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Still Hungry with Manny Sirianni
56 Plays2 years ago
We sat down with our good friend Manny this week. You may remember him from Season 1, Episode 11. Tune in and enjoy.
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Transcript
Welcome Back & Sponsor Mention
00:00:17
Speaker
Ain't no shame, but there's been a change. All right, we're back. Better than ever. Yeah. Just a real thing right now. Oh yeah, it is. Yeah, we're not giving Manny any chance. There's no warm up to it. It's a warm up. Nothing. We had a little technical difficulty getting set up. Right into the deep end of the pool. Willie, you guys just threw me into it. Before we start,
00:00:43
Speaker
We'd like to thank our sponsor, Hayfla. Hayfla offers a wide range of products and solutions for the woodworking and furniture making industries, from hinges and drawer slides to connectors and dowels, sandpaper, wood glue, shop carts, and everything in between. Exclusive product lines such as looks LED lighting and slide outdoor hardware ensure that every project you create is built to last. Learn more at hayfla.com.
Upcoming Guest: Ed Cohen
00:01:06
Speaker
And we're going to be released on April 7th. We have Northeast director, Ed Cohen, a pay flow coming on the show. Oh yeah. That's going to be a big one. So that's the fit. We record the fifth. It'll air.
00:01:22
Speaker
Also a motorcyclist. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. He's a big rider. Like adventure riding? Yeah, adventure riding.
Guest Introduction: Manny Sirianni
00:01:30
Speaker
Yeah. So speaking of bikers, we're joined by our great friend Manny Sirianni. Long overdue to come back on the show. We've been begging him to come. He's been denying our advances for quite some time. He rolled in on his new HD.
00:01:51
Speaker
Yeah. It has been a while. When was the last episode? That was episode 11 of season. I was misspeaking last week too. While Willie was episode eight, you were episode 11 of season one.
Early Show Memories
00:02:05
Speaker
So that was two years and 15 weeks ago. Wow. It's really been that long. Yeah. Yeah. It was like the deadwood had just gone out for his surgery.
00:02:19
Speaker
So it's just the three of us lobotomy. Yeah. Oh my God. I've heard that name in so long. Yeah. We haven't talked about deadwood in a long time. Um, for the new listeners, deadwood is our, um, our ex business partner. Well, you may have heard in season one, he didn't make it in season two. No, I don't remember season two.
00:02:44
Speaker
Actually, yeah, he was only in like what? 10 episodes and then like a handful. After that, like the first 10 episodes and then we'd pick him up from the train station. He didn't make the cut after the, uh, no, he's certain things he was saying on the mic retired in air quotes. I can't believe it's been that long. Yeah.
00:03:12
Speaker
You know, who has an opening though, I heard.
Manny's Career Journey
00:03:15
Speaker
That's true. It'd be a good fit over there. Tom's looking for some new guys. Yeah, I'll get the lowdown for you. Well, I guess, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself? Again. Give like a 20 second recap or 20 second
00:03:38
Speaker
What do they call that? Your elevator pitch. Pretend you're on a speed date, like one of those, you sit down at the table. Hey, don't date me. So I guess for the people that have heard the old episode, remember me from Thomas Cabinetry, we'll leave it at that. Tom's Cabinetry Shop. Where I met these guys.
00:04:02
Speaker
Um, was there for a few years. And then finally part of ways and complete career change. Yes. You were still at work in that Tom's when we recorded the first episode, right? Yeah. I was there for still quite a while. Yeah. How much therapy after you left Tom's? Uh, no therapist would see me.
00:04:28
Speaker
I would love to see one, but they wouldn't see me. You need like a platinum tier health insurance. All the therapists in the area, when you fill out the questionnaire and see where you work, they go, uh-huh. There's no health insurance premium that'll cover that. You're like, listen, I didn't sign up for this. That's right.
00:04:47
Speaker
You know it's bad when your employer gives you mental health days. Yeah. On top of vacation, sick time, family leave, but then you get mental health days. Every day is a mental day over there. Yeah. A lot has changed over there too. Yeah. So you were emancipated from the TCC. Thankfully. Yeah.
00:05:12
Speaker
So what have you been doing for the last, what's it been, year and a half?
Working in Vehicle Production
00:05:17
Speaker
Not a half, about 14 months. Yeah, January was my technically one year over there. But yeah, it was right after Christmas time and stuff is actually, I think I was on that job with you when I got the job offer. We went up to Hoboken and I was babysitting the van. Oh wow. Yeah.
00:05:39
Speaker
I thought you were working at the new place at that point. No. You guys needed a babysitter and I said, screw it, I'll do it. And then it's kind of got the wheels turning on the whole job offer, settling things.
00:05:54
Speaker
And then I think it was, was that like a mid week thing? And then it was like over that weekend, kind of sat on and said, you know what, it's time to make the move. I had enough people in my corner kind of pushing me along. Time to cut the cord.
00:06:09
Speaker
Yeah, essentially what it was. Take a chance. I don't know why I thought that that you started working there like right after we recorded that first episode. That's that shows the frailty of the human memory. Yeah. No, I mean, there was probably talks about like just that. No, it was it was quite a while after that. Because that was that was yeah, that was like you didn't start working there for another year.
00:06:38
Speaker
after we recorded that episode. Yeah. Jeez, I can't believe I lasted that long even. Yeah. And what do you do at your new place? Oh, well, but weren't you at timber for a while? Oh yeah. That was before that episode. Okay. So you had, you had, did you had, did you had, did you had just gone back to times? No, that was actually
00:07:02
Speaker
I would say that was probably a couple to few months because I was, I was there COVID hit and then.
00:07:14
Speaker
I was almost at my one year, but then, you know, the way scheduling was working because it was a smaller shop. They didn't really want, you know, like too many people in there. So I said, screw it. Instead of collecting unemployment, stuff like that, you know, obviously the, the door over at Tom's is open. So I made a call, said, Hey, that's a revolving door over there. Yeah. Never closes. They're like seven 11.
00:07:40
Speaker
Yeah. Open 24 seven. Even on the holidays. Even on the holidays. Especially on the holidays. Yeah. Yeah. Especially the late night stuff. Every time you try to stay for extra work just to do your own thing, you were never alone. As much as you wanted to be alone, you were never alone. Oh no. Is that monster under the bed?
00:08:01
Speaker
Yeah, but the whole COVID stuff happened, which is crazy that that was that long ago. And then I said, screw it, I'm not going to sit at home and collect unemployment. I'm going to go back to work. And then it was about two months of being back over there and no real word about when are things going to change there for me to come back.
00:08:26
Speaker
So my one year hit there and I was like, all right, before I even come back, I'm going to sit down and have a review to see where we stand. And that's when I said, you know, I'm not not able to come back. And then just went right back to Tom's like I never left there a year later. And then I was there for, I would say at least another year, like a dirty old slip.
00:08:49
Speaker
Yeah. Like that dirty sock under the bed. At the van door. Like that crusty sock in the glove compartment. Yeah, that was... I want to say at least it was another year. I mean, at least it felt like 10. Yeah. But... Yeah, I think it was cold. Yeah, when we... It must have been cold when we did that Hoboken job. That's how you know how long you've been there. You say, how long did it feel like I was there? Then you divide by like 15. Yeah, it was...
00:09:20
Speaker
So we've sort of been dancing around the subject. So what are you doing
Personal Updates & Health Challenges
00:09:25
Speaker
now? So currently now I work at a place, we'll keep that name unknown. But essentially it's a giant plant, over 100,000 square feet. One side of the plant is production line work of ambulances, rescue fire trucks, anything kind of EMS related.
00:09:49
Speaker
that on our side of the building, it's kind of broken up into different sections. It's one big place, but there's a service area, which is like your general, like if you guys needed an oil change or a new motor, whatever, like that's in a fire truck.
00:10:10
Speaker
Well, yeah, so there is a firetruck section of that on our side, but the service side is just for ambulance, EMS, even like normal cars, like if it's like a chief's car or something like that. Like a standard mechanic shot. Yeah, exactly. They do the alignments, they'll do a motor swap if they have to kind of keep the ambulances that can't be off the road, back on the road as fast as possible, then to like what you said, the firetruck.
00:10:37
Speaker
the one side of the building is all for like the bigger heavy rescue trucks and fire trucks where there's I think four mechanics that usually deal with all that stuff over there. Then in the front of the building we have a it's a little bit smaller section which is for what they call specials. So it's chief vehicles, special operation command units, stuff like that.
00:11:00
Speaker
My buddy actually, he's the head of that department, two guys essentially. So like, for instance, you could go in there with your Sprinter van and turn it into a full command center. And that's what, you know, they do. And then, and our areas were called remount.
00:11:17
Speaker
So if you were a township or a private entity of some sort, you have an old ambulance, a hazmat truck, whatever it is, you want to put it on a new chassis and kind of update your old box. That's what we take care of. So we make it as brand new as possible to whatever your budget is.
00:11:38
Speaker
And so there's value in swapping the box out and putting it on a new chassis. Is that? Yeah. Yeah. Because you, I mean, it's depending on the condition of the body and stuff and the interior and everything else, like how well it's been taken care of.
00:11:54
Speaker
It's usually worthwhile to kind of keep beating the dead horse, so to speak. That's interesting. I guess all that stuff in there is expensive, you know, all the gurneys and whatever. Especially all the new units, which I don't know if it's for sure or not, but I think the state is like past something now where it's like all the ambulance has been coming in getting updated with like this new gurney system. It's called Striker.
00:12:17
Speaker
Um, so it's all hydraulic assisted. So that sounds like something you want to be in when you're hurt or something. Put them in the striker. Yeah. Yeah. It's actually a pretty crazy system. It's crazy expensive. I mean, said and done, it's like 40 grand just to get that. So people don't have to lift that the EM was like very, yeah, there's like minimal lifting. So the gurney itself is all hydraulic.
00:12:40
Speaker
And then the unit that slides out of the back of the ambulance is hydraulic assisted and like two little arms that come up. So it'll grab the front of the gurney. You can put the wheels up and it'll hold a full, I think, 400 pound, 500 pound person. Just like can't leave it out like that. Like way can't leave it out. It's scary. The first time I saw it, I was like, there's no way this holds somebody but
00:13:03
Speaker
Apparently, that's what it is. And people get so fat, they probably have a hard time getting people in there. And more women are able to do the job instead of lifting up. Yeah, I think it was just... I guess you really know what the situation is before you're loading somebody up into it. So, I guess how much stress and everything else prior to even just getting to the back of the ambulance.
00:13:27
Speaker
But yeah, it's bizarre. I mean, there's just so much shit that I never, oh, can we, are we allowed to? Yeah. Okay. I should ask that in the beginning. We'll let them fly. Not, you know, not a, a PG. Okay. But, uh, yeah, it was just my, I mean, still to this day, I mean, like even today was another new thing of, of like, what's this little piece called or what does this do? I mean,
00:13:51
Speaker
There's been a lot of like repetitiveness, but it's still all new. You know, even 14 months later, it's mind is still absorbing so much stuff and just, you know, you go home and you're like, shit, like, is that right? Is that wrong? Like, what do I got to do tomorrow?
00:14:08
Speaker
Yeah, and plus you're getting a crash course in like all this medical and like emergency kind of stuff too. Yeah, biological stuff. It's not just like the actual putting it all together, the fabrication aspect of it, but knowing the terminology as to what this stuff even is. Yeah, which is that's still something I'm learning every day about. We go through our list and
00:14:31
Speaker
I would say probably 80 to 90% of the people there were some EMS of some sort or firefighter. So all the equipment aspect of stuff, they understand it. And a person that I am, I always want to know as much as possible. And if I'm doing something, I want to know the background to it. So I'll ask questions and sometimes I'm like, shit, I should have never asked that question. But it's cool to know now.
00:15:01
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, the medical side of it, the biological side of it, I mean, when these, the ambulances we get in, I mean, it's all volunteer stuff, very rarely paid services. So it's like you get some pretty worn down ones, pretty nasty ones.
00:15:17
Speaker
And then, you know, even going through the back, we have to be super careful in the beginning when we're tearing them down, you know, gloves on, try to vacuum as much as possible. We always got to be like looking out for needles, any kind of bandages that have maybe didn't make the garbage can, any kind of blood that never got cleaned up. It's like, I didn't even think of that. Oh yeah, I didn't. I didn't think about it at first. And then like, it was probably like my second week in, one of the other guys were like, you don't have gloves on.
00:15:44
Speaker
i'm like yeah like what do you mean he's like you know what you're touching right i was like it's just it's just a tube like what do you you want to tell me instead of beating around the bush
00:16:29
Speaker
Yeah, it keeps it fresh
00:16:35
Speaker
Yeah, like I said, even the repetitive stuff, it still depends on the way. Yeah, I'm sure it is always going to be technological advances too. Some things, yeah. I mean, we get some cool stuff in that needs a whole lot of updating. So the box would come in with an old school light program and now they want to change out to all these individual lights. So it's a matter of taking that old stuff off, mapping out where they want to put all the new stuff.
00:17:01
Speaker
So that's been a whole new game changer for me is like the first week or two when it was like, Hey, you have some welding experience. No, kind of a quick crash course on that. And then, uh, so you got to figure it out.
00:17:23
Speaker
It's like a super specialized kind of thing. Yeah, which I kind of wish I didn't get a copy of it sometimes. It's actually welding up the skins of these boxes. Well, that's a couple weeks ago, I should say.
00:17:42
Speaker
a bunch of stuff on the front of it, close up a bunch of holes, weld in different plates. It was just so dirty and just been down so many times of the years from being repainted and stuff. It's just like trying to weld new equipment and then also being conscious of the fact that
00:18:02
Speaker
all the bodies are essentially put together. Like the skins on the frame are just a piece of 3M tape in between them. You hear a nice little and you know you just fucked up. And not really understanding them all the way on top of the fact of like break out a new book to try to figure it out. It's a few days where I was pulling her out like, like what am I doing wrong here? Yeah, we all have those.
00:18:32
Speaker
I have plenty of those days. I close the game one day. Any damage on it? It's like a scuff. It's a cat particular day. It's like I'm just going to go in the corner position. At least you can drive through it.
00:18:57
Speaker
between that stuff, like a lot of fabrication stuff, still a lot of woodworking, which is surprising enough on the cabinets, pencil pieces, from like a work done from the park here, and then before you left at the cabin job, which is saying a lot. That's 90% of the back of these things. It's perfect for the most part, mostly aluminum cabinets and stuff, but it's all easy to blow out.
00:19:29
Speaker
some things, yeah, but I think for the most part, it's just, I mean, the floor is usually, but it's all the other little crevices, which is like another thing to like standards. It's like there are certain things that we don't, like if we send something out to be a poster.
00:19:43
Speaker
If we don't really specify what it is, it's back and the stitching is in the wrong spot, we have to send it back because it'll hold fluids. It's like medical base for the flooring. You did that too, right? Well, yeah, for housing and stuff. Yeah. I mean, that was a whole biohazard in itself. Yeah, you're going to be able to mop, you know. Yeah, it's all got to go up. No, no, it seems. Yeah. Yeah, it's all rubber flooring.
00:20:10
Speaker
Like I said, any of the cushions that you sit on, any of the trim, it all has to be mindful of, is it going to hold a fluid or is it going to let a fluid escape?
Motorcycles & Mechanics
00:20:22
Speaker
Fluid dynamics. Interesting. Yeah. There's a lot. So much stuff.
00:20:28
Speaker
So aside from, from work, cause I'm sure you got enough work. What else you got going on? Just the second new bike after returning the other one. And that was just a year ago. I got that memory two days ago. That when I first bought that, uh, that sportster.
00:20:46
Speaker
had that for I think three or four months. It was like this isn't for me. Yeah, it's not coming exactly. And then over the summertime, pull the trigger on trading it in and pick up that 22 that's called a street Bob. So like we were talking about, yeah, we're talking about earlier, like the soft tails. Oh, yeah, yeah. So right under the pouring style bikes. The first bike is like a beginner's bike. Yeah, literally what it was. And everyone talks me out of it. You know, the guys that ride at work and salesman originally
00:21:16
Speaker
But I was like, I kind of know myself and can kind of be reckless on two wheels. Oh, yeah, it's easy. Yeah. So not being on a bike in years, I was like, let me just take it easy. You know, worst case scenario, I like working on stuff. If I want to make it faster, I'll make it faster. But it was more of like always having the girlfriend on the back of it going out on adventures. It just wasn't enough for that.
00:21:38
Speaker
No, no. So it was actually in for service. And it was in for service at Harley. And then I was in there just, you know, shooting the shit with the saleswoman and stuff like that. And I was like, you know what, while I'm here, let me just, I needed a piece just to relocate the taillights so I could put little bags on the back of it. And he was like, yeah, they don't make anything for that one.
00:22:02
Speaker
I'm like, are you kidding me? And he's like, nah, dude, you bought a sports store, man, you're limited. Like he would always just joke around with me. So I looked back at her and I was like,
00:22:13
Speaker
And we're going to do this today. And so we decided, yeah, we're going to trade the thing in and ended up getting the way bigger bike. So that's the way to go. Yeah. And they were cool about it. They, they took care of everything. You know, I wasn't out of pocket anything.
Woodworking Industry Insights
00:22:29
Speaker
I don't carry over any balance because I guess Harley kind of knows that like the sportster is the beginner bike. Yeah. They're looking for you to trade up. Yeah. And considering the fact I dumped
00:22:41
Speaker
I don't know, another couple thousand into it. Yeah. On top of sell that to the next guy. Still sitting there. Still sitting there. I was going to say, probably turn them over so fast. No, because they, they run too many, like good incentives sometimes. Like that's the reason why I ended up doing it that day was because like, yeah, no payments for like the first three months, you know, because the credit was still good. Yeah. Oh yeah. Three months at $99.
00:23:09
Speaker
Then it goes up to the full price. 10.99 a month. Yeah, a little bit more. How much is that one going to be? All in it's 55,500. Jesus. But it's a time saver. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:23:26
Speaker
All that, all those cabinets you just saw, I just did all those, you know, with the contour. Oh, it took forever. That green one. All the green boxes, everything. The, uh, the black shop cabinets. Yeah. But the contour was at the green edge. That thing is still around. Oh yeah. Oh my God.
00:23:44
Speaker
Yeah. No. So, a guy came yesterday morning to look at the edge bander and it was running great. It was like the best it ever ran. Yeah. The festival one. No, the brand. He came to look at it to buy it. So the guy's going to buy it. It was doing everything except for like the front trim was like a little bit long. It was leaving the edge banding a little bit long. So then this morning I'm like, I can make these drawers. I'll just use the edge bander. We haven't used it at all. I couldn't get it to work.
00:24:14
Speaker
He was a professional on that one. So I don't know what. Somebody's looking out for us because it's about time. Yeah. And how that whole thing happened with the edge banner. Like I kind of got briefed on it a little bit beforehand. So Lou Lou calls me one day and he's like, Hey, he's like, I got, we got this guy who came into the shop. This guy, Brian, who he fixes machines. I'm like, Oh shit. I'm like, let me get his number. So he gave me his number. I called him. He's like, yeah, he's like, I'll be right over.
00:24:43
Speaker
I'm like, all right, I'll heat up the machine. So, you know, we turn on the machine. He comes by like a half hour later. He was looking at the wide belt sander at, at Tom's. And like he had that thing putting on edge banning in, in like literally 30 seconds.
00:24:57
Speaker
The guy who was trying to sell you a new one. Well, no, he first, he was coming just to look at the edge banner because we wanted to get a price on fixing it. Okay. Okay. Um, so he got it, you know, he got it putting on edge banding and didn't mess with anything else. And so, you know, we grabbed his ear, we started talking and we're like, listen, you know, like cut it to a straight. Is it worth putting any time or money into this thing? He's like, honestly, he's like, you could get it working.
00:25:21
Speaker
but it's always going to be a headache. It's just, it's the age of the machine. Like edge banders are, you know, from working at Tom's, they're just naturally finicky. Yeah. Very problematic. So all of a sudden you have a machine that's, you know, almost 30 years old. You're going to have a lot of problems. There's 20 processes going on inside that machine. Yeah. Yeah. I always loved watching the one at Tom's who Cohen.
00:25:47
Speaker
You know, cause you had a babysit at some time. So those little relay, you know, it hits the little things and little actuator. So yeah. So we said, well, you know, he said, I'll, I'll, you know, send over some options as to like, what's out there.
00:26:06
Speaker
So they sent over, was it three different edge managers? Was it two? I think it was two. The Flexi P and the Compaq PCS. Yeah. Was there another brand or was it just the Sihisa? I think it was just those. He was talking about the Hebrak, which is made by Alton Dorff, but I don't think they sent a price over. Hebrak? Yeah. Where's that from?
00:26:31
Speaker
Germany. Okay. Yeah. Gonna say a name like that. It's definitely not American made. Yeah. Well, so he says Maine, Spain. So he sent us the Flexi P and the compact PCS. The Flexi P was like the super basic entry level. And it was probably half the price of the one that we got. It was just sports.
00:26:54
Speaker
Yeah. Not even. We skipped the sport. A lot of scooter. Yeah, another sportster that you had. Like a bone stock sporty. The cheapest sportster that they even had. It's a girly sporty.
00:27:09
Speaker
So this one, it's got pre milling, it's got a spray unit. So like it sprays first and a anti-glue spray. And then before it hits the buffing wheel, it sprays on a cleaner. So it cleans the top of the corner rounding. Yeah. So you can make doors. It'll, it'll round like this corner. Oh, so you don't have to sit there for hours with a file. Yeah. And then quarter round afterward.
00:27:38
Speaker
pull out the routers, pull all 10 routers out to do one thing. Um, so yeah, I mean, it does everything that we needed to and stuff that we, you know, didn't even think of probably like the spray set up. I didn't even know they had that. There's a lot of maintenance with that. I guess same as everything. Same as any edge bander. Same as Tom's. It'll take the P U R glue, much maintenance on that thing. Oh yeah. Yeah. Just kind of holding it with a grinder. Yeah.
00:28:08
Speaker
I love the erase wide erase board that shows how much time has been spent maintaining that machine. Yeah. And people would just write their names on it because no matter what you did, it would never get fixed anyway. So somebody looked at it, you wrote your name down, but that was about it.
00:28:24
Speaker
Yes. When he bought that, he probably didn't even have them like, you know, school him on what to do. I don't know if he got that from styles or not, but they did. He knows best. That's true. So he was glazed over in about five seconds. You mean like a donut? Yeah. Oh yeah.
00:28:44
Speaker
So we got Brian. Brian will come out on install day and do the set up and train us on how to use it and all that stuff. I'll take copious notes. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm not in the fetal position. Part of the reason, you know, we we bought it is Brian. You know what I mean? Like he's he he ran a shop.
Hydraulics in Vehicle Modifications
00:29:07
Speaker
Well, yeah, he ran a shop of like 100 guys and was running like multiples of this.
00:29:11
Speaker
these adhesive machines. So like, you know, they just give them a call. Hey, Brian, it's got an error 425. What's that mean? You probably, you know, so it's like a service, you know, a service thing too. You know, we could have got a different machine or a machine from somebody else, but, you know, thinking of it in terms of- You're paying for him and the machine. Yeah. When you need help,
00:29:36
Speaker
It's worth the money to be able to get the help. Yeah. Especially when you're spending that kind of money on something. Yeah. And a tricky machine, like an edge band. Yeah. You don't need help somewhere, sometime in the future. It's not like a cabinet saw where it's like, okay, the blade is spinning. We're good. That's it. Yeah. There's a thousand moving parts. Yeah. You kind of almost need to be a machinist to like even understand it and, and just go with it.
00:30:02
Speaker
Even that machine as archaic as it is, it's got like a dozen motors in it. It's got, you know, all these actuators. I mean, there's probably two miles of airline inside of it. It's insane. It's crazy how far technology is going. I mean, it was a great machine in its day.
00:30:22
Speaker
What are you probably I mean, did you ever use one of those back in the day? No, I'm the first edge Bandra ever Touched was at Tom's. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. I mean you saw my shop Yeah, I wasn't sure if like maybe you snuck somewhere in you know And another part how to use every tool when I bought it and it was mostly by hand Yeah, you know, luckily I still got all my fingers. Yeah
00:30:48
Speaker
Yeah. So the new one will do five millimeter thick wood edging too, like strips. So you could just like make them on the, you know, cut them on the table saw and run them through the sander and just like feed them in like a fricking stick. I've been so like far out of like the woodworking side of things. Like what the hell would you even put five mill on shelf edging or something? Yeah. Yeah. Like if you put it on nice plywood, like it would almost
00:31:16
Speaker
So how's it going? Yeah, it's good. It's even better now. When I pulled up, I was telling you guys about it. Just put a cam in it and stuff and got some more front. Yeah. Got some more go fast parts sitting at home I need to put on. Yeah Keith, what do you know what your next mod's going to be?
00:31:34
Speaker
For that guy, I mean, there's a few parts. I got a crash bar I gotta finally put on it. So if I ever decide to put this one down, like I did the sports there, at least it'll be more protected. I think I posted on the story last week or whatever I was polishing up that manifold.
00:31:51
Speaker
So the throttle body goes on the end of that, and that's where all the air is going to be coming in straight to the motor. So it's hardly used just like this cheap old plastic, very restrictive kind of manifold right there, and ended up getting a good deal through Harley to pick it up. It's like two versions of a cast version, they have a full CNC for the polished one. So the cast was full ported, it's just not really polished. It was just all really rough cast in there. So I spent hours worth of just cleaning it up as best as I could for what it was.
00:32:21
Speaker
So that's some bigger injectors just to take up now for all the fuel injected. Four spark plugs, two cylinders, you know.
00:32:31
Speaker
This is like the new style motor for Harley. It's Evo motors. You've probably heard of the panheads, the shovel heads, stuff like that. So the M8 is like the new guy out there. People who are building them love them. They sound good. It's kind of like old traditional Harley, I should say.
00:32:57
Speaker
Other than that, other mods besides that, trying to get a paint it, trying to find someone that can get a different price because paint is expensive and I don't want to spend a lot of money on paint.
00:33:16
Speaker
Yeah, shit, come fucking paint here. We got the PPS. Yeah, come paint one there. It's true, I could go straight to the body shop and have them pull me the paint code. Maybe that'll be the next creature episode. Yeah. Oh, that guy came into his picture. Oh, yeah. I never heard from him again. Some guy called, this is not called a picture time. I'm like, what the hell is this? So I look it up and it was like, I came back to like a person. So then finally that guy and I picked up.
00:33:40
Speaker
He's like, hey, I'm looking for a cabinet maker to just like, give me some advice. I got this job and I'm a painter, but he's like, can I have five minutes or something? I'm like, yeah, at least just come to the shop. You already took five minutes of my time. Can I get five minutes back? Yeah. I'm always on the end of trying to do the deed and I'm waiting for them all to cash back in. But he comes over and he's like, I got this job repainting, you know, painting these cabinet doors and I need to do some blah,
Spray Painting Challenges
00:34:05
Speaker
blah, blah. So we're helping him out figuring out what the hell was going on with the job.
00:34:08
Speaker
But he was saying that he's like a pinstriper and paints like signs. Like locally or? Yeah, he's like a pencil or something. I wonder if he goes to like the bike events and stuff because like there's a bike events and stuff, some car shows, you always see like a pinstriper there doing stuff for. Oh no, like you can pinstriper your bike there. Your bike or car, if you got like a sign of some sort, a old piece of work. Yeah, I mean pretty much any car show I've ever been to, even like, I mean minus like the little like actual shows, it's like there's always somebody there doing pinstripping. Oh yeah.
00:34:37
Speaker
And it's fascinating. Oh, yeah. It's amazing. I mean, I can barely hold the spoons. Yeah. It's like just like running this line. It's like, how the hell did you keep it steady that long?
00:34:54
Speaker
painting in the house. You see these guys that cut in around the whole door without removing the brush of paint. I'm like, how do you keep that much paint in the brush? Because I feel like six inches and the brush is dry. Yeah, I still despise painting with a brush or a roller. I need you to come over and help paint some cabinets and cabinet doors for me. And I'm like, I'll come back into this again. I'm like, I'll come if everything's
00:35:17
Speaker
ready to go for me. You know, we went to Lowe's, picked out some Benjamin Moore paint, which again, it's not going to spray all around the cabin shop. Those like Wagner outdoor sprayers, this basement, which is all dusty and just not set up, no ventilation, nothing. We have two programs standing up to put the pieces down on top of the sprayer. And I hit the on switch for the sprayer. I never used one before.
00:35:42
Speaker
So I didn't realize, like, no, no, just started spraying, you know, 60, 70 pieces of coal in the basement. You see this tornado down there. This is going to be miserable. I'm out too bad for what it was. I mean, he knew it was going to be a kind of a crapshoot since he could have been proud of what was going on down there.
00:36:05
Speaker
Some people are using this stuff and it's like every day, it's spoiled. It's like that Benjamin Moore advance, the job for the electrician. He went to the bookstore and they sold him on his Benjamin Moore advance. We went there and traded out. I'm like, why do you guys recommend this? It's like made for dummies. It takes 16 hours for Rico. So it's got all the time in the world to level out. It's a stock box, pick up your kid and do everything and then you could finish painting it.
00:36:37
Speaker
Have you ever asked one of the employees at like a box store how to fill paint? What do you mean, thin it?
00:36:43
Speaker
It still blows my mind that, like, I know how thick the shit was going to be. So I'm like, I'm going to try to spray it. I don't do rolling. I don't do brushes. I just get involved with that. And he just wanted it done as fast as possible. So, you know, I was like, spend the money by the spirit because he let the spirits garage or something or anything. So it's like kill two birds with one stone. It has a cup at the bottom. The whole thing is probably a foot long, weighs 60 pounds. I probably laser gun. Yeah.
00:37:11
Speaker
Two hands full of this bread. I was spraying with the 28 ounce pressure cup. My shoulder was killing me. It was like three straight days of spraying these big pencils or something like this. Remember that's what happened to me at the end of toms.
00:37:31
Speaker
I think that was also a combination of this other illness that I have, but it was time for it to happen. And my shoulder was out for almost a year, where it was very limited motion. Just trying to even think about it for me, my shoulder blade would always be protruding out of my back and stuff. It was just the most stress. Yeah, it was repetitive stress, but then
00:37:53
Speaker
Back in, since I was 24, she was born, so like 2012, 2013, I don't know if I talked about this in the first one or not, but woke up one day, my left shoulder was just like, I don't have any pain. I slept that wrong, big deal. We're over at Englishtown, swap meet, and the pain is getting worse, getting worse, get home, and like the pain is just excruciating. I'm like, what the hell's going on?
00:38:15
Speaker
sleep wake up the next day, and my left arm is in a curl position, but I'm holding the cup up to my mouth kind of, and I can't go past 90. I couldn't extend my arm all the way out. I'm stuck. And I'm like, what the fuck is going on? Like, I don't know what else I'm talking about though. Oh, I know. I mean, definitely have talked about it with you guys, but yeah. So my arm, like from out of bounds, I couldn't go straight out. And if you tried to pull it, it felt like it was just going to break off. So I was like, maybe she's a pensioner or
00:38:41
Speaker
something. And me being me not wanting to go to hospitals and stuff, I talked for about a week and a half, probably two weeks. And then I was like, all right, there's something wrong here. So I found something there. It's not gonna go that all. What's crazy though, cuz I had full emotion from
00:38:56
Speaker
I don't even have to describe it, but like I could pick everything up Yeah, like there was nothing wrong, but if I had to go past that wristwork,
Health Journey & Stress Discussion
00:39:06
Speaker
but not your your shoulder your elbow It literally just felt like the elbow was like
00:39:20
Speaker
But then, so I finally went to the hospital. I was like, I told her what was going on. The nurse came in, did all the basic, yeah, I think it was a review, which I had never been to that hospital before. So she comes in, does all the things, and I'm like, please don't try to stretch it out. Like, when I say break off, like, think of taking a toothpick or popsicle stick and just snapping it in half. That's exactly what it would have felt like.
00:39:47
Speaker
The nurse comes in and it's just this, and not to offend anybody, just this very strong looking
00:39:57
Speaker
I would have to imagine German woman. She's like, you shouldn't have said that thing about not straighten out the arm, because you know what we're going to do now. She wasn't rat. No, it wasn't rat. It's like if you had that fetish and you had to pay a woman to beat you up, this is who would show up to your door. You ever seen that Deuce Bigelow, male gigelow movie? Yes. So the giant woman. Exactly. But she was just shorter and stubbier and way angrier looking.
00:40:25
Speaker
She didn't understand the fact that I was like, I'm not here for pain meds because even if you prescribe me something, I'm not taking it. So we can just roll that one out of the book. Don't try to pull my arm out, please. And it's the first thing she did. And it was just God awful. So that had ended up happening and she's like, you're going to have to go for imaging and blah, blah, blah. So it was like a couple of weeks worth of like back and forth, the hospitals doing this, doing that. That's the worst. Couldn't find a goddamn thing, but my arm was stuck.
00:40:54
Speaker
Prior to all that, you ever have one of those streams where you know you can physically do something like running, but you can't do it in your dream? Oh yeah, with like trying to punch under water. Yes, or anything exactly like that. So I thought I was having one of those streams where I hear an alarm going off and I'm trying to reach my phone and I'm trying to just use my thumb to push the cancel button. My thumbs not working.
00:41:23
Speaker
And then I realized like, all right, no, I'm actually awake right now. And the last knuckle on my thumb is paralyzed. So I could move my thumb from the first knuckle, like at your hand, but then the knuckle like towards the tip of your finger was completely paralyzed. Couldn't move it. Couldn't feel it. Nothing. Just this kind of motion here. So I was like, like, what the fuck is going on here? And they couldn't find anything. And I'm like, enough evidence as to like, there's definitely something wrong here.
00:41:52
Speaker
So weeks go by, or actually probably a month or two, then I get a phone call from this weird doctor's office. Some neurologist over in West Long Branch heard about the case from somebody in MRI at Monmouth Medical or whatever. And he was like, come in, we're gonna do some specialized testing on you. And I'm like,
00:42:13
Speaker
How much is this gonna cost and stuff like that? Hey, we've been sharing this confidential medical information amongst teachers. Yeah, I don't know how that worked. I'm not really sure how that worked. I know it's your shoulder, but you have to take your pants off. No, thankfully that wasn't the case. Yeah, but that was the weirdest part about it was like all the pain was in the shoulder, but everything not working was from like the elbow down, like complete paralysis of it. So I was like, okay.
00:42:40
Speaker
He's like, no, this is all pro bono. It's like a rare case of case. Yes, exactly what it ended up being. So I go into this office and he's explaining to me what he's going to have to do. And he's like, it's an EMG test. I never knew what an EMG test was. I mean, I knew I had a lot of testing back when I was a kid for stomach stuff, but never an EMG test with electricity.
00:43:05
Speaker
And he's like, explaining it to me. He's like, there's going to be a lot of discomfort, probably some pain. And if you're bad with needles, this is not going to be easy for you. And I'm like, what the fuck is happening right now? This guy's a sadist. Literally, if you saw the size of this rod he pulled out, like something you would probably use to stick a cattle with, you know, human centipede. Oh my God. So he tells me he's got to go from like my neck all the way down to my fingertips and he's going to be
00:43:34
Speaker
with this thing and shooting electricity into my arm, all over the place. So finally, it was just something inside of my forearm. So at the end of it all, he diagnosed it as a disease syndrome kind of thing, like Parsonage-Turner syndrome. So essentially, your nervous system gets attacked by your antibodies.
00:43:58
Speaker
So, starts in your shoulders, they call it the, I'm going to botch this, the brachial plexi area, like all the nerves that go down your upper back and down your arms and stuff. My body just attacked itself out of nowhere. It's like an autoimmune thing almost.
00:44:17
Speaker
I guess so. I never again, never went back for more testing after the fact because it was just like it was going to start costing money at that point. And this guy's going to be jabbing you with an electronic. Well, literally I asked him, I was like, what do I do? And he's like, he's like the sad truth is there's nothing you can do. It's either it's either going to go away. It's either going to stay permanent. It can come back. It could affect your other arm. We don't know. It's just you just got to keep living life the way it is. So it was a year.
00:44:47
Speaker
almost a year of my arm being completely fine with the elbow bent upward, but anything past that point couldn't do it. My thumb was completely useless for well after a year. I mean, even to this day, it's like,
00:45:03
Speaker
the muscle in the forearm. It's like if I go to wave high really quickly with my left hand, it looks very silly, but my thumb just wants to automatically kick back in. So I always have to be conscious of like, even like when I'm working, there's a lot of times like I'm doing something with like an Allen key or a screwdriver or whatever, and I'll put my arm in the wrong position and it's frozen. And I start getting that really bad Charlie horse in the forearm.
00:45:26
Speaker
So then that's what I ended up thinking had happened again at Tom's with the whole like overstretching the shoulder because it was literally the same exact symptoms. It just started off with like a little bit of shoulder pain for a couple days. And then it was the night before actually Valentine's Day.
00:45:44
Speaker
And it's like midnight, and I'm calling people. I'm like, hey, do you know how to put a dislocated shoulder back in? That's how bad it was. Shoulder was all sunken down. Shoulder blade was all out. We thought maybe it slipped out of its socket or something. So we're calling people at 12 o'clock in the morning, hey, can you do this?
00:46:04
Speaker
So I woke up, called Tom and I was like, hey, obviously you don't have health insurance through you because it's too much money. Will you pay for me to go to the walk-in clinic or something? Because I even sent them pictures. I was like, my shoulder is really bad right now. And I already missed like a day of work because of it.
00:46:21
Speaker
And we go there and she's like, yeah, you just overworked it. And I was like, okay. So it was a, again, another full year. So it went from Valentine's Day to Valentine's Day until the shoulder was like completely healed, where it was like, you know, motions. Like that was, you know, a foot difference between where the right arm could go to where the left arm could go. And I'm like, this can't be like happening. Like the shoulder is like such a fragile part of the body.
00:46:49
Speaker
it's like the most commonly injured like in like lifting weights and stuff like that it's like the most commonly injured yeah yeah which is weird because i've never had shoulder injuries at all my shoulder once it and it took probably seven or eight years before
00:47:06
Speaker
It was, you know, where I wouldn't re-injure it. That's what happens, you know, it's like, yeah, you do something, you think it's okay, and then you just lift something the wrong way, and there it goes again. It's like getting out of bed on the wrong side, you know? I thought I just chalked it up to being old.
00:47:25
Speaker
Yeah, I just chalked it up to thinking it was just going to be like sprained in, but it's just like, find out about all these other like weird medical things out there and just like, like, what are the chances of like, you know, your body attacking itself and it's like, you don't know if you're going to be paralyzed. That was so scary as hell. Well, yeah, because I don't know if it's, you know, when it's going to happen again, if it's going to happen again.
00:47:47
Speaker
I had to stop riding bikes because of it. I had to stop, for the most part, painting for a little while. I had to guide somebody else while I was still over at Tom's. I forget how long that was for, but that was for a while where even painting for me was really difficult because
00:48:05
Speaker
even holding a water bottle of like, almost straight out in front of me hurt. Like I had no strength. Yeah. Well, it wasn't even the shoulder. It was, it was the back muscle. Like the whole, what's it do the scapula? Scapula. Scapula. Yeah.
00:48:20
Speaker
So, as I put my arm out, it would protrude out of my back. As if when you try to put your arm back, that's exactly what it was anytime I put my arm out. Whatever that muscle connecting anything, whatever it was back there just wasn't doing its job. So, even holding two pounds out in front of me was just like, felt like I was holding 70. But then when I started the new job, I was still
00:48:46
Speaker
waiting to recover to see. And a lot of it's overhead work. When we picked those things up in the air and trying to do things, it was just like, felt like my armpit was going to tear open because it was like that nerve in there. And then all of a sudden, I just came back one day. I woke up and I was like, oh, my shoulder's back. Not my shoulder, but my
00:49:07
Speaker
You know, everything's back in place. I can move it. I mean, it was sore. And then it was just like months of getting it back to full strength and everything. Yeah. Jeez. Yeah. But the human body is, is bizarre. It is. That was an interesting trip. Yeah. I don't want to relive it. And I didn't think I was going to relive it after the left arm, but then the right arm had happened too.
00:49:33
Speaker
Yeah, I think it is probably some autoimmune thing because I got diagnosed with shingles when I was 30, 29. Did you have chickenpox? As a kid, yeah. Yeah, that's what they say. Everybody has had chickenpox as shingles. Yeah. Yeah, whether it comes out or not. Yeah, you have to have had chickenpox. If you never had chickenpox, you can't get shingles.
00:49:58
Speaker
Yeah, I never had chicken plaques. I never had any of the childhood diseases. You probably missed a lot of vaccines growing up then. Yeah. A lot of those shots you get jabbed with when you're born and growing up. I think they have a chickenpox vaccine now, right? Yeah, there's got to be something.
00:50:18
Speaker
Nothing for the shingles. We got the measles, mumps and rubella. Yeah. Yeah. No polio. No, I was a little bit too young for the polio. I think, I don't know. Yeah. I'm not, I'm not positive. What? They stopped giving that out cause they, cause they, they cured it. Yeah. Well they eradicated it. They eradicated it. Yeah. I can't remember what I got. I got the back scenes and stuff like that when I was a kid. Yeah. Um,
00:50:47
Speaker
I just never got any of those diseases. It just makes you wonder like just how fragile like the human body is. You know, it's like a freaking egg shell.
00:50:58
Speaker
Yeah, because again, just like all the other shit, woke up one day and I'm like, this is like a thing on my side, you know? And that's what I was doing flooring. So then it's like, I thought it was like maybe a reaction to something or whatever. And it was just like horrible, horrible nerve pain. And, you know, trying to do carpet and picking things up and rubbing against your side. There was times where I just fell to the floor and, you know, we had to make the best of it. But then finally went to the clinic and
00:51:26
Speaker
She's like, do you mind if I bring in the practice? I guess she was training or whatever. And I'm like, yeah, why? She's like, you're the youngest person to come in here with shingles. And I'm like, okay. Sometimes you get shingles in your eyes. Oh, yeah. I've seen that. I think Allie's mom had it on her eyelids or something. Yeah, the face, the eyes. Thankfully, I was only on my ribs. How long does it last?
00:51:54
Speaker
Uh, I think it like varies. I know mine was like probably a month or so. Something to look forward to. Yeah. It was like, one of the things you may get, he may not get it. You know, the only thing I can think of when I got my first ulcer. Yeah. I don't think I've ever had an ulcer. And it was just like one day I just was like,
00:52:17
Speaker
you know, crunched over like you couldn't move because you had so much pain. And then you go places, you go to like whoever you can see. Yeah. And they're like, I don't know what's wrong with you. You got gas beans. Did you try to take them?
00:52:36
Speaker
Take tests, tests. Go drink some milk. Finally, you know, you got yourself a duodenal. So they're my young man. Did you eat a lot of spicy food? Uh, I think it was probably like stress and those types of things. The number one killer. Yeah. I got a nice eye twitch that I've had for about three weeks now. That won't go away from the stress. And I got four cavities. Really? Yeah. Out of everything in my life,
00:53:05
Speaker
I've never had a cavity yet. Me neither until I hit my thirties until we started green street. So I was there a couple of weeks ago. So Tuesday, I got to go get four fillings. You're going Tuesday. I got to go back Monday at this place. They're making a mint off the two of us. Oh yeah, of course. So I'm there. I see the name green shirt. I know you guys have made money over here. Everybody talks about this green street money. It's fictitious. Um, she's like, Oh, so you know, how, how's it been? I heard you guys moved to the new shop, blah, blah, blah. Cause you know, cause Rob goes there too.
00:53:32
Speaker
I'm like, it's good, you know, stressed out. It's a lot. It's been a while with the move. And then she gets in and she's like, Oh yeah, I could tell you've been stressed. She's like, you got a lot of buildup. Apparently like stress can cause tooth decay. And like, thanks for slapping me in the face though. You know, the dentist comes in and he gets in there. He's like, Oh yep. Okay. Five, seven, 12. He's like, yep. Got four cavities. I'm like, what the fuck? I don't even need candy. Yeah.
00:53:59
Speaker
Jeff goes there. I go there the wives both go there. So you got so you're the one paying him off to get him in there Allie's whole family goes there, too Wow everybody. Yeah Never had a cavity, but now it's gonna happen. I'm here at Green Street
00:54:29
Speaker
because I go every six months.
Vehicle Upgrades & Financial Considerations
00:54:32
Speaker
I had two cavities, and then I was like, what the? 30 some odd years. I'm doing that Halloween special. My results are false. He leaves stress, causes tooth decay. Stress is everything. It is. It's not.
00:54:51
Speaker
angry mental stress, it's just like so much to take in and like the reward ratio, you know, it's, it's an absolute ambulance for 200,000 plus.
00:55:07
Speaker
You know, you make one small mistake. It's like, it's a big, it's a big deal on a door. If you miss and you hit the countertops in there, it's like, can't go to the customer that way. You're now spending extra time pulling anything out and bring a thing. Can't just put a goof plate on? No, that's funny. Bring that out. I do request them. There's customers like, yeah, just make a plate to cover it, but we still make it look nice.
00:55:37
Speaker
Yeah, so they call it the life support station. So typically it's the left hand or the driver's side inside the box. So there's usually a seat right next to that, a CPR seat for one person to perform CPR and stuff. Oxygen, the suction, all that stuff is right there to kind of get to the patient quickly.
00:56:01
Speaker
So like there'll be radios and stuff in there too. So a lot of times like because all this stuff is super expensive. So it's like the township needs to cut a corner somewhere. It's like they don't pull this down and remake it. Just make a nice plate and you know, so we do that from time to time. And then you know, they're like very dying. Hey, what's that? Go play them. Yeah.
00:56:25
Speaker
I actually can't wait until the next time being in an ambulance, just so I can have like... You guys don't ever change that or anything? Or let me bring you some buttons next time, you know, like... It's like going to a restaurant or, you know, somebody's house. It is kind of amazing.
00:56:47
Speaker
But yeah, it's like a little thing. You can't put corners in this stuff. You know, there's some procedures like you want to pull your hair out because you're like, if we could just move this or if we could just pull right here, like we could save a week's worth of time, but not a lot of do it. You know, like new chassis, we can't put any kind of holes through the frame. I mean, we're talking like half inch.
00:57:11
Speaker
the 30,000 other holes that come from the factory, but they have to do that to get the body bolts on. So on our side, it's a little bit different than on the production side. They have to mount the boxes to the chassis. They're just slid in and everything's welded, however they want to do it. On our side, because it's an old box and we have to mount the chassis, we have to make sure all the body bolts are obviously going to work. And if we have to replace them, it's a big deal to get those things replaced.
00:57:37
Speaker
But then you can put the boxes down on top of the chassis. So we're trying to line up, I think, 12 volts. Make sure that the adhesive that we use on the back of the cap to make the front of the box is going to be perfect. And it's pretty amazing. The first time I was sweating profusely, like, holy shit, this is what you guys think.
00:57:58
Speaker
It was like not prepared for whatsoever, but I wish I could share more of it. I think I was talking to Keith the one day. I can't take videos of things or take pictures of things and just show some of the day to day because it's skilled.
00:58:16
Speaker
Yeah. There's not many places like this. What do you think about it? Wasn't you ever heard of an ambulance manufacturer or someone that builds fire trucks? You know, it existed pretty like from your place too.
00:58:31
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, there's a few other places that like, like civilian vehicles type stuff like, I say like police and stuff like that, like the title description stuff. But for New Jersey, I don't really know of any other like, I think there's one more manufacturer.
00:58:48
Speaker
I've never really heard much about it. We get from all over the place. Yeah, I was going to say you guys get from other states too. Yeah, a lot of Maryland, right? Well, yeah. I mean, the first two trucks, the big trucks I worked on, those weren't even able, those were Hazmat trucks. So those came off of originally, they were a Ford E-series, and then they were getting remounted to a Dodge.
00:59:13
Speaker
like 5,500. So there was a lot involved to make that conversion. So you guys, when you change out the box, is the cab new or is the cab old? Yeah, so we don't remount all chassis. So if you came in with a 2021 chassis, if you're not getting service work, if you're getting remount work,
00:59:36
Speaker
Since I've never remounted, we've never taken a box off to do anything and remounted it back onto an old chassis. It's always a brand new chassis. So right now we're, some of the trucks we have are even 2023s. But is the cab part of the chassis? Yeah, so it's literally just a cab and a...
00:59:53
Speaker
Yeah, so think of the van with the whole back end of it cut off. Think of like a single cab pickup truck without the bin on it. It's just a cab, but it doesn't even have a cab back on it. It's an open wall. So they come and it's just plastic. Is there like a pass-through that goes into the-? So yeah, so some of the smaller like the E series ones, it's just like a little tiny pass-through door on the like the international, the bigger trucks, internationals and the Fs.
01:00:22
Speaker
the Ford F-Series and the Dodges, they have their own passenger system. So it kind of looks like that accordion thing between the trains, the cabooses, they call it the bulbous. So there's an actual little pass-through. But the E-Series, the old box made it directly up to the back of the new cab.
01:00:45
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like that's a lot of the ambulance you see are those Ford E series. Yeah, it's rare to see the bigger ones. I mean, if you go to like bigger cities, like more industrial stuff, you'll see some of the bigger trucks, like there's a couple right now for T-neck that we're doing, which are like all different corners. There's really big trucks. I mean, they're big for what they are just because of, I guess, conditions, road conditions and medical equipment and, you know, what have you. What do the Dodge ones look like? They look like that Sprinter van?
01:01:14
Speaker
No, they look like a, like think of your giant landscaping truck. You know, the 5,500 what the usually the four-seaters for somebody like to extend it once. I don't know if I've ever seen a Dodge like that. Dodge 5500. Looks like a giant pickup truck. Yeah, with a big box on the back of it. Yeah. Is it a Ram? You know what? I guess it would be the Ram series now, right? Ram 5500.
01:01:50
Speaker
I'm in the internet. You're in the dead zone. Yeah, so the same with cabs, quad cabs. There's something about the RAM when you get into the 2500 and above. They just look so much cooler than the 1500. Well, they look like trucks. No offense, you know. It's expensive enough to get into the 1500. Yeah.
01:02:13
Speaker
I don't know what I'm going to do when my lease is up on that. I'm not going to buy it out. No, at least it's right off for me. Oh, yeah. As a business owner, you can write off your lease. Well, after that new edge banner, it's time for a Mercedes G wagon or something. I was thinking about a little Metris. Oh, yeah. It's not too small for you.
01:02:35
Speaker
No, you can put a lot in those. I need something I can throw stuff
Workplace Certifications & Equipment
01:02:39
Speaker
into. You can put a four by eight sheet in the mattress. You can put like 60 sheets or something in there, three quarter inch material in the bag. The payload on a mattress is insane. But that's the little one, right? Yeah. Just for my personal vehicle. Oh, the pro master. What are you doing? Oh, God. With the trailer axles on it.
01:03:04
Speaker
Oh yeah, that's right. It does have, and it's front wheel drive. It's literally like a trailer axle. Yeah. With these like little tiny leaf springs. You can't even shut the door without it breaking. Got it. Yeah, got it from Mike a window. Well, if you get any kind of Ford 350 and up or Dodge, you now have a hookup to getting some special parts for it. That's true. So we can scavenge off the assembly floor. Like the liquid spring kits we put in.
01:03:32
Speaker
I've heard about it because, you know, like I said, I've had friends that work there and one that works there now, but I kept talking about liquid spring. I'm like, what the hell is liquid spring? Like I know airbag. It's literally a hydraulic system. You know, like that video I sent the other day of the low rider going through the parking lot. It's literally hydraulic system.
01:03:52
Speaker
You rip out all the... I mean, typically, would you just adjust the rears? But some of the townships want hydraulic all the way around. Just a massive hydraulic cylinder that takes place of the leaf springs and the airbag, and that's your suspension now.
01:04:10
Speaker
So it's all incorporated with the ambulance. So if you open up the doors, it automatically squats, you can turn it on, you can turn it off. So what keeps it like, I don't know anything about hydraulics, but to me, they're either not moving or moving, but they're locked when they're not moving. What lets it move when you go over a bump? I think
01:04:35
Speaker
some kind of like pressure like valve. Yeah, so it's just like think about like inflating a balloon. Must be computer controlled. Yeah. Well, no, you could do it manually.
01:04:44
Speaker
So what I mean, the part that lets it work like complete systems. Yeah. So there's, there's ride height sensors that, you know, we have to set up and stuff to kind of make sure that everything is obviously level. But then when it goes to squat down, it picks up the right height because they have to be at a right height to get a gurney in. So we have to make sure we get set that all up correctly.
01:05:05
Speaker
Like when you go over a bump, you're driving, you go over a bump, does it sense the bump and then the hydraulics move to compensate for this? No, it's not rigid all the way. So it's only fully rigid when it's fully inflated. I mean, to make it sound the easiest way possible. Like, I guess for anyone who doesn't understand anything about it. It's got some flow factor to it. It does literally have flow factor. Yeah, I was gonna say it's like, think about like this water bottle.
01:05:28
Speaker
It's not all the way full, so there's still some give to it. Right. There's your shock right there. So whatever the amount of fluid is in it, that's kind of what you're allowing it to do. Like I said, the only time it's fully rigid would be, I guess, when it was all the way sagged out, there's no fluid in the system and it's bottomed out. Or when it's at its max and when it's completely toxic. Was that like forks on a motorcycle filled with oil? Yeah, I mean hydraulic fluid, but yeah. Yeah.
01:05:55
Speaker
Yeah, there's a little pump system that we mount in the back of the chassis and stuff and it's all... This stuff is computer controlled, but you could easily hook it up to manual valves like you do for your shop air and make it work manually. You know, it's pretty cool stuff. Yeah, it's cool. Our forklift is leaking hydraulic fluid. Well, there's something. I don't know what the hell it is. Oh, Brian, that's what he works on. Yeah, that's a good point.
01:06:24
Speaker
I had a guy who was like, you know, when we were looking for a forklift, I was calling all over. And then, you know, six months later, guy's like, hey, you still looking for a forklift? I'm like, no, we bought one. I said, but do you guys do service? I said, I just, you know, want to know how much it would be, you know, because we want to maintain it. Yeah. He's like, oh, email me over this stuff. So email it over.
01:06:48
Speaker
And then he calls me again, hey, you still looking for a forklift? I'm like, no, but you never hear me about the service. He's like, oh, oh yeah, I see it here. And then that was it. I never heard from him again. Yeah. It seems like that's the thing for a lot of people. Yeah. I've actually tried to get my forklift cert for work because I miss driving them around. So here being a, you come here, you don't even need a certification. You just drive. Yeah. Well, yeah. That's like everywhere else I've been too.
01:07:13
Speaker
But yeah, I miss being on one just for the time being. Well, take it for a spin before you leave. Yeah, right. You could take the bike. I'll take the forklift. Yeah, I know. You can't crash a forklift. But you can crash a motorcycle. You can
Complex Vehicle Maintenance
01:07:28
Speaker
crash a forklift. I have. Well, it's got four wheels. It's true. You don't have it all the way up to it. You can't actually go higher than the ceiling. Really?
01:07:55
Speaker
I had just got on my review last week. Sometimes drivers are missing. We have a lot of vehicles in here. I can't hop in one of these rescue things. One of them because of air brakes and stuff. So it's like I want to get trained to be able to at least get in the crowd because you need to have a seatbelt to move around on the property. I'm trying to get that scheduled hopefully before the end of this week. Just like a way to go somewhere.
01:08:06
Speaker
Let's try not to do that.
01:08:23
Speaker
No, they have people who come in already trained and are able to kind of give you that like in-house at the plant manager was actually the guy who did our driving test. So it was me close to her certification. Is it just like some BS thing or is there like some
01:08:44
Speaker
I don't know if I could take that anywhere else, but as long as for insurance cases on the property, if I move something and crash into it, they're covered and uncovered. Because they said, hey, look, he did the test, he passed the test. I mean, yeah, it's kind of a bullshit test, but just stop the truck.
01:09:04
Speaker
Yeah, I'm a forklift certified. All that Costco and stuff, you have to, anything. But who's the agency that's pushing stuff? Yeah, so the guy who's gonna train me is our parts crew. I'm just passion certified. Even that wasn't good enough for the company. They wanted to make sure that, I guess cuz they have the right, just an account to operate.
01:09:25
Speaker
There's not that much room in this place. Well, there's a lot of room for error with forklifts, especially when you're going around with some of these big pieces or common big plywood or stuff like that. I mean, it's, you make one small story. I had seven forklifts in like three years. I was like, of course there's gonna be a slider inside the shot in one piece. Yeah. And the door is 10 feet.
01:09:52
Speaker
Man, a couple of, uh, Harborfront eyes. Well, I didn't, well, no, but not all of them survived. We have machinery skates, they're supposed to come today.
01:10:04
Speaker
It's one of those things that I call these like certs and stuff like that. So the only certification that I can use anywhere is they call it the 609 certification. So that's for, for during, so I can now handle it without being fined or going to jail. You can't just like go to other parts, but it's my AC system. It's actually really, it's a really big fine. Just pink tanks, a free owner, whatever, like can't just go.
01:10:30
Speaker
So now I'm at least in New Jersey, or I guess even out of New Jersey, too. I guess because it's such a bad pollutant that it's, yeah, it's a bad pollutant, you know, like the dyes, the rough gassing, and then also like, kind of like terms of nitrogen almost. I was talking about the AC system a couple months ago, and we kept getting a fail for it, and we're like, we pulled everything apart. And when I say pull everything apart, I mean, it's like,
01:10:59
Speaker
We do an AC system because it's not just the truck's AC system. There's another HVACS tab that ambulance box for all the other controls. So we're searching, did we forget an overhang? Did we not crimp something down correctly? We didn't realize what it was until I'm finally just feeling like I'm doing another test and my hand got really cold, it hurt.
01:11:24
Speaker
and one of the metal fittings, like right where you go to fill the system or just frosting over, like you get frostbite if you left your hand there. But yeah, it's pretty nasty stuff. And if you die out of the system, you can't get the die out of you. Like if you get it under your clothes, throw them out.
01:11:39
Speaker
What's the die for, Tracer? If there's a leak, then you've got to find where the leak is coming from. Sometimes, for instance, the situation of such a bizarre incident where it's like they've never had a finger before because I'm picking it together, I get all of the problematic things, and turn off where they had soldered the joint and just cracked like you would never know unless the system was full of pressure and you had your hand there. Or if you had just happened to look, didn't notice that, hey, this is first order, why is it frosting over? But yeah, the die would be like if you're
01:12:11
Speaker
It used to be cold, but now it's not cold anymore. It's usually a UV light to find out where it's coming from and then go from there. Same thing when they put dye in the oil. When you wash it all off and wait for it to come back, you get to find out where it's coming from.
01:12:34
Speaker
It's like the mystery of my broken power steering. Oh yeah, whatever. The squirrels got in there too. It's alive. You guys feeding them? They weren't even liking the peanuts the last time we threw it. So what's the game right for the old shop? There is no game. Let's put some in there.
01:13:19
Speaker
I just keep kicking. I got my snowblower in there.
01:13:30
Speaker
That's why, you know, since this move, it's been like, really hard for me to be like, things for myself, because there's nothing close by to me anymore. Like I live in an apartment. I have to fix something out in the parking lot, but it's like, I really have to remember.
01:13:37
Speaker
I mean, is it like empty empty? I had to replace the faucet in the upstairs bed.
01:13:46
Speaker
And whatever I do right now, I need to make sure that if I have to get something, I'm going to go out and get something because otherwise I'm stranded. Yeah, and you feel like you're out of the open and there's... What the hell is me doing? Yeah, you're in a privacy. But then even trying to get some car standards stuff, it's just the motivation from day to day to go completely out of the way to go to a shop and not know what people are already doing there and stuff like that.
01:14:11
Speaker
just with all the stress of like taking on a new job and obviously life and everything else. It's just been like, I got to find that motivation again. Yeah. But so I completely understand like having an empty shop and not having any tools with you. Yeah. It's like, I forgot all about, I couldn't even cross my mind that I didn't have, cause you know. Yeah. It's a pair of channel locks. Like they should be in the kitchen anyway.
01:14:37
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, just because for two decades, I had every tool that I needed. 20 feet away. Yeah. Yeah. That stuff is going to take some getting used to, right? See me, I'd be too lazy to walk outside and out to the shop. I'd have a whole other set down in the basement. Lots that I've been doing, I've just been like slowly building like a little toolkit at home. That's what I figured I was going to have to do is just, you know, have something. Yeah. Your emergency kit. You want a Kennedy kids
Unexpectedly Useful Multitool
01:15:04
Speaker
toolbox? I got three of them.
01:15:08
Speaker
Go to tracker supplies. I got little, little kits. No, you know when I was pink hammers, that's like six inches long. Oh my God.
01:15:15
Speaker
I used that thing that your dad gave me the other day that it's still in my truck. I think that's even the second truck it's been in. I went to the bank on Saturday because I had to get money out to buy that rack. Yeah. And so I had Hunter with me and we went to five below and he got like this little like cowboy, like cap gun kind of thing. And I didn't have my knife. It's like one of the rare times I didn't have my knife with me.
01:15:43
Speaker
So I used that to cut open the package. It was the first time I used it. He'd be so proud right now. Like three years has probably been in my truck. Maybe more. No more. Because I was at times when you gave that to me.
01:15:55
Speaker
I mean you guys know my dad but like anyone listening that knows my dad knows the enjoyment he would get out of. I wish people could have seen like what he gave you but it's like a multi tool like a hammer with like a glass breaker and like a pliers but it's like all.
01:16:14
Speaker
It's one of those novelty things that you would get at a book fair when you were a kid to give to your dad. It's from like World Subaru or something. Is it? Yeah, I thought it was just like some something from an auction. It said yeah, it said World Subaru on the you gotta tell him I used it. I'm going to. Lou said he's doing good. Well, yeah, I actually just saw him yesterday. Yeah, he's got the COVID, but he's completely fine. What a shocker. Yeah, he's like the energizer buddy. He will not stop.
Dad's Car Battery Antics
01:16:44
Speaker
Yeah, we were out on the bike yesterday and I was like, you know what? Let me just stop by and see him, you know, and then for 20 minutes, his excitement over the fact that he keeps letting his car battery die because he doesn't understand the fact that like leaving doors open or leaving a radio on is going to drain your battery and it's a winter time. It's going to drain even faster and it's, it's an old battery. So the first time it happened, it was like one of the coldest nights we had. He calls me, he's like, he's at Walmart for something and he's like,
01:17:14
Speaker
I don't know what happened. I came out to start the car and it just won't turn on now. And I'm like, all right, so it's a dead battery, jump it. I can't find the battery. I'm like, oh, here we go. It's like eight, nine o'clock at night. Like I'm ready to just be inside, not go out in the cold. He's like, I got my elderly neighbor with me too, because, you know, they live in a senior living place. And I'm like, why, like, what the fuck are you doing? Sure enough, I get there.
01:17:39
Speaker
You know, he's a hoarder and loves having his junk with him because it's all of his treasures, you know, it's an old Portuguese man for the people that don't know, like never had anything growing up. And even to this day, like never really had anything for himself. So, like, I understand it. You know, I've lost his balls about it, but, you know, I get it.
01:18:00
Speaker
But I'm like, I can't even get to the battery now to try to jumpstart the goddamn thing. Cause it's got too much shit in there and you can't pop the hatch, but it's all electronic, which blows my mind that we're still in the day and age of where if your battery dies, you're kind of so well on doing a lot of things. So we found releases. Yeah, I guess they are now. Yeah. A lot of things. There's no mechanicals. Like even on my car, if my battery dies, I can't get into my trunk unless I go in through the back seats. Yeah. That's like so stupid.
01:18:29
Speaker
Yeah. So, ironically enough, we show up and we're pulling her Jeep up to jumpstart the car because, you know, we found posts inside the engine bay and this dude pulls up in a pickup truck and he's like, oh, you guys all right? And I'm like, yeah, I just need to jumpstart my dad's car. And he's like, oh, got a jump pack? And I'm like, now we're just going to use the truck real fast. He's like, oh, here, give me a second. Super nice guy. Pulls out this like little USB jump starter, which, you know, I'm familiar with them. I don't have one.
01:18:59
Speaker
But he's like, yeah, I got it from Walmart, you know, started the thing immediately. And of course my dad saw it and was just like, like the world's best magic trick he had ever seen in his life. Like someone just handed him a gold bar for the first time. Just this
Auction Stories & Nostalgia
01:19:12
Speaker
cheapo $30 USB jump starter.
01:19:16
Speaker
So I told him, I was like, listen, go get a new battery. You gotta get a new battery. Don't keep fucking around with the car. I'm not gonna keep coming out to save your ass every night. You're old enough, you were a mechanic, you understand. So I guess over the weekend, he's been selling stuff over at Collingswood Auction. He calls me, he's like, yeah, I don't know what happened. The car died again. I'm like, where are you? And he's like, I'm at Collingswood Auction. I'm like, okay.
01:19:45
Speaker
Like, what happened? He's like, I don't know, I had the radio on with the car off. I'm like, well, now you know why the car died. You got to hook him up with an auxiliary battery.
01:19:55
Speaker
Well, no. So I guess the table next to him, the guy was selling some like Chinese knockoff USB battery, you know, starters are the car starters. So we saw him and immediately picked up two of them. And he was like, just so like, if you could see this man's face of enjoyment, now he could keep the radio on, let it die and just jump it.
01:20:16
Speaker
Yeah, that's what he said he's probably gonna do until he gets a new battery. He's like, oh, I got my USB thing now. I mean, the price of a battery is the same as two of those things. He only paid like 40 bucks for them.
01:20:25
Speaker
This is from the auction. You're not buying anything they ran at this auction. Oh yeah, man. I went there, we took Hunter, and it had rained the night before, and then it just left everything out. There's clothes, they're just soaking wet, and they're still gonna sign for $30. Yeah, the prices were insane what people wanted.
01:21:03
Speaker
This is what we should have been doing, but we somehow made something of ourselves. When we were there, there was one guy and Ali had bought a book, like it was like a vintage, like Wizard of Oz or whatever. And the guy's like, he was like some Eastern European guy. He's like, oh, your wife can read. We don't have many of those around here. He's like, most of them can only count money. I'm like, oh my God. I can't say that kind of stuff.
01:21:11
Speaker
I love going there sometimes just for like a morale booster.
01:21:31
Speaker
Can't even count the amount of teeth in there. Especially to my wife. Don't tell you to go fuck yourself. No way. Oh man. When was the last time you went to an auction? Oh god. It's been a long time, but I know exactly why.
01:21:45
Speaker
It's glorious. I mean, I go there sometimes just to, just to see, cause there's sometimes there's some guys out there with tools that, you know, acquired these tools. And, uh, you know, I used to love going in California and used to go to one all the time. I can only imagine how good those were. Yeah.
01:22:01
Speaker
I mean, here it's nice because like when the season hits for them, I mean, they're huge. There's the English town one, there's the one in Farmingdale, the Columbus one. Yeah, that one's supposed to be good. I've never been to that. Really? Yeah, Collingwood was a total bust when we went. Yeah, I mean... It's just all junk. Even the tools, it's like, you know...
01:22:20
Speaker
They're old, but it's just like old junk, you know? Yeah. And it's funny that we talk about this and we just said what we said about it. But like when I was a kid, I used to have to be there. I had it while I used to have to be there. Like my dad and mom would have a table out there. Okay. So it's like you lived it and now you're reliving it from a totally different perspective in life. You're on the other side. So ashamed. Like I made it up. Holy shit. Yeah.
01:22:48
Speaker
It's a good time though. Some people, yeah, and they sell such weird stuff. Yeah. Like an amalgamation of things that have no relation to one another. No. No, like you could go buy 30 year old work boots, but then go buy a brand new Barbie princess doll from the same guy. Yeah. He's like, well, this is what I got. Yeah.
01:23:09
Speaker
Yeah. There's people that just, they're scrappers. Yeah. Yeah. That's stolen my dad, you know, whatever. If it makes them happy, it makes them happy. You know, he's lived a long life. Yeah. He's defied the odds. That's for sure. Still defying them. Still defying them. It's amazing every time I think about it. Yeah.
01:23:27
Speaker
You ever watch that show, Last of Us, that's
Dad's Resilience & Humor
01:23:30
Speaker
real popular right now? I've heard about it. I never watched it. Anyway, there's like a zombie kind of like apocalypse thing, but this one girl. Oh, it's the one based off the video game, right? Yeah. Like she's immune. Like she got bit, but she never turned into like this zombie. That's like your dad. It's like, he's got this special thing in his blood where he's just like, he's got like some type of a... Yeah, we don't...
01:23:51
Speaker
My favorite little anecdote with your dad is when we were both working over there at Tom's and he was trying to repair some dental work with Bondo. Oh, his dentures, yeah, with the Bondo. With the Bondo. I'm like, what? Yeah, I think you were in the back with me helping with painting or something. I'm like, what are you doing? He put that in your mouth.
01:24:11
Speaker
He wasn't even working there anymore. He just he showed up. He just went to the assembly table and starts mixing up Bondo and like we're all scratching our heads because he like said what's up and everything. But like he.
01:24:23
Speaker
We're like, wait, all right, maybe he just is fixing like another little, like, that was his thing after he left there. Yeah, because he's a fixed little thing and stuff like that. Yeah, because living in that senior place, you know, he's a chatty Cathy. Yeah. He'll make friends with anybody. Oh, yeah. Okay. And he's a flirt. I mean, to this day, I mean, he'll still go to a strip club and talk to these girls and they'll love him. Yeah. Okay. So no matter where he goes, he's, you know, he's a hit.
01:24:47
Speaker
So we figured he's yeah, he's just he's just coming in to fix like like probably like a little trinket box or something No, he fucking he pulls his teeth out. Yeah, he's mixing up That smell says don't put this inside your body who cares I'm just gonna put it they're gonna fall out anyway
01:25:12
Speaker
Yeah, I haven't seen man. I haven't seen him. Yes, the left times. Yeah, I mean it like the dark thing about it was like we, you know, he's been going through a lot of stuff. Obviously, I mean, you guys know, but like we thought we were going to lose him before we lost, you know, my mom back in September. And then after she passed, we're like, there's no way he's making it through this. And here he is, you know, he's even yesterday. He's like, Oh, let me take the bike out. You're not
01:25:50
Speaker
I'm like those bikes I Don't think you could hold it up. Yeah. No, actually I do have a picture of him sitting on it But I had the key far enough away cuz
01:26:08
Speaker
You know, jerk tried to fucking start at the pull away on him. I was like, no, I knew he was going to try to pull something. Right. No helmet. No, dude, he's crazy. He's like evil can evil stone. Oh my God. But I mean, a payback is going to kill the guy. What a piece of work. Well, I wouldn't say that.
01:26:24
Speaker
Well, he came over, we had him over for Thanksgiving dinner and, you know, Manny fashion, you know, he got this watch, which means nothing to us, but like the game just looks like the flashiest watch you could ever get, right?
01:26:43
Speaker
just this this gem you found in the garbage can because obviously somebody didn't need it anymore so he's like just so about he won't stop showing at all and then I'm like like what's on your wrist like he's like oh I'm bleeding and I'm like why are you bleeding like what are you doing right now it's Thanksgiving dinner like what the hell's going on he's like oh the watch it's got a sharp edge on it it it cut me
01:27:08
Speaker
I'm like, take the fucking thing off then. Like, what are you doing? Take it off though. Apparently he was already bleeding, cause you know, he's like on all the blood thinners and stuff. He was already bleeding hours beforehand. Then I talked to him the next day. Like he didn't stop bleeding until three o'clock in the morning. And I'm like, did you take the watch off? It's like, no, I just put some, put something on her so it doesn't rub against my skin. And I'm like, you gotta be like, there's no helping this man. There's no helping him. Yeah.
01:27:35
Speaker
You're laughing right now, probably because you're thinking of like the Washington area. It's like we would look at it and just be like, what the hell is that piece of shit? And to him, it's the best Rolex he's ever got. It's amazing to life. If you live that life, you know, if you grow up around those kinds of people, it's funny because you know it. You know it. You're not used to it. It's a totally different world. He grew up in Portugal and stuff, you know?
01:28:06
Speaker
Sometimes I tell my wife about stuff like that is like second nature normal to me. It's like, Oh yeah. Like when we had to like have a lived in an apartment where the refrigerator was like out on the back porch, you know?
Unconventional Household Storage
01:28:22
Speaker
That was a thing. Yeah, because the kitchen was too small to fit a refrigerator in it. So they put it on the back stair landing. I got a second fridge on my porch. All right. One in the kitchen, one on the porch. Mr. Privilege over there. And it's a closed-in porch. Yeah. Oh, yeah, the closed-in porch. It's on condition, but there's a door. Is it a fridge or a freezer? It's a fridge.
01:28:49
Speaker
Do you have like one of those big freezers for meats and stuff? No. Really? It's the old fridge. It's the old fridge. Got a new refrigerator. It's a seltzer fridge. You saw what's in there. So it's not as highfalutin as you're imagining. Oh no. Do you remember Back to the Future? It's a super white fridge. Did you watch Back to the Future? You've seen my porch fridge.
01:29:09
Speaker
I know it's been a while since I've been over there. Yeah, it's been there for a long time. Okay, well, I try not to pay attention to your privilege, okay? Two fridges. But no, back to the future, remember? He doesn't have two TVs. Nobody has two TVs.
01:29:25
Speaker
Yeah, I got a white fridge from the 70s on my porch. I could have sworn you would have had like one of those big like chest style freezers. I do have meat in the freezer on the porch on the porch fridge, but nothing crazy. We got a turkey in there that we got for free around Thanksgiving.
01:29:41
Speaker
which God knows when I'm going to cook that. Yeah. What about when you guys go on this fishing trip? You're not going to bring home anything? We got to get lucky. Yeah. I don't know if you, I don't think you could keep the steelhead in DSO. You don't want to eat that fish anyway. No. Cause I have two pieces sitting in my fridge right now. My freezer. Lake Ontario is a, you know,
01:30:02
Speaker
Nothing clean. No? There's like a power plant. You know, I don't know much about it. Only eat three ounces of fish a week. It's like, if they say something like that or eight ounce, it's like, then you should just not eat it at all. It's like eating the fish by three mile island, huh? Yeah. Like if you have to limit your consumption of the fish that you should just limit it to zero. Yeah, I agree. Okay.
01:30:24
Speaker
I'm pretty sure of the fish I have. So when I first started there, one of my coworkers, he's super big into it as well. Yeah, you were telling me he goes up there. I think it's the same exact spot you guys are going to, but he brings back a ton. So I have a piece of salmon and then they had the trout up there.
01:30:42
Speaker
Right? Yeah, there's Steelhead, which is like a rainbow trout. There's Coho, which is another kind of salmon. I know it's just a piece of Kang salmon, right? Kang salmon, yeah. And then I can't remember the other pieces. It's a little lighter color. Probably Steelhead. Okay, that might be what it is then. Yeah, we go to this section of river called Douglas and Salmon Run, and it's a two and a half mile private
01:31:06
Speaker
Like they own the, you obviously can't own the water, but they own the river bank for two and a half miles. And I'm pretty sure the steelhead is catching release only. So there won't be any salmon when we go up there. But the salmon, dude, the second they get into the river, they start to die.
01:31:22
Speaker
that's what they do. They're going in to spawn and then they literally, they all die. There's a handful that don't die. Yeah. The zombie fish. Yeah. So like the meat starts to break down the second they get into the river. Douglas and salmon run is the first section of river. So if you get all the way up to the top of the river, like that salmon has been dying for like eight miles by the time it got up to the decrepit fish. Oh yeah. You'll see them in the water. They look like a zombie. Really? I see. I've never
01:31:48
Speaker
Never got to experience that. Yeah. They turn like white and they're like, like literally like picture a zombie fish. That's the three ounces of fish you're going to eat. Yeah. So you grew up next to a power plant and now it's a zombie. Oh my God. I mean, I've eaten it. It's not, it's not switching right now. So your second time fly fishing now, right? Yeah. I'm an outdoorsman.
01:32:14
Speaker
Start planning now for next April. Yes. We were talking about that. We were talking about that because she's, she's upset because that's all she wants to do is go fly fishing. I mean, you guys can take her all you want. She's a good fisherman. She outfishes me every time. So she's the turtle man. I don't think they have turtles. Well, at least not this time of year.
01:32:37
Speaker
I've never never met anyone who was more obsessed with alligator snapping turtles and crocodiles than her. Like we went to
Exotic Pets & Legalities
01:32:47
Speaker
this reptile expo a few months ago out in Pennsylvania.
01:32:54
Speaker
We knew there might be some crocodiles and alligators there. And I had to really be prepared for that because I was like, if she sees one, we're going to go home with an alligator. Not even kidding. And then sure enough, there was some. I think you sent me a picture of an alligator. Believe it or not, I wanted to leave with one more than she did.
01:33:17
Speaker
They were like the cutest little things and they were super docile. Like even Gage held one and my kid doesn't like anything. And he was holding a little tiny alligator. You know, they grow up to be big alligators. Not the, I mean, well, yes and no. They four foot, three foot. I mean, so like a Cayman or is it an actual alligator?
01:33:37
Speaker
These, there's American alligators and then, I don't think there was any caimans there, but there's like so many different, I guess, species of them. They have like the dwarf ones. I didn't think you could own those. You can't. So that's the thing. In Pennsylvania, you can own them. That's what you can do with the hell you want. Yeah. So the problem is- Florida North. Yeah. If you get caught within the New Jersey, then it's a big deal. Like what just happened
01:34:03
Speaker
I think maybe I told you about it. It was like a couple months ago, somebody randomly found an alligator in Neptune in a Tupperware container. Like you guys know Neptune. Oh yeah. Neptune is not a very nice place. I mean, there's some nice spots of it. Like urban, suburban. It's ghetto. It's very ghetto. It's very dangerous. Yeah. And to find a American alligator in a big storage bin out in the winter night, it was like,
01:34:34
Speaker
You know, that's why somebody dumped it because you can't bring it to a vet or anything because, you know, probably lock you up for it. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, they grow to a point where it's like, I can't handle this alligator anymore. What the hell am I going to do with it? Well, that's the sad thing about is you stunt or growth, limit their food intake and their enclosure. So anything is only going to grow with what it can grow into. Yeah. You know, goldfish.
01:34:56
Speaker
That's like when I was a kid, one of the big things was getting the little chicks and things like that Easter. Yeah. Yeah. What a horrible idea. Well, you know where I live.
01:35:09
Speaker
What do you do with them when they're big then? Was this in Brooklyn? Yeah, well actually the time I do remember was on Long Island. Okay. And apparently there was this McDonald's or something like that where it was by a stream or some kind of thing of water. Is this where they're getting the chicken nuggets from? This is where everybody would bring them. And I remember we put them in like a garbage can and brought them over there.
01:35:41
Speaker
into the water. Yeah. That's like chickens. Now they were ducks. Oh, okay.
01:35:51
Speaker
You just took away McDonald's as well. So they swam away. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. You said chick. So I thought it was a chick. Yeah. That's why I was like drowning it. Like, yeah, you know, we didn't want any more. So we just drowned it in the river. Soggy chicken nugget. No, no. Isn't that what's a big, oh, duckling. Duckling. Duckling. Okay. Yeah. Is that the like actual name? Right. I think so. Yeah. Okay. The ugly duckling, you know, duckling. Yeah.
01:36:13
Speaker
Yeah, you kind of threw us both for a loop when you said, yeah, man, that's pretty fucked up. Yeah. I mean, right now we have that Tagoo. Yeah. Three foot lizard we have at home. Yeah. That's a weird one. She's like a cat.
01:36:28
Speaker
You know, Lily just nuzzles up to you and will fall asleep. It was funny, like a little while ago, we, we actually brought her out for the first time. We went, cause you can, you can walk them. So we said, screw it. Like we're gonna have to get used to her being on leash and stuff like that. Yeah. We went to PetSmart one night and you know, we walk in with this giant lizard on us and yeah, we're picking out like a little dog harness for it.
01:36:51
Speaker
and we put her on the leash and she immediately starts freaking out. She only walks backward because she's not used to it. Trying to walk out of it probably. Yeah, so we get that and we kind of get her used to it. Yeah, that's what it was, a cat harness, sorry. You're going to have to listen back a couple of episodes. We did a whole episode. What? We read Amazon reviews. We found this guy and we read all of his reviews. They were all of like toupees and cat harnesses. Was he a furry?
01:37:20
Speaker
No, it was a weirdo though. It's like a little sweater. Okay. Yeah. So it's like a little jumpsuit for the cats. So the cat couldn't get out of it. Always one of them. Yeah. Yeah. Let's say he likes a clip on his cell phone case.
01:37:39
Speaker
If it doesn't come with a clip, you're gonna know about it. It's one of the old leather ones with that really nasty plastic color on it. He like freaked out. He's like, who sells a phone case with no belt clip? He's got six paper towel holders in his apartment. He's probably got five pens in his pocket at all times. Yeah, I don't know. He's a strange bird.
01:37:59
Speaker
Well, we kind of felt like that this day, though. So we go to Petsmart that night, which is you could walk in there with a steer if you wanted to, you know, so lizards not really. I mean, granted, it was a pretty big lizard, but but then that Saturday we had kind of made a promise to the people at Harley because, you know, we're pretty friendly with all of them now that, you know, we'll come in day with her so you guys can meet her because who doesn't want to see a giant lizard? At what place? At Harley. Oh, are they? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shoreline.
01:38:31
Speaker
So we bring her over there and then at the same time, we're like, we're out and about, we were trying to find Gage, you know, my son, a new bed and stuff. So I was like, screw it. Do we just call Ashley's right now and be like, hey, can we, there's animals allowed in the store? So we kind of felt like these people, you know, like can't go anywhere without your animal. So I call and I'm on the phone and I'm like, like, do you guys allow pets in your store? And she's like, yeah. I was like, is there any restrictions? And she's like,
01:39:00
Speaker
Yes, goodbye. She was like, what is it? And I'm like, well, it's a lizard, but it's a really tame lizard. It's not going to be crawling around the floor. It's not going to do anything. And she's like, hold on. And like a couple of minutes ago by and I'm like, she definitely hung up on me.
01:39:17
Speaker
She comes back and she's like, it's not gonna go to the bathroom anywhere, right? And I'm like, no. And she's like, it's not gonna attack anybody, right? And I'm like, no, I'm like, it's like a puppy dog, but it's just scaly. She's like, all right, yeah, you can come by, but once we see it, we'll have to let you know. And I was like, all right, whatever. And then we ended up going to Ashley's with our three foot lizard, shopping around and everybody was all like, oh, let's see here and blah, blah, blah.
01:39:45
Speaker
They totally, totally blew their minds out, like, you know? That's the kind of thing you see, like, on the internet where, like, some Karen, like, calls the cops. Yeah. You don't let my poodle in the Starbucks? We weren't trying to be those people, but it was just like, we're already out and about. Like, we're literally going to go past the furniture place to go back home. There's no point in dropping her off. If they're going to let her, you know, go in, then who cares? Yeah, you don't want to, like, leave it in the car either. Yeah, definitely do that.
01:40:18
Speaker
She would have destroyed my leather. She's got some claws on her.
01:40:24
Speaker
But what made you guys go down the whole avenue of looking up cat reviews or sweater reviews? It was by accident. Well, we were looking up Google reviews, but we were going to do tool reviews on Amazon because we, I don't know, we just didn't have any topic in mind. And then it was just showing like things that I had already bought. So bounty paper towels was one and we clicked on it and the guys like,
01:40:48
Speaker
going on this whole diatribe about how they changed the, or they're trying to pass off these like bad bounty paper towels.
Bizarre Online Reviews
01:40:59
Speaker
So we clicked on the guy's profile and just read like, imagine being that pissed off about a paper towel.
01:41:09
Speaker
He went on and on. Then we found another guy who would buy like Eddie Van Halen guitar picks and like give them out to kids. On a Google review. Yeah. Yeah. What? Like he would buy them on there? Yeah. He's like, I don't play. I don't use these when I play, but I keep them in my vest and give them away to kids in the store. You should have seen his face doing cartwheels. Yeah. Practically doing backflips. Yeah.
01:41:36
Speaker
Oh my God. I can only imagine. Yeah. Go back to episode. It must've been 24. Oh man. 22 weeks ago. Okay. I'll have to listen to that. Green street does Amazon. Was there a guest on that one or was it just... No, it was just us. Okay. That was Amazon. That's...
01:41:57
Speaker
You should do one, but do it for like buildings or businesses you're not sure of. That is a gold mine right there. We've done Google reviews where we just like picked a, we're like, let's do the Dairy Queen in Cincinnati, Ohio. And we go and we've gone down some rabbit holes. I don't remember what it was or why we were doing it. But I think I had a buddy, he was asking me about something about the
01:42:25
Speaker
When was the last time you were over in Farmondale? Like Collingswood area? Oh, a long time. Okay. You're still familiar with it, right? Yeah. You know that bookstore across the street? The adult store? Across the street from Collingswood? Yeah. I don't ever notice it. So if you were coming this way going down
01:42:42
Speaker
What is that? That's 33? Yeah, I think so. There's that bookstore right there. You know, bookstore, quote unquote. And then you would have to go around to come back to go to the auction. So you would always have to pass it unless you lived south. But I don't remember why we Googled it, but we Googled it. And the reviews for that place are definitely worth it.
01:43:06
Speaker
Okay. We found a lady who was like reviewing like this burger place and she's like, yeah, the burger was no good. Blah, blah, blah. And then, oh wait, no, she was a vegetarian and something, whatever. She was bitching about this place because she was a vegetarian, whatever. And then we go to her other thing. She's reviewing like a barbecue place. She's a faker. She's getting paid to do it. I don't know.
01:43:28
Speaker
Because doesn't like Amazon pay you to do that kind of stuff? Well, these were just on Google. The Hooters ones were hilarious. Oh, I can only imagine. Tiffany was amazing. We had the, my husband started off with the cha-cha wings and then, but it was so funny. So they're swingers? I guess.
01:43:48
Speaker
Yeah, what the hell? What the hell's the name of that one? You have to Google it though, one day. And literally go through some of the reviews. It's not like the Love Shack or something. It is Love Shack, yes. It's one of Times River. It is Love Shack. Definitely worth it though. The Love Shack. If you're open-minded and obviously not blind to the world. Over 18. Yes, definitely over 18. Look up to Love Shack in Farmingdale, New Jersey.
01:44:15
Speaker
And please look at the Google reviews for it. Oh, man. Can only imagine. Well, we've been at it for almost two hours here. Already? Yeah. Hour and 45. And the thing I was going to say, we're going to cut this one short today, right? Well, last time we did about four hours, if you include the after show, where we discovered that our waitress's name was Joy. Oh my God. That's right. Or I don't know. Did we discover it on that episode or did we just talk about it? I don't remember.
01:44:42
Speaker
So long ago. That was our first Patreon episode. We don't do that anymore. You don't do Patreon? We have it. It's just too much work. So we just give nothing. Okay. So if you're interested, you can join our Patreon and support the show. Yeah. The whole, like all the podcast stuff, like I just.
01:45:01
Speaker
knowing that I was gonna have to start the new place. You can't have headphones and stuff. Oh, yeah. And then I can't listen to podcasts. Yes. I don't have an hour to to be able to focus on something. Like if I if I put on music, that's one thing. Yeah, it's in the background. Yeah, but like
01:45:19
Speaker
If I was to put on a podcast, it'll end. I have no idea what the hell they talked about. Yeah. Cause you're trying to focus on something you need to focus on and then you're trying to like pay attention and absorb everything you're hearing in the, in the podcast. I don't have like a long commute where I can, you know, I'll catch one every now and then if I have to do something, you know, like sanding for a long time. Eat dinner, take a shower.
01:45:43
Speaker
Yeah, I try to live in my life. That's it, bedtime. I'm certainly not going home to listen to a podcast. Yeah, that's my thing is like now at this place with the amount of people and the noises and everything else, it's just like the only thing I want to hear is nothing or the music I want to listen to because having to listen to their radio there day in and day out. Oh, God. Is it like a hard rock station? Oh, they do. They do throwback 80s. They do
01:46:11
Speaker
hair Thursdays or something like that. Then there's country Wednesday, which is, I'm not gonna throw in this theme. Yeah, so it's every week is the same thing. So what I don't understand is your music guy, radio stations.
01:46:29
Speaker
Why the hell do they keep playing the same shit they've been playing for 30 years?
Music & Workplace Noise Issues
01:46:35
Speaker
Yeah. They play like the same schedule too. Like we used to listen to Q1 0 4 3 and it was like at Tuesday at 9 a.m. they're going to play comfortably numb by Pink Floyd. It's like every week. It's the same. Yeah. They just play the same block of songs. That's literally what this is.
01:46:50
Speaker
Why? It's because big conglomerates like Clear Channel bought up all these radio stations. So they're not independently owned anymore. And especially in a market like New York and this area, the percentage points of the, what would you call it? The ratings?
01:47:13
Speaker
are worth so much money that everything is, it's the McDonald's. Totally standardized. Yes, the McDonald's theory. Like when people go to a town that they're not familiar with, instead of going to some cool place to eat, they go, oh, let's go to McDonald's because I know what I'm going to get. So it's not great, but I know what my Big Mac is going to taste like.
01:47:34
Speaker
So everything is homogenized. Yeah, it's painful. Especially for me, who's like, obviously has a very different taste in their music and stuff like that. And then there's some of the stuff that comes on. It's like, this place is filled with a bunch of like,
01:47:50
Speaker
just what you would call manly men and mechanics and stuff like that. Like Katy Perry. Yes, literally. Like, oh, manic Monday. Like, what the fuck is this shit? Within country Wednesdays, this is my, oh, I cannot. I cannot. Modern country is about the most horrible thing. And having to listen to the same thing over and over again. Yeah, that'll kill you right there too.
01:48:14
Speaker
Yeah, that's the unfortunate part is having headphones is pretty frowned upon. Sometimes you kind of get away with it. Yeah. What about the bone-conductive ones like we have? They just sit right here. They don't go away.
01:48:32
Speaker
Yeah. They don't go in your ears. They sit on your temple and it conducts through your bones. So you can hear everything around you. If it's like really loud, you can't really hear that well. Like you can't hear the music that well. See, I wonder if it's, I don't know if it's like, because obviously we have to wear hearing protection a lot. They're made for like warehouses. Okay. Yeah. I wonder if it's maybe because they don't want like us talking on the phone and stuff.
01:48:58
Speaker
Which, yeah, I don't know. Definitely showed me them before I leave today, though. They're pretty cool. I kind of stopped using them just because, well, when we were doing the boxes, because the compressor runs all day when we're coming with the laser. Yeah. You can't hear with the compressor running. You can't hear anything. You can't box it in or leave it out.
01:49:18
Speaker
The compressor? Yeah. I put a box around the top, but it didn't do anything. No, we just got to get a different. Yeah. Bigger, quieter compressor. Tom's old one. Yeah. The one that let out the blue smoke. We better wrap this thing up. Yeah. Uh, you want to do that thing where you tell people where they could find you on social media?
01:49:39
Speaker
Yeah, Instagram too many mistakes, I guess. Two, zero, zero. Wait, T, zero. T-O-O, 100 square, Manny, 100 square mistakes. Yeah.
Attending Maker Camp
01:49:49
Speaker
You coming to Maker Camp this year? It's been tossed around. Probably to sneak up there for a day. You ride the bike up. That's what we're thinking. We're going to probably see the fall colors. Yeah. Because it's already booked up, isn't it? No. I mean, you can get tickets. You can camp too.
01:50:07
Speaker
Yeah, so that's what we're trying to figure out is either if there's going to be a spot because there was a hotel not too far away or something, right? I think they still have like, they have hotels that they're like affiliated with that are like right down the street that I think they still have rooms. Yeah. Cause what the drive, I don't remember the drive was like what, three and a half hours? Yeah, something like that.
01:50:26
Speaker
Yeah. So we were, we've been tossing around the idea of possibly just, you know, leaving real early in the morning, one day on the bike, going up there, spending a good amount of time there. And then just, you know, we have two rooms again. I think so. Yeah. I miss that we had the hot tub in the first one, right? Yeah. Uh, we had a heart shaped tub this year, me and Ellie's room.
01:50:48
Speaker
There's all to myself. There's a picture floating around me in bliss lane. Oh my God. There's no water though. We were fully clothed. Yeah, you guys could quite a disappointment. Yeah, that first one was the only fans to get the, and then look up love shack only plans.
Supporting the Show
01:51:07
Speaker
Well, thanks for tuning in, folks. Hope you enjoyed the episode. Ciao. Until next time. Your wife says hello. Hello, wife. As always, Rob and I, thank you for tuning in and we'll see you next week. If you want to help support the podcast, you can leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. You can join our Patreon or you can use one of our affiliate links in the podcast description for vesting finishes. Again, we appreciate your support. Thanks for tuning in.
01:51:50
Speaker
Ain't no shame, but there's been a chain