Ep. 101: Happiness and the Same Piece of Lasagna (**NSFW**)

Welcome back to At Refreshment
In this episode: We try to figure out what is happiness and what does it mean.

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The  At Refreshment Masonic Video Podcast is a lighthearted and educational series focused on
the world of Freemasonry. The hosts, who are Masons themselves aim to dispel myths about the fraternity while offering a glimpse into their rituals and traditions. They create a casual, fun atmosphere by sharing drinks and humorous discussions about Masonic life, often recorded in laid-back settings like after lodge meetings.
 The podcast blends comedy with education, making it accessible to both Masons and those curious about the fraternity. Episodes feature special guests from Masonic circles often diving into personal experiences and community contributions of members. The podcast highlights that Freemasons are regular people working to improve themselves and their communities.
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Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

Not everybody gets to do arena rock as it was once called in the day. But once you get to the top, uh not everybody stays there.

SPEAKER_06 0:09

And my mom dropped me off in the parking lot at 10 a.m. She was gonna be back at midnight. This is free cell phones. Which I mean, now that I'm looking back at that, I'm like, why would you just leave me there? Like I was like She was hoping more.

SPEAKER_04 0:22

I'm like, his mom abandoned him at a concert at 10 a.m. And he's hanging out uh at 12 years old in a concert venue by himself for hours and hours, and it's not hard to think that some older gentleman might have picked him up. So, yeah, Yoshi did that.

SPEAKER_03 0:36

But then what was weird was when you're just idling around the track, it wants to go like this. Yeah. Absolutely towards the fence.

SPEAKER_04 0:44

Let's put it in. Jim, are you retired yet or are you you're still working?

SPEAKER_03 0:47

I was let go from my job last October.

SPEAKER_04 0:50

That was a horrible question.

SPEAKER_06 1:01

The only thing my wife ever told me I couldn't have is my own circus. What are you talking about?

SPEAKER_05 1:06

Everything you do is a circus.

SPEAKER_03 1:07

Well, no, no, I do know we have circus city in Indiana. What's Circus City? I don't know. What is it?

SPEAKER_05 1:13

That's where I'm where all the cardies live. Okay, I'm just gonna say lasagna. It's the same freaking lasagna on every plate.

SPEAKER_07 1:20

The views expressed in this presentation are those of the host and guests and do not represent the views of any large grandma to anybody or any other person or person who is away.

SPEAKER_05 1:38

Four freaking excuse me. Welcome to the refreshment masonic video podcast. I'm your host, Wesley Rooter. I am here with Marty. Woo! Eric Woo. And once again, our special guest, Jim Boyer. Hello, welcome.

SPEAKER_04 2:02

He's a figment of our imagination channel.

SPEAKER_05 2:06

Oh, I got shit stuck in my teeth, but figuring out the figure. All right, so Marty, we have another uh Marty special, I guess, right? Well, I don't know. I guess I've been kind of held this a little secret and just want to kind of guess.

SPEAKER_04 2:21

This is you a Marty special report.

SPEAKER_06 2:23

Well, no, I want to talk about someday. So yes, I guess I just text you guys okay.

SPEAKER_05 2:26

I just hope it's a nice surprise, not like the last surprise you promised me when we stayed in the hotel together.

SPEAKER_06 2:32

We're not gonna talk about that.

SPEAKER_03 2:34

So let's talk about that one afterwards.

SPEAKER_06 2:35

I want to hear this story. Um no, but like, so do so, besides the company that I own on nights and weekends, professionally during the day, I do work from my home office. And that fortunately, unfortunately, sometimes leaves me chronically online. Um, I rarely get to take a true lunch break. So, you know, if I find out five minutes to jump on Twitter or Reddit or something, that's kind of what I do to kind of kill my time in between other stuff I do professionally. And recently there was a I don't know, stirrup on the the Twitter machine, which I'll never call X. I'm sorry, Elon Musk. I'll never call X, and actually I don't like your cars either.

SPEAKER_05 3:15

Should have named it Z.

SPEAKER_06 3:17

Z would have been cooler.

SPEAKER_04 3:18

Z. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 3:19

No, but either way, so I H? But either way, I was on the Twitter machine and I was looking at the Twitters and seeing the Twitters. Yeah, I was. And out of nowhere, I sign on, and everyone is clowning on Mark McGrath from Sugar Ray. Well, it's a name I had not heard in a long time. Well, that might lead into what we're talking about. So I guess Sugar Ray has been performing at amusement parks and like the pavilions for the shows and all that. Okay. And people were like, oh, look, look at Sugar Ray, he look how far he's fallen. And they're like, I'm like, well, that's stupid. Then I watched the video and he just looks like super happy, actively working, and people are happy to see him. And I was like, why are people so stupid and negative?

SPEAKER_04 4:04

Here's what I see here's what I see about that. People can say whatever they want, but when bands play, they're getting paid.

SPEAKER_06 4:11

Yeah, you gotta you gotta make it.

SPEAKER_04 4:12

You gotta make money, right? Yeah. Same thing can be said for any act that makes it to Vegas and is in a residency in Vegas. It's like the graveyard of band acts, but those guys are being paid for like five to ten years. You're working, and you got a place to stay.

SPEAKER_06 4:26

Yeah. And a free buffet ticket, Continental Breakfast in the morning. Oh, yeah, sure. Oh no.

SPEAKER_05 4:31

Where did Sugar Ray get their start? I don't even know. Small places. Where didn't every band get their start before? Oh, for sugar. Yeah. Well, yeah. Everything is up from your garage.

SPEAKER_04 4:45

And if people like your music, and you're still listening to it and enjoying it, if you're still getting paid for your music, you're still performing.

SPEAKER_05 4:52

Not everybody gets to do arena rock as it was once called in the day. But once you get to the top, uh not everybody stays there. Not well, but not everybody can do the performance like that. Not everybody wants to see it either.

SPEAKER_06 5:06

I guess what I've been like pondering, because I was like, man, a bunch of people piled on Sugar Ray, poor Mark McGrath. But then a bunch of were like, yo, man, he's working, he's doing his thing. Like, I don't know what you guys are talking about. But that was kind of like a similar version of this. Uh I think his name was Geoffrey or Jeffrey Owens. He played Elvin Thibodeau on the Cosby show. Okay. That was uh when Cosby was still America's favorite dad, and before all things happened. Yeah. Cosby. So the character played Elvin. He is like people he was working at a Trader Joe's somewhere because if people don't know, Trader Joe's offers part-time benefits. And if you're still a working actor, it's probably a good time to, you know, good place.

SPEAKER_05 5:44

Wait, are we talking about Mark McGrath now?

SPEAKER_06 5:46

No, well, same concept. Okay. Same concept to hate. And people were like, well, look at this guy. He's you know, like he's like a loser because he works at Trader Joe's now. And I'm like, what the hell makes you a loser about working at Trader Joe's? And he's still working at Trader. I know he's doing some hilarious roles on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. That brought me great joy. But who are these people that are telling that are saying people are unsatisfied?

SPEAKER_04 6:11

Why do you get to judge? Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 6:12

Yeah, and like, and what even is success anymore? Because I think in this weird new Instagram, I mean, as much as I say I'm chronically online, and then I'm like, I'll be kind of talking about how it ruins people's heads. What is happiness? Because I bet you any money, Mark McGrath and Mark Garth, for some reason you watch our show, which would be the biggest plot twist ever. Tell us if you're happy. But no, I'm like, this guy's working, he's out there, he's wearing his little blue sugar ray outfit doing the sugar ray dance. And I watch the video, I'm seeing all this stuff. I'm like, man, I bet that dude's happy as hell. And these people are here happy to see him. First off, who are these miserable people that want to drag everybody else down? And I kind of want to talk to you guys. What makes at what point in your life did you consider yourself successful or happy? And what did it? Because I I I could actually talk about it for me, but I'm kind of getting obsessed with the concept of happiness. And is happiness really part of the Masonic wages in a weird way?

SPEAKER_04 7:05

I think Jim's happiness stems from large coloury.

SPEAKER_03 7:08

Could be. I can give you a for instance of it. I love a for instance. Where I'm at from in Monte Solo, Indiana, we have Indiana Beach. Well, there's more than corn in Indiana. Yes. Back starting when Indiana Beach first started, they had a ballroom still there. And all the big bands played there. Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, all these bands came in through the 60s. Ganishopolit, Chicago. I can't even think of all the different bands that played there. And it's just a little stage in a little ballroom on a lake in Monasolo, Indiana. But they all came there. And it was like I missed out on that because I wasn't old enough to go to that stuff.

SPEAKER_06 7:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:54

I remember going down there and watching the banana splits. I thought that was a good thing when I was a little kid.

SPEAKER_04 7:58

If you're if you may not be in arena rock situations, but if you're still being paid for your work, how are you not successful?

SPEAKER_03 8:08

And that's and you're making those people out there that just paid good money to watch you well happy.

SPEAKER_05 8:13

Are you talking about the successful that is only measured in dollar signs?

SPEAKER_06 8:20

Okay, see, that gets into something else too. Now, keep in mind, happiness doesn't equal money, but it's a lot better to be sad in a Corvette than no car. Right. So I know when people say that money doesn't make everything. I mean, it helps.

SPEAKER_05 8:33

So let's live in my tears with gold silk. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:38

First of sitting in the park going, is this going to be comfortable tonight?

SPEAKER_06 8:42

Yeah, I mean, but but the truth of it is it's better to eat franks and beans with people you love and a steak dinner alone. So that's factual. But money does help. But Jim's at Longhorn tonight, like, I deserve this. I deserve this. I love this. Thank you. But no, but happiness is a thing to me. And what are you successful? And I think about my own life.

SPEAKER_05 9:03

Wait, wait, wait. Okay. You mentioned happiness and success. I mentioned success, and now we're talking about two different things. Are we though? I do they equate to the same thing? Oh, happiness and success. You can be successful and then fucking miserable. Nobody ever says, Man, that guy is so happy, but he is a miserable asshole. Nobody ever says that.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

All right.

SPEAKER_05 9:28

Success, you can be happy with success, and you can be successful, and you can still be miserable.

SPEAKER_06 9:32

So my personal definition of success would just be achieving goals I set out to attain.

SPEAKER_04 9:38

So your your definition revolves around achievement.

SPEAKER_06 9:41

It definitely does.

SPEAKER_04 9:44

My definition of success is did I do what I set out to do? If I did what I set out to do, regardless of the results, and if I became famous or popular, my success brings me happiness. I work in my in my my workshop at home. Did I create the thing that I meant to create? It's not going to be used by anybody but me, but that's my success and my happiness.

SPEAKER_06 10:08

The uh Maxo, famous Maxa woodshed off the famous Maxa kitchen.

SPEAKER_04 10:12

Yes, it's uh it's an amazing woodshed. You you you you think it may not be a big workshop, and I may not be a production person where I'm making it for like an Etsy shop or something like that. But the things I make are for the people I love, and the people I love appreciate those gifts. I know Wes is miserable because he doesn't have a cup.

SPEAKER_06 10:35

Oh, for the wine cup she made. I don't know. Alright, Wes, what's your version of success?

SPEAKER_05 10:40

What the fuck is that? It's definitely not a podcast. I have no idea. It's not a disorder podcast. That's for sure. I have no idea what that is. That's a loaded question. Um, I don't know. For me, it seems like I get a little bit ahead and then everything just falls apart.

SPEAKER_06 10:56

Well, that's the uh take two steps forward, one step back from we always that's rolling. Well, that was even me pulling up to this podcast shooting today because I'm like, all right, everything's okay right now. I pull up and I'm like, oh, my dashboard just lit up and I know exactly what a hundred and eighty dollar sensor that is. Great. And so I mean, I guess like that, you know, one step forward, one step back. I don't know. Jim, what do you think success is? Family, friends, being able to spend the time with the family. Okay, so yours relates into setting your life up in a way that you use your time for love and leisure.

SPEAKER_03 11:30

Yeah.

unknown 11:31

Cool.

SPEAKER_03 11:31

If I can spend it with my and I and I honestly don't get to spend enough time with my kids and grandkids, but that's on me.

SPEAKER_06 11:39

But you're up to 18 grandchildren now?

SPEAKER_03 11:41

No, four. Oh, okay. But I'm hoping this summer to be able to do a little more basketball games, football games, soccer, baseball. Uh and you know what?

SPEAKER_04 11:52

Maybe Jim's wife is just happy in a car sewing on her own.

SPEAKER_06 11:56

That's her level of success. We we we love you, man. But um so no, but I hear you. But like I saw people kind of just you know dragging a sugar ray, and then I saw like the angriness in some of these people just attacking this dude playing at the Epcot Pavilion, and I was like, this is the weirdest cross section of life.

SPEAKER_04 12:14

Well, you know, the haters come when they can't produce their own happiness, they gotta bring everyone down to their level.

SPEAKER_06 12:21

You think there's a lot of that in this stuff? I think there's a lot of that in everything. Really?

SPEAKER_04 12:26

You know, there's you got you got so many people in this world that they don't they're not either happy with their progress or their success, so they're gonna just shit on everything else. So everything's covered in shit. And then everyone becomes the same level of happiness because they've shit on everything else.

SPEAKER_06 12:44

Ooh, West seems like you got a thought.

SPEAKER_05 12:48

Okay. I'm gonna be a little bit more probably uh honest about that. What did the internet promote do to you than I am on the podcast? But you guys know I'm just a miserable piece of shit. Okay. I don't think it's just it's just a fact. I'm in pain and I see things in a different way. So with that misery, I kind of don't know what success is because I'm trying to live a normal life where everybody else is normal not dealing with a disability or pain and just dealing with the normal pains of life. I have to deal with the normal pains of life and then the this extra thing. So sometimes I do shit on people's parade, but it's not like I'm trying to do it on purpose and it's not for attention. It's something sometimes I can't control because it's just like for whatever reason I'm getting annoyed with. It's a frustration, and I remove myself from things a lot. Okay. Okay. Not a lot of people have that awareness, like, hey, I gotta remove myself because I'm shitting on other people's parades because for whatever reason I'm miserable. You you gotta stay away from that because your misery should not take away from somebody else's happiness. No, it's that's that is completely ridiculous. I know I've done it, and I've dealt it, and I've seen this. I've seen well, I mean, I've felt that way, and I've said a lot of rude things to a lot of very good people.

SPEAKER_03 14:24

You get to your threshold because of the pain, and I I understand that because there's days that I can't function because I hurt so bad. And I have a very high tolerance for pain because of the situation with my body. And when I get to that point, it's like I just need to go do my own thing away from everybody. I love y'all, but I'll be back later. You just gotta walk away from it, and then everybody's like, well, what the hell's the matter with him?

SPEAKER_05 14:54

So, in a way, to me, that is success. That I've noticed something myself that I feel like I'm doing this to people, I'm acting this way. There's no reason for me self-observant shit on somebody else's parade for the way I'm feeling. And it has taken time to realize that and just remove myself from the situation. I'm not upset with anybody there. No, it's because I'm dealing with something and it something may just annoy me for absolutely no reason. It's like, stop, don't do that. So my success is not killing really different. And we've seen it in social media posts that I've made and I've gotten in arguments away. And it still happens. I'm not immune to this. So my success is something completely different, and that's why I, you know, I didn't really question. It was definitely not. No, no, and it's not. It's not.

SPEAKER_04 15:49

But it's more along the lines of like the internet trolls, the people who do it just to sow chaos because there's something in them that they're not inherently happy with, so they've got to drag everything else around and down. That's exactly Discord.

SPEAKER_06 16:01

Well, it makes their day.

SPEAKER_04 16:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 16:02

Yeah. And we we do get some weird haters on our posts. Wes, you usually like to engage with them. Oh, what do you mean?

SPEAKER_04 16:09

Usually it's really fun when Wes is like, hey, did you guys see what this guy said?

SPEAKER_06 16:13

Well, yeah, because someone like really, oh, your podcast's on some. I'm not gonna go talk to him. I'm like, hey, first off, the comment section is always on the feeling.

SPEAKER_05 16:19

The comment section is not, you know, comment section will never lose.

SPEAKER_06 16:23

No, it's it's it's it's designed, that's why I don't really engage. Like, if someone's like, hey, we love I love you, I'll be like, dude, awesome, thank you so much. Shout out your lodge, I'll try to visit it one day. But if someone's like, you all are ruining masonry, I'm like, I just don't, I think I'm like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 16:36

Oh, yeah, I've been told that so many times. Okay, great.

SPEAKER_03 16:40

That's why we're at refreshment right now.

SPEAKER_05 16:43

Yeah, just keyword refreshment.

SPEAKER_03 16:45

I I so I do.

SPEAKER_05 16:47

There's that there's that one family, Rothschilds. They keep liking us on Facebook. The Rothschilds.

SPEAKER_06 16:53

The Rothschilds? The people that invented the gasolines from dinosaur bones, look into it, Google it. It's not a renewable resource. No, but like they're all named Susan, but they're all different accounts. No, I hear that, but it's like, I don't know. It's like I start thinking about thinking about my life and when I'm happy, when I'm not happy. And I'll be honest, the most miserable I ever was is when I couldn't just get anything in life to stick. And I'm not gonna call this brother out by name, but we have a brother in uh Max and I's Lodge right now who awesome dude, heart of gold, but his life isn't 100% where it needed to be. I see a frustration in him, and I look at him, I'm like, brother, you are 27-year-old me working three jobs with somehow no money, not sleeping, just trying to get anything to stick so you can have a real job and someone could goddamn love you and you could feel okay tomorrow. And I think that's kind of like we were talking about me with achievements. It's not so much achievements. I want to do something to have something and then enjoy that something that I have. Did you just pick something off on the ground and eat it? Cheeto.

SPEAKER_04 18:02

Apparently, one fell out of pocket.

SPEAKER_06 18:04

You have pocket cheetos? He did. All right, at refreshment family at home, pocket cheetos, the way it success. But no, so it's not achievements. Like, I get like really giddy about the weirdest thing. Like, if I buy a loaf of bread and then I eat all the bread before the bread becomes bad, I feel like I just like champion the world. I don't know why. That takes like months, though. No, it doesn't. It's all the stuff in there that you don't even know what depends on the depends on the bread you get. Honestly, I've been buying my bread from a Kirsten's Danish baker and burridge. It's $7 a loaf, but it it goes bad fairly quickly, so it's really like it's really legit.

SPEAKER_03 18:37

Wrap it in wax paper.

SPEAKER_06 18:38

Oh, see? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:42

Bread lasts forever. I mean, baker's bread, bakery bread is different from like the stuff you buy at the store. Yeah, there's no preservatives.

SPEAKER_06 18:50

But no, but I don't know. Is it happy? And like in a weird way. So, like, you know, just kind of recap, yours is living up to your word doing what you do. Yeah, minus seeing a successful finish to the things I you know set out to do. You know, A plus B equals this. You're thinking about leisure time, family, and quality time, and Wes's is really rooted in personal development of what his success is. And I'm sure where we started this with Sugar Ray and Geoffrey Owens from the Cosmo, they have their own versions too.

SPEAKER_05 19:20

But like I said, that's success now, like happiness. Nobody ever says, you know, man, that guy's miserable, but he's really happy. But with success, there's two different levels. We can be successful, successful and miserable. You can be successful and happy. But what is happiness? All right. Well, what is happiness? Well, that's what we're what makes you happy, or what makes you happy.

SPEAKER_06 19:44

Every one of us is happy.

SPEAKER_05 19:45

Or am I did I miss something?

SPEAKER_06 19:47

No, no, no. Let's talk about this stuff. Because like sometimes like watching like stupid people attack happy people is just driving me insane. And then I start thinking like, well, I think I'm happy. Am I really happy?

SPEAKER_04 19:59

Um I you know what I see your happiness most when you're posting about your kid.

SPEAKER_06 20:06

Yeah. Well, my yeah, my kid doesn't suck like most of the population.

SPEAKER_04 20:10

No, but you you should you truly show absolute happiness when you're spending time with your daughter.

SPEAKER_06 20:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 20:18

Right. And she brings you happiness because I think it has to do with the simplicity of life at that point.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:27

Your particular situation is Marty, and from the outside view, okay, is you're so busy with everything all the time, is that when you get to stop and everything stops with it, and all you're focused on is Addy, you're the most happy.

SPEAKER_06 20:45

You're probably right there. Because I mean, you know, if I had to rank it like my daughter's pure happiness, then drinking with the boys, and then maybe a fresh squeeze lemonade at the fair, then spending time with the wife.

SPEAKER_04 20:55

Someone joking on which by the way, lemons and ice. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 21:00

So it's kind of like Dr. Evil and Mini Me.

SPEAKER_04 21:03

Yeah. You complete me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 21:04

Yes. Yeah, but that makes me happy. I guess the kid's probably the happiest thing I've ever had. That masonry makes me happy.

SPEAKER_04 21:10

It makes you happy. The things that make you happy are when your time is less demanded of you.

SPEAKER_06 21:16

Hmm.

SPEAKER_04 21:17

Interesting.

unknown 21:18

Interesting.

SPEAKER_03 21:19

You're gonna enjoy this happiness till she turns into a child.

SPEAKER_04 21:21

Because you said he's most happy when he's with his daughter. Yes, right? Yeah. Everyone's happiness is different. Yeah. Right. My happiness is when I'm being left alone. And I'm on my own, and I've got nothing because with work, with everything going on, my brain is so fogged up and polluted with so much stuff going on. When I get to sit down and just turn my brain off and work on some woody wood project, or or just be in the workshop and you know, coming up with ideas for things I want to make, my brain is no longer being pulled in 17 different directions. It's focused on one thing. And that allows me at time to be happy in the moment.

SPEAKER_06 22:00

And your job is chaotic because I mean you work for someone, but then since you cater to all the you know the people purchasing, you know, vendors, all this stuff, you serve so many different gods. Because like while you're fulfilling well, yeah, one guy was great for a few years. But no, but I mean professionally, you got to make sure the company's happy, but then you got like three or four people buying stuff. You know, you've got your like the Inquisition is coming for this guy.

SPEAKER_04 22:22

One guy. I have a wife, I love her, I'm straight.

SPEAKER_06 22:27

Allegedly. But um, shout out Brian Mullen. Um, but sailor. Yeah, but no, but you know I'm a good sea captain. So yeah, but that's you know, my happiness. That's success. I don't where do you stand? Does happiness equal success, or how do you break those two up?

SPEAKER_03 22:45

I'm gonna say no. I mean I think I was fairly successful. I had a good job, I was doing everything. My true happiness was either going to one of my grandkids' games or something as simple as going out to the family farm and just mowing.

SPEAKER_04 23:01

Simplicity.

SPEAKER_03 23:01

Yeah. I go out there and I gotta set a little headphone things with a radio in it, put that on and mow for five or six hours.

SPEAKER_06 23:09

Were you doing talk or music? Music. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 23:13

Yeah, I'm not much for talk radio.

SPEAKER_06 23:15

I I I grew up on talk radio. Maybe it's like being in my dad's truck while he was working, or like, you know, coming back. I go with him at night to do stuff, and then we'd be listening like coast to coast a.m. and all that old crazy shit.

SPEAKER_03 23:25

See, yeah, you said that when I was my uh second wife, I worked for her dad doing um for the Indianapolis Star. We'd drive to Indianapolis and pick up newspapers and we deliver them to carriers all the way back up to Montesal. And middle of the night, art bell, coast to coast, and listen to some of that shit. I'm like, God, I'm normal compared to some of these jokes.

SPEAKER_06 23:47

So I used to listen, actually's funny. Jesus back when I was early 20s, and I was driving those mosquito abatement spray trucks at night.

SPEAKER_05 23:54

Do they have asbestos and trailers?

SPEAKER_06 23:56

They have a lot of stuff out of there. But when I was driving, I'd be spraying for mosquitoes, and I'd be listening to coast to coast talking about aliens and vampires and like psychics on that. Dude, I'd be deep in some like Lake County, Illinois Forest Preserve, just terrified at some point.

SPEAKER_03 24:10

I'd just sit here driving down the road going, what was that like?

SPEAKER_06 24:15

I mean, so yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:16

I mean, you see somebody standing in the bushes back there and go, what the hell?

SPEAKER_06 24:20

Actually, the craziest thing I've ever seen when someone coming out was uh not too far from here at a campground. I know that sounds like a total ghost story, but we were uh hanging out there in uh God, what is that? Where's that uh that burger place? Where did we spend that one New Year's Eve at that bowling alley?

SPEAKER_05 24:40

Uh not too far from here.

SPEAKER_06 24:41

You're talking about pins? Yeah, which too? Pins in Yorkville. Yeah, it's a Yorkville. There's a there's a campground too far there. A buddy of mine lived there, and we were taking one of the golf carts out by the old like abandoned campground. Like, this is like some like real spooky Friday 13th stuff, but I remember we're looking at some burnt out building, and then like we like left there when I'm on the golf cart, and I'm the one like facing backwards, and I watched a figure walk off from where we just were and looking at me. I'm like, go, go, go, go, get the hell out of here. Like, I don't know who that was. It was so spooky. So, I mean, I don't know, man. Meth is a hell of a thing. Meth is a hell of a thing. But I don't know. I guess I just at least he's still got his teeth. Yeah. But no, but I guess I guess that's like I have to ask myself, am I happy? And are things happy? And is sugar ray happy? And I don't know why I've tied my happiness to sugar rays, but I guess I'm just at a point in my life where I'm like, all right, I'm 39, 40's coming pretty quick. What have I done with the first half of this thing? 40.

SPEAKER_04 25:32

Yeah. No, I'm still 39. All right, yeah. So it's hard to think I'm older than.

SPEAKER_06 25:37

So I'm like starting to think like, you know, when does this like like did I do did I do enough with this first 40? So I mean, I don't know. I guess like the started with something online, but I guess it's really itching at. I mean, I don't know if this is like a midlife thing I'm doing right now or what it is, but what's happiness? What you know, what's success?

SPEAKER_04 25:53

And is there I will say, Marty, of all the people I know, you are most concerned with everyone else's happiness before your own. That's wow. You're kind of you go out of your way to make sure everyone is having a good time or having fellowship or enjoying themselves before you what while you also uh do your fellowship and happiness, but you also make it a point to go out of your way to ensure everyone is in is getting happiness out of it.

SPEAKER_06 26:19

And you know, and that actually kind of I think stems on something. Me and my wife were talking about this the other day. And you know, because I was talking about, you know, honey, I'm just kind of a weird fucked up special needs kid. And I know it sounds horrible. And I'm not talking about the amazingly intellectual Wait a minute. You don't please support the autism show and we can get some help perform hardy here. No, no, that's not what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_05 26:45

But like, so I mean I would take donations ahead of the show. For I only on PayPal, right?

SPEAKER_06 26:51

No, but like I just to be truthful with those at home. Um, I had a lot of learning disabilities. I was in weird special classes, and like now, like my nephew who's autistic who I love, he's the smartest, most beautiful, kind boy in the world. They had like a special extra teacher like in the room for him, so he's with all the kids. They like locked us away somewhere. It was freaky.

SPEAKER_05 27:10

And oh and did you see him almost get killed in the wrestling uh at the wrestling event? It's on YouTube.

SPEAKER_06 27:16

Yes, it is, yes, the wrestling event. But you know, it's like I was such a so tied, like I worry about other people because I was like such like this like miserable, just bullied kid, and it was horrible, and I had like no friends. And I think puberty is what changed my life. Actually, I remember the first I hope so.

SPEAKER_04 27:32

Let me ask, you made more of your friends in high school than you did in grade school.

SPEAKER_06 27:36

No, because I dropped out a couple months into freshman year. I never went to high school. It was freshman year? I dropped out freshman year. I'm not trying to get all in the freshman year. Yeah, yeah. So I did seventh grade twice, dropped out six months into freshman year, um, got my GED at 16, though, which was I did I tested early for that. Like, which is like so crazy because like all the schools were like, hey, uh, your kids like unteachable. We should teach them how to like pack crayons and boxes and go lock them up somewhere and feed them goddamn fish heads. I know you think I'm talking crazy. That's like what it was. And like then I then I then then I take my damn GED at 16, don't even try that hard, pass it, and then I do all my community college placements. They're like, oh, your honor is everything but math. And I was like, I would so love to go back and say something to so many of these teachers. I don't remember a few of you. I hope I run into you. But no, but I was such a miserable kid, and I was very lonely. I remember the first time I made a friend, and this is like a weird story, and I was telling my wife this the other day, because my wife never, actually, none of you ever did, but her specifically, when sometimes I got like weird little things that bother me or like weird pain and shit I hold on to. I'm like, she doesn't get it. I'm like, you've seen a version of Marty that exists in masonry, that exists in independent wrestling, Marty the DJ, uh, Marty the author, all these different things I've done. You know, I've been just like independent horror movies. You know, I've chased every dream. I did, I was a stand-up comedian for a while. I've done all that. You've only seen this like weird, bulletproof, you know, Grand Royal Arts chapter, grotto Fez on, helping the kids version of me. Dude, OsFez 1999. I was 12 years old. And I wanted to go, and I got a ticket for my birthday. It was at the uh Tweeter Center, which I think is now the first Midwest Bank amphitheater. It was the World Music Theater.

SPEAKER_04 29:20

Whatever it is, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 29:20

In Tindley Park, Illinois, which, despite all of our technology advances, they still can't figure out that goddamn parking lot. That's a whole other story. You get trapped in there for hours, but whatever. So it was Oz Fest. I wanted to go, I wanted to see Ozzy, I wanted to go like experience this thing like that I would see in like Circus magazine, like the heavy metal magazine, like because I knew heavy metal existed. And I mean, I was listening to like it was kind of weird too, because I was like, I was a very unpopular kid, but I had D-Side albums in second grade because uh a guy my aunt was dating was super into death metal. I'm like, I guess I'll go with Best Buy and buy this Deocide album. So like jamming onto D-Side as a kid. So I was I was always into everything, but so I go I go there and I was so lonely, and my mom dropped me off in the parking lot at 10 a.m. She was gonna be back at midnight. This is free cell phones, which I mean now that I'm looking back at that, I'm like, what why would you just leave me there? Like, I was like, I was hoping, Marty. Yeah, you know, I know, but but my whole goal that day, and maybe this is my first brush with the concept of happiness, was I was like, God damn it, Marty, you're gonna make a friend today. You have to stop being so lonely. You have to go into this concert and just talk to somebody. Someone here has to like you and not treat you like a fucking two-headed monkey shit pile human. And I know it's humorous, but I'm getting actually emotional when I say it.

SPEAKER_05 30:39

We're watching a lot of Saturday Night Live at this time, right? Probably.

SPEAKER_06 30:41

No, Mad TV, Mad TV at that era. Mad TV was way better. But uh shout out, Will Sass. So you when you're fat, you're funny. When you lose weight, you suck. But I went there and like all I did that day, I don't know if this was like trial by fire for the version of me you see right now or the or how I talk and how I do things. I just decided to walk up to everybody and just have a conversation. School wasn't working to make friends, the kids at church thought I was weird. Like, there was nowhere I went to where they're like, hey, I'm so happy he's here. Like, nowhere. Like Cub Scouts sucked. Um, broke my foot right when I joined the wrestling team. So that whole year was a bust. Um, so then I went to this concert and I talked to everybody. And I don't know why I decided that day I'm like, you know, just go say outlandish shit to people and see if it pans out. I swear to God. And it's so funny because now I'm like 30.

SPEAKER_04 31:28

Was your first friend Yoshi?

SPEAKER_06 31:30

He's not far after this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:33

I'm just putting things together in my mind. I'm like, I'm like, his mom abandoned him at a concert at 10 a.m. And he's hanging out uh at 12 years old in a concert venue by himself for hours and hours, and it's not hard to think that some older gentleman might have picked him up.

SPEAKER_06 31:47

So, yeah, Yoshi did that, but that was later. Yeah, come with me. My mom did give me lunch money, but no, so I mean, I guess that was like my first. I mean, I was like, and I was like part of that like era where like parents would get divorced, and like then they're like they'd have this horrible multi-year court thing that just destroyed your mind. And that's why like all of our friends that maybe go through something, I'm like, dude, please go to counseling, go to a church counselor, go to another counselor. Because I'm gonna tell you what, right now, it's if they don't have kids everywhere, they don't care. Like, do it do you, boo-boo. But when people are like locked down or and you know, I know hey, goddamn Eric, I'm not trying to get you personal. Like, I know you and Cass are working on a baby right now. Yeah, yeah, and uh, I mean, if you want to call me over for tips, whatever you want to do, let me know. No, I'm joking around. But uh, to me, you guys are parents though, because you're so hands-out with your niece, man.

SPEAKER_04 32:37

Uh, we're we're the perpetual aunt and uncle for like everybody.

SPEAKER_06 32:40

Me too.

SPEAKER_04 32:41

Yeah, so it's yeah, Uncle Max.

SPEAKER_06 32:43

But no, but like that's the same, and you guys need to be strong and you guys need to be a unit. I saw and then that kind of screwed me up when I was a kid with my parents and all that. And I I guess I like this whole episode's becoming like, hey, let's talk about this one random thing I saw on Twitter and we're gonna riff on it. And now I'm just like, hey, let me talk about some stuff that's been bothering me for 30 years. But uh no, so like my parents didn't it's a horrible core case, and like they were like too worried about fighting each other and like not loving little Marty, and it was sucked, sucked bad. And I don't know, just through all this though, I kind of got to a point where I didn't understand what happiness was, and I like now, I guess like I'm third and I'm like, I I I think I'm super happy, but I'm scared I'm tricking myself, and I'm not happy, but that doesn't even make sense. But to wrap it up, I went to Ozfest, I made a bunch and I talked to everyone that finally the circle completely. I know I had such a good I had such a good time. I met so many people, and then through concerts and subculture music, I made more friends. I mean, there's always been like a part of my life where masonry or like this weird court like carved out caveat is kind of where I dwell in some esoteric hole in the wall. If it's not, if it's with DD kids, if it's with theater kids, if it's with the jugglos, whoop whoop, um, if it's with the Freemasons, if it's with promoting concerts, is with DJs, if it's doing this comedy stuff, I like I love stuff that brings people together. And I don't know, I guess so that makes you happy. I think it does. I think I think that and I think now that you provided a happy So what you're saying is okay.

SPEAKER_05 34:12

So everything you said at this point in your life, you didn't know how to make friends, you weren't happy, and you just created your own happiness, and in it you found something in you that the happiness that you most enjoy is gathering people to make sure that they're having a good time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 34:35

Well, he he he's a failed experiment. No, I actually met Yoshi at uh at an ice skating rink.

SPEAKER_04 34:46

Did he offer you candy?

SPEAKER_06 34:47

No, but actually he was like he was he was the reason I was able to drop out freshman year because he was like 32 and had a car. Um, he was like five years older than me. But then uh Andre Smith, who's uh you see me on Facebook a lot. Yeah, he was like because me and him were like our age and he had shit half the same problems I do. I even I wouldn't even talk about this if he was on these episodes today because I think he he had it a little harder than me. Um but yeah, but no, then we just met people, and it's just it's just like been a vibe for years. Like honestly, ever but like if I like but my my personal track record of like unhappy to things started going in the wrong direction right direction would have been Ozfest 99. And I remember that concert vividly. Corn played the uh no, not corn, uh Slipknot played the second stage, they weren't that famous yet. I met Static X, Ozzy killed it. Um my mom eventually came back from it. It must have been Alpine, right? No, Tilly Bark. Alpine's in Wisconsin.

SPEAKER_05 35:41

Because I was there and I remember Slipknot being like the second or third band on the main stage.

SPEAKER_06 35:47

Yeah, I think you're right.

SPEAKER_05 35:48

That's when they had the orange jumpsuits. I was there.

SPEAKER_06 35:51

Well, good. Maybe I talked to you that day. I doubt it. I would have remembered you were this long ago, you remember me? Yeah, because like random kid in like a Marilyn Manson bucket hat coming up, telling you like a weird old Andrew Dice Clay joke I was on your way. Yeah, no, um Yeah, no, dude. Like I don't, I guess like happiness is people to me. And I I think if you can get a lot of people together that you love and do something productive for each other or the world, I think that's about as good as it gets. And yeah, my daughters, of course, I mean top tier anything is my goddamn daughter. But I think I do find a lot of happiness in this and success. And yeah, I do. I do, I do like getting people together.

SPEAKER_04 36:28

Yeah, for the record, I didn't make friends until I was in college.

SPEAKER_06 36:32

Well, why'd you have any friends?

SPEAKER_04 36:33

Why'd you go to Osfass? I was the bullied kid. And now you bully me. I was bullied kid. No, I don't bully you, I just give you back rubs.

SPEAKER_06 36:42

Actually, you know Forceful back rubs. All right, here's the funny thing about his back rubs. I've actually tried to con I've tried to convince him to quit his job and go into physical therapy because back with his power lifting record and other things, he has a very we showing off the hands? Start hands.

SPEAKER_04 36:57

Stout hands.

SPEAKER_06 36:58

Yeah, he he everyone signed a petition for Eric to leave the hardware store and go into physical therapy. I won't do it. Because pretty soon medicine's gonna be the only place to make money a lot. That's a whole nother story. I won't do it. But yeah, I guess that's my success in happiness. Oh, does anyone ever hear any other breakthrough moments where you think you turned a corner in your life?

SPEAKER_04 37:15

Chris Nigren was my first friend.

SPEAKER_06 37:17

Chris Nigren was?

SPEAKER_04 37:18

Yeah. He was the first person to actually put time into me.

SPEAKER_06 37:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 37:22

Shout out Chris Nigren. You're my best friend even though I'm not yours.

SPEAKER_06 37:28

Well, what? I think we should figure that and comment out. When you guys met at community college. Yeah. Which community college? Trade. Yeah, it was at college of dropouts and college of pay.

SPEAKER_04 37:39

Yeah, no, me, him, Elric, we were all friends. We hung out.

SPEAKER_06 37:42

Yeah, Wes, what community college did you go to like you when you were pretending you had a plan?

SPEAKER_04 37:46

Well, it's community college.

SPEAKER_06 37:47

You didn't go to community college? You would have been Moraine Valley, right? It would have been Moraine Valley, but no, I didn't go to the colour. I thought we all just kind of bumbled around community college for a year or two pretending we're doing stuff. No trade school. What trade did you go into?

SPEAKER_03 37:59

Automotive and diesel repair was what I went to school for. And then I did the mechanic thing for about two or three years and then got into parts. Parts is better.

SPEAKER_06 38:07

If actually, if I could wave my magic. It's a lot easier on the hands, too. Oh, I'm sure. But yeah, getting into parts is good. Victoria's in parts, technically, right? I don't even know what he does.

SPEAKER_04 38:17

I went to school to be a teacher.

SPEAKER_06 38:18

I think he's in truck parts. You guys should be able to do it. Is it truck parts? I don't know if his truck parts are or what. So I know uh sometimes he goes on deliveries and he uh smokes cigars in the work truck and he stops by my house and I order a shawarma from a place on the corner I like. This nice Syrian family. Yeah. Shout out Mark and the uh and the Syrians. And the Syrians. Yeah, shout out to all the Syrians, God bless you. Yeah. So alright. And that's what you wanted to set out to do? Work on trucks, but then you got veteran to parts?

SPEAKER_03 38:46

I started out in working on cars because I really didn't want to get into the truck part because it just that shit is so big. And you you know, most of the guys I know that work in trucks they had to quit because they had backs. Just it's that shit weighs a ton, man. You get you pull a cylinder head off and it's like the size of a dinner table off one of those diesels or a rear end that's you know, off a semi, and I'm like, I really don't want to do that. So I did the car thing. And like I said, about three years, and then I went into the parts, and I liked it a whole lot better. How many years do you do parts? Uh on again and off again in 42 years.

SPEAKER_04 39:30

Jim, are you retired yet or are you you're still working?

SPEAKER_03 39:33

I was let go from my job last October.

SPEAKER_04 39:36

I that was a horrible question. Uh omit that.

SPEAKER_03 39:39

Coming home from Evansville from No Rus, and my boss called me and let me go over the phone. That's shitty.

SPEAKER_05 39:48

It was what's this guy?

SPEAKER_06 39:51

He lives in the I'll just leave it at that.

SPEAKER_04 39:57

We're gonna find you.

SPEAKER_06 39:58

But uh, so you got so what's your kind of long-term vision now?

SPEAKER_05 40:05

Well, that was that happiness. You got five. That was not happy.

SPEAKER_03 40:08

Honestly, it was probably one of the better things to happen because like the year before, I had had went into AFib.

SPEAKER_04 40:15

And you could spend a lot more time on yourself.

SPEAKER_03 40:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:19

And I've gone almost a year since my uh they put the paddles to me and shocked me. Holy they had to do all that? Yeah, I had to take medication up until January last year, and then they took me in and they run a scope down my throat so they could see the backside of my heart. Everything looked good with that. They had the I don't know what you call these adhesive pad things they put on you, and then they hit the button and shock the shit out of you. Yeah, yeah, get your heart back in the right rhythm.

unknown 40:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:46

And I haven't had a problem since, and then in November they took me off the medication because I've stayed for almost a year.

SPEAKER_05 40:51

Was it a heart attack or were you just out of the way? No, no, AFib. AFib's that's what I meant. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_03 40:57

The bottom part of my heart was right at steady at 66 beats a minute. The top part was like an animal playing the drums on the Muppet show.

SPEAKER_04 41:04

Yeah, it's a moment.

SPEAKER_03 41:04

And I'm sitting there in a chair and I'm like, summed up.

SPEAKER_04 41:07

Well, my wife had an AFib from uh she had an open heart surgery and the scar tissue was causing a issue, so she actually had a corrected.

SPEAKER_03 41:14

From the job? Yeah. They my uh my service writer had quit. And they brought this kid in, and he didn't know anything. And every day dealing with him just led to the if he doesn't go away, I'm going to kill him and I'm gonna have to spend time in an orange chute. Oh, he's an MFC. Oh I was so mad at this kid, and finally I told the boss that you need to get him somewhere else before he kills me because of this, or I killed I call those MFCs. Oh, it was terrible. And once he was gone, my stress level dropped. My old service writer came back and we did good up until last year, last summer, and it started going again in October. I was let go and it's like this is probably the best thing that happened. And I've been looking for something else to do. Uh we work at the racetrack part-time doing the racetrack thing, and it works out good.

SPEAKER_04 42:13

I would say, uh, have you tried working at Minard? It's so unstressful.

SPEAKER_06 42:18

Yeah, it's just that's not a carpenter person. No, I've never seen this guy be happy. Don't worry about it. I I love Minard's is actually my favorite hardware store. Uh, but no, he's not a happy man. So, but now the racetrack. I no, but like that's you're very involved with midget racing?

SPEAKER_03 42:33

Micro sprints, micro sprint, which is a step below the midget stars.

SPEAKER_04 42:38

Those are the those are the ones with the tilted wing on the side, yeah?

SPEAKER_03 42:41

There is with wing and without wing, but yeah. Is that two different classes? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 42:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 42:46

Yeah, they run uh the the micro sprints run a 600cc bike motor.

SPEAKER_04 42:50

Now you were saying something about races earlier. Is there a race coming up?

SPEAKER_03 42:54

Um, we race just about every weekend. It started last weekend. I worked at track last night. Uh help out at the front gate, and uh I'm in talks with the owner of the track about maybe doing a Masonic day in September, and I want to try to get as many different Masonic groups to the track.

SPEAKER_04 43:14

See, I grew up, I grew up going to racetracks. My dad was a mechanic. I actually uh used to go to the racetrack down by your house.

SPEAKER_06 43:20

Santa Fe Speedway. Greatest track in the world.

SPEAKER_04 43:23

Yeah, rest in peace. But that's where I grew up, man. I grew up every weekend I was down at the track with my dad. He'd be in the pit and we'd be sitting on the sidelines watching everything going around.

SPEAKER_03 43:33

My friend that owns it, that was originally him and I and his sister. We raced Indiana, Illinois and all over the place doing that. And back then they were like a two fifty C C single cylinder motor. And I think they had a twin two fifty C C class. When's the last time you got on the track and actually did it yourself? Oh hell no. I back in the it was either the 80s or the 90s, my friend, his name is also Jim, talked me into getting into the car so that I'd understand more about what he says it's pushing, that I'd understand it's what it's doing. What it's doing.

SPEAKER_04 44:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:18

And we tried to get my big Heine in the car, and we ended up having to take the seat out. And there was a two by 12 laying there, so we laid it across the frame.

SPEAKER_04 44:27

You know, car ran good, car ran good.

SPEAKER_03 44:29

You know, I did Jimmy Jack the whiz, getting a little uh it it was an interesting ride around the track, and I was like, I thought I was really flying, and he can I come back in and he goes, dude, you need to go up another gear.

SPEAKER_04 44:41

You're doing 56 miles an hour, man.

SPEAKER_03 44:43

You're pretty close, if even that. And I'm like, you know, I'm watching the fence supposed to go and I'm like, man, I'm really going. And I pull in and he goes, dude, you need to go a little faster. But what was weird was when you're just idling around the track, it wants to go like this. Yeah. Absolutely towards the fence. Once you get up to speed, then it does end of the turn, just like it's supposed to. And I said, Okay, I'm that's enough. I went to get out and I looked down the two by twelve's just hanging there, one part's dragging the ground full of mud, and I'm like, my ass was this close to e dragging on the asphalt. I'm good. Oh, jeez. That's that's wild. What's what is the name of the racetrack? US 24 Speedway. And what part of Indiana? It is between Logansport and Monticello, Indiana. It's been there for a long time. I want to say it was like in the 50s or 60s.

SPEAKER_04 45:37

If we do a road trip, I might be able to convince the wife to go down.

SPEAKER_03 45:40

Oh, we should. Saturday nights. Um, they run junior sprints, which is uh they run like a predator motor on those, little kids. And then they've got the 600 outlaw, 600 non-wing, 600 wing senior class. We left there at 11 o'clock last night, and it was a blast watching them. It's the first time I got to watch them this year.

SPEAKER_04 46:03

I love going out Juliet, uh the dirty O down there.

SPEAKER_06 46:05

The Dirty O was cool.

SPEAKER_04 46:07

Yeah, because the uh figure eight races are the demolition derbies.

SPEAKER_06 46:10

Yeah, we have the uh grotto out, we do a Sycamore Sycamore Speedway, that's the dirt track.

SPEAKER_05 46:15

That inspired some of us to think about actually getting purchasing a car for the Grotto to enter into some of the races. That's a bad idea.

SPEAKER_06 46:23

Yeah, that'd be an awesome idea.

SPEAKER_05 46:25

I think it's a good idea in theory, but when somebody gets hurt, then we're gonna be like, oh, maybe it wasn't such a good idea.

SPEAKER_03 46:34

We do have a uh Brother Mason over there that races it looks like it.

SPEAKER_06 46:38

Does he? Yes. And he completely financially backs his own car, his own team, everything.

SPEAKER_05 46:44

We actually thought about purchasing a car and just putting like a Gorado Fez on it.

SPEAKER_06 46:48

Just there's yeah, there's not saying there's a rusted out Dodge Neon waiting for us out there to get somebody.

SPEAKER_03 46:54

Didn't we talk about this a while back?

SPEAKER_04 46:57

You know, we could easily make a fez out of a garbage can of some shane.

SPEAKER_05 47:01

I mean, you know how it was like everyone in Grotto would be? Yeah. That might be, you know, encouraging the happiness. The happiness box is some grotto members. Put a giant trash can fit in the bottom. Not saying me in particular. I think it's a good idea in theory, but in practicality, I'm you know, we'd have to really think about it. But in theory, it sounds like a great idea. I can make a fest tassel out of some interesting.

SPEAKER_06 47:26

You know, the only thing my wife ever told me I couldn't have is my own circus. What are you talking about? Everything you do is a circus. Well, no, no, I know that. But like one year the shrine was trying to get the Chicago Circus bag, and I love the Medina Shrine or Circus when I was a kid. Super happy memory for me. There was a toy table and everything you'd buy that would work while you're there, that would break on the way home. Such amazing stuff. But like, I don't know. I told my wife, they were trying to get back here. Like, you know, I'm trying to get I was gonna hook up with Crispy from Sabagrad in Oklahoma, who's a a carney or something by trade. I don't know what he is. We got a pointy mustache and a hat. He might work at Geek Squad for all I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 48:02

So he you know this for a fact, or you just guess he's got a big thing. He's some type of mustache. He's some type of carney.

SPEAKER_06 48:07

No, he do I don't know what I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 48:10

Hey, but you got a carney mustache.

SPEAKER_06 48:11

Yeah, I don't know if he does like the water balloon gimmick or sells the cotton candy or bites the chicken heads off. You know, we have circus city in Indiana.

SPEAKER_03 48:18

What circus city? I don't know. Brew Indiana. What is it? That's where I it's where all the carnies live. Yeah, well, in the wintertime, a lot of them would go over there and spend time in the wintertime. When they weren't touring? Yeah. And I have seen a circus train going over there.

SPEAKER_06 48:35

Really?

SPEAKER_03 48:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 48:37

So circuses are great to me. And I was uh I was actually watching uh Wicked like the this week. My wife just started watching my crap. Thank you for watching The Wraith uh with a very young who was that? Was it Charlie Shenin? I forget who was in it, but that's a crazy movie. I think it was Charlie. Yeah, the Wraith was the Wheat, yeah. Yeah, I don't know where like YouTube movies. There's a little Dodge in it, yeah, whatever that was, concept. Everything was a DSM in that almost. Um, yeah, because I don't know where like YouTube movies was like, hey, do you want to watch Corbett Summer and Mark Hamill? I'm like, yeah. Do you remember Gumball Rally? I'm like the RC Cola to Cannonball Runs Coca-Cola? Yes, I do. It's like there was like just weeks of hot rod movies at my house, and my wife put her foot down, she's like, we're watching Wicked and Wicked for Good this week. And I was like, that's fair.

SPEAKER_03 49:24

Best movie ever was Hollywood Nights.

SPEAKER_06 49:26

I was a great movie. But you know, you know, Oz, man, Oz was just a carny that just drifted in there and then he like tricked everybody. I don't know. I love I love Carnies, I love carnivals. I I I think we I don't know, maybe, maybe, maybe I could revisit the circus with my wife. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 49:39

So look up Peru, Indiana. Right now, and yeah, then text what different things they've got going on because they they still call Circus.

SPEAKER_04 49:47

Look it up and then text it to your wife.

SPEAKER_03 49:48

Circus City, and they still have stuff from the circus over there.

SPEAKER_06 49:51

And uh so actually, kind of where um a lot of us live, not far from where you live, where I live, when you're where you live, we have the showman's unrest where the in Chicago where the carnival train turned over and they have that mass burial graph. And I have no idea what mass carney burial has to do with my understanding happiness episode. I just realized that was weird to even talk about.

SPEAKER_05 50:14

You know, we always start off great on a certain subject and then we just fall off the rails.

SPEAKER_04 50:18

It's called a train wreck.

SPEAKER_05 50:21

That's why we should have named the podcast.

SPEAKER_03 50:24

Real quick, back to the racetrack. I'm going to try to get a date set up in the September, and I'm inviting every yeah, for sure, man. Every group, shrine, grotto. If you've got little cars, big cars, whatever, would love to have you over there and do a and that would be such a huge thing. Set up some cases.

SPEAKER_04 50:46

Can you imagine if we got together and we set up a Shriner's race where everyone's racing their go-karts?

SPEAKER_06 50:51

I think it's been done, but it should be done again. It should be done again.

SPEAKER_04 50:54

It should be done this September.

SPEAKER_03 50:58

And we've had some.

SPEAKER_04 51:00

We'll crown the greatest grotto or shriner unit.

SPEAKER_03 51:05

Yeah. Which Bush is it? Kyle. And his son are both racing.

SPEAKER_06 51:09

Oh, isn't that what everyone's like, F Kyle Bush? That's a big thing to scream at the races.

SPEAKER_03 51:13

You know what? I never heard it when he was over there. Really? Because I think that isn't like a big isn't he like the new Jeff Gordon? He's fun to rag on. It could be, I don't know. I like I said, I've never seen it. It is a treat to watch his son drive.

SPEAKER_04 51:26

You know why everyone hated Jeff Gordon? Because he spoke proper English.

SPEAKER_03 51:30

If yeah, he was from Indiana/slash California, and he goes down there with all the southern folks.

SPEAKER_04 51:37

You can understand what he was talking about after races. That's why people hated him so much. He was happy speaking normal English. Happiness, Marty. Happiness. Do you think Jeff Gordon's happy? You know what? Probably.

SPEAKER_03 51:50

I think he's happier when he's getting a chance to get back in the car. Is Danica Patrick still driving?

SPEAKER_05 51:55

No, she retired. No.

SPEAKER_03 51:56

She's retired.

SPEAKER_05 51:57

She's a podcaster now.

SPEAKER_03 51:59

I did see something about that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 52:01

Hey guys, that's Danica Patrick right there.

SPEAKER_03 52:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 52:08

You know, but actually, hold on. Go back to happiness and talk about podcasts.

SPEAKER_05 52:12

Because anyone can have a podcast. Anyone can self-publish a book. Please don't talk about podcasts and happiness because that doesn't fucking equate to shit.

SPEAKER_06 52:22

But what I'm saying is, here's another thing for happiness. Once upon a time, if you wanted to be in a movie, you want to do this, you want to do that, it was hard. You had to go to places, you had to go to film school. Do you guys think for happiness, this new world we live in with no barrier of entry to anything, where you have people that just self-publish to Amazon and have hits, people that shoot movies on iPhones, do you think we're better off living in this time that everything is so open source?

SPEAKER_04 52:44

No, I miss no cell phones.

SPEAKER_06 52:45

Well, no, not cell phones. Okay, are you all right? So you guys think cell phones are evil and cell phones are evil. Social media is my thing.

SPEAKER_03 52:52

I'm I'm getting to the point where I don't like social media. And it's been I it's really started here recently with all the political nonsense crap on there. And it's like I just I I I could go days without looking at Facebook, really. I do like it. The fact that I can get on and and chat with my friends and see what's going on at the various shrines, grottoes, lodges, yada yada yada.

SPEAKER_04 53:18

You like communication.

SPEAKER_03 53:20

Yeah, but uh the political side of it, there is some hateful people out there.

SPEAKER_04 53:26

They're just anti-happy people.

SPEAKER_06 53:27

Yeah. Well, so to kind of wrap it up to your thing, so you think a lot of these overpoliticized people just aren't happy?

SPEAKER_04 53:32

Yeah. Politics is inherently unhappiness.

SPEAKER_06 53:35

And it didn't used to be. No, then they shot a couple candidates and it's all been down hell since.

SPEAKER_04 53:41

Yeah, well, you know, once they killed Harambe.

unknown 53:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 53:45

Shout out Harambe. That did open a portal, and I have a whole theory on that. Oh no. But no.

SPEAKER_05 53:50

You and your portals.

SPEAKER_03 53:53

You and your portals. It's it's starting to look like what if you can't make sense of it.

SPEAKER_05 53:58

Oh, that's opening it up. It's a portal in New Orleans. How did I end up in another fucking coffee shop? Marty's multiverse. Marty's standing there and somebody's going, on your left.

SPEAKER_06 54:11

No, I don't know. Like tightening up your shield, Marty.

SPEAKER_04 54:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 54:15

But we're talking about like Danica Patrick as a podcast. We have a podcast.

SPEAKER_04 54:19

Joe Rogan has a podcast.

SPEAKER_06 54:20

Yep. I think the only three podcasts in the world are us, Danica Patrick, and Joe Rogan. Joe can't. But no, but it's like the sheer fact that anyone could buy. We have this room, I mean, it's a lot for much for money to buy all these camera stuff because we're poor people. But you know, anyone could pretty much do whatever they want now. And I've always like wondered, is this better or is it worse? Record labels are pretty much, you know, they don't exist anymore. The streaming rights will screw you because no one's really making anymore. You still got to go tour as a band and sell a t-shirt. You know, you got comedians that come up with these specials, and they're and actually, if you ever see a comedian have a special on Netflix, they gave it to Netflix because they're just using it as a trailer to go see them at a club. Right.

SPEAKER_05 55:00

Let me uh let me ask you this when you sit down to eat, no matter where it is, and you have a plate, do you care where your tensels, napkin, drinking glasses? Do you care about any of that whatsoever? I prefer it off the floor, but yeah.

SPEAKER_06 55:20

No, I actually know. You know what? Yeah. I only have two forks in my uh in my drawer of the house that I like, and I really like when I get those forks. I'm actually bizarre about these forks.

SPEAKER_05 55:31

So what I'm getting at is sometimes when you go to a wedding, go to a banquet. Yeah. Plate, everything's set up, napkins there folded, and either in a square or camel shape, whatever the hell it is. Right. And you got a couple goblets for for drinking, okay? Then you go home. You have a paper plate, maybe a plastic fork, because you don't want to do dishes. Yeah. But then you go to another restaurant and they have everything folded up in just a plate. If you have the same dish and it tastes the same, but through all three experiences, was anything actually different? Or was it just the experience of sitting there with the plate and how everything is set up?

SPEAKER_04 56:16

I firmly believe that going out to eat is more about the ambiance and the surrounding than it is about the food.

SPEAKER_05 56:23

So it's about the experience.

SPEAKER_04 56:25

It's about the experience. I will prefer to eat at home. I really just I don't I'm a I like the quiet.

SPEAKER_05 56:33

I don't like having to hear everyone else's conversation. Some people just want the meat of it. I don't care about the presentation of the meal. Okay, because in all three situations, it's tasting the same. It looks the same. Well, maybe a little different, okay? But the experience, now does that make it taste better?

SPEAKER_04 56:51

No, Marty putting beans and tacos makes it taste better.

SPEAKER_05 56:54

So have it once. But what I'm getting at is when things are set up in a certain way, even though everything tastes the same and everything, you get a different experience. And sometimes that brings happiness to somebody else. Oh, sure. It's the same meal, but I got a you know, China uh Chinette paper plate over here for this, or I've got TV on, I'm sitting here with my paper plate. And there's some happiness in the simple things or in the mark, elegant.

SPEAKER_06 57:21

So I could tell you two dishes that the way we serve them in this country completely make them. Fajitas on a non-sizzling platter, it could be the same fajitas, but if that's platter's not sizzling coming to your table, you're not excited.

SPEAKER_04 57:32

No, that's a fake sizzle, by the way. Yes, they put water in the water to make it sizzle.

SPEAKER_06 57:36

Yeah, it still gets me hype, though. And the other oysters. Hear me out. Get a bit because it comes out of this awesome tray. Ice and they're all presented to you, and there's like horseradish and this, that. What if they just scraped them on and gave them to eat a bowl? Like, here you go. It's the same meal, but it sucks.

SPEAKER_04 57:51

Well, no, because the bowl just looks like a bowl of snot.

SPEAKER_05 57:53

So it's not that it's not the actual taste of the meal, it's the presentation of the meal that equates to happiness. Yes, not reference to speciality. Is that actually happiness then? Because you're basing it off of a presentation. Remember, I said three meals. But they taste the same thing. They're gonna look similar, okay. I definitely wouldn't trust myself eating oysters at home. So is happiness just the presentation of life, the situation, the dinner? Or is it actually the taste of that meal?

SPEAKER_06 58:27

Oh god, that that's hard. That's hard. I don't know how to answer it because perception's huge. Perception's perception could Trump it is reality, or it could Trump reality, depending on how you look at it.

SPEAKER_05 58:41

Because if you close your eyes and like I said, the meal tastes the same. Now you're just going off a presentation, but somebody that can't see is not going to see that presentation, but all three meals stay the same.

SPEAKER_06 58:54

That is a philosophical question. And if I look at it practically with meals I enjoy and other things, yeah, it matters.

SPEAKER_05 59:03

So presentation over than the actual accomplishment of or who you're with.

SPEAKER_06 59:10

Who you're with.

SPEAKER_05 59:10

But see, but okay, but you're saying you're eating by those are outside things. Like it's okay, the three meals are the same. I'm just gonna say lasagna. It's the same freaking lasagna on every plate, but it's presented a different way. Now you just added more ambiance. No, it depends. That's fine.

SPEAKER_04 59:27

I'm just saying, is the lasagna coming out of a stofer's tray?

SPEAKER_05 59:31

Well, of course. Okay, so now you're now you're adding something else, but they still taste the same. No, no, stofer's lasagna is different.

SPEAKER_06 59:40

For the situation, I'm trying to really dig into this one. And I and I love Stofer's two-pound family entrees as well. Um we can tell. Right. Yeah, we can't.

SPEAKER_05 59:51

They'll present it in the Stoffer's tray, and then I'll put it in a glass tray and then put it in something else, but it's still the same, still the same meal. It's the presentation of it.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:00

You know what's weird? There, um, again, terminally online person like me. There was a lady who got popped in California for serving Popeye's chicken in her five-star restaurant.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:09

I remember hearing about this, yes.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:11

And and she it was two chicken strips, she would put on a chicken and waffle style dish. She didn't really have a fryer, she liked Popeye's. Popeye was on the street, so every couple hours they'd bring in an 18-pack of chicken strips, but she was charged like $37 for the dish because it was a high-end restaurant. People loved it. Okay. And I but you so God, so in a weird way, can perception trump reality?

SPEAKER_05 1:00:32

Because then once you get neglect, no, no, no, no, no, wait, wait, no. The reality is that everything tastes the same. The dishes are the same. The presentation, it's the outside world, the the plate, the forks, the napkin, the company, the oven. Okay, but everything, but the meal is the same, it tastes the same, nothing changes.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:58

A lot of that would be the person eating it too. I mean, you look at that.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:02

Yeah, imagine somebody who doesn't like Stofer's lasagna.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:05

You're you're sitting there at home eating it because you want to be at home eating it. You go to this restaurant because you know you like listening to the few people that are in there. You go to the high-end restaurant because well, you know, I just wanted to try it.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:20

Well, it I'm not trying to say that there's anything wrong, but what what is actually happiness for this situation? Is it the taste of the meal? Or is it the presentation and everything outside of it that creates the meal? You can be sitting by yourself and enjoy the meal just as much with company. True. But for some people, that presentation, the fork and the knife was actually in the right place. I had a water goblet, I had a pudding glass. Okay. Some people will know what I'm talking about. Pudding wine. You never heard of it? Anyways, okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:02

I've never heard of that. So never heard of that.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:05

You're eating way too fancy. Okay, so some places there's like three glasses. There's water, there's wine, and then there's like dessert one. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:14

Oh, like ice wine? Yeah, putting wine.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:16

Okay. So they'll they'll have that. All right. There's the plate, then there's two forks. There should be two spoons, or sometimes there's just the soup spoon, and that's all it's used for. And then you have your meat knife or just a buttery butter knife. Okay. But there's a chilled salad fork, a regular. Sometimes when you go, like, okay, the Waffle House, here's your plate. Here, here's a paper napkin. And then, wow, is that waffle the greatest thing you've ever tasted? Or what? Is it because of the taste of the waffle? Or is it because of everything else that is added to the ambiance of 100% fist fights? No, no, that waffle would probably suck. To the presentation and you enjoying that meal. All that ambiance. Oh my god. That is so much to think about.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:06

Yeah, Marty, is the fist fight happening behind you make that waffle taste better? I I it's like having a hamburger meal at one place, you know. I'm hungry. This fulfills my need. I'm good with this. I when I go to a restaurant, I really don't pay much attention to who's eating around me. Once there's enough people in there, my hearing goes south, and I can't tell what you know. You and I could be sitting side by side. There's 25 other people in our talking. I can't understand what you're saying. Because it's just a lot of noise in my ears. I I sit a lot of times at restaurants to just kind of look around and look at everything. She goes, She'll say something like, What? And she goes, Is everything all right? I said, Yeah, I just zone everything out. I'll finally just zone everything out, enjoy my food. I'm good with that. I don't I don't need much more.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:54

I was actually dealing that with the family hibachi dinner on Friday. Like once the guy's like banging swords around and like throwing shriveling, I can't hear nothing. Yeah. It was a good shrimp.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:02

But okay, you said zone out. That's a good thing. Because when you're in that zone, you're just everything comes together. Right. Everything comes together. You know, whether it's you know, mostly we use the zone for sports, but horseshoe. Yeah. It can happen anywhere.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:21

Oh, I got some bad news, guys. Horseshoes are bullshit? No, I don't think the question I asked at the beginning of this, I don't think we found out anything.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:27

No, we didn't. But great episode.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:30

I'm leaving here with way more questions than when I started.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:35

Well, well. Also, horseshoes are bullshit.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:39

What do you think of this, Jim? Marty, I don't know. I'm going back to sleep. Love talking to you.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:44

You'll never stare at your waffles the same way again. Why are you calling me? It's six seconds.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:49

Putting wine. Putting wine. It haunts me. But either way, guys, it's something I've been thinking about, and I guess at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:57

Still be thinking about it.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:58

Yeah, 40 is coming up July 3rd, and I really hope I use these years well, and I hope I use the next 40 better. Amen.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:06

I will cheers.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:07

Agree with that. Cheers. Yeah, to Marty's 40 years of unhappiness. Don't forget to like and subscribe. Yeah, what you said.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:22

And all of our fans, once he gets that race date locked in, we'll give you posting up, and hopefully all of us will be out there that weekend. Oh, I wonder.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:28

I will try to post it on as many Facebook sites as I can because we're gonna I'm gonna try to meet up with him this week and get that in the on the books and ready to go. Because I think it'll be at absolute.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:39

If you could somehow make September 12th happen, I'd love you forever. I will see what I can do. Thanks, sir.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:44

But I also give you all the dates we're available to work around.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:47

No, that's the date, September 12th, and I'm blowing off Rosa Crucians.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:51

I want to get it set up to where also the shrine can set up something on the hospitals, the grotto can set up something for the Humanitarian Foundation and any other groups that want. To we'll have a separate.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:01

I'm not going to say a quieter area because there's no such thing as the racetrack, but an area where people have questions.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:07

I would love if we could get a co-table between the Grand Chapter of Indiana and Illinois, half Rara, half Arms.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:13

Oh, yeah, beautiful. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:15

See what we can do. Well, that's our episode, everyone. Thank you for watching. If you haven't yet, please like this episode and subscribe. Don't forget to comment. Yeah, leave a comment. Let us know what we're doing wrong. Everyone loves to do that. And don't eat Cheetos off the floor.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:34

Oh, it's fine. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:37

You did. Don't follow what I do. Alright, everyone. Thanks for watching. We'll be back one more. Love you guys. Share the truth.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:50

Lighting the room when the mic comes on.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:01

Come on, come on. Come on.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:15

Every friend. Every freaking tone. Stay right here. Come back soon.