Enormous!
Two older gay guys telling stories and discussing anything, everything and nothing in particular.
Enormous!
Enormous Speedos
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Ever notice how a slight change in the smell of the air can trigger the first thoughts of fall? KC and Harley are back with an Enormous! fun-filled, bursting-at-the-seams episode that is full of stories and memories about fall in the Southwest.
Totally Hot!
KC recounts the pleasures of his annual pilgrimage to New Mexico for a year's supply of fresh-roasted chiles. He shares how like a time machine, the sound of the gas jets under the rotating chili roaster and the aroma of roasting chilis can bring back wonderful memories of his favorite fall ritual and carry him away.
Wild Ride
Harley explains how a tiny parking-lot dent turned into a month-long repair that left him without the use of his beloved KIA. He was able to suffer through it with the use of a new BMW X7. So he scheduled a five-day weekend to see good friends in Taos, and was reminded that a short road trip can do wonders to lower stress and reset the brain.
We Love Bacon
The guys finally got to meet the legendary Kathy Bacon and her amazing daughter, Bacon Bits while they were on a road trip to Denver. Since it was Bacon Bits birthday, Harley and KC decided to do something special by showing up in matching Speedos as they pranced through the sunny outdoor fountains in front of Union Station and Hotel. (JK) Over lunch they told stories and quickly became good friends.
Pillow Talk
Things have changed quite a bit since either of the guys had purchased a new mattress. After extensive research, Harley ordered a new bed online. Although he barely survived the delivery that should’ve come with a forklift, he loves his new bed. Guess which luxury upgrade changed everything? Send us a text
Let's Do The Time Warp Again!
KC, Mister, Harley and Sarge attend The 50th Anniversary of The Rocky Horror Picture Show complete with singalong, —costumes, movie and live shadow-cast, SWAG bags, and Barry Bostwick in person.
The Soundtrack Of Our Life
KC: Fleetwood Mac’s Silver Spring
Harley: ABBA’s Thank You for the Music
Keep the conversation going...
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So here we are. We're finally back. Phew. So see, we're not pod fading. Well, some might say so or think so. Some have contacted us and wondered where the hell have we been.
SPEAKER_02:It's true. That that expression though kind of scares me because I love this so much. I just feel like we're not fading. It's just that there's so much going on right now we're having trouble keeping up. Yeah, very much so. I mean, part of it's the state of the world, but part of it's my work, part of it's everything. There's a lot. There's a lot going on. There's just a lot. Yeah. Plus, we've been traveling and we had out-of-town visits and there's a bunch of stuff going on. Is that what we're going to talk about today? Sure. Want to? Let's do it. Okay. Well, it is fall in Colorado.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, the height of fall. And it's 85 degrees. Which means leaf peeping season. Do you like that phrase? Leaf peeping? Yeah. Is that when you peep your leaves? Leaf peeping season. That's when everybody goes up into the mountains to look at the changing colors of the aspen trees. But it's too hot. We don't have any cool weather yet. Well, they've they've changed. They changed early, actually, I understand.
SPEAKER_02:So it got cold up in the mountains again. Yes. But not down here in the arid plain.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, because that's almost over with already now. Huh. But I never liked when they said leaf peeping season.
SPEAKER_02:No.
SPEAKER_03:It's just, I don't know, just a weird phrase.
SPEAKER_02:It is. I like it when it gets cool. The summer was really hard on me.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it's hard to sleep. I don't sleep well.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and we don't have air conditioning.
SPEAKER_03:Which I do, but I'm stubborn about running it in the nighttime, which is probably kind of dumb, but I don't.
SPEAKER_02:It's really good. And you know why? Because all of the plastics that are surrounding us in our homes are giving off some kind of vapor. You know, whether it's carpeting or whether it's plastic packaging or synthetic fabrics or whatever, you know, they they emit a if you can smell it, they're emitting something that's not good for you.
SPEAKER_03:It's good for us. I'm a Barbie girl in a Barbie world, life in plastic. It's fantastic.
SPEAKER_02:You know, I did something the other day. I I uh was making my bed and I sort of shook the sheets as I was pulling it up and the sun was shining through the window. And you know how when the dust sort of you can see it flickering in the air? Yes. I thought to myself, that's all plastic dust.
SPEAKER_03:Oh dear. You you know, last summer we had uh the upper deck here, we have that patio furniture, and uh it it the cushioning inside had had covers on the foam that was some kind of plastic. Yeah. Well, somehow, over a year's time, that uh uh plastic covering inside of the pretty colored, you know, fabric part disintegrated. Yeah. So the outside of these of the colored fabric had this weird white, strange dust on it. It took me a while to figure out, you know, by unzipping one of them and getting inside there that that that that was the disintegration of that polyester or whatever kind of plastic fibers that you know this had sunrotted or whatever you want to call it. So so Mr. and I spent, you know, a couple hours taking all those cushions apart and vacuuming and whatever, but how much of that plastic dust did we inhale? Yeah, quite a lot, I bet.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and that's one of the things I don't like about the vacuums where you empty your own where you where they don't have a bag and you have to empty them. Yeah. I don't think they do as good of a job as filtering what comes out of the vacuum.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. I do, I have some of each. So and they both have their place for me, I guess.
SPEAKER_02:Right. I've got both. Yeah. And uh I think I just accept that the fact the ones that are bagless um put more sort of particles into the air. The one that's not, the one that has a bag, the bags are kind of expensive. I think they're like a couple bucks a piece or something, three bucks a piece. Yes. But it has a HEPA filter in it. So you could even put that vacuum in a room and just run it and it would purify the air.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, okay. Yeah, I think I have one with a HEPA filter too. Uh I do, I I'll I'll say this about that. I don't think that you can have, in my personal opinion, I don't think that you can have a bagless vacuum without having an air compressor in your garage so that sometimes occasionally you can blow out the canister all the way back to new and clean again. Right. Which I do about once a month.
SPEAKER_02:I wash it with water. Oh, okay. Yeah, every time. Okay. That's the only way I can feel that it's actually clean. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that I don't do, but I do blow it out.
SPEAKER_02:Well, Casey, what is your favorite part of fall? What is it about fall that you look forward to?
SPEAKER_03:Well, the cooler temperatures, which it's still a little warm, but it's cooling off at night now, so I sleep better. Yeah, I'm still I'm now putting a fan in the window and it gets cold in the room at night, but then I can have the covers on with that cold air. That's my best sleeping.
SPEAKER_02:It is the best. Yeah. It got down to 51 by 7 a.m. this morning.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so that's that's really good. I like that. And then I also do like the color changes.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, me too.
SPEAKER_03:Those are my two things, probably.
SPEAKER_02:Yep. Well, I just love fall's my season.
SPEAKER_03:The third one would be how people are nicer and kinder in the fall. Do you think they are? No, I'm totally making that up. Well, I wanted to have a third thing, so uh well. If you dream it, don't dream it. Be it.
SPEAKER_02:Right. There you go. Be the happy fall person. Uh-huh. Well, I like the cooler temperatures also. And as you know, uh Sarge and I have a great big uh ash tree. A great big ash? We have a great big ash in our front yard. Uh-huh. Yeah, that's right. A great big ash in our front yard. And uh every fall it turns this brilliant orangey yellow color and drops a gazillion leaves, which are about two feet deep, into our front yard and uh our tiny front yard.
SPEAKER_03:It's beautiful, unless you're uh get too worried about all the leaves. But if you let them, if you let them be glorious, it's really fun.
SPEAKER_02:I don't worry about them. And then at some point I'll get the uh the electric leaf blower and I'll just blow them in a neighbor's yard. Yeah. Oh, I didn't just blow them out on the sky. Our leaf blower has a thing that allows you it can suck and blow blow. Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_02:So if you put it on suck-such talent. It is talent. You can suck and blow at the same time. Well, these are several times, but if you change the adapters around, you can actually suck the leaves up instead of blowing them. And it mulches them. As it sucks them up, it grinds them.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, so now have you seen this? There's a newer device that you put a bag underneath of it and it's it stands on some legs and it's round. It would be similar to taking a fan, you know, and setting it on its side, and then you throw the leaves down into this thing and it mulches them up as they fall down into the bag so that it takes up less room in the bags.
SPEAKER_02:That's what my that's what my air blower does.
SPEAKER_03:And mine does too. But I also would kind of would like one of those things that does that.
SPEAKER_02:Well, then you have two steps. Then you still have to pick the leaves up and put them in.
SPEAKER_03:But think of what great mulch you'd have. No, our mine does that. Okay. Mine does too. I'll show you. I'll show I can show you.
SPEAKER_02:No, I'll show you. No, I'll show you. I'll show you. I'll show you. I can act like a kindergartner. But uh, I like I like the colors, I like I like the the ciders that come out in the fall, and I like the smell of food cooking when it's cooler. Don't say pumpkin spice. Oh, I do like that.
SPEAKER_03:Oh my god, okay limited. Yeah, I'll I'll go I'll go with that. Limited pumpkin spice.
SPEAKER_02:By the time Thanksgiving has come and gone, I'm done. Yeah. And that's the very last.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, we had pumpkin spice Cheerios last year, and that was that was a little bridge too far, I think.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. But I like the sharpness of the light and the energy that it gives me. It's really great.
SPEAKER_03:Even when it's warm, there's this weird kind of crispiness in the air that's a little different. That's kind of nice.
SPEAKER_02:Well, you did a little early sort of fall travel, didn't you, in uh last month in September?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, we did. And where where'd you go? What was it? Well, we have to make our yearly pilgrimage to New Mexico, to Albuquerque. Um, it's a two-part thing. Mr. gets to visit with some of his family members, and then also we get our our chili at that time. Oh wow. Do you have to have a passport when you go? So uh well, coming soon, probably. That's another story.
SPEAKER_02:Uh don't you find it funny when you talk about New Mexico to someone and they they think it's a country?
SPEAKER_03:Well, when we were getting Mr.'s real passport, that that became an issue talking with the government officials. About New Mexico? Yes. Yes. I was on the phone more than once speaking with someone. Oh man. That was supposed to be of importance and in the know, saying, you know, he's from New Mexico. Mexico? No, New Mexico. In Mexico, no, New Mexico. That it's that's a United States state. Honestly, I'm not lying about that. They didn't get it. They really didn't get it. Isn't that weird? It was very strange.
SPEAKER_02:That was like when I was a kid and we were camping across the country, and people say, Where are you from? We'd go, Delaware. They go, Is Delaware, Pennsylvania? Uh uh no, the state of Delaware.
SPEAKER_03:Delaware's Delaware.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, Delaware's a state? Oh man. Maybe our education system isn't as good as I thought it was. But uh that's pretty wild. So you went to New Mexico. Uh-huh. And is it sort of a early glimpse of fall for you?
SPEAKER_03:Uh it's kind of that's the the September trip is the last big summer hoorah one, usually, probably with the camper. Um, now in a couple weeks, we'll go here to Cherry Cherry Creek for 10 days or so, and that's the that's the cleaning, packing, putting away, going through doors and drawers in the RV, taking stuff out that we didn't use and say, okay, well, this doesn't need we don't need to be carrying this around the world anymore because we we didn't use it this whole summer, so it goes out of here, you know, whether that's a pillow or a blanket or a dish or a spoon or whatever.
SPEAKER_02:I can't keep my house clean. I don't know how you can have a house on wheels and do all that.
SPEAKER_03:It's uh it's a lot. And it's a small space, and with that we got that hairy dog, you know. So the so the hair issue is.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, mister is just shedding like crazy.
SPEAKER_03:And by hairy dog I mean mister.
SPEAKER_02:Is there is there a reason why you go to New Mexico for chilies instead of just getting them in Colorado?
SPEAKER_03:Well, yes, because and people that are from this part of the United States know that there's a uh a rivalry between uh hatch New Mexico chili and uh uh Pueblo chili from Colorado. Yep. The Colorado people are gonna say that Colorado chili from Pueblo, Colorado is the best chili, and the people from New Mexico are generally gonna say that hatch chili from Hatch New Mexico is the best green chili.
SPEAKER_02:I think there it's there's no contest. I think Hatch has the best chilies.
SPEAKER_03:I do too. Um I think it's uh has a more of a flavor to it, and uh a lot of times the chilies are bigger. Yeah. The last Pueblo chilies that we got a two years ago, Mr. was real disappointed in those because they were just too small. So all that cleaning and stuff that you have to do, it's just more work because there's more of them because they're smaller.
SPEAKER_02:For those listeners that aren't familiar with getting fresh chilies, um they're probably about what, six, seven inches long. Right. And they can be anywhere from green to yellow to red, uh-huh. And they can be mild to very, very hot. And what you do is, or what they do, is they set up these stands next to the road, and they have great big steel bins, and they have powerful propane flames underneath.
SPEAKER_03:And they think of a bingo tumbler with bingo balls in it. Yes. Except for this has a flame underneath of it and chilies inside, and you're roasting the chili skin. And it's turning black and you're burning some of it.
SPEAKER_02:You're kind of burning it off of the chili is what you're doing. And the smell of that. Is there any there's no way to describe it as sir. It's amazing. It's pure heaven.
SPEAKER_03:If if you like that flavor, then and your your brain will associate that smell with that great chili flavor, then it is quite heavenly.
SPEAKER_02:And one of the things that I think is really great about hatched chilies is after you flame roast them like that, you put them in a plastic bag and they sort of they're hot and they steam, and you can actually slide the skins off of them. So you buy a bushel of them, prepare them all, take the seeds out if you if you like to do that. Um definitely take the skins off, and then put them in bags and freeze them.
SPEAKER_03:Now, now here's how Mr. does it nowadays. Here's his method is uh and I help, but I but he's he's the cook, so he's way better at it and more efficient and quicker. But but um he buys them, has them roasted on the right there on the site. Yeah. And some people want to roast theirs at home too, but that's even another level. Too much roast. But and they typically put them in a plastic bag and twist it shut, right? And then you let them sort of sweat, they call it in there. Check, check okay.
SPEAKER_02:Is it recording?
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Well, how rude was that? We just had a power failure. And you were in the middle of talking about chilies.
SPEAKER_03:A complete shutdown. Complete shutdown. But it's the irritating kind, really. Actually, I I hate it when it shuts the power shuts off and comes right back on. Uh-huh. Because then that just messes everything up. I prefer when it if it's going to shut off that it stays off for a couple minutes.
SPEAKER_02:So you were talking about how Mr. how they put the chilies in a bag, a plastic bag, and twist it, shut. Yeah, uh-huh, to s to sweat the chilies. Right. And you were saying how how Mr. does it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so he yeah, that's and he brings them home that way, lets them sweat and cool down in that sealed plastic bag for a while. He did two bushel, bought two bushel. Oh my word. Is that about 10 or 15 pounds? It's uh I don't know, but it was a lot. The bag's heavy, right? Yeah, it was quite a lot. He did. He likes to get uh mild and hot and then mix them together. Perfect. So then you kind of get different flavors and you take a bite and you never know exactly what you're gonna get. Is it gonna be hot or not hot?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we usually get medium and then we don't have that surprise.
SPEAKER_03:Uh yeah, try it sometime. Buy half mild, half bushel of mild and half bushel of hot. Mix them together. Important question.
SPEAKER_00:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_03:Rubber gloves, no rubber gloves. Rubber gloves. Yeah. Yeah. Because the minute you stick your finger in your eye not thinking, you're going to be sorry.
SPEAKER_02:Don't scratch your crotch.
SPEAKER_03:And don't scratch your crotch. For sure. Don't push your finger through the toilet paper.
SPEAKER_01:Where did that come from? Ouch. Ooh, that's hot. Ooh, that's hot. So, um, so okay, so okay, so yeah, so they sweat like that.
SPEAKER_03:Then he separates them like a dozen at a time, um, in into z quart ziploc freezer bags. Okay. Not he does not clean them, he does not decede them. He leaves even the burnt part of skin that's on there, he leaves it. Smart. Uh then I take the bags. This is my this is my contribution because because of my OCD and my anal retentiveness. I take the bags and I take a cookbook. Any cookbook will do. And I and I flatten the chilies flat and squeeze the air out of the bag till the chilies are just up to where the zipper is, uh-huh. And then I zip them shut real flat. Right. So they're so they're stackable. Instead of having a lumpy bag that you're, you know, that it's just a lump that you can't really store nicely in the freezer. If you freeze them flat, once they're frozen, you can either stack them vertically or horizontally in your freezer to be pulled out to use later. Sometimes I'll use a cookie sheet.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. And I'll lay the quart bags on a cookie sheet and stick it in the chest freezer.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_02:If there's room, and uh let them freeze. Then after frozen, they stack pretty much.
SPEAKER_03:I just wonder if uh listeners from other parts of the country and other parts of the world think we sound crazy right now, because I feel like this is a kind of really Colorado or New Mexico Western thing to have to buy chilies and freeze a whole bunch of them. I bet other parts of the country don't do that. And parts of the world.
SPEAKER_02:Maybe maybe some of our listeners in in the UK or um Australia or anywhere actually will give us some feedback on if if they have a a fall or late summer chili routine that they go through.
SPEAKER_03:Right. I mean, there'd be different in the Midwest, we took the the apples that were not quite so good and cooked them down and would make apple butter or you know, things like that, or they'd go through a press and make apple juice. And so I'm sure ever different regions have their various uh harvest kind of traditions, I suppose.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I like hearing about uh Mr.'s uh technique because we do it every year. Well, we we get a bushel.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:And it's gotta be it's heavy. It's a lot, it's a lot. But uh we get a bushel, and I bet a bushel will last us two years.
SPEAKER_00:Oh wow, okay.
SPEAKER_02:So you guys eat more chili and more sort of new Mexican style food than a little bit.
SPEAKER_03:That's the way he cooks. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:That's that's what I grew up.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_02:But um, so we only get it every other year, and this is the year for us. But I'm gonna try what you said on some of the bags. We always peel them and seed them before we freeze them.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, well, if you try it, here's what you're gonna find out is when you he'll go in the sink, then once they've unthawed, he'll take the bag out, let it unthaw. By the way, they unthaw a little quicker because they've been flattened out too, instead of just a lump. So there's another plus for flattening your bags out. Um, and then uh he'll get in the sink, letting the water just kind of he puts a strainer in the bottom and then lets the water just kind of you know slowly run, and he'll clean them in the sink. Um, you will find that they are much easier to clean that that the rest of the skin and even get the seeds out, wearing gloves, of course, right. Uh after they've been frozen and unthawed. I believe it. Yeah. So that's why he does it that way.
SPEAKER_02:That's a very, very good idea. Now, see, sometimes when we're too lazy, we'll put them, we'll just fill up a quart-sized bag. And when we need to use them, I pull them out of the freezer and um I'll put them in the microwave for just a few seconds just to not not thaw them, just soften the freeze on them. And I'll take a knife and I'll just cut off as much as I need, throw it in the stew or the chili sauce or gravy or whatever. The ones you've already cleaned. Right. Yes. And then free and put the other ones back in the freezer.
SPEAKER_03:Right, right. Yeah, that makes sense too. Yeah. But uh I think everyone has their own, you know, method of Does he ever stuff them? Uh he has before, but it's but he'll usually do that uh like it's kind of a separate occasion thing.
SPEAKER_02:You know, you made a comment earlier on, and I I don't remember if it was on the air or if it was when we were during our power outage um about the the uh amount of flesh or thickness of the chili.
SPEAKER_00:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_02:And I think hatch has you want chilies to have the thickest flesh. Yeah. Because they're the ones that are gonna have body and texture when you use them in cooking. Sure.
SPEAKER_03:We call that the meat, but yeah, that's that's what it is.
SPEAKER_02:Everybody wants, but it's really good when the chilies have thick meat.
SPEAKER_03:Well, of course, who doesn't want some thick meat? Come on.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's true. Yeah. If they're too thin, they just kind of disintegrate. Right. You can't really feel them with your tongue when you when you when you eat them.
SPEAKER_03:And now, after all these years together, of course, I you know, I want uh chili on my burger, chili on my potatoes, uh uh green chilies on an egg, uh well, I wherever, wherever you can think of that you can possibly put green chilies. I think we're gonna do that this year, too. Chopped up a little bit, you know. It's they're very good.
SPEAKER_02:We need to get some, but I think the freezer's full right now. So I'm gonna have to tell Jay to oh, I'm gonna have to tell Sarge to clear a spot in the freezer and and uh so we can go get a bushel of chilies.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you should.
SPEAKER_02:It seems like a lot when you're buying it, but they're so good.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and they it's kind of they kind of uh once they sweat and you you start packing them, it's it's just not as much as you thought it was gonna be really when you're first looking at it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:It's like it shrinks down almost.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Oh, I just hit that mic. Oh man, I've hit it a several times. Am I squirmy? Yeah. Um so it sounds like it was a successful trip.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, we had a good time.
SPEAKER_02:Well, we also did a New Mexico trip.
SPEAKER_03:You did? We were there at the same time. Strangely.
SPEAKER_02:Yep. Did you see any chilies roasting out in the open air? Totally. Yeah, so great. Um, I love that smell. Well, we went to visit our best friends who have a house down there, and um it was the first trip that I've taken anywhere for almost two years. So it was a big deal. And we were gonna take the telluride down, and and that was be its first maiden voyage since I I got it last October. And uh, it had a little boo-boo, so it went in the shop, and we got we had a rental car from our insurance company that we drove down to uh New Mexico and oh that's right.
SPEAKER_03:I forgot you used the rental to go down there.
SPEAKER_02:But uh that was really exciting because the rental was a BMW X7, which is their large um what SUV style car. And uh I think I think that car kind of tops out at a hundred and I think the top trim level starts at about a hundred and sixty thousand. So it was a nice car to have. And my car was in the shop for a minor repair, and it was like twenty-nine days.
SPEAKER_03:I was gonna say, I thought I feel like you were without it for a month.
SPEAKER_02:Yep. But they did a beautiful job.
SPEAKER_03:Good that the insurance covered the rental car for that amount of time.
SPEAKER_02:Tell me that was an expensive rental. Yeah, I have good insurance. Do you remember that Kathy Bates movie where she smashes into this this young these young girls?
SPEAKER_03:I'm older and I have more insurance. That's me.
SPEAKER_02:I have more insurance, so I got a really nice car.
SPEAKER_03:Good, might as well. If you if you you're paying for it every month.
SPEAKER_02:So but car repairs have gotten out of control.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's well, that it's not even repairs anymore. It's really to me, it's car replacement. They just re they just put new parts, you know, it's not knocking the dents out anymore or repainting it or whatever, like they just used to be, and now it's just all new parts.
SPEAKER_02:Well, new parts that have to be repainted.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and then they have to paint them.
SPEAKER_02:So there is painting and matching, right? And they can't just paint it, they have to clear coat it. Yeah, it's it's a big process. The little tiny dent from someone that backed into me in a parking lot, I assume, um, was over fifteen thousand dollars uh plus tax to repair and took a full month.
SPEAKER_03:And take it from me, I've I have s I saw it, it didn't look like that much damage.
SPEAKER_02:I don't even know when it happened. It could have been months ago.
SPEAKER_03:Well, yeah, in a your s shop is kind of in a bad parking lot.
SPEAKER_02:It's the worst. There are accidents here all yeah, I would imagine so.
SPEAKER_03:I remember when I first got the truck and I came over there to you to see so you could see it. I couldn't find a parking spot to accommodate my big ass truck. Uh-huh. There really was no place. I just finally decided, okay, I'm going to take about four spaces here and uh piss off all the locals because you know there's just no place for me.
SPEAKER_02:But I enjoyed driving that car, I really did, for 29 days, and I appreciate all of its wonderful things, like its powerful engine, and it's it automatically adjusts to the level of the road. And I drove it over 100 miles an hour at one point and uh close to 110, and that's the fastest I've ever driven in a car, and that thing was smooth as butter. Nice, it was it was lovely. Yeah, but happy to be back in my Kia Tellura. That's good. That's my favorite car. Okay, then that's good. Yeah, but we had a successful trip, and again, the the nights are so cool down there that we just slept like it's like not a worry in the world, like we were away from everything.
SPEAKER_03:Does it have that piney pine tree smell kind of in the air?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, there's a there's a smell. Yeah. And we had a couple rainstorms.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02:And when the desert gets wet, there's a plant in the desert, and I don't know what it is. It's not the chemisa, but it's something like that. And when it gets wet in the rain, it smells like oh, it just smells like food, like the best southwestern food ever.
SPEAKER_03:There's a there's a name for that smell when the dirt gets wet too with rain. You can't say it right now, but there's actually a word for that. But I've never experienced that except in New Mexico. Yeah, yeah. Well, and that house is uh magical and spiritual anyway. Yep. So it's it was good for you to go there and just have a nice uh cleanse.
SPEAKER_02:We were there five days, and by the last night we were there, I finally felt like I was starting to unwind.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, you almost needed a couple more days, probably.
SPEAKER_02:It had rained earlier, and I was sitting on a porch out on the side of the adobe that we stayed in, and um watched the sunset, and I just felt at peace.
SPEAKER_03:Nice.
SPEAKER_02:It was lovely.
SPEAKER_03:Nice. That's a you gotta get to that, especially these days. We have to get to that point once in a while. You have to allow yourself to do that. You you're gonna have to go again or go somewhere. Right. Or you can do the brain drain.
SPEAKER_02:But it made me realize that yes, I still can drive a fairly long distance, and and yes, I can still have a good time and without getting wrecked.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's good. Yep, that's really good.
SPEAKER_02:So there was another travel thing that happened in September. It did. So you went to New Mexico, I went to New Mexico, and somebody came to Colorado.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, that did happen. Who was that, Casey? It was KB. KB who? Otherwise known as Miss Kathy Bacon.
SPEAKER_02:Kathy Bacon.
SPEAKER_03:And the lovely and talented bacon bitch.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_03:And that was our great are you trying to say pleasure, or what are you trying to say? Okay.
SPEAKER_02:It wasn't really a surprise because we knew we knew ahead of time.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, we did know. Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_02:But you never know when you you set something like that up if if it's really gonna go through. If plans will change, if there'll be time, if something will come up. But we actually did meet them.
SPEAKER_03:Right. Well, you don't know if it's gonna work out, or you know. I mean, we haven't really had a time gotten the time to ever sit with Kathy before and have a little visit. So And we've never met, have you met Kathy before? I I feel like I did at in uh Las Vegas at the first the first podcasting get together, but but but there were so many people and it was a lot of sensory overload and stuff. So yeah.
SPEAKER_02:What was the first time I'd met met Kathy? And to me, she was a star. I mean, Big Fatty sort of plays her up as this elusive, you know, crazy character from South Dakota and uh from Nidrabah, uh-huh, which backwards spells Aberdeen.
SPEAKER_00:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_02:But uh so I was a little nervous because she was, you know, she was kind of even though she's she's just recently started podcasting, um, she was a pretty big name to me. Her reputation precedes her. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So so what'd you think? It was great. Tell our listeners what we do. Awesome time. Well, we decided we'd uh meet them at downtown uh at Union Station. So that the old uh, I don't know, is that a hundred-year-old building or how how long has Union Station been there?
SPEAKER_02:Well, there's a big sign that says travel by train on the other side. Yes, and there's a big arch over. I think did they replace the arch that says mitzbah?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, they may have.
SPEAKER_02:Uh um, but uh it's a beautiful restored historic building. Historic building, and the train still stops there, still an active train station.
SPEAKER_03:Right. And also the the our metro train that runs out to the airport is goes from there.
SPEAKER_02:So it's the it's the hub to all transportation in Denver. Buses, uh what do they call it? Light rail. Light rail, yes. Um the sky train, the train at the airport. Right. Um, all those things meet there.
SPEAKER_03:Sky train train that goes to the takes skiers to skiing in the mountains here. Oh, that's right. I forgot about that. Um, yeah, and uh and they've it's all redone inside. So it's it's shops and restaurants and a hotel is in there. Yeah. Um, so it's it's an interesting place to there's a weird, strange jumping water fountain out in front.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, that's really nice. Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_03:That's kind of interesting to look at. Yeah, and of course, uh excellent people watching as well. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Wasn't some guy washing his hair in the fountain?
SPEAKER_03:Yes, he was. Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_02:So that was kind of gross. Oh, well, uh-huh. You know, you do you, and he was doing him. But there are benches around. Yeah, you know, Colorado is famous for our incredibly electric blue skies and uh bright sunshine, and it we didn't just walked up to the fountains, which is where we were gonna meet, and we didn't have any idea, really, what Kathy looked like.
SPEAKER_03:And I wasn't sure, were you sure if she was coming with anybody else or if it was just Well, I kind of knew what she looked like, but also that that's uh that's my str another one of my strange brain issues is facial recognition. Right. I'm not very good at that for some reason, or I people think I forget them, but I don't. It's just that I I don't I my brain doesn't hold face recognition very well. Yeah. So I was worried that she'd be standing right in front of me and I wouldn't recognize her because I don't do very good with that.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I recognize voices really well. Okay. And so if I had heard her speak, even talking to a stranger and asking, you know, do you know where something is? Um I would have I would have recognized her. But uh she showed up and she was absolutely Absolutely delightful.
SPEAKER_03:It was fun. I also appreciate that her daughter uh was so uh conversational and engaging, you know, with two old fellas like us. Yeah. Some some fella. Some younger folks fella. Fellas. Some younger folks are can't, you know, do that very good, but this but she was she was raised right, as we say in the Midwest, because she had no problems keeping the fella range? I suppose so.
SPEAKER_02:We're not in the guys' range anymore. Two old guys. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:All right.
SPEAKER_02:Fellas just sounds so what's that show? Uh Petticoat Junk Show. Oh, yeah, we're two Western fellas from Colorado. Yes, we are. But uh so uh we we had lunch there. Yeah. There's a wonderful little restaurant called Olive and Finch. Yes. And uh they just moved into a new location within the train station.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_02:And it's really lovely. You order at the counter and you take a little wood block and it has a letter on it, and they bring you your food. So we just had a wonderful conversation and visited. I spoke quite a bit with a little bacon, and she is just absolutely delightful. Yeah, it was great. She's beautiful, she's engaging, she knows how to have a conversation, and it was her birthday.
SPEAKER_03:Yep. It was fun. We got to celebrate her birthday.
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
SPEAKER_03:And so I hope they come back and visit again one day.
SPEAKER_02:I hope so too.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I didn't talk with Kathy as much as you did, but uh the little bit of chat that I had with her just was just wonderful. She's just delightful. Yeah, it was a nice day. Yeah. I feel I feel like we made a friend.
SPEAKER_03:Right. Exactly that.
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
SPEAKER_03:So that was good. And I think they had a good trip and got to see some things while they're here, and I think they had a good trip to get back home too.
SPEAKER_02:I think she's put out two or three podcasts since then, which I've heard, but I haven't heard one yet where she's mentioned us yet, but I am assuming that will eventually.
SPEAKER_03:I think she's just going a little at a time.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. That'll she's she's making her she's stretching her content.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, good idea. That's what we all learned to do from Big Fatty.
SPEAKER_02:I know you learned to stretch your content a long time ago.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yep. So that was our BLT surprise.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_02:It was fun. Yeah. Actually, it would be a BBB surprise. Bacon bacon bits surprise.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, bacon and bacon bits. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I have a little pillow talk for you. You do. Oh. Are you gonna use your smooth jazz voice? I think I will.
SPEAKER_02:Let me see if I can find it. Okay, see. Can I talk to you about something personal and private?
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:I recently was in bed thinking to myself, damn, I need a new mattress.
SPEAKER_03:Uh-huh, don't we all? And so do I.
SPEAKER_02:You know, I don't, it's I think I think we got it when we moved into that house. I think it's been about ten years. But you know, in the old days, you had a box spring, and then you got a double-sided mattress on top, and you could spin it and you could flip it.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_02:So, you know, you could even have a pillow top on both sides.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But now that's not the way they make mattresses anymore. All you can do is spin them.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_02:And when you sleep with a partner in bed, oftentimes there's two dents that form, and there's nothing you can do about it.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, you I could take you into the other room here and show you that bed in there. It looks like two people are laying in there right now, even though they're not.
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
SPEAKER_03:It's so dented.
SPEAKER_02:Yep. And and I think half of what old people complain about, you know, their necks sore and their back sore and their hips are sore is a bad bed.
SPEAKER_03:Right. I agree.
SPEAKER_02:So uh Sarge and I have been talking about getting a sleep numbers bed for a long time, and and uh the salesperson that we spoke to months ago is still contacting us. And every now and then they have sales and I look at them and I see the prices on for that. And I would want one that was, you know, pretty high-end because I sleep hot. That's another thing that's a very expensive proposition. Yep.
SPEAKER_03:Is bed.
SPEAKER_02:I think if we got a king size, a king split, so that it was actually two mattresses put together, right? Um, which gives you the advantage of having an adjustable base on each side so both people can have a different sleep position and a different sleep firmness. Um I think that's about nine or ten thousand dollars. It's crazy. It's crazy. And they have all these payment plans. I'm thinking ten thousand dollars? A thousand dollars a year for a bed? It just it just seemed outrageous. So I went online and I started looking, and I looked at the helix, which I think one podcaster promotes, and I looked at the uh avocado, which is a totally organic version with no plastic, um that another podcaster represents. What about purple? I looked at purple because it's just the name, you can't forget it.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_02:And those were the only ones I really had heard of. Okay. But there's a very aggressive marketing firm that sells a bed called the Nectar Mattress or the Nectar Bed, and it popped up all over the place. And I visited the website and I was interested in it, so I I gave my phone number so I could receive specials and stuff like that. And uh, they were relentless.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But I got probably marketing information from them three times a day, and it really ticked me off. But as I explored all these different mattresses and all the different prices, I realized that Nectar had a really good deal. I could get a hybrid that had springs and multi-layer foam, I could get the side sleeper firmness, and I could get um a special cool top on it, which is supposed to keep the bed cooler. Okay. Foam beds can be kind of warm.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_02:And uh the price was really good. And I as I started playing around on the website, I found that if I bought one of their bundles, I could get a set of bamboo sheets, special support, you know, overpriced pillows, uh, an adjustable base that had USB port, light underneath, and a remote control, and the mattress for less than what I had seen on other companies' websites for just the mattress. Yeah. And I thought, I can't buy a mattress online. How am I gonna try it out? How am I gonna know if I like it? Right. And then they have this thing where they say 12-month return. 12 months? Mm-hmm. Wow. One year, one year they'll take it back. Okay, but they make you wait a month.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:I thought, well, that's kind of strange. Why do they make you wait a month? Maybe because by then you've got all your furniture back and settled in, and the thought of returning it is just too much and you just deal with it.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, and also just getting used to something different.
SPEAKER_02:Yep. So this this bed came and we planned a day for it, but it wasn't delivered the day that it was supposed to because the UPS drivers wouldn't lift the packages.
SPEAKER_00:Oh.
SPEAKER_02:UPS drivers now, single drivers, have to lift 150 pound packages by themselves.
unknown:Wow.
SPEAKER_02:That's a lot. That is a lot. And the the bed was 101 pounds, and I got the adjustable frame, and that was 146 pounds.
SPEAKER_00:Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_02:Sergeant and I could barely move it. It was on our front in our front yard, and the mattress, I don't know how they did this with the springs, was compressed in a box. It was maybe two feet by three feet or four feet, something like that. And the bed frame was in a in a big box.
SPEAKER_00:Oh man.
SPEAKER_02:We it killed us getting it in the house.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But after we got it set up, put it in, it takes 72 hours for it to fully inflate. Right. When you take it out of the package, it starts to go.
SPEAKER_03:Right. Watch those. Have you you gotta watch those some of those videos of how they pack them? Oh the machine that they use to smash them down and pack them. It's very interesting.
SPEAKER_02:I can't imagine how much force they have.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, look on YouTube, you can see it.
SPEAKER_02:It's a relatively small package compared to how big it was. It gets, yeah. Yep. So I got a queen size and adjustable base, and it it did take about three or four days for it to get to its all the way puffed up. All the way puffed up. But it was comfortable all the way. And what I'm finding is that every day I get a little more used to it. My bed was so bad that I think, and this bed is so good that I think it's straightening me out. It's taking it takes some getting used to something new. I think my bones are starting to get straighter and more flexible. And yeah, so I see the why they say a month.
SPEAKER_03:I just like that it has those different, like you can lean the back up to watch TV or or uh elevate your legs. That feels really good to do that.
SPEAKER_02:Well, this is gonna segue into another story you need to tell our listeners about.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. It is okay.
SPEAKER_02:Um I'm ready. I'm always ready. You and Mr. came over on Monday. Oh, to try out your bed. To to meet us to drive down to So all four of us could lay in your bed. Yeah, that's right. I only could get two of you. Two at a time. Two at a time. Um take a number. The uh you you got us tickets to Well, I think uh uh I think Sarge got the tickets actually. But you found the event.
SPEAKER_03:I may have, yeah, the 50th. Yeah, that may have been me. It may have been Sarge.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I don't I don't know. The 50th anniversary of Rocky Horror Picture Show.
SPEAKER_03:Well, we had gone last year t to it, and then after that we realized it was the 49th. So we kind of knew the 50th was coming and if they were gonna do something again.
SPEAKER_02:But I didn't really realize how long it has been until we went to this one and saw the 50th. But when you came to meet us, I got you in the bed and and Mr. in the bed.
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:And what'd you think?
SPEAKER_03:Oh, I I really liked it. I like the adjustable parts of the bed. It's that's amazing.
SPEAKER_02:I thought it was kind of like the only thing I can say about the adjustable part of the bed, it's sort of like a heated steering wheel or bidet.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Until you have one, you don't know you don't know how much you really needed it. Uh-huh. Oh, I don't want to get out of bed in the morning.
SPEAKER_03:In the 70s, it was the microwave. Until you had one, right? You didn't know what you were missing.
SPEAKER_01:Now everybody has one.
SPEAKER_03:And now everybody has one. Uh-huh. Now the bidet, we're not quite that far with that yet. But way more people have a bidet than used to have a bidet.
SPEAKER_02:And what happens when you have a bidet?
SPEAKER_03:You can't go back to not having a bidet. I couldn't imagine going back to not having a bidet.
SPEAKER_02:Sarge can't imagine going back.
SPEAKER_03:I could not imagine going back to not. It doesn't, it doesn't seem possible, actually. So in so much so that I had to buy a handheld portable bidet device to keep in the camper with me. Really? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And it's do you like it? Does it work?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I do. It's not as great as the you know one connected to your high part.
SPEAKER_02:Does yours have warm water?
SPEAKER_03:I had that one and I I uh it I liked it, but it had the heated seat and the and the light inside and all those things. I actually bought that one first in 2020, you know, when there was the no the toilet paper shortage shortage of 2020. Is that what we call that now, 2020? 2020, the great toilet paper shortage. Yeah. Um, so I bought one of those then and we used it that whole year and liked it okay, and it was rather expensive. But with all that stuff, it did not have the water pressure that just a regular cold water bidet has.
SPEAKER_02:Now, if you think about how cold the water in Colorado is, particularly in the winter, yeah, you might not want to squirt that on your butt.
SPEAKER_03:You get used to it very quickly, like in two days. You get used to it. Yeah, no big deal.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. That's amazing. It still feels so much better to be clean.
SPEAKER_03:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_02:Yep. So the bed now Oh, back to the bed. And I may and I may cut this last part. Okay. But uh the thing about the adjustable bed that I like the best is I used to get up in the morning and get coffee and go sit in my favorite chair and play the games. Do do Wordle and and the Connection. Connection and what's the other one? Uh like the word association.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's what is the other one? I can't think of the name of it. Is that is that the same one we're talking about? Yeah. Or not. Yeah, it's the it's the one next to Strands? Or not strands.
SPEAKER_02:Strands is where you find the word in the Oh yeah, there's uh spanagram or something like that, connections, and then sudoku. But I I get up and I do those. That's part of my routine. Okay. Well, the last and I do them on an iPad. And the last few days, last couple to three days, I've been staying in bed, putting it in a sitting up position with my legs up, sort of like I'm sitting in a rec a big recliner with a really, really comfortable seat, and I play my games in bed on the iPad. It's wonderful.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I would too. I'm afraid of retiring now.
SPEAKER_03:You'll just live in the bed.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, Sarge will get home from work at night and say, Have you left that bed yet? I say, Well, I've been up to pee twice.
SPEAKER_03:You'll have a little uh fridge and a microwave and a hot plate next to the bed. Yeah. Just be living in there.
SPEAKER_02:Well, you know, with the USB plugs in the bed, I have now 10-foot cables that I can put my phone or my iPad or my charge your devices or my hearing pods.
SPEAKER_03:See, you almost don't have to get out of the bed. Now, if you can install it bidet in your bed too, then boy, you're all fixed up.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, when's that coming?
SPEAKER_03:That'll be next.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Do we need to say any more about the 50th anniversary of Rocky Horror? Oh, Barry Bosdick. Bus dick. Boswick.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, yeah. Let me go ahead and just mention a couple more things about the 50th anniversary of Rocky Horror Picture Show. Because we went, the four of us went to it, and a lot of people dressed up. It's really it was a fun event. Uh Sarge dressed up. Yes, he did. He did. And he should have gone up on the stage for the contest. He could have been the winner. There were two or three rows of people on stage. It was crazy. Yeah. All the costume people that went up there. So I was gonna wear my tails and I couldn't find them. So I was gonna be a Transylvanian, but I couldn't find my tails.
SPEAKER_02:Jay was a Transylvanian. He was a party goer. Yes. And he had the best sunglasses.
SPEAKER_03:He did. He had great time warp sunglasses.
SPEAKER_02:And when we got there, they handed us like a swag bag.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. What was in that bag? Let's see. Toilet paper, newspaper.
SPEAKER_02:Right. Glow stick.
SPEAKER_03:Two playing cards, a glow stick.
SPEAKER_02:Because they didn't want lighters.
SPEAKER_03:For there's a light. Yeah, for there's a light at the Frank Side Place. Glow stick.
SPEAKER_02:Condom.
SPEAKER_03:A condom.
SPEAKER_02:And a clappy hands.
SPEAKER_03:Oh yeah. A little like party noise. Like a party noisemaker. Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, and a party hat.
SPEAKER_03:Oh yeah, a pointed party hat.
SPEAKER_02:And did you say roll of toilet paper?
SPEAKER_03:Yes. Uh-huh. Yep. That was the craziest part when everybody's throwing that toilet paper around the theater. The theater was full. I feel sorry for the people that had to clean up after.
SPEAKER_02:I feel sorry for all the people sitting behind us because we were really close. We were. We were like seventh row.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it was a good scenes.
SPEAKER_02:Everybody in the back that got hit in the head by toilet paper rolls flying through the air backwards.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, well, they had a much bigger screen to view the movie this year, so that was nice. And uh and the the playing below, of course, is the shadow cast of characters.
SPEAKER_02:Live people that know every word and are acting it up.
SPEAKER_03:They seem to, and that's a local troop of people. Oh, it is. And that's what happens in most cities. Most cities have a local troop of people that that's how strangely bizarrely this movie has this crazy. Yeah, after 50 years, major cities still have these kids. I'm gonna say kids, most of them. Well, Gen Z. Yeah, most of them are younger than us that that do this, that want to act out the movie while the movie is is playing. Right. Yeah. And so so we can go again. Right. We can go twice in October and see the Shadowcast, and once in November here in Denver and see those same kids, because they do it all over the place.
SPEAKER_02:And they run up and down the aisles and they yell the most obnoxious words. Uh-huh. Whenever Brad shows up, uh-huh, you you're supposed to yell out asshole.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_02:And whenever um Janet Weiss. Janet Weiss shows up, you know, slut. Uh-huh. Unless it's before the the if it's early in the movie, you yell slut, and then you say um something like not really a slut until what is what is that thing you I don't know.
SPEAKER_00:I don't know where you're going with this.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Not a slut yet? Oh, is that right? Yeah, something like that. Okay. That's like the counter thing to someone yells slut and and somebody else, you know, everybody else yells, not a slut yet.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Something like that.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, I missed that one maybe.
SPEAKER_02:Oh yeah, it's not that big. But it was fun.
SPEAKER_03:It was really fun. Yeah, it was a good evening.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. It was our first uh little glimpse of the of 16th Street, formerly the 16th Street Mall.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, isn't that a riot?
SPEAKER_03:And the and the updates they've done.
SPEAKER_02:How many years did it take for them to complete this project?
SPEAKER_03:Quite a few.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, this is the major street. This is the 16th Street Outdoor Mall in Denver. Downtown Denver. Uh-huh. It's got granite and it has a special little bus that's free that goes up and down. No cars, all the shops are there. Right. Um, it's been what, three years, you said?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And it's finally almost finished. Right. And they hired this big marketing company to see if they needed to rename it because they've it's been called the 16th Street.
SPEAKER_03:16th Street Mall for years and years.
SPEAKER_02:So they did. They came up with a brand new name.
SPEAKER_03:Are you ready for the brand new name?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_03:Do you want me to say it?
SPEAKER_02:Please.
SPEAKER_03:And after a million dollar investment in a marketing agency, think admin, uh picking a new name for the 16th Street Mall. Drumroll. So called 16th Street. That's it. Is that amazing? It's crazy.
SPEAKER_02:I bet they paid a million dollars for that name.
SPEAKER_03:Just to take mall off. Just they just erased, they took an eraser and erased the word mall.
SPEAKER_02:Right. But there were there were so many pedestrian bus accidents that they really did have to change the flow of.
SPEAKER_03:They did change the flow and they and that some of the side streets that cut cut through, they've closed them completely now.
SPEAKER_02:And that bus, which runs up and down the mall for free, goes down to the transportation hub at Union Station. Right. So from there you could go to the airport, you could go to All over the place. Denver University or way south in Denver. Yeah. It's great.
SPEAKER_03:Right. Did you see that one guy though that what proposed gondolas?
SPEAKER_02:Have you seen that? Uh-huh. You mean like at a ski resort?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Downtown there were going to be these poles and gondolas uh flying all over above the street.
SPEAKER_02:It'd be cute. Have you seen that?
SPEAKER_03:Oh, there's a there's a proposal for it for Denver.
SPEAKER_02:Well, what's really nice is now now with AI, you can do a visual proposal for almost anything.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, well, look at research it. Look up the Denver gondola proposal. There is one. And there is AI pictures of it.
SPEAKER_02:They do have these uh when theater's going on and stuff like that, they have these guys that ride bicycles that pull. I would call it a gondola, but it's like a little chariot.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And it's attached to their bicycle, and you know, they have legs of death, you know, legs of steel. Thighs like tree trunks.
SPEAKER_03:They're pulling a cart.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:A horse buggy, if you will. Instead of a horse pulling it, it's a human in a bicycle.
SPEAKER_02:Ten, fifteen, twenty bucks, they'll take you to your hotel. Or to a restaurant or something.
SPEAKER_03:Up and down the mall.
SPEAKER_02:Well, now they're all electric bikes.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Which is easier for those guys.
SPEAKER_02:But they speed along like crazy. Yeah, they do. They have music and lights. Yeah, there's something.
SPEAKER_03:Uh one time many years ago when the broker restaurant was downtown.
SPEAKER_02:That's a steakhouse, right?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. I remember the broker, and it was in the basement of a bank old bank building. And they had that bowl of shrimp. Yeah, and the vault was down there and a bowl of shrimp. Yeah. Things. Yeah, I I took my mom, she came to visit for the stock show in January. So I had made reservations at the broker. And then after I had made uh a reservation for the the actual horse, the guy with the horse and cart to come.
SPEAKER_01:Oh nice.
SPEAKER_03:And uh we Do they still have those? I haven't seen them in the case. They do, they do. I don't you don't see them as much in the summer, it seems, as you do in the fall. Um, but uh the the cart we had had lost the uh rubber rim around one of the wheels. Oh no. So it was just the metal. Oh no. So our ride was uh a little frantic because of the scraping of this metal band that was on this wheel.
SPEAKER_02:Damaging the street, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_03:Down on the street.
SPEAKER_02:Damaging that granite paving on the way. Oh gosh. Well, with with um with the Rocky Horror Picture Show, you sat next to me and you knew every word to every song.
SPEAKER_03:Well, I don't know every word. I don't know that I could be in the shadow cast.
SPEAKER_02:Could you do the meatloaf? Do you know the words to the meatloaf song?
SPEAKER_03:Whatever happened to Saturday night. Yeah, maybe maybe so.
SPEAKER_02:That's all. I I can't understand the words to that. So next time we go to the next time we go to this, I'm gonna do prep. I'm gonna print out the lyrics to all of the music and all of the cues and do like a little printout.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. That's a good idea. I have another idea for us, though. If we uh once you get fully retired, yeah, um, I think that then likely what we should do is join the uh Shadowcast troupe.
SPEAKER_01:Oh here.
SPEAKER_03:Uh the name of the troupe here is Colorado's Elusive Ingredient. Ooh, I like that. So if we joined Colorado's Elusive Ingredient, uh we could become quite sure how to help you with that. We oh well A-L-E-X-A is trying to talk to me right now, and I didn't ask for him.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Uh so we could become part of the Shadowcast.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, that'd be fun. I could play uh um who do you want to play? The one with the hump on his back.
SPEAKER_03:Uh uh Riffraff.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I could be a really good Riffraff.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. Yeah, you gotta kind of scream.
SPEAKER_02:Because he's a kind of a skinny old man.
SPEAKER_03:We have to get you uh a little fake hair with the little banana curl at the top of it.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, that'd be easy.
SPEAKER_03:That'd be pretty good.
SPEAKER_02:I'll make one.
SPEAKER_03:I want to, of course, uh play Rocky. Oh, that'd be great. So I could just wear the little gold lame undies and that would be it.
SPEAKER_02:You probably wouldn't be allowed on stage.
SPEAKER_03:Could you see me and the gold lamay, my old man body and gold lame undies on the stage? That'd be ridiculous. They wouldn't be looking at your body.
SPEAKER_02:I'm just saying. So uh, but that kind of leads us to our final feature.
SPEAKER_03:The final feature of this episode. We need another F-word. The final feature of this performance. No, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:Let's see, what could it be?
SPEAKER_03:That leads us to the You know how I like alliterations.
SPEAKER_02:What would be an ending word for S?
SPEAKER_03:S?
SPEAKER_02:Uh-huh. So we could call it a segment. We could call it a of this superb.
SPEAKER_03:I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:What's the word for ending? We'll think about it.
SPEAKER_03:Yes. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:We'll come up with something and we'll probably edit most of that up.
SPEAKER_03:Put a pen in that and we'll table it for the next episode.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So so the final part of this episode is the soundtrack of our life.
SPEAKER_03:Correct.
SPEAKER_02:And Mr. KC, do you have a soundtrack song? You know I do. And what is it?
SPEAKER_03:Well, I've I've gone through uh a bit of a rabbit hole of uh Fleetwood Mac and specifically the album uh rumors. Oh, that's a great album. It's just so good. And I don't really know what caused me to go back to it. I'm gonna guess probably some little TikTok short or something. They used a song. I don't know. Right. Anyway, somewhere I heard something that made me think that I needed to hear all of that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And and you and I were old school enough that I think you'll do the same thing. We will do that. We'll listen to the the whole album, if you will. Yeah. Like I In order. In order. The way it was the way that the artist meant for me to hear it. Am I getting am I getting too riled up about it? And you won't hit play next song before the space between the damn way that the artist wanted me to hear that, not just a song. Right. Plucked out of Spotify.
SPEAKER_02:Actually, even though you're make you're kind of making fun of this.
SPEAKER_03:But rather, the whole album, the way it was the artist wanted me to hear it.
SPEAKER_02:Think of a book. Yeah. And let's say the book was The Wizard of Oz. Yeah. But the only chapter you read was when Dorothy met the Scarecrow, because that's your favorite. Right. And when they say, Welcome to Oz, you may enter now or whatever. What if those are the only two chapters you read? Right. You missed out. You missed out on the whole story, the whole book missed out. Music is that way too. It tells a story.
SPEAKER_03:At least it used to. A lot of them do. And some did some didn't, but many did. Right. And and many left it up to you.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:You listen to it like this, but then you make the story up in your head how you want it to be for what you've heard. Right. So, and so that's and that's called imagination, which is also good.
SPEAKER_02:It is good. And rumors is one of those albums that does that.
SPEAKER_03:Right. It's just these, you know, f four people that were couples and non-couples and and navigating their life and romances and relationships and actually putting all that to lyrics and music. And somehow, strangely enough, it worked out almost just perfectly.
SPEAKER_02:And music was their soundtrack to their life. Yes, that's true. But they were creating the soundtrack. Right, right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And so since and when that came out when I was, you know, shortly out of high school, it was it's was pivotal times in my life of my uh becoming who I am and stuff. So so it's kind of important to me. So I listen to it a lot. So I'm choosing uh Fleetwood Mac Silver Springs.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know if I can think of that song.
SPEAKER_03:Well, you'll we'll listen to it after. And it's I I would call it a probably an unrequited love song. Oh. So, you know, could could I listen to it and could it make me cry? What do you think? Oh yeah. Of course. Of course.
SPEAKER_02:And you go through phases.
SPEAKER_03:Because I love to do that.
SPEAKER_02:You love to cry, but you're going you're going through a phase now where I think you like to cry a lot.
SPEAKER_03:I do sometimes. Yeah. It's a good, it's a good uh chemical and endorphin release to do that once in a while.
SPEAKER_02:I'm not in a crying mode lately, but I go through them. I know what it's like, and I will seek out things. Right. Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_03:I would want to make myself cry.
SPEAKER_02:I have a playlist that says this will make you cry.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, nice, good. That's a good one to have if you need to do that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But I haven't used it in a while, but it's coming up, I can tell.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. So my song is Fleetwood Mac Silver Springs.
SPEAKER_02:Great choice. Thank you. And you, sir. Interesting. You said it was about couples and relationships and uh their interactions with each other. Because my song is from a group of performers. That that was very much true about their music. They created a soundtrack talking about their lives, and it was ABBA.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Or if you prefer ABBA. But uh I've been getting these earworms lately, and they've been songs from different places or points in my life. Excuse me. And I got an earworm a couple days ago that was so strong that I had to play the song. Do you ever do that?
SPEAKER_03:All the time.
SPEAKER_02:And it was yesterday, actually.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:And the song is called it's ABBA, of course. I said that. The song is Thank You for the Music.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:And when I listen to this, of course, um, I listen to it. The song is written in first person, but when I listen to it, I I imagine third person. Okay. So some of the lyrics are I'm nothing special. In fact, I'm a bit of a bore. If I tell you a joke, you'll you've probably heard it before. Um and so it starts out as as you know, feeling like most of us feel like we don't have a particular gift to offer mankind. We're just ourselves, you know, we're just people. But um there's a lyric that really hits me every time. It says, What would life be without a song or a dance? What are we? So I say thank you for the music. And it almost makes me cry every time I hear it. And it sort of talks about what soundtrack of our life is about.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's true.
SPEAKER_02:Our lives, more than ever. I mean, when we were kids, getting our first record player was a big deal.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_02:Then our first stereo was a big deal, then getting a sound system, and then having music in the car, and then being able to take music with us with a uh what they call those portable cassette tape players? The little Walkman The Sony Walkman. Yeah, and then they had a Sony disc man. Yes, and then you know it went on and on and on and on, and now we have our phones that can play music at any time, and that can make us happy or sad or whatever, but music is so much a part of our lives. And this song back from the 70s or whenever it was written, um, really says that.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_03:So I think uh as gay men too, there's a relationship to music and dancing and the the freedom and freeing yourself and and being free to do that. And for us in a in a in a gay club, that was that was really, really, really important.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, what one of the lyrics is nothing can capture a heart like a melody can. Right. And isn't that the truth? That's what you were saying.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Make you cry. It makes your heart feel.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:It could be happy or sad, cry. Right.
SPEAKER_03:You know, Gaga right now says, you know, choose dance or die. Well, we're gonna choose to dance, you know. That's what we're choosing.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So we couldn't live without music.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I don't think I could.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Well, cool. What a nice way to end this episode.
SPEAKER_03:It was fun. That was good. We we we had a lot of newsy stuff. I think a lot, a lot, probably. Well, because it's been a while, but a lot of content. Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I will say one thing.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:If Big Fatty had this much content, he would have dragged it out over two months. So possibly. I'm sure. So the fact that we actually waited two months and put all the content into one episode. Big Fatty, are you listening?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, we're talking to you, Big Fatty. We're gonna call you and give you some content.
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Well, on that note, is that a threat or is that a promise? Totally. He doesn't want our content. Anyway, it's been fun. I've really enjoyed myself. Thank you for today.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, thanks. We'll talk to you again soon.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Bye.
SPEAKER_02:Bye.
