there's just so much to learn and to integrate and to connect that. It's just get excited about that and that's I hope I've passed that along the enthusiasm for being alive and keep keep learning expanding arises needed. Hello and welcome to the growing older podcast. We will be discussing issues related to aging and hopefully uncover some ways to make growing older go well I am Preston Tyree and I will be joined by my wife and partner johnny Colt as co host and you can expect to hear us co hosting frequently. We are all growing older so we will be talking with people of all ages but the things they think about, worry about and enjoy about the process of growing older, let's get started on our next conversation. Yeah, when I was considering doing a podcast, I had no experience.

In fact was the wrong office, I decided that I needed some help and started searching for a smartphone and a tablet app that could help. I found the anchor site that's A N C H O R. I downloaded the app to my tablet and started using it. I found anchor includes most of the things I need, including recording my voice, music clips and sounds. The best part of anchor for me is that lets me assemble the various pieces of my podcast in a graphic way and then rearrange them. I can also use anchor to post my finished product. Too many different sites so people can listen to my podcast wherever they get their feed. If you're thinking about podcasting, you should at least check out anchor at anchor dot FM. Yeah, I was considering doing a podcast, wondering how to do it and started looking for different things to help and found the tool anchor. It's A N C H O R. And it's an app on my smartphone on my ipad and it seems to help with all of the pieces that I needed to work with those recordings and puts them together and actually put some post them out.

So if you're thinking about doing it, it's thinking about podcasting. Check out anchor. Mm Howie you have a very interesting background. Uh I went and looked at your twitter feed, your twitter account and I got a big kick out of it says party host, ace, text per tour guide, social designer, woodworker, word arranger, radio personality and funny sort period. So we're going to talk about how we met a little bit later but tell us something about, what year were you born, where you grew up? How long you've been in Austin and more about yourself. Well gee whiz um I was born september 6, 1952 in corpus Christi texas and I managed to not grow up but I left home in 1971 to come to Austin and I've been here ever since.

So why did you come to Austin? I wanted to attend the University of Texas, which I did and I got 2° and what are your degrees? I am a bachelor of Art and a Science and ambassador of science and an art. Uh No masters Master of none. Master of. Uh My first degree was in radio tv film which is considered a science. My second was in geography which is considered part of the liberal arts uh social studies and that. So uh I still haven't figured that part out. But uh those those two subjects have been uh occupied a lot of my thoughts ever since. So back when you were entering college, what led you to get interested in radio and in these fields that you picked when I was just a kid. Uh My father suggested I become a disc jockey and uh he he was quite an audio file.

We always had the best sound system on the block. Uh first stereo, first tape recorder, that sort of thing. Last air conditioner. Because we had priorities and I love playing records and talking about them. And that said once you become a disc jockey, I said what a great idea. And I did. Uh came to University of texas and studied radio tv, film emphasis on radio and audio production. And uh ended up working commercial stations and Katie uh which is a nonprofit station and K. O. P. Uh just I love sharing music and talking about it and uh especially the kind that gets people dancing uh moved moved to the groove, get involved that way. That's how you participate in music. You don't just you could just sit there. Uh but you want to join it by uh moving around to the rhythm.

So I'm going to make a big jump now. We'll go from radio, television, film and University of texas to Green Man. Okay. And uh you know, I made that jump because your discussion about music and dancing and stuff. Tell us about the Green man coffeehouse. Um about 2008 linda and I had uh had some best who is linda linda is my wife. Uh then then I had a couple best friends who are also spouses and Michael and Irene, Michael is from Canada Irene's from Wisconsin. Uh, but they had just moved to Austin. Uh, I don't know a couple years previously we met I met Michael on the radio actually during a K. O. P. Interview that he had, he's rather run down climate scientist. And uh we we realized we had a lot in common and we started hanging out and they lived not too far from us in uh in a nearby neighborhood and we looked around and just thought, well, you know, there really isn't a place to go in and uh have coffee and discuss great ideas and foment revolution and things like that.

Maybe we should, what do we do about this? Well let's start our own coffee house and we could just like instead of doing in the bar and we can do it right here on our front porch, in the neighborhood front porch because we're open to the street. Uh We need, we thought we'll just start our own. And in 2009 Green man coffeehouse was born as a, as a place to uh hang out and uh be silly talk, big ideas, uh enjoy beverages and snacks, uh occasional movie, um frequent live music because we do a lot of musicians. Uh and it was a small, it was small at first because we don't have a very large front porch, but the idea was were open to the street and hoping to pull in some nearby uh neighbors and friends and started uh issuing invitations. Had every every every uh week was a different theme.

So people could say, okay, we'll see this time we're going to study comedy or around april Fool's Day, we have a comedy show, so people come bring a joke and share it with people uh are some famous person's birthday or one time we observed the sacking of Rome that happened on that day and you know, way back. And that's an important thing to remember. So I played songs about bags and sacks and things saxons um and it just sort of took off and became its own thing. I mean he said we have to be regular. So okay, we're open every friday. That remains, it just sort of took on to say say a life of its own. And it's been going ever since we had a great leap forward when um, a friend of ours, a musician builder, uh, erected a pavilion in our backyard, uh, which serves as an outdoor room.

Lots more space. I built a big table and bar for it. And that's where we have Green men today are Fridays and uh, same thing with music themes, um snacks and beverages and, and neighbors and friends come over and and wish well and it's a private venue. So you know, we're not, we're not the business, we're not selling anything. Um, and really open to the public. I mean you have to know us in order to get invited. That's how we keep the crowds down. Uh, you never know. Sometimes we've had some people show up that nobody knew and how this person to get here and what's, you know, it was not a pleasant experience because there was, there was, the world is full of trickery and it's, there's a level of trust that we have to maintain. We keep running into people across awesome who have been at Green man. Oh my goodness. You know Daniel Norton for instance.

Yes, yes and sarah card and yes, experience people that we turns out, we know quite a few people in common. It's amazing. And just like when linda and I met, we had a lot of friends in common and we probably would have met eventually anyway, So I think this is the same is true with you guys. We were destined for this. Yes. Uh um uh speaking of linda, we met her first, she showed up in our class and we do twice a week. It's totally volunteer outside in the uh weather for Kobe. And then very soon after she showed up at tai chi, we were invited by some other friends to go on a camp out down in castroville texas and were there and who should drive up but linda with Howie Richie and his camper, his truck that's been converted to a camper.

And so it was really nice to see that we have lots of mutual friends that are making this community. You mentioned coffee house. I'm going to go out on a tangent here. You mentioned coffeehouse and coarse coffee houses as I understand the history and caffeine are one of the things that the intellectual discussions and so forth was a really, really important aspect. And um coffee houses now have become a place you go and sit and work on your computer. What a shame. Yeah. My big dream and we can talk about this later. But my big dream since I moved to Austin was to build a community uh sponsored and owned coffeehouse personal growth center. And uh read a book called the third place. Yeah, you've got work most people and you got home, but there's a third place that's neither of the either of the two, but it's important and uh it has examples of coffee houses or cafes or um uh churches sometimes to coffee houses and it's a place where people can come together and uh dialogue about great ideas and and uh that's a that's a way to build community.

I think they may start with A. G. And I haven't quoted in several places and documents that I have put together um supporting this, going back to a coffee house that serves some of the purposes that they used to serve this whole concept that you had. Uh how about a third place? Uh We've talked about that five years ago and he's talking about her coffee house and the fact it's a third place uh what we are calling it ac three uh our place is what I was. And so it's it's interesting that you bring that back up because this is something only you certainly been talking about for at least as long as I've known her and I've known her about five years now. This is a podcast about growing older. So let's ask a few of those kind of questions. What has surprised you have you have grown older? What made you say?

Well, I didn't expect that uh first thing I noticed was receiving here uh I guess and that's because uh because we were a year on zoom instead of meeting in person, that we kept we kept three men going uh across the internet and that's had its charms, but it's it's also, there's nothing replaces being together in person. But I started looking at my, the image on the screen of myself and uh I guess I am looking older and uh noticed I don't know some physical things that I still feel in pretty good shape, but sometimes my balance seems to go south just for a moment and I think I'm even more active mentally that I've ever been so much to think about.

Uh Yeah. So what are you thinking about these days? Well, let's see community and travel and building things and being with family and uh history and geography and uh electronics and books, Words and things. Just, just my usual stuff. So you've got a big birthday coming up in about a year. Uh I have one every year. You have won every hand. Someone coming up soon and I'll be 69 on september 6th. Uh that's uh that party will uh across the Labor Day weekend, which is, it's appropriate to being born Labor Day. It happens every once in a while, but that's when I'll be celebrating my 50 years in Austin because I came here september uh 71. Okay, I was turned 19.

What about that time? And I figure I I found the fountain of youth since I moved to Austin. I'm still 19. I'm celebrating the 50th anniversary of being 19. That's great back there when you moved to Austin in 19 2 questions. One is what did you expect your life look like at 60 and two? Did you ever have a vision of how long you expected to live? I had no idea about either. It didn't cross my mind. I remember thinking about that at all. I guess I watched my parents age that was a generation ahead of me. But I know I I never never gave it much thought, you know, your grandparents. Uh I had I knew just my my paternal grandmother, the other said already passed on before uh I was around. So yeah, getting old had to do with being like a grandmother. Uh I watched, I watched the decline and finally passed and uh, I was sad, but, but I guess I, you know, didn't dawn on me until my dad died that say, all right, I'm gonna be joining the parade and exiting the stage and uh thank goodness I've got two Children to bury me or whatever and they will, they will go on as well.

So, uh I think of aging. It's almost always think about that. Yeah. And what that's what that entails. What did you learn growing up and you said you've never grown up? Okay, I'll accept that. What did you learn as you were growing, that you're passing along to the next generation and your two Children. Uh I think this is always something to celebrate. I might as well do that. It's just possible. Uh Green man, It's always a celebration of something and the other parties we do always celebrating something and there's just so much to learn and to integrate into connect that it's just get excited about that. And that's I hope I've passed that along the enthusiasm for for being alive and keep keep learning expanding horizons. Are you and your family planning for the time when you or someone close to you is no longer able to be independent, Staring us in the face right now because I have three sisters uh went over to younger, one lives in Germany the other to live in Texas.

Our mother just turned 99 still living uh in her in our childhood home. Uh she needs a lot of help, but she's um not going after it maybe being stubborn is keeping her alive, but she's just she's with she's not interested in, she needs help like many hours a day, but she's she's trying to get by with only a couple a day and it's frustrating for us because she's got money, she can afford this. But being a child of the depression. Uh yes and uh of immigrant parents, so a lot of things were hitting on her that that uh slightly different notion of money and there's never enough and it never will be enough and you you just don't just don't spend money, not even throw anything away. Uh She she was both my parents kept things for a long time, but uh it's not there were I wouldn't say hoarders but yeah they hold held onto things.

Um So she she would much rather save money then get help. Which just makes sense. Uh There it is. And so yeah that's that's that's a lesson that's hanging out there for myself and my sisters about what are we going to handle it? How how how are we going to prepare for it? And you have a relatively new wife have been married 16 years Now. We've got married in 2005. You are working on these arrangements to take care of each other. Uh We're trying to decide how long to stay in our present domicile. Okay. Uh Because it could be it could be probably retrofitted with A D. A. Stuff but it's just a little fifties house and at some point we'll probably have to leave and go where Well. Cohousing sounds pretty good. Yeah so that's one of the the joint things that we found that we were interested in is this whole discussion of co housing in different different forms of housing.

Uh Not just for older people but for everyone this is the last big question we're going to ask after that we can play what are you doing to continue to grow mentally emotionally and spiritually as you age. Uh um Since I just retired last week I'm trying to work out uh things that I'm trying to get organized about how to do that and I've begun a new habit called the bullet journal and it's a, it combines writing about your day with scheduling and uh personal growth. And again, I'm just, I'm just barely scratching the surface just started. But uh I've been doing morning pages for a number of years and this is sort of a logical extension of that. Uh I'll be not having to go to work every day.

I'll have to come up with my own schedule and my own projects and goals and things that will uh fulfill my time and and keep me on the path towards ever greater acquisition of knowledge, learning and hopefully uh something called wisdom that I can pass on to others wisdom, great thought, what is wisdom to you? I've heard so many catchy uh memes about it, uh it's age plus plus smarts plus, I guess heart, I mean it's not just knowing things, nobody cares what you know, until somebody knows you care. Where did that come from as my friend brian proteins, something, he's a singer songwriter, lived in Austin for a while and nose up in the pacific northwest and that keeps you going through my mind walking and nobody when they thought you can always stop facts.

But if it doesn't relate to anything that's happening, it's just, you're just showing off, we don't want to do that at the point any fingers, I get accused of that occasion. Well, you know, it relates and um I don't know the best. There's two, there's only two good conversation rules, ask questions and listen, You've got a little speechless which is really good. That doesn't happen to us. To where is that? So this diagram that I put together, uh, we've simplified it. It used to have like 45 here, age 45 is that, you know, there's aspects of us that are deteriorating, they're going down. But there are aspects of us that can be growing and this is kind of the wisdom. This is the journey in here.

So it's going this way that way. Okay. It's about the visuals. Yeah. Okay. I get it that way. But this side is lower than it. This is the deterioration. This is the deterioration of this way. Yeah, ability this way or whatever you want, whatever that. Okay, so what's the question it is you brought up the word wisdom and that we when we started an aging in neighborhood group in Miller because no one was addressing aging and Miller, no one was doing anything about this group and I lived in wildflower terrorists, which is built for that. Yes. Yes. Well we won't go into that discussion.

Yeah. Anyhow. I finally started a committee called aging in neighborhood under the miller neighborhood association and I don't want to get real negative here because I could go down that path. So now we're renewing those efforts. The older people are such an asset if we can take care of them. So Ty and I were a fairly new couple and he got involved and when we were thinking of starting, um we were actually um seen on television by the owner of Bt Riley's and and that's when we got, he came to my apartment, so what can I do? And I said, well give seniors a discount and of course he said 25% including alcohol, which is just off the charts in terms of the kind of discount they usually give seniors.

And as we were talking about what this would be, we decided to call it, the Wisdom Crew. The Wisdom Crew has made a huge difference, particularly to the newer people coming to the neighborhood because that's where they've hooked up and created friends. Uh we're kind of now after coming out of the pandemic, it's like, well what's next? What's next? And you mentioned, one of the things you do is stay active and you've started tai chi and uh we're running a whole effort to get a senior fitness playground started here. Uh and you know what we've got in this wisdom crew, we've got over 100 people put $10 up to be a member for a year. And besides two hours at the local pub with the discount, what's there. And so part of it is this discussion we're having right here is let's get some podcast, let's get some people on record is that what they're doing and where they're going?

Uh but part of it is we're also looking at, we have a bunch of writers in the group. So why don't we put that together? And there's some musicians in the group. So you know, anyway, there's lots of options that we can do and we've got all these people in a fairly confined space uh you know, less than two miles across in any direction hoping to find other people that start things. And you know, it could be like once a week like Greenman. Absolutely. We could be doing other things once a week because not everybody is going to want to the Green man. I know you find that hard to believe how, but uh, you know, some people want to do something else. And so what we are trying to create, we're trying to build a community and particularly focusing on the older population, as my dad always said, age is but a frame of back Yeah. What did your father do?

He was a chemical engineer, but he was really a comical engineer. I mean he's, if I'm funny at all is because of my dad, he's just, he's all the time with puns and jokes and and uh laughter and uh you really love the english language. God, we've noticed, you know, the play on words is something that I just greatly enjoy about you where the mere toys to me, but they're also tools. So you said you just retired. What did you do? I spent I spent 34 years not altogether 34 years working for the Senate of the state of Texas as a proof reader and editor. So tell what is that like being an editor of for the Senate in texas? It's really exacting. It's just it's technical and it's like, like engineering is extremely technically going to minute detail about what if we move this comment from here to there or protectors come out and the whole meaning of the whole thing changes and millions of people are affected by this one little bitty mark on a page.

So that's something we talk about. Is this the right word? What would there be a better word? Yes, but we can't change it. Why not? Because we can't exceed our authority and on and on and on and off. We went around around around. It is awfully frustrating at times because of that because uh you know, it's the phrase is wrong, but you know, that's what you do about it. Maybe they meant it to stay vague on purpose so they can give themselves wiggle room, right? And we don't know, it's not up to us. We're just servants were not the officials making the laws. So how is the editing different than the legislative council? Uh I worked in office called engrossing and rolling and they were the Senate equivalent of the texas Legislative council, which mostly deals with House stuff, it's the house is five times bigger. This five times the staff. But some senators still use the council as we call it, for uh drafting bills and resolutions.

Okay so you draft a bill then you get it copy proofread, copyrighting, edited and then once it goes to the floor, do you have a chance to do anything with? It depends on what stage, because when it gets to the floor uh the senators can amend it there, they can amend it in committee before it gets to the floor. Uh They can go to conference committee with the House and they can amend it there. So it just it just depends on the stage. I'm curious um is there any retirement that comes from retiring from that? Uh State of texas has excellent retirement system. So the years I worked there have been to my advantage employee retirement system of texas is a very powerful organization. E. R. S. Yes, I'm glad to hear that for you. Well I'm glad to combine that with Social Security and I'm going to be in good shape here come next month, I'm not sure but I think I'm gonna be making more money in retirement than I was working.

Which sounds too good to be true. It probably is, but at least I won't be losing ground. Yeah, that's great. Great. Yeah, I'm glad for you and in some sense that's freedom, you're going to have a freedom of time and to allocate your time and your money in different ways. Once you have your basics covered, then you're not worried about food or shelter, then you can, you can be creative and you can branch out self actualization. Uh that's, that's a little bit more hyper luminous. It's called Self Sufficiency. Okay. Yeah. So what are you dreaming right now? What you're beginning to dream? Uh well again, I'm just trying to uh kind of organized uh hoping to take a long trip maybe. He said his next month. I have my 50th high school reunion coming up in october, it will be in corpus.

And uh my big retirement party coming up around summer solstice and my birthday party and just one thing after another, uh linda noticed that when I'm building something I'm, I seem to be the happiest. So I'm looking to see what other, what else I can build. We have the, we have the furniture and the pavilion, but we also have a bed said, which is a tiny house in the backyard that we built and a tool shed that we built designed and built and I think you want to see what else can we put back here. And uh, I'm looking at, gosh, there's uh, there's a vertical wind turbine that, that's really efficient and it might be interesting to build uh and uh from my dad, I inherited the interest and the passion of a good sound, audio, audio philia and I've got some of his old mono equipment that I'm trying to restore to uh get it pumping out the music again.

When, when we were over at your house, I was interested in some of the equipment. I assumed you and your dad built out that the equipment that it still has tubes in it. Oh yes. Can you still find tubes? Oh yes, you can tubes where it's at. I mean, you can't, you just can't get better than tubes. You can plug and play them out hard to do that with a pretty circuit board. It can be done. Everything, everything is getting hybridized today. Uh it's a good thing because, because tubes are not absolutely by any means. So you've been in Austin like 50 years and I know having lived in here nine years that it's changing. How do you see Austin aging in a good way versus not such a good way. And how does that affect you personally? Oh, I don't know. I read that it's becoming a destination for aging.

It's a popular place to come retire. And that's, that's kind of curious to me. It just seems way too busy with all the growth and uh traffic and congestion and everything and I'm not sure why anybody would want to want to move here if it's just, it's so hectic and, and, and all that, but fine. Uh and those of us have been here so long, or uh, really, really lament the things we've lost the venues and restaurants and uh, even the scenic landscapes just, they've all evolved changed uh, in some places sometimes degraded. So, you know, it's just a different, different city than it was in 1971. And you can try to hold on to that. You can talk about it. Uh, lead tours about this hole in the ground is where uh, armadillo used to be and a lot of cool things happen there, But it's just that there's nothing left, but you can tell the stories.

That's all it is telling stories. And I don't know what I mean. It seemed like Mueller was a great thing. I say, dealer, you say miller potato. So it seemed like miller Mueller was a great thing. What's underneath that comment? Um, very few cities have a sudden seven or acre piece of land that they can do whatever they want with in the middle of town. It's like, oh, okay, What should we do? Well, uh, let's build a village inside the city. Great. How would, how would be laid out? Well this and that. And uh, I think, uh, I think it's called the new urbanism and it's actually the old urbanism, front porches, sidewalks, walk ability. I mean, all these things that, that, uh, used to make cities attractive. They come back and there were, there were several other places in texas that did that perform your liver.

Now, this is a prime example of it and I'm impressed with how they laid it out with all the parks and greenbelts and they bike lanes and walking trails and things. This is all very interesting. And yes, you assume you can from here, you can walk to the market district and you can walk to the pub or like to try to the pub. This, that's all very good. Uh the rest of Austin is, is a pretty bad reputation were not being back friendly for not being a pedestrian friendly because again, uh uncontrolled growth city council is always a trouble making decisions. I mean way back and what may be the best idea just sometimes doesn't happen, but I think Miller is doing it at least partially right a lot of it. Uh and as someone who's living adjacent to miller or Mueller and what would you do?

You see any things that are not working in Miller? Uh honestly, when I drive through, I don't see that many people out working, maybe I just, I'm here at the wrong time of day, maybe those folks are still working and so maybe it's busier in the evening. I have not be interesting to spend 24 hours on this place and just see the rhythms. So I am always amazed as we go out riding during the day being as old as we are, we have that freedom and people complain about the traffic and we go out riding and there is no traffic, you know the streets, there's lots of parked cars, but even crossing the main street, Berkman, we vary, so we have to stop and wait for traffic. It has changed partly because of the covid and partly because they put stop signs in. Uh so it's not a straight, it's not a straight route uh that it was for a while.

Uh I would, I would say uh that this lack of preparing for older people wasn't planned, nor was there a community center planned. Uh We can talk about that off mike. Uh however, you have this perspective having been in Austin for 50 years and been in the neighborhood just to the north of miller so that you've watched this, he's shaking his head up and down. You can't hear it right. It's amazing how we, I think one of the things that intrigued me about you is you wrote a book, Oh yeah, that's the perfect book for how you write. What was your book? Tell us about it. Why did you take that on again?

It was uh working with words for so many years and hanging out with people who worked with words and you can have a reader. Uh there was this little voice saying right about right about me, I just can't do that. Look, okay, No, really write a book. All right, I was still still actively leading tours around the around town and the easiest thing would be, would be just to uh write a book about things to do in Austin history of Austin or architecture of Austin or something like that. Guess what? There's 100 books about Austin already uh have to do something different, something that some nice that hasn't been uh filled yet and knowing my own propensity for celebration, I thought, what about Austin parties? What about festivals and gatherings?

And uh, this book company had approached me to write a book. Okay, great. And I said, well, how about this idea? They said, let's do it. So wow, I just, just, that's how it started and uh did research and interviewed people and gathered photos and other stories and came out. It all came together and there it is and it's probably on your shelf here somewhere. It better be. Yeah, we got one. Yeah. So is it available on amazon and said, oh, that's out there. Okay. And what's the name of the book? Party weird party weird and how's it doing? Uh it's kind of a sleeper. It had initial burst of, of sales and then it sort of declined a while. Uh, there was a guy who found, I don't remember how he found it. There's a fellow who's on tv um who leads tours around his neighborhood, but he found the book and he talked about it on, on his tv show and suddenly I got a spike in sales, wow this, I can do this myself now that I've got time.

Right? I can I can start promoting my book some more and I bet you I'll uh see uh see the sales increase and there may well be a sequel. Alright we will uh put links in the show notes. Thank you to the book. Uh that's that's not a broad uh that was you know that's what we try to do is make sure that people can find out what's going on. So is there anything you want to finish up with uh party on, keep celebrating, keep making connections, keep learning, walk fast, think fast. Be active, active. Get together with friends. Yeah that's it would be nice if miller had a community center. That's that we ought to explore that some more. We we would love to have you sit down and look at the work we've done on that subject. Okay. With texas A and M.

Architecture school. Yes. And uh that'll be fun to bring linda back sometime and we'll sit down and open up that book. I'd also like to talk to you about a cough coffeehouse idea after we turn off the mic. A third place. Yeah. Third place what his name started with a G. Wasn't good in time but Gutenberg or something like that. Yeah, I got the book and there was a sequel. Yeah. Very last words. Only cold. Well having only known you for a brief period time, I had this sense that we've only scratched the surface yet you mentioned that you know, you've just been retired for a week. So in some ways you're just scratching the surface for yourself of what this is like. It's only the beginning. My friends.

It's gonna be fun to look back from five years and see what happened. We should live so long. We should live so long. Yeah. Special times in our lives. You want to talk about your birthday Honey just turned 80. I remember. Yeah, I miss the celebration. I'm still working. I know you're still working the circle that people we know in comedy. Just growing every day. So it's been fun to have you on board. Have you talked to appreciate your having me and we will. Uh So the next thing we do is get your wife linda on. She said, well, I'm not so sure but how we would love to do it if you were, if you were to describe yourself, how would you describe yourself? What makes you unique? What makes you Howie uh mushrooms? Because I'm a fun guy and that's the epitome of how you richie.

It's a play on words and but he's fairly serious. Just I've always wanted to be an interesting person. I think maybe I can check that off the list. Thank you again. I look forward to uh hanging out with you all some more. Maybe you can invite me to help co host one of these podcasts. That would I think that would be a blast. And we can talk, you know, find some really characters. Uh huh. That wraps up another growing older podcast. Hope you enjoyed it and maybe learn some things to help you age Well, this is present. Terry signing off. Mhm.