037. It's Okay To Be Passionate About The Job - Dave Angelo [Part 3]

Join us for the conclusion of our three-part series with Dave Angelo on Keep the Promise! In this episode, we journey deeper into the heart of the firefighting brotherhood, exploring the bonds that transcend distance, the pride passed down through generations, and the essential qualities of successful leadership within the fire service.

🔥 TJ and Dave delve into the remarkable ways in which the firefighting brotherhood unites firefighters across state lines and beyond. From lending a helping hand in times of need to fostering camaraderie that spans generations, this episode celebrates the enduring spirit that defines the firefighting community.

🌟 We unpack the significance of passing down pride in the job from one generation of firefighters to the next. Discover how the legacy of service is preserved and cherished, instilling a sense of purpose and pride in each firefighter.

💡 Dive into the invaluable role of mentors in shaping the careers and character of firefighters. Explore the transformative power of mentorship and the profound impact it has on the growth, development, and success of individuals within the fire service.

🔍 TJ and Dave also dissect the essential traits and qualities that define successful company officers. From effective communication and decision-making skills to empathy and integrity, this episode offers invaluable insights for aspiring leaders in the fire service.

🎯 Lastly, join us as we navigate the delicate balance between learning from mistakes and making deliberate choices. Explore the importance of accountability, integrity, and ethical decision-making in upholding the values and standards of the firefighting profession.

As a patron of Keep the Promise, you're not just supporting a podcast—you’re joining a community of like-minded, aggressive firefighters who want to be the best at their craft. You’ll gain access to daily workouts, weekly mindset meditations, and early access to the insights you need to stay on top of your game.

Transcript

TJ: It's it's just wild. It's the that That camaraderie spans across the globe.

Dave: much so. Like I, I, you know, I stayed on the beach, um, a couple of months ago, um, down in South Carolina and the firehouse was right around like maybe a block away.

So I'm walking past, they're doing their apparatus checks and shit like that. And, you know, I'm like, Hey, like, you know, like, yeah, do you guys work at 24 shift? Do you like, you know, and like, yeah, you know, you ask them about their shift configuration, like, you know, like, Yeah. What kind of officers, you know, what, you know, who rides officers, stuff like that, they're like, Oh, okay.

And they're like, so, so, so, you know, like we're, you know, like, were you on the job? And I'm like, yeah. You know, like, and you, you, you know, give them a little brief history and they're like, yeah, come on in, grab some coffee. We'll, bullshit. You know, and you find yourself there for like two hours and you know, talking about the same bull, you know, like, you know the same stuff.

You know that they're deal, they're dealing with the, you know, the same things that we are.

TJ: you know, like

Dave: There's a lot of universal stuff. You know, we think that, you know, each department is unique in its own way and peculiar in some ways. Like for example, I talked about this the other night when I had dinner with Josh, um, Baltimore County specifically, like there aren't a lot of like specific.

things that are peculiar to Baltimore County. But the one thing that I'll never forget it when I first found out about it, like I, I was getting ready to have a birthday and they're like, Oh yeah, we're going to have ice cream and cake. I'm like, you want to know what kind I like? No, you have to bring ice cream and cake for your birthday.

TJ: birthday.

Dave: I'm like, wait, what? And they're like, yeah, it's your birthday. You bring ice cream and cake. Like, I have never heard of that before, but okay, now that I know, like then, then, you know, then, then you just get used to it because everybody's having a birthday or a work anniversary or whatever. So there's practically ice cream and cake

TJ: All the time.

Dave: all the

TJ: the most menial reasons to celebrate and to have sweets. Hell

Dave: Hell yeah.

TJ: worth it. It's, life's worth

Dave: Absolutely. Well, we can't drink at work, so you might as well ice cream and cake it is.

TJ: cream and cake at hand.

So another question. And this is something that I actually had a conversation with one of our younger guys because he was having issues with his with his rookie. We're seeing a lot more folks who come into the fire service without Any previous experience, but without any sort of institutional knowledge, for lack of a better term, we called it it.

How do you pass

along? And we both know what we're talking about. Listeners know what we're talking about. When you see somebody, you're like, Oh, they get it. They get the fire service. So the question is, How to pass along to new members the pride of belonging to the department, because you cannot manufacture pride.

I cannot come to you, you cannot come to me and say, Thou shall be proud of who you are as a firefighter and where you are. Like, how do we instill that? Especially in this different generation that may see this as just a job. Yeah,

Dave: Well, yeah, some people are going to just do that. Some people are just going to see that as this is a job, you know, and you have to, you kind of have to take a step back and go and makes, makes all kinds of people.

It takes all kind of people to make this work and some people aren't going to be on board with that whole thing I think most people do get on board Yeah, eventually and I think the way to do that the best way to do that is for the company officer and The rest of the crew to just live it, you know like if if you all have pride in the job if you all like, you know, like If you have that, if you have that it, then a lot of times people will get on board with that as well.

It just takes a little bit of time for some people to do that. You know, um, yeah, I think you do that by Developing that shift camaraderie. You, you, you, you do go out like occasionally as a shift, um, you do have get togethers. You, you know, you work out together. You, you know, you have meals together. Um, I think those things are important.

Um, For that, that pride to come about, you know, like you, you do a little bit of extra here and there. Um, yeah, but more than anything else, I think living the talk, you know, like instead of just talking about it, because if you get hired by the fire department, you already have pretty good bullshit detector. And, and if you. You know if somebody's like talking about station pride and shit like that But they're you know sitting in a fucking recliner like you know with the clicker like not doing a goddamn thing You know just yeah, like yeah, everybody's you know, like that the new guy's bullshit detector is gonna go.

Yeah Okay. Yeah, I'm gonna be prideful like you You know, like you have to live that. You can't sit, you can't give it lip service. It has to be, you know, it, it has to be exhibited and it has to be lived, not just, you know, just, just given lip service. Oh,

TJ: That's um

Dave: you know, it's true. And you, and you, and you've seen it

TJ: Oh bro.

Dave: way too many times.

I like, I saw it a lot when I, when I first got hired, uh, especially like, Um, you know, people talking about like bringing, you know, bringing the kids on board and the sense of family and shit like that and, and all that. Well, like when it came time to pick vacations,

TJ: Fuck the kids.

Dave: Exactly. Like, you know, even if these kids had, they're like, if these kids had kids and your kids were grown, like these old guys that had grown kids and no reason at all to one off Christmas Fuck those kids.

Yep. I didn't get Christmas Eve off when I was their age, so they can kiss my ass. Like, where's the brotherhood there? Like, you know, like you can talk about brotherhood all day long, but that's not living it.

TJ: get into the brotherhood.

Dave: Yeah. The guy

TJ: that, there's a 

Dave: me insane. 

TJ: I know who would try to catch all the young guys and say, It doesn't matter what's going on.

You. should work a trade a shift with the senior guys for the big holidays and not expect to get paid in time like you don't you should volunteer to work for the senior guys who have been around if we work a holiday christmas new year's And whenever he tried to give him the spiel, as soon as he would leave, we'd grab the young kids and be like, yo, it's your time off, fuck it.

If you're off, if you don't have to work, and you want to hang out with your

Dave: That's insane. Who, like, oh my God, that like, oh, that's disgusting.

TJ: that ties into brotherhood. It is a word that we love, it is a word that we bastardize.

Dave: bastardized.

TJ: And it is almost that blanket that allows us to act like absolute douchebags.

Dave: Oh yeah, I've seen that more than enough times. You know, um, you know, like. Um, you can quietly live that life, you know, like if, you know, like if you see somebody that needs, needs some time off or needs a day off, you know, just quietly, Hey man, like I'm going to work your shift for you. You know what I mean?

There's, you know, like that's fine. Um, but I think a lot of times the people that shout it the loudest, you know, like are the ones that are the least, um, what's the word I'm looking for? Well, they're, they're, they're the least tolerant of, of everybody else, you know? And

TJ: They don't

Dave: no, they don't, that's not living the brotherhood.

That's, you know, that's trying to like enforce your, your ideals on, on other people. Like it, like it's okay to be passionate about the job and stuff like that, but you don't have to, you don't have to be a dick about it. We don't

TJ: have to eat our young. We don't have to crush them just before we got

Dave: crushed.

TJ: And again, it goes back to what we talked about earlier, that it takes a lot of work to be that mentor and to end whatever bullshit you dealt with. I did a lot of dumb things as a rookie. I caught a lot of flack.

I was treated a certain way. There were standards that were applied to me and not to

Dave: others.

Right.

TJ: and vice versa.

Dave: And

TJ: The easy path would be to treat everybody else the same way because I had it that way.

Dave: Right.

TJ: And what does that do? It just perpetuates my cycle of bullshit. And it ensures that the next person that goes through gets to live through the same dumb experiences that I lived through.

It takes a lot more work to be like, okay, yeah, it sucked for me. Let me absorb that hit and make sure that you don't have to deal with this. And let me give you the story as to why, and let me make sure that you don't have to deal with that. And that's a, that, that ties into, into the,

Dave: the

TJ: statement that the homies from West little river in Miami Dade asked, talk to us about the importance of teaching and mentoring those junior members.

I know you're one of those quote unquote old timers who will go to bat for the new ones, which is pretty unheard of. In the fire service, we have those guys who retire or who are ready to retire, who were just so happy to shit on the new generations and you have been very vocal throughout your entire career about how, no, that like, we're good.

These kids have it. They're different, but they still have

Dave: Oh, absolutely. They do. Like they're like, you know, like they, they learn differently than us. They, you know, they, they, yeah, maybe they do have a different outlook on things than we do, but like they're buying into it in their own way. And that's okay. Like just, just because they're different doesn't mean they're wrong.

Like. Yeah, that, that, that's, that, that drove me crazy back then and still does. I mean, I, I think that I left the fire department in really good hands when I left. Like there are a lot of good people there now, you know, like to be sure they're, you know, they get hamstrung by, you know, some of the bullshit that flows down from, you know, from the top of the food chain.

TJ: Bye. You

Dave: Overall, they're, they're solid people. You know, they're, they're smart. They're, they, they want to be fit. They want to take care of, they want to take care of business. Um, yeah, I love being around those guys. Like my last. A couple of years in the fire department, I got a whole brand new shift of young guys.

And it was, it was energizing. I loved it because it was like, yeah, we want to go out and do this. We want to try this. And I'm like, all right, let's, yeah, let's, let's do that. You know, and yeah, it was fun. You know, they, they made it fun again. Yeah. It was really cool. And then, you know, PT and with the recruits, that was always fun.

Um, yeah, I had a blast doing that. Um, it was as good for me as it was for anybody. Like, you know, like one of the things that benefits that I got from it as far as the cancer recovery was, I started going back to, like, I, I went back and PT with a recruit class before I was allowed to go back to work. Yeah.

I was just doing it like kind of on my own time and, um, at first I couldn't, I couldn't keep up with him. All I could do was just tell them what to do. Um, and then eventually I started doing a little bit more and a little bit more. They, that helped me in my recovery immeasurably. Like I think it, it. It sped it up, which was pretty damn awesome, you know, and I love doing that.

That was, that was a lot of fun. I still have like, I, and I'll still run into recruits that. You know, I remember maybe, you know, being a little bit overweight in the academy or whatever, like I ran into one dude, he, I think he lost like a hundred pounds and I'm like, dude, like I didn't even recognize you.

He's like, well, I really appreciate, you know, like you've like, you know, like doing the PT with us. And I'm like that. To me, that was, like, that's, that's why. Right there. That's, that, that's why. Right there. Well, the best compliment you can get is, I would work with that guy. Like, there's no compliment in the fire service, like, I would like to work for him, or I would like to work with, well, I would like to work with him, or I would like to work with her.

Like, yeah, like, there's no other, there's no higher compliment than that. We

TJ: We joke about at work, a couple of the guys, how

Dave: especially

TJ: we're not really clear and direct, especially when we dislike somebody.

Dave: No, uh, no, we're not.

TJ: it's so funny because somebody will bring up a name that just like turns our stomach and just makes us angry. And the stock answer is something like, Oh yeah, I'd have a beer with him. We joke about it. Like, we'll be, we'll be leaving a call where like the patient just like berated us and told us like the worst things about who we are and we, you know, Nick and I look at each other like,

Dave: Yeah.

TJ: And we apply that to the people in the fire service instead of being like, hey, this is this is what I don't like about you.

No, like, I'd have a beer with

Dave: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, like there was a chief who, um, every time he talked about somebody he didn't like, and, and it was clear like, you know, he, he, he, he couldn't hide it. He's like, well,

TJ: he

Dave: he means, well,

TJ: Yeah, and

Dave: And, and I'm like, dude, if I ever say that. Yeah, if I ever hear you say that about me, I'm just going to hang myself because I know what that means.

Like, I'm just a hunk of shit. Like, you know, like, well, he means well.

TJ: he means. Yeah,

Dave: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

TJ: I'm sure you know.

Dave: Oh yeah, that's a South Carolina thing. Yeah, it is.

TJ: Charleston.

Dave: Oh, it is? Yeah.

TJ: jealous every time you go

Dave: time I go there. Yeah, it's a great town. It truly is.

TJ: is. Here's a quote that I really like. Here's something that he wrote. You're here to serve. The public doesn't care if you're having a bad day.

They only care that you fix their problem.

Dave: True, like absolutely. I like, I think I told every recruit class that that like one of the great things about PTM with recruits is like you have them for like an hour and a half two hours and they have to listen to all your bullshit They're they're a captive audience

TJ: Against their will.

Dave: Against their will so like and it turns into Stockholm syndrome because they kind of like you at the end But Um, but, but it's true, like, you know, like you have to wrap your mind around the fact that you're here to serve the public.

You get paid to do that and they don't give a shit if you're hot or you're cold or you're sweaty or you're tired. They don't care if you're going through a divorce. I went through my whole fucking divorce working. Like, you think anybody cared when they called me for their problem? I don't give a fuck.

Like they just care that you fix their problem. You know, and you have to wrap your mind around the fact that you are here to serve them. They are not here to serve you. You know, and if you can't do that, then this probably isn't the line of work that you should be in. You'd like, you may need to reconsider what you're doing.

Um, Because that's a fact. That's just a hard fact of our world. 

TJ: Tell me about preparing to become a company officer. Um,

Dave: well, I think it's, you know, preparing to become a company officer. Nothing really Prepares you for it. I mean, like, like, I think it's necessary that you get the basics of the job down, um, and get comfortable in the backseat of the fire engine that might take two years. It might take four years. It might take 68 whatever.

Um, but get good at that. Get good at the basics. That kind of thing. A lot of people think, and I disagree, that you should be a pump operator or a driver before you are an officer because it helps you with decision making, stuff like that. Um,

TJ: like,

Dave: like, I, I, I, I, I see value in that, but I don't think it's absolutely necessary.

Um, Nothing really prepares you for the transition from the back seat to the front seat. Because when you're in the back seat, you, you, like you, you get You get your shit on, you get in, you get all buckled in and you're thinking, all right, you know, like if, if this is happening, this is what I'm going to do, this is happening, that's what I'm going to do, you know, like, is my radio here?

Blah, blah, blah. Um, and then you get off and you perform. Um, you go to the front seat. Now you get all your shit on. You think about what am I going to do? Then you have to think about, all right, what's everybody else going to do? What's my second engine going to do? What's my third engine going to do?

Where's the truck going to go? You're listening. You're like, where is this? You know, you got to find it on the map. Well, you know, like we had map books. way back then. Um, but you got to find like, where's my nearest water source? Where's my secondary water sources? You know, like, um, you got to talk on the radio, you got to listen to the radio.

It is a whole lot of information in a very, very compressed amount of time. And, and I always said it was, it's, it's not overwhelming, but it's goddamn whelming and nobody can teach you how to process all that information. There's no class that you can go to and go. This is how you process all this information you have to do, like you have to figure it's, it's kind of like doing multiplication, like some people do it one way, some people do it another way, like there's no.

TJ: real one

Dave: way to process all that information and make it make sense. The only thing you can do is go to calls and try to make it so you're practicing processing that information. On every call, like you're looking at buildings when you show up for that medical call going, okay, if this place is on fire, you know, if they had fire on the second floor, like blah, blah, blah, like when, you know, here's my hydrant out here, you know, this is what would do the second engine would take, you know, do this third engine do this, like you, like there's value in game.

Playing role playing. Um, so

TJ: I,

Dave: I, I think that's, that's the best answer I can give. Um, as far as the, um, as far as the, the, the strategy and tactical part of the job, um, the other parts of the job, like the, the personnel matters and stuff like that. Ooh, that's, uh, I think just by being consistent, having integrity.

Like do what you do do what you say you're going to do when you're going to do it

TJ: it. Um,

Dave: And be like try to treat everybody Fairly like you know, and and and I know that everybody's side of fair can be different But I think if you're consistent with everybody, I think you're gonna be okay

TJ: Um,

Dave: I only had I I didn't have many roles By the, you know, like, by the time I made captain, like, there were, there were captains that were like, this is what we do in this call, this is what we do in that call, like, this is the line we always pull.

Like, I wasn't that guy. Um, I'm like, uh, all right, well, make sure you're dressed at my level or, or higher.

TJ: Like,

Dave: that's, that's not negotiable. Like if I have all my shit on, you will have all your shit on. Um, if it's 95 degrees and I'm sweating my ass off, you're going to be sweating your ass off too.

Um, And the only other rule was, um, that I was a stickler for was like, listen, like we get something that's on fire, you know, pull the line, get it to the front door, you know, like get your shit together and get ready to go. But you do not cross that fucking threshold until I make sure there's no fire in the basement.

That's not negotiable. If I see you inside, when I come back around that building, I will put my foot in your ass. So far you'll be able to, you won't be able to sit down like, like that's not negotiable because I'm not writing that letter for anybody. I have made it this far without. Yeah, anybody getting hurt like that under my watch and I'm not going to allow it.

Um, that was uh, those are the only two rules I had. Like, follow most of the rules. I'll tell you which ones are important. Yeah. I like that

TJ: I like that approach. And I think it comes from a my inherent disdain for authority, which again, it's not lost to me the fact that I ended up in a paramilitary organization for as much as I hate people telling me what to do.

lot of it comes from having worked for officers who are luckily the same way, Hey, these are the expectations. I'm not giving you the entire. Playbook of what I expect, go here, move that, pull this, do that, get a line to the front door, or to wherever, and start putting out fire,

Dave: Don't make us look stupid. Right.

TJ: Simple as that, and I've, I've Going back to what we were talking about, getting, you know, the multiplication tables and getting that practice as a company officer from this contrarian right here, who, who dislikes most authority, I absolutely hate those officers, especially the new ones who look at you and act as if saying, I got the colored helmet.

I know everything. I am always right. The best officers that I've worked for, right. Have always been so humble. And able to go, Oh God, I should have done this differently. And, Oh, I learned something new. And you look at them and you go, Okay, this guy's legit. Because the other one who's saying, I'm a lieutenant, therefore, this is what we're doing.

You're like, Eh, I don't think you're right. And seeming to think that by virtue of being where they are, they are not ever going to learn again. Yeah, it's um

Dave: like, one of the things I always said was like, you know So after six decades on this planet, the only thing I'm sure of is I don't know shit,

TJ: know shit.

Dave: like, and I, I believe that, like, I, like, I know this much.

Um, I think the more you experience, the more you realize you don't know. Um, the other thing about that is the reason I loved, um, headsets on the fire engine is because like we are always going to be smarter. Then me like, like, you know, we're going to game plan when we're going down the street. Like, you know, like what do you think?

Like, yeah, I think this, we got this, this building's like this. Um, you know, like, you know, if we got big water, if we need big water, we're going to, you know, pull a deuce and a half, but consider that, you know, we'll figure it out when we get there, that kind of stuff. You know, like we, you know, or somebody will be like, Hey, I'd like, I ran a medical call on this place the other night.

And it's, it's bad, you know, like, so like you, you do that back and forth. A good crew will always, you know, bounce ideas off each other and, and I always welcomed that. I think that's a smart thing to do. Like they always made me look way smarter than I ever was. So

TJ: always made me look way

Dave: Oh, absolutely.

TJ: I ever was. It's really, you do your crew a

Dave: like I think it's really, it, it, you do your crew a disservice when you don't take their input. I mean, there, there were times when there may have been a few times where I'm like, yeah, we're like, this is what we're going to do because we have to, um, normally it, it, it revolved around just eating a big shit sandwich and you're like, all right, we're going to eat the shit sandwich.

TJ: Let's

Dave: Let's go do it. Let's go do it. Yeah. Uh, and, and, and I think we is very, very important, you know, in, in that context because, you know, I, I worked for officers that are like, you guys go do this. I'm gonna be over here talking to the chief. You know, so they didn't eat that shit sandwich. Like instead of.

Instead of, like, breaking it into four pieces, we had to break it into three pieces. So, like, those three people had to eat a bigger chunk of the shit sandwich. Um, so I think, I think it's really important for an officer to use the word we a lot. Like, uh, like, especially when you get wins. Or, you know, you do a good job.

We did a good job. You know, if, if something goes bad, it falls on you. Yeah. Like, you know, and, and if somebody really screwed up, then, you know, you have to deal with that. But I think it's important that you minimize that, you know, and, and not call that person out in front of everybody else and stuff like that, you know, you, you know, like, I think it's important you pull them aside and go, the fuck were you thinking? And, you know, like, and get their side of it. And, and if there's a reason, you go, Uh, alright, well, okay, I see what happened there. Um, or if it's a dumb reason, you're like, well, don't ever fucking do that again. Yeah, yeah, I, I don't know. I think we make this a lot harder than it needs to be sometimes.

TJ: 1000 percent on that vein. What do you think is the most important quality of a even slightly decent fire officer?

Dave: Well, I think that, I think that the use of we, you know, um, um, yeah, and, and using your resources, you know, talking to your guys, you know, getting to know them, you know, getting to figure out what makes them tick, you know, making sure that you have. given them like your expectations and you find out what their expectations are.

You, because it may be something unreasonable. I worked with people that were like, it's your job as a company officer to cover my ass no matter what. And I'm like, um, really? Yeah. That's your job. Like, well, um, I remember saying, I remember saying to him, so what kind of man expects another man

TJ: to

Dave: to make up for his shortcomings? Like like, you know, like, and, and to, to, to take the blame for his, his, Behavior like what kind of man does that and what kind of man expects that and you that didn't go

TJ: well. Like,

Dave: Like dude, you know what? my my take on that and Like this was this was one thing that I think I told everybody that I worked with like look If you make a mistake, an honest mistake, we're going to learn from that mistake, we're going to try to minimize the impact of that mistake, and we're going to make sure it never happens again.

But if you make a choice, you make a decision to do something, you make a choice to do something you know is wrong and you choose to do it anyway, fuck you and everybody looks like you. I will not have your back. Like, you knew it was wrong, you did it anyway, and now you expect somebody else to take the fall for it?

No. Not going to happen. And if you can't work for somebody like that, if you can't, like, that's my whole take on that. If you can't work for me, put a transfer in. I'm not going to be mad about that, but that's how I feel about

TJ: These are the expectations.

That's the standard.

Dave: Like, you, like, like, again, a mistake is one thing, a choice is another.

TJ: Oh, I like that. That might be the title of this episode. Well, buddy, we are coming up on almost two

Dave: hours,

TJ: And we have covered everything from

Dave: to

TJ: Peer teams to go into fires, obviously, to cops, and cancel everything between

Dave: The one thing I do want to go over is the difference between men and women in the fire service. It's a spicy

TJ: towards the end,

Dave: like it. Well, like, it's something that is near and dear to my heart.

I mean, I was married to a firefighter for 17 years. So I had to put up with The bullshit that Was handed to her at work. Yeah, and the fallout from that bullshit when she come home with it

TJ: Um,

Dave: So it is near and dear to my heart. Yeah

TJ: the

Dave: the main difference between men and women in the fire service is

TJ: if you 

Dave: If you, if, if you show up at a firehouse or if I show up at a firehouse and I drop my salty gear down, you know, like say a couple of key words that make people go, okay, well, you know, this, you know, this person knows what they're talking about.

Like they, they know what they're doing. Most women, they could have 20 years on the job in some of the busiest companies ever. They walk into a different firehouse, they put their gear down. They have to prove that they know what they're doing every fucking time. That has to be exhausting. So we need to get rid of that.

I thought it would go away, you know, 21st century and all, but it hasn't, you know, and I, you know, I remember telling recruits, I'm like, look, you know, like the women that are working with you in your academy class right now, you know, you're busting your ass. They're busting their ass twice as hard because they're physically not as big as you and they're doing it.

So, you know, like I remember hearing, you know, from dudes like, Oh, well, you know, she can't pull me out of a burning building by herself. Well, there are some 350 pound dudes that I can't pull out of burning building by myself and I'm still okay, like physically. So what's your point? This is a team fucking sport, dude.

TJ: a team

Dave: like, just get over yourself. So that, that, that's pretty much how I feel about that.

TJ: just get over yourself. That's pretty

Dave: Oh, very much so. But

TJ: I feel about that. Oh, very 

Dave: To 

TJ: so. Right. Right. Well, before we started

Dave: like, and we talked about this before we started the thing.

Like, The, the, not, you're not as good as your last fire. You're only as good as your last fire. And the one great equalizer in our world is the hood of a burning car. Like I, and I will say it until the day I die, like you could get like six hoods in a row, like the, after you figure them out, you're like, Oh, I got this shit.

I am the king of the, you know, like, uh, of getting the hood open. And then that seventh one comes around and it will make you look like it's your first fucking day on the job and you have never seen a burning car before. Like, yeah, that, that's, you know, because there's so many different variables and so many different hoods and so many different latching systems that it's impossible to figure them all out.

Nothing will make you look dumber. Yeah, and, and normally it's when the, the car on fire is surrounded by a bunch of people in the parking lot at the store that are like videotaping you and you just, you're like, you, you, it, it will make you look like your first day on the job.