're going to those
communities.
They are reaching out to theircommercial customers, which I
thought was strange that they'renot reaching out to everyone,
but they're reaching out totheir commercial customers,
which I thought was strange thatthey're not reaching out to
everyone, but they're reachingout to their commercial
customers and letting them knowyou will have an extra day of
delay.
So, if you need to, you maywant to send something out a day
sooner or you can let yourcustomers know accordingly.

(38:38):
It is of note that, through allof this and with they had over
17,500 comments saying hey,we're concerned about the delays
, yada, yada, when they wereproposing this rule, they're
still going forward with it.
They don't really care what wethink they the.
So you got that.

(38:58):
You got the postmaster sayingare you get the regulatory
commission saying we don't thinkit's going to work?
And it is of note that just afew days ago the Postmaster
General did actually announcehis retirement.
He did so could be coincidence,but it is interesting that you

(39:18):
know he's retiring Through themidst of all this change.

Speaker 3 (39:23):
Maybe it was just time.

Speaker 2 (39:25):
I think so.
I mean, like it's hard to sayThey've been working on this now
for four years Like not thisbut the whole scope of changing
it.
I think they're calling itDelivering for America Plan or
something like that.
They are really working onimproving their numbers, getting
financially solvent again andin that amount of time they have

(39:47):
saved they've reduced $1.8billion in transportation costs,
which I look at that and go howmany trucking companies going
bankrupt have been postalservice?
A lot of them.
They've absolutely beentrimming that tree quite a bit.
They saved $2.3 billion byimproving productivity at the

(40:10):
different facilities and gettingrid of a few facilities they
didn't need.
And they say pricing andproduct adjustments, ie they're
charging more they've actuallybrought in.
So they've done those costreductions of what is that five
About?

Speaker 4 (40:25):
$3.5 billion is what the article says.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
No, no, no.
Oh, that's pricing adjustments,I'm sorry so the price
reductions.
They've actually gone in at$4.2 billion of cost cutting and
they have increased the priceof the things to bring in about
$3.5 billion more than what theynormally have been doing.
So they're making improvements.
It's still not enough.
They're still not solvent.
I mean, think about that whenyou add $3.5 billion and you

(40:51):
subtract $4 billion that's $7billion of swing and they're
still not solvent yet.
There's obviously a huge needfor a lot of changes, so this is
what they're doing to try tomake that happen.
So it'll be interesting to seewhat happens in the coming years
.
What services change?

(41:13):
Will they finally get someautonomy to be able to get rid
of some of these blue mailboxes?
Will they eventually eliminateSaturday delivery?
I think at some point that'scoming.

Speaker 3 (41:23):
I don't need mail on Saturday At this point.

Speaker 2 (41:25):
It feels silly, doesn't it?
Do you need mail on Saturday.

Speaker 3 (41:28):
Jerry, I feel like if you really need something, you
probably would have Amazon didand it would probably just jump
on the door.

Speaker 5 (41:33):
I was about to say.
Almost everything I do isAmazon or something, or FedEx or
UPS or something like that, andif I am expecting something
through the mail, don't get mewrong, I do like that little
extra day if I am expectingsomething.
I have a phone case coming aswell.
It's supposed to be here thisSaturday.
I know for a fact it's notgoing to show up.
It's nice having that extra dayof oh, I'm going to get my

(41:56):
device and not have to waituntil Monday.

Speaker 3 (41:57):
How often are you doing that, though Very, very
rare you know what I miss,though.

Speaker 4 (42:01):
I miss getting chain letters.
I haven't had a chain letter inso long.
They're fun to read on aSaturday afternoon.

Speaker 2 (42:08):
Do you need some dish towels?
All right, Father.

Speaker 4 (42:09):
Luke.

Speaker 3 (42:11):
Do you need dish towels too?
Us women used to do the chainletter dish towel thing.

Speaker 2 (42:16):
For all of us youngins that never dealt with a
chain letter unless it camethrough Yahoo.
Could you please explain to thegood people listening?

Speaker 4 (42:27):
what a chain letter is, you would get a letter in
the mail, the email right, soyou've got mail.
The USPS would show up andunless your mail carrier was
knocking on your door and sayingyou've got mail.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
Mine did.
It was awkward growing up.
I bet it was.
Especially because our box wasout at the street.

Speaker 4 (42:46):
Right, so you had to walk to it.
That would be funny if heactually put mail in your box
and came to your door andknocked and said you've got mail
.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
So a side note real quick.
That's fun to say it is.
You've got mail, so a littleside note.
You do it.
I know you want to.

Speaker 4 (43:03):
You, so a little side note.

Speaker 2 (43:04):
You do it.
I know you want to.
You've got mail.

Speaker 4 (43:08):
Yes, so you've got mail.

Speaker 1 (43:10):
You've got mail.

Speaker 2 (43:10):
I do, yeah, I do have mail.
I had mail, I lost her.
Yeah, I thought it was specialtoday, though, when you asked
how she was doing.
I rarely do that.
Squirrel yeah, rarely, rarelyso we'll get off your squirrel
and get back to mine yes.
What was I talking about?

Speaker 4 (43:26):
Mail.
You've got mail, no, so weactually the same letter.

Speaker 2 (43:28):
We had the same postal guy lived in our
neighborhood from like my birthto maybe 15, 16 years old Wow,
and we all knew him.
His name was Johnny.
He was a great guy.
I watched him.
He was right across from theelementary school I went to, so
literally watched him like fromthe old Jeep.

Speaker 1 (43:48):
Yeah, the original, the Jeeps were cool, they were
so cool.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
Right-hand drive Jeeps to having the Grumman, and
it was brand new and it waslike oh my gosh, it's so cool.
Yeah, Now you look at him,you're like how?

Speaker 5 (43:57):
is that thing running Anyways?

Speaker 2 (44:00):
So he retired when I was, like I said, 15, 16.
He was the greatest mail guy inthe world.
Everybody knew him.
He was super friendly.
It was one of those thingswhere I'd watch these ridiculous
shows on TV like Leave it toBeaver and stuff, and they were
like, hey, mr Mailman, andthey're all happy.
And I'm like, oh yeah, thatmakes sense.
Like you know, everybody elseis like, oh, I hate my mailman.

(44:23):
No, we loved him.
He was a great guy Cookiesduring Christmas, like the whole
thing.
And then we got the nextmailman after that.
It was terrible and it was like, oh, this is what they mean.
This is why it's a joke.
And he would do that.
He would actually put the mailin the mailbox and then if he
had a package for you, he'dbring that one package and leave

(44:44):
it at your door.
So even if you got a package atyour door, you still had to
walk out to the mailbox and getthe mail it's like if you're
making the trip, bringeverything.
Sorry, anyways, your chainletter.

Speaker 4 (44:55):
Yeah, and the chain letter inside it would say you
know you have to send thisletter with a dollar or
something to these people on thelist or to five friends or
whatever, and if you don't,you're going to have bad luck
forever or some variation ofthat, oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (45:14):
Hmm.

Speaker 5 (45:15):
Yeah, there's like an episode of Golden Girls where
Sophia is like she opens hermail or something and she's like
ah, so-and-so, I can't rememberthe name.
She's like just passed away,and Dorothy's like aw, and she's
like there's $5 I'll never see,or something, because it was a
whole chain mail thing.

Speaker 3 (45:34):
We would do the dish towel thing.
I would do that a couple times.

Speaker 4 (45:38):
I have no idea what that means.

Speaker 3 (45:39):
Again, you, it's like a chain letter.
You get a letter and it sayssome schmoozy, you know woman's
tribe thing, and you have tosend dish towels to the names on
here and one back to me andfive to your next friends, or
however it all works.
Again, the goal was that in theend, if everyone participated,

(46:03):
yeah, you would get like 15 dishtowels or something from 15
different women.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
And it only cost you 15 dish towels.

Speaker 3 (46:12):
Well, I don't think that's how many I had to
originally send.
I think it was like two to four.

Speaker 4 (46:16):
Again, I don't remember how it works.
Did you ever get dish?

Speaker 3 (46:19):
towels back?
Occasionally no, because mostit's just like.

Speaker 2 (46:23):
Would they even be usable?
I'm just imagining.
Oh did you?

Speaker 1 (46:27):
I think that's the point.

Speaker 2 (46:28):
You would put them in a bag or an envelope.

Speaker 3 (46:32):
Yeah, yeah, okay, I'm imagining you would have to use
the USPS to mail your dishtowel A dish towel like stapled
to a postcard?

Speaker 2 (46:38):
No, you would.

Speaker 1 (46:42):
So you know you had to go down, you had to buy
packaging you had to buy.

Speaker 3 (46:45):
You know you had to rewrite your letter and add the
other people's email or nottheir email, but their name and
address.

Speaker 2 (46:51):
So you couldn't just take a dish towel, write on it
with a marks a lot?

Speaker 3 (46:54):
and then put a stamp on it and send it.

Speaker 2 (46:58):
Oh, that's hysterical .
I had never heard of suchthings.

Speaker 4 (47:01):
Could hold US Postal Service.

Speaker 2 (47:04):
Jerry, what did you send back and forth?
Jerry found a racket word for apenny.
He could get 30 CDs.

Speaker 3 (47:12):
I've done that when we've talked about it.

Speaker 2 (47:17):
I know we don't get political and I apologize, but I
did see a thing where it waslike Doge is going to come after
all.
You people who never fulfilledyour promises to Time Life Music
oh, that's funny.

Speaker 3 (47:33):
My mom had quite the collection of that.

Speaker 2 (47:35):
I wanted to fill that Woo they were all cassettes.
I wanted to do that so bad.
And my mom and dad were like no, you will not do that, that is
a scam.
We will end up having to sellyou into slavery to pay that.
And I was like, well, I don'twant that.
Speaking of cassettes.

Speaker 4 (47:48):
We did a trash run today.
We went to the highest pointhere in Columbus the landfill.

Speaker 2 (47:53):
Oh, the mountains of Columbus.

Speaker 4 (47:54):
I got a beautiful picture of it.
I got to share that with youguys.

Speaker 2 (47:57):
There's green in the distance.

Speaker 4 (47:59):
It was a little foggy down low, but you could see the
buildings up above.
It was a cool picture.
Is that it right there?
That's it.
That's it.
How did you get that?

Speaker 1 (48:09):
Wow, yeah, that is it Interesting, interesting.

Speaker 4 (48:12):
But where we were offloading our garbage there
were broken cassette cases andcassettes on the ground.
Yeah, I guess someone clearedout something and there were
cassettes there.

Speaker 2 (48:23):
Wow, Did you have the cassette?
It was made of a plastic theydon't make it anymore and it had
drawers and you'd pull thedrawer out and it was like three
of them three drawers.
And I think it was wood graincovered it was.
And it had that piece of chromeon the handle that you'd pull
out.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
I think I had that for VHSs.

Speaker 2 (48:44):
They don't make that plastic anymore.

Speaker 4 (48:45):
I think I had it for cassettes and VHSs.
Oh yeah, 8.
I think I had it for cassettesand VHSs.

Speaker 2 (48:49):
Oh yeah, 8-tracks too , oh 8-tracks yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:52):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (48:52):
No, we didn't have that for the 8-tracks, but I
mean, I just remember thatplastic and the feel of it.

Speaker 4 (48:59):
It was yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:01):
They don't make it anymore.
It has to have chemicals thatkill you.
It has to Diesel, diesel.
It has diesel in it Oil.

Speaker 3 (49:05):
Oil petroleum.

Speaker 2 (49:07):
Asbestos.

Speaker 3 (49:09):
According to Landman, everything we have and use is
petroleum.

Speaker 2 (49:14):
I can see that we're just now starting to get through
Severance Great TV show.
If you're watching it, reallyhaving a blast with it, but
we're also in the middle ofwatching Tulsa King.

Speaker 4 (49:29):
Oh yeah, so good.
I want to go to a Never mindTulsa, yeah, tulsa, I want to go
to Tulsa one day.

Speaker 1 (49:40):
Now's a good time to ask our listeners for some
favorite series that they watchwhile they're on the road.

Speaker 4 (49:46):
That's an excellent question, Eric.
You should pose that.

Speaker 1 (49:50):
Listeners post in the comments some of your popular
series that you watch on theroad TV series, yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:57):
Not movies.
We're not interested in JamesBond or Star Wars or Mission
Impossible.
Lord of the Rings Lord of theRings is a great way to kill an
entire weekend, entire week.

Speaker 4 (50:13):
I went to get a beard trim on saturday and while your
hair grows fast they were, theywere talking, they had they
play a bit a movie or something.
He's like oh, we're playinglord of the rings again.
I think that was on the lasttime you came in here.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
Yep, it was it hasn't ended yet.
That's the thing it hasn't,it's not a repeat.
It's not a repeat it's theextended director's cut extra
edition yeah, what's thecriterion?

Speaker 4 (50:35):
or something edition?

Speaker 2 (50:36):
yeah crazy, I love that crazy my sister is a huge
Lord of the Rings nut.
I never I hated Lord of theRings.
Remember the old cartoon, theHobbit.
I remember being forced towatch that and hating every
minute of it, but we had popcorn, so you watch it.

Speaker 4 (50:54):
She used to talk to me about Lord of the Rings in
the van.
We were going somewhere orsomething, and then I told her I
didn't know anything about itand now my eyes just glaze over.
So she stopped talking to meabout it While you're driving,
yeah exactly.

Speaker 1 (51:08):
That's why she quit driving.
She's like, if I talk aboutthis, we're going to come crash.

Speaker 2 (51:12):
No, I used to like hated it, so I didn't go see the
new Lord of the Rings.
But when the second Lord of theRings came out, I was working
in a movie theater.
So I got us in for free, yeah,and I'm like, well, just trying
to get away from the family.
So a movie sounds good.
So we went there and watchedthis and I was like holy cow,

(51:36):
this is so good.
And then we went home and wewatched the first one on DVD,
two DVDs.

Speaker 5 (51:45):
Because it wouldn't all fit on one.
I remember when Titanic was ontwo VHSs.

Speaker 2 (51:50):
Absolutely, we had that.
Yeah, we had that Wow, titanic.
Melissa probably still has it.

Speaker 3 (51:58):
Two VHSs.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
Now hot take.
Could Jack have made it on thedoor?

Speaker 5 (52:04):
Yes, yes Would that have been a great movie.
No, yes, it would have.
It would have been a greatmovie.

Speaker 2 (52:10):
No, yes, it would have.
No, it would have made a greatmovie Because her other husband
made it.
So then they could have beenhiding together on the Lusitania
.
They could be talking about howthey built this incredible life
for them in America.

Speaker 5 (52:25):
I just wanted to hit her upside the head whenever she
threw that thing over the backof the boat.
I just wanted to be like whatare you thinking?

Speaker 2 (52:31):
So you believe in elderly abuse?

Speaker 5 (52:32):
Absolutely.
In that case, all day longPlease don't hit Vince.

Speaker 1 (52:39):
She shouldn't have thrown the I'm not throwing
anything.
I'm not throwing anything.

Speaker 2 (52:46):
She could have pawned it.
I mean just straight up pawnedit.

Speaker 3 (52:49):
She could have fenced it or all those things.
I don't know.
We're watching Castle right now.
I was going to say fencing.

Speaker 2 (52:54):
Really that's interesting.

Speaker 3 (52:56):
Do a lot of thefts, need a lot of fencers?

Speaker 2 (52:58):
I don't know.
We watched.

Speaker 3 (53:00):
Castle last night Fix me on the insfe.

Speaker 2 (53:03):
This is recorded.
I do need to remind you we'rewatching.

Speaker 3 (53:06):
Castle Vince has not seen it.
We started it and last night'sepisode was about the elite in
New York wearing fancy jewelryand how it was getting stolen
and then fenced.

Speaker 1 (53:19):
I'm like where do you ?

Speaker 2 (53:20):
even find a fence, I fall asleep on that one Possibly
.
Probably Was it on longer than10 minutes.

Speaker 3 (53:25):
Yes, yes, after 8 o'clock yes, yes, can I say this
o'clock yes?

Speaker 2 (53:30):
Yes, can I say.
This past week I watchedsomething I haven't watched in a
while.
I've kind of lost interest, butmy boy, my ginger from another
mother, was hosting, so I reallywanted to see it.

Speaker 4 (53:43):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (53:43):
It was the Oscars.

Speaker 4 (53:44):
The Oscars yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:46):
With my good friend Conan O'Brien.
It was so good, so good, I know, so good.
You hear so many people talkingabout I didn't watch the Oscars
Bunch of crap I ain't neverheard of and whatever.
Yada, yada.
It was so funny.
It was.
There was one one segment thatwas political.

(54:06):
Nothing else was One segmentthat was political, nothing else
was, and the movies that theyhighlighted were actually really
good box office Very inclusive.
Yeah, very good box office, Nicemovies and stuff, not the usual
.
Like you watch and you're like,oh, there's 10 films I've never
heard of.
These were really big namemovies and it was a really fun

(54:31):
night of watching the Oscars.
I really enjoyed it.
Knew who all the actors wereLike, it was really cool to
watch.
It's not always that way, Sure.

Speaker 4 (54:43):
What channel did you watch?

Speaker 2 (54:45):
What services did you watch?
So we watched it on Hulu.
Hulu, which means we watched97% of the Oscars.
And do you know why I say that?

Speaker 4 (54:53):
Because it went over and Hulu cut it off.

Speaker 2 (54:55):
Yes, I got to see the best actor, which was Adrian
Brody.
He's the one.
If you know who he is, you knowhis face here.
It is right here.
He's a good looking guy.
Yeah, as guys go.

Speaker 1 (55:10):
Sure.

Speaker 2 (55:11):
He was actually he did the Pianist.
I don't know if you ever sawthat Roman Plansky movie.
He did King Kong, which iswhere I knew him from.
That's the good Peter Jackson,king Kong with.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
Jack.

Speaker 2 (55:24):
Black.

Speaker 4 (55:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (55:26):
And he's done quite a few other movies.
He did Midnight in Paris.
He didnight in Paris, he did.
That's yeah.

Speaker 3 (55:34):
It's like a rom-com.

Speaker 2 (55:35):
It is kind of Grand Budapest Hotel he did.
He's been in a bunch of stuffPredators.
He's been in Asteroid City,which came out last year it was
great.
And he's in this new movie, theBrutalist.
And he's in this new movie thebrutalist and, uh, he won best
actor and it was like it'spretty exciting to see like, hey
, I know this person.

Speaker 5 (55:56):
They're a really, really good actor uh and uh.

Speaker 2 (55:59):
So we're like all right up next is the best
actress of the year and won'tstop hulu's.
Hulu puts the screen up onthere saying your show has now
ended.
Please go to the menu andselect other shows to watch or
whatever.
And I was like are you kiddingme?

(56:20):
Oh man.

Speaker 1 (56:21):
Adrian Brody did break the record for longest
ever Oscar speech.
His speech was five minutes and40 seconds.
That's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (56:29):
That's why it cut off .
What can?
His speech was five minutes and40 seconds.
That's ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (56:30):
That's why it cut off .

Speaker 2 (56:31):
What can you talk about for five minutes?

Speaker 4 (56:34):
I don't know, but we've been talking for the last
hour.
We have not you have not I have, that's true.
I mean, that's preaching.
Sometimes you do monologue.

Speaker 2 (56:43):
Well.

Speaker 3 (56:44):
I try Imagine if you're Best Actress and you go
home and re-watch it so afterbest actor they must have had
best actress and then best movie.

Speaker 2 (56:52):
And then best film or the year or whatever it is.

Speaker 1 (56:54):
So, you missed two.

Speaker 2 (56:55):
So I missed those two .
So now I'm like searchingthrough and I'm like maybe Hulu
will get it back up.
They never did and it was.
Yeah, it sucks.
So I had a five and a halfminute long speech because I
didn't get to see it.
Wow, yeah, it was.

Speaker 3 (57:15):
So Conan did a good job.

Speaker 2 (57:16):
Conan did a great job .
He was very funny.
He was talking about how he'sgoing to rush things along and
we're not going to go long thisyear, which he screwed up.
But to really drive home thepoint that he's not going to go
long, he did like a four-minutelong musical dance about how
we're not going to wastepeople's time.

Speaker 3 (57:34):
Oh, my goodness.

Speaker 2 (57:36):
Just ridiculous stuff they brought.
Are you all familiar with Dune?
Have you seen the movie Dune ordo you know the concept?

Speaker 5 (57:43):
of it.

Speaker 2 (57:43):
They have these sandworms which really remind me
a lot of Tremors.

Speaker 1 (57:47):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (57:49):
In the movie, and so they brought a sandworm out and
he played the harp At one point.
They brought a sandworm outlater and he did a dance on
stage.
It was just.
If you are familiar with ConanO'Brien, his late night show,
the Tonight Show with him he'sridiculous, I think, would be
the word I would look for You'refamiliar with Conan O'Brien's

(58:12):
humor.

Speaker 5 (58:13):
No.

Speaker 2 (58:16):
Early 90s or late 90s , just ridiculous outlandish.

Speaker 3 (58:21):
Outlandish is a good word.
Dumb and dumber.

Speaker 2 (58:24):
Over the top Crazy humor, and that's exactly how he
did the Oscars.
It was.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
He did a great job as hysterical sort of, in a way,
making fun of making fun of theoscars, but at the same time
holding it somewhat reverent butthe same time kicking it down
the stairs but at the same timegracefully guy hand helping hand
, I mean.

Speaker 2 (58:48):
Like it mean, it was very interesting.
They did a great job.
I really enjoyed it.
I had a lot of fun Nice, and Ihope they bring them back for
next year because it was reallyentertaining.
And a lot of years it's not Alot of years you're like, oh God
, this is going to end.

Speaker 3 (59:03):
Yeah, I thought Billy Crystal did it right At some
point Back in the day.

Speaker 4 (59:09):
Yeah, Billy Crystal did it right At some point Back
in the day.
Yeah, Billy's done it before.

Speaker 3 (59:12):
Maybe I think he was pretty funny.
If I remember, that's been ahot moment ago.

Speaker 2 (59:15):
I love, I still think of I think it was the Golden
Globes, but Ricky Gervais, whenhe was just so brutal.
So like, come up here, thankyour God, get off the stage.
We don't want.
Thank your God, get off thestage, don't.
We don't want to hear yourpolitics, we don't want to hear
your beliefs.
I mean, like it was justbeautiful.

(59:38):
It was the last year he hosted,shocking, but it was great.
And the whole night he's liketalking about Apple and what
great, wonderful thing they'redoing while they have child
labor in sweatshops in Chinamaking their phone.
Like he just went through everylittle.
Now I will say this After that,they switched their production

(59:59):
effort to Taiwan.

Speaker 4 (01:00:02):
And where else do they make iPhones?
They're still producing iPhonesin China, but they're also
making them in Taiwan, india andBrazil.
But there are other reasons whythey're making phones in those
two areas, sure, sure, sure.

Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
I don't think it was because Ricky Gervais made those
comments, but it is aninteresting coincidence.

Speaker 3 (01:00:17):
My phone could have came from Brazil.
That's pretty cool, could?

Speaker 4 (01:00:21):
be?
No, probably not.
Generally speaking, the phonesare made in Brazil.
Never mind, yeah, you wouldn'tget it because they speak
Portuguese well, how excitingyes, yes, it was a really fun
night.

Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
I enjoyed it a lot.
I enjoyed it a lot.
Well, I guess this brings us tothe point where we say if you
have any comments, so longfarewell, auf wiedersehen.

Speaker 4 (01:00:48):
No sorry, I thought we were doing them the sound of
Music exit.
I got confused.
I do the Sound of Music in thelive theater twice a week during
the week.

Speaker 2 (01:01:02):
Oh, the Columbus Little Theater.
Yeah, I heard you do an amazingjob with that song from Frozen.

Speaker 4 (01:01:08):
I do, it's an amazing job with that song from Frozen?
I do, I do.
Yeah, it's an amazing song.
It's a little out of my range,but if I exercise I can get
there.

Speaker 2 (01:01:18):
Well, I was told that's why you wear the leotard.

Speaker 4 (01:01:20):
It helps you get those high notes, it helps bring
the air.
Yes, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:01:24):
Well, it's really coming from your stomach.

Speaker 4 (01:01:26):
You have to sing from your stomach.
No, it's coming from yourdiaphragm.

Speaker 2 (01:01:29):
You sing from your diaphragm and use your diaphragm
.
I get that, but when I was inBay End to simplify it and
double it down, for us middleschoolers.

Speaker 4 (01:01:36):
They would say your stomach, but it was really your
diaphragm.

Speaker 2 (01:01:43):
Louisiana folks Jerry how can you find us?

Speaker 1 (01:01:48):
Well, so Apparently down a rabbit hole now.

Speaker 4 (01:01:50):
This is the point, Well so apparently down a rabbit
hole.
Now this is the point.
You can email us at the outerbelt podcast at gmailcom.

Speaker 3 (01:01:54):
Yes, Jerry, you throw your voice well.

Speaker 5 (01:01:57):
Or visit us at highfieldtruckingcom, or call us
at 833-493-4353.

Speaker 3 (01:02:05):
That's 833 Highfield.

Speaker 2 (01:02:11):
Option 1.
And if you have any commentsand you'd like to hear something
that we, you'd like to seesomething on the show that we
could talk about or give usanything, that's pretty much it.
No, if you want to comment onthe show, tell you how much you
like it, how much you hate it,things we could do better talk
about, how much you misszucchini bread.
Certainly, drop us a comment,shoot us a message.

(01:02:34):
Like they said, an email.
If you're interested in workingwith Highfield, you could reach
out to us on the website.
There's a contact us form onthere.
You can call us at the phonenumber we listed before, which
is 833-HIGHFIELD or 833-.

Speaker 3 (01:02:47):
Highfield 493-4353, option one.

Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
And you'd get a chance to speak to either Delina
or Melissa, our excellentrecruiters.
If you want to chat with us, wehave a chat box on the website.
You can reach out to us thereLots of ways to get a hold of us
.
I do want to address real quickMr J.
I did see your comment and weare actually working on getting
back to that.
I'm going to be perfectlyhonest and say that we talked

(01:03:17):
about a great many things and wedid not do a good job of
keeping notes.

Speaker 4 (01:03:22):
We didn't, we didn't document it.

Speaker 2 (01:03:25):
We've talked about so much.
We're like we want to talkabout this.
Have we talked about thisalready?

Speaker 5 (01:03:30):
I don't remember.

Speaker 2 (01:03:31):
So we have a research in progress and hopefully next
week we are going to bring yousome more exciting history of
Highfield how we do it, why wedo it, how we built it, et
cetera.
So that's coming.
It should be next week.
If it's not, it's not my fault.
It's coming, Jay.

Speaker 3 (01:03:51):
I want to know if Truckin' Crochet ended up
watching Quick Change after thelast podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:03:59):
I love that song.
Time for a quick change nowrong movie.

Speaker 3 (01:04:06):
Quick Change with Bill Murray and Gina Davis.
No, I want to know if theywatched it though.
They left a comment and werewondering what the movie was.
It's one of my favorites.
It's very funny, very 80s-esque, so you have to put your brain
in Top Gun mode Put your brainin the 80s-esque.
It's good.

Speaker 4 (01:04:26):
Interesting.
It is available on Amazon PrimeVideo if you are a Prime member
, and also on YouTube TV if yousubscribe to YouTube TV and a
couple places you can rent italso.
Yes, it's an older movie, soit's not necessarily wide
availability.

Speaker 2 (01:04:42):
Is there anything we need to worry about, like the
Delta pilots that watched TopGun before they left Minneapolis
?
Anything we need to?

Speaker 3 (01:04:48):
worry about there.
No.

Speaker 2 (01:04:50):
No, okay, quick change, quick change, jerry.
Final thoughts.

Speaker 5 (01:04:55):
Make sure you hit the subscribe button.
Make sure you hit the thumbs upbutton.
That's all you have, yeah.
Well, in the meantime,everybody stay safe, make good
decisions, don't leave money onthe table and keep those wheels
of turn them.

Speaker 3 (01:05:08):
Good night.

Speaker 1 (01:05:09):
Bye leave money on the table and keep those wills

(01:05:40):
atonement.
Good night bye.
Thank you.