The Great Return

0:02 Hello, and welcome back to another episode of A Record of My Father. We're back after it, A little while on a big hiatus and we're back. And maybe we're here to stay this time. I don't know. What are you thinking? Are we possible? But we're always just we're we're we're two seconds away from talking about really important top topics. Can you think of any important topics that we can talk about? We were just going to do an update, maybe what you've been doing. Well, what have I been doing for? I mean, we haven't done this in like 5-6 months. Yeah, it's been so. In that time frame, it's weird. I have to look at my phone to see what what's been going on. I know that's weird, but it's like, OK, you and I, did we go somewhere? No.

0:49 We went to, Yeah, we did in January, I think from. Last time we did it was we were getting ready to go to Antarctica and we went, well, that was last year, yeah. Yeah, that was in January. Oh, really, isn't it? Oh, yeah, January. Very beginning cause. Yeah, you're right, 'cause then we went. I mean, I just, I just got back from Vegas 2 weeks ago. 4 weeks ago was New York. No, four weeks ago was Ireland. The wife and I went to Ireland for 10 days and that was beautiful. Oh, it was only 10 days. I would say that was longer than that. I don't know why. Yeah. We were there for, like, I think we were there total like 11, maybe 12, something like that. But it's good. And that that's that's like the good part of a trip.

1:31 It's about 10 or 12 days, 'cause then you get tired. You get tired of the, you know, packing, unpacking, moving and all that. But we drove all over the place. We saw the South, we saw there's Kilkee, which is where it has like it's very much similar to the Cliffs of Moore. But it's there's no people there, so it's really, really, really cool. We stayed at Castle. That was kind of neat. What was the Castle I? Think it was like Mount Castle, something like that. We went to the trumpet golf course I got. Yeah, I got a picture of me standing in front of the sign, giving it the bird. You know, classic. Go around. Yeah, classic.

2:12 Exactly. And then what else did we do? We went to. Oh my gosh, I have to look through everything to see we're all a different place, Muck Ross. We went to Ennis Carey Powers Court. They sound like me. Before that, no, they do. I played at, I played golf in Ocean City with Tim. We had a great time. We we played for like 3 or 4 days. I played all these really, really neat courses, you know, and it was just, it was just wow, a lot of stuff. And then? And before that, we went to New York and I saw like the Met and I went to What was it? What is the Mat? Guggenheim History Museum, right? Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art. And it was it was it was a whole bunch of different art. It wasn't just modern art.

3:02 It was really, really neat. I went to Guggenheim, Saw there. Went to It's funny, I have to look at my things. We visited the Shaws. Before that, we went to the Breakers and went to Rhode Island. I remember you're talking about that, you know. That was really, really, it wasn't. That was just Rhode Island, right? That wasn't like Nantucket or anything like that. No, no, we weren't. Well, The thing is we were. We were there for like 4 days, so we went up there. We hung out with them, went to the local place in Marshfield. I think it's Marshfield we went to. I mean, that's where Steve Tyler was born there, grew up there in Rhode Island. Marshfield, Really.

3:45 Before that. Before that, I was in Columbia with Bushka. Yeah, yeah, that. Was in. That was in July. We went to Cartagena, we went to. Which is beautiful, beautiful place we went to. Oh my gosh, just we went to four different cities. We went to Medellin, Cartagena, we went to the islands and then we went to Bogota. Just so much. I mean it's the weather is in Cartagena was like San Diego. It's really, really beautiful. And then before that, I was with your mother. And where did we go again?

4:31 Oh, we went to June, July. Where was I? Didn't you go to Portugal or something? Yeah, that was last year. Oh, that was last year. I went with. I think that came out and saw you, didn't I? Oh no. We went to LAN, we went to Lancaster. That's right. We went to Lancaster, OH. Yeah. And then before Lancaster, then we went. We saw you. And then before that, I got pictures of you in a suit. That's all I can tell. Before that, I went to Florida and saw Edwin and did Crystal River. And we also did, We did. What did we do? Just just a just a ton of things.

5:13 And then before that was the wife and I did, oh, here's the pictures of you and what's that beach? What was the place we went to the beach? Oh yeah, You. Yeah, yeah. That's it, Hermosa. Yeah, that was very, very neat. And then before that was somebody graduated. Who's that who graduated? Oh, Brian. Graduated. That's right. I went to. I went to UVA and went to the graduation for him. I haven't seen him in a long time. Yeah. And then before that, that's been a while. Yeah. I mean, this is not. That's not. That's, that's we're talking six months, dude. Yeah, before that.

5:58 There's yeah, we went, oh, yeah, in April I was we went to a gala. We we usually don't go to Gala's, you know, 'cause they're like, how does gala define, I don't even know what, like, defines a gala. Well, the the problem. Here's the thing. You go to, you go to a fancy place like the Ritz Carlton they have, they have a huge room where a couple thousand people show up, they have a silent auction and they raise money for a charity. Yeah and and I've always thought it was kind of odd but you know that you you get to dress up with your friends and go there and look all hottie totty and eat whatever you you know, and they have usually fairly good food. Well it's restaurant food so it's not really that good. It's it's it's adequate And then and then you they raise money for the charity for the year.

6:47 Usually they'll have one big event and since we give to a lot of different charities, we. Get invitations to a lot of different events, but we just usually we. I've been to a few and I just like toys. About putting your name on something though, that's what I. Found but yeah, but you go there, you say to yourself like well do I really want to do I think it do I think it makes sense to pat myself on the back publicly. It kind of like, you know, very massive memorial. Right And and so so I it's not going to change what I'm going to do financially. It's only going to change. It's only going to make me, you know, go there and I start to look around and I start to feel like, well, why am I doing this? You know, what's the point? No, exactly.

7:29 It's just. To make you, you know, feel better about what you've been doing. Right. Well, you know, you wear tuxedo. I've rented tuxedos for these things. And you spend money, go do that. And you get, you go. And you're just like, I don't know if this is the, you know, yeah. That's to use. No, exactly kind of nonsensical. But it makes it, you know, if it makes people happy and the and a charity raises, they they raise their most money at those events. Like that 'cause people don't make catering. Yeah, you're catering to those people that want a key chain for their large investment, right? Exactly, yeah. Isn't that funny? Yeah, well, that's. That's why we're going to the trip. That's why we're going to Kentucky. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

8:10 'Cause that was one of the things that I just bid on it and said. What the heck, I'll just way money and take the kid to the track and teach him how to gamble and lose money. It's funny, I went to Vegas and I never gambled once. I think I put a dollar in the slot machine and that was it. Wow. And the two times that I went this summer for birthdays. When Jeff and I went, it was what was it? We met his brother out there the first time, which was probably like, I don't know how many years ago it was. We didn't bet the whole time we were there. We ended up going to the pawn shop, we played golf, we did all these cool things, more fun and and and this last time I bet, but I bet right at the end and Oh no, I bet on the third, second or third day, 'cause I went out there with the whole idea that I was going to take my Social Security check and put it on color, and I put it on black and it doubled it, and then I just walked away. So it was really kind of cool, yeah. You know you you win money and you leave. You know precisely.

9:12 I think that's the way to so that's the way to be a game the 18th. Yeah, next Saturday. Right Now I'm trying to work on two trips. One with my brother to go to the Pantanal, which is next year. Wow. And then the other is you and I and Bushka going to the North Pole. Yeah. Oh, he's coming too. Yeah, we want to see Santa Claus. OK, gotcha. Yeah, I mean, that's kind of the idea. Oh, I don't know. I think I made, I ate this frozen shrimp that's been in my freezer for a long time, for about as long as our break. And I may I think I gave myself food poisoning. I'm not sure, 'cause I feel feeling, feeling ill.

9:54 But I'm feeling ill. We'll see. We're going to push this. Yeah. Well, I'm. Wondering. Well, it was already opened too and I don't know if I opened it or I should probably should have thrown it away, but I don't. I hate wasting food, but is that weird? He was torn at the top and I was like, did I do that or did like it come like that? And then I was like, but I probably did it and so and so I cooked it anyway and they. Found out the hard way. It tasted fine, but now I'm feeling like wonky. Well, I was going to eat the mom. She had bought some shrimp because she had a guest down. And I mean, it was really neat. And she bought shrimp and it just smelled fishy, you know?

10:36 When it has that, like, yeah, yeah, I was like, you know, you can technically still eat it, but it's like you don't want to because it's just so it throws your appetite and throws it. Well, you got to be hammered. I mean, that's the only way I remember. It's the only way many When me and my son cook that fish and Oh my God the I I was like, I I don't know how I hate that. I don't know how I hate that. Yeah, yeah. I really don't know. I I had to. I think I ate it outside so I don't have to smell it. There's another innuendo in there somewhere, but. Well, the worst that the gosh, that's what we did at Edwin's house.

11:17 He we were supposed to be coming down in one month and we ended up not coming down for like 2 months. He had bought steak for the first trip, right? And it was out of the freezer. And it was in his refrigerator. And he held it in his refrigerator for a month. OK And he brings it out and we look at it, Seth and I, this is back when Seth was alive. We look at it and you're like, Oh my God, He goes, oh, don't worry about it, just take another hit of rum. But he had a hibachi and he was cooking it. And he had like, banana leaves. And he put banana leaves over top of it. And you could not. I ate like a corner of a burnt corner of it. And he was like, you know, we got to eat it. And I'm going like, dude, no, you you don't. We don't need to eat rotten meat. It was just, it was comical, though, because we were all sitting there and I was trying to eat some of it. And the only thing I was eating is, you know when you like, if you throw a steak on the grill and you burn it, like really, really burn it and then.

12:23 And then I cut the I cut the black off and I ate that I was it was crunching when I was eating. I mean, I was like, I think, well, I don't remember what beer we were drinking, but it was, oh gosh, not strong enough, apparently. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That fish is different. Yeah. Fish is like. Yeah, this has a bad mouth that way. I remember this was, yeah, I was going to say the two people that I went over to their apartment college and they had these Italian sausages in there for six months. And it was like they turned into like, a different shape entirely. Like, I'd never even recognized like that they were sausages to begin with. Oh, wow, That was pretty interesting. I've never seen gosh in the fridge for six months like that. It's Oh my gosh.

13:09 Absolutely. Wow. Yeah, well, we would have eaten it when I was a kid. We always hate that stuff. Great company. We remember we talked about the food. Did. I mean, when you think about when when I was a kid. Oh my gosh. If it wasn't, that's why now. Yeah. If it's not, if it's slimy. So you just wipe it off? Yeah, exactly. Or you cook it off which? Yeah well if it's you're eating a sandwich and you got Bologna and it's you know we would get Bologna in those like 9 pound packages. So they so, so the last bit of it was always friggin rotten. It's crazy and inexpensive. Lunch it is now. I've been looking at, Oh yeah, places and in stores and it's it's wild.

13:49 And this is like. 9 to 12 bucks a pound? Well, I'm surprised by coffee. Coffee's crazy olive oil too, because of the Ukraine versus Russian thing. It's like as much as gold now. I don't know what that is. You know that weird enough canola oil was used to lubricate machinery before it was put on shelves for consumption. Really. I think that that's weird too. Well, they talk about when you when you look at some of the processed food that we eat now. Oh yeah. What? What? What's in it and how things won't melt and won't burn. I've ever tell you the story about when I did the I sold the plasma at school. I got, I got $12.00 and so I go to B low and there's a liquor store next to next to B low.

14:34 I get AI get a loaf of bread. I get a pound of cheese type product, you know slices. Yeah. And I get What else did I get? I got a 2 liter bottle 7UP. I got like 10 ramen. And then I went next door to liquor store and I had five bucks left and I got a quart of Senators Club. So, so I had a quart of bourbon and I had food for a week, OK, and now that would be like $300.00 today. But I took the I took the cheese type product and I was making a grilled cheese. Well, I threw it in the pan. I tried to melt it.

15:16 I couldn't melt it. I couldn't figure out what it was. So I actually took a slice of cheese. I threw it into a frying pan and it was, it's one of those old steel, the iron fried pans. The cheese just turned black. It wouldn't, it wouldn't, it wouldn't do anything other than turn black. And then I was like wondering, wow, that's, I mean, it gets a little stretchy, but that was it. I've seen it was eating that stuff, like holding lighters up to them. And they don't even like Melt. Yeah, they just turn black because it's like it's plastic. There's some filler in that, like sawdust that makes it incapable of the melting properly, but. You wonder about like, what about?

15:57 What does that do to us? Oh yeah, Well, I mean, look at the the amount of cancer you see. I mean dogs getting cancer too. That's so weird. Fiberglass that's crowned. And Tyson's chicken Nuggets. My friend actually has a Tyson's Chicken Nuggets and they did a recall because there's AI it's either I think it's minute amount of steel are being found in the Nuggets. Yeah, and he has the bag there. We had a couple the other night and I was hoping I could get some internal bleeding going. On you take a magnet and run it over it. I don't know if it's that amount that much that. 'D be funny. That would be hilarious. Yeah, the different things that you like. You remember the thing that was happening when people were getting the vaccine and they would run a magnet over their arm and it just turned out that there was just blue on the back of the magnet to make those videos like, Oh yeah, you remember that They like I now have the the tracking megabytes inside of me or something like that.

16:54 Oh yeah, that's right. That was crazy. Bill, Bill Gates really gives a shit about you. Yeah. It's like you don't have a phone already that does that. Yeah, it's the best tool. Yeah, My phone pretty much tracks me everywhere, everything about it too, all the time. It's crazy. Yeah. I'm glad we moved to the Zoom platform. Yeah, this is a lot better than. Yeah, yeah, it's a lot better. I probably shouldn't have the light on behind me. The pink shirt is also is Ray. Is that good? It's fun really. So distracted. Is it? It is. You got to take it off. Does it make? Does it make me look hot? Yes. I'm glad you still have the Penguin in the background too. That's all I I wanted to see. Yeah. As long as I have the Penguin, everything's good. You know what I mean?

17:35 That's very true. No, we should, we should get back into these. We'll make more of these. Well, this is where This is where I've been sleeping for the last week. Oh, because of the. I came up here, 'cause the guest came in, she stayed in. She stayed in the master. Yeah, 'cause we started doing that. We started just having people stay in the master instead of, you know, putting them in some other side. And I was like, OK, we'll give them a shower and all that stuff, you know, it's no wonder you got the idea to resume to come back to this. Well, that was I was sitting here and I see this every freaking day and I was like, you know? I'm not doing anything. I'm lazy. Also, the person that you know, Val, is the one that came down to visit Valerie, my wife, and she's a writer and she's the one. And I was telling her stories and I've told her about the stories and you that you always said write down. And I said This is why we do this, yeah. Yeah, and she's.

18:22 Like she goes, I will be checking in on you and went about your book and I go, well, I'm actually working on three books. And she goes, well, I'll be checking in on you about your books. I'm going to call you every time. I every time I talk to her, I'm going to ask where you are on your books. Are you reading the book? No writing. Oh crap. Yeah, now I got somebody else. It's like on three. What three are you talking about? Well, it's. Two. It's only two, really. Yeah. Well, there's one. There's one that I started in the 80s and I have like 20-5 pages of it. Oh, you told me about that? Yeah, handwritten. And it was about, you know, the overthrow of the government and everything and. And it's kind of happening. It was kind of like weird because the way it happened, the way I wrote the story, was kind of how the January 6th thing happened. So it's very strictly.

19:07 Very strange. Like how the when people talk about The Simpsons predicted so and so happening, that's kind of the same case. Well, they had. Like what was it? Rollover was a finance one. Right before the savings and loan market crashed, there was a There was 1/3 Mile Island. Oh the. Before that, before that happened, yeah, what was there? There was a There was a nuclear power plant where the core melted. Oh, before Three Mile Island, I'm not sure. There was a, there was a movie. And then it happened. Yeah, it was. It was very, very. That's how much Chernobyl are you? No, this was well before Chernobyl, through my islands. When that happened, the I, I don't remember the name of the film.

20:00 Nuclear something or other. What was it? Meltdown film. Really, really like China Syndrome. That's right. It happened in 7979. OK. Yeah. Chernobyl, what year was that? I don't know That was that was in the I think the late 80s or something that's. What I was thinking Yeah, that's what I was going to tell, yeah. Or maybe in the 90s. Chernobyl. Oh, the the movie was trying to send her home with 79 Meltdown. It's Three Mile Island was a little bit later. Chernobyl.

20:49 Oh, this trailer. It's not going to tell me what it is. That's a really good TV show. Have you ever watched that? Yeah, it is. Well, you know, it's interesting when you talk. I I read an article on that. Was it in The New Yorker, in the Atlantic, One of the other. You would have seen it but it talked about how no rogue scientist would stand up to the the politburo and say that this is all wrong. No, exactly. And. And they would know, and immediately, because they did everything cheap. That would have been obvious. They cut corners all the time. Well, I remember there were firefighters in the rubble and there was somebody that was like you guys should not be anywhere near the rubble right now, like at all. Even like they didn't evacuate the town. Either that was the whole thing or they didn't like alert the townspeople because it, well, it was like a 10 mile radius and there's a town right next to it and say, yeah, yeah, well the scientists showing like the like the radius of all the people, it was like 600 miles.

21:46 Oh, it was. 600 miles How come? Yeah, because what happens is the cloud, they stopped it. Those all those guys that went up to the rooftop and cleared all that stuff off, all of them died. When they tried to, When they tried to. I mean every single person that had some form of cancer, really. I mean really quickly and died really. Really fast. Yeah. Yeah, but you know, just in the horror, that's kind of like. Dude, it's like somebody went down. I mean kind of like. Reactor, yeah. And it was just like, if you think about, if you think about the Japanese in World War 2, when we dropped the bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, you know, the generations that that came out of there afterward were, you know. Yeah, that's what that book I thought I was reading about, Embracing Defeat, which was another Pulitzer Prize winner. That was fantastic read.

22:36 They were like, really? Yeah. And that was about how for like 20 years out there and just very downtrodden, like the entire the entirety of society, because then you have the people that did it to you, the Americans come in and then look as if they're just stepping on your neck. And it's it's a cultural shift that is not really wanted. Yeah. No, that's what it was that. Book was about, but that was that was something. It definitely was something, well, I think MacArthur was there for a while. He was that. That's what I mentioned actually. Like that was a big part of it. And how a lot of people were forced into prostitution because everybody's starving, everybody's starving, isn't going to afford anything because we have like 2 giant economic at the centers just disappear. Yeah.

23:26 Yeah. What's in the wake of no ways to really make money other than so on your body? Yeah, it was sad. Wow, very sad it is. I like how we went from rotting food to US World War Two. Oh my God. But this is a good return episode. I'm enjoying it. I'm enjoying it. I like it. Yeah, feels good. We we should we should post it to Joe Rogan's site and see what? He says we should we should get sponsorship from him. Yeah, we we could do let's we should, let's call him, tell him, hey, you can come to work for us. Well, his Spotify is coming to an end, so you know, really. We need a producer. He's coming to end.

24:07 So he's got 11 and a half million viewers, so he can go anywhere and basically make a company or do it himself. Oh yeah, yeah, you know you would. I I can imagine he could link with Musk, but Musk seems like a tyrant. You know what? I mean, he was on the, yeah, he was on his bike that school years ago. I know he he's been on a couple times, you know. But The thing is is you know when you when you figure that you've made it, you know, why would you want to work for somebody that's so driven that they would, you know come across as a tyrant. That would just be that would be hard. Exactly. I'd be like why would I?

24:48 Why would you put up with that? At some at certain ages, you look at yourself and say I don't need, I don't need to be managed. No, I need to be right now. I need to really be. Is kept alive. But what did I do? We're still good. Yeah, we're still good. I think your screen, the light is just on. Oh, you're good. Oh, there you are. Here I am. Well, I keep. The thing is, I forget that this is a touchscreen. Oh yeah, and I go and I type something and it and it happens. I think that was so. It was the invention of a touchscreen, computers and detachable monitors. I think that that we never needed that. And I don't think that that anybody's ever really benefited mine, mine.

25:30 This thing detaches this. Detaches Mine does as well and use it because I'm scared to never that it will never go back in to the the keyboard, it won't fit. Yeah, the one time it'll fit halfway, but I like these. I like this really small, lightweight computer, you know? But I got like 3 and a house I mean. Yeah, no, I yeah, I I don't see the reason at all. I can spike them and get rid of them. I mean, if you want a gamer computer, I'll bring my gamer computer out there and give it to you. I don't care. I don't. Really see the point? I don't know. There's the well, I I don't even think like people that do a graphic design really use the the touchscreen stylist drawing thing do they? And they might.

26:12 But very very rare thing that'd be hard. Yeah, I don't know. I try. Especially if you drink coffee in the morning and your hand shaking or something like that. Yeah, wouldn't that be funny? So. Sensitive. Even with the stylus. Yeah, you'd be you'd just be doing this. Here. I'm gonna. I'm gonna draw you a butter butterfly, you know? Yeah, maybe so. Maybe not. The one thing I do know is I gotta shave. I did yesterday. You did? Yeah. How'd it go? Did you bleed of? Course. The Gillette The Gillette Fusion Razor is so sharp compared to your your dollar store, your 711 razors like the the throwaway ones that I've been using for I get Harry's. You get hair like ingrown hairs.

26:58 Is that really Well? No. No, Harry's. I get their. Mail to me and that. Yeah, those are Oh my gosh, those are scary sharp. Yeah, Bowie knife or something on your face. Yeah, yeah, I. Remember. Yeah, I remember. You gave me one. One of those razors one time and I was like, I'm never using it. Oh my God, I think I cut myself 7-8 times. It was it was a brand new blade. Oh yeah, the gelatin has a better guarding system. Like it has a better razor guard on it or something, because it just guides and guides and glides better. We're just doing shameless plugs for razor companies right now. That's shameless, I Well, The thing is, I got used to Harry's.

27:41 Yeah, I think what anything is. But you know, like when you first start, it's like you you peel off a piece of your face. Oh, yeah, yeah. It. I think it has to do with like it's not even enough for me. I don't know what it is. There's any any like here? Any bumps here, right here? Yeah, right there. Yeah, I mean, I don't know how you cut the the hole in your chin. I don't. There's no hair in it. Really. No, there's no hair in it. You should. You should probably paint that red. You know what I learned recently as a adult man, was yeah, I I couldn't never shave her on my Adam's apple. And then I I learned that just swallow and then shave her really fast, because then it goes up.

28:21 And then you could just shave that whole area without even having to have to go over and cut your your throat. Because what do you do with my Adam's apple all the time? What if you have Turkey jowls? I think it'll still work. It'll still work. The trick works, yeah, because once it goes up like you just shaver it there. And the one I figured I'd do, I was like, Oh my God, wow. Yeah, no, it was pretty shocking. I don't remember how I learned to shave. I just, I I just taught myself. I mean so many things I did then because I, you know, the old man wasn't doing anything, you know? Yeah, I I never. That's why I never learned how to tie a tie. I remember that. I mean I I learned how to tie a tie when I was 29 years old.

29:03 Well, my my business partner said still. Do dude, you need to know how to tie a tie? And I'm going why? He said because you're going to go to these events and I'm not going to be there. And I said, that's OK You just, you just tie all my ties and I would hang them up tied and I would just put them on my head and put them back. And he was just laughing at me. Like, that was so ludicrous. Why won't you learn to tie? And I'm like, yeah, it's, it's, it's it's what responsible people do on doing that. And, you know, so yeah. And then I finally learned and I was like, man, this is really easy. I shouldn't have. It is really. And I knew people who were, oh, I do the Double Windsor and I do the yeah, you're it's like why was that space you know? And you guys, I mean, could you say to yourself, like, really, I don't want to put up with no.

29:53 Exactly. I think you're oh, you're losing connection here. I'm unstable again. Yeah, there we go. You're a little better. You came back. Oh, OK. So you want it? Are we good? We can end it here. Yeah. So thank you guys for listening and have a wonderful night. And maybe we'll do a couple more of these going forward. We'll see what happens. Yeah. I enjoyed it too. All right. Goodbye to everybody. Your ceiling looks nice. Did you panic? I did not.