In this episode of "New Hampshire Perspective," hosts George Neuwirt and Matt Cross dive into various current events, personal experiences, and the contrasting lifestyles between New Hampshire and California. Despite it being a casual conversation, plenty of insightful discussions emerge that resonate with the listeners.
Weather Reflections
- Temperature Changes: Matt shares his humorous take on acclimatizing to the warmer climate of California, noting how he used to mock people who complained about the cold until he became sensitive to temperature shifts himself.
- Unusual Weather Patterns: George discusses the bizarre weather fluctuations occurring nationwide, including unexpected snow in Texas and Florida, and the colder snap in New Hampshire, emphasizing the unpredictability of climate.
Personal Health Updates
- Health Struggles: Matt talks about dealing with a severe sinus infection and how it impacted his daily routine, underscoring the physical toll of health issues.
- Work-Life Balance: Even while feeling under the weather, Matt finds comfort in being able to work remotely, reflecting on how technology has changed the workplace dynamics during illness.
Current Events and Wildfires
- Wildfire Status in California: Matt provides updates on the wildfire situation in California, reporting significant containment of major fires, which relieves the stress and concern of local residents.
- State Officials' Governance: The hosts delve into discussing Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration and the critique surrounding wildfire management policies, highlighting the challenges of crisis responses.
Cultural Contrasts
- Homelessness and Wealth Disparity: The conversation touches on the stark contrast in California between wealth and poverty visible on the streets of cities like Los Angeles, showcasing the economic divide that exists.
- Coping with Urban Life: George and Matt share perspectives on the allure of city living versus rural dynamics, pondering on the value of community and the psychological impacts of living in crowded urban environments.
Personal Growth and Reflections
- Matt’s Move to California: Matt reflects on his relocation decision, recounting initial apprehensions but ultimately emphasizing the positive feedback he's received from listeners regarding his journey.
- Life Lessons from Transition: The hosts discuss how changing environments lead to new experiences and personal growth. They agree that sometimes, uprooting oneself can provide fresh perspectives that deepen appreciation for what one leaves behind.
Economic Challenges
- Rising Costs in Real Estate: They explore the skyrocketing home prices in both New Hampshire and California, illustrating the broader challenges of affordable housing and the pressures facing young adults in entering the property market.
- Inflation Effects: The discussion highlights the increasing costs across essentials and the economic strain households face while trying to maintain their standard of living while managing finances.
Conclusion
- Invitation to Share the Journey: The episode wraps up with George encouraging Matt to embrace his life in California while maintaining his ties back home. He impresses on Matt the importance of sharing experiences to deepen connections with audiences who are interested in his adventure.
- Overall Sentiment: Listeners are reminded that despite life’s challenges, having the courage to make significant life changes can result in positive outcomes and enlightening experiences.
By blending humor, personal anecdotes, current events, and reflections on life choices, George and Matt create a rich tapestry that keeps listeners engaged in "New Hampshire Perspective." The key takeaway is that personal growth often stems from embracing change, regardless of how daunting it may seem.
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News Talk 99.7WNTK AM 1490 FM 98.9W UVR welcome back to our program New Hampshire perspective with George Newark and myself Matt Cross good morning George
Matt, what's going on with you? How are you? How's Callie? How's Callie, dude? How's Callie? I haven't become calified yet, so. Oh, yeah, you have. You're there. I mean, you're drawn to it like a like a bug. Well, like, you know what? The only thing I have noticed is that, uh,
I always, I always kind of like made fun of people that got really thin skinned like with the temperature like once they moved. Yeah. And there was a night like a couple of weeks ago, like we're good. It was like it was 67 and they had their freaking their down parkers on. Yeah, almost. But like I remember like stepping outside. It was like 40 degrees. And I was like, ah, it's freezing. And I was like, oh, yeah. It's not really that freezing.
No, it's not that freezing. Yeah. It's been absolutely miserable here. The temperature has been apparently there's snow in Texas and Florida. There was actually a guy on YouTube that was snow-beeling in Florida.
I did see, yeah. Actually, why would some guy have a, what he did was he probably left here to go down there and retire and couldn't give up the snowmobile. So he brought his 1987 Yamaha and Tyser down there like.
the guy Larry and Tyser, who's all over YouTube, it likes to take his ill-equipped, small-bell off giant jumps and pretty much destroy himself. So there's a YouTube video of a guy, small-bell on it, Florida, it's pretty funny. So yeah, things are a little bit odd, but we're having a wicked cold snap up here, like there isn't a day that goes by now that I don't get up in the morning and go,
Hey, Matt, at 11 at 11 o'clock. The Marine layer is going to burn off. Yeah. You're going to be styling. There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about that. Yep. Because every day, I think Ryan was always closer to the coast, but every day,
Whenever I was there, the brain layer was burnt off at between 10 and 11, and all of a sudden you were like, wow, hello, day. Where are you? So it's kind of funny, having you there. Tell me about the fires, what's happening with the fire. This is going to be a little more. This show is going to be a little more about you than me, because I am trying to collect my thoughts in my personal life, and I'm trying to
get over a vicious sinus infection that I had to finally get medication for. Oh, is that what it was? I woke up. Not this. When did we record? We recorded when last. Yeah, we. Yeah, so we recorded two weeks ago, Tuesday, Wednesday night.
Yeah. And Wednesday night, I woke up with my eyes were glued shut with glue, yellow cakey, like time pitch. Yes. And I might have related the story last week, but I didn't realize you have upper sinuses and lower sinuses. And so the upper sinuses are tied to your, your eye.
uh, passages your eye duct didn't we have a name for him last year last week to your ducks or whatever your eye duct here. Yeah, your eye. I nasal passages. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Something like that. Yeah, something. Uh, so I'm on this, uh, medication, these huge horse pills and it's an antibiotic. I've been on it now for
about six days and it started clearing up. I swear to God, it was clearing up the first pill I took. I could feel the first pill like I could automatically tell like something was going on. So I've been dealing with that for the past 10 days and I'm finally getting better. But the problem is I'm very weak. I am sleeping at night.
Uh, what time is it right now? It's nine o'clock. I'll go to bed after the show at 10 and I'll wake up at 5 30. I mean, I am sleeping soundly through the night, but oh my God, it is unbelievable. I'm just super tired and really weak. Yeah. And the beauty of my situation right now is that I can go to my shop, the trusted rental shop. I have a little workstation there with the computer monitor and all my little stuff right there. And so
I can set my laptop. I can be inside where it's warm. I can kind of monitor what goes on in the shop. And it's kind of like a nice little reprieve while my team of three people, two people are on a job doing drywall and Chris is in the shop helping Mike Menard on a truck. So it's kind of nice, but oh my God, I'm super people are sick. Everybody's sick.
I am thinking about you in California, so tell me about, yeah, tell me about what's going on there in California, what's happening.
Um, not too much. I mean, it's, it's kind of the same as when we discussed last week. I mean, the, we didn't check the fires. I don't have any updates. I don't know anything about anything. All I know is some apparently a plane hit a military helicopter in Washington, D.C. Devastating. No, that was, um, yeah, no, that was terrible. That was last night. Yeah. I just heard about it. Yeah. I believe it's 16 people dead. I heard it was.
There was an Olympic skater couple that won the gold for the USSR that was on the plane that won in 1994. I think they were on that plane coming back from Oregon and West Coast somewhere.
Yeah, they, yeah, I think it was, I think it was from Wichita, I want to say. No, Wichita, correct. That's where it was. Yeah, but I did hear that. I think they said a full third of the crew was actually associated with that figure skating. Yeah, yeah. Right. So there's like 20. Same thing. Yeah, that's terrible. Right. Okay. So tell me about like what's happening with the wow.
Yeah, so I listen as I want to know. So this is the map wildfire update. I mean, what's going on? Yeah. So it's honestly, no, I haven't checked the new since we talked last. We we had some rain for the first time. So I guess it's the first time it's reigned around here in my airplane. No, no, it was real rain.
real rain. Yeah. Okay. What happened? Yeah, it's just rain. So this was like Saturday through Sunday. We had some downpours. It was the first substantial rain in eight months. So it
It was good because it wasn't enough to cause they were worried about like toxic landslides and runoff and stuff like that. That didn't actually come to fruition. There wasn't enough rain to cause that. In terms of the wildfires, there's I think at the very moment, there's three that are still technically not out.
Um, yeah, but they're all very, very close. So the, uh, the one in the northern Pasadena area, kind of the mountains behind that, um, I believe the last time I checked, which was like four or five hours ago, they, uh, I think they had 99% containment. So that's very, very close. Uh, the palace saves, which is the big one that's been in the news nonstop.
Don't know, you're on like Beverly Hills and all that. That's at 97% contained. And then there's a third one that's 99% contained. So they're basically not really growing anymore. They're just kind of sizzling out on some fringes that they're just extinguishing at this point.
Are they doing any investigations into how they started or are any people coming forward as to have any information about what happened? Like what is going on with that? I don't know about that. I don't know about the big ones. I haven't heard anything on those. I do know that they had several arson reports on some of the smaller ones that they were able to get out fairly quickly.
Well, I mean, I just see some videos even like on YouTube of people literally just starting fires. They just ate the chaos. It was just crazy. Yeah, it was just really. So I mean, given some of these people are legitimately crazy. So they don't, I don't feel like they know any better, but. Yeah.
Those listeners that have never been to California, if you go to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, I think it's probably the only place in the United States where you have an irony that is something you never forget and the irony is you have a rolled Royce stop at a stoplight and you have a person three feet away eating half eating sandwiches out of a garbage
Yeah, it's a very accurate to barrel. Yeah. Isn't it crazy? It is. It is crazy. So I always thought there was a, I don't know. I always thought it was pretty disgusting because there was just the contrast. There was such a contrast between, no, I don't know. It's like there's, there's such a contrast between the opportunities that are available to us and
the unfortunate circumstance of some people. You definitely see it all here. There's nothing hidden necessarily. If I was a homeless person, I would go to California. I wouldn't be in Boston. You could survive your round and not freeze it. I would have to go to New York City. I wouldn't go to New York City. That's ridiculous.
found your own exhaust crate or something. It's awful. I kind of like to do it though. I kind of honestly like to be a host for like, I don't know. I like to go to like Boston and just like try to survive. I think that'd be a good lesson for everybody on the planet to do is to
I do feel like you appreciate the things that you have a lot more when you have them all taken away from you. Right. Yeah. That is very true. Okay. So, um, so they met the governor knew some. I don't think he's anybody's favorite friend right now. I don't think any of the government officials here.
No, no, people are seriously like Gavin Newsom is having a difficult time right now. So, you know, I don't know, just seems like it seems like a serious pile of a bunch of policies all look good on paper until the trees start burning. And then all of a sudden,
the paper that you think has such great ideals on it catches fire. And you're like, Hmm, is that really something that was going to be a contributor to our long term viability? But California is going up and dealing with it for so long. But I have been disconnected from it for so long. But I think the policies are still like
in full swing. It's just kind of crazy. So I don't really know much about maybe you can tell me about like with Trump in office, President Trump in office, has there been? Oh, that's right. Last week, we were going to talk about the inauguration and that kind of thing did have. So I probably should be a little more like
upon some things, but I figure if I have a guest like Matt Ross on who knows everything about what's going on, maybe he can just bail me out. Like Joe Rogan does. Joe Rogan just has guests on the talk about everything, right? Yep, it's very true. All right, so what about policies like deportations and there was some thing I read about him striking a deal with the president of
Columbia about taking undocumented workers back and some stiff arming of tariffs and, you know, building the wall. Like, how has that, do you know anything about how that's been received or what's happening there? What's happening?
I was in California, like what's the flavor of California is everybody running? Has everyone left San Francisco the obvious sanctuary city of California? Yeah, I don't I admittedly haven't really kept up too too much on state politics here. I just got to follow like the the national politics for the most part. So I'm not really sure.
I mean, I will say from a given, I'm, you know, I'm not out and, you know, like walking the streets on a daily basis or anything really, but I haven't really noticed any difference so far. That's not to say anything, but I do know that they're doing the ice raids across the country and that people are being deported. And I know, yeah, like you were talking about like with Columbia and I know Brazil was really upset about the way that they're
Citizens were returned in shackles and not given access to food or water. And so I think they're working out some kinks. But he's being serious, isn't he? He is. I mean, I mean, from day one, from day one, they were out there. So yeah, I mean, yeah. So I don't know. We'll see.
How's your frame of mind out there? How's your, you talked to me last, you texted me earlier in the week about how your contacts here, I know it's something you were kind of uncomfortable with. Yeah, I mean, I was kind of, I mean, George and I have kind of talked off here about the fact that I was apprehensive to really kind of talk about
the move for very multitude of reasons, but primarily really just because of the fact that I really was just concerned of how it would potentially affect work, you know, just my relationships with, you know, clients or friends or just people I know or whatever that may be.
But I mean, when I talked about it last week, everyone was very receptive. I actually got a good amount of people sending me over emails and just checking in and seeing how I'm doing, how I like it out here.
It was really nice. I mean, it was just like a nice, you know, just hearing from people from, you know, even if I don't necessarily know them firsthand, you know, just hearing listeners, you know, just reach out and just, you know, ask how I'm doing out here was really nice. So I really appreciated that. Okay. So of all the shows we've had, like 45 shows have, has there been any subject matter of which people have reached out more than this?
Uh, I feel like it was kind of on par with, uh, when we did the, uh, the first show about electric vehicles. Oh, really? That was a big one. And then, um, and then I think the, the episode where you mentioned your mother and everything that happened there. Uh, that was another pretty good one. So.
Okay, so, you know, I'm Matt and I've had a lot of talks off air about his move and, you know, my advice to him was that people want to be part of, I mean, when people struggle,
I'm struggling right now. Like, I'm not going north to go snowbillon because it's going to be 16 below zero on Saturday, 16. And then the thing is, is the snowbills, they run really good when it's cold like that. But because of my sickness, yeah, I don't want to really go chance getting sick again and having my body have to work over time. But, you know, we had, we had struggles. Matt had struggles being here, obviously. Yeah.
I'm not going to say obviously. It wasn't obvious. I feel like if you knew me, it was kind of obvious. I mean, you could tell that I was, I mean, especially over six months of the year of the winter, like I was just miserable. Yeah. So explain to me and the viewers, explain.
I can say viewers. Yeah, people can see us even though we're talking viewers listeners. It's all injured. Yeah. So how is so your perspective of living there? How has reality of your living there collided with your perception of what it was going to be like to live there? And I guess my question is, is it on par with with? Is it less than what you thought? Is it on par with what you thought? Or is it more than what you thought now that you're this far in?
Yeah. And then the second question is, do you feel, is it possible for you to feel a sense of
return to normalcy or return to a new pattern where it feels kind of like I want to use the saying right is rain but I mean you've been you've been here your whole life right so I guess first of all does you being there
Is it less than on par with or more than what you expected? And secondly, how do you feel about being there? Like how does your soul react to being there? Yeah. Um, I mean, I think at this point now that I'm kind of, you know, I've been here for, you know, just shy at two months, you know, it's, it's been enough of a chunk of time where I feel like things are kind of settling into a pattern of quote unquote normalcy, you know, where they returned a normalcy where
You know, day to day stuff is just kind of back to the way it would be, you know, when I lived in Lebanon, you know, where it's just kind of.
work, you know, I mean, that's the primary function, you know, for the day. And then at night, you know, you're just kind of, you know, doing whatever to keep yourself occupied. I mean, that that's kind of returned for the most part. I mean, and that's actually been fairly recent because this past, so I actually, I don't know if I talked really too, too much about it, but I waited like over two months for my stuff to get here from the movers. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. What happened? They finally got here. They finally got here. No. Yeah. Thursday, last week, you go here, finally, finally.
Um, but what a nightmare. Absolute nightmare. That whole process was supposed to be here December 6th and yeah, it just came last week. So, um, that gave me a really good sense of a return to normal. So you just like having all the stuff that I had in my house here. Um, it kind of made it feel more like home for the first time in a while. And, uh, it all feels so displaced.
Yeah, you know, it's not like I'm just sitting on like this makeshift desk with just surrounded by empty walls and, you know, nothing. Yeah, because that gets depressing really quick.
I think it's so amazing, like when I think about my ancestors or the parents or grandparents of, you know, if you think about this country, there's more immigrants that can trace their heritage back to German origins than any other nationality. I think 80 million people in this country is the statistic that can
trace their lineage back to German roots. And you think about the Exodus. I mean, obviously you think of the conflict's two world wars. You know, my mom came over here when she was 16, because Germany was bombed out and all the men were dead. Can you imagine living in a place where it's like
I don't know. There's no men. So my mom got put on a boat and sent over here. So I don't know. I think about these, I think about these, you know, exodus is of people just picking up and moving somewhere. And I think that, you know, in your case, I think it's really, I don't know. I think you got some big, um,
See, I just can't behave. I think it took a lot of courage. That's not what I want to say, but I think it took a lot of courage for you to uproot yourself. And even though you had misgivings and you had apprehensions, I think it's pretty fantastic that you were able to
Um, just kind of do it, do with the Nike thing and just do it. And I think that's a lot of people are going to live vicariously through you because I think a lot of people want to do that. And people have either missed the window of opportunity to do that or they feel stock or they have ailing
parents or grandparents or whatever, and they like circumstances don't allow it anymore. So I really think that it's admirable of you to just recognize what you need and have the courage to do it. I think it's amazing. And I think that the feedback you're getting from people is that I think the
they could do it and somehow either a window of opportunity has closed or they just don't have it in them. So I think it's pretty crazy that you were able to embark on this journey and I'm telling you that all your people want to be with you in it and see you succeed. And if you ever decide that you're like, well, this isn't really for me. I want to come back. No, not one person.
not one person is going to say, I told you so, like, knew you'd be back, kind of thing, you know what I mean? Like, if they do say that to you, it's only because they're envious and jealous of your courage. And I think that that's pretty remarkable. So have my hats off to you. I do think about it quite often, because when Ryan was four years old,
and moved to California. I had the opportunity to pick up. This was, you know, he was, he was four. So this was around 2000. He was four. And my business here started in 2000. My construction company started in 2000. And I had the opportunity to just say, you know,
I'm leaving off. So I don't want to be with him. But then I started thinking, well, what happens then his mom goes and relocate somewhere else. I'm going to go follow him like a little follow the leader. And so I decided that the more important thing was for him to have
a home base back where his roots were so that he could at least know where he came from and who and his grandparents were here. They're not moving to California. So I don't know. I just kind of like settled into making sure that he had a home base that he had he could take stock in and that he could understand and that he could either grow to like or not like.
and provide some stability for him back east. No, a lot of people like your feedback you're getting from people. I'm hoping it's good.
Yeah, no, it has been. I mean, it's I'm sure there's going to be some snarky little snarkness out there. Yeah, I'm going to go, you know, you know, give you. Yeah, I mean, I did have like one person that was like, you know, I hate you from moving to California. That's because they're obvious. Well, yeah, I mean, either way, I mean, it was, it was lighthearted. You know, I wasn't like, you're actually a horrible person for a loop, you know, moving or something like that. It's like, okay, that's fair.
Yeah, I think the only, uh, the only negative feedback I gave you is where you moved to. But, you know, when you think about that place, you know, it's not, it's not healthy living the 13 million people living in that space. Like it's not healthy, but if you go north, I mean, Northern California is absolutely beautiful. Oregon, Washington. Yeah. I don't think about, you know, as you go north, it's going to get more rainy.
Seattle has the highest suicide rate because it has 210 days of rain or something like that, like it's horrible. So, you know, when you think about how the weather affects us, I'm not kidding you, says Seattle, Washington has a has, I think the highest suicide rate of nation and the weather is a the weather is an amazing
driver of people's moods and attitudes, and maybe the fact that grunge music, I think Nirvana and... Extensible pilots. Yeah, exactly. Came from Seattle, but it's notoriously very rainy. And, you know, people's mental state is directly tied to that. So good for you for doing that. I really, I appreciate being a part of it. And I know that before you left,
No, it was a conversation we had and I was like, you know, you just got to go do it. So now next thing is how is your how has your family received this development? Have they like your father? Has he? Are they still in contact with you like normal or? Yeah, I mean, it's yeah, I mean, you know, when you get back, Matt, yeah, I mean, nobody's disowned to be anything.
, and
I mean, there's only only three of them. It's my brother, my sister, and my dad. My brother, I don't really talk to you that much anyway. That's just kind of always been our dynamic. You know, it's not anything bad. We just kind of live our own lives and check in very rarely with each other. But he's been receptive to it. You know, my sister and I talked routinely still. And yeah, I mean, my dad, I talked to him. I mean, I talked to my dad yesterday. I'm like a half hour phone call with him just catching him up on stuff.
Yeah, I mean, that's kind of what I told him when, like, before I actually moved, I see, you know, like, not a lot's going to change because, I mean, how often do I see, like, with my dad, for example, it's just like, how often do I see you in person? You know, it's, you know, maybe three, four or five times a year. And I think, like, now that now that sometimes settled and the routine is, as I said, it would be where it's all just kind of very similar to the way it was, I think,
The initial shock value of, you know, someone moving 3000 miles away has kind of worn off and they're just like, okay, this really isn't that different.
So the people that have talked to you about the in-person thing, you talked about coming back east here to do some recordings in that manner. Are they still receptive to that? Or do you think that everyone has promises in the beginning about how they want to have relationships uninterrupted and fluid like they have previously experienced, but then as time wears on,
Do you think people are going to be sincere and genuine, or do you think that people are going to get flaky on you? I think people have been resoundingly genuine. I haven't really had anyone do that. They said one thing, and then once I've been out here, they've said, OK, never mind. I don't want to do any of this. Yeah, it's awesome. Could it happen? I mean, I guess it could happen.
I really feel like, you know, especially with my clients, I feel like I really have a good report with them. And, you know, I care about them. They care about me, like, you know, beyond a business level and a lot of cases. And, um, you know, it's just, I mean, that's, that is the, you know, that's one of the big pluses, you know, being, you know, locally close is that, you know, you can kind of know, which, I mean, you can still do it through emails and calls and stuff, but I mean, you know, like in person recordings and stuff like that, like it really helps. And it does. And I'm not going to, you know, I'm not going to.
you know, stop doing that. I mean, that's kind of the whole like part of the contingency with with my job was that, you know, I'd be back every three months to check in with people and do recordings and, you know, keep everything running the best I could. I know, but the way we do it is so simple. Like I have a microphone. I feel like I'm
Howard Cosell here with the microphone and you just plug your you have a USB thing you plug over USB into your computer Oh, it's super easy Matt Matt sends a zoom link you click on the zoom link you hit audio and I'm looking at Matt right now in my screen, right? You know what Matt you actually look really good like you're You're like you look fresher. What time is it out there? It's six thirty out there. Let's look fresher. Yeah
Yeah, I think it's like, I think it's the fact that I, uh, I'm not morbidly defrestory. Do you think that would have a bearing on?
Anybody but you or do you think that might be a universal thing? I think it's universal to an extent. I mean, I think I think I think pretty awesome I think weather affects people differently, but for I mean for me as an individual is just Huge like it's very difficult here. I'm telling you and I'm you know When I talked to Helen or I talked to people in the shop like today was brutal cold yesterday the wind was whipping 40 miles an hour. Yeah
You know, I I think I've said your name under my breath like 30 times this week Yeah, like it's ridiculous So, you know, there is ice fishing there is things you can do but me and you know, I remember I remember going to California and being like we we would rent a place in Carlsbad and I just remember waking up in the morning going. Oh my god. Is it really February?
going for a walk on the beach, right? Is it really February? That kind of thing. So I think my advice to you would be to engage people in a way that invites them into your life and have them be a part of it. Share your experiences, whether it's on Facebook or whatever it is, like allow people, people want to be part of your journey. In my life, people want to be part of my journey, even though
My journey is a rife with some difficulties and a level of despair, but also a measure of immeasurable prosperity.
I don't really want for anything and so it's kind of nice to be able to
I don't know, be a little, I don't know, I'm responsible for a lot, but I'm also kind of carefree. Like it's kind of a weird dynamic. It's nice to get in my truck every morning, have a really expensive truck. It's nice to get in my truck and, you know, it's nice to have customers that appreciate us. And I don't know, it's a neat dynamic, but oh man, we're a hard breed.
You know, like, you know, so here's the thing. We have a, let me steal the show here just for a second and allow you to, it's all the same theme though, but.
You know, I have a daily production manager. His name is Josh and him and I have kind of become buds and I'm going to build a new house. I got approval on a new house. I'm building a new house on Young's Hill, 127 Young's Hill. It's about half a mile from 103. You go up there and you see my equipment. I'm building a very nice house. Yankee barn home. It's going to be a post and beam. It's going to be a real long talk about real estate prices. I can't even believe it's just ridiculous.
So, where was I going with that? Um, where was I going with that? What was it? What was that about? I don't even know where I was going with that. Where was I going? Oh my God. You're talking about like hardships and yeah. Um, okay. Oh yeah. So Josh comes in the shop the other day and we're talking about like where we're going and projects we've gotten all that and he's just like,
you know, Josh is the one suffering from, he had a stroke and, you know, he's recovering. And so he said that we, we were just talking about how depressing he's very seasonally depressed like you get about our
New Hampshire or New England weather and he was just like, I just, I hate like getting out of bed in the morning and looking outside and it's dreary and the sun's not shining and this and that. And so he went on for about, I don't know. I sometimes I just listen and, you know,
I'm a wordy guy, of course. I have a lot to say about a lot of things. But I have another story to tell you to after we're done with this one, a very tragic story that happened with somebody I know. It's awful. Any event.
Um, so we got talking with Josh about it and I was listening. And so we have a very dear friend that comes in the shop. His name is footsteps and everybody knows what he has a, he has a blacksmith shop down on Oak Street and he's been in town. He's 75 years old and he's been in town his whole life.
And he actually knows me from when my parents first moved into town in 1973. So he knew me as a little boy when I was four years old. And so foot comes into our shop and has everything done. He has tires worked on and his
Oh my God, his log truck worked on and things inspected like he has, I think he's one of the largest landowners in New Hampshire, like Foote and I go way, way back. And Foote happened to walk in the shop and as we were talking with Josh about this, and so Foote was like,
walking around the shop, wondering if he had a tire in there that we needed to change or something. And he got ready to leave. And I was talking to Josh, like I was trying to give all my attention to Josh. And he was getting ready to leave. And I said, foot, you got him, you got a second. And then go and he just kind of spun around like he's a, he's an old time, honest.
I mean, the guy comes in with sawdust all over him. Hey, all over him. He's an honest, hardworking, he's a clever, clever guy. Probably one of the cleverest people there is. So I said, hey, come on over here. I need you to weigh in on this. I need you to talk to Josh. Let's just have a little conversation about this. I just, I know you're going to have something positive to contribute to this. So he was listening to Josh about this and all this. And he said,
And he said, well, he says, I'll tell you a little story about when I was when I graduated high school. He said, I went out to Kansas. I don't remember exactly how he said he got out there, but he went out to Kansas. And he was working on a farm. And he said the farm, there was not one rock in the farm, like they would tell the soil. And it was so easy that if they found a rock,
It was like a write up in the local paper about a rock that they might find in their field. And farming was relatively easy except that he remembers one night.
that he came out of his bed, his bedroom, and he opened the door and he saw down the hallway and the owner was sitting in a rocking chair staring out at his
fall at his barns and they were tornado warnings and he was just rocking back and forth in his chair because he knew that by the time warning came one of his barns was going to be gone. And so his perspective was that he never forgot the fact that no matter where you live,
Everything looks all rosy and peachy. There's always something that you have to think about, be on guard about, you have to strategize, contemplate, you always have to say, okay, there's not a rock. And so his perspective was that no matter where you go, like Josh was like,
It says my internet connection is unstable. I wonder what that means. Can you still see me? I'm still here. Okay. So his perspective was that
You move to California and you're trading certain things. You're trading sunshine for air that's not as high quality as we have here. You know, you're trading very high cost of everything for a standard of living in which maybe you squeeze a couple more hours out of the day. This perspective was that you could
Josh kept saying, I just want to be in Florida. I just want to be in Florida. And it's like, OK, well, you can be in Florida now. But when it's 112 degrees in Florida and you can cook an egg on the sidewalk. Now, I guess what was cool about Foote was that he put a he put a a realistic spin on the fact that sometimes we hyper focus and we dwell on
the negatives of where we are and if we've traveled and we've gone any place for any period of time, we can be like, you know what? New Hampshire is really not that bad. I mean, we don't have any. We don't have water moccasins. We don't have alligators.
We don't have really poisonous spiders. We don't have hurricanes. We don't really have torn, black, big tornado was 1938. So we don't have a lot of natural no earthquakes. We had a little earthquake the other day. But from the standpoint of safety, you're trading off
You're trading off some inconvenience of life for a security. And so, you know, that's one of the things California always got me was because the place was either on fire or there was earthquakes or there was some seismic activity going on or there was
There was something natural disaster related that always made me very nervous about having Ryan there. And the thing is I only have one Ryan, like I only have one. Right. Like he's my only kid. If I had three kids and lost Ryan, maybe I
I have two others, but I only have one. So I've often thought about what happens if I lose my one child. And that would be very devastating to me to, you know, the saying goes, don't put all your eggs in one basket, but when you only have one child, what the heck is supposed to do? So I don't know. That's kind of like, you know, as you're there in California, I think that you're going to have a more well-rounded
thought process of what your likes. I think you're going to discover more about yourself, what your likes and what your dislikes are. And then the novelty, of course, is going to wear off. And, you know, when we went out, I was out there for 14 years in a row. We did everything. Sea World, San Diego Zoo. We went to Monterey Bay Aquarium. We went to Paramount. We went to
Disney land. I mean, oh my god, like the places it's an entertainment heaven. The I know when I when I when I went out to California to go to the movie theaters and came back here. I'd never wanted to come to a movie theater here because everything in California is a in a Rama. Right. What do they call it? A gig a gig screen. They're like the things are they have the surround sound like the iMac paradigm iMacs like everything is an iMacs because they only are going to
They're only going to settle for like having the best experiences in everything in California and entertainment. So, so I think as you live there, you're going to, my thought is, as you live there, you're going to form another objective and say, you know what, maybe that's a little too extreme. I mean, it is freaking hot in the summer there. Yeah. Hot, hot. And, you know, they have rolling blackouts of hour, like there is hot there. And so,
You're in the off season. So, you know, I think it's going to take a year of you to endure the cycles and then finally say, well, you know what? I want to go to San Diego and, you know, there's a town south of San Diego called La Jolla. And I always called it La Jolla. It was called it.
Ryan and I were, I'm like, hey, well, let's go to La Jolla. La Jolla. So La Jolla is a really nice town, but it stinks because the seals, the seals bathe on these rocks in town and they poop all over these rocks. And the stink is a different kind of stink. It's like geese.
And people flock to this place like it's going out of style, but we walk down Main Street and you're like, what's that stink? Like it's so and the real estate is like, you know, tens of millions of dollars for a condominium. So it's going to be kind of interesting to see how you absorb the locals and, you know, maybe that place you're in is just a jumping off point to be.
I do feel like it's most likely a joke. They're so much. I don't really see myself staying inside the city for a long amount of time. I mean, I'm at a point where I miss nature and fresh air and just the things that you take advantage for. But that was also part of why I wanted to do this was because I feel like
And George and I are, I think we're actually talking about this just before we started recording was, you know, that you don't really know what you don't have unless you don't experience it or, you know, experience not having it. And I think that was part of this too. And I just wanted to see how valuable New Hampshire is and how much, you know, I would potentially come to miss it. And, you know, the event I come back, it's
because I know that I know what I have there, you know. Yeah. The other option too is you have the if you have the what's the word? Like wintering. You have the ability finances if you have the circumstances to
be in New Hampshire for our summers and be in California for the winters, like maybe sublet out your apartment for the summer months or something like that should not be an issue. Maybe you are able to experience the best of both worlds. And, you know, I mean, the bottom line is there's only one person that's going to take care of you and that's going to be you. That's it. Right. All right.
So it's kind of a neat experience being part of this with you. And, you know, you move out there in the middle of the wildfires or a month after you get there. Oh my God. Yeah, I was like, and I think they're like, oh, they're they're only 10. They're only 15 minutes away, you know, like, oh my God. Yeah, 15 minutes. Yeah, another one. They got pretty close.
Yeah, pretty amazing. Okay. So what else is, what else is happening out there? Are you, are you able to, um, do you find the remoteness to be a challenge, like, out to people? Yeah. Okay. So the next question is, can you get, I can't you do what you're doing now or what you're doing with radio? Why can't you do it out there?
Oh, I can't make it make commercials. Well, I mean, so, so the, so the thing with ads, like specifically is that a lot of people don't have like the stuff that you have, like with that USB mic. And not that it's like crazy expensive. They just don't have it because, you know, they just haven't traditionally needed like a really, really nice quality. Like Mike, because they just don't do a lot with it.
if everyone had one of those or something similar, it'd be perfect. I mean, that would work no problem. But a lot of people, you know, will record via laptop, you know, just like the little like, you know, pre-installed mic that comes with a laptop, you know, and it's very, very tinny and you know, it misses a lot of the depth and voices and stuff. And you know, it sounds kind of akin to a
of, you know, like a cell phone call, you know, which is so, I mean, I really try to like, even remotely, I just really try to make sure that the quality, like the audio quality is as good as it can be. Because also, you know, this is their advertising dollars, you know, I want to make sure that it's working as well as it can for them. And if, you know, if there's a question of the literal quality of the audio of the ads, the point where, you know, people can't understand or it's difficult to follow along, then that's a problem, you know, so yeah.
But is it possible that maybe you could have like a person here, not me, a person here that could- I have talked about that. Like bring a microphone or how much was my microphone set up? Was it $150 like how much was it? I think it was like $130 for the mic and the headphones. So just ship this to somebody.
I thought of him and say, you know, just plug this in and here's a return UPS ticket or something like that. And then you can use my house as a home base if you want. Just have the microphone. I'm right in Georgia's mills. So say, hey, you know, go to Main Street, Georgia's mills, pick up the mic. You know what I mean? Like there's ways around this, right? There are. Yeah. I mean, but I mean, I think that's where right now I'm really not.
That concern about it just because of the fact that I still I'm you know coming back every three months so I can still handle most of it myself It's really rare that there's a recording that I have to have with a client with their voice In between periods, you know if I plan everything out I mean I can get like 90% of them done while I'm there Awesome. Yeah, I mean like, you know, is there the rare one? You know where it's a little more problematic or the quality is not as good as I'd like Yeah, there is I mean, I'm not gonna say there's no
drawbacks to you know being further away but i try to work on the best i can. Yeah i remember when we first started the show i asked you like you know what what do i always have to come up with new content do i always have to be like well the shows about uh you know the uh freckled.
Footed turkey and we spend an hour talking about that and the next shows about cast iron cookware and then you don't mean like in I liked your comment because you were like no people just like to talk about life and so people want to be on your journey with you I want to be on your journey with you. I want you to kind of defy my loathing of California and say that
This is how it's benefited you and possibly change my perspective of its significance, just like when we were talking about footsteps and in the shop, Josh, Josh's.
Receptions were significantly influenced by Foote saying, imagine the owner of the house in the upstairs hallway, rocking in the rocking chair, looking out the window, waiting for the tornado to demolish a barn. And he goes, I'll just never forget it.
any 75. And so you have these significant events happen in your life. And we're all like, really, we're all happy to be part of the journey, honestly. I mean, in my world, like my advertising for my shop and this show, like my advertising, my
my infomercials that we're doing. We are still running those, right? I think we're doing an infomercial on synthetic oil. We have a three part series on synthetic oil for the trusted rental shop. We have a new mechanic that hasn't started yet because he's got leg or knee problems or something like that. But we're doing really good. Aaron,
If anybody knows Aaron hit my shop, the lead mechanic, like he's just awesome. The dude stays busy all the time, does a great job. So in any event, so we're all happy to be part of your journey. And ultimately, if you are happier, I hate the word happy. I hate it. Someone says, Oh, just be happy. I'm like, what is happy? Oh my God. Yeah. I'm not particularly happy right now. To be honest with you, I've had too many
I don't know why. Seems like everything's going great. Oh my God. I've had so many. You know what storms hit me in the last week. I can't even get into it. It's on every time I turn around like something else. You know, the biggest thing that's hit me right now is the volume of of heating fuel that people are going through is
Unbelievable. Like $500, $600 more this year than last year. Hacks are going up. Like everything's going up. My new house that I'm building, I got it. It the appraisal came in and I was like,
I can't even fathom the dollar amounts. It's like, what does this dollar amount, if you think about what's the cost of something? The cost of something is supposed to represent its value. And a lot of times we don't get to determine that. We're going to go buy a car. We don't get to go in and say,
Yeah, there's a $27,000 sticker price. I'm only giving you $23,000. We don't get to do that because we're the consumer. We want that product. And so the negotiation is coming to some ground over what the manufacturer says, something's worth. And how much do you think the significance of that purchase is going to be to your life? So I don't know. It's going to be interesting to see how you perceive things going forward. I think that the culture shock of
how much things cost out there, and how much rents, and how much fuel, and how much it's just staggering, and it cannot be getting any better, because when Ryan was out there, everything was 20% to 30% more. I think it depends to an extent. I will say first, yes, everything is very expensive. I'm not going to deny that. Rent is
Well, so rent is, I mean, if I look at the rents that have, you know, kind of crept up in New Hampshire, you know, for like, you know, if you're like renting like a small house or something, it's really not that different at this point. I mean, it's still like maybe a few hundred more, but I mean, I feel like even like five years ago before COVID hit and the housing market when nuts, you know, you could rent like a, you know, like a two or three bedroom house for, you know, 1500 bucks a month. Oh, yeah. And now it's like, you know, 3000. So it's, I know, I know. So.
So what I like about our interaction is that sometimes I love hearing
different opinions because then I'm able to maybe adjust my perspective to a more healthier, just to be in line better. And then, do I say I'm tired? I don't think I'm trying to be a little more. I'm chugging down a night. Well, like it's a martini. That's fine, right? Yeah, no, the liver loves, Michael.
Oh yeah, it does. So I agree with you that sometimes when I hear these perspectives on housing, I think to myself that if my son or if our children don't have help,
in either coming up with a down payment, being provided employment or an education, there is no way that a young person on their own can be able to afford a house in the next. There's no way. No, no, not at all. There's no way. Yeah.
And it's like something is going to have to change because I mean it is completely insurmountable for young people. It's so wacky. Yeah, it doesn't make sense. I mean, the appraisal on this house I'm building, I got it and I was like, that's not possible. Right. You know, like a million dollars. Right. What does a million dollars buy you any? I mean, granted, it's going to be a nice house, but I got the appraisal back at a million.
$40,000 for market value. I mean, it's $40,000. Yeah, it's $40,000. I mean, my house I bought in 2013, down in 2015 for $177,000. And before that, the previous 100 paid, I think, like, $135. And it's on the market right now. I sold it. It's in closing now, yeah. For $350,000. Like, it's crazy. It's how long did it take to sell?
Uh, I think it was on the market like seven days. For 350, 350. Yeah. And you bought what? 175. Yeah, about. Yeah. And you would live there for how long? Uh, nine years.
Yeah, that's Lebanon too. So right. It's a prime location. I mean, it's right off the interstate. Like you got 350. Yeah. But again, even then, I mean, it's silly. I mean, you know, I'm obviously not going to, you know, charge tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars less, you know, like if I could take advantage of the market, but at the same time, I do realize how insane it is that
it has doubled in a handful of years. It's insane. There's what's interesting about Sonopi. I have to share this with people. My law, I have 1.4.
five acres, 1.45 acres in Sonopi on Youngs Hill, the appraised value, the tax evaluation is $113,000 in tax evaluation. You got to add 20 to 30% of that for market value. That's, you know, in me talking with the realtors and me being out there all the time, I'm a nosy
Dude, like I want to know, I talked to, you know, Dolan, the real estate people, like I like, I kind of, I kind of like, I stick my nose and things because I want to know what the flavor of things out there is. Right. So.
The land is evaluated 1.45 acres at 113,000. That means market value is probably 140 somewhere in there. The house one lot up just sold for $880,000 with 12.5 acres. The acreage was worth 285,000. Wow.
Okay, so my little 1.45 is 113 and 12 is 245. So that means that means that the homes are the primary focus of what people want, because what are they going to do with the land?
Well, I don't know, but I mean, at the same time, I mean, they have real estate listings for like land, you know, if you look at, you know, like prime land in Lebanon, you know, even if like a quarter acre, they're charging like $150,000 for that. Yeah. So it was just kind of an interesting. It is interesting. Yeah. It's a little, a little exercise for me for 12 acres being, you know, maybe the thing is, is they didn't have enough road frontage to do a subdivision or to divide it up. Like the land was landlocked, but it was, you know,
But seriously, like 10 times my land volume was only worth two and a half times. Like that's very disproportionate off. Yeah, it's odd. I don't know how they figure that out. I mean, like one town will be, you know, half a million for an acre. And the next town, you can get like 50 acres for 10,000 bucks. Like, you know, it's just crazy. I don't get it.
Okay, so it's all I got for tonight, Matt. We're about there, aren't we? Yeah, we're there. Where are we? Okay, so again, we want to be along with you on your journey. So stay in touch. And I don't know, like any situation can be used as a cultivator for something different. So
Yeah, it's a it's we want to be along with you and I was just thinking about this thing that happened along the way about No, it's kind of private. I'm not gonna bring it up right now. Maybe maybe at some point down the road, but it's kind of a Interesting thing that's happened in the last week or two, but okay, so we want to be part of your journey. Let us in
include us. Don't consider your present circumstances as somehow you're not in our fish pond anymore, even though we do kind of have that New England thing. Like, you know, if you're not with us, you're against this kind of thing. But you know,
I always considered my son as a New Hampshire, right? Living in California. Right. He always wore Chippewa boots and plaid shirts. I mean, that's probably fair, since I lived in the carter two years and I've been here two months. I mean, I'm still a New Hampshire guy. I mean, yeah, exactly. Ryan was so funny because, you know, they don't dress that way out there. Right. And he'd wear plaid shirts and card hard pants and his work boots or he'd have like some
New Hampshire boot and everybody look they'd call him like the country munchkin or something. So okay everybody and it's a little late. It's 10 o'clock. I'm trying I tried to be a little upbeat and Nice talk to you Matt. Appreciate it and we all look forward to being part of your journey. All right, I appreciate that Don't forget you listen to this episode and any previous episode online at wntk.com on the podcast page and Don't forget you listen next Friday to a new episode at nine
With your perspectives with Georgia Man on News Talk 99.7WNTK, AM1490 FM 98.9W UVR.
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