Welcome to “Ear Biscuits,” the podcast where two lifelong friends talk about life for a long time. I’m Rhett. And I’m Link. This week at the round table of dim lighting, we’re kicking off a new year under the dim lighting. Yeah. Damn right. You can say lighten now? Lighten. Yeah. Gotta lighten it up, man. It’s good to be back. It’s 2022 man. It’s freakin’, so many twos. It’s crazy. Did you get your 2022 glasses? No. No, I didn’t. Yeah, but your eye goes through the hook of the second two. Are you saying, did you have some glasses? No, I’m just imagining what they look like. I know, because you told me that you were alone, ringing in the new year. Yeah, I was- Which, I’m sorry. I was completely. I was kinda jealous. Completely alone. I actually think I was asleep as 2021 turned to 2022. That’s a story for another time. I’ll explain how I ended up being alone during new year’s. Actually, not today. Well, I’ll get to it today, but I’m gonna tell the full story two podcasts from now. Oh, wow. This is the double teaser, ’cause today we’re talking about what happened over Christmas break, okay? That’s what we’re talking about. Yeah, we have not talked to each other about the things that we’ve experienced over the break that we need to share with each other in podcast form. This is how we conduct our friendship. I don’t know. Do we, you know, it’s always up for debate whether or not we’re going to speak at all over Christmas break. I asked to borrow a one wheel. Yup. And you weren’t home, and I said, “I got a key.” Yeah. Well I said, “Is there a garage code?” He said, “My garage has no code.” I’m like “What?” Yeah, and that was not a riddle. I said, “Well, I have a key to your house. I’m just gonna use that.” And I go over there, and you had changed all the locks. Yeah. So I don’t know how I was supposed to feel about that. You didn’t ask. I mean, I went to three different doors, with my key, homie, and I couldn’t get in. First off- It was… I’m pretty sure that your wife has the correct key. Brought our entire friendship into question. It’s like- I think your wife has the correct key. You locking me out. You do not. I do. She gave me the key. Oh, well. It was labeled, and everything. Well, we recently got all the locks changed, not because some- To keep the Neals out? Security issue, because it was one of those things where we got a new door knob a few years ago. And then you get one. And then you’re like, “Ah, we got to get these locks changed. They all matched at some point.” And then like three years later, we finally made a decision. I guess you didn’t get the memo. Yeah. Hook me up with a key, so I can just get that one way- You could probably open up one of those old door locks, that’s somewhere like a junkyard. Landa was waiting in the car when I got back to the car, and said “They changed the locks, I can’t get in.” He said, “Did you try to just open the door? They probably just leave the house unlocked.” No. I mean, we do when we’re we’re there. I mean, I don’t like lock myself in. Yeah, I was like, “They’re on vacation.” “I’m on vacation.” Their security is on lockdown. Cameras are on. So the Neals were, I mean, we kind of had inverted vacations, and yes, I do think that’s the only time we talked. It was healthy. Yeah, yeah. I didn’t wish you a Merry Christmas or something like that. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Happy new year. Happy new year. There it is. We just did it. See, it’s healthy. Now, locking me out of your house? Well, you know, my Christmas journey starts before I even left to go back home to North Carolina, because something very significant happened to me. And I feel almost ashamed to admit this, but since I’m in good company, when I say something I never done before, I’m sure I’ll be supported in that. The McLaughlins- I don’t know what you mean by that. You’ll understand in a moment, The McLaughlin’s had never watched “It’s a Wonderful Life.” None of us had. What? You’ve never watched, “It’s A Wonderful Life?” And it’s gonna seem a lot less dramatic, because I’m sure the Neals have never watched “It’s A Wonderful Life” either. But I have heard of it. Yeah. Well, okay. So, we have a tradition in the McLaughlin household. Jamie Stuart. Yep, James Stuart, actually. He is credited at that point. Oh. I just made that note when I saw it on the screen. The McLaughlin’s have a tradition of watching the “Die Hard” series, because it is a Christmas movie, technically, at least the first one. Even though it was released in July, as I read. Recently. But it takes, it really was? It takes place over Christmas. Yeah. The third one, which is “Die Hard with a Vengeance.” It’s got a Samuel L. Jackson. Anyway, we watched that. I’ve seen that one. It’s the only one I’ve seen it. It’s like the only Rocky you’ve seen is “Rocky V.” Yeah. Right. This is another podcast. So we watched that. Loved it, but then we wanted to watch another Christmas movie at some point before we went back to North Carolina, and Jessie was like, what if we watch “It’s a Wonderful Life?” I mean, it’s at the top, like if you look up list of Christmas movies that you should watch, it’s always number one. And I have a bias, what happened your hand? I don’t know, thanks for noticing, but I think it’s from mountain biking. I think I hit my hand on some brush, you know? ‘Cause your knuckles are out. Knuckles out. Knuckles out, man. I’m sorry. I just noticed it. Is it the top of all Christmas movies? All you gotta do is give me a key to your house. You don’t have to notice things about me. You don’t have to apologize. You don’t have to wish me merry Christmas. All you gotta do is give me a key to your house, man. Stop talking about that. It’s that simple. It’s that simple. It’s at the top of every list, but I have a bias against old movies, as I’m sure you do. I know you do, and many other people do like, everybody’s like, “Oh, you gotta watch these classic movies.” Like when you go on- I’ve always had a bias against movies, apparently, older movies. Well, but you. Like, pre-90’s. But neither one of us are those people who watch old movies from the early Hollywood era. Right. Black and white movies, that kind of thing. And the classics, like ones that, I’m seeing some kind of weird, I’m having lots of physical things happen. I’m seeing like a weird hair that I’m staring at, and I’m trying to get it out of my face. It’s just your eyebrow. It might just be one of my eyebrows turning into like a geology professor eyebrow. I think I got it. I didn’t want to watch it, ’cause every time I make the decision to watch an old movie, I’m like, “The pacing is horrible. The acting is horrible.” Like, this is before people even knew how to make movies, man, right? But I’m like, “Okay, well watch ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ and we’ll get the kids to watch it too.” It’s especially horrible to try to get your kids to watch old movies, because- It’s not HD. They have even less of an attention span than I do. Forget black and white, it’s not in high definition. Well, it’s dumb. No, no, that’s not the issue. There’s plenty definition, because it was film, and they do the transfer at some point. Did you watch the colorized version? We’re not talking about VHS here. So I made the decision to watch the colorized version. Oh, I… Okay. Because I was like, and I was thinking about the kids at this point, because I was like, they have a horrible attention span. One of the things you can do to your phone is turn all the icons to black and white if you want to never look at your phone again, like there’s some people who do that, you know? So it doesn’t entice you. It doesn’t entice you. I wanted to entice the children. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so I wanted to give them the colorized version, and it’s very well done colorized version, but let me talk about the movie for a second. I got to say, in one fell swoop, this movie lodged itself in my top 10 movies of all time. Are you serious? Yes. What? Yeah. Just because it was in color? Did it surprise you that much? Jessie and I kept leaning over to each other, and saying things like, “This is well-written.” Like, just like I didn’t- Well-written, huh? You know what I’m saying? Like, it just was, and also yes, it’s Jimmy Stuart. James. But, and yes, it’s over the top in many ways, but also it was very compelling. There were some scenes where I was just like, “This dude is a talent. Jimmy Stuart is a talent.” Spread the news.” Okay. I think I have seen “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Mockingbird. Yeah, it’s been a while since I saw that. That was Jimmy Stuart, right? I think so. Yeah. I thought it was Matthew McConaughey. That’s… I don’t know what it is, but I know what you’re talking about. “Lincoln Lawyer.” No, the one before that, yeah. I think it was “To Kill a Mockingbird.” It was the new one. Remake. Anyway, I don’t wanna spend any more time talking about it, because you either seen it or you haven’t seen it, but if you haven’t, I just got to say, if you haven’t it- Isn’t it long though? How long is it? Three hours, or something. No, no. It’s not three, it’s longer than I expected an old movie to be, I’d say two hours. Two hours. 2 hours and 20 minutes, or something like that. Ooh, that’s a lot these days. Maybe just two hours, I don’t know. What did the kids say, though? Where they leaning over saying, “It’s well-written?” No, they were, okay, Lock is the toughest critic. He was really into it, and then it’s like hour… minute 90, we started kinda losing him. We kept Shepherd the whole time. Yeah. Right to the end, and I was weeping, multiple times. It doesn’t take much for me to weep at a movie. Really? But, man, it’s just a, you know what? I think- Did Lock walk out? No, no, no. He went to phone time. Okay. But he was still engaged to some extent, but I just gotta say, if you’ve been sleeping on, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” which seems like a ridiculous thing to say, but these two guys had been sleeping on it. I’m still sleeping on it. Kego, are you seeing it? Kego’s been sleeping on it too. A lot of people have been sleeping on it, ’cause it’s fake color, man. I mean, it’s over two hours. Watch the black and white version. So then I tell Jenna, Jenna’s not here today, but I tell Jenna that I finally watched it, and first of all, she was offended that I had never watched it before, and she loves old movies. She was like, “Oh, it’s so good.” Wow. And then I was like, it actually made me and Jessie come to the same conclusion, which is we’re going to start watching old movies, because you get so overwhelmed with all the options that you have. And then we’re thinking like, I’m gonna go to the list of the top 100 movies of all time. Here we go. You got things like, “Casablanca,” and, you know? And… the other ones. And so I’m talking to Jenna and she says, “Oh, ‘Casablanca’ is my favorite movie of all time. That’s the best movie ever made.” And so I’m like, “Okay, well-” Did you watch it already? No I haven’t, but we are planning on it. Okay. I feel like I got, you know when you discover a new television show, everybody’s like, “You’ve Never Seen ‘Breaking Bad’?” And you’re like, “Oh, I’ve got all these seasons of ‘Breaking Bad’ to go and watch now.” I feel like I’ve got a whole new season of “Breaking Bad,” and it’s just old movies. You’re telling me that I don’t need to alter my expectations at all to watch, “It’s a Wonderful Life?” I don’t think you’re gonna like it. You. Now, you listening, you’re gonna like it. Link, he’s- Why am I not gonna like it? You’re so particular. But I’m not contrary. I’m very, I’m open. No, you’re- I don’t want to disprove you just for the sake of it. I don’t. I think that you may be too distracted by some of the conventions of old filmmaking, but I just was like, and also I’m- See, now I have to like it in order to get to esteem my opinion. Also, you don’t like sentimental movies. Okay. You don’t like sentimental movies. When you feel like you’re being emotionally manipulated by a movie, you’re offended by it. I don’t know that that’s true. When you go through your top favorite movies, it’s not sentimental movies, and so- I’m sentimental in real life. Sure, yeah. I agree with that, but you don’t like sentimental movies. I love sentimental movie movies, and so, and I’m not saying it’s just all sentiment, but you may be like, okay, when you get to the place where you’re really supposed to like, have an emotional reaction to it, you may just be like, “I’m not on board for this.” And if you’re not, then you’re not gonna say that it’s a good movie, but you should try it with your family. And if you all hate it, don’t tell anybody. Now? Now is like, the worst time. No, you should try it next year. And in fact, everybody listening, if you haven’t watched it, don’t watch it now, wait until next Christmas, and you will have forgotten how I built it up. In fact, make a reminder. Don’t say, “Rhett said watch ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’,” just say, “Let’s watch a wonderful life.” Put it as a little reminder that pops up about a week before Christmas. You want to remember where this came from. You’re like, “Oh, I want myself to remind myself to remind myself about this.” It could say “Note to self.” Yeah, and you could say “Note to self, watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” with low expectations, because I went in with low expectations. Note to future self, you know what? That could be an app. Here’s something a little more pertinent. I mean, I’m not gonna call this resolutions, but let’s come up with some notes to future self, make those now, and then time release those throughout your year. Yeah. That’s how it resolutions, resolutions should be time-released. This is so ironic. Isn’t this smart? This is super-smart. I mean, I hate to say something, and then ask if it’s smart. It’s super ironic though, because I literally got one of these today that I had written to myself. Uh-uh. I can’t see when I wrote it, but it was at least a month ago. And it popped up, as I was driving in, I saw it pop up on my phone. I didn’t have, I’m not looking at my phone, it just popped up. I’m a safe driver. It says, “Purchase aurelius, chorizo, and Santo Thomas rice.” What? Yeah, it was- Chorizo and rice. It’s the Spanish chorizo, and the Spanish rice that I use in my Paella, but I’m trying to say that correctly, because so many people have told me that I’m saying, “Piaya” which is not, it’s Paella. Paella. There is a difference. It’s not a yay. Is it yay? But, so I got- Was this a mistake? Or did you remember that this is when you wanted it to sprout? It was, I’m going out of town. I’m about to go out of town, because I made my Paella for our Christmas dinner before we left for the family, that’s what Shepherd requested. And I was like, “Oh, I need to replenish these main ingredients for this thing, but I don’t want them to show up while I’m out of town.” And so I just was like, “I’ll just make a reminder to order this stuff when I get back,” and boom, there it is. I made a note on my, the only note I made to my future self, 2022 self was to get rice and chorizo. You should just make a note to your future self right now to remind you, just pick a random time of year, and just say, “Make Paella again.” You’re assuming that you’ve fallen out of the routine of making it. I’m not gonna need a reminder for that. Well then, something like that. I’m just trying to capture the spirit of the idea. I get lots of requests for my Paella, including from my wife. Okay, listen, I’m not trying, how could you be insulted by such a creative idea? You’re so sensitive. Come up with something else other than needing to be reminded to make my Paella. Listen, it’s your problem, I’ll do it for me. There you go. I’ve been holding something back from you, and it’s I got the most amazing Christmas gift. Oh, really? Yeah. I’m excited. I’ve got video to support it, and to bring it to life for you. Don’t look at my notes. I’m not looking. I’m just, I’m looking. I don’t want you to spoil it. I’m just sort of like, looking down. How about don’t look down, look up? Look up with hope. Why is this so far out? Why is your phone so far out? Because that’s where I want it, okay? We got important stuff to get to. I just told you that like, I got the best gift of my entire life. Of your entire life? Potentially. I think it’s, yes. Okay, well. Yes, I think so. I’m anxious to see that, but if you want a gift that is the best gift you’ll ever get in your entire life, you should get the 10-year anniversary mug, which is this seasons throwback, but also celebrating 10-years of GMM mug available on goodmythical.com. Throwback. So it’s got the old logo on it. It’s got the old color scheme with the black on the outside, the orange on the inside. Oh, they can’t see it. And then the special 10 years of mythicality logo that’s got the wheel of mythicality built into the zero on the 10, I mean. It’s so nostalgic. Yeah. Does stuff tastes good in that? Yeah, it’s like drinking “It’s a Wonderful Life.” In color? In color. That’s what it’s like. So get that thing. Mythical.com. Get your mug on. Our trips were kind of inverted. I went home first. Like, I decided I was doing a pre-Christmas visit back home. And I kind of swung the pendulum from last time I went home in July. It was like three weeks. That was quite, that was way too long to be anywhere. Right. No offense to my family, but like, you know, you don’t see each other that often, and then you see each other for three weeks, and it’s like, oh, okay. So I was like, we’re just gonna do, we’re gonna see everybody once, everybody gets a day, and there’s three different entities, and you add a travel day on each end, five days, total. This is the most efficient Christmas trip that you can imagine. That I’ve ever taken, and- Is this the new norm for you? It was great. I think our plan is, as long as we can go home another time in the year, like there’s a wedding, we’re gonna go back for maybe a second event. A second wedding. You know. Somebody getting married again, or somebody getting married to themselves again, that happens. Oh. Would you go home for one of those? I didn’t know that was a thing. Like if your brother-in-law was like, “We’re getting married again.” You know, people get married as a second time. To themselves? No, to their spouse. Oh. I’m not talking about Dennis Rodman. So, renew the vows? I’m talking yeah, renewing their vows. Yeah, I know about that. Well, no. What if your brother-in-law wanted to marry himself? Like Dennis Rodman, would you go back home for that? Definitely not. Definitely not. I don’t even think I have a video in for that, you know what I’m saying? Dennis Rodman did that, man. He put on a wedding dress, and he married himself. Did he take it off, and put it back on, and play with roles? I don’t know. He was on fire in the 90’s. Oh, yeah. He had his moment where everybody had to watch him. Yeah. Yeah, so it was very efficient, and it is the new norm, subject to being able to go back at other times. It’s better to have more visits over the year, you know, subject to whatever happens globally. It was great, and it was before Christmas, so we got home, we flew back on Christmas Eve-Eve, so that then in our own home and our own space, we could have our own Christmas Eve and Christmas day. And then I was pushing hard to then do something after Christmas, because we had another week. Kids were out of school for another two weeks, but I was out of work for another week. You’re out of work. I’m not out of work anymore. I found an opportunity. Everybody just wanted to stay at home, and do their own thing, and not travel, and it’s like, well, I can’t really blame you with the Omicron or whatever, so let’s just hang back at home. But yeah, I’m really glad we made that decision, because the time was sweet, and then you get out before it’s too much, you know? You end it before with people wanting a little bit more. Well, you did a George Costanza trip, by all accounts. That’s the way to do it, man. It was great. One day per entity. I mean, I respect this choice. When we flew in- I don’t think I could get away with this. I saw my mom, we saw Christy’s parents for like a little bit on an extra day. So they each got like a day and a half. Did you plan, did you feel like, okay, we need to really… You didn’t plan anything, it was just like, “We’re just gonna be together so we can just go and hang out at their house for a day, and this is the day that we have.” Yeah. And it’s, I mean, you just plan what’s the approach to meals. I think that’s the main thing. And we’re always big on Bojangles being a part of that, because Christy’s dad likes to cook a lot of stuff, but then if it’s not at his house, he’s coming up to Christy sister’s house. Then it’s like, he’s got to bring a bunch of paraphernalia, and then he’s like, so worried about cooking that we’re not spending quality time together. So we wanted an emphasis on quality time and Bojangles. Well. And we hit the Bojangles’ hoard. Well, and let me interject here, because this is one of my trip talking points. I do want to talk about Bojangles at length. Well, my point is not just Bojangles, my point is, and you probably didn’t experience this. This is another advantage, potentially, of your five day trip. I was there for longer than five days. I was probably there for like 9 or 10. And the food that you ended up eating when you are back home, there’s a cumulative effect on all this chicken. Literally. And barbecue, and just meat and sugar and fat. We’re not used to it, man. It is unreal. So what I did, I anticipated this, because I just say, listen, caution to the wind. This is the holidays. And I have a certain number of places that I like to go. I like to go to Bojangles. I like to make a trip to Smithfield’s Chicken ‘N Bar-B-Q. I ended up making two trips, because I always make a solo trip, because my family’s not too into it, because it’s such a genuine Eastern North Carolina, like. Yeah. In fact, I’m just gonna go ahead and tell you, this is my rec, Smithfield’s Chicken ‘N Bar-B-Q, because. Well, I can warm up it, but go ahead. It’s because it’s the only, if you’re traveling through North Carolina. Yeah, And you’ve never been in North Carolina, and you want to know what North Carolina barbecue tastes like, and you don’t want to go to like a sit-down restaurant. You’re just like, “Oh, let me just get a sandwich real quick at a drive-through.” It’s the only fast food place in America that I’m aware of that if you order a barbecue sandwich, you will get quintessential Eastern North Carolina vinegar-based sauce, and get it with the slaw on the sandwich, because you just need to get the full, even if you don’t think you like cabbage or slaw, you need to get it. That is the experience of what people in the Eastern part of North Carolina eat. They also have something called Brunswick stew. In my mind, this is the only fast food restaurant that serves Brunswick stew, which is again- All I know of. Which again, is a distinctly North Carolina thing. It’s got pork in it. It’s a bunch of stuff, and you know what? We got- Tomato-based potato stew with pork. We think that the meat in this Smithfield’s Brunswick stew is chicken, not pork. We got into a little debate with my mother-in-law over this. There might be chicken in it too. And then she started saying. You’re saying there’s no pork in it? Well, I’m not gonna say. That the Brunswick stew that she had growing up that was made by her grandmother and great-grandmother, they would put squirrel and possum, because it was the everything stew that you could put all this wild game and roadkill and shit in, right? Okay. Anyway, Smithfield’s Chicken ‘N Bar-B-Q. I’m not gonna say that they ate road kill. Well, maybe they did. I don’t think they did. And I made the stop by there, I get the Brunswick stew. They’re not doing the buy one, get one free pints anymore, because they realized- They wised up. That these Yankees moving in are gonna just buy it for $6 a pint, and not ask any questions about it. Yeah. These yuppies. These yuppie Yankees. I really like the shrimp there. Do you, the fried shrimp? I loved the fried shrimp there. But the cumulate, and not just the stuff you’re eating at fast food. Hushpuppies. We did Zaxby’s. My family has migrated a little bit of what, they do Bojangles when they’re with their cousins, but they’re really into the Zaxby’s of it all, because of they like the wings and the spicy on the wings. But so much fried chicken, and then everything you’re eating at every meal that you’re being served is also this heavy food, because it’s holiday food. Oh God, yeah. I took a thing of fiber pills with me, because I was like, this is gonna screw me up so bad. I gotta keep it moving. Have you tried these, do you still do the spoonful of the fiber? No. I put flaxseed in my smoothie every morning. Okay. I stopped doing the psyllium husk as well, but when traveling, I have found that you can get the capsules as the same thing. And you just take those, you take like six or seven of them. You drink seven pills of fiber? Well, if you’ve got a high tolerance to that stuff, like I do, ’cause I’ve used it for so long. Yeah. I wouldn’t recommend that to the layman, but to the professional fiber. It’s no different than just taking a scoop of it, but it’s a lot easier. It’s so much easier, and it’s easier to travel. You gotta drink a lot of water though, right? Because if you travel with that bag of fiber, it looks like you’ve got some bad coke, and then you have to like, explain that to the TSA. I mean, it looks more like sawdust. I got some bad coke, man. Just a little bit brown, I’m sorry. I’ve been shaving. I’ve been shaving some wood, thinking it’s sniffable, snortable? Anyway, so you- I agree with Smithfield’s, but, I mean, if you’re gonna go full local, and you’re in the Sanford area, which my mom is, you got to get to Ron’s Barn, baby. Oh, you went to Ron’s Barn? We went to Ron’s Barn. Dang it, with the hushpuppies? She brought it home, so it’s everything, I mean, they don’t have Brunswick stew that I know of, but every time my mom goes in there, they’re like, “Tell Link to come in.” Oh man, Ron’s Barn is so good. They know me there. Is there still one in Coats? They know you too? No. Pope’s barn in- So it’s Pope’s Barn. It changed to Ron’s Barn, and then I think they closed that one. But Ron is still going in Sanford? Oh yeah. That’s worth a trip. And their shrimp is great there, that’s my main thing there. But back to Bojangles, the thing that I’d forgotten in July, I was like, I’m not gonna make this mistake again. I’m gonna get that Bojangles’ chicken sandwich. I’ve got to try this thing. You know, our friends back home been talking it up. Right. Our friend Harn was saying, it’s the best one out of all. Out of all. The chicken sandwich places. All of them, yeah. And I’m like, how could that be? Have you had it? No. It’s fabulous. But. But, it’s not… I mean, Chick-fil-A chicken sandwiches to the top of my list above the Popeye’s sandwich, even the Zaxby’s sandwich, which I did have back in July. I don’t get Zaxby’s sandwich, I get their wings. The Zaxby’s sandwich is good, the Bojangles sandwiches better, but it’s much better than the previous Bojangles’ chicken sandwich. It’s bigger, it’s crispier, but it’s just that there’s no spicy sauce on it. It’s just mayo, because the chicken itself is supposed to be spicy, just like all the other chicken. So how is it different than the chicken sandwich that they had before? It’s bigger and crunchier. It’s very good. Okay. I’ll put it in my top… I’ll tie it with Popeye’s, even though it’s not as big or as crunchy as Popeye’s. Well, I’ve got a great chicken story, I don’t have to wait, I have to tell you. Oh my gosh. I can’t tell you this, because it doesn’t fit in this one. I gotta get to my gift, because this happened, two days before we leave to go home, my Aunt TC sends me a text, and she says, “Remember this?” Now… Over the past few podcasts, and at the end of the year we talked about like our best gift ever, and do you remember what the best gift that I ever got? Your truck? My truck, when I was 15 and a half my Papa surprised me. They gave you your truck? So, she sends me a picture, and it’s the picture of my truck. A current picture? A current picture of my truck, you see where this is going? So I said- If you have your truck. Well, if uncle… and then I started piecing it together. And my Nana’s brother, my uncle Ross, who you know, he recently passed away, and they were having an estate sale. Yeah. And my Aunt TC was at the freaking estate sale, and she snapped a picture of my truck. But she didn’t snap it up and buy it for you. And I said, “Yeah, I remember that truck. I was actually talking about it as like the most meaningful gift I’ve ever gotten in my life on a recent episode of our podcast. It’s at Uncle Ross’s, right? It’s still there?” Like, I knew a couple of years ago, I went home for Christmas, and I had heard that it was there, and I went and saw it. I visited with my truck. I think I told you that. The keys weren’t in it, and I sat in the truck, and just kind of, memories just flooded back. And then I got out of the truck, and I came back home and forgot about it. And yeah, so… He passes away, they’re selling the thing, and I was like, “I’ll buy it.” Christy was like, “You should buy it.” And then I was like, “I’ll buy it.” Yeah, I mean, I would assume a 1987 Nissan pickup truck is not gonna go for more than, let’s just say… You paid $1,300. I don’t want to say what I paid for it, because it’s like, I said, “Whatever they want, whatever price that the family is putting on it.” Oh, you paid more than 1300? Yeah, I did. I was like, you know what? For me, whatever they want, ask for it, I’ll pay for it. It’s not gonna be- 4,000. It wasn’t that much. Okay, 3,500 will do it. 3000. Are you making me say it? Okay, yeah. It was 3000. And I was like, you know what? I’ll do it. And you know, as I’m telling the story, I’m remembering that I still haven’t paid for it, so I’ve got to arrange to have the money- Hey, give yourself a future reminder, some point in 2022 you should pay for that truck. So… Yeah, it was like totally out of character for me, but I was like, I have to do this. I have to re-gift myself my favorite gift that I’ve gotten 28 years after the fact. That’s amazing. I’m giving myself the same gift that I was given 28 years earlier that I was talking about is my most meaningful gift I’ve ever gotten in my life. You put it on a truck bed and put it out here? I say, you know what? I’ll just drive it to my mom’s house, and then I can teach the kids how to drive stick using this thing, and it’ll be at my mom’s house under the shelter whenever I go home and visit. She’ll crank it up occasionally, and I’ll just have it. So I want to show you, like I said, I’ve got a video journey I want to take you on here, Rhett. There it is. Oh, wow. There it is. He takes such good care of it. Yeah. Now the wheels have been made smaller, because the wheels you had were too big. You think they were bigger than they really were. Those aren’t the same wheels. Are they the same wheels? No. Look how small it is. You look like a giant. 28 years ago. I got this. They don’t make trucks this small. I know, it’s crazy, isn’t it? 28 years later It looks like a golf cart. I got it again. 1987 Nissan pickup, same grill, same Chrome bumper, different rims. Similar rims. The wheels are the same size. You kind of been doing this like, a bad YouTuber. Like a YouTube who hasn’t learned how to make a video yet. This is dynamic, watch. First thing I noticed is that in order to get in the. Oh, the handles broke. The handle’s missing, you gotta grab this hinge here. Yeah, that’s easy. Look at that. How many miles on that thing? A different seat. It says 200,000, but it’s a new motor, a newer motor. The whole bench is new, though? The whole bench is new. Gear shift, different radio. I think they put an AC in it at some point. Do you remember this thing? You didn’t have AC? And… I remember that door, those panels on it like that. So you can’t pull- I got that door, right there, very dirty one time. With the mud. So you can’t close the door from the inside, you gotta close it from the outside, because the handle’s broken off on the inside. Let me show you. Character. Yeah. Okay. We’re gonna crank this puppy up. Oh, there we go. What’s that noise? Making some COD noises. So, she’s got a new motor. She smells like a tractor. Smells horrible. ‘Cause he was just using it at the farm. The memories in this thing from when I was 15 and a half, learned how to drive, I’m gonna teach you how to drive a stick, just like I learned in this thing. I’m talking- All the way through… I know how to drive a stick. All the way through college, dating your mom. Getting married. I’ve gone full dad right now. I still drove this thing, and it did not. Yeah this is dad TV. Persevere through marriage. I didn’t want to tell him about all the make-out sessions. There’s not a lot you can do, besides, I mean, you can’t do more than make out in that. You couldn’t have intercourse in the cab of that. I could. I didn’t. Well yeah, ’cause your religious convictions, but it’s too small. Right. Okay. The Michelin man drives a truck. You have a jacket like that. Yeah, but yours is shiny. I mean, I like it. I like the jacket. I just felt Michelin man. There is a speedometer, but there’s no speedometer needle anymore. Yeah, who needs that? It would be right here. So you’re not gonna able to tell how fast- Does the knob turn at all? Right now we’re going zero. I think the knob probably, you could probably put the toothpick on it. Here I go, gas. There I go. Oh, the tailgate is fell down. Okay. It’s been a while since you drove a stick, huh? It’s very finicky. Yeah, it’s not like the new ones, where you basically can’t stall out. Those old clutches were… More gas and more gas. Temperamental. I’m starting to teach him. He’s learning, okay? I’m definitely picking up on all of this. The window thing fell off again. Do you remember I couldn’t roll down my passenger window because the glass would fall down into the door? I got it. 28 Years later, this thing is still trucking, man. It’s kinda crazy. Nissan, well built Nissan. Look at how much fun I’m having. Yeah, I mean, I hear it with the whoos and everything. 16 again. Yup. The stuff we did in that truck, too, the damage that you inflicted on that thing. Watch it, sir. You getting the hang of this? Yes sir. That’s not how you learn how to drive stick, by watching someone else do it. That’s just not. Hey, it just knocked off. Check it out. There’s a bird back there. Oh my gosh. Move then right, I think I got it. Everywhere the truck goes, life follows. I was kind of having my own fun. Didn’t that just remind you all the times I drove up to your house, and you’d get in, and then we’d drive off into the woods onto like, farmer’s land and like, get stuck in ditches. Bro, this looks like a video we would’ve made like the day you got your truck if we had the capability of doing that. “I’m gonna drive through the yard.” “I want to do a loop through the yard.” I think I eventually let Lincoln drive. If you get it on the first try, you win a lot of respect. All right. But don’t worry, it’s not gonna happen. First. This is tough, ’cause Lincoln, I think, is aware that I’m gonna be showing this too. A lot of pressure. Give her a little gas, ease off the clutch. Right there, stop on the clutch, and just, you gotta fill that spot where it’s about to catch. Now, a little more gas, a little more gas, more gas, more gas, more gas. Off the clutch. More gas, more gas. More gas. It’s hard. All right. Give it a go. I let him experience some victory here. A little bit of gas, it’s okay for you to be coasting. That makes it easier. I’m a pretty good instructor. More gas, more gas, more gas, more gas, more gas, more gas, there you go. More gas, more gas, more gas. You got it. Yeah, blow that, blow the horn, man. I don’t want to scare the ducks. Look at that, see? The moment that my granddad shared with me, I’ve now passed along to my own freaking son. That’s beautiful. How did it end? I said I’m gonna do the same thing with my daughter. She is the Michelin woman. Oh. She did it. Now keep going- First try. She’s unfazed, yeah. She went to college. Right, right. She’s been educated. Higher education. Speed up more, you gotta be going faster. I think I could be a driving instructor. I forgot what I was supposed to do. It seems like something you’d want to do. Speed up a little bit, you got it. Go on the straightaway, and then you can try to put it in second. You would love to be a driving instructor, because you would get your own steering wheel on your side. Oh, I didn’t know that. It’s like a control freak stream. I don’t think they do that anymore. They don’t make those anymore. Yes, I think, yes, Lily got to learn how to drive. Well, I got to say, I’m jealous for multiple reasons. I’m jealous because, that’s cool picture, I’m jealous because you know how before. How about that picture? That’s equally cool. You don’t have to show me another one. Low angle? You don’t have to show me. There’s another one. You don’t gotta show me them all. And then, look, there’s a selfie. Yeah, that’s a bad one. And then there’s a vertical selfie. You can’t really see the truck. How ’bout that? And then, okay, that’s it. Before the break, I was talking to you about how my wife was saying that she was going to give me the best gifts. That’s right. That she’s ever given me. Yeah. There’s no way it can top this. Well, she hasn’t given it to me yet. I don’t know what it is. I was gonna ask. She hasn’t given it to you? There was a complication with it. Well, you know what? Christy and Lily had been building up this gift that didn’t come for me. It’s still not here. You know, supply chains, but nothing’s gonna top the truck. I think it’s the same thing? No. It could be the same thing, because our guess was that it was a dog. There was not, I mean, and Jessie confirmed it was not a dog, however… 2022 is the year of the dog for us, the year of the second dog for us. Good. But, that is- I highly recommend it. But I still don’t know what it is. I mean, I’m just waiting patiently. What do you tell me? When you get it, you tell me what it is, and when I get mine, I’ll tell you what it is. Okay, yeah. How’s that for a deal? And with the way the supply chains are, it may be next Christmas, who knows? But anytime you want to come over to my mom’s house and drive that truck. It’s very tempting. I mean. I’m thinking about setting a reminder right now. It was so small when you get back in it. It’s like, I can’t believe you even fit in the thing. You’re like, you had to be hunched over. Oh, I wasn’t comfortable, by any means. I was definitely making a sacrifice as your friend. And I was telling Lincoln, you know, it’s like right here in the middle is where I would put my portable CD player, and hook it up to the cassette adapter. Oh yeah. And then every time I go over a bump, it would skip because it didn’t have enough buffer. But you can get the non-skippable one, like the really good Sony one. Yeah. So that is the defining moment of my Christmas back home, if I were to pinpoint one. So you got to just keep it forever? Yeah, why not? Because you could probably only get 1300 bucks if you tried to sell it. It’s definitely not worth more to anybody else than it is to me. Hell yeah, the nostalgia. That’s definitely true. So yeah, what if one day Lincoln’s teaching his kids, or Lily, I guess, she could also do it. They both have the capabilities now to drive a stick. I’ve passed that on, and then Link can pass it on maybe in the same truck. But, I mean, you’re gonna have to really keep that thing on lock down if you want them to be able to teach their kids about it. Yeah. Did you go back through Fuquay any? I skirted Fuquay. Fuquay is, I mean, it just continues to grow. I’ve heard about- There’s a whole new facility. There’s a high rise. I mean, I would call it a high rise, it may be three stories. Downtown Fuquay just literally blocks- Maybe five stories? I don’t know. From where ours studio used to be. So I went to the old studio. I got a little pic. Oh, okay. A little selfie in front of- It’s a hair salon, right? It’s a hair salon on one side, and a church office on the other side. All right, good. We just did the whole, we took both sides when we did it. That’s right. Big business. I went by there- I like how they’re doing the Lord’s work, which is hair cutting. The hair styling. Yeah. There’s two good coffee shops in Fuquay now, there’s, you know. Stickboy? There’s, well, I guess three, because the Stickboy is a great bakery, also does coffee. There’s The Mill, which is like the new, like, it’s new to me, bigger one across the street, which is literally across the street from our old studio. Like if we had to stuck around, we would have had a coffee shop that we could have just thrown a stick at. Oh, damn. And then- We could have been stoning a coffee shop. On the next block, south, or east, across the main road. There’s another coffee shop now on the next block. How can the clientele support three coffee shops? Fuquay’s got tens of thousands of people, man. Let me tell you right row. And they’re making it to the south side. They got this high rise. Is it really a high rise? It’s a, it is a- I mean, it’s like say- It’s a condominiums, retail, and parking. It doesn’t fit, does it? I heard it doesn’t fit. Well, I can understand why people would say that, because it definitely does not. It’s bigger than everything else around it. Aesthetically. But, it’s also a sign of the times, man. It’s like Fuquay’s on the up and up. Do you think if we would’ve stayed in Fuquay, and somehow experienced like the North Carolina equivalent of the success we’ve had out here, do you think we would be the ones building that high rise? Well, no, because we’re not real estate developers, we’re comedians. That’s true. I mean- I think we could have gotten a piece of the app. Maybe we would be investors. Yeah. But the other thing that’s happening in Fuquay, which is a little bit of a mindscrew is- Is Ashworths is still there. The sweater shop for old men. It’s what you think it is, the traffic, and- The traffic is bad. The traffic is more debilitating than LA traffic, because LA traffic comes with an expectation of traffic. It’s like, yes, I’m in this place that it costs so much to live, and there’s so many people. Towns not built for it, man. But you’re on this five, six lanes. Two lane road. Yeah, but Fuquay, there’s just, they can’t do anything, especially when you’re coming down, is it Sunset Lake? You’re coming down and you’re trying to get into town. We are not having a local podcast. Like if we stay in North Carolina, this is what the podcast would be. That’s a good idea. Maybe we move back and we just do that. Just do- News around Fuquay. Complaining about traffic in Fuquay. Yeah but, my parents had been complaining about the traffic, and I was like- But you experienced it? And I was like, y’all don’t understand. You don’t want to know what traffic is. I mean, they lived out here when I was younger. It’s bad, huh? You can get stuck. I got stuck on that road. I was up there near like Miss Slaughter’s old house. Okay, yeah. You were trying to get into Smithfield’s? Yes. You were frustrated. I had to wait forever to get to Smithfield’s. I don’t understand what was happening. Oh, yeah. They gotta do some traffic engineering there, but a Fuquay, really, really things are looking up. They need to put a subway system in. My whole trip was defined by my plans being thwarted, right? So plan A for our trip was we go back home to North Carolina just in time for Jessie’s birthday. We have a birthday celebration with her family and my family altogether, and then we spend Christmas with our families. And then the day after Christmas, we hop on a plane. Hop on a plane, baby. And we fly to Mexico to have a wonderful time as a family, just the four of us, right? I was jealous, man, I was like, “Damn, they’re going to Mexico, we’re just gonna be sitting on our butts,” And spend a week in Mexico through the new year, and then come back. Now, as we all know, Omicron was making itself known to our world and country, and so things began to get a little bit- Dicey. Dicey, and let me, I’ll just, I don’t want to, I’ve done enough of my COVID rants, and talked about vaccines and all that, you know where I stand on all that, because I’m not gonna do that. What I will say is that this has been going on for so long, for the way that I have kind of processed this, is like, I’m like, listen, I’m vaccinated, and especially with this latest strain, which basically everyone who knows anything is saying this thing is so contagious that you will you are going to be exposed to it, right? You’re either gonna get exposed to it with the vaccine or without the vaccine, and you can take all kinds of precautions, and do all the social distancing and the masking and all that, which I continue to do, but you’re gonna get exposed to it. But you’re boosted. You said vaccinated, but you’re boosted. I’m also boosted. That’s important differentiation. Yeah, it is. It is in terms of lowering the chances of getting infected, in terms of whether you’re gonna get severe illness, double vacs is good for that. Now, but one of the things that I had to do just to mentally make it, because first of all, I recognize we live in a very particular place out here on the left coast, in Los Angeles, where everybody pretty much takes to the pandemic very seriously and takes all the precautions, and does everything. This is a very unique place. There’s a few places, major cities around the nation where that’s the case, but like once you kind of get out of that bubble, people just don’t care that much, right? And so I knew I’m going into environments where people don’t see this the same way that I do, and so I just had to be like, listen, I’m vaccinated and boosted. I’m gonna take precautions, but I cannot constantly worry about this. I will not be able to make it through this time if I’m worried about me getting COVID, personally. At this point, I’m honestly not worried based on what we’re seeing and when people who were vaccinated get it. So that’s why you’re like, “We’re gonna go ahead with this trip.” Yeah, but what I’m also, so the main anxiety that I’m experiencing is not about me or any of my family members getting COVID, it’s the plans being thwarted, the flight being canceled, getting in Mexico, like you can fly to Mexico without any sort of negative tests, but you can’t fly back into the US without getting a negative test 24 hours prior to your arrival or your flight. The place we were gonna stay provided tests and everything, but I’m like, we got things to get back to, and so I’m worried about our flight getting canceled, because every day there’s more flights getting canceled as we get closer and closer to this time. Also, I’m worried about getting stuck in Mexico, and thinking about what am I gonna do if we have to stay extra time in Mexico. Am I gonna have to stay an extra week? I’m not gonna like, what if it’s one of our kids? I’m not gonna be like, “We asked to stay here because one of my kids has tested positive.” Again, it wasn’t the fear of the illness, it was the fear of the logical or the logistical implications of somebody getting it. Yeah. And Jessie was saying the whole time, she was like, “I think we should cancel the trip, because you’re gonna be too anxious, and you’re not gonna be able to enjoy yourself, because you’re gonna be worried about us getting stuck.” It’s just the logistical stuff is the kind of thing that I get anxiety about. And so I was like, “Well, you’re not wrong, but let’s do it, we’re doing this.” You know, it’s not really any less safe there than it is here, and like, let’s just stay committed to the plan. And then my brother tests positive for COVID, which was happening, so many, if you don’t know somebody who tested positive for COVID in the past couple of weeks, then I don’t know who you are and where you live, but like it’s happening everywhere. And of course I had spent, I had been with my brother at dinner, went to his house, sat on the couch next to him. Like, I just basically just been breathing the same air with him just multiple days in a row. You were doing that thing to each other where it’s like, “Does my breath stink?” And then he was like, “Well, does my breath stink?” And then you’re like, “Yes, but does mine stink more?” Yeah, exactly, breathing each other’s air. And then an hour later, you do it all again. Right. What about now, “Does my breath stink?” And it was happening with every family member. “Does your breath stink?” And so, okay. Listen, I don’t know. I ended up getting all five symptoms of Omicron, like the ones that were listed as the five most common symptoms. I got all five symptoms, very mildly, like to the point where I was like, is this an allergy? Is this like a cold, is this? I tested two times with one of those rapid tests. It was both negative. Everybody kept saying- Both negative. The negative tests are much less reliable with this, in general, and also with this strain. And then when I got back, I got a PCR test, still negative, so. This is funny, because you’re doing like, it’s like, I mean, ’cause there’s still this stigma. It’s like- Yeah, you leaned away from me. When people say- Trust me, you’ve been exposed to COVID. I’m just playing up, but when people say they’ve got it, there’s an eroding, but still present stigma of like, “I gotta confess, I got it. I got it.” Well, but I think that’s going away, but you’re doing the opposite. You’re like, trying to convince me that you have it? No, well, first of all, again. I do have it, man. I’m not really thinking about the widespread implications of the things that I’m saying right now, so please let me speak freely. But there’s honestly, there was a part of me that was like, “I want to get this to get it over with it, ’cause I’m so tired of worrying about it.” And everybody that I know that is double vaxxed that’s getting it is having such mild symptoms, and I’m like, “Just give me the damn virus so I can get through this, and not have to think about it anymore.” So you do feel- Right or wrong, that’s what I was feeling. And so you’re airing, you’re leaning towards concluding that you had it. My brother. But you’re leaning towards concluding that you had it, because that gives you peace of mind. No, I… No, I’m saying that I had all the symptoms, and all these people online are like, “These are the symptoms that I had. I’m not testing positive.” And so I’m just like, “Okay, maybe I had it, maybe I didn’t.” I’m not behaving any differently than I was already. I’m taking all the precautions I’ve been doing here at work. But that factored into not going to Mexico. No… No, because I tested negative. And I was like, “If I test negative, and these symptoms are gone by the time we’re supposed to fly, I’m going.” You felt better about going? That was the plan. Yeah. Then Shepherd, who is vaccinated, and not boosted, because he’s only 13, Shepherd comes down with the exact same symptoms as my brother, which is basically like a pretty bad sore throat, and like some aches, and what you typically see in a vaccinated person who gets it, which is just sort of a rough cold that kind of knocks you out for a couple of days. And so, again, we tested him, it was negative, but at that point it was Christmas Eve-Eve, when that happened with Shepherd and I was like, “Okay, let’s do it, let’s cancel.” Thankfully, we got the money back for everything. Like, we actually didn’t have our trip insured. I thought that maybe it was, but it wasn’t, and so thank you, Jenna, for making lots of phone calls and figuring that out, but we got our money back so we didn’t have to pay anything, and then there was sort of a sense of relief, but then I was like, well, what are we gonna do now? We’re just gonna stay in North Carolina? Because it was, the way that COVID impacted our family gatherings was. Okay, Shepherd’s not coming over to Christmas Eve at my parents, you know? Because they’re in like their mid-70’s, and it’s like, we’re trying to protect everybody, right? Yeah. And so- Dejavu. And so, yeah, it was like, “Oh man, this again? We have to do this.” And like Cole, my brother couldn’t come to the things. I saw him in the beginning of the trip, and I didn’t see him again. That sucks. And so I was just very frustrated by the whole thing, but I was also like. So if you stayed. I don’t want to stick around and be in this situation where, and again, we’re in a place where some people are like, think that we’re crazy, right? And it’s funny because when somebody would ask us to do something through my in-laws or through my parents, and they would be like, do y’all want to go do this? I would literally say this. I would say, “You just tell them that we’re crazy liberals from California and were scared of the virus. That will end the conversation, so we don’t have to, you can put it on me, ’cause that’s what people think about me anyway. So just say that, and that’s why we’re not going to your dinner that you’ve got planned or whatever. We’re crazy liberals and we’re scared of the virus.” And so that would just, I had to kind of deploy that strategy a couple of times, because I didn’t- That work? Yeah, well, I just ended the conversation, ’cause I don’t want to get into this like, you see it this way, I see it this way, let’s have an argument about it. It’s like, no, you do your thing, I’ll do my thing, we’re good. But, I was like, I want to make something out of this trip, right? And I don’t even know where I got the idea, but I was like- Just say I gave it to you. Well, you didn’t. Cross country trip, me and Lock. Now, Lock and I have been trying to go to multiple places together over the past couple of years, but it’s been thwarted by COVID. So we were like, let’s have a COVID family Christmas, and just go straight across America on a road trip. Brilliant idea. To get back to LA, because when else are you gonna have the time? And so that is what we did, and we experienced a whole lot that I will talk about in an exclusive episode of “Ear Biscuits.” Oh, wow. Not next week, but the following week, I’m gonna do, I got video, I got pictures. I got stories out the wazoo. Are you sure you don’t want to share it on Cyndi Lauper’s psoriasis podcast? Well, I mean, you’ll get the leftovers. Cyndi gets the best. But we had an incredible, I feel like I saved Christmas, in some way. When I heard through the grapevine that you were traveling across the country, I had to break the text seal, and ask you about it, ’cause I was intrigued, I was jealous. I was like, man, this is better than Mexico. You know what? I think it ended up being better than Mexico. A father, son thing. You’ve got, Shepherd’s six, so he wasn’t eligible to come on this road trip. Yeah, and it was, again, it’s Lock’s senior year in high school, like. Yeah. And we’re planning on taking something for his spring break. Take it when you can get it. But like, what’s gonna happen with spring break? I don’t know. It’s impossible to make plans now, but you know what? I can get in a car and drive across America. Nobody can tell me I can’t do that, right? Don’t need a test to that. Just go, cross the borders. Yeah. So that’s what we did. Well, I look forward to hearing about that. I mean, the other thing that we’re in the midst of now is celebrating 10 years of Good Mythical Morning, and it’s happening on the Good Mythical Morning channel all this week, and so next week we’re gonna push your road trip thing to week after next, so that we can, while we’re still in the festive mode of celebrating 10 freaking years of Good Mythical Morning, we’ll talk about that next week. And you’ve already given your rec. Smithfield’s Chicken ‘N Bar-B-Q. SCNB, they say on the sign, sometimes. Yeah, it used to say Smithfield’s really big. It does now, again. Oh, good. But if you get the cup, it says on one side, it’s got Smithfield’s in cursive, on the other side, it says SCNB. They’re like really trying to keep that alive. I feel like we should be doing some sort of deal with them. Like, we should be like the Sonic guys for Smithfield’s. I’m down for that. But in the meantime, Ron’s Barn, there’s only one. Yeah, all right. If you can’t make it to Ron’s Bar, go to Smithfield’s Chicken ‘N Bar-B-Q. I like having- An authentic North Carolina barbecue experience. Get the Brunswick stew as well. We made it, man. We’re in the new year. We’re pressing forward, and it’s gonna be a good one. I choose to believe that this is gonna be a great year. Hashtag ear biscuits. Holla at ya boys. To watch more “Ear Biscuits,” click on the playlist on the right. To watch the previous episode of “Ear Biscuits,” click on the playlist to the left. And don’t forget to click on the circular icon to subscribe. If you prefer to listen to this podcast, it’s available on all your favorite podcast platforms. Thanks for being your mythical best.