Two Grumpy Vets and a Duuude

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 Br...

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 rang...

This week Rich walks through his brutal Jeep shock replacement — a five-minute job that turned into an eight-and-a-half hour fight with stripped lug nuts, a honeycombed shock mount, and a jack that sat on his porch because his pain level had hit a 10. Ron has his own expensive lesson after stacking his Jeep backwards at the monthly car meet, blowing out his power steering booster and stripping studs on his spacers. Bryan shares an update on Jana's hospitalization and the relief that she's finally getting the care she needs. From there the guys cover MTV turning 45, Bryan's tribute to No...

This week Rich rides out Tropical Storm Bertha's storm surge with Bella in tow, then dives deep into Jeep repairs — clock springs, shocks, and cabin air filters. Ron chimes in with his own trail-ride mayhem, a near-miss on the road, and the story of his mom's sentimental Buick Regal. From there the guys swap trucking stories (Blue Pete included), wander through mountain passes and winter misery, and land on a Puerto Rico deployment story before wrapping with a Scott update, a water-rights rant, chicken tender secrets, and MIT's free course catalog.
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Rich, Bryan, and Ron cover a lot of ground this week — back MRIs, a blown disc that ended jump status, a Hemet tire that ate a whole Saturday in Korea, a stolen challenge coin, Bella's dinner theater, and a yard war against mosquitoes and a mole. There's also a genuinely great story about letting a foster kid drive a Jeep through the trails at a camp near Marble Falls. Brian's wife Jana has gallbladder surgery, the guys argue about cryonics and Tootsie Pops, and it all wraps up with the site of the day: Supercook.com, for when you've got ra...

This week, Bryan, Rich,and Ron sits down for one of those conversations that reminds everyone exactly why they do this show — life shows up fast, and sometimes all you can do is laugh through the chaos. The big story is Ron's unbelievably rough week on the road: rear-ended on I-35 by a kid doing 90-100 mph with no brakes, no insurance, and no registration, followed by a DOT stop, a late-night piss test scramble, and a work schedule that keeps shifting on him. Rich balances it out with something a lot calmer — taking Bella for rides in the Jeep with...

Bryan, Rich, and the Duuude get together for another round of life, mostly unplanned. Bella starts a full-blown TV rivalry with any animal on screen, Rich's back-door floor peaks up like a tent and turns into a full flooring-replacement nightmare, and losing his phone at Lowe's ends with a trip to Verizon and a brand new Pixel 10. From there it's Saharan dust, tenting floors and piers, prediction markets and the lottery, crypto skepticism, a $20 magnetic cup holder from Harbor Freight, an antenna anchor working loose, boat plans and a maybe-island trip, a hard conversation about homelessness and honesty, electric vehicles...

This week Bryan, Rich, and the Duuude tackle the important stuff: standing water that won't quit, a GoPro that sprouted legs and ran off, and what happens when you look down your nose at explosives. Also: hovercrafts as a business model, the Waffle House pipeline, TSA's war on ranch dressing, Reddit setup live on air, caveman cabbage, and a surprisingly honest conversation about what truck drivers carry with them long after they leave the road.

Oh, and the Duuude is now on Reddit. Mostly.

Topics This Week

Rich is up to his ankles in floodwater, The Duuude just dropped $900 on a new phone he barely understands, and the Duuude's earbuds are staging a full rebellion. This week's rabbit hole starts with relentless Gulf Coast rain and a possible "Super El Nino," then spirals into a Samsung S26 nightmare, a TRICARE billing fight, a taco night gone sideways, and a brand-new flip phone wearing the Commodore name. Somewhere in there: water drop photography, ugly Cybertrucks parked next to a mint 1970s Pacer, Uber's new bus business, a website with a name you shouldn't say out loud at work...

In this week’s episode of Two Grumpy Vets and a Dude, we kick back for a classic catch‑up that ranges from veteran benefits wins and smart money advice to gear talk, off‑roading tales, photography nerdery, and everyday life. We celebrate a friend finally securing a 100% VA rating and unpack what back pay, legal reviews, and disciplined budgeting can look like for vets. Then it’s straight into shop talk: Crocs sizing misadventures, trail carnage at Hidden Falls, the real costs of off‑roading parks, axle weights and overweight permits, and the grind of long-haul delivery days. We also di...

This week Brian beats the Dude onto the call, Rich is out here mowing a swamp, nobody can find the spider on the dollar bill, and the Crocs have officially lost all their tread. It's Episode 103 and we are absolutely not slowing down.
We kick things off with Rich half-mowing his flooded yard — and revisiting the time he had to winch his own lawnmower out of the back 40 with the Jeep. Classic Rich. We move into the dental drama, where a clinic waited until the last possible second to schedule a deep cleaning and then acted like it was Ri...

Three friends, zero sponsors, one biblical amount of rain. This week Rich is basically living in a bayou — the Mississippi Gulf Coast got hammered with over five inches of rain in a single week, and Bella has strong opinions about wet grass. Also, the local frogs sound like kittens and it scared the daylights out of everyone.

Brian shares a powerful Memorial Day story — a last-minute drive to pay respects to PFC Tucker, a soldier he served as casualty assistance officer for, and the remarkable discovery that a stranger who stood vigil at the grave for 18 years had...

Episode 101 kicks off with weather swings, cozy pets, and Dude unpacking the most stressful DOT physical of the year — an A1C reading that hijacked his blood pressure, a clean CPAP compliance report, and a doctor who took his sweet time delivering the verdict. Rich looks up what A1C actually measures and lands on the line of the night: your blood is a freaking Oreo.
From there: a Level 2 hazmat inspection on I-35, two stops in one day, and why being cordial beats being combative on the roadside every single time. We detour into Idiocracy, wooden clogs from th...

In our 100th episode, the three of us do what we’ve always done best: show up for each other and talk like real friends. Bryan opens with a peek behind the scenes on tinkering with an AI‑assisted WordPress podcast player, which sparks a spirited debate about AI hallucinations, trust, and how to push back on bad outputs. From there, we wander joyfully through big and small topics—media hype around health scares, movie rabbit holes from Star Wars to Yellowstone (and why some sequels land while others don’t), favorite actors, comedy greats, and the art of storytel...

It's a packed night in the Two Grumpy Vets and a Duuude studio — and yes, we're back live! Rich finally got BUTT sorted out through a little terminal magic, and we're streaming live to Podhome once again. While we're at it, we've got some thoughts on TrueFans and their sudden need to know everything about everybody — spoiler: they contribute exactly 0.4% of our total downloads over two years, so the bar is set accordingly.

From there the conversation goes exactly where you'd expect it to — everywhere. Ron's roller skating past gets fully excavated, including his time as the ri...

This week on Two Grumpy Vets and a Duuude, the guys kick things off with a spirited debate that no one asked for but everyone needed — Primus. Bryan sends a video, the Duuude loses eight seconds of his life he'll never get back, and Rich tries to explain what a recognizable song actually means. Spoiler: "My Name is Mud" is not the answer anyone was looking for.

From there the crew takes a detour through the golden age of MTV (when it actually played music), the birth of reality TV, and why Beavis and Butthead could ph...

In this week’s episode of Two Grumpy Vets and a Dude, we kick off with some classic tech gremlins as we fight Zoom, virtual audio cables, and Linux updates before settling in for a wide-ranging, unfiltered conversation.

We trade road-warrior stories about trucks, cruise control, and maddening drivers; diagnose a Jeep’s mystery dash-light fiasco that turns out to be a seven-year-old battery; and debate bass lines, suspenders, Crocs, and whether peanut butter and honey belongs anywhere near bread.

We also wade into heavier ground: media narratives, COVID-era policy overreach, digital IDs, and why anon...

This week on Two Grumpy Vets and a Dude, we go full shop-talk-meets-life as we swap war stories from the garage, the cab, and the command line. I kick things off with a painful-but-successful rear brake overhaul on the Jeep and a Linux upgrade that rewarded me with the dreaded purple screen of death—then a rollback, Pi-hole victory, and plans to automate our show workflow with n8n. Ron unloads a maddening roadside blowout saga, a camera-based safety system that docked him points for doing the right thing, and a spirited takedown of AI-without-common-sense. From hotshot load securement an...

This week on Two Grumpy Vets and a Duuude, we kick things off the only way we know how — technical chaos, Zoom host handoffs, and a deep dive into streaming tool rabbit holes. We break down BUTT vs. BUTTm, dig into analytics across Podhome and OP3, and celebrate a genuinely surprising surge in global downloads. Turns out Bangladesh, Iraq, and most of South America are tuning in before the US even wakes up — and we have no idea why, but we'll take it.
From there we get into why downloads, unique listeners, and platform dashboards like PodAnalyst, Apple Podcasts Conn...

This week on Two Grumpy Vets and the Dude, we catch up after a hectic stretch of real life. I share the chaos of juggling work in the Texas rain, drought rules, and neighborhood noise battles, while Brian walks us through helping his mom recover from a scam, the maze of deeds and mineral rights, and the deep family history tied to Pottsville. We swap stories about weird car trends, highway run-ins, and the eternal war with four-wheelers, then shift into a thoughtful back-and-forth on oil prices, NATO, media panic, Israel’s resolve, military readiness, and how to have re...

In this week’s episode of Two Grumpy Vets and a Duuude, it’s just Rich and the Dude holding down the fort while Bryan’s delayed. We dive into a laid‑back but spirited conversation spanning FAA and congressional crackdowns on drones and RC aircraft, the state of American manufacturing versus overseas labor costs, power and politics, and why common sense seems rarer than ever. From nukes, Fukushima, and Chernobyl to the realities of stress, DOT rules, and the importance of living intentionally, we keep it real and relatable. We also veer into off‑roading culture (Jeeps vs. side‑by‑si...

In this week’s episode, Bryan kick's things off wrangling the chaos as the Duuude and Rich trickle in late, and we dive right into a full-throttle catch‑up. We trade road-warrior stories about modern trucks, software headaches, and the perils of driving when tech fails at 2 a.m. Then we shift gears to Moab—Dude’s epic trail week with limited‑edition badges, gnarly obstacles like Hell’s Gate and Mickey’s Hot Tub, winch points, popped beads, and a heartfelt flag‑retirement tradition atop Poison Spider at sunrise.

We also wander into drones and the maze of FAA rule...

This week on Two Grumpy Vets and a Duuude, it’s just Bryan and Rich holding down the fort while “the Duuude” tears up the trails in Moab, Utah. We catch up on life: Rich’s hearing aids vs. headphones saga, spring yard battles with guy wires and weed eaters, moving shacks for sagging floors, prepping for a 48‑hour ham radio prefix contest, and expanding Bella’s kingdom with bargain fence panels. We also dive into gadget talk—from drones’ Follow Me mode to rumors about Google tightening Android app installs—and nerd out on Linux alternatives, open‑source creative tools, and...

This week on Two Grumpy Vets and a Dude, we go full porch-talk with a real life catch‑up: sagging floor joists, swampy crawlspaces, and $24k foundation quotes; overtime work and hotel living; and a Moab off‑road vacation countdown that’s complicated by pharmacy logistics and dog drama.

We veer from DIY fixes, French drains, and soundproofing walls to brisket sticker shock and grocery prices, then careen through politics, coaching as a business, and what happens when the grind meets real life. Along the way we trade shop talk on podcast gear (Zoom PodTrak P4 Next vs. RØ...

This week on Two Grumpy Vets and a Duuude, we kick things off with our trademark banter before diving into a creator’s dilemma: should past episodes be pulled when guests later regret their words? We challenge cancel-culture ripple effects, personal boundaries for creators, and the value of standing firm on your own content. From there we tear into workplace culture and the erosion of accountability, participation trophies, and the “softening” of expectations for the next generation—sprinkled with military memories and a few colorful leadership lessons.

We also wander (as we do) through tech talk about a report...

In this week’s Two Grumpy Vets and a Duuude, we kick off with the VA’s sudden (and now halted) rule change that could have tied disability ratings to medication effectiveness—why it sparked instant backlash, what it could have meant for reevaluations, and how protected status works for long-held ratings. From there, we roam across our usual Gen X terrain: the news media’s spin and propaganda cycles, Epstein file noise, political grandstanding in sports, and the SAVE Act voter ID irony. We also detour into life stuff—small-town memories, sledding scorchers, old-school TV, crypto’s rollercoaster, games we’re...

In this week’s Two Grumpy Vets and a Duuude, we settle in for a wide‑ranging catch‑up that feels like a late‑night porch talk. We open with last week’s tech gremlins and a mid‑show “rapture,” then roll into work shifts, weather, and the real cost of days off. From there, we get into practical life stuff: commissary vs. club memberships, budgeting and grocery hacks, and a spirited tangent on vacation hours and planning. A big chunk dives into dogs, structure, and training—why consistent rules help our four‑legged best friends thrive—plus how life changes (and gets...

In this week’s episode of Two Grumpy Vets and a Duuude, we kick off with weather whiplash and use it as a springboard into a spirited life update: long winters, dreams of warmer zip codes, and plotting an eventual move abroad (with the Philippines taking the lead thanks to VA access). From there, we tumble into a surprisingly practical tour of AI tools—voice cloning on ElevenLabs, the quirks of various chatbots, and the art of prompting to get balanced answers—before detouring through fiber internet upgrades, home server dreams, and crypto staking strategies. We also trade travel-and-living wisdom...

In this week’s Two Grumpy Vets and a Duuude, we kick things off battling cold weather and tech gremlins, then settle into a wide-ranging, unfiltered conversation the way only old friends can. We swap CPAP upgrades and sleep-apnea war stories, debate movie nostalgia versus modern CGI, and pitch a monthly classic-film chat (yes, even A Christmas Carol). From there, we dive into cultural shifts, personal finance discipline, and why brewing coffee at home beats $7 sugar-bomb lattes. We chew on free speech, accountability for public officials, AI bias, and the value of being discerning with tech and news. We al...

In this week’s episode of Two Grumpy Vets and a Duuude, we kick things off with classic audio gremlins, shop talk, and a storm rolling across Texas, Mississippi, and beyond. We dive into trucking yard logistics, overtime headaches, HR-proof blunt honesty, and why common sense (and throat chops) still matter. From kale conspiracies to bagged salad betrayals, we keep the laughs rolling, then pivot hard into radio nerdery: contests, sunspots, solar flares, band conditions, and why upgrading from General to Extra unlocks the 80m playground. We also geek out on DIY audio fixes (shock mounts for the win) an...

This week on Two Grumpy Vets and a Duuude, we kick things off with some classic tech gremlins, button-mashing banter, and a lively dive into Linux setups, podcast rigs, and the eternal Zoom-is-weird struggle. From there, we roam through rising grocery costs, beef buying strategies, and the realities of food and fuel—from E85 to biodiesel and why regulations make ranching harder than it has to be.

We also get tactical with a spirited discussion on evolving small-arms calibers, body armor, AK vs. AR history, and a few sea/airpower detours (CWIS and A-10 fans, you’ll smil...

This week on Two Grumpy Vets, the three of us catch up on life, weather swings, bills, and a deep dive into wood stoves and heating hacks—right down to firewood sizes and the best slow-burning woods. We roll into Jeep tire drama (RIP KO2s), price-versus-wear debates, and why research can change your mind about Patagonia's. From there, we veer through a spicy but civil Facebook dust-up about geopolitics and legality, then swing into radios: selling big rigs, unboxing a new contest-grade DX10, late-night France contacts on 40 meters, logging workflows, Linux toys, and prepping for upcoming contests. We ro...

In this New Year’s episode, I catch up with Bryan and The Duuude for a freewheeling, three-hour hang where we kick off 2026 with stories, laughs, and some real talk. We swap New Year’s Eve recaps—from solo fire-pit zen with a pack of 7% seltzers, to hot-chocolate-at-midnight serenity, to working oilfield staging pads while hunting for cell signal. From there, we wander delightfully through trucking and fracking loads, fireworks prices and city ordinances, drones-as-firework-viewers, dog thunder shirts, vertigo, and the odd places different states drop acorns, anchors, and balls at midnight. We even go deep on the surprising histor...

In this week’s Two Grumpy Vets and a Duuude, we celebrate a birthday (the Duuude's) and dive into a lively, winding conversation about intentional living, service, and everyday grit. We kick off with retail rants (Walmart vs. H‑E‑B and the lost art of customer service), drift into wealth, power, and philanthropy, and spotlight the Bentonville/NW Arkansas boom. From there we hit military life—why a one‑time $1,776 payout matters to junior service members—then swap stories from the road: high‑wind trucking hazards, governed rigs, and the science of getting blown around at 70,000 lbs. We cover nicotine...

In this week’s Two Grumpy Vets and a Duuude, we kick off with post-Thanksgiving catch‑ups and a surprising win with the local post office. We riff on tech tinkering—expanding backup storage to 7TB, rediscovering years of photos, playing with Darktable on Linux, and dabbling in AI video experiments.
Then, things get... grumpy. We discuss everyday life gear, specifically a $2,500 mattress that Bryan claims "just lays there and sweats."
On the heart side, Ron shares a meaningful afternoon playing chess with veterans at a VA home—learning to match play to a person’s abilities (and dealin...

This week on Two Grumpy Vets and a Duuude, we kick off with real life updates: Rich’s MRI reveals significant shoulder tendon tears, bursitis, and pain management ups and downs, plus Bella the dog’s hilarious water-glass heist. We wander into geeking out on Linux, local AI models, audio workflows, backups, and why permissions matter—complete with a near-disaster Gmail wipe and how he recovered it. From there, we dive into a spirited, good-natured brawl over AI: art quality, “brown and muddy” palettes, hallucinations, summary collapse, and the soul of human-made art. We compare classic works like the De Witt br...

This week on Two Grumpy Vets, the crew gets real about everyday life, health hiccups, and the small joys that keep us going. Bryan kicks things off riding the struggle bus with a full-on tooth emergency and the saga of finding an in-network dentist, urgent care antibiotics, and insurance timing. From there we wander through the comforts (and crimes) of hot dog cooking methods, microwaved pot pies, and the eternal spam vs. Vienna sausage debate, with plenty of laughter and veteran-grade gallows humor along the way.

We shift gears into road-life stories from the truck, AI dash-cam...

In this week’s Two Grumpy Vets and a Duuude, I open the mics with Bryan and the Duuude for a sprawling, honest hang that runs from health and MRIs to ham radio, Linux life, dogs, decluttering, and a heavy dose of real‑talk on politics and insurance. We kick off with Rich’s marathon MRI session, steroid shots, pain management, and the search for relief through acupuncture and even cupping. That flows right into ham radio world: solar flares, auroras, contest scores, chasing DX across the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia, and the ongoing quest for a clean sweep amid r...

The Duuude kicks things off by talking coins—specifically, the end of silver in quarters and the slow demise of the penny, which leads the guys down a rabbit hole of gas prices, taxes, and how rounding up or down might change... well, probably nothing.
This somehow pivots to New York City's new "communist" mayor, free housing, and the logistics of delivering anything in a city that charges a fortune just to cross a bridge.
But the real tech news? Rich got mad as hell at Windows and... (drumroll)... he switched to Linux! He shares his journey of...

In this week’s candid, freewheeling hang with the Two Grumpy Vets, we riff on everything from cold season and culinary skirmishes (al dente vs. soggy noodles, cornbread the right way) to ham radio contest season—logging 155+ QSOs across the globe, multipliers, team stations, and the art of staying sharp over marathon operating sessions. We veer into cars and culture (Cybertruck camper shells, classic oddballs, off-roading mishaps), swap basic training and service stories across branches, and kick around tech tinkering—ditching Windows for Linux, GPU drivers, and the hunt for a solid contest logger. We round it out with life t...