Snowpocalypse and Snowblowers (Hour 1)

They had a good morning once again after an amazing weekend One that I want to forget forever.

I know you do as well, you know, right?

Yeah Yeah

If I could only wipe it out of my memory I would yes

now what what are we doing with snow in November?

I mean, what's that story all about there?

Gordy, you're a weatherman.

You're a former weather guy.

You know

all

about this.

Yeah, no, I don't know anything about it.

I try to not pay any attention to any weather forecast ever because people ask me all the time.

I don't know just what, you know, it's all in your phone.

Everybody's got a phone, right?

Everybody asks you.

Phone took over all the jobs of the weather people.

They trust you.

Oh,

they want to

trust somebody.

They can't trust the phone.

Well, yeah, what kind of society do you think we have people trusting in an inanimate object?

Come on, man.

Get it together.

Okay.

Do we have a society in here anymore?

No, we don't.

I think you're right.

We dissolve that.

Happy December.

Hey, it's Monday and John and Gordy back in the mornings again for today.

Yeah, and there we are.

It's cold out there this morning.

We're at 10 degrees some.

Why don't you check your WMDX Samsung watch?

Do you have it handy?

Is it near your wrist?

It is.

I see it there now.

So what would you like?

Well, I'm saying it's 10 degrees, but there are other reports are saying it's even colder out there.

So I want to make sure to get the accurate temperature so we can project.

Well, it's

about 14 degrees according to the official Samsung weather watch.

Okay.

And it feels like 14.

Okay, and high today of 27.

All

right,

low to mid to 14 again.

Mid 20s and we might get a little bit of light snow later on today, maybe another inch or

so.

No, no, no, no.

And then some more later Tuesday going into Wednesday, some more

snow.

Where the hell did you get the

possibility of snow again?

It's winter, man.

What?

And I think, I think, I could be wrong about this, but I think today is the shortest day of the year.

Oh, let

me check.

Yeah, could you check on that Dominic Lee, our producer, in the mornings here?

And he had an interesting Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

He'll tell you about that in a moment.

Okay, snow around, it's expected to start picking up at about 11 a.m.

and increase to about 45% chance.

That's something in

all afternoon.

Not a lot of accumulation though, I don't think.

I mean, unless you're... There's nothing

on here about accumulating.

Okay.

They said the shortest day is the winter solstice, which is December 21st.

December 21st.

I must have been

hallucinating

or

dreaming.

You're

right, accumulation up to one inch.

All right.

Yeah,

so not too bad.

You know, if one inch is like what happened over the weekend, then I'm not very happy about the whole idea.

Look, I think Madison had about 10.1 inches, something like that, somewhere in that neighborhood, but there were some places got even more than that.

I saw a chart

of the accumulations around the area,

and I

saw 12.4 inches.

Okay.

So, and

that was

right.

at the area of Madison.

Okay.

Well, it's very possible.

My wife measured about 11 inches.

Okay.

So

there you go.

There's a lot of it out there and it's going to stay there for a while because of course it is

cold and yeah, it's going to, it's going to just embed

in, freeze.

chunks of ice and stuff all over the place.

Hey, we have an early morning phone call from Matt in Middleton.

Should we check in with Matt?

Oh, why not?

Matt, happy December.

How was your Thanksgiving?

Weather blows.

I

tried blowing it and it didn't it didn't exactly work.

No, and I just wanted to talk about my job.

You know, they had us out Saturday delivering.

mail and packages, and I just have to question the thought process of these companies because it's really quite stupid.

When I moved back to Wisconsin, my father made me get winter tires, and ever since I did that, I see the clear difference in how much safer it is.

But these companies preach safety to us all the time, and then they give us two-wheel drive

Vans that are awful And you're getting stuck and having possible accidents every half hour as the snow gets deeper, right?

Yeah And I was out there and I talked to a FedEx guy They called the Amazon people back at like three o'clock or something but yet we're out past five and Instead of investing in actual safety, which is chains or snow tires or something.

Yeah

They'd rather pay the insurance on whatever accident happens or whatever person gets killed,

right?

And that's capitalism, and I can't stand it.

And

that's

my rant.

Works

for

me,

man.

I feel safer on a sled being cuddled by dogs.

Well, maybe that'll be the way they deliver the mail in the future.

We might need it this winter.

Oh, boy.

Oh, I know.

I'm glad you...

We're able to stay safe through all that.

Yeah,

it's crazy to even think that you'd be out on Saturday.

Geez.

Thanks for that call, man.

Yeah, that's crazy.

Well, that happened to me over the weekend.

I have a pretty crazy story.

I was going on Saturday morning to my girlfriend's house, Chicago, to West Bend, and I spun out, did a full 360 on the expressway.

How fast were you going?

I was going about 60.

So it was still fast.

It was a little fast for snow, but still.

No,

that's really fast

doing

it.

Spinning out

at 60 miles an hour?

I ran into the barrier.

I hit the barrier and got a flat tire, so I was stuck on the expressway.

It was really bad.

Oh, no.

So

who came out to help you?

I had to call AAA because I didn't have all the parts.

I didn't even have a jack.

Wow.

Were you in a lane where people had to go around you or were you off the

side there?

I mean I was in a lane where people did have to go around me, but luckily no one was out.

I mean there was no one there, so I didn't have that was not an issue luckily, but I mean it was still terrifying.

Yeah, that is that is really awful

So I missed a little bit of my girlfriend's Thanksgiving dinner.

Sorry guys.

I suppose they didn't forgive you either.

So your car is damaged too?

Car is damaged as well, but luckily I got all new tires yesterday.

All new tires.

So exactly what Matt was saying.

I got good tires, good traction.

Which side of your car hit the guardrail?

It was the back passenger.

side of the car.

I wasn't hurt, but it was still pretty scary.

You got some damage that has to be repaired.

This week I got to go in.

That's too bad.

Wow.

That's a horror story right there.

That was my fun.

I'm going to ask anyone out there, I know this is really early in the morning, even come up with a question, but

Maybe you can give me a tip on buying a new snowblower, okay?

What?

Did you just

get one?

Something that's more effective in the snow that we had over the weekend.

Please, you know, all I'm doing right now is just looking for a snowblower that works in the kind of snow that we had, especially like, you know, clearing out yesterday.

Yeah.

I mean, we had all the snow overnight and then boom, you know.

I couldn't blow all the snow.

I took half of it off before Sunday.

Sunday is Saturday night.

And that was good.

It just worked perfectly.

And then it got heavy and it became wet.

And then I ended up pushing the snow more than blowing it.

So I don't want to push snow.

I want it to blow.

And I'm tired of this crap.

I'm, you know, I've made excuses for that snowblower for at least four or five years.

Every year I say, well, you know, this year we'll probably not have wet snow.

And that has not happened.

Every year the snow gets wetter and wetter and heavier and heavier, and it's not working.

I'm tired of this.

Anybody have any kind of snowblower?

Recent, more recent snowblower, because I want it.

get a new one.

Yeah.

Let me know, you know.

Why don't you get one of those little snow plow things that you see on the sidewalks there with the, it's kind of enclosed.

You gotta, like, I can't.

No.

No.

No, no, no, no, no.

What you're doing, how many driveways are you doing?

Like three or four driveways around your house?

We have, you know, the neighbors, you're nice to your neighbors, you help them out, right?

Well, the city said they couldn't make a court.

I would have the driveway that we have because of the entrance.

Really?

Yeah,

it's too narrow.

So

they said, no, we can't make a court out of it where they could plow it themselves.

So it's that size.

It's almost a court and not quite.

And I had to do the whole driveway and the sidewalk and in front of my house, which is huge and long.

It's a public sidewalk in front of my neighbor's house as well, because I help everybody out.

And that thing

was just a damn nightmare.

And then my son had to go across the street, because the woman over there could not get out of her driveway.

She didn't have anybody to plow it.

So she asked us to help her out.

So I had my son go over there and do it.

But I mean, seriously, the thing is, when you look at these snowblowers, they have very serrated edges on the rotating blades.

Mine don't exactly have

a very serrated edge.

There is something there, but not like they make them today.

I'm thinking that has a lot

to do with it.

I could be

wrong.

How old is your snowblower?

Oh man, it's about, oh, 10 years old.

But it's a Troy built and it's got this extra blade in front.

Now a lot of

people don't know, it's like a three stage.

It's got a blade that faces...

flatly faces the front

and

it blows all the snow into the impellers and then the impellers, you know, shoot it out of the shoot.

But it's like, I don't think that's working

very

well.

It looked like a good idea.

It looked like it could really go through the snow and it's, and it's not doing that for me.

So I'm done.

I'm done.

I've, I've kept my fingers crossed for no wet snow for the last three or four years and I am done with this stuff.

How about a flame?

Thrower.

Would that work?

Just get the flames.

Oh,

yeah.

Fire that up and just blast

away.

Oh, that would work.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I want you to look into

that.

Can I take into that in a consideration?

You know, I have mice, you know, too, and they

appear

under the sink every once in a while.

Are they still there?

Yeah.

Yeah, I capture them live and put them out into the field to freeze to death.

You know, just

my humane way of dealing with mice.

What are you going to do now that we've got all this 13 degrees and still take them across the street into the field?

I

do.

Just throw them

in the

snow?

I do.

When was the last time you got one?

Was it recently?

This morning, about 45

minutes

ago.

It happens at all times of the day.

I tell you, my wife and I just, I think that's our new life.

Saving mice.

That's

sad.

Well, we got a lot of things going on this week.

You know, we have Giving Tuesday is tomorrow, December 2nd.

You'll hear a lot about that over the today and tomorrow.

And then on Thursday, Pete Schwabba will be showing his movie, The Godfather of Green Bay, Thursday night at Wood Music Hall.

We've got Steve Cochran this morning.

We're going to talk to him from Chicago.

Find out the latest there.

in our seven o'clock hour and Pam Yonkey right around the corner, right?

With the Midwest Food and Farm Report, Fabulous Farm Babe coming up next.

It's all happening on this Monday edition of John and Gordy in the Morning.

I can't wait.

Coming right back.

Oh, yeah, there was a winner a go-go this weekend.

Yeah, that's right.

Whoo looks like winter out

there this

morning to

happy

December

WMP X 92.7 It's John and Gordy in the morning.

We'll be back again this afternoon as well Yeah, but right now Yes, very special guest Pam Yonkey is with us.

Good morning Pam.

Oh, it looks like Pam got bounced

out.

What?

Hold on, hold on, she's coming back in.

Please stand by.

So

much for technology here.

I'm trying to show off.

I thought I was going to try something new today.

And it's beating me.

It is kind of like your snowblower.

It is working against me.

Technology is working against me today.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Well, we've got to work through it somehow.

I mean, we talked just fine during the break.

Oh, well, all right.

Well, okay, let's let's talk about the hemp industry being threatened by what happened In the big bad bill and everything else in the end plus, you know, everything is going wrong as far as that is concerned and they're blaming the individuals who who make hemp and make hemp products for trying to get around the law when I just think it's just entrepreneurship basically

Right.

And you know, that's just it.

I was visiting with the president of the Wisconsin hemp farmers and manufacturers association.

You got to remember a lot of these people have put a lot of time, sweat and energy trying to restart an industry that Wisconsin dominated back in the 1930s when hemp was being used still in the manufacturing of rope.

Now they've invested in infrastructure.

They've invested in acres.

If you're going to grow hemp in Wisconsin, it is not a cheap undertaking, but just the seed alone is

very expensive, then you have to make sure that you're basically putting a fence around it to make sure that it's not destroyed by livestock.

But more importantly, that it can be monitored as far as the level of THC in the plant.

So there's a lot of investment.

And then there's a lot of storefronts that have been created for the byproducts.

Maybe it's the grains, maybe it's the oils, maybe it's some of the edibles.

And that's really what's at risk.

So later today, I'm going to find out, I understand that legislation is being pulled together by Wisconsin

Senator Pat Teston, who is the chair of the Agriculture and Tourism Committee, and he's trying to do what he can to protect Wisconsin's hemp industry from the federal level enforcement of basically taking the industry away.

How this all got started, according to my sources, were that Mitch McConnell had a check written to him that basically they helped escort in

the demise of the hemp industry through the big beautiful.

So a lot of different things that were going on in the background that nobody was even aware of because things were moving so fast and then the federal government shut down.

So I'm trying to do a little deeper dive into what's been happening as far as this, you know, how can this happen?

And it's not just Wisconsin.

It's the hemp industry across the United States that is swirling the drain hole right now and could potentially go down.

The other thing that we have to remember is that we've got to get some action on this pretty quickly.

If a Wisconsin hemp grower wants to proceed with the 2026 growing season, they've got to make that decision in the next four months.

Now the enforcement of the...

hemp going away doesn't kick in for a year.

But again, like I've been discussing with the farmers, they've got to make planting decisions this spring.

Some of them were going to be expanding acres because demand has been up.

Others were looking at new sites as far as different varieties in that.

So they've got to make those decisions literally right now.

And they need a little assurance.

We're hearing from states like Ohio,

that their state legislature is already trying to craft workarounds to basically say that may be on the books, but we're not going to enforce it in the state.

And I'm kind of waiting to see what Pat Teston is thinking about as far as Wisconsin's version of trying to keep that industry in place.

But yeah, it was a big surprise to hemp producers and hemp manufacturers that this made it in.

But like I said, it was one of those backdoor deals out in Washington DC that happened while everybody was focused on Medicare, Medicaid.

food stamps, snap, et cetera.

It kind of, I don't want to say took our eye off the ball, but didn't even know it was part of the conversation.

So I'll have

more.

It was such a huge piece of legislation that should have been debated and it should have been talked about.

My God, it was just outrageous.

And I guess the only real way to get around it, I guess, is to legalize marijuana.

I think that's,

that's where we get into problems.

Marijuana is a cousin.

of hemp.

It is not hemp.

Hemp is something that you can still find in ditches around Wisconsin because when we grew it back in the 30s, it basically went wild.

So you'll see hemp.

That is where we have to define hemp is non THC, non hallucinogenic, if you will.

Cannabis, it's cousin is the one you're talking about.

Yeah.

All right, well, I'm just making suggestions, that's all.

Let's

just make it legal, okay?

I'm pushing drugs here on the ship.

Okay, let's talk about high fructose corn sugar.

That is huge, and I've been taking my kids off of it, buying less products, fewer products, rather, with high fructose corn sugar.

What are we looking at on that now with the MAHA move?

mint out there.

Yeah.

We can, and we'll be, we'll be talking about this more, but when I was at my farm broadcasters convention, I caught up with the corn refineries association and they're the ones obviously that helped to promote high fructose corn syrup.

And they are very much, they question very much the statements that the MAHA movement is making about high fructose corn syrup.

But to your point, John, I understand where people are saying, hey, I'm not going to drink that pop because it's got high fructose corn syrup, or maybe you read the labels a little close.

But you might be surprised to know what it does.

For example, it helps brown baked.

foods.

It also contributes to the bulk or volume on ice cream, baked goods, preserves, jams.

It takes some of that harsh, nasty taste out of some of the non-sweet foods, even like your salad that might have a vinaigrette on it.

You'll find some high fruit

fructose corn syrup in there, sauces, condiments, a lot of that kind of stuff.

Things that it helps with freezing points and melting points and boiling points.

So it's going to be, it's going to be harder to get takeaway than we thought.

That's the bottom line.

All right.

Pam, we'll run

out of time.

We're

out of

time, but you have a good week.

We'll talk to you on Friday.

All right, guys.

All

right.

Pam Yonkey, Midwest Food and Farm reports next, and we're back with Idiocracy on John and Gordy for a Monday morning.

Dumb all the time.

This is 92.7 WDX.

Oh my god, I tell you man.

It's just a dumber Good morning never knew that movie would actually you know mean something in real life, right?

It is 6 36.

It's a cold start this morning.

We're around 10 degrees highs in the mid 20s today And maybe some more snow on the way forward later this afternoon another inch or so great.

Yeah

Coming up in our seven o'clock hour, we're going to check in with our friend Steve Cochran from Chicago.

He's a radio personality and podcaster there.

Find out the latest in Shytown.

And also in our seven o'clock hour, we start up our grown up gift list text to win contest.

And we'll tell you more about that as it goes along.

But we've got a great daily prize of $200 cash and then some grand prizes.

We'll tell you more about that in a little while here.

All right.

I'm just kind of nice, nice having about four days off.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We

never

mentioned that.

I mean, after yesterday kind of negated everything that the whole relaxation that took place before that.

Yeah.

You know, I went to my sister's on Thanksgiving day.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then the snow started, you know, on Friday or what?

I don't care.

No.

Whoops.

Whoops.

I

love my sister.

Love the family.

Love everybody.

A lot of love around.

He's going to go off.

Not going to

stay there.

No.

I had a long talk with her yesterday.

It was good.

It was good.

It was very good.

Anyway, what was my point?

I don't remember.

I don't remember.

Doesn't matter either.

Let's just go to the phones.

We've

got Charles on the line.

Charles, thanks for waiting.

Charles good morning.

Hey, good morning.

Good morning guys.

So so about a month ago we purchased We purchased a two-stage ego battery operated snowblower and as much as I hated To see the snow it worked perfect.

I had not a single issue with it.

Wow

Really?

Yeah, what was that?

Let me ask you it's

an

ego

an ego and it's

a

battery operated snow blower.

And I was

surprised.

I mean, it's a two stage and that is something that I didn't think could handle heavy snow and move along well and last very long as far as the battery is concerned.

And it worked for you.

How long did the battery last?

It lasted.

So I did.

I, but not to the start.

snowing Friday night.

Yeah, that's

right.

Friday night.

I took care of the snow before we went to bed.

And then, man, I swear about another five or six inches dropped.

And then Saturday morning, I got up yesterday morning and did my walkway, my neighbor to the right of me, my neighbor to the left of me walkway, and then our driveway.

Nice.

Do you have like two batteries just in case

one kind of

wears

out?

It comes with, it comes with

two batteries.

Yeah.

So we got it.

We got it when Amazon had their Black Friday.

Yeah.

But in November or something.

Yeah.

And I think we pay like 1200 and something for it.

And it came with two batteries.

And

it handled the wet snow.

Handle I catch you guys not yep because I said I got to get rid of When I when

I

looked it up it said that ego ego was ego to stage was the best one to deal with snow

Damn.

All right, man.

Thank you.

I completely spaced out using a battery operated snow blower.

I thought it wouldn't last,

you

know, but wow, that is fantastic to hear.

Charles, Charles, and of course is that one.

So where you go?

Well, I have a, I have an ego lawnmower and leaf

blower.

Yeah.

So, uh, yeah.

Well, there you go.

That's your next big purchase.

Um, Lynn from Golden Valley, Minnesota.

Yeah, it says, uh, look at some of the best snowblower reviews.

Heavier weight helps the self drive wheels.

Make sure you have a spare.

You have shared spare shear pins.

Yeah.

That's advice from Minnesota.

I blew a

shear pin yesterday from Lynn

in

Golden

Valley.

That really made me angry.

Really?

Yeah.

You know,

it started Friday night and then I did, uh, I went out Saturday afternoon and did half of the snow and.

would eventually fall.

And then on Sunday, we cleaned up the other half that came down, and I blew a sheer pin on that front impeller.

But you know what, that's it.

Charles just sold me an ego.

Time to go shopping again.

Boy, I can't

wait.

Well, you know who knows maybe you're gonna you're gonna need it this winter Maybe you should get it right away because there'll be a lot more snow.

You know, it's only December 1st

Well, the cool thing about anything battery operated is you don't need the oil and You don't need the gasoline

right now.

Maybe it needs oil.

I doubt it though.

I don't think it

needs I don't use oil in my EV so

Really

and you know, I got I got it stuck in snow drive now

The

drive yeah, you can drive car.

Yeah, you can you can set it in eco

normal and then sports car.

And then you keep it pressed.

You press the lever down in one of those modes and it goes into snow mode, which uses all four tires.

It's all wheel drive.

Nice.

And I couldn't get it out of that because

the roads are pretty clear.

And I thought,

well, I don't need I don't need this on now because it uses more energy and I couldn't get it off.

Oh,

no.

Now I have to go through them.

I'm gonna become a professional on electric vehicles.

I tell you I swear

Doesn't have a clutch, huh?

You can't just push the clutch the gears.

I can't really do that.

It doesn't work like that or

not with an EV Yeah, no, but it's so nice.

Oh man to that heat up fast

Wow, did it?

Yeah, how it kind of blew my mind a little bit there, but Anyway, it's it's it's a fantastic vehicle if you have a chance to get an EV

You know?

Okay.

Although, you know, in the cold weather, they don't have as much distance.

You can't go as far.

The batteries don't operate as well in cold weather.

But luckily you have your charger all set up, so it really doesn't matter, right?

You've got a charger at home.

Yep.

Yeah,

finally.

Yes, I know.

That was a miracle.

I finally got a charger put in at home.

So there you go.

It's all good.

You know I did you lean out in Golden Valley.

I did some workout in Minnesota and Is it I think it's Golden Valley where just you know, they have all the string of lakes and beautiful homes along the lakes and I'm not quite sure if that they call it Apple Valley in that area.

I'm not quite sure but we're

looking it up right now,

but

But yeah, I did a lot of work out there and it was just great.

Just fantastic.

Couldn't.

There were a few brew pubs out there, but other than that, it was mostly chain restaurants.

So anyway, just thought I'd ask Lane if you could just fill me in.

So it's west of Minneapolis.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I was I was

west and south.

So yeah.

All right.

Just a question, that's all.

I'm

sure

everybody in Madison cares about that.

Anyway, hey, let's get to you.

Idiocracy.

Let's do that.

Yes.

We oftentimes talk about universal health care and how we need it so much now than ever before.

Right.

I have a cut and this cut to 46 and I believe it is, um, from less, less, well, from October.

All right.

You got it.

Let's listen to Dr. Steph Wood, Wool Handler.

What?

Yes.

Wait, what's his

name?

Stephie Wool Handler.

Wool

Handler.

And they appeared on Democracy Now.

Let's listen to this.

Great.

So, you know, how can you argue against something like that, right?

I

mean all the proof is there to say that this is the best system to have and we resisted because the Republicans have this thing in their head like government should be small.

There's nothing in the Constitution that says the government should be small.

The people run the government.

We say we want universal health care, insurance run by the government.

Done.

Okay.

Just do it.

Let's

do it.

Come

on.

All right.

Now we've been talking about data centers, an awful lot here in Wisconsin, one outside of the forest and all over other parts of Wisconsin, because now they're using AI data centers and they want to build those in.

And, you know, energy, of course, consumption will go up and raise the bills of everybody around these data centers unless the data centers themselves.

spend the money, the extra money in order to produce that energy, which is a huge thing.

To attract them, to give them a deal, we would probably relent on that.

No, we shouldn't relent on that because everybody pays the bill.

Anyway, from the lever, as I say it, it's the lever.

They have a lot of great stories.

This story came from them.

If you didn't know what the hell all these data centers did and why in the last few months the push has been on, well, let's listen to this cut.

Yeah, that's it

right

there.

And you'll also should be interested in knowing officials are signing tech companies non-disclosure agreements blocking the government from telling the public details about these projects.

So we're kind of screwed as far as I know, you know, I don't trust these data centers.

No,

if we can't find out about them and there's a non-disclosure agreements.

That doesn't seem right.

NDAs.

I know it

shouldn't be like that at all.

No.

What the hell?

And that's why we don't know all of a sudden they cropped up.

I mean, the Trump administration has been in power for like 10 months.

We've got data centers going in all over the damn place because the billionaires control what's going on in this country now.

And they are the tech giants.

So what the hell, right?

And they're surveilling us.

They're checking out how we drive, where we drive, and how often we drive.

They're surveilling our phones, everything that we do on the internet.

I'm done!

Okay, well,

don't be completely done because we have another hour of the show.

Oh yes, I'll stick around.

Stick around for a while.

It is 6.48 and we're coming back with more idiocracy on John and Gordy for a Monday morning.

Stay right there.

Got a swing swing swing right

here at ninety two point seven it is six fifty two It's a cold start this morning cloudy skies for this December first and it's gonna stay pretty cloudy through the day Maybe more snow on the way this afternoon an inch or so and the highs in the mid-twenties right now ten degrees here And it's got no no wind no wind chill today.

No Back to the snow blower thing John Linda from Middleton

said 80 volt lithium battery snowblower, no problems.

Yep, 80

volt.

That's probably what's in the ego, I would assume, something like that.

Lynn, out in Golden Valley, Minnesota, actually clarified.

Wazeida or Excelsior, I actually worked in that area with the U.S.

Census Bureau, now run by Howard Lutnick.

Lutnick!

Lutnick!

Get in here!

I couldn't imagine myself working for that.

We

haven't heard about Luckney.

No, he's going under the background.

He's going underground.

Well, he just stands behind Trump now.

I know.

He's just nodding.

Yes.

But, you know, I was thinking of, and I just looked at a map here.

It was Apple Valley, but it was west of Apple Valley around, I don't know, around the lakes in that area.

So that's another part of Minnesota that I worked at.

But she's talking about west of Minneapolis.

Oh, OK.

All right.

It's a beautiful area.

Straighten

that out.

Oh, you know what?

It's absolutely gorgeous.

They have all these tiny little lakes all

over

and these and these peninsulas between them.

And it was just a wow.

I'm just like, this is gorgeous, gorgeous place.

And amazingly, everybody's home.

Because I just kept doing interviews after interview after interview.

Normally you don't get anybody home

and

you know you stand at the door and leave an envelope or something but everybody was home.

I like it.

I'm sure you miss your days as a census taker.

I do actually.

It was really interesting as

I think

back on it now.

Oh

yeah.

But,

you

know, seeing people's homes sometimes being invited in and sitting around and everybody apologizes for the mess in their home.

You know, we have the same kind of thing, you know.

But I realized as I was doing these things, people kind of get used to living

the lifestyle they live.

They have lower expectation levels.

They didn't get everything they wanted.

They can't save up money because they're living paycheck to paycheck.

And so we settle in, we accept what we have.

And that's what I kind of heard today on the radio about Black Friday.

Everybody spent a lot of money.

You wouldn't know that the price is a higher and that people are spending more money on higher priced gifts.

And the other

Part of it is, I think, nine or 10% of the people who did buy on Black Friday and on the weekend borrowed money.

They put it on time installments.

If you've looked at these websites, they often offer up time installments.

So when people are spending more money, they're used to what they have, and even though times are even tougher now, they're still spending the same amount of money.

going into debt, doing it.

Well, today is Cyber Monday today.

So it's all the deals.

Let's always cyber this, cyber that.

And tomorrow we have Giving Tuesday and we'll tell you more about plans for that coming up.

All right.

Yes.

All right.

And then we have, Matt says, the capitals want profit.

Oh yeah.

Capitalists want profit for the consumer to face the decision between paying for

Medical bills to ease the pain or live longer and go into debt or don't pay and live in pain or die Who could choose the latter right?

I mean it really is something else, you know No

good choices.

Yeah, if we had universal health care, none of this would matter and by the way it would put large businesses on an equal level playing field as a small businesses because they

You know, they offer the health care, small businesses can't normally, so puts everybody in equal footing.

I kind of miss that.

I'm not good at old cliche sayings.

I used to say, and I always thought this was true, walking on egg cartons.

No, no, it's walking on

egg cartons.

I know, but I always thought cartons would be easier to walk on.

Easier to walk on.

I don't know.

I

really messed that up badly.

I did.

It's walking on eggshells.

It is, it is.

All right, we got a whole half hour coming up next hour.

Before we have our guests, but we'll get to all the latest news, all the stuff that we've accumulated over the four day weekend.

That's right.

And we're also going to start up our grown up gift list text to win contest.

It's a multi-state contest and every day we're going to be giving away $200 cash prize to some

Lucky winners out there and we've got some great grand prizes like a brand new snowblower.

Hey, there's one.

There's one.

Sorry, John You cannot you you're not eligible to win that a stainless steel cookware set or a portable air conditioner Tell you more about that.

But yeah, our text to win contest starts up in just a few minutes throughout the network So tune in who knows you could be

a winner.

Martin at Martin Mountain Verona is a tip.

I spray the entire interior of my snow blower with WD-40.

Oh.

To keep that wet snow from sticking.

Oh, that's a good idea.

Good

cooking spray also works.

Yeah.

Cooking and snow blowing with Pam can

be fun.

Well,

thank you, Martin.

Thanks, Mark.

For Verona.

Yeah.

That's a good idea.

It is.

Would you try that out?

Well, I could.

I just might.

Well, maybe you ought to.

Pam cooking spray or WD-40 or maybe both.

I even have spray containers that have oil in it.

You can spray oil without all the pressurized gas inside those cans.

Really?

Yeah.

Do tell.

I could.

Just as John, I've

got

all that stuff.

I have

workarounds for everything.

Well, you'll have to give those all a try here.

We're expecting a little bit more snow, not only later today, but maybe tomorrow into Wednesday.

Can't wait.

Winter has arrived.

OK, we're coming back after the news, and we'll start up the text-to-win contest, the grown-up gift list contest right around the corner.

And our special guest from Chicago, Steve Cochran, will join us.

A little bit later on in the hour, it's all coming up on John and Gordy on this Monday morning on WMDX.

Yes.

Yeah, good morning Madison

Way too much energy just chill out I know yeah, I'm kind of excited

I can't wait to go out shopping for an ego battery operated snowblower now.

I'm all jazzed up.

My wife hates it when I get like this.

Well, you know, you got to get the best.

Charles changed you, man.

Charles sent in a good recommendation.

I might have to go out and get him.

Well, here's the thing.

I got all jazzed up about AI glasses.

AI

glasses.

Yes.

Yes.

They're they're called Hallidays and they're really cool looking glasses and they look normal.

They don't look like these big hunky things that a lot of these other smart glasses have.

They have a screen on them that you can read and it and it has active AI on it.

It interprets what's going on around it and

gives you hints and background and all that kind of stuff

right on your hands.

Yeah, that'd be kind of cool,

right?

Yeah, well, I kind of jumped in and bought it.

You did?

I bought one.

I bought this damn thing.

It was like a $500 thing.

Oh, wow.

OK.

Did you like it?

No, I haven't.

Well, no, I bought it.

But then I had 24 hours to go back on that and I changed my mind.

Oh.

And I send him an email right away and I said no, I'm canceling order because you had to do that in case you're getting a Prescription and I

you

can get a prescription lens put on these things and it's I mean, it's really cool.

It's very flexible, but at the same time I changed my mind and and I got an email saying your glasses are

on the

way But I let them know within 24 hours

which is the limit

to

let them know.

And I haven't heard back from them yet.

So I'm sitting here going, oh boy, well, that's spontaneous, but I didn't work out exactly the way I wanted to.

I thought I'd try it.

Look, it was something I wanted to try in the air here as we have conversations with people with their headphones on.

It has a little microphone around the ear and it listens in.

And if people mentioned something, well, I wonder about this.

I wonder what happened here.

The glasses would tell me immediately and give me an answer.

So I thought, I wanted to experiment.

You know, I just love technology and dabbling in

it.

I'm

sorry, just can't help

it.

I'm just

awful.

So as far as you know, they're on the way.

They're on the way.

As

far as prescription glasses made for me on my way.

Can't

wait to see

them.

See

how those work for no, I hope I have a refund You can hope all you want, okay Let's

get to the contest.

Yeah, it's time for the contest.

We have music for this or I've got music here Do you want some let me let me give it you you can have them to go ahead go lead the way

guess what it's time for our grown-up gift list text-to-win multi-state contest to begin right now that's today today you're gonna have seven chances to win incredible prizes just by listening and texting keywords to enter okay every weekday

Every weekday we have a $200 check up for grabs to fuel your holiday shopping plus every entry puts you into our three grand prize drawings for a brand new snowblower or a stainless steel cookware set or a portable room air conditioner.

So make sure that you have the Civic Media app where you can listen and text us from the app and you'll be able to enter seven times a day.

Okay, ready for the keyword?

Here's how this works.

I give you a key word.

Wait, I missed some of those points.

Really?

You want me to go over this again?

No.

We could spend the next 15, 20 minutes talking.

No, no, no.

No, no.

All right.

I know we have volumes of rules.

Oh, do we ever?

Okay.

Um, well, this word's key hour is chill.

C-H-I-L-L.

Chill.

Right.

You want to use that in a sentence, John?

No.

OK.

Chill is the word.

So download the Civic Media app in the Apple or Google Store.

Find our station, WMDX.

Use the text button to send us that keyword, chill.

You have until 8 AM for this hour's keyword.

There'll be other chances to win 9 AM, 11 AM, 1 PM, 3 PM, 5 PM, and 7 PM.

And when you enter, you will get a text response.