TAGQ (That's A Good Question)
TAGQ (That's A Good Question)
Helicopters and Other Heavy Equipment
Uncle and brother Mark is the guest on today's podcast, and we get into his experience with heavy equipment on the ice and other things.
From podium.page:
Join us as we cozy up with a warm cup of coffee and casually unravel the quirks of winter life, sharing personal stories and a good chuckle over a surprising YouTube find featuring Conan O'Brien. We explore the shades of feeling 'washed out', from being pale to feeling under the weather, and swap tales about snow challenges, like tackling a steep driveway sans plow service. Then, strum along with our conversation on guitar practices, where we compare the resonating differences between a beginner's instrument and a professional's choice, and the nuances of string types that can make or break the melody.
Wrap up warmly for a journey over icy lakes as we discuss the crucial importance of ice safety with colorful anecdotes from the snowmobiling and ice racing world. You'll hear about the high-stakes antics of local daredevils, the practicality of using ice drills for thickness checks, and the stark reminders of the costs and dangers associated with vehicles meeting thin ice. Then, travel back in time with us to the nostalgia of family road trips, where safety seats were a suggestion rather than a rule, and the innocence of childhood shone bright. Our guest departs with warm wishes, reminding us of the importance of treasuring time and family bonds.
0:00:16 - Ben
Welcome back to the pod. Everyone Sitting here with my cup of coffee. My dad thinks he looks washed out. He recently shaved. I don't really know what that means. To be washed out. Does it mean you're pale? Does it mean your your color's off? The doctor told me my color was off this week. I was a little like oh wow.
0:00:46 - Scott
I've never. I was six or so maybe I haven't been outside much because of different challenges. No, at home for the holidays I was sick for a week yeah okay, um yeah, home for the holidays, you were home at your house.
0:01:15 - Ben
yeah, the holidays it's your permanent house, as opposed to your winter slash summer home. Where's wow? You're like you're at the home of California as much as I am.
0:01:36 - Scott
No, that's not true. But yeah, it's nice to have a place to come and experience winter, and it wasn't supposed to snow, but it did, so it's like full-blown winter outside how much snow is on the ground? Uh, four inches enough for plows to no, they didn't really plow the roads, they sanded the roads, they plowed the neighbors paved driveways but, but not your driveway our plow guy hasn't shown up yet. Oh no, but Mark, my brother uh made it out with the van this morning.
0:02:30 - Ben
So oh yeah, wow, how does that figure? Going up a steep, steep hill he said it was.
0:02:39 - Scott
You know, the last little lip of it is tricky, you know, he you got to. If you don't have the four-wheel drive, you have to maintain your speed. If you ever lose it, then you start slipping. Yeah, right, yeah, so did you get that? Did you get the link I sent earlier? Yeah, the one of conan o'brien talking to mayor scott in front of a trash.
0:03:15 - Ben
Can, oh, you recognize the mayor? Yeah, I know the mayor. The mayor, the mayor of this town, plays ultimate frisbee. Okay, he's, uh, he's what we call a would-be island character was he the guy with the bow tie?
uh he was. He was the one that uh was. I didn't watch the whole video, but he was standing to the left glasses and short white hair. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, I only started watching the video just before we uh tuned in here, so I didn't get to see the whole thing. But, um, I didn't actually see the whole point of the video. Why, what's the trash can ceremony?
0:04:02 - Scott
his wife wrote a play that was um staged in that building. Oh and okay, they just made up a comedic premise to okay thrown into riff memory, yeah, and commemorate how on earth did you find that video?
youtube. Yeah, it wasn't promoted by um, by o'brien, someone else put it up. But you know it's kind of like, kind of amazing how he puts on a performance. Just in this, you know, you can see how he really enjoys the event and you know the guy coming up and at the end he, he, um, signs that he does a caricature of himself and signs the top of the trash can oh, that's sharpie or magic marker and uh, the policeman who he's been doing bits with in leading up to that comes over and you know everyone says, like he's vandalism, what's he doing?
He's signing the trash. Can they just dedicated to him? It was like, okay, this could be a court case in Langley.
0:05:24 - Ben
It's like, okay, this could be a court case in Langley.
0:05:31 - Mark
Yeah, the police don't have many better things to do.
0:05:33 - Ben
Yeah, how many? I guess it has more than 100,000 views. So thanks for pulling that up, jimmy. Appreciate it, jimmy.
0:05:44 - Scott
He's our tech guy, oh, jimmy yeah.
0:05:50 - Ben
How much we pay him. He's only on my end. He lives in Langley, so you know he's just offering yeah, we don't have funding for you to get one.
0:06:02 - Scott
He's. He's in it for personal reasons at the moment.
0:06:07 - Ben
I hope no um he's in it for personal reasons. He's in it.
0:06:11 - Scott
Well, we really haven't talked about jimmy before yeah, I paid jimmy.
0:06:16 - Ben
it's out of pocket. Oh yeah, personal reasons. All right, she's been practicing, you've been practicing, I've been practicing, right.
0:06:45 - Scott
You have a guitar, you can play there.
0:06:48 - Ben
Yeah, my husband has one that he leaves in the in the living room so I get to. It's not my favorite guitar, it's kind of, but it works. It's, it's almost it feels like a beginner's guitar. There's a lot of space in between strings. So, compared to the guitar you have at home in california, it's, it's uh, almost, almost feels like it's like from toys r us. It's, it's a nice rich sound and, like you said, the body of the guitar, how you know the two I don't know what you call them, but it's, it's not parallel, you know you said that's one thing to look out for. You want to make sure that the body of the guitar is parallel, straight, so that it resonates better.
Yeah, right and it's not. It's flat. I don't know if that's like the sign of a oh no it's.
0:07:44 - Scott
It's not flat, it's um, it has a nice. If it's parallel, it's not good, right?
0:07:52 - Ben
It has a nice If it's parallel, it's not good. Right, exactly, it has to get bigger. It has a fuller bodied sound. It does have a nice sound. There's something about it. That's less. I think the neck is shorter and I mean, yeah, it's a guitar, though I practice with it and the vinyl, vinyl strings, I think for the most part where you have you have steel strings for the most part.
0:08:24 - Scott
yeah, yeah, like, yeah. I like all steel, yeah, but I'm on the lookout. You should just go buy a used one at a local store. Yeah, who do I go? It'll be your gift. I mean, it is your Christmas gift.
0:08:45 - Ben
but yeah, how do I go about that process? What am I looking for? What do you recommend? How do I?
0:08:53 - Scott
go about that process. What am I looking for? What do you recommend Other than being not perfectly parallel sides? See how you like playing bar chords on it.
0:09:06 - Ben
I can barely play bar chords.
0:09:10 - Scott
You just mean to get a sense of the tension yeah, yeah, right, and if you find a guitar where it's like, oh, it becomes a little easier than what you've experienced, you know, um, that's a good sign. That's a good sign.
0:09:30 - Ben
That's a good thing.
0:09:31 - Scott
If it's easier. Yeah, it means more fits your hands.
0:09:37 - Ben
Yeah, does that matter, though, if I'm still a new player and I'm still building that strength, I mean I don't want anything that's too hard but yeah, you want the instrument that you know feels good to you yeah, yeah, um okay yeah, I don't know if you want acoustic electric, you know whether you want that, whether that matters, it's just yeah no, I don't think it does At this point.
The guitar I've been using here it's really easy by comparison to your guitar at home. It's really loose, almost is what it feels like. It almost feels a little toyish. It's almost like it has training wheels. I kind of get the sense that's nylon. Oh, that's just nylon. Yeah, it's just like it has training wheels. I kind of get the sense that's nylon. Oh, that's just nylon. It's just the strings.
0:10:36 - Scott
They feel toyish instantly, because every toy guitar you've ever touched is nylon strings.
0:10:42 - Ben
Yeah right, peter also said the famous musician of the bunch, the neck, does this. Uh, sorry, listener, you can't. You can't see what I'm doing with my hands, but it the the strings are closer to the frets, the further up the towards the the. Uh, what do you know? Nothing nothing yeah, is the thing at the time, and then, as, you get closer to the body of the guitar right it's like if they get a little bit further away from the frets, that's what you want away from the frets. That's what you want.
0:11:34 - Scott
I've I've heard or that's just the way it is? I can't, I'm not entirely sure. Well, yeah, I'm sure it's easier to push the middle of the string farther than it is the, you know, almost near the end, right, just think, if you're on like a big wire across some large space or something, once you get to the middle you can really go. Oh, you know, yeah, right, so that makes sense. Um, yeah, yeah, you just want it to be like same from visually from either side. Right, you're trying to eyeball whether it's set up. Things is most guitars, you can. If it's not right, you can take them in and get it set up, you know, and they play with the bridge. You know the thing on the other end of the nut, the bridge, yeah, All right.
That's a lot of inside baseball.
0:12:55 - Ben
Okay, well, who's our guest today?
0:12:58 - Scott
Or who's our sponsor.
0:12:59 - Ben
Who's our sponsor? I have an idea. Our sponsor today is you have an idea? Okay, I'll let the sponsor know that we're going to do it next week, yamaha, what can? You get from Yamaha.
0:13:12 - Scott
Yamaha what?
0:13:14 - Ben
do we have?
0:13:15 - Scott
from Yamaha. We got a keyboard over here.
0:13:17 - Ben
We have a keyboard, your grandpa's old keyboard, yamaha, bringing you your grandpa's old keyboard since 2007. Yamaha keyboard since 2007.
0:13:29 - Scott
A bass guitar and a piano with a broken A-flat or something in the garage at home. These are all very foundational instruments.
0:13:46 - Ben
They also make dirt bikes, don't they?
0:13:50 - Scott
Yeah, dirt bikes, I make go-karts. I wanted a. Yamaha dirt bike as a kid Parents somehow deviated this interest. I did too. Yeah, we should get one here, or maybe go get a yamaha snowmobile.
0:14:16 - Ben
You're saying we should get a yamaha dirt bike. Okay, maybe we should end the ad that's, that's probably. Oh, a dirt bike can be an ad over all yamahas as soon as we start there was never, we're not giving us any money.
0:14:32 - Scott
This is a response no liability involved whatsoever.
0:14:36 - Ben
Don't yeah, there's yeah we absolve any responsibility. I don't know if we're allowed to do that, yeah uh. Anyway, not a problem, unless we know miraculously figure out how to.
0:14:55 - Scott
Nobody cares, unless you monetize.
0:14:57 - Ben
No one cares. Yeah right, I'm not an entertainer.
0:15:05 - Scott
Recording conversations Dirt bikes.
0:15:09 - Ben
Yep, you think we should get a dirt bike? Sounds dangerous, I think at that point I should learn how to might as well be learning how to cut down trees ATV is probably more than dirt bikes, I'm sure.
0:15:21 - Scott
Yeah, yeah, there's trails for those, yeah. And motorcycles, tractor, I'm going to track it first, those, yeah. Then motorcycles are tractor and attract first needs an acreage, get on it to run a tractor on. Okay, who's our?
0:15:45 - Ben
guest today? Who's our guest? Yeah, is it, is it?
0:15:54 - Scott
Oh, you didn't see the text.
0:15:56 - Ben
Henry Kissinger.
0:15:57 - Scott
Okay.
0:16:00 - Ben
I see.
0:16:01 - Scott
Now he's dead.
0:16:03 - Ben
Oh, too late. Never get him on the show. No, I know who it is. I know who it is, I know who it is. I know who it is, someone that knows a little bit more about how the lakes freeze in the winter than you do, I'm sure. Oh, thanks thanks, yeah you still? You ask you've never been here in the winter without me uh, but he's been in really cold places in the winter without you, that's true.
0:16:35 - Scott
But it's never a question about lakes freezing here before. It's like snap.
0:16:43 - Ben
Land of 10,000 lakes. Did he used to race cars on lakes?
0:16:48 - Scott
Frozen lakes. Yes, we can ask him questions about if he ever encountered pro they never used. You don't go out with cars if there's open spots but yeah, no, I would imagine not okay.
0:17:05 - Ben
And here we are, listener, it's just me and you. We're just waiting, waiting, no, it's okay.
0:17:13 - Scott
I know.
0:17:13 - Ben
I'm monologuing. I'm monologuing. You're getting the guest, it's okay. I'll awkwardly hold for it until you come back, okay, all right, listener, now that I've got you here, I just want to let you know that our guest is a very, very special person. He used to watch cartoons. I used to watch cartoons with him when I was a kid, and he was one of the only adults that I could ever connect with about SpongeBob. Oh, look who it is hey Ben. It is hey Ben. It is our one and only Mark Johnston. The one and only that's a me. Welcome. How's it going out?
0:18:06 - Mark
there it's going now. We got a little bit of snow. Nothing compared to last year.
0:18:14 - Ben
Yeah, nothing compared to most years. It sounds like yeah, that's true, Would you? Yeah, we only have nine minutes.
0:18:25 - Scott
Yeah, it must only be 45 minutes, then huh. It's only 40, I think Okay, that's cool, it's just a low-bud, low budget podcast and it constrains things yeah, which is kind of like I like for people like us that are totally structureless.
0:18:44 - Ben
Yeah, would you. Would you race cars out there today, mark? Uh no would you do a race Okay?
0:18:52 - Mark
Considering when we went to the point you could see open water. Yeah, so the ice is definitely not thick enough for a car Current over the sandbar.
0:19:05 - Ben
Yeah, I think I remember Adam sending me. He went out on the bay earlier in the week yep yeah and I was. I. I found myself a little bit nervous when I was looking at the photos because I'm like I know how warm it's been there, so I'm like is that I don't know, so how do you know it's okay?
0:19:30 - Scott
So we bought an ice drill. Okay, so you're able to test the depth. Yeah, it's four inches, and three inches is enough for a car. No, no, sorry.
0:19:49 - Mark
Three inches is enough for a snowmobile. Okay, yeah, because I think you got to have like over 10 inches for cars.
Oh wow, even more, yeah, yeah, and that seems pretty they've got it for every weight of every truck, all the way up yeah, yeah, yeah, because, and when I was involved in the racing, you know you'd have, like you know, I don't know, 10, 20 cars, you know, on the ice um, so it definitely had ever see a car, ever see a car go in, just break and just total chaos like a like a, like a polar express on the ice moment.
Yeah no, but um, the uh eau claire club for whatever. When they cleared their track they always used super heavy like front loader construction machines. Oh my God, yeah, yeah. And so twice they broke through the ice. The one time it was close to the shore, but the other time the machine was out in the middle of the lake. What, yeah? And then two people that were in the vehicle, you know, the vehicle sank, you know, to the bottom and then they had to swim up, you know, and get out of the hole, whereas everybody else around the area always just use pickup trucks with snow plows, but for some reason, eau Claire, they're like oh, let's just get the heaviest machine to plow the track.
0:21:52 - Scott
I wonder if they got fined by the hour until they got it out. Yeah, don't know If your snowmobile goes in the lake, the DNR they charge you by the hour until you get it out. Oh my God, so you just like have to you pay for divers to actually get it out. Who specialize? They specialize in snowmobile recovery.
0:22:15 - Mark
Of course, I wonder with Eau Claire if they maybe had a deal based on the one high-level person that was there in Eau Claire, which was John Menard of Menard Lumber, who used to also raise.
0:22:37 - Scott
Oh, we could have had the ad be for Menard's. I didn't think of that.
0:22:42 - Ben
Next time. Next time we'll have more opportunities.
0:22:47 - Mark
That would have been interesting to know if, like if he would have, you know, talked to the DNRr and said, hey, you know who I am, um, we'll take care of this, you know, type thing. And plus the fact he was pretty crazy, you know, for somebody that's ahead of a major corporation it's funny how that works.
0:23:11 - Ben
You, you don't necessarily think the people that are heads of major corporations would be crazy, but a lot of times, a lot of times, they are but yeah, that um, there's definitely was him.
0:23:22 - Mark
And then there was another guy, um that was in osceola, wisconsin, that was kind of the same way he, he was a very rich person and just really crazy Osceola. And that guy from Osceola, one time at a race down in St Paul he tried, well he did. He landed his freaking helicopter on the lake, um, and then of course the um you know cops came out and said you know like, you know like, no, no please remove your helicopter yeah yeah
0:24:08 - Scott
okay, a scene from a horror movie where the helicopter lands but then breaks through but it has to try to take off as it's sinking. Yeah.
0:24:23 - Mark
And fortunately for that guy, the ice was thick enough that he didn't go through.
0:24:32 - Ben
Not quite as heavy as a giant front motor, I'm sure.
0:24:36 - Mark
For sure, but just the fact that he landed was crazy.
0:24:46 - Ben
Wild people out there, rich people, not only that, but Menard when he'd show up for the races.
0:24:55 - Mark
He'd show up in a freaking full size semi with a trailer and he would want to drive it out onto the ice. And of course the officials were like no, no, no, no, because that would have gone through.
0:25:13 - Ben
You know the ice officials were like no, no, no, no, because that would have gone through the eyes. Yeah, what the fine per hour would be for that. Yeah, how do you two know each other? Me and John no, you and Scott. Me and John no, you and Scott.
0:25:32 - Mark
Oh Well, there was this family and there were some kids that got together, yeah.
0:25:45 - Scott
You got brought home to the same house.
0:25:47 - Ben
Right From the hospital, a couple years apart from one another. Yeah, okay, that makes sense.
0:25:55 - Scott
I got my own bedroom until my sister showed up. Wow yeah.
0:26:01 - Mark
Yeah, and then of course there's this little sister that showed up and when she went home from the hospital she laid in the front seat of the car no, you know, car seat or nothing, no seatbelts, Just laid in between the two parents.
0:26:23 - Scott
In the yellow blanket. Mm-hmm, I remember that I was awful young.
0:26:30 - Ben
Back, when things were just simple, yeah. All you needed was a couple of parents and a yellow blanket.
0:26:38 - Mark
Yeah. Not only that, but like when we'd come up here we had a station wagon and we would hang out in the back of the station wagon.
0:26:49 - Ben
You know no seats, no seatbelts, you know playing games or sleeping or whatever, and it was just yeah yeah yeah, you could just lie down in the back of some say that the uh spirit of all of that is still alive, and yeah on lincoln road in hayward, wisconsin of that is still alive. And yeah, oh, on lincoln road and hayward, wisconsin. Yeah, yeah, that's what they say. We have less than a minute here. Yeah, 20 seconds is my guess time flies thank you yeah, good to see you for uh staying a little bit later to uh. Yeah, to be our guest however, beautiful, safe travels, those ice.
Transcribed by https://podium.page
