Two Grumpy Vets and a Duuude

Two Grumpy Vets and a Duuude

By Richard Chelson and Bryan GoodwinSociety & CultureEducationSelf-ImprovementRelationships
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Two Grumpy Vets and a Duuude episodes

  • Pull the Thermostat, Pay the Cheese Tax

    Bryan, Rich, and the Duuude get together for another round of life, mostly unplanned, with Rich and Ron in the same room for Cruisin' the Coast week. Bella slides out of her harness during a Jeep ride and ends the day with a new harness and a Lamb Chop toy. Thousands of hot rods roll into town, a dozen of them break down in the driving lanes, and the rain cancels the drag races. From there it's pull-the-thermostat theory, Rock Auto prices, Mopar coolant, control arms, a Louisiana State Police run-in, truck cameras that judge your elbow, Rich's porch screening and a 70-and-a-half-inch measuring screwup, a Suzuki Samurai with an engine bigger than the car, a surprise CDL school payout for Ron, Bryan's AI influencer rabbit hole, tornado stories, France's school riots, Mississippi's reading scores, and the college bubble. The best part: Rich walks into a ham radio club meeting on Thursday night and walks out a member, with new friends, club shirts, and a calendar full of POTA and contest events. It closes with Route 66 on the Air and QSL cards, Bella's cheese tax, Tulsa King on Rich's couch, a steroid pack that took the edge off Rich's pain, liver and thiamine talk, and WorldCam.io as the Site of the Week.
    Links Mentioned

    • WorldCam.io – Site of the Week, live webcams and traffic cams from all over the world
    • RockAuto – cheap parts for the 3.6 Jeep: thermostat housings, control arms, coolant
    • Elk City Hamfest – the Elk City amateur radio club's hamfest page
    • ARRL – where to look up ham radio clubs by county
    • PodcastApps.com – directory of modern podcast apps that support live tags, funding tags, and chapters
    • Fountain – a modern podcast app that can pick up the live show
    • Podcast Guru – a modern podcast app that can pick up the live show
    • TwoGrumpyVets.com – the show's website, with the Value for Value tab
    • PayPal – one-time or recurring support for the show
    • Metal Cloak – the adjustable control arms and drag link
    • Facebook – where the car pictures, videos, and canceled-drag-race news showed up
    • TikTok – where the AI influencers kept popping up
    • YouTube – the AI-generated jazz videos playing for Bella
    • BBC – the report on the French school protests
    • Paramount+ – home of Tulsa King
    • Petco – where the new harness and the Lamb Chop toy came from
    • Walmart – delivery for the hoagie supplies and green olives
    • Lowe's – where the porch screen door came from
    • CVS – the extra-strength magnesium
    • CafePress – possible show merch, if the t-shirt prices ever behave
    • Canva – for album art (2000x2000px, please)
    • GIMP – another option for making show art
    • Zoom – the recording platform, with its usual drama
    Support the Show
    No sponsors here — you are the sponsor. Support us with your Time, Talent, or Treasure:
    • Time – share the show with someone who'd enjoy it
    • Talent – send us album/episode/chapter art (2000x2000px)
    • Treasure – hit "Support This Show" in your podcast app for one-time or recurring support via PayPal
    Get In Touch
    Email Bryan: [email protected]
    Email Rich: [email protected]
    Got a question for the Duuude? Send it to either email above and we'll make sure he sees it (eventually).

    If you are struggling with life please reach out to The Suicide Life Line - Dial 988
    The world needs you here. 

    If you are struggling with life please reach out to The Suicide Life Line - Dial 988
    The world needs you here. 

    3 hr 11 min
  • Corn and Cornography, Camel Virgins, and a Space Screwdriver

    Recorded the Monday before Cruisin' the Coast, and it wanders everywhere. Bryan and Rich compare notes on the junk landing in their inboxes, starting with a Coffee and Classics book club pitch that has nothing to do with this show, while Bryan walks through a Podmatch webinar invite and a "come on our podcast" offer that turned into a $5,000 sales pitch. Ron, on the road, has a camera going into the Jeep and finds out the long-lost GoPro has been sitting in a bag on a dining room chair this whole time. Rich builds a free 20-meter delta loop that came out looking like an isosceles triangle, and somewhere in there the three of them take on Pacific hurricanes, a 2029 comet scare, and whether the news just wants everybody scared.
    From there it's gas prices and who really profits from the pump, with Bryan, Rich, and Ron all taking a swing at the refinery argument, plus Ron's closed Pizza Hut and a grocery bill that needs a sit-down. Rich puts a $55 fill-up on the table and hosts a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses with Bella watching from the window. Bryan's daughter gets a $1,000 wheel bearing in Amarillo, and Ron swears by RockAuto and $27 Moog control arms. Then it gets deep: Bryan on the Seventh Day Adventist girl from a Dallas summer and the church hypocrites, a long run on grace, judgment, and whether God forgets (four verses worth), Ron on forgiving his dad and doing the retirement math, Rich on learning how to stop working and fill the hours, and Bryan's Guadalupe River tubing days. It wraps with Bryan's website of the week, OSIRIS AI, and Ron's tip of the day for anyone who spots a red Jeep with shark teeth on I-10.
    Links Mentioned
    Website of the Week — planes, satellites, space debris, and live traffic cams on one map: osirisai.live
    Podmatch (Bryan's webinar invite): podmatch.com
    RockAuto (Ron's control arm order): rockauto.com
    AutoZone and O'Reilly (the parts-price comparison): autozone.com and oreillyauto.com
    Meineke (the Amarillo repair shop): meineke.com
    Moonraker (Rich's European mast shopping): moonrakeronline.com
    Pizza Hut (closed on Mondays): pizzahut.com
    Murphy USA (gas price comparisons): murphyusa.com
    ElevenLabs and Rocket Mortgage (inbox spam): elevenlabs.io and rocketmortgage.com
    Patreon (the Grandpa Gamer plan): patreon.com
    Facebook and TikTok (feed rabbit holes): facebook.com and tiktok.com
    Find a podcasting 2.0 app: podcastapps.com
    Support the Show
    If we made you laugh, cry, think, or groan, that's us creating value in your life — and this show runs on value for value, not sponsors. You can contribute Time (tell someone about the show, share it on social media), Talent (send us chapter or episode art — 2000x2000 pixels), or Treasure (head to twogrumpyvets.com, hit the B4V tab, and you'll land on our PayPal page — one-time or recurring, your choice). If you're on a podcasting 2.0 app with the funding tag, look for the "support this show" button.
    Get In Touch
    Bryan: [email protected]
    Rich: [email protected]
    Want to reach Ron? Send it to either of us and we'll pass it along.

    If you are struggling with life please reach out to The Suicide Life Line - Dial 988
    The world needs you here. 

    3 hr 4 min
  • Blood Clots, Broken Teeth, Billionaires

    This one's a classic hangout episode that goes everywhere at once. Rich is dealing with a hot, itchy leg that has him and the VA nervously eyeing a possible blood clot, and his dental partial breaks for the second time in months. Ron gets tangled up in a "we need a referral" runaround with a VA nurse who already had the MRI he sent her, watches his Jeep's resale value crater, and picks a losing fight with a Walmart clerk over a gas discount card. Bryan gets an arthritis diagnosis after his knee swells up, and somewhere in there Bella the watchdog is convinced the world is ending.

    From there it's the usual chaos: T-shirt and embroidery business schemes, laptop and RAM sticker shock, gator tail under the heat lamp, driverless semis on the interstate, oil markets and who actually profits from war, 20,000 volts through Rich's backside courtesy of a Noid light, licking 9-volt batteries to test them, prison talk (the Black Dolphin gets a mention), zero sunspots on FT8, the real origin of "redneck," why unions turned into a racket, and a website of the week for finding ethanol-free gas. If you like unfiltered conversations, half-finished stories, and three friends arguing their way through everything, this one's for you.

    Links Mentioned
    Website of the Week — ethanol-free gas finder: pure-gas.org
    RockAuto (Ron's control arm order): rockauto.com
    CarGurus (Jeep resale value check): cargurus.com
    Newegg (computer parts pricing): newegg.com
    Walmart Plus membership: walmart.com/plus
    Into the Shadows with Simon Whistler (YouTube): youtube.com/@intotheshadows
    Find a podcasting 2.0 app: podcastapps.com

    Support the Show
    If we made you laugh, cry, think, or groan, that's us creating value in your life — and this show runs on value for value, not sponsors. You can contribute Time (tell someone about the show, share it on social media), Talent (send us chapter or episode art — 2000x2000 pixels), or Treasure (head to twogrumpyvets.com, hit the B4V tab, and you'll land on our PayPal page — one-time or recurring, your choice). If you're on a podcasting 2.0 app with the funding tag, look for the "support this show" button.

    Get In Touch
    Bryan: [email protected]
    Rich: [email protected]
    Want to reach Ron? Send it to either of us and we'll pass it along.

    If you are struggling with life please reach out to The Suicide Life Line - Dial 988
    The world needs you here. 

    2 hr 48 min
  • Don't Let Your Dingle Dangle in the Dirt

    Bryan and Rich open by arguing over who got on the call first, then Rich rolls into a busy ham radio week: new 2m and handheld gear, a porch contact that led him to the Wednesday Whataburger meetup with the Jackson County club, and the night he put his laptop back on Windows just to send an email over the radio and watch it land on his own phone. That kicks off an argument over how many hops an email really makes, a turtle farm in Korea, and how much fiber is buried under the country. Bryan is about to welcome a new baby boy into the family, tells the story of tying western Nebraska grain co-ops together over rail-line fiber, and brings a locate story about a fiber hit where the marks were right and the proof was in hand.

    From there it's a full Monday of rabbit holes: colonoscopy stories where the patient wakes up mid-procedure, Rich's ham, rice, and cheese experiment and the electric smoker display he needs to replace, Ron's runza memories and a kolache argument, Bryan's boudin history, and an Am I the Asshole segment from Bryan about a kid, a suit, and a wedding. The guys get into people who think they're worth $100,000 out of high school, raising kids to be comfortable being uncomfortable, and whether anybody actually asked to be here. Ron brings the work stories: hauling 12,000 pounds overweight and proving it at the scale, a mechanic candidate who wanted $38 an hour and couldn't name a tire tread depth, the Social Security age 62 versus 67 math, and a CDL school reimbursement paper he found after eight years. Bryan's mystery pain beside his shoulder blade and a knee that quits mid-show round out the aches and pains, and Bryan gets his Wendy's order wrong on the drive. The guys argue over diesel prices, Bryan's Website of the Week is a virtual cat that blocks your screen when you scroll too long, and the tip of the day is a basic training cadence.

    Links Mentioned

    • CatGatekeeper.org — Bryan's Website of the Week pick: a browser extension that sends a virtual cat to walk onto your screen and block what you're scrolling; Firefox, Windows, and Mac versions plus an open-source version on GitHub
    • PodcastApps.com — where to grab a modern Podcasting 2.0 app and find the show's support link
    • Winlink — the system behind Winlink Express, the email client Rich used to send an email over the radio to his phone
    • VARA HF — the HF modem software used alongside Winlink Express
    • Google — the traceroute example for counting internet hops
    • Internet Archive — mentioned in the early-90s "download the whole internet" story
    • Android Auto — the free bypass for running maps and YouTube at the same time
    • Reddit's Am I the Asshole — the subreddit behind the new segment
    • Jubilee — the YouTube show with the 50-versus-1 debate format
    • GitHub — home of the open-source version of CatGatekeeper
    • Zoom — the recording platform that warned the connection was unstable
    • YouTube — music, memes, and the rabbit holes
    • Facebook — memes and the comparison to Reddit
    • Instagram — the account somebody still can't get into
    • TikTok — family drama, duets, and the airing of family business
    • X, Bluesky, and Mastodon — the places to share the show
    • Support the Show

      We don't run ads — we never have and we're not about to start. If something in this episode made you laugh, think, or yell at your speakers, that's worth something. You can support the show with your Time (share an episode with a friend), Talent (send us episode art), or Treasure (value-for-value support through our show page).

      Get In Touch

      Rich: [email protected]

      If you are struggling with life please reach out to The Suicide Life Line - Dial 988
      The world needs you here. 

      2 hr 55 min
    • Bryan Beats Rich, Roach Goo, and a Brain-Dead ELD

      Bryan actually beats Rich to the call for the first time in show history — and Rich never lives it down. From there it's a full three hours: Rich jacks up a sagging furnace with a pair of house jacks and declares war on an ant invasion, Bryan's ELD takes a total brain fart and knocks him back to paper logs, and the guys work through diesel and grocery prices, government holidays, and a hard debate over a child murder case in the news.

      On the ham radio side, Rich walks through his new 2m/70cm dipole, a solo 65" TV mount and shack sound upgrade, and the choice between a Moxon and a hex beam for the upcoming contest season. There's RTTY, Morse code, and a tribute to the last of the Navajo code talkers. Bryan lays out his trip to Amarillo to go be a granddad, and the back half covers Rich's comms trailer dreams, a round of AI robocalls, and Bryan's find for Website of the Week.

      Links Mentioned

      • FMHY.net — Bryan's Website of the Week pick, a massive community-run index of free tools, self-hosting guides, and media resources
      • Simpson's Meats — the quarter-cow pricing Bryan referenced
      • PodcastApps.com — the Podcasting 2.0 app comparison site Bryan was checking feature support on
      • TrueFans — podcast app/directory mentioned in the podcast-apps discussion
      • Podfriend — the older app Bryan remembered for its comic-book-style transcripts, now working on a v2
      • Support the Show

        We don't run ads — we never have and we're not about to start. If something in this episode made you laugh, think, or yell at your speakers, that's worth something. You can support the show with your Time (share an episode with a friend), Talent (send us episode art), or Treasure (value-for-value support through our show page).

        Get In Touch

        Rich: [email protected]

        If you are struggling with life please reach out to The Suicide Life Line - Dial 988
        The world needs you here. 

        2 hr 56 min
      • Convivial, Attenuative, and Every Bit of Chinese Cellular
        This week, we kicked things off with one of those small-world moments that somehow turns into a full conversation, then rolled straight into a lively discussion about changing place names, history, public memory, and how politics, media, and marketing all shape the way people think. As always, we didn't all agree, but that's part of what makes these conversations matter: three friends working through big ideas in real time, with plenty of humor, frustration, and honesty along the way. We also talked about how everyday annoyances — like stores rearranging aisles and rising prices on basic goods — tap into bigger questions about trust, economics, and whether regular people are getting squeezed from every direction.
        From there, Rich took us deep into ham radio world with a full breakdown of the antennas he's building, why different designs matter, how signal gain works, and what he's planning for future contest season. We got into radio gear, coax, soldering, certifications, and the never-ending urge to build just one more setup. Along the way, we swapped stories about old electronics stores, credit scores, grocery costs, dogs getting into trouble, childhood games, and the strange combinations of food that somehow make perfect sense to the person eating them. In the end, it was one of those classic episodes: part serious debate, part technical rabbit trail, and part old friends just enjoying the conversation.
        Links Mentioned
        • Let's Enhance — Rich's Website of the Week pick. Turns old, low-res, or scanned photos into high-definition images.
        Support the Show
        There are no sponsors on this show — it's all listener-supported through a value for value model. If you've got your time, your talent, or your treasure, all three help us keep going. Share the show with a friend, send us your thoughts (good or bad — we'll read them on air), send in artwork for an episode, or drop something in the tip jar through your podcasting 2.0 app at podcastapps.com. Every bit of it is appreciated.
        Get In Touch
        Bryan: [email protected]
        Rich: [email protected]

        If you are struggling with life please reach out to The Suicide Life Line - Dial 988
        The world needs you here. 

        3 hr 11 min
      • Oh No Not an Apostrophe

        Rich, Bryan, and Ron settle in for another round of weather complaints, heat index bragging rights, and home-repair swapping — Ron's up early for a run to Abilene, Rich shares how sealing his AC ducts dropped his electric bill about $2 a day, and Bryan's still fighting a 130-degree attic and an old house that used to run a $500-a-month natural gas bill before the wood stove took over.

        From there it wanders everywhere it usually does: Rich's dilemma over joining a ham radio club (and the Thursday-night scheduling conflict that finally pushed the show to Mondays), hitting 10,000 downloads and sorting real listeners from bot traffic, a Hennessy Velociraptor sighting, celebrity deaths and the Dolly Parton/Freebird duet nobody knew existed, a long detour into AI, data centers, and the power grid, and the usual politics-and-government venting. Rich lays out his plan to shoot video for Cruising the Coast with his new phone and gimbal — which is also where the episode gets its name. Bryan talks about his wife wanting to see her uncle while she still can, growing older, and the Ocean Pacific corduroy shorts he's bringing back. Route 66 trivia and a website of the week round it out, and Ron closes with a trucking safety tip everyone needs to hear.

        Links Mentioned
        • Mobile Amateur Radio Club (W4IAX)
        • No Agenda Show
        • Podcast Apps (find a modern podcast app with a funding tag)
        • Make My Drive Fun — website of the week
        • iHeartRadio
        • Daily Mail
        • Edison Research
        • Amazon — for anyone else who needs Ocean Pacific corduroy shorts back in their life
        • Support the Show

          We're a value-for-value show — no sponsors, no ads. If we got you to laugh, think, or yell at your speakers, that's worth something, and there are three ways to send it back:

          • Time — Share the show or this episode with someone who'd enjoy it.
          • Talent — Make us some album art (2000x2000 square) and we'll credit you and post it on the site.
          • Treasure — Support us through any modern podcast app with a funding tag, found at podcastapps.com. Whatever you think it's worth, one-time or recurring, entirely up to you.
          • Get In Touch
            Rich: [email protected]

            If you are struggling with life please reach out to The Suicide Life Line - Dial 988
            The world needs you here. 

            2 hr 56 min
          • Flock Cameras, Third Eye Stickers, and Grandma's Ass-Whooping

            This week we kick off griping about the brutal summer heat before Ron takes us deep into trucking life — special permit testing on hazmat cylinders, DOT stops over faded UV labels, and a surprise job site move from McAlester to Ada. From there we go all over the map: celebrity deaths and the state of the news, flock cameras and surveillance, liberty vs. safety, generational apathy, and why we'd rather argue like friends than agree like strangers.
            Bryan gives us an update on the podcast player he's building and tells the story of a 99-year-old grandma who reportedly beat up a home intruder. We get into driver-facing AI cameras, backward-facing cameras coming to new vehicles, the national debt and gas prices, and a detour into ham radio contests, HAARP, and shortwave radio. We close it out with the website of the week, a couple of car trouble stories, and our usual value-for-value pitch.
            Links Mentioned
            StartMyCar.com — https://www.startmycar.com
            DeFlock (flock camera tracking map) — https://deflock.me
            Sayre2Weatherford.com (Bryan's podcast player build) — https://www.sayre2weatherford.com
            PodcastingApps.com — https://podcastingapps.com
            Support the Show
            This show runs on value for value. If you got something out of it, that's worth something — your time, your talent, or your treasure. Share it with a friend, send us album art, or support us through a modern podcasting app via PodcastingApps.com.
            Get In Touch
            Bryan: [email protected]
            Rich: [email protected]

            If you are struggling with life please reach out to The Suicide Life Line - Dial 988
            The world needs you here. 

            2 hr 48 min
          • Don't Drink the Battery Acid

            This week Rich, Bryan, and the Duuude catch up after a scorching week — Zoom hiccups, a dead grape myrtle bush, and heat indexes pushing triple digits. Ron doesn't hold back on a gas plant nightmare that nearly cost him his PTO in throat chops, while Bryan gets his hyperlocal news site off the ground and Rich rolls out season three of his other podcast. From there the guys wander through vacation planning, Ron's untouched model kit collection from his grandpa's estate, the last Blockbuster on Earth, dying malls, Rich's GrapheneOS privacy plans, telescope shopping for a nebula shot, and Bryan's oilfield frac work — plus the usual detours into politics, TV, and everything in between.

            Links Mentioned

            sayre2weatherford.com — Bryan's hyperlocal news site for Sayre, Elk City, Clinton, and Weatherford
            goblin.tools — this week's Website of the Week, a collection of simple tools (Magic To-Do, Formalizer, Consultant, and more) for when things feel too big
            podcastapps.com — find a modern podcast app that supports live streaming so you can catch the show the moment it goes live

            Support the Show

            This show runs on value-for-value. If we made you laugh, think, or groan, you get to decide what that was worth. There are three ways to do it:
            Time — share the episode with your friends, family, and enemies.
            Talent — send us album art or other creative work.
            Treasure — hit the Support This Show button in your podcast app to send something through PayPal, one-time or recurring.

            Get In Touch

            Rich: [email protected]

            If you are struggling with life please reach out to The Suicide Life Line - Dial 988
            The world needs you here. 

            2 hr 47 min
          • Slap Your Mama, Tabasco Pepperoni, and Fat Boy's MREs

            This week Rich gets ambitious — rescuing a curbside table, building a rolling generator stand with a Harbor Freight deer pulley, and reviving a generator that had sat dead for years. That kicks off a debate over Slap Your Mama versus Tabasco (and whether Tabasco belongs in pepperoni), followed by Mopar's notoriously bad paint jobs and a six-hour fight with a backwards-mounted Jeep alternator. Bryan lays out his plans for a hyperlocal Sayre-to-Weatherford news podcast, complete with sponsor pricing and Perplexity AI research on Western Oklahoma listener numbers. Rich and Ron trade Korea deployment stories — Camp Casey, Camp Stanley, live-fire ranges, and the eternal debate over sea bags versus duffel bags — before the guys cover Ford's oddly named Ranger "Rapture," car telematics selling your driving data to insurance companies, the upcoming Toyota Stout, GrapheneOS and duress-password phone privacy, and close it out with the site of the week: CamelCamelCamel.com.

            Links Mentioned:
            Harbor Freight
            AutoZone
            RockAuto
            KCLI Newstalk
            Perplexity AI
            CamelCamelCamel.com
            GrapheneOS
            Discover
            Capital One
            PayPal
            Podcast Apps
            Support the Show:
            There are three ways to pay back any value you got from this episode — Time, Talent, and Treasure. Time: share the show with a friend, family, or on social media. Talent: if you make art (hand-drawn or AI), send it our way and we'll feature it in chapter and episode art. Treasure: if you've gotten value out of the show and want to support it directly, you can do that through the show — whatever amount feels right to you.
            Get In Touch:
            Rich -- [email protected]
            Bryan -- [email protected]

            If you are struggling with life please reach out to The Suicide Life Line - Dial 988
            The world needs you here. 

            2 hr 47 min

          About Two Grumpy Vets and a Duuude

          From the publisher's feed

          This show is about two grumpy vets and a duuude who became friends and have been talking once a week for the last 4 or 5 years. These conversations result in many rabbit holes being chased. Finally, in our infinite wisdom, we decided to share this with you. To let you know that you can find someone to talk to about anything and still maintain your manly attitude.