Cleared Hot - Powered By BRCC - Vaughn Stumpf - Playgirl model and Bricklayer Extraordinaire

Episode Date: May 27, 2024

Of all the episodes I have been able to record, these episodes with my father stand out as some of my favorites. I never thought I would be able to record conversations about our family history, values, beliefs, and what makes us who we are. I love that they will live forever, far beyond both of us, and can hopefully have great meaning to future generations later in their lives. Strap in and get ready for a journey through space and time. We open with my fathers role in the first issue of Playgirl, the in's and out's of being on the receiving end of a BUI (Biking Under the Influence), current protests at college campuses in comparison to the Vietnam era and much, much more. Wolf 21- Check out what they have to offer for the best sleep of your life: https://www.thewolf21.com Use Code: "clearedhot" for 30% off of your 1st order The Speed of War Comic Series: https://www.thespeedofwar.com/ Check out the newest Cleared Hot Gear here: https://shop.clearedhotpodcast.com/  

Good morning, everybody. Welcome back. Today's episode is coming out on Memorial Day. Let's keep the intro and ad read quick, shall we? This episode is brought to you by Black Rifle Coffee. Let's head over to their website. It shows a banner for Memorial Day. On this day, take time to remember those who have fallen. But on every day after, do more. Put the freedoms they died for to a greater and nobler uses. Rochelle E. Goodrich. And below that, a video. A moment for remembrance. Memorial Day is a time to reflect on the sacrifices made by those who gave all in service to their country. And how about this? How about we leave it at that? If you want to go to their website and search what they have to offer, please do. Shortly after this, I'm headed to France with the Black Rifle Coffee crew. So you can expect some content coming out of that. My guest today fits in well with the Memorial Day theme, a veteran himself. It is my father, Vaughn Stumpf. How do I describe this episode? It was wild. We opened with his appearance in Playgirl magazine, covered everything from a BUI biking under the influence to politics, hopes for the world in general. We really covered it all. Episode 327 with my dad, Vaughn Stumpf. Enjoy. Did you do anything before we showed up here? He's eating a sandwich.

Yeah. Michael's favorite, a footlong, if you know what I mean. I saw that, yeah? Yeah, I mean. He'd be big in a gay community. Dad. Hold on. I mean, make sure you're framed up.

Okay. Oh, we started? Yeah. Okay. Oh, shit. I'm not taking that out. So you were about to ask Michael something, and I said you need to wait because why waste content? And it was.

The last time we spoke, you were cultivating some of the younger women in town. How's that working out? Do you tell, Michael. But younger, it's like two years younger, two or three. So like 17, 18? No. No. No, I meant reference to me, not you.

Okay. Yeah, I didn't work out well. And now there's nothing. Did you just give up? Yeah, essentially. Are you just going to be like a monk? Yeah, that sounds pretty good. What do you have like a monthly delivery of Vaseline to your house?

I was going to say something like that. I don't know if I should go there. Do you have one of your forearms that's way thicker than the other one? Funny thing, I did do a forearm exercise today. and my right one was much stronger than my left. Okay. Why are you doing forearm exercises? For the gains.

What gains? Forearm gains. I'm being serious. Legitimately talk me through this. Because I know people that will, like, they'll isolate forearms. And so you'll be able to grip something bigger than you can pick up because it's now the strongest point in the rest of the weak kinetic chain. Well, I was doing back, and I felt like I just needed to do a little something extra. So I did those kettlebell.

Why something extra? What do you? Because I had already hit everything this week. And so I was like, I don't even, I don't know what to do. So I just did forearms. I did those like kettlebell turnovers that like the wrestling exercise, you know. Nope. But yeah, okay.

Okay. And then the thing were you. Nope. Don't know that one, but yep. You actually don't. Well, your hand movement you were doing was behind the computer monitors. So I can basically see your eyes. I have no idea what your hands were doing.

It's just a stick with a rope. Yeah. With a weight on the end. Okay. Yeah, I've seen that. And you pull up the weight. Yeah. So I did that.

So you have just decided you are no longer going to seek companionship because there's just nothing in the valley. Like, what's going on here? Go be a priest if you're going to do that. No, I mean, I'm not. Do you go online with this shit? Oh, he does. I have in the past. That's got to be scary.

Oh, yeah. What's your username? Like Hammercock, 98? You don't even have you. It's just your name, like your first name. Mud turtle. Oh, man. We're off to a good start.

So what's your long-term plan, though? I mean, how are you going to solve that? I don't know. Like, I genuinely don't know. I'm kind of just waiting for something to fall in my lap at this point. That's usually the way it happens, too. It's like anything else you go out and push on it, nothing. Yeah, and that's been my experience.

There's a lot of ways you could take that comment. Have we ever discussed on a podcast your involvement in Playgirl magazine? I know I've brought it up before. We've probably brushed over it a few times. A few people reached out. I put a post up yesterday saying that you were going to come on, and a few people wanted some clarification as to how and when. How and when and then kind of a why associated with that as well.

Well, 1973 was playing rugby for San Diego State. And it's a state school. What was the length of the shorts? Is this back in the Magnum P.I., like bubblegum hanging out shorts? There was different ways you could do it. I was in a position where I was pushing, so I didn't want anything to fall out. So I usually had a little tighter fit. But to get back to the original question, and we had a good team,

and we had qualified to play in a tournament down in Santa Barbara. And we had this team manager. What the hell was it? Ralph Obrinsky and he drove a classic XKE the long one with a little cockpick in the back I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about

Oh it was a classic What was it called again? I have to see this now Michael can look it up Yeah it's an XKE It was in the late 60s 70s It was like a rocket With this little What manufacturer?

Jaguar Jaguar XKE It might have had a V12 in it I'm not sure So very eco-friendly. Yeah. Very green. And he didn't play, but he enjoyed being part of the club.

And how he came upon the idea, I'm not sure, but he reached out to play girl. Yeah, that's it right there. It wasn't a convertible. It was a hard top. That one bottom where they were on the left, right there. It was just a one. That is a pretty sweet car. Oh, yeah.

What do you think one of those would go for right now? Oh, probably a couple hundred grand. Man. Yeah. I mean, assuming the steering wheel was on the left as opposed to on the right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

But he reached out to Play Girl, and I don't know why he would. I mean, he was a gay man who was... What were you just about to say? Oh, I was just trying to. But Ralph was one of these guys that was just a wonderful man. And he literally financially took care of our rugby club with the school and us. So just so you know, in the last 30 seconds, I figured out why this guy wanted to be around a rugby team but didn't play himself. Well, we, you know.

And I also have figured out why he reached out to Playgirl magazine. The dots on this one are pretty easy to connect. So Playgirl was just coming together. They were putting their issues together, and he said, look, for the price of one, I'll give you 30. And he kind of ran at Bias a few times at the pub, and we kind of giggled. Nobody thought anything about it. And I believe they showed up at the college on a Thursday. We practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

And he told us on Tuesday they'd be there. So we really didn't know what to expect. We show up and there's camera crews. And they took us down on the practice field, which was the old football bowl. We stripped right down to socks and cleats. And that's it. I mean, hopefully it wasn't cold out. I was getting into that.

And unfortunately, it was a frigid day. So shriekage was a man. So guys are off on the sideline. You try to stretch things out, you know, to make as much footage as they could out of this. A little tug and a rub trying to performance enhance, if you will. Yeah, so he took a bunch of pictures of us in different situation, group shots. What was the man who was driving this car doing during that time? Oh, I don't know.

Just shaking like a dog shit and a razor blade in the background. I don't know. But, and then we resumed it up, and they took a bunch of pictures, simulating game situations and what have you. Then after practice, it goes up to the gym with us. Into the showers, and it was on then. I mean, it was, it was quite a thing. The great thing, though, of it is it was the first issue.

How long between Flash to Bang here? They came and take pictures, and then this came out. I think it was three weeks later. In that three weeks, did you talk to your mother? Yeah. Oh, no, I didn't. No, no, no. because this was during the streaking craze when people would just run through the school butt naked or what have you.

It was a different time. It was different. But the issue came out the week that we went to the tournament. So we show up at the tournament, Santa Barbara. God, it must have been 60 teams there. It was a great tournament. And there's the girls with the magazine. Oh, there's this guy.

There's this guy, you know. I mean, I'm married. You know, I'm married to your mom. Your mom showed up for the session and watched. She thought it was, you know, just hilarious. And it was. It was. Mom showed up to watch a rugby team in the nude.

And we had a few guys that were. We had a few guys that were literally hung like a horse. So we put them right in the sense. of the pictures, you know. Just big old piece on them? And as the further out you were taken, it usually was affected by how cold it was, you know? I mean, Mad Dog was in it.

Big Tony was in it. Guys you've known your entire life. But did any of them bring their wives? No, no. I don't think any of the rest of them are married. But all of a sudden it makes national news. College rugby team poses in the nude for Playgirl magazine. This is how your mom found out, isn't it?

Yeah, I get a phone call. Please tell me you were a mom, no, I had nothing to do with it. You know, I could hear her just go, because it was all part of the streaking craze. And just the, it was, the world was changing. I mean, music-wise, clothes-wise, politically, it was changing. Just a lot of stuff going on. there was a lot of frigging change going on. Do you ever think or wonder if that's just always the case?

Because right now, one of the questions somebody reached out about was your thoughts on the current college environment, specifically around the protesting around Israel and Palestine. And your thoughts in comparison to that and what happened with the protests around Vietnam. Do you think we're ever in a place where it's not changing? Hopefully not. I don't think we are. No, no. It's always to some good.

degree there's change. But it was a massive movement because of the war. The war was, this is 72, 73. I believe our involvement was 72, 73 of getting out. Two years previously, there was major demonstrations to stop the war, which created a whole bunch of different emotions. you know, I'm not disappointed with the idea of kids protesting, but you've got to do your homework. Anytime you're on a see a college campus and you see college kids supporting Hamas, terrorist groups, stuff like that. There's no, I just can't support that in any way.

Have you seen any of the videos where, and the videos I'm about to describe, I realize that almost anything you see on social media or TV, you can with editing make almost anything look like anything. So I am aware that the videos I'm about to talk about, they likely edit out the people that had responses that would be less likely to trend or gather attention. But I recently watched a video where an individual went to the colleges and was asking them questions about why they were there. One of the questions was, you know, did you chant from the river to the sea? And these people said yes. And they said, well, what river and what sea? Didn't have a clue.

They didn't have a clue. You know, Hamas, what is their number one thing that they want to do by their own charter? They didn't know. And it was the destruction of all Jews on earth. I'm glad people have their right to assembly, right to speech, all of those things. But at a place of higher learning to be out there protesting for something that you actually don't understand, I don't know what drives somebody to do that. other than they don't feel like they have anything else in their life that they can grab onto. I understand your concerns, but having gone back to college, I mean, and it's a great place.

These kids are getting learning stuff, being put in situations. I mean, when the whole thing in Iraq and Gaza happened. Iraq and Gaza? I mean, excuse me, Israel and Gaza. My first question was who was going to be the voice for the Palestinians? Because unfortunately much of what has happened, I was afraid was going to happen. But at the same time, Israel has every right to protect and defend themselves against this atrocious stuff. Hamas is a – to summarize it for me, if the Palestinians really want to make an impact and get their own

state, they themselves have to get rid of a hummus, not some other entity or what have you. How you do that, I don't know. But the thing with the young kids, you know, young kids on college campuses have been doing this probably since the beginning of college campuses. I get it. I remember being that age, kind of. I mean, I remember I was that age. I don't remember what it was like being that age.

Yeah. I love that people are passionate about things. It's something I say often, you know, depth of the. belief and validity of belief are not the same thing. Yep. More often than not, I make fun of people that think that the earth is flat, mostly because I believe in science. But there are people out there who would give their last dying breath to say that the

earth is flat. Very passionate depth of belief fully committed. It doesn't mean that what you're saying is true, though. And I worry that the kids out there being passionate, I get that. But if you don't actually understand what it is you're being passionate about, what is it that you're actually doing? Are you just happy that you're around other people? that are combined with a cause because I'm sorry.

Anybody who tells me that it's like protesting for the rights of Hamas can go fuck themselves. Oh, without a doubt. I think everybody has the right to have an opinion, but you've got to have the right facts. And so often these young people, I mean, it's an ideological thing for so much of it. And the radicalism of so much of what's going on college campuses today, it's like throwing gas on a fire. You know, it's... So how do we stop that? Oh, boy, you know, it gets back to the First Amendment.

I mean, it's just like you talk about Donald Trump and obviously how he fabricates stuff. And his defense is, it's my First Amendment rights to do that. I don't know if that's a good comparison. and I don't have that answer. Yeah. I just, I don't. Do you think that college is still viable for most people? Boy, that's a good question.

I look at that through the lens of my own kids, or even myself. I have, and you know this, zero seconds of higher education. Well, you just got your higher education from a different situation. I never got the transcript for that, though. I haven't gotten the credits, you know? Well, I don't. I don't know. When I was coaching at University of California at Santa Cruz,

over the years the gals gained some knowledge of my background. And I always showed up to practice almost an hour early. And the number grew over each year how many would come to just ask me questions about stuff. So the only way I can gauge it by what you kind of. have asked is the relevance and the maturity of the questions they asked me. They were still very vital. They weren't big of it. They just, you know. Why weren't they asking their teachers? I'm sure they did. I'm sure they did. Again, the world has changed so much. I don't even recognize a lot of it anymore. Do you think that education has changed with it? My litmus test for education

still being viable is if it actually prepares you for the world that you're getting ready to enter. Again, that's a great question. You know, if I was a parent today and I had a child getting ready to go into education. Would you read a check for $50,000 a year for that? That's a question I'd ask myself, you know. You have to be hands-on. They're still getting great technical education. That's why so many other countries come, their children come here.

But the social and political aspects of it, I think, has been so radicalized that I really question it. I think curiosity is a great thing. But again, deal with the facts, the information, search it out. Find someone you don't agree with and pose the same questions as someone that you do. And then start sorting it out. And then going back to them, you know, it's, you look at it. at the level of discourse today in the glaring example is politics. We are so radicalized and in separate camps that there isn't a civil discourse anymore.

Do you think that applies to your average person? And I mean the people that, like maybe we hang here at the coffee shop often giving people advice on coffee, even though you don't drink it, which is a odd thing in and of itself. having hot chocolates away from the eyes of your wife for your stage two diabetes. Do what you got to do. Yeah, watch out for that stage two diabetes. Are the people you encounter in your day-to-day life as radical as the ones that we see on TV? Because I think people in political office, they're very partisan.

It seems to be very radicalized, but I don't have conversations like that in my everyday life. There's a huge disconnect on almost everything for me between what I see on devices and what I see with my own eyes and my own life. Well, it's really an inter... You know, I belong to a golf club here now. And I sit at the coffee shop and talk to people. Should we tell people about the ferocious golf injury that you just encountered? We'll talk about that later. He pulled his ass cheek, golfing.

High risk. Can barely get out of bed the other day when I came to visit him. I bowled down the hallway. Made a mighty swing. and a very small ball and missed the son of a bitch Oh, did you airball it? Oh, airballed it.

I mean, you talk about shrieky. I mean, I collapsed. Oh, shit. And I had three holes to go. So I immediately texted the drink lady and said, please follow the golf cart all the way here. But what the fuck were we talking about? The difference between what we see.

Oh, talking to the people up here. Yeah. Just in general, not up here, but. Well, it is because, you know, I still talk to friends in Santa Cruz that go all the way back to their college days that were going to college when I was overseas in the military and then my experience with it. Because I had such a different prism when I came back and got out of the military and went to college than they did who had never been in the military and were right at the very beginning of all. these protests. But the people up here, God bless them, they're, it's a very, very conservative area that have very strong religious beliefs, which they're completely entitled to and need to be heard. Have you never been to whitefish? I don't care much for whitefish. I'm not saying,

I'm just saying there's some very strong liberal views up there as well. I'm sure it's the Carmel of Montana. It's that... I don't quite understand that reference. Well, Carmel in California is, you know, a very, very liberal, progressive place. San Fran, San Francisco. More people recognize that. Well, yeah.

Less people shitting on the road, but, you know. Yeah, exactly. But it's a very singular message that's up here. And again, they're entitled to it. It's a bit shocking to me. It's, I don't know what Kool-Aid, a lot of them are drinking. What do you mean? Like what specifically?

Well, it's just, it's, you know, they've, they have the feeling that they've lost so much of what they used to have. And do they ever quantify that? No, they really don't. You know, I understand that a lot of old, you know, farming families up here, people who are looking at the news from California, New York, places like that, where the gay rights, the alphabet soup movement, just stuff that they don't have a firsthand knowledge of here. And it's interesting, you know, I don't debate them. I'm just curious of what they're thinking about, you know, and, yeah, it's, it's, I find it very interesting. Seeing the people with the big political flags on the back of their truck and what have you,

there's just a lot of anger out there. It's, which kind of still floors me is how much anger and it's, you know, with this whole thing is make America great again. You know, to me, I think. That's a thing. That's one of them. What I mean is, is that that's a talking point that some people get behind and some people don't.

It's recognizable for sure. So I understand what you're saying when you say that. And my feeling is America is still great. You know, is it flawed? Incredible. It's highly flawed. We're going through times now that a lot of our, the frailty of our fabric that is our government is being stretched to the point you can almost stick your finger right through it.

But to me, it's still the greatest country in the world. And I get tired of that message sometimes. It just, you know, I just say, is this really, how are we going to get better with that? And it's only one part of the message, understandably. I mean, you've got the border, you've got inflation, you've got all kinds of different issues. and many of my progressive friends are just as upset as they are. I was just going to say, I think the anger, you mentioned a couple different groups, whether it's social ideologies, the alphabet, I don't even know LGBT and everything that follows after that.

I would describe a lot of their, and this only counts for me, but the way I receive a lot of their message is it's rooted in anger, perhaps anger at not being heard or accepted or listened to. But there's a lot of anger on the liberal side. As much, if not more. Yeah. I love when I'm with my progressive friends to play the devil's advocate. How do they like that?

They get angry. You know, they get angry. But when they get angry, you know, when people get angry, they stop thinking. They don't make a lot of sense anymore. And unless we can get past that point where we can have a discourse with someone we're totally opposite views about and move to the point where we can come up with solutions. You know, today what I see is everybody, how was I going to phrase this? Everybody has issues that they're angry about, but nobody's got any solutions. And unless we get to the point, especially the leaders of our country, that I can still remember when Democrats and Republicans got together in the Senate and Congress, House representatives, and could debate something and come up with a solution that probably was the most productive path to take.

I don't see that at all anymore. Mike and I were just talking about that when you were changing and I like I told him I'm to the point now that I really realize that the changes that we have to make in this country to get back to where we were maybe not even where we were and we shouldn't go there but at least progress I don't think I'll see it in my lifetime I think things that are so divided right now battle on minds are established. And it's just, it's, I have all the faith in the world in this country that it will get better. It's been through some horrible times. But we've got to be able, it's like having a debate with your wife, your girlfriend, whatever.

You got to get past the anger and get to the issues. You know, there's a certain amount of passion that comes with all that. But all I see today is the passion. I don't see any solution. By under Trump, who do you go with? Neither one of them. Well, oh, I understand. It's a cop out.

I, you know, if I had to... Strip away the person, which side's policies do you think serve the country better? Oh, the Republican side doesn't fit my values at all. What do you think about the border? Oh, it's a friggin mess. Well, what's going on on the border right now is on the liberal side of the House from a policy perspective. I understand. But if you look at the bill that they took and was passed, bipartisan what six months ago gave the government more authority more money to solve this problem

than we've had probably in 40 years and the Republicans shit on it Trump says that won't happen now because I don't want to give a political what is there reasoning for shitting on it they were told to okay but I mean like what grounds did they use to justify that I never saw any ground. Oh, the first time, the first debate was over how it was tied to, uh, aid to Iraq, not excuse me, Israel and the Ukraine. Yeah. Well, I also, in bringing that up, I think that's one of the biggest issues we have to solve is that bills have to be on one issue and you shouldn't be able to hide shit. Yeah. Because is it that all the writers that go with everything? Is it the Ukraine bill that has a border component or is this a border component that has a Ford aid bill? It's a very good

point and it's very valid. What do you think we should do at the border? What do you think the solution should be? I don't think you'll ever solve the problem at the border. The only place you're going to solve the problem in the border is where these people are coming from. You've got to stop the crime, the drugs. Yeah, but we can't, so we can't control that aspect. I'm saying from a country, so right now, Michael, double-checked me on the math on this, but I think in-

12,000 people a day or something like that? It's in the millions of people that have immigrated. So our current policy, and I have hosted quite a few podcasts with people that work directly on the border issues, a lot of these people are getting what are called NTAs, notice to appear. Notice to appear, not S. The people that are coming across. Coming across. And they never show up. About less than 3% do.

But the current NTAs notice to appear into the 2030s. But what they are given is a plane ticket and cell phone and money, and they're sent wherever that they want to go. And as a policy, I'm not so sure that serves our country very well. Doesn't at all. It doesn't at all. There's another thing. The problems are so big today. Again, you've got to get both opinions of it and sit down and talk and make some compromise.

That happened. The border bill that was passed gave us more than any party has been trying to do all the way back before Reagan. and Reagan was a Republican who said we have a problem we need and literally made some efforts to do it. It's a problem that's not going to solve itself. It's you've got to get people together, but the Republican Party want nothing to do with it because they do not want to give. I don't know whether it's the Democrats or Joe Biden a victory at a crucial time right before the election. Or were they going to use the money for? And for clarity, even if that bill had passed, it's not going to solve the problem before the election.

Actually, I haven't read any of it. But the people on both sides of the aisle that I respect, they were impressed with it. It was not a policy problem. It was a decision that will wait until after the election and then it will be our bill. I know that's simplifying it a great deal, but that's about as much time as I've given to it. It's not like there was an issue. The issue was there. A bill was brought, passed bipartisan,

and the leader of the Republican Party said, no, we're not going to do this right now. What do you think our policy should be at the border? I'm all for immigration. I just think it has to be legal. I agree. That's pretty simple for me. The issue is, how do we do that?

I agree with what you're saying. If you look at, a lot of people think that people from Mexico can come across a border and claim asylum, which they cannot. It's actually many countries outside of Mexico. Yes. And there are reasons why those people are leaving those countries. The reasons that they are doing so are for the country that they're leaving to solve. Like, we cannot be the savior of all of the world, even though we try to do it, I think, far too often.

But we're not going to solve those problems. But I don't know of just blankly and openly accepting them into this country, which it seems to be more of the, on the left-hand side of the aisle along those lines versus the conservative side of the aisle. And I don't agree with that. That's why I'm a centrist. I'm not either. I support Republican legislation, Democrat. To me, it's going to make sense. Many of the questions you ask. I mean,

all the time you ask is, you know, they're very relevant. They have to be answered. Unfortunately, and I'm embarrassed to say it, I'm paying attention less and less because I realize I can't do anything about it. I think that might be what they want. You're probably right. You're probably right.

You know, I worry about if I had just had a conversation with your son the other day. Which one? Tyler. I was going to say, oh, that was probably wild. Oh, God. But I was glad when we went out to dinner, you told him something that I told him because he always goes to his computer and draws. Oh, I've got all the information here. He clicks on the top link.

Yeah, and you told him, be aware of everything you read. And it's the same message I gave to him. And brilliant kid. I mean, let's back that off a little bit. Special. Unique, touched, bespoke. I mean, they're all unique in their own ways. That kid's going to be okay.

I just love how it's just bringing out the gray hair and you. Every time I shoot you, you're more gray. I mean, I don't know if it's that or just the fact that, you know, nobody stops the calendar from flipping over to the next month, but. I know. know, but it's, you know, they're all such complicated issues, but what I see today, people, they have a lot of issues, but they don't want solutions. I can remember when Trump was, started running how many years ago, eight, nine years ago? The first time, yeah. It was all about

destroying Obamacare, the Affordable Health Care Act. Nobody's been able to do it. You know, if you have something, I mean, it was an easy talking point for the, the conservatives. Much like on the liberal side, the relief of billions of dollars of student loans that didn't happen? Exactly. Yeah, I don't disagree. But again, it's all about issues. There's no solutions. I can remember. I'm old enough to remember when there were solutions. People would sit down and talk, you know. What do I got to give you to get this? This is the give and take. Michael, you look up the population of the U.S. in like the 1970s. Because I wonder if the size of our population and the government makes it harder, if not impossible, to actually find that compromise in the middle. Well, I think it's who you pander to now.

I know it just... I'm just wondering. I mean, I wonder if as it scales up, what do you find my opinion? I think there's... I think there's... 203 million. And what is it just for $350 million? I think so.

Okay. I mean, so basically one and a half. half times that size. Yeah. And I wonder if it's a nonlinear multiplication. So if it's one and a half times the size of the population, does that mean it's 10 times harder to find an agreement? I mean, Michael, Google, how, if, I don't know the answer to this would be, but how much

larger is the government in 2024 than it was in 1970? Maybe from a government employee perspective. When you've got three times as many lobbyists in Washington now as you have senators, you You know, bigger than Congress, it tells you who's in charge. You know, the money. I mean, maybe not who's in charge, but it tells you what the underlying motivation of the decisions are. Yeah, exactly. Good point.

What did you find, Mike? So this is just executive branch. I think it'll still give us a good idea. Did you pull up an Excel spreadsheet, you son of a bitch? Hold on. Go to the top. I need to look at the categories. Total.

God, damn it. Is there a number that encapsulates at all? No, I haven't seen it. All right. Let's just pick Department of Defense. 256 and 1940. Scroll down. Keep going.

Still pretty clear through the 70s. We're still in the low thousands. Keep it going. When's it get out of control? All right. I guess it ends at 14. I don't feel like these numbers are correct. Yeah, this doesn't seem right.

Which one is today's number? Michael's not. He's not serving us well right now. What happened to your Googling skills, Michael? I had so much faith in hoping you. This is just a very specific question. It is. I'm just trying to figure out the overall scope size and scale of the government and how fast it's grown in size of the population. I've said it before. One of the things that freaks me out is how much of the government we don't get to vote for. People think that because we're voting, you have a two-party system for right now.

Oh, yeah, here we go. So, 1970s here. There's way more than 22,000 federal government employees. 23,271. Units, tens, thousands of persons. All right. I don't know how to do math. Well, that's a good point, you know, and what is happening.

Would that be 230,000? Fuck, I don't know. You look at gerrymandering where you have states that are controlled by the minority of the population of that state, by the way they have changed the district. lines where they cram the opposition in one or two districts and the other 12 have a sparser population base and it's a minority rule. Just yesterday, the Supreme Court said, we're not going to have anything to do with gerrymandering. It's not anything we're going to change. We're not going to do it. It's, again, take it back to the states. Well, the states are controlled by local governments and the Democrats have used it as just as well.

It's something that's got to be done away with. You can't change voting lines based because that's where all your support is, but the majority of them are crammed in, say there's 20 districts and two of them, and it's distrastic in some. Two of them have all the liberals, which is more of a population base than the other 18, but the other 18 control the major part of the population. It's minority rule and it's happening. Yeah, it's the gerrymandering.

It's the federal government. And it's against, I mean, there's stuff that's happening. This Supreme Court is, oh, I mean, good Lord. I mean, here's a whole other topic, Roe v. Wade, you know, women, right to health care. I mean, now they're talking, and it won't be long. The next thing they're going to go after is contraception. Why would they go after contraception? Again, it's, what group is pushing this? You've got a Nationalist Christian Movement in this country that has been around for a long time that... I thought religion didn't have an issue with contraception. For clarity, I don't

know shit about religion. Oh, Catholic Church, one of the biggest faiths in the world is Against, no, it's all contraceptions, no, no. Yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, I just, sometimes I just, I just, how could you remove somebody's ability to make a decision about contraception? They just did. I'm not contraception, but, uh, uh, uh, uh, abortion. They push it down to the state level. Yeah, yeah. So the Supreme Court didn't remove anybody's ability to,

have an abortion or not. It depends on the state that you live in. But they gave it to a group that will allow that, that will say no. And the majority of them are conservative states. And it's frightening. It's, yeah, I mean, people forget there is in the Constitution a separation of church and state. And there's a huge movement today to make that, the church much more influential in the everyday running of our government than what it should be. I don't see a time when contraception is ruled or deemed illegal by the Supreme Court. They're already talking about it.

Sarah Huckabee. So this isn't the Supreme Court, but this is Idaho. Yeah. Is wanting to ban contraception, or let's see. Is wanting to ban the distribution of information of contraception. Okay. Like banning an idea? That's a tough road to hope.

Abortion opponents are also threatening birth control access. Okay. And what you just did is what Tyler does. What's that? You're taking a top Google link as... Well, let's go down. I scroll all the way down because I love to look at both sides of an issue. I don't doubt that there are people who would like to do that, who believe that that's

what they're being called to do. What I'm saying is I don't, and maybe I am naive. Most of the women in this country never thought Roe v. Wade would be overthrown either. Roe v. Way was overthrown at the federal level. It's passed down to the state. And honestly, me, I mean, first off, I don't think anybody should tell people what they should be doing with their body. Like I'm going to. Oh, I think we both agree on that.

Put it to like that. So I'm not advocating either way. But I also think we have to be clear that the Supreme Court did not make abortion illegal. They pushed it to the state level. And yes, some states have made it illegal. And that fucking sucks for people that are there. But we should be precise about what that action actually did. It didn't restrict abortion unless you live in a state where it is restricted.

And it's going to get larger. It may get larger. Or the Supreme Court in the future also has the ability to change their mind. Well, it's going to be an interesting election issue. You know, it's, I've always said. How pumped are you for these debates? I haven't you paid any attention to it. How much and how good do you think the cocaine is that they both get before they go on stage?

Like, what drugs do you think they're on? I don't know. I'm trying a little bit. What the hell, you know? Shoot me out of line there, maybe. I feel like both of those candidates before they go out there, have a little private screening with the dog. Have you ever seen the movie Flight with Denzel Washington? I don't think so.

Holy shit. At the end, he's getting ready to go and testify. I think in front of... He was an alcoholic. Yes. Yeah. So he's getting ready to go and he was like on the mend. Yeah.

And there's an awesome scene where he had an adjoining room to a hotel and he hadn't been drinking, but like the door in between them was open and it was fluttering a little bit. His mini bar was empty and he goes over and he sees that the mini bar in the other room has stuff in. And he grabs a ball in and he puts it on top. And you see him walking away and then this hand comes in and grabs it. So they come knock on his door in the morning. And he's fucked up. Like, can barely stand.

And he keeps saying, like, call somebody. And this dude shows up. It was just a straight drug deal. He's like, okay. He's like, I got this. He opens him up with a few lines of cocaine. He's rolling some joints, sprinkling some stuff on it. And the guy just is like, gets him back to being ready to go testify.

That's what I think is happening to both of these people right before they go on stage. You know, I just saw a wonderful, wonderful interview. Howard Stern. I mean, he is a character of my own heart. And he interviewed Joe Biden. I don't know if you've watched it. It was a very, very interesting interview. Again, I don't.

What was so interesting about it? Just an individual like Biden being vulnerable enough to ask questions that you don't see on any news source or anything. Like what? Oh, the troubles he's faced in his life, his overcoming his stutter that literally crippled him as a youth, the loss of his wife and children. It was a multiplicity of issues that the humanity, number one, the humanity of the interview was striking. And I mean, so it showed Biden more as a person than a presidential candidate perhaps. Exactly. You know, but someone at his age, I mean, why don't we have, they got age limits on when you can start running for office, why don't we have a cap on when you can't? Hey, I agree. I mean, I don't know if you know this or not, but we're looking for a home for you right now.

Oh, that's a good. Oh, good. I hope they're topless. I guess that might be an off-menu item, but. I know your sister and I are this morning we're talking about drugs. I told her, you know, what my, I would prefer to have early in the morning. late in the afternoon? Yeah, let's keep Casey with her medical license. You know, we don't need to discuss that. But yeah, I mean, there's a certain age where I'm going to have to put you out to pasture. The little shack out at the lakehouse, I'm saying, like, maybe we'll put you in there.

But honestly, I'm probably just going to check you into a home with some jello at a certain age. I think what we do is just go down to, Tyler and I were looking. Tyler and I were down at Home Depot and we're out in the parking lot. He said, Grampi, come here. For clarity, Michael, what they were doing is Tyler was swindling his grandfather into purchasing more window cleaning equipment for peeping Tom windows. But he says, look at these sheds out here. He said, this one's $6,000.

I could make it into a man cave. And so I went along with it and I said, yeah, you know, he says, how about a urinal? I said, just put a freaking hose out the door here. He says, well, I said you get a funnel for your side of the, and he's laughing his ass off. But that would be perfect. It's one of those sheds up there. Where did he think he was going to put that in the backyard of the townhouse that we're living in? I mean, I swear to God, this kid has ideas, but it's 3% of the solution.

I enjoy not coming up a practical question sometimes. Just push the insanity with him and just keep the ball rolling. Because then he shows me how there was a shelf with a table on, not a table, a shelf, yeah, about this wide. He says, I could sleep right here. I'm going to... I mean, it's the best... How's him at dinner talking, explaining to us that it doesn't matter if it rains? He can still do his window cleaning service in the rain.

You notice I didn't comment because I'm going, don't you freaking get... Pubments is going to pay you $500 and it's going to be street when you go? Michael, he looks at it and goes, it's not the rain that makes windows dirty. It's what's on the sill. I'm like, what? He is the expert. I mean, he kind of is.

His business is crushing. I know. Yeah, he's He's on the couch yesterday Dad, can I use your laptop? I have to create an invoice. Like, why do you need my laptop? I just don't feel like getting off the couch.

It would be easier for me to use your laptop. I'm like, get the fuck off the couch and go figure it out on your own. I didn't be now going away on a vacation. I thought, you know, he could stay over. He says, no, I can't do that. I prefer my own bed. Fuck. I mean, you know, I...

You know the beauty of that, though? He's comfortable. saying no. Well, he's always been comfortable being who he is. You know, he's, he is so unfiltered, you know. It's horrendous sometimes. I asked him, I said, how are you going to get Emma in this shed? Well, you're going.

I said, number two, how are you going to move it off this lot to somewhere else? Yeah, yeah. I know I told him we were talking. I said, you do realize you can't live at your dad. house forever. He's going to college in two months. Oh, but he'll be back. Which I'm okay with. Yeah, well, that's good. I think we'll end up living where we live now until Julia gets through high school. What are you going to do? Yeah.

Yeah, I don't. Well, and the cost of borrowing money to buy or build a home right now is insane. Seven, eight percent. Jesus. Pretty wild. Yeah. I think the real estate values will come down a touch more. They need to, they need to re-correct where we're at. So I'm not in a rush. Yeah. But yeah, Leah and I were talking about it. Like, oh, shit. In two months. You're going to be empty nesters. Yeah.

Yeah, I don't know how I feel about that. He, uh... It's going to be good for Leah. To not have to deal with his craziness? I think the two of them really enjoy each other. Oh, my God, they're hilarious. I know. I know. It's, it's, uh... I mean, Leah impresses me on so many different fronts.

and but watching her enjoy the humor their little tit for tats back and forth I mean that's priceless that shit is priceless I guess what did your mom say when she found out about Playgirl

please tell me you were to Mom I have nothing to do with her but what did she do or did she ever find out she never mentioned it again that might have crushed B I crushed B a couple times Yeah, but, you know, having your son in Playgirl magazine might have been a tough pill to swallow.

Yeah, it was different. I'll tell you. It was such a different time. You know, it was we had two, maybe three veterans on the team. One of them was an ex, wasn't quite SEALs, UDT. And Mike was a great guy. He was such an inspiration for all of us. He was so goddamn fit.

I mean, and so we had Mad Dog, who was more in my age group, and then we had these kids that were four or five years younger than us. So we had a lot of fun with them. And, you know, when you're at that in-between age, not really, you are an adult, but you're close enough to you're still. You're legally an adult. Yeah, but you're, you know, so you're going to go out and run with the herd. Yeah, it was, it was a, and God bless your mom, she ran with the herd.

You know, she'd rain me in every once in a while, you know. But what do you think the most mad she ever got at you was? Oh, Jesus. That's a great question. I never thought of. Oh, I don't know. There's a difference between being mad and disappointed. You pick.

I think that the weekend I went down to Casey's and got arrested for, I got a B-U-I, biking under the influence. Yeah. Well, and I had just gone down there and I'd taken, like... Let's not forget in that story you didn't tell her. She found out about that when she opened up a letter addressed to you. I fucking understand. I understand what I was living with, you know? But again...

No, first off, go ahead and tell the story of the BUI. Well, the thing of it was, I had like $12,000 cash on me. Oh, I wonder why. What were you doing at the time? I took four pounds of really nice weed down there. and I was getting $3,000 a pound for it at that time. And I'm laying it on the emergency. Hold on.

Reverse it. How did you tell the story leading up to the BUI? Oh, well, Greg Bartel, family friend, played Bride be with. He lived down there. He said, let's go out and do some bar hopping. There was some international matches being played on the television. So we would go ride our bicycles. Casey was in and out of that.

I got on the bike the last time What was your drink of choice that night? Oh, gin and grapefruit juice. Greyhounds. Yeah, great. The classic. Yeah. Michael, have you ever had one?

No, it sounds really good, though. It's actually a great, I would say a great summertime drink. Very refreshing. What are you doing after the podcast? I don't have one. But typical me, I just, I just pound alcohol when I start drinking. I just, I love, I just. love alcohol you know it just

I just you know what are you going to say you know walk around with your dick hanging out nobody's gonna care it's just you're just I really actually think people would care if you're doing that well yes true you know you got to be a little bit discreet you know

but I got on that freaking vis like when you've been caught urinating under blackjack tables and casinos because you didn't want to get up oh Jesus I was winning though I just couldn't get out of the chair. And I'm pissing down the leg of my pants. This lady sitting next to me just looking at me.

She started doing this, you know. And I'm going, at that point, I didn't care. Just give me my chips. Cocktown waiters over here, please. Just pissing on yourself at a black jet table. Well, you know what happened when I was in the military, too. We had taken a mic boat from Corridada over to the main beach part.

Was this before bridge? Way before bridge. The only thing we had was the ferry. Okay. Yeah. So we used to, they'd take, we get a bike boat and take it over. Yeah.

No, that's why I asked. It was 20th 2nd Avenue, or I forget what the name of that area was. 32nd Avenue Navy Base. Yeah. And but Broadway was, at that time, was just all these old Navy places and peep shows. And I'm standing out in front of one of them.

The bus pulls up. And I'm just relieving myself. And the bus leaves. And there is the eye on the other street looking right at me as the shore patrol. Oh, God. I got taken back to the mic boat. Yeah. Oh, you know.

It's a B-U-I, greyhounds. Yeah. and last time we were going to go to another pub and the front wheel started going like this. Was it really going like that? It was a pass? You were a shit-faced and you were just riding like you were drunk. I probably a little of both.

The next thing I remember, they got me on a stretcher putting me in an ambulance. And I went, okay, where's my money? That's the first thing I thought of us. Where's my money? So they take me to the ER, one of the places Casey had worked at, She shows up, and I'm sitting there, and they're stitching me up, and I'm taking money out from underneath my shirt, wads of cash, just giving it to him. And the doctor's going, what's going on here? I actually thought I had dodged a bullet because the doctor left.

I was all stitched up, and I said, help me up off this table. Let's get the hell out of it. We'll just go out and get a cab. Well, like two weeks later, I get this envelope saying, you are. to appear in court at this date at this time. Was mom mad or disappointed? She was pissed. Yeah, I bet.

Yeah, she said, and she always got, we had known each other since we were kids, okay? One of the things that, why your mom started hanging out with me, when we weren't really dating, but she used to go and love to have shithouse fun with me because, you know, we just do crazy shit. And she enjoyed that. But she just hated that what pissed her off was how that could have really gone sideways, you know, putting myself at risk like that.

Yeah, those greyhounds were good. They're still good. Oh, yeah, they are. Yeah. I didn't know it really had a name. How'd that be why end up? Did you have to go in front of a judge? I did.

I put my only support coat on, go in. and my turn, I go up to the front there and standing there, and he pretty much, he said, tell me what happened here. And, you know, I finally, I threw a little humor in. I said, geez, Judge, what are you going to do? Take my bike away from me? And he goes, no, no, no, no, no. He put me on three years probation,

and if I would have got anything related to that, it was going to become a DUI. The old BUI, it would really come back to haunch you. Yeah. Yeah. I think, was I living in San Diego at that time? No. I swear there was a...

You were in Virginia and Casey called you. I was in fucking middle of the night. She was trying to get me to talk. My brother's the Navy SEAL. You need to talk to him. She hands the phone to the officer. It's like, I'm so sorry that, like, let me know how it goes. Just hung up.

Yeah. I swear, though, I came over to her house one time and you answered, you were wearing a set of glasses similar to this, but you only had one lens in. And like a black eye. They were crushed. Yeah. 12 stitches here. I think I had six more up here. Blood was everywhere.

It was kind of impressive. Well, your blood is thin when you drink alcohol, so that makes sense. Well, it was real thin, then. Do you think that, though, was the most pissed mom ever got at you? Oh, gosh. There's so many times she could get angry with me. Thankfully, she never held a grudge. You know, going up to the ranch sometime up to Weasels for the farm fest and

you know she looked outside one time and there was a bunch of us all rugby players we were playing naked croquet in the orchard why why not

yeah we set up this croquet thing out in the orchard out to hear her butt-ass naked play yeah yeah indeed yeah you know Jesus you know

I was pretty civilized. I just love to have fun. I don't know if I would apply the word civilized to you. I mean, the dance of the flaming assholes isn't really civilized. Last weekend, I went to the maggot fist. Saw guys I had played with almost 40 years ago. And three of us had our jerseys on when we went to the Cayman Islands. Remember what the camp?

Yeah. Yeah, and that was where we had the, we didn't have the flaming an asshole routine. we made the human pyramid. And it was a hunch. Don't worry, Michael. None of them have clothes on. Oh, yeah. I figured.

So all the bottom guys are down here and then next year are stacking up. And they had a hung ceiling like this. And it started to wobble. And the guy, Bob Haley, reached up and pulled the entire ceiling down. That's the same trip where the guy jumped up and hit his head in the ceiling fan, right? Oh, yeah. That was West. We just got there.

Jumping on the bend and it was bong right in the forehead. Yeah, he died here a couple of years ago. You like this, Michael. We were staying at this nice hotel. It wasn't us. We were staying at this smaller hotel, but a lot of the guys were staying at a first-rate hotel, and they had this big cage you could crawl into.

It had an exotic parakeet in there. Well, we were going, and rum was cheaper than the beer. And we were getting rum and getting melons and what have you, and the guys who had been feeding the, the parakeet the melons well they got thrown out because the second day

the gal came out there and the parakeets hanging upside down you're killing my bird out the door we went why did you think Michael would like that story I did like it

after watching him chugged that footlong sandwich it was very passionate but you know it doesn't even chew he just unhinges the jaw just bhaat

it's like an anaconda but it was great seeing those guys. There was a team there from, I think, Wisconsin. I offered this gal $100 for her shirt. Each one of them on the team had, that was her jersey. And on the back of the jersey, it said, save a tree, eat a beaver. I could not get her to sell that thing to me.

Yeah. Oh, it was just a hoot. It's just such an institution. I was great. I mean, the biggest response I got is like, you're still alive. And it was great, you know, just seeing everybody and remembering. How does it feel to get to that age where a lot of your friends are dying?

It's overwhelming, you know, because you can't not avoid looking at yourself. And I just try to keep it in the space that I just try to remain to be thankful, you know, recognizing. the times I had with these people, the things that I've been through, and have had this opportunity to literally come to Montana and have a second childhood with these guys. And now... Not a Best Buy, but in most places. Yeah.

Yeah. But yeah, it's... It was tough. You know, I see friends today that I know that I got them on oxygen. You know, I always find it interesting when you go. go to these old rugby things, and your old teammates with yourself are standing around the keg. And the number one topic of conversation is bladder control.

You know you've gone too far. You know, it's just, you know, it's the things you bring up, you know, the memories, just having those memories with those guys from either going to France for almost a month or going to the Cayman Islands or flying down to San Francisco to play in tournaments. Yeah, I mean, I feel, I just, I force myself to be real grateful and thankful that I had that. Yeah, it's...

What would you change in your life if you could? Nothing. Would you have interrupted the relationship with your father earlier? Knowing what you know now. Would you... Well, I say that and that's not true. If I had something to do better, I didn't say better. What would you change?

I would have changed how I handled my mom during that situation. I would have never gave her up for him. Would you have tried to head it off at the past earlier? No, it was on a track. It was not going to change. But I would have I would have remained a part of her life

instead of walking away from that. Post that last incident? Yeah, yeah. You know, when she got got dementia and... Do you think he would have allowed that? I feel like he would have tried to fuck that. It just died earlier, that's all. I was to the point, I was, you know, and it's like my uncle told me, he says, I've

never seen anybody challenge your dad like that before. And I don't know. Gosh, I've been so blessed with the people in my life and the things that I've been able to do. I often think if I hadn't started, if I hadn't gone back to college when I came back out of the service, went into the business, family business, how my life would have changed to the people I wouldn't have met the experiences I have. I love, and I write about that stuff because it's, it keeps me relevant for myself.

You know, it's good to keep those memories fresh. I just found a whole bunch more of pictures that I'm going to frame and put up. up in the wall, in my cave. It's hilarious how my kids love all the pictures of me as a kid. Oh, I know. That's great. That's why I have them there. You know, I found a bunch of the pictures you had given me when, after the Jessica Lynch thing,

when you were with Karzai, a lot of your decorations, I read them. Do you have them? Because I don't know where the fuck they are. I got a bunch of them. Feel free to throw that shit away. No. know, I am so proud of all of that. It's, no, you don't do that.

I wish it was as big of a deal as people thought it was, because it's not. You'll realize someday just how big of a deal it was. I think it might be the opposite. Could be. I mean, I lived it. And here's the thing. The military awards thing, I say that because. I understand what you're saying.

Well, this is my opinion, and I don't speak for the military. but the military award system is fucking broken. Oftentimes the awards you get is directly tied to your rank. And it became competitive and it became almost a wicket for advancement. Like if you have this role and you don't get this award, you may not get the next one. And so I think they went a little bit crazy early on and I think it rained itself back in. It's just it's not as pure as I think people would want it to be. My opinion, and that's it.

That's all it counts for. Well, the other things is I wish I could have helped mom more. There really wasn't anything I could do, but I just wish there had been something I could have done to take that pain away. And she was, you know, such a stoic person. I know where you get that inner strength. You get that from your mom. I mean, that woman never frigging complained for 10 years.

And I, you know, it's, Do you think she knew she was sick that January you guys came down before I deposed. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And yeah, I knew it before she did. I mean, I can't say that. I recognized it in myself, to myself, before she. Before we went to that hospital, you know, she was sitting out there right in that

rest, not the recipe, the shopping list for the spaghetti. Both you and kids, because you guys were the ones who said to me like, hey, mom's not doing well. We need to go. And she wouldn't go. like, I have an idea. Perhaps you guys can go fuck yourselves. My word's not hers. I'm sure she would have said it in a more classy way.

Well, to back this up, what was happening before we went down to Disneyland and met you there and then down to San Diego? Mom was having her temperatures were spiking incredibly and I'd have to take her to the ER. Like how high? Dangerously high. Wow. Like out of nowhere. She would just pop a fever? Exactly.

And why didn't they screen her there? Well, there's a lot of questions I never got answered. But what was happening, and we didn't realize it until we got mom in the hospital. And what was, I mean, you saw how she was struggling horribly. What was bothering, what was putting her into stress is that her her second cancer operation, they completely took out her bladder and made a pouch and she would catheterize herself and urinate. Well, what was happening, kidney stones were collecting in that pouch filling with poison.

I mean, she was going to die much sooner from her kidneys were ready to, that was the first thing that happened. Were they able to identify that at that time? Yeah, a little simple blood test. Yeah, I got a phone call about a year after your mom died from her doctor, her general doctor in Santa Cruz from her nurse. And I said, can I speak to the doctor, please? She says, yeah, Patty needs to come in for some x-rays and stuff.

And I said, you bastards, you killed her. What do you mean? I said, why wasn't she given a check x-ray every six months that she came in here? Because she had outlived the timeline. That's right, five years, you know. And that's where the cancer was. And I just said you... Well, you would think that if somebody is presenting back at the hospital with substantial medical issues like that, they'd be like, you know what?

Let's just let's give you a quick... Because what happened, you know, when we got her into the hospital in San Diego was the chest x-ray. I still remember Casey's face coming out of that room. Oh, yeah. I tried to intercept her. before you saw it. But it, I mean, and she's not an expert at reading an x-ray, but she knew enough. So I feel like it would have shown up if they would have x-rayed her like that in Santer's.

Exactly. And then it would have been, they could have dealt with it. Yeah, let's not go that far. I mean, there was the issue of the bladder stones and then, I mean, that cancer had metastasize. Yeah, but they would have detected it before it metastasized. And we thought. It would have bought her like 30 days. Yeah, it was a shitstorm, you know, and then watching her go through the chemo.

Because they would release us. They set up with a hospital staff in Santa Cruz. We'd go there. And I took, I went to every chemo. I went to doc, everything. But I'd go to the chemo sessions with her. And I'm watching all these people. And I'm going, Jesus, these.

So I started showing. up a trays of brownies. I got them toasted. They looked forward. They looked forward for me to show up. Dr. Stumpf here, just doing the rounds. Well, what's going to do to them? I just got them.

They were just toasted. The answer to that is who fucking knows. I don't know how it interacts with the chemo, but I don't think the doctor would want their people just blazed up. Doctors were there, and they knew what this shit was going on. They were probably like, hey, do you have one of those for my... Well, a couple of the nurses. And I said, no, no, no.

Oh, well, why not? I said, well, take a good sniff of this brownie here. Yeah. Yeah, they were great. The poor bastards going through all of that. I mean, it's, I sat through when mom went through her first cancer part, it was a medical trial, and I'd go with her to take her to the doctor. Waiting room would always be full.

After a month, all of a sudden, there were fewer and. fewer ladies waiting and then I figured out they're dying yeah yeah it was what do you think we could have done differently at the end I mean I quite frankly my headspace when I got home what could we have done different I think we did everything for her that she wanted she I promised her she wouldn't die in a hospital she had Casey there with her sisters there wasn't much else to do we made her as peaceful I mean she sat out in that window seat

oh yeah you know and I'll never forget the third time we went down to scripts and I finally took her oncologist aside and I said you've got to tell me what the hell's going on here and she says well she's got six months at best and so we went back in where mom was and she says, is there anything else I can do?

She says, well, you got one more chemo thing that we can run you through. And we were driving home and she says, you know, I got to do this. I said, you do whatever you got to do. Casey shows up and mom had a doctor's appointment. I mean, we'd, it take her 10 minutes to walk across the parking lot. was maybe 20 yards. Got her all dressed up, got her hair poofed up and everything. She walked in the reception office, and the nurse said, we got a waiting room for you,

you know, and she goes, I'll never sit in another waiting room. Put me in the doctor's office. He came in, and she told me before we went in, she says, I'm not doing it. How did she come to that decision, do you know? Was it through conversations with you or just conversations with herself? just herself you know what in the world was and I'm trying work and I'm a wreck at work

trying to cross straight had a big stone job going and just you know shit you never know what's going to work it's just you've been with somebody that long and had gone through so much you know

both parents all four parents had died One sister died, another one was dying. So, you know, I just talked to Nancy the other day. You know, she's the only one left out of three sisters. And, yeah, it makes you very humble, very, very humble. It hurt me so bad to see you. And I knew just partially what you were.

going through what you had been through and then be thrust into that situation. I mean, you never had a chance to fucking breathe, you know. It was a pretty wild transition home. You know, and thankfully you and your mom, you and Casey had that time to share with her. Casey had a good amount of time. I'll be honest with you, and I know we've talked about this before. I don't know if it was actually mentally beneficial because she was acting as a caregiver. She was, yeah.

Oh, you mean? Oh, for care. Casey. Yeah. I actually acting as a caregiver. I don't know if it provided her the opportunity to grieve as her daughter. It's all business. You know, it's all taking care of her. Yeah, it's all business, but at the same time it is still your mother. You know what I mean? Oh, I understand. I don't know how I couldn't have put myself in that situation. And a lot of us are. You know, I didn't have that opportunity to share that with my parents. To be with. That's one of the greatest things as a year was go by. and people ask me, you know, my biggest regrets or what have you, not being with them, you know, when they pass, being able to grieve, you know, just things like that you can't recover from, no matter what your disagreements are, your misunderstandings. You get to that door and you open that door up. It's, yeah.

Yeah, I wish I would have been able to. work through my emotions better in that time. You did everything you could. I mean, it's just there was nothing you can do. I am just so thankful she had that time with you. I know how much it meant to her, you know. And we didn't have many conversations of any length by the time you got home. Talking about you and me or you and her?

Her. Yeah. And, you know, you get right down to it when, you know, you know, I finally asked her. I said, God, I know I'm not the sharpest knife in the door. You know, I want to thank you for hanging in there with me. But, you know, what was the biggest impetus? You know, what the fuck?

Share with me. She says, you always made me laugh. You know? I kind of went, Jesus, I did, you know. But I appreciated that because in any relationship, you've got to find somebody you can laugh with, you know, somebody you can cry with. You know, guys, it's so hard for them to show their emotions and what have you, but you've got to find somebody that you can do that with. It humanizes it. Just being able to learn how to share is something that not all of us do well.

and I learned from your mom so many things about life, you know, because she was such a barrier between my family and me, in particular with my dad. She saw stuff. I had grown up with it, so a lot of it wasn't. And she's just going, you know, you're not doing this. No, no. That was the biggest impediment to us going back to Santa

Cruz is that the only way that she would tolerate it is that if Clarence didn't have a part of the business. And I had to run him out a month after I got there. And I just said, hey, man, your name's not on the side of the truck. How do you like that? You could only imagine. But by then I didn't give a shit. You know, I had other things to take care of.

You know, it's just, you know, I don't know. Yeah. It's, you know, it just it is what it is. Some people sent in some questions for you. I think I covered some of them, but I got to make sure here. Hold on. Was there ever a point in your life that you felt that you weren't progressing? And how did you get past that?

And then looking back, was it even worth getting upset over those thoughts of not progressing? Yeah, I've had a bunch of frustrations, you know. But again, the biggest thing in my life that helped me with those. frustrations was mom. Have you ever felt like you're stuck in life? Like you're just treading water. You're trying to run uphill on a sandhill and like every step you take. You're just not going to know.

No, because your mom gave me the space to move, to try new things, to be a part of it. We figured out a way how to do it together. God knows we didn't always agree, but we did it together. Yeah, you know, having to drag ourselves back to California with our tails between our legs after, you know, being in Missoula when the, the heck was it called. What the hell was it? I forget. But the whole business world collapsed, and there just wasn't any money there. Yeah, there's things like that.

Stuck in the mud. making the decision to leave teaching, that only thing that made that palatable was being able to still continue to coach. And that's really why I went into teaching. Because my academic skills were slim at best. What I got my college to degree, mom should have got one too. I think she already had one. Yeah.

No, actually she didn't. No, no. She was everywhere. She went back to college later in life. I forgot about that. Missoula. Yeah. Got a master's.

And everywhere we went, she went back to school. Junior colleges when she was constantly educating herself. Yeah. She might have just been trying to find ways to not spend time with you. I'll tell you. She might have been tired of your shit. Yeah, well, I wouldn't have blamed her for that. One of the things that was really frustrating for me was in the,

Early 70s. Both of moms' parents were alcoholics. Great people, but just were alcoholics. Would Beaver literally just go sit out in the garage and get plastered? Yeah. And his wife would just leave him alone? Like she was in the kitchen getting plastered? Like, how did that work?

No, there was two chairs like this. They sit there. I swear to God. Beaver's nose. would get so frigging red. And Donna, Gog's attitude, she just got bludgerent. Oh, man.

I'd have walked up and bitch slapped her so quick. I wouldn't have taken that shit. But, you know, everybody makes her own bed. But I'm in high school. You know, I'm dating your mom. We're dating not dating. You were dating mom's sister. Well, that's because your mom wouldn't date me.

She says, you're going to get me in trouble. And I said, well, okay. But Beaver had me out in his office. He'd have his... What was it, he'd drink? God. He'd fixed me a cocktail. What was his drink?

I bet you'd had... It was a cheap whiskey. It was... Oh, God. Bad, bad. But for me, at that time, it was all right. But what the hell was that? Is that what he liked there?

Just whiskey neat? No, no. He was... He didn't man up that much. Di Coke, would it throw? No, no, he just, you know, at ice and, you know, whatever. But the biggest thing, I felt so frustrated is mom stood up and started going to Alon to take care of herself.

She saw how it was, and that, when it initially happened, I had none of the skills how to support her. It threatened me from my being brought up that, you know, I'm the male guy, it's all, you know. And I learned later how that affected me, you know, until when I finally, and it didn't take long, I finally embraced her and tried to support her as much as I could. But when that first started happening, that frustration was big. Yeah. Didn't he, didn't her mom's dad have a heart attack on a ladder or something like that? Who's that?

Beaver. I don't know. He had a heart attack eventually, right? Yeah, he had heart to say. It just, you know, he was so overweight. God damn, what was the name of that whiskey drink? I can see it sitting right here. I can almost taste it.

It doesn't sound like it was that good. Oh, it wasn't. It was a very inexpensive, you know, thing. Yeah. So they would just sit there in those two chairs and just have cocktails. Five o'clock. It wasn't 501. It wasn't, it was five o'clock.

It was cock. I don't care if dinner was on the being made, it would buy. Burn out there in the kitchen until cocktail hour was over. But then I'm assuming cocktail hour was the beginning of it. Like they didn't stop drinking at six. Yeah, they did. Really? Yeah, because, I mean, at that age, I mean, they were, I don't know how old they were.

Yeah, they were, they get pretty sloshed. And see, neither one of my parents drank. So this was a whole new world for me. It's probably a good thing your dad didn't drink. I think you would have been a dick. Oh, he was an alcoholic. He was a dry drunk, yeah. So he used to and he stopped.

You damn near beat a guy to death in a bar in Santa Cruz. It's probably a good reason to stop. He learned all this from my uncle. Yeah, I would imagine it probably wasn't his proudest moment. Yeah. But he quit, you know. After B died, though, he started going back to the toddy a little bit. Hey.

Hey, whatever. Yeah. Last question for you. Kind of timely, given that Memorial Day is on Monday. somebody asked, what does Memorial Day mean to you? How much do you think about your service? I mean, it was back before electricity. It was like a musket in a civil war, obviously.

What's it mean to me? It means a lot, and I don't really know how to articulate it. I know every time I go by a military cemetery, wherever it is, I salute them, you know, because it's just, it's, I'm proud of the service that we all have. I wish I could have understood better what was going on at the time. I mean, it was just, a lot of it was just pure survival. I know where you're going to go to Normandy and you walk up the stairs, there's this long pool out there and you look over.

I mean, it just, it almost brought me to my knees that cemetery. So often I think of just the carnage and the waste to where we've got today and we're still doing it. You know, I respect the military and the people that are in it, but I think it should be part of the early military training that they're taken to these places to see this, the sacrifices that were made. think a lot. I was so young that I think about more than anything else now, especially at my age, is what so many of my peers never got to experience. That crushes me in a lot of ways. I feel very guilty about that. You know, I suffer a lot with survival guilt, you know, you know, it's just, it's, yeah. Where do you think that guilt comes from? And I ask because in my own experience, I think Chance has a lot more to play than people would give it credit for.

That's all it is. I mean, Jesus. So, and so you don't have a hand in that. No, I got it. I got it. You know, it's... I'm not saying I don't have feelings like that from time to time as well, but I just try to rationalize it through the lens of if, honestly, chance was the determining factor,

and I can't control that. I am so overwhelmed with my pride of these people that are buried out there and their sacrifice. I don't know if we could still do that again. Do what? Have that wave of people that would step up. Talking about like D-Day? Yeah, you know, that kind of stuff. Yeah, it's just, and just the military service,

the sacrifice that these both men and women made, I mean, I think there's like six or seven women on the wall, the Vietnam Memorial Wall, nurses that, got caught in mortar attacks or what have you. Yeah, it's a real pulpery of emissions, I mean, emotions. I'm very proud to be part of that group,

but I'm, again, just, it's their sacrifice. It bothers me a lot, you know. But, you know, it's the price you pay. Yeah. You know, it's, uh, yeah. especially as you get older, the more you think about it. And you just take enough time not to think about yourself,

but your friends, your mates, the people you didn't even know. It just, yeah, it's part of life. You've got to learn how to deal with it. Yeah, I guess. It can be a good thing. It'll be a bad thing like a lot of things. It's what you make out of it. Keep it respectful.

Keep it where it should be. I'm so happy you're going to get to do what you are going to do in Normandy. It's, I don't know if you've ever watched the band of brothers. Oh, yeah. What a great, what a great thing. And saving Private Ryan was a that, you know, people often ask me, you know, does anything that ever bring shit back? those first scenes of them

in the mic boats those little plywood landing craft and those 20 millimeters blowing through people I mean that jet still gives me chills yeah Jesus that's a gnarly first scene for sure yeah he did a remarkable job with that but there's some good you know

yeah it is what it is what do you want to close it out with Ah When I want to close it out with Dating advice for Michael? What do you suggest? Maybe go to the other side for a while. I have recommended that for him constantly.

You might. You might fight some real passion. Yeah, honestly, he's going to move in with another dude. He's looking for a place to live with another dude named Michael. So Eminem. Just a bag of candies, you two. I guess the biggest thing

I want everybody to know is don't give up on this experiment that we call a democracy. Have faith, not necessarily in those that are running it right now, but the institution itself, its resiliency, that it will come back. That just still is the greatest country in the world. I know it's tremendously flawed. People often ask me, well, what can I do to change things? Vote. Make sure you avoid. You have vote. He just fucking said you weren't going to vote for either of them earlier. Oh, I write somebody in or what have you. Oh, because that really helps. Well, I'm still participating. You know, I, uh, yeah. Are you though, if you write in a random

name? We have currently a two-party system. There is a third option. Yeah, you know, it's, it's a good question. It's a question it should be asked. I don't disagree with it. I'm just so frustrated right now with both parties. The thing that distresses me more than anything else with Donald Trump, and not saying that Biden's, but Donald Trump has divided this country so much that it's, I mean, God, I mean, sometimes I think we're on the verge of another war. What do you call it? You know, another Civil War?

Yeah. I would push back on that. I think he can be a divisive person, but I think the system in and of itself might be intentionally trying to divide us. I think there's an equal part on both sides. That's a valid point. I don't disagree there. I never quite put it like that. But I think there's sand in the jar for that.

It's an economic system. now for these guys that get elected. I mean, it shouldn't be a lifetime job. I think it was never designed to be. Yeah, it never was designed to be. I'm really questioning the Supreme Court. I'm not in favor of these lifetime appointments. I think they have to be more accountable than they are.

Whatever side you sit on, again, there's got to be some middle ground. That distresses me What's happened with that But it's happened before You can go back and see different administrations It's nothing new I just think just remember who we are And we're still the best country in the world

We have a lot of flaws It's like sitting down for Thanksgiving dinner With an uncle you can't stand But you know He'll go home sooner or later Fair enough Until next time All right

Thank you.