Podcast

Mask or Not To Mask that was my Question

Mask or not to mask that is the question or at least the question that I asked. In this episode, my guest host Trish the dish from Gen X voice unpack the difference between what the media is telling us about each state and what’s actually happening in the state. I recently did some traveling by car to Florida, the experience of what the media is telling me about Florida and that the governor has lifted the mask mandate and what the businesses are actually doing seem to be two different things if you want to go buy groceries get gas go to a liquor store or any small or large business in between you better still have your mask with you because although the state isn’t requiring it the businesses are so with that being said no shirt no shoes no mask no service!

You can find me at: www.genxperspective.com
You can find Trish at: www.genxvoice.com

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It’s hard to speak your mind these days. voicing your opinion is tough and a climate where you’re either seen as an ultra conservative or a bleeding heart liberal. But what about our perspective? What about the Gen X perspective? I’m Tony a latchkey kid from the 80s and 90s. Now I’m in my 40s wearing cargo shorts, collecting Star Wars figures and reminiscing about the days before my first cell phone. The jennex perspective is for us caught somewhere in between boomers and Millennials are we see things a bit differently? I’m tired of staying silent. It’s time to rant, discuss a load and debate. Join Tony and his guests as they tackle the topics of Pop Culture, Sports, religion, and yes, even politics. If life’s a Rubik’s Cube, we’ve got the experience to tackle it. Welcome to the Gen X perspective with Tony Randazzo. Hey, how’s everybody doing? So, we are getting ready now to air another episode of the Gen X perspective. I have my co host Trish the dish from Gen X voice on with us this week again. She’s been reoccurring last couple episodes. And this time she graciously accepted my invitation to be a co host for a podcast that we did this weekend live during a podcast convention called pod v con. So Trish from jennex voice and myself Dhoni from jennex. perspective, we did a we did a live stream, on YouTube or on Facebook, excuse me, during the convention, and we spent about 45 minutes and we just threw out the topic at the beginning of the show. After doing some traveling over the last couple weeks and going through a bunch of states by car, and seeing what’s actually happening in states regarding wearing masks, and staff, or state mandates and kind of what states are what’s different states are doing the reality versus what the media is kind of portraying out there on the evening news. And after spending a week here in Florida. Where there is no government mandates basically, you wouldn’t know that based on the businesses. Basically, mom and pops up to the big box stores are still requiring you know, kind of the same deal. No shirt, no shoes, no mask, no service, and how the media is portraying that in a different light. So without further ado, enjoy the 45 minute episode as we we talked about this topic and a couple others and bring in some some folks that were commenting that we pulled into the show and answered their questions as well, based on what we were chatting about. This is Tony from the Gen X perspective. Enjoy the show. Oh, we’re live. Hello. Tony. dt. Yeah, what’s happening? Not much just enjoying a nice buffer Raj for spring break. How about you need to just you know, hey, cheers, cheers. Cheers. Cheers, huh? So good to be here. Tony, thank you so much for inviting me. Yeah. Thank you so much for accepting to come on in banter with me for about 45 minutes or so about random crazy Gen X or non Gen X or stuff. Yeah, it’s always a pleasure with you, Tony. And you’re you know, you’re doing a little marathon thing here. You just did 45 minutes, right? You just did. Your your podcast that you did, and I caught part of that. That was awesome. Congratulations. Thank you. That’s it. It’s just briefly not to talk about everything you just talked about. But you know, to be able to go out there and talk about the subject matter that you were talking about sex and talking about, you know, everything that you guys chatted about streaming live on Facebook for the world. So listen to is God bless. Yeah. That’s all. Yeah, like I said, I’m very happy to be drinking with you here now because I earned it. That’s awesome. So we are Yeah, we’re so I’m hanging out down in Florida last time. We talked the snow was blown. I was in upstate New York, you were giving me a hard time because it was 85 degrees outside in your part of the world. They’re out west. And I guess I just took you up on the offer and went south for spring break. For the convention. I thought, well, hell, if that’s what the theme is, I better just go south and go where spring break is. And there’s not much of a spring break happening here in Florida, at least where I am right now. But the weather. I’m having my own little spring break and extra swimming pool hanging out having a good time. Wonderful. Well, and now it’s cloudy here in Phoenix, about 5055 degrees, so I’m freezing. And what’s that? What’s the temperature? Like there in Florida? where you’re at? It’s at? Sunny? Yeah, that’s good for you. Oh, my gosh, I think this is, um, I think it’s streaming on face. book. I just want to make sure that we’re, we’re up and running, right. Is there an easy way for you to talk quicker than me? Because I’m new with this. Tom hasn’t yelled at me yet. No, no, he said, he said, we’re where we’ve been live for a while. So we’re getting my comments up. So we’re not looking. Oh, they’re the comments are Oh, there’s Eric, and back. Nice to see you again, Eric. Thank you, Tom. Thanks, Tom. So, so briefly, you know, at one point, I thought, well, maybe we should sit down and have a conversation and figure out what we’re going to talk about and kind of script it out, for lack of a better term and have some topics. And then I thought, well, the last time we talked, we went for three hours, with a break in between, I think and came back and kept talking. So I thought, well, at least we’re gonna figure out something to talk about for 45 minutes. So the only idea that I threw out there to you briefly today, and I know you’ve been busy. So you probably haven’t put 10 seconds of thought into it. But so this really fascinating thing happened to me driving to Florida, from upstate New York, so I went through Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, DC for half a second, Virginia as well. And it was a really fascinating thing that I kind of geeked out on because for the last year, just like a lot of people, I haven’t traveled more than 30 miles from my house for any particular reason other than stay home, go to work. Come back, you know, we were fortunate to have a business that was we didn’t close down during the pandemic, we were farming. We were doing stuff last spring. So we have been busy. We didn’t get furloughed, we didn’t get a break. We didn’t get sent home. None of that stuff happened to us. And so we’ve been going hard for the last year for the most part. And I thought, well, let me take a break. We’re gonna go down and stay at a house and self quarantine while we’re down here, why not, and just hang out and sit by the pool. What I found was super fascinating, was the drive. So I was I was really nervous. So coming from New York and New York has been, you know, first to shut down first to lock down still have tons and tons of government rules and regs and everything is still really tight in New York, he’s starting to risk government starting to lift a little bit, but it’s still pretty pandemic oriented there. And in Florida, is really the polar opposite. From a government perspective, the government said, we’re going to trust you as citizens to not be total dumb asses. And we’re opening everything up. Well, of course, we all watch the news, the news has been saying, you know, Texas and Florida, the end of the world is happening because this government has opened everything up. The really interesting thing is in Florida, it is the government has said we’re open for business. each municipality is doing things a little bit differently. But for the most part, it’s pretty much lacks. You want to go into a business mom and pop, big box, you want to go into a grocery store liquor store, gas station, if you’re not wearing a mask, they’re not serving you. It’s turned into a no shirt, no shoes, no mask, no service. So the businesses down here are doing what you would expect good citizens to do. And they’re asking people to wear masks. And you know what, for the most part 99% of the people are without issue, which is the polar opposite of what the news on both sides of everybody that broadcasts on television is saying the total opposite of that, which is crazy to me. So I don’t know. I just think that um, it’s one more nail in the coffin that media is they’re driven by money and right And that is damn near the end of it. Well, you know, it’s funny, Tony is that Arizona was a part of the Texas Florida debacle of having so many, you know, cases that we were at 95% capacity in our hospitals, you know, I completely stopped my outdoor adventuring. I didn’t go anywhere except to, you know, final businesses my job, which was mostly from home, and, and, and my bubble couple’s house. But we also didn’t have a mandate, so to speak. And so we too, were have all this time bars have pretty much been open. Like, you know, my bubble couple and I went into, yeah, Eric knows, Eric knows he’s in Mesa, we went to a bar, we sat out on the patio and basically felt really uncomfortable, because when we went inside, no one was wearing a mask. And it was pretty fill for pretty full. They would have little tables in between, but you’re talking about a huge bar with all these patrons without a mask on. And, and it was like, well, I understand that Arizona isn’t going to mandate but I’m going to go ahead and wear a mask and do my own. So So now my friend just texted me and said that we’re at 70% we were in a downward trajectory of cases. But I don’t I still don’t feel like we’re at the end. Right? Um, you know, I still don’t really feel like going to a bar even though I miss it. I love sitting on this one, you know, patio, outside my bubble couple and I go to all the time even before I called them that. And you know, there’s a part of me, especially when, when we were chatting and it was 80 degrees out. That’s one of my favorite things to do in Arizona is sit outside and drink. Yeah, that my friends. Yeah, that’s I mean, their patios here are bigger than their insides. And I have noticed like this morning, we were, um, my wife and I went over to a farmers market. On Saturday morning, we decided to go get some fresh seafoods and produce. And last week, we went and it was gonna, there was a percentage of rain. So there wasn’t actually a lot of people there. And today, there’s a ton of people there. And, and this was today was the first time that I noticed in kind of a public gathering, although outside and not set up in a way that you could be socially distant, really, right. Farmers Markets aren’t really socially distant. Yeah, they’re kind of hard deals. Yeah, we did notice was all of the vendors, and anybody, you know, there was entertainment there and food there. And vendors there, they were all masked and wearing masks. So anybody that was there in an official capacity was masking, just like any business owner would be, it seemed like, and then it was like 6040 mix 60% wearing masks. And that was the most people I had seen out in a public setting that weren’t wearing masks. We haven’t gone out to any big restaurants yet to see, um, you know, mostly still take out, you know, my wife and I, you know, a year of new habits are hard to break in get comfortable, you know, going in into an environment like that. I mean, there was one deli grocery store that we were in, and it got really busy when we were in there. And it was, although people were trying to keep space. So I think the customers and people that I’ve talked to say, yeah, we don’t go to places that they’re not enforcing masks. But yet at the same time, I haven’t yet seen people hold people at the door unnecessarily. Busy, right. The second I’m not seeing that. So I think there’s kind of a fine balance there. I’m guessing, but I haven’t been yet in a situation where I’ve felt totally uncomfortable, where people are just kind of being free for all now. I’m also not going to those places, you know, the soudan tourist sea spots where people are going to congregate and jam in there year round, potentially, you know, along the boardwalks and where the beach stuff is. We’ve tried to avoid that or not hit it at peak times, just to kind of be good citizens. And, you know, try to stay healthy because the You’re right, we’re not over. It’s not over yet. And you got to kind of still try to be careful a little bit for the most part. Yeah. I mean, yeah, common sense. I think it really is common sense. And I think people for the most part when they’re left to that and given the right information. I think that they’re going to act accordingly. And you always get the jackasses. I mean, we know that. Right. I mean, it’s just is the way it is. So whatever from that perspective, but you know, yeah, so, well, I want to speak to what Eric says, and he’s like, if they’re drinking and eating, how would you wear a mask and I hear you, Eric. And that’s Literally why I don’t feel comfortable in those scenarios? I, if I’m if I’m picking up food at a restaurant, for instance, and everyone’s without a mask, because they’re eating, obviously, I don’t feel comfortable. Sure. Yeah, yeah, that’s your choice, even if you’re a 25% capacity or 15% capacity or 100% capacity, if you’re not comfortable, it doesn’t matter. There’s, if they’re around, they’re not wearing a mask, I found that we actually thinking about it, my wife and I haven’t been in a restaurant. Since this happened, we have not sat down and eaten anywhere. For that reason, a, it was kind of timing. So we kind of where we live, super tourist community, the restaurants kind of die off, and a lot of them close, because they’re seasonal. And it’s just, it’s just kind of a level of comfort. And we have a lot of responsibility. I look at it from a business owners perspective, as well. I have employees, I have a business that I’m responsible for, along with my sister, my wife, my father, and if one of us kind of drops off the rails, you know, we have all these staff that rely on us as well. And they can totally pick up the ball and do everything and they have, but I feel a greater responsibility. Also to them. It’s not just about me and my wife and my immediate family anymore, my bubble, my bubble, and all these employees that I’m responsible for, and that I care about. And if I’m down for the count, or God forbid, something happens. You gotta, you know, what are you gonna do? So it’s, it’s, yeah, we haven’t sat at a restaurant yet. And I’ve asked, we’ve talked about it a couple times since we’ve been here. It’s like, Well, do you want to go out? Well, let’s wait till the weekday. And now we have a week left of this trip, and we still haven’t gotten out. So we’ll see what happens this week. But it’s Yeah, it’s that if I can’t sit down and be comfortable, you know, why go torture yourself like that? I like Hermes asked a question about noticing generational differences about masks and opinions. I’m gonna say in Arizona. It’s, it’s, it’s a purple state now. So you really have just the gamut of I work on a campus on a college campus. So I see tons of kids without masks on. I go to the Circle K, and see tons of people our age and older not wear masks. I see people like the bar I was talking about. That’s a very it’s millennials Gen Xers and I’m a baby boomers. And and I think it’s it’s, it’s, I think it’s important to point out that like masks and wearing masks and taking the pandemic seriously is more unfortunately, a political stance, or a personal stance than it is anything about generations. What do you think, Tony? Yeah, I would agree. I what I’ve noticed is the elderly seem to be of the greatest generation. I have been, oh, no, the greatest generation is. Yeah, that’s the parents of the boomers. Yeah, gamers have been super careful and cautious because of their age. So we’re talking 70 and up ish. And, and I’ve noticed that they’ve taken it very seriously. In some cases, almost to a fault. I mean, even now, I’m starting to see news reports and stuff about these grandma and grandpa’s that are have gotten their shots. They’re good to go to at least see their family and they’re even nervous doing that. And they need their doctor to actually say, yeah, it’s okay. We can see your immediate family. And then yeah, and then it’s really a mixed bag. My dad in his generation, initially, especially took it super seriously and, and was really concerned about it, thankfully. But yeah, then we kind of saw these college kids doing this crazy stuff where they were, you know, hey, I’m invincible, that you know, the same stuff that every teenager does. Right? Nothing’s gonna happen to me. I’m bulletproof. Right. But I’ve also kind of seen that conversation change I think as it’s more information is kind of gotten out there. But it became such a political issue that it just turned into a nightmare. You didn’t know what to believe. And in the CDC, those guys were changing what they were saying but that was because they as they were getting more information I want to believe that wasn’t political on their end, but you could argue that it was their information always seemed pretty methodical and thought out from a you know, from a health perspective, I want to believe that I want to I want to believe in the greater good I guess and don’t want to go down this conspiracy theory. Rabbit Hole necessarily. So you know, I don’t know. Yeah. Um, bend, then staking is pretty good with it. It’s funny, um, you know, different parts of the country I think have have responded differently. Um, compared to you know, and Eric says that he sees people mass for the most part. mesa is close to ASU. So I’m glad to hear that I’m in Glendale, so I don’t see it as much. Well, that’s a lie. I see it in the grocery stores. For the most part, people in Circle K, but it’s, it’s so it seems to be so 4060. Like you were saying, Tony sure that like, I don’t, I’m 60% are wearing masks. I wouldn’t say that. Um, for the most part, I guess. 60% is the most part but it’s, but I’m telling you, when I’m on campus, nobody’s wearing a mask unless they’re inside. Wow. And and and I understand that being outside and we even have someone viewing that says that, you know, she has asthma. And that’s a really, it’s really hard for her or right to wear a mask. And I I definitely understand I I know that there’s plenty of doctors, nurses that have asthma that have to wear masks, you know, 12 to 18 hour shifts. So I, I applaud you, Teresa, that you’re able to get through this without contracting it. But I feel like it’s, it’s a Yeah, it’s definitely not a generational thing. It’s definitely it’s all over. I think it’s all over. Yeah, it’s kind of I think a lot of it has to do with where you live and how the pandemic has affected your part of the world. Right, personally, people in your circle or your community? And, and ultimately it does, you know, it’s everybody’s personal deal. And I think that even folks that have challenges with wearing masks, for medical reasons, especially, yeah, it’s a raw deal. I mean, that is just hard. I, you know, I mean, I’m no spring chicken, you know, I got about an extra, I don’t know, let’s shoot out there, but an extra 100 pounds, like I’m carrying around on my waist these days, and go put a face covering on me and go start walking around. It’s brutal. and simple. Like, I always felt why not those? Sure, I’m guessing that that would be a great alternative, although I haven’t worn one. And when I do wear him, I’m usually grinding or doing something in the shop, not necessarily walking around in the grocery store. I think it defeats the purpose personally, you know, just a piece of plastic in front of you doesn’t kind of, you know, cause that error to my on a microscopic level to come in and get you a so to speak. If you’re going to get got Yeah, um, oh, yeah. Let me tell you, I was a high school French teacher for nine years and a counselor the elementary level for a year, and all I can do is count my blessings that I am in higher ed. And that I get to I get to work remotely 50% of the time, because I can’t imagine being in a high school setting. For Yeah, especially with some of the schools I taught it that were really tough. They didn’t even want to sit in their seat, let alone wear a mask. Are you kidding me? Yeah, I think no schools. Yeah, that would be a hard deal. I’m guessing. Yeah, I am. So I mean, I have my principal certificate, I could have gone that route. I was planning on doing the principals Superintendent route. And all I can think of every single day that I don’t have to make these decisions is oh my god that I dodged a bullet. She’s got five kids. One just graduated and he’s going into the military, but she’s got four younger ones one. And, and I crazy. I mean, and they’re really good about putting their masks on. I mean, they’re being good little soldiers, so to speak, and they’re doing what they need to do. But man, she’s got her hands full because, okay, you’re raising a family. And now you got to throw this thing in, where they’re home so much more than you’re used to and for sure they’re used to and then totally got to put a mask on and my nieces and nephews have been pretty darn good. And there hasn’t been any issue necessarily from that. And the oldest is actually working with us at the farm while he’s waiting to go to boot camp and Yeah, it’s a hard schools and school kids and schools what a hard deal. And to try to pick a side with that whole thing is just crazy. I’ve just sat back and watch that and felt horrible for both sides, the parents, the teachers, and then the kids are stuck in the middle as usual, right? The adults are doing whatever they’re doing and the kids are stuck in the middle where they want to do is go to school and see their friends. And that’s my, my, my Boomer uncle and I talked about this all the time that like, our, our youthful years, like being our teens and 20s. Um, we, we were able to, you know, hang out with our friends and go to shows and bonfire parties on the on the beach, right? Like, like you’d like dinoco did the same. You know, backpacking trips, camping trips, you know, just gathering together and being young and crazy. We, we’ve erased this, this has been erased from them. Now, I’m not gonna say we because I feel like it’s the virus it’s I don’t think that it’s humans. I mean, they’re gonna look back on it as a very strange time in their, their high school years. You know, we all have our story even even like their early to even people that are in their 20s I feel like are really losing out on these, like, really special years of their life of living and partying and being social. And but let’s look at it this way. So what history says anything, right, so let’s go back to the Spanish Spanish flu. So right 1918 Let’s do it. Let’s do it. roaring 20s people having a good time partying it up big time. That’s what I’m hoping for. And I have faith in our especially our younger generation, but you know, us old people now. I think we’ll be able to kick our heels up and, you know, have some Yeah, that’s some good times for sure. Yeah. on the horizon. I think that everybody’s itching right now. And it’s hard. Summers coming. We’re right there. We’re almost there. And once we hit it, I think it’s going to just we’re going to have a good time. We’re going to have a great couple of years, I think and people are really good time and kind of throw caution to the wind, but maybe be a little nicer to people and a lot more lighthearted and having fun. That’s where I’m going. I hope I hope you’re right, Tony. Um, you know, I have to say, um, I I definitely feel Yes, we need to drink more wine. Eric, you’re exactly right. Like, and, and and if if anything? Oh, yeah, the Okay, I’ve got to say this much, like, wearing a mask in public. And sunglasses is like the closest to being a superhero that I’ve ever been allowed to do in public outside of Halloween. And, and, and like, I I’m gonna miss that. I’m not gonna lie like, especially as a woman if anyone caught my live broadcast, right before this one. You know, being a woman comes with some you know, uh, you know, why aren’t you smiling more? You’re too pretty to frown. No one’s no one’s saying that to me now. Right? Especially my staff and folks that work with me and around me all the time. They say the same thing to me. Why aren’t you smiling? Oh, no. Oh, my God. never ends. And like that whole mask thing where? Yeah, you know, show you my expression. I can raise my eyebrows. That’s totally. That’s the fun part will be when they’re not wearing the masks and they’re used to wearing a mask and they start doing that and they don’t have it anymore. Forget that’s. Yeah, yeah, it’s funny because I’m a smiler, too. I actually funny that I should say the thing. Yes, yes, Maria. Yes, totally. I really don’t ever want to go back to meetings where I have to wear the full outfit. I love wearing my pajama bottoms and my sweat pants. Man, I love these zoom. You guys have no idea what I’m wearing under here. You know, right? Yeah. Yeah, no. Party on the top or party on the bottom but business on the top right. Like, definitely, like I I’m gonna I’m gonna miss certain aspects but, but I also feel like you know, I really hope that even if we do like balls to the wall party and have a great time. I do. I do hope that we do take some things away. Which are, you know, let’s be more sanitary. Like I’ve never seen so many places be so clean. Yeah. And it makes you wonder like what have we been doing all this time? We are a dirty, dirty species. I think a lot of that will carry on especially the young Because it’s been so crazy. Last Yeah, I think a lot of us will. But bad habits, old habits, maybe I think everybody will be a little better for it for sure. And I think that’s a start of the course of just doing, you know, I mean, a new habit, right. It’s how many weeks they say three weeks. And we’ve been doing this for almost a year now. I think that it’s helping us stick with more people. I’m hoping. I don’t know, though, because look at look at how quickly we forgot about the Spanish flu. And that lasted two years. And it’s like we were we are I don’t know, really, though, right? I mean, did they? I guess I didn’t do and I haven’t done enough research on it post Spanish Flu to know what they did or didn’t do or how they fixed that other than herd immunity and just kind of worked through it necessarily. Oh, well, Hermes. Hermes is saying that, um, there was a boomerang floodgates breaking interesting. Oh, my gosh, it’s true that the 1920s happened after the pandemic of the Spanish flu. Yeah, that’s right. That’s what they did. They partied. They said, Okay, I know that. I’m, uh, I’m a little bit drinking. I’m a little bit you know, how it how it goes. When I’m on your show, Tony, I get a little loose and a little fuzzy and I don’t process as quickly. Yeah. Oh, my gosh, I wonder and with all the knowledge that we have today of like, how dirty humans Oh, come on. You’re gonna have more faith. I mean, I’ve already decided, Tony, I’ve already decided how I’m going to date again. Okay, cuz I haven’t I haven’t dated since all of this started. I’m going to be like, Digi mask up during the pandemic during during the pandy. Oh, what are your thoughts on hand sanitizer? I’m gonna throw this out there about hand sanitizer pre pandemic, they hand sanitizer companies were freaking out because I believe it was the CDC were saying to stop using hand sanitizer, right because we it was allowing bacteria to grow immunity. I remember because I always thought hand sanitizer was a joke. I was never a user actually because of that. And and funny how now I have a travel one. I have one in my office at on on campus, every workstation for my co workers. I have one right when I come into that apartment like, Eric, I will go I will call you when when when it’s time to party. Let’s Let’s do it. Let’s Let’s. Let’s party like it’s 2019. You’ll have fun with Eric. He’s a good guy. I’ve known Eric my whole life. I think almost. Yeah, almost my I think that’s what you were saying last time. Yeah. 47. So 40 years. So I think I met Eric when I was still a little little youngster when we first moved to California from New York. And I love that he’s supporting you. That’s that just is so great. Right? Like it just goes to show that generational ties are just basically like, Yeah, it really doesn’t matter what generation you come from if there’s a connection. There’s a connection. Yeah, yeah, he’s correct Creme de Hey, I’m vaccinated. In next week is when I get my first hug. In previous Geritol, yes. I love it. I love it. Eric, you’re, you’re hilarious. But I haven’t I haven’t touched a human. My dentist touched me on Thursday. And I can’t even tell you because Tony, you’re married. You don’t get this but all of us single folk. Like it is. You forget that. Like, there’s there’s this feeling when another hand. Not it? touches like this feels like Oh, that’s nice. Yeah, whatever. You can do your own, you know, touch your head, whatever. But like when another human does it, you know, like, he was massaging my face. Like, Does this hurt? I’m like, Yeah, like, now we’re very far from the doctor. And his assistant, like, you know, touched my head to like, place my head and I was like, yeah, that’s crazy. Now, you know, Oh, man. So I get my first hug since June on Thursday. And so if that means that I’m more attractive now in the dating world. I I hope this I hope he’s out there then like I hope it’s time The only time that I can say that I loved when my dentist touched me. Oh my gosh, he’s not watching because he’s mortified right now. No, I straight up told him I was like, you know, you’re the first person to touch me since June and he was like, okay, okay. He was a friendly older judge. I was like, I’m looking at, you know, but they have done some studies on like, the psychological sort of, you know, things but, you know, I’m a, I’m a spiritual person I meditate. You know, I feel really grounded. And what I’ve done is because I, and I don’t know if it’s my age, my generation, but I’ve just, I’ve just looked at this as, okay, well, now I need to, I need to adapt again, I need to pivot again. So I found you. You’re one of my favorite friends, Russ. Russ Russell is actually Oh, my God, he’s so you’re right. You’re right, Russ. You’re right. I did. But, but so you you guys are to two people I’ve connected with, you know, since the pandemic, and I just, I just shifted my energy virtually. And it was super easy. And I feel like I’ve made this amazing connection. So even though I live alone, and I haven’t had been touched by a human, except for my dentist on Thursday since June, I don’t feel the same anxiety, depression or any sadness at all. And that’s been an important thing. For a lot of people. Again, we’ve been really fortunate because our work family is given an outlet to a handful of people to have purpose every day and get out of the house and go to work that’s also caused us and to be in the public view in the public eye. Especially last summer, when we were really busy, and had a lot of customers around and having to pivot and do all the stuff we had to do to be in compliance. But it allowed the staff to continue to keep those relationships and doing that. That’s also on the flip side of that that’s what caused me to start looking at podcasting. And getting into this and doing it as I felt like there was nobody that I could talk to, I mean, aside from my family, but nowhere I can really event or to just kind of get random thoughts and ideas and information out there that wasn’t work or family related. So it was a great. It started out of course, as an opportunity for me to sit in a room essentially by myself and either reminisce about crazy stories about crashing my dad’s car in high school over and over and over again, to whatever the topic was in. And I did a couple episodes on politics in it was really nervous about it. Because in business in my business, our job is to entertain in and let people forget about their lives. And tasting room winery fun, excitement, excitement, award winning wine kind of deal. We’re not going to I don’t want to talk about politics unless they want to. And most of the time, they didn’t want to they wanted an escape, escape have fun. And but I couldn’t necessarily, you know, you’re there to serve them, not necessarily yourself to vent or to talk. And I’m having this outlet, where it felt like there was nobody listening. And now like lots of people are listening, which is a new kind of weird thing. And but I still feel kind of the freedom to be able to say what I need to say, and not be worried that it’s going to adversely affect kind of my day to day business and life because I’m not, you know, not standing on a pulpit in the middle of my tasting room, you know, giving my opinion that nobody really wants anyway, I can do it in a way that I can say what I need to say in a structured way. And it’s been really refreshing to get good feedback and have really good conversations, people like yourself, to be able to have these conversations. We don’t see eye to eye on a lot. on a on a granular level. There’s differences there but we’re able to talk about it, see each other’s point of views. And that is so important to practice. Our generation still had that a lot where I think I have have not learned it necessarily and that’s a whole cancel culture thing and could be a whole different conversation. But we’re still out there the Exeter’s are still promoting that and having that discussion and embracing diversity. I love that you don’t share every single viewpoint the same as me because how boring is that? Right? But what it does, it allows me to to really unpack and unfold my ideas and what I believe based on on on how I feel presented to you. So I think on one of one of our three hour parts was that, um, you know, you, you, you said something, or I said something and you were like, Yeah, but Dylan I was like, Oh, yeah, I hadn’t thought about that. That’s the beauty of being around people who have different viewpoints than you. And our generation knows that we revel in that because when we were younger, we maybe I feel like our generation was a lot more exploratory. In that we, we we sought out people who were different than us. We were exposed to people who are different than us. Whereas in this in this new, which is kind of ironic, because, you know, we’ve met, you know, virtually, but I’m, I’m gonna say virtually, you, you, you tend to stay in these pockets, where it’s like, I only like these Facebook posts. I only like these Instagram posts. But I I know that if, like, and what podcasting has done for me is it’s it’s open Me too. I connected with you, because we’re both the same generation. Yeah, that’s where the, in some random chat room about right Gen X something and you were on it, and it said, Are you looking for people to come on? And I said, Hey, I’ll come on. That’s all, that’s all. But but but back in the olden days, Tony, you and I would have maybe met in a coffee house because I saw your backpack? Or, you know, um, you know, maybe a book I was reading you saw or you know what I mean? So, so you have these, like, similar similarity connections, and then realize, wow, like, you are a completely different kind of person than me. And I’m so glad I met you because of it. Yeah. Right. That’s great. It’s been great opportunities to, to be able to meet new and different people in that way. And, again, us, we’re of the opposite sex, I’m obviously, but I haven’t noticed. Would we have ever met other than, you know, passing conversation or a Hello, or whatever, unless we were in some sort of structured environment? And what would that conversation look like? You know, I mean, my wife is sitting here, you know, is this appropriate? Is it not? I mean, there’s so many other things that come into play when you’re meeting people in different environments. And this just allowed it self to be what it is. And and there wasn’t any kind of pre there wasn’t there was nothing there that would have caused it to be anything other than what it is which is just kind of like when we were in our 20s Yeah, right. When you’re young you’re single and you’re you’re more or you’re if you had your your your wifey your girlfriend at those times, right? Um, oh, totally. In Hermes, you’re right, cuz you’re you always pop up when I’m live. And I just love that, um, and all that you give to us. Um, but you know, I feel like back in the olden days like we we definitely all congregated right it would have been more of a social right and and I would have met you with your with your wife, girlfriend, and it would never have been weird. We’d been like, oh, what’s up? Like, I don’t feel like Yes, I’m this is not what I’m drinking. It’s my travel of my Tito’s and I just thought I’d like to let everyone know I’m, I’m pouring up. But I feel like that’s, that’s what’s so weird about today’s world is I can’t I couldn’t just approach you and your wife and be like, Hey, are you guys seem like you’re my age? Let’s have a conversation. And yeah, I you know, and I agree, introverts unite. Because I’m an I’m an ambivert I get to I get to be both sides. Like I i recharge alone. I love living alone. I love being alone. I don’t I don’t find any issue with not having dated or being touched by human and since June. Because I just went okay, what’s next? Right and I found connections virtually. And and I love it actually, because it’s almost like I said, it’s it’s almost echoing a time when we all could be together. And even as an introvert you could be in a crowded room and still make a connection with someone because you’re at the same rave together or you’re you’re all in the same pot smoking circle together, but you just happen to sit next to each other drum circle. Like backpacking trip or I don’t know, do you know what I mean, though? Like, it’s it’s really well, I you know, although I think that you’re obsessing about not being touched for a year a little, little too much. I’m a little worried about you right now. But, you know, I just want you to know, you’re gonna have to take that deadbolt off at some point, I will hold your hand, I promise we’ll all be there. Thursday, Thursday, I’m going to jump back on the app. Phone, we’ll put it on. We’ll put it on speaker while I’ll be there with you when you get ready to do it. I didn’t, you know, again, totally different pandemic experience. I didn’t have the luxury and I tried. I tried to be the one in the business in the family to pull back and not be around people at all. And I still couldn’t do it. Because I had to run the joint and, and didn’t have that. I don’t know if it’s a luxury or not. But I am totally okay with not being around tons of people all the time. And I didn’t have that option. Wow. Yeah. That’s so interesting. It’s for us it was, you know, you can’t let as many people in the building start cleaning shit really good. Spread everybody out. And thank God, I had a big 60 by 100 foot tent outside, which is we would have been decimated if we didn’t have that space. But I yeah, totally opposite experience from that perspective, as we had to. We had to be there. We had to be in front of people. You know, but what I love though, is that you you echoed what I said, though, and that is that? Yeah, I was I’m joking about the whole nut, not touch thing. But the point being though, is our ability as a generation to pivot very easily. There’s a great and I know we’re short on time, so I’m going to make it really fast. But there’s a great meme on Facebook. That’s like the pandemic was like Gen X has been working on on being ready for this our whole lives, right? We we know how to hunker down, we know how to pivot we know how to figure out something else to entertain us. I would love to see studies that show you know what age group is most affected by the pandemic. I would like to see that Gen X is the one that came up on top. Yeah, of course Gen X were the best. Mia says her life hasn’t changed at all. Yeah Well yeah, I mean that’s a little bit of a change me if you don’t go anywhere next to that post you see that right there that’s my daughter and she’s she’s raising my grandson and she hasn’t she’s basically a stay at home mom and she’s been raising that that youngster and doing what she needs to do and her life probably hasn’t changed all that much because she is she is you in that sense. She loves to she doesn’t have any issues with being home hanging out, being alone not dealing with a bunch of jackasses out there for sure. So God bless her man Tony it’s been so fun doing this with you as usual I can’t even believe it’s already been 45 minutes my timer so I was trying to be a good citizen and look at that. We just hit it. So I’m going to we’re gonna have to sign off so that we don’t get in trouble from the convention police because they have a schedule and we need to stay on that schedule, not mess things up for everybody else too much and it’s been awesome Trish. God bless you. Thank you so much. Same Tony Dan as usual. And thank you everybody for your comments and listening in and come check me out Gen X perspective comm or you know Gen X perspective wherever you get your podcasts and thank you guys for everything and God bless and enjoy the rest of the convention. There’s some super awesome other podcasts coming on and some breakout sessions on zoom go on Facebook, check out pod v calm or con com calm co m m and n see what they have to offer the rest of this weekend and next weekend as well and, and support a great cause. Thank you guys for everything and Thresh I’ll catch YOU on the flipside. Sounds good. Tony have a great time and Florida peace. Thanks for listening to the Gen X perspective with Tony Randazzo, where we see things a bit differently. Let’s get social. Find us on Facebook by searching Gen X perspective Twitter at Gen X underscore podcast and on Instagram at Gen X perspective. You can also find us online at Gen X perspective comm and reach out to Tony directly at Tony at Gen X perspective.com to maybe you can talk strategy on how to beat Super Mario Brothers three. Don’t forget to subscribe to the Gen X perspective wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for listening

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