Hour 1 - Jon Caldara Host

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So who did that? Who did that song for her?
It wasn't me. She didn't ask me to do the
title song. I mean, I don't know any other host
who has their own name in a song like that.
I mean I knew a woman named Amy, and she
did pure prairie leagues Amy, but that doesn't count. This

(00:21):
is a first and last name intro song. I have
no idea. Hey, I'm John Caldera. As you know by
hearing my friend Jimmy before me, it's Christmas time. What
does that mean for you? Sadly, nothing but b listers. Yep,
Mandy's off enjoying her holiday and you're stuck with me.

(00:43):
I see this as my opportunity to really scare away
her audience. I judge my own success by other people's failures,
and it's worked really well so far. All right, the
number here three or three seven, one, three, eighty five,
eighty five. I enjoy having conversations with you, so don't

(01:06):
don't be bashful about calling in. I really enjoy that
back and forth conversation. And of course, a you know,
well prepared talk show host has guests and topics and
plans every every moment. Yeah, that's not gonna happen here,
so give me a call, help me out. Three O

(01:28):
three seven one three eight two five five. I hope
your Christmas was spectacular. I hate Christmas. Nothing personal. It's
just that the older you get, the more Christmas is
about obligation than it is about, you know, relaxing and

(01:50):
having a good time, because there's just so much to
get done and people want you here, people want you there,
and that's that's good. It's great, it's terrific. But it's
not like, oh, I don't know, Halloween or or New
Year's or anything else. There's just not the same obligations

(02:13):
to go here, go there. And you know what I'm
talking about. It's a tiring, stressful time of life. It's
a time of the year that, you know, depending on
where you are as parent, child, spouse, friends, you're hauling

(02:34):
yourself to some other part of the country to do something,
or you're having people over for dinner you don't really
want to see, or you have to go over to
dinner to people you don't want to see. All this
other good stuff. But there's one thing that makes Christmas
all worthwhile, and it's kids who still get visited by
Santa Claus. Now, I've known people who who never had

(02:59):
Santa Claus. I don't know why anyone would deny a
child Santa Claus, because Santa Claus is the coolest thing.
I mean, here's a guy who who commits a crime,
breaking and entering, steals some baked goods, but leaves more

(03:20):
stuff than he goes in with. So is it really
a theft. No, but it's still breaking an entering, it's
still trespassed. And we love it. We just love it.
And when you have kids that still have Santa Claus,
you live vicariously from them. You remember what it was

(03:42):
like when you were a little one, and Santa Claus
was as real as the sunshine, and it was so
wonderfully magical. It's a shame that that adults tend to
lose that magic. And so you know what it's like

(04:04):
that first year your kid no longer gets visited by
Santa Claus. That heartbreak you feel because that period, that
period of Santa Claus magic really doesn't last all that long.

(04:25):
You know, in the first few years of life they
don't quite get it, and then they get it, and
then they lose it. Sooner and sooner, it seems and
for you parents who are in that situation, all I
can say is, suckers. If only you planned a little better,

(04:52):
you could have a child like mine, who, at the
age of twenty, still has Santa Claus. You've heard me
talk many times about my son Chance, who has Down syndrome,
and there are lots of challenges, there's lots of complications,
there's lots of expenses, but there are these occasional wonderful

(05:18):
aspects when your child has Down syndrome. My son at
twenty has Santa Claus just like any six year old,
and it is friggin' awesome, absolutely spectacularly awesome. And the traditions,

(05:41):
the traditions just keep keep going. So we have this
really weird tradition. I have no idea how it has happened,
but it's what it does. So I have to go
over to my ex wife's house. Good thing, we're still
very very close friends, and my son and I have
to do all the stuff for Santa to get ready,

(06:05):
you know, So we've got to we gotta put out cookies,
we've got to put out the milk, we gotta find
something for the reindeer to eat, which sometimes you know,
has to be a Scotch. I mean, there's just there's
If there's no vegetables around, you know, things get tough.

(06:26):
And then and this is really cool, Santa gives my
son a phone call yep, gives him a phone call
and lets him know if if he's made it to
the naughty or nice list, you know, And sadly this

(06:48):
year was the naughty list, so he got nothing. No,
I'm just joking. He wasn't on the nice list. He
was on the great list, he said. And then we
have to go up to the gate. That's Trew and
he and I have to sleep in the same bed
waiting for Santa Claus.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
And the excitement is is palpable. All I want to
do is sleep, And all this twenty year old man
wants to do is ask me about every twenty minutes
where Santa?

Speaker 1 (07:23):
Where Santa? Where Santa? So every time I'm drifted off elbow,
Santa Where Santa. I mean, he's so excited, it's wonderful.
So I think it was last year out this year.
Last year. I'm I'm there laying in bed with my

(07:43):
adult son, two grown men in their underwear sharing a bed.
I'm laying there going why am I doing this, and
I see him rustle, and I I keep my eyes
mostly close, but just enough so I could see, and
he quietly sneaks out of his side of the bed,

(08:08):
and then on all fours he quietly, very quietly crawls
along the floor so that I can't see it, and
then out of nowhere, his hand pops up as he
slowly quietly turns the door knob to open the door,

(08:30):
and he sneaks out of the room. Why because he
needed to see if Santa came, sneaks downstairs, does a
does a quick survey, and then climbs back into the room,

(08:53):
quietly closing the door on all fours, climbs around the
other side of the bed, rolls into bed so as
not to wake me and get caught. And then he's
there with a big smile on his face. Now I
know that you might have an adult child, maybe twenty

(09:16):
years old as well, eighteen twenty, Yeah, and they're out
crashing your car and using your credit cards and making
bad decisions on who to date mine. What's his naughtiness
sneaking out of the bedroom to go see if Santa
Claus came. And that's how you do Christmas Now, don't

(09:42):
blame me that you don't have this experience. You made
the bad decision not to have a kid with Down syndrome.
Don't hold me responsible for your bad life choices. There

(10:03):
you have it. So Santa Claus rocks. Santa Claus just rocks.
Were you raised without Santa? Were you raised in one
of those as you just couldn't have Santa. I've known
some people have done that, partly because they just couldn't.

(10:28):
I want to be careful depending on the age group
listening in. Some who just couldn't make a falsehood about Santa.
And then there's some who believe that. Wait a second,
if my house has Santa, when when the kids outgrow it,

(10:54):
they'll say, look, I believed in this thing, this great
force that knew all saw all saw you when you
were sleeping. He knows when I'm awake, and he judges me. Hmm.
That awfully sounds like you know God. So so if

(11:18):
he has Santa Claus and then later loses Santa Claus,
then will he not be able to have faith in
Lord Almighty? Because you know there's a there's a thing there. Now.
The opposite argument is, I think better, which is this

(11:44):
Santa Claus teaches kids how to believe in things they
don't see. It is the practice for faith. It it's
a magic that kids have that there are things out
there you just can't see, you just can't prove, but

(12:08):
they're real. Maybe Love is one of them, maybe God
is one of them. But it's training wheels for that.
All right, throw that out? Where were you on this?
Three or three seven, one, three eight five eight five

(12:29):
seven one three eighty five eighty five? And your kids
have any of those you know, school age friends who
spread lies about Sannah? Yeah, Timmy says Sannah doesn't exist.
How do you deal with those falsehoods? Those those those

(12:52):
lies that other kids tell long before you're ready to
have a good discussion about Santa. And finally, just how
manipulative are your kids? So, my wonderfully manipulative daughter, let's

(13:13):
see how to put it. Let me believe she had
Santa a lot longer than she had Santa because she
wanted the stuff. How can you not appreciate that My
numbers three oh three, seven one, three eighty five eighty

(13:33):
five seven one three eight five eighty five. I hope
Santa was good for you and good for your kids.
I just love I just love I love Santa, I
love kids. Everything else at Christmas, eh, I could I
could do without. I could do without. Oh, and are

(13:56):
you Christmas presents on New Year or on Christmas Eve
or on Christmas Morning? I've gotta tell you there's a
right answer to this, and the right answer is presence
on Christmas morning. That's that's non negotiable. Santa Clomb comes

(14:24):
Christmas Eve when you are asleep, and only when you're asleep.
He sees you when you're sleeping, which is a little creepy,
but he sees when you're sleeping, and therefore you've got
to prolong the agony of waiting till the morning. Maybe

(14:47):
you have forgotten just how angst ridden that evening is.
When you're trying to go to sleep. You're so excited,
you can't get to sleep. You want to hear noise.
Is you just you go nuts and until you pass out.

(15:08):
You don't want to give up that experience. Are any
of you truly presents on Christmas evers? There is? There
are a few things that will happen when when I
become King and ruler. One the designating designated hitter rule

(15:32):
will be no longer. Two, I'm not going to outlaw
oatmeal raisin cookies. I'm very tolerant, but I will require
that they have some sort of Hunter safety orange food
dye put in them so that when you see them
from across the room, you don't get all excited thinking
that you're going to go grab a chocolate chip cookie

(15:53):
until you put it in your mouth and you find
out it's some disgusting oatmeal raisin thing. And Three, of
course I will ban Christmas presence on Christmas Eve. They
have to be Christmas Morning, absolutely have to be. Oh. Also,

(16:15):
I'm going to ban Christmas music until two days before Christmas.
Can I get an amen on that? One? Three or three? Seven, one, three, eight, five,
eight five seven, one, three, eighty five eighty five. Saw
a piece in the Denver Gazette today. Let's see if
I can pull this one up. Where did you go?

(16:39):
Where did you go? And it has to do with
with one of the great recreations of Colorado skiing. Do
you remember skiing? I remember skiing. I don't. I don't
ski anymore because it's too much of a hassle. It's

(17:01):
almost the same reason I don't like to go to
Bronco games anymore. It's just too much cost, too much hassle,
and it's just it's just not worth it. Well, I
found this this little article here. Lift tickets at three

(17:21):
ski resorts break. This is incredible to me. Three hundred dollars,
three hundred bucks. The holiday weekend between Christmas and New
Year's Eve upcoming, three resorts in Colorado have single day
lift tickets breaking the three hundred dollars level tickets at

(17:44):
Veil Mountain three hundred and twenty nine dollars when bought
same day, really, Beaver Creek, same thing, Steamboat Ski Resort
three hundred and twenty nine dollars. Oh, but don't don't worry.

(18:08):
That's only the weekend single day left ticket. If if
you'd buy it in advance, it's only three hundred and
nine dollars. Are you kidding me? How much are you
willing to pay to go skiing? That's that's insane. Breckinridge

(18:33):
is now two hundred and ninety nine dollars, Aspend two
hundred and sixty four dollars, Keystone two hundred ninety two dollars,
Winter Park two hundred and fifty nine, Copper Mountain two
hundred and sixty four.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
This is.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
This is ridiculous, and this one is the one that
drives me nuts. El Dora one hundred and seventy nine dollars. Now,
for those of you who've never skied El Dora, how
to put it? It's a beginner's ski resort. It's in
the beautiful town in Nederland, and you you go there

(19:19):
because it's a new backyard, save the time. What was there?
What was their motto? For a while? Think globally, ski locally?
Great idea. Not to give my age, but I remember
when you could go up there and ski for twenty bucks.

(19:42):
How does anybody afford this anymore? Does anybody out there
ski anymore? Is it just a rich man sport? Is
it going to be like Polo?

Speaker 4 (19:52):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (19:52):
Yes, yes, we jetted into Veil for our ski vacation.
Jeoffrey and I just such a wonderful time with the
kids at our second home. Give me a call. Three
oh three, seven to one, three eight five eight five.
I'm John Caldera in for Mandy. Keep it right here.
You're on KOA one of the few songs pop songs

(20:14):
that has a seven to eight beat, not a four
to four beat. Just just so you know. On two
three four, five, six seven one two three four. There
you go. I'm John Caldera. Give me a call three
oh three seven to one, three eight five eight five.

(20:35):
Do you plan on going skiing soon? Well, if you are,
I'd like you to be my friend because you're wealthy.
Three different ski resorts in Colorado are now charging over
three hundred dollars for a lift ticket. I mean, for

(20:57):
those of us who grew up in Colorado. And I
know I'm sounding like a grumpy old guy. I remember
when a candy bar wers are penny and a good
hooker worth five dollars. Yeah, I remember that, But still
three hundred and twenty nine dollars to go skiing. I
would rather have the three hundred and twenty nine dollars

(21:20):
and not deal with the traffic, not deal with the crowds,
not deal with the cold, not deal with any of it,
cause I'm a grumpy old man. Now do you feel
the same way? How much are you willing to pay
to go skiing? I mean, Colorado has arguably the best
skiing on the planet. People come from around the world

(21:46):
to our backyard to drop their money, which is wonderful.
And fine and spectacular, But why in the world, how
could any normal person enjoy this? It's the same thing
with professional sports. Going to a Broncos game is so expensive.

(22:14):
It's like we're going to have this bifurcated system of
recreation for people with money and then something else. The
other people just go sledding. How much are you willing
to pay to go skiing? Three or three? Seven? One, three, eight,
two five five? So vail Beaver Creek Steamboat now over

(22:41):
three hundred dollars for a single day lift ticket Breckenridge
to ninety nine. Oh, but I love this. It's two
hundred and eighty four in advance, so you can save
yourself a whopping thirteen bucks by by doing it the

(23:04):
day before. Has your income grown at the same rate
of ski passes? So it looks like according to the
work that Dedver Gazette did, Wolf Creek at one hundred

(23:25):
and three dollars is the best one. That's it the
best one. Oh, here we go, Here we go the state.
The state's cheapest ski area open this weekend is Chapman
Hill Ski Area in Durango. It has two count them

(23:46):
one two toe ropes and five hundred vertical feet of
groomed terrain day tickets going for sixteen bucks. That's where
you go. Let's go to the phone owns seven, one,
three eighty five. Tom, Welcome here with John Caldera.

Speaker 4 (24:06):
Yeah, hey, John, I think that's cheaper than I was
gonna say. Katara mount To State Park which used to
be a guitar ski resort down in Katara by Libeda's
forty dollars and they run, they run, they run a
showcat with a coach trailer. If it's actually a non
profit hill.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
Wait, wait, wait, wait, where is this I've never.

Speaker 4 (24:29):
Heard of it. Katara, Yeah, Guitara Mountain.

Speaker 1 (24:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (24:34):
Oh seriously, do you know I don't mean this sarcastically?
Do you know? Libida?

Speaker 1 (24:40):
Yeah? Uh so.

Speaker 4 (24:42):
So on the way to Ala, the way to Ala Mosa,
there's a turn off to a town called Lobta and
thirteen to fifteen miles south west is uh a little
town at Katara which used to be a ski resort,
and it's called a Guitar Mountain Park, a nonprofit. The

(25:07):
idea behind it is not only make affordable skiing, but
to bring back an economy to the UH, to the
westerno area, which is really uh uh, which we're pouring
poor economy down there, and.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
It's a poor now that so many Californians are moving
into Warf Andoak County, it's getting harder and harder to
live there. Wharf and No, by the way, is just
one of the most beautiful places in the state, in
a state that has nothing but beautiful places.

Speaker 4 (25:33):
So yeah, let me see.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
I'm let me see if I'm following you here, Tom So.
I go to this ski resort and basically I get
towed up the hill behind.

Speaker 4 (25:45):
A truck, behind a SnowCat on a on a trailer
with bus seats.

Speaker 1 (25:52):
Trail hotalist bus seats. So I actually a snow cat
is basically a truck that has no tires.

Speaker 4 (26:02):
But okay, sair enough.

Speaker 1 (26:05):
Yeah, but so that's that's what brings me up there.

Speaker 4 (26:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
Is that sad or is it cool?

Speaker 4 (26:13):
It's it's actually cool because we're talking to old school, right,
you know, back in the I think just, uh, this
makes a t boar look sad. You know, you don't
have to hold on to anything. All you gotta do
is sit down and enjoy the ride.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
How wild. I had no idea that sounds like such
a kick and so how much does this cost?

Speaker 4 (26:39):
Was thirty five, but they weren't have five dollars to forty.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
So is it is it a decent ski resort? I
mean El Dora is a pretty decent beginner ski resort.

Speaker 4 (26:53):
I would say, I would say, you gotta go for
an enjoyment. It's not that said. There's a lot of
terrain there.

Speaker 1 (27:03):
So so in other words, if you were trying to
convince me to go on a blind date with this girl,
you would say she's got a great personality. Is that
what I'm hearing?

Speaker 4 (27:15):
Yeah, yeah, it's yeah, she has a great personality. There's
a lot of backcountry access down there, which which opens
up the terrain. But for for somebody just looking to
have some fun and affordable rate, it's a lot of fun.
You can. I think what's fun about it is it's

(27:38):
it's only like three hundred feet a vertical, but you can,
you can, you can. You can add it up really
quick by you beat the you beat the the sled down.
So you know, a couple of hit some runs whatever.
Run there's the run, no run, now there's not I

(27:59):
want to sie.

Speaker 3 (28:02):
Uh four four.

Speaker 4 (28:05):
Trails and you hit the trails and and then you
jump back up, jump back on the sled and go
back up.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
And how long how long does it take for the
truck to haul you back up?

Speaker 4 (28:17):
It takes about ten minutes. I say, it's about ten
minutes up and it takes another ten minutes to get down.
So you're already down there waiting to go back up.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
And do they have just one one SnowCat.

Speaker 4 (28:30):
One show cat for tugging or pulling out?

Speaker 2 (28:33):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (28:33):
How fun? How fun? All right? In the name of
it again?

Speaker 4 (28:37):
Good Chara? So c h u R.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
I forgot how something down in war Fine County.

Speaker 4 (28:46):
Yeah, catrona mountain park if they look it up on
the web or if you have you know when you're
when you're a little slower. Were Honestly, it's a lot
of fun. It's a lot.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
Hey, thanks for sharing that. Tom. All right three three
seven one three eighty five eighty five. Ron, welcome, Ron.
You're with John Caldero.

Speaker 4 (29:07):
Thanks.

Speaker 3 (29:07):
Jen Uh. I'm old too. I don't know how old
you are.

Speaker 1 (29:11):
But physically i'm sixty years old. Mentally I'm I'm well
into my late nineties.

Speaker 3 (29:17):
Yeah, well I'm old and you are, but I could
have got a lifetime not a one day a lifetime
they key passed for three hundred and fifty dollars.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
Nah. Yeah, that's that's like I could have bought applestock
at a buck fifty.

Speaker 3 (29:37):
When was this sixties, middle sixties. That's right after they opened.
Right after they opened, My uh uncle bought a condo
there right on the slopes per fifty thousand dollars. He

(30:00):
sold it for over a million.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
All right, So let me let's see if I can
pull up the old computer.

Speaker 3 (30:09):
Is slow, of course, I don't know when vail started,
but it was either the second or third year, I think,
but it was I think it was. It was expensive,
just either I think it was five bucks.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
Oh, you think about you think about the guys who
who came up with vail and decided it was it
was the thing to do. All right, So let's say
that was nineteen what sixty five? Yeah, nineteen sixty two?

Speaker 3 (30:42):
Yeah, and how much was probably three?

Speaker 1 (30:45):
All right, sixty three? How how much was the ticket the.

Speaker 3 (30:48):
Lifetime I think of the lifetime three hundred and fifty bucks,
three hundred.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
And fifty bucks, all right. According to according to the
inflation calculator, that same three hundred and fifty dollars. Cost
would be about thirty six hundred dollars. So the question is,
would you now today buy a lifetime bail pass for

(31:14):
three thousand, six hundred.

Speaker 3 (31:16):
Of course I was a teenager then, so I didn't
have the money, right of course, But I wouldn't do
it now any because I'm not a big skier.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
What would you recommend it?

Speaker 4 (31:27):
Three hundred and.

Speaker 3 (31:28):
Some dollars a day? That's only what, h oh, thirty
six thousand?

Speaker 1 (31:33):
You said, thirty six one hundred thirty six hundred. So
if you buy, that's only ten days, yeah, ten or
twelve days skiing?

Speaker 4 (31:42):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (31:42):
Yeah, yeah, So obviously that would be it wouldn't sell it.

Speaker 3 (31:45):
They wouldn't sell it to you.

Speaker 1 (31:47):
Do you think if you bought it it would still
be good?

Speaker 3 (31:50):
It's you know, it was a lifetime pass. I mean,
I'm sure it was non transferable.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
Wow, i'd have.

Speaker 3 (31:58):
To I mean, I'm almost eighty years old. I'd have
to be just skiing myself.

Speaker 4 (32:03):
But oh, we used to.

Speaker 3 (32:05):
Go to winter park.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
That sounds great.

Speaker 3 (32:08):
Winter park for two bucks?

Speaker 1 (32:11):
All right, now I'm getting angry. I got to run
to a break. Thanks so much, all right? Three or
three seven one three eighty five eighty five. I'm John Caldera.
Keep it here during k away, we got nine minutes
to the top. I'm John Caldera. A lifetime pass to Veil.
Our last caller said he had an opportunity in the

(32:31):
sixties to buy a lifetime ski pass to Veil for
three hundred and fifty bucks. Of course, when you're young,
you how to put it, ain't got no money, and
so three hundred and fifty bucks was untouchable. Put that
into the inflation adjusted way, you're talking about thirty six

(32:55):
hundred dollars, three thousand, six hundred dollars. Would you a
lifetime fail pass for thirty six hundred bucks? And the
answer is duh yeah. I mean you'd only have to
go twelve times for it to pay for itself. Even

(33:16):
if you got a yearly passed, it would take a
couple of years and then you'd have it, depending upon
your age. Of course, why do they do these things, Well,
bail apparently just started back then, and they need the
money up front. This is what's so fascinating about that.

(33:37):
But then then once they get the money upfront, do
things get changed? Case in point, I remember the million
years ago I got a TiVo. Do you remember TiVo? Stevo?
The Tvo it was kind of the first popular digital

(33:58):
recorder for television. You could program in what shows you
wanted to see and it would record it. You could
freeze live television and go back and watch something. It's
really pretty crazy. I think it had like a twenty
megabyte hard drive in it didn't hold that much. But

(34:19):
you could either pay you know, ten dollars a month
or whatever, five dollars a month, or buy the lifetime
membership for three hundred and whatever dollars. Of course, I
bought the lifetime membership because I can do math, except

(34:40):
what a ripoff it was because they changed the technology.
So while you could you could still get your Tvo, supposedly,
you couldn't watch anything on it because the technology changed,
so you had to buy something else. It's kind of
like the old gym memberships. We'll let you buy a

(35:06):
lifetime gym membership. Now you need to understand that's the
lifetime of the gym, not of your lifetime, because a
lot of those gyms no longer exist, but they need
the money up front. I'm sure TiVo at that time
was expanding and expanding and needed lots of lots of money.

(35:31):
What's a great way to get cash. It's kind of
like an ipo. You just sell lifetime memberships, all right?
How much would you be willing to pay for a
lifetime membership to any resort? It's kind of like time shares.

(35:52):
At some point, your brain chemistry gets a hit at
dopamine and it says, this is gonna save me money.
I'm gonna do this, and I'm gonna love it. Of course,
four years later, the depression hits and you're like, how

(36:14):
do I get rid of this time share? What was
your biggest regret not purchasing if if you had to,
if you had to go back in time, if you
had the ability to go back in time. What is
the thing you could have bought that you didn't. Was

(36:39):
it that house you could have gotten for cheap? Was
it the stock you could have gotten for cheap? Was
it the collectible you had in your hand and went, nah,
I don't think I really need it? And now you're like,
why didn't I three h three seven one three eight
five eighty five John Caldera, keep it right here. You're
on ko