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On The Road Again: Quatre. Season 2, Episode 41
39 Plays3 years ago
A little better sound quality than last week. Sorry about the late upload. Hopefully back to our regularly scheduled programming next week.
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Transcript
On the Road Again: Part Four
00:00:21
Speaker
All right, here we go. Hopefully we don't lose... Anything. Yeah. Where do you think the microphone is on this thing? I'm not blocking it by... It might... I don't know. It might be up there by the camera. Yeah, who knows. Well, the levels are pretty good. Yeah. Well, you're catching us on the road again, part four. This is...
00:00:45
Speaker
gonna be a precarious journey yeah we um we've got the van loaded to the rafters literally um yeah probably oh that's the trees i was like what the hell's moving back there oh you know we never found out what was uh
00:01:08
Speaker
What fell back there yesterday was that little clamp I was yeah by the ladder I think I don't know what's going on with those things. They're not they don't seem to be clamping very well anymore Yeah Friday morning Pulling out of the shop 656 a.m.
Major Install in Bergen County
00:01:25
Speaker
ETA 804 Heading up to
00:01:31
Speaker
The four reaches of North Jersey, pretty close to the border of New York. Who's up there that we know? Sal, Shane, those guys are right in the area where we're working. Sal said he might stop by, say hi. Tell him to stop by on Monday. He did offer help. He said, you know, I think we got it.
00:02:02
Speaker
But we got them on standby. Oh, good, good. So yeah, we're heading up to Bergen County. We've got this big install that I'm sure we've talked about
Technical Challenges: Mic Positioning and Drawings
00:02:16
Speaker
before. We have the big beam install, which is the bulk of the installation. Kitchen Bankette, or like a bay window.
00:02:30
Speaker
living room, bench, and floating shelves. We got the pulse bar that Manny and Brian did for us. We just picked up from the powder coating. Yeah, yeah. Did he just flash his lights? I don't know.
00:02:49
Speaker
I took a I did you see brought my computer so we could reference the original drawings and had the layout of the shelves on them and Seems to be referenced off of a TV. So yeah Luckily the homeowner will be there today. We could double-check all that stuff
00:03:20
Speaker
You know, the corner and the TV. Right. Pallet alert. We've got a stack of pallets with a free sign over here, Route 36 on Main Street. Poor mom, if anybody's interested. Yeah. Between the doggy groomer and the used car dealer. We're starting a little bit earlier than usual. Yeah, not by much. Usually about 7.15 we start.
00:03:52
Speaker
I think there's some rain in our future or something. I woke up with a nice little headache this morning about 4 o'clock. Might have been that bad weather moving out. Yeah.
Skepticism in Business Education
00:04:04
Speaker
Because it looks pretty clear, cloudy in 81. It's the forecast. Hopefully this sounds a little better than last week. It's actually, wow, looking at the waveform, it looks pretty noisy.
00:04:21
Speaker
this is just right into using the microphone on the laptop yeah we've severely downgraded from our original studio specs yeah yeah just the microphone moves around too much and we actually we don't even have shock mounts for the mics we're using now no so i'm sure if we had a shock mount it probably would have sounded not that bad yeah but
00:04:49
Speaker
As they say, you got to piss with the cock you got. That's it. I don't know if the women say that. Well, it's a figure of speech, so. I wonder what kind of phrase the women makers use. I don't know.
Impact of Social Media on Pricing
00:05:06
Speaker
Probably should avoid that topic. Yeah. You know, steer, take a wide berth on that one.
00:05:18
Speaker
Speaking of makers, here's a subject I'm a little sore about at the moment. Got all these guys putting on classes. Saw yesterday too, a pricing class and a cabinet making class.
00:05:44
Speaker
Now the pricing class, this guy, I don't know, I think he's like a hobbyist and just went full time. I don't even have to say who it is because I'm sure you probably saw it. The guy with the cabinet class, I'm almost positive that this dude probably has only built like six cabinets in his entire life. That's what I was gonna ask.
00:06:13
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's like who would take a class from someone who doesn't really have the qualifications to be teaching a class right I mean especially when you're talking about business right experience
00:06:30
Speaker
It really trumps everything. It's even more so than an education, you know, a formal education. Yeah. Because these are classes, I suppose, that are aimed at doing business. Yeah, I mean, if you're, look at this new mobile home park over here. If you're trying to learn about pricing, then you're selling something.
Van vs. Pickup: A Friend's Dilemma
00:07:00
Speaker
That kind of makes me think about something I went on a little rant maybe about two years ago. In my whole problem with the division between, you know, it's exacerbated by social media and people selling stuff at below market rates.
00:07:26
Speaker
because it sort of drives the price down. It has nothing to do with the quality of work that someone's capable of doing, but the value that they put on their time.
00:07:39
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think it's, I think it seems worse than it actually is because these people, if you're not doing this full time, you can only produce so much work, so. That's true. You can only eat up so much of the available work if you can only do, you know. Yeah, I think for me it's the perception of the cost. Yeah, the client expectation. They go on Etsy and say, well, look, you can get a table for $2,500.
00:08:08
Speaker
I was going to be the number I was going to pull out.
Competing with Big Box Stores
00:08:11
Speaker
That laptop is moving on its arm? Yeah, I put my hand there. That's just what we need. I know. $1,800 laptop crashing and smashing into the $1,500 head unit. That we use for a month. I thought that was Denise for a second. Yeah.
00:08:38
Speaker
Yeah, because it's the same fight that we have with, you know, going against, like, big box store pricing. Yeah. You know, people come to us, they want a vanity, and they think, you know, if they saw one they liked for a thousand dollars, a custom-made one surely couldn't be more than $1,200. Yeah. Had a woman call a couple, maybe two weeks ago.
00:09:07
Speaker
I'm looking for a white oak vanity, you know, I can't find what I want at the store. You know, I want to know, like, she left a message, when you could do it and how much it would be. I called her back and said, well, you know, we're booking now for probably like February or March of next year. Oh, wow. Yeah, no, I can't wait that long. Well, had me on the phone. Like, how much would that be?
00:09:33
Speaker
I'm like, well, what are you looking for? She's like, well, you know, just like a simple white oak, shaker style, blah, blah, blah. My god. I don't know. And you know, I always throw a somewhat inflated number out in these conversations. Because if that scares you away, then that's very telling. So I'm like, yeah, I don't know. Probably about $5,000. For one? Yeah.
Ensuring Clear Client Agreements
00:10:00
Speaker
I mean, also, we won't build it the way you're gonna find it, you know, like chipboard and MDF stapled together quickly, yeah. You know, plastic corner braces, all the telltale marks of a really inexpensively built piece. Yeah, I mean, it's gonna be like, probably have at least solid oak sides, you know, maybe a plywood top and bottom and back.
00:10:28
Speaker
Solid wood doors, inch thick. Right, that's our niche. That's where we build. We don't directly compete with the big, wobbly stuff. Yeah, I mean, we're going to design it. We're going to have revisions. We're going to tweak it until you like it. We're going to go to their home. We're going to side inspect, measure.
00:10:53
Speaker
It needs to be 37 and you know five-eighths wide so that it looks right. That's what you know we'll build it to yeah But yeah the whole stupid class thing had me thinking like I mean we got plenty of knowledge to offer so if there's anything that you guys Think that you know
00:11:18
Speaker
We could teach you and you'd like to have a class. I mean, we could very easily set that up. Oh yeah. I mean, we did a couple on our Patreon. Yeah. I mean, we did a pricing class that this dude's charging $50 and he had 40 or 50 people in the class. Somebody told me. I don't know how long it was. Probably only like an hour.
00:11:44
Speaker
We did a solid like two hours or something with our patrons. It was, you had to be a $3 patron to get in. That's a deal. Yeah. And you know, we had all the accompanying documents, the pricing sheet, the scope of work letter. Yeah, it's important to present yourself well.
00:12:14
Speaker
not just hand out vague numbers, you know, so people know where your numbers are coming from, what you use to value your time and materials. And also it's important to, you know, kind of cross all your T's and dot all your I's so everybody knows, you know, you're protecting yourself and you're protecting the client. So everybody knows what's going to be built and delivered.
00:12:44
Speaker
Yeah, I mean we live and die by that scope of work letter because There's nothing worse than showing up to somebody's house to install something and they said but I thought it was you know gonna be this was gonna be like this and You don't have any specificity on that in your scope of work letter, you know, you're really Yeah You know the burden of
00:13:13
Speaker
Fixing that's really on you as screwed up as that may seem. If the client's not happy and it's not something that was clearly conveyed to them,
00:13:32
Speaker
You kind of have to fix it. I mean, legally, you probably don't have an obligation to fix it, but if you want to stay in business, it's probably a good idea that you do. Yeah, the onus is on us. So it's better to lay everything out as specific as possible that way you cover your ass. Oh, better slow down.
00:13:59
Speaker
On the merge, getting onto the garden state. Yeah. The, uh, the foam beams are stacked up over our heads right next to us, literally. We actually, we had to cut one down because I couldn't see the mirrors. So we had to cut a foot off of the one.
00:14:23
Speaker
tell you our van I mean we really have gotten our money's worth out of the van since we picked it up if anybody's you know in a pickup now and considering a van I couldn't you know more strongly urge them to make that leap oh yeah Jamie is a
00:14:48
Speaker
He's been kicking around the idea of a new van for a while because he's got a... What is it? It's like a 2000... 2002 maybe? E350. And I had the same van.
00:15:17
Speaker
Just the ride quality, the high roof, it's just so much better. It's like King Korn to Korn on the cob, Jersey Korn on the cob, which I had some this past weekend. But yeah, he's been kicking around the idea of a new van for a while and used vans are just so damn expensive right now. What's this person doing? They're all over the fucking road.
00:15:47
Speaker
Lighten his cigarette. Hand texting. Handy man in a minivan. Oh yeah. But yeah, I was talking to him on Monday. And I think he's leaning towards just like a regular van. I'm like, I don't know man, you're crazy. Yeah, I would. I mean, that's all technology. That's like a flip phone. Yeah.
00:16:38
Speaker
surprise when we get on the highway how many people ride down the highway with their windows down yeah I can't I don't even like riding down a back road with my windows down to be honest I mean everybody's got air conditioning that sound I mean how can you drive with that sound
00:16:42
Speaker
It's like buying a car with no power steering.
00:17:01
Speaker
Even though it's on the new cars, it's like they're not made to drive with the windows down. It's like this weird wind thing that happens when you got your windows down. It's like it really makes so much more noise than the old cars. Oh, that like oscillating kind of. Yeah, yeah.
00:17:18
Speaker
Yeah, like if you open just like one window, it's really bad. Like if you just open the driver's window, it's like you have to open the back windows too. Yeah. Otherwise the air gets kind of trapped inside. Yeah, I guess, you know, they're made, the silhouette of the car, the outside envelope is made to be, you know, what's the wind resistant? Aerodynamic? Aerodynamic.
00:17:47
Speaker
So, you know, you break that envelope. You know, like those boxy, like 80s and 90s scores? Yeah. So I mentioned I got out for four o'clock this morning. And on channel three, there's an old 70s detective show at four o'clock, which I happen to catch every time I'm up at
00:18:19
Speaker
Sounds familiar. You know the guy who's the dad on the Beverly Hillbillies? Uh, yeah. Not the grandpa, the dad? Yeah, well I think they were done in the same. Yeah, okay. Jed. Jed Clampett. He's a detective. Oh god. Doesn't seem like a... Yeah. But the funny thing is...
00:18:42
Speaker
It's the period, you know, let's say mid-70s and all the cars that they're driving, they're so cute. I know. I love like a Buick Riviera from the 70s. They're driving these Fords and Lincolns with massive front ends and back ends.
00:19:23
Speaker
fairly light this morning so far yeah we realized on the way back from this job we went was it last week or the week prior to put it in the fireplace around I think it was last Thursday wasn't it was it yeah oh yeah so that the stone guy could template it which he didn't even do yet yeah good thing we went up there yeah
00:19:51
Speaker
Oh, yeah, so we take the Palisades Parkway to get over there Well, we realized we had driven on it like six times prior That there's no commercial vehicles allowed on Palisades Parkway Yeah, and I think even if you don't have commercial plates, you're not allowed to have signage on your vehicle Yeah, which technically you're not even supposed to have signage if you don't have commercial plates, but So, yeah, we got to take 9W
00:20:21
Speaker
This time, good old 9W. Someone will get a ticket. Yeah, that would be the top one. 9W Fletcher Ave, right by Chiller's. Chiller's Grill in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Oh, God. Speaking of Chiller's Grill in Fort Lee, New Jersey, would like to tell you about our sponsor for this podcast, Chiller's in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
00:20:56
Speaker
a funny sponsor. Yeah. Speaking of sponsorship and such, today, I mean, we do have to unload everything. I should have brought some on my mind. I thought about it. I slathered completely up, head to toe, before I left the house. Then we sounded like complete shills, but we're such believers in this stuff because it really, you know,
00:21:26
Speaker
it works yeah you know it's nothing wrong with them it's the same as passing on any useful information if we find a tool that we're happy with the machine that we're happy with yeah we like to pass it on yeah so I went with the sport on my top half
00:21:47
Speaker
And what was it, 5,000 milligram on the bottom half? Yep, that good old 5,000. That's my go-to. I think they call that. What was it, 5X, 10X? 10X, I think they call it. Yeah, because my knees are worse off than my shoulders and my neck is sore from picking up these freaking beams.
00:22:15
Speaker
I figured I'd head off any additional... any soreness. I mean, that's one thing that everybody who works in the trades knows. It's not just lifting the weight. You're always, you know, twisting and contorting some really... Come on, floor guy. Jesus Christ. Now I'm getting boxed out.
00:22:47
Speaker
We've got to make a transition. Turnpike. Cars and trucks. And buses. But yeah, if you want to try MyAderm, we have that coupon code in the description. It's americancraftsmenmyaderm.com. We're not sponsored by MyAderm, but we are affiliates, so if you buy some, it'll help out the podcast.
00:23:17
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. Bits and bits. I haven't heard back from them. We were doing a three-month sponsorship trial with them. And we went a couple weeks over the three months. And then I messaged them and asked if they wanted to continue on sponsoring the podcast. I have a feeling that's probably not. Look at this jackass. Oh my god. Oh my god. Holy shit. They hit a hubcap.
00:23:47
Speaker
I have a feeling that we're probably not sending much business their way. Yeah. Because we're not... You know, we buy router bits from bits and bits. Ooh, it's quite a lean. But we just don't use that many router bits, so it's not like... I don't know. It's not something that we're the best at talking about. We tried to run lean and mean in that department. Yeah, I mean we... We parched about a hundred somewhat.
00:24:16
Speaker
Oh yeah, it was like, it might have been almost 200. Yeah, and remember that first garage sale we had? Yeah. We got blessed to have gotten rid of another 100 or so back then. Yeah. It's all those weird profiles and the like, the six.
00:24:38
Speaker
bits of the same, you know, type that are, you know, five are kind of iffy and you have one good one. That's because when you buy these cheap bits, the Freud and the Bosch and the, God forbid, you're buying like Yannico or whatever it's called, those yellow ones. Oh yeah. They only last for one job, so you have to buy another and then you never throw out the other crappy ones.
00:25:04
Speaker
You're like, well, you know, if I don't like using it to cut through a nail Yeah, if I gotta like route some like really crap like dirty wood or something That's it You know Porter syndrome kicks in yeah I'm guilty of that with like blades a lot of times like, you know circular blades 10-inch Whatever chop saw blades table saw blades like wow if I ever got a cut It's really ratty wood
00:25:39
Speaker
Oh my Jesus Christ, it must fucking hit us. We were just passed on the right. Sorry, I'm only doing 70 right now. We were passed on the right, on the merge lane. What's this? Oh, the shed company. Oh. Stole fuss. That's the other shed company.
00:26:10
Speaker
I just sent you an estimate via email if you have any questions. You can text me. Yeah, we were kicking around the idea getting a shed. Price escalated very quickly from going first. Yeah, just, I don't know.
00:26:31
Speaker
It's a very small band-aid for a gaping head wound, basically. Right. We're not getting a bang for the buck that we need. No. Plus, I was thinking, too, it seems like we're on the brink for recession. Spending 12 grand on shed is probably a bad idea. Yeah. We like to run a tight ship. This guy is alignment on for what? Yeah, this trail is hanging over into the other lane. Come on, Amazon.
00:27:01
Speaker
Jeff Bezos got more money than he got. He can't fix the truck. Yeah, a shed would be nice to have, but what we really need is a bigger shop. I mean, we can vehemently double the size of what we have, I would say. Yeah.
00:27:32
Speaker
That would definitely, that would be, we could operate the way we are now much more efficiently and profitably with double the space. Yeah, maybe even bringing a helper or something like that. Yeah.
00:27:49
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's impossible. You know, the way we're set up now, it's, you know, a lot of days it's too much with two guys and the work that we have inside the shop. Yeah, in terms of space. You know, we have machines that don't have a home. Then, you know, so we bought this edge stand or even moving it around inside the van, outside the van. Well, if you want to use it, it's like, all right, let's take an hour to drag it out.
00:28:17
Speaker
not just walk over to the edge sander and use it. Yeah, it's not profitable that way. Yeah. Sometimes this winter, we'll probably have to figure out what to do with our laser. Yeah. Yeah, once we're done cutting all those boxes, we'll just sell it. We'll get a new laser every time we do the boxes.
00:28:46
Speaker
I have to move it down to Keith's. Yeah, but then we can't use it. I was just at Keith's. He doesn't have any reflect laser either. Keith's gonna build a ship. That's what he said. What Keith needs to do is put up a shop next to our shop. He'll come to work where we live. Keith is dying to quit his job. I know it.
00:29:19
Speaker
for all of our, quote unquote, troubles. That's one thing we don't have to worry about. Yeah. Yeah, I wonder how many people are on the road right now just wishing they could quit their job. This is rush hour traffic.
00:29:46
Speaker
Probably nine out of ten people are going to work right now. Yeah, I just wondered what about that all those vacancies in Romeo Plaza River that's called right behind shop. There's that that nail hole nail place Yeah, it's the laundromat up front that place has been empty on the side Yeah, the one that's right like behind the shop. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, they subdivided that nail place out from the laundromat I think because
00:30:15
Speaker
I'm trying to remember this because that place has been vacant for so long. I've been here for 20 years. I'm going to say that place might be, the laundromat might be empty for 15 years. At least it doesn't. And that nail place
00:30:39
Speaker
You know, they put that nail place in and it was only there for about two years, I'm gonna say. That's something we should go to feel her out on. That would be pretty cool. That's a short commute. Yeah, we cut a hole in the fence, just walk through. We could roll the tools across the parking lot.
00:31:21
Speaker
yeah i wonder even just use it for storage put the laser in there and could hook it up to use all the ladders and scaffolding and the you know we can finish pieces and put them in there maybe have a little short room in the front should text your wife tell her walk over there see if there's
00:31:54
Speaker
Yeah, I mean that that's been vacant as long as I can remember Maybe they were on an agel with some hometown boys
00:32:20
Speaker
Could turn that into a maker space. Yeah. Maybe, uh, Donny Douglas wants to have a little shared space in there with us. Yeah, I don't know if the optics are right for, uh, oh yeah, and that's beautiful. Come on down to the Food Town Emporium over down here in Port Monmouth.
00:32:51
Speaker
You can see toothless townies buying scratchers at the food town. Well, here we go. We're coming up on the Port Elizabeth slash Newark Airport traffic jam, which is just perpetual.
00:33:21
Speaker
get a dollar Sprite or sweet tea at McDonald's apparently. We're into that billboard. This is a major scrape area. Oh man.
00:33:53
Speaker
Do they have HOV lanes in other states? Uh, yeah. I guess just the populated ones. Yeah, yeah. If you're from like the Midwest or something, you've probably never heard of an HOV lane, but like the left lane on the turnpike is for during, uh, you know, certain times, like, uh, I don't know, 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and then 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. or something like that, I don't know. I don't, maybe it's not that many hours, but...
00:34:22
Speaker
It's for only cars that have three or more people. Three or more or two or more? I think it's three or more, three or more. High occupancy vehicle. I guess, you know, encouraging people to carpool. Now, nobody follows the rule and everybody just drives in the left lane anyway, but you can't get a ticket.
00:34:49
Speaker
So that's where all the buses are. Does cars only? Cars only doesn't have an HOV lane, does it? It doesn't look like it. Three or more persons only, 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Monday to Friday. I thought there was a PM time, too. Here we go, passing IKEA. I'm trying to find a number for this
00:35:18
Speaker
Romeo? It's Romeo, right? Yeah, yeah. And then now does he own Romeo Plaza in like the Aberdeen? I think everything that says Romeo Plaza, apparently he still works at the pizza place or something like that. Really? Get a house account.
00:35:54
Speaker
What's this FedEx truck doing? I don't know. We should go back to New York though. He's weaving, got a signal on. Yeah, we'll get a number off of that and see what's going on over there. Yeah.
00:36:20
Speaker
I guarantee they got three-phase power. Oh yeah, all those washes and dries. Pick up some old iron. Drop it in there.
00:36:36
Speaker
awesome you think like the loading docks in the back interconnect like there's like a common kind of like hallway or anything I don't think so because my experience yeah with the grocery store you know I worked when I was in high school in Texas I worked in a grocery store
00:37:02
Speaker
Sure, we're still recording here. We pull that forward and hang on to it. Yeah, it's fun to do this. Oh yeah, we're still rocking and rolling. Yeah, I worked at HEB. I'm not sure what it stands for, but I've seen those before.
00:37:28
Speaker
I was on the midnight ship stocking the store. It was me and three guys, three other guys, you know, like three adults. I mean, I was a junior in high school. Show up at 9.30 at night and the four of us would restock the entire store. You'd go out to the loading dock and all the groceries were on the pallets.
00:37:59
Speaker
And we each had our own, I mean, this will tell you how small things were, but then I think I had four, maybe five aisles. Each of us had the same amount of stuff to do. That was the whole store, so maybe the whole store had 16 to 20 aisles in it.
00:38:23
Speaker
Yeah, like the shop right where my wife shops, it's like a hundred aisles or something insane. Yeah, because they're doubled. This was only like one roll deep.
00:38:39
Speaker
It was nothing. I feel like I would enjoy stocking shelves. You know, it was a pretty good job. Making it look nice. That was what you did. So this was back in the days when you had one of those sticker guns. Oh yeah.
00:38:58
Speaker
I didn't think about that, that makes it even better. Yeah, so you had like, remember the old box cutters? Those, they're about, the knives are about like four inches long and they were flat. Maybe about an inch wide and about a quarter inch thick. And it would take like a straight razor. Oh yeah, it's just like a metal handle. Yeah, yeah. So that was the original gang tool, the box cutter.
00:39:27
Speaker
call that an ox. So you'd have your little box cutter and your sticker gun and you'd slice the top off the box and you'd hit the top of whatever was cans or you know containers with your stickers because you'd have like a little sheet that told you how much everything was. And then you'd put it on the shelf
00:39:53
Speaker
And the last thing you did at the end of the night was you had to, what they call, front your aisles, like pull all your stuff forward. Yeah. What is that? I don't know. Oh shit. I think it's Camaro with a challenger. Yeah, they were awfully close to that person. I'll say.
00:40:19
Speaker
Here we go, heading under the Pulaski Skyway. Yeah, they got it draped off. They must be doing some heavy-duty scraping and blasting off the old thing. Yeah. Because those things are completely enclosed. Yeah, 930 to 730 was my shift, and then I went to school. Oh, God.
00:40:50
Speaker
Is it a wonder I almost didn't graduate? I had quite a couple of years in high school.
00:41:16
Speaker
But it was interesting. I really liked working at night, I have to tell you. Back when everybody had traditional schedules and people were all at work during the day, not like now. It was great to be off during the day.
00:41:40
Speaker
The town was sort of sparsely populated. You could do, run all your errands, do whatever you needed to do. You could go to the movies or something. There'd be like three people in movies. Yeah, that was like when I worked in restaurants. You know, you'd be off like Monday, Tuesday or something. Most restaurants are closed on Monday.
00:42:02
Speaker
Tuesday's slow, so if you're any good, you're mad, Gerald. Keep you off on Tuesday, because nobody wants to work. You don't want to work the slow days. Right, exactly. Go home with $17.00. Yeah, yeah. But you do get that $2.00 an hour on top. Yeah, so you could go out and there'd be nobody.
00:42:28
Speaker
Because, you know, if you're off on, like, Thursday or Friday or something, well, other people take off on those days to do things. Monday, Tuesday, nobody's taking off. No. I miss those days where, you know, people are at work. I don't like all this everybody working from home.
00:42:53
Speaker
Yeah. Seems like a lot of people who are working from home are just out and about all day. I know. I don't know what the hell they're doing.
00:43:08
Speaker
People have sort of extended their work days, you know, like... Yeah, it's like people are just always working now. Right, so... Always at like 30% speed. Right. They kind of, you know... A couple hours during the morning, then they'll go out, maybe work a couple hours in the afternoon, then after dinner they're going to work a couple hours.
00:43:32
Speaker
Which, you know, if you're like working on a quantitative sort of thing where you've got this much work, you've got to get done dirt, you know, in the span of the week, then I think that's a pretty good way to go about it, make it less regimented, or give yourself more ability to just kind of speaks to the productivity of the office environment.
00:43:59
Speaker
or lack thereof. That's what I mean, yeah. Like if you can get your work done like that and accomplish the same amount that you could as eight hours in your cube and then you add another two hours to the day of commuting. I mean the science says that like a four day work week is more
00:44:24
Speaker
Productive than a five-day workweek. So why why don't American? businesses go to a four-day workweek is it because they're trying to keep people tired and you know It's something about it's like Like well if we keep these people miserable and tired then they'll be too miserable and tired to do anything about all the shit that we're doing to them and
00:44:49
Speaker
Bosses seem to I mean I had one real job Office environment when I was an estimator And they just watch that clock like they didn't want you
00:45:06
Speaker
leaving a moment before five o'clock. They wanted you there sitting at your desk working at eight o'clock. They didn't care how much I got done or how little I got done. They just wanted my ass in that chair. It's like school, same thing. We got nothing to do it, but you can't leave until the bell rings. I mean, that's a little different because you're a child and they're responsible for you.
00:45:35
Speaker
but same kind of idea. Yeah. I mean, we look at the clock maybe six times a day, and usually we're shocked at whatever we see. We're like, it's only 10 o'clock. We're like, I can't believe it's 10 o'clock. Yeah, it's like, oh shit, we better hurry. Passing the American Dream, which is the second, was it the second or third largest mall in America? Yeah.
00:46:09
Speaker
Is that Ferris wheel operating, or is that just the sun? I can't tell you. It can be awful early, 740. Somebody be riding. Maybe they're testing it, cleaning it. It's a pretty big Ferris wheel. Yeah, it's huge. I think they call it an observation wheel.
00:46:40
Speaker
Yeah, I'd like to check that mall out. Just to see up in there. Oh, look, they got the New Jersey State Fair going on down there. Look at that. Oh, yeah. That puny bitch boy here. That was nothing I was going to say. It's a finny weedle going on. Wow, really gives you some perspective, doesn't it? Yeah, it's about six times as tall. I think that one's like 300 feet tall or something crazy. That one looks taller than MetLife Stadium.
00:47:10
Speaker
Oh, it must be because it's taller than whatever that is, and that's pretty freaking tall. Is that a parking garage? I don't think... Is that part of, like, one of those... Hymns or attractions? Like the skiing thing or something? No, it looks like a parking garage. It's had, like, a spiral thing going on. That's like a water park. Oh, yeah, that's what I was looking at. You can see the, uh, got water slides sticking out of the side.
00:47:40
Speaker
I checked last night. I haven't think so. It'll tell me, but if we want to be back at the shop by 4.30, we don't have to leave until like 3.10. Oh, crap. Yeah. Yeah, Thursday's the new Friday around here. That's what I heard. Somebody told me that the other day. They're like, yeah, Thursdays are really bad now with the beach traffic. Yeah, I usually rehearse on Thursday nights. We didn't rehearse last night.
00:48:09
Speaker
Just taking a week off? Yeah, Bing's eye was bothering him. He's got a real serious eye. I thought you guys had a low rider on schedule. Yeah, I guess he was going to have to sing that too. I'm telling you, Kelly can't get low like that. So we've been running into traffic, going down, I go south about
00:48:38
Speaker
Let's see, I get off him. It's like exit 100 or something. So I go down seven exits from Red Bank. And I've been running into traffic the last month or so. And then. Yeah, you don't leave until what, six, seven o'clock or something? Yeah, about six. Yeah, about seven. I hit the, no, I get there at seven. About 6.30, I get to go out and stay.
00:49:05
Speaker
I guess that's prime time for people who left New York or New Jersey. Yeah, and last Friday we got together and I was all worried about traffic because of the weekend and it was none.
00:49:29
Speaker
So I guess that backs up the hypothesis that Thursday's the new Friday. Yeah. I mean, Waze will keep an eye on the traffic and it'll give me an update, you know, when it's time to leave.
00:49:47
Speaker
There's a tower sticking out of the trees. There's a little bit of a water tower. No. It's suspicious. It's a suspicious shape. Oh, you know what that is? That's for an airport. Uh, a control tower. I wonder if that's tea to borrow out there. Uh, maybe.
00:50:07
Speaker
I went to tea tomorrow a couple of times, but I didn't drive, dude. That's a ritzy. You were driven there. I haven't driven there. I was driven there. In my previous life, I robbed elbows with the very rich. You left that girlfriend for Madonna.
00:50:37
Speaker
Yeah, so I got to experience a few things that people of my social economic status usually don't. One of the things that I got to do was hang out at the luxury box at Giant Stadium.
00:51:02
Speaker
Go see football games in the dead of winter. You know, you're in there in a t-shirt, catered to people right outside the glass. Cocktails. All huddled together, trying to keep warm. They look back at you and you're like, oh, I don't really like these dicks. Exactly. Who's that long hair guy in there? What the hell? He'd break in.
00:51:25
Speaker
I definitely did not look the part and I was, I stuck out. You know, usually the other people in, I would bring a friend and the other people in the box were people who worked at the company. Come on Toyota Camry? That owned the box. And they didn't really, they weren't really interested in the game. Oh no, they're there to talk business probably. Yeah, yeah. That way they can write it off.
00:51:55
Speaker
So, but that was a lot of fun. Yeah, I went to Giants versus Panthers preseason game, but that was the only Giants game I've been to. Yeah, it's, I mean, it's great. I mean, you see why people with money don't, you know, they'll do anything to keep it because
00:52:24
Speaker
there's something like you know that's so I can't think of the word but just makes things easier you get driven up to a gate yeah walk in you know this you don't have to like stand in line
00:52:55
Speaker
All that said, you don't have to rub elbows with the unwashed masses. That's right. That's right. I mean, it went on some really nice vacations with that group. They treated me really well. But there was always this tension amongst those people that like somebody was getting something that another person wasn't getting, you know, it was always like this jockeying for position. Yeah.
00:53:26
Speaker
I never felt like people were really happy or appreciated, all those things. And me, coming from, you know, essentially nothing. I just, I was in awe of all this stuff.
00:53:51
Speaker
It was a lot of fun always the people who like usually were like waiting on me and serving They had better jobs So I always used to relate to them, you know and sure they were still ready to swap spots. Yeah. Oh, yeah
00:54:20
Speaker
Well, it takes a certain kind of personality to get used to being waited on for everything, you know? Yeah. Like, if you're sitting around in the house and you want something to drink, instead of, like, going up to the refrigerator, like, you have to ask somebody to go bring it to you. Snap your fingers. They literally had a bell. Oh, God.
00:54:48
Speaker
That's disgusting. Yeah, it is, isn't it? And like, you know, when you sit down to eat, they bring the food around to you, you know what I mean? Like, so if you wanted a green bean. Under a cloche. Yeah, exactly. You know, they shake it off with the tongs, and they put it in your dish.
00:55:18
Speaker
Wouldn't be able to function in an environment like that. It's it's it can be a little stuffy But I guess people get used to it I was around it for about I mean, you know, not consistently I was around it for about 10 years and I never got used to it
00:55:50
Speaker
That is one of my middle lane in this area. All up before the old turbo exit. Had to put it into turbo mode, yeah. I was gonna say, not that I didn't really enjoy my time.
00:56:15
Speaker
As the sign fell, we'll put it being the master of my own domain. Uh oh, Hood says we got a slow scrape. We got a slow mover up here. Exit 72, US 9 West.
00:56:43
Speaker
which we will not be taking. I see, so the roads probably run parallel to one another. Yeah, I looked it up on Google Maps. They do. They run directly parallel to one another. So once we pass chillers, we're going to keep right.
00:57:17
Speaker
Fort Lee, New Jersey, ground zero of Bridgegate. People don't know what Bridgegate is. Probably about three listeners know what Bridgegate is. Really? I thought it was a pretty big deal. Yeah. So it was Governor Chris Christie, former governor of New Jersey, he like, what, shut down a portion of the George Washington Bridge, which goes from
00:57:35
Speaker
quite a draw we could be in there having a nice stack of flapjacks
00:57:46
Speaker
You have a lane. For a lead to New York. Yeah. I mean, I think he shut down the areas at the entrance. Yeah. Like this real bottle there. It was like some political thing, like some sort of retribution for something somebody else did or something. I don't know. I guess we'll be staying this way. Yeah. And...
00:58:14
Speaker
It wasn't like something that was publicly broadcasted where it was like, oh, Chris Christie shut down. It was, you know, they did it through these back channels. It was like under the guise of having to do some work or something like that. Right. But it was all, you know, fake. Yeah. And then, you know, like a couple of ambulances or something couldn't get across and like people died. And so it became this whole. They were really backfired. It became a small scandal.
00:58:46
Speaker
I guess I just go straight up here. Yeah, it became this whole thing and he got in... They got in trouble. Yeah. I mean... Was he impeached? I don't think so. I don't think so. I mean, I know he wasn't removed from office, but I didn't know if they took him to court or anything.
00:59:11
Speaker
You know, like a lot of politicians, they tend to avoid any kind of real punishment. Uh, yep. I think we'll probably be seeing something along those lines. Time West, is that us? Yep. This is the worker man's route, Palisades Parkway through those fancy pantses.
00:59:39
Speaker
Those last couple weeks have been like a little travelogue. Yeah. People seem to like the on the road episodes. I wonder if there's any better places to eat on the worker man's route. Probably. Chillers was a big disappointment. Yeah. I mean, it's basically a diner. Yeah. But not even like a good diner. No. Like, my food wasn't bad, but just generic. Just wasn't that good. Very generic.
01:00:09
Speaker
Yeah, so this takes us right to, when we get off of Palisades Parkway, that road that we end up on. Oh, that's nice. That's 9W. Oh, okay. So we're just probably gonna be coming up from the... Yeah, we're just gonna turn on the closer dog road. Yeah, the direction, yeah. Oh, cool. Full massage. Yeah, what do we got around here? We got Salon Rocco.
01:00:39
Speaker
What's this joint? Officeability? LG. Is it offices or? Yeah, must be. Life's good. That's what LG stands for apparently.
01:01:03
Speaker
new ETA 812. Not bad. W takes a little bit longer. It's got lights. Not bad at all. Yeah, once this job's all installed, it should probably be Wednesday next week, we'll be done. We have a basement.
01:01:32
Speaker
suite of cabinets in a basement in West Orange that were We have them I'd say I don't know what quarter of the way a third of the way done Yeah, I'm gonna say about a third of the way done We you know Worked on them a couple hours here and there. I was surprised at how much we had laying around. Yeah yesterday It was like we packed the van
01:02:00
Speaker
You know, we're tired, and it was like, wow, probably just like putts around for the rest of the day. And then we got into that. We cut all the sides. We drilled all the shelf holes, put it in all the sleeves. We pulled out the material for the doors, for the backs. We made a material list for what else we needed. And we already built the face frames and the drawers, which should. Yeah, and the solid oak desk. The desktop, yeah. I mean, so those are a couple of the time-consuming elements. Yeah.
01:02:27
Speaker
So, you know, in two hours we got a lot done. We're probably just going to sit around. So that was good. We went for a test drive. Yeah, went to Michael's, got some Korean sushi. I don't even know what the hell that is.
01:02:56
Speaker
Those planners. What's this across the street? Pick up and free delivery, food for life. Sushi. Yeah, then we got another, actually another basement job. After that, closer to home.
01:03:24
Speaker
Alright the brownstone pancake factory forgot that other The Darth Vader is also in a bed in a basement. Yeah, we'll be doing that drippy countertop with the little bed cooler and a little cabinet and a whole set of built-ins or really not built-ins or Kind of just cabinets. Well, yeah And a cherry so that'd be nice nice to work a cherry again, it's been a little while and
01:03:55
Speaker
Oak walnut. Red oak. Making red oak sexy again. Yeah. And with that chocolate stain on it, it really is nice. Yeah, three to one. Pure to chocolate. To match the F'd up stain sample that I made. That's the best when you make a finished sample for a client and you did something weird.
01:04:23
Speaker
And it doesn't, when you try and replicate it, it doesn't look like what you gave him because you made the sample wrong. Yeah, or it could have just been that piece of wood, you know? You never know. Yeah. I don't think that was the case, but I think I sanded it all off on the scuff.
01:04:46
Speaker
Sometimes that happens, you know, like you're thinking, oh, this isn't going to be a job. You know, you just kind of go through them sometimes and then you forget. It's like, oh, shit, I should have paid more attention to this. Yeah. Yeah. I'm actually for Bruce's job, I'm going to email him and say, look at this guy. I'm going to email him and say, send me a picture of that. That's CNBC.
01:05:19
Speaker
Yeah, that'll be ice brown vesting. On white oak. Yeah, rift white oak. I put a little bit of that chocolate on white oak. I like it better on the red oak. Yeah. I mean, it's more brown and less black for lack of a better description.
01:05:44
Speaker
Yeah, white oak to me doesn't really take stain that well. Like it doesn't look good with stain on it.
01:05:51
Speaker
Yeah, I like it with just, you know, like a clear kind of finish, maybe like a light, you know, amber kind of. Yeah, yeah, yeah. To give that sort of an aged look. But yeah, like, I don't know, red oak is on the short list of woods that I would prefer to stain. You know, walnut clear, cherry clear, white oak clear. Red oak.
01:06:21
Speaker
Does not look nice but clear. Yeah. Maple, can't stain it. No. Sapele, yeah. I never really get a good luck staying in Sapele. I guess you could use sort of like a brown to get like a, try and pull some of the red out, make it look more like mahogany. Mahogany is more brown really than, well I guess not really, they're pretty similar.
01:06:53
Speaker
Just get a text from my wife. Hunter's new nickname is Donut Lord. Donut Lord. It feels like donuts. I mean, who doesn't? You ever see that movie with Danny DeVito where he's like this, uh...
01:07:11
Speaker
a financial titan that just loves to take over companies. I think it's called Other People's Money. I think I've seen bits and pieces I've heard of it, but I don't remember anything about it. He loves donuts, the character. Yeah. And he always offers people donuts. And one of his cool lines is, what, you got to be hungry to have a donut? I don't have to be hungry to eat. I just like to eat. Man, I haven't had a donut.
01:07:42
Speaker
I don't even remember the last time. You know what I'd like to eat? A honey bun. We can stand on the bear claw. I like a bear claw. I feel like a lot of times they're too dry though. Yeah, you gotta have that cup of coffee. Yeah, I don't want to have to supplement with coffee. So if you go into the donut shop and you can only have one donut, what's your go-to?
01:08:13
Speaker
What kind of donut shop? Like a real one or like a Dunkin Donuts? Yeah, let's simplify it like a Dunkin Donuts so we're not getting too extravagant. Dunkin Donuts? Yeah. Probably that like long one like this that's powdered but it's got like the vanilla frosting in the middle. Oh yeah? Not Boston Cream but it's like a, I don't know what you call it.
01:08:41
Speaker
Shaped like a hot dog bun, right? Yeah And what's on the top nothing just it's like a powder sugar on it Okay, and it's got filling though. Yeah, it's like custard filling. No, it's not custard It's like more like vanilla like buttercream almost. Oh, yeah Oh man, they're good Now if I'm going to like a real donut shop, I'm probably just getting glazed I
01:09:12
Speaker
I like... Keep it simple. I like the crawler. I like that plain fried one. You know, it's like kind of golden brown colored crawler. Yeah. Yeah. I like that. I like a crawler with the chocolate dip. Oh yeah. On the top. Yeah. Those are good.
01:09:36
Speaker
I think I might go with that. I don't like, um, I'm not a fan of the jelly donut. I like a jelly donut. I mean, I'll eat any donut, to be completely honest. And I'm not a real fan of, like, regular icing and sprinkles. I do like the chocolate glaze. Yeah, I like the Homer Simpson donut. Oh, you do? Yeah, with the strawberry and the rainbow sprinkles. Yeah. That's pretty good.
01:10:03
Speaker
I don't like like the you know they get real weird now with like the chocolate chip cookie dough donut and whatever you know what's good is a blueberry cake blueberry cake donut this is it uh no it's like two couple more streets oh i see hillside am blueberry cake donut yeah that's pretty good
01:10:29
Speaker
You know what I used to love when I was a kid? I probably would still love it. Pop-tots. Oh yeah, strawberry? Yeah. Strawberry and brown sugar, cinnamon. Yeah, love me some pop-tots. I used to love the chocolate ones too. Yeah, s'mores are pretty good, but again, a little dry. What was your favorite cereal growing up?
01:11:01
Speaker
I feel like I ate a lot of like Captain Crunch, Cinnamon Toast Crunch. There was a cereal that was around for a little bit and then, I don't know what, they got rid of it called Waffle Crisp. That's a good one. They're like little waffles. Frosted Mini-Weets.
01:11:28
Speaker
growing up when I was a kid it was cocoa puffs those are the big ones right around the sphere coins yeah they're like the size of a pea kind of yeah oh yeah you're not that cocoa crispy cocoa crispies I like no I like the cocoa puffs got a definite line between the cocoa crispies and the cocoa puffs oh yeah totally different cocoa crispies are just chocolate rice crispies yeah
01:11:56
Speaker
Yeah, I like the Cocoa Puffs, couldn't eat enough of those. They had a Rice Krispies Treat cereal, which was Rice Krispies. Oh, like marshmallows? Yeah, it was basically like, imagine a really stale, hard Rice Krispies Treat. They made the marshmallow into some kind of hard substance. It was that, and they were like, chunks, that was good. Yeah, and for a while there, my teenage years,
01:12:25
Speaker
I was really hooked on golden grams. Those are good. Especially if you put some honey on top. This is not enough sugar in them already. Rice Krispies treats with white sugar sprinkled on top. I have a couple of runners up. Yeah, golden grams are good. I forgot about those. I like that gram.
01:12:52
Speaker
flavor yeah like ram crackers I could probably use like a whole box of graham crackers I love the graham crackers that have the sugar and cinnamon on them oh yeah those are good yeah what about teddy grams yeah yeah those are dangerous yeah cuz they're so small yeah you just wipe out the whole box you know it sometimes I think it's like
01:13:20
Speaker
It's not fair that back when you could eat a whole box of Teddy Grahams and not have any ill effects. You weren't allowed to do it. I wasn't allowed to or I didn't have access to that kind of thing. I couldn't afford it. And then now that you have all the access to those things, you just can't do it.
01:13:46
Speaker
Yeah, now if I had a box of graham crackers, I'd be laid up for a week. Yeah, I was going to say, you have to take the next three days off. Literally. You might as well go out on a drinking binge. Yeah, I might be better off. Yeah.
01:14:20
Speaker
Yeah, we don't, like, hunt her, you know, when he gets, like, Easter candy and stuff like that. Pretty, pretty good. Let him kind of go balls to the wall. Yeah. And then, you know, eventually you gotta, uh, chaper it off. Yeah, but try and let a kid be a kid. Gotta let a woman be a woman. Badass. And let a kid be a kid.
01:14:56
Speaker
Coppers. Chester. Closter. Yeah. Yeah, I still don't know if it's Closter or Closter. Could be Closter for all we know. Yeah. Massachusetts kind of name. Like yeah, take the spelling, disregard it completely.
01:15:20
Speaker
Speaking of that, I heard that Pittsburgh used to be pronounced Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh? Yeah, like you know how you say Edinburgh? Yeah. Because it was founded by Scots. I don't know if that's a rumor or one of those urban legends or if it's real. Like we say Edinburgh, but you know they say Edinburgh.
01:15:49
Speaker
And then, so it only follows that if it's true about the founding and the naming, it would be Pittsburgh. I grew up down the street from Edinburgh. It's a little area and town I grew up in, Edinburgh. We had the Edinburgh Hotel. It's Village Pantry Deli. Well, we'll pull it up. We make good time. Yeah.
01:16:18
Speaker
Well, I guess, uh, better sign off for now. Yeah, so Joe, the Travel Log, American Craftsman Travel Log. Yeah. Well, really, yeah, it's the fourth one. Maybe we'll do another one on the way home. Yeah. Why not get one in the bank? Because we're busy. We are busy. Yeah. But yeah.
01:16:43
Speaker
We'll sign off for now. All right, everybody. Enjoy the weekend. Yeah, we'll see you next week. We're backing into the job now. Take care. We're gonna have to give her some gas to get up this baby. Probably don't want to go too far up because we're gonna get those long beams. Yeah.
01:17:10
Speaker
Testing the emergency brake here. I guess I should get out of the sidewalk. I guess we gotta do joggers. Yoggers. That's a soft J. Yoggers. Yeah man, I would not want to have a driveway like this. Man, we're gonna be fighting gravity. Yeah, pulling everything out? Yeah. It's a good thing that the e-brake is underneath all this shit.
01:17:41
Speaker
got two clicks yeah well we'll find out oh shit you slipped a bit there yeah all right now we're really signing on
01:18:15
Speaker
Sunday ain't no shame but there's been a