Let Me Check The Doppler Real Quick

Welcome And Weather Whiplash

Welcome back to another episode of The According To Wes podcast. As always, we have uh D Law here.

You got D Law, the meteorologist in the building.

Uh and you got me watched, just listening. Uh, I did not think he was gonna read a whole play by play of what's about to happen or possibly happen today, because you know how the weather go.

Yeah, especially here in Maryland.

Oh yeah. I be I try to plan like my outdoor stuff around it. And then every time I'm like, fuck that outdoor shit, I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna do it. That's when the storms come. But when I like stay in a house or play some 2K, nothing happens. I'd be like, damn, man, it's supposed to rain. And then I wasted four hours playing video games when I could have been outside.

That's how it is. That's how it is. I stopped even relying on.

I remember I was coaching basketball. I want to say it was my I think I was at Mount Oak.

I was at Mount Oak coach, I think I want to say it was my fourth year, third or fourth year, because my cousin coached me for two years, and I had to bring somebody else coaching with me that third. So I think it might have been the third year. But they swore up and down it's gonna be this real big storm. I mean, when it's I mean, they shut everything down. It's like it's gonna be storming and it's gonna be this, it's gonna be that. And I had just had practice with the kids, and they was like, Yeah, they cancel the game for tomorrow, blah blah blah. And so me and the assistant coach, I'm like, Well, you wanna go to Chili's? Go to Chili's, go to Chili's, ain't no snow, ain't no nothing. They cancel the game for nothing. And I mean, they shut everything down. Colleges were closed. I was like, So you mean I get to have a free day of doing nothing?

You know what it is? Better safe than sorry, man.

Hey, look, it's happened quite frequently. I remember I want to say it was the same year.

Um we we were supposed to get we started getting snow. We did get snow that day. And we I was at Mapnes at the time.

He was like, Oh, you know, snow's coming out. You think we should close? And you know me. I'm like, it ain't even sticking, but yeah, yeah, yeah. Go ahead and close, go ahead and close. He's like, Yeah, go ahead and send an email out, told him we close. Man, that stuff started that stuff stopped uh snowing probably like an hour after I sent that message. I closed that place up went home. I was at the bar drinking the rest of the night.

Hey, that's one way to do it.

That's a free day. I just graduated, I was already graduated from college at that point, so it wasn't like I gotta do homework.

Right.

Snow Closures And Free Days

Man, those are the days I do not miss fucking homework. Or planning your homework around snow days in the wintertime. Remember that shit? Like, man, shit. I could probably give me an extra day. But I should probably do this work because I might not get that day. Man, I was playing with fate back in the day. Writing papers and shit like that, based off of like, is it gonna snow? Am I gonna make it in? And I'm talking about college and uh high school and college.

Well, UNBC, you're always very late on sending out the uh notice. Oh yeah, really. I mean, without fail, leadership. Every time you turn around, it's like, oh, it's snowing. I was on campus, I was on campus one time. And luckily, the uh the girl I was dating at the time, she had got, she said, Oh, wait, are you connected to the UMBC text chain where they send you all the stuff? I'm still on campus. It's no I'm like, damn, it's knowing like shit. Ain't nobody came in this building yet to like go to class. I'm like, maybe nobody gonna come. She called me, like, hey, what are you doing? Said nothing. Say here waiting on class. She said, Dude, they closed the campus like an hour ago. I was like, since when? I ain't getting that. She was like, Yeah, they checked all that shit like an hour ago. Mind you, it's like six o'clock. Yeah, it's like six o'clock, but it had already been snowing since like 12.

Yeah, that's crazy.

So it's like I'm already I'm already kind of stuck in the middle of it.

The mid the beginning of it is always the worst. The middle of it, you might as well just stay where the fuck you at.

Yeah, I went home. Yeah, I mean, and you know, you only see wasn't wasn't close to where my parents were at. Mind you, I had come down, I forgot how I come down. Because it was already sticking, it was already, it was already layered on the street. And I want to say I came down 95. Yeah, I came either I came down 95 or I took a back road to get home. I did something. But I it took it took me like a solid hour, and then on my way home, because a girl who I was I was they talking to a day at the time, she was like, Are you home? I said, No, no, yeah, I'm stopping at the liquor store. Uh past rips, go get me getting to that house. My parents are like, Oh, you home? I said, Yeah, you drove in.

I said, I'm listening I'm gonna get home. I'm gonna get home because I had if it takes me two, three hours, I'm gonna get home. That's how I always felt like snows. I'm not uh I'm listening I'm gonna drive carefully, but I'm gonna get home.

I want to say I might have taken 695 to 97 and came down road three. I think I think this time I did it that way because I wasn't sure if if I'd be if I went down one of those hills on 95, I'd be able to stop. So I took I in my mind I'm rationalizing like what's the safest way to get home without causing an accident and without sliding down something trying to break, or you know, pretty much the road less traveled at this point. Yeah, 695-95 coming back into into Crawford and movie. But yeah, we shoot. I got me some look and I sat in the house, and I think at that time all I had was a PS2. I think all I had was a PS2 at the time. So went home, watched TV.

That's all I can do at that time because it was this 20 I ain't gonna lie, like those days are uh the best days because it's like if you're I don't struggle with uh FOMO, but sometimes you get your little pieces of FOMO, like damn, I should be outside. But just the comfort of knowing that yo, everybody should have their black asses in the house. It's snowing hard or storming hard. It for some reason with me, it just gives me a peace of mind, like ha. Ain't shit to do. You know what I mean? Ain't shit to do, everybody's in the fucking house.

What's weird to me is I'm trying to figure out why didn't I go to the teak house? I was in the fraternity at the time. Yeah, that's just one of the things like why didn't I just do that?

Nah, you probably wanted to be home where you knew everything was gonna be uh not convenient, but you know what I mean?

Like well, I mean uh and and closer to her because we went we went to the same school, so even if I stayed at the teak house, she would come up when she got on campus and we, you know, I see her, whatever, or she'll come over to the house. And then um a lot of times that's when I started really when me and her started dating, that's when I kind of really was going back and forth from from UNBC to home. Because when I first joined the fraternity back in Fall 09, it was, I think it was me and Hawaii that were dating the first couple months. And then after that, me and her weren't talking, and then it was me and the other chick, and she was she was always on campus because she worked at the bar on campus. So I would stay in the T council all week, talk to her, and then come home, we'll do whatever, or I'll come home, we'll spend some time together, and I'll just come back up that that night later. So man, it's all you know, like I said, I really just don't know how the shit was going already.

Yeah, it'd be times like that that um my semi uh okay with money self be thinking like I just need to get a car for the winter. Like a little uh like a little SUV that I only drive in the winter time or whatever have you when stuff like that happens. Because not to say that I'm gonna be out and about in it, but if I need to, I would like to feel like I can go. Yeah, I can do what I need to do. Uh and that might be, you know, like a 2012, whatever. You know what I mean? Something that ain't really leaving the driveway. But when I need to, I need to. Because something, you know, living here, we be having some weird ass weather. Weird weather. Weird weather. And and uh, and I ain't even talking about just the snow, just like the the rain or the floods or the you know the rain, the down trees and all that good stuff,

Tornado Warnings And Close Calls

or like the tornado that came through, yeah, yeah. That yeah came through.

Look, I I want to say I told you the story that the the the whole jank went off. As soon as I get to my car, it goes off saying tornado warning. I'm like, okay, it's not even a watch. This is a warning.

I'm like, warning gets the fucking house.

And it's like, damn, do I do I go back into the building? Because I just walked that three minutes to get into the building. I mean to get to get to my car. It's like, oh, let me look at the doppler, see where it is. It has a problem. You let me look at the doppler.

So I've never said that those words in my mouth. Let me look at the the the Doppler. Whenever it says that I'm in the house, I'm like, well, just pay attention to sounds.

Yeah, and that's one.

If it sounds like you know, it's too close, then the chances are I'm already in the basement, so it's just like man. But I wanna say that it completely didn't miss Baltimore City. I missed it. No, true. Because I just happen to be driving away from it or driving alongside it, but not really in it.

And I don't think it, and I think, you know, because they classify um they classify tornadoes as anything that forms. So Oh, do they? Anything that forms a funnel, it doesn't necessarily have to touch the ground. It just has to form, it just has to form an actual funnel and start coming down. That's that's what they consider a a tornado. That's why sometimes when you be hearing the stories like at least 15 different tornadoes uh were spotted, but you only hear about two that actually touched ground and then damage. That's because one of them started coming down and it like looked like it was coming down and it was moving, and it just kind of went back up, and you know. But I put it this way something something went through, you know, 295 before you get to where the stadium is, going you know, up and down that road.

Yeah.

Over by where we are in Glen Vernon, and you could see down trees and everything. So I'm like, huh. So I didn't get I didn't get hit with the rain. I get I got hit with the after rain after it had already passed us and headed towards my wife. Um but when you when we I was going you know on my way home, you know, I'm looking at this guy like, oh shit, yo. I'm looking around like yo, you know, and the it was like the wind started picking up. I said, oh my god, I might be in the middle. I said, I can't do a third one that I'm right in the middle of.

Oh geez.

I've been in the middle of two tornadoes.

Really?

I've been in the middle of two, yes. So one one in 2001, I'm gonna say 2019, the one I was in Columbia. So the one I was in Columbia was right now street from my job from when I was at the stop out. And it's time for us to clock out. And so they were like, hey, there's a tornado warning in the area. Um, we're sheltering in place, but if you've already clocked out, it is what it is. It's your choice. If you want to shelter here, you want to go home.

So me being cute, yo, the tornado will stay for hours. I just would have stayed there. Like, yo, it would I what I got five minutes, 10, 30 minutes at the most, and then the shit is lifted.

Well, he so the the guy one of the guys I worked with, he was like, Oh no, no, no, you'll be fine.

Uh do you want to get okay? The islanders I ain't got he was a he was from one of the islands. They yeah, they they sleep through those. They they get torn, they get hurricanes, they get tropical depressions. They don't give a fuck about any of that shit. But their houses are also made of just like cement, yeah. Like the shit ain't really going nowhere for going nowhere. Our shit is not just pure cement, it's wood, it might the foundation might be fucked. The siding, and if you went that stockpile, I'm pretty sure the the roof was just all sheet metal and no real reinforcements and shit in the warehouses.

Because the well, the warehouse was specifically semen. It was it was an old old building. Okay. So if it if something came and hit it, yeah, it had to be something something strong. Something strong, and and and it would and it technically would have to take a direct hit. Like if the tornado had to be coming right at it.

Smash the car into it or something.

Yeah, no, even a car wouldn't go. You smash a car into it, it would have to go through one of the loading dock doors. But if it hit the building, that car is going, that car is going like this.

Crumble.

It's crumbling. So that's why I say it had to be a tornado that came directly into it. Like it had to run right into it and to destroy any parts of it.

Yeah.

But they were like, no, no, you'll be fine. Just go ahead and just head out. And so the the the warehouse manager was like, Look, it's y'all's choice. Once you're out this out this building, and I'll I'm not letting you back in. We're not oh no, they said we're not liable for anything that happens to you. So if you die out there, that's on you. So I leave. If you die, you got to go for 195, man, and just driving. And all of a sudden, the car starts slowing down in front of me. And I'm like, oh shit. Oh shit. I'm looking, I'm like, okay, well, maybe I'm looking, I'm like, I don't see nothing.

But as I keep moving, all of a sudden, can't see nothing. All it is is raining.

Oh, if I can't see nothing, and I'm like, uh, you know, me and my wife. At this point, hey, look, do it now.

Like, if I'm in it, I'm in it.

Yeah, if I'm in it, I'm in it. And I'm driving, I'm texting, texting my wife, because we're dating at the time. You know, if anything happens to me, I love you. And she's like, love you too. You all right? I said, driving through a tornado. He was like, What the fuck? And so, I mean, and so everyone's it's like driving so slow. And I'm just like, yo, please drive faster, please drive faster, please drive faster. Eventually we get through, and as soon as we get past a certain point, it was just clear. And so we get to work the next day, and it was like, yeah, tornado touchdown on, I forgot the name of the road, but it was on a road heading towards 175. And I was like, damn, it's that's where the fuck where I was at. Yeah, and look, and that was the exact street that I went was going past yeah, when it was, you know, whatever. But it wasn't necessarily, it wasn't one that touched down, touched down.

It touched it was moving and shaking a little bit. Yeah, like it touched down enough that you could yeah, it I could you could you could feel the I do not want to be in nothing like that, man. I tell you.

I'm like, Lord have mercy. And then that was the that was the second time. The first time I was driving up to uh I was driving up to a going away party past house and up that way. And I left home everything was cool, and I get to like probably about where I'm at, right here, getting in 695 and all that. All of a sudden, it gets dark. Just dark, just dark, starts raining hard as shit, can't see shit. You feel the wind blowing. I mean, like, and this time, the first time it was just a lot of wind, and it felt like it was pushing the car, but it wasn't really pushing it. I just couldn't see. This time I couldn't see, and it felt like something was pushing me, pushing me this time. And I'm just like, what the fuck? And everybody that stopped in front of me stops. I'm like, okay, this ain't good.

Nope.

If this is a tornado, I'm dead in the water, literally. I'm like, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. So and then guess what goes off?

Your phone, your phone, yeah.

The tornado warning goes, I'm like, Are you serious? I'm in the middle of a tornado, like, oh my god, I would have started hyperventilating. Like, oh my god, so and at that time, me and my wife weren't together. I think we and my ex might have either just broken up. We I think we had just broken up. So this this is in between me and my wife being together. So, mind you, these two things happen fairly close together. I want to say within seven months of each other.

Jeez.

So uh they happen fairly quick, close together. And I'm just like, okay. And I'm like, all right, well, I something I remember this guy told me anytime that happens, just keep moving, just keep moving, just keep moving. Because eventually you'll get out the way of it, or you know, it's gonna smack you. Well, yeah, actually, he didn't tell me that part. He said, You just keep going.

You don't it's not like the tornado's like this is the path I'm gonna take. It could be like, you know what, I'm hooking a left, and you happen to be left today, you just happen to be there. Yeah, the only time I've been through something like that coming back from uh we was in Richmond, and I don't remember who I was in the car with. I want to say it was my wife, but it might have just been my mom and my brother. And um, you know, when you come from the south and you uh you go through VA, it's that that two-lane highway, I forget the name of the highway. But you can go 70 on that bitch. So long story short, it just started raining super hard and windy as fuck. Where I couldn't see nothing. And the car in front of us, it was us and the Toyota uh Camry, and the car in front of us pulled the fuck over. And then as we driving past him, another car pulled over. I said, you know what? I was driving at the time. I was like, you know what? I'm gonna pull over. So we just sitting there, can't see shit, car rocking. It's just me, my mom, my brother. And I'm just like, don't know if it was a tornado, we didn't get that alarm or anything like that, but it was very, very violent because we was in between trees, so it was just two lanes in between trees.

Yeah, and I was like, I can't do a third one, man. Uh like look, and I'm all got in, and it started the wind started blowing. I started seeing trees now. I said, Okay, well, but I saw the trees down too because it was tree tree.

I'm good. They down, they're not there, right? They're not there no more.

I'm good at look, the relief I had at a fallen tree.

Yeah, that's crazy.

I was just like, damn, that tree fell. Oh, thank God. That means it's it's not here no more. But that that let me know something something was going on, and yeah, right, but unfortunately, you know, fortunately, but unfortunately, fortunately, because there were people in the in my building. Um, but unfortunately, the tornado didn't hit my building, so I could teleport. It's one of those things like, damn it, I don't want to get hurt or nothing being in the building. But damn, why couldn't you just hit the building?

That's funny as hell.

So that's how I look at it. But I mean, that's why I said fortunately, but I mean unfortunately, but fortunately, it it didn't hit the building. But I wouldn't have minded hitting the building and you know, knocking all over and you know, no one getting hurt.

With no one getting hurt, yeah.

Yeah, with no one getting hurt, because the last thing I want is somebody from the janitor's crew or the security guards in there uh getting hurt because I wanted the building to get hit.

Right. So,

Work Disasters And Remote Logic

you know, fortunately, you know, no one got hurt.

We all made it home, and I had to go to work the next day.

So yeah, unfortunately in my uh profession, when stuff like that happens, uh I can expect outages, network outages.

And um you're actually working working.

No, I'm working the next day. I ain't working during that time, most likely. Depending on it's usually happening over the weekend or whatever have you. But if it's happening throughout the day, oh yeah, I'm usually trying to figure all that out. And hopefully it's just power and not like, oh, uh, some network equipment got uh, you know, uh they got fried because uh, you know, creating electrical, you know, whatever.

And um, knowing I do not like it. Well, knowing the management and and where I'm at, some motherfuckers would have been like, all right, guys, uh, so the building is uh the building's been knocked over, so we gotta go in there and investigate what really happened.

It got knocked over. Godzilla came through. I seen him the motherfucker down the street seen him, it was on TV. That's what happened.

Look, and even if it was something like, oh, okay, well, we gotta uh we we we all gonna teleport, they'll find a way to get me.

Bring y'all in that kind of if we can save some of the equipment that we got. It's like why can't we just write all of it off?

Right. At that point, it's like what um here's the thing, we can it's you know, until the city, until the city assesses the damage and emergency operations, you know, uh MDEM and all of them, until they assess what, you know, is it safe to go in there? FEMA might have to come in. Well, no, FEMA wouldn't have to come in. But pretty much until the appropriate people came in to make sure that, you know, whatever structural damage, because there's a garage in there, so it can keep collapsing. It's not just a building. So you got a lot of stuff that could be going on with that one thing. So you gotta kinda you gotta take your time with it. But knowing them to go, hey, you know what? Um, we want everybody to come to Ricers Town. What? Why why everyone else is everyone else is teleworking from all these other units, and you want us to come in and go to Ricers Town to do what? For me to sit there?

Yeah, do what I ask you to do, you're getting paid. That's how they be treating it. No common sense. Do what I ask you to do, you're getting paid. You want you want me to come into work just because you you you want me in. Yes. That's how you're and what kills me is even when they do that, them niggas don't come to work.

Oh, you know, I'm working remote today because you know, um, I got this meeting and I won't make it down here in time. So, wait, I gotta come in here while you at home?

Yes. Yeah, that is managing management one-on-one. You lucky I don't leave out this motherfucker.

Solitude Versus Loneliness Debate

Question for you. Uh-oh. Do you think uh do you think isolation is an addiction? You know, if you find comfort and loneliness. Yeah, do you think it's an addiction like being isolated, being by yourself, stand to yourself? Nope, I don't think so. Why not? I think people that stay themselves are weird.

That was from my experience, there's no one that likes to be alone. Anyone that likes to be alone and be lonely, they're all serious.

So yes, yes. I think there's a difference between um having solitude and being lonely. Lonely means you ain't got nobody in your life. Having people in your life and not wanting to be around them all the time is that's two totally different things. Two different things, yeah.

Like my wife won't be like, oh well, you always want around people. I said, No, I just went there because it was people there, but I want to be by myself.

Yeah.

Doesn't mean I I want to be lonely. Like being lonely, that that's a lonely means you ain't got nobody. Nobody.

Not even an animal.

You don't even you don't even want to you don't even want to be friends with a nigga for real. You just out here just raw dog in the world saying, fuck this shit. I'm gonna do what I want to do. You know what I'm saying? That's what that's what that's what loneliness is. Yeah, I don't think it's addiction. I think people who are who do it because they don't want to talk to people they use it as a means of like, oh, this is why I don't hang around people because this, this, and this, but an addiction.

That's that's a that's that'd be weird if it was an addiction. Like someone addicted to being alone.

Yeah, I can say, um, from my experience, I could say solitude, like being to yourself is an addiction for me, because you ain't really gotta worry about all the fuck shit. You ain't really gotta worry about you hurting somebody's feelings by being blunt with the truth or something. You ain't gotta really worry about different personalities when you step into the world to go to fucking Chick-fil-A. You ain't gotta worry about, you know what I mean? You ain't gotta worry about just random stupid stuff. So I can see how that could be enticing because you're like, yo, I'm uh like being a homebody. Being a homebody is addicting to shit. If all your shit is at home and you just need to go out to go get certain things, yeah, that's that's that's what it's gonna be if you that's if you got that type of mentality. But the uh but the loneliness, I wouldn't say, like you like we you were saying, I wouldn't say it's an addiction. I would say something's probably going on with you mentally. Not that you're a serial killer or a psychopath, but let's just say you depress about something, and the depression is making you lonely, but it's not you addicted to the loneliness, you just depress and you're doing everything to be alone because you don't not get out of it. Right. So my opinion, I ain't no psychologist or anything like that, but yeah.

See, that'd be a question better suited for my wife. She'd be the one that to give a a more in-depth answer from a psych psychological standpoint. I can't give because mathematically, I can't I can't comprehend that in my mind. Nigga, why you wanna be alone?

Yeah, true. Yeah, I mean, some people like a some people just don't know the difference uh between lonely. It's like some people don't know the difference between uh secret and private. They think because things are private, it's a secret. It's not it's not a secret, you just don't need to know it. That's private. Secret is like, yo, I'm trying my best to hide it from everybody body.

I'm just in no rush to tell you.

Yeah, exactly. And sometimes loneliness is just that. Like, I don't want to be around y'all niggas. I it's other people I do want to be around, so until I'm around them, I'm over here. I ain't lonely, I'm just you know, keeping away from y'all.

EV Charging Etiquette With Family

I was online, and this guy wants to know is he wrong for telling his brother-in-law he can't keep charging his electric car at his house without paying for it? No, that should come with money. Yeah, as simple as that. I'm not even gonna read the story. Like, what you coming over here to do that for? It's not like you ain't got one in a house, right? Is that's just like saying, yo, uh I need to fill up these buckets, but I'm gonna come over to your house to fill up these buckets of water. First of all, sir, no. Anything that costs money, a utility, nah. The answer's no. And I don't care. Basically, he moved into an apartment. Uh the guy that got the electric car, and I guess there's no charging spot, but my whole thing is don't ruin a good thing. You know what I mean? Like, if that's your if that's your brother-in-law, that's your sister, you know what I mean? Like, yo, kick him a couple dollars.

Like, yo, it costs it and go charge it while he's shopping. That too.

It's just that too. It's just it's it's crazy. No, but he don't want to pay. I guess he ain't paying if he's getting it for free. Why would he go shopping and pay?

You gotta pay for the ones at the shopping service?

I believe so.

I always thought they were free. I just thought they were just being paid for.

That's why they upped our uh food prices.

No, they up their food prices for other things because of other things is going on in the world.

So it's not because of the charging stations. You know what?

I could I could fucking be wrong, but uh let's look that up. Let's see what Target come on. Like giant. Let's see. Our charging stations at grocery store. Let's see. Yeah. Boom. No, most public EV charger stations are not free, though. Some grocery stores and retail locations do offer complementary level two charging as a customer perk. So it's kind of just depending on where you're at. But traditionally, hell nah, you're paying for that. Level two? Yeah, because I think level like the uh I think the the levels are like uh how uh fast they charge.

They'll give you, they'll they'll make sure you get enough charge to get the hell out of there.

Yeah, so it says retail partnerships, uh such as Giant Foods, Stop and Shop, and Whole Foods historically partnered with Volta to provide free-to-use chargers in their parking lots. So, yeah, they do. But other places probably.

But you definitely gotta be shopping there.

Yeah.

You can't just pull up and be like, I don't believe my car here if we were back home.

I mean, you could, but who gonna who're gonna stop you? I don't know how they check that though. Maybe there's some like you log in. I don't know. I don't have an electric car. Make sure you check down. Yeah. That makes that make the most sense. What the fuck is level two charging? Level two charging. Yeah, it's the fast charger. Standard for fast uh electric uh yeah, fast charger.

So pretty much depending on how much driving you doing.

Charge the car. Yeah. That sounds easy enough. Yeah, but yeah, yeah, that's exactly what I was about to say. I'm looking at the uh yeah, so so let's just say a fully charged car might cost you like thirty dollars, depending on your range and shit. Yeah, my whole yeah, why can't you kick your your family $30? It's cheaper than what the fuck I'm paying. It's cheaper than what anybody's paying. Yeah, you're just abusing your family at this point. Like, come on now. Are you just yeah, it's it's it's crazy.

Like, I would just be like, Yeah, you can't now unless um unless you unless we just that cool and you coming over and you always come over, like let's say uh it's football Sunday, all right? It's football Sunday, and you and you coming through because you always come watch football at the house, that's different.

But no, it's not different because if if I'm providing beers and some other shit, and then you taking $30 as I'm as $30 added extra to my electric, that's every Sunday. So we're talking about what $120? Is that right? $120 a month? Yeah. No. Nah, nah. Hell nah. So that says no to that. You you you still gotta give me something. It will be it will behoove you. I ain't gotta let you connect to my shit. Right. Hell nah. What are you gonna do? Call mama. I'm gonna call somebody, mother. Well, since that's my since my brother, since that's my brother-in-law, I'm gonna be like, look, I'm gonna talk to my brother. Yeah, I'm gonna tell my wife. I'm gonna tell my brother-in-law, I'm like, yo, you're gonna be a little bit of a nigga to be giveaway.

He's my brother.

This is coming out your sister's allowance. So I'm gonna tell her this, and y'all gonna figure that out. Because somebody need to be paying me. Somebody need to be paying me. Matter of fact, I yeah, that's that's what it'll be. That is what it will be. But yeah, man, that's uh that do what most people start doing. They start some people start uh driving around with the rechargeable battery in the trunk. So it's like, yo, if you gotta do it, just like if you at work, plug it in through your trunk or whatever, have you and keep it moving. Hey, that's I'm I'm just saying. There's plenty of ways to get around that, but do people get around that? Yeah, because I would definitely uh be at the giant charge of my car. Go ahead and be in there for an hour. I can't believe you would do some shit like that. That's crazy. Okay. People only uh, you know, they try to get away with what they can. They don't never check them, then they'll either continue to do it or just up the ante. You know how that go. Yeah, that was just just because I read that wrong. It's the wife saying, yo, this nigga need to stop charging his shit. And it's her husband's brother. It's even worse. It's even worse. It's even nigga, check your brother. Like, what are you doing? It's even worse. Oh my god.

So she's like, he ain't checking his brother. His brother just like, hey, I'm gonna come over.

Yeah, exactly. I know you're my brother in all, but nigga. It ain't even that, it's just it's it's it's it's being courteous. That's literally like saying, yo, you got a neighbor and be like, I need to fill up my pool. Can I uh can I use our uh outside uh spigot? Like, hold up, what or my hot tub? Let me just say hot tub because the pool is kind of uh egregious as shit. But let's just say a hot tub. Yeah, still a hot tub is crazy too. You gonna keep doing that shit.

Fake Medical Leave And HR Fallout

So someone needs your advice, as always, right?

Always, you know, I'm starting to think that these people, these people.

This person wants to know if they're wrong for reporting their co-worker to HR after they found out she used her sickle story to get a free vacation. So I'm about to tell you what it is. Uh damn, she works in a she works in a mid-marketing, a mid-sized marketing firm. Her coworker, let's just call her Jess, and I started the same week about five years ago. We're not the best of friends, but we're friendly. We grab lunch sometimes, we vent about our boss, normal work friend stuff. About three months ago, I had a genuine medical emergency. I won't go into details, but I was hospitalized for four uh for four days and took three weeks of medical leave to recover. During that time, I shared some of what I was going through with Jess because she asked and seemed genuinely concerned. Last week, I overheard Jess talking to another co-worker in the break room. She was bragging about how she tricked the system into giving her a paid week off. Apparently, she told our manager that she needed emergency leave for the same medical condition I had. But she knew our company has a policy that allows, because she knew that our company has a policy that allowed extra paid leave for certain documented conditions. She didn't have any medical proof, but she convinced our manager by name-dropping me and saying you can ask blank. She went through the same thing. She got the leave approved and she used it to go to Cancun with her boyfriend. I saw the Instagram photos. I was furious. The bitch is ugly. No, that's not that's not in there. I was furious. Not only did she laugh about a serious health issue.

Because the bitch is probably ugly.

No, that's not in there. I made that up. Not only did she laugh about the serious health issues that actually traumatized me, but she used my name and my story to do it. When I confronted her privately, she laughed it off and said, relax. It's not that deep. The company has money, they won't miss a week of pay. She told me I was being dramatic and that I should just let it go because no one got hurt. But someone did get hurt. I feel violated. Our private medical situation is not for her free vacation ticket. I also worried that it if that if this ever gets investigated, people might think I was in on it, which could damage my reputation. I reported her to HR yesterday.

I gave them all SRA reported her anyway.

Her Instagram posts and dates, everything. Now our manager is involved, and the whole and the whole office is tense. Some of my other co-workers think I should have just minded my own business, saying she didn't actually harm you personally, and that I ruined her life for nothing. Now I'm second guessing myself that I go too far. She didn't steal money from me directly, and technically she and technically her leave didn't affect my workload, but it feels so wrong. Am I wrong for reporting her? That's a tough one. She she sounds white as shit. Oh my gosh. Ah well, like I tell anybody else, this ain't the hood.

So you gotta do like bone thugs, man, creeping on a come up.

A come up or a cancun vacation. She could have just used vacation time. Yeah, she could have. So that's fraud. She didn't do that. So that's fraud.

That's fraud. You know, it is so was she by law wrong? Of course not, because you're supposed to report shit like that.

But human morality wrong?

I mean, it's depends. Did she did she like her? Were they were they homeless? No. Did she just use her medical digit? And then I think the part that got her was she was co-signed on oh, ask her, she got the same thing.

And so no, that would piss me off because if I came to you and and and and if the bosses not even don't know that you kind of get what I'm saying? She talked to her manager and told her manager that yo, she had that shit. The manager never knows of your medical condition, only HR. So it's like, yo, I don't want my business around. What if it was like, yo, her butthole fell out? Yo, Susie's butthole fell out, mine fell out too. I this is why I need to have this uh this off time. You don't want people knowing that your butthole fell out.

Or she had a rear strand of uh crash that uh made it.

It did something like that's not something you kind of get what I'm saying. You kind of get her point of view, is it's like, yo, it's still my medical information. I confide in you, confided in you in that, and you decided to use that to your advantage, right? You don't see nothing crazy with that?

It's completely crazy because who does that? Because in my mind, I'm like, it it's one thing if you you use my medical thing to get a week off, but don't put my name in there, don't name drop me.

Yeah, exactly.

Because now everyone's like, oh well, such and such has that too.

And like, what if it's something real bad? Like she's not wrong, but I know she did this shit out of spite.

She did out of spite, and and the spite in the spite as she didn't put in there is because that gets with the cancun.

No, I don't think it's because she went to Cancun. I don't think she can care less about the Cancun. It's about yo, depending on what that medical emergency was, like you just don't want people knowing your business. She probably, like we were saying earlier, private person. It ain't a secret, but it's private. Don't nobody need to know any of that shit. Right. I told you because I thought you was cool, but you just a uh conniving ass bitch. That's probably what she's thinking.

Don't nobody don't, I didn't want nobody to know I had life-threatening yeast infection.

Well, I hope there's no thing like that.

Well, you know what? I never knew it was uh I never knew there was a rear strand or strep that can cause auto mutinum.

So yeah, yeah. That's true.

Yeah, that's what my I think my boy had. He had he they couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. And then eventually, you know, he he said he was on the verge of dying.

Yeah, you were telling me about him.

And then he uh eventually they said we we figured it out. You had a rare form of strap, and it it At that point, it had it had uh decimated his immune system.

Yeah.

To the point where he was just like, Yeah.

And from what him and and my goddamn mother say, they was like, Yeah, all of you that shit hurt.

Yeah.

They're like, Yeah, it hurts, but I would have never known. You know, like you never hear like, oh yeah, it hurts or anything else. It was just like, yeah, they were they were always in, well, he was always in pain. She's always in pain and she gets stressed out easily.

So I'm like, man, it is what it is. Yeah. Yeah, that's all the more reason to be like, like, like, what if you don't want is is it that it that can go so many ways, right? Like, uh let's just say something is happening to you, and you might be like, oh, you know, they might think you're using the sickness for uh for sympathy or something, or this, this, and that, or it might start treating you different. Like it might not have been something really, really bad, but you don't want people, you know, it's a weird feeling when people uh give you the the pity, uh the pity vibes, like, oh, I gotta pity this person because of this, this, and this, or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, or they start treating you differently. It's like nobody wants that shit. I feel like this is a good reason to be petty and to be spiteful, like, yeah, I want the fucking HR. But I still feel like it's warranted too, because it's kind of like, yo, don't fucking put me in that because they might think I'm the fraud bitch. And you the fraud bitch. Like, I actually had a doctor's note and some more shit. You just the manager just let you go. Matter of fact, she probably didn't have to do anything because eventually, isn't HR supposed to be like we need that documentation? Because if you don't have it, you get next you get caught up anyway.

I wouldn't fight her to do it. So in my head, HR, HR shouldn't have said, well, we can't give you this without documentation.

Well, no, the boss let the manager let her let her take the week. It probably didn't, it sounds like it didn't even go up the chain all the way for overall.

Yep. I guarantee that. Because I know for the state, the only people that can grant you any extended leave is HR. And you got it, you got it, and it comes with with with uh stipulations.

One before you can even use we need that doctor note.

You need the doctor's note, and you have to use any available lead that you have available before you can even use uh that stuff, any anything in that lead bank or not anything else. And that's kind of how uh it was at a stop out too, where it was like you had to um you had to before they could give you leave before they would grant your medical leave to where you wouldn't get multiple occurrences for not being there and just turn into this one occurrence, you all your leave.

And I'm like for the occurrence system?

Yeah, for the occurrence system. It was a weird, it was a weird thing.

It was like you you in order for you, you know, you go to doctors, they'll tell you whatever, you've got to use all your leave, and then you had to come on to the doctor's or you know, come with your doctor's note, and they have to give a time frame on that you that you can come back. And then you don't, I don't even think you get paid for it, but all it does is it counts as just one occurrence versus multiple occurrences to get you fired. And which in my mind, I'm like, well, if you know I'm sick and you know that I'm like recovering, I use all my leave of and I don't have none, you're not paying me. Why do I need why do I even get an occurrence for it?

Right.

Like that's the part that always got me.

It's like, so you're gonna give me an occurrence because I'm sick. Like, what cash is that? It's so yeah, it's yeah, yeah. Right. Shit they do. Listen, it's stuff like that that I'd be like, this is why motherfuckers be wanting their solitude. This this is what I mean by like interacting with people. I am not saying as humans we should not interact with people. I guess what I'm advocating for is more people should have some solitude in their life, some moments of solitude. Because if you're always dealing with stupid shit like that, you bet you you you liable to start slapping motherfuckers, you're liable to the the to the uh kirk off at the fucking and inside of Wegmans because of whatever. They ain't got your almond burst cookies, like those things do happen, yeah.

And they should have had my goddamn almond burst cookies, right?

Shit like that happens, right? Nah, nah, shorty darrung. That's beyond as I mean, I know that was a work friend, but they ain't even a good work friend. Because good work friends, if it's a little situation that y'all can y'all both can, you kind of get what I'm saying? Like that that stuff like that stay close to the hip. And you don't, you know what I mean? You still gotta work with that motherfucker. Like, I don't even understand why you why you would do that. Now, if you fuck up, I might let you fuck up. I might not point out a mistake that you did next time. I might let you crash and burn. So you ain't wrong. It's Patty. No one got hurt. Uh I got hurt, bitch.

Like I already said, ain't nobody ruin that shit's life. Ain't nobody wrong her life. She knows.

No one told you to do that. That's that's a that's a moral thing.

Yeah. Look, just cause you a shitty individual, that ain't my problem. That's I look you a shitty individual, not me. Yeah, you chose to try to uh get over on the shit.

Yeah, I don't know, man. It's just like certain things with a job I don't really play with because I need you know, everybody need their job unless they're uh a hundred millionaire, you know what I mean? Like, I can't nobody, you know what I mean?

Like, I don't need our job.

You don't got a hundred mil in the bank. Yeah, I don't see why you playing with little stupid shit like that. Over a week of vacation at Cancun. Could have figured that out. Literally could have figured that out. Hell, some jobs that you take off without pay. Yeah.

And that's I mean, it's granted.

I'm talking about even if you got the time. Some jobs would be like, no, you ain't gonna keep doing that and you got the time, put the fucking time in. Because some people will just be like, nah, I don't need the money.

So you know what? Yeah, a lot of them do they be like, oh yeah, nah.

You put your time in.

Oh, okay, that's cool. I said, Do you got time? I'm good. You could like what?

Yeah, uh, I'm good. I ain't gonna have our bills. I just will be short. I need to take this time off. Matter of fact, you don't know if I'm slinging dick on the side. Like, I'm good. Shit, mind your business. Mind your business. Okay, that part don't make no sense.

Hobbies Getting Too Expensive

Uh before we close out, what what do you what is a uh what hobby has become too expensive for the average person now? Everything. Oh no. Uh what's become more expensive for you? Yeah, your hobbies. I know you got hobbies. Uh I don't know, probably drinking. You're not wrong.

That shit's expensive.

It's it's expensive as hell. You're not wrong. I just got finished uh uh editing the last episode and I was talking about them five dollar bottle of wine. I was in there the other day. No, they like 12.

Oh my god. Are they bigger bottles?

Huh? I think it's like the the nah the uh the personal little, not I say personal, that is not true. The the one, you know, the single size uh wine, uh I don't know the size, but the brand I usually get, like that we're like, all right, we can drink this in a day or two. Fucking $12. I'm like, I ain't no way, man.

But now now you gotta uh now you gotta you gotta sip that shit every other uh every other day.

That's our dinner wine, you know what I mean? Like you're like, hey, how about to pour this? Probably two cups each because they don't really do nothing, but it's enough to get you a little, you know what I mean? That's that type of shit. It should be five dollars, but I'm like, God damn.

But uh soon.

Something.

Yeah, you have to get one of those big drinks, a black box or something.

Yeah.

Because look, you probably that that that bottle of wine that you're about to get probably cost just as much as that box wine.

Box wine for the wine.

Box wine for the wind. I I get, you know, um, if we got people coming over, I'll get Franzia because you know, Franzia's a little cheaper. Yeah, but if it's just me, I get the black box. Mostly because it says it's black. I get the black box. It it's a it costs a couple more dollars, but it ain't that bad.

You know, you get in whatever flavor that you want. Same flavor that bronze it will have. But uh black box. Well, I I would say the hobby, my hobby, what's more expensive now is uh I don't really know. I would say, because I, you know, let's just say listening to music and shit. I used to pirate a bunch of shit, but now everything wants streaming, and now it's hard to pirate. Oh okay. Let me uh rephrase what I'm saying. I am not pirating music, so I'm not gonna say that.

You said that very loud.

Yeah, I am not pirating music. Um, I can't even I'm gonna say car shit, right? Uh car shit for me because junkyards are paying our let's just say I go to a junkyard and um looking for something, they'll go on eBay and check the price or the brand new price, and some of them will try to give you three dollars cheaper than the brand new price for used thing where the car was just in here fucked up, and I took it off. And I'm like, you're charging me three dollars less? I could pay three dollars more and get the brand new one. I'm in here for like a $15, you know, credit, or you know what I mean? Like subtract $15 off the bitch because it's used. Nah. Or what's happening to me right now is that I want something. And since it comes from China, or since China already has it, or Japan has it, or whatever have you, it's taking 30 to 40 days to get here. But the parts that's in America, they upcharging it because it's here and they're not gonna take you 30 to 40 days. So that shit has become expensive as fuck. And that's only for older cars. I'm talking strictly older car hobby type shit. So that shit is the worst. Video games is the worst. Fucking Grand Theft about to be $80. It's $100 for three dollars. It's a hundred for I didn't do that.

It's funny because I've been putting the money away so I can get it. You thought you did what? I already put the money away to get uh right there.

Yeah, I didn't do that.

Yeah, I because I was like, I can get the pre-order for a hundred. And then someone was like, Yeah, you might as well just get the new GTA. I was like, I mean, I don't really play GTA. That's not something that that that intrigues me. Now where I can't.

Have you ever played it online?

No, I don't play it online because when I played online one time, all the time.

You was getting demolished.

Look, I I turn around someone else, someone else shooting me. Then they steal in my car.

And I got you know, I had the I had the uh you could play the game, you could play the online game in passive mode when none of that shit happens to you.

Well, someone said you can do it this year now.

No, you could have done it the last time too. But the moment you kill somebody, your passive mode is all, or the moment you you start doing fuck shit, it's all you know, it's all game.

Oh really?

Yeah, like the the the online shit is cool because y'all can do missions together and shit like that. Like everybody can be in passive mode, and you know, you do your missions and shit.

Yeah, because somewhere else, yeah, you can be you can be in a mode where even though you're online, you can still do the online things and just kind of play like the friends, yeah. And that could be a good thing.

Don't be playing with randoms because randoms right after you do that mission, they will uh kill you and take the money, and then you get up out of there. So that's a thing, too. Oh, you try to take the money afterwards, yeah. If you're not uh if you're not passive, what's up? That was crazy not funny, yeah. Steal from me, yeah. But yeah, man, video games becoming expensive. Electronics getting electronics is becoming expensive. We already know why. AI shit. Hey look eating, if that was my hobby, it's expensive. So you already know.

I uh all these games I get, either they're free or on uh PS Plus, or uh it's 2K.

Shout out to 2K. I'm at a 95.

Yeah, I'm at a 95.

Yeah.

At starter two. I made starter two last night.

I'm at starter one working on starter two.

See, I that's why I need to make a big but I'm gonna talk to you that offline. Okay, hold these people up. Uh let's talk about 2K.

Yeah, uh, we thank everybody for tuning in. And uh yeah, we're about to talk about 2K C next.