Armchair Anonymous: Extreme Weather

Welcome, welcome, welcome to armchair anonymous. I'm Dak Shepherd. I'm joined by Monica Padman. Hello. Today we have extreme weather. It is extreme. The weather is extreme. You're going to hear about some extreme weather. I feel bad because when we first started, it was gloomy here in Los Angeles and I did call it extreme. You thought that was, yeah, for the sun to not be out. It feels a little sensitive now after hearing all those stories. But I get this one's pretty safe to listen to or it's a rare one. It's cautionary tale. A cautionary tale. A cautionary tale. And it's rat. Oh, rats, rats. Sorry. Give away. There's also rats. Please enjoy extreme weather. All times. Come and go. Good times. Take them slow. My life. I had them all. I've had them all. I've had them all. I've had them all. I've had them all. You've had them all. I've had them all. You've had them all. You've had them all. I'm going to keep on shining. Oh, extreme weather. Oh, extreme weather. Oh, that is on brand ding, ding, ding, ding. Because it's gloomy out. Because it's so extreme out right now. The sun's not shining. It's a very extreme. It's a very extreme. It's giving me sad. Hello. Ella. Hi. Sorry. It's so dark in here. Yeah. Can we get a little light in there? It was light when I could just see myself. Oh. Is it because it's all over me? Oh. Better. Better. You want to crack your door to the closet, maybe? We can see you're a little better now. Okay. Better? Yeah. Better, better. I swear it was working. It looked perfect. I would not think you were a liar, Ella. No way. Thank you. And where are you? Other than a closet? Yes. I'm in a closet in New Jersey. You get what in New Jersey? You get tornadoes? You get some hurricanes? No, that's the crazy thing. It's like we don't really get that much crazy weather. But I did get some crazy weather one night. Okay. And you appear to be very young to me. Can I try to guess your age? Oh, please. Okay. I'm going with 23 years old. Oh, 26. Oh. Nice. You were close. Bonnie, what would you have said? I'm really bad at this game. 46? Yeah. Probably like me if they delayed 40s. Getting there. Okay. So you're in New Jersey and were you born and raised there? Yes. How far from the city? Right now, I am living directly across from New York City. So like on the water, Hudson River, New York City is right there. Oh. You have the best view of New York. Yes. Love to look at it. I hate to be there. Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow. Remember when we had-- It was a year in. I realized I had no idea what you guys actually looked like. Right. And I made a promise to myself that I would never look until I made it on the podcast. One day to see my first time. Wait, but you didn't know what DAX looked like? So I'm really bad with names, celebrities, and I'm not a movie TV person. I love it. She's also 26, right? And the last time I was on a TV show was six years ago. She was 20. Well, 20's old enough to watch TV. To watch TV. Were you allowed to watch TV when you were 20? Yeah. That was. That's you. But yeah. I believe it. I think most 26-year-olds have no clue who I am. This is so fun. What did you think we looked like? Be honest. You guys have dropped a lot of clues over my time listening. So I was able to put together like a pretty good picture. But now seeing you guys, I can't remember how I pictured you now. Well, also, would you agree? We're pretty derogatory about our own looks. So I guess you could also expect to see like a hunchback in a fucking troll. That is what she's saying. I know. I know. I know. I know that's not the opposite. You guys are more beautiful than I ever could have imagined. Oh, we'll write back at you. Yeah. All right. Let's hear extreme weather. Yeah. Let's talk about weather. Okay. So just a really quick preface to my story is my parents have been divorced since I was very young. And my mom, she got an apartment very close to my dad's house about like a mile down the street. And she eventually bought a house less than a mile away. So very fortunate. I mean, my sister growing up, my parents are very close in proximity and they had a really good relationship. Oh, great. Right. So all around very close. So now my story takes place. It was June, 2024. So not that long ago. Around the time you started listening to us actually pretty much yes, which is crazy to think about. So I had graduated college at the time. I was working full time and I was living full time with my dad hanging out with my mom going over for dinners when I could. And my mom invited me and my sister over to watch the subway series. So the Metz Yankees baseball game. It was between a Tuesday night and a Wednesday night. They were playing both nights and we opted to go over and watch on a Tuesday night. We invited our boyfriends. All of us are really big baseball fans. So like half of us are Metz fans, half our Yankees, a Philly's fan in there. So we had dinner, probably played some sort of card game. And then we all six of us got onto my mom's couch and we huddled up and we watched the baseball game. So I don't really remember much of the night. It's very uneventful. Fun night. Metz won. That's my team. Doesn't happen often these days. So good to look back at. And then the next day, I'm working from home at my dad's house where I live and I'm getting these weather alerts on my phone nonstop. And I remember because anything would trigger me when I was working at my last job. Like the smallest things would kind of set me off. And my phone just kept alerting me like severe weather warning, severe winds were in New Jersey. How crazy could these winds really be 30 miles an hour? Like what's the peak? Actually, I don't think I even checked what the speed said. I was just like, who really cares? No rain, nothing. Just strong winds. And I was like, okay, just getting really annoyed. And I decide after work, I'm going to run to the store, grab a bottle of wine, watch the second game with my dad at his house. So after work, it was about like seven or eight p.m. probably when I got off work. I run out to grab the wine and I noticed as I'm driving, it's getting really windy. Scary. Like you can feel it in the car. I'm about to blow away in the parking lot, but it's still managed to get the wine and get home. And I'm telling my dad like, this is crazy and not that long after that, I get a call from my stepdad and he tells me very calmly, hey, so a tree fell in our house. We need you to come and grab the dogs. Me and your mom are going to go to the hospital. Oh my God. Oh boy. Oh boy. He was so calm that I'm so calm. I'm like, no problem. I packed an overnight bag. I thought I was having a sleepover. I don't know what was going through my head. I was like, sure, packed my laptop, my phone charger, the bottle of wine is coming with me. And Ella, is this the game hasn't started yet or your mid game when this phone call comes in? I haven't even turned it on yet. So I got in my car and I'm still there within 10 minutes because again, they're literally right down the street from each other. And I go to turn on to her street, cannot get on the street, cop cars, ambulance, everything's blocked off. So I park a little bit down the street and I start running towards the house at this point and a cop tries to stop me and is like, you cannot go in there. And I'm like, this is my mom's house and she's like, great, you're here for the dogs. And I'm like, sure, whatever. Just let me through please. So she tells me I can't go through the front door, which you can't see. You're looking at the house and it looks like a bush ate the house. It's just like a giant bush. Do you immediately, when he said a tree fell in, did you know what tree it was? Was there a huge tree in the yard where you like, oh, I bet it's that. I wasn't even thinking about that, but like looking back on it, yes, I need my wine. I need my overnight bag. I was like, so no sleepover. So they let me go into the back of the house. There's like a back door. The dogs are in there and they're not barking, which is so weird for them. And they just look absolutely traumatized. It's pitch black in there and it's like really dusty and weirdly quiet. So I'm just strapping them up, putting their harnesses on, callers, leashes, guiding them ready, and my stepdad comes into the back room. And he kind of feels me and on like a tree came through the house, which I understood by that point. There's a massive tree eating our house. And that my mom was in the ambulance that just left. He's going to go to the hospital and he'll call me when he gets there. And he's still so calm. So I'm calm. I get the dogs back to my dad's house. We have to throw his cats outside. They don't get along. And my dad's not thrilled about having his wife's dog. I'm on the phone with my stepdad on and off all night. He's giving me more bits and pieces like her head was bleeding. She got hit by the tree that came through the house, but he's like stay where you are. I'll keep filling you in. So hours passed by at this point and before I know it, he's calling me probably four hours from when this all happened saying they're releasing her. We're going to go sleep at my sister's house. And I asked to talk to her. She was like, I'd like to speak to my mother. So he puts her on the phone and she's very emotional, but she sounds completely fine. I'm like, I would love if you guys came to my dad's house and slept here for the night so I could see you and know what's going on. I'd feel better knowing you're here with me. So they agree. She convinces my stepdad. We're going to go sleep at my ex-husband's house. I clear out my bedroom. We had no guest rooms. So they take my full-size bed with their two dogs and I sleep on the couch for the night. The next day, I'm waking up on my dad's couch, which I never, ever slept on. I always slept in my bed. So I was already unfamiliar like where am I? And all I see is my mom sitting at my dad's kitchen table, bandage wrapped around her head. My stepdad's sitting to her left and on my right is my dad, shirtless, pantless, and his boxers absolutely like disheveled, probably came down to grab a glass of water, not knowing his ex-wife and husband. Oh, he didn't even. He didn't say no. Okay. He wasn't. And I was like, there was a lot going on. So he was completely unaware that they were going to be there, but he's serving them coffee. And we go back to see the house the next day. And everyone's kind of filling us in on what happened. So my mom's side of the story is she heard a very loud, like, cracking sound and immediately ducked over and shielded like her and the dog. And she doesn't really remember much other than that. - She was on the couch of her living room. - She was on the living room couch where we were all sitting the night before. - Oh. - And my stepdad was in a back room and all he heard was like a really loud crash. Very scary. He didn't really know what was going on. There were no lights all of a sudden loud noise and he ran into the living room where she was sitting and it was just the ceiling of the second floor was caving in on like a 45 degree angle. There were like floor boards everywhere. Furniture knocked around. There's a huge tree literally slicing the house almost in half. So he had to like pull her out of like rubble is pretty much what it looked like at that point. Her head was just profusely bleeding and he had to like pull her out. He pulled her to the back where there wasn't a second floor 'cause he was really scared. The whole house was just gonna come down on top of them. He was wrapping her head in towels and she just kept bleeding through them. Until the EMTs got there, they couldn't get into the house with the stretcher. So what they did is they did that thing at weddings where like you put someone on a chair and you kind of like lift them up to celebrate that. - Oh sure, if I get a Jewish wedding. - Yes. So that's how they got her out of the house and at that time she was conscious but she was completely unresponsive. Like not responding to anything anyone was saying and the cop that was there at the time, like he radioed in something along the lines of like we have a fatality or like she's not gonna make it. And my mom came to I guess in that moment and was like just tell the girls that I love them, get the dogs. They get her into the ambulance finally. They get the bleeding to stop eventually. They're taking her to the hospital that has a trauma center. We love New Jersey, great hospitals, New Jersey, New York City. - If you gotta hit by a tree, that's where you wanna be. - Yeah, somewhere with a trauma center. - It's a good one here. - Yeah. In the ambulance they get the bleeding to stop finally and they cleaner up and they realize her head's not split open. It's not gashed open. She has like some stuff coming out of it. There's clearly a gash in her head but it's not nearly as bad as what they were expecting. They thought she was a goner until they realized like all she needed was some staples in her head. They cleaned her up. She had a concussion obviously but that was really it. And so we're very lucky and grateful that was it but what beat up my mom the most was that if we had chosen to do the baseball game the night after we would have all been on that couch. And if you see the photos, there's a photo of all of us sitting on the couch and then the next photo is what that same couch looked like the next night. - Okay, so now I'm flipping over the photographs. Heavens to Betsy. It's a tall skinny tree. Okay, so here's the family in the garage. - It's a literally, yeah, cut through the whole house. - Wow. - Okay, here's everyone on the couch, the healthy night, night before. Oh my gosh. - It's just like rubble. You can't even tell what's going on in the photo of the night after. - Oh my god. Yeah, I don't even know how to hold it. - What was the outcome of the house? Did it have to get torn down? Was it repairable? What happened? - So the roof was completely unsalvageable and the whole house had to pretty much be redone. It took like 14 months. - And L.A. able to take him four years. - Got scary. - Yeah, wow. - It was really strong wins. The same night in New Jersey, another tree fell and someone else got struck and passed away. My mom's feelings, I'm just guilt and just being so grateful. - That is a lot. - It was a lot. - Wow, strong wins. You can't take that lightly. - Who won the subway series? - Oh, the meds won. - Oh yeah. - They won both games, actually. - Is that actually the match you wanted? - Oh yeah. - Oh good. - Yeah, so a push. - Sounds like a push. - Wow. - Well, wow, that's wild. Ella, we're so delighted to have you as a listener. I particularly like that you have no clue what we look like. - Yeah, that's so fun. - That's really fun. - And now I'm just staring at you guys now. - Yeah, take it in. - Now I can follow you guys on all the social. - Oh, okay, wow, you're waiting. - One fall. - Yes. - This is kind of my technique to Bill Murray, right? Where I don't want to meet him unless he talks to me. Like I've been around him, but I won't talk to him. - Right. - And those plans don't work, but in this case, it works. I know I'm shocked and never got leaked, but this is great 'cause now you can watch us on YouTube. - You can do a lot. - You can do the world is open up for you. - A couple million posts to go through. - I was just waiting. - Was lovely meeting you, Ella. - Yes, you too. Could I just give a few really quick shout out? - Yes. - Yes. - Okay, first to my mother, obviously, who I love dearly and now she has to start listening to you guys because she, I've been begging her. And you just interviewed Brandy Carlyle, who's like her favorite person on her. - Oh, great interview. - Perfect gateway for her. - And then secondly, my boyfriend said he'd be really upset if I didn't give him a shout out. And he started listening to you guys on his own, apart from me, pretty recently. - What a genius. - We like that. - A special boy. - Very proud of him. (laughing) Lastly, I just wanna give a shout out to the person who showed me, you guys, my friend, Gia, who I haven't seen in a little over a year now. And I love dearly and she is now pregnant with her first child. - Congratulations, Gia. - Her own little arm cherry. - Yeah. - Oh. - Keep proliferating. - Keep making more. - Make more listeners. All right, well, we send her love to all those folks. - Yes. - And then lovely meeting you. - Lovely meeting you guys. Thank you so much. - Okay, take care. - Bye. - Bye. - Okay, I just thought of something. - Okay. - If you're born in the year 2000, you're so lucky. - For math. - Yes, 'cause she's 26, so she was born in 2000. And two years ago was 2024 and she was 2020. - It's so easy. - And she was 25. - She just has to remember the name. Are they rather the year? - She has to remember her name. - Her name and the year it was. And she'll know exactly how old she is. - It's so cool. - That's so cool. - I do think that's really cool. - It's convenient. - Yeah, cool. - And super cool too. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Mark? - Hello. - Hi, how are you? - I'm doing great. How are you? - Oh, so good. - I'm good. - I see that you're in a bedroom. Where is this bedroom located? - It's in Winnipeg, Canada. - Ooh, a Canadian. - Mark, I don't you'll care about this, but when we do armchair anonymous, it's almost like 50% of our collars are Canadian. I need an explanation for it 'cause I don't think 50% of our listeners. - Have you been to Winnipeg? Either of you? - Not been to Winnipeg, but they film a bunch there, right? Is that where they film Fargo? - That might be Alberta, but they do film a bunch here, for sure. A lot of friends that kind of help in the industry and then we hear about all the celebrities coming through. - Sure. - It's always big news here. - Is it in Mountainee where you're at? - No, it's the Prairies, right in the center. - Oh, okay. - To the best of my knowledge, you've only had one Winnipeg guest on. - Huh. - And it is such a small town here. I mean, it's 800,000 people, but that's my best friend's wife. - What? - Wait, that was an armchair anonymous. - She was a full-on guest. Her name's Kate Boler. She's an author. - Yeah. - Oh my God. - Oh my God, she's fine at wow, small world. - Small town. If you have another Winnipeg girl, I'll probably be close friends with them too. - That's exciting. - That works. You know, every time we meet someone from Boston, which there's several million people there. Monica always says, "Do you know Ben and Matt?" And they never do. - And they don't. But one day they will. - But you need people you love from Winnipeg that way. 'Cause they will. - I don't get to pick and choose where Ben and Matt are from. - Fair enough. No, you don't. Okay, so Mark, you have an extreme weather story. - I do. Takes place two hours east. Place called Lake of the Woods in Ontario. So we're in the prairies, but it's Canadian shield there. Like, it looks the same as the misgokas. And this weekend, it was 2015 June. Lots of friends coming out for the weekend. All of them are pretty close friends, other than one friend of ours, Andrea is bringing a guy, Jeff, kind of plays in the story a bit. - How big of a group is the group of people? - So we are nine adults and my two children who are three and five at the time. So Saturday morning, weather's gloomy. It's supposed to be a miserable weekend. We'll make the most of it. So we have breakfast on the dock in the rain under the roof. Weather clears up towards the end of that. Let's go for a boat ride, might be our only chance. The only boat that we have that works, it's my father's pride and joy. So probably has more hours like waxing it on the lift than in the water all summer. But I'm gonna take it 26 foot in board, it'll work. But I hate driving it. I do not want to fix it if I break it, all those things. So we head out to a friend's place, tried to just go for a boat ride 30 minutes east of that yet. Huge lake goes down into Minnesota, even you can go for hours in any direction. So we get there, we're gonna take a scenic route back, but it starts getting a little darker. So we're gonna just gonna go straight back the way we came. So head and back halfway through that, it starts raining. So it's not a big deal, we're gonna put the top up, we'll keep going, some people have stayed in the front, we'll get wet, we'll dry off when we get back to the dock. In a minute after that, start hailing. - Oh, geez. - That's painful. - Yeah, so they're coming in, it's fine. But it's still, we're just gonna go back. We're probably halfway there. A minute after that, it's hailing so bad. Feels like it's gonna smash the windows. - It's a fiberglass boat, it just sounds way worse than it probably is. So we stop and that's when I notice there's a cloud ahead of us. It's the whole sky, never seen anything like it before, never since, but it's like churning like a paddle wheel. - Ooh. - Oh, no. - Like a horizontal tornado. - Yeah, exactly. And it's greenish, dark blue, not an expert in that. It doesn't sound like something I want any part of. So we're gonna turn around, we're gonna go back to the way we came. - Okay, not a big deal. Everyone's in, so now the layout of the boat is like Jeff, this like new alpha guy that's come into the group to date. Our friend is like right beside me, facing backwards, and then it's a spacious boat, but there's nine of us in there, plus two kids are at my feet. So it's like we're pretty crammed in. No one's really looking out 'cause everyone's trying to stay warm. Also worthy of note now, Temperature is dropping like crazy, and we have a friend Amy who has a cold allergy, so her throat can close up. - Oh my God. - She's in the wrong country. - It's amazing she's alive 'cause she's from Winnipeg. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - She needs to be in Florida. - We're still just getting away from this cloud at this point. So Jeff's looking out the back, and I'm just piloting the boat, and then he like motions to me, and I look and there's a funnel cloud coming out of the cloud. - Ooh. (laughing) - Okay, not ideal. And then the thing that we are driving down, you can't really maneuver. So as I prepared to tell a story, it's like why didn't I do a few things different, or like most things different, but there's like islands and rocks under the water, so you kind of stuck go and. - Does it have like a channel kind of? - That's right. It's called Tarmigan Bay. It's fairly wide, but you can't really use all of that because there's stuff in the way. So we're going down. Now I'm pinning it, probably like 45, 50 miles an hour for a boat full of people, it's too fast. But we're going. Tornado touches down behind us, and Jeff points back. And I don't think anyone else is really aware, which is good. My kids certainly aren't. They're just huddled underneath. And Tornado touched down and it's like a wall. Like inception, the earth turns vertical. - Oh my God. - I promise you, this is like my memory is the entire, it wasn't like a funnel full of water. There's a wall of water now. - Wow. - And it's gaining, 'cause obviously we're not getting away from it. - Hit it even harder, we are maxed now. - Is the water getting choppy as well? - Oh, so bad. - Yeah. - But we're like getting air, but it does not really matter. We're cutting through it okay, but it's bad. We're not getting away from it. So I realized at one point, not only it's choppy, but that boat has high shoulders, but we're at a 45 degree pitch. So the water's almost swamming us on the one side, but there's like granite cliff on the side. So I don't have 50 years of piloting experience, but I know it's windy, you're gonna turn into it. Can't do it, 'cause there's a cliff right there. Jeff, on the other hand, is telling me to beach the boat, 'cause he's kind of freaking out, but he doesn't know us well, and he doesn't know me at all. So he doesn't know if I'm capable of like sustaining his life, like he doesn't wanna die with people he doesn't know. So he's giving me a lot of advice in life. (laughing) But great guy, Jeff, when I told it a lot of times over the last decade, to like fully experience again the emotion that I was, I don't really fully remember, but I remember one thing, and that's when the boat's sideways, I don't know what to do, we're pinned the water's almost to us. And I remember thinking, okay, my kids are at my feet when we sink. So that's how sure I was this was ending in disaster. When we sink, I'm gonna take those little handles on the back of the life jackets, I'm gonna grab 'em. After remember to swim backwards, so that we don't drown. 'Cause the roof's up. I remember thinking like, that's what I gotta do when this boat goes down, which seemed like an inevitability at that time. But I'm standing here, so I'm like talking to you, so we're okay. But tornado hits us, kid. It goes right over us. So I can only navigate on the GPS. So it's pitch black out, it's hailing so hard. I'm just looking at the GPS, and this again seems unreal, but go to my grave, swearing has happened. We're just going as fast as that boat will take us in one direction. And then on the GPS, all of a sudden, we're just like a top, like we're going at 150 degrees, like it's spun us. - Oh my god. - So now we're going in a different direction towards where we can't go. So kind of like wind her down a bit. Okay, let's correct. And then a second later, again. We're going in a different direction. And then wound it back. I've seen the movie Twister. That's my only experience with these things, but it's like, I guess in the eye of a tornado, or the two, but I don't really know what it was. But then, because I'm not very smart, now I assume it's past, we'd realize this later. But we're like now chasing the tornado at 50 miles an hour, 'cause we don't know what we're doing. - Oh my god. - Oh my god. - You're so disoriented. - And you can't see, oh. - Yeah, it's just like pitch black, and then you're worried about other boats coming in. So I'm like sticking my head out beside the windshield, and then trying to hear something, but you can't really navigate. And then Amy, with the cold allergy, like the blankets are off of my children. There's like people surrounding her, trying to keep her warm. - Oh. - And like kids are freaking, and then Amy's not doing well. - Oh. - Jeff's telling me to beach the boat. (laughing) - What does beach the boat mean? - Just drive it to shore, and if I can slam it to shore, so I'm gonna get off. - Yeah, just get off the lake by any means necessary, I guess. So we can't go to where we're gonna go, 'cause it's a dock in the storm's wild. So then we end up in kind of an area. I knew that at a beach, so just ran up, saw a cottage. Everyone ran up, and then I was the last one, 'cause I tied up the boat, and then when we got in there, everyone's like looking at me a little strange, 'cause I was putting my head outside of the boat at 100 km/h. - Yeah, oh. - And then I like welt all over my face, but storm passed, went back, everyone survived. I've asked other people, it was a fairly calm experience other than a few, I think it was just so hectic that people didn't lose their minds. - Yeah. - They knew to not make the situation worse instinctively. - A friend, Alec, was like, so I always thought from this comment that I was like a hero in this, and that's not the case, because as I've reviewed to come on here, I realized like all the mistakes that were made are solely mine, and if it wasn't for me, we wouldn't have been on the boat. But she's like, Alec, like what was it? I didn't hear anything from you, and then he said, "Well, I just was looking at you, and you were calm, "so I thought it must not be as bad as it seems." So I always thought, oh man, like I am in charge, people are lucky to have me around, but every single decision made on that entire trip was mine solely, and we ended up under a tornado. - I'm sorry. - So I was like, evaluating a captain. - Oh. - Yeah, if you drive your passengers into a tornado, that's right. - Not a good deal. - Yeah. - But not panicking is essential. - Although I don't know if he was panicking to what had gone much worse, other man I can't imagine. - But then, what then, everyone wouldn't have had. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Maybe Jeff would have taken over. But we all be dead then, so. - Oh, scary. - That is so scary. - What was the dynamic between you and Jeff, the new alpha male after that experience? Were you closer, were you now bonded? - Yeah, well, I still see him. Him and Andrew did not work out. I don't think you can face a relationship on that traumatic of an experience that we're really on. But I see him around town, 'cause it's Winnipeg, like I said, and we're all friends of friends unrelated to that. But I think it was good. Like that afternoon was the best afternoon, 'cause everyone's just ready to go. It was a good party afternoon, 'cause we all survived. - Wow. - When Drew, he just like tell different versions of that event. I remember calling my dad to be like, "Hey, save the boat." Like, this is what happened and boats on the lift, and we're good. And then getting an almost no reaction. And then maybe the next summer, he just said, "Oh, hey, remember that thing that you went through last year?" The tornado, like, took down all the trees and my neighbors, it was verified. Finally, it was like real. Like it went through Brown's Island and then came across the bay. Then I think he realized that I wasn't just in some wind. - Exactly, yeah. - Yeah. - Oh. - I thought you were gonna say next summer, he texted you, "Hey, you owe me $6,800." - $6,800. - I just look at the boat. - No, I ain't really know. He's replaced a few props that I bust in on his boat. - Sure, sure, sure. - On that day, I kept it safe. - Wow. - Oh, heroin, look how mine didn't get that extreme, but I know that fucking feeling 'cause we were coming up the locks. It takes a long time to come up in the locks, like maybe 25 minutes. And just watching this insane thunderstorm move over the lake that we're about to get deposited. And just going, who is absolutely nothing to do. I'm stuck in the locks. And sure enough, they open up. We're just in an insane lightning storm in the middle of the lake. - It was so bad. - Yeah, he's got to get all of that. - Just like I guess. - Yeah, yeah, exactly. And there's like a weird lake effect for weather where you can almost see the exact edge of the rain. And you're like, well, I can just zip around there maybe 'cause many times we've been stuck in rain. - I was looking out and going like, oh, thank God there's other idiots out here. I'm comforted by the fact that these people are on jet skis and that seems more dangerous, but just barely. - There's no windshield wipers. So then when it's raining, it gets really awful out there. - Yeah, I was looking through some tiny sliver between my sunglasses and the windshield and still getting pelted. - Well, Mark, thanks for that heroin towel. Are you guys heading back out soon? - It used to be every single weekend, but we have one son that plays baseball. And so now every single weekend is baseball and you kinda hope he doesn't make the good team so that you can actually have a summer. But that all ends in July. So then we'll go out literally every weekend. That's the prairie way. You live in the town during the weekend and then you take off for the lake if you're lucky enough to have a spot. - Oh, I'm happy for your kids. That's the best kind of summer. - It is great. - Mark, great meeting you brother. - Yeah, thanks for chatting. - You guys too. - All right, we look forward to our third win of Peggy and this has been two for two success. - That's right. We're nailing it. - Bye. - Bye. - Bye. (upbeat music) - Hi. - Hi, is it Janine? - You're in a kids' bunk bed. - I am in a kids' bunk bed. - Minimally up to I would imagine. - I do have two kids. This is true and I didn't have a closet and I tried to follow the rules. - This is great. It sounds great. - Yeah, you've done an excellent job. - And where are you Janine? - I am in Pacific Northwest. I was gonna make you guess. But I didn't have any context to be more specific of where I am. I'm actually on the Oregon coast. I live in Tellamuk. Oh Wow, home of Tellamuk cheese. Love the cheese. Is that an enormous operation because I always think because in and out Famously uses Tellamuk cheese. God bless them That's half the reason that place is so delicious. Yeah, and I do wonder how big is the Tellamuk cheese plant? It's pretty big, but it's not the only place they make the cheese now But it is really good size and it's our largest employer here in Tellamuk County. It's the cheese factory There we have a couple others and like right now. This is peak season for us So we as people who live here Do not frequent the cheese factory from about April to October Because tourists are there oh busy and if you submit to it I tell every tourist that comes through just be okay with ice cream at 10 a.m When they open because like I'm not going at two o'clock in the afternoon. Yeah So you can get ice cream. Do they also give out cheese samples? They do since COVID. It's now the little like wrapped cheese. Yeah They have a full service restaurant and you can get all sorts of stuff. Oh do they make a great grilled cheese there? I hear that they do. I have the unfortunate Affliction of not being able to eat dairy so I don't know Same girl. I mean, I can. I'm just miserable when I do Correct. Sometimes you commit to the misery. You know, you're gonna be home. Oh great. These are more of the lower GI Mine's congestion. Yeah, it just fucks me out. Okay, so you have an extreme weather story I do have an extreme weather story to set the stage. It is 2013 and my parents at the time are retired living in Hawaii We had our son who was just about eight months old and this would be the first time on an airplane for him Where he was awake and conscious of that as well as to see grand parents in their living space So we flew to Hawaii for a trip and You probably know this dachsh. Once you have kids You as the child are just nothing. They just want the grandkids My parents sent my husband and I off for a whole day of adventure. How they watched our aim unfold They lived on the side of the island. Wait, what island are you on? Oh, Wahoo. Oh, Wahoo. Okay. The Coco trailhead. It's like a super steep mountain They live kind of in that neighborhood and it's where Bruno Mars had a house bounty hunter supposedly nice. So it's upscale. Yes, it was super upscale fancy shmancy. So that day we took the moped's out and we rode the moped's and then we went into Wahoo and my husband surf And I sat on the beach and then we had had reservations at Turtle Bay on the north part of the island. So Just for reference, that's like an hour away So we had up north and we stopped along the way. We went to all of like cutesy little places up there We know that car ride well Monica. We've done it That's where that fun burger shop was in front of the surf competition Yeah, that was cute. It's a super fun place And so Turtle Bay is amazing. We had a great meal on Turtle Bay right on the waters For people who have seen Sarah Marshall. That's where forgetting Sarah Marshall was shot I forgot about that. We finished dinner. It's sometime in the evening. It's now dark And we take off to head home back to the other side of the island It rains every day and Hawaii. No big deal. Did you ride moped's up there? We didn't. We were in a mini-cooper. It's my cousin's mini-cooper She lived with my parents at the time and we're driving. It starts to rain pretty significantly at one point And we're just listening to the radio and then the emergency broadcast alarm comes on oh boy And it's listing off all of these counties towns. I don't know. It's All Hawaiian dishes. I don't know where we are on the island at this point Listing all these counties and names to be aware of flash flood warnings And we're like okay, but that's not going to be us So we keep driving and Dave's like man These puddles are getting legit in this mini-cooper. I am hydro planning kind of a lot And I go Okay, babe. Should we just pull over for a while like and just wait this storm out He's like, I don't think so. I bet we're gonna out drive it I feel like we don't need to keep driving, but sure. We'll keep going keep going Oh, no, and it's just pouring. I mean rain that I've never experienced before in my life Just torrential downpour the windshield wipers. I mean you might as well just And he's just two hands on the wheel forward and all of a sudden I feel this like Rush of something hit the side of the car and I we've hit a guard rail Like what are you doing? Stay on the road. Yeah I'm not in control of this car anymore. Oh god We are literally floating. Oh What we didn't know was that there was like a creek or a river of some kind on this side Like the oceans on the left side of us Some type of waterway is over here whether it's just a ditch that's overflowing. No idea But it had crested over at that moment that we drove by And it's very it's off. Oh, but towards the ocean. Correct. I screamed And he was like cranking the wheel and somehow got enough footing or maybe it was not deep water Whatever we were able to get off at like a side maintenance road And unfortunately was soon as we get 20 feet not even maybe 10 feet up this road the car just dies It's had enough. Well, he was like I screwed up. I In a panic hit the gas not realizing that I was not in control of the car that we were in water He's like I didn't comprehend that so as you know when you hit the gas You didn't take all the water and post the motor So We get up this road and we find that we are accompanied by about like six or seven other cars other groups of people They're up on this road just kind of hanging out I immediately burst into tears because that's my response because I'm thinking oh my god What if our son had been with us? He's eight months old Doing this is so crazy and Dave my husband the calm cool collector one is like but he's not with it We're gonna be fine. So I feel like 20 30 minutes goes by During that time we turn around and a Honda Civic just floats right on by out to the ocean out to the ocean Out to the ocean. It's gone and I'm like is anyone concerned about those people? We see a city bus and this is the funniest part They float through and you could tell the moment where the bus driver probably goes Yeah, I can't float through so then he tries to back up the city bus That did not work either thankfully he was heavy enough to just float forward instead of floating I don't know how many people were on said city bus and then all of a sudden Thankfully, we see sirens and we can see the flashing lights and the waters receded enough that the fire truck can get through And all these people who probably are locals are starting to like leave and they know all these other backroads where our car is dead I think another group also has a dead vehicle So we all hop in the fire truck and they back us out. It's great. We think perfect problem solved They're gonna take us to a fire station so we can figure out where we are to call for help because that's the other problem Cell service wasn't great where we were and we're not from here So I don't even know how to call a ride and I don't even know where to tell my dad to come and pick us up Right, we've now called him to say hey, we're safe, but car is dead. We need to figure out how to get home The fire department just says glad we could help you today and they move on about their day And so we're just stranded on the side of the road No idea what to do how to get home and then Q random guy in his 50s in a Buick and he's like are you guys stuck? You know, I kind of heard you talking. I have to turn around I'm headed to work on the other side of the island, but I'm happy to give you a ride wherever you need Okay, it's eight o'clock at night. It's dark It's a 50-some-year-old white male and my girl feelers are like no we don't get in cars with people We don't know this is a bad choice. We should not do this and my husband's just like sure Yeah, yeah, and for some reason he sits in the front seat Well, I think that's the right move in case the guys Gets wildly he's got to be able to attack him so funny. That's exactly what Dave said that you might say Yeah, it's the logical that are directly behind him so he can strangle him We get in and we head down the road and he says oh, you know, I'm so sorry I have to stop at home because I have to go all the way around I was gonna pick up my lunch on my way and now I won't have time because it's gonna take us longer the way we're going So I need to stop at my house. We don't go to a second location like this is terrible I can't say anything to Dave in the car so we get to this man's house and he's like I really need to pee I'm gonna go inside. Oh my God. I'm gonna grab a shower and a meal. What is happening? Can you just pee in the yard? Yeah, I'm going in this house It's like it's gonna be fine. You're gonna go in with me and I was like absolutely not in my mind I didn't go in and he was like no you went into the foyer and just stood there like a creeper in the foyer of the house And he wouldn't go anywhere And there's like a random Foreign exchange student a random 20-something-year-old girl hanging out in his house It was the oddest situation and he came out and Dave was like Yeah, that was pretty weird. I'm not sure the vibe in that house But I'm pretty sure she was there because she wanted to be oh boy She also could have been that maybe she was forced to be there We don't and I was just like dear God why are we in this car? We get back in the car and he drives us back and all go swimmingly my dad Hicks us up wherever I remember where we rendezvoused at that point and that was it But that radio announcement that comes on it says at the very end turn around don't drown. Oh Now we take that very seriously anytime I hear that, I just stop and make sure I'm not wherever that's supposed to be. And now any rain that we have, oh babe, this was turned around on drowned rain. Right. We use that for everything that was marker for how bad things are scary. Well, I'm glad that you guys are safe and that should be my priority. But all I can think about is was the mini Cooper salvageable? Did they get it back running? No, they did not. So the next day, my dad and Dave went out to go find it and look for it. And what's really funny about that is they're waiting for the tow truck to come to pick that up. The tow truck comes and the guys are like, oh man, I'm really surprised that this still has all the wheels on it. And Dave's like, why do you surprise? Because they're like, this is a really rough neighborhood. I can't believe that the car is not in pieces in the morning. Yeah. But the only silver lining to that is he got that car for like $2,000. They had to total it and insurance gave him eight. So he made money. Okay. Oh, well, good. He should have given you guys three thousand split the proceeds. Janine is lovely me. Yeah. Thanks for calling. I want to say one thing. My shout out is to my kids. They listen to this all the time. And my daughter, her name is Camille. And the fun story about that is she was 100% named from watching parenthood. Oh, wow. And then my son Archer, who was featured in the said story. We're lucky to have you guys as listeners. Yeah. Enjoy that Oregon coast. Take care. Hi. This is crazy. Hold on. Let me make sure I'm recording. Okay. Where are you at Samantha? I am in Bradford, Ontario, about an hour north of Toronto. Oh, lovely. We've had a lot this week of folks from that same area in Ontario. It's true. I always ask how close to Miss Goca are you about an hour and a half depending on which part of Miss Goca? Yeah. And you get up to the lake a lot in the summer as much as possible. It's so dreamy. It is. It's the best. Where does your extreme weather story take place? It actually happens in the Kowartha's. So more to the west, but also a very beautiful area of Ontario. Oh, nice. Kowartha, say that again. Kowartha. Never heard of the Kowartha's. Before I jump into this story, can I tell you a crazy sidebar story? Yeah. Yeah. Monica, you're gonna hate this. Uh-oh. Is it like a vagina, a horrible or a mouse in a water bottle? A few weeks ago, I get a call for my sister-in-law and her and my three nieces, my youngest nieces likes to play in their van. And so all the three of them are in there. And all of a sudden, my middle niece says, "Mom, why is that cup moving?" Because her little sister was playing with this reusable mug. And he guesses what was inside the mug. Rat water bottle? No. A rat water bottle? No. Oh my god. I was joking. Number two. This is crazy. This is pandemic level. This is you guys check your water bottles. The lid was on, I guess, if she was playing with the lid was on. What did they do? They turn into squids and liquefy and pour themselves in a reconstitute? They can remove their ribs and stuff. That's so disgusting. I know. And also, I thought that was like a one-in-a-million story when I heard that. And now I'm like, oh, these rats are just infiltrating our vehicles. Oh. Fuck. Oh god. Disgusting. All right. Well, now everyone can resume. Yeah, yeah. Resume their terror. Okay, so my story takes place back in 2022. It was the May 2 four long weekend, which is the first long weekend of the summer in Ontario. So, tons of people go out camping, go up north, go to Muscoca, you're opening your cottages. And so my husband and I decide that we are going to go back country camping and we're going to bring our five-year-old daughter with us on this adventure. So we're meeting two of our friends there. So we drive to the Carthas, we drive on this very long logging road. So in the middle of nowhere, we park our cars and we start to portage. So we have our canoes, we have all our camping stuff, and we have to do this one-hour trek to the lake where we're going to launch our canoes and go and find a camping spot somewhere. You Canadians get after it, man, because the other person we talked to had a lot of portage. We've heard a lot of portage lately. You Canadians are like, yeah, it's going to involve some canoeing to get to where we want to go. We're gluttons for Punish. You know, it's all part of the fun. So we get to the lake. Everything is great. The weather is beautiful. We launch the canoes. My beautiful daughter is leaned back in the canoe her five-year-old self and she says, mom, this is just the best day ever. And so we're canoeing along and all of a sudden we hear thunder. So we're like, okay, we have to get off the lake. We start counting because that's an indication of how far away the storm is. And we figure we have about 12 minutes. So we're paddling along trying to get to the first bit of land that we see. Our canoe lands on the land. Within two minutes it is raining aggressively and the winds are insane. So I grab a tarp and I put it over mine in my daughter's head and she's understandably terrified. And I'm like, no, this happens all the time. It's going to blow over quickly and we're gonna be on our way and everything's okay. The storm came on so quickly that she didn't even have time to like take off her life jacket. So we're under this tarp and all of a sudden I hear a tree snap. And in my head I'm like Widowmaker because that's what they call trees who fall on campers in the middle of the night and kill you. But I don't hear my husband or my two friends like screaming saying like get out of the way or anything like that. So I'm like it's probably fine. I grab my daughter and kind of tucker under me as much as I can. And within the same second bam a tree lands on my daughter and I know. So the impact from the tree had a pulse my daughter out of my arms. Oh my god. Like a loose football. Yeah. So in my head I'm like my daughter is dead and I brought her on this trip. And now she's gone. I can hear my best friend screaming my daughter's name at the top of her lungs and so I whip the tarp off of me and by the grace of god I hear my daughter say mom and I just look at her and I say run and I look over and my friend's husband was coming around and the look of terror in his eye. I was like oh this is bad. And so my daughter runs to him. I like hulk this tree off me. Get up and start running. Realize that the wind has been knocked out of me so I'm like you know that feeling. Yeah you're gonna die. And I'm screaming get under the canoe because now I'm like this whole forest is coming down on top of me. Yeah. And my friends like Sam we can't get under the canoe because when Alex her husband was trying to pull it in the wind was so bad that it lifted him off the ground. Oh wow. We again are just hiding under a tarp and I'm like this is it for us like we're done. Nice knowing you. So when the tree fell on me my ankle popped out of the socket and then popped back in. So I'm injured at this point. Luckily I think because my daughter was wearing her life jacket it absorbed the impact of the tree falling on her and saved her life because it like protected her. Wow. Basically from beginning to end it's five minutes. After the storm passes I'm like get me the heck out of here. We're going back to our car. This weekend is done before it started. I'm traumatized. And so we get back to the Portage Trail and in my head I have this like third degree leg spring. I have no idea what just happened. I'm terrified and I'm like I just need to get to my car and go home. No. When we get back to the Portage Trail it's literally like a giant stomped through the forest. The trail is completely gone. The forest is completely torn up. We have to like hike over and under trees to get back to our vehicles. Right in this canoe the whole time. No, we left the canoes. Okay. Okay. We were like we'll deal with that after like let's just get to our home base. We get back to the vehicles. It took us like two hours to hike back to them. We get back to the cars and there's no way we can drive it out. The logging trail is gone. The forest is destroyed. There's nothing. And I'm injured. So luckily I had a tiny bit of service. I call 911 and they're like yep you're not the only one out there. We're sending a military helicopter to come pick you up. Wow. Oh. The military helicopter comes. They strap me to a board. Strap my daughter on top of me. She instantly passes out from like shock and stress. What happened? It's called like a drench arrow. I always say it wrong, but it's essentially like a tornado, but it's a huge gust of air that's more like an arrow. Travels really far really fast and the radars can I can't really pick up on it the same way they do a normal thunderstorm or a normal tornado. And that's why there was no warning. - Whoa. - Oh my God. Luckily right before I get strapped into the bodyboard thing, I text my mom and I say, "We're going to this hospital." Bless her soul, she drives four hours. One way to pick me and my daughter and my husband up from the hospital. Our two friends had to stay there and hike out over like three days. - Oh my God. - Because again, the vehicles couldn't get out. Luckily, all I had was a sprain. My daughter didn't even have a scratch on her body. And then my husband and a group of his friends and our friends who were there with us spent the next three weeks chainsawing out the logging road so they could get our vehicles. - Oh my gosh. - Oh my gosh. - This is nuts. - Why didn't the military and helicopters take the others? - I mean, I know. - Limited space. - Yeah, but three days. - Okay. - We could have died also. - All right, so we have some photos. - Yes. - Okay, I'm looking at one. Someone in a blue jacket standing next to a tree that's fallen over. Is that the specific tree now? Or just one of them bazillion? Yeah, this whole forest is a leveled. - Whoa. - So there is one picture with a canoe and like a hat in it? - Yes, I'm looking at now. - That's the tree that fell on us. - Oh boy. - So we were under that. - Oh. - Oh wow, and a tree fell on someone's car. - Yep, my friends vehicle. - Oh my gosh. - Oh wow, no shit, three weeks. Yeah, there's a car covered in three fallen trees. - Oh my gosh. - Oh my god. - You don't really hear about that kind of, you hear about tornadoes and cyclones, that's wild. - Yeah, the military guy said to my husband, we're going back out because I think 22 people died from that storm, from trees falling on them. So we had the best of a bad situation. - Yeah. - Oh, well Samantha, it's lovely meeting you. - Yeah. - Yes, lovely meeting you too. Docs, I have to say, my mom passed away March of 2025 at the age of 62. - Oh, I'm sorry. - From a rare and aggressive type of breast cancer called metaplastic carcinoma, less than 1% of people get this type of cancer. But I was her caregiver just like you were with your dad and your description of like the immediate aftermath of grief and feeling that moment of relief and your talk you had with Anderson Cooper, it just captures that specific experience of being a caregiver for a sick and dying parent so well. So I just appreciate you sharing and writing and grief is very lonely. And if you're in it with siblings or other family members, it's so lonely and you just capture the experience so well. So I appreciate that. - Oh yeah, my pleasure, thank you. And I'm so sorry. - Yeah, thank you. She was the best. And Monica, please make another Beth's dead. - We just, my, sheesh, sheesh, sheesh, sheesh. - I also have to shout out my son Mason. He was very upset that the story involves his sister and not him. - Oh sure. - Mason, Mila, I love you both. - Sheesh, sheesh, sheesh. - Thanks for chatting with us. - Yeah, lovely meeting you. - I have a great summer. - Bye. - Yes, you too, bye. - Bye. - These trees are falling on people. - The rats are in the-- - The rats are in the water bottles. - The rats are in the drinking containers. The trees are falling. Happy summer. - Happy summer. - I never worry about trees. And here we go. I mean, they're coming down left and right. - They really are, it's time to worry. - We're gonna think about this 'cause as you know, every time we do one of these camping prompts, I wanna go camping. But now I really gotta, I gotta eye the surrounding, do some core samples. All right. - Love you. - Love you. - Do you wanna sing a tune or something? I'm gonna have a theme song. Oh, okay, great. ♪ We don't have a thing so for this new show ♪ ♪ So here I go, go, go ♪ ♪ We're gonna ask some random questions ♪ ♪ And with the help of our cherries ♪ ♪ We'll get some suggestions ♪ ♪ On the flyer, Ryan Dish ♪ ♪ On the flyer, Ryan Dish ♪ Enjoy!