The Underlayer: Fear, Clarity & Personal Growth for Mid-Life Professionals

Bonus EP: Everything Is Funny Eventually: Tech Confusion, Teen Drivers & a Rogue Latte

• David Young

Share episode

Bonus Episode — The Comedy Hidden Inside Everyday Life

with David Young

What if the funniest set you’ve ever heard was hiding inside ordinary life?

In this special bonus episode of The Underlayer, I took on a dare to create 30 minutes of standup from nothing but real stories. TV dinners, botched Jeopardy guesses, stubborn tech, parenting misfires, and a dog whose tail might be issuing warnings instead of wagging.

What started as a challenge turned into a map of everyday misunderstandings: the comedy that shows up when confidence outruns context, and how the smallest misfires reveal the most about us.


You’ll hear:

• A family dinner ritual that migrated to the couch, and why Jeopardy contestants can name obscure rivers but miss rock’s most iconic front man


 • Kobe the Wheaten Terrier, his new behavioral meds, and a vet-approved revelation: wagging isn’t always joy

 • Parenting moments featuring C–minus chores, a mysteriously “vanished” recycling bin, and a permit drive that ends with a garage door incident

 • Contractor contradictions about rollers and springs plus a smart garage system that’s easy until the app demands a router extender

 • Travel mishaps in Toronto, including a refused drink, a rogue latte lid, and a stranger who parked a personal trash can beside the hidden shop bin

 • Parents with modern phones who still can’t follow Maps, a detour to the wrong city, and why Bluetooth always gets blamed


By the end, you’ll see why the funniest stories are the true ones, and how everyday chaos becomes comedy when you zoom out just enough to notice it.


🎧 The Underlayer — Where the Real Story Lives.



The Underlayer YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/@the_under_layer

The Underlayer Podcast Website: https://www.theunderlayerpodcast.com/

David's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-young-mba-indy/

SPEAKER_01:

You are listening to a special bonus episode of The Underlayer, where the real story lives. And today, that real story is that somebody challenged me to see if I could do 30 minutes of stand-up comedy. And since no one will book me to go on stage and do that, you're going to get it here on my podcast. So we're going to bring it straight to your headphones, car speakers, or maybe your computer speakers if you find this on YouTube. These are a collection of stories that I have observed or that have happened to me. I don't write jokes from scratch. That is not my style. I try to tell stories in an entertaining, somewhat funny way. And my name is David Young. Again, this is the underlayer where the real story lives. And today I'm going to try to make you laugh and hopefully at least smile on this week of Thanksgiving. This will be perfect if you're driving in your car. So a quick backstory before I get started. I was on a call last week and I mentioned that I did six minutes of stand-up about a year ago. And the person that I was talking to was a little bit surprised. And she was like, Oh, I didn't know that you did stand-up. I was like, Well, I really don't, other than six minutes a year ago. But it's something that I've thought a lot about, and I keep a lot of material. I keep notes going back as far as 10 years, stories that happened to me. It really started when I was sitting in a cubicle in an office job. I started to collect stories of kind of the dumb things that I observed that happened in offices. Um, kind of like office space, but more modern. And I would keep those, and I thought, you know, if I ever got on stage, I'm gonna make fun of this corporate uh experience. Ironically enough, when I did my six minutes, I didn't even talk about any of my office material, and I don't even have that planned for today. So it is the genesis of everything, but I keep not talking about it. So she asked, she said, Do you think you could do 30 minutes? You think you have enough material for 30 minutes? And I was like, I I think so, but I don't know. I haven't really tried it. So she challenged me. She said, I want you to either write out uh 30 minutes of material or perform it. I thought, okay. So a couple days later, I jotted 18 ideas down on a in a notebook. And then I grabbed a microphone, not this one. I have a fake one that I practice with. Makes me feel official. I just need a stage in my house. And I just looked at the I looked at the list of stories. I had them grouped, like travel kids, miscellaneous. So I just started with one and I wanted it to try to make some sense in terms of logic. I just want to be random, like all over the place. So I started with one, it was a miscellaneous story, and then I just kind of jumped through it and I got I got to 29 minutes. And I was walking around my office, I got to have this fake microphone. I was trying to make it real as if I was talking to an audience, and it ended up being 20 minutes. I was like, oh, well, I only got to seven, I still have over 10 stories left, so I definitely have enough material. So I started thinking about it more, and I was like, well, I'm not gonna write all this out. I don't I don't really write material, it just kind of lives in my head and it's different every time. And I thought, well, I do have a podcast, I can record it. Uh it's not quite the same, but uh maybe you might find some humor in it. So this is uh this is it. So I I have a I have a note card with ideas of the same stories I told to myself and my office. Um and here we go. So this is this is kind of it. Now, COVID, like for a lot of us, really changed uh you know the dynamics. And for us, one of the major changes was I have two kids. They are currently 16 and 11, but they were not that age uh five years ago. We used to eat dinner at the table. We have a dining room table. We would mostly uh my wife makes most of the food and we would eat at the table, and we do the traditional, you know, how's your day and talk about your day, uh, all that kind of stuff. Well, when COVID hit, and then everyone was home and just I don't know, just changed everything. And we started to eat dinner by watching TV. So that we have the smaller, it's kind of kitchen table that my wife and the kids would eat, where they would eat and then I have a recliner, it's in front of the TV in our family room, and that's that kind of became the new normal. We've never gone back to the dining room table. I think we've eaten there like four times in the last five years. Sometimes I wonder if my kids can even eat at a dining room table. They don't even know what it is. Like, can we go sit on the couch in front of the TV? I'm much more comfortable there. And that's what it's moved to now is that they three of them sit on the couch. I'm still in my chair, which I think I'll be forever and watch TV. So, you know, we would watch shows uh like Is It Cake is a is a fan favorite for everyone, uh, some game shows, you know, movies. Um but the show that we've probably watched the most is Jeopardy. And there's nothing like Jeopardy because they're the dumbest smart people alive, right? Like you watch you could watch an entire episode of Jeopardy and you don't know any answers. Like, right? It's like the fifth largest river in Egypt. And you're like, I didn't even I don't even know what the first largest river is. Like, I don't do they have rivers? I don't know. You you have no idea, but they know all of it, right? They're just like instant. And then the clue could be, you know, War 23 at North Carolina, War 23 with the Chicago Bulls, won six championships, considered the greatest basketball player ever. And you know, they're like, who's Don Mattingly? I mean, they just right, just no idea. They don't even know who Michael Jordan is. So it's it's a weird, it's weird to watch this. So a few years ago, I'm gonna read this, I have it up on my screen. This is a real clue. You can you can YouTube it, and this is a real clue on the show, and I was stunned at the responses. So here it is. I was there, this is the clue. I was there in 2007 when this original lead singer for Van Halen reunited with the band for a concert tour. I'll read it again real fast. I was there in 2007 when this original lead singer for Van Halen reunited with the band for a concert tour. Now, I'm a huge classic rock fan and I love Van Halen. So I was like, oh, this is a good one, right? And the answer is obvious, like everybody out there knows, right? I'll give you a second. It's David Lee Roth. Everybody knows that. Okay. If you didn't, now you know. So one of the great front men in rock. First guy rings in. Now, the three contestants, it's the it's the person, I think it was three guys, I don't remember. Doesn't matter. Far right, rings in, who is Sam Kinnison? Now, Sam Kinnison was a comedian. He was not a singer. He did yell a lot, so maybe he could have been a singer. He also died, I think, in 1992. It would have been very tough for him to perform at that 2007 concert. So immediately out. Middle guy rings in, who's Eddie Van Halen. Now, that is a significantly better guess. Not right, but at least he helped form the band and he played in the band. He just was the lead guitar player. He did not sing. We're over two. So the third guy has already heard comedian, guitar player. He rings in, he's the defending champion, the returning champion. Like it's a layup, but not for Jeopardy contestants, it's not.

SPEAKER_00:

Who's Eddie Vedder?

SPEAKER_01:

Now, at least Eddie Vedder is a singer and he is the front man for a band. I think it might be closer than Eddie Van Halen, who was in the band but didn't sing. I'm not sure. We could debate that. He just happens to be the front man for Pearl Jam. He also was born in 1964 and Van Halen formed unofficially in 72. He would have been seven. Uh 74 was their official form, he would have been nine. And their first album was released in 1978. I don't think Eddie Vedder's voice, when he was 13, he was born in December, so we're going to assume it wasn't after that. Uh could quite um would not be the Eddie Vedder voice you would imagine belting out running with the devil and ain't talking about love. So they went Sam Kinnison, Eddie Van Halen, and Eddie Vedder and Ken Jennings, and I don't remember what he said, I should have looked that up prior to this. Was basically like, you guys are all fired from this show. Get off the show. Uh anyway, that's Jeopardy. The other thing that happened in COVID is that we got a dog, and I was the driving force behind that because with being with everyone, I needed a distraction, I needed something else to focus on. So we got a dog. He turned five last week, uh soft-coated wheat and terrier. We named him after my kids named him Kobe after Kobe Bryant, who died in the plane crash, which kind of kicked off uh the year 2020. So we have been having some uh behavior issues with him for about a couple months. He's been a little bit aggressive towards us. Uh we go to pet him, he walks away from us. Um, just kind of some strange stuff. And he's super friendly, he's fluffy, looks like a little polar bear, and he's very, very loving. Um, so it's kind of odd behavior. So took him to the vet and they put him on some medicine, like anti anxiety anti-anxiety medicine. I actually get it filled at the human pharmacy, and what's funny is we've always kind of called him Kobe the dog, which is obvious because he is, but now I have a prescription bottle and it says Kobe and then parentheses the dog. So we made that happen. Now, one of the things the vet said or had us do is take him to uh something called a behavioral vet specialist. Now, before I get to that, there is an old clip that you can YouTube from Jay Moore, and Jay Moore does uh it's like a three-minute bit on doing his Christopher Walken impression, and it's hilarious, and I highly recommend you try to find it. It's pretty old, but you can find it on YouTube, it's like late 90s, I think, maybe early 2000s. But he tells this story when they're filming Suicide Kings, and he he does the bit on he's having this conversation with Christopher Walken, he does the walk in voice as he's telling the story, it's very funny. But the the main uh part of the story is that uh Jaymoor's dog had his tail docked, uh, I think it was a Doberman, but I'm not sure. And Walken is asking him, like, hey, what happened to your dog's tail? And Jay Moore's like, you know, they cut it off when they're puppies, it's called docking the tail. And Walken is like, That's too bad. Because, you know, I would love to have a tail. You when you were wagging it, you'd be like, Chris is mad today, back off. And then J. Moore's like, Well, Chris, I think dogs wag their tail when they're happy, and then Walken hits him with a mabu. And we've been saying, maybe you, like in our family, ever since we heard that, because it's hilarious. Um, anyway, so we take our dog to this this behavioral specialist last week, and it's a long appointment. We're there for like an hour, hour and 50 minutes. And at one point, you know, we were going through everything that had happened and recapping his history, and the she the the the main vet is like, you know, like dogs don't always wag their tail when they're happy. Like sometimes dogs wag their tails when they're anxious or they're afraid or they're mad. And as soon as she said mad, and we're sitting maybe 20 feet away from them, I said to my wife, I was like, Christopher Walken was right, like all this time. Yeah, we just thought it was being funny, but it was like you can. The dog can wag his tail. He's like, back off. Kobe's angry today. I don't want you to touch me. Do not pet me, do not rub my head, do not rub my back, don't touch my belly. I'm going in the crate. The hell with you guys. So this whole time we thought it was a bit. It's true. Walken was ahead of the game. 25 years. He had it. Um, my wife almost spit out her coffee when I said that, like under my breath. She was the only one that uh she's the only one that hurt me. So, you know, as I mentioned, you know, two kids, two boys, uh 16 and 11. Kids are funny. And the older they get, you know, we have them try to do like more stuff around the house and try to help out. So uh things like you know, they load and unload the dishwasher, wash the pots and pans, uh, they take out the garbages like around the house. And you know, they always do it. They're very disgruntled when they have to do it. They don't give the best effort. Um, I don't won't say they try to get out of it, but it's a C minus, D plus type effort, usually. Not always, but usually. Um, and it's just they fight with each other to do it. It could take two minutes, they trade it, they you know, they make it take twenty. And anyway, so one day, so we put the garbage out, our garbage, like the main blue recycling uh garbage bins on the street uh Thursday nights, it comes, it gets picked up on Friday morning. So one morning I'm walking out and I'm walking the dog and I look over at our our bin, our blue plastic bin, is it's not there. And I knew I put it out, and I knew that the garbage had come because I'd already seen and heard the truck and the and the bin was there. I was like, why would someone steal our garbage bin? Like, there's like 500 plastic ones here in the neighborhood, like nobody needs them, and nobody's driving around like, hey, look at that! An empty blue, kind of busted up plastic garbage. I think I'm gonna throw that in the back of my car. And I was like, what happened to it? And then I see my oldest son walking down the driveway, and both garages were up, and I was like, hey, have you seen the garbage can? What happened to it? And he was like, Oh, I I put it back in. I I I moved it back in. It was more probable that someone stole our garbage can than that my oldest son had looked out, seen that it had been emptied by the truck, and put it back into the garage. That that seemed significantly less likely. He's he'd never done that before, and he's never done it since. So speaking of garages, uh a couple weeks ago, so he he just turned 16, he got his permit. Now he's been driving, mostly with my wife, uh, school parking lots uh around the neighborhood, you know, trying to get him some reps. And we were leaving, it was uh Thursday night, I believe, two Thursdays ago. And we were we were leaving to go to my other son's uh basketball game, which is very close to our house, very short drive. And he just got his permit, he's very excited, so he was like, I want to I want to drive over there, it's it's short enough, I can do it. All right. So both garages are shut. My wife's car is parked directly in front of the main garage. He gets in the driver's seat, I am directly behind him in the back seat, my wife is in the front seat, she drives behind the pilot, and uh he does a great job. He gets in, seatbelt on, adjusts the seats, adjust the mirrors. Looks like he's done this thousands of times, Total Pro, no problem. And then he put it into neutral. That was the first red flag. Now, if I had to do over again, I would have um I would have had just had him put it right back in park and then we would have just reviewed everything. But I was like, whatever, maybe maybe he just skipped the gear, skipped reverse. So he paused and I was like, you just need to put it in reverse. And as soon as I said that, he threw it in drive and hit the gas. Boom, right into the car, right into the garage door. Now, fortunately he did hit the brakes after that happened and then eventually put it in park. So the door was damaged, uh, my wife's car was scratched up in the front. Uh my car was inside that garage. It did not hit my cars. Could have been worse. He's terribly upset. We were just kind of we're just kind of stunned. Um, so I ended up calling a garage door company to come out the next day, and then we'd get everybody calmed down and we go to the game. Go to my other son's game. We go to the game and come back. No, we did not tell my youngest son what happened. He sees the garage door and he's like, Whoa, what happened to the door? We're like, ah, your brother hit it with the car. He was like, What? He was like, It's all bent. He's like, Can it just be bent back? You just can we just bend it back? I was like, Yeah, it's steel on one side, steel on the other. There's insulation in the middle. I called the incredible Hulk and I was like, hey, can you just come just bend this door back? But he was busy. Uh I think he's still promoting uh task, but he wasn't available. I was like, Yeah, no. Well, we're gonna have we're gonna need a new door. And he was like, Oh. So go inside. And my oldest son admits that he did he had never backed out of the driveway before. I was like, that would have been good information to know. Like, I thought that you had.

SPEAKER_00:

I think your mom even thought you had. Why didn't you just tell us? Like, hey, just before we do this, like I've never done it before. He was like, I thought you were testing me. I was like, oh, well, that's interesting. So this is what you thought.

SPEAKER_01:

You're in the car, you're in front of the garage, you've never done it, and you're like, ah, I haven't done this, but I think they want to know if I can do it. 50-50, you back it out and we're good, or you go forward and it costs us$4,000. That's not typically a test that I like to run. The the zero, I win zero or I lose four thousand. That is not, I stay away from those as a general rule in life. But that's interesting that you thought that that might be the test that we were trying to run. No, we were not testing you. We thought that you could do it. So if you ever are in a situation where you haven't done anything before, um just you know, let us know. And then the whole process to get the door fixed, the the companies that came out, one of them came out. So when the door, when he hit the door, the roller shot. They just exploded all over the garage, like a grenade went off. So we're still finding them. There's rollers everywhere. One of the guys picks up the roller and he's like, You see this? I was like, Yes, because you're holding it right in front of my face. And he shakes it. He's like, You hear that? I was like, Nope. Stone silent. And then he starts spinning it in front of me. He's like, You see that? I'm like, Yeah, you're still holding it right in front of my face. It's a roller and it's rolling because you're rolling it. So yeah, we're on the same page here. I got you. He was like, now, they probably told you that this was like a really good roller, right? I was like, actually, they did. I bought the upgraded package about 14 months ago. He was like, This is the cheapest roller that you could ever buy. Like, this this roller is basically useless. I'm surprised your garage door is even functioning. This roller is so bad. I was like, listen, buddy, I I'm not a garage door expert. I just want to hit the button. It opens, I want to hit the button again, and it closes. That's the extent of my garage. Insight and knowledge. I don't I don't know. Rollers, springs, coils, hardware, hinges. Okay. Like, I know the terminology. I don't know exactly how they all work together. I'm not gonna service my own garage door. I'm not gonna balance it. I don't I don't know. This is not my thing, man. And uh and then the next guy that came out told me that I did, in fact, buy some of the best rollers and spring that I could have bought so that what I did 14 months ago was actually good. And you wonder why we don't trust you know contracts and service providers, because you get literally the opposite ends of the spectrum. So we did get it uh replaced last week. It is uh functioning. And it also comes now, it's like a uh they have a Bluetooth, you can connect it to your phone, so you can open and close your door from your phone. It has a camera, very fancy. That way you can see if you leave the house, you're not sure. I tried to do that earlier today, and the guy told me it was super easy. And I think anytime somebody tells you it's super easy, you know it's gonna be the hardest thing you've ever done. And I spent like 10 minutes and I never got it to work, and it just kept saying try again. And then it wanted me to get like a router extension or a Wi-Fi extension. I was like, I'll just I'm just gonna press the button. I'm just gonna press the button and the keypad. It worked my whole life. I don't need to I've I do enough of my phone, I don't need to open my garage door uh from the phone. Um, so I do I love to travel, I don't do it that often. And I've taken a couple trips the last couple years to Toronto, uh June of 24, and then this past June. And when I was there this last time, I was there for a little bit longer, uh, five days. And the first night I was there, I went out to dinner. After dinner, we walked uh pretty good ways um away from where I was staying, and then uh people I were with kind of separated and went their own way. So I was walking back. Now, in Toronto, there are a lot of CVSs and a lot of Tim Hortons, and they're kind of like right next to each other the whole way, so you don't ever have to worry about being like, oh man, I should have stopped at that CVS, or I'd love a coffee and a donut, because there's gonna be another one in like 100 feet. So you're good. So I was getting close to the apartment that I was staying in, and I wanted to go into CVS to get a few things. I have to go up a couple steps to get in, and there's a homeless guy opening the door for people. So he's sitting on the step, and as people walk up, he's opening the door. So I said, Hey, thanks, man. And I walked in. So I was getting my things, I wanted to get him something because I used to carry cash. I would give cash to somebody like that. I'd give him a couple bucks. But I don't carry, I rarely have cash on me anymore. So as I was buying the drinks and some food for the week, I bought a drink called Bolt House Farms. They're like fruit uh protein shake type things, right? Uh I like the strawberry banana, they have a bunch of different flavors. So I bought that for me, the strawberry banana, and then they have a blueberry one. I don't remember the name of the blueberries, but it's a lot of blueberries in a plastic container. It's like you know, 7,000 blueberries uh in 12 ounces. So you you know, how can you go wrong? So I was like, oh, maybe a guy likes that. So I buy that for him and I check out. So I walk out and he's still and he opens the door for me to come out. And so I said, Hey man, I got you this, and I I go to hand him the blueberry one. And he looks at me as if it's like the dumbest thing anybody's ever done. And I was like, I just wanted to thank you for opening the door. And he he looks and he's like, I'm all set. And he kind of like looks down. He had a bag to his left that had more stuff in it than I think I've ever seen. Like Santa's bag's got nothing on that bag. I could have got I could get my entire pantry in that bag, I could get your entire pantry in that bag. There was so much stuff in it. It was amazing. He's like, I'm all set. And I was like, well, I mean, you don't have to put it in the bag. Like you could just drink it right now. It's summer, it's warm. This drink's cold. You could sit it next to you, and then you could have it later. Um like, do you have any blueberries are in this? It's like let's let's just look. I mean, look at all these blueberries. And there's like also a kiwi in here, it's like a thousand kiwi. You're getting your fruit intake for like the next three years with this 12-ounce drink. I don't know how you're turning this down. But he didn't want any part of it. Um, so so I kept it and I drank it like two days later. It was great. Not as good as strawberry banana, but that's pretty good.

SPEAKER_00:

I've never had a homeless guy turn anything down for me. The next day, I'm out to lunch with a friend, and we are walking around after lunch, and we decide to stop in a coffee shop.

SPEAKER_01:

I was new to coffee, I was very anti-coffee for a long time. I liked the smell, I didn't love the taste, but this past April uh I started drinking it, and now I've I've had it a little bit, still not my favorite, but I can I can drink it. So my friend was like, hey, you want to get a coffee? And I was like, normally the answer would be no. Today it's yes. I'm a three-month newbie. So we walk in, I ordered a caramel latte with almond milk. Um, she got a matcha something, and get the drink. Now, when I get the drink, it doesn't have a lid, and the lids and like the napkins and the stirr are all over at this like tall table. It's like chest high. So he puts the drinks out and he's like, if you need any of that stuff, it's over there. So I walk over there because we were gonna walk around with it, and I wanted to get a lid. Now, I have OCD, which mostly manifests itself uh germ-related, so I have a hard time touching anything that I'm gonna eat or drink, so I can't touch directly like where the mouth is. So the first time I tried to put the lid on it, I screw it up badly and I touched like the whole thing. I muscle just rubbed it in both hands together, like I was uh Mr. Miyagi, and that wasn't gonna work, so I put that one aside, I grabbed another lid, I used a napkin this time to protect it, and I got it on, and we're all set. But now I have a uh this napkin and I have this lid, so I need to throw it away. And I look down to my right, and there's a garbage can right there. And I was like, Oh, it's perfect. So I go, I bend down, I reach, and I go to it's like a push, and so I push it in. And as I'm doing it, there's a guy standing there. He's like, hey man, what are you doing? I was like, I'm just throwing this away. He's like, that's my garbage can. I was like, what? And then I I kind of put the whole thing together. He brought his own garbage can into the coffee shop. It was like a his personal garbage can, like he was traveling with it. And so I hadn't put it all the way in yet, and so I backed it out, and the the thing is swinging, and I looked at him, I was like, oh, I was just making sure it worked for you. And then he like started was talking to the person next to him, and then I look under the table that I was standing at, and the store garbage can was like tucked underneath it, and so I like reached in and threw it away. But then I just I just had a lot of questions. Like, so we left and I asked my friend, I was like, is this a thing in Toronto? Like, do you is there like a shortage of garbage cans in stores? You have to bring your own. Did that does that just that guy doing that? Is he starting to start a trend? Like, what is happening? I've never seen a personal garbage can, I've never seen this for it. I haven't either. And I so then I what are the odds? Did he just come from Bed Bath and Yon? I didn't think they had those anymore. Do they have those in Toronto? Where do you buy garbage cans like that? Maybe there's a target, maybe it was one of the CVSs. He did pass 15 for wherever he lived to get to that place. So, yeah, I don't know. So I I maybe he goes around, maybe he does that everywhere. He's like, I see if I can trick people.

SPEAKER_00:

Like, hey, that's mine, man. You can't throw that away in there.

SPEAKER_01:

Um so you know, between uh the bolt house farm, you know, no dice, personal garbage cans, like it didn't get it in it off to a great start uh in Toronto. It was still a great trip. A lot of great people there. Um, so to finish up here, I'm at 25 minutes, so and I know I haven't talked to the act the whole time, but I'm close. So I don't know if I'm gonna hit exactly 30, but I'm getting uh I'm in the ballpark. So my parents uh divorced when I was very young, so I never knew what it was like for my dad to live with us. So my parents have lived separately for you know close to 50 years, and you know, they don't I mean they have a relationship, but they haven't really seen each other and spend any time. But amazingly, neither of them can navigate using their phones, so they can't go anyplace that they don't already know how to go. Um my dad has like a Samsung, I don't know what model, but it's relatively new. My mom has an iPhone, again, not sure of the model, but they are relatively recent. Uh they are not models from 2005 or 6 that was like the first smartphone that didn't have Google Maps or whatever Apple uses. It's amazing. And so I tell people this and they're like, you're just kidding. They think I'm like making it up to be funny. And I'm like, I'm really not. So I'm gonna tell you two stories. First one, uh, a couple months ago, my mom was in town. I was doing a Spartan race, so I was gonna be away from the house for most of the day. And my oldest son was playing golf. She needed to pick him up from the golf course. So she she texted me the day before. She's like, I'm not sure when I'm coming up. Can you leave me the directions to go pick him up? And I was like, sure, you want me to write those down? Do you want map quest printout? Like, what kind of directions are we talking about? I just ignored it, I didn't say anything. She ended up coming up the day before, so it's the night before, and we're sitting on the couch, and she's like, Hey, I need those directions. And I was like, I understand.

SPEAKER_00:

I was like, pick up your phone. She did. I was like, go to the maps, press it, she did.

SPEAKER_01:

I was like, now here's the thing. You don't even actually really know how we're you don't really know need to know where you're going, you just need to know like the first three or four letters. And then it will guess for you. So then if you know, it's good. So I had her type in the first four letters, and I was like, Did it pop up? She said, Yep. I was like, hit that. And she did. And I was like, all right, those are the directions. And I was like, now see the button and it says like directions. I was like, hit that. She did. And I was like, now here's the thing.

SPEAKER_00:

This is where it gets this is gonna blow your mind. It's totally nuts. It now will tell you how to get there. Turn by turn.

SPEAKER_01:

In fact, it doesn't even have a lot of patience. Like if you're sparked, it's like back up, back up, you you you you throw it in reverse, and you're just like, why haven't you backed up yet? Like they need you to back up in one second. And you're like, I'm trying to back up, and you can't just get out of my driveway, and they're like, turn right in 200 feet. It's like, I don't know how far 200 feet is. Can you just tell me when I get to the street? It's very, it's very needy, it's very bossy, but it it will get you there. Of course, sometimes it waits until you need to get over and it's way too late. It's like you should have gotten over there. I thought you knew that, but didn't tell you. Tell us have some problems. But you can go anywhere in the world and not know how to get there because your phone will tell you. And then I guess when I get ended up getting home later that day, and then I said, Hey, did you any problems finding the golf course? And then she was like, No, no problem. Uh, because my youngest son went with her and he told her basically how to get there. I don't even think they used the phone. I don't I I think they ignored it. I think they just guessed. They're like, eh, let's just go. Peace. Let's just see. Let's see where we end up. Um so that's my mom's story. My dad's story happened last year. He was gonna come up for one of my son's basketball games. Now he lives two hours away. The game was at six o'clock. Uh I wanted him to come and meet us directly at the school. I didn't want to come to the house first and ride over with us. It's just easier and just meet us at school.

SPEAKER_00:

No. Game the address to the school. He's two hours away, game's at six.

SPEAKER_01:

He's like, I'm gonna leave at three. Better give me some extra time in case there's traffic or whatnot. At 5 45, we have not heard from him.

SPEAKER_00:

I call him and he's I'm like, hey, like the game's getting ready to start. Where are you? He's like, I'm in Indianapolis. I was like, alright, so here's what you're gonna do. Just go north, like two miles, bang a left, just keep going, turn right, I think you'll probably find it. Let me know if you have any questions. I said, okay. I don't know exactly where that is.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, I have a rough idea where Indianapolis is, but that doesn't help me. So my wife pinned him our location. I was like, go to your text. My wife just sent you the exact address, open it, and then navigate to it.

SPEAKER_00:

Direction, start, whatever. He's like, alright. 6 30, we still haven't seen him. He finally he finally walks in. Just the entire first half. I'm like, what happened? He's like, Ah, I don't know. Sounds a problem with the Bluetooth or something. Okay. So we watched a game. We then watch some of the next game, and then we leave. And I was like, Alright, I'll take it to your car. Follow me. So like where'd you park? He's like, I don't I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

I was like, all right, well there's basically three parking lots, we'll find it. So I'm driving around, I I pick the first one which where most people park. We drive up and down, he's like hitting the the the key fab, nothing. Go to the second lot where you could park, same thing, nothing. Go to the third one, which is much bigger. Drive up and down that nothing. I'm like, all right, maybe we missed it. Do the same thing again. All three all three lots.

SPEAKER_00:

Nothing. And I was like, I don't like I there's not really another place to park.

SPEAKER_01:

He's like, ah, I mean it's something right here somewhere. I was here. There's one other lot where no one would ever park. I don't even know if if anyone's ever parked there.

SPEAKER_00:

I drove I drive over to that and as soon as you see it, he's like, ah yeah, that's where I parked. Find his car. He drives like a big truck. And I was like, how come you can't navigate it? Like, why can't I understand this? And he's like, well, the phone's connected to the truck, but the Bluetooth doesn't work.

SPEAKER_01:

And so I can't like it doesn't work. I was like, it doesn't work on the phone or the truck. So the the Bluetooth screws both of them up. He's like, yeah. I was like, why can't you just turn the Bluetooth off? He's like, I don't know how to do that. And I was like, alright. So that's it. So now people when I tell people this, I'm like, they they don't navigate. Like they they just don't. I now that I'm saying this out loud, I just thought of this. I wonder if I should get them like an atlas for Christmas. Like, do they still make those? Like the Rand, McNally? Like you get it out. I used I I'm old enough. Like we used to have maps like on the dashboard. Like you'd have the map open and you'd be like with your finger, you'd be like tracing it. Like, okay, what street are we on? Are we gonna turn here? I think that would be more effective for them. I really do. I mean, not drive by yourself, that's dangerous. But get a just at least get a passenger and be like, hey, can you come with me? Like, yeah, what do you need? I just need you to look at the map. I'm just gonna I'm gonna tell you what street we're we're on where I want to go. I just need you to like trace it. Yeah, break a pencil and like before we go, I'll have you just like shade it and then it'll be easier for you to follow. Um so that's it. So we made it 32 minutes. I think that was exactly 30. Uh, I proved that I could do it. Uh I hope you enjoyed it. Happy Thanksgiving. If you are listening to this around the time, this is uh Monday, the 24th week of Thanksgiving 2025. I appreciate it. Hope you got some humor uh out of this. Um I appreciate it. Uh thanks to the coach who pushed me to do this. I would never have done it without prompting. Um, and we will see you next time. This is the underlayer where the real story lives, um, and beneath the surface is where you need to go to find what you're looking for. My name is David Young. Thanks for listening, and we will see you again next time.