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A
When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans.
B
Send event invites and pin messages so.
A
No one forgets mom 60th and never miss a meme or milestone.
B
All protected with end to end encryption.
A
It's time for WhatsApp message privately with everyone. Learn more@WhatsApp.com so we could just start the podcast. What do you think of that?
C
That's fine with me.
A
All right, sure, sure. Let's do it. Okay.
C
Don't breathe like that.
A
Do whatever want. Oh, God. I took a pill that makes me feel like God.
C
Buckle up. It's gonna be one of those.
A
Welcome to the Musers the podcast. Episode 17. Riding it Out. Hello and welcome to the Musers the podcast. My name is Gordon Keith.
C
Oh, I'm George.
A
That guy over there, that's Craig Miller. I recognize him.
B
Yes, I'm Craig Miller, AKA Sweetness.
A
And I don't know if you two guys know this, but the three of us were friends who've done a highly successful radio show together for 30 years in a top five market here in these United States of these Americ Americas. And now we're bringing people behind the scenes. Thoughts, feelings, impressions, things we wouldn't dare share on the FCC regulated airwaves.
C
No, no, never.
A
That's what's so great about the Musers, the podcast. And this is episode 17. And before we get to the topic of this particular episode, we do like to do our letter of the week. Letter of the week. I have them here in my hands and I have a few. There's a couple little short ones that I wanted to share with everyone. This one comes to us from Aaron, our Singapore listener. We have multiple. We haven't heard from Aaron before, have we?
B
I think we have different 8 Singapore listeners.
A
Isn't that crazy?
C
That is crazy.
A
Singapore of all places. Aaron says when the podcast came out, I listened to an episode with my husband while on a road trip and I have been hooked ever since. Even going back to listen to the previous release, previously released episodes that I'd missed. I laughed, I cried, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to learn more about you and the history of your lives, relationships, loves and pet peeves. Keep it up. Signed Aaron.
C
Sweet.
B
Thank. That is sweet. So when she goes on Singaporean road trips, yeah.
A
George said he didn't think they had roads in Singapore. And I'm like, never said that, never.
C
Said that, never said that.
A
But yeah, Singaporean road trips. I wonder if they drive on the road right side of the road in Singapore or whether it's a left drive.
B
Country, my guess is right.
C
You were saying earlier they don't know how to drive in Singapore.
A
Oh, you said that. You said some other things that I won't repeat here. Why is it that when they do like in England. Have you guys ever been to England and rented a car in that area of the world?
C
I haven't had the bravery to drive overseas yet.
A
I driven it in Scotland once. I took a trip over there with my dad when he was getting up there in age and he always wanted to go back to the old motherland. Scotland? Yes. So I took him over there and I rented a car and I drove. And it's once again on the wrong side of the road, which is crazy. And I, I want to say that it also, it was a right driving car. Like you sit in the.
C
On the right side.
A
On the right side of the car and the controls are on the right side. And I don't understand why we always do this where the, the driver is always in the head on collision zone right of the car. No matter where we. If we switch the roadways, we switch the driver over into the danger zone.
B
By the way, my guess was incorrect. In Singapore they drive on the left side of the road.
A
They do.
B
It's a leftover from their time as a British colony.
A
Oh, wow. So there you go, George. Info that you need. This comes to us from P1 West. And I really love this one. And that's why this one is named the Muser Letter of the week.
B
Sorry about that, Aaron.
A
Yeah. Aaron, you didn't win.
C
You're runner up, I guess.
A
Yeah. We have a deal. You can't live in Singapore and win letter of the week.
B
Even though our first letter of the week was from Singapore.
A
Yeah, but we changed it after that. So P1 west says P1 of course, meaning a person who listens. So maybe it's Pl. Maybe I'm reading that wrong. Person who listens. Musers podcast is great. Thank you for all that you do to your bodies. That's strange. I don't understand that phrase says. Wanted to let you know how influential your ramblings are to your podcast listeners. My parents and I are listeners. And there was one line issued in one of the earlier podcasts that has changed our lives. And the quote is, don't sit on the sidelines of your own life. As simple as it may have seemed, its impact runs deep. Sometimes we put off retirement or doing the things that we want to do until it's too late in life. And when that phrase was uttered, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Similar to the quote, I wish I knew. I was in the good old days before I left them. My parents have altered the trajectory of their work lives and have decided to retire early to be able to experience life while they still can. Never thought that one little line that was uttered by you guys would change so much about our lives, but it's been a blessing. Keep doing what you're doing.
C
That's great to hear, but it puts some pressure on us, doesn't it? Because what if it doesn't work out for them? Then all of a sudden it's our fault.
A
Yeah. And then they blame us for ruining their lives.
C
That's going to work out well. That's a. That's a really nice level.
A
Yes. Don't sit on the sidelines of your own life.
B
Wow. Now that I think about that, I'll see you guys later.
A
Oh, he just wait. He's gonna go live his real life. Hang on.
C
One more episode.
A
Okay, so today, what we're going to talk about is a huge problem. And I think that it's a huge problem, particularly for me. I think I'm going to leave today's podcast feeling so low about myself.
C
I don't want you to feel alone, because I'm bad about this, too.
A
The topic is riding it out. The things in life that we put up with simply because we don't get around to fixing them. And I have so many of these. When I started making a list of the things in my life that I just simply ride out, and I let be a problem for much longer than it should be a problem because of the single problem of me. Yeah, I'm the problem at the center of my life. And I'm the problem that doesn't solve all the other problems because I just sit around and think about. Man, I'll get to that tomorrow. I'll do that. Oh, man, it drives me nuts.
C
You're not alone. So many people do this. Of the three of us, Craig is probably the best about this.
B
But even I do it a lot when making the list of everything I've been writing out. And I realize that I ride out a lot, too. And then I think to myself, everybody is doing this. I think we all ride out way too much.
A
What is it about the human character? I don't know that because we don't want an ounce of effort right now, we will just endure months, years of suffering instead of Just getting something done now.
B
So it is a human thing because aren't we wired to take the path of least resistance? And whenever we encounter something in our daily lives, which is a million things a day, we just most often choose to take the path of least resistance, which is not fixing that thing that we're riding out.
A
And every time I do get proactive and finally solve a problem that's been bugging me for two years, I always go, why didn't I do that before? That was so easy. I made the one phone call, they came out and they fixed the thing. And then now my life is nothing but hot tubs and soulmates.
C
Should have been a one day problem. Yeah, but you turn.
A
I turned it into two year problem.
C
Here's a two month problem. I'll admit this to you right now. Look at my headphones. We're all wearing headphones. Look at the padding on my ear, my right ear. Watch this.
A
Okay, so George, what he does is every time he stuffs a piece of foam between the hard plastic of his headphones and his ear, every time he puts them on.
C
Two months.
A
Now, in our day to day job, we are broadcasters on radio. So we use headphones constantly, every day. It's matter of fact, it is the primary tool that we use because the microphones we use or owned by a radio station or in this case a podcast studio. But the headphones are ours. And it's the most intimate thing that you can wear. It's got to fit you comfortably. You want to be able to hear just right. That's a $25 pair of headphones that you're wearing.
C
I know, but I'm used to them and I just don't want to take another step of.
A
You bought those. There's been a company called Amazon that's been invented.
C
I know. And I could replace this earphone. Our producer Peter has offered to order it for me.
A
And you say no, no, no, I got it. You don't want to be humiliated by having someone else solve that for you.
B
Yeah.
C
Don't do that to me.
B
I'd like to invite the two of you to look at this side of the table and look what I am wearing on my ears. I have been riding this out these little ear pods for three or four years. Look at this. It's frayed there where the wire is showing. So I can't even use the right one. And what beats me down is this cord is that I can barely move away from the microphone. And I've been writing this out.
A
This Cheap.
B
This is probably a $20 set of earbuds.
A
Yeah, you get those free with the purchase of an iPhone 2. Yes.
B
Okay, and why haven't I ordered new ones?
C
Knock me down with a feather. I thought you just wanted audio in one ear all this time. I thought that's why you were doing that.
B
I would be better with audio in two. But this one doesn't work because the wire is shorted out on this side.
A
Okay, Peter, maybe we're order some new stuff. All right, I got one for you. So for the past two years, I've had a couple leaking faucets. And this is not just leaking as in drip, drip. It's like it's a steady stream of water, and I can't cut it off.
C
Now you're part of the water problem in Texas.
A
I am, I am. I hired a company to come out one time a couple years ago when I was going to solve this thing, and they said, you want us to tear out the wall and put it in a whole new shower tree? One of these faucets is a shower head. And I said, nah, don't do that. I said, okay, well, we can do a stem replacement in there. It sometimes works. Sometimes doesn't. It's kind of expensive. It's like $500.
C
Oh, my.
A
But I was tackling the problem then because I'd written it out like a year before then. So they fixed it, and about, I'd say, two weeks later, it started again. So I got to tear out the wall and just replace all the works. It's been two years now. It's not just the sound of it, and it's not just when you open that bathroom door. It's like a orchid hot house in there. It's so humid, and you could be doing growing pot in there. It is. It's ridiculous. But it's not just that. It's that I have to turn off the water hot water, because it's the hot water side, and. Or it'll have the water heater running constantly. So before every shower and before every time I need hot water, I've got to go to the closet that has the water heater, turn on the hot water, use it, and then go back and then turn it off after I've taken the shower bath or wash my hands or whatever.
C
So every wall knocked out. You could probably do it yourself.
A
It's been two years that I have to turn on and off the water anytime I want to use it. The hot water at the water heater, boy.
C
And doesn't it make it, maybe it makes it better and you eventually do it. Or does it make it worse when you have someone else in your house saying, when are we going to get that fixed?
A
I'm on it, I'm on it, I'm on it.
C
Next week. I got some time next week we're going to fix it. Yeah, promise. Just like the gate that now leans up against our fence that has been out for about two years.
A
This is like an electric gate over a driveway.
C
No, no, it's just a gate. It's a manual gate that you go into our fence, into our backyard and.
A
It came off its hinges.
C
Yeah. And I've actually had someone out to look at and say, oh yeah, we'll replace that. Now part of it, I've been waiting for them to come back out and fix that gate and two others that really don't work properly. But yeah, I could probably do it myself. But I look at that gate and just. It's like I get paralyzed. Like I don't even know where to start with that.
A
Just call the company. It's a fence company, right?
C
Yeah, but it's a family member and they've said, oh yeah, we'll be out.
A
So I don't want to put a lot in that. Yeah.
C
But it's on me at this point. I should have called someone else and said, hey, I can't fix this. Could you fix my gate that's been leaning up against the post that's rotted for going on two years now? How bad is that?
B
That's pretty bad.
C
That's pathetic.
B
We had a bed, our bed in our bedroom, my wife and I. And the. It was a handmade bed. It was kind of old and the headboard was falling apart and there was a crack in the headboard and it got so bad that it detached from the rest of the bed frame. And I just ended up leaning it against the wall. And every night for probably two years, I got into that bed and I thought, oh God, this stupid headboard is busted. But I would still prop my pillow up against the busted headboard and read, read for a little bit and then go to bed. And with this headboard leaned up against the wall and it was all cracked. And one time I actually tried to do something about it and I moved the headboard out onto the floor and tried to nail it back together. It was the most half assed job. And I put it back and it even fell apart some more after that.
A
You're not the handiest guy.
B
No, I'm not. The handiest guy.
A
You're not real knowledgeable about joinery.
B
No, I'm just not real smart about anything. And so I rode that out for two, maybe even three years. And I had stacked bricks behind the headboard just to keep it upright so it made it look like it wasn't leaning against the wall and so that we could kind of lean against it. And then after like two or three years of that, I said, damn it, just go to a furniture store.
C
They've got headboards.
A
I believe they're still for sale.
B
Yeah, just do this. Why are you riding this out? But I did it for. And I finally went to the store, like, the next day. They delivered a new bed frame, and everything was good. And I thought to myself, why did I wait two and a half years.
A
To do that, by the way? I think there's no worse feeling, like more unsquared away feeling than if you've ever slept in a bed that has no headboard and it's just right up against the wall. Yeah, I did that my early, early part of my life.
B
Yeah.
A
It made me feel real spare or once properly attached. Hostage room or something.
C
Yeah. If that thing's not properly attached, where every time you get in, it bumps the wall.
B
Right.
A
Yeah.
C
I gotta fix those strips.
A
Or the weight of you on the bed collapses it into your head and you're.
C
Yeah.
A
In the head each time.
B
That's basically what I wrote out for two years.
C
Okay, this is really embarrassing because you guys have made fun of our hospital bed, as you call it.
A
It's a great George. George sleeps in a hospital bed. It's not a hospital bed, but with your prostate issues.
C
I think you don't have prostate issues. The bed adjusts.
B
You have an IV tree next.
C
No, I don't have an IV tree, but you can raise your. You can raise your feet. And this particular bed has air pressure where you can put it on your own number, and it's divided in half so I can have my sleep comfort and she can have her sleep comfort.
B
Are you doing a lot of sidestepping the name brand here?
C
Yeah. Trying to be good about this. Could be a sponsor someday. And I love the bed. It's the greatest bed we've ever had. But I'd say for about six months now. Her side of the bed loses air.
A
Pressure throughout the night.
C
Yeah. To the point where if I have to get up and go wee, wee, pee, pee, or when I go to work in the morning, I get on the app because we've lost the remote control. To I get on the app, on my phone and fill it back up to her number and then I leave for work. Or I'll whisper to her, hey, why don't you sleep on my side and just, you know, not worry about it? And we've tried to fix it twice. They don't have people that come out to your house and fix it. You have to.
A
Do you have to take it in?
C
No, you have to do phone support, tech support. And I'm. I'm just saying. I'm not saying, but I'm saying I can't understand them.
A
Them? Yes.
C
Technician.
A
Who is them?
C
The technician. We have a language barrier. All of them? All of them. We've tried it like two or three different times, and every time I find that part they're talking about and then I can't understand what they want me to do. Don't we have a technician that can just come out here? I don't know how to fix things, but.
A
But I don't understand why is there a language barrier? I bet you their name is like Cody or Justin or something.
C
That's what they say their name is.
B
Yes, clearly not Justin.
C
I have a hard time understanding them to the point where I've just hung up and said, okay, look, I'll just. I'll get to it. Okay?
A
Just go out and get like a bicycle tube repair kit and patch the bed.
B
I'll come over. I can do that.
A
Yeah, he can patch an inner tube.
C
All right. I could probably fix your. Oh, you got the new headboard now. But yeah, it's just. I don't know. Do most people call this procrastination?
A
Yes.
B
Yeah.
A
Yeah. But I think that there's a special level of procrastination that has to do with. I don't know whether it's self hatred. I don't know why we would put up with something for so long. Like, I understand a month or two months, but I don't understand when things start running into six months, a year.
B
Right.
A
Two years.
C
I know. At a younger age it was. We didn't have any money. Right. So we wrote it out. I can't afford to fix that right now.
A
But this is. This is the little control experiment I've run on that. Because I used to think that too. When I was younger and had zero money, I rode things out. When I get money, I'm not going to write things out anymore. That turned out to be the biggest bullshit proposition I've ever said in my life. Because I got to where I could afford to get Things fixed and I still didn't. The timetable was still the same. So the only variable that changed or that didn't change was me. I'm the one who's in control and I'm the one who just doesn't get things done.
C
But think about that with cars though, and all the things recently now you have, I know you, you have money to fix some of this stuff.
A
I can't speak of my car is. It's too painful.
C
The fact that you had a flood in your car. Had or still have?
A
Yeah, I still have it. So that situation's still going on. I have a car that I took in for the airbag module was bad and so they replaced that and they also cleaned out the drain lines in it that keeps the sunroof draining and the AC lines drain. They're kind of tied together. And I took it in for those two things and then I got it back, paid the thousand bucks or whatever it was, and it still has two problems remaining, and that being the airbag module and the AC plug. So. So that situation still going on. So when I get in my car, my feet, I will hear the water slosh when I put my feet in the footwell on the floorboards because it just, the AC just drains straight into it. So I still got that going on. Now the airbag module thing, I can't remember whether I mentioned this on the podcast before. I know I mentioned that part being out, but one of the symptoms of this is that the car always thinks it's been in an accident. So the airbags don't work. It kind of registers that the airbags have already gone off. And one of the safety features of this is that the doors unlock when you've been in a car accident. The doors will. After the accident, the doors will automatically unlock where you can get out of a vehicle if it's been compromised. Okay, so my doors won't stay locked. Well, there's that feature you know of when you start driving and you hit 10 miles an hour, your doors will lock. So that happens, that triggers. But then the airbag module says, no, no, unlock the doors. So my most hated time of the day is if I'm ever in bumper to bumper traffic and it's moving around 10 miles an hour. It is like it just, just. I just have to listen to this machine gun fire of door locking, unlocking, locking, unlocking.
B
And how long have you been riding that out?
A
Oh, it's been probably, probably about six months now.
C
So I see you when you get out of your Car. We. Gordon. Gordon and I go up the same elevator every morning.
A
Yeah, I look frazzled every morning, don't I?
C
You always walk to the passenger side and do something. Do you have to lock manually the passenger door?
A
No. That should be getting my bag out.
C
Oh, okay.
A
I have had that situation before. The. The car I was driving when actually it was around the time when the. Our radio station first hit the airwaves. I did have a car that the interior door handle, it wouldn't open the door from inside. So I used to have to roll down the window on the driver's side to reach around outside to open the door from the outside. And then of course, putting so much pressure and wear and tear on that. That window actuator going down and up and everything. It broke. It was. They were electric windows and it broke about. I would say I was only about 6 inches from the top. And that was just an arm killer. Every time having to raise way up off the seat and thread your arm through the hole and then reaching around down there and just kind of fingertipping it open because it was such a long reach. And I did that. I know I did that for a full two semesters of college.
B
And that's when you didn't have any money. So that was excusable to ride that out.
A
Well, and all this was because my dad, who did have the money to fix our cars, refused to fix them.
C
See, he taught you how.
A
He taught me back ride things out of cars. He taught me all the wrong things in life. And yeah, it was the same dad who. Somebody busted out one of our rear windows in a sedan, the back driver's side window in the back seat. And he didn't want to pay. He came out, had a glass guy quote him a price to replace that, and he said, oh no, I'm not paying that. And so he got a piece of quarter inch plywood, cut it out to form because he had a woodworking shop in our garage, and then spray painted it matte black. That car rode that way till it's dying day.
C
Five years making the ultimate blind spot.
A
Ultimate blind spot?
B
Yeah.
A
Just complete blackout on that side of the car back behind you.
C
But he wasn't gonna pay those prices.
A
No, he was gonna teach that glass guy a lesson by making us suffer for half a decade.
C
That's another good one. The crack on your windshield that starts off as a dot. And you know you can just go and get that filled with no problem.
A
Yeah, but. But I never. Yeah, I'm gonna go do that tomorrow.
C
I got that tomorrow.
A
Next thing you know, it's a year later and you got a spider web you're trying to thread your eyesight through when you're trying to drive forward. It's a beating.
C
I bet I've written those out for a year.
B
Didn't you guys each ride out significant hail damage on your car after our trip to Oklahoma?
A
Oh yeah, we did.
B
Yeah, for a long time. Right.
C
Until I got rid of the vehicle. By the way, it has a little hail damage.
A
Yeah, it's got a little hail damage out there. And look at it. Looks like the surface of the moon.
C
Like someone took a hammer to this thing.
B
Yeah, I know it's.
A
You have an angry ex girlfriend or something. What happened to this thing?
C
Just got caught in a hail storm in Oklahoma City.
A
Yeah, five years ago. That was it. It's the one in Oklahoma City. And I pocketed that money and never got the hail damage fix. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Listening to this podcast Smart move. Being financially savvy Smart move. Another smart move Having State Farm help.
C
You create a competitive price when you choose to bundle home and auto bundling.
A
Just another way to save with a personal price plan like a good neighbor. State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state.
C
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B
I've got a car when I'm riding out currently, you know, in the newer cars, you have a touch screen interactive display and you control pretty much everything from that. Well, every time I get in my car now, it asks me, do you want the user, which is Craig or Guest? And if I press Craig, it says, user needs to log in.
A
What?
B
And I need my. I drive an Audi. And so I need my Audi Connect email address and password. And so I get in the car every day in the garage. Well, my email address, I know, but the password, I don't. It's in the house somewhere and I don't want to go back and get it. So I can't ever use the setting that is for me with all my preferences and everything personalized. Every day I press guest and just have to use the basic setting.
A
So I went every single trip. You don't want to go back in the house to look for a password, Right?
B
And then I never think about it when I'm in the house. So I've been writing that out for probably six months now to where every morning it asks me for the password. I don't have it, so I just hit guest. So I don't access any of my settings. What am I doing?
C
I don't know. That surprises me about you because you're so squared away.
B
But what I'm saying is even people who are squared away, they have a long list of things they're writing out.
C
Okay. Cars probably leads the nation in things we write out. Have y' all had a bigger problem with refrigerators as I have?
A
Oh, my gosh, yes. So tell your refrigerator story. And I got one. I guarantee you that's been going on longer than yours.
C
This is what we're riding out right now. Plastic shelving on the door that when you have kids, they try to put as many different jars in there until it breaks.
A
Right.
C
So then what do you do?
A
They overstuff it.
C
You just order a new shelf? No, you get duct tape and you duct tape that so much so that that finally broke. So we're missing a shelf. Your ice maker work? No, no, mine's out right now. And so is the casing around the water dispenser, slash, ice dispenser. And it's got a crack on it. And you can, if you hold it just right, you can get it to fit back in, you know, the little fittings that snap it back in, but it falls off about once a week and so much so that's where the crack has come from. Now you got to line up the crack. Put that back in there. We've used two sided tape and glue.
A
Why don't I just leave it on?
C
Because it looks horrible. I mean it looks like someone is broken into your home, but we're still riding that out.
A
Yeah. So fridges are interesting because I want to say, and I think this is a little unusual. So the place I'm in now, have been in it for Gosh, like over 10 years, I think. And I think that we have the same fridge that we've had the whole time, which I don't know if fridges last that long anymore, but that's pretty good.
C
Yeah, that's pretty good.
A
Okay. But right after it was installed, first of all, there's the whole. It's a sore subject with me because I argued for a counter depth fridge.
C
Not big enough.
A
No. We need more, more storage room. Okay. This eyesore sticking way out. It's too big. They had to basically put on it when you're walking, lube up the sides of the fridge, even fit it in the space anyway. So ignoring all that frustration, install the fridge. I think it was within the first month the, the whole circuit board for the ice dispenser and water dispenser stopped working. The ice maker froze into a solid block of ice. I'm telling you, you open it up and it looks like something that a guy would have delivered in the 1800s from the ice shop.
C
Here's your block of ice.
A
Here's your block of ice to put in the bottom of the ice box. That's what the ice maker looks like inside. And then no dispensers work and the display flashes. It flashes error message over and over again and just flashes constantly.
C
So what do you do for ice? You do the old trays.
A
Go out and buy an alternate ice maker that stays in the other room. And that, that one frustrates me too because it was, you know, they'll go out on you. Someone else I live with designed that project and where the ice maker was going to go and everything. And it's all. The installation guy builds it and all that and then going there. So where's the, where's the ventilation for this thing? I didn't know it needed ventilation. The ice maker is going to heat up in there. It's got to, it's got to ventilate. You can't just put it in a closed three sided box and expect it to Last. So we have to buy a new one of those every year or so because they'll.
C
I thought you're going to say you just had to slide it out. It sits out in the middle of the room.
A
Well, it already does that, but it still has heat management issues. It's basically hanging off the shelf right now.
C
Okay, let's fix this stuff in the next month. Let's make October November. Let's get right month.
A
Really?
C
Months.
A
So there's sober January, whatever it's called. Right. There's. What's the Movember?
B
Dry January. And Movember.
A
Movember is you. What do you do you grow a.
B
Mustache to fight cancer, I think.
C
Yeah.
A
Mustaches fight cancer.
C
Think they do in November.
A
Yeah. And then isn't there like a. No nut February or something?
C
We should have get right October.
A
Yeah, there you go. Get right October is what we need to do now. Now, the list of digital writing things out is unbelievable.
B
Oh, my God, yes.
A
Like, I've been locked out of my Facebook for two years now. There's a couple emails I've got to get back into because I got important accounts associated with that email, but I can't get into the email.
C
Yeah, there's a reason why the Bird Dog's Twitter account hasn't tweeted out in two years. We can't get into it.
A
Bird Dogs is George's band.
C
Yeah.
B
I'm writing out all those financial barnacles that you could just very easily cancel digitally, but I can't carve out 15 seconds to log into a Hulu account to cancel it because I know I'm paying for Hulu through my Disney account, but I'm just riding that out.
A
Yeah, I've got so many financial barnacles going on right now. I'm like the dream customer for any business who just, hey, just give us your credit card information. We'll just do this will be nice. Auto pay. I'm paying for stuff that I used one time eight and a half years ago, and I pay every month on it.
B
Why do we ride that out? It's such an easy fix on your computer?
A
I don't know. Because part of it is that the issue pisses me off so much when I think about it and I start to want to handle the situation, but it pisses me off so much that I just want to back away from the whole scenario and just go another month without thinking about it.
C
It's not as if they're going to contact you and say, no, she haven't used our service in a while. How is it.
A
How is it that I. Because I'll have to change credit card numbers, I would say at least. Seems like once every year, two years, something like that. You know, your credit card, bad charge on it, someone skimmed it, whatever. But how do the barnacles always find your new number? Do they just get it from the credit card company? They automatically.
B
I guess.
A
So give your financial barnacles your new number?
B
I don't know. That's a good question. It all is so tied together these days that I think everything shares with everything. I mean, no matter what I do in my life, it appears on my calendar, you know, my eye calendar, whatever. I can just verbally tell someone, I'll meet you at one o'clock tomorrow and I'll check my calendar and that appointment is on there.
A
What's going on?
C
Or is that the one thing that we're very thorough about? Because we don't want to have anything canceled. So we find the passwords and we go through and we go, okay, yeah, I can't lose that. But instead of canceling it, we sign back up for it.
A
Do you?
C
I think so. I think that's. I think we're guilty of that.
A
How many subscription services would you say that you're paying for each month that you don't use?
B
A thousand?
A
No, it's not a thousand. Would you say 10?
B
Oh, at least 10. Yeah, for sure.
A
I swear to you, I'm getting Hulu three different ways.
B
I am too. I am too.
C
We found out when my son was coaching in high school ball, you had to subscribe to this service where you could get games online. We had three different subscriptions.
A
Oh, really?
C
We found out, yeah, we don't use it anymore, but we had. We didn't watch any volleyball or baseball, but we had it for the spring. We had it after football season. And yeah, I think everybody should go through and try to itemize exactly what they're paying for.
B
Maybe the answer is we ride those things out because they're out of sight, out of mind. It's not like a loud noise or, you know, a broken something with your car that is in your face every day you have to think about these things.
A
Oh, I just thought of another one. So the hallway in the place of my choosing that I live cleared out all the hallway closets. Emptied them out. Gonna tackle that project. Get her done. Right, Got it. So moved all that stuff out into the hallway. That was eight weeks ago.
C
So now your hallway is an obstacle course, dude.
A
To thread yourself through that hallway to get to the end, which is where the bedroom is where you sleep. It is, it is like you have to be a mole person or Saquon Barkley to burrow through there. Because the hallway, it's a narrow hallway too. You know, it's like the old style hallways.
C
Well, what did you accomplish if you just moved it out of your closet?
A
I don't know. But that's the thing is now I'm getting frustrated enough from saying, I just, I can't stand this hallway anymore. I need to move this stuff. Back closet.
C
Then. Your dad used to get crossed up when your mom would move stuff in the house.
A
My dad thought my mom and my mom actually kept a clean house. It's just she had too much stuff. She liked decorating, she liked collection, she liked antiques. And my dad had a very different aesthetic than that. He just, he didn't understand why she just needed all this stuff. Yeah, you know, we had to buy a bigger house because we had too much stuff. And then you just proceeded to fill it with more stuff. I don't understand. Yeah, that was that famous story. Still, one of my favorite dad stories ever was when he. My dad woke up so early in the morning. He was a preacher and he always woke up. His working time was like 2 to 5 or 6 in the morning. That's when he really got his thinking done and his writing and house was quiet. House was quiet. So he was always an early riser. And he woke up in the middle of the night, 2am gonna go to the his study to get his work done. And we heard this calamity happen in the living room. And we go in there and woke all the kids up. Family comes out, we flip on the lights in the main room and there's my dad who had ridden over a little settee table of knickknacks and little pictures and curiosity. And he had ridden that over in the middle of the living room and he's laying down in a pile of junk and because my mom had redecorated that afternoon or that evening when he hadn't been aware of it and he was walking through the house in the dark and his old blueprint did not fit anymore that they stored in his head because this table had been installed his Roomba map.
C
And his brain didn't quite match up this Roomba map.
A
And so, so he rode that over and he just gets up, you know, and dust himself off and said, your mother is doing her best to turn this house into an obstacle course.
C
What a great line. Didn't cause or Anything.
A
I can't make it from one side of the house to the other without crashing.
B
Is the garage a spot where you guys ride a lot of stuff out? Because currently, always the. I park on the left, my wife parks on the right. And when I pull in, to my left is a wall of junk. And there's a bicycle leaned up against something. There's a broom, there's a rake, a shovel. And when I open my door, I always hit some of it, and it falls into the car. It falls into me. And every day as I get out, I say, man, I got to straighten this side of the garage up. And I haven't done that for two years.
C
I've got really bad news for you. When you have kids, your garage gets out of control.
B
Yes. That's what's happened with us, because there's so many kids. Bikes and toys.
C
So where are we going to put them? Yeah, then she's going to get more stuff. And that's what happened. We had to have a garage clean out two years ago or so. And we've stuck to it pretty well. Our garage is pretty organized now. But it. It took help from the outside.
A
Took an intervention?
C
Yeah. It took help calling the whole. So we wouldn't just go out there and, you know, walk around in circles.
A
Well, have you ever tried to clear out with someone who agrees with you in theory and principle, but then when you get down to nut cutting time, it's always okay? All right, so this. Honey, you take this out. No, that's. I don't know. We should. Let's keep that. Let's put that in the maybe pile. And so then the garage turns into the exact pile. It's just all maybe stuff now. You didn't get rid of anything.
C
Yeah, maybe, though. That's right. You need someone from the outside to say, when's the last time you used it? Gosh, I don't know. Seven years. Okay.
A
Yeah.
C
Either get rid of it or donate it.
B
Yeah.
C
And we had to do that. And it was tough to get rid of some things, but I don't know why we were hanging on to them.
B
Right.
C
You know, old snow shovels. What, we had two of them or something.
A
You know, things here in Texas, you got to have a snow shovel.
C
You don't need things like that. And we got rid of. And we told the kids, too, we would send pictures. Do you want this? And unfortunately, that. That's what you were talking about? Yeah, maybe. And that was enough to put it into.
A
That. They need to. I told them. Yeah, they had their own storage unit. And it's not called dad's house.
C
They've got these boxes now that are labeled. You all need to go through these. And we didn't put a deadline on it, but. But at least they're neatly stored in boxes on a shelf in the garage.
A
Boxes that they're supposed to go through.
C
Yes.
A
But you're still storing them.
C
Yeah, I'm still running the storage.
B
If you said to them, I'm putting these boxes out on the curb. If you want any of this stuff, come over and get it before bulk trash. Would they even bother?
C
See, I have boys and they'll probably go, nah. Side.
B
See? And there's your answer. There's your answer. Just leave it out for bulk.
C
Crash. That's just so hard. You know how hard that is, though, for a parent? I remember that game. You had eight strikeouts. Don't you want that baseball? You want to save that, don't you? But no, they probably don't.
A
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B
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A
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C
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A
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C
Yeah, See, and she admits it. She is a. Yeah, a definite hoarder. And she was the one that we would try to kind of separate when the person from the. At the organizer came in. Let's just mean you go through this stuff. Okay.
A
Yeah. Your job is to take mom into the game room and put on Steel Magnolias and get her distracted.
C
Yeah, for about 30 minutes or so. Yeah, she is. But I mean, that's one of her good qualities. She's sweet. She wants to hang on to things that, you know, mean Something to her. And I think that's a pretty good rule of. Does it mean something to you? And if it really does, then maybe, maybe. See back to the maybe pile again. Maybe pile gets way too big. But yeah, we ride that out and you'll see, Junior, it's going to get worse.
B
Oh, I'm sure with hanging on to.
C
Things and that garage will just go, where do we get all this stuff?
A
You know, we had a listener that when we talked about something like this one time, said that they went through their life and all the things that they wanted to keep, but they didn't use, but they wanted the memory of them. They just set up a almost a makeshift professional photography studio. Took pictures of each item from all the angles they want and any label on it. Because now with the Internet you can get information on that childhood toy that you once had or if you're curious, right? And they took pictures of everything and then got rid of it all so that they still were able to, I guess have the stuff in some sense. Okay, but digitally and on a hard drive. And it's not something that they used ever. It was just a. A memory item for them.
B
I got a good idea. And this would work for George. Since your wife is the hoarder and wants to keep everything, you tell her that you have rented a storage unit across town. And we're not going to keep it here, but we're going to keep it in the storage unit. And so you load up your truck and you tell her you're taking it to the storage unit, but you take it to the landfill. Take it to the landfill. Because she's never going to ask you to go get that item out of the storage unit. She just wants to know that you have it.
A
Yeah, and the one time she does ask you to get something for the storage unit, that's when you just go on ebay, you find that thing that she was talking about and you rebuy that one thing.
B
Right?
C
Okay, not a bad plan. But the problem is we currently have two storage units.
A
Wait, wait, wait. Hold it. Stop the show. Stop the show. Yeah, I know that you have a. An ample sized home because you raised a large family. And that home, you have that home to store things in. And you have a nice huge garage and you have two additional storage units.
C
Right? And it's boat related, but in one of the boat storage places we still.
A
Have no room for a boat.
C
Barely fits in there to dry storage.
A
I bet you the boat is loaded up with stuff inside it too.
C
One of them is all Blue, which I've talked about. All blue. I'm not sure what to do with that because I'm very sentimental towards that. And it's still. We pay every month to have that boat stored with some furniture and some other knickknacks that we can't get rid of either. I know I've got a problem. I really do.
A
Well, that's just. I can't believe.
C
Okay, Mr. Hallway Obstacle Course George.
A
My parents died.
C
Oh, mine did too. And I still have a lot of their stuff.
A
That's part of the reason why I hang on to old Blue and I was their executor and I'm still getting around to selling their home. So that's been 10 years.
C
That's very nice. Storage unit, though, for you.
A
Their home has become a storage unit of a bunch of. It's a warehouse of unmade decisions is what that place is. That's what my parents home is. Yeah.
C
Maybe one of those storage unit places ought to go with that name because.
A
That'S what they are, you know, and it's huge business storage units. Oh, yeah. Building more of them.
B
Yeah.
A
And it is always a money winner if you build a storage unit place because people, Americans just have so much.
C
Stuff and look how that always goes. You ever watch Storage Wars?
A
Yes. I always get suckered into those where they.
C
They finally just let it go. Delinquent, I guess. Or they close the account and they bust open these garage doors and here's a whole room full of stuff.
A
Okay. That's what the Musers the podcast needs to do. We need to go to one of these storage auctions when they open up because, you know the gag. They do this thing where they open the door to the storage unit and all you can do is just peek inside. Yeah, you can't walk in there or anything. You just dart your head around.
C
Okay, what is that? What is that? I think there's boxes could have baseball.
A
And then they start the bidding and then people bid to. To win the contents of this storage unit. So we ought to go in there and the Musers ought to buy a storage unit and do a whole episode of us going through the crap that someone left in a storage unit.
C
God, isn't that sad though? You're going to be digging through their things that were important to them at.
A
Some point that were so important that they saved them.
B
Yeah. Never looked at them for 30 years.
A
Yeah.
B
Do you guys ride out noises? Because I'm currently riding out two noises in our daughter's room. Her closet door. Every time you open, it has a horrific squeak. It would take 10 seconds for me to get some WD40 spray the hinges. But I've been riding that out for six months. And I hear it, like, when I'm in my room and I hear her open her door and I hear the squeak, and I think, why don't I go fix that? And I'm riding it out and I've got a squeak on my bike now. Every pedal revolution there is a squeak I can't locate.
A
Oh, my gosh.
B
I'm not exactly sure where it's coming from.
C
Freaking chirp.
A
You can't quite triangulate it if it's.
B
The shoe or the cleat or the pedal or the spindle or the bottom bracket or. I don't know. Is it. I don't know what it is. But I'm just writing those two noises out, and they're both probably easy fixes.
A
My garage door sounds like the gates of hell sweeping open right now.
C
Get that service.
A
Got to get that lubed.
C
And the answer to door squeaking is 10 years on our bathroom door. I still haven't done anything.
B
It's such an easy fix.
A
I don't know.
C
And it's just. You get used to it, I guess. How long can you ride out the chirping smoke alarm?
B
Oh, I can't do that for long at all. I don't ride that out. Yeah.
A
Whoever designed that sound was pretty genius. Yeah, because it drives you crazy.
B
Yeah.
A
Right. Because. But yet if it was a continuous sound, then you'd change it immediately.
C
And yet I bet we've gone three or four days with one that was upstairs because it was just faint. Because we rarely go upstairs anymore because our kids are out of the house, which probably means we need to downsize at some point if we're not using the upstairs.
A
But that's when you know you're lazy. Is when you have an old bedroom, old kid's bedroom that has a smoke alarm chirping in it, and you just go and just close the door.
B
Yeah.
C
It won't be as loud.
A
This will buy us a few weeks.
B
That's one thing I will tackle immediately. In fact, I will replace the battery in every smoke detector in the house every 18 months just to avoid that.
C
Speaking of October, I think you're supposed to do that every October, aren't you?
B
Oh, so that month is already taken with a cause. We have to move ours. We'll do get right December.
A
Change your batteries. Have you ever been in a house that had the Smoke detector. That's way up high. It'll be like one of those foyers. And they put it way up there.
C
For, hey, I won't change the one in our bedroom anymore. Yeah, I get. I get scared getting that high.
A
You hire a 4th of July parade Uncle Sam to go in there and change it for you.
C
That's basically what you need.
A
Why did they make Uncle Sam wear stilts? Like, where did that tradition start?
B
That's a good question.
A
Why isn't Uncle Sam just a regular guy that walks around shaking hands?
C
We need to make him look like.
A
He'S been doing ceiling sheetrock work.
C
Because we're walking tall as Americans.
A
So we need. Is that what it is?
C
Yeah, we need him 15ft tall.
B
Why is Uncle Sam.
A
When I was a kid, I always thought stilts. Is Uncle Sam vaguely related to Abraham Lincoln because he's tall and kind of has some facial hair going and tall hat.
C
Did we come up with that character after President Lincoln?
A
No, I think Uncle Sam, they came up with him before they came up with the whole idea of the country. Like, I think they. He was part of the rollout.
C
We need a country to match this mascot. Yes.
A
Here, let's design the mascot first and then that'll determine what kind of country will form.
B
Oh, there's no real answer online to the question, why is Uncle Sam on stilts? It just says that Uncle Sam is a stilt walking patriotic costume that adds visual impact of the character for events like parades and fourth of July celebrations, making him a patriotic and attention grabbing figure.
C
And doubles as a battery. Change your own smoke alarms in October.
A
And in the off season, he'll change your smoke alarm batteries.
C
That's what he does for a job.
A
I went saw an Uncle Sam do a face plant in a fourth of July parade.
C
Oh, my God.
A
Somebody's way too high.
B
Somebody in here is riding out an alarm going off.
A
I don't hear that.
C
I heard something.
B
Okay, it just stopped.
A
Oh, I don't hear nothing. You all right, Craig? Hey, buddy. Yeah, we all here too, Craig.
C
Oh, I heard it.
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I heard it. Real loud alarm.
C
Yeah.
B
Anyway, can you guys stay for a while?
A
No, we gotta get going.
C
We'll be back tomorrow.
B
They're mean to me.
A
Here. No, just keep it. Well, come on.
C
They're not that mean.
A
Oh, I'm sure you did something to piss them off.
C
That's gonna happen someday.
A
Is it really?
C
Yeah, we're gonna have to visit each other.
A
No, we're not. I won't visit you guys.
C
Well, that's probably true.
A
There's no doubt that's gonna happen soon. I'll only, I'll only show up in the Uncle Sam outfit to visit you in the nursing home.
C
You'll be a big hit.
A
Yeah. Ducking my head to get inside your room. Down. Yeah, I did. I saw an Uncle Sam face plant one time. He's wearing like five foot stilts.
C
They need an ambulance.
A
Lost his footing and went down like a tranqed giraffe. It was so disturbing.
B
Was he okay?
A
I mean, I don't know. We. We looked for a little while and then the parents kind of ushered us away. You know, all the Shriners got out of the go karts.
C
Go.
A
Look at it. Those wheels on. All right, how are we doing on time?
C
Oh, I don't know.
A
We done? I think we're done.
C
Okay.
B
I think we've, we've established that it's get things done, get right December. Stop writing these things out because it takes five seconds to fix most of them. I think we've helped a lot of people.
C
Let's all get right.
A
But do we help ourselves?
B
No.
A
Oh, well, then what's the point of doing this whole podcast to help others, Gordon. Indeed. It's a service. Deal. All right, thank you, guys. Thanks to Peter Welton, our producer, for making this happen. And don't forget, if you like the podcast, we still have all those episodes. We've stacked up 16 other episodes for you to enjoy. Enjoy the back catalog. They're there for you because we are here to help you.
C
Indeed.
A
That's what this is all about. All right, there it is. And if you want to email us, you can email us@themuserspodmail.com and your letter may get selected as our letter of the week. And if it is selected, we will send you a bumper sticker when we get them. Maybe when we get around to printing them. That will happen. All right, goodbye, everybody. Gordon has kindly already told you where to email, so I'll just remind you to press, follow, or subscribe on whatever podcast listening thingamajig you currently are listening to, because that is important. Also, your football friends, Bob and George. Dallas Cowboy weekly edition drops every Thursday right here. The the podcast is a tired head production. Start your day with America in the morning.
B
I'm John Trout, your host from breaking.
A
News, the U.S. supreme Court with rulings shifting gears, Apple. Apple has released the new iPhone.
C
Here's the Wednesday business report.
A
Far from a seller's market to politics and entertainment moving into scary movie season. So why not another conjuring movie Shifting Gears. Powerball Jackpot is now the third largest ever in history. Live long and prosper.
C
America in the morning.
A
Fresh each day, follow and listen on your favorite platform.
Hosts:
This episode of The Musers The Podcast delves into the frustrating, universal habit of “riding it out”—the ways people ignore, endure, or procrastinate on fixing everyday problems, both trivial and significant. Mixing trademark wit with honest self-reflection, Gordon, George, and Craig swap stories about the little (and not-so-little) things they let linger in their homes, cars, digital lives, and relationships, exploring why inertia so often wins out over action.
On Procrastination:
“I think there’s a special level of procrastination that…has to do with…I don’t know whether it’s self-hatred… why would we put up with something so long?”
(19:01 – Gordon)
On Inherited Clutter:
“Their home has become a storage unit…a warehouse of unmade decisions…”
(47:48 – Gordon)
On Garage Organization:
“You walk around in circles…maybe that’s why you need help from outside.”
(40:42 – George)
On Headboard Repairs:
“I’m just not real smart about anything. And so I rode that out for two, maybe even three years.”
(15:17 – Craig)
On Emotional Attachments:
“I remember that game. You had eight strikeouts. Don’t you want that baseball?…But no, they probably don’t.”
(42:32 – George)
On Storage Units/Storage Wars:
“It is always a money winner if you build a storage unit place because Americans just have so much stuff…”
(48:15 – Gordon)
On Home Obstacles:
“Your mother is doing her best to turn this house into an obstacle course.”
(39:32 – Gordon, quoting his father)
The Musers maintain a tone of self-effacing humor blended with striking relatability, reassuring listeners that everyone—no matter how capable—has a long list of things they’re “riding out.” The episode closes with a knowing wink: even when help is offered and best intentions are stated, true change is always easier said than done, but it’s a universally-shared struggle.
“I think we’ve helped a lot of people.” (55:13 – Craig)
“But did we help ourselves? …No.” (55:16 – Gordon & Craig exchange)
Email for Letters/Feedback:
themuserspodmail@gmail.com
(Summary by podcast summarizer – skipping sponsored ads and meta-podcast chatter as instructed.)