Hello everybody, this is Shane R. Monroe, you’re in the passenger seat with me passenger seat radio. It is July 27 2021. And you are on my 13 mile commute home. Just like the old days feels like COVID lockdown never happened, right? I’m on my way home. It’s in the afternoon. And in the office all day. Traffic sucks. Yeah, you know, it’s all pretty much just like it used to be. It’s amazing how fast everything sort of rolls back. And so listen, again, I’ve got, I’ve got a short trip home. Actually, I’m probably about halfway through my 30 mile commute at this point. But I figured, you know, let’s just throw it on. Why not? My son came home last night. As usual, his plane was late. I don’t think I’ve been to the airport once where a plane has actually been on time. And at least in the last couple of years. And so not only was the plane late, so supposed to be in an eight and came in and 820. So it’s like 20 minutes. No big deal, right? Who cares? But then they sat at the gate for like another 20 minutes. 25 minutes. Hey, Travis. Yeah, I’m actually driving if you can believe it. I’m actually driving in traffic totally blows and I don’t know why. I mean, aren’t you supposed to be home locked down or something? Traffic sucks. But anyway, so. So it was another 20 minutes he was sitting at the gate. I don’t even know why they weren’t unloading his plane. But Praise Jesus. That’s right. Jesus wants me, Hey, I’m running to me. kind of go honk at some guy for trying to merge into my lane. Because son of a bitch. So yeah, so it was 20. So it was a 20. Before he landed 840. Before I saw the kid, it was almost nine by the time we got baggage and got back out to the car. Then Then there was getting out of the parking garage, right? So as you leave the parking garage, you got to pay, right? They got to pay for your parking. And the longer that you’re sitting in that line, the more money you can inevitably end up paying. Jay Jay Hey, Soos Hey, Soos, Jason, Yahoo’s Scott, whatever. I don’t know what I don’t know Travis is talking about. But anyway, so I have never seen so there were two exits out of this parking garage. I mean, there were two different lines credit card only. So sometimes people don’t have a card. So they were planning on paying cash when they got out. And so they get stuck in, there’s no attendant or anything to help them out. This is super easy to do. You drive up, you stick your little card in, it tells you what you owe, then you put your credit card in, it processes it, the receipt kicks out and you leave. So you think you’re if you get some bonehead in front of one of the lines that doesn’t know what he’s doing. That’s fine, at least the other lines moving? And then and then and then and then no. So no. In fact, neither Lane was moving. We were four cars deep. And nobody was moving. And so finally, because people have no clue, they weren’t, there was no there was nobody attending those booths. You know, sometimes you leave the airport, and there’s people in the booths to do it for you. And literally that’s all they do is do it for you. There’s not even a difference in process. You drive up to the window, you hold out your you hold out your ticket, they take the ticket and put it in the slot for you. Then they hold out their hand and you give them your credit card and they put the credit card in the slot for you. And then they reach out and grab the receipt and hand it to you. So it’s like what the hell, you know, it’s like What the hell’s going on here? So yeah, and so it wasn’t until we got backed up and somebody it wasn’t a we got backed up and somebody actually came out to the booths to man, the booths that were the the lines actually moved. It was ridiculous. So now you’re talking about what another 1015 minutes. They reconfigured the south end of the airport, which is where you come out of when you come out of terminal three’s parking, right? So it used to be that you would take the airport’s loop all the way around to the north side, and then you would hop on to the 17 from there and that takes that takes me home. Well you don’t do that anymore. They’ve got some sort of a weird bypass. And if you miss it, you’re done. You’re in fucking Tempe at that point in time. So you’re literally another 15 minutes out. There’s no way to turn around. You literally have to go all the way down to like downtown Tempe to turn around and then they send you right back the way that you can there’s no there’s no easy way to recover from that. So I missed it I missed that when my wife I was picking my wife up because it was also late at night this time there’s like no new you know, you know how they put up like traffic change or something like that to show you that there’s a difference in the way that everything’s configured now those know that so as I drove by my turn off I’m going I’m screwed. So now we are another 20 minutes out of the way so by the time all was said and done, boo hoo hoo. You know, we weren’t home until God I don’t know 10 1030 something crazy? Yes, yes. Yes. Thank you for warning me that you’re gonna put on the brake. so helpful. So yeah, I’m not in the hot tub turbo. I’m actually in the car. And my my frickin vents probably blowing on the phone. Let me turn that down a little bit. There. Maybe that will maybe I’ll take some of the probably doesn’t sound as good because I’m on the I’m on. I’m in the car. So anyway, so yeah, it was good to see him but you know, it’s just more trials and tribulations plus had to get up first thing in the morning, go to work. And now another hour early to go to work because I have to drive anywho Yeah, I know. First world problems. You had to drive to work way. Yeah, so that was fun. So anywho so trying to think there was something else I was going to tell you guys about that had something to do with the airport. Oh, yeah. The airport is an endless sum is an endless people watcher. And I was Travis was in my private chat. He and a few of my friends were in a private chat on Discord. And so while I was sitting there bored out of my mind waiting for the plane to get there. You know, I was making social commentary. You know, there’s, there’s signs everywhere saying masks are federally mandated to be worn at all times in the airport. At least a third of the people in the airport weren’t wearing masks. And nobody was fucking with them. No security all over the place. I saw security left, right. Nobody was making anybody put a mask on. It’s like so just take the signs down. If that’s the way it’s gonna be, just take the signs down. Then cops have canine units. They had the the, what you always see in an airport, which is a really skinny guy on a Segway and a really fat guy on a Segway. I saw both Yeah, yeah, I just thought it was just kind of funny. You know, why bother? Why bother with all the signage? Why bother with all the scary shit just just take the signs down because people are behaving anyway. And you’re not doing anything to enforce it. So whatever. Yeah, it’s interesting. People are weird. And you know what I love about the airport, and it’s true every single time. The airport literally has one at least one of everybody. No matter what. Class of person, no matter what style of person. I wish I could recite that from from Ferris Bueller. Everybody adores them, the Bloods the Crips that the the the stoners. The I mean, I can’t remember what she says when she rattles off this whole list of all the people who love Ferris Bueller. And it’s true. The airport literally has one of everybody. If you want to see the awkward Gothic teenager that’s never going to get laid. I saw him he was there. You want to see the three girls who are and you know, are way too young to be the clothes that they’re wearing strutting around like little slots, they’re there. They were there too. If you’re looking for the mismatched couple where the guy is unbelievably better looking than the woman I saw that. Likewise, I also saw the big, fat, ugly dorky guy that was married to a super hot chick and they were both a couple in the airport and I saw that too. You want to see the unruly kid whose parents don’t maintain any semblance of discipline with him. I saw that. I also saw the most well behaved kids ever saw that guy to saw that kid too. So it’s just it fascinates me. I was in the airport while I got there. 10 minutes to eight, figuring I was gonna be maybe even late. And then I was we were we left the airport. We were on the elevator on the way out where I saw the obligatory Asian couple with the camera around his his neck. True story. Yeah, I mean, it was just it’s crazy. It’s like all the stereotypes are at the airport. I saw the people with the balloons I saw the people with the flowers. I saw people who look pissed that some they were picking somebody up and people that were excited to know when they were picking somebody up. Good stuff, and I got that all inside of 30 minutes. If the aliens want to land and get a good cut of American the Americans social order or just social order in general, they need to land on a tarmac at the airport and go hang out a baggage claim. The sport owes the motorheads geek sluts bloods waste Boyd’s GUI B’s dickheads they all adore him. They think he’s a righteous dude. Thank you, Travis. I love having people on the chat that can do producer duties and look up content for me. Awesome. Sport I was I forgot that sport. I was I would have never gotten that one if I if I hadn’t posted That’s awesome. So yeah, yeah, so the airport was always fun. And then I had there was I thought there was some other event I wanted to talk about between then and now but it’s it’s totally eluding me. Sucks. So we got home, we stopped and pick them up food. We got home. He sighs new bedroom, that all went pretty well. Damn, I just I don’t remember what the other what the other event was, my wife isn’t feeling well. So you know it’s a, it’s the Menzies time in the month. Along with that she starts school in a week. So she’s stressed, she’s depressed because she doesn’t really want to go back to school, she doesn’t really want to go back to work. This is every year though. So it’s, it’s interesting. As a teacher, you know, Chat Chat will be listening. And he’ll appreciate this. So as a teacher, my wife has cycles, not just mincy cycles, like every other woman, but she has cycles of the year. So the two or three weeks leading up to school starting. She’s a mess. That’s without the period. And then she has ungodly amounts of stress for the next three to four weeks as school starts. Because they’re overburdening her classroom. They’re putting people in her classroom that were kicked out of her classroom the year before. But for some reason, the school system can’t figure out that this kid was a bad fit last year, but we’re going to go ahead and put him in the same with the same teacher again, sometimes even for the same class that he failed the year before. Because that’s, that’s good. That’s good management right there. I don’t know maybe their system can’t handle that. I don’t know. So there’s always that settling period for the first three to four weeks where she’s got to get rid of some kids. They overburden the shit out of her by kids transferring around and then somewhere around week four or five things have calmed down her class sizes have have stabilized she gets in the groove she remembers why she loves being a teacher again. And then you know we’re all in we’re all in good shape at that point. And I tell you what, those couple of months the weeks before and the weeks after school start not good then of course you know Brian’s going back to school which is like no big deal now it’s crazy it he’s just sort of an independent ops and I forgot about I forgot when when my girls became you know independent operators that you know, you know, you don’t have to do a whole lot you know, they make their own lunch they get themselves off to school they get themselves bathe You know, there’s no hosing down going on at night. Everybody everybody’s on independent operations again, and it’s kind of nice. You don’t have to chase after him they just do their homework they just get their chores done. There’s no there’s no babysitting all the time. So it’s kind of cool. And you know, he’s he doesn’t go to my wife school anymore. So it used to be like my daughter The same thing happened with my younger daughter is they would all she would drive them all out to Willow Canyon for school and then they drive back and forth. And now Brian goes to ironwood so he’s right nearby the house and my wife now has her commute free so no more kids and that’s exactly what happened with Christina too we had the same situation happen there so yeah, it’s it’s we’re we’re getting through the last kid and this poor Travis has no idea what that is because he’s just starting with the next one but it’s we’re finally on the way down now unfortunately that also means that we’re getting older and that sucks I do I am I am not handling aging very well especially like right at this point in time. I’m not I’m not handling my age very well. I’m maybe maybe a little midlife crisis seem a little bit maybe. I get I get I’ve got I’ve got double things going on. I got I’ll share this with you because I think this is important. I’ve got two things going on. One is My time is coming due, right? I mean, I’m running out of time, that standard midlife crisis thing, right? You’re running out of time, I didn’t get everything done that I wanted to do. It’s too late for me to make another change, right? So if I, for some reason decided I wanted to change careers, it would be very difficult right now at this stage in life to do so. So it’s like you’re locked into the Death March at this point. There’s no, you you start thinking about, you know, I guess I think about a big a lot of people who have midlife crisis is don’t, I think, you know, all of the things like, this is going to be the home, you’re going to die in, you’re not going to ever have another home, this is it, you’re probably going to have this car until you’re dead, or you know, something of that nature. So you start thinking about all the changes that aren’t going to be happening or the lack of changes, right. So you start thinking to yourself, this is this is the this is it, this is the last of it. You know, you start thinking about like midlife crisis guys go and have an affair, right, they need to regain some sort of a I don’t know they need they need to retire, regain some sort of a figure of youth or something. I don’t know I’m not that’s, that’s not my, that’s not my thing. But I understand the concept, it’s too late to get another wife, it’s too late to get another partner, you’ve already invested 20x years, 30x years, you’re at the point where it would be a bad ROI, to trade up or to do anything different at this point. So you’re locked in there. So you start looking at this March that you’re doing. And this is it. I find myself losing connection to the younger generations, right when I taught martial arts. Travis knows this. When I taught martial arts, I was around young kids I mean I’m talking kids ranging from eight to 18 above and below right I mean, so that was your sort of, you sort of have a finger a little bit on what’s going on. And in fact, it’s sort of forced you to sort of have a finger on the pulse if you wanted to relate to your students and Chad understands this you have to be part of the the lexicon you have to know who’s popular you have to be able even to make a joke or relate something to these kids while you’re teaching them you have to be able to use a vernacular that they understand you know I feel that I’m going through a midlife crisis listening to you Debbie Downer Listen, I have been open with you guys about almost everything okay a couple things I got to hold back for I’ve been transparent for 20 fucking years every stage I you know you guys need to you know people I think appreciate when when you can you can open up about these things about what you’re facing. I’ve got a lot of younger listeners that are in their 30s 20s even and so I like being able to share oh god I just remember what the topic was and I’m almost home so my washing machine took a shit yesterday on top of everything else the washing machine suddenly just stopped working so when I say stopped working I mean the panel is dead no power no power on no lights no indicators right and so I’m thinking out well maybe the fuse blew so I plugged my drill into the same you know I might it’s in the laundry room I drills right there you’re like what what do you mean bucket drilling? So I plug a drill into the same spot it’s hot so it’s like nope, it’s really the washing machine. Little bit of Google a little bit of research and they say look in the back grill if there’s a green light on your good if there’s no green light then this board is bad and if it’s a blinking green light basically your whole control panels fucked and of course it’s we’re out of the initial manufacturer warranty period which is a year by the way can you believe that shit. But parts and parts I’m still within a 10 year parts warranty period, that control panel for my $885 dryer that control panel $600 that’s like the whole that’s the whole washing machine. So I started getting online I started trying to figure out if I could replace the board Where can I buy the board is Maytag going to honor the warranty blah I went through all this shit. And then I noticed the control panel had a it’s connected to the mainboard with one little cable and I’m like well, it wouldn’t hurt for me to to open up the back of this thing and take a look right maybe the cable wiggle loose or something right? Could be that could happen right? Right. So I take the back panel off which gives Is the access to the rear of the control board, but not the control board itself. And so I’m just kind of looking in there, and there’s nothing loose, there’s nothing wiggling around there, nothing, nothing looks blown. There’s no smell of burning electronics. It just, it’s just dead. It doesn’t work. And so I’m like poking and prodding the wires, trying to make sure everything’s seated and everything. And I’m like, well, there’s nothing much I can do here. I’m actually trying to figure out how I can get the panel off, right? I figure if I’ve got an open, if I do get a new panel, do I have this skills and expertise to get that front panel off and put the new one on? Well, based on the way that this thing is configured? It’s it’s very tightly knit in there, I’m not positive I can make that happen. So I went ahead and put everything back together and plugged it back in, just out of habit. And the fucking thing turns on, like, like nothing happened being born. Moron, let’s wash some clothes. So I don’t know if I don’t know. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know why it suddenly started working. Whether I wiggled something whether I push something whether it was just fucking dumb luck, I don’t know. But my washing machine is working now. And I’m not out 800 bucks, and I’m not having to sit on the phone for four hours of Maytag arguing with them about their 10 year warranty. So yeah, that was what I really was wanting to talk about. I just forgot about it. I should have wrote it down. Alright, listen, I’m almost home. I’m going to be in my range of my Wi Fi soon, so I better I better get off here before it cuts over. Hope you enjoyed the little extra bonus show this week. This is Shane R. Monroe passenger seat radio. We’ll see you next time. Take care, everybody.
Passenger Seat Radio 2021-07-27
