CARNY TO CONGRESS EP 16

Presented by Bay Water Boat Club.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Good morning. My name is Adam O'Tana. This is the Tony to Congress Podcast brought to you by Baywater Exclusive Boat Club, the only family owned and operated boat club in Southwest Florida. I'm here with my great co-host Jake Moneill.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

How you doing, buddy? I'm alright, man. That was dumb. That was dumb. For those watching, I apologize. It's all good.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

So we'll jump right in. It's all good. As you can see here, I'm uh we're doing a little bit different. We're not at the marina. I'm in Michigan. Jake's in the studio. I'm out here in Midland, the Midland County Fair. We'll scroll around here, right by the restrooms. Nice location. So we're here at the fair getting ready to open here this week. So we'll be slinging seminarles all week. So exciting stuff there. We're going to touch on that a little bit. We've had a lot of interesting stuff happen uh this past week in local politics. So we'll talk about that. Big Trump endorsement. Uh Jake and I will touch on that. We're going to talk about just boats in Southwest, Florida right now and just everything else going on. Jake, the cats are they getting alone? I mean, the girlfriend is in town. She's still here, I think.

unknown 1:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

Are the cats still getting alone? That's all I want to know.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Uh yeah, they're coexisting. You ever seen those coexist bumper stickers? That's what I kind of feel like's going on right now. Uh they're um, you know, Lucy's doesn't want to be bothered, old cat. She's uh eating Bella's food, my cat, to kind of like show her dominance. Like she'll like growl at her and then she'll go and eat out of Bella's bowl. And it's like I've stopped intervening. I don't even care. Uh there's been a few been a few jabs, man. They've thrown a couple shots at each other in the past couple days, but they seem to be doing okay. They're doing alright. So no no expensive vet bills for the slicing yet.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Well, as long as they keep the colour, but yeah, the the claws retractor, that's the main thing. It is. It's it's getting up there. It's getting up there.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

As long as I keep the claws retracted and they um you know, don't beat the crap at each other, it'd be all good. Uh so yeah, I'm up here in Michigan. Um drove up last week in the in the bus, which was fun. Uh about 1600 miles in two days. Uh it was comfortable. It was a great ride. Only had one issue, some kind of deaf header issue with the uh motor. So working on that, trying to get that figured out. Uh, typical deaf issues, uh always a problem uh with these diesels. Uh, but we'll figure that out. That's that's fine. So we're up here in Midland, Michigan. It's been a great week. It's been been great weather, getting concession trailer ready to go. As you know, my family is originally in the carnival industry. We've been here coming to this fair for 70 years, actually. My mom first came here when she was uh a couple months old. So pretty wild. So my family's been coming to Midland, Michigan for over 70 years. So I've spent, Jake, pretty much like I was thinking about it. I was out here and the weather's the weather's awesome, right? So it's just great. Like I'm out here and I'm uh parked on the at the fairgrounds. And it's right next to an airport. And I remember that this airport has, you know, just the airport light, green, green light, white light, green light, white light. If you're a pilot, you know what it is, kind of signals there's an airport. Uh, but I remember this light since I was like 10, 8 years old, you know. And I always loved this fair. This was a great fair because I'd have a bunch of friends that would be here and and we would all hang out, a bunch of curning kids, a bunch of locals, stuff like that. But I would always have to fly home after this fair. I'd fly home and go back to school, stay with my grandparents, uh, so I wouldn't see my folks for a couple months. And that was a thing there. And I was always it was always fun to get here, but it was always a bummer too, because I remembered I'd have to leave and I wouldn't see my folks for a couple months, if not. Uh, but it's I was out here a couple nights ago and it was just great, just sitting here just thinking about old memories and stuff like that. So weather's great. Like I say, it's 70s, low 70s at night. Um, it's just awesome. Great, great, great place to be in the summer. So we're we're getting up here. Uh we open uh today. So we're gonna open on Sunday, and uh hopefully we have good weather. Uh mom's coming up for a couple days, so she's bringing the little chihuahua. So we're gonna get uh Lily May is gonna be on the airplane, so we'll see what happens with that. It's gonna be uh gonna be interesting for sure. So mom's got like a little carrier for her. So, you know, a little see do you see her uh little video where she was trying to go after the mouse on the screen? Like a cat. It's about like a cat, just trying to bite the mouse and uh kind of went a little viral there. You know, it's not you know, not 200 million views, but it's close to a couple hundred thousand. Why you so why you so take kind of antsy, bro? You're bouncing around. What's going on? You alright?

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Well, you try yeah, I just looking at myself. I'm like, do I look good? Stop moving. Just standing still is not my forte.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

Stop muffin.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

So the girlfriend, how's the job going? Is she got a job? She's figuring it out. What's going on with that? Show? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

She indeed does have a job. She starts here in about a week. Nice. She's gonna be working at old Shell Point. Oh, Shell Point, nice. That's a good place. Indeed. It's uh it was it I'm gonna stop moving. I'm gonna stop moving. It was a little different for her though. Uh she used the term bougie, and I'm like, no, that's just poor. It's very nice. 600 acres of moolah, baby.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

Yeah, no, no. I remember talking there one time, uh, like at a you know, for politics. And um yeah, it was they were good people, nice people. They're they vote, they get out there, and I remember knocking on the doors because there's some homes in there that you can kind of move, you know, pull out you you walk in and you get wheeled out. You know, you walk in and you get wheeled out one day. So uh it's kind of an interesting situation, but you know, different. Different for sure.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Well, yeah, she had uh she had an interview. Uh they actually called her quite a bit when she was on her way here. Um they called her while she was on the way down, and then they called her that Saturday when she got in. And uh so she gave them a call back Monday, she had an interview Tuesday, they offered her the position on Wednesday. She went and did all her, you know, pre-screenings and stuff, so I think she's pretty much good to go. They called her down like uh uh on her way here, they called her. I guess she applied for it before she even came. They called her on her way down, she didn't get to them, and then she called, they called, they they played phone tag like three times. She went in, did the interview, chopped it up, talked to everybody. Uh she seemed to have a good time because she stayed quite a while after her interview to just like kind of you know get to know some of the ladies there and walk around toward the building and where she'll be working at because she's at the very, very beginning of Shell Point, it's not all the way down in there. She's at the like the medical facility. Um, but I'm I'm proud of her, man. I'm really happy for her. Uh she did it all by herself and that's what she wanted, so whatever.

SPEAKER_02 7:41

Good, good, love it. It's awesome, man. Um that's that's exciting stuff. Can't can't complain with that. You know, that's a great facility there, and I'm sure she'll do good. You know, I mean there's hey, there's always a need for nurses down here in Southwest Florida, that's for damn sure. There's a ton of ton of people that need help down here, so um, it's that's great things. We gotta get her on a boat and uh get her on a little ride there. We'll bring uh I'll bring my girl over, you bring yours, and we'll we'll go for a little ride there. We'll have some fun, you know. So I love that. But um let's talk about politics. Uh and this is I've got a buddy of mine. Okay, and I I'm gonna just kind of jump into it, folks. I mean, there's a lot of stuff going on. Election is in two days. You had uh a big uh, you know, a big drop with Trump endorsing Katalina Loff. And you know, I've had a ton of people call me, like, who do I vote for? What do I do? And the thing is, you have to come up with your own opinion, you gotta use your best judgment, you know, and I don't understand. Like, I have got people like, well, what do I do? But Trump endorsed this girl, but I don't like her, but he I mean, like, well, you gotta do what you gotta, you gotta come up with your best judgment. You know, do your research. You know, nothing, nobody's gonna tell you. I don't understand. I don't understand the the situation. I think people just want to be told what to do. Um, a lot of times, Jacob, I don't I don't get it. I don't understand it, but a lot of people call me and just be like, hey, you know, who do I vote for? You know, what judges, what's going on? Like, you know, what buddy, like we had a a gal, uh, it's judge uh Manny Levy Reese. She's a great judge, local, uh, from Bonita, came, talked to our rotary club, did a good job. I mean, really, you know, stand up, good people, but they get one bad article out there, you know, somebody runs one bad article, and the one guy like I know is like, oh, I don't know. What do I do? I'm like, well, just make use your best judgment, man. You gotta figure out what the best person is that you think is gonna represent you. Um, you know, and it's just kind of it's just kind of interesting that people don't take the time to really look at it, you know. I mean, and this is where it always comes down where you're gonna vote for the president. Everybody knows about it, but the people that are gonna touch you the most are gonna be your your county commissioners, your city managers, I mean, like you see, your city council, your your mayors. They're gonna touch you a lot more than they touch, I touch you every day. You know, just being elected at a state, state level versus local. You know, really spend time and think about it. I mean, right now, Florida, uh, our district, just my district, district 80, our district, district 80, uh, we lead the state and mail-in balance, you know, more than anybody. I mean, this election was over, I'm pretty sure, a week ago. Um, because that's what happened. People vote by mail in our district. Jake, I remember being out year one on my campaign when I knocked on all those doors and went out to the community and pushed and got stuff done. I remember going to the voting place, the biggest precinct, it was in Benita, and it was at the YMCA, and there was legit a fight between um it was a Spanish guy who tore down a Trump sign, and uh a guy seen him do it, and like it it got heated. It got real heated, and a local cop's like, you need to get out of here, you don't need to be here straight now, just go. Um, but it was like it got real bad because the guy, this this guy, I would imagine he might have been an illegal immigrant or something, but he pulled up and he had a shop truck, like a work truck, and he looked like it was a plaster guy or something, and there was a Trump site, and he he opened his door and grabbed the sign and put it in his truck, and then just like removed it, which is illegal. Well, there was another guy behind him that was driving in there, and this was this was uh this was a normal um you know Venetian, and he jumped out of the car and started yelling at him. It's like you need to put that sign back, and they started going back, and then the Spanish guy, he's racist, and the it started going crazy. And then the one guy, you know, got back in a truck and then slammed his door and legit broke the guy's door. Like the the whole insert came off the inside of the door. Guy brought out like a look like a uh for cement shoveling, you know, like a like a hand trial and was ready to fight. And I'm like, oh my god. Like I'm time to go, time to go. But I mean, it was getting back to it, there I talked to maybe five people, and this is like election day. Uh, and that was two hours I was there, and most everybody's like, oh yeah, I voted for you, you're good, you know. But we don't really vote on election day, and that was one of the biggest precincts in our district, was right there. So pretty wild. So we'll see what happens. And I mean, you've got a lot of stuff. You got you got a county commissioner race between uh Petrowski and Cochrane. You know, uh Petrowski was appointed by Governor DeSantis. Uh Cochrane is from out in uh Lehigh. I think there's I think they're both uh good people, you know. Um Amanda's ran a couple times, and it's it's you know, it's tough. I mean you got these folks that go down this rabbit hole sometimes and of conspiracy theories, you hate to see it because you get they get these people around on Facebook all the time with these phones is the worst. Jake, you you you meet a lot of these people doing uh the the uh commercials and we chat about it and we agree on ninety-eight percent of the the people, you know. It's just trying to have a the end of the day, you just need somebody that's gonna be normal and not so far right or so far left. Just need a person to be normal and be elected. So um but yeah, we're we're gonna see. I mean, this is this is crazy with uh Trump getting in involved and endorsing Katalina Loft. Um, you know, I don't think anybody's seen that one coming. And I tell I got people all the time coming to me like, will you endorse me? I go, hey, endorsements don't mean crap for me. You know, I think endorsements they're they're good if they're from the governor or the president. So we're gonna see what's gonna happen here. It's you know, I think it's uh there's a lot of good people running for this race, but it's uh it's definitely intense. Jake, what are you what's your opinion on it?

SPEAKER_00 14:46

I just I feel like you know it's a little odd. Uh, you know, she was grilled pretty hard recently at a meeting in Fort Myers about, you know, just simple things like, you know, can you name your mayor? Can you name uh one person on the school board? And unfortunately or fortunately, whatever way you look at it, she couldn't name one person. And it just it eerily reminds me of the whole Dan Bongino situation when he couldn't even tell you what districts he was representing. And or I'm sorry, we couldn't tell you what cities inside the districts that he would be representing had he been elected. Um I just I don't know how much weight, and you probably disagree with this. I don't know how much weight uh Trump endorsement is gonna hold this late, or that it really matters. I mean, the majority of people have already voted um uh during early voting. Uh we we went over some stats personally the other day. 60 to 70 percent of your four by fours already voted, probably more, uh, depending on who you're asking. Um but I just it it it it's kind of disheartening uh d due to the fact that you know there's a lot of there's a lot of carpet bagging going on in this very specific race. And you know, it just seems to me like I know uh I think it was Collins or whoever it was that came out and said, you know, I want to be invited to the gallas and a part of the, you know, I haven't been invited to this, that, and a third, and you know, they're using it as like this social boost or whatever it, you know, maybe for their um for their personal lives. And you know, these people are gonna be representing us in masses, and it just kind of takes me back to like Byron Donald's during like Hurricane Ian and you know the the triage of hurricanes that we had come through here. I'm not really interested in anybody who has no idea about this area, and Catalina Loff has no clue about this area, and it's like we are one of the biggest growing parts of Florida in general. I mean, Lee County is not shy, it is just shy of having a million people. Um so I mean, whoever it is that gets elected will be representing a huge majority of the area. And you know, unfortunately, I can't vote in that race, so my opinion is kind of tarnished just due to the fact that I was written out of the district, drawn out, however you want to say it. Um but I would I would most definitely go with somebody whose uh track records a little bit more than I've lived here for X amount of years, I've owned something here for X amount of years, I've worked business here in X amount of years. It's really about the end-all goal and making sure that uh the people of District 19 are going to be solidly represented by somebody who actually knows the area and has the area's best interest in heart just based off the fact that, you know, maybe they raised a family here, uh, maybe they have more than a condo. Um, you know, it's really not that hard to do a little bit of research, and I understand because I get the same calls, like, who do I vote for? And it's like that should be a you kind of decision. Like, you don't uh you don't call me to ask you what you want to eat for dinner, you know, and I and I guess the repercussions of you deciding dinner based on a politician are probably vastly different. But the idea that you don't even do a small amount of research, uh you would know that, for example, Katalina Loff has no idea about this area. Um, she's dodged every interview that she's committed to. Um, and I can name three off the top of my head right now, people that I know that she was supposed to go and do interviews with, and day of or day before she completely called out or you know, called off. And this is what happens whenever you get back by super PAC money.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

I understand, Jake.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

I mean I do. You know, it's it's um it's a t it's a bad situation, and it's it's crazy how we've had all these people that have come down here to to run in this race, right? You know, I think Jim, Jim Schwarzel's been here, born and raised, been here, runs Fox News radio station, several other radio stations. You got Jim Oberwise, uh, who is from Illinois but has lived in Bonita Bay, Bonita Springs, you know, he's had a place here for 10, 12 years. Um, and then you have like Ola, something else. I can't I can't pronounce her last name. Seems like a nice gal, but again, knows Trump, you know, or in some actions you have Kelly and Loff. You know, and I think a lot of people you have Madison Cawthorn who comes down here from you know North Carolina, has some questionable pass. You've got Chris Collins who's come down here. You know, so there's just a lot of people I think that came down here that thought they were just gonna get the endorsement, and that was it. Now you have all these folks that are in this race, and they're gonna probably win. Whoever wins is gonna probably get less than 20% of the race. You know, and like you say, all the four by fours, uh, and the folks that you don't know, four by fours and two by fours, those are people who run, who who vote in every primary. So when I was door knocking uh for my race, the doors I would go on were four by fours. They would they voted in the last four generals and the last four uh primaries, and then there's the last two primaries and the last four generals. So the people that go out there, so I mean all those doors I knocked on were those are the people I went to. And uh, you know, you get out there and you figure it out, but uh a lot of these folks have probably already voted. And it's it's it's it's kind of crazy to see what's going on, and they're they're going out there and they're trying to make this run. And I mean, it's um it's unfortunate. I mean, Florida, this at the state level, there's a lot more that goes on that can get done. Federal level, it's very slow. And uh, you know, I mean, hey, democracy is the worst form of politics, uh the best form the rest of the world compared, you know. So uh it's it's it's a tough situation, but we'll see what happens here. Uh it's gonna be a uh crazy couple days here on uh Tuesday, and uh we I'm sure everybody's gonna make the right decision, the right person's gonna win, and we'll we'll go from there. But it's it's nuts, it's definitely a uh a crazy situation. I know there's a lot of stuff, folks. If we talk about judges, we talk about, you know, just uh county commissioners, we talk about Bonita Springs, they've got uh uh uh a uh referendum on there about BERT. You know, do you want to do you want to put up the the money? Does the city want to put up the money to get out here and and you know bring up rails, trails? I support it. I like it. I think it's great. I think it's a great addition for Benita. I think it's a huge thing. I'm disappointed in the county not um helping us out at all. Uh but That's that's something, you know, that happens. Uh the county um has not put up any money. They've got other stuff they're working on. You know, in Cape Coral, they're working on a bridge and Fort Myers are working on some other stuff. So Bedita's doing this on their own. Estero's doing this on their own. And North Napes is Collier County. So I mean, that'll be a huge, huge benefit to Bedita. Bedita's really blowing up. It's looking good. I've seen another thing that they're going to redo the dog track over there. They're going to make it a big venue. Um, not by Alfie Oaks. Uh, there was some talk about Alfie Oaks doing this, but that's gone to the wayside. He's re uh pulled it back, so there's some other organization going in there. So that's a pretty cool thing. So, I mean, there's gonna be a venue, walking past, um, volleyball courts, indoor-outdoor facilities, a lot of stuff, a lot of stuff. So, I mean, there's a lot of good things going on. But folks, you you get your opportunity to vote. I mean, this is uh this is a big deal. I mean, too many people have died uh for you to say, ah, I just don't know. I don't know who to vote for. I I don't understand that. You know, too many people have died in this country to give you that right to vote just to get out there and do it. So I mean, do a little research, spend a little bit of time, get it done. Uh you know, so we'll we'll see. We'll see. It'll be interesting. So I don't know, Jake. I'm just kind of like a lot going on.

SPEAKER_00 23:23

Actually, uh I I did uh I did some some radio spots for Bert. The Benita Estera Rail Trail. Um so it's on the vote, it's on the ballot, the 18th. Definitely take your opinions, no, but if you want to learn anything else, go to Benita EsteraRail Trail.com or yeah, it's dot com and you learn everything and you want to learn about it.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 23:48

Because it is it is an important thing, and I think it'd be really cool. Cause like would you uh would you because we'd be able to bike that, right? We should bright bikes. We should do it. Oh yeah, we should hit the trail.

SPEAKER_02 23:59

It would be great. I mean, there's a whole trail that comes into Fort Myers, and so unincorporated Lee County is like San Carlos Park, so there's gonna be a gap. Uh the county's not putting anything. So, I mean, this will connect Estero to Bonita to North Fort Myers. And hey, it's gonna give bikers uh an option because you know how many times do you you drive down a road and these bikers, I mean, hey, they're they you know they got to ride away too, but damn, it's scary. I wouldn't be riding in the middle of a 41 or right down a path there, you know. I mean, it's it's crazy. So I think this will be a big, big help. This will be good. Uh help a lot of people keep keep off the main road and they can just bike at their leisure. Like I'm up in Michigan, they have a ton, a ton of trails up here that they're you know, trails, you know, rails to trails. So I think it's a huge thing. I support it. I think it's great. You know, I think this is a uh a big step in the right direction for Bonita, and I think we need to keep working towards it. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that we need to do. Um, you know, there's a lot of things in Bonita we could work out to better. I know right along uh Bonita Beach Road is our main main throwfare. It is a county road. Again, the county is uh doing some things to help us out, but some other things are not. We could we could beautify it, we could bury the power lines, we could put some nice trees on there. There's there's some things that we need to get done um for the aesthetics of our area. And sometimes, you know, if some people are gonna say, you know what, we don't need to do that, we don't need to focus our money on that. There's other things that we can put our our our money to, and that's that's again, that's part of it. That's part of you know voting for the people that you want in there to push the things that you want done. So there's a lot of there's a lot to it. There's a lot to it. So always always something going on. I know. This is uh just texting me all the time, Jake.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

All the time. Always going to be. Yeah. I know. Always feel.

SPEAKER_02 26:00

So what's uh what's uh what what's your opinion on you know just accounting commission races? You got a couple, you met both of the candidates. I know you like I know you like both, and I'm not I'm gonna put you in a spot to pick one. But uh, you know, what are your what are your feelings about it?

SPEAKER_00 26:16

In reference to um Cochrane and listen. I know them both, not personally. Uh I mean I've only ever worked with them in like a professional setting. They're both very lovely w women. I mean, uh I'll be just completely honest with you. Um I can't come out and say that I like one more than the other. Uh I mean Petrovsky, she was appointed by one of the best, probably the best governors, the state of Florida will probably ever see. Um but Amanda Cochrane is born and raised, roots are you know in the soil here, and they have been for generations. And uh so I guess it really just depends on who you like more. Uh personally. Um I'm gonna probably go with the roots. I think they're both from here, and they both have pretty decent roots here. Um, some of them are a little bit more active in the community. You see their you see them out there actually doing things, supporting the community. Uh but I guess it's really just your your your personal preference. I will say it definitely looks like looks like Amanda might take this one, just personally, just based on like what I see. I'm in North Four Myers every day, it's my stomping grounds, and I see her name all over the place. Um, they even got the big giant sign by Lahomes and over there by uh I think it's what is it, 32 or whatever it is. So I just and even some of the questions, you know, that I've that I've asked the two of them, I kind of have my own opinion. Uh but like I said, I really feel like either one of them, it's probably one of the races that I wouldn't be so worried about. Like I'm, you know. Because like on one hand, you have somebody who's endorsed by the best governor in the state of Florida we'll ever see, and then on the other hand, you have somebody who actually cares about the area, the route and not saying that the other candidate doesn't, but you get what I'm saying here. Um I think that one will either be close or you know, Amanda might take it.

SPEAKER_02 28:18

You know, and that's that's a good thing that kind of gives you a segue into a big big race that we have coming up in November, an opportunity for folks to make a decision. Um, you know, what's what's unfortunate in Lee County is our county commissioners are voted countywide. So you uh get voted on by your people in your district, and then the other four districts of the county. So which is kind of crazy is that North Lee County like Lehigh, I don't think the county commissioner from out there has won their own district, but they still won because their whole district, the whole county votes for that district person for that district, yeah. And I don't agree with that. I think that's poor recording. I think uh I think it's all it's a bad, bad situation. You know, this originally happened, I believe it was in the 50s, might have been a little bit later. Um, you know, we used to be a single member district where what happens like my district, my people vote for me. So I represent Benita, Springs, North Naples, Estero, Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel, Pine Island, Captiva, and then Gasparilla. You know, Booker Grand. Those people vote for me. I went out and knocked on those doors, I talked to those people. Right now, how the legislat how the the counties run is where like if I was running for my county commission seat, and so that right now that'd be David Moleca's seat, um, they represent Panita, Esther, parts of Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach, but they don't they they get voted on by the whole district. So what happens is is I I take care of my you know my district, but then Cape Coral votes for me, and then Lehigh votes for me, and then you know, all these other parts North Fort Myers votes for me. And what happens is is your your vote gets diluted. Yeah, you get to vote on three of the county commissioners, which is not right. I don't think it's good. I mean, a lot of these county commissioners get more vote than the Congress Congressmen are gonna get, which is kind of crazy. Because it's countywide, so it's it's a crazy situation. So in November, there's a referendum that we did. Um did it with uh my fellow uh uh representative Mike Giulombardo, Tiffany Esposito, uh Vanessa Oliver, Kathleen Pasadomo, Ben Albritt and all all here. Uh we did have one one uh representative who was against it, Jenna Persons More Lica is no longer in the in the uh legislature. She's our uh what is it, supervisors of elections now. Uh she was not uh not for it. Um but anyways, it was a majority. So what's gonna happen? It's going on the ballot in November. And in November, the people of Lee County get to make a decision. Do they want to go back to single member districts? Do they want to be able to elect the person for them and hold those people responsible to those people in their district? I support that. I think it's a great thing. It held you more, it holds you more accountable. It holds you to, you know, I mean, I've had county commissioners come around and oh, I'm in, I'm in North Fort Myers, then I gotta go to Lehigh, then I gotta go to Fort Myers Beach. And you don't have enough time in the day. You know, you you're you're constantly getting run around all these different meetings, and and it's just not it's not a good situation. Um, and it's just not it's not I just don't think it's the right way. I think we need to be represented by your people, and then you need to be held accountable to your people and let your people decide. So we'll see what happens with this race in um Lehigh. It'll be interesting. Uh we'll see where it goes, but we'll we'll definitely have that choice in November to make it single member districts, and I support that 100%, Jay.

SPEAKER_00 32:21

I mean, I do as well. I just I I feel like there's there's too much room for payola and other things that could be, you know, very catastrophic to specific races, which there's a lot of things that could be changed, but that's that's a good start.

SPEAKER_02 32:36

Yeah, no, no, it's gonna be huge for for Lee County. I think that'll be a big thing. And um we need to get the people out to vote for it. Sure. I'm sure there's gonna be some folks that you know that don't want it. You got the development developers who, you know, pretty much don't want this, so we're gonna probably have them fighting against it, along with other county commissioners who don't support it. But yeah, time for a little bit of change. It's good to uh, you know, kick the hornet's nest every once in a while and stir it up because if we don't, that's what happens, right? You gotta you gotta keep them accountable, hold them accountable. So uh indeed. Yeah, so we've a lot about politics. Morning, Jake.

SPEAKER_00 33:16

We're gonna pivot now. We're gonna pivot now. So uh so is today the first day you're gonna be slaying rolls, or is that tomorrow?

SPEAKER_02 33:23

Today, today is the first day. So today we open at noon. Uh it's not an early early opening today. Uh we start slinging rolls here at noon today. Um stuff's coming in, carnival's getting set up, rides are getting set up, so there's a lot of a lot of stuff going on there. We'll be here for a week. So we are we're open from pretty much eight in the morning until eleven o'clock at night uh for the next six days. So I'll be worn out. We're bringing bringing staff up. Uh uh, so my manager's coming up here uh from the marina. She comes up and helps out. I've got some some legislative. It's funny, I've got a a senator's uh son coming up here to help out. Keith Trunell's kids come up, he flies up. I put him to work last year. I had to wake him up a couple times, out on the door, like, let's go. Uh he's a good kid. He's I think he's 18, uh, 19, and then we've got uh a couple other people coming up. So we've got a good crew um of folks, and it's it's work. I mean, it's long days, but it's a great, great, uh, great experience and uh a lot of fun. You know, it's a it's a good little town up here in Midland, Michigan. We look forward to it every year. So we'll be here for the next uh six, seven days. Beautiful. Beautiful. Sling in cinnamon rolls. Uh they're nine dollar cinnamon rolls. They're they're massive, they're huge. You want extra icing? Uh it's a buck, so it's ten bucks. And it's funny, I had a buddy come up one year, and he, I think you might be back up this year, but he's like, Does anybody actually like buy these to go and stuff? Like, yeah. So the next guy comes in the window and says, I'll take 12 with extra icing. $120 worth of cinnamon rolls. We bag them up, and it's like a good 30 pound, you know, 20. It's a good, it's a good, it's a lot of weight. It's a lot of weight, you know. So five, five ten pounds of cinnamon rolls. And we got people that freeze them. This guy takes it home, puts them in a Ziploc bag, freezes them, and then brings them out for Christmas morning, you know. So it's it's it's a crazy tradition. I mean, these people look for me. They used to look for my dad. Cinnamon rolls by Omar. Um, you know, we've got uh there's one guy, this is crazy during COVID. Um, this guy came to the fair, and this was this was probably 20, 30 years ago. Came to the fair, and he had a cinnamon with his date. They went on a date, about the scroll of the affair that had a date, and they had a cinnamon roll, and the guy ended up being his wife, and he would come back every year and he would talk with my dad, and they would, you know, and they would buy a roll and they would share it. It was kind of like a tradition, it was a first date, they went and bought a cinnamon roll. And during COVID, that was the one time in the last 70 years we were up here because the fair was not going out. And the guy went online and found us and found out there was a story that you know, I was talking at the fair, you know, we got into the carnival, you know, we got into the boat business, we had the marina, and he called the office. I was I answered the phone. He's like, hey, this is so-and-so from the Midland County Fair. I want to have this seminar roll. Is there any chance you can ship me one? We've been doing it for so long with my wife, and it's our tradition. And this is COVID stuff, right? And I wanted to help him. I'm like, but sir, I don't have any of the product, I don't have anything here, you know. Go get your Billsberry, go for that. But that was really like that guy was dedicated. Like he he called us, he like he wanted to get that. Um, but we see him every year, so it's kinda kind of a cool situation. There was another situation. Um, we were in Mississippi, and I think I've told you about this. There was a lady who came, we're at the state fair in Mississippi, and she wanted a middle cinnamon roll. And these people like they're they're diehards for these metals, like they want it like seriously, like now. They want the middle cinnamon roll. Um, so uh this lady was having a bad day, right? I don't know what happened, but my dad was there working and there were some employees, and she didn't want this role, she wanted a middle one. My dad's like, no, that's this is what you get. You want to buy another one? I'll I'll give you another one. And she got so mad, she threw it at my dad, like legit, threw it at him and hit him right in the chest. This I mean, just threw it at him and just walked off, stormed off. My dad's like, Are you kidding me? What's going on here? She came back, she came back two days later, apologized, you know, said, I'm sorry, I had a really bad day. You know, there's a lot of stuff going on. My dad gave her another role, and that lady comes back every year in Mississippi. We take a picture, and it's been 15, 20 years, but yeah, legit, threw a cinnamon roll at my dad, like just chucked it out.

SPEAKER_00 38:03

That's a beautiful story. That's obviously a beautiful story.

SPEAKER_02 38:07

I love that. You know, it's just kind of crazy where these, you know, people get so mad. And I mean, hey, everybody has bad days. We all do we all deal with it, but yeah, she comes back every year, and um she gave a uh the last couple years, she gave me like a little gift from my dad and stuff. So that was pretty cool. So yeah, it's it's good to get out here and um you know, get back into the routine and do the stuff and see the people that you know and meet uh in the process, but uh it's it's kind of crazy. Kind of crazy. It's always uh a great uh great upbringing for sure. So but yeah, so we'll be out here, we'll be selling rolls for the next uh next week and uh out here having fun. And uh hopefully I won't have anything thrown at my face. I mean I've had it before. I mean I've I've had people, you know, I'm a bit of a dick, uh quick on a response, so sometimes that gets the best part of me. I've been known to piss off a few people with it. So talk. Happens.

SPEAKER_00 39:06

Hey, you can't let people walk all over you, man. You gotta stand up for yourself. And the customer's not always right. Unfortunately. I mean, especially when you're throwing cinnamon rolls.

SPEAKER_02 39:15

I don't know that that's hey, it happens, it happens. It happens, so but you know.

SPEAKER_00 39:29

So that's you definitely do need to bring that truck here though. And uh you're gonna have to. I mean, we've been talking about this for years, and no one in San Francisco, Florida has to experience a cinnamon roll from Mr. Bertana.

SPEAKER_02 39:42

Well, I've made them. I've made them uh for Christmas a couple of times. I made them, so we'll see if I do it this year. It's always a million things going on. But I knocked out a bunch of trays one time, just did them at my house and and uh gave them to our fellow uh people that work on business and stuff. I just gotta do it again. But it it's a day process, you know, you're gonna knock it out, but it will definitely make them. We'll definitely make them. But they're they're not the same. When you make them here, and you know, it's got the nostalgia. And it's crazy. People people relate food, you know, at fairs is like it brings back memories, right? So people like if you're listening and folks have been to county fairs in in the Midwest, it's a big, it's a big, it's Americana, right? It's Americana. Um, in fact, one of my buddies, uh, he's coming, we're on the phone last night. His name's Blake Houston. He uh his family owns the largest carnival in North America. So they do six or seven uh province state fairs in Canada. They do about 10 or 12 state fairs in in the States, and NBC Nightly News is actually uh riding with them. So they're they're tearing down in Jackson, Michigan, which is about 150 miles from here, and Naples the then the NBC Nightly News is gonna ride with him to Midland, so they're gonna do a circus jump, and they're gonna talk about because his family's been in the business for so long. So he's gonna have a TB crew following him for a day as he sets up, and they're gonna do a whole story on, you know, just uh this pair of pest this this piece of Americana that happens. I mean, fairs are a big thing in the Midwest, in the Northeast. Uh in Florida, there we we do have the the Tampa State Fair, you got the Plant City Strawberry Festival, you have uh Green Cove Springs, Clay County Fair, which is big. You've got West Palm, which is a big one, you got Miami Dade. But in Middle America, I mean, every town has a little county fair. I mean, that's where not everybody has Disney World, right? I mean, it's it's cheaper to go to a Rome than it is to go to Disney World, right? So this is this is Disney World for a lot of people. This is this is real America. You know, people meet their spouses here, they they meet friends and family, the whole county comes out here and it brings a lot of people together. So it's it's pretty cool. So we're excited to see that. So uh my buddy will be walking around with uh I'm just giving crap about a e true Hollywood story. So we'll see what happens. He's gonna have a camera crew following up. So we'll see if it pops up on uh the nightly news, which will be uh pretty cool. So we'll see. We'll see what happens. But the you know, there's a lot of there's a lot of history out here. Um and I got friends out here and and I grew up with them, and now they're all in the business here too. So it's um it's a hard life, but it's it's a lot of fun too at the same time. So it's good to come out for a few weeks like I do, get a little taste, and then head back back home to washing boats. Uh that's the main business. So that pays the bills. This is kind of a working vacation.

SPEAKER_00 42:51

A working vacation. Sorta. You're not wrong. I mean, it's a thousand degrees here, so anything that that's 70 is is beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 43:04

Oh yeah, no, it's uh you know, the grass is soft, it's the Michigan, it's just a nice, uh, nice little uh feel good out here. Get away from the from the heat and go from there. So yeah, it's a lot of a lot of good things, man. A lot of good things. So but um I'm excited to get out here and see that. So be fun for a few weeks. We we might hit the casino one night. There's a big casino down the road. We might go check it out one night after we close. But I mean a lot of the fun happens after we close, too. You know, we have a lot of stuff that happens where um you got stuff that comes up and people want to go out there and and uh, you know, we we after we close at ten, eleven o'clock at night, we'll roll steaks and you know, have our dinner late and then uh get up early in the morning and go right to it. So it's a pretty unhealthy lifestyle, sir. It's not there's not very many skinny carnies out here, I have to tell you. It's not a good lifestyle. I mean, a lot of a lot of hours, a lot of a lot of stuff, a lot of things. But yes, it's it could be a little bit tough. For sure. For sure. So but um yeah. I'm in the lap of luxury in this thing though. Uh so it does a does make it worthwhile. So this isn't better than staying in a hotel for sure. So yeah. How how we doing on time, Jake? We've been rambling here for a while.

SPEAKER_00 44:33

So we got I got about eight minutes.

SPEAKER_02 44:35

Eight minutes. Okay, let's see. Ooh, eight minutes. We can do it. Okay. Um so folks, uh we were talking about earlier, get out there and vote. Make sure you do uh make sure you do your research, make sure you do your things that are that are done right, and uh get out there and you know, cast your ballot. Too many people have died to give you that opportunity not to do it, just to say, hey, I don't know. I'm gonna throw my hands up and not vote for anybody. Um as long as you go in there and you know do your do your part. I don't care if you vote for Mickey Mouse or some write in, make sure you do it. So um just get it get it done, get it done, and go from there. And uh just uh just go out there and do the do the things that need to be done and crush it, and that's the name thing that happens. So we're gonna we're gonna be uh having fun here for sure. And uh hold on one second. Hey, record my podcast. Hello? Hello, I'm rec I'm I'm recording my podcast. So uh but yes. Interesting phone call. Always gotta keep on top of it, so no problem, sir. But uh so we're we're having we're having fun. We're having fun, and then we'll just make sure they get out there and get involved and uh do your do your part because there's a lot of stuff that needs to be done. Make sure you go out there and vote and uh get it done. 100%.

SPEAKER_00 46:18

Indeed. Indeed, get it done. Go out and vote. I did, yeah, I did. They just got a mouthful, is what they got. So it's alright. Don't ignore the red lights. Whenever somebody when somebody has a red light on, you don't walk in their studio. That is that is the rule number one inside radio or any kind of production. Like, do not walk in here when I'm recording, please. I might have to cut that because that sounded very mean, but I don't care.

SPEAKER_02 46:52

I understand. I understand what happens.

SPEAKER_00 46:56

I mean, I've heard your phone just buzzing the whole time.

SPEAKER_02 47:03

The whole time. It just never ends.

SPEAKER_00 47:06

Yeah, it's just a part of uh I you know your phone's buzzing more than like them old school switchboard operators, just switch, switch, switch, switch, buzzing, buzzing, buzzing, buzzing. You know what? I mean before we I mean bring bring back the beepers, man. We need to get dumb phones, the ones you can just call and text on.

SPEAKER_02 47:27

Yeah, just bring back get the jitterbug, you know. It's just a constant connection all the time. And if you don't respond, people are like, what? Why aren't you responding to me right now?

SPEAKER_00 47:45

You know what's funny? Because I had a conversation with someone the other day, and maybe you can take this too. It's like, look, listen, let me tell you something. Nobody in the world has access to me 24-7. I don't care what the phone makes you think, you do not have access to me 24/7. Just because you text me or call me doesn't mean that I am obligated to reach back out to you. Sorry. Back in the day, you had to send a letter, you had to send a telegraph, you had to kind of, you like you said, a pager, you had to like buzz them before to be like, hey, I'm trying to talk to you. And it's like, don't get all out upset and start blowing up, send me three tech messages. Hello, hello, question mark, question mark, question mark, because I'll just ignore you for the rest of my life.

SPEAKER_02 48:23

Yeah, I remember when we flew home, like I used to tell you, we used to fly home and went to see my parents for you know a month or two. Uh, we knew they were gonna call around eight o'clock at night, you know, so there were, you know, they didn't we didn't even have pagers, we didn't have nothing. They had a payphone. You had to go get a calling card, like an ATT calling card, you know, and you would call and you would go through it, and then you would call a payphone and oh, phones ring at 8 o'clock. Hey mom, how you doing? Hey dad, what's happening? You know, and then the guy would be pounding on the outside of the whoop outside of the uh the uh the the there we go, we got it. On the outside of the um well, I lost it here, of the um thing. You know, you're sitting out there like, oh, what's what's going on with this? And that's that's what happened. Is um you know, stuff went like that. So people would be pounding on that, and that's what what would happen, you know. So it would it was but it was a better time, right? You dealt with it and that was it. You just had the certain times you had to be on the phone and certain times you didn't. And I just knocked my camera off for sure. So that it happens. This was happening pain on the counter. Uh, but it was a lot better, I think. You know, you have that time, it's it's crazy, like when your phone breaks, and like it doesn't work. You got like that hour of just like panic, and then like two hours later, you're like, you know what? This is so nice. Like you have the phantom vibrations in your leg because you think the phone's ringing, and then it and then it's just it's just so peaceful. It's great. Love it. So just do a little detox every once in a while. It's okay. Turn the phone off, no fun. It's all good, it's all good.