0:00

Hey,

0:00

Anna. You know what? Some people are new to this

0:03

podcast. They have no idea that you've written

0:05

two cookbooks. Eat happy is

0:07

the first one. And eat happy too. and

0:09

you have a foods company called Eat

0:11

Happy Kitchen. That's

0:13

correct, Vin. And do the people

0:15

know that you have three movies,

0:18

three documentaries called fat, a documentary,

0:20

fat, a documentary too, and beyond impossible,

0:23

plus a book, fitness confidential. Do

0:25

you think the people know that? No.

0:26

I don't think they do. Now

0:28

they do. Now

0:29

on with the show.

0:31

Thanks for listening to

0:33

Vinny Torderec on NSNG

0:36

lifestyle. audio.

0:39

Welcome to fitness confidential success

0:42

stories with Vinny Tordridge.

0:45

founder of NSNG. Let

0:48

these stories inspire you.

1:02

I have any children's folks. You got intentions

1:05

have been stolen, but don't worry I'm here to help

1:07

you get them back. You may be soft in

1:09

cycling at the beginning of this sir. But hang

1:11

in there before long, you will be leaving me

1:14

guarantee. Yeah.

1:57

She was walking on sunshine a couple

1:59

of weeks ago.

1:59

we have another twelve hour walk

2:02

that we're gonna talk to today. She

2:04

she's been on the show before. She actually

2:06

works for the show now. So

2:09

when I'm begging you guys for money, she's

2:11

one of the people I she she's the recipient

2:14

of some of that money. Yeah.

2:16

We're talking about my fake girlfriend Lois.

2:19

The only Jaeger, how are you doing pumpkin?

2:22

Good. How are you?

2:24

Good. Listen, III

2:27

gotta tell you, I'm

2:29

happy that everyone

2:31

is doing this. I don't know if if

2:33

Colin Obrady realizes well,

2:35

I think he knows where he started. This thing

2:37

is going on nationwide now. And

2:41

you know, look, when I did it, I was like,

2:43

oh, what the hell off? It

2:46

it didn't yeah. What am I doing? It didn't

2:48

match to me. None of this matters.

2:50

You know, I've I've been on the bike for

2:52

forty hours. For god's sake,

2:55

twelve hours walking. What's the deal? And

2:59

It was different. It

3:01

it was way different for me. Not

3:05

way different. Different enough. Because,

3:09

well, you know, when I

3:11

was training for bicycle races, there were

3:13

metrics on the bike. Right? That I

3:15

would be measuring. You know, I'm looking

3:17

at, you know, how fast

3:19

I did the last fifty miles, you

3:21

know, how fast am I doing this fifty miles? Sometimes

3:24

I had you know, a

3:26

watch meter. You know, these these very back

3:28

then, they were very expensive to put a

3:30

watch meter on a bike. to

3:32

measure your watts, your your output,

3:35

and to see how that was working in

3:38

relation to your heart and and everything

3:40

else. And So

3:42

even on those hours, when I wasn't

3:44

listening to music or books on

3:46

tape or anything else, I

3:49

was paying attention to metrics. And

3:51

there were sometimes four or five hours

3:53

if some guy wanted to do a century, you

3:56

know, I was like, well, you know, just go ride with

3:58

any for the next hundred miles. You know, so

3:59

you have someone to chit chat with for hundred

4:02

miles. You're never really

4:04

alone you

4:05

you never you're

4:07

not living with it, so

4:09

to speak. And and, you know, even in

4:11

the races, you're allowed you know, most races

4:13

allow you to have one ear pod

4:15

in. You can't have both, you know, because

4:18

of the legality of, you know,

4:20

someone gets hit or whatever. So

4:22

they'll let you listen to music. before

4:24

that, before earbuds became a thing,

4:27

some people would just have boom boxes, you

4:29

know, with speakers like old

4:31

election speakers on top of their cars

4:34

blaring music through a night to keep you

4:36

awake.

4:38

But none of that, all of that was

4:41

set aside. I even think I

4:43

mentioned this on a podcast, Leona.

4:47

during the night, you know, I will get very, very

4:49

tired. My circadian rhythms

4:51

would just kick in, and two or three o'clock in

4:53

the morning. un paddling and falling asleep

4:56

on on the bike. So I would

4:58

have my van pull up next to me,

5:00

and we would tell jokes back and forth.

5:02

you know, like just, you know,

5:05

any kind of jokes. Like, and, you know,

5:07

a rabbi, a priest, and,

5:09

you know, you know, a farmer walked

5:11

into a you know, those kind of things. And

5:14

we would just tell jokes for twenty minutes

5:16

until the rhythm kind of

5:18

worked itself out and I was able to go

5:20

again to

5:22

go twelve hours

5:24

and have no electronics, don't talk

5:26

to anyone what have you. It

5:29

was a major it

5:31

was somewhat of a feat. what

5:35

was your experience? Why did you

5:37

decide to do it? Tell me your whole

5:39

story. Well,

5:42

I had

5:44

heard you mention that you

5:46

went out right after, you know,

5:49

the next day after Adam

5:51

talked about it with you. And

5:53

at that point, I was like, I would love

5:55

to have twelve hours to herself and

5:58

and just explore it,

5:59

you know. For

6:02

ah

6:04

those I'm just gonna say this

6:06

for any new people since

6:08

they don't know

6:11

me from previous episodes

6:13

probably is I grew up on a campground

6:15

out in the middle of nowhere in

6:17

the Midwest. And

6:25

it what it's not for me to be

6:27

comfortable by myself for

6:29

long periods of time because of some of the chores

6:31

that I had to do and

6:33

everything. I was outdoors all day

6:35

by myself that was

6:37

even before walk ins and stuff like

6:39

that. So it's something I'm already

6:41

kind of familiar with. And But,

6:45

anyway, I heard you do it. Then

6:47

I heard Colin O'Grady on

6:50

your podcast, and that

6:53

inspired me even further. And so I

6:55

just decided I was gonna go for it.

6:57

And I

6:59

figured

7:02

I just wanted to you know, I wanted to

7:04

see if I could do it.

7:06

Twelve hours is a long

7:08

time for a walk, but I

7:11

was curious. I was curious to see,

7:13

you know, where my mind would go if I

7:15

could do all twelve hours. And

7:17

then I'm just factoring personality too.

7:19

It's just like it was

7:21

ugly. It was a beautiful day

7:23

outside. I love the sounds of

7:25

nature. when

7:27

you can hear them through the cars. You

7:30

know, there's

7:31

the twelve hours of being just

7:34

alone with my thoughts and my imagination

7:36

and my curiosity and

7:38

walking around and just, you

7:40

know, seeing what the next moment is

7:43

and is seeing what the next corner

7:45

brings me, you know, going around the

7:47

next corner. And I even showed you I ended

7:49

up sending you that

7:51

one's photo. I had my phone away

7:54

for Alright. So we hang on. Let

7:56

let me let me go III have I

7:58

have questions.

7:59

Okay. Okay.

8:01

Did you know, part of what Colin

8:03

says is you make up your own rules.

8:06

My rules were no

8:08

electronics whatsoever. I

8:10

did have the phone in my backpack in

8:12

case, look, if

8:14

someone if I saw a kid get hit by a

8:16

bus, I was gonna turn my phone

8:18

on. you know, and and

8:20

you know what I mean? It's like, it's

8:22

just a safe thing to have. Right?

8:25

So the phone was on not even

8:27

an elevator mode or whatever they call it,

8:30

airplane mode. It was off. Mhmm.

8:33

And it stayed off and it stayed in the pack

8:35

all day. So was one rule.

8:37

No music. No nothing. My

8:39

other rule was, for me, no

8:41

sitting down. you

8:43

know, but I I'm

8:45

in I'm in pretty

8:46

good shape. You know?

8:48

I'm not

8:49

a big deal for me not to sit down for

8:51

twelve hours. but

8:53

no sitting down. Did you

8:55

make any rules? I

8:57

did. And it and it was

9:00

no phone. or or minimal

9:02

minimal phone. I did check-in

9:04

about two or three times home just to

9:06

let them know. I'm in this area of

9:08

town. you know. And how did you check-in phone

9:10

call or text? Just

9:12

text, quick text. And and I gotta

9:14

tell you, that's very smart. That's, you know,

9:16

for women, especially you

9:19

know, I feel that women are sometimes

9:21

more vulnerable. You're out

9:23

there walking around maybe in neighborhoods you're

9:25

not used to.

9:26

So

9:27

yeah. Look, folks. I think

9:29

if you're gonna

9:30

do no phone, you might want to

9:33

do you know,

9:34

your phone can track you in

9:36

case you know, something nefarious

9:38

happens. And so that's good.

9:41

So it's good to have it

9:43

on, maybe have it on

9:45

airplane mode. And number

9:47

two, yeah, I I like the

9:49

idea. You know, I'm sure your husband's, like, my wife

9:51

just walked out of here at six in the morning

9:53

and wearing a hell this, you know you know what

9:55

I mean? So good. Any other

9:57

rules?

9:58

Yeah. It was so

9:59

no electronics. Otherwise, I had

10:02

no airbags, no music,

10:03

no nothing, and

10:06

phone on airplane mode, and

10:08

my backpack.

10:09

the My

10:10

goal was to only

10:13

stop, allow myself three

10:15

stops for a maximum

10:17

of about fifteen minutes.

10:19

and then back from breaks.

10:23

Wait. Wait. Wait. Are we talking

10:26

three fifteen minute stops or

10:28

Fifteen

10:28

minutes to twelve minutes stops where

10:30

I was allowed to sit and rest and,

10:33

you know, kind of let my feet

10:35

rest and stuff because my goal,

10:37

my priority, was to make it all

10:39

twelve hours. Okay. So I

10:41

wasn't worried about my pace. or anything

10:43

like that. I wasn't, you know, trying to race

10:45

myself or anything in that regard. I wanted to make

10:47

sure that I made all twelve hours. So

10:51

ended up being more, like, five times, which

10:53

disappointed me a little bit. But with each stop,

10:55

I, like, refill with coffee. I refill

10:57

my water bottle. I went to the bathroom. You

10:59

know? So it was, like, consolidated

11:01

the

11:02

the stops, you know, purposeful

11:05

stops.

11:09

I

11:09

did not keep moving in the sense

11:11

that there were times where my feet were getting

11:13

quite tired and but just even

11:15

pausing and standing still for a

11:17

couple minutes. stopped the friction on my

11:19

feet enough, to give it

11:20

enough relief, and then I was, you

11:23

know, okay to move on again.

11:26

I did not map out

11:28

a a full

11:30

route or anything. I had a basic

11:32

idea of the of

11:34

staying on Maine thoroughfares. I have

11:37

one of the street that I live happens

11:39

to go way down into

11:41

Pasadena. And so and

11:42

most of that street is not

11:44

too bad to be on. So

11:46

I stayed on that route and

11:48

then I went and do I don't know if you're really

11:51

familiar with this area, but I went to an

11:53

area south of Pasadena called

11:55

San Marino. And

11:57

that has some big

11:59

beautiful

12:00

massive front

12:03

homes and lots of people. Yeah. Like,

12:05

different kinds of architecture and everything. It's

12:07

just really beautiful and peaceful

12:09

and And so that's

12:11

where I did a lot of

12:12

my walking. And

12:14

I did cheat a couple times with the phone

12:16

because there was just a couple of things that I saw

12:18

that were so beautiful, but I had to take a picture of

12:20

it. And one of them is that mountain picture I

12:22

I with the snow on the mountain. So

12:26

But

12:27

other than that, I stayed

12:29

around in that area. I went I

12:31

did navigate back towards Pasadena,

12:33

but I found I

12:35

said I wanted to go back

12:38

to San Marino because

12:40

I was getting that point

12:42

where I was enjoying the peacefulness

12:44

of not being on the electronics and

12:47

not, you know, just

12:49

being out that the

12:51

more traffic and busy intersections and everything that

12:54

I got around, I was kinda like, oh, oh, no.

12:56

You know, I

12:58

wanna I need to get my granular

13:01

ass. I don't wanna, you know, I don't wanna clutter it

13:03

up, but now I have to pay attention to I

13:05

think I'm what straight and where's the cross? Or where

13:07

can I do this and everything? I just I

13:09

just wanted to be kind of Zen, and

13:12

and that's what

13:13

it became for me. And III

13:15

thoroughly enjoyed it. I was

13:17

not gonna lie. My feet were

13:19

tired. I probably didn't

13:21

wear I

13:22

definitely wanna say I didn't wear the best

13:24

shoes. I wear the best shoes that I had because

13:26

they had a wide

13:28

foot, you know, like all my other

13:30

tennis shoes are kind of narrow on the toes

13:32

and I was really concerned about. What

13:34

kind of shoes? Were they running shoes? What

13:36

what did you wear?

13:37

Yeah. Just regular running shoes.

13:39

What brand people always wanted a

13:42

brand. They're pretty

13:44

old, but they're stockin'ies. Yep.

13:46

They've done that. They're old shoes. You you know,

13:48

I've people always say, what kind of

13:50

running? Do you buy new running shoes for you do like,

13:53

whenever we do, like,

13:54

Whitney, you know,

13:55

we don't I don't wear hiking boots or anything. I

13:57

just wear running shoes and usually the

14:00

crappiest pair I can find. But,

14:03

you know, I was talking to Gina about

14:05

this because,

14:05

you know, we're we we did the

14:08

last Wednesday show with Gina. And

14:11

She said, yeah. You know, her feet started rubbing a

14:13

little bit. I said, Regina, you know,

14:16

the shoes are probably a little

14:18

tight. It's because, oh, no, I do what they

14:20

say a half a size big on a running shoes.

14:22

They said, it should really be a whole

14:24

size big. Your

14:25

running shoes should feel like slippers on

14:27

your feet. know, you're not cutting

14:29

or doing anything. You're not playing basketball.

14:31

They should

14:32

they shouldn't be flopping on your feet, but

14:34

they should feel roomy And

14:36

-- Mhmm. -- I I like the brand I've

14:38

been using for the past several years

14:40

his is oh

14:43

god.

14:43

I can't think of the brand. I was just slipping

14:45

my mind. But

14:47

it's got the really wide toe box.

14:50

Mhmm. If you said the brand, I was No.

14:52

Not Hocus, but a small

14:54

company like that. Mhmm.

14:56

The the kid was on my show. The kid who

14:59

started the company. started it

15:01

in Utah years ago,

15:04

and his name is

15:06

Golden of all names.

15:08

Anyway, it'll come

15:10

to me in just a minute. At any

15:13

rate, yeah, the

15:14

shoes matter. In the socks matter,

15:16

you know, I I did the whole day

15:19

on in very thin socks.

15:21

There were wool socks made

15:23

by the company

15:26

going tough. I talked about that too. And, you

15:28

know, it's funny. Someone someone

15:30

was saying to on Twitter today, you got lot of

15:33

Twitter. guy goes

15:35

on, hey, where do the shoes you were taught? You

15:37

know, Gina wore. I heard it. She heard it

15:39

on the out of Corolla show. What what

15:41

kind of socks? And said, you know, darn tough

15:43

wool socks. And

15:46

another guy writes back. I think the same

15:48

guy, yeah, those are expensive. You

15:50

know, you can get other docks, just as good,

15:52

just as comfortable. Now it's like it's

15:54

like, okay, what what if I why

15:56

ask my opinion? You know, You

15:59

asked me, as an expert, what would

16:01

you wear for this? I said

16:03

a specific pair of darn

16:05

stuff. And Actually, it's the really thin ones,

16:07

the ones that are no show like they're going

16:09

your shoe and they're very thin. I'm not talking

16:11

about the big rolling ones you wear in

16:13

wintertime. Right? I'm talking about

16:15

these really thin alpha ligament. They're

16:17

tight on your feet, so there's less

16:20

chance of friction. You

16:22

know, so that's, you know,

16:24

the

16:24

right socks, the right shoes, and

16:27

you shouldn't get any any

16:29

foot problem. Takeaways.

16:32

Any takeaways what what what

16:34

did you have?

16:37

I didn't get into

16:40

a particularly

16:42

deep philosophical mode

16:45

or anything.

16:47

But I had, you know, just

16:49

some basic memories of of growing

16:52

up and and things like that,

16:54

we're we're fine. My

16:58

Buddhist take takeaway

17:02

satisfaction of doing it.

17:03

You know, I gave

17:05

you some of the reasons why I

17:07

did it, and and it kinda checked all

17:09

those boxes for me. And

17:14

so it was, you know,

17:17

satisfying for that. I'm just doing the challenge

17:19

and then fulfilling it. And you

17:22

know, despite how tired I was.

17:24

My I went about I've

17:26

made it all twelve hours.

17:28

my

17:28

Garmin watch

17:31

that I got. I ran the GPS

17:33

on it, but

17:35

instead of using my phone and I have an older phone

17:37

and it wouldn't lasted even ten hours.

17:40

Had I run the GPS on it.

17:43

So I got the garvin, and it

17:45

only lasted about ten, ten and a half hours,

17:47

something like that. That sounds right. Whenever you're running

17:49

a GPS. That that's why people yeah.

17:51

You asked me about the Garmin, and I told you which

17:53

1II use, but

17:55

They never really you know, that's why

17:57

I like these watches that, you know

17:59

you

17:59

know, like this, you know, just a

18:02

dial watch big

18:03

phase, I can read

18:06

it, that kind

18:06

of thing. Mhmm. And at the bottom, it

18:08

gives me, you know, steps and that kind

18:10

of stuff. And I had forgotten about

18:12

the step counter. And when I got home, I said,

18:15

man, I'll bet I went north

18:17

of thirty miles. And then I did the calculation. I

18:19

looked at the steps. I was just

18:21

passed seventy five thousand steps. I went, oh

18:23

my god. And I did the math on that.

18:26

Mhmm. And at the very least, I

18:28

did thirty five miles. So how many

18:30

miles do you think you

18:32

went? I think I went about

18:33

twenty five because

18:35

the government died at

18:38

just shy

18:38

of twenty two miles. And by that

18:40

time, the last hour and a half, I had made sure

18:42

I was out closer to home -- Mhmm. -- because

18:44

it was dark. And

18:47

so I just made this continuous

18:49

loop, you know, on some

18:51

neighboring side streets and just kept and

18:53

there's a really brightly lit park

18:55

there too. And So I just kept kinda going down to

18:57

the park and down this block and just I

19:00

did that for the last, you know, hour

19:02

and a half. And

19:04

and I

19:06

did

19:06

I haven't mapped out that distance,

19:09

but for the time that I was doing it and

19:11

the pace I was doing it and

19:13

everything, and I wanted

19:14

like I said, I wanna make sure I have

19:16

twelve hours. So Yeah. Well, at least, you

19:18

know, give me an hour and a half. Yeah. Yeah.

19:20

Five miles. Yeah. You have to do at least

19:23

another three. three miles. I think Gina did

19:25

similar. She did twenty one to twenty

19:27

two miles, and

19:29

I I think that's great. you

19:31

know, that that's just, you know, it's not about the

19:33

miles. It's not about, you know, it's

19:36

you know, one of my takeaways

19:38

for me was I started thinking

19:41

about I I

19:43

thought about a guy named

19:46

Kenny Neil. who I

19:46

played college football with.

19:49

We weren't even friends. You know,

19:51

it's like, we didn't hate each

19:53

other. I I don't think we thought, you know,

19:56

anything about each other. But

19:58

he popped into my head from I

20:00

I haven't thought about this guy

20:02

in thirty some odd years.

20:05

right, forty close to forty years. And all

20:07

of a sudden, he's in my mind.

20:10

And I don't know how he popped

20:12

in. I literally have not had a

20:14

reason to think about this guy since

20:16

nineteen eighty four. And

20:18

I went, wow.

20:20

And then I I thought to

20:22

myself, wonder what he's doing now.

20:24

And then I started thinking

20:26

through it.

20:28

There there were a

20:29

lot of guys on the team

20:31

that I don't think they ever graduated. I don't

20:34

know if Kenny graduated or not.

20:36

Most football players don't. You know, these

20:38

colleges get you. You stay there until,

20:40

you know, they can't use you anymore. and then

20:42

they go, oops, look, you can't you don't have

20:44

enough hours to graduate or

20:46

even to get close to a degree,

20:48

so you're gone. I don't know if that happened

20:50

to Kenny or not. Right. Mhmm.

20:53

And I started thinking about other guys

20:55

on the team. And then I started

20:57

thinking, well,

20:58

I wonder what he thought of

21:00

me.

21:01

in And, you know, because

21:03

I thought of him as like a great

21:06

athlete, but he was

21:08

he was a black guy. And

21:11

I I

21:11

knew it was somewhat difficult

21:13

for me because

21:15

even though I wasn't a black guy,

21:18

was number one a football player, so you

21:20

looked at differently because of that at a school

21:22

like Tulane. And

21:25

number two, you you're not of the

21:27

ilk because everyone at Tulane,

21:29

that's not an athlete, comes

21:31

from,

21:31

you know, large amounts of

21:34

money. Right?

21:34

It's just rich kids from New York

21:37

and Shaka Heights and Miami

21:39

and nobody's from Louisiana at

21:41

the school Harley anyone. So

21:44

here's the kid from the Bayou. And the

21:46

only reason I even have

21:48

friends is because they

21:51

think my in at the time it was very strong, very strong cajun

21:53

accent. I said half the half

21:55

of my sentences completely backwards or

21:57

if you think it's bad now and you should have heard

22:00

me, when I was eighteen. And but

22:02

the only reason I think they liked me

22:04

was because they thought I

22:06

was funny. or,

22:08

you know, I was I I made

22:10

light of myself. And they were like,

22:12

oh, you know, these little Jewish kids from Shaker

22:14

Heights going, oh my god, this big giant

22:16

football player is being

22:18

nice to us, we'll keep him

22:20

hanging around. Right? But I

22:22

don't think most of the black

22:24

guys were able to do that.

22:27

and as it would

22:29

be, they they hung out together.

22:31

Right? Like, they huddled together

22:34

after you

22:34

know, practice. They they went back to the

22:36

room to drink beers, smoke dope, whatever

22:39

whatever football players do, or, certainly, it

22:41

is to cope. That's

22:43

what they did. And

22:46

I

22:46

was like, well, what do they think

22:48

of me or

22:50

the other kids? or did

22:51

they even think about the other they have to have

22:53

a thought about, you know, I

22:55

I wish I

22:56

was I I wish I

22:58

had I I wish the

23:00

Vinny now could've

23:02

good that that was

23:03

a big part of my walk. So

23:06

I wished the Vinny now could

23:09

go back to eighteen year

23:11

old Vinnie

23:12

and

23:13

have more of an understanding.

23:16

Right?

23:16

Because I was

23:18

jealous of of Kenny Neil because

23:20

I knew he was a better athlete than me.

23:22

I never thought about socially what

23:24

that guy was going through. Mhmm.

23:27

Right? You you know what I mean? It's like

23:30

and and then that that led into thinking

23:33

about other

23:34

people in other situations.

23:38

And, you know, I thought about my

23:40

my ex girlfriend who just passed

23:42

away. you know, like six or eight months ago of

23:44

Parkinson's disease. And she

23:46

was much

23:47

older than me folks. I had a girlfriend

23:50

who was twelve years

23:52

older than me at

23:53

one time. And I know you're sitting there going

23:55

away. What? But when you're twenty eight

23:57

and she's, you

23:59

know, just shy of

24:00

forty, and she's a smoker. It doesn't, you know, it

24:03

doesn't really matter. Does

24:05

that make sense?

24:08

So, you know,

24:10

we

24:10

we really cared for each other, really

24:12

love each other, even though

24:15

we

24:15

broke up at some point. We remain friends,

24:17

and we stayed in touch for all these

24:19

years. And she fought

24:22

Parkinson's for twelve

24:24

years and just

24:26

went downhill and downhill and

24:29

downhill. And I'll never forget

24:30

I was driving

24:33

I'll never forget this moment. I was

24:36

driving across country to

24:38

go work on, you know,

24:40

beyond impossible. Maybe

24:42

it was

24:42

after her, but I'm

24:45

I'm

24:45

driving down the freeway and the phone rang

24:47

and it's her. And

24:49

and we're talking,

24:51

you know, voices are shaky and

24:53

what have you. And she said

24:56

she

24:56

said, would you mind if I

24:58

FaceTimeed with you? And I said,

25:01

Well,

25:01

I'm not sure it's gonna work because I'm

25:03

in the car, you know, driving along on a

25:05

freeway, and I'm driving along

25:07

on the freeway. you know, so

25:08

even if it does work, I won't be able to

25:11

well, just when that happened, the

25:14

traffic on that freeway in the

25:16

middle of the United States backed

25:20

up. There had been an eighteen

25:22

wheeler jackknife up the

25:24

road or whatever the

25:26

traffic came to a complete stop.

25:28

And I said, Marilyn,

25:30

as

25:30

Faith would have it, their

25:33

freeway just came to a

25:35

complete stop hang up, I'll try to FaceTime. Because I

25:37

knew if she tried, she would be shaking for

25:39

twenty minutes with her hands and everything.

25:41

Mhmm. And

25:43

So I did, and it it

25:46

showed up.

25:47

And I was

25:49

thinking of that moments, like, why was it

25:51

you know, we never FaceTime when we spoke.

25:53

We just chatted

25:54

for ten minutes, and

25:56

that was

25:56

it. But it was the last

25:59

time I

25:59

saw her. Right. And I think she

26:02

knew it would be the last time we saw

26:04

each other. She was saying goodbye without

26:06

saying goodbye. you

26:08

know, and I

26:08

thought about that. I was like, well, she had to wear

26:10

with all to say, you know, I wanna

26:13

see you and I want you to see me

26:15

even though unless

26:16

she wasn't happy with the way she looked anymore.

26:19

You know, she's a

26:19

seventy two year old woman

26:22

now that

26:24

know,

26:25

she's just not doing well.

26:28

But

26:28

you

26:29

think about times like that. It's like the

26:32

freeway backing up. and

26:34

all of that just happening right when it's

26:36

supposed to happen. And, you know, we watch these

26:38

III watch these stupid Hallmark

26:41

movies around Christmas

26:43

time with the Christmas. Everything is a

26:45

Christmas miracle. He's

26:46

sappiness movies. And you go,

26:48

oh, yeah. Of course. Yeah. That

26:51

happened. Right? but that

26:53

really happened to me. You know,

26:55

I said, look, I can't do it. I'm I'm I'm

26:57

hurling along at seventy miles an hour, and

26:59

then the freeway stopped.

27:01

You

27:02

you you think about moments like

27:04

that. Is there divine intervention?

27:06

Is there, you know, an I'm

27:09

an atheist. Right?

27:10

But but you think

27:11

did did any of that happen to you where

27:13

you you got into any thoughts about people

27:16

and friends and you

27:18

know, my daughter, my does my daughter love me? Does

27:20

my husband really love me? Anything

27:22

anything like that?

27:24

Yeah. I

27:25

mean, there's moments of bad. I

27:27

I can't say I had any moments

27:29

of Kismet and assisted reading.

27:32

But but, yeah, there's always,

27:33

you know, there's always kind of

27:35

that level of thought going on. I was actually

27:37

thinking along the lines

27:40

of my daughter

27:42

was My mom my mom passed when

27:44

my daughter was only about a year

27:46

old. And so she's never known her.

27:48

And then my dad passed when

27:50

my daughter was eight. So even though, you know,

27:52

we mentioned her grandparents, you

27:54

know, or my parents that she

27:57

does she doesn't have any recollection

27:59

really of of them that much. And

28:02

so what I wanted to

28:04

do is

28:05

what I've thought of doing

28:08

is actually stories,

28:10

like journaling stories

28:13

that my parents

28:15

told me about the way that

28:17

they grew up because it would be so

28:19

dramatically foreign to

28:21

what she's growing up

28:23

as. So I would I would love to

28:25

her to have those stories

28:28

you know, of of their memories of

28:30

growing up and everything. So I'd I'd

28:32

kinda like to write those down

28:34

in journal. I'm not in any particular

28:37

order to as they come to me, so I can get them down

28:39

on paper.

28:39

And if someday she's interested,

28:42

you know. she'd

28:44

have them. And, you know, would

28:47

she be able to steal a little bit of their

28:49

history and, you know, a history of them

28:51

growing up? because that was long before,

28:53

you know, some things

28:55

that I gotta grow up with. So

28:58

stuff like that is more along

29:00

the lines of what what I

29:03

was thinking about.

29:05

I was

29:09

just was just

29:09

really enjoying taking

29:12

time. Like, I took I took a little pad

29:14

of paper

29:15

and pencil and stuff and just

29:17

jotted down things like

29:18

you know, when

29:19

you're driving through town, you're driving through town

29:21

thirty miles an hour and you don't you know, there's

29:23

places you forget that are even there,

29:25

you know, businesses to go to restaurants

29:27

you wanna try. all this stuff. so if I passed when

29:29

I'd be like, oh, yeah. I gotta be

29:31

coming up. You know? And jot

29:33

it down.

29:33

And and I was just enjoying, you

29:36

know, my area luckily

29:38

has a lot of like I said, interesting

29:40

buildings and stuff, and and

29:42

I do enjoy architecture and, you

29:44

know, I literally stopped

29:46

and smelled flowers along the way. You know, kinda like

29:48

that old adage. Yeah. And I

29:51

just I just absorbed. I

29:53

just thoroughly, you

29:55

know, I loved the fact that for

29:57

twelve hours, I knew we're mine,

29:59

and I didn't

30:01

have any other during

30:04

that time, but to enjoy

30:06

my surroundings and just be

30:08

open and curious and see

30:10

what happens. And it

30:12

was like, many, you

30:15

know,

30:15

adventure and exploration.

30:18

And I'm I'm way open to that, you

30:20

know, and it's like, in

30:22

one of the takeaways and not really

30:24

from that walk directly, but from

30:26

just even seeing on

30:29

social media people, you

30:31

know, commenting on it, like, well, twelve

30:33

hours idea. What did you do with yourself?

30:35

Well, I walked.

30:38

Number one, But it's it's

30:40

the the tone that I end up

30:42

interpreting from those is, like, people are

30:44

really almost afraid

30:46

to be alone with their thoughts

30:48

or the idea of being

30:51

surrounded by, you

30:54

know, or not having noise

30:56

fed into their head, It's

30:58

-- Yeah. -- it is

31:00

is overwhelming. And I I find

31:02

that really interesting because, like,

31:04

III guess maybe

31:07

growing up the way I did. It's just not a

31:09

thing for me, but it's to me, it's

31:11

like it's just a whole brand new.

31:13

There's just when you have that mental

31:15

space, there's possibilities. Right?

31:17

There's just your imagination can

31:19

just go and and

31:22

play and sure

31:24

some of the thoughts are probably negative, but then

31:26

address some, you know, kind of like,

31:27

singleton

31:28

a second. And, you

31:30

know, see where that leads. and

31:33

I don't know. I just

31:35

find that an interesting

31:37

factor that I'm

31:40

noticing. And and just

31:42

like,

31:42

you know, just experiment

31:45

live life. You know, there's there's not

31:48

many challenges or there's some

31:50

challenges that come to you that you're not looking

31:52

forward to. Right? Because they're

31:54

they're unexpected or they're they're more than

31:57

really anticipating in, but you have to

31:59

deal with them

31:59

anyway. This one is offered

32:02

up,

32:02

you know, you

32:04

just go, just go

32:05

and enjoy it, and just see what

32:08

happens. And

32:09

that's that's kind of my personality, I

32:11

understand, and kind of, you know,

32:13

I like that kind of, you know,

32:15

make everything a mini venture kind of thing.

32:18

So so I was I was all in and I would

32:20

totally do it again. As a matter of fact, I'm thinking

32:22

of doing it again. But

32:24

this time,

32:25

maybe

32:26

planted out on the outskirts

32:28

of town a little bit, so in a little

32:30

more open area.

32:31

the

32:32

still do the same roles, but,

32:35

you know,

32:36

to see where, like, because

32:38

in town, I I did have a lot

32:40

of distraction interaction with, like I said, having

32:42

to pay attention to traffic and who's, you know,

32:45

who I'm interacting with or if I'm

32:47

interacting and all that. you know, out

32:49

there, there won't be that. And

32:51

so I'm curious is if that

32:53

does from up, you know,

32:55

some different you know,

32:56

different mindset or different thought

32:59

patterns or or anything. So but I

33:01

wanna do that again. I'll probably wait

33:03

till spring just so the days are a little

33:05

bit longer. It did

33:06

get by Southern California

33:09

standards, a little chilly. Those lasted

33:12

last hour and a half, but But

33:16

I would

33:17

just encourage anybody

33:19

who thinks, you know and and if

33:21

you can't do all twelve hours because,

33:23

you know, maybe you're not

33:25

you know, I mean, I'm not

33:27

particularly I'm not

33:29

as fit as you are, you know.

33:31

I mean, I'm somewhat active, but

33:34

I'm not Well, look, it is doable.

33:36

That that's what you know. Because I

33:38

was saying I was hemming and hawing when I went

33:40

on the out of Corolla shop that did mine,

33:42

and I said, look. unfit. I'm

33:45

always fit enough to climb

33:47

Whitney on any given day, which is fourteen

33:50

hours long trip.

33:51

And that's going up

33:53

really high, and that's also at

33:56

altitudes. You go up to almost

33:58

fifteen thousand feet.

33:59

So I said, look, I'm very fit. I was

34:02

able to say, okay, tomorrow, I'm gonna do this. And

34:04

Adam said, you know what?

34:06

You don't have to walk the whole time.

34:09

you know, if you just walk out your door and just

34:11

say you're gonna do it, if you wanna

34:13

stop twenty minutes every hour and sit,

34:15

that's fine. You do you make up any

34:17

rules you want. just be gone for

34:19

twelve hours. And I think most average people can

34:21

can pull that off.

34:24

You know?

34:25

maybe they won't do twenty five miles like you.

34:27

Maybe they'll do fifteen miles.

34:30

Seventeen miles. Seventeen. But

34:32

I think

34:34

it's doable. you

34:34

know, for anyone who's in any kind

34:36

of average shape. Mhmm. But,

34:39

yeah,

34:39

look, my list of

34:41

things. I'm still working off that list

34:43

of things I wrote down and --

34:46

Mhmm. -- I I actually thought about one of

34:48

them today because one of them was you used

34:50

to be a voracious rock climber back in

34:52

the nineties until my arm got really bad.

34:54

And I said, you know what? There's

34:56

a rock climbing gym in town. I've

34:59

passed it several times. I've never walked in. Every

35:01

time I would pass it, I would come home

35:03

because when I I sold all of my

35:05

rock climbing gear, I

35:07

sold most of the shoes too, you

35:10

know, because you

35:10

have different shoes, smear shoes, crack shoes,

35:12

you know, just different shoes for different

35:15

kind of climbs. And I saw but I

35:17

I knew I kept one pair

35:19

of

35:19

shoes somewhere

35:20

and I kept a

35:24

chalk bag because who would buy

35:26

that. And I've been

35:28

looking for those shoes in a chalk bag

35:31

since I moved

35:32

here, since I've learned of that gym.

35:34

Right? And I

35:35

thought about that, and I said, you

35:37

know, screw it.

35:38

school you can

35:39

afford, you know, an average pair of rock

35:42

climbing shoes. You can afford a ten dollar

35:44

chalk bag and some chalk. So I

35:46

did. III just I went to the

35:48

gym the next day,

35:50

asked a guy, is there a membership? How

35:52

does it work? Is now you pay a few bucks you

35:54

come in and is good for that whole day.

35:57

You come in. I know there's this an espresso shop right

35:59

next door. I said, what if I'll leave and have

36:01

a coffee? Oh, you know, it's good all day. Just

36:03

come back. You you pay

36:06

per day. And

36:06

I went, okay. And then I went down to

36:08

the Dick's Sporting Goods, and they

36:10

have a a mountain climbing section.

36:14

they actually have the couple of brands of shoes

36:16

that I don't know fit me. They had

36:18

a pair there that fit me just fine.

36:21

and I bought those. Now here's the

36:23

problem. I haven't gone there yet. I

36:25

have the shoes and I know

36:27

where to go. but I will tell you this.

36:29

We're recording this on a

36:32

Wednesday at

36:34

seven thirty. I

36:36

promise within the next seven days, I

36:38

will make a visit to that rock climbing gym

36:40

and and start yanking on some plastic

36:43

as we call it. because, you know,

36:45

it's not good enough just to go to the gym and

36:47

check it out and buy the shoes. You

36:49

have to actually go and

36:51

put some chalk on your hands and start moving.

36:54

So I'm gonna do that.

36:56

There's a couple of things, you know, I'm very

36:58

bad about getting myself checked out medically other than my cancer

37:00

stuff. I'm I'm going for

37:02

colonoscopy. I'm doing a few other things like that that

37:04

I wrote

37:06

down. I've made an appointment for a couple

37:08

of little nodules looked at, and

37:10

on and on and on.

37:12

and on and on and on Right?

37:14

Just to, you know,

37:16

to self care. Because I spend so

37:18

much time, as you know, because you work as

37:20

a small part of my organization now,

37:24

as you know,

37:27

I never stop. Right? There's

37:29

always either a video or a

37:31

podcast or let's do hats now.

37:33

got something else I'm looking at. I'll tell you about all

37:35

of the year. And --

37:38

Okay. -- you know, I'm

37:40

I I'm I'm I'm not talking about it much yet, but I started working

37:42

on my next documentary.

37:44

Right? And that's

37:46

out there.

37:47

That that that's, you know, lefting

37:50

in the wind, and and I'm working on that. You know, I've I've been writing

37:53

it. And I know exactly what

37:55

I wanna do. And, you know,

37:58

know people always say to

38:00

me, you pop these documentaries out. So if

38:02

I was, like, no. Because I'm

38:05

willing to do work

38:06

just like I'll just walk outside and walk for twelve hours. work like

38:08

that. You know, I'll just keep going and

38:10

going and going and

38:11

going. I I don't I

38:13

I unfortunately don't have an off to it.

38:16

So now I'm

38:17

doing that. Right?

38:20

takes a lot of all takes Mhmm. And as you

38:23

know, it's a labor of

38:24

love. I I

38:27

always hoping I

38:28

get my money back in my documentary. So

38:30

far, I've been knocked on wood. I've been very lucky,

38:32

and the money comes back.

38:35

and I make enough to go make another documentary.

38:37

But, you you know

38:39

know, it it it all

38:42

takes something. Right?

38:43

Mhmm. So I'm just I'm I'm

38:45

glad to see people like you.

38:47

You know, you work with me now.

38:49

And at one time,

38:52

you know, you you started off as a phone caller. You

38:54

did a consult -- Mhmm. -- years

38:57

ago. Right? I mean, that

38:58

that was our first interaction. And

39:02

I I never forget. I I think I told you. You told me where you lived and

39:04

I said, oh, you have Mount Wilson right

39:07

outside your door. You can go walk up and

39:09

down Mount Wilson. Have you done that

39:12

yet? Wilson? No.

39:13

Okay. I'm the

39:16

nearby mountain, but not specifically

39:18

Wilson mountain. Okay. I want you to see here's

39:20

a deal. want

39:22

you

39:22

assignment. You have an assignment.

39:24

I have an assignment. And

39:26

it's nice and cool now, so there's

39:29

way less rattlesnakes. So I

39:31

want you to go

39:33

within the next

39:36

ten days

39:37

So you have

39:38

two Saturdays or Sundays.

39:40

You you have two weeks

39:42

where

39:42

you where you can make this happen.

39:45

I want you to at least go to

39:47

the donkey camp

39:49

on

39:50

rosen on Wilson.

39:52

By the way, there's two ways

39:54

to get up, Wilson. I'll tell you off the

39:56

air. Which way you need to go to hit the donkey

39:58

cam? Because if you go the

40:00

other way, if you don't get there at five thirty in

40:02

the morning, you're not gonna find parking, and there's

40:04

two ways to get to the to

40:06

the summit. because when you get and you're

40:09

not going to the summit, you're just going to the donkey camp. If you wanna go

40:11

past that, that's fine. Donkey camp

40:13

is about

40:14

halfway up. about

40:16

three and a half, four miles in. And and then if

40:18

you do that, then we can start talking about

40:20

you hitting the summit. I can't tell you the

40:22

number of times I left my house. Southern

40:26

California day and was walking in snow

40:28

by the time I got to the top of

40:30

-- Oh. -- not Wilson.

40:32

all not wilson

40:34

February, you know

40:34

when it's raining at the bottom. Pasadena is raining

40:37

in sixty degrees at the bottom. And

40:39

they'll say, hey, let's know it up to down

40:41

to twenty eight hundred feet. than

40:44

twenty eight hundred feet. You're walking in snow.

40:46

Matter of fact, that that

40:48

people die up there every year. Guy,

40:52

a lot of ultra runners, trail runners will go running up

40:54

there, and they don't have low cat tracks

40:56

or whatever. They're traveling light because

40:59

they'll get up. They'll get to the snow, and then I

41:01

have little cat tracks. They'll slip right

41:03

off because

41:04

they're they're being dangerous. But And

41:06

you want

41:07

me to go up there? So

41:09

Yeah. Number one, there

41:11

won't be snow there. It's

41:13

right now. me. Yeah.

41:15

No more. It won't be snowing. There's never snow at the donkey

41:18

camp. Actually, one time, there

41:20

was snow that far

41:22

down that I

41:22

remember. Well, the trail a

41:25

trail up by my house, the the Echo

41:27

Mountain one. During the

41:30

summer, the reason I don't hike

41:32

even though it's right there. I don't hike by myself. I have to have

41:34

somebody with me for that because of

41:37

safety issues. Because

41:39

the Sheriff's Department is

41:42

just a mile away and they're

41:44

every weekend, they're up there at restaurants. But

41:46

they like, you you see them go, you

41:48

know -- Yeah. -- and get somebody unstacked

41:51

from some point. And and, yeah,

41:53

it's a you know, that that's a

41:55

little bit of a deterrent

41:56

for

41:58

me. Take take your husband. Go with me. Yeah.

41:59

husband hikes. Right?

42:02

Not as much as

42:03

that too, but Yeah.

42:06

Sometimes he does, but not all. You could find a

42:08

friend. You you got a girlfriend or something. Right?

42:10

That that girlfriend? Yeah.

42:12

Yeah. Alright. I I need I

42:14

need that assignment. You need to take a picture

42:16

from donkey camp.

42:18

Picture. You need a

42:19

picture from donkey camp. Okay.

42:21

Okay. Challenge, challenge accepted.

42:24

Right.

42:24

There there we go.

42:27

Folks, couple of things. They they want me to tell you it's

42:29

not a PDF anymore. It's an ebook. That's what

42:32

Debbie wants me to tell you guys is that the

42:34

NSNG ebook, you could get that if

42:36

any taughterer's dot

42:38

com. Also, Liana,

42:40

how much longer are you guys gonna keep it

42:42

open for the hats? It's

42:45

gonna

42:46

close pretty soon. I think

42:48

maybe seven's in the next couple weeks.

42:50

Alright. So, folks, if you want either

42:52

an orange hat and this and G had are

42:54

the gun metal gray. Go get

42:56

it right now, and

43:00

there you have I know it's gonna

43:02

happen. No one's ordering them right now. Right?

43:04

But as soon as they can soon

43:06

as everyone has it in their

43:08

hands, Oh, I

43:08

wanted one. I didn't know you were doing this. I wanted

43:10

one. Go get it. Go get

43:12

the hat now, so because It's

43:15

coming up on Christmas. I got too much to do. I'm

43:17

not gonna open up sales in those damn things

43:19

again. So if you

43:21

don't get one, they're gone.

43:23

they are

43:24

are gone gone.

43:26

We're always shopping on Amazon. Before

43:28

you go to Amazon, go to Vinny Toders

43:30

dot com, click through the banner. puts

43:32

a little coal on fire gets my train down the track. So I

43:34

will keep the show free. Alright,

43:38

folks.

43:38

folks

43:39

On behalf,