SPEAKER_0 [00:00:00]
Dramas, please.
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:13]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:00:20]
This is life
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:22]
with a twist of lemon.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:24]
Okay, John. So it remains to be seen whether or not this is the last episode of the podcast or not. I suspect My suspicion is that we are going to take a break.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:32]
For how long? I do not know. But in true life of the Indefinite
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:38]
break.
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:39]
Hold on. Time out. List listener. Dear listener, if we take a break or if we don't, don't unsubscribe because there will be something else on this podcast feed at some point. I I That that I I I feel confident in saying, I don't know if it'll be every week, every month, or maybe it'll just be when John and I go on a cruise to The Bahamas. Nonetheless,
SPEAKER_0 [00:00:58]
there will be something
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:00]
here for you to listen to. So just stay subscribed
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:03]
and wait. And remember,
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:05]
you can always find John on the Facebooks. Can You always find me on the Twitters. I don't know if you can say always on the Facebooks. I'm sporadically on the Facebooks. Okay.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:14]
But I'm on Instagram. I I actually in fact, I posted twice on Instagram this week. Did you notice that?
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:20]
I saw the one. What was the other one? The one was before Yeah. You were gonna road
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:24]
Oh, I didn't see the one today. No. Oh, okay. So I I posted yesterday. This is this Like, it's a crazy week here. I posted yesterday
SPEAKER_1 [00:01:31]
because we were gonna go up and visit my dad and Which I didn't even know about because we, like, aren't even talking anymore, Stan. Well, it's because you work all the time now. I know my work and commute.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:41]
So I I We went up to visit my dad because my kids are all vaccinated. They could go inside. They could hang out. They could have lunch. We could open Christmas presents together in the nursing home, demasked.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:50]
Right? Because, again, this is all before Omicron ruins the world.
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:54]
But
SPEAKER_0 [00:01:55]
we were able to do that Which cause what? In three weeks? Yeah. I I don't I don't know, man. I'm not even paying attention anymore. Co COVID is dead to me. So so but but the thing is, we we just for good measure, because the last thing I wanna do is bring
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:09]
a virus that I'm vaccinated and protected against into
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:12]
a residential facility.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:14]
We we went out. We just did, you know, rapid tests at home just to be triply safe. Right? Everybody felt great. We just, like, wanted to be sure. And I thought to myself, like, this is this is 2021
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:25]
in a nutshell.
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:26]
Right? To feel good about going to visit your family, at least in my situation. I wanted to be doubly safe. I wasn't getting to be sick. And so here we are, 2021 road trip, and we all took rapid tests, and we took a picture of all of our negative rapid tests,
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:38]
together,
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:39]
and then we posted on Instagram because that's what you do in in, you know, 2021.
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:43]
So that was that was yesterday. Then today I think you needed to do a dance and make it an Instagram reel,
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:49]
aka TikTok rip off. I don't know what a reel is. I don't know how to like, do I have to sweat They're the things that,
SPEAKER_1 [00:02:56]
Tom Silva does
SPEAKER_0 [00:02:58]
with Oh, yeah. Daughter things. Yeah. His daughter does those, and she does a fantastic job. Yes. First of all, they get us an American treasure, and second of all, his daughter is just an absolute saint in that she is bringing this American treasure to all of our Instagram feeds. To the interweb.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:15]
If you are on Instagram and you are not subscribed to Tom Silva, first of all, shame on you,
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:20]
but go go subscribe. Tom Silva is is absolutely worth it. Alright. If you don't know who Tom Silva is, Google it. Anyhow,
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:26]
today today I posted all of us wearing hairnets at the Wheeler Mission here in Indianapolis because I took all my kids to serve meals
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:36]
at a homeless shelter and I thought, you know what? This is this is good experience. I'll post this on Instagram.
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:42]
We did that today. How can we never post bad experiences on Instagram?
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:46]
Like the one that's currently going on that you haven't given me an update on, you don't wanna talk about.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:51]
Wait. What? Which one?
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:53]
The the one in your office. Yeah.
SPEAKER_1 [00:03:55]
The reason why you're still in the the closet here.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:58]
Okay.
SPEAKER_0 [00:03:59]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:00]
the reason I'm still in the office is because,
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:03]
first of all, I I got I bought the laminate that was used
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:07]
in the rest of my house. Okay? Mhmm. And
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:11]
it really stinks.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:13]
Like, it it's it's the snapping it together has been very painful. It is not what I remember with Armstrong Flooring, which is the last laminate I put down, which snapped together really easily.
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:23]
So so that's that's been been a problem. The other the other thing is because it's the same kind,
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:29]
I'm trying to line it up with the laminate that will be outside in the hallway, and I'm gonna I'm gonna buy a threshold, but I I wanted the panels to line up. That was just stupid. I should've just like turned it to the other direction and just
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:43]
gone with it. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:45]
This whole thing started because I was trying to rip a a piece of laminate. So rip means like cut it down the middle long ways,
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:52]
and that
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:54]
is not easy. Right? But there's a special tool for it called a table saw,
SPEAKER_0 [00:04:59]
something I've always wanted.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:02]
So Merry Christmas, Stan, you got a table saw.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:05]
So pastor, if you still listen to this podcast, you ever need a table saw, I'm just down the block.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:12]
And it's a drop site saw, so you can move it easily. Yeah. It's actually It only weighs 46 pounds. It's insane. Nice. So first of all, it's it's lightweight, and everything folds in together. Like, it it like, everything can be compacted. It's actually really slick.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:24]
So
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:25]
I have ripped exactly three boards with it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:28]
I I have probably three more to do.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:32]
The the most expensive three boards in the house,
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:35]
but I have no regrets because you can't like, I've wanted a table saw for a long time. There's whole bunch of other projects I can do now that I have this. So Yep.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:44]
Alright.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:45]
Nice.
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:47]
I don't know where we're going, Stan. Yeah. We're we're all over the place. Historically,
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:52]
on this podcast,
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:53]
we have spent at least one episode
SPEAKER_0 [00:05:56]
talking about New Year's resolutions.
SPEAKER_1 [00:05:58]
Which we call goals. You can go back and listen to any Habits. These previous
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:02]
Habits is a little word that we like to use. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:08]
We I think last year, I felt like we knocked it out of the park
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:12]
on a couple of fronts.
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:13]
At least, I did. I rocked. You really did. Yeah. Yeah. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:18]
I I went into this whole thing, first of all,
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:21]
by making I had missus Lemon. I wrote I wrote out, first of the things that I wanted to do. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:27]
And
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:29]
I
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:30]
I had missus Lemon put them on a sheet, all fancy like, and put them on my
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:36]
my wall. And so, I've I've already talked about this at nausea, but basically, it was like, wanted to get the vaccine. I wanted to show John how to brew beer. I wanted to see my mom and dad. Right? Because after 2020, it felt like forever. I already described like, it's it's, you know, my my dad's in a residential facility. It's it's,
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:52]
it's not like just popping at the house. Right? And then I wanted to take two family vacations. We did all of that,
SPEAKER_0 [00:06:57]
and I was done, I think, by
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:00]
August.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:01]
Right? Now, I had I had some things that I didn't do so well on this. So so first of all, I wanted to continue my daily habits, which was like, read scripture and praise of family. We've been pretty good about that. Read about my day. I've been pretty good about that too, actually, and read. I've been pretty good about that. I did not do as many books as last year, but I have read a lot of books this year.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:21]
And
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:22]
then I wanted to begin to get out of bed early in the morning, to bike
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:26]
two ten mile trips a week, and to practice the clarinet twice a week. So I wanna talk about this real quick. I'm actually doing it in reverse order. I decided after I made this list to get a
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:38]
a dental implant done on the front of my face.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:41]
And in in order to get it done, I had to do braces for,
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:44]
what amounted to about seven or eight months.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:47]
And it was a a pretty rigorous adjustment schedule, and honestly, playing the clarinet hurt.
SPEAKER_0 [00:07:53]
So I did pretty good up until, I'll say about May, and then I've I've kinda fell off because it just was unpleasant. I've recently picked it back up.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:03]
So I I don't necessarily consider this a total loss, but it definitely was not a total win.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:08]
Biking, I I did terrible at. I I I genuinely did not get going, and then you and I had an awesome bike ride. Come to find out afterwards,
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:16]
I've got some wrist issues on my right right hand.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:20]
So which I'm still I may have a diagnosis, but I'm still in denial. So we'll just go with that.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:26]
And then getting out of bed in the morning, I actually was terrible at this up until I took this new job.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:31]
So this new job has given me motivation to get up and communicate. So all all said, 2021, I felt like it was a win.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:40]
Podcast wise, you wanted to record one episode every week for the year.
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:45]
And this makes us accomplished. This is it, John. We did it. We pulled it off. Yep. Alright. We talked about your
SPEAKER_0 [00:08:53]
New Year's resolutions. You wanna go and give a quick overview?
SPEAKER_1 [00:08:57]
Yeah. So, we had read 14 books,
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:01]
be better about reaching out to people, one contact a month, start making wine, write code three days a week, bonus, go on vacation.
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:09]
So by the end of the year, I will have hit the 14 bookmark,
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:13]
if not more,
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:15]
possibly 15.
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:18]
And
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:20]
for reaching out to people once a month, I think I didn't keep real great track of this. I know I started off the year really well,
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:27]
but I think that this probably holds true even if there was a duplicate in there once or twice.
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:33]
So
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:34]
there's that. I made wine. I need to make more wine next year. I don't know if that will be a goal or not.
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:39]
Rate code three days a week did not happen.
SPEAKER_1 [00:09:43]
Part of that was because my weird my year was weird.
SPEAKER_0 [00:09:48]
Yeah. You definitely didn't go into 2121 thinking, oh, I'll be unemployed for close to half of it. Right? Right. Like and that that messes with so much. I mean, so I you know, give yourself a pass I on that mean, I wrote lots of code. I feel like I've learned in the development spaces here,
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:03]
So that's good. Go on vacation. I didn't go anywhere. Again, COVID still, but I did book the cruise for March.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:11]
You you did come to Indianapolis
SPEAKER_1 [00:10:14]
for July 4. We had a wonderful July 4.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:17]
So, yeah, we'll count that as vacation. Yeah. That that was a vacation, John. We blew We stuff up, did blow stuff Oh, I did.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:25]
Alright. So have you have you thought a bit about 2022?
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:29]
Now now we should probably set the scene here. Right? So at
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:32]
when we made our list in 2021, the world was on fire,
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:36]
for for a number of reasons. Right? Like, people were storming the capital, getting sick, dying all over the place. Like, everybody was unhappy,
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:44]
tons of duress.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:46]
I think we made some At least in my situation, I made some goals specifically in lieu of that. Right? Like, looking up. Yep.
SPEAKER_0 [00:10:53]
I think this summer, things felt pretty great. Right? And now, we're getting to that dark winter again. I think 2022 is gonna be better than '21.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:01]
I I genuinely I genuinely think that.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:05]
But I'm curious, like, what have you thought about in terms of New Year's resolutions?
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:10]
So,
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:11]
like, my initial reaction is I don't really wanna set anything solid just with how crazy the last two years at least have been and everything being up in the air.
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:20]
So, generally, I just want to enjoy
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:24]
life. So maybe that means
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:26]
enjoying a walk with my wife and my dog bound by the Cedar River or,
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:33]
sitting on the deck and smoking my pipe.
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:35]
Cruise will be wonderful,
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:37]
hopefully,
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:39]
seeing some other countries. You know? Like,
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:42]
we'll be on, I don't know,
SPEAKER_1 [00:11:45]
sigma Just one country. Or something like that? Yes. One country, two islands.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:50]
Two islands. Okay.
SPEAKER_0 [00:11:52]
Alright. Well, yeah. So looking ahead to 2022 for you. I mean, you've got a stable job. Right? Yeah. I mean, not get laid off or have my position eliminated is definitely a goal.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:03]
And
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:06]
then, it sounds I'm I'm just gonna chalk up that you are gonna make wine again. That's what I heard you say. So we'll go Yeah. So really, the next things are, like, I really want to make enough wine to still have some to give to people as gifts at Christmas,
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:19]
and I would also like to get into woodworking to be able to make things to give to people at Christmas.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:25]
I would love for you to make me something using my table saw. How's that? There you go.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:31]
So I've been thinking a lot about my New Year's resolutions. And again, I've I've been real gung ho on goals,
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:37]
you know, specific things to work towards, and then also,
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:41]
you just, you know, habit forming.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:44]
I generally feel like I have good habits with the large,
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:49]
exception of
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:51]
exercise.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:52]
Right? And I don't wanna
SPEAKER_1 [00:12:54]
You've been taking, like, 11:00 at night walks pretty regularly.
SPEAKER_0 [00:12:58]
I have been taking late night walks with a dog, and I think that's the habit that I want to do. So interestingly, in 2020,
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:05]
in in the fall, my wife and kids, we took walks all the time, even into the winter. And then we'd like, fell off the map, we stopped doing it. And so, I just I just wanna have a regular walk. And I'm not saying I need to walk every day, but I would like to walk, I don't know, four or five days out of the week.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:22]
Worst case scenario, if I can't walk because it's like a monsoon season or whatever, maybe I hop on the elliptical. But I just I just wanna get out and walk.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:30]
I enjoy it. And I generally, I've noticed I feel a lot better
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:34]
after I do it. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:37]
I've started to
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:39]
build this habit around getting up in the morning, getting going, and having like a structure to an early day.
SPEAKER_0 [00:13:44]
I have struggled to figure out what to do with my evenings now that I've got, you know, an hour or two freed up. And and so this is a really squishy one, but I'd like to find a routine now for my after work time. Right? Because what winds up happening is I start to read or
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:01]
I start to surf the the web or whatever, and I'm next to the work computer,
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:06]
and so that line has blurred for me where I've had such a crisp distinction in the past.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:11]
Right? Because I'm so I'm I'm so used to I spent eight years basically working nine to 05:30 ish. Right? Now my day is like 07:30
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:21]
to hopefully,
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:22]
maybe, you know, 03:34,
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:25]
I guess. I I don't even know.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:27]
I So I gotta figure that out.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:30]
And,
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:31]
you know, beyond that, I wanna continue to read. I wanna continue to write. I'd like to actually
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:36]
I I completely bombed at blogging this year. I had like a really strong start until May, and then I completely disappeared.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:43]
I'm not sure that blogging is what I wanna do. I think I wanna try writing long form.
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:48]
I think I think like a short story and I really what I'd want to do is I'd like to write a Star Trek fan novel, John.
SPEAKER_1 [00:14:57]
And post it on Reddit?
SPEAKER_0 [00:14:59]
I don't know if I post it or I don't know where I'd post it. Maybe I just post it for my own satisfaction, but I I
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:05]
love Star Trek, and I,
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:08]
like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:09]
this is gonna sound so weird, but I'll sit back and daydream about being, you know, the engineer aboard a starship. And I keep thinking to myself, like, I should write these daydreams down,
SPEAKER_1 [00:15:18]
you know? Is interesting because
SPEAKER_1 [00:15:20]
I would not have guessed
SPEAKER_1 [00:15:22]
that you would be drawn to writing fiction.
SPEAKER_1 [00:15:25]
Like, reading, sure. But I wouldn't expect you to write fiction.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:30]
Well, and I I can't say that I've done much of it. Like, I've got some scraps here and there, but I'd like to actually give it a whirl, you know? Yeah. That would be cool. Fancy. So that's I think that's my big 2021 thing. Now, I am intending to take
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:42]
a vacation with just my wife,
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:45]
and it will be a cruise to The Bahamas with with John and Anna.
SPEAKER_0 [00:15:51]
So I have goals where it's I wanna, like, pay attention to my wife on that trip.
SPEAKER_1 [00:15:58]
Wanna Probably, I wanna call. I wanna not make Anna her
SPEAKER_1 [00:16:01]
might wanna hang out with her, so
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:04]
Well, that's fair. That's fair. I wanna also not make John mad, like, And I know I know some of the cues, I've been picking up these cues, if John says, I need to go take a nap, I know that I've gone too far on something. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:17]
So so that that's the goal, but the other thing is I want to
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:21]
do family vacations again.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:23]
We have not We've honestly not been great as a family taking family vacations up until this last year. We took two very clear family vacations.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:31]
And so I wanna I wanna make that like a thing. Right? I wanna I wanna build
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:36]
some repetition into that.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:38]
I think I think I'd like to go to Disney World again with my kids. I think they would like that, maybe. I don't know. I'm never quite sure if I like Disney World more than they do, but that's that's on the docket, so I don't know. I think your kids love Disney World.
SPEAKER_0 [00:16:52]
Do you? Yeah. Just based on how they talk about it. Okay. Well, I think they were positive experiences, even even the one time we went and got, like, deathly sick. But,
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:02]
you know, it's I I looked I looked to next year, and I've been thinking a lot about this. Right?
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:07]
I'm not sure that next year's the year that things go back to normal. I'm not sure they ever go back to normal. But I think, for me at least, it's gonna be about finding the right balance of,
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:16]
like, risk tolerance and being comfortable
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:20]
and and just accepting that, like, this is the way things are.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:24]
I hope that that's next year. I really I really gotta think it's next year. Right. But
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:32]
I don't know. I I'd
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:34]
love and I'm not gonna put this down as a New Year's resolution, but I would love to figure out how to get John Kollmeier
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:39]
to move to Indianapolis.
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:41]
There you go.
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:43]
John Kollmeier has job.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:45]
Drunkle Music, if you're listening, I'm coming for your guy.
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:49]
If you can get
SPEAKER_1 [00:17:51]
Anna a job out there, I think West Music would be open to letting me work from Indiana.
SPEAKER_0 [00:17:55]
Oh, listen, man. She just has to figure out which school system she wants to teach Indiana does such a good job of driving the teachers away. There are plenty of options. I don't wanna talk about that on the podcast.
SPEAKER_1 [00:18:05]
Talk about what? I I would prefer my wife get out of teaching currently. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:10]
It's just just because it's it's a like, it's now a high risk job? Yes.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:15]
Yeah. Well, it was probably always a high risk job. But Well, it yeah. I it's been high risk for a number of reasons, but I think 2021
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:24]
amped it up a bit, right, in terms of how risky it could be. Because if they're not getting sick,
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:30]
right, they're they're having to worry about getting shot or whatever.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:35]
Your poor wife, I feel for her, you know. Yeah. The the This last couple weeks were were rough, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:43]
Is So that a new transition, John? The transition, transition? Colmire? No. I'm not gonna.
SPEAKER_1 [00:18:48]
She is allowed to choose what she wants to do for a career.
SPEAKER_0 [00:18:51]
Well, but she can, like, cross your fingers and hope, like, missus Colmire finds a new profession.
SPEAKER_1 [00:18:57]
Yeah. I don't know what else to do. She likes kids too much.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:01]
That's just amazing. I I like kids. I like my kids. I don't like anybody else's kids. Right.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:06]
And that's only because you have to. Yeah. Well, no. I I love them. They're they're fun. They're nice. Out of curiosity, John, we are this so this will drop the what? The Thursday before New Year's.
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:20]
Right. It's the '20
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:21]
no. That's the thirtieth. The thirtieth. Yeah. So what do you do on New Year's? Like, do you have
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:29]
habits, things that you do?
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:31]
No.
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:32]
Really,
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:33]
probably half of our marriage, we have gone to bed before midnight.
SPEAKER_0 [00:19:38]
I'm not gonna say that's sad, but it's kinda sad.
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:42]
So,
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:42]
like,
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:43]
all through high school and college, like, my good friend Andrew Searson's birthday is January 1, so I always was hanging out with him.
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:54]
And then there was one year where we were
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:58]
in Illinois,
SPEAKER_1 [00:19:59]
and, like,
SPEAKER_1 [00:20:00]
all of my family went up to Milwaukee. So we were in my grandma's house alone, and I think that's when we first started going to bed before midnight because there was nothing to do. I do have a bottle of champagne.
SPEAKER_1 [00:20:10]
Missus Kolmeyer doesn't really like champagne,
SPEAKER_1 [00:20:13]
so we'll see if I open it or not.
SPEAKER_1 [00:20:16]
Why did you buy a bottle of champagne? It was a gift from something. It's been on my wine rack for two years. So Okay. Okay.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:25]
Yeah. You know, it's it's I I used to enjoy staying up. I I I don't like watching
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:31]
the end of the year shenanigans on TV. I find those to be, like, boring and lacking taste. But
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:37]
I don't mind watching the ball drop, you know? And I Like, last year, we let the kids stay up and or try to stay up. They all, I think, tanked out on the, on the couch.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:48]
I
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:49]
don't know, man. I like, it's just kinda whatever. Maybe we're just old.
SPEAKER_0 [00:20:55]
But
SPEAKER_1 [00:20:56]
Maybe. And like
SPEAKER_1 [00:20:57]
there's no big parties. You haven't been able to go to New Year's Eve parties since you've had young kids and no babysitters.
SPEAKER_1 [00:21:04]
So I don't know. Maybe maybe we reignite
SPEAKER_1 [00:21:07]
a New Year's tradition when the coal Myers moved to Indiana or the Lemons moved to Iowa.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:12]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:14]
Yeah.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:15]
Well, we could and so I think the proper way to do this, right, is the barbecue and,
SPEAKER_1 [00:21:21]
have fancy cocktails and things of that sort. So I'm a big fan of scotch and cigars on New Year's Eve. I know you won't smoke with me, but you'd probably drink scotch.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:30]
Yeah. No. I would definitely drink scotch. Let let let me ask you, Like, does that if you're if you're smoking a cigar, does that have to be a peaty scotch?
SPEAKER_1 [00:21:38]
No. Because you have the smoky taste from the cigar.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:41]
Okay. Alright.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:43]
I mean, I I don't have a problem with peaty scotch. I'm just curious because I don't I don't know the rubrics here.
SPEAKER_1 [00:21:48]
There probably are rubrics, but, like,
SPEAKER_1 [00:21:51]
just enjoy life, Stan.
SPEAKER_0 [00:21:53]
Okay. I try to, John. I generally try to. So, you know, it's it's funny. I thinking about this too. I don't really have a problem staying up to midnight
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:02]
on any other day of the year,
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:04]
you know? Like, I I If I if I get a new coating or something,
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:08]
I I can cruise right past midnight and it's no problem. Now, it's a little hard to get up the next morning or, like, if the Steelers are playing, you know, I'll stay up for that. But on New Year's Eve, for whatever reason, man,
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:19]
I just struggle on that one. So
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:21]
Maybe we should plan to play a game over FaceTime or something like that. We could do that. That'd be fun. I wonder if we could get your father-in-law to Then we can play that, whatever it was. Boulder Dash?
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:32]
Boulder Tower? No. No. No. You're thinking of the the game the online game. I don't even remember. Yeah. Was like Jack the
SPEAKER_1 [00:22:38]
Jack in the Box. Yeah. Jack but there was like four different games. Right? I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. They're gonna be fun. They're gonna be fun. That's we're this we sound like such old men. We are. You're gravy. Yeah. Hey. That's the only way I'm gonna stay up till midnight, Stan.
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:52]
I wonder if we could use Apple SharePlay
SPEAKER_0 [00:22:56]
to watch the same thing at the exact same time synchronized
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:00]
via FaceTime,
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:01]
you know, as the ball drops or whatever.
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:04]
There you go. That sounds
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:06]
stupid. But Yeah. It really does. It does.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:11]
What, do you do you have movies that you watch on New Year's Eve? Is that everything you did? I mean, would watch movies but nothing specific.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:20]
Okay.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:20]
I feel like the
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:22]
the Die Hard movies are a good fit
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:25]
for for New Year's Eve.
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:27]
So
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:29]
there's, like, the Hogwarts
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:32]
twentieth anniversary or whatever that's supposed to release on New Year's Eve on HBO Max.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:38]
Was that a documentary? No.
SPEAKER_1 [00:23:40]
It's like a Harry Potter reunion type of thing, I think.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:42]
Oh, where they all get back together? Gosh. I I wonder if that's kid safe. That can't possibly be kid safe, can it? I have no idea. I would screen it first.
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:52]
Yeah. Alright. So that probably won't actually happen on New Year's,
SPEAKER_0 [00:23:57]
for me at least. I because it would the the Daniel Radcliffe,
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:00]
like, man, he went off the crazy train after Harry Potter. Man, you would too if you start working as an actor at, what, age 12. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:09]
Well, that's fair. That's fair. That's fair. Probably not enough therapy in the world to, like, fix that whole mess. But
SPEAKER_1 [00:24:15]
yeah. Go from being a nobody to the most recognizable person on earth. Well,
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:22]
as long as you get rid of the scar, you won't be recognized. Right? Yeah. Scaring glasses. Sure. I was gonna read those books this year and I did not get to those. I wanted so badly.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:32]
I don't think I'm going to. There's always next year. Yeah. There's always next year. I actually So you might appreciate this. I was thinking So last year, one of the things I didn't write down that I wanted to do was I wanted to read
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:44]
the Tolkien books. Right? The the Mhmm. Was it the the one with the towers?
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:49]
Lord of the Rings. Lord of the Rings. Lord of the Rings. I
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:52]
swear I don't do this on purpose.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:55]
It's almost embarrassing at this point.
SPEAKER_0 [00:24:58]
But I I I, you know, buckled down. I read them. I even got to
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:03]
this is the one with the Tom Bombadil stuff. Right? Yep. Fellowshipist.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:07]
Yeah. Yeah. Complete waste of my time. The Bombadil piece. But but I was saying to myself, like, I I wonder if I could read the whole thing again, you know, how much more I would pick up on it. Yep. I need to read The Hobbit again first, which And you know how I feel about The Hobbit. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:23]
beautiful beautiful book. Just like, what was the point, you know? Which is basically, like, The Hobbit is is basically Tom Bombadil. Right? Or Tom Bombadil's The Hobbit. It's the same thing. Like, it actually serves no purpose
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:35]
to me. Right? Because So they fell asleep during the battle, John.
SPEAKER_1 [00:25:39]
True.
SPEAKER_1 [00:25:41]
How interested are you in Middle Earth?
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:46]
Like, what what what is what is that?
SPEAKER_1 [00:25:49]
The where Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit take place.
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:53]
Is it called Middle Earth?
SPEAKER_1 [00:25:55]
I don't know. Why is Asgard called Asgard?
SPEAKER_0 [00:25:59]
I think there's a reason Asgard's called Asgard.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:02]
There's a reason that it's called Middle Earth too. But but, like so so the the thing is, like, Earth Earth has a meaning. Like, Middle Earth, what is that? Is that, like, underneath Earth? Like, between Earth and the core?
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:16]
No.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:17]
Yeah. See, that's what I'm saying. Like, I don't understand.
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:19]
Is it not I'll I'll look it up. I'll do some research for you, Stan. I don't know the one off the top of my head. Is Middle Earth on the same planet as the Earth that I live on?
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:29]
Okay.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:30]
Is it? I mean, do you know? I would say yes.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:34]
Okay. Interesting.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:36]
So it's not
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:37]
it's not in a galaxy far far away?
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:40]
Like, if because if you told me that Middle Earth is like a continent on Kashyyyk,
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:44]
I could get behind that. Right?
SPEAKER_1 [00:26:48]
Main continent of Earth in imaginary period of the Earth's past.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:54]
Okay. So it could be Asia.
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:56]
Right? Like, it it could be. Yeah. It's
SPEAKER_0 [00:26:59]
this Earth, but way back before
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:02]
people, I guess?
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:05]
I mean, there's men in Lord of the Rings.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:08]
So so is Smaug a dinosaur?
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:11]
Smog's a dragon.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:13]
But are dragons dinosaurs?
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:15]
Possibly.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:17]
Possibly?
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:18]
Interesting. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:20]
could we find Smog's bones somewhere,
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:23]
like in Asia?
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:24]
No.
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:25]
It's a fictional period of time with fictional characters.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:29]
Okay.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:30]
Would you say would you say it was, like, BC or AD?
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:35]
BC.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:36]
Okay. Like, how like, how far BC? Like like, Moses BC?
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:43]
Probably not. Probably closer to
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:46]
what do you call the tipping point?
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:48]
The tipping point?
SPEAKER_1 [00:27:50]
Because I mean, like, Gondor looks like Rome.
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:55]
Oh, interesting. So you think this is like Maccabean,
SPEAKER_0 [00:27:58]
basically?
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:00]
I guess, Stan, if you're gonna push me on it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:04]
I just this is I
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:06]
I am willing to accept
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:08]
a fictional universe.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:10]
I just I I think where I struggle with is you call it Middle Earth, then it happens
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:15]
where I live. Right? So it it actually comes it comes from Midgard.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:23]
Interesting.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:24]
See, now we're cooking with peanut oil.
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:26]
So, like, Tolkien's big thing is that he was, like,
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:30]
what do you call it, like a linguist.
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:32]
He would study all these old languages,
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:35]
which is why he started coming up with his own.
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:38]
So,
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:39]
yeah, it's
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:41]
Midgard.
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:43]
Old English was Midengard,
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:46]
descends from Germanic words and stuff like that. See? Wikipedia can help.
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:51]
Okay. So but I I completely derailed you. You were asking
SPEAKER_0 [00:28:55]
if I wanted to read more about Middle Earth.
SPEAKER_1 [00:28:58]
Yeah. So, basically, one of the most fascinating things that I have ever read are the published letters of JRR Tolkien.
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:05]
And it's Can like I get it on Kindle?
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:08]
Probably.
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:09]
I think it's If
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:11]
you send me a Kindle link, then I will
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:15]
buy it in January, and that will be the first thing I read in January. How's that? And it's great because they're letters. So, like, you can just pick it up and read a couple letters and then put it down.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:25]
And I'm I'm all for that. I'd like
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:27]
It talks about, like, going back and forth with his publishers and all about when he was writing and taking forever to write the Lord of the Rings and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:37]
Should I read The Hobbit before I read the letters?
SPEAKER_1 [00:29:40]
How well do you remember The Hobbit?
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:43]
Well, enough that I'm still frustrated about it.
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:46]
Then it probably doesn't matter. You could read them both at the same time depending on your mood. Okay. So you're gonna find a Kindle link. You're gonna send it to me, and I will take a look at this. Let me let me ask you. Actually, makes me
SPEAKER_0 [00:29:57]
reminds me of something I wanna run by you. In 2020, I read a whole bunch of non fiction,
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:02]
right, that put me in kind of a dark place because it was, like, timely
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:08]
non fiction.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:09]
Yep.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:11]
I did away with fiction
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:13]
in 2021
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:15]
with just
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:16]
very few exceptions. I read
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:19]
the Obama book this year. No. I read the Obama book. No. That was before. You read some, like,
SPEAKER_1 [00:30:25]
work type books.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:28]
Yeah. I don't even that doesn't even count though. Like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:31]
because they're on your Goodreads.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:34]
No. No. No. I know that. But I'm I'm saying, like, the kind of book I was trying to stay away from, that was not it. Right? So Right. I was trying to stay away from, like, political junkie stuff, which I had gotten
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:47]
absorbed into. I read a lot of Oh, I read So so one of them that I that I broke my rule for was Preventable by Andy Slavitt, which is okay. I mean, whatever.
SPEAKER_0 [00:30:58]
I read the John Boehner book. That's one I broke my rule for. I think those were the only two
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:04]
because again, I don't consider as an example,
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:10]
the Manners book by Donald James is like, you know, breaking that because it's it wasn't like
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:16]
there was there wasn't a dark jury set or Heart of Steel by Bill Cowher. Right? Like, that's not the kind of book I was trying to avoid.
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:24]
12 Essential Skills for Software Architects?
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:27]
Yeah. That was that was important. That was relevant.
SPEAKER_1 [00:31:31]
How's this money one then going?
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:34]
It looked interesting. I never heard money.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:37]
Yeah. This so
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:39]
I actually found this one because of you,
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:42]
believe it or not. Okay.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:44]
You sent me
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:45]
some Art of Manliness links,
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:48]
and one of them was with this Morgan Hussol guy or Hussol, however you say his name.
SPEAKER_0 [00:31:54]
And I've just started to put it into this. It's actually not a long book, but but I read some stuff that he'd written after
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:00]
that podcast,
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:01]
and I was I was kinda sucked in. I don't think it's any, like,
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:05]
earth shattering
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:06]
stuff per se. Yeah. At this point, none of the money stuff is, is it? Yeah. I mean, I think he so his big thing, right, is like your experience with money or your your your philosophy of money, right, is dictated by your experience. And he gives some, I think, like broad sweeping examples where like if you were,
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:22]
you know,
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:25]
born pre like, in the seventies, right, you don't trust bonds the same way as maybe you do today.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:30]
If you were
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:32]
investing
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:33]
in the forties, you look at, you know,
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:37]
stocks very differently than you do, you know,
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:40]
having been born in 02/2005.
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:43]
In fact, even like, you know, if you were investing during the .com bubble, you look at that very differently than if you're investing now. Right? And so your experience shapes the way that you view investments, which which basically means there's like no
SPEAKER_0 [00:32:55]
right or wrong way. Right? There's just the thing that you've been framed around.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:00]
And
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:01]
and there are other nuances, but that's like the the thing that I really took away from the one podcast you sent me and and has come up so far in this book. So I'm interested to check it out. This actually reminds me something else I wanna do better in 2022.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:13]
I have really
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:14]
kinda dropped the ball
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:16]
with my budgeting. I've underspent
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:19]
what I bring in.
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:21]
Right? But I have not done a good job of knowing what I'm going to spend in a given month before I spend it. Some of the deliberateness that I've had
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:29]
in years past. I think some of that, honestly, is a is a byproduct of 2020 where, like, there just wasn't stuff to spend money on. Right? So I I, like, didn't worry about eating out, as an example. And I also
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:44]
overbought food because I was paranoid
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:47]
about not having food. So those kind of things, like, I just I just fell by the wayside, produced excess on my my bottom line, and I I stopped being deliberate. So
SPEAKER_0 [00:33:57]
that's something I wanna do better at. Some of the things that I've been You know, I've actually been talking about this. Been thinking about is I wanna look at some of my annual expenditures. So like, how much do I spend on buying, like, gifts for people, whether it's birthday or Christmas or whatever.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:11]
Right? Because that's kind of a tricky thing to budget for, first of all. Home improvement is a category that I do not budget for well.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:18]
I tend to account for it in other things. And then what what were the other ones? Oh, vacation. Vacation was another one too. Because again, you rewind to 2020.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:27]
After I got back from Disney World, didn't have a vacation budget.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:32]
Oddly enough, the vacations I took in 2021,
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:35]
I booked and paid for most of them.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:37]
Actually, I think maybe all of them
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:39]
at the tail end of 2020.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:41]
Right? So I did the RV, and I did the the campgrounds, and I did the house rental.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:46]
And So I I just did, like, all as one lump sum at the end of the year, and I wasn't really thinking or planning. Was just like, I'm I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna lock it in.
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:52]
So those are some of the things I'm thinking about and
SPEAKER_0 [00:34:57]
try to try to come up with
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:00]
some strategy. I like I I don't necessarily wanna, like, tie my hands because I think that's the worst thing you can do with budgeting.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:05]
I like to come up with a
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:07]
philosophy for myself there.
SPEAKER_1 [00:35:09]
Yep. You need to budget for your vacation so that you feel like you need to spend the vacation money.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:15]
That's I mean, that's an interesting angle. Right? I don't know that I've
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:18]
the the problem of vacation for our family has not usually been like I don't have the money to spend it on it. Right? It's Right. It's more
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:25]
like getting the calendars to line up.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:28]
That's something too. 2022, I'd like to be better about calendaring. I think we we've managed the tail end of 2021 here
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:36]
to tie ourselves up almost every weekend with obligations,
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:41]
and that's just no fun. You know?
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:44]
Because when else are you gonna smoke a pork shoulder? Although now you don't have to do anything besides throw it out. Yeah. Yeah. I don't I don't do anything. It's smoking a pork shoulder used to be a whole, like, exercise, and now I just cruise control, man.
SPEAKER_0 [00:35:58]
Yep.
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:00]
Alright, John.
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:01]
I think
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:02]
I think 2022 is gonna be a good year. I'm looking forward to hanging out with you in person again
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:09]
in The Bahamas.
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:10]
Don't I even know what that's gonna be like, but, I got a It's passport just for gonna be warm in March.
SPEAKER_1 [00:36:16]
That's what it's gonna I'm be
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:18]
looking forward to that. I'm We really gotta find somebody to stamp my passport. I went through all that effort to get it. I really want it stamped, John.
SPEAKER_1 [00:36:26]
Alright.
SPEAKER_1 [00:36:27]
You should That's your goal. Do some searching for us. Why is this Michael? Because
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:31]
you talked me into this thing. I dropped how many ever thousand dollars to go on a cruise with I will let you figure out to get my passport stamped. I will let you wave to captain Mickey because you aren't allowed to actually go shake their hands or anything.
SPEAKER_1 [00:36:44]
Not at changed by March. Now it's all social distanced.
SPEAKER_1 [00:36:49]
Oh my They're behind ropes.
SPEAKER_1 [00:36:51]
He's wearing gloves all the time though. I know, man. Take it up with Disney.
SPEAKER_0 [00:36:56]
Alright. Okay. Well, John, happy New Year to you. Dear listener, happy New Year to you. May 2022 be filled with fun, joy, and all good things.
SPEAKER_0 [00:37:06]
Stay safe and stay happy.