Bellied Up - Addicted To Hardware Stores #139

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

Carter calls back from Episode 112 (A Very Canadian Bar Fight) to give us a belated update on how his life is going. Next is a caller who certifies forklift drivers, and the last caller has a confession… he's addicted to hardware stores.Don't have time to call in? Call our Voicemail line and tell us what's on your mind 👇218-303-5095Get Yourself a "Road Hunting for Ditch Chickens" hat 👇https://ohhyoubetcha.com/products/ditch-chickens-hatCheck out Charlie Berens Special "Midwest Goodbye" 👇https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wEzagimGjcCheck out Myles' Podcast "You Betcha Radio" 👇https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQK1ATqc6L9wz4FAiun8kKw

Hey, folks, welcome to the belly to podcast. I'm here with my buddy, my best buddy, Miles, that you betcha guy. Hey, Charlie, how you doing? Doing great, Miles. I like your holler house sweatshirt you got. I like your holler house T-shirt you got. Oh, that's a bowling ball. Miles, are you a good bowler? Look how big the bowling ball gets when I do this.

Oh, yeah. You got some guns stretching out. Yeah, too bad. You can't beat me in an arm wrestle. I have little videotape of you cheating. So miles, are you a good bowler? I could consistently bowl like a one 15 really? I never bowl under a hundred. Not me. No, I have pulled quite a few times under a hundred. Never have I ever. I can bowl a two hundred. I bolded my high score is two hundred fifty eight. No way. Yeah, it is. Talked about this before.

No, we haven't. Have we ever talked about this? No, Jared doesn't know. I bowled at two fifty eight before miles. I tell you that two fifty nine was the best bowling round I ever had. Two sixty three. It was the high score at the bowling alley. I was doing that. But anyways, they got bowling here at the holler house. It's the oldest bowling alley in the continental and uncontinental United States. It's a fantastic place. You

would like about bowling miles. You guys sneeze coming on. Look at that. Look at, Oh, good one. Wow. Hi. I think I can't really say a five hundred at least what? Seven hundred hours with this podcast. I don't think I've ever sneezed well live on the air. No, but that was a good sneeze. I could tell you say a sneeze is an eighth of an orgasm. That looks like two-eighths of an orgasm or one fourth. We got an eighth of clarity right now. Oh my God. What am I doing with this podcast? What am I doing with my life? I don't know. Why am I doing this? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. That

was mean. Don't you dare put that in slow mo either. Yeah. I saw a little something come out too. Yeah. Wouldn't that be funny? I was like, Oh God. And there's just a booger hanging out. I wouldn't tell you. That'd be a nightmare. I wouldn't tell you. You know what I like about bowling. What do you like? I like it because it's like, it's like a physical activity. And I feel like as adults, we don't get like enough physical activity. That's why golf, Charlie. No, I know. But I mean, it's like golf is great, but you can't do golf in winter and so much of the Midwest is winter. I want to develop this whole facility called indoor recess.

And it's just like a big frigging gym with some AstroTurf or whatever. And it's like all glass so you can be outside, but then you can just play basketball and you can play football. Four square. Four square. Wall ball ball wall ball is good surge or

500 yeah, and then and then like So let's say you know every like every like randomly throughout the day they'll have they have a loudspeaker and then someone just comes on and goes the floor is lava speaker and then someone just comes on and goes the floor is lava Run onto a piece of equipment. Yeah, that'd be great. And then who's ever the last one still on the floor is it? Mm-hmm. I like that. Yeah, I like that but no seriously It's just a place where you can go and we're a kid adult recess where an adult can be a kid adult recess I mean I. And they should have playground there too. Like we should have a playground portion as well. It shouldn't

just be, you know, that was what the whole thing was. The playground. Oh, sorry. I meant more specifically. What do you call it? Like the jungle gym or whatever? Oh, yeah. Like with slides and stuff. Yeah. I thought that's what we were doing. No, but I meant like it's a whole area. So you have fields and stuff too. Oh yeah. And then I want a separate thing with like an adult kind of, uh, what was your area of expertise at recess? Were you a monkey bars guy? Was I a monkey bars guy? If you want to do monkey bar wars, you and me, see, I wasn't a monkey bars guy. I couldn't do a pull-up. So are you kidding me? Done. Surprised me actually. Now that I think about it, I was also a great swinger. I can pump

like nobody's business. I can pump and jump. Let me tell you that I would beat you in a pump and jump any day. I know the right trajectory to get me going. Yeah. Mm hmm. See, I was a merry-go-round guy. Were you? Oh yeah. I got these, I got these American thighs. Oh yeah. So you were the runner and the, the get on, get in the horse that comes in handy, you know, for when you're stealing a car and, and you're like the go guy, you're like, go, go, go. And the car's going off and you're running after it and getting in. Yeah, that's you. Yeah. I'm not quite seeing the correlation, but you got the time. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Or you can, you can run, start a car, you know, to pop the clutch. Yeah. That'll be you. Let's see. What else you got? The slides. You ever climb up the slide on the outside? I get the ones with the door, the enclosed. Yeah Yeah to the tube slides. Yeah, I'm up the top I did I think I did more climbing up it than I did sliding down it really that's a for a guy with a fear of heights that Very high it's not very high. Okay, how high is where you're getting afraid? Very high. It's not very high. Okay. How high is where you're getting afraid?

20 feet's pretty up there. Would you go like indoor rock climbing with me like So we actually a dinner next to a rock climbing place. Well today in Milwaukee. Oh Really? We were we almost did it then we also saw that there was a candle making bar in town We almost we almost made you a candle, Charlie. Really? I didn't even get a phone call from you guys. Hey, you were busy. I was helping my sister move that bed. Yeah, how'd that go, by the way?

It was fine. It was just a full bed. We talking a box spring as well. No box spring. And the problem is I had to clear out the bed of my truck and the bed of my truck was all full, like just wood parts, like scrap wood and boxes. So then she was she was giving me a little guff about her bed getting dirty.

I was like, are you kidding me right now? Like, this is a free bed moving service. Watch the sheet. You know, she had a little sheet over. At what point does a free service become an annoyance? moving service, wash the sheet, you know, she had a little sheet over at one point. Does a free service become an annoyance because in her situation, she said, Hey, let's do it on Monday. And then you forgot, forgot. We were, you showed up in your bed of your truck isn't clean. And then you got

her bed dirty. Like at one point, is it okay, even though it's free to complain? It's a good point. I think she did reach that threshold. Yeah. Yeah. Showed up a day late and a bed, a dirty bed for the bed. Yeah. Ah, it's still free. You get what you pay for. As we like to say in the barrens family. Like my younger brother that you do such a bad job on this that you'll never get asked to do it again. I get that from my grandpa TG, my grandpa TG, speaking of recess, he had to do recess duty one time and what he did is he got a big bag full of suckers and before the kids went back in, he opened the bag. He said, everyone take a sucker. So he sends all these second graders

in with a sugar high. They never asked him to do it again. So smart. Just a genius. The wisdom of our grandparents, I tell you. But I think indoor recess, I think we should brand that. Bellied-ups indoor recess. Sir, booze in recess, what could possibly go wrong? Yeah, nothing. By the way, folks, if you get injured at indoor recess, call Nicolay law. I just have it plastered all over. Yeah. Suas. Is it way to make extra money, you know, put billboards inside?

Yeah, we just advertise. We get all the Nikolay advertising, and then we just pay it back in settlements. At the end of the deal. Oh, boy. We'll workshop that idea. Yeah. You know?

Mm-hmm. Do you like the Flores Lava randomly throughout the time to I like like, you know, 20 minutes of floor is lava. I like it. And then then we do this long enough. We start playing squid games, but not lethal squid games. We just get people up there with paintball guns, you know, in the sniper's tower. Oh, my God. That's actually painful. Have you ever been paintballing? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I got shot by paint golf.

Damn near point blank paint golf paintball. Oh, paint golf could be fun. I just show up to your country club with like a little like like a machine gun paintball thing, like rolling up, like convert a golf cart with like a little gunner tower on it. And you're just going to start shooting people. No, just you. Oh, yeah. If I hit a bad shot or if you hit the ball and I try to shoot your ball out of the air, that could be a lot of clay pigeon style. Yeah. That's not a bad idea right there. That's not a bad idea. Not a good idea.

This one time I was in South Carolina and the stuff that's legal in South Carolina is unbelievable. We went to this BB gun shooting place. So, but you would shoot other people with BB guns. The Airsoft? No, BB guns. And I showed up in a T-shirt

and I thought that they were gonna give you protective clothing. Not the case, dude. Sh up in a t-shirt and I thought that they were going to give you protective clothing Not the case dude shorts and a t-shirt and you were doing like laser tag with BB guns. I was pelted up Hmm. Why are you looking at me? So dangerous? It was very dangerous But like I said, South Carolina, yeah, you can't be the guy that shows up and sits it out No, no, I find out what it really is. I did after like one and a half games. I was like, I'm over this, dude. I don't have it in me. My buddy had some paintball guns.

And so we were in a forest playing paintball as kids. And I came around a tree and he was just standing there waiting for me. Oh, no. And I had you can see how I turned away from him and ran away because I had literal pelts go up turned away from him and ran away because I had literal pelts go up and then across my back as well Retreat. Yeah. Yeah whole summer. I had a welt on my on my belly because of it. They hurt man. They hurt But anyways, well good good reminiscing. Mm-hmm. Take some. Let's do it. Carter. Are you there? You got Charlie and miles again, man. How you doing? All right. So guys, we have Carter calling

in from Canada, a bellied update. If you guys remember, he's the one that came up with the idea for the hired from the neck down t-shirt, Charlie, which we sold and we sent him a check and that's all we know. He was wanting us to raise money so he could buy an engagement ring for his girlfriend. Oh yes. I remember. Did you buy an engagement ring or did you blow it all on pull tabs? Yeah, I got cold feet He got cold feet did you swindle us Carter Oh, yeah, she said yes, she said yes How did you do it Carter? How'd you do it?

So I got, I got her friend to help me out. And then I took, there's this really nice waterfront walk that we have here. And there's this really nice bridge. I got her friend to help me out. And she snuck down and lit some candles on the bridge. And then I, I dropped a knee and she said, yeah, Oh, that is so cool. Do you have a picture of it? Yeah, we got a picture and then we got, she hit him the words. You just took a little video. You can only kind of really hear it. You can't really see anything. But yeah, actually, it was kind of a

cluster. So I got home after work and I'm trying to set it up and I couldn't get ahold of her friend. And then I was just about to go to shower. And then my grandma calls about seeking Santa. And then her dad comes in and I'm in my underwear getting ready for the shower. And her dad's like, he drives a logging truck, his logging truck is broken down. So then he's like, I need you to drive me in my truck so I can pick up my logging truck. You drive my truck, you're out, lock it up. And then I'm in my underwear. I'm like, I'm trying to set up this proposal. So I was all fostered and on the drive, I told her dad, I'm like, yeah, I got the ring. I'm going to propose to your. And then she was like, Oh, I thought I'm going to starry night. Like you got to pick a special.

I'm like, I'm just going to get her done. That's very good. Are you just going to make it happen? I like it. Did you, you asked her dad's permission then before doing it? No, I was kind of like afterwards her dad's permission then before doing it? Afterwards her dad called and then my fiance, Maddie there, she, she's like, Oh, I'm engaged. And he's like, well, he didn't ask me. And I was like, well, I kind of told him I didn't really ask.

I liked that. Yeah. That's great. Good for you. What does the rain look like? Oh, I love it. So it's our birth. So she really didn't want any diamonds. So I slept two diamonds in there and then like when we got a wedding band, I got to choose that. So I'm going to get way more diamonds on the wedding band. Oh, good for you, man. Well, Charlie, we did a good deed. Another thing done. Another one done. And, hey, you know, I know sometimes I can be a little somewhat, say, cynical toward, you know, long relationships.

Committing to a long term legal relationship. But and what that is, is just me not necessarily feeling the love of the relationship on the phone call. And I can tell there's a lot of love here. This one's going to last miles. And remember, you just got to love yourself, Charlie. Yeah. You don't love yourself. You can't love someone else. I resent that fricking therapist that called in man. Oh, you got to get her back on. I like her a lot. She's banned from the podcast. Okay. When's the wedding? Do you know yet? Well, she said she's okay with that being engaged for 10 years. And I was like, Oh, that's awesome. And now she's like,

well, you know, 20, 26 isn't looking so bad. So welcome to marriage, man. They tell you one thing and then they do another. I really got to thank you guys. Charlie miles. I had a bank Ryan, the t-shirt guy, Jared Tyler. I've been talking to Tyler this whole time and thanks to colors for buying the shirt. And thank you guys. I really like, I thought it was a gag whole time. And thanks to Carlos for buying the shirt. And thank you guys. I really like I thought it was a gag at first. And then when you guys actually I made the shirt and everything. That was super cool. I thought that was awesome.

Oh, absolutely. Hey, we're men of our word. We are men of our word. Shake means something around that does, you know, especially when you tickle the palm in the handshake. I got to tell you, Carter, we are so happy for you tickle the palm and the handshake. I got to tell you, Carter, we are so happy for you. We are excited for your lives together. And anytime you need anything, you just call us up.

All right. Oh, you guys are cool. So last time, you know how I saw them on my mom getting in the bar fight. Oh yeah. Yeah. Badass. Well, actually I brought you here today. You brought your mom?

Yeah, so she's listening right now, so here. I'll get her to introduce us to my mom, here's mom. Hi. Hi, how are you doing? What's your name? I'm Stephanie. Stephanie, we hear that you can hold your own when it comes to bar brawls. Is that true?

Well, 100% true. Yeah. Wow. And then Carter, he made me add it all up. I told him, I think there's been seven. Seven bar fights. What's your favorite bar fight of all time? I think the latest one on my 50th birthday, knocking at our corridor, I think that's

going to be my favorite one. You know, there's some... Just wait, it's fair enough. So we're usually living in small towns. So at one point I would wait, when you're waitressing and the bouncer and the bartender, you got to take it all into consideration. So four of those fights were with gentlemen that I sort of politely escorted outside. Sort of.

Yeah. So it almost feels like you're like, I feel like you're a little bit like a UFC fighter where like you're, you train in between. Yeah. Yeah. How do you train? She's currently cutting weight for the next fight. Yeah. When's the next weigh in? I was for training. I was a single mom and then of course, Carter has an older brother.

And I think my last training bout was we were wrestling the boys and I in the living room. And I was packed on top of Carter just, you know, being a kidney shot. Well, he sort of just picked me up and threw me off the couch over top of the coffee table. And I landed on the floor. So that was our last I think they were 16. That was the last time I wrestled. I had it on my shoulders and I was your guys's Christmas looks a lot different than my family's Christmas. I can tell you

that. Oh man. You, you are a classic Canadian mother. I love it. We play hockey. Yeah. Do you guys ever do a goalie fight at center ice? Cause that's always a lot of Jersey. Let's go Carter. I play beer league in a, in Hoppy and I'm the goalie and I bought this year, I bought a Justin Trudeau Jersey. So it's got Trudeau space on the front, kind of like a target. And then on the back, I thought I voted two times and then the number 69 and I made myself the captain because I got Trudeau on my journey.

I made myself the captain. It's a perfect actually goalie move because most people are just shooting towards Justin's face. The corner really doesn't have to make any good saves anymore. I think that's, I'm going to make that shape now that car that goes, everybody was just shooting at him, not around. Oh, that's great. Well, you guys, you're an inspiration to all of us. Okay. So I got to maybe pitch this to my mom, mom, we got to fight more and I'll keep you young. Yeah. Yeah. You don't have to worry about staying young in other ways. Just, let's just Duke it out at Christmas. You should just toss you across the room.

I know a guy has done it now. Get a shirt with your face right on your kidneys. That's all the targets, but don't ever dare her. My son dared me one time. I don't know. I was, I was doing dishes, you say washing up the dishes and he's in the living room, which is a straight shop in the kitchen. It's probably at least 30, 30 feet. And, and I looked at him, he said, that's smart ass, which you don't do. I looked at him, he said, that's not smart ass, which you don't do.

So I looked at him, so I was washing the fork and I held up the fork and I said, really? Yeah, mom, I dare you. So I let that part fly. And she whipped it and it stuck in my brother's lip. I was like hanging out with him and he's like, mom, like I gotta go to school. Like, mom, like I gotta go to school. Like, I gotta get my life. Nah, nah, nah, nah. Oh, that's great. One time my brother got a pencil stuck in my face, but I think the fork really takes it.

Was it a bleeder after that, or did he just suck the blood out and call it a day? Yeah, it just kinda more or less turned into a little flat lip. It wasn't that bad. It was, you can walk it off. Yeah, rub some dirt of more or less turned into a little fat lip. It wasn't that bad. It was it was one you can walk it off. Yeah. Rubs of dirt on it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's really good guys. We know there's a lot of love in that family. I can see you should write a parenting book. Yeah, you should. Yeah. Get a first draft of that.

I would love to give one of the give one of your book copies to my wife. You know, I think she I think she could learn a lot from you guys. Well, I think it was after saying I need a beer. She's saying I need a beer. What can I do? Well, that's awesome. I can already hear that beer can being crushed over your head or your son's. Yeah, probably got mine for sure, yeah.

Quick story, my dad, he's Carter, little underage, not very much, whatever, small town. Mom, can I have a six pack? I'm like, sure, clean this yard. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, not very much, whatever small town. Mom, can I have a six pack? I'm like, sure. Clean this yard. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. My up to the, I love it. Perfect. So I get home with his little six pack and, oh, okay. Thanks mom. Gotta go. I'm like, oh, wait a minute. He didn't clean the yard.

He says, oh yeah, I'll do that later. I'm like, really? So I took one of his beers, opened it up and started chugging it. I never seen a kid clean my yard so far. I was drinking all of the air. Taking time bomb, you know, it's like a, one of the, one of the games where they have the hourglass that you flip over and it's like a minute long each beer is one minute that he's got. So he had a total of six minutes to get the yard done.

Oh man. Well, thank you guys very much for this bellied update. This has been wonderful. Carter, did you get a phone yet or you're still phoneless? Actually like so after our call, I got a host phone and it's a 10 bucks a month, but I don't want to call our ID and I only get like three rings to jump up and catch it. So it's gotta be quick. Well, we're lucky. We got you on the horn today. Yeah. Thank you guys. You guys are the best. His life changing is cool. Very nice to meet you.

Nice meeting you too. Keep fighting the good fight. All right. Literally. I don't even feel like literally it was the day after I called in like to record the first one, there was a big, huge lightning storm and the lightning hit like half a kilometer away from my mom's house when she got evacuated. And then she had, she came and lived with me for three weeks and everything kind of got flipped on the side. She, she's like, Oh, I'm going to leave all your lights on or I'm going to drink all your beers and I'm going to wake you up at three in the morning.

And I was like, no, no, when you're under my house, it's my rules mom. And then she started limping off to you and you threw a fork at her. Lippin off. Oh, I'm still trying to figure out how far half a kilometer is, but I'll keep thinking on that. Thank you guys very much. I'll keep thinking on that. Thank you guys very much Kind of this weird where we use metric and imperial We can't pick one so we just go with both of them. I like that go with it Well cool guys. Will you take care now? All right and watch out for deer and moose up there, too

All right. Well, thank you guys for everyone. I say hi and thank you again. All right. Tell your mom we says hi. Congratulations to the way. Yeah. OK, bye. See you now. I'm glad we got to talk to her to his mom. I know that was bad ass, dude. That was that. I like how, uh, he's three calls. That's all he gets to get on the whole three rings. Yeah.

Yeah. Three rings. This guy's a bad ass man. That was funny. Now I would love to talk to his fiance into a family like that is very interesting. I mean, that or mom better give the punching bag for the, for the wedding gift, you know, cause once you're an in-law, she was like, I was on top of them, just hammering them with kidney shots. Well, Charlie, another good deed done. Another good deed. I'm happy for thanks to the people that did buy a shirt. That was awesome. Obviously, you know, you changed his life and yeah, it feels good. Guys. You guys did that are bellied up listeners. We were. Yeah. We were just the mediator. We were. We're just, we're the, we're the, the, the caulking. That's all we

are. We're just holding things together. Yup. Yup. All right. Should we take another caller? Still it. Greg. How's it going guys? Greg, you got miles and Charlie bellied up podcasts. What's going on? Craig. I just got off work. I'm headed home now. Where do you work?

I work at a manufacturing plant as their safety manager. Safety manager. Professional narc on our hands. Craig with the big safety tips. Yeah, Craig. Yeah. Well, what do you do? Yeah. What do you do on a day to day? On a day to day, I try to make sure nobody leaves

without any missing fingers. That's my main priority. But I know you guys were talking about what is it? What is, what is your batting percentage on that? Well, well I've been at this company and 400 fingers yet. No fingers. I'm betting a thousand. Okay. I like that. Good job. And a couple lacerations, but nothing too funny. I, uh, I know you guys are, I've talked about doing, or, uh, you've talked about some forklift safety in the past and I, uh, I have quite a bit of experience with that. Okay. Forklift safety. What's that? Exactly. So let me get this right. You are a forklift certifier.

I am. I am legally able to certify our forklift drivers. Okay. No kidding. We are so glad that you called Craig. We have never had a certified forklift, a certifier forklift driver guy on never in the history of the belly. So I didn't know they existed. I didn't. I thought it was just something you declare like bankruptcy. I declare I am forklift certified. Everyone's like, yeah, that checks out. We are so sorry. You slip a 20 to the OSHA guy. You're not too far off there, miles. So what do you have to do to certify a forklift driver. There's three main steps, according to OSHA and any competent person is able to do this. So it's not, there's no special training that you have to go through.

So step one, you have to do, um, a classroom training. Yeah. Sit down and either watch a video or go over some PowerPoints. So it's basically it's like a substitute teacher is a substitute teacher. All right. I'm hung over today. Everyone watch this video and done. Normally we do a PowerPoint, but I'm a little hungover. So we're going to watch a video today. He pops it in it's diehard Sorry wrong one, but I forgot the VHS at home. So we'll just watch diehard today. And yes, it is a Christmas movie. I Agree Charlie, I agree. Yeah. All right. So they bought the classroom thing then what?

Step two would be in-person training. So actually getting on a forklift and doing the training with it. Okay. And step three? Step three would be an in-person evaluation. So I have to watch the person actually drive the forklift without any help and make sure that they know what they're doing.

What's the scariest thing you've ever seen someone do with a forklift? Oh geez, I I have seen people stand on the forks and get lifted 10 15 feet up in the air awesome Yeah First of all, you're the forklift certifier. How did you let that happen? Well, yeah, hold on. Yeah, go ahead. I Can't be everywhere at once everybody's on their best behavior whenever I'm Charlie. I want you to ask me My when we moved into our office when you move

The pallet racking and you put up the power and we needed to get things on top You had to get things on top, But things weren't on a pallet. But things weren't on a pallet. What did we do? What did you do, Miles? Well, obviously, we put someone on the forks and forked them up there. Who was it?

Me and Ryan. You guys, were you straddling the fork? Honestly, it wasn't that scary. It wasn't that bad. And Miles has a fear of heights. I do. So what's so dangerous about that? Well, there's no fall protection miles but as long as the safety guys not around then does it really ever happen?

Well that but also you're forgetting that I'm an athlete. Oh Here it is again. Sorry. Hang on Craig. We're bringing out the yearbook Don't don't don't don't don't don't don't. That was me blowing the dust off it. Wow. Miles, you played football. I mean, how can you fast track the forklift process if you just say that you're an athlete? You can fast track a little bit if there is verifiable experience.

Yeah. fast track a little bit. If there is verifiable experience. So yeah. So you were saying that that was scary. That doesn't seem that scary to me. Well, I've been lucky enough that there haven't been a whole lot of issues with forklifts. I've had people drive through wet concrete before with forklifts and get stuck. They're just leaving their handprint. That's all that is. They just want, did they sign it? They sign their track marks? No, they should have though. They should have. Has anyone ever failed your forklift certified class? I've actually just today I had to fail somebody. Really? You didn't even have to

fail the guys standing on the forks, but you failed someone today. Well, the guy standing on the floor, I would take his license away a little different. So what did he do to fail? I would just say they're more inexperienced than anything. So we'll just put them through some more training and hopefully get them certified again in another week or two. I mean, it's a catch 22, right? You can't drive a forklift until you get forklift certified. How are you supposed to get forklift certified if you have never drove a forklift? Yup. You fail forward. Exactly. Forklifts fail forward, especially if you hold a pallet a little too far off the forks way up high. Then you are failing

forward. I've had that happen a couple of times too. Have you? Oh yeah. Do you guys have a forklift simulator? Because that could also speed up the process. Oh, we do not. No, I have been looking at some of the new fancy technology though. So that might be the Christmas. That's actually not a bad idea, miles of video game of the forklift video game, because you think about a Call of Duty is what the military put out there to like train people to like war and all that sort of stuff. Do the same thing with forklifts. What would you call it? Call?

It's like, oh, we're getting less blue collar workers. That's because we don't have the forklift simulator. Twenty twenty five game out yet. Yeah. What do you call it? getting less blue collar workers. That's cause we don't have the forklift simulator 20, 25 game out yet. Yeah. What do you call it? Fork, forklift certifier. No, it's gotta, it's gotta sound cooler. Fork, fork cert SIM. You guys like playing forks over thing. They have farm simulator 20, 25. I could just go for a lift simulator. I don't play video games. I'm better than you I know they have construction simulator. So I'm sure somebody's working on for clutch simulator Well, if not, we should do it and brand it bellied up. We become rich

Yeah, well that's cool anyone almost die with the forklifts? Not recently. No. So unfortunately, so as a safety officer at a company, how stressful is your job? Uh, I'd say it's probably one of the least stressful jobs in the company. Honestly. Yeah. Classic. If I don't see it, it didn't happen. It's like an office with no windows. Like I always say a common sense for a thing. I wouldn't have a job. It's like they hired them to cover their ass, but then they like, they give them like four months of vacation a year. You know, Craig, why don't you just take the rest of the week off? You've been working hard. I would be nice. I wish I could even with Christmas around the corner. They make the safety officer work on Christmas. Oh, I used all my vacations. Oh yeah. I'll be around Christmas. Oh, lame. Where'd you go on vacation?

Florida. I gave up Midwest every once in a while. You gave up Christmas for Florida, huh? That's interesting. I would take the family to Daisy World. Oh, man. When you walk around Disney World. Oh, man. When you walk around Disney World, are you pointing out safety violations

or do you leave work at work? Oh, when I go other places, one of the things I like to work at are the five things. Share expiration date. Oh, out of date. People are how big of a deal is that? How did you ever do the deed to be able to have kids? You'd have to ask my wife. That was his pickup line at the bar.

Hey, she had fire extinguisher over there. Yeah. It's expired. I will say I did find one on an airplane once and that made me feel comfortable that it was expired on the airplane. Yes. Really? I mean, it's that's like the expiration date on food.

Does it really matter? Yes, it does. They need to be changed out every six to 12 years. Charlie really six. You just said six, six, 12. They needed to be changed out every decade to 20 years. Otherwise you're going to have a problem. Six to 12 years on the, just depends on the type of fire extinguisher. Not all fire extinguishers are made the same. Okay. What does a dud fire extinguisher? What does it do? Does it, is it just completely ineffective? It'll either not spray cause the chemicals inside are solidified or it will just

not be effective and not put out your fire. Well, and then you just beat the fire out. You just roll it over that thing. Stop, drop and roll the fire extinguisher. Exactly. Yeah. If it doesn't come out, just throw the fire extinguisher into the flame. It'll melt the metal on the outside and then it should put it out. Yeah. You might lose a house, but that fire extinguisher eventually will do something.

Well, that's a great point to bring up. What are some other things that you keep an eye out for when you're in the wild? So I, uh, I did a lot of work in construction before I moved to manufacturing. So, uh, I always liked to drive by construction sites and what's our things like fall protection, um, and, uh, brain rigging was one of my two favorites. Um, okay. Question. You've worked in the manufacturing. You've worked in the hard construction. Who's got more degenerates working for them, a manufacturing company or construction company? A hundred percent a construction company. So he, like, he did his, uh, you know, like you do your residency or whatever. He did

his residency in construction and now he gets to just, um, like a dentist, just go in and poke around at people's gums and then walk out and get paid shitloads of money. That's what working in manufacturing is like. Not a bad gig, not a bad gig. If you can find it. Yeah. It's a night and day. All right. Well, what, uh, what are the most dangerous things outside of the fire extinguishers being expired? What's the, what are the big things that people want to look out for that they might not know something that could save somebody's life one day? Well, it's Christmas time.

So we can always talk about ladder safety. Ladder safety. Well, not Christmas light. Yeah. Just make sure it's all on the, uh, all on the ground. Yeah. Uh, I can give you my little ladder safety shield. I get dollar new higher.

Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. I can't promise this to be great podcasting, but we'll do our best. I would like to hear it. All right. So you always gotta make sure you pick the right ladder for the right job. A frame ladders must be fully extended at all times and extension matters must be leaned up against something before you can use them. And the quits got to be faced in the right way. I can't climb a ladder if it's not leaned up against. Oh, you can. I'm in circus stole a it's Cirque du Soleil.

What the hell did you just call it? You think I have to think I think I'm the flying Midwest guy or the acrobat or what? I've seen people use them to bridge two gaps. Oh. So, wow. How else are you supposed to get between? That's just standard practice. I mean, that's a portable catwalk is what that is.

You can actually make monkey bars with three ladders. Yeah, I'm sure your homeowner could, but I'm not, I wouldn't let that fly at my place, Charlie. Well, Craig, you sound like you're no fun. I hate to say it. You sound like you're no fun. You're not letting us. Unfortunately, it's true. But you're safe and sometimes safety. You know what's really no fun? Funerals before before your expiration date. And Craig, you are you are saving us all from that.

So thank you for your service to the safety of this country's manufacturing plants and Disney World. Well, Craig, we appreciate you calling in today. And although, you know, I was making a little bit of fun, we do appreciate your service, keeping everybody safe. No problem, Miles. Happy to do it. Hell yeah, man. Well, have a good one. Thanks. You guys too. Bye bye. Can you imagine how unlucky that would be? You actually have a fire and your fire extinguisher is expired and it doesn't work.

I'll be honest, I didn't know they had expiration dates. Me neither. Learn something new every day here on the Belladup Podcast, folks. We're saving lives. Mm-hmm, do we take another one? Let's do it. Miles, love is in the air.

I can smell it. Mm-hmm. Oh yeah, there it is. You know what's musk. Yeah near yeah, you know what says love to me miles What Charlie a little tippy cow If you want to show that person in your life that you love them You get them a big old body Big big old body. Big old body.

Sorry. Freudian twist there. You get them a big old body. Big old body of this tippy cow. And tip it on back this Valentine's Day. What's more romantic than a delicious creamy treat after dinner? Nothing, Miles. Nothing.

So hey, this cheers us. Nothing, Miles, nothing. So hey, this cheerses to you, Miles. If this Valentine's Day goes awry for you or me, I want you to know I'll call you and we'll spend it together, okay? Okay, I don't know. That's gonna happen. Cheers.

Oh, and Charlie, another good gift would be what? This T-shirt someone just threw on your back This folks is a tip of glass not a cow Hopefully and doesn't listen to this because she now knows what her whole Valentine's Day is Oh, jeez cow and a tippy shirt folks if you really want to score this Valentine's Day with your loved one get them this Tip a glass not a cow shirt off. Oh, you betcha dot com. And oh, my gosh, they're going to love it. And don't forget to bring a bottle of the tippy cow.

Moo. Charlie, miles. You ever gone on a date on Valentine's Day before? You know, it's cold out there in the Midwest on Valentine's Day. Yes, it is. And you happen to be so love struck. Yeah. Then when you get outside of that restaurant, you happen to go ass over tea kettle, slip on some ice. Oh,

that's not going to be good. That's a good way to ruin Valentine's day. Yup. But if your Valentine's day is ruined, you don't want your bank account to be ruined too. Paying for that. Don't add insult to injury. Right. Exactly. So whether you're suffering from a broken angle, ankle or a broken heart, call Nicolay law and they will help you out. Yep. One eight five, five Nicolay with a T or go to Nicolaylaw.com. Yes, sir. And honestly, it might not be a mad move. Um, cause then, you know, you're going to get a lot of attention on Valentine's Day.

You get hurt. Oh, yeah. And then the rest of the night nursing you. Oh, OK. Romantic. Yeah, it is romantic. Oh, thank you, Miles. Dustin, guys, has a Midwest confession for us, Charlie. So Dustin, welcome to the confessional. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Father. Thank you. I really appreciate it.

Call me daddy. Oh, yeah, I don't know about that one, Charlie. Sorry. It's worth a shot. Anyway. Guys. I think I'm addicted to hardware stores. It's pretty bad hardware stories now now is What's the problem is that the time it takes to visit them all or is it how much money you spend or both? well do you spend or both? Well, it's a little bit of everything.

So I, I'm, I'm in Nebraska and I'm, I work in Lincoln and I'm pretty close to Lincoln so I go there pretty frequently and there's, I'm not kidding within not even a one mile radius, a Harbor freight, a Menards and a home Depot all right next to each other. So every time I go shopping, I at least have to stop at one of those places. And then I'm there for a solid like two hours and you know, it's just, it's just my happy place. And I don't, I don't know if it's a problem or maybe I should just keep going there.

Just maybe move in there. I don't know. Maybe. Hey, don't yuck. You're yum. Dustin. I gotta tell you, there's nothing better than a good hardware store. There's nothing better than, ah, that smell of lumber. It's possibilities, you know? And then you start with one thing, you move on to the other. There's always another tool you need.

There's always another tool you want. Yeah, a good workshop is never done. No, it's not. It's only just begun. So I don't think that there's a huge issue here. How much money on average do you spend when you walk into a hardware store? Well, maybe, maybe about maybe a couple hundred bucks,

about two or a buck maybe, somewhere in there. Okay, I see why we're in the confessional. Yeah, this isn't about the hardware store at all, it's about his inability to budget. Yeah. He is buying away his feelings right here. Okay. And now do you, are you a hardware store tourist? Like if you go to a random city, you're going to check out that hardware store. I guess you wouldn't really say that I've been looking forward to have a sleep arm here in the area, but there hasn't been anywhere, anything near here for that. So I just been mainly going to our freight and home depot menards, which is hilarious because the whole depot and the menards that I go

to basically share the same parking lot. So have a war there. Oh, that's kind of, I mean, that's a whole scene, a whole concept for a sitcom. Charlie, it is. It's a whole scene. It's a whole scene. kind of, I mean, that's a whole scene, a whole concept for a sitcom. Charlie, it is, it is. You get the, you get the, uh, it's almost like a, uh, sort of an anchorman thing where you get the, uh, the gang from one and the gang from the other. Yeah. Snap in the fingers. Um, what's your favorite hardware store? You know, I, I, I, I think at all the hardware stores, it's probably the Menards more honestly,

11% rebate. Yeah, that, that rebate, it's hard to beat that. I got a question for you. Why do we have to do a rebate? Why can't they just give you the discount in the store? You know, harder freight does a really good thing with that. They get, they have a deal for the day time. I don't know why my Naruto do that, but I don't know. Hey Mickey, you have to go back into the store to get the receipt. I don't know. So tell me, tell me the last time you went to the hardware store, what'd you buy? It would have been last weekend. And actually I returned something this time. I returned some welding wire from Harvard freight that I ordered online that I didn't need, but I've

been going there pretty frequently the last about month or so, cause I'm kind of knees deep in a project right now. But before that, I was still going there pretty frequently just to sniff around and maybe grab a cheap tool or something. So what did you buy the last time you went to the hardware store? The last time it would have been a couple of big pieces of sheet metal. Maybe I think I bought a hammer, some drill bit. Okay. It's about it. Okay. So this is a fun game, Charlie. What project is he currently knee deep on after knowing he bought some sheet metal, a hammer and some drill bits. Well, I think he's I think he's making his own

His own duct work. I think is what he's doing. Okay. I mean, I think he's doing some exposed duck work in his living room You know, he's walked into enough bars recently and seen that that's in so that's what he's doing I think he's he's a wicked fan. Oh, and he's finally given the sheet man or the tin man a sheet metal. It's only sheet metal joke. That's not bad, Miles. That's not bad. I wasn't expecting that. That's a good one. What does that say about me? As soon as you said sheet metal, I thought a cock. I don't know. There's nothing about that. It's not good. What are you building? So I have a 1960 Chevy Bel Air and I've, I've been cutting out holes

in the floor because it's all rusted and I don't want people Fred Flint's zoning their foot through the floor, cutting their leg up. So I've been buying some sheet metal to kind of patch all that up. And I got before all patched up. Now I'm still in the process of getting some other stuff done with it, but I'm, I'm getting there. Oh, that's cool. That's really sweet. Are you keeping that thing or you buy, sell and are trading it? Well, I keep, I'm keeping it. I've had it since 2016. My dad bought it from the original owner back in 98. My dad bought it from the guy for 50 bucks back then.

Wow. Yeah, he's a, I've been, I've been, I dad bought it from the guy for 50 bucks back then. Wow. Yeah. He's a, I've been, I've been, I've had it ever since 2016. Cause he just gave me the range. It's like, I don't want it to you. You have fun with it. So I've been driving it and enjoying it a lot. So me and my girlfriend, I go cruising and whatnot, whatnot too. So I like it. All right. So you're a hardware store guy. Me and Charlie are going to pitch you our hardware store business idea. Do you remember this? Charlie? It's okay. If you don't, I go, okay. I'm memories. Bar in the hardware store, the bar where so far

the hardware store. Yes. I do remember that that episode. I do remember that. All right. Give me the pitch. What's the pitch? The pitch is that we put a bar in a hardware store and it's kind of a, it's kind of a club in a sense where let's say you're struggling with a small engine of some sort. You can't figure out why you can't get it running. You bring it in. Everyone has some beers. The guys at the bar rail, take a look at it. And it becomes a group effort to try and fix something that maybe you can't yourself. It's an idea. An innovation incubator is what it is. It's called incubator. What do you think? I see, I think, I see one dilemma from, from my own personal experience.

Once a beer gets cracked up in the garage, I ain't getting shit done. Um, I mean, that's kind of the, yeah, we're not actually getting stuff done. That's what keeps people coming back. If you fix, if you fix the thing you're looking at, then you don't have to come back anymore. No one's going to actually fix it. We're trying to sell beer here, not fix your shit. It's basically a kicking tires club. It's not a fixing club. My bad, my bad. Well, I do have a safety idea.

What you guys could do is maybe like, since you're having the bar and the hardware store mixed in one, maybe you have like, you have the section of the hardware store, like a workshop area. Make like a giant area with like plexiglass just in case some shrapnel flies out and doesn't want to hit a patron at the bar, you know?

Just an idea. Why would we get rid of the one thing that makes us different? Yeah. Yeah. That's entertainment value too. And people know not to get too close to the barware store. You know, that's like walking into the hippopotamus thing at the zoo. You just don't do that. Yeah, that is true. Do people do. I mean,

I see no problem with this. So, yeah, I mean, we kind of weren't pitching it in the sense of looking for critiques. Really? We were mostly just, okay. We just wanted to tell you what, what, what we came up with. Maybe have like, it felt like having beers on tap, have like pools on tap that you can try out when you're sitting at the bar with a beer in your hand. You know, like, he, when you go to like the phone store and they have like the cord attached to the phone, you can kind of grab it, something like that. Yeah, I actually do like that. It's like a Apple store where the tables got all the stuff on it. You can belly up to it and just, yeah,

maybe like screw into the table. Yeah. They got like a little, they got a, they got a thing of screws and a little piece of wood that you can just test it out on that. I would actually enjoy that. Yeah. Hammer sloganging. Yeah. Hammer slogging. Yeah. Drill slogging. No, this is like, you know, you go to like a fancy restaurant, like, like the Olive Garden, they give kids coloring books, you know, that's like our version of the coloring books. Okay.

I also just thought of another good idea. You know, there's going to, in a bar, there's always repairs that need to be done. You get your bar tab for free that day. If you repair something at the bar, Oh, free labor. Wow. No, that's where innovation that's incentivizing innovation is what that is. Now we're thinking long term, Charlie. A lot of this stuff is, you know, right now, but if you had this bar for 10 years, stuff's going to break down. Yep. Yeah. You just, you have, you know, you have Charlie in the bar and be like, Hey, Charlie, get up on the roof. We need a nail down that shingle for

me. I'll pay your cab. Yeah. I don't know if Charlie's the right man for that job, but why, why didn't Charlie base that plot or something recently? Was that what he was talking about the last episode of the podcast? I do what? Well, then weren't you having problems with your house Harley recently? Oh yeah. Did I say that? Like where I, where I was doing plumbing. Did I say that on this part? Yeah, that one. Yeah. I fixed it. Oh, you did. That would not have been nice if someone handed you a free beer because of it. That'd be real nice. You get a little pat on the back.

Or more people with it too. Yeah. Oh, you know what else we're going to have at this bar? Maybe we said this the last time. Maybe not. We're going to have a real key guy. I miss the key guy. Oh, I got it. Like the guy time, maybe not. We're going to have a real key guy. I miss the key guy. Oh, the guy that makes the keys. I miss that guy. Yeah. I don't know.

Those machines are kind of dull. I guess. Yeah. I tried copying my neighbor's key and one of those machines. It didn't even work. I had to use, I had to use a tire iron to get in that house. Did it eat the key when you tried to put it in the machine? What is that? Did it eat the key when you tried to put it in the machine?

No, it's just cause the key said, do not duplicate it. It actually didn't duplicate it. You think Larry ever did duplicate a key? No, Larry duplicated that shit all the time. I just, ah, that's my key. He said, okay, I guess you could add it to like one of the like corner thing, have like his own thing in the corner, like with the ball game kind of something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Pull tabs and key copying. Yeah. There you go. There you go. Sounds like a good band name. I got it.

I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I. Yeah. Yeah. Pull tabs and key copying. Yeah. There you go. There you go. Sounds like a good band name. We'll workshop it. Well, Dustin, I don't, Hey, don't view it as that. You have an addiction. You have a hobby. Okay. Okay. It's way different. You could be doing heroin. Sorry. Sorry. I cut you guys off. I did have

one more question before I let you guys go. Yeah. It's Christmas. Christmas is around the corner. Merry Christmas to you guys, by the way. Merry Christmas. What's the best Midwest Christmas? I think you got to watch Christmas vacation for that. I think they documented it pretty well. vacation for that. I think they documented it pretty well. Yeah, yeah, true. Best Midwest Christmas is you got a cabin and it's overlooking the ice and you got tip-ups there and you're sitting by the fire and you're looking at tip-ups and then no one's complaining that they didn't get enough presents because their present comes from God. It's when that flag goes up and then you tell them to go get that fish. I don't know. All right, so look, my dad's side of the thing

I like to do, we all get together before, we usually have a little get together before actually Christmas Day, just as a giant family then I have one, my parents want not. We don't go on walks. we say we're gonna go check cows and we've been going to bar for a beer or two I like that I like that a lot very smart that's like saying yeah I'm going to church again you know you do the midnight mass and you do the three on Christmas Day and the bars just

called the church. Yeah, there you go. It's usually a big group of us that goes and they kind of know what we're doing at that point. He's been having an old joke for years, but it's still fun to say, you know, we're going to go check out. So you feel like an hour or two. I like that. I like going to check the cows. That's, I'm going to start using that. I like that. I like going to check the cows. That's I'm going to start using that

Well, I don't know how well they'll go over in Milwaukee or Fargo, but we can try it yeah All right, man, well we appreciate calling in and it's good to talk to you and hey Have fun at the hardware store next time and you got got to get up to a fleet farm at some point. Yeah, I've been wanting to, man. It's an itch. I got a trash here eventually. Next time you're at the hardware store, get a rolling pin for that sheet metal. Okay. Oh, okay. Yeah. I'll do that. Farley to make the cock. You're welcome. Yeah. Oh, well, I, when I end up making, I'll send you guys a photo. All right. Cool, man. We'll have a good one. Yep. You too. Say it Dustin. Yeah. What is wrong with you? Turning my popcorn away from me. It wasn't me. I was getting a look from Jared who was telling me that it was too loud. It's crickling into the bike

with me eating it. The crickling of the bag. Just cause you know that it was wrong. Does it mean you have to get defensive at us and project? I didn't know it was wrong. I know. I know. It's been a bad boy getting the classic. I know I was doing something wrong, but I don't like it that you called me out. So now I'm going to lash out. Well, that's called karma because we know that's your mo. Oh, okay. Really? Yep. Yep. No, what I'm going to lash out. Well, that's called karma because we know that's your M.O. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. No, what I was going to say, Charlie, is actually pretty good innovation, having the the the tools with the little cable on them. And you can test them out and yeah, I'm out.

That actually is a great concept for a bar. Mm hmm. Yeah. So awesome. You don't even got to play music. No. And then the best part is when new tools come in, we replace them and then we get the old tools. We can do an auction for the old tools.

I'd be good, too. Yeah. Mm hmm. Or we could just take them. Yeah, we could. Yeah. Well, so is that it? That's it.

That is it for this episode of the Bellied Up Podcast. We thank you all for listening. We love you so much. Don't forget. Tip your bartender. See you next one, guys. Bye bye.