Ready 2 Retro Update: 6 Months After The Eaton Fire

Max gives an update to the Ready 2 Retro community about how him and his family have adjusted 6 months after losing their home in the #eatonfire.

Also, included is an update of what to expect from the Ready 2 Retro Podcast moving forward.

Check here to support Max and his family. 

www.ready2retro.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today is July seventh. It is officially six months since
they eaten fire in Alta Dina. If you missed it somehow,
my family and I we were impacted directly from the
eating fire.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
We lost our home completely.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
It was burned down, all of our items, everything that
we had completely gone now and I wanted to come
on here and just to communicate kind of what's been
going on these last six months, as it pertains too
ready to retro directly, but all to say is first

(00:38):
and foremost, I just want to say genuinely thank you,
thank you so much. These last six months have been difficult.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
They've been super hard.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
A lot of people, when I tell them my situation,
they go, I can't even imagine, And you know what,
It's probably true. Unless you've been in this situation, you
can't imagine. You can't imagine losing everything, having to start
over from scratch, literally just overnight, overnight.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
But I want to.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Say thank you, thank you for people who reached out.
From the very beginning. We had a GoFundMe that was huge,
and thank you for those who gave to that, thank
you for those who posted, reposted. It really means a lot,
and I think in a time where you lose everything.

(01:31):
It was the community. It was our friends or family
who surrounded us, and we knew we weren't alone, which
I laughed, because it's like it felt lonely. It felt
super lonely to be deployed, to be displaced from your community,
to completely having to navigate everything. I mean, it's like,

(01:55):
you know, everything's gone.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
What do I do? Where do we go? Literally? Where
do I live? How do I live? Where should I stay?
Like what do I do?

Speaker 1 (02:07):
But we've had people from different stages of life that
would reach out and say, hey, I know this lawyer
or I know this public adjuster. It was just it
was different things, right. We even had a friend who
offered his church and that's where we stayed for the

(02:29):
first month. We just stayed in these dorms in a church.
It's one of those things that you just you don't
know who your community is until you're in a situation
where you really need them. So I just want to
say thank you, thank you for everyone who has reached
out and even periodically say hey, man, how you doing.

(02:53):
There's everything good, how's the rebuild going? So I really
appreciate it, and just a reminder that I am connected,
our families connected, and we need those reminders.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
But I also wanted to come on here and just
to say, and this is.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
Getting already long, but I was recently listening to a
podcast by Propaganda aka prop So. He's a local LA rapper, teacher, podcaster, poet,
he's amazing. But he has this podcast called hood Politics,

(03:28):
and I've been really into that and as someone who
has a perspective for being in LA especially with the
fires and what's going on politically in our city. But
he made this point, and I wanted to come on
here and to kind of reflect on it. So he said,
there's some of us who are impacted by what's going

(03:50):
on in the government, specifically in my community, like ice
raids and things like that. There's people that are dealing
with fires and you know, but the point that he
was making was it's a privilege. It's a privilege if
you don't have to deal with external pressures, right, And
he even said even being able to podcast weekly that

(04:14):
was his privilege. And that really kind of was resonated
with me because I haven't had the privilege. I have
not had the privilege to podcast, and as you can see,
we've had two podcasts in this year because of the fires,
and I haven't had one, just the creative space to.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Podcasts number two.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
And I don't mean this in a negative way, but
like the desire just hasn't been there because.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
The time that I feel.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
Podcasting, I'm like, I have to apply for this grant,
or I got to talk to the insurance company, or
I have to talk to architect or a builder or
things like that. Like if I'm not working, which I work,
you know, forty hours a week, I'm spending every minute,
every single second doing some kind of house related project.

(05:14):
So there's times I'll be up to like like last
night to two thirty just seeing what's out there, seeing prices,
like prices.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
On cabinets for our home doors, things like that, things
that you know, we weren't preparing for having to do
a complete rebuild and trying to price everything out, especially
with things in the economy being you know, very fluid.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
So yeah, that's just where I am.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
And to go back to the privilege, I haven't had
the privilege to create create content from here, you know,
here and there I'll post. But also it's like I
just feel like with everything that's going on in my community,
in my neighborhood, the things that are just happening in
our nation, a take on Casper, right, is that really

(06:09):
relevant right now? So I feel this like kind of
not pressure, but this sense in my heart that's like,
does it matter right now?

Speaker 2 (06:20):
Not not?

Speaker 1 (06:21):
You know, Yeah, I could do the escape Bism thing,
and it's good to do that, but you know, Ready
to Retro has always been just a creative outlet and
it's been such an important thing in my life, and
it's been difficult because that's also there's been a loss
in that too. I haven't been able to podcast and
I've loved podcasting, and again two episodes in six months.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
The creative side of me is like, but.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
You know, that's why I've been uploading, you know, videos
on our YouTube or little shorts here and there. But yeah,
I just wanted to come on here and to say,
you know, I don't know where this is leading Ready
to Retro. And I was with Chelsea this past weekend

(07:13):
and she said something really poignant to me, and I'm
holding onto it. She said, Hey, your life has changed.
Your life has changed forever, and Ready to Retro has
changed forever because of your change. And she's like, just
do what feels right for you basically. So I'm taking

(07:37):
the advice of my friend, my fellow co hosts on
this podcast, and just to say, you know, things have changed.
I'm not saying that this is the end of Ready
to Retro, but the week and the week in the
week out of the consistency of Ready to Retro, I

(07:59):
don't see that that happening in the immediate future. And
I don't know, you know, it's not an end, but
six months into this I thought there would be more
of a regular rhythm the Ready to Retro. But to
be honest, I just do not have this space for
it right now.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
And if you're.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
If you're watching this, if you're listening to this, and
you're like, hey, it's okay, Max, you know you're all good,
like take care of myself. Yeah, I get that. But
I just felt like it was appropriate. And I think
that you, the listener or this the follower or whatever
whatever your connection is to Ready to Retro, had to
write to know just what's going on right now as

(08:45):
it is exactly six months. So there are things that
were planned, yeah, like I have some interviews that I
want to do.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
Will that happen?

Speaker 1 (08:56):
I hope so I want to, you know, but just
the time that it takes takes four or five hours
to edit one episode, to upload it, to make graphics,
you know, like one episode could take while you're a recording,
it could take ten hours, eleven hours for one episode
and just right now, I just don't have the bandwidth

(09:18):
for that. And that's okay, that's okay, because.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
Is this forever?

Speaker 1 (09:24):
No?

Speaker 2 (09:25):
But is this right now?

Speaker 1 (09:26):
Yeah? So wanted to come on here to just say
thank you, thank you again, thank you for all the support.
Thank you that you have continued to reach out, texts, dms,
all that you know you don't have to worry about me.
You know, are things good to be honest, not no,
not everything, some things are are good. And yeah, my

(09:50):
wife and I are planning on to rebuild in the community.
It is an uphill battle. We haven't been home in
six months. I think that's that's one of the hardest
things is, yeah, we have a place that we're living
in now, but it's not home. And to be displaced
from your home without you, without your saying, to be

(10:15):
displaced from your home without your saying it, it's so
hard and so difficult. But humans were resilient, our family's resilient,
and we'll continue. So thank you for your time, Thank
you for listening to this, this long kind of update,

(10:37):
but I thought it was appropriate. And you know, whether
whether a podcasts or not, you know, I'm always ready
to retro and always the question is are you