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EP 97 - Summer Blues

Special When Lit·podcast_episode·57m 27s·analyzed·Aug 26, 2023
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.028

TL;DR

SWL EP97: Summer blues, vacation letdowns, eye injury during pin move, and Expo announcements.

Summary

Episode 97 of Special When Lit Podcast features hosts Bill Webb and Steve Beattie discussing summer experiences, including disappointing vacations, weather patterns, baseball stadium visits, and a Southern Fried Gaming Expo attendance. The episode includes personal anecdotes about family time, an eye injury during machine moving, and upcoming Pinball Expo announcements including a Jersey Jack Godfather raffle benefiting Lurie Children's Hospital.

Key Claims

  • Southern Fried Gaming Expo exhibit hall is as large as the new Pinball Expo, arranged in two rooms with a divider

    high confidence · Steve Beattie, direct observation at the show in August

  • Jersey Jack Pinball will raffle a brand new in-box Godfather LE at Pinball Expo with 100% proceeds going to Lurie Children's Hospital

    high confidence · Bill Webb, official announcement not yet widely promoted

  • Courtney Bowman sold all his pins and is starting to buy again, including Shaq Attack

    high confidence · Steve Beattie and Bill Webb discussing Bowman's recent purchase

  • Steve Beattie suffered an eye injury (blood and blurred vision) when a speaker panel corner struck his eye during machine disassembly

    high confidence · Steve Beattie, first-hand account of incident three weeks prior, verified by eye doctor visit

  • Kilwin's is a chain with multiple locations (St. Joseph MI, Wheaton, St. Charles, Glendale Heights area), not a one-of-a-kind destination

    high confidence · Bill Webb, discovery during vacation planning follow-up

Notable Quotes

  • “He looks at me and he's like, you know they have one of these ice cream shops right here in St. Charles. I go, what? It's like Kilwin's? There's one two miles from my house.”

    Bill Webb@ 5:37 — Pivotal moment revealing the vacation anchor (ice cream destination) was actually local, deflating the special experience

  • “A big part of the experience has been taken from me, Steve. It's still there. It's still there, but it's a memory. experiences and now it's going to be a suppressed memory because of the damage that has been done”

    Bill Webb@ 8:53 — Reflective commentary on how knowledge ruins nostalgia and anticipation

  • “I met him for the first time after just knowing him for years at Southern Pride Gaming Expo and I met his wife Talia and their kids. He's got a beautiful family”

    Steve Beattie@ 21:10 — Meeting Lucas Pepke/Macho Pinball Puppet Pails in person after years of online friendship

  • “It almost seemed very – and again, this is just my opinion. So don't take it. Go experience the ballpark. I'm not telling you not to go. But it just seemed very corporate, very stale, kind of almost like AI created what they thought a traditional ballpark should be like.”

    Steve Beattie@ 16:00 — Critical assessment of Truist Park experience vs. traditional ballpark charm

  • “the corner of the plastic hits my eyeball...so i'm like pulling up you know this you know couple pound thing and just all of a sudden just which like square shot in the eye square shot not the eyelids shut and a little no no time for eyelids”

    Steve Beattie@ 23:39 — Detailed account of unusual pin-moving injury that required eye doctor visit

  • “You and I one time moved three machines out of a basement in under one hour...You and I have a good system for that. We got a system.”

    Bill Webb@ 26:45 — Reference to established moving protocol between Bill and Ken/another co-host

Entities

Bill WebbpersonSteve BeattiepersonCourtney BowmanpersonLucas PepkepersonTalia PepkepersonWes BentleypersonLord of the Ring BreathpersonMike FoxpersonRob BurkepersonSpecial When Lit Pinball Podcast

Signals

  • ?

    event_signal: Jersey Jack Pinball donating brand new Godfather LE for Pinball Expo raffle, 100% proceeds to Lurie Children's Hospital

    high · Bill Webb: 'Jersey Jack Pinball, this year we are going to be giving away a Godfather...You'll be able to buy a raffle ticket. 100% of the proceeds are going to go to Lurie Children's Hospital'

  • ?

    event_signal: Southern Fried Gaming Expo comparable in size to new Pinball Expo, described as growing show with substantial exhibit space

    high · Steve Beattie: 'The way that that show is set up, exhibit hall size-wise, it's as big as Expo...The new Expo has more pinball, in my opinion. But, yeah, if you get a chance and you're in the Atlanta area...that's great.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Long-time online community members meeting in person at Southern Fried Gaming Expo, including Lord of the Ring Breath and Lucas Pepke

    high · Steve Beattie: 'I met Lord of the Ring Breath...I had never met him before...I met him for the first time after just knowing him for years at Southern Pride Gaming Expo'

  • ?

    product_concern: Eye injury sustained during Gottlieb Shaq Attack disassembly when speaker panel corner struck Steve's eye, causing bloodshot vision and requiring eye doctor visit

    high · Steve Beattie: 'the corner of the plastic hits my eyeball...so i'm like pulling up...just all of a sudden...square shot in the eye...It was on the very corner on the edge of it...It looks like terminator 2 going on there'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Established multi-person moving systems and protocols for transporting pinball machines, with discussion of safety concerns and physical strain

Topics

Summer vacation experiences and family timeprimaryPinball machine moving and injury preventionprimarySouthern Fried Gaming Expo attendance and experienceprimaryPinball Expo raffle and charity fundraisingprimaryCommunity meetups and personal connections at pinball eventssecondaryBaseball stadium experiences and ballpark culturesecondaryCollector market and machine tradingsecondaryWeather patterns and seasonal changesmentioned

Sentiment

mixed(0.45)— Episode opens with disappointed tone about vacation letdowns, ice cream revelation, and weather disruptions. Shifts positive when discussing pinball community interactions and Expo announcements. Contains genuine humor and camaraderie among hosts despite discussing eye injury and physical strain from machine moving. Overall nostalgic and reflective rather than celebratory.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.172

0:00
coming at you out of st charles illinois the special when lit pinball podcast starts now hey what's going on pinball land welcome it's episode 97 of special when lit podcast episode 97 with me today bill webb and steve beattie what's going on guys what's up what's up how's everybody summer yeah it's the summer blues concluding summer right now as we record this
0:30
middle of august uh temperature starting to swing a little bit into the uh in the negative direction but in a nice pleasant direction uh school has started for those that are going back to school and it's just kind of one of those uh in a lot of ways for some parents probably exciting because the kids are going back to school but in a lot of ways it's a little depressing because summer has passed us by and steve it probably doesn't affect you as much because why it because we have no kids but no kids right but it summer did go quick um it's going quicker than it
1:03
normally does i don't know oh the summer drags you thought oh i thought it went by super fast oh super fast but i'm outside a lot yeah so what do you do in the summer where it dragged or what are you not doing i should say work was crazy um the wife and the kids are home and my wife's a teacher right right so the thing about this is people don't understand like my schedule might not have changed like i still have to wake up at five to go to work but then you know you get the proverbial oh it's nine o'clock at night the kids should be in bed oh i forgot we have to do bath
1:36
night great this is just lovely and then you know 10 30 rolls around aren't we going to spend time together it's like dude it's like i'm still on work schedule you're not a teacher no right so i I mean, no. Actually, that's a big difference in Bill's life. It is a big difference. Oh, but this gets better. The teacher and the kids. Wow. Everyone's on vacation besides Bill. Payback. This is payback right here. So literally, ding. Ding. Summer might be ending. Some things are not. So, you know, most of the summer I would be up to like 11, 30, 12 o'clock because, you
organization
Southern Fried Gaming Expoevent
Pinball Expoevent
Texas Pinball Festivalevent
Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
Lurie Children's Hospitalorganization
Truist Parkvenue
Wrigley Fieldvenue
Kilwin'scompany
Shaq Attackgame
Medieval Madnessgame
Godfathergame
Flippin' Outorganization

medium · Bill and Steve discussing systems for moving machines: 'You and I one time moved three machines out of a basement in under one hour...You and I have a good system for that. We got a system.'

  • ?

    collector_signal: Courtney Bowman reentering collector market after selling entire collection, purchasing Shaq Attack for tournament practice

    high · Bill: 'He sold all of his pins, and he's starting buying pins again...He wants to play it...He's playing tournaments, and he needs practice...he needs something at home to play on.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Lucas Pepke identified as operating under multiple online identities (Macho Pinball, Puppet Pails) and collaborating with SWL hosts over years

    high · Steve: 'somebody that we all know that we've all been friends with...had multiple uh identities uh a couple of them hidden lucas pepke uh macho pinball puppet pails'

  • ?

    venue_signal: Critique of modern Truist Park as corporate and lacking traditional ballpark charm compared to historic venues like Wrigley Field

    medium · Steve: 'it just seemed very corporate, very stale, kind of almost like AI created what they thought a traditional ballpark should be like...The charm is missing of Wrigley'

    • 2:09
    know, spending time together, getting stuff organized. The kids are up late. Why do you come home and take a nap? because I'm getting four hours of sleep a night. So last night was the first night where you had to get ready for school because she's a teacher, and today was her first day with kids. So I come home after taking Maddie to some of her classes or whatever, and she's like, this was the longest day ever. I was up at 530. I can't believe you're leaving to go record a podcast. I'm like, ooh. Oh, that was today? That was today.
    2:40
    That was today. Oh, no. Yeah, and then she's like, Maddie's got a knot in her hair. And I'm like, okay, I'll take care of that. That's scissors. Good luck to you. Take that right out. No. No, no, no. No, dude. I've taken some shortcuts. I'm not. Go ahead. I don't. Whatever. So, yeah, today was a lovely day of payback. Good luck to you. Enjoy being tired putting the kids to bed. Yeah. Kind of is what it is. Well, and you've got kids, so you know the struggle. Sure, sure. We took our annual vacation to St. Joseph's, Michigan, which is kind of cool because it's
    3:11
    about two and a half hours from St. Charles, Illinois. uh you're driving up the coastline of lake michigan and you know you're not too far up past indiana but it's it's just it's a lot of nice beaches little towns um little places to kind of visit right right along the lake so there's this ice cream place that's in saint joseph's it's actually a chocolate factory and the ice cream and every single year we go there the one i don't i don't have a big sweet tooth thank goodness because i would be even more unhealthy than I am right now.
    3:42
    But I do look forward to going on this vacation to St. Joseph's. And as weird as it sounds, the Butter Pecan Waffle Cone at this place is one of those things where it's just like I look forward to it every year. Get in my belly. Right. Every year we go. We wait in the little line. We get our ice cream. We sit outside. It's a nice little area in downtown St. Joseph's. You get some drool coming off your – Do I? Okay. It's because of the Butter Pecan. So anyways, not to get too far down the rabbit hole on this one.
    4:14
    Same situation this year. We get there on a Friday night. It's a little bit too late to start a beach day, so it's like, let's just go down to downtown St. Joseph's. My whole MO is I want to get to that ice cream place. I want to eat my ice cream. We park. We walk. We get in front of it. I'm so happy. Everybody orders their ice cream in their cones. I get my butter pecan in my waffle cone. We go outside. It's sunset. The sun has just set, right, because we watched it off the lake. And it's kind of like that twilight time. But it's perfect there because you're watching the sunset on the west side.
    4:46
    I'm on the east side of the lake, so I'm watching the sunset over Lake Michigan, which you don't get that in Chicago. It comes up from the east. So it's like a California sunset. Correct. If you get what I'm saying. No, it's great. So I get my ice cream. Everybody hits their ice cream. We're sitting outside this place. Just the ambience, the setting, the temperature, everything's perfect. my son looks at me my son is who is now a senior in high school right and he's like dad he's like why do you look so happy and I was like I'll tell you what buddy I'm like one I love that we're on
    5:17
    vacation to kind of end the summer too I love the fact that you know I'm with the family and nobody's arguing because everyone's eating ice cream everybody's happy you can't understand but as somebody in my 40s to have this ice cream is something I look forward to every single year and it's a simple thing but I look forward to it and I go right now I'm experiencing that moment and I love it. He looks at me and he's like, you know they have one of these ice cream shops right here in St. Charles. I go, what? It's like Kilwin's? There's one
    5:48
    two miles from my house. The whole time I'm going two and a half hours to Michigan. A lot of the decision making in this vacation is at that ice cream place. There's one two and a half miles from the house. Then I go ahead and find out as I go to work because I'm telling this story. They're all over the place. This Kilwin's place, chocolate place, There's one in Wheaton. There's one here. There's one in Glendale Heights. It's like a – it's a chain that I thought I was getting like a one-of-a-kind experience in Michigan. So at this point, I don't think I'm going back to Michigan. I'm just going to go downtown St. Charles. You don't need to.
    6:18
    I'm going to eat that thing two and a half miles away. You can look over the Fox River. Take the kids at a water park. You can get your sunset, your twilight. The sunset's here. I can see it. Kill winds and you're good to go. So anyways, that was my major – so that whole thing, honestly, it wasn't his fault. kind of ruined the vacation going forward. So my vacation was a C plus. Then on the way back, and again, we'll get into pinball here, or will we? In a second, we're driving through Michigan City, which ironically is in Indiana, right? Because my wife was like, hey, let's hit the outlet mall.
    6:49
    Have you ever gone to the outlet mall in Michigan City? Michigan City is an interesting town. It's a little bit interesting. Okay. Yes. I have stories that will off air, but go ahead. Yeah, it wasn't what I was expecting. There's like this big thing that looks like a nuclear power plant, which I guess is not a nuclear power plant. It's right next to it. Something out of The Simpsons. Just vision. And yeah, it was weird. I felt like I was in like a Call of Duty map almost. Like something was just off. But, you know, we went there and some of the stores were not what I expected. So didn't have a good time at the Outwood store.
    7:21
    And we came back a day early because the weather was kind of crappy on that Friday. So anyways, enough of my complaining. Steve, what's going on? That was a mouthful for me. That's a trip. A lot of that was just kind of confessing and talk about something that was traumatic that had happened to me about the ice cream. Guilty pleasures. That's not guilty pleasures. Two and a half hours for ice cream? That's a guilty pleasure. A depressing outcome would be the segment. No, you know what? You spent time with the family, so it was still good. Listen, they weren't arguing. Sad expectations. They weren't arguing.
    7:53
    That's gold right there. In that moment in time, they were not. Oh, I'm sure. The 20 minutes before and the 20 minutes after. There's the car right there. Yeah, I love that once it was said that there's the ice cream locally, you went from the happiest man. It was gut-wrenching. Just to just. It was terrible. I'm not going to lie. It was really depressing. And then instantly, like, the butter pecan didn't really taste that good anymore. And it's like, do I even want to finish this? I didn't throw it out. You saw, like, a rat run through the store. No, but I'm hoping. So I'm going to go there. I'm going to go to St. Charles, downtown St. Charles here.
    8:24
    Again, two and a half miles from my house. I'm going to try this butter pecan at this Kilwins, and I'm hoping it just doesn't taste as good for whatever reason. It's not the same. I hope it doesn't. Go after you eat something and be full. Make sure it tastes terrible. Don't go there hungry. Yeah, that's a good point. No, no, no. Set that up for failure. But I assume if it's a chain, it's got to be like a Baskin-Robbins. That's an experience. That's more than just sitting in downtown St. Charles. A big part of the experience has been taken from me, Steve. It's still there. It's still there, but it's a memory.
    8:55
    experiences and now it's going to be a suppressed memory because of the damage that has been done after i realized that i've been traveling like 170 miles don't go eat it anywhere that's two and a half miles from my house good to go that's a little bit of an oversight yeah but you know what you can always find just a bit outside the corner and missed hey i have a i'm gonna add to that uh story in a minute but steve you've been voting you've been concert hopping you live the life yeah that's how much concert happened he's kind of like van life guy a little bit that was a good little episode there uh so my boating experience has been
    9:32
    kind of like ken's michigan experience oh they both they both been on lake michigan multi multi-day trips and the weather just didn't cooperate man like you know i got a boat full of eight people if there's two to four foot waves nobody wants to leave the harbor oh yeah for sure One day was like seven to eight foot waves. So you're not even going outside the harbor then. Yeah, right. But there was a Venetian night at this harbor. It was fun. It was cool. I don't know.
    10:02
    It's been a rough boating summer. Has your band played at all this summer, aforementioned? No. Everybody's been traveling and doing their own thing. So that's been slow. So I feel like your guys' summer just blew mine out of the water here. No, mine was pretty quick. Nothing really to speak of other than the disappointing Michigan trip. Yeah, I really have nothing to speak of either besides a couple. I mean, there were fun trips, but I couldn't take the boat up and down the shore like I wanted.
    10:33
    I did end up going with work. I went to Southern Fried Gaming Expo. It was the first time I ever had done that, and that was in August. And this is the pinball segment. Yeah, we'll talk pinball for just a couple minutes unless you've got something else you want to... I have a racing story. Yeah, okay. So we went to the Dells, which we used to go as kids, right? Like, 85, 88, that kind of stuff, right? We used to go to Noah's Ark. And then we'd go to this pizza pub place across the street. And like you, you know what? Like, this year I'd built it up in my mind. We're going to go...
    11:03
    We'd never been on the Ducks as a family, right? Even as a kid, my sister would say, oh, we went on a Duck ride. I don't remember. So the Ducks are old... Amphibious vehicles that drive in the... Yeah. So I'm like, every time we've gone there, we've never done this. So I'm like, I don't care what we do. I don't care... What is this? So they're World War II land slash... Okay. Or car slash boats that go in and whatever. So that was half my thrill to go do this. Then we went on the ducks and I felt like we accomplished that last journey that we needed to in Wisconsin Dells. Kids loved it.
    11:33
    Too much swimming. And I don't know. Like you, I feel like that portion of that vacationing is done. Yeah. We've accomplished everything that, in my mind, I think we needed to. Well, it's odd, too, because, and again, I don't want to beat a dead horse with this, but I had set in my mind this amazing getaway with the family for three, four days. It wasn't bad, but it was a little underwhelming coming back. I just felt like I didn't get the full experience. You left early due to crap weather, too.
    12:05
    Yeah, we left a day early because the weather was turning bad. We've been getting a lot of this around Chicago where the week is beautiful, and then the weekend comes, and then it just rains the whole weekend. This has been one of the oddest summers for weather. I mean, even going back to these Canadian fires that have been blocking the sun and the atmosphere and these really bad air quality days. There's all these things that are happening. Our sincerest best wishes and prayers to those that are right now dealing with everything in Hawaii.
    12:35
    That's crazy. I mean, there's just a lot of weird stuff going on right now. And the summer, it was just an odd summer. It was. I know you said it was a drag bill. I'm with Steve. Like, it seemed like it went by twice as fast as it normally did. And it wasn't because I was any more busy. It just seems like it flew by quicker. But I also do realize, like, the older that we're getting, it's like, for me, the days are longer, but the years are shorter, it seems like. And it really kind of messes with my head. You know, I remember as a kid going into summer vacation three months off.
    13:06
    I mean, it felt like you're off in adult. It's like a year of adult time. Now it's just like I felt like those kids were off for maybe a month, a month and a couple weeks. But it's the same thing with winter. Like, you know, like you start going to November, and it doesn't get as cold as it used to when we were kids, I feel like, up here, right? But you go into November, and it's like, ah, winter's going to be here, you know, whatever. You go through winter, and winter up here isn't really terrible. And before you know it, dude, spring is right around the corner. Once you get past the holidays, I mean, I feel like, dude, it's. Well, the problem is that the weather in Chicago is unpredictable from about the end of September to about the middle of May.
    13:43
    So it's like you've got half the year, which is just kind of messed up, and you can't really count on it. And this is where it was weird. The beginning of June, the grass was dead because we had no rain. Grass is a good point, yep. And now you better be on top of it or have a good mower. Dude, I'm mowing three times a week. I've never been in August where the grass wasn't just about completely brown. Yeah, right? That's a good point. Now it's thriving. And I know with your stripe life, you're loving that. Oh, no. You got that mower out. You're mowing it like it's Camden Yards out in Baltimore.
    14:14
    I don't have time to mow three times a week. He doesn have time to mow This guy This guy But yeah so I ended up going to Southern Fried Gaming Expo for the first time in Atlanta And it a pinball convention similar to what you would be at Texas Pinball Festival Always wanted to go to this one. Yeah, so me too, because I heard at the time, for years, hey, it's a growing show, growing show. I got to tell you, I went down there, and the way that that show is set up, exhibit hall size-wise, it's as big as Expo.
    14:44
    And it's really like the same kind of two rooms with the divider. Yeah, I've seen pictures. It's looking really similar to the new Expo. Yes, it does. It's just like the new Expo. The new Expo has more pinball, in my opinion. But, yeah, if you get a chance and you're in the Atlanta area or if you want to go down, that's great. There's a 10-minute walk from the hotel where that convention is because we stayed in the hotel. You're at Truist Park, which is where the Atlanta Braves play. so myself and uh you know my work colleague uh mike fox we walked over and we caught a couple
    15:18
    innings of a braves game uh one of the beer vendors there recognized we had our jersey jack pinball shirt on he's like hey jersey jack pinball so we were talking to him for a little bit and he's like uh hey do you guys want to buy a beer he's like yeah i'll have a beer so he uh he charged us for waters and was able to give us a beer so we got nice we got beers There's a Truist Park, just one, I think for $425, $475. But I might take a lot of hate for this. I'm a baseball guy, purist. I love the ballpark atmosphere. I love walking in and experiencing a new ballpark for the first time.
    15:51
    Not really so into the Truist Park experience. Like outside of the park is amazing, very touristy. There's a lot of like fan experience stuff going on. But when I went into the ballpark, it almost seemed very – and again, this is just my opinion. So don't take it. Go experience the ballpark. I'm not telling you not to go. But it just seemed very corporate, very stale, kind of almost like AI created what they thought a traditional ballpark should be like. It's beautiful. It's clean. But it doesn't capture that essence of baseball that I'm used to.
    16:23
    And I think a lot of that is, you know, we're spoiled because we can get we can get up, go to Wrigley Field at any time. But Wrigley Field has. All right. You've never been to the Brewer Stadium either, though, right? As crazy as it sounds, I've not been to Miller Park yet. Okay. To our friends to the west. North. Right. Ken's compass spins a little funny sometimes. Right, it's a little bit. Yeah, it's got tired over summer. But if you go to that park, dude, it's beautiful. Yeah. It's modern, and you've got the dome, so you're not going to have bad weather.
    16:56
    Right. But the charm is missing of Wrigley. you know the weird smells the violence outside of the stadium right it's it's a different experience going directly it totally you make it back you're like well i've done something here today i have survived this each one is their own right but man i do love that experience even like a small bar ballpark like like our local cougars theater yeah king county cougars you walk in you know you get all the the food smells you're walking by all the vendors and
    17:26
    And then you just peek through and you see the field and you're like, man, this is so cool to be here right now. Perfectly said. The first time you can peek into a ballpark for the first time. It's just for somebody like a concert or like, oh, my gosh. But I think of the three of us. Amazing. We can appreciate like a well manicured lawn or I mean, nothing is better than Major League Baseball. Yeah. As far as like how that grass. I just got goosebumps. That infield dirt, like the chalk lines. It's just perfect.
    17:56
    Perfect. So to look inside of a ballpark is one of the most impressionable experiences that I can think of just from that aspect. But, yeah, again, I was a little let down with Truist Park, and I went in there with the best intentions. You've got to go to Brewer Stadium. That will really put into the perspective of what it is. Sure, sure. But Wrigley's got so much soul and charm and the history there. So it's not – And there's been a lot of renovating that has gone on in Wrigley Field, too.
    18:27
    So it's not the same Wrigley Field that I grew up in. No, no, no. No, everyone loved the trough from back in the day. Yeah. No, it's for the best. The trough. For the most part, it's for the best. Fun fact, I was at the Cardinal Stadium while they were building it, and I was standing at home plate. That's pretty cool. Yeah. Didn't actually see a game there, so I should preface that. Right, right. Three and a half, we'll call it. Three and a quarter. I'm sorry. I have a tickle in my throat. Here, pause it. We'll take it. I'm good. Oh. As you need to know. Well, we could take a little break.
    18:59
    How many minutes do we have? 25 minutes of... Here, pause it for a minute. The shitty vacations. No! 25 minutes of disappointment and letdown. Here, pause it. Only on Special Win Lit Podcast. Pause it. I'm going to burn one. Pause it. Are we pausing it? Yeah. All right. You know, so one thing that I wanted to mention, meeting the people... You know how it is. You meet these people at pinball shows, and it's just fun. A lot of times you know a screen name or a Facebook post person or a pin side ID,
    19:32
    but you don't really get a chance to get a face with a name. You know Lord of the Ring Breath. I'm sure this guy is still around watching your Flippin' Out streams. No? Yes. I met Lord of the Ring Breath. Oh, no, he has. At Southern Pride Gaming Expo. In the flesh. Nice. I had never met him before. I thought that was cool because he was back around when we were streaming originally back in the days for Flippin' Out and for Special Win Lit and stuff like that. So it was cool to meet that guy. Our buddy Wes Bentley was there, so he was in there early.
    20:04
    He was actually kind of not helping us, but he was helping some of the show set up briefly, and then he was kind of getting an early VIP access to the area. Always good to see Wes. We see Wes at Expo and Texas Pinball Festival. Wes is a great guy. You know who else I met down there? and this is funny because this is somebody that we all know that we've all been friends with for a long time somebody that we realized had it was had multiple uh identities uh a couple of them hidden lucas pepke uh macho pinball puppet pails now lucas has come in and he's helped us out
    20:35
    you know going by for a while well not even helping out we go back so far it's it's just to say we were friends first but you know he's he's a creative guy he and he likes to collaborate on different ideas. He's a lot like us where it's like he gets a lot of ideas in his head and he's going in one direction and then something else takes him somewhere else. So if you look at his work that he's put out, it's amazing. But if you look at some of the work that he has yet to kind of finish, he's formidable in any content
    21:06
    creator space. I'll put it to you that way. But I met him for the first time after just knowing him for years at Southern Pride Gaming Expo and I met his wife Talia and their kids. He's got a beautiful family and it was great just to be able to kind of hang out but it was great meet you at southern fried gaming expo and bill and i will meet you in soon eventually and soon in person so it sounds like you had an awesome time at the show though um you're looking forward to going back next year oh don't forget expo right around the corner too yeah expo's coming up in october it's our favorite show or at least it's my favorite show it's our local show we've done a
    21:38
    lot over the years to support it the three of us so it's it's great working with rob burke and the family and the whole team over at Expo. Jersey Jack Pinball, this year we are going to be giving away a Godfather. That's kind of cool for us. This has not really been out there or promoted yet. The way that we have this worked is we're going to be bringing a Godfather, a brand new in box, LE, to Expo. You'll be able to buy a raffle ticket. 100% of the proceeds are going to go to Lurie Children's Hospital in the city. We're not going to give them a pinball machine.
    22:08
    We're going to just give them the proceeds for the raffles. Very cool. And let them kind of figure out what's going to make sense for them to benefit the children and the families and the staff and all that sort of thing. So there's going to be more coming out on the Jersey Jack pinball socials with that. Nice. Well, it's also been a slight summer of pinball. I know we've all kind of slowed down with pinball in general. But, Steve, I know you've got an interesting story about a pinball move recently. Yeah, so I've dialed back personally. You know, just doing the boat and stuff and, you know, taking care of the yard and painting.
    22:41
    but I hope our good buddy Courtney Bowman pick up a Shaq attack. It's pinball, it's fun, and it was a really good deal. Bill can attest to this. If I wasn't crazy, I would have been giving it a whirl. It's a Gottlieb. Yeah, long story short, I offered to help Bowman move this machine. It's only 20 minutes from my house. Not a big deal. I'll meet him there. I'll bring my dolly, all the tools to break it down and whatnot. I get there, he's already got the game, you know, the glass off, the balls out, ready to go.
    23:17
    I grab the, I guess where the DMD comes out. The speaker panel. I pull that up, and I'm kind of like leaning over it, and the only thing that, well, the whole thing comes off, and then the plastic pulls up, and it comes off the entire speaker panel, and the corner of the plastic hits my eyeball. oh no so i'm like pulling up you know this you know couple pound thing and just all of a sudden just which like square shot in the eye square shot not the eyelids shut and a little no no time for
    23:50
    eyelids to be shot oh man so yeah that's uh it was it i was like oh my gosh you know just what happened did you lose well i just have some blurry vision was there blood it was just a watery eye and i kind of just tapped my eye and i was like oh a little blood there not a big deal was the blood coming from the eye or let's keep let's keep moving the eye i don't i didn't know yet right so i'm like let's just we'll keep moving like my eyes watering just a little bit a little we'll just soldier on a little blood in the corner i think i just saw it i think you just looked yeah i see some bloodshot and it's still oh this is so this is three weeks later right uh
    24:24
    that you're seeing that i'll show you the i'll show you the picture um so we get it out and then i'm like i get in the car and i'm like i look to my right i'm like it looks like terminator 2 going on there that's my eyeball you know so scary um but i could still see it was on it was on the very corner on the edge of it and the white but it was you see that going on in your eye like that's concerning yeah the eye is a very vulnerable place if you think I've never really had eye damage, per se.
    24:58
    So what a weird pin injury. I've moved, I don't know, over 100 pins, and that was just a weird thing. But it was nice. And not your back, though. That's scary. Bill and I are talking, like, if we move a pin again, are we going to bring some safety glasses? Yeah. We've had this. I think you said that you've gotten this, too, where, like, you're doing a two-man move, like bringing a game up or down stairs, and you've got to hold a game in place. and then all of a sudden it feels like a heart attack is starting to hit you right in the chest. Do you ever get that? I get that.
    25:28
    I get the tightness. And it feels like a muscle is going to tear. My lower back is not doing the best because of the pinball moves. Well, so this is the other thing. You and I, we haven't moved a lot of pins together, but you and I have a system. And you and I can NASCAR stuff. You guys are really taking the brunt of it. It wasn't even the system, though. It was just taking the speaker panel off. Oh, yeah. And then this thing just kind of fell apart, and I'm pulling up and looking down, and it just...
    25:59
    I've never heard of that. And those things are sharp as shit. Yeah. Like, I just... Gottlieb wasn't too worried. I wasn't too worried, but I went to the eye doctor. That's crazy. What did they say? How do you explain that? It's like, what happened? You know what? You're not going to believe this. It really was. They're like, how did you get damaged by a pinball? They're like, did you hit it? They're still making those? Did you scrape it? I'm like both at the same time. Yeah. Like, I don't know. You know what's the crazy one, though, is you and I one time moved three machines out
    26:33
    of a basement in under one hour. That was. Assembled machines, not just. And I think that was back to my house. Yeah. No, no. But out of the basement, one hour, three machines. You and I have a good system for that. We got a system. So that's the other thing, too. Like when you're moving something with somebody that you're not accustomed to moving stuff with, you always run into an issue. You know what I mean? And you hate being up top, and I love it, and you'd rather be at the bottom, and I hate that. So, whoa, whoa, hey.
    27:03
    What is – We're talking about pinball moving here? What's Corey doing with Shack Attack? Because this is the guy that I know had like Medieval Madness, Ali, like all these high-end pins. Is this like a flip project for him, or what is he doing with Shack Attack? He wants to play it. Yeah, he sold all of his pins, and he's starting buying pins again. Okay, okay. So he's getting back in? Yeah, I got you. Getting back in. Interesting. And he's playing tournaments, and he needs practice. That's good. He needs something at home to play on. Yeah. Is he doing tournaments too?
    27:35
    Oh, yeah. Have you guys, and we don't need to talk about tournaments, not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's like have either of you guys ever entered a tournament since, I mean, I don't recall. Not one. Okay, I haven't either. since i got into pinball i'm not in the ifpa or no i i'm not i think it's cool i mean it's just not my not my bag my problem is is the time if i had more time if the kids were older and they didn't you know they whatever then i would think about hey i'll go out on a monday or a friday night or whatever but there's just not a lot of time i'm competitive by nature for me it's like
    28:10
    i don't want to go out and associate like pinball with something that it's going to add stress and when you're a competition in any level of competition if you're competitive um whether no matter how confident you are there is a certain level of of stress and stress management that goes on with that i don't want to go out to a bar and and be worried about how i'm going to perform and and quite frankly i'm the type of guy that if i'm going to go out and play pinball i'm having a couple beers and i probably not playing at peak anyhow you know i don get sloppy but in there you know two three beers in and there like that little sweet spot and then very quickly you realize that you past that sweet spot There only a handful of times that I ever been pissed off
    28:48
    where I literally was like ding. Nicely done, Bill. Very nicely done. That I was so aggravated that it was a competition, and I didn't care what, I was winning this damn game. Only a handful. Other than that, I could go to a... It's a little bit different. If you're playing a buddy or we used to do the we see the pin crawls around here because on my block in St. Charles neighborhood, we had like seven or eight guys that all had machines and four, three or four of them were on my block. So we set these tournaments up where it's like, let's go to everybody's house and play all their games and do like a high score contest.
    29:23
    That was fun. But even that I didn't take like completely serious where I wasn't like reading up on rules. Oh, not at all. And preventing myself from, you know, consuming an alcoholic or adult beverage. Like I was just hanging out. in that kind of capacity i think it's it's fun for me i i respect somebody's mindset and their ability to really dedicate to the tournament scene um it's just not anything that i'm just not i'm not cut out for it i'm not cut out i'm just not and around us you got to travel to go
    29:54
    to most of this oh sure i mean if you look at some of you're looking at logan that's an hour and 30 minutes not even that like if you're competing monday and you need these whoppers to stay in these rankings i mean these guys they're calling all they're like athletes right yeah they're they're taking a trip to atlanta then they're in uh los angeles one weekend then they're up here in chicago and i'm like then they're going to like toronto i'm out the prizes can be lucrative at some of these things right no doubt machines cash and things like that but uh yeah i don't know it's it's just a it's a side of the industry where i respect it or side of the
    30:26
    hobby even uh it's just not anything that i've really ever dabbled in and i and deep down inside I think that if we ever had a taste of it, it would become addicting where we would probably want to continue. I don't have time to continue. I think we should just do one and just get in the IFBA, get on the list. Just get in there. Be a part of it. And then we'll do it every week after that. What if you just went in there and you became like a top ten world-ranked pinball player? I would definitely not be a part of that. I think Ken would have a chance, though. Yeah. Ken plays a lot more pinball.
    30:56
    Me? No. Courtney plays a lot of pinball. I'm sure Courtney plays a lot better. I don't really. But I think between us three, you've always kind of been the better player. He has. Yeah. If it's Adam's family, you guys are smoked. If it's Adam's family or High Speed. Yeah, or High Speed. High Speed I got, or Terminator maybe. I might have a chance. I think we all have similar skills. I don't think so. I mean, I appreciate you saying it, but for me, it's such a to be able to understand so many
    31:27
    rule sets and their complexities to be able for instance you know the pins that you guys all that you've played you know high speed for you Bill and I don't know what's a pin that you're just totally familiar with. Fishtails for Steve. Maybe it's Twilight Zone for me right? Then all of a sudden you're in tournament and say hey you're playing Shack Attack like oh my gosh I don't have any time on Shack Attack, but these guys know the rules. It's stored in their head. They know where to, I don't want to say exploit
    31:59
    scoring, but maybe that is proper. They know how to capitalize. Oh, 100%. And shop wood if they need to. I know there's a lot of effort to make sure the games that are in tournaments are going to be fun and not exploitable, but it's like a big part of the tournament scene, if you're competitive, it's getting that advantage, that scoring advantage. Because that fine line with encoding toward tournament players and toward home players. Sure. And that's interesting that you say that. And I don't want to learn how to play a Hollywood Heat for points. That's true, too. Some of these titles, there was a millionaire that popped up.
    32:30
    I was going to send it to you. Today, Bill. It's just popping right down, Bill. I was going to send it to you, Ken, being like, Ken. That was not a bad deal. It really wasn't. It was like $1,200. The parts alone are worth that. I think I got that other one for like $600, and it was in really nice shape, and I sold it to Chris. I think I plunged two balls in that, and I was like, no. I didn't even finish the game. I was like, this is just not for me. Again, just not for me. There's games, though. Well, you know, that's all right. We can go down a whole other road. Here.
    33:00
    The other thing with the tournaments, though, I think there's some of that in both of you guys, too. I am not a scoring-driven player when I'm playing pinball machines. I'm trying to get into the different modes in the wizard mode or the mini wizard mode. I want to see the light shows. I want to see how a programmer has approached my personal pinball experience with each motor or on each game. That's a lot more exciting to me than unlocking a 20 times multiplier or something like that.
    33:33
    I mean, that's kind of cool if it happens. It's kind of like half and half for me, though. If you get that dub between you and your buddies, all the better. Oh, sure. Okay. I get it. But to see a lot of the game and go for those modes and do some cool stuff. that's not necessarily point-driven. I mean, I've had games come in and out of here where, and it's been rare, but it's happened where the preset high scores, I never even broke them. Yep, I've had that. And I'm trying to think. Millionaire.
    34:06
    Is it Star Trek The Next Generation? There's like one game that has like the most ridiculous preset high score. That you're like never going to hit. Where it's like, who did this and why? All right, Star Trek was Joe's game, though. And Joe would play and smash the crap out of that. So you weren't touching that, dude, unless you literally put your time in. I think it was like Dwight's initials were like the preset high score or something. There was something that was so unobtainium. But it could have been. Or unattainable, I should say. Yeah, but Star Trek is weird. It's got like four different, you know, honor roll for captain and this, that, and the other.
    34:40
    Yeah, it's so convoluted. It's, yeah, whatever. Cool stuff, though. It feels good to talk about pinball. It feels great to talk about pinball. Speaking of not pinball. I just bought a skee-ball machine. Oh, man. I like skee-ball. And I'm already listing it for sale because I realize I have no room for a skee-ball machine. How long is it? I think it's like 12 feet total. It might be a 14. It's big. Don't take up a wall in your garage.
    35:11
    It needs the new carpet on the alley. I'm like, I don't have time for this. That's pretty, I mean, have you played it? Are you liking it? Yeah. Because that's the thing with skeeball, you get in there. I feel like 20 games into it, I'm like, this is cool. And it's still kind of cool. But I need, like, it's kind of like darts. Right. You don't want to just play by yourself. Yeah, I get that. Yeah. Yeah, so. Hmm. You guys want to come over and play skeeball? I would like to come over and play skeeball, actually. We should probably play some skeeball before ourselves. Are you the type of skeeball guy where you're going for the corner shots, or are you trying to go for the center? Mostly corner. Corner. That's the most lucrative spot
    35:41
    But I can hit that center pretty nice too Have you ever gotten to a skee-ball tournament? Like the skee-ball tournament scene? No Not me neither No, just a couple times at the bars back in the day You know, obviously See them tickets come out of that thing Yeah Who's got the ticket dispenser? Yeah I don't know if it works, but When I was younger, there was something absolutely to be said for redemption And playing skee-ball was one of those things where it's like Hey, I got like 10 tickets Then you go to something else and like 900 tickets come out of it And it's like, eh, maybe I'll pass a little bit on the skee-ball but it's it's fun we're going for the luck game there people is like for especially for younger
    36:14
    kids that like they're not really going to get into bowling as much it's it's kind of like a more approachable bowling type uh yeah game for kids but i do it's like a kid game but also an adult game like kids aren't throwing darts really right right but it's a whole nostalgia thing you know throwing that remembering when you were a kid playing at your local arcade center there's still some there's a there's a lot of skill involved in i'm not saying there's no for sure yeah i'm just saying like dude just that whole nostalgia of for sure and that's the the heart
    36:46
    strings getting pulled out just the sound the sound when the wooden balls are released and they all kind of crash into each other at the bottom where you're on here now it's my turn that's cool because you hear it yeah i like that yeah that sound is probably almost as rewarding the game itself. Yeah, because it's like, hey. And that was one of those games too. Pinball, you start, you have three balls. Ski ball, you throw three or four and you're looking and it's like the barrel's still stuck. It's like, man, I think I got like a hundred of these balls
    37:17
    I'm going to toss on this lane. Yeah, it's cool. I do want to play. Is it assembled? It's assembled. Alright, so it's not like in pieces? No, I figured it out. I bought it in pieces. Let's do Ski Ball Night. Somehow I figured out how to get it to work. You should stream Skee-Ball. We could do that. That'd be crazy. Monday. Maybe not on Flippin' Out because he's not selling Skee-Balls. I don't think Zach would buy it. Yet. Oh, okay. He likes that? I think he'd find it. If he was. Maybe he is selling Skee-Balls.
    37:48
    I don't know. I'd rather buy a brand new Skee-Ball than this. You have a project you're working on or something, right? So it's funny being pinball people, right? because we've grown to appreciate a buyer and a seller relationship or a seller-buyer relationship, right? Somebody has a pinball machine, you make them an offer, they say, sure, they say, you know what, it's not going to work this time. No problem, no hard feelings. And even if the price is in the ballpark, you say, hey, let me come out and take a ride, and nine out of ten, once you set that up,
    38:19
    you're going to go take a look at said machine or whatever item in that realm you're going to go look at, arcade game, whatever. With the intent to purchase. If it's as described and with the asking price, I would assume. Correct. Now, there's other variables and condition is eye of the beholder and those different situations, right? But lately, I found myself in a situation that for days I was flabbergasted, just absolutely beyond the realm of understanding of sales.
    38:51
    so when i sell something somebody sends me a message i try and be prompt i try and be descriptive i would rather sell something and um under promise over deliver it's easy that way you don't you don't do the one or two word replies like you're way too bothered to reply to somebody who is trying to ask about purchasing your game those are yes and when there's etiquette involved has buying questions right is it shopped out are the flippers been rebuilt those are buying
    39:21
    questions right right so but if somebody asks you that you wouldn't like to reply with a with a letter why i say listen you know what why don't we have a quick five minute phone call because and for me i do that for two reasons number one i'm not typing out a short novel i do appreciate the phone calls as well number two you can understand where somebody's coming from number three if they're an entry-level person to just looking to get into the hobby you can gauge that and say hey listen these are the things you need to look out for you know even tell them you know
    39:51
    and being a good person you'd say hey i don't think maybe a twilight zone is a great first game if you're not mechanically inclined right you know guide them right that's not maybe great salesmanship but it's it's it's good people you know it's being a good person yeah you're trustworthy and you're not looking to take advantage of somebody no no sure and the other thing is you don't want to be in the hook of being uh customer support on a game that somebody's getting in over their head on that's terrible too correct especially something with you know a lot of complex moving parts for sure yep so recently i had this desire to buy a third automobile
    40:27
    okay bill's desire corner which one is this because i've known you for years and there's been at least a couple third hang on bills ken can you guess like uh name off like three that i tried i'm trying to remember i think one was like a like a white camaro that was one that was one uh there was there was the blazer right what color also white yes and then there was and then there was uh um
    40:58
    oh man i don't recall at that time uh probably a vet yes yes okay yes a dream would be like an Eleanor or stuff like that. I don't have 120 grand laying around, right? Okay, right. So recently I'm like, you know what? I have all these pinball machines. I don't play them as much. I don't need as much as I have right now. And I have a lot of really good titles, right? So I'm like, you know what? A couple of these I could let go to fulfill another dream, right? Like the gazebo or a boat, right?
    41:29
    So I got on my mind, found three cars that I liked, messaged all three. One was a 97 Camaro. Anniversary edition. Ah, Camaro. There we go. White interior. Nice car. That's good with the kids. Oh, yeah. I didn't care. I was buying it for me. You know what I mean? That's fair. Under the condition that it's an automatic. Whatever I buy, it's got to be an automatic. Okay. Number one, so Jamie can drive it in case we ever need a third car. Number two, if my godson or my nephew or anyone wanted to borrow it,
    42:03
    hey, I'm going to Lake Geneva for dinner, dude. Or hey, I'm going to prom. whatever you know for sure you know but my rule is is i want it to be a safer car with airbags at least and automatic so you know lessen the chance okay um sony who the second one was a 96 mustang gt nice white surprise surprise convertible convertible black top nice okay i'm in cobra And then I started doing some more digging.
    42:34
    Do you know what a saline Mustang is or no? I do. So I was like, you know, I wish they made a saline and an automatic, right? I really wish they made this car an automatic. So I dug for days and days and days, and I found out that there were some that were made in an automatic, but you had a special order. Right? So a red one's not going to work for my purposes. So I literally find ding a white 97 black interior automatic with the tonneau cover Beautiful looking car Message all three guys I like all right one of these cars I would be happy with
    43:12
    My favorite would be the Saline, right? I don't need it. It's absolutely a midlife crisis car, and I'm willing to embrace that. No problem here. And you're in buy mode at this point. You've made the commitment that you're ready to commit. I'm throwing numbers out. But with intent to buy. You're not talking yourself into this necessarily. How many miles? You're ready to go. It just needs to be the right transaction. I need to feel the right part. Money is almost burning a hole in a pocket. I have a dream. Let's fulfill this dream.
    43:42
    And it's a big decision. You're there in front of that car. You're probably going home with it. Correct. So out of all three cars, I literally messaged everybody, and I asked the proverbial buying questions. How's the top? How are the T-tops? Do they leak? how are the brakes, are the tires old, buying questions, right, last tune-ups, et cetera, you would think that they had gold and I should be privileged to give them money.
    44:13
    Yeah, that's bad. So the guy with Camaro, he was like, oh, well, I might be around next Tuesday. You might be? He's not asking like three grand for this car. Yeah. Okay, it's well above ten grand. Nice condition. I shouldn't have to beg you to buy it. That's the wife might want it gone price. And he might be around next Tuesday. Why do you have anything for sale if you can't commit to a time for somebody to come look?
    44:43
    But if you have the wife price up and I roll up. What is the wife price? What does that mean? The wife price could still mean he doesn't want it gone no matter what. So you priced it so ridiculously. But it was. You priced it not to sell. Yeah, kind of. But then you have somebody that wants it like a Circus Voltaire that's absolutely brand new, and you list it on a dare with a friend for a ridiculous amount, and it's sold 12 hours later, and you have regret. That happened to you, I believe. It did, but I honored my word because I listed it. I didn't want to, but I did.
    45:15
    So that gentleman flaked. The gentleman with the Mustang. When can I come look at the car? Three days go by. Is it still for sale? Were you just lazy? Are you older and you don't understand how Messenger works? Did you have all these questions and then you're like, when can they come to look at it? Yeah. That's when it's just like, can we hop on a phone call? If you don't have a communicative seller, it's like, what's the point? And I gave my number. Let's just get this off the bat. The funny one with that is he read my message, hey, when can I look it up?
    45:49
    But I could see a buyer coming in with a thousand questions and me just being like, you know what? This is going to sell regardless. I don't need to deal with this right now. But when I'm asking to come take a look at it. I can see that. I get it, but I'm also asking to come take a look at it. Yeah. So that listing went from. Maybe lead with that. Like $7,500 to $8,000. And then a day later, hey, you're still coming to look at this car? And I'm like. So we hijacked the price off?
    46:19
    Yes. What? I'm like, listen, you couldn't answer any of my questions. I saw that you read the messages. You have my number, and now you just raise it up? No. Right. Out of principle, I'm not, I can't do this now. Yeah. You've already. Kind of shysty. A little crummy. A little bit. So then the saline, which is not a, this almost doubles the price of, you know, it was not a cheap car. Right? So that said, I'm prepping myself for having this conversation with the wife.
    46:49
    Because I don't, you know, if I say I'm going to buy it, I'm buying it. I'll deal with the heat. I don't care. What is it, easier to ask for forgiveness instead of permission? I got full permission to go buy it. Okay, well. She was like, you know what, you know, whatever. If you want it, you never, she's like, cool. When can we meet up? Can we meet halfway? I'm going to bring you all cash money. Well, I'm not sure I want to sell it, no. This goes on for almost a week. You and I talked almost a week ago, and I told you about this.
    47:21
    So finally I got to the point, I'm like, if you want to sell it, call me. And we'd already had a couple conversations. I'm ready to pull the trigger. I've made a cash offer within reason to buy this car. Well, you know, yeah, yeah, no problem when I get home. Four days goes by. I'm like, all right, well, either the car's sold or he really didn't want to sell it. All right, a long ride home. I don't care so then last night he was like hey you know I think now I need to buy my wife a car so yeah maybe we'll entertain this
    47:53
    no when it's convenient for him now and my moral conundrum it was a digit of some sort so now my moral conundrum is do I buy this thing even though I don't need it yes and I would make a lesser offer than you originally had offered because now he's showed his cars. Now he's a motivated seller. He wasn't motivated before. Now he's motivated, and he knows that he's got a fish on. I would lower the offer price. I didn't come in.
    48:23
    That's exactly how I'd roll it. I came in about 10% lighter than what he was asking. Nice. Okay. I don't think that's ridiculous. It's respectable. 10 grand. That's within the Bill Webb 15% rule. I think it was acceptable. Yes. And he told me a couple of flaws with the vehicle. I don't care if this one, this was our high school car. That's your car. That's your car, bro. Yeah. You pulled up in this car. I saw a picture of it. That's Bill. Yeah. So I was, so I guess, you know, my, my rant of this episode is be a good seller.
    48:54
    If you list it. So what happened? Like what, what's going to go on with it? I'm still waiting to hear back. Got to tune into episode 98. That should happen before 2026. It should. Right. 27 at least. That'll be our Christmas episode. The Christmas episode. Or Bill pulls up with a red bow on the car. I just never thought. Giving it to his wife for Christmas. I never. The car he always wanted. She wasn't. She's not happy, but I told her I'm like, I'm buying it. He's not happy. I don't know. I can't figure out why.
    49:26
    I give Jamie a lot of credit, though, because. I pull a lot of credit. I give all of our wives a bunch of credit. Without a doubt. In anybody in pinball. Without a doubt. Or their husbands a lot of credit. Or if you're a couple that do pinball together, a lot of credit. Really a lot of credit. That's a good point. We're a different breed. We just really, really are. But, I mean, Bill, with you specifically, there's so many things that tie on your heartstrings that spark up the nostalgia.
    49:56
    And more times than not, the difference between you and me is, like, I will always wish that I had these things again. Bill just goes out and gets them. Oh, I love it. Some of the stuff that he's had, even the exact same item that he had when he was younger. You're talking about my skateboard. Yeah, it blows my mind. Your skateboard, your go-kart, all this stuff. But Phil's also done the Insta-buy and Insta-regret. Like, I'm going to sell this. Yeah, but it's part of the process. A handful of times. And I kind of just did this with the skee-ball.
    50:29
    Yeah. So I'm... I was hoping you still have it when you had the neighborhood party. I'm just saying, we're going to load that sucker right in the back of the truck. I mean, if you're bringing the truck, you're bringing some cash. You're bringing the crane machine. You're bringing the skee-ball. All right. Are you guys doing your epic Expo tailgate party this year? To be determined. Because if you do, the skee-ball would be a freaking cool thing to have. You know, they need to start figuring out these pinball shows in timing of the year.
    51:00
    Like, why are we having... Last year, we had some really crappy weather for Expo. No, we did for the day that we did the stream. And we usually do. No, because it rained. Yeah, it was in like the 30s. It rained a couple. It rained. I remember going to the beach. Expo's middle of October. The beach place. And it was just like, dude, that was two years ago. Can we not do like just early September where it's like guaranteed? It is kind of odd. Like in Chicago, it would be nice to be able to kind of maybe schedule it when you know the weather's going to be a little bit warmer. But I mean, it just kind of is what it is. I love fall, but Expo's been hit or miss.
    51:31
    I love fall too, but I don't want 30 degrees and rain. Yeah, no, I get it. Hey, last year at Expo on that Saturday, it was like 70 degrees out. It was a nice night. I know that because I was helping Zach move games at like midnight. And it was beautiful at midnight. Actually, you know what? I do remember that. But that Wednesday was cold. Wednesday through Friday was crap. Wednesday and Thursday was crap. Friday was okay. When did we go to the beef? I think that was two years ago. No, was it? It was two years ago. Joe Fox was in.
    52:02
    Joe Fox was in last year. Joe Fox was in. Yeah, that's a good point. Oh, that's right. I don't think I made it last year to your tailgate, but I was there two years ago. And Joe Fox was there. And Jerry Stellenberg was there from Multimorphic. Yep. Last year I brought Brett from Jersey Jack. Yep. That was a good night. Brett had some crazy stories. I was like, this is awesome, actually. Yeah, it was fun. Yeah. That was a good time. That was one of the, it was a great night.
    52:34
    See, I'm always going to be jealous because the year after the first time I think we did it, Billy was born and Jamie didn't get out of the house for an hour, was like pleading for your life, right? Yeah, right. And that hour was like special because like I didn't leave the house for six months when he was born. You had – The first year we did it was nuts. And that's when we met Mark Silk for the first time, right? And he came in. Yeah. But we had – Todd Tucky was in his garage. Yeah, it's like he was in the garage. Twins.
    53:04
    The twins. Kaz. That's right. Kaz was there. You had all the industry people that were local for the most part. We're all in that area, too. I do want to give a quick shout out to a buddy of mine who I know listens to the podcast. I'm actually going to have him on. I don't want to name names yet, but so he's on the coaching staff for the Chicago Bears NFL football team. An amazing guy that moved to the area here a couple of years ago. So I've had the fortunate opportunity to kind of get to know this guy really, really well, and we've just clicked.
    53:36
    A lot of good things in common, and we've been hanging out. Super nice guy. He invited us down to Chicago Bears training camp for a practice day in the friends and family section. And you go in, and you're sitting in, like, this little cabana, and it's all roped off. It was an amazing experience. Super nice guy, but big pinball guy and has an amazing collection of pinball machines. So what I want to do is I want to have him come on the podcast, talk about what got him into pinball. Not your typical boring interview. What's going on with pinball?
    54:07
    How'd you get into pinball? This guy's got a pretty interesting story. And to kind of tie it in with what he's doing with professional sports in the NFL and with the Chicago Bears, great tie-in for us. It'd be great to have him on. So I'm looking forward to that. Great. Absolutely. You know, we could do this, guys. This is kind of the summer recap episode going back into the fall. We'll pick up the frequency on the amount of episodes coming out. My eye is still healing. Steve's eye is still healing. Bill is still buying cars. Everybody is getting from depressed vacations. I'm still sad about my ice cream incident.
    54:40
    So next time we're going to be back, we'll have some updates on some of these other stories we'll bring back. Lucas, Pepkey will be joining us again hopefully with the retro roundup. Oh, my gosh. I miss those. We need Retro Roundup back, and then we'll go ahead and do a drain it or save it, which we didn't do tonight. This is just kind of like a back-to-school night for us, kind of getting back familiar with the hallways, so to speak, and back at the rhythm of things. But do you guys have anything else before we shut this one down? Drain it. Drain it or save it. Your guys' summer.
    55:10
    That's a good one, actually. I saved the family time. Work has been a little nuts. But you know what? Guess what? I'm going to save both because if work is slow, that's not fun either. I would rather be busy as busy can be. And it was a good summer for those key scenarios. Nice. I'm draining the summer. It went by too fast. There was not a standout moment in which I will proudly remember for the years going beyond. And I was disappointed with my ice cream incident with the stupid trip to Michigan.
    55:44
    And, you know, I'm starting to realize, like, as our kids get older, I'm telling you guys, I was like, I got my son's going into college next year. It's like, is this the last summer that I had spending vacation with him? I don't know, but I'm enjoying it. A little bit of a downer. A little bit. How about you, Steve? I'm going to save it, minus the, you know, we like to be on the boat and do a lot of outdoor things. I got a lot of good time with family and friends and some good memories that will last a lifetime. And that house was looking good.
    56:15
    In the end, saving it. I just want to go back and revisit mine based on what you just said, and I'm still draining my summer. The memories were there. There was not any standout moments. I got screwed over on the ice cream, and my son's moving away next year, so I'm going to drain it. If you want to go ahead and hit us up on social media, you can visit us at Facebook, Instagram. Twitter's not even happening, is it? It's not even Twitter anymore. It's X. I still need the X password. Right. You can visit us at SpecialWinletPodcast on Facebook,
    56:46
    SpecialWinletPinball on Instagram, And if you want to email the show, you can hit us up on Gmail, SpecialWindletPodcast. And TikTok is SpecialWindletPodcast as well. I totally forgot about TikTok. How's that going? Because last time we were on, you had three videos up that were trending. I think I got four. I have another one that I'm in the mix to. Yeah, but whatever. Keep it going, Bill. Come on. He's in the creative process. Keep that train rolling, baby. He's become the Steven Spielberg of TikTok. Oh, Timbald, my man. So we'll do it again for Steve Beattie and Bill Webb.
    57:16
    I'm Ken Cromwell. Everybody have a good morning, good afternoon, good evening. And don't forget to take some time out of your day and play some pinball. So long, everybody. Gotta go.