Standing With Aldean & Dealing With Dangerous Neighbors

Gallows and scents don't make sense. Common sense isn't common anymore and we almost lost it all thanks to the dumbass next door. It's story time today on Share the Storkle Podcast, as I share a recent experience that went from pissed off to frightened in a matter of moments. Let me tell you something Everybody struggles. The difference is some people choose to go through it and some choose to grow through it. The choice is completely yours. Which one you choose will have a very profound effect on the way you live your life. If you find strength in the struggle, then this podcast is for you. You have a relationship that is comfortable with uncomfortable conversations. Uncomfortable conversations challenge you, humble you and they build you. When you sprinkle a little time and distance on it, it all makes sense. Most disagreements, they stem from our own insecurities. You are right where you need to be. Ooh, ooh, ooh. How do you do? Hot damn, am I so damn thankful to be back with you? Share the Storkle Podcast, episode 159, and thank the Lord above, everybody is doing just fine. Today's gonna be a different day. Today's gonna be a day, an episode, that tests me, because yesterday, all baby was I put to the test and uh, man, yesterday went from zero to hero and went from pissed to frightened in a matter of moments, purely based on somebody's absolute stupidity and their desire to cut corners as opposed to paying for what it is they got themselves into. Oh, we going there. We are straight up going there. I'm already hot and barlin' over this damn subject. But before we get rockin' and rollin', before we get into that, first things first. Thank you for each and every one of you. They continue to come back, they continue to tune in each and every week. We got 159 consecutive episodes Share the Storkle Podcast Truly an absolute blessing, and I would not be on this spiritual journey to Valhalla if it wasn't for all of you. Because of you, I continue to come back, because every time I think about not recording another show, I hear from one of you out there with a positive message, with, uh, you know, a good talking point, something that it really just stirred up conversation between the two of us, something that hit home for somebody, motivated somebody, did something for someone. So, because of each and every one of you, I keep on recording the show. Don't forget to find all things about this show at wwwsharethestrugglepodcastcom. Leave a review, say how do you do? You can even leave a voicemail there. No one's tried that yet, but I'm pretty sure that's an option. I don't know how. I gotta look into it. I probably should have said that before I, or I looked into it before I said that. But it is what it is. Here we are y'all. Before I get into my story, my situation from yesterday, I want to make something so ever transparent and clear, and that message that I want to make clear is the obvious one. I absolutely wholeheartedly, 1000 fucking percent, solemnly, stand with Jason fucking Aldean. I just want to get that out there for everybody listening in the back of the room snaps and claps. We all be standing with Aldean. You ain't a loud, proud American if you ain't standing with Jason fucking Aldean. And first off, I want to say something. Jason Aldean, I was a big Aldean fan in my youth, in my younger days, because every day, even yesterday, was a younger day, right, I was a big Aldean fan. And randomly, I don't know, maybe a few weeks ago or a month ago, the wife and I were having a conversation and I had said there's a lot of artists that I've just kind of lost touch with, that I'm not a huge fan of their new direction or or some of their recent music. It just hasn't kind of hit with me, which is fine. We all go through phases, right, and that's what people call college, right? I mean we try things. Anyways, the point I'm trying to make is our styles change, our listening pleasures change and sometimes an artist is changing and they're doing different things and they're growing and that's all good, that's all good for all of us, right? But I haven't really lined up. I haven't realized that I've enjoyed recent Aldean songs when I was a massive Aldean fan back in the day Front Row, aldean, gillette, front Row, aldean and Portland Maine I think I've seen Aldean, maybe in Bangor too, I don't remember, but Front Row, gillette, high Five and Aldean, like I went for it, I was a big Aldean guy. As of the past year or two, I realized that I haven't really maybe given his music as much time as I should. But I've really enjoyed the direction that Jason and his wife Brittany have gone, because they have a clothing brand and their philosophies and the things that they're doing and it really lines up with ours. It lines up with our brand, loud, proud, american. So it's really cool to see them going for something and you know, obviously. I mean they're fucking superstars already, right? I mean, he's already rich. I'm not saying that he is putting himself on a limb to go for something, but he's putting himself. They are putting their family and their relationship and their philosophy and their beliefs on the line, because they're sharing with everybody what it is they believe in and by doing so, they've opened themselves up to nonsense, to bullshit, to ridicule, which we all do. When you tell somebody who you voted for, what you stand for and or the fact that I do stand for the flag but I kneel for the cross, don't get it confused, don't get it lost. So when you start putting those things out there, us as everyday folk, common folk that we are, we put ourselves out there for ridicule, for nonsense, for bullshit, for criticism. But when you're a celebrity and you have that platform and you do that, you open yourself up to a million percent more, right, a billion percent more. So I was proud of them, the fact that they have drawn the line, told the line and the saint as to what their beliefs are, what they stand for, and have not been rattled by that, seeing his wife Brittany just put it all on the line right, say, hey, this is what we believe, right, these are our core values, this is our belief system, this is our philosophy, so this is what we live for, stand for, pray for. This is us right. So I've been super excited about that. So seeing their clothing line and the things that they're doing has helped me to put a little more Eldine on my plate, I guess I should say right. So when this controversy came up which, if anybody listening right now has not heard the recent controversy Jason Eldine came out with a song, a great song. Try that. In a small town. He put the song out, I want to say, a few months ago, and he just recently released the video on CMT, which the video has apparently now convinced people that Jason Eldine is a racist and that they have kicked him off of CMT, kicked him off of country music television. They've pulled him from all kinds of different platforms and scenarios, and he's the latest. How do I say this? He's the the flavor of the month for cancelization. Right, he is the cancel culture flavor of the month. Some fucking Karen out there decided Eldine's racist and I'm offended and this needs to go, okay. So if you haven't heard that, that's what's been transpiring, let's just dig into something real quick, and we have a lot to cover today, so I'm just going to try to hit this as quickly as we can. Let's dig into Mr Eldine's lyrics real quick. You ready? I'm just going to read through some lyrics here Sucker punch somebody, car jack and old lady at a red light. Pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store. You think it's cool? Well, act of fool if you like. Cuss out a cop, spit in his face, stomp on the flag, light it up. Yeah, you think you're tough? Well, try that in a small town. See how far you make it down the road Around here. We take care of our own. You cross that line. It won't take long For you to find out. I recommend you don't try that in a small town. Whoo, goosebumps First off, goosebumps First off. Number two Eldine, I'm back. Motherfucker, you are singing to that blue blooded, red necked hillbilly son of a bitch in the north. All over again we are getting reunited and it feels so good I'm getting excited. This is what I'm talking about. This is what I feel like I've been missing from, from Eldine. So I want you to tell me where this comes off. Racist. Sucker punch somebody car jack and old lady at red light, pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store, cuss out a cop, spit in his face, stomp on a flag, light it up. Yeah, you think you're tough? What in there Specifies any race? We're calling out all dipshits. This is a dipshit alert, america. This is a scumbag alert America. We are calling out scumbags at this moment. I don't care what your skin color is. I don't care if you're related to me and you're as white as you can be your scumbag. If this is your philosophy, okay. There's no skin tone. There's no religion, there's no race, there's no, nothing about anybody's face. You hear me? This is talking about somebody being a scumbag. Well, try being a scumbag in a small town. See how far you make it down the road around here. We take care of our own. You cuss that line. It won't take long If you were to find out. I recommend you don't try that in a small town. Think about it. If we continue to dig into this, got a gun that my granddad gave me. They say one day they're gonna round up. Well, that shit might fly in the city. Good luck. That is one more layer of threats and just scary fucking nonsense happening in this country. I'm getting goosebumps all over right now because you think about the truth behind that. You have these family heirlooms and traditions. I have one of my granddad's military rifles hanging right now. I have history that's been passed down. So many people have had guns passed down from grandfathers, great grandfathers. The direction of this country, these fucking sorry, exclusive leadership in this country, would love to come and take that from you. Okay, so there's nothing about race here. People, we're now calling out the entire government that believes in confiscating our guns. All right, let's just go through some of this real quick here. Where the hell are we? Hmm, we take care of our own. You cross that line. It won't take long. Full of good old boys raised up, right. If you're looking for a fight, try that in a small town. See how far you make it down the road. Motherfucker, try it in a small town. Woo, here's the damn truth. Where I come from, we stand for what we believe in. Where I come from, I will lay it on the line for the people I love. Where I come from, I defend these freedoms. Where I come from, I'm proud of these freedoms. Where I come from, I love this fucking country that I'm from, where I come from. I'm not gonna sit back, sit on the sidelines and watch some old lady get carjacked. I'm not gonna sit around and watch a liquor store get hijacked. I'm not gonna sit around and watch that bullshit go down. That shit that made me sick watching fucking TV back in 2020. The shit that was so fucking corrupt and bullshit on TV during all this nonsense that was happening. Y'all know what I'm talking about. Jason just sang about it. That shit changed me. That shit changed so many Americans. Because we were afraid to live. We were afraid to be free in this country, because we couldn't trust anyone, because we couldn't believe in anyone. Because when you were in traffic, you didn't know if the guy next to you was thinking some fucked up shit. Because when you were in line in the bank, you didn't know if something was about to go down. You understand me. That's the shit that changed in our town. That was happening all over this country. That is what Jason Aldeen is speaking of. I can guarantee you I never carried my gun so much until I did during that time. It was so ridiculous watching that shit on the news that was happening in these big cities. Thank the Lord above, I live in a small town. Thank the Lord above, I was raised in a small town. That I have common sense, that I have core values, that I have beliefs, that I know what's right and what's wrong. Yeah, we all might make misfucking sticks once in a while, but we know the absolute difference and we care. We live life with passion and compassion. I take care of my neighbors, which we're gonna get into the ones that fucking take care of me. I take care of the people that I care about. I take care of each and every person in my life that I have a connection with. That. I have common bonds with you. Understand what I'm saying. We would all give all we can give to help the people we care about. This world needs a hell of a lot more of that. That's what Jason Aldeen is speaking of. The shit that was happening on TV was so difficult and hard to watch, hard to consume, that it was changing me. Okay, I went from the happy go lucky person that loves everyone, that treats each other equally, until you give me a reason not to to being the person that didn't trust anybody around me because I didn't know what the fuck you were thinking I didn't know what you were up to, because they were doing a great damn job on mainstream media to create the image that we can't trust each other, to create the image that you're on the wrong side of the fence, that this country's divided, that this land is divided, which in actuality we're more united than we think, because they won't show us how united we are. The fact that we've gathered here, week for week, 159 consecutive weeks, shows we're more fucking united than we think. You understand what I'm saying. We all share common goals, common beliefs, common philosophies, but if you watch the news, you listen to the bullshit. You would not believe that philosophy. You understand what I'm saying. My wife told me you gotta turn off the news, you gotta stop watching TV because this is changing you. You're becoming a different person. That shit gave me anxiety, okay, that shit stressed me out. That shit changed me because I no longer watch fucking crazy action movies. I no longer watch conspiracy theory shows, because it gives me anxiety because of what I lived through. I was watching a series on TV with my wife and all of a sudden I was having a fucking anxiety attack watching it because it was too realistic, because it was shit that could actually be happening in this world and it shut me the fuck down and I've never been that type of way. But that's the amount of bullshit. That's the amount of violence, nonsense, ridiculous conspiracies, medicine, whatever the fuck you wanna look at that's all getting shoved down our throats. I had to cut the cord on it. El Dean's calling bullshit on it. You understand what I'm saying Because I know damn well. If that shit was happening in my town, if that looting and rioting was happening in my town, y'all know where the fuck I'd be. You understand me? El Dean's calling out to all the blue-blooded redneck Americans out there that still remember being raised the right way, that still remember right and wrong, that still remember what it means to have passion and compassion and to appreciate what the fuck it is that you have, that you earned and that you should show respect. You understand he's calling on all those Americans. So this is what I wanna point out to everybody out there that considers Jason El Dean a racist. I wanted to get him canceled. Those lyrics didn't change, motherfucker. Those lyrics came out months ago. You know what changed. You saw the video. You saw a music video. You know what was in that music video, actual fucking footage that was created, shot, produced and published by the news. That shit was put out by the news channels. We all watched it on our fucking couch, you hear me? We all sat down and subjected ourselves to that bullshit on our couch. Jason El Dean is just making it fucking clear that shit don't fly around here. You understand what I'm saying. The point I'm making here is the lyrics. Didn't offend you, motherfuckers. You didn't find El Dean racist because of his lyrics. You found it when you saw the fact he regurgitated that nonsense you put in our face for months. That's when you realized, oh, could he actually be talking about these riots, about these BLM movements, the violence? Well, no shit. Sherlock, here's a book. Learn how to read left to right, up and down sentences, paragraphs. You understand what the fuck I'm saying here? The video all it did was reuse the footage you made all of us digest to prove the point that shit don't happen around here. Jason El Dean, I stand with you, motherfucker. Jason El Dean, you damn right. I'm downloading your tune and I'm buying the album, because the last time I checked that motherfucker's number one on the music charts right now, and the last time I checked, a lot of big country singers started pulling their fucking brand off a CMT. I saw that Beau Sifas himself, hank Williams Jr, stepped down from being the board of directors. I saw Blake Shelton just turn down a $30 million project with CMT because they're canceling El Dean. I saw Kid Rock walked away from CMT because of what they did to El Dean. Go woke, go broke, go fuck yourself. God, check this. My new business, loud Proud American, is a lifestyle brand dedicated and determined to represent the American spirit, with an unrelenting commitment to provide made in the USA products. If you would like to join the 2% of Americans that buy American and support American, head on over to wwwloudproudamericanshop. Together we can bring back American manufacturing. All right, all right, all right. Before we get rockin' and rollin' into today's story, got something to say in real hurry. Happy freaking birthday to the big B, the capital B, kevin B. Happy birthday, sweet pea. Love you, motherfucker. I'm gonna try to keep you under an hour on the cardio machine today. Big dog, loyal listener, long-time listener, long-time friend, mm-hmm, love you, buddy. Happy freaking birthday. That's your. That's your shout out right there. Okay, that's a, that's a winning ones that we could shout out for you right there, big fella. So I Gotta let you know yesterday was a stressful ass day. I'm just gonna put kind of a Little, a little bow on things so you can understand what's what's going on. So I'm about to head off to a new fair, a fair that I've never been to before. I'm going out to Union, the Union Fair. It's a blueberry festival. The wife and I hauled the camper up to Union on Sunday, set the camper up, so our tent up, just as far as the frame goes, and then, yesterday being Monday, I'm recording this on a Tuesday. On Monday I was finishing packing up the Lourport American Express, the old ambulance, and this time around I've just I found these, these rods that I've been able to install, the kind of hang, a bunch of things. This is gonna be the first fair that I've done almost the entire fair by myself, so it's gonna be a bit of a challenge. So I've been trying to prepare myself as best I can before I get there to make things as easy on me as possible. But I'm excited about said fair, okay. So at the moment that I'm recording this, I should already be at the fair setting up. That's, that's the agenda, that's the schedule. I should be there, okay, but yesterday things took a very abrupt turn because yesterday, while I was fastly on track and getting things done, packing things up, my plan was to Pack the ambulance, record the podcast, make another new design and then get Ready to rock and roll. So when the sun comes up on this lovely day that I'm experiencing today, I would be at the fair setting up, putting the finishing touches on things. So I'm ready to open up for the first day of the fair on Wednesday. Wednesday, podcast drops. Okay, that's what the plan was. That's not what the plan ended up being. So to understand how that plan got derailed, I must first let you in on a crazy scenario. Now I'm gonna make this as easy peasy as possible to understand, because I could spend hours going down this road, but we don't have that kind of time today, america. What we do have is the ability for me to try to paint a picture, to pave the road, so we understand what a hell we're headed. All right, so here it goes. The land that I live on is family land. Way back when my grandparents owned a bunch of land, okay, I used to live in this trailer. I grew up in a little trailer with my folks Across the street from where I live now. My grandparents are in this old farmhouse and they had plans of parceling land off for family. Yada, yada, yada not gonna bore you all the details. What happens is my parents strike a deal. They purchased the land that I live on now ten acres now. Where we were, the trailer that we were in was in better shape than the farmhouse my grandparents are in. They took the farmhouse, they took the land over there. My aunt had got some land out of it and my aunt's land included my grandparents old house, which is directly in front of my house but kind of hidden behind the bushes. Okay, so we have about ten acres of family land here. A Few years ago, I ended up buying out the remainder of my parents mortgage. They live right next door in the house that I grew up in and I live right here in a Apartment above a garage of me and the wife built. Okay, I understand what we're saying, where we're going. Good, perfect, great. Now in front of us the old farmhouse and my aunt used to own. They sold it to you. A dead deep hoarder, okay, he didn't take care of the fucking place. He ran it all down he was stacking trash out, up up out back, digging holes, burying trash, dumping oil in the ground, doing all kinds of crazy redneck shit. It's a tragedy and a travesty to look at, to see, to experience, but it's just one of those things that it's always kind of been there. I'm not gonna be the one that throws everything all onto the bus right, so that deadbeat now sells the house to another deadbeat scenario. To give you the explanation on this scenario, there's an old-timer, probably in his 80s, and he ends up, I think, marrying this girl who's Probably in her 30s or 40s. So you're doing the math now correctly and they have a couple kids together. Both of them have some some disabilities. Both of them have some you know, some some mental disabilities and they're raising their kids there. Her brother also lives there, who is a nice guy but an alcoholic, and he has his difficulties. He kind of goes off on benders all the time and, believe it or not, her mother was living there and her mother Was actually closer in age to her husband, the father of the kids, than Then she is. So you're kind of starting to paint the picture here. Well, they were absolute hoarders and they they have their land probably has two or three hundred tires on it. It has five or six campers, four or five boats all hidden out back right. The place is decrepit, it's falling down. They have trash up to the ceiling inside. I actually saw photos from from the town because the town was Evicting them and condemning the building because it was an unsafe place to live. Now, remind you, we have these kids, disabilities, living in this home and I saw photos of the kids bed was actually couch cushions on top of trash bags. So this trash almost to the ceiling is couch cushions on top of the trash and the kids are staying on that. Okay, setting the scene for you. Now, for heat in the wintertime they used a propane space heater. That's pretty scary, am I right? But don't worry, they have room for their fucking 16 inch flat screen TV in the middle of all this trash, right? So this is one of those scenarios where the town's always trying to help, the state's always trying to help Apparently. At one point the town offered community action to clean the house up, clean everything out and try to renovate it so they can provide a safe, clean place for the kids, and they denied it. They didn't, they didn't want to do it. This has been going on for years. I've made my point clear that if you want to sell the place Some day some way, I'll buy it, and all I'm going to do and I express this to the town is haul the trash out, knock the house down, clean everything up and just Plant grass and trees, because that's all the hell that should be there, because the grounds not safe. This house is from like the 1800s, right? It's doesn't have a real foundation, doesn't have a good septic system. I mean it's, it's a shit hole. It's an absolute shit hole. It's been condemned, it's decrepit. So I have some scumbags that live on this road that he would buy it and turn it into a housing development, which is not what I would want either. It bought it up to my property line, Right up to where our horse lives, right behind our pigpen. So we're Winston and Spirit live. They're on the other side, but you can't see him through the trees, thankfully, up until this moment, because who knows if they're gonna just cut all the damn trees down. So I've made my case made that I'll buy it and just put grass and Trees and a fence. You won't see. You won't see. You're here for me and it was family land, that was my grandparents land way back when. So we're turning it to the family. I just feel like it's a good decision, right, but what has happened is those neighbors don't want to see me get anything and now To, if I go back to the picture creation, that trailer, that I grew up in that location, my cousin lives there with his kids and his girlfriend and you guys, if you're longtime listeners, loyal listeners of the show, you can go back. If you aren't a loyal listener of the show, to find out and know that my family kind of split right. I have some former I guess you would call it an ex-brother and sisters and that deadbeat brother that Legitimately ran a soup kitchen, a food pantry. Out of business because he's an asshole and a moron. He lives out back here on these woods In a camper just growing weed, doing nothing with himself. Hasn't worked in two years, hasn't paid child support since he stopped having the food pantry actually covers child support bill. So the state took his, took his license away. He's a real class act. But if you ask him on my piece of shit, so you kind of see where we're going here right now. Here's a scenario those people living in the house with all the kids. They get to the point where they're getting forced out by the town and I don't know what's going on. I've asked the town everything's going through some court dates and then all of a sudden an LLC shows up and Takes out a mortgage on the place. So what? Come to find out the, the fella that was getting evicted, who has stage 4 cancer. Mind, mind you, the old-timer that lives there, who I mean? When you see him he looks like he's already dead. God bless him. And it's a sad, sad situation. Okay, but it's. The kids need to be removed from the situation. They're actually living across the street at my cousin's house right now. They're trying to help out and take care of him while they can. So this old-timer and his you know wife or whatever decide, instead of checking with the landowners right behind you about buying land, they end up and I won't board with the details selling their house and land to a guy from New Hampshire that flips houses. Okay, all he does is show up and flip houses. So he comes in. He's seen the inside of the house, he does not know the outside, so he shows up. I'm confident he gets overwhelmed, but he tells everybody that'll listen, I'm gonna have this house flipped on the market in three weeks. First off, no, there's no way in hell. Number two I just want to sprinkle this in there the place is rat infested, as rats everywhere, and I'm worried about them mother fuckers, coming over here to my barn, because it happened once before and I spent a whole fucking summer in winter, a Whole year just Nucleizing rats. Okay, so this jackass goes in there and the nice thing is at least you see him trying to clean things up. They're hauling out dumpsters of trash. I'm not kidding when I tell you behind the house there's piles of trash 10, 20 feet high right and there's trash buried under the ground. There's oil dumped in that ground. I don't know how that septic is. This shit's probably just going on top of the dirt, you understand. There's trash to the ceiling inside. There's boats, there's campers, there's tires, all outside. It's a cesspool. You ain't even cleaning this place in three weeks, never mind rebuilding it. So this guy's been doing his thing. I've been cordial, polite, you know, waving on my way by always being nice to everybody because there's there's nothing to say that he doesn't know that I would have wanted this land. He doesn't know that. You know the dynamic, the dynamic with family on any of this right. He realizes he's in over his head. So he hires my cousin from across the street and the cousin has a big tractor, hires him and my deadbeat used to be brother to help clean the place up. So they're working over there for them full time. Now for about a week they've had a burn barrel. Well, they've been burning just scrap wood which, if you're asking me, if I wanted to be a dick, I should go to the town and say you're burning shit. That I'm confident is probably lead paint. That I'm confident is probably asbestos, because that house is so fucking old. They're pulling things down and burning those things. That's not safe, that's not legal and the amount of trash that's back there. I don't care what the fire level, danger level is, you shouldn't have a fire because of the amount of trash that's back there, right, and all the high grass that's over there. I don't care how much it's rained, it's been hot as fuck and there's trash and debris everywhere. And that's on top of the fact you're probably burning asbestos. You're probably burning lead paint. You're probably doing all these things you shouldn't be fucking doing. But if you're asking me, the town's probably not looking at this direction, because the town was prepared to spend $250,000 to tear that place down and clean it up. So now they're off the hook because this guy bought the place, so now the town doesn't have to spend any money on it. So I feel like they're not looking as directly on this situation. Does that make sense to you guys? So here's the scenario. I've seen them haul boats out. So here's their burn pile. Right now there's three or four boats next to that burn pile and there's like two campers next to that burn pile. I was coming home yesterday and I said, is that motherfucker gonna light that camper on fire? Like, is he gonna throw a camper in the fire or is he gonna burn a boat? So I parked my car and I got out to go check the mail and I was like watching him and I said no, this guy can't be that stupid, he's probably just taking it apart. So I come home, I start working, me and my mom are doing our thing and I walk outside or I walk into my office and my mom I hear her say holy fuck. And she's like Keith, come out here and look at this smoke. And I come out and I see this big ass black cloud of smoke okay, and I was like that motherfucker can't be burning that camper down, like that's no. So I was like let me get my wallet, we're gonna go get gas. I don't want to be the nosy neighbor. So when I go by, if everything's under control and easy, then no worries, I go to leave. When I get out, this guy has a garden hose running across the street from my cousin's house and there's a camper, a beat up, rundown camper, kind of half flattened on fire, next to the fire pit and he's trying to hose it down. And my cousin and deadbeat you know, former brother is I'm gonna call him deadbeat dickbag, just so we're clear moving forward, deadbeat dickbag standing there and they're just kind of watching and I see the black smoke and everything and I said no, this isn't good. As I go by, I pull my phone out and I'm calling my town fire department. So I start calling the department, ringing and ringing, and ringing and ringing gets to a voicemail. I pull over on the side of the road and I'm like fuck, they're not answering the phone and I get ready to call them again and I'm like, all right, I'm gonna go up towards the gas station here and I'll turn around. I go up to the gas station and I'm like I'm gonna call them when I get there. So I get up to the gas station, they tell me the pumps are closed for five minutes. I pick up my phone and start calling again and I can hear sirens and I look and then here comes the fire department from my hometown. So I turn and I end up following the fire department. But as I turn so I'm thinking, think, think, think the heavens, right now. Okay, the fire department's here, they're gonna put this out before anything gets crazy. As I turn, I'm gonna tell you guys, I have never seen so much smoke in my life. And look like a mushroom cloud of smoke. It looked like my whole road was burning down. I have never seen so much black smoke in my life. You could see it from two towns away. And I'm not kidding when I say that, because I got multiple text messages and phone calls from friends that care about me and love me. Thank you so much for all of that Saying hey, is your, are you okay? Is your house on fire? Like you know, like you need help because I've had people for miles away. Okay, two phone calls. I received one of them probably three miles in one direction, the other one three, four miles in the other direction and then outside of that, a fucking more than a city away. I've gotten calls about it. Literally you could see the smoke for miles and miles and miles and at that moment I went from being pissed off and annoyed to absolutely frightened because, as I was coming home, you can't tell where that smoke's really coming from. You can't tell how far it's gone. At this moment I don't know if my field's on fire. I don't know if my horse is running down the middle of the road. I don't know if the pig's barn's on fire. I don't know how far this is gone, but I do know they have tons of trash. They have hundreds and hundreds of tires, campers. It's a field of matchsticks, america. I went from being annoyed and pissed to absolutely frightened that I was going to lose every single thing I've ever worked for, the history of my family, and everything. I was absolutely frightened and worried. It was gone in the flash of an eye. My instant first reaction, based off of location, is I am heartbroken, thinking about my horse and what he might be feeling, experiencing and his anxiety level and what's going on. Whether he's out, I don't know. Thankfully, as I come up to the fire, I realize it's still kind of in that location. That camper is engulfed, it's moved over and now it's engulfed 20 or 30 tires and trash and it's going up. I come around the fire truck, park my truck and as I get out and start walking, I'm realizing this one fire truck is not enough to put this out. They will run out of water before this happens. So as I start walking up, first off I'll say this when I came around the fire truck and a deadbeat dickbag was out there and all those other guys workers were out there, I literally was yelling what the fuck? Are you that fucking stupid? Like I'm freaking out because I'm about to lose my home, I'm about to lose everything. So I park the truck and I go walking back and as I'm walking up I can hear them saying it's not our fault, it's not our fault. And as I'm walking I can literally hear deadbeat and my cousin both say we told him not to do it, we told him not to do it, and the moment of panic and anxiety. They were both saying we told him not to do it, we told him not to burn that camper. My mom comes around and she yells what the fuck, what the fuck are you guys thinking? And she's like we have a fucking horse out back in this fields here. And then at that moment, deadbeat starts yelling at my mom oh, here, we fucking go. I knew that was coming. I fucking knew that was coming. And my mom is like what, shut the fuck up? I'm not even talking to you. And of course, that's fucking coming like you're gonna set our fucking house on fire. He starts swearing at my mother. At that moment I turn around and said hey, fuckface, shut the fuck up. And okay, disclaimer, timeout. Disclaimer there's gonna be a lot of vulgarity for the next four or five minutes of this conversation. I do apologize for those of you that don't appreciate a lot of vulgarity, but I'm just gonna stick to the script here and be as detailed as possible, so proceed time on. Hey, fuckface, shut the fuck up, don't tell me to shut the fuck up. And I said well, if you're gonna stand there and swear at my fucking mother, I'm gonna tell you to shut the fuck up or I'm gonna knock you the fuck out whichever fucking one. And he's like. She can fucking swear at me, but I can't swear at her. Yes, that's how it works. She's older than you and she's a woman. Shut the fuck up. At that moment, the house behind me, another redneck ensembler starts yelling at me for swearing. Hey, hey, we have kids here, keep it down. We have kids here, and they all start freaking out. I just want to tell you something Don't throw stones at glass houses, people. Don't be the fucking kettle that calls the fucking pot black, whatever that scenario is. Because I can't tell you the amount of times that our local sheriff's department has been at that house for some form of domestic. Okay, I can't tell you how many times I've been at my end of my road getting my mail when the cops are dragging one of their kids out of the house because he's going fist to cuffs with his dad. Okay that he's pushing his old lady around. I'm gonna tell you this. His kids, two of their kids, one of them has run from the cops so many times. There's been so many high-speed chases there. I'm also going to tell you that two of their kids have already passed away, and I'm not going to speak off record here. But I've been told both of them were overdoses and one of them, you know, was a definite overdose. And I'm not by any means criticizing anybody for overdosing and I'm not, you know, throwing shade on somebody on the opioid crisis. I understand that addiction, but what I'm saying is those kids have seen some shit, they've heard some shit, they've been a part of some shit. The fact that my house is potentially about to burn down and I'm swearing in the driveway go, fuck yourself. Okay, I don't want to hear it. So, as this is getting hostile, the owner the new owner of the property is yelling at everybody get the fuck out of here. There's no reason for you to be here. You know nothing to do with staying around here fucking talking about it. And I turned around and looked at him and said fuck face, I live back there. I own the fucking house back there. My horse is right there. You set this fucking place on fire. I'm staying on right fucking here till it's out. He storms off thinking that he's Tony fucking tough guy. All of a sudden walking around At this moment my neighbor Mike pulls up, who's? I've always called him Uncle Mike is basically family to me. He comes up and he comes over to check on us because he's like in the words of Jason Aldeen try that in a small town we look out for each other. Over here we help our neighbors. So he's up here to check on me to help to see hey, is there something going on, can I help over here? During that time, all of a sudden more cars are coming in and we got to clear the road for more fire trucks because I'm nervous they ain't putting this fire out, you understand. So at this time he says, keith, I'm going to try to get out of here. He just turns around on the driveway to leave. At that moment my cousin's trying to pull a dumpster from behind the house up with a tractor so that that doesn't catch on fire, and he literally almost runs into Mike's brand new GMC pickup truck. So Mike kind of swerves around him and at that moment the assholes that burned the place down one of their workers starts yelling at Mike, get the fuck out of the road. And Mike's like that's what I'm trying to do, asshole. So then this dude starts threatening my neighbor Mike that he's going to knock him out. I don't see all of this. All of a sudden I turn around my neighbor's, out of the truck and there's this fucking little dickbag, shit head. Just I don't even know how you, how I would describe him. You know 87 Johnny String being strung out, shitbag, okay. And he's got. He's pulling his shorts up, he's got his shirt off and he's crouched down in a crouching tiger, hidden dragon position and he's backing up and he's swinging his hands around like I'm going to knock the old man out, I'm going to knock this old fucker out. And Mike's backing him up like come on, swing, bitch, I'll knock you the fuck out. So then I start walking up because I'm like if this punk swings on my neighbor, I'm going to fucking snap his neck, because at this moment I'm beyond stressed and fired up. The neighbor again don't swear in front of my kids. Okay, have I painted the picture for you. This is what's happening. This is the scenario right During this time. All these neighbors on this road that can't stand me, that hate my guts, that don't like my family, they're all just lined up just watching everything. And the fact that if this were to happen, if this were to spread, I'd know in this moment if my lands on fire, if my horse is loose, if all this shit's happening. I know what's gonna happen. All these people that should care about their neighbor, all these people that should be compassionate for their neighbor, they're just gonna cook s'mores courtesy of their neighbor. They don't give a shit. That's what's happening in this country. People don't give a shit anymore. And as much as I agree with Jason Aldeen and try that in a small town, I'm scared about what's happening in a small town because we're not as united as we once were. So being here in this small town realizing I've got four neighbors that would fight for me the rest of them won't do shit for me it really prioritizes a lot of things for me, but in this moment I was pretty damn scared. I went from being angry and pissed to frightened. I came home to check on my horse. His ears were straight up, his eyes are big and wide, he was glued in, he was on alert, he was stressed. But I can't tell you how proud I am of that boy. He was kind, cool and collective, even in his highest situation. Most horses that saw something like this would be gone. I would still be looking for them, right? Not him. That boy is bombproof. He's been through some shit. He sees me and my dad work. My dad blow things up all the time. So thankfully he was calm and cool and I was like he's concerned. He's on high alert, but I'm going to do more damage if I try to grab him and put him in his stall right now. So I go back, watch them, put the fire out and in the end I'll be all the fire has been taken care of and tragedy was avoided. Thank the Lord above. Tragedy was avoided. I count my absolute blessings because I've always been scared of what could happen in that house, not only in the situation in that house. I've always been frightened. My biggest fear is that a fire would happen and that I could lose everything. My biggest fear has always been fire at that place, but it was always with the hoarders that lived there that didn't know how to take care of themselves, not with somebody who's supposed to be a responsible small business owner that's accustomed to buying foreclosed homes, condemned houses and flipping them. This sack of shit has literally, I think, in my opinion realized he's in over his head on this job and instead of doing things the right way, as opposed to disposing of things the correct way, he's cutting corners, lighting things on fire and trying to save money. That is scary. That has me frightened to leave to go to the fair because I am so worried about what could happen when I'm not here. I'm worried that those fucking punk deadbeat crew of his is going to vandalize some of my stuff. I'm worried they're going to try to steal anything, rob anything, break anything. I'm worried that they're going to just disturb anything that I have going on. I'm worried about another fire because they can't control themselves, because they're clueless, irresponsible pieces of shit, because when this is all happening, the owner of the place would be was more concerned with arguing with me and my neighbor than he was putting out the fire. When the owner of the place, who now has three towns responding to this fire here Bidford, arundel County Bunk three towns responding to this fire to put it out. Thank the Lord and thank the fire department and the volunteers for putting that out. You should be thanking them, be concerned and apologizing to your neighbors for what you might have caused, for what could have happened. Instead, you wanted to fight everybody. As my neighbor is driving off. He's out there yelling at them get out of the truck, your piece of shit. You're a pussy. No, you're a business owner. You're a sorry excuse of a human. What a disappointing day for society yesterday. What a disappointing day for small towns yesterday, because I got to witness people in their true colors. I got to witness more than I wish I ever could. I got to experience the fear of the potential of losing everything in a second. I can tell you that I don't talk much about anxiety. I don't know much about anxiety, in a sense that I was always raised by my old man's philosophy of you can work that off right. You got something to worry about. Well, I got something for you to do. Anxiety was just an emotion. Anxiety was just common. It was just life. Get over it, figure it the fuck out. We ain't got time for whining and crying. We ain't got time for bitching and moaning. We ain't got time for complaining. What we do have time for is getting busy, right? My dad's answer to things was just start moving. If you don't feel good about something, you're stressed about something, well, get up and fucking do something about it. Don't sit there and think about it. So anxiety was never something I really ever labeled and I can probably have a whole other conversation about this and a whole other episode but there was times in my life where I just thought anxiety was a weakness right, and I didn't acknowledge it. I didn't understand it, and those things have changed for me. But I can tell you that yesterday, after everything settled, my emotions were shot. I was depleted and I made it through the day and I did everything I possibly could and I wanted to record yesterday, but my emotions were jacked, they were gone. I didn't have anything left to give. I knew I needed to wake up today, recharge, refueled and give you everything I have today. That's my commitment to you each and every day. Last night I had a hard time sleeping because all I could think about is what I saw. All I could think about is what could have happened. All I could think about was my blessings for what I still have, but all I could think about is what could happen when I'm not here. I now added a whole new layer of stress, frustration and anxiety to my life and to my plate, because I'm worried about what's happening when I'm not here, because of the clueless cluelessness of the people that live around here. Understand what I'm saying. Man. We dodge tragedy by the good grace and blessings of God, by the fire department by the volunteers, we avoided tragedy and I'm so thankful for that. I'm the type of person that looks for positives, because if you don't look for positives it's a real negative life to live. And I'm thankful for all those things and I count my blessings and I appreciate what I have so much more, because for a moment I was worried I didn't have it and nothing felt better than giving my horse a big hug and making sure he was okay and that he was safe and knowing that my family was safe. You really go to bed with some extra blessings there and I also learned about some people that they're just, they're never going to be there for me, right, and as much as you made those assumptions, it's. There's a sense of final to that when you can see that in the moment of just whirlwind, crazy, in a moment of stress and anxiety, in a moment of you know, the fear of loss and you see the people's lack of effort, you understand, you know and you can remember just how those people treated you. So it was a real sense of closure and that that I know I can close off those people and and I realized I got to do some more things to protect my home to protect my family. But I learned a lot yesterday a lot about what I should appreciate, a lot about what, a lot about what I should care less about. It was difficult going to sleep and I'm still full of some just anxious feelings and moments, knowing I'm about to leave my family behind and go try to focus on providing for the family and making money and doing the things I need to do as a business owner. But it's tough. It's it's extra tough to leave the house today. It's extra tough to leave my dogs behind my horse, behind my parents and my wife. It scares me, america. It absolutely scares me, and I can't imagine myself being anywhere other than where I am right now. I can't imagine myself living anywhere else. You know, these roots, this foundation that's here, is something that I always want to have here. But it's so disappointing to know that the people around you just don't care anymore to know. The people around you don't share that common value. They're not willing to go to battle for their neighbor. They're more willing to fight their neighbor. That's not the way it used to be, and it's just more reason for me to preach to the fact that we must stick together, that this country needs to be united, that we need to get back to living life the way we were raised to live it with passion and compassion. There's a cowboy code that we should be living by. There's a cowboy code that Jason Aldean spoke of in those lyrics. That's hidden in those lyrics. There's a cowboy code and the way of life that we were raised as Americans, and that code is about caring for your neighbors. It's about standing up for your loved ones. It's about standing up for what you believe in, for fighting for what you believe in, for working hard, for earning the things that you have, for loving the ones close to you, for having those values, for living life and showing strangers compassion. That's what this country needs to get back to. Yesterday was a frightening day for me, but I'm so thankful to be back here with you, sharing my story with you, because it could have been a much different story. Yesterday was a scary, scary day, and I thank the Lord for each and every day. And I woke up today, the same old me, with the same old philosophy, with the same direction. Man, what a time, what a fucking time. Episode 159. I like to make things rhyme. This time it's oh, so fitting and it hits oh so much hotter 159 and I'm blessed. Everybody's doing fine. Thank you for supporting my American dream. Now go wash your fucking hands, you filthy savage. That's it and that's all. Biggie Smiles. If you found value in today's show, please return the favor and leave a positive review. Share it with someone that is important to you. Hit, subscribe and help us grow our tribe. Are you interested in sponsoring the show? Maybe you're looking to be a guest on the show? 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