August 8, 2024 • 37 mins
Today, Doug Pike interviews Aris Papadopoulos about preparing your home in the face of a natual disaster.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Remember when it was impossible to misplace the TV remote
because you were the TV remote. Remember when music sounded
like this? Remember when social media was truly social?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey John, how's it going today?
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Well? This show is all about you one.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Helpful information on your finances, good health, and what to
do for fun. Fifty plus brought to you by the
UT Health Houston Institute on Aging, Informed Decisions for a healthier,
happier life and Bronze Roofing repair or replacement.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Bronze roofing has you covered? And now fifty plus with
Doug Pike.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
All right, here we go Thursday edition of the program
on this what the fourth day and the traditional work
weekend for some of us just the next day that
we do what we do kind of like you and
me will, right, It's just the days just kind of
run into each other. Of course, you get real weekends off,
though you're rarely here on Saturday and Sunday. Right, I
(01:12):
only come in whenever I am We requested personal request
to run a show by appointment only. Yes, I'm sure
you get paid extra for those appointments.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Maybe a little bit.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
Oh good, do you really? I hope, so I genuinely do.
All right, So anyway, uh, summer weather certainly doing what
it does, dropping us into a pressure cooker, and forgetting
to set a time or to shut it off. We've
got several more days of tough summer heat on the horizon,
but we're still nowhere near, nowhere near where we were
(01:51):
this past summer a year ago, when the thermometer just
refuse to budge below the mid eighties overnight and shot
past one hundred every afternoon for I don't know what
was it, six eight weeks. It just seemed like it
would never end. It truly seemed like it would never end.
And then we made it through, as we'll make it
(02:13):
through this one. So anyway, back to the present, your
highs and lows in high coup courtesy is always of
Texas indoor air quality specialists, because cleaner air is healthier air.
You can doll pound two fifty and say healthy air
and you will get connected directly to them and they
can explain what they do to you. All right, you
(02:35):
ready will hit me, Welcome new Texans. Didn't anyone tell
you hot as hell through fall? It's true, the true one.
You know what that truth that one is eight. That's
(02:58):
a good one. You have a pen over there by,
I do an extra one. Oh fantastic. Oh this is
the one that's got sticky stuff all over it. Well
that's okay, it works though, that's great. So I get
an eight on that. Really, Yeah, that's awesome. That's great.
That's a that's a high too, isn't it? Isn't that
the highest high coup I've had? May it is? It
(03:20):
is welcome New Texans. Didn't anyone tell you hot as
hell through fall? And that that may be even short
shortening it a little bit, who knows. I'm still sticking
to my story that I remember as a little kid
in Sharptown winters Christmases when I and my buddies up
(03:40):
and down the street would be out by about nine
thirty ten o'clock in the morning in just shorts and
no shoes, no socks, no t shirts, nothing, riding new
bicycles or throwing new baseballs or footballs or whatever it was.
But we were having a good time anyway. Off we
go to the recently volatile world of stocks and such
(04:04):
thanks to Houston Goldenschanged dot com, where all four of
the big indicators were solidly into the green yet again
as of around ten o'clock this morning at least, and
apparently intent on continuing to climb, although I haven't looked
back in a bit. Crude oil joined them, unfortunately, thanks
(04:25):
in no small part to the continued instability in the
Middle East and in our own country's leaders determination to
keep a stranglehold on increased domestic production. Gold on the
plus side, up nearly thirty bucks mid morning, sitting at
twenty four to sixty. It wasn't quite to the twenty
(04:45):
five hundred mark we hit just a few short days ago. Nonetheless,
twenty four to sixty is a lot of money to
pay for an ounce of anything into a Do you
do you have anybody from whom you would know offhand?
Will the price of illegal drugs around Houston? Are you
(05:08):
is anybody in your circle?
Speaker 5 (05:10):
What?
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Are you a cop?
Speaker 5 (05:13):
No?
Speaker 4 (05:14):
I'm curious. I'm so far removed from that. I thought
maybe somebody might have just mentioned it in conversation. How
much like an ounce of drugs would cost? An ounce
of drugs?
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Huh?
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Yeah, I don't know. Cocaine, that's what I see smuggler
all the time.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Really.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Yeah, there was a woman last night. Actually, I was
just kind of flipping through channels, and there was a
woman who, by wide margin qualified for this audience's age demo. Okay,
she was in her late fifties, maybe early sixties, and
in this piece of luggage she had brought into wherever,
(05:56):
whatever airport she was at, I don't remember exactly where
it was, she had brought in these packages of something
that looked like plant food, I think the labels said,
and she had just boo coo of these things in there,
every one of them loaded with cocaine. One of the
(06:17):
biggest seizures this airport had had in many, many, many years.
I want to say it was about seventy five pounds
of cocaine. And she was like, well, you know, I'm
as innocent as you guys are. Thought it was funny,
(06:37):
and at her age, I don't know, at any age,
I don't know how that could be funny, But I
think she was maybe just laughing to cover up extreme
displeasure that she had been busted for something. I'd be
willing to bet she knew exactly what was going on.
I saw what do I have left? Well just a
(06:57):
minute and change, yeah, one minute, Yeah, I'm not gonna
go into this store. Then I'll go to it in
a minute. Let's let's lighten it up real quickly. Oh,
by the way, no here, this is a news flash
worth less than a minute. It's National Pickleball Day, will
celebrated by most commonly by orthopedic surgeons in Florida and
wherever else there are lots of seniors, because that is
(07:21):
the number one cause of physical injury to seniors. Right now,
pickleball is and you still stand behind it. Yes, you
still go to the what is it called the wardy
pickle something like that, the bumpy pickle, the warded pickle.
I haven't been to the bumpy pickle in a while.
I think it's still open. Yes, how long do you
think that'll last? Another year? The news gonna wear off?
Who who swings a hula hoop anymore?
Speaker 5 (07:43):
People?
Speaker 4 (07:44):
I know they play? They swing hula hoops in pe classes. Well, yeah,
but they were. They were kids toys when I was
growing up, and a cool one too.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
I was.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
I was a good hula hooper. I really was.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
I was.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
I was above average as a hula hooper. It's also
International Cat Day, pulled two thousand cat and dog owners
find the top things that they freak out about fireworks, vacuums,
new people, sudden movements, and loud arts. Scares the heck
out of a cat. Why I'm told I would, Honest
(08:26):
to God, I don't know. I've had a couple of
cats over recent years and well many years ago now,
but nonetheless I don't remember either of them being scared
of anything. I kind of like my dog, he wasn't
scared of anything either. Kirk HOLMBS. If you're in the
market for a beautiful custom home and would like to
get that home built by a third generation custom builder
(08:49):
who builds in some of the most beautiful parts of Texas,
i e. The Hill Country and anywhere from there all
the way back to northwest Houston, then kirk HOOLMBS is
the the company you want to use to see your
dream home become reality. It will be totally unique, it
will be exactly as you want it. They will take
(09:12):
their time. You can work with the design and architectural
teams to make every single room in that house, every
single light switch and light socket and backsplash and ceiling
fixture and fans, whatever whatever's in that house. They are
going to be your choices. In yours alone, twenty year
(09:33):
structural warranty, twice the industry standard. That's also included two
by six exterior walls also required of kirk Holm, so
that you get fifty percent more insulation around that perimeter
than someone who buys from another builder. Let them turn
your dream home into reality. It's it's not a simple task,
(09:56):
but it's one that they do very well and have
done so for thirty years. And oh, by the way,
Kirkcomb's the twenty twenty four Southern Living Builder of the Year.
Kirkcolmbs dot COM's website. That's kay, you are kay because
at Kirkcolmbs it's all about you.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
What's life without a NAT? I suggest to go to bed,
sleep it off.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Just wait until the show's over, sleepy. Back to Doug
Pike as fifty plus continues.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
All right, welcome back to fifty plus. How do you
say plus in Spanish? Sin quenta something? I just don't
know what it is. Why don't you look it up?
Will do some research? Oh earn your keep man? Anyway,
I do you want the dog story, Will? Or you
(10:53):
want Taylor Swift? Let's go with the dog story and
a good one. Just Moss, Moss says that's it. Plus
is mos Yeah, I guess more sinque the moss. So there,
now we have officially well no, we haven't officially moved anywhere,
all right. So here's the dog story.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
I had the one yesterday about a man's pet who
is credited with detecting a dangerous cancer and actually saving
the man's life. The doctor said that he would have
lost not just his face but his life within weeks
had that dog not been reacting strangely, so strangely in fact,
recently that it concerned the man and his family. He
(11:39):
went to the doctors that the dog's trying to tell him.
It was like LASTI trying to let me know timmy
fell in the well, Only he's looking at me. And
the doctors checked him out, and sure enough, he had
a stage four cancer that they removed, and he's they
got it all, and they've done some reconstruction and he's
far better than he would have been. Now comes a
(12:01):
story about a dog that are about dogs that are
being trained to sniff out the presence of the very
specific chemicals applied to data storage devices, even teeny tiny,
little less D cards that are smaller than a fingernail.
So why is that a big deal?
Speaker 2 (12:24):
You ask, do we need?
Speaker 4 (12:26):
It's not to go look for people's lost phones. Believe me,
listen to this. This one guy's dog and these are
official law enforcement dogs at a lab named Roscoe, all
the way from Well. The dog lives and works in
Oklahoma primarily, but it was flown all the way to
Ecuador to sniff out devices that were being used by
(12:52):
a pediatrician who had them very well hidden. By the way,
he was also suspected of peddling child porn. And now
thanks to Roscoe's work, that guy, if he's convicted, is
facing thirty years in prison. There's another dog named Ruger
who sniffed out a laptop back here in the US
(13:13):
of A somewhere next this past year. This guy had
hidden his laptop deep within the cushions of a sofa,
and the dogs is, oh, this is easy, Yeah, there
it is right there, and they found the laptop, they
found the evidence they needed, and that guy's in a
boatload of trouble. A quote from Lieutenant John Hayning, who
(13:34):
is Roscoe's handler up in Rogers County, Oklahoma, and I quote,
if you overlook one cell phone, one computer, micro SD card,
or one hidden camera somewhere in the room that could
lead to another victim, or that could lead us to
put this perpetrator away for a long period of time.
(13:55):
End quote. I kind of liked that second result best,
the one where the bad guy get put away for
a long time. Okay, will I'm gonna just I'm gonna
go back and make it a little easy on you,
and let's see what we can find. I'll give you
the choice between here kitty kitty hazard pay or no,
(14:18):
I scratch out here kitty kitty hazard pay not worth it,
or work hard kids hazard pay. This I found found
a little bit weird. According to some new report, I
don't know who did it or how in depth they
went the three deadliest jobs in America? What would you
think will.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
One of them?
Speaker 4 (14:41):
Actually, when you hear it, it will be pretty obvious, oh,
radio hosts, I hope not. That's not why I signed up.
I'll say, construction, you're warm rufers, rufers, And you can
see why, because I would bet that I pray it
(15:04):
never happens to anyone on any of the crews that
I've known or know, or or just it never happens again,
which is kind of a fool's errand but nonetheless roofing
and even a top that is logging workers cutting down
the trees. Yeah, you can kind of see how that
could be a problem. And then it also says and
(15:27):
fishing and hunting workers. Now, the fishing, I've watched Deadliest
Catch of you. That's pretty rough. They're up there off
the coast of Alaska and they are fighting horrible weather.
They are working with gear that weighs the big pots
that they send down to the bottom of the ocean
(15:47):
to catch the crabs weigh that's commercial fishing. They weigh
hundreds of pounds. And if you get squashed between a
couple of those with the rocking of the ocean, if
one of the cables breaks and snaps and comes flying
across the deck, there are a whole lot of ways
you could get hurt seriously or even killed in that profession.
(16:08):
But hunting workers, I just don't get that. First of all,
we don't have commercial hunting in the United States that
I can think of right off the top of my head.
We have recreational hunting, for which there are hunting guides.
But having done that job for fourteen years, I don't
see that I don't. I've never known a hunting guide.
(16:32):
Well I take that back. I've known one who was
seriously and by seriously I mean he lost a finger
when a kid made a bad shot. But that's the
only injury I can remember really happening to a guide,
and certainly not loss of life. So I don't know
why they include hunting workers whatever that is. I just
(16:55):
it doesn't matter. All right, Well, let me go back
to my nuts and bolt for one minute. I will
tell you no that one's going to take a little
bit more good news for America's teachers, okay, and a
lot of them are very frightened by retaliation from students
to their methods, hopefully to clean up the classroom, to
(17:17):
keep it focused on learning and get by whatnot. And
regardless of their political views, politics play no play no
role in this story. The now eighteen year old teenager
who severely beat a teacher's aid over his Nintendo Switch
video game last year has been sentenced to five years
(17:37):
in prison and fifteen years probation after he pleaded no
contest to felony aggravated assault. That teacher, Joe Natish, by
the way, suffered five broken ribs, hearing loss in a
severe concussion, according to a New York Post story, and
the kids who did it actually is being held accountable. Well,
(18:01):
he's no kid anymore. The bottom line is that there
should be teachers should not fear students in any way,
shape or form. And that's become a problem, and I'm
glad to see it going the other way, all right.
UT Health Institute on Aging is this amazing collective, if
you will, of hundreds, if not maybe even more than
(18:22):
a thousand providers in this area, providers of medical services
and care who all, in addition to whatever it was
they had to do to get that diploma on the wall,
have gone back and received additional education so that they
could apply their expertise specifically to seniors and our issues.
(18:45):
The big difference between a young person's heart, a young
person's lungs, or any other body part than that of
a senior person, and treating issues and conditions relative to
those problems we have as we get older. Hey, stuff
loosens up, stuff falls off, stuff, Just all kinds of
(19:07):
things happen to us when we age, and we just
deal with it. We don't whine about it. We just
we just accept it and deal with it once we
realize that there's no turning back. Ut helths Institute on
Aging and all the providers and all the resources it
offers can help you more smoothly transition and help you
(19:27):
feel better, help you live longer, a happier, longer life.
Be around your family a little more often, if that's
what you want to do. Get to play more golf,
get to go fishing, get to read books, get to
go to theaters wherever it is you want to go
as a senior. They'll help you get there and back
by feeling better by being healthier. Ut h dot edu
(19:49):
slash agent. Go there and see what they can do
for you. Ut h dot ed u slash aging.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Now they sure don't make them like they used to.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
That's why every few months we check his words and
spring on a fresh coat O wax. This is fifty
plus with Doug Pike. Hey, welcome back fifty plus.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
Thanks for listening. Certainly do appreciate it. What is it
sound like a white hot Thursday? If it doesn't make
a hundred, it'll get close. We'll talk in this segment
somewhat late, given that we just got rocked by barrel,
but nonetheless for future prep against the next weather emergency
or wildfire or whatever. And for newcomers to the region
(20:38):
who got caught on their heels when barrel rolled through.
We're gonna talk about being pretty much as ready as
possible well in advance, and we'll do so. And this
is not this is not get some extra med stuff.
This is above and beyond that. We're gonna talk to
a guy named Arispapadopoulos. He is founder of the Resilience
Action Fund and a nine to eleven World Trade Aid
(21:00):
Center survivor. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
Eris thank you, dougs. Thank you for having me any show.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
My pleasure. So this is really different, like I said,
from just being sure to fill your gas tank. You're
focused on protecting actual homes and what's inside them, right.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
Exactly. Our home is our biggest and most important investments,
and we don't want to run away from it. We
want to feel safe in it when when nature is,
you know, turning against us. So you know, it's very
important to make the right choices and make the right decisions.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
You should, you should, you should do a speech for
Center Point. I think I'm just that's our electrical provider. Here,
we were we were two million plug two point two
million people without power right after the storm. Huston's growing
very fast too, and every knew Houstonian at some point
is gonna have to deal with their first tropical storm
or hurricane, which is very scary, but it doesn't have
(21:56):
to be if you do the right prep And I
saw some I saw some talking points in what I
received before this interview and one of the things that
really caught my eye is these fabric window and door shutters.
How do they work?
Speaker 5 (22:10):
Well? Basically, you know, we know the plywood and or
maybe some of the heavy aluminum shutters that people have used,
but as you get older, I have to tell you,
and I'm in my sixties, you know, those are hard
and harder to put out. So a few years ago
I discovered that, you know, there's a fabric's similar to
what the night on for car airbags that is very
(22:33):
easy to you know, cut taylor cut to your windows
and doors, and you know they have screws and very
easy to put up. And that's what I have for
my home in South Florida. And I recommend them to
everybody that I can, you know, talk to, So I say,
you know, you can find them a big box stores.
You can search with them online. Obviously they have to
(22:53):
be tailor cut to your dimensions. But they're easy to store,
they don't take up much space, and they're easy to
put up and take down, which is very important.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
You know.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
Yeah, we're about the same age and at our age.
Is that easy up and easy down is a big deal.
Let me ask you this, So the fabric outside the window,
what if something impacts it, how does it How does
the fabric keep it from impacting far enough that it
bangs the window behind it?
Speaker 5 (23:22):
Well, actually, there's a piece of metal that goes kind
of the center of the window that teachs it away. Again,
all this has screws to the to the you know,
around the window. There's a piece of metal that goes
to the center that keeps a little distant from the
window itself so perfect, you know, that kind of creates
a little barrier. I have the same question, and they
(23:45):
told me in especially in the hurricane region, that's a requirement. Now,
you know, in some parts of northern you know, for
tornadoes and so forth, it's not a requirement. I still
recommend it.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
Yeah, I'm sure it doesn't cost one hundred dollars more
to get the little piece that keeps it away from
the window, and that'll be whatever it is, it's a
good investment. So that that's gonna help us with the
wind damage part. What about water? How do I saw
something about flood barriers, and I'm honestly everybody around here
talks about sandbags and and that's another big pain in
the behind. What about flood barriers? How do how do
(24:18):
they work?
Speaker 5 (24:19):
Yeah? Exactly, And I have to caution that, you know,
all these barriers and things, they work up to a
certain level of flood water, you know, so I say,
you know, two feet, you know, they can handle a
couple of feet, but if you're you know, if you're
in an area was floods like four or five feet, then.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
You know, all bets are off of these things.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
But you know, basically, these things fit at the entrance
of a door and kind of you know, uh have
kind of the rubber that expands, you know, through through
some screws at the side of the door. And and
they I've seen them getting less and less expensive. A
couple of years ago, they were a thousand. Now I
see a lot of them kind of in the five
(24:59):
hundred or less price range. And you know, again they're
easy to store, easy to install, and you know even
some of the big box stores are now offering them.
But you can search online and you know, get get
something for your main door, you know, whatever part of
your house the entrance you feel could flood. And obviously
you need to know how much flood risk you have.
(25:21):
Unfortunately the government does the bad job infore me consumers.
And I've turned to a free kind of you know
app called flood Factor that even the realtor sites are
now offering them, like redfin, andreeltor dot com. So you
can put your address there and go down to the
bottom and see, you know what, what's your flood risk,
(25:42):
so you know how bad you are. I like to
tell people they have a score from one to ten.
If you're one to four, you're you're in good shape
and probably you know, one of these barriers would work
it kind of in the four five range. But if
you're above six, you know you got to be thinking
it's something more grass.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Yeah, and obviously more sensive by a boat pretty much the.
Speaker 6 (26:04):
Boat, or elevate the house, yeah, or just you know,
figure of building a higher level and making the lower
level into kind of a recreation area.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Yeah, that's not a bad Yeah, well we do that
along the coast. The downstairs is usually like a fishing
tackle room or the kids float toys whatever for the beach,
and then the upstairs elevated ten feet, is where the
main home is. But inside Houston, we're forty fifty miles
in here, we still get some week. When Hurricane Harvey
(26:38):
came through, when Tropical Storm Allison came through, we had
significant flooding around here and in a lot of neighborhoods.
I think having the ability to stave off water up
to about two feet would have saved a lot of
people a lot of money.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Exactly.
Speaker 5 (26:54):
And I visited Houston a year after Harvey has saw
a lot of that. In fact, it's part of a documentary.
I I may built a last uh that features are
part of a features.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
You know what what the.
Speaker 5 (27:07):
Situation, uh, you know the Harvey post disaster and the
things that needed to be done so you know, you
don't have to be on the coast to get flooded,
you know, an anywhere, any any low point. You know,
water we know goes from high to low, so you know,
if water if you're in the low point of a
of a valley, or just you know, the terrain, or
so forth or downstream on some kind of a reservoir.
(27:30):
You know, you're you're looking at water coming towards you,
you know, so you better be prepared. Well.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Our problem around here is not water coming toward us
real fast or going away real fast. Our problem is
that we're flat as a pancake. And if you get
a torrential down for in one little area, it fills
that up and floods it real quickly. So a lot
of work we have to do. Ares I would like
to believe it or not, we're already out of time.
I would like to get you back on and and
(27:56):
maybe kind of go a little deeper, no pun intended,
into some of this stuff and see what else we
could come up with to kind of help people around
here avoid some of the real costly stuff that's happened
in the last few storms. You okay with that?
Speaker 5 (28:11):
Happy to happy to do that, Doug in my kind
of retirement, say that's what I'm made to do and
form the consumer.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Than where online?
Speaker 4 (28:20):
Could we find something else about you? Uh?
Speaker 5 (28:24):
The website is building Resilient. One word building resilient dot
com of the nonprofit I started called Resilience Action Fund,
and there's a lot of good information there that can
help you and you know, answer questions and so forth.
So building Resilient dot Com, you got it.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
Thank you so much, Aris Arispapadopolis, Building Resilient dot Com. Thanks.
We'll be back in touch. I really will know fullland.
Thank you. All right, all right, we gotta take a
little break on the way out. Speaking of disaster fixing,
Bronze Roofing brons Rufi has been really, really busy. All
the roofers are really really busy right now, and a
(29:01):
lot of them maybe not looking out for your best
interests as much as Bronze does. Bronze Roofing Skeeter Bron's
been in business for thirty plus years. He's been doing
this a very long time. And one of the reasons
he's still in business when a lot of other roofers
kind of come and go, maybe they change their name
after five or six years whatever, Bronze Roofing's always been
(29:23):
Bronze Roofing. And the reason is because Skeeter makes sure
that every roof they deal with they take good care of.
They offer free inspections, anytime, usually done within one day,
within twenty four hours. They're extra busy right now, it
might take a second day to get there. But when
(29:44):
they do get there, they will do a personal visible
inspection from right there on the roof, and then they'll
come down from there. If there's nothing wrong, they'll tell
you so, and lucky you, you don't have to call
them back for another year or two. If there is
a problem, whether it was caused by Directo or Hurricane
Beryl or just that hard, long week of rain we
(30:04):
had recently, they will show you pictures of what they found.
They will explain how they can fix it, how much
it will cost, how long it will take, the materials
they'll use, all of that, and then you get to
make the choice of whether to use bronze roofing or not.
The smart choice, of course, is to let them go
ahead and get started, get it done for you so
(30:25):
you don't have to worry about your roof again for
a long, long time. Free estimates usually within twenty four hours.
Bronzeroofing dot com. Put the number in your phone, because
if you ever come home and hear water dripping in
your house, you kind of want to get on that
right away. Bronzeroofing dot Com two eight one four eight
(30:45):
zero ninety nine hundred two eight one four eight zero
ninety nine hundred aged to perfection.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
This is fifty plus with Dougpike. They're not finished yet.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
Well, we're watching the women's fifteen hundred meters semis, the
second of two, and they are in the bell lap.
I think they still call it the bell out. Do
they ring a bell?
Speaker 2 (31:15):
We don't have.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
Volume up in here, so who knows? There's two women
have just run off from the whole pack. I guess yeah, one,
two they are, and an American in third. That's good,
and then the rest of them trailing on in and
finally getting the job done. Okay, so we send one
at least, I think, to the finals. Yeah, she's going.
(31:36):
They need to put the scoreboard back up. All right, Well,
how about let's see are meteors technically space news? Because
if they are, I can go with this as my
space news. They are, okay, Yeah, they come from out
of space. Certainly if you like falling stars, and you
(31:57):
can get far away, at least far enough away from
big city lights which Houston just shines like a beacon
from space, they can probably see it from Mars. I
don't know who they would be. You know what they
should do. They should point a camera back toward Earth
in the nighttime. Let's see they would have to well,
(32:18):
it would be I don't know if it's possible in
any way. In any event, I'd like to see just
how far away our planet reflects light. Bottom line is
on August to twelfth. The night of August to twelfth
brings upon us Perced's meteor shower, which at its peak
(32:40):
is going to throw at us about one hundred and
fifty shooting stars an hour. Doesn't take long to do
the math on that in the northern hemisphere, which just
happens to be where we are in reality, what's happening
is that we are just passing through a pile of
trash left in space by a comet, just old rocks
(33:03):
and beer cans and gum wrappers that this meteor left
up there long or comet left a long time ago.
And if you can get far enough out of town,
you're gonna get quite a show. I may try and
take off. What what's today?
Speaker 5 (33:18):
Will?
Speaker 4 (33:18):
What's the day? Today? The ninth? It's the eighth eighth,
So that's Thursday, Friday, the ninth, Saturday, Sunday. Monday is
the twelfth, correct sounds like it is the twelfth. So
Monday night, I might just take off and drive out
of town, and I'll go southwest because I can get
out of the city lights fastest that way. And I
(33:39):
really think if you could get even beyond Richmond Rosenberg
and get headed down toward Warden, what I'll do is
get down that way and then turn north and go
up onto the prairie because there's not a whole lot
of light out on that prairie. I can remember vividly
when I was a hunting god going out there and
it just being pitch dark. You could drive for my
(34:00):
and not even see an electric light. There was one
light that we all recognized driving around out there. That
was the one single bulb on a little trailer house
out there close to what did Oh boy, it was
twenty eight to fifty five going north and five point
twenty nine going east west, and that was the only
(34:20):
light out there for a very long ways.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
In outdoors news because I just honestly can't help myself.
A guy in West Virginia, guy named John Tyler Rutherford,
recently caught a new state record channel catfish there forty
six point seven pounds. But wait, there's more to the story.
He did so on his daughters, his three year old
(34:45):
daughter's ten dollars Roden real combo. I'm guessing my little
Pony or maybe Aeriel or one of those cartoon characters,
because the whole outfit was pink. In any event, that
cat was no match for his fishing skills. She can't
even cast yet, so I presume he's never heard me
(35:06):
talk about starting little kids on cane poles, which is
much easier for them. Anyway, she can't cast, so he
cast for her, and she was sitting on his lap
when the fish took the bait and he reeled in
the new state record. By the way, for the record,
Texas's channel cat record is a mere thirty six and
(35:27):
a half pounds, and that has stood for well since
nineteen sixty five, So fifty nine years on that record,
surely somebody can say challenge accepted and go try to
beat that record.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Big fish.
Speaker 4 (35:44):
Little girl didn't even get to catch the fish on
her own rod and reel because her dad had to
do it. And if he let go of the rod
and reel. It could not be. If they were trying
to get technically a world record and IGFA record, a
second set of hands on the rod would disqualified, even
though they might have been three year old girl's hands. Okay, well,
(36:05):
let's go back to the fun stuff.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
No, not that.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
Where did it go? Where's my good stuff? Where's the
stuff I really wanted to bring up today? Where's time?
Do I have left of fun? You have a minute
and ten seconds? That's fun? Okay? I got that? Yeah,
here we go. This is the one I wanted. Uh,
work hard, kids?
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Been here for years? Or how do you do it?
Speaker 4 (36:32):
Been here for years? An invasive species of worm, it
says in this story, making itself known in Texas. It's
the hard to kill hammerhead flat worm. You ever heard
of those?
Speaker 5 (36:45):
Will?
Speaker 4 (36:46):
Yes, they're the ones that multiplied when you cut them right. Yeah,
but I got news for you. When I was a kid,
they were around then that they're still around now. And
if you put one on a hot sidewalk and rub
your tin shoe over it back and forth about five
or six times, it's not multiplying into anything. It just
(37:06):
it just vaporizes on a hot sidewalk. This whole there
was another really deceptive headline, and I'm kind of glad
we didn't get to this story because it really bothered me.
Maybe we can get to it next week. I don't know.
I'm out of here for today. I'll be back to
on Saturday and Sunday mornings on kbm E, and then
(37:28):
back here Monday on KPRC for another edition of fifty plus.
Thanks for listening, Audios
Remember when it was impossible to misplace the TV remote
because you were the TV remote. Remember when music sounded
like this? Remember when social media was truly social?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey John, how's it going today?
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Well? This show is all about you one.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Helpful information on your finances, good health, and what to
do for fun. Fifty plus brought to you by the
UT Health Houston Institute on Aging, Informed Decisions for a healthier,
happier life and Bronze Roofing repair or replacement.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Bronze roofing has you covered? And now fifty plus with
Doug Pike.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
All right, here we go Thursday edition of the program
on this what the fourth day and the traditional work
weekend for some of us just the next day that
we do what we do kind of like you and
me will, right, It's just the days just kind of
run into each other. Of course, you get real weekends off,
though you're rarely here on Saturday and Sunday. Right, I
(01:12):
only come in whenever I am We requested personal request
to run a show by appointment only. Yes, I'm sure
you get paid extra for those appointments.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Maybe a little bit.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
Oh good, do you really? I hope, so I genuinely do.
All right, So anyway, uh, summer weather certainly doing what
it does, dropping us into a pressure cooker, and forgetting
to set a time or to shut it off. We've
got several more days of tough summer heat on the horizon,
but we're still nowhere near, nowhere near where we were
(01:51):
this past summer a year ago, when the thermometer just
refuse to budge below the mid eighties overnight and shot
past one hundred every afternoon for I don't know what
was it, six eight weeks. It just seemed like it
would never end. It truly seemed like it would never end.
And then we made it through, as we'll make it
(02:13):
through this one. So anyway, back to the present, your
highs and lows in high coup courtesy is always of
Texas indoor air quality specialists, because cleaner air is healthier air.
You can doll pound two fifty and say healthy air
and you will get connected directly to them and they
can explain what they do to you. All right, you
(02:35):
ready will hit me, Welcome new Texans. Didn't anyone tell
you hot as hell through fall? It's true, the true one.
You know what that truth that one is eight. That's
(02:58):
a good one. You have a pen over there by,
I do an extra one. Oh fantastic. Oh this is
the one that's got sticky stuff all over it. Well
that's okay, it works though, that's great. So I get
an eight on that. Really, Yeah, that's awesome. That's great.
That's a that's a high too, isn't it? Isn't that
the highest high coup I've had? May it is? It
(03:20):
is welcome New Texans. Didn't anyone tell you hot as
hell through fall? And that that may be even short
shortening it a little bit, who knows. I'm still sticking
to my story that I remember as a little kid
in Sharptown winters Christmases when I and my buddies up
(03:40):
and down the street would be out by about nine
thirty ten o'clock in the morning in just shorts and
no shoes, no socks, no t shirts, nothing, riding new
bicycles or throwing new baseballs or footballs or whatever it was.
But we were having a good time anyway. Off we
go to the recently volatile world of stocks and such
(04:04):
thanks to Houston Goldenschanged dot com, where all four of
the big indicators were solidly into the green yet again
as of around ten o'clock this morning at least, and
apparently intent on continuing to climb, although I haven't looked
back in a bit. Crude oil joined them, unfortunately, thanks
(04:25):
in no small part to the continued instability in the
Middle East and in our own country's leaders determination to
keep a stranglehold on increased domestic production. Gold on the
plus side, up nearly thirty bucks mid morning, sitting at
twenty four to sixty. It wasn't quite to the twenty
(04:45):
five hundred mark we hit just a few short days ago. Nonetheless,
twenty four to sixty is a lot of money to
pay for an ounce of anything into a Do you
do you have anybody from whom you would know offhand?
Will the price of illegal drugs around Houston? Are you
(05:08):
is anybody in your circle?
Speaker 5 (05:10):
What?
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Are you a cop?
Speaker 5 (05:13):
No?
Speaker 4 (05:14):
I'm curious. I'm so far removed from that. I thought
maybe somebody might have just mentioned it in conversation. How
much like an ounce of drugs would cost? An ounce
of drugs?
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Huh?
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Yeah, I don't know. Cocaine, that's what I see smuggler
all the time.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Really.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Yeah, there was a woman last night. Actually, I was
just kind of flipping through channels, and there was a
woman who, by wide margin qualified for this audience's age demo. Okay,
she was in her late fifties, maybe early sixties, and
in this piece of luggage she had brought into wherever,
(05:56):
whatever airport she was at, I don't remember exactly where
it was, she had brought in these packages of something
that looked like plant food, I think the labels said,
and she had just boo coo of these things in there,
every one of them loaded with cocaine. One of the
(06:17):
biggest seizures this airport had had in many, many, many years.
I want to say it was about seventy five pounds
of cocaine. And she was like, well, you know, I'm
as innocent as you guys are. Thought it was funny,
(06:37):
and at her age, I don't know, at any age,
I don't know how that could be funny, But I
think she was maybe just laughing to cover up extreme
displeasure that she had been busted for something. I'd be
willing to bet she knew exactly what was going on.
I saw what do I have left? Well just a
(06:57):
minute and change, yeah, one minute, Yeah, I'm not gonna
go into this store. Then I'll go to it in
a minute. Let's let's lighten it up real quickly. Oh,
by the way, no here, this is a news flash
worth less than a minute. It's National Pickleball Day, will
celebrated by most commonly by orthopedic surgeons in Florida and
wherever else there are lots of seniors, because that is
(07:21):
the number one cause of physical injury to seniors. Right now,
pickleball is and you still stand behind it. Yes, you
still go to the what is it called the wardy
pickle something like that, the bumpy pickle, the warded pickle.
I haven't been to the bumpy pickle in a while.
I think it's still open. Yes, how long do you
think that'll last? Another year? The news gonna wear off?
Who who swings a hula hoop anymore?
Speaker 5 (07:43):
People?
Speaker 4 (07:44):
I know they play? They swing hula hoops in pe classes. Well, yeah,
but they were. They were kids toys when I was
growing up, and a cool one too.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
I was.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
I was a good hula hooper. I really was.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
I was.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
I was above average as a hula hooper. It's also
International Cat Day, pulled two thousand cat and dog owners
find the top things that they freak out about fireworks, vacuums,
new people, sudden movements, and loud arts. Scares the heck
out of a cat. Why I'm told I would, Honest
(08:26):
to God, I don't know. I've had a couple of
cats over recent years and well many years ago now,
but nonetheless I don't remember either of them being scared
of anything. I kind of like my dog, he wasn't
scared of anything either. Kirk HOLMBS. If you're in the
market for a beautiful custom home and would like to
get that home built by a third generation custom builder
(08:49):
who builds in some of the most beautiful parts of Texas,
i e. The Hill Country and anywhere from there all
the way back to northwest Houston, then kirk HOOLMBS is
the the company you want to use to see your
dream home become reality. It will be totally unique, it
will be exactly as you want it. They will take
(09:12):
their time. You can work with the design and architectural
teams to make every single room in that house, every
single light switch and light socket and backsplash and ceiling
fixture and fans, whatever whatever's in that house. They are
going to be your choices. In yours alone, twenty year
(09:33):
structural warranty, twice the industry standard. That's also included two
by six exterior walls also required of kirk Holm, so
that you get fifty percent more insulation around that perimeter
than someone who buys from another builder. Let them turn
your dream home into reality. It's it's not a simple task,
(09:56):
but it's one that they do very well and have
done so for thirty years. And oh, by the way,
Kirkcomb's the twenty twenty four Southern Living Builder of the Year.
Kirkcolmbs dot COM's website. That's kay, you are kay because
at Kirkcolmbs it's all about you.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
What's life without a NAT? I suggest to go to bed,
sleep it off.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Just wait until the show's over, sleepy. Back to Doug
Pike as fifty plus continues.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
All right, welcome back to fifty plus. How do you
say plus in Spanish? Sin quenta something? I just don't
know what it is. Why don't you look it up?
Will do some research? Oh earn your keep man? Anyway,
I do you want the dog story, Will? Or you
(10:53):
want Taylor Swift? Let's go with the dog story and
a good one. Just Moss, Moss says that's it. Plus
is mos Yeah, I guess more sinque the moss. So there,
now we have officially well no, we haven't officially moved anywhere,
all right. So here's the dog story.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
I had the one yesterday about a man's pet who
is credited with detecting a dangerous cancer and actually saving
the man's life. The doctor said that he would have
lost not just his face but his life within weeks
had that dog not been reacting strangely, so strangely in fact,
recently that it concerned the man and his family. He
(11:39):
went to the doctors that the dog's trying to tell him.
It was like LASTI trying to let me know timmy
fell in the well, Only he's looking at me. And
the doctors checked him out, and sure enough, he had
a stage four cancer that they removed, and he's they
got it all, and they've done some reconstruction and he's
far better than he would have been. Now comes a
(12:01):
story about a dog that are about dogs that are
being trained to sniff out the presence of the very
specific chemicals applied to data storage devices, even teeny tiny,
little less D cards that are smaller than a fingernail.
So why is that a big deal?
Speaker 2 (12:24):
You ask, do we need?
Speaker 4 (12:26):
It's not to go look for people's lost phones. Believe me,
listen to this. This one guy's dog and these are
official law enforcement dogs at a lab named Roscoe, all
the way from Well. The dog lives and works in
Oklahoma primarily, but it was flown all the way to
Ecuador to sniff out devices that were being used by
(12:52):
a pediatrician who had them very well hidden. By the way,
he was also suspected of peddling child porn. And now
thanks to Roscoe's work, that guy, if he's convicted, is
facing thirty years in prison. There's another dog named Ruger
who sniffed out a laptop back here in the US
(13:13):
of A somewhere next this past year. This guy had
hidden his laptop deep within the cushions of a sofa,
and the dogs is, oh, this is easy, Yeah, there
it is right there, and they found the laptop, they
found the evidence they needed, and that guy's in a
boatload of trouble. A quote from Lieutenant John Hayning, who
(13:34):
is Roscoe's handler up in Rogers County, Oklahoma, and I quote,
if you overlook one cell phone, one computer, micro SD card,
or one hidden camera somewhere in the room that could
lead to another victim, or that could lead us to
put this perpetrator away for a long period of time.
(13:55):
End quote. I kind of liked that second result best,
the one where the bad guy get put away for
a long time. Okay, will I'm gonna just I'm gonna
go back and make it a little easy on you,
and let's see what we can find. I'll give you
the choice between here kitty kitty hazard pay or no,
(14:18):
I scratch out here kitty kitty hazard pay not worth it,
or work hard kids hazard pay. This I found found
a little bit weird. According to some new report, I
don't know who did it or how in depth they
went the three deadliest jobs in America? What would you
think will.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
One of them?
Speaker 4 (14:41):
Actually, when you hear it, it will be pretty obvious, oh,
radio hosts, I hope not. That's not why I signed up.
I'll say, construction, you're warm rufers, rufers, And you can
see why, because I would bet that I pray it
(15:04):
never happens to anyone on any of the crews that
I've known or know, or or just it never happens again,
which is kind of a fool's errand but nonetheless roofing
and even a top that is logging workers cutting down
the trees. Yeah, you can kind of see how that
could be a problem. And then it also says and
(15:27):
fishing and hunting workers. Now, the fishing, I've watched Deadliest
Catch of you. That's pretty rough. They're up there off
the coast of Alaska and they are fighting horrible weather.
They are working with gear that weighs the big pots
that they send down to the bottom of the ocean
(15:47):
to catch the crabs weigh that's commercial fishing. They weigh
hundreds of pounds. And if you get squashed between a
couple of those with the rocking of the ocean, if
one of the cables breaks and snaps and comes flying
across the deck, there are a whole lot of ways
you could get hurt seriously or even killed in that profession.
(16:08):
But hunting workers, I just don't get that. First of all,
we don't have commercial hunting in the United States that
I can think of right off the top of my head.
We have recreational hunting, for which there are hunting guides.
But having done that job for fourteen years, I don't
see that I don't. I've never known a hunting guide.
(16:32):
Well I take that back. I've known one who was
seriously and by seriously I mean he lost a finger
when a kid made a bad shot. But that's the
only injury I can remember really happening to a guide,
and certainly not loss of life. So I don't know
why they include hunting workers whatever that is. I just
(16:55):
it doesn't matter. All right, Well, let me go back
to my nuts and bolt for one minute. I will
tell you no that one's going to take a little
bit more good news for America's teachers, okay, and a
lot of them are very frightened by retaliation from students
to their methods, hopefully to clean up the classroom, to
(17:17):
keep it focused on learning and get by whatnot. And
regardless of their political views, politics play no play no
role in this story. The now eighteen year old teenager
who severely beat a teacher's aid over his Nintendo Switch
video game last year has been sentenced to five years
(17:37):
in prison and fifteen years probation after he pleaded no
contest to felony aggravated assault. That teacher, Joe Natish, by
the way, suffered five broken ribs, hearing loss in a
severe concussion, according to a New York Post story, and
the kids who did it actually is being held accountable. Well,
(18:01):
he's no kid anymore. The bottom line is that there
should be teachers should not fear students in any way,
shape or form. And that's become a problem, and I'm
glad to see it going the other way, all right.
UT Health Institute on Aging is this amazing collective, if
you will, of hundreds, if not maybe even more than
(18:22):
a thousand providers in this area, providers of medical services
and care who all, in addition to whatever it was
they had to do to get that diploma on the wall,
have gone back and received additional education so that they
could apply their expertise specifically to seniors and our issues.
(18:45):
The big difference between a young person's heart, a young
person's lungs, or any other body part than that of
a senior person, and treating issues and conditions relative to
those problems we have as we get older. Hey, stuff
loosens up, stuff falls off, stuff, Just all kinds of
(19:07):
things happen to us when we age, and we just
deal with it. We don't whine about it. We just
we just accept it and deal with it once we
realize that there's no turning back. Ut helths Institute on
Aging and all the providers and all the resources it
offers can help you more smoothly transition and help you
(19:27):
feel better, help you live longer, a happier, longer life.
Be around your family a little more often, if that's
what you want to do. Get to play more golf,
get to go fishing, get to read books, get to
go to theaters wherever it is you want to go
as a senior. They'll help you get there and back
by feeling better by being healthier. Ut h dot edu
(19:49):
slash agent. Go there and see what they can do
for you. Ut h dot ed u slash aging.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Now they sure don't make them like they used to.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
That's why every few months we check his words and
spring on a fresh coat O wax. This is fifty
plus with Doug Pike. Hey, welcome back fifty plus.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
Thanks for listening. Certainly do appreciate it. What is it
sound like a white hot Thursday? If it doesn't make
a hundred, it'll get close. We'll talk in this segment
somewhat late, given that we just got rocked by barrel,
but nonetheless for future prep against the next weather emergency
or wildfire or whatever. And for newcomers to the region
(20:38):
who got caught on their heels when barrel rolled through.
We're gonna talk about being pretty much as ready as
possible well in advance, and we'll do so. And this
is not this is not get some extra med stuff.
This is above and beyond that. We're gonna talk to
a guy named Arispapadopoulos. He is founder of the Resilience
Action Fund and a nine to eleven World Trade Aid
(21:00):
Center survivor. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
Eris thank you, dougs. Thank you for having me any show.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
My pleasure. So this is really different, like I said,
from just being sure to fill your gas tank. You're
focused on protecting actual homes and what's inside them, right.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
Exactly. Our home is our biggest and most important investments,
and we don't want to run away from it. We
want to feel safe in it when when nature is,
you know, turning against us. So you know, it's very
important to make the right choices and make the right decisions.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
You should, you should, you should do a speech for
Center Point. I think I'm just that's our electrical provider. Here,
we were we were two million plug two point two
million people without power right after the storm. Huston's growing
very fast too, and every knew Houstonian at some point
is gonna have to deal with their first tropical storm
or hurricane, which is very scary, but it doesn't have
(21:56):
to be if you do the right prep And I
saw some I saw some talking points in what I
received before this interview and one of the things that
really caught my eye is these fabric window and door shutters.
How do they work?
Speaker 5 (22:10):
Well? Basically, you know, we know the plywood and or
maybe some of the heavy aluminum shutters that people have used,
but as you get older, I have to tell you,
and I'm in my sixties, you know, those are hard
and harder to put out. So a few years ago
I discovered that, you know, there's a fabric's similar to
what the night on for car airbags that is very
(22:33):
easy to you know, cut taylor cut to your windows
and doors, and you know they have screws and very
easy to put up. And that's what I have for
my home in South Florida. And I recommend them to
everybody that I can, you know, talk to, So I say,
you know, you can find them a big box stores.
You can search with them online. Obviously they have to
(22:53):
be tailor cut to your dimensions. But they're easy to store,
they don't take up much space, and they're easy to
put up and take down, which is very important.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
You know.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
Yeah, we're about the same age and at our age.
Is that easy up and easy down is a big deal.
Let me ask you this, So the fabric outside the window,
what if something impacts it, how does it How does
the fabric keep it from impacting far enough that it
bangs the window behind it?
Speaker 5 (23:22):
Well, actually, there's a piece of metal that goes kind
of the center of the window that teachs it away. Again,
all this has screws to the to the you know,
around the window. There's a piece of metal that goes
to the center that keeps a little distant from the
window itself so perfect, you know, that kind of creates
a little barrier. I have the same question, and they
(23:45):
told me in especially in the hurricane region, that's a requirement. Now,
you know, in some parts of northern you know, for
tornadoes and so forth, it's not a requirement. I still
recommend it.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
Yeah, I'm sure it doesn't cost one hundred dollars more
to get the little piece that keeps it away from
the window, and that'll be whatever it is, it's a
good investment. So that that's gonna help us with the
wind damage part. What about water? How do I saw
something about flood barriers, and I'm honestly everybody around here
talks about sandbags and and that's another big pain in
the behind. What about flood barriers? How do how do
(24:18):
they work?
Speaker 5 (24:19):
Yeah? Exactly, And I have to caution that, you know,
all these barriers and things, they work up to a
certain level of flood water, you know, so I say,
you know, two feet, you know, they can handle a
couple of feet, but if you're you know, if you're
in an area was floods like four or five feet, then.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
You know, all bets are off of these things.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
But you know, basically, these things fit at the entrance
of a door and kind of you know, uh have
kind of the rubber that expands, you know, through through
some screws at the side of the door. And and
they I've seen them getting less and less expensive. A
couple of years ago, they were a thousand. Now I
see a lot of them kind of in the five
(24:59):
hundred or less price range. And you know, again they're
easy to store, easy to install, and you know even
some of the big box stores are now offering them.
But you can search online and you know, get get
something for your main door, you know, whatever part of
your house the entrance you feel could flood. And obviously
you need to know how much flood risk you have.
(25:21):
Unfortunately the government does the bad job infore me consumers.
And I've turned to a free kind of you know
app called flood Factor that even the realtor sites are
now offering them, like redfin, andreeltor dot com. So you
can put your address there and go down to the
bottom and see, you know what, what's your flood risk,
(25:42):
so you know how bad you are. I like to
tell people they have a score from one to ten.
If you're one to four, you're you're in good shape
and probably you know, one of these barriers would work
it kind of in the four five range. But if
you're above six, you know you got to be thinking
it's something more grass.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Yeah, and obviously more sensive by a boat pretty much the.
Speaker 6 (26:04):
Boat, or elevate the house, yeah, or just you know,
figure of building a higher level and making the lower
level into kind of a recreation area.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Yeah, that's not a bad Yeah, well we do that
along the coast. The downstairs is usually like a fishing
tackle room or the kids float toys whatever for the beach,
and then the upstairs elevated ten feet, is where the
main home is. But inside Houston, we're forty fifty miles
in here, we still get some week. When Hurricane Harvey
(26:38):
came through, when Tropical Storm Allison came through, we had
significant flooding around here and in a lot of neighborhoods.
I think having the ability to stave off water up
to about two feet would have saved a lot of
people a lot of money.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Exactly.
Speaker 5 (26:54):
And I visited Houston a year after Harvey has saw
a lot of that. In fact, it's part of a documentary.
I I may built a last uh that features are
part of a features.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
You know what what the.
Speaker 5 (27:07):
Situation, uh, you know the Harvey post disaster and the
things that needed to be done so you know, you
don't have to be on the coast to get flooded,
you know, an anywhere, any any low point. You know,
water we know goes from high to low, so you know,
if water if you're in the low point of a
of a valley, or just you know, the terrain, or
so forth or downstream on some kind of a reservoir.
(27:30):
You know, you're you're looking at water coming towards you,
you know, so you better be prepared. Well.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
Our problem around here is not water coming toward us
real fast or going away real fast. Our problem is
that we're flat as a pancake. And if you get
a torrential down for in one little area, it fills
that up and floods it real quickly. So a lot
of work we have to do. Ares I would like
to believe it or not, we're already out of time.
I would like to get you back on and and
(27:56):
maybe kind of go a little deeper, no pun intended,
into some of this stuff and see what else we
could come up with to kind of help people around
here avoid some of the real costly stuff that's happened
in the last few storms. You okay with that?
Speaker 5 (28:11):
Happy to happy to do that, Doug in my kind
of retirement, say that's what I'm made to do and
form the consumer.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Than where online?
Speaker 4 (28:20):
Could we find something else about you? Uh?
Speaker 5 (28:24):
The website is building Resilient. One word building resilient dot
com of the nonprofit I started called Resilience Action Fund,
and there's a lot of good information there that can
help you and you know, answer questions and so forth.
So building Resilient dot Com, you got it.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
Thank you so much, Aris Arispapadopolis, Building Resilient dot Com. Thanks.
We'll be back in touch. I really will know fullland.
Thank you. All right, all right, we gotta take a
little break on the way out. Speaking of disaster fixing,
Bronze Roofing brons Rufi has been really, really busy. All
the roofers are really really busy right now, and a
(29:01):
lot of them maybe not looking out for your best
interests as much as Bronze does. Bronze Roofing Skeeter Bron's
been in business for thirty plus years. He's been doing
this a very long time. And one of the reasons
he's still in business when a lot of other roofers
kind of come and go, maybe they change their name
after five or six years whatever, Bronze Roofing's always been
(29:23):
Bronze Roofing. And the reason is because Skeeter makes sure
that every roof they deal with they take good care of.
They offer free inspections, anytime, usually done within one day,
within twenty four hours. They're extra busy right now, it
might take a second day to get there. But when
(29:44):
they do get there, they will do a personal visible
inspection from right there on the roof, and then they'll
come down from there. If there's nothing wrong, they'll tell
you so, and lucky you, you don't have to call
them back for another year or two. If there is
a problem, whether it was caused by Directo or Hurricane
Beryl or just that hard, long week of rain we
(30:04):
had recently, they will show you pictures of what they found.
They will explain how they can fix it, how much
it will cost, how long it will take, the materials
they'll use, all of that, and then you get to
make the choice of whether to use bronze roofing or not.
The smart choice, of course, is to let them go
ahead and get started, get it done for you so
(30:25):
you don't have to worry about your roof again for
a long, long time. Free estimates usually within twenty four hours.
Bronzeroofing dot com. Put the number in your phone, because
if you ever come home and hear water dripping in
your house, you kind of want to get on that
right away. Bronzeroofing dot Com two eight one four eight
(30:45):
zero ninety nine hundred two eight one four eight zero
ninety nine hundred aged to perfection.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
This is fifty plus with Dougpike. They're not finished yet.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
Well, we're watching the women's fifteen hundred meters semis, the
second of two, and they are in the bell lap.
I think they still call it the bell out. Do
they ring a bell?
Speaker 2 (31:15):
We don't have.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
Volume up in here, so who knows? There's two women
have just run off from the whole pack. I guess yeah, one,
two they are, and an American in third. That's good,
and then the rest of them trailing on in and
finally getting the job done. Okay, so we send one
at least, I think, to the finals. Yeah, she's going.
(31:36):
They need to put the scoreboard back up. All right, Well,
how about let's see are meteors technically space news? Because
if they are, I can go with this as my
space news. They are, okay, Yeah, they come from out
of space. Certainly if you like falling stars, and you
(31:57):
can get far away, at least far enough away from
big city lights which Houston just shines like a beacon
from space, they can probably see it from Mars. I
don't know who they would be. You know what they
should do. They should point a camera back toward Earth
in the nighttime. Let's see they would have to well,
(32:18):
it would be I don't know if it's possible in
any way. In any event, I'd like to see just
how far away our planet reflects light. Bottom line is
on August to twelfth. The night of August to twelfth
brings upon us Perced's meteor shower, which at its peak
(32:40):
is going to throw at us about one hundred and
fifty shooting stars an hour. Doesn't take long to do
the math on that in the northern hemisphere, which just
happens to be where we are in reality, what's happening
is that we are just passing through a pile of
trash left in space by a comet, just old rocks
(33:03):
and beer cans and gum wrappers that this meteor left
up there long or comet left a long time ago.
And if you can get far enough out of town,
you're gonna get quite a show. I may try and
take off. What what's today?
Speaker 5 (33:18):
Will?
Speaker 4 (33:18):
What's the day? Today? The ninth? It's the eighth eighth,
So that's Thursday, Friday, the ninth, Saturday, Sunday. Monday is
the twelfth, correct sounds like it is the twelfth. So
Monday night, I might just take off and drive out
of town, and I'll go southwest because I can get
out of the city lights fastest that way. And I
(33:39):
really think if you could get even beyond Richmond Rosenberg
and get headed down toward Warden, what I'll do is
get down that way and then turn north and go
up onto the prairie because there's not a whole lot
of light out on that prairie. I can remember vividly
when I was a hunting god going out there and
it just being pitch dark. You could drive for my
(34:00):
and not even see an electric light. There was one
light that we all recognized driving around out there. That
was the one single bulb on a little trailer house
out there close to what did Oh boy, it was
twenty eight to fifty five going north and five point
twenty nine going east west, and that was the only
(34:20):
light out there for a very long ways.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
In outdoors news because I just honestly can't help myself.
A guy in West Virginia, guy named John Tyler Rutherford,
recently caught a new state record channel catfish there forty
six point seven pounds. But wait, there's more to the story.
He did so on his daughters, his three year old
(34:45):
daughter's ten dollars Roden real combo. I'm guessing my little
Pony or maybe Aeriel or one of those cartoon characters,
because the whole outfit was pink. In any event, that
cat was no match for his fishing skills. She can't
even cast yet, so I presume he's never heard me
(35:06):
talk about starting little kids on cane poles, which is
much easier for them. Anyway, she can't cast, so he
cast for her, and she was sitting on his lap
when the fish took the bait and he reeled in
the new state record. By the way, for the record,
Texas's channel cat record is a mere thirty six and
(35:27):
a half pounds, and that has stood for well since
nineteen sixty five, So fifty nine years on that record,
surely somebody can say challenge accepted and go try to
beat that record.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Big fish.
Speaker 4 (35:44):
Little girl didn't even get to catch the fish on
her own rod and reel because her dad had to
do it. And if he let go of the rod
and reel. It could not be. If they were trying
to get technically a world record and IGFA record, a
second set of hands on the rod would disqualified, even
though they might have been three year old girl's hands. Okay, well,
(36:05):
let's go back to the fun stuff.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
No, not that.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
Where did it go? Where's my good stuff? Where's the
stuff I really wanted to bring up today? Where's time?
Do I have left of fun? You have a minute
and ten seconds? That's fun? Okay? I got that? Yeah,
here we go. This is the one I wanted. Uh,
work hard, kids?
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Been here for years? Or how do you do it?
Speaker 4 (36:32):
Been here for years? An invasive species of worm, it
says in this story, making itself known in Texas. It's
the hard to kill hammerhead flat worm. You ever heard
of those?
Speaker 5 (36:45):
Will?
Speaker 4 (36:46):
Yes, they're the ones that multiplied when you cut them right. Yeah,
but I got news for you. When I was a kid,
they were around then that they're still around now. And
if you put one on a hot sidewalk and rub
your tin shoe over it back and forth about five
or six times, it's not multiplying into anything. It just
(37:06):
it just vaporizes on a hot sidewalk. This whole there
was another really deceptive headline, and I'm kind of glad
we didn't get to this story because it really bothered me.
Maybe we can get to it next week. I don't know.
I'm out of here for today. I'll be back to
on Saturday and Sunday mornings on kbm E, and then
(37:28):
back here Monday on KPRC for another edition of fifty plus.
Thanks for listening, Audios
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