The HoneyDew with Ryan Sickler - Rob Riggle - RiggleDew

Episode Date: November 27, 2023

My HoneyDew this week is actor and comedian, Rob Riggle! (Riggle's Picks) Rob Highlights the Lowlights of the death of his grandparents, and navigating life as a newly single dad. SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE and watch full episodes of The Dew every toozdee! https://youtube.com/@rsickler SUBSCRIBE TO MY PATREON, The HoneyDew with Y’all, where I Highlight the Lowlights with Y’all! You now get audio and video of The HoneyDew a day early, ad-free at no additional cost! It’s only $5/month! Sign up for a year and get a month free! https://www.patreon.com/TheHoneyDew What’s your story?? Submit at [e-mail] CATCH ME ON TOUR https://www.ryansickler.com/tour December 8th & 9th: San Francisco, CA SUBSCRIBE to The HoneyDew Clips Channel http://bit.ly/ryansicklerclips SUBSCRIBE TO THE CRABFEAST PODCAST https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-crabfeast-with-ryan-sickler-and-jay-larson/id1452403187 SPONSORS: Liquid I.V. -Get 20% off ANYTHING you order when you go to https://www.LiquidIV.com and use code HONEYDEW

San Francisco. I'll be back Friday, December 8th and Saturday, December 9th at Cobb's Comedy Club. It's the last stop of the Live and Alive tour for 2023. Get your tickets at ryansickler.com. The Honeydew with Ryan Sickler. Welcome back to the honeydew, y'all. We're over here doing the Night Pants Studios. I am Ryan Sickler, ryansickler.com. And Ryan Sickler on all your social media. I'm going to start this episode like I start every episode. Thank you.

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at RyanSickler.com that's the biz you know what we're doing over here i always say we're highlighting the low lights and that these are the stories behind the storytellers i'm very excited to have this guest on first time here on the do ladies and gentlemen please welcome rob wriggle welcome to the honeymoon thanks for having me thank you for being here rob wriggle it's a pleasure thank you uh before we get into whatever we're going to talk about today please plug promote everything and anything you would like oh well uh i'm uh i'm relaunching uh a podcast uh that we uh sarah tiana great comedian she's been on the honeydew her mom's a big fan yeah good good uh she's amazing and uh we used

to do this podcast called Wriggles Picks. It was kind of based on the Fox comedy bit I used to do before the pregame called Wriggles Picks as well. But we changed the format up. We stopped doing it about three years ago, right when COVID hit. Basically, COVID hit. I was going through – I just started going through a divorce and and sarah was having a baby so it was you know it's just the perfect storm so we're like you know what let's just call it so we did and then uh and now uh three years later uh i'm bringing bringing

it back and so hopefully uh uh people enjoy it i'm doing doing it with Darren Leader, good friend, incredible musician. And we've interjected interviews into it. So we'll be doing some celebrity interviews and interesting people interviews, not just celebrities, but just people that I think have something interesting to say and people need to hear it. So it'll be fun. It'll be a lot of fun. So that's coming out. Riggles Picks, wherever you get podcasts. All right.

Anything else? Social media? No, that's coming out. Wriggles Picks, wherever you get podcasts. All right. Anything else? Social media? No, that's it. I mean, Rob Wriggle. By the way, do you have Rob Wriggle or you have to have a one or some shit? I have Rob Wriggle on most of it. I think I have Rob Wriggle on most of it. Most, right.

There's always one out there. My Facebook one has to be something else because some other Ryan Sickler asshole beat me to it. I think I got to Wriggles Picks. And Wriggles Picks, by the way, will have all of this so there's rigglespics.com there's riggles pics on insta on all this stuff so you can find riggles pics or rob riggle all right anywhere um so i i really know nothing about you growing up i know about you just from comedy and i just watched your roast again the other day. But tell me about yourself. Where are you from originally and where'd you grow up? What was that like for you?

I grew up in the Midwest. I had a great, great childhood. No complaints. What state are you from? Kansas. Oh, wow. Overland Park, Kansas. Is Kansas considered Midwest? It is? Yeah. It's not like the Southwest?

No, not at all. Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona. Kansas. Is Kansas considered Midwest? It is? Yeah. It's not like the Southwest? No. No. Oklahoma. Yeah. New Mexico. Arizona. That's the Southwest. Oklahoma? See, I would go, yeah, I guess that's Southwest.

Yeah. And Texas. They're right above Texas. So you're Kansas. So I'm Kansas. One of the rectangle states. Because Kansas, well, Oklahoma, but they have a panhandle. So it's a weird looking state.

But then Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Canada. So we're in that square block, that rectangle block. Yeah, no, you can't get more center of the country than Kansas. But I grew up in Overland Park, Kansas, which is a suburb of Kansas City. Yeah, so a great childhood, great, great childhood. And why Kansas? Your parents, like your family from there? I think my family, yeah.

My family's from there. Yeah. My parents were both from there. I was born in Louisville, Kentucky because my dad was, he was selling insurance there. And then he got, he finally got the transfer he kept putting in for was to get back to Kansas City because that's where everybody's family was from. My mom and my dad. And how many siblings?

One sister. One sister? Yeah. And mom and dad, what's dad do? They're farmers. Oh, I was going to ask. So you grew up on a farm? I didn't grow up on a farm.

The farm belonged to my grandparents. So I worked on the farm. You did? Yeah, that was my summer job was always working on the farm. But it was a good job because my grandfather, he know he paid well and he paid cash did he pay well you didn't just have to do it yeah no no oh hell yeah okay so you're employed yeah but tell us what you're doing because this is worth money i'm imagining it's not easy it was weird it was how old are you at the time uh this would have been in the 80s so i was you know 12 middle school yeah middle school um all the way through high school and uh so when the combine goes through the bean fields or the

corn fields it's got these forks and it gathers all the stuff in but in the rows if there are a lot of times there's milkweed and shatter cane and all these different types of things that are growing that can clog up the gears. So my job was to go out into these fields and just walk these rows of beans or corn with a machete and cut out the milkweed and the shatter cane out of the rows so they didn't clog up the gears on the combine. I remember milkweed. I'm from Maryland. That shit was thick.

That wasn't an easy little vine to whack. And you had to cut it off at the root. You couldn't just cut it off at the top. You had to bend over and smack that thing down by and rip it out by its roots. And of course, at the time, I was anywhere from 10 to 18, right? You had to back for it. I had a machete. But I turned it into like I'm out there doing samurai warrior shit you know like i'm not focused on the work you know i'm just i'm cutting it three

different ways doing zoro doing you know lord vader um so you know i'm sure my grandpa would be like wait you only did this one acre right this is all you did yeah and so you know i'd go out they'd my gram my grandfather would drop me off with my machete and a thermos and i'd go out and just start working by yourself by myself okay so wait let's talk about this day because now there's no airpods there's no spotify in my finger so are you headphones or are you nothing? Just tying a shirt around your head and going. Going. Me and my thoughts and lonely. The good thing was at that age, I didn't have many heavy thoughts.

I wasn't overly concerned with anything. No, but you're out there Jedi and samurai and everything else. Just being creative in this field of like. And the biggest thing for me was, you know, you'd have, you know, he dropped you off at a 40 acre plot or whatever. That's big as shit.

Did your hand walk at a 40? Yeah. And, and you work your way down one row. And like, to me, like the real satisfaction is when I got to the end of the row and turn around and come back the other row,

you know, I was like, ah, it's like swimming laps. Like I was just kept going. I kept going in the sun and the heat. But when you're young, you just don't know. One, you don't know any better.

Two, it is what it is. And you just do it. And then they would come, either my grandmother or my grandfather would come back out at noon and honk the horn. And so I knew, oh, and that was lunch. That lunch. Yeah. So I'd run over and we'd sit there and I'd eat and I would stall, drag it out.

All of a sudden I'm a conversationalist, you know, because I didn't see anything to prevent me. And eventually it was like, all right, time to go back to work. I was like, oh, for the love of God. So I'd go back and then they'd come back in the evening and honk the horn and I'd go back. What'd he pay? Do you remember?

At the time, it was good. It was cash. Was it a day's pay or was it hourly? Like how'd he pay? Day's pay. Yeah. Day's pay. was it hourly? Like, how did he pay? Day's pay. Yeah. Day's pay. And because, you know, the amount of work.

Some days I'd be motivated and go out there and, you know, make a dent. And some days I'd be fucking around, you know, not getting anything done. And so it all came out in the wash. But then as I got older and stronger, he let me use the tractor. And then I was hauling hay bales. And we didn't have – you know, I would i was all i was hauling hay bales yeah and we didn't have we you know i would help the neighbors sometimes with their they had square bales but we had the big round bales those thousand pound all those circle ones i see yeah bigger

than the goddamn john deere absolutely so you have to use those you have a big fork on the front and a fork on the back and you you know uh so you have to kind of run them through down who the hell are you giving those who's who's taking those uh ranchers is that feed yeah it's feed for it because in the winter there's not you know all that alfalfa milo all that stuff you know you can't get it anywhere so you have to bail it up in the summer and then feed your livestock in the winter all right so that's what it's for so you you we would bail it up in the, then we'd stack it in the barn or out in the field somewhere and then put a tarp over it or whatever. And then in the winter, you know, all

the farmers with livestock are just taking it for feed every day, you know. That's their supply. So was this, when you would do, you say this is your summer job, is it close? Are you commuting or do you go to grandma and grandpa's and stay? It wasn't that close. It was about two hours. It was a two-hour drive. So are you staying for the summer out there?

I would stay for weeks at a time. So I'd like, hey, you need to go down and work on the farm for a couple of weeks. Okay. So two weeks down there and then I'd come back to Kansas City and I get to hang out with my friends. And is this mom or dad side? Mom. Mom.

And mom's an only child. Okay. That's why they're down there running the farm right now. Yeah. So. And while you had to go do it. Yeah. And I still go down and help out.

My dad, yeah, my dad, he's in his, today's his birthday, as a matter of fact. Oh, shit. Well, happy birthday, Mr. Riggle. And he's 83 and he's out there still working the farm. Still getting it done. Mowing pasture and working. I tell you, I really do feel like those people that stayed active, whether it was farming or whatever the fuck it was. They're keeping

their machine in motion they're using their muscles in different ways you know like if you don't work out for a while and then all of a sudden you hang a light bulb you're like god damn my shoulders everything hurts you hurt yourself you pull muscles he's out there bailing shit he's i if i went out there right now and did what your dad did i wouldn't be able to wipe my own ass tomorrow i I promise you that. I promise you I'll be able to move. It's 100% true. And it does just come down to keeping your body moving.

I played sports in school, and so I'm always thinking, well, I've got to go get in some weightlifting and some sprint workout, and I've got to get my cardio up. Give me a break. You get to a certain point in your life you're like what am i i'm not competing in anything that demands this i had my ass yes i had them so now it's all just about like i don't even have to do anything other you look good just stretch out just stretch out that's all i need to do is stretch out but i i also eat too much fucking ice cream now yeah i fucking love it i eat it and i can feel

the inflammation i can feel it my body's just one swollen beast everything hurts when i get i bet it's all because i fucking i put that ice cream down pizza dude i'm i'm that's just that's and we all got it we all got it yeah but me is sugar man it's that goddamn ice cream i can't get enough well you're right you know it dude because right now like if some shit went down and they were like run i'd tear everything my hand everything at 50 i can't just break out into a sprint on the spot so my best friend and i are one of my best friends uh we went to uh the royals baseball fantasy camp in 16 2016 and they tell you hey guys you're not as young as you think you are you know you know don't everybody's gonna try to get out there and get some just go easy all right go easy

we're like yeah no that makes sense that's good advice i appreciate that first time i got a hit i sprinted out of the batter box for first base i pulled both i pulled both my quads oh yeah both my quads i think my hammy. I don't know. Just, just. And then, of course, I'm out in the field. And people are like, yo, Cam, I'm good. I'm good.

I'm so good. I heard three pops, but I'm good. Someone hits it to me. So I instantly go from a standstill to a sprint. I blow out the other. No. I was so, my legs were yellow. You know when that deep bruising is yellow

i was yellow legs on the front and the backs everything i pulled everything within a matter of days my arm i out threw out my arm i had like a tendonitis i'm like i gotta have john tommy john surgery this is all in a matter of two or three days from a fantasy baseball camp royals and And then, then on top of that, they go, okay, well,

we got games today. Cause we played two games a day, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. By the time we were, you know, and George Brett is my manager of my team. And he's in my childhood idol and all this stuff. So I'm like,

I got to perform, you know, I'm rotating around positions. Yeah. You get to play first base, get to do all this stuff. And, and I, I literally was the funniest thing ever.

The entire fucking camp, all these old men, middle-aged guys, were all standing in an ice tub. It's one big ice tub. We're standing up to our tits. And we got beers because we were like, fuck it, we can't do it. That's great. And everybody's got, from here down, pink bodies. Pink bodies.

And they're holding beers and they're just kind of keeping the beer in the cold because it's so fucking cold in there and and that's it everybody was done no one could play we were all injured with pulled muscles and stuff so yeah i hear you when i now nowadays i just need to stretch yeah and i need to cut down on the sugar i guess so um you say your parents now run the farm. Yeah. Dad too. Dad and mom are still together.

Yep. And then your grandparents both gone or they are. Yep. And what was that like for you? Because how old were you when that happened? They were within probably six or seven years of each other passing. So grandmother passed first. She was a wonderful lady. You spent a lot of time i did and she was a historian she was kind of the cooper county

historian and she really enjoyed it and turned me on to history even though i didn't you know at the time you know teenage boy i want to play video games i want to you know i don't know play you know samurai yeah you know i'm not't know, play, you know, samurai. Yeah. You know, I'm not interested in history basically. But she would drag me, you know, hey, we're going to go to do this. We're going to go do that. I mean, da, da, da, da. And she was very into history.

And she lit a fuse in me. Somehow, some way, it got through my armor. And now I'm so grateful to her because my passion for history now comes from her clearly and and i really appreciate uh her giving me that and she was a great laugher she loved good stories she was very willing to laugh at herself chain smoker chain smoker yeah that woman smoked and this is like in the 70s and 80s too. Like, okay, so I remember one spring break, my freshman year of high school. I'm a ninth grader, right? Prepubescent, on the verge, you know.

And it was spring break. And she calls my mom and says, we're going on a road trip, you know, grab Rob. Because back then we didn't, spring break, we didn't have plans, you know. You just had a week off of school next thing i know i'm in grandma's cadillac with my mom you know not the coolest thing in the world but we're driving around kentucky looking at old grave sites because she's trying to get in the daughters of the american revolution or something and you have to prove that you have a family member that was in the revolution where you want to be buried right but this was before the internet,

this is before the internet or anything. So I was the internet. So basically they'd hand me a, a, one of those scratch pads, you know, whatever. And we would pull up and this it's freezing.

It's March, you know, we pull up at a graveyard and she'd go, it should be three rows deep, seven rows over, you know, and it should be a heads up. Look for Ryan.

Oh, so, so, and I, oh Jesus. So they kicked me out of the car and I'd have to go through these Seven rows over, you know, and it should be a headstone. Look for Ryan Ososo. And I go, oh, Jesus. So they kick me out of the car, and I'd have to go through these graveyards finding headstones and etch them, you know, whatever, and come back and go, this one? They go, no, that's not it.

You know, and then, god damn it. So I'm driving all over Kentucky doing this stuff. Yeah, she's just chain smoking. And she barely cracked the window when she did. It looked like Spicoli's van. You know, just smoke rolling out of it and shit. And then when I got back in the car, it was no mercy. It was still just relentless chain-smoking.

And a week in the car with that, you know, by the time I got back, I had bags under my eyes and pails. So what she having you scratch for is that she's saying that was my relative there? Yeah, because then she could say, okay, this man does exist. He is buried in this place. And I'm related to him. Because the genealogy back then was not what they have today. You had to do the work. You had to go to county libraries.

You had to dig up obituaries. You had to go back and connect dots on. I mean, it was work. And she would do it. But I was off on her legs on that stuff. and she would do it but i was off in her legs you know yeah stuff uh so anyway uh she passed um um she was she was 80. so she had a good long life but especially smoking like that but yeah she smoked a lot and um then my grandfather uh he was a world war ii vet um a hard-working guy hardworking guy, nice, funny, loved to play cards,

good natured folk. And he ran the farm after Grammy passed. And then he passed probably five or six years later. He was 90-something. Yeah, so he made it to his 90s. Was it just old age that finally got him yeah yeah i think it was his his heart when did he really slow down though like when did you see he had a he had a heart attack he had a he had a big heart 80s though he was 87 when he had a heart attack but up until then he was still out there getting it done and everything yeah until 87

and just you know still like i'll go i'll work i'll do this i'll do that you know like i got it you're like let me let me let me do something you know but uh yeah you know again i think they came from tougher stock they just did definitely and so i talk about all the time your grandfather's world war ii our fathers are vietnam and we're like i want to be a clown and like what the fuck are you talking about exactly they're just different oh yeah they're just different men so you couldn't tell me i had to go to d-day if i'm i would have killed myself i would have killed myself like never mind i'll just get it done yeah like i i um i served i served in the marines and so i didn't have a problem with the doing certain things but

even now even now like the other day i literally just last week, I walked in, opened my refrigerator and the light wasn't on. I could tell it wasn't working. I was like, oh, I was like, well, it's broken. Time to buy a new refrigerator. Buy a new one. That's my first thought. Not let me check things. Let me troubleshoot this.

And we have Google and youtube to look at they didn't yeah and so i i was like well the light worked on when i came in the kitchen so i don't think it's the fuse box right but the yeah so but i was like well i've got to do something or all this food's going to spoil you know but i was pouting about it i was pouting about it i didn't want to do anything i was like just fucking. I don't have time for this bullshit. You know, I've got other things to do. Whatever that is. Read something on the internet, probably. But I had an epiphany and I was like, oh, well, let me see if maybe it's some just this section.

And sure enough, the coffee maker wasn't working. I was like, oh, okay. So it is. So I went out to the fuse box's just the fuse box i just had to flip the thing that's it everything went back to work but i was willing to buy a new refrigerator is my point you know yeah like yeah had i been given the option in that moment i was like yeah i'll buy it i'll buy it let's just just fucking check it wriggle jesus christ that's that's but that's definitely different man they can build shit like build a deck and i can't build

a deck i can fish i can do that kind of shit but i can't i can fish i can run a trot line we used to crab all the time i can do that i used to be able to on my old cars i would do my oil my brakes my tune-ups all that shit well you could really. You're good. I can't do it now. Yeah. You know, like I go to – my stepson's big into cars and college, working on them and stuff. And I'm like, they told me when I leased this fucking car, it's got 30-some computers on it.

And he's like, yep. And if you fuck anything up, you know, and I'm like, I don't even know how to do that now. I drove – I have a Tesla. Yeah. And I'm baffled half the time. It's a software download problem. And I'm like, well, fucking fix it.

Cause I can't get in and out of my car. I can't open the passenger door. I can't do, you know, and I don't know jack shit about it. And I don't have time. This is not what I signed up to be. I'm not, I didn't sign up to do this. I'm not a computer engineer. I'm not a software engineer.

That's it. So make the car work or fuck off. I'm in a building now where everything's fancy and the fucking appliances are finessed and all this shit the dude came in the other day older mexican dude and we're talking i said you know what fuck this and he was like shit it goes on when it wants to fucking go on i say you know what used to work all the time my old school honeywell thermostat yes i just flicked that little button and i never had a problem with it never thought about it ever ever it didn't just come on and go off when it wanted to this fucking fridge

over here is dinging non-stop tell me about the freezer the dishwasher's not flashing a red light on the floor why is there a light on the floor what's he trying to tell me old shit worked just fine just fine i couldn't agree you know and i do believe that you do believe that for a multitude of reasons, but men are losing a lot of man skills, quote man skills. 100%. The women are losing a lot of women's skills. I mean, it's really hard to find women that have traditional feminine skills. And it's hard to find a man who has traditional masculine skills. Agreed. So I'm not throwing rocks here, but it is hard. You're throwing rocks here but it is rocks at

both sides but yeah but it's hard it's hard to find it these days um i consider myself i have a girlfriend right now who is an uh she's an amazing cook she's amazing cook she takes care she can do stuff she she's not intimidated to repair things and and and she's get a drill yeah she's got skills like i'm like okay all right i feel very you know why she probably had a dad like we did she did she absolutely yeah well and she's from poland and so her you know i think she's just they don't throw away stuff over there as you know back in the day and and her folks grew up in a lot tougher regime uh than most people so yeah she's just tougher so let me ask you this then because i

want to go back to this this working early and in the fields and stuff like that because you're a hell of a hustler you're everywhere do you feel like that um that work ethic was instilled in you from that sort of summer work and really just getting out there and like fucking humping it like that to make a few bucks yeah i think so i think there was yes yes i think there was a an expectation that you would work your first sort of job ever right your middle school yeah i can't imagine doing anything before that yeah mowing lawns back in kansas but but yeah but yes that was there's an expectation and and there was a lot of pride in your work you you know, and a lot of,

uh, you know, my dad, when I mowed lawns, he was like, you got to bag the, you got to bag it up. Right. I was like, but the dad didn't even want to bag, you know, like you got to bag it up. Okay. It needs to look nice. It needs to look good. If you're going to do it, do it right. Or don't do it the first time. Right. And you don't have to go back. You know, it's like that Abraham Lane quote, I I'm a slow walker, but i never walk backwards he goes just do your do your work you know and and you know you get that beat into you enough you and you start doing it and then when you start owning stuff and you start then you're like yeah i care about this you know i remember i was i was lucky my my dad and my mom uh bought me my first car okay what was it uh my first car was my mom's old car it was a 76

chrysler newport okay a big 400 block engine in it seven miles to the gallon it was swear to god because it was 76 it was the first year to have that catalytic converter early powers theater like if you touched it the car like all over there was some clog in the fuel line too so when you push the gas it uh it would die the engine but if you held it you know like so you'd push hard because you were afraid it was gonna die it would roar to life so and then you'd lay rubber every intersection you're like i'm not trying to i swear i just want to it's just gonna die beam clicks on the floor. Is it the, yes, absolutely. Yeah. My favorite.

That's the, I still think the high beam should be there. It's come on. That's a driver's dream. But yeah, so to that, but, but I had a, it was a sunbird, a little Pontiac sunbird. Yeah. And I treated that car like shit. Okay. Because I didn't, it was, it was given to me.

I, I, I'm not obnoxiously treated like shit, but I, you know, it was very, it was very like, whatever, whatever, whatever. You know, I got a door ding. I was like, well, that sucks. Ownership changes everything. It really does. Because as soon as I got my first car and I pay, I'm making the payments on it. And I'm, I mean, I used to, I'm not kidding. I used to take it and wax it every Sunday. I used to, you know, I mean,

I treated that thing like gold. I would, and it, because it mattered. It's that changes how you approach things. So learning the work ethics, learning that stuff early, a lot of the lessons you learn early that you haven't connected the dots on things yet. You just do it because they say to do it and trust them. And you're like, all right, fine, whatever. And you do it.

But then if you're lucky, you get to a place in your life where you're like, you have these epiphanies where you're like, ah, I get it now. I see why it matters. I see why this is important. I see why he cared.

I see why this, I see, you know, you know, if I'm paying someone to do something and they do a good job, I'm like, ah, that's amazing. You did a good job. Thank you for caring. Thank you for investing in, in, in your, your job and working at it and effort. And, and, and if you become a boss, then, you know, you start to appreciate the work of others and you see,

you can separate the wheat from the chaff real fast. You can be like, this guy's not going anywhere. This guy's going to be my boss someday, you know, and it's real clear to see real fast. You can be like, this guy's not going anywhere. This guy's going to be my boss someday. And it's real clear to see, real clear. So anyway, yes, I think working down on that farm early helped get the work ethic in there.

And then the Marines obviously helped too. Yeah, I bet. What made you decide to want to go in the Marines? Always wanted to serve. I just thought, I was very idealistic. You said grandfather was Air Force? Army. Back then it was Army Air Corps. And what thought, uh, I was very idealistic. Uh, grandfather was air force, uh, army back then it was army air corps. And what was your dad? Marine is,

no, no, he, uh, he never, he, um, he never served. Oh, he didn't know he wanted to, he was willing to, let me put it that way. He was willing to, but every, he had the best run of luck you've ever heard of. So when he was first eligible, Kennedy came in and said- Kennedy. I'm sorry. I'm just hearing his name. Kennedy came in and said, if you're in college, your draft is deferred until you're out of college. Okay. So he was in college.

So his draft got deferred until after college. Okay. So he was in college. So his draft got deferred until after college. He got married. And then Johnson came in and said, okay, if you're married and have a job or whatever, your draft is deferred. So he got deferred again. And then there was some other – there was another thing that got him – Is there an age cutoff?

No. Well, yes. I think 35 or something. 35. But anyway, he got these deferments. And by the time, they never called him. They just never called him. So he was in there.

His name was in there. He was ready to go, but never got the call. But he just never got the call. And I'm wrong with that. Yeah, no. You might not be here. Exactly. So I'm very happy.

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or you can get 20% off when you go to liquidiv.com and use code honeydew at checkout. That's 20% off of anything you order when you shop better hydration today using promo code honeydew at liquidiv.com. Now, let's get back to the do. So what made you always want to serve then? Was it your grandfather's influence or? Maybe there was something there. There's a lot of military in my family going way back.

So I always had affinity for that. I was very idealistic. I really believed, and I still do in America. Kennedy's, you know, what can you do for your country don't ask what they can do for you what can you do for them i liked that i believed in that i thought the best way i could serve this country was through military service so that's what i did and and so it wasn't this thing like i'm in kansas there's no other option for me or no no i listen i was in college i I had, you know. You were in college.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Where'd you go? Kansas University. Oh, you're a Jayhawk? I'm a Jayhawk. All right, bro. Yeah. So you were in college and left or did you graduate and then go?

I graduated. Well, I signed up when I was an undergrad. I signed up when I was 19. Okay. Went through the Officer Candidate Program. And when I graduated, I took my commission. And I had my pilot's license at the time. How'd you get a pilot's license?

My grandfather. Because he was in the Army Air Corps. He was like. Did he have like a little Cessna or something at the front? No, he just wanted. He wanted to be a pilot when he was in the Army. But he was. I think he was too short.

So he couldn't get his. They do measurements in the cockpit. His legs were too short or something was too short. His torso or something. So he didn't get to fly when he was in the army air corps he was intelligence officer so he he um or his intelligence sergeant but anyway he was doing other stuff but he always wanted to fly so he was like he's like listen if you want to get your pilot's license i'll pay for it so i was like yeah so i did and then i got a flight contract with the Marines. So you flew for the Marines? I started flying for the Marines.

What were you flying? Just T-34s. What's it? I'm ignorant. It's a training plane. But are we talking about jets? Or is this like a cargo plane? It's a single engine trainer.

Single engine. Single engine trainer. And flew down in Corpus Christi. And like I said, I had my pilot's license while I was an undergrad, so I used to fly Cessnas, Pipers, all kinds of different planes. What, like 19 to 20 years old you're flying that ship? Yeah, yeah. And that didn't scare you?

Did you ever have any close calls? No, I didn't have any close calls. I had scary moments. Like I was on a cross-country one time. You flew at a cross country one time and you flew it across country well but when i call it a cross country in aviation terms is 50 miles or more okay so all right so i was flying from lawrence kansas down to springfield missouri and when you just land in an airport there and then come back yeah okay and then you get cross country time right that's your training right

but i was doing a solo cross country okay and that's usually a three-leg trip so i flew from lawrence kansas to columbia missouri down to springfield missouri and then back to lawrence and are you constant communication this whole time is someone always there no no you're on your own and you're talking to towers and you're talking to airports when you get in reach yeah so if some shit goes down in between and they just, we haven't heard from Robin. You got to deal with it. Okay. So, but I remember, and back then, you know, now they have all these wonderful navigations and. Yeah.

I feel like now a GPS when you're probably an app on your phone. Absolutely. Your phone can get you anywhere you need to go. And the avionics they have now are phenomenal well back then it was old school you know anodated you know you had your six-pack of you know airspeed fuel uh you know horizon all that stuff but it was there you didn't have what you have today so you had a big map literally an old paper map that you would unfold and you had to draw on your lines and get estimated your fuel and done all this and figured out all the comms and all that stuff beforehand. And as I was flying from Springfield to back to Lawrence or vice versa, Columbia down to Springfield, I'm like, because

visual flight rules, VFR. So I'm sitting there looking going, okay, there's that city. Because when you're up at about 5,000 feet, you can say, okay, there's a city, there's a city, there's the highway, there's a gravel pit.'s a city. There's the highway. There's a gravel pit. Okay. I know exactly where I'm at. I'm right where I should be. But I got up there and I was like, that's not that.

There's not. I couldn't find where I was and I was lost and I'm flying. And it's a very scary feeling because you're like, nothing is where it should be. And you're burning fuel and you're just flying somewhere. Yeah, somewhere. Yeah, and you're like, this is not good. You need to get your bearings quickly. And you're just by yourself.

And are you over fields out there? You're over cities, fields, hot roads. Okay. You're just taking it to the streets. And the good thing, but I liked it. There was resilience in it, lessons in resilience, because no one's going to solve that problem but you. The plane's not going to land itself.

No one's going to find where you are. You've got to solve these problems. And so you just have to calm down, get your breath, keep the plane straight and level, and start working the problem. And you start going, okay, where am I? What do I see? What do I, okay, I see this city off here. I just flew over a you know a gravel pit

big industrial gravel pit that's that's something like that's on the map so let's start just and you start working the problem and then i found myself and of course i was a little off whatever corrected for it landed safely everything's good but but those are uh resilient lessons or whatever you know all right so i want to shift gears to something now because you seem like you had a hell of a wonderful time growing up. No complaints. Yeah. No complaints.

I mean, you don't have any unfortunate early deaths from patriarchs or matriarchs. You don't seem like it got wild. So you had a solid upbringing of your sounds like grandparents were together until literally death do us part. Your mom and dad are still together. How long have they been married now? This was 60 years. Okay.

So what age do you become a father? And did you always want to be a dad? Yeah. You did? Yeah, I did. I, I, I wanted to be a father and I became one in the spring of 04, um, to my daughter, uh, who is, uh, she's, uh, in college right now studying to be, she's a theater major and, uh, she's very talented. I will say that. So I, I, I cringe sometimes when I think about, uh, my kids going to do a life in the arts because it's tough.

It's a tough row. My daughter's nine, and I tell her now, like, I will support anything you want to do, but if you could do anything other than this shit, do it. There's no structure. There's no rhyme. There's no reason. Somebody can look at you and go, you remind me of an aunt that I fucking hated. Yeah. Pass. Exactly. It's got nothing to do with anything else. somebody can look at you and go you remind me of an ant that i fucking hate it yeah pass

exactly it's so it's nothing to do with anything else there there's so much subjectivity yes to it so much so much now you can often buy you can be talented as qualified as you or as good as you or anything anything a lot of failed this is now booking this. Or you know what I mean? Like, oh, now you're a gatekeeper all of a sudden. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So life in the arts can be hard.

And there's no way around that. It is hard. And the good thing, though, I will say this, though. I do in my heart of hearts believe that talent can't be denied. Agreed. Not forever. Agreed. That's right.

They can hold you down for 20 or 30 years. They can hold you down for a while. They can hold you down for a while or keep you out of things for a while. Or you may miss an opportunity or something doesn't connect or for whatever reason, the stars don't align. But eventually, if you've got the talent and you've got the drive, you're going to get your shot. That's the other part.

It's the drive. You do. You've got to have that. You've got to have that hustle. You've got the talent and you've got the drive, you're going to get your shot. That's the other part. It's the drive. You've got to have that hustle. You've got to have it. There's a lot of talented people out there right now that have no fucking hustle. And they could be gazillionaires. And they're just sitting there bitching and boohooing with all the fucking more talented than you and I combined. Yep. Yeah.

It's true. It's a tale as old as time. And that's where I was getting at with you sitting in these fields all day long just chopping bushes. It fucking builds a hustle. It builds a drive. It builds a motivation. You're going to find out real quick. Your grandfather came back and was like, nope, you're done.

But he didn't. He didn't because you worked. Yeah. So you're a married man at the time. This is what I wanted to ask you about because you come from no divorce, none of that, and then you get divorced. So I mean, I was engaged. We didn't even get to the marriage. So I want to know from your point of view, like as a dad, like how did that mess with you and did it? Were you able to talk to your father as a resource to go through something

even though he had never had to, you you know so what was that like for you well the you know it's it's tricky because the the this is this is really unfortunate but the divorce is still going on this has been it's been going on for three years it's um it's so it's really painful and it's really ugly and it it doesn't have to be it shouldn't so it's really painful and it's really ugly and it, it doesn't have to be, it shouldn't never be, but it is. And there's nothing I can do about it. And I can't even really talk about it because, um, I respect that because there's still all this legal action that's got to take place, but it broke my heart. It's just shattered it. It really did. And, uh, um, and I don't talk about it very much because I do.

I feel like I failed. We were married for- As what? A husband or a father? Yeah, everything. No, no. They're separate. By the way, the divorce was a good thing.

Okay. It was a really good thing. The right thing. It was the right thing. That's probably a good way to say it. It was the right thing. It doesn't make it any less painful. Doesn't make it any less hurtful.

Doesn't make, you know, and especially the stuff now has become so hurtful and so unnecessary. But yeah, that's not the life I envisioned. I had a vision in my mind of what my life was going to be. And it did not turn out that way. And so you have to,

it takes a lot to recalibrate what your dreams are what your hopes are uh what you want for your kids you know all that stuff how to shift gears down to being a single parent and yeah and it can we stay close in proximity and all that i want to be around them i want to see them i want to be a dad not a a fucking play, a play, a pal. Yeah. And we have 50, 50 custody, you know? And, and so, so we make that work. But anyway, there's just a lot of, a lot of stuff, but. So how was your dad?

So it's very frustrating. And my dad was great. My dad was amazing. You know, that's the thing, you know, you, you take your parents for granted so easily because you think they don't know. And we also think this is a generation. Again, we're talking about these old school, walk it off motherfuckers. What would he know about heartache?

You know, what a stupid thing to think, you know, what would he think of, you know, he doesn't know what I'm going through. Well, he might, he might not know what I'm personally going through. Right. Because he hasn't been in that situation of divorce or what, you know, all the things that came up with that. But he knows me and he knows the human condition. He knows betrayal. He knows hurt. He knows he has a wealth of lifetime experience. And more importantly, he wasn't there to lecture or to, you know, pump me up with advice or whatever.

He knows I'm a pretty savvy guy. He knows I have pretty good emotional intelligence. Pretty good. Nobody's perfect, but pretty good. And so he just was a great resource, a great listener, and offered really good advice. Good, sound advice that resonated with me and made me realize, yeah, you know what? I've been looking at this wrong. I've been thinking about this with the wrong mindset. And so to have that guidance from somebody that you really admire and really care about and value

their opinion, man, that's invaluable. And it's that thing where you know god forbid my kids you know i don't want them to have hard times but there's it's inevitable right and you can't protect me now i want them to be resilient when the hard times come that's right because they're coming they're coming yeah i got through most of my life pretty good but but i got walloped yeah what i got i want to ask you this because a lot of people get walloped early. What year did it really age? I mean, did it start hitting for you? My beating started at 50.

Nah. Yeah. For real, dude? You got heavy? Well, no, but now that's- Some people don't even live that long. I know, but now we're talking about what I would consider- Yes.

You know, the thing that's- The most difficult thing in your life. The thing that's hurt me consider the thing that's hurt me the most. This hurt me the most. Now, I've been to war. I've been to, you know, I've done other things that are trying, right? But nothing broke my heart. Nothing broke my heart like this did. Okay. This was a heartbreaker.

What was the hardest part about this? I know you're still in it, but when itbreaker. What was the hardest part about this? I know you're still in it, but when it happened, what was the hardest part for you? Just, I can't drill down on too much of this. Cause I don't want to say too many things. Just about just the betrayal.

The, the, the, the, the, but about not getting to see your kids every day. Now, now they're,

yes. Cause let me ask you, let me ask you questions instead of asking you this because i'm going to be respectful here i would do a lot of future tripping i my daughter lives two miles away with her mom when she's with her mom but to me it's fucking mars it might as well be mars over there there's a whole nother world going on over there things going on that i don't know about it comes back to me through my daughter or whatever it is and that was also like all right well here's this kid so it happened for me young she was one here's this kid now that i lose half her fucking life just statistically if we're 50 50

that's fucking gone yeah and then the other half the time what the hell's going on over there that nobody wants to tell me about what's happening so i would find myself like freaking out about any dude she'd want to bring in and you know she's got a good boyfriend now i'll be honest he gets the job his job was to take care of her my daughter's got a dad a dad you do what you need to do over there and i also know that when i start getting shit at me homeboy's not doing his job over there I'm like you need to step it up for all of us right now bro okay I got the bad shit you take care of that well some of that stuff was just repugnant yeah to me the thought of thought the thought of another man uh taking my daughter fishing engaging with my child you know on that

level you know it was repugnant you know I guess I've had to grow up because it's reality you know on that level you know it was repugnant you know i guess i've had to grow up because it's reality you know and that's what we're talking about life doesn't give a fuck what you want exactly i saw my daughter's mother had a boyfriend and i saw my my daughter was young and she went up and she hugged his leg and it i went it crushed me yeah it crushed me but then i had to be a man about it and say well you know what My daughter's not scared of that man. He must be kind to her. He must be treating her in a way where. It's a good mindset.

It's a hard mindset. And then I cry again. You know what I mean? I'm like. Yeah. But that's a good mindset. That's a good way. That's a good way to look at it.

That's a really good way. Because you could torture yourself. Torture yourself. And did you? Did you beat yourself up for a while? In the the beginning i was just so hurt by all of it i was just so because i was uh you know i was a little caught off guard by things and you know so i was i was hurt i was really really hurt by all of it um so and then you know um just upset by and then there were some you know other antics that you just, there's all these things that, you know, and everybody's got a story. Everybody's got a story.

I got it. I got it. So the thing that bothers me though, you know, is that not, you know, boy, I could go off, but I can't at the same time. So I need to, it's just so frustrating. None of this has to, none of where I'm at now is not necessary all of it i know all of it so let me ask you this then how are you being a good dad now how are you still trying to work through this and and be the dad now that you need to be because now you can't be everyday dad and over there all the time on the same roof and yeah i think i think just trying you know uh you have to be so careful because part of you is like i'm gonna i'm gonna you know i'm gonna dazzle i'm gonna you know i'm gonna make

it the best times ever we're gonna go do amazing things and you know it's you're flailing at that point and that's not we can't be doing disneyland yeah yeah exactly and it's not true to yourself it's not true and and you know the kids eventually they may like some of the perks of you freaking out but eventually you know that's not what they need no you know and if you're if you care about them then you have to give them tools to win in life which you know is a struggle because the teenagers go through some very weird withdrawals you know and and i remember being a a pubescent teenage boy you know i i withdrew you know you kind of go into your cave to kind of figure out what's going on and what's happening to you and why this is happening and where you fit in the

world and what's your niche and what are you good at and and it happens boys and girls i think it happens in different ways because now it's kind of fun my daughter's in college she's she's 19 she'll be 20 this year but she um what i enjoy seeing is i remember her in high school you know very withdrawn very almost a fu vibe it wasn't she was always gracious and nice but it was very much i don't have time i don't have time and now she wants to make time now we're connecting now she's like coming back a little bit and now the boy's going through his withdrawal which i think is natural that's i think it's age appropriate i think it's natural but when you're in a divorce situation you always panic and

think something's wrong something's double wrong i gotta i gotta i gotta jump in here and do something yeah and you can't, you don't have a partner to even talk to. That's the problem. I don't have anybody. Like, Hey, what are you seeing? What are you thinking?

Yeah. So, so that, that part blows because I, you know, so all I can do is what I think I've tried to do my whole life, which is set the example and that's it. Try to be gracious,

be fun, be happy. If he's screwing up, call him out on it. You know, gracious, be fun, be happy. If he's screwing up, call him out on it. You know, don't let him get away with shit. You still got chores to do. This isn't a cakewalk.

You know, you got, and get off your ass and let's go do something because you're not going to sit here and play on your phone all day. It's Saturday. You know,

let's go. That's tomorrow while I'm watching football. Yeah. And by the way, like Sunday, I'll tell my daughter, take your tablet, do whatever the hell you want. Well, we always say we'll watch football.

I'm right here. He's on his phone playing video games, whatever. But all you can do is just try to do that. And then when I say set the example, I mean show them. Show them how you interact with people. Like I said, I have a girlfriend I'm dating now. She's a wonderful lady, wonderful lady. So I, I want him to see, you know, what a, hopefully a healthy thing looks like.

Agreed. Like they should see what, you know, love looks like. Their dad gets to love this lady. This lady's nice to their father. That feels good in here. That looks good. And so that's the best you can do, think you know and and uh and you just have to trust that not not everything is as fragile as you think it is not everything you can't worry about everything

all the time i hear from most people the number one regret they have at the end of their life is they worry too much you know i always hear do you have any advice for somebody over there? I was asking these octogenarians and all these. And they're always like, yeah, don't worry so much. Just relax. Live your life. And so, yeah. I just want the best for the kids. And if I can help them be resilient when they face

troubles. Because they're going to get hit. You don't get out of this thing. Well, you don't get out alive. Think about that. Nobody gets out alive and no one gets out without any thing. Here's what I'm saying, didn't hit you till 50. Think about that. Nobody gets out alive and no one gets out without any scars. Hell no.

So I consider myself lucky that the scars that I got didn't come till, the ones that really hurt me didn't come till late. I mean, I broke up with girls and they broke up with me

and I got fired from jobs and I, you know, there's things that sucked. Right. Right. Sucked. There's difference than devastating. Than things that really take your breath away and things that sucked right sucked there's difference than devastating than

things that really take your breath away and things that break your heart tell me about this thing because this is a solo thing that you could talk about your lowest at that point where were you well it seemed like the the whole world would turn into a shit show because this all happened at the beginning of covid oh yeah you know so so it all started that's all going on and then the world's upside down people wearing masks everybody's angry at each other you know you know i was in a confused state uh almost like go get your own place oh yeah tell me about the first night you spent in that place. Yeah. Sad night. Hard. Yeah. The the reality, you know, I think there's a there's a level of denial, maybe where in the back of your mind, you know, it started as a separation.

And then I see. And then it it turned into you know uh other things did you was your were there at least hopes that you think you were hoping you could make it work out from the separation standpoint first okay of course so your mindset is all right this is temporary we'll try to work yes of course and then and then there's a level boy, some other things happened in there that led me to believe that was the case. And in fact, it was quite the opposite. Okay. So I was. So then there's a new realization.

Is it possible to say double devastating? You know, like, you know, it was a double whammy. Okay. Okay. And so, yeah, it was. So now you're dealing with a whole new thing right there yeah so you know you're there this is it yeah and you know and then there's the there there's always the reflection like you know you always reflect i think you should anyway you know what

did i do right what did i do wrong how could i have done it different oh you know you think about the good times but then you know you start to work your way through it you have family and friends thank god uh therapist you know that was a big help getting your head right and then realize your biggest help who was your biggest ally my dad was for sure i had a feeling you were gonna say my dad my dad really just interesting for a man that again you don't think he's from the feelings generation and also never went through this yeah you know and he he amazed me with his emotional intelligence he amazed me with his understanding of you know some of the intimate details of what was going on and you know just

no judgment never judged any of it um but was open to hearing all of it. Because I didn't pull any punches with him. You know, I said, look, here's everything. And, you know, that's scary. Yeah, hell yeah, to admit that. Yeah, and yet he took it all in, processed it, and then gave me his honest assessment on where things were and what he thought of the situation. And that perspective I value so much. me his honest assessment on where things were and what he thought of situation and and and that perspective i value so much so i was i'm forever grateful yeah um because he really delivered at

a time when i needed him to see my dad die when he was 42 i was 16 i wish i had this i'm sitting here listening to you thinking like god i wish i could have my dad to talk to when this happened because he went through this. He did go through this. And I would have been like, what was that like for you? You know, my mom's cheating on him. There's no text. He's an hour away at National Airport working for Pan Am.

He can't, you know what I mean? Anyway, I'm sitting here listening to that. What about your mom? Was your mom someone that was a little more reserved on this? Yeah well my mom's an old german school teacher you know she's she's she's tough but very loving and very gracious so i'm not picking on mom she's great but dad was the guy but and and yeah and she was a great listener too but but dad was the dad was the voice i needed to hear you know i needed to i needed to hear from a masculine energy i guess and and then and my girlfriend she was she was really nice and

really supportive and really understood what was happening could see it for what it was and was patient still is because it's still going on yeah and and still very patient with uh you know some ugliness um so so i i was and my sister was fantastic my sister's amazing yeah are they as good um uh grandfathers and grandmoms and aunts as they are dads moms and sisters they're amazing people i feel so lucky and then and even my my my best friends back in kansas city or my marine buddies or you know anybody that was is in my you know inner circle uh that i reached out and talked to or dealt you know brought it up because yeah also i i don't want to dump my problems on people um and nobody cares no one cares you know that

sounds harsh or whatever but at the end of the day everyone's got their everybody's got their shit right you know but i want to be there for my friends you know when they're hurting i want to list what what do they what do you need you need me to listen you want advice you want me you want me to shut up you want me to you want to drink beers what are we gonna do what are we doing here i want to be that for them as well and they were that for me and i got great great advice from some really great people so i feel blessed in that in that sense too so after going through or even still going through a horrible heartbreak like this how um how was it trying to get back out

there and meet new people you obviously met someone but what was that like to be vulnerable again to open yourself up again yeah you know You know, honestly, I, uh, um, I met my girlfriend very quickly. Um, it didn't take long. I, I, we met and, uh, kind of hit it off right away. And then, um, I don't, to be honest with you, I don't even know if I was ready for it at all in the beginning. Um, I think I was still in a state of shock about everything. And so, you know, the first part of our relationship, and I hope this doesn't hurt her feelings or whatever, but, you know, I might not have been fully present.

Yeah. You know? Not that I didn't enjoy our time or didn't care. I did, but I was. But there's a cyclone going on up there. Yes, exactly. And now I really have an appreciation for her and a deep love and gratitude for her because she is so amazing. And a renewed faith, maybe, cautiously.

This is leading to my next question. Yeah, because you know when you stick your finger in the socket sticking it back in the socket again is can be very scary so it's like um but i i i'm hoping that i you know it does feel right you know so are you as my question was going to be are you open to the idea of possibly remarrying again i'm open to it you are i'm open you're not like no no you know i have been you know over the last couple years i've been maybe a little down on love down on i would say so you know a little a little jaded little you know you know i i hear a tale of love gone wrong and of course you, you know, I'm like,

you goddamn will know shit. You know, of course that's going to happen. It's so easy to get fucking lines down, you know, and I start going off. Right. And then I got to reel it back in and I got to remember that's not

everybody. That's not every story. That's not everybody. That's not your parents, your grandparents. You have family to look at right there on your own roof. Life and people one at a time, and just one day, one person, and let things live or die on their own merit, not the baggage you bring to it, not the other stuff.

So yes, I have not quit on happiness or love or companionship or any of that what would you do differently in this marriage boy that's a good question um i would not uh put my head in the sand i would deal with issues that need to be dealt with when they need to be dealt with and i would not be afraid of the outcome that's a great fucking answer yeah a lot of us just put our head down i put my head in the sand and i was afraid of the outcome let the shit stack up and then and then here it comes yeah i would not do that again and i will not do that again and are your kid and i don't want to bring your kids but are they comfortable with you dating and how did they take that like that's back out there yeah yeah they're a little older i guess yeah they've been really good about it um and they you know they see both their parents dating um and uh so so i think it's just something that they're dealing with you know and and i'm

sure they didn't they didn't want to see the family end either you know it's the death of a dream i didn't want to see it in they i'm sure they didn't want to see it nobody you know so that's painful and that takes it takes time to recalibrate your feelings your emotions to even understand them and when you're young and you don't know you don't have any frame of reference really of what heartache feels like what pain feels like what is what is this? You know, it takes time because they don't even, they don't have a frame of reference.

You know, when it happened to me at 50, I had all kinds of examples and friends and I've had disappointments and I've had heartbreak. But you've also, you're 50, so your life experience, your knowledge, they know nothing. I had trouble processing. Right, exactly what I'm saying. So if I'm having trouble processing at 50, yeah then then to put that onto a child's plate

you know it can be very confusing and challenging obviously i'm a kid of a child of divorce and i remember it happened fifth grade and i remember um obviously the way i felt was devastated but my daughter had happened to her at one she didn't even fucking remember it and i think about that think about hearing your kid's age now i'm thinking about me and her is it better to happen then early and you and you live that way knowing your mom and dad are this or is it better to at least experience mom and dad loving each other for a little while and then all of a sudden the ax drops i'm not sure i don't i don't know the answer i don't either i kind of think it might be getting it out early yeah yeah where they don't have any right picture in their mind right and mom and dad are cool with each other enough we're professional

we get along enough to go to the game. You know, we do all the right thing. We're 50-50. She covers. I cover. We switch. We're good on it. We're good on it.

Listen to me. It took a minute. It didn't happen right away, bro. It took a minute. Because I can tell you, that first three years was hot. But we got there. We're there now. And we don't bat a thousand you know but i'd say honest to god we're seven and a half out of ten and that's a dream that's a dream it's

a dream that ain't bad i didn't know we'd ever get there but maybe eight sometimes you know we and then for parties birthday parties and shit like my car just got broken into and they stole my daughter's it's nonsense and they stole my daughter's it's nonsense but they stole her whole soccer bag with her ball or cleats but it sucks because i gotta buy it all again you know what i'm saying so she's crying because she feels violated i'm like don't even worry about it you're getting all new shit but i can call her mom be like hey this happened please take i'll pay for it just take her and get the stuff because she needs it for this weekend so they went and did all that already.

So we're there. We're there. But it didn't start that way. Sure. Yeah. That's fantastic. Well, I wish you the best. Yeah.

I genuinely appreciate you coming on here and opening up about this stuff. I can't drill down, obviously, for a lot of reasons. Don't. Yeah, don't. I appreciate you understanding of course but uh yeah yeah and uh well you i appreciate you inviting me here yeah thank you for doing this yeah um i told you before we recorded that i asked guests their first time here advice you give to your 16 year old self so i'm curious what actually you would uh say to 16 year old rob riggle wow because you don't have shit at the fan for some time bro i know it's gone i say uh what we talked about i

think i would say what we've talked about i would um i don't think I could give one piece of advice. I'd have to give a one pager with a bunch of bullet points on it. But I would say, don't worry so much. Don't sweat the small stuff. And it's all small stuff, right? You've heard that phrase. It is all small stuff.

So I would say, don't, don't let that happen, okay? Relax, have fun, chill, look on the bright side, get your mindset right. And then I would say, when, have fun, chill, look on the bright side, get your mindset right. And then I would say, when there are problems, they do not get better with time, deal with them in the moment, deal with them in the moment. And if it's catastrophic, so be it, let it be. And then rebuild., so be it. Let it be.

And then rebuild. Deal with that. Deal with it. Don't put your fucking head in the sand. That's great advice. Because we all do it. We all do it. We all do it. And it's human nature to seek the path of least resistance.

That's human nature. But it will back up on you in ways you can't imagine. And it will lead to tremendous pain for everybody involved. So just do the painful quick when it needs to be dealt with. Don't wait. I would pound that into my head. Other than that, I'd say rock on, man. That's great advice, dude.

That's great. That's great. No one's ever come on and said that. Please plug, promote everything one more time. Yeah, Riggle's Picks. You can find it. I think we're going to be on all the socials, Facebook, Twitter, or Twitter X, I guess it's called now. I still see Twitter.

These kids. I still call the Chargers, the San Diego Chargers. I do too. I still can't get used to it. Because I'll never call in LA. Come on, give me a break. Yeah, and you can find me on, give me a break. Yeah, and you can find me on social, Rob Riggle.

The name of the show is Riggle's Picks. It's going to be a lot of fun, just interviews and conversation, and it'll be a great way to spend the morning. Well, thank you, dude. Thank you very much for being here. As always, Ryan Sickler on all your social media, ryansickler.com. We'll talk to you all next week.