Knicks Win, Summer plans

This week the podcast discusses the NBA finals and incoming summer plans! Hydrate. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Good morning. It's 8 30. Sunday actually, June 14th, and uh this is the Only Dads podcast. We want to thank you for tuning in. We've got a few topics for you guys today. Obviously, it being the finals week. We're gonna go over that. It's not the finals, you think. Uh we're also gonna hit on uh summer summer time activities and programs for the kids and just kind of catch up on where we're at. Just Ricky and I. So Ricky, I know you know it being summertime. Tommy, what are his plans? Uh I don't I know he doesn't have summer school. Uh so just kind of give me an update on Tommy and I'll give an update on the kids.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Yeah, man. So summer, uh, first of all, apologies for being so, you know, we've it's taken us a while to upload this episode. Um, but that's summer, you know what I mean? Like, that's part of why we wanted to do this is to describe how that transition from like, you know, you get your routine, it's the fucking same thing. You go to work, you go to school, work, school, kids, it's all the same, but then all of a sudden summer happens, and it's like fuck, I you gotta recalibrate. And so Sam's doing a summer camp uh at the local uh college here. The college here it's a great thing that they do because I think they do it for the community, but it is a little expensive. It ends up being uh for one child about three thousand dollars for the whole summer, so and that's 10 weeks. Yeah, so that's pretty fucking expensive. Um, but the good thing about it is they have before care and aftercare, and so that amount covers that amount, it covers the before and after care. It tax on an additional, I think, like $100 a week. So without that, it'd have been a little bit cheaper. But obviously, with Kaylee being working full-time and me going to work now over the summer, we it wasn't an option for us, right? We need something, you know. We don't have family here that can help us. Um we need an option that that covers that. And it's cool because they give you uh so many different options. Tom did it last year, he fucking loved it. Uh, and he met lots of friends and they do a good mix, they do inside stuff activities like uh he learned how to crochet last year. Uh they do like fun engineering where they like give him a bunch of like little material and they ask him to build like a little uh basically like playground. Um and then uh he did two weeks of soccer and he learned a lot. Like he was coming home and he was like practicing his moves. And so like now that tells me that he's interested, like more so than just like having fun in soccer, you know. Uh though and then again, the only bad thing is that it is a little bit expensive. Um, but it gets the kids outside. So that's that's the base, that's what we're doing day to day. That's Monday through Friday. How about y'all?

SPEAKER_00 2:35

So um, you know, Mariah and I we usually sign the kids up for Boys and Girls Club. And this year, I had thought I missed the deadline because everything was set up in her name and her account, and for some reason she wasn't able to uh you know access it and get it signed up. So I had to go to the club and I said, Hey, how do I do this? I can't get access. Let me know if I get access. What do I need to do? Basically, Greaser Will, so to speak. And the lady said, I'll I'll sign them up for you. Just be ready for my phone call to pay. And I'm like, Absolutely, that's no problem. And then summer is about to be here, and I was like, uh, asked Mariah, hey, do the kids are in the summer program? She's like, no. And I was like, Well, okay, well, now I gotta make other arrangements. But then I got a phone call like a week later saying, Hey, uh, can we get this paid for? I'm like, absolutely. So it worked out. They're in the boys and girls club, and here, how much you pay for your program? It's I'm so happy. I I paid like maybe uh $300, maybe, and that's for the both of the kids, and that's I can drop them off early and the whole summer? The whole summer.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

What the fuck? Yes, yeah, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

That's great. And uh I can drop them off at eight and pick them up as late as five. And that really works for me and Mariah and her schedule. So child care is important, and I'm glad you guys find a program. Yes, it's expensive, but you guys have a program, so you ain't gotta worry about that. And I'm happy about the Business Girls Club program because they do different things, like you know, your situation does. I think they went to the park the other day learning all kinds of stuff. But one extra thing I did for the summer for the kids is because they don't know how to swim yet, and I was like, I need them to know how to swim. And I signed them up at the aquatic center here for the program, and it starts Monday and it's two weeks, and then I have uh uh a girlfriend picking them up and taking them there because it's only like an hour, and then dropping back off at the boys and girls club. And because I I have I have work at that time, but that's gonna teach them how to swim. I think that's important. Uh and then if they do great, perfect, then I'm thinking the next thing I want them to do. I think I really want to get them in some Spanish classes to they've been asking me about it. I'm like, you know what, that's a good idea. And I'm just curious what you would think because you know it's one thing to know Spanish and learn Spanish completely other, to learn it, write it, speak it. It's just it's a lot harder. And what would your what would your what would you do? Because there's programs that you can do online versus in in-person classes, is kind of curious what you what your thoughts on, what you would do.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Well, you know, I'm not an expert on teaching Spanish, right? And so like that's the hard part for me is I can speak it and it's so useful. And I I want to have Tom learn it, but again, I don't know how to teach it, right? I don't that's not how I learned. I didn't learn in any formal way, right? It was just my parents that's all we spoke at the house, and all my siblings, and they'll do they'll be the fucking first ones to tell you that I am the worst Spanish speaker in the family. Um, and they make fun of my Spanish constantly. Uh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

It's a little trauma for me, actually.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Yeah, actually, I don't like talk to it. But it's funny because you know, with that being said, it's still no one outside of my family is ever like, oh yeah, your Spanish isn't good. It's always everywhere I go, it's like, oh yeah, this guy just speaks Spanish. It's a little bit of an accent. Um, and I think that's the key word is the accent, because the only other person I've heard with an accent like mine is is footsteps, our buddy Noe. Uh he has a similar accent, and so I think it's the second generation accent, right? Where it's like, you know, you know, when you speak to someone and they're speaking English and you're like, okay, this guy has a little bit of an accent, clearly he speaks Spanish, right? Yeah, that's what my Spanish sounds like to them. They're like, Oh, you're speaking Spanish, but I know English is your first language, you know. Because when I was in Spain, same thing. They were making, you know, they weren't making fun of my accent, they were asking it. They're like, hey, where's your Spanish from? So I want to teach Tom, but it you're right, it is very difficult. You know, there are online programs, there's apps, there's you know, tutors and and all these things, and I don't want to take it away from him because it's so important, you know. Um, to speak a second language is good for your brain, too. So I don't know how. And if you crack that nut, let me know because I need to figure it out too.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Absolutely. That's not that's what we'll do. We'll give an update on the podcast. Um, the next topic, guys, is obviously finals. Freaking the Spurs, they collapsed and they lost. And I think a lot of things can be attributed to, but I will just I want to sing on one player, Fox. You know, he gave up the game-winning last game, and he didn't run the ball out, he didn't run the timeout. He just kept it, went for a layup, and then stopped the clock and then gave them a chance to lose the game. Literally, every uh all he had to do is run out the ball. And like you now that Ricky explained a little more on the nuances of that and how they couldn't value it. But basically, this game, last night's game, he was missing. He was shooting, he was missing a lot. And I was like, man, I guess he just he couldn't shake the previous game jitters. I don't know, maybe he was just if it was jitters or something more nefarious, I don't know. But he definitely I wouldn't say he cost us the game, but he definitely contributed as cost in the game. And I was a little disappointed in the way the coaching went because you know you're up by 15, you're at home. That you should be up a little bit higher because not only are you at home, but you have to win this game. It's not like it's a do-or-die situation, it the stakes are even higher. I think Wimby did good. Wimby did Wimby things, he did solid. I have literally no complaints on Wimby. Wimby literally carried the team on his shoulders on some of these games, came through down the bucket. His defensive player of the year award is really apparent in these finals. Him blocking shots from the three-part line and then him hitting one. I'm like, dude, that's insane. No one can do that. Only Wimby can. Uh but I here's the good part that's a very young team. I mean, a very young team. Castle, Wimby, all these players that I think are only get better with time. And I and I'm glad that they're able to have this experience of the finals. Brunson really pissed me off because he just seemed like the way he was playing, he was a professional flopper, and then oh, now you're you know, you're walking in the game, like no problem. That's that's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

Yeah, I know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

Yeah, but I can't get mad at him because you know that's part of the game, you know. Flopping's part of it, everybody does it, and you have to sell it. And I think that's just more me and my feelings because we lost. But he played a hell of a game. Hats off to the freaking Knicks. They came in to San Antonio at home and shut out the series. So uh, Ricky, what are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_01 9:13

Uh, so a couple things. So, yeah, the Aaron Fox, it's tough, man, because you know, and you I say this for every sport. I hate it when people are like, well, it was that last shot that was missed, or that last free throw. It's like, yeah, but there was a thousand things that happened before that that went wrong, right? And that's always been my opinion on lots of sports, particularly football, right? Because it's like, oh, that last interception or whatever. It's like, yeah, but how do we make it anyway? And it's never been more apparent than now in the Spurs, partly because each of the games that the Knicks won, they won four games. Obviously, you got to win four to win the championship. Each one of those, the Knicks overcame a double-digit deficit, okay? Meaning that they came back. And usually the Spurs got ahead in the first part of the game, in the first quarter, you know, first half. And so that was DMO of the game. And that's how I'm gonna remember the series, which is a young team, obviously. But the Spurs got ahead and then they let it dwindle down. Now, the thing is the players are talented, they can get, you know, they can get to the basket and get, like you said, Wimby can block and fucking shoot threes. That's insane. But at some point, strategy becomes getting involved. And it's not strategy of an individual. You know, if you get a ball and you're like, this is what I'm gonna do, that's just a one play. But strategy over the course of the game, that belongs to the coach. That belongs to the coach, and I don't know how many coaches uh NBA has, kind of like you know, NFL, if they have an offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, I don't know. Um, but ultimately that rests with the head coach, in my opinion. Um, and so particularly, I think it was game four. Yeah, game four when they when they lost that like that 29-point lead. That's a fucking coaching decision. Take timeouts, take because you know, and you're if you're thinking to yourself, well, I want to save the timeout for the end, you're not gonna need it at the end if you're up by fucking 15. If you know you're not gonna need it with a minute left if you're up by 15. You will need it if you don't take it now and you let the you let the you know gap narrow. And again, I attribute that to coaching. Um, yeah, De'Aaron Fox fucked up. Uh, it's weird because the reason why it's upsetting to me for De'Aaron Fox is because he is supposed to be the veteran on the team, right? That's what everybody says. You know, Wimby's young as fuck, Dylan Harper's young, though, everybody's young, and that's a good thing. And De'Aaron Fox is supposed to come in and supposed to be that uh calming presence that, all right, guys, relax. I got it, we're here. He wasn't that, it was the opposite. You know, instead of lifting his teammates, he kind of like did what they did, right? Which he looked very young out there. He was taking shots that weren't clear, uh, he was missing layups, right? Especially that last layup. That was a you know, a low IQ game play, as what as my son would say, like low IQ. Um, because there was like it wasn't even 18 seconds, it was lesson. There was like 10 seconds left. All he had to do was dribble to the corner. You dribble to the corner, you could pick up your dribble and just fucking clutch it and hide it and force the Knicks to foul you. Or take a timeout, give it to your player who has a better uh free throw percentage because you were up by one at that point, you know. So that that one play would have made it two and two. With that being said, game three, Wimby also made a bow and head play. It was tied, it was a tied game, and Wimby got the rebound, and he dribbled it a little bit with about, I want to say about 15-16 seconds left. And instead of calling a timeout, instead of passing the ball to someone that was looking at him, he passed the ball ahead of him. And he passed it to an individual who was not looking at him. He and it hit the back of uh Stefan Castle. And then Jalen Brunson on the other team got the ball, and then uh I want to say they either fouled him or they you know he took the possession and they scored after that. So again, that's two plays, two fucking plays where the whole dynamic of the fucking series would have changed. Uh, and again, if you're the coach, why the fuck didn't you take a timeout as soon as Wimby? You know he's so tall, and Wimby is great, but when you're so tall and you're dribbling, that's a lot of distance up and down that players can steal the ball from, you know. But when you're shorter, you can dribble it really close to the ground, and it's hard for select players to steal the ball. Um, so anyway, all that being said, I blame the coach more than I blame the players, particularly because the players are so young and talented. Uh, they're still trying to mesh together, you know. Dylan Harper is a really great, he's a rookie, and he he scored 25 points in this game. And I think the reason why he was scoring so much and trying so hard is because he wanted to prove that he deserves a start. He was hungry. De'Aaron Fox was not. De'Aaron Fox was just kind of like, well, I got my money. I, you know, I'm gonna do whatever I need to do to you know, just to be out here. But I'm excited to see what changes are made in the offseason. Um, obviously, I'm always a Mavericks fan. I want the Mavericks to win, but I don't think they're gonna have anything coming up any anytime soon. Uh Cooper Flag got rookie of the year last year, so we'll see how good he is. Um, but overall, I think the Spurs are in a great position, but they're in the West. It's it's a hard, you know, they got so many good teams over there. So we'll see, we'll see how it comes out.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

No, I want to put Carter Bryan in over Fox, you know, just forgive Fox. You know, yeah. A player, it would be Fox, but I'll pick a coach, it'd be the head coach. I mean, I think he honestly last night I was thinking, man, we just I wonder what it'd be with G pop in here, you know.

SPEAKER_01 14:15

Oh man, it'd be so different.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

Yeah, it's so different. And but I will say, I did see the writing on the wall, and it specifically came from after I said, dude, they're up at 29. And you were like, calm down, Raphael, they can very much lose the lead, and you were like thinking about it objectively, not and that stuck with me because they're up by 15. I was like, That's that's it. So I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna put the rest of my money in my account on the freaking Knicks to win. Because if I the Spurs lose, I still win. And if and if I lose my money, I the Spurs win. So it was a win-win situation. I agreed to Wills. I wanted a little bit of money, and I was happy about that, but I was still just devastated that the Spurs lost. I was just curious to see kind of how the how everything was going in the aftermath parties. In New York is crazy wild. I'm looking at videos, looking at things, they're just excited, they're they're celebrating their win, and I'm hey, I'm happy for them. I mean, it's good for them. I'm not really mad at them. But uh, things that we've been doing this summer, me personally, I just got back from convention. Uh, you know, because every year we go to I go to state convention, and if I'm lucky enough, I get elected to be a national delegate, and I go to national delegate convention. And this year, state convention was in Wichita Falls, it was pretty exciting, learned a lot of new stuff. Uh, we had a district manager from post office, always somebody from the post office there at the first day convention and asking questions and letting us take actually taking questions from the audience. And so one of the questions I asked, because they're like, Oh, we're losing money, yada yada yada. And I was like, you know what? Is what are you doing on training your supervisors and managers uh to the of the contract? Because literally every year the post office loses a billion dollars just in grievance settlements, and grievance settlements are from you know, you management breaking the contract and then the carrier filing the grievance, and then them winning the grievance, going through the procedure of the grievance vision, and then them winning and getting some type of penalty, some type of monetary settlement because they're because management's in violation. That's billion with a B. That's insane. That's like a line item. You can't just look over, it's glaring. And so that was my question to him. It's like, you know, you're talking about how we can save money. Well, what are you doing about training them on the contract? Because that's literally you can save a billion dollars a year if you did that. And then he said, you know, when there's a and he he he responded back to me, he said that there's a settlement, there's you know, correction things. And I'm like, no, there's not.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

No, there's not. There may be there may be supposed to be or something like that, but on the ground, you know better than anybody.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

But don't but in practice, there's that's not the case because it doesn't get that high if when it if that's the case. So I was able to ask that question, so I was happy about that. And I was able to find out that I got elected delegate for national, and I will be uh representing the state of Texas on a national level. But here's the here's here's the best part. It's in Texas.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

Yeah, how how many, how many national, how many national delegates are there?

SPEAKER_00 17:03

There's about a hundred.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

Holy shit. Okay, so you only get a hundred for Texas or a hundred for the entire nation.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

A hundred delegates from the state of Texas total.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

That's insane.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

And Texas has the biggest delegation in the in the continental United States.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

Well, congratulations. That sounds like a big fucking deal.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

Well, it is a big deal. Hell yeah. And I went to so we and it's in grapevine this year, so it's in Texas this year. I'm like, heck yeah, so this is a this is even better. So now I'm gonna save some money by going. And then in the convention, uh, a delegate put forward a resolution or constitution change to raise the delegate pay from $2,100 to $2,700. At first, they tried to do $3,200, that failed, but under new business, it got brought up again, and it we all settled on $2,700. So it was a nice little pay raise because cost of it living has gone up, and it's been like it's been it's been $2,100 for X amount of years for as far as I can remember. So this is exciting. I'm looking forward to it. Uh, Ricky, kind of what are your summer plans and what have you been doing?

SPEAKER_01 18:04

Well, I want to hit on that uh the contract thing, because that's a good point. You know, you got middle management or management, whatever you want to call them, uh, at the post office. They're the ones on the ground that are going to be the ones that have the legal liability or yeah, the liability, meaning that they're the ones that are, you know, these ex higher than that, they the people that are hired in uh your local post office, that I would imagine that they can't agree with you, they can't violate your employment rights. It's the people that are immediately above you that can violate your employment rights, and so you know, yeah, that's a good point. Like you they need to have either training or you know, an additional task. I I don't know how you would do it, but you know, the if it was, for example, a hospital, uh, they have a thing called uh uh early apology and settlement. And it's it happens so much where it's um basically they will admit no fault, but they'll give you a payout right away if you agree not to sue them in the future. And it's actually saving them money because instead of going through the long, arduous process of litigation and then potentially losing, they're just saying, you know what, we're not gonna admit fault, but we're gonna go ahead and give you this money, agree not to sue us, and then and leave. And they're doing it more often than they would have. So, like basically every time there's like an issue, they just do it. They're like, fuck it, that's what that's our standard now. And so I wonder if there's something like that that the um you know that they can do because you know it's bullshit. It's like, oh, well, they're supposed to follow up. No, no, you know, and that's just like a corporate type answer. So anyway, that's bullshit. But um, hopefully they can figure that out because yeah, that's costing a lot of money. Uh, so I'm with the public defenders this summer for the first five weeks of my summer, and then I'm going to a new law firm after that. Um, they do corporate law. I'm really excited about them. Uh a little scared because they seem to be a little bit more uh well, you know, it's prop, it's profit, right? Like the public defenders aren't really about money making money or you know, it's a public service. So no one's really like, look, we gotta worry about our bottom line. No, it's always about like the cases, right? It's always like, hey, are you closing your cases out? Are you taking cases to trial? You know, are you working, you know, with the prosecutor, whatever? And it's very much, and I talked to my sister about it the other day. The longer I'm there, it does feel like a movie. It does feel like if you've ever seen the show Lincoln Lawyer, where you're working with the prosecutor, there's little tricks they all played in each other. It's all in good, you know, sportsmanship and stuff like that. But uh, you're always worried about, you know, your and your clients lying to you. Like, what that's one of the things on on Lincoln Lawyer that I was watching recently that just pissed me off. Like, every one of his clients doesn't want to tell him everything. And I'm just like, just fucking tell him everything, and he'll be able to fix it. That's what it's like. Your client doesn't want to take anything. So the client will look at me in the fucking face and say, Yeah, I don't have any other, never been arrested any other time other than this. I'm like, fantastic. And I'll get up there and I'll be like, Your Honor, this person is a straight A and B student, never been arrested, this and that. And then the prosecutor was sending him as like, uh, Your Honor, uh, he has two felonies on his record, and then their fucking probation officer will say, He's currently on probation, and the grades I got from the school are all F's and he's suspended. And I'm just looking at him like, and then the kid's like, Yeah, I'm like, what the fuck? You know what I mean? Like, what are you doing here? You're fucking me up, you know. And uh, anyway, so that's fun. But uh the corporate people or the other law firm, they're more worried about making money, right? Uh, and it's weird because they are very there's a thing called uh billing, where in an eight-hour day, you know, not all eight hours of that will be spent working on the client's uh case. And so when you work on a client's case, you have to basically start a timer, work on that case, and when you're done, you stop the timer and then you switch gears to a different case. And there's lots of rules surrounding it, you're not allowed to bill for certain things. Um, there's certain thresholds that you have to build. There's, I think it's I believe it's you can bill for anything less than six minutes. So, like if you answer a phone call and it's a two minute. A phone call, you better make sure that fucking phone call lasts longer than six minutes so that you can build a client for it.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

Um, even tell me about your daughter since she had a recital lessons.

SPEAKER_01 22:09

Yeah, exactly. Like, oh hey, how's your yeah, and yeah, straight up, and you know, that's why people say, like, hey man, don't bother me unless you want me to charge you for it, you know. Um, and so it's very complicated. There's lots of rules, and you can't double bill, right? Like, you can't multitask basically, because if you build because then what you're essentially doing is you're you know, you're building two clients for the same hour, right? And that's illegal. And so there's lots of rules like that that you have to be aware of. Um and so, and then at the same time, though, there's very uh there's industry standards for the most part, right? So, like, think about taking your car to a mechanic and he says, Well, I'm gonna charge you for material and I'm gonna charge you for the hour. You wouldn't expect an experienced mechanic to take eight hours to rotate your tires, right? That's bullshit. And if he charges you for those eight hours, you're gonna lose your fucking mind. You know, you're gonna be like, what the fuck? No, absolutely not. And so there is some of that as well, where it's like, no, we we charge 30 minutes for a tire rotation, and if it takes you an hour, that's your fucking fault, you know. So you better make sure you do that quick. And so there's a little bit of that too, where it's like, hey, if you're gonna write a motion, it's gonna take you and then whatever amount of time, I don't know what that time is yet. So there's a lot of that I gotta learn. Um, and that's what I'm worried about. The work itself, I'm sure I can figure it out eventually. I'll get better at it as time goes by. But the billing thing, because you know, if I'm there, you know, from nine to five and I only bill three hours, I'm fucking myself. You know, I'm basically yeah, I'm I'm not doing good.

SPEAKER_00 23:34

Um, and then there's like a is your pay based on your billable hours that you gonna do during your five weeks that you're there, or is it already set in stone?

SPEAKER_01 23:42

Yeah, so you get salary. Um, and those billable hours, what that comes down to is if you hit your billable hours, you're basically not uh being looked at for like disciplinary concerns, and you get a bonus, and it's made off annual, it's not a month or a week, it's an annual thing, which is even worse because you got to be really on track, you know what I mean? Exactly, and the reason is because you know the work comes and goes. So like it may be that the work's really heavy this month, and it may be that it's really light next month, right? So like it's an average, and so uh the big law firms in the cities like you know, New York, Philly, Atlanta, Houston, LA, Chicago, they're gonna be having a billable annual requirement of about 22, 2,300 hours a year. But they're gonna pay you $250,000 a year. Uh, here they're gonna pay me a lot less, they're gonna pay about $100,000. Uh, and so I'm really excited to see what the billing requirement is. Because if they're gonna ask me to build 2,000 hours a year, I'm like, hey, those are big city prices. You know what I mean? This is Columbus, guys. So if that's what you're gonna ask, you better listen. Let's manage expectations rather than that's what I really and that's what I I'm trying to figure that out during this internship because I need to know, and I was trying to sneak it by a fucking associate I met the other day at a fucking baseball game. We were having like a fucking uh meet and greet kind of thing, and I wanted to ask her, and I kind of did. I was like, hey, so like what are what are the bullying requirements? Like and she knew what the fuck I was doing, and she gave a very canned answer. She's like, Well, you know, the requirements are different per person, but at the end of the day, everybody has a billing requirement. And I was like, just what is you know, you know, just fucking tell me. And so um, I made friends with some of the new interns. There's one intern that was there last year, and she's gonna start working there this year after she passes the bar. And so, what I'm hoping is I get her contact and I tell her, I ask her right when she gets there because you know, I just went like, Hey, what the fuck is the billing requirement? Just tell me, you know, and again, I think my threshold is 2,000. If it's anything, if it's 2,000 and up, I'm seriously considering not working there at all for e even for the amount of money because it's just not worth it for me. Um, but if it's something along the lines of like 17, 1800 hours, my good dad's more really reasonable. I can do that, um, especially for the amount of money. Uh anything in between. Now I'm you know playing because fuck, I think I messaged you the public defenders. Man, I was off Friday. I didn't even have to go to work on Friday. I shouldn't have. I went in there, loaded up my computer, I watched some oral arguments, like just basically doing like homework, you know. I shouldn't have done that. I should have just fucking stayed home. It's a three-day weekend every fucking week. That's insane.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

That's good. I when you told me that, I was like, that's fucking nice.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

Yeah, but that is the current position that I'm in. They may not like that if they if you know what I mean. Like I was saying, like it may just be a trick to get me in the door and then to give me a harder assignment when I get there. Who knows?

SPEAKER_00 26:40

I would say it's not a trick just because this the the senior people are not there, you know. That's also true. Yeah, if we're not there, then then shit. It's probably the true, it's probably the truth because I don't watch this funny video. This guy in a league did an internship at an office, and then when he got the job, it was like, Oh, yeah, you're gonna be here every day, all day till night time. And they're like, What? I saw you this, and he did a flashback, and it was actually them just playing games on him.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

So yeah, it's just that's a funny video.

SPEAKER_00 27:08

What you're doing, you're actually experiencing you see that they're not there on Fridays. So I think it'll be a real thing that that's gonna look into. But I do I do that. Sounds dude, that sounds great. So you know, the post office is a really good job that you know we can leave whenever we have a hub now in our community. I think it's for the citizens of this town, it's gonna be great, but for us, it sucks because literally the they just removed they moved all the cases in our office because it's like 18 city routes who had a regular got uh those routes got removed, and they didn't get just removed, but they other routes absorbed them.

SPEAKER_01 27:45

Oh, that's so shitty.

SPEAKER_00 27:47

So now that we have like 18 city carries here unassigned regulars, they're regulars, but they're unassigned, they don't have a route because the 18 of them got absorbed into the all the other routes. Um, none of that happened on the on the rural side, which is great, but uh now that we don't have that many packages, dude, I'm getting off like a 10 30, 11 o'clock every day, which is great, which is amazing. I can literally have a second job, yeah, and it'd be no problem. I don't want a second job just because what's really helping me keep afloat is my rental house.

SPEAKER_01 28:17

Oh, yeah, that's a lot of work.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

You know, and so I'm happy that I'm able to do that so I can, you know, come home and take a nap or if I want to or whatever. Something like that. Like I'm blessed, but I'm also you know, you know, what can I do? And one of the things, uh the last topic, guys, is you know, investments. Uh me and Ricky were talking about it. Are you gonna hit the IPO craze SpaceX? You know, so one of the things I did was uh I went to Robinhood Gold, because I have a Robinhood app and I went to the Robin Hood Gold, it costs like five dollars a month. But if you do the annual plan, you save like an additional like 20%, so it's even cheaper. That pays for itself with IRA match. If I were to open an IRA and it's free money, so I think I'm gonna do that just because to have a secondary retirement that's just free money that I can put in with any extra, I don't see why not, and it pays for itself, they're gonna match it in great. But you know, one of the one of the benefits of the Rubber Hood Gold is they have margin investing, they give you X amount of dollars for free, interest free if you meet the threshold requirements. And I wanted to do that because I've been in so many situations where I could have invested in in stocks, but I had debt, so I was like, I never said yes to stocks, I always said yes to debt first, and I'm gonna pay off this debt. This time I said, you know, let me just put a little in for stocks, just because I really do want to get on that SpaceX. But then now that I I missed the window and it's already gone, it's already doing its thing. I still may get into it. I may not. I just I wanted to see how it is this how SpaceX does on the weekend, but also maybe look at other freaking you know, investments, maybe look at other ones, and you know, always talk about always hear talk about the Pelosi trades or now that freaking Donald Trump's doing it, and there's this funny video where James Kramer mentioned it and he got called out. Well, what about Trump? He's doing it, and he's like, just stays quiet. And he did the the two other guys that started laughing at him because you know no one wants to put him bad. But basically, look at stock trades, there's AIs that he can help you out, but all those vehicles cost money, just kind of curious. But for me, I'm gonna look, I'm gonna do a deep dive today and see where it I come out at because I do want to just put a little bit of money and I'm just gonna leave this little bit of money there for the year. I'm not gonna sell it, I'm not gonna get it out, and that's also for tax purposes because I hate having to when I file my taxes, having to put these 1099 in the whatever you call the form, and I'm just gonna sit on it and just let it grow. And then hopefully in a few years it'll be great. But uh that's kind of the stock tips that I have that I'm gonna do differently this year. Ricky, do you have any?

SPEAKER_01 30:48

Uh, I think you're right, man. You know, and I think I'm uh a couple years behind you in terms of finances. You know, we talked about it a little bit. Uh, this is my year where I pay off all my debt, right? So I'm gonna pay off the car by the end of the summer. Hopefully, by August, my car is paid off. Uh, and then with that money, then I'm gonna put that and snowball it into the house. Um, and then I'm not going to be living in Atlanta, which means all the money that the army gives me to find a house in Atlanta, that's coming in my pocket. So I'm really gonna try to, you know, kind of hunker down and just pay off that. And it's really just my house and my car. Um, but I the way I see it is once my car is paid off, then my insurance goes down incredibly, right? Because I don't need that full, you know. Um, and I and for those of y'all that are saying, well, just do it now, I did. And they sent me a letter and they said don't do that. Because I thought I was smart. I just I reduced my fucking insurance coverage to like the bare minimum. And I was like, why haven't I been doing this before? My insurance went from like $300 because I have a fucking speeding ticket, and it's uh you know, whatever. And so it was from $300 to like $50. And I was like, This is amazing. I'm so smart. Two months later, I get a fucking letter from my bank that my car is in, and it's like, hey, don't do that. If you don't change it back and send us proof of the change back, we are gonna charge you car insurance, and you're not gonna like our rates. And I was like, What the fuck? Okay, yeah, that's certainly for sure. Absolutely. So I know I can't change it now because they'll check. Um, but once it's over, yeah. But I'm happy I checked it, you know. You now I know. Um, and now I can pass that down to other people. But yeah, so once the bit once the car is gone, I'm gonna reduce my coverage, and then that's gonna be a lot of money I'm gonna save. I'm talking like, you know, $200 off car insurance is a big deal, and then my car payment's gone. So I'm gonna hopefully roll that into my principal in the house, um, just principal. And then with the money I'm saving by living in Atlanta or by not living in Atlanta and commuting, I'm gonna put that physically into the house. So by that I mean I'm gonna get new floors. That's my first thing. Um, because the floors are fucking just I'm gonna start putting it back into the house, is what I'm saying, remodeling and stuff like that. And so those are my goals. Um, and then once I start working for real, like once I actually get a job, then I need to get a new IRA account because right now all I have is my TSP, but I can't contribute to it because I know I'm no longer a federal employee. Right. So I really got to get something started right away. And I don't think I'm gonna switch my TSP over. I don't think I'm gonna roll it over because I really like where it's at. I'm just gonna leave it the fuck alone. I'm gonna forget about it. But I think what I'm gonna do is open up a new one. Maybe Robinhood, like what you're saying, especially if they do like a cash bonus or something. Uh, we'll see, but that's my goal. But yeah, this year I'm not there yet. I'm just gonna fucking uh pay off what I can. And then the IPO, I would say if you have it, I would say just get in on it no matter what. I mean, yeah, maybe you missed the first day, but like it's only gonna go up. It's a fucking bubble, I think. So who knows when it's gonna pop? But I think if it's gonna pop, it's gonna pop big and everybody will know about it before it starts. So I would say get in as soon as you can.

SPEAKER_00 33:59

Okay, yeah, I'll definitely look into that and we'll guys we'll update you on the podcast periodically as we go. But guys, this is the only dads podcast. We want to thank you for tuning in. If you have any tips, comments, or suggestions, please reach out to us at only dadspodcast at gmail.com. Ricky, you got the last word.

SPEAKER_01 34:14

Um is going on here. I don't know. I would say enjoy your summer, get some fucking sunlight.