Armchair Anonymous: Extreme Weather

I'm Dax, Shepard, I'm joined by Monica Padman. - Hello. - Today we have extreme weather. - It is extreme. - The weather is extreme.

“You're gonna hear about some extreme weather.”

- I feel bad because when we first started,

it was gloomy here in Los Angeles, and I did call it extreme. - You thought that was, yeah, for the Sunday night. - You was a little sensitive now. I'm preparing all those choices.

- But I get this one's pretty safe to listen to. - It's a rare one. - And it's cautionary, Tale. - cautionary, Tale, and it's rat, oh, rat. - Oh, that's right.

- Give away. There's also rats. Please enjoy extreme weather. (upbeat music) - Oh, extreme weather.

- That is on brand ding ding ding ding. 'Cause it's gloomy out. - 'Cause it's so extreme out right now. - The sun's not shining, which is extreme. - It's giving me sad.

- Hello? - Ella? - Hi, sorry, it's so dark in here. - Yeah, so we didn't get a light in there.

- It was light when I could just see myself.

- Oh, is it 'cause I'm so gloomy out. (laughing) - Better. - Do you wanna crack your door to the closet, maybe? - We can see her a little bit of a better.

- Better? - Yeah. - Better, better. - I swear it was working. It looked perfect. - I would not think you were a liar, Ella.

No way. - Thank you. - And where are you? Other than a closet? - Yes, I'm in a closet in New Jersey.

- You get what in New Jersey. You get tornadoes, you get some hurricanes. - No, that's the crazy thing is like, we don't really get that much crazy weather. But I did get some crazy weather one night.

- Okay, and you appear to be very young to me. Can I try to guess your age? - Oh, please. - Okay, I'm going with 23 years old. - Ooh, 26.

- Oh, nice. - You're welcome. - Bonnie, what would you have said? - I'm really bad at getting. - 46?

“- Yeah, probably, like, you need to wait”

for these, I don't know. - I'm cutting there. (laughing) - Okay, so you're in New Jersey and were you born and raised there?

- Yes. - How far from the city? - Right now, I am living directly across from New York City. So, like, on the water, Hudson River, New York City is right there. - All right.

- You have the best view of New York. - Yes, love to look at it, hate to be there. - Oh, wow. - Oh, wow. - Remember when we had back and to not.

- And he said a lot of people there, like, fuck that place. - Yep. - All right, so walk us through your extreme weather. - Yes, can I say something really quickly?

- You can say at 90 things really quickly. - I started listening about two years ago and about a year in, I realized, I had no idea what you guys actually looked like.

- I mean, I promised to myself that I would never look

until I made it on the podcast. - One job. - My first time. - Wait, but you didn't know what DAX looked like. So I'm really bad with names, celebrities,

and I'm not a movie TV person. - She's also 26, right? In the last time I was on a TV show was six years ago, she was 20. - Well, 20's old enough to watch TV.

- To watch TV. Were you allowed to watch TV when you were 20? - Yeah, I was. - She was not to, but yeah. - I believe it.

“I think most 26 girls have no clue who I am.”

- This is so fun. What did you think we looked like? Be honest. You guys have dropped a lot of clues over my time listening, so I was able to put together like a pretty good picture.

But now seeing you guys, I can't remember how I pictured you now. - Well, also, would you agree? We're pretty derogatory about our own looks. So I guess you could also expect to see like a hunchback and a fucking troll.

- That is what she's saying. (laughing) - Oh, she's like, oh, she's like, oh, she's like a guy's even worse than you guys were saying. - And we're just not the opposite.

- You guys are more people that told me if you were to them. (laughing) - Oh, we'll write back at you. - Yeah.

All right, let's hear extreme weather. - Yeah, how let's talk about weather. - Okay, so just a really quick preface to my story is my parents have been divorced since I was very young. And my mom, she got an apartment, very close to my dad's house

about like a mile down the street, and she eventually bought a house, less than a mile away. So very fortunate, me and my sister growing up, my parents are very close in proximity, and they had like a really good relationship.

- Oh, really great. - So all around very close. So now my story takes place. It was June 2024, so not that long ago. - Around the time you started listening to us.

- Actually, pretty much, yes, which is crazy to think about. - So I had graduated college at the time. I was working full time, and I was living full time with my dad hanging out with my mom, going over for dinners when I could.

And my mom invited me and my sister over to watch the subway series, so the Metz Yankees baseball game. It was between a Tuesday night and a Wednesday night, they were playing both nights, and we opted to go over and watch on a Tuesday night.

We invited our boyfriends, all of us are really big, baseball fans. So like half of us are Metz fans, half our Yankees,

So we had dinner, probably played some sort of card game,

and then we all six of us got onto my mom's couch, and we huddled up, and we watched the baseball game. I don't really remember much of the night is very unadventful, fun night, Metz won. That's my team, doesn't happen often these days.

So good to look back at that. And then the next day, I'm working from home at my dad's house where I live, and I'm getting these weather alerts on my phone, nonstop. And I remember 'cause anything would trigger me,

when I was working at my last job, like the smallest things would kind of set me off, and my phone just kept alerting me like, severe weather warning, severe winds.

“We're in New Jersey, how crazy could these winds really be?”

30 miles an hour, like what's the peak? Actually, I don't think I even checked what the speed said. I was just like, who really cares? No rain, nothing, just strong winds. And I was like, okay, I just getting really annoyed.

And I decide after work, I'm gonna run to the store,

grab a bottle of wine, watch the second game with my dad

at his house. So after work, it was about like seven or eight PM, probably when I got off work, I run out to grab the wine, and I notice as I'm driving, it's getting really windy, scary, like you can feel it

in the car, I'm about to blow away in the parking lot, but it's still managed to get the wine and get home. And I'm telling my dad, like, this is crazy, and not that long. After that, I get a call from my stepdad,

and he tells me, very calmly, hey, so a tree fell on our house. We need you to come and grab the dogs, me and your mom are gonna go to the hospital. Oh my God, yeah, oh boy.

He was so calm that I'm so calm, I'm like, no problem. I like packed an overnight bag. I thought I was having a sleepover.

“I didn't know what was going through my head.”

I was like, sure, packed my laptop, my phone charger, the bottle of wine is coming with me. And Ella, the game hasn't started yet, or your mid-game when this phone call comes in. I haven't even turned it on yet,

so I got in my car, and I'm still there within 10 minutes, 'cause again, they're literally right down the street from each other, and I go to turn on the street, cannot get on the street, cop cars, ambulance, everything's blocked off, so I park a little bit down the street,

and I start running towards the house at this point. And a cop tries to stop means like, you cannot go in there, and I'm like, this is my mom's house, and she's like, great, you're here for the dogs. And I'm like, sure, whatever, just let me through, please.

So she tells me I can't go through the front door, which you can't see. You're looking at the house, and it looks like a bush ate the house. It just looks like a giant bush. - Do you immediately when he said a tree fell on,

did you know what tree? Was there a huge tree in the yard, where you like, oh, I bet it's that? - I wasn't even thinking about that, but like, looking back on it, yeah.

- You like, yeah, just I need my wine, I mean, my girlfriend, I beg you. - I was like so, no sleepover, so they let me go into the back of the house, there's like a back door, the dogs are in there, and they're not barking,

which is so weird for them, and they just look absolutely traumatized. It's pitch black in there, and it's like really dusty. And weirdly quiet, so I'm just strapping them up, putting their harnesses on, callers, leashes,

guiding them ready, and my stepdad comes into the back room. And he kind of feels me in on a tree came through the house, which I understood by that point, there's a massive tree eating our house, and that my mom was in the ambulance that just left, he's gonna go to the hospital

and he'll call me when he gets there. And he's still so calm, so I'm calm. I get the dogs back to my dad's house. We have to throw his cats outside, they don't get along. My dad's not thrilled about having his wife's dog.

- He's a dog, yeah, yeah, yeah. - I'm on the phone with my subdad, on and off all night. He's giving me more bits and pieces, like her head was bleeding, she got hit by the tree, that can't do the house.

- Oh, fuck. - But he's like, stay where you are, I'll keep feeling you in. So hours passed by at this point, and before I know it, he's calling me probably four hours from when this all happened, saying they're releasing her.

We're gonna go sleep at my sister's house, and I asked to talk to her, I was like, I'd like to speak to my mother, so he puts her on the phone, and she's very emotional, but she sounds completely fine. I'm like, I would love if you guys came to my dad's house

and slept here for the night, so I could see you, and know what's going on, I'd feel better, knowing you're here with me. So they agree, she convinces my stepdad, we're gonna go sleep at my ex-husband's house.

I clear out my bedroom, we had no guest rooms, so they take my full-size bed with their two dogs, and I sleep on the couch for the night. The next day, I'm waking up on my dad's couch,

which I never, ever slept on, I always slept in my bed,

“so I was already like unfamiliar, like, where am I?”

And all I see is my mom sitting at my dad's kitchen table, bandage wrapped around her head, my stepdad sitting to her left, and all my right is my dad, shirtless, pantless, and his boxers, absolutely disheveled, probably came down to grab a glass of water, not knowing.

His ex-wife, and he didn't even, he wasn't strong at all. - Okay, he wasn't strong at all. - I forgot to fill everyone in, like, there was law going on, so if he was completely unaware, that there were gonna be there, but he's serving them coffee,

and we go back to see the house the next day, and everyone's kind of filling us in on what happened. So my mom's side of the story is, she heard a very loud, like, cracking sound, and immediately ducked over, and shielded her in the dog,

- She was on the couch over a living room. - She was on the living room couch where we were all sitting the night before, and my stepdad was in a back room, and all he heard was, like, a really loud crash. Very scary, he didn't really know what was going on.

There were no lights, all of a sudden loud noise, and he ran into the living room where she was sitting,

and it was just the ceiling of the second floor

was caving in on, like, a 45 degree angle. There were, like, floor boards everywhere furniture knocked around. There's a huge tree, literally slicing the house, almost in half. So he had to, like, pull her out of, like, rubble, is pretty much what it looked like.

I got that point, her head was just profusely bleeding, and he had, like, pull her out, he pulled her to the back where there was in a second floor, 'cause he was really scared. The whole house was just gonna come down on top of them.

He was wrapping her head in towels, and she just kept bleeding through them. Oh, until the EMT's got there, they couldn't get into the house with the stretcher. So what they did is they did that thing at weddings,

where, like, you put someone on a chair, and you kind of, like, "Oh, my God, oh, I got a Jewish wedding."

“Yes, so that's how they got her out of the house.”

And at that time, she was conscious, but she was completely unresponsive, like, not responding to anything anyone was saying. And the cop, that was there at the time, like, he radioed in something along the lines of,

like, we have a fatality, you were like, she's not gonna make it. Oh, and my mom came to, I guess, in that moment, and was like, just tell the girls that I love them, get the dogs.

They get her into the ambulance, finally.

They get the bleeding to stop eventually. They're taking her to the hospital that has a trauma center. We love New Jersey, great hospitals, New Jersey, New York City. You gotta hit by a tree, that's where you wanna be.

Yeah, somewhere with the trauma center. Good one's here. Yeah. In the ambulance, they get the bleeding to stop, finally, and they clean her up, and they realize her head's not split open.

It's not cashed open. She has, like, some stuff coming out of it. There's clearly a gash in her head, but it's not nearly as bad as what they were expecting. They thought she was a goner, until they realized,

like, all she needed was some staples in her head. They cleaned her up.

“She had a concussion, obviously, but that was really it.”

And so we're very lucky and grateful that was it, but what beat up my mom, the most, was that if we had chosen to do the baseball game, the night after, we would have all been on that couch, and if you see the photos, there's a photo of all of us

sitting on the couch, and then the next photo is what that same couch looked like the next night. Okay, so now I'm flipping over the photographs, heavens, to Betsy's. Yeah, it's a tall skinny tree.

Okay, so here's the family in the house. It's a little bit of the hatch. Cut through the whole house. Wow. Okay, here's everyone on the couch, the healthy night,

night before, oh my gosh. It's just like rubble. You can't even tell what's going on in the photo of the night of my God. Yeah, I don't even know how to hold it.

What was the outcome of the house? Did it have to get torn down? Was it repairable? What happened? So the roof was completely unsalvable,

and the whole house had to pretty much be redone. It took like 14 months. And LA would have taken four years ago. My God, scary. Wow.

Yeah, it was really strong winds. The same night in New Jersey, another tree fell, and someone else got struck and passed away. My mom's feeling just guilt and just being so grateful. That is a lot of all.

Wow, strong winds. You can't take that lightly. Who won the subway series? Oh, the Mads one. Oh, yeah.

They won both games, actually. So is that actually my mom wanted? Oh, yeah. Oh, good. Yeah, so a push, a push sounds like a push.

Wow. Wow, wow, that's wild. LA was so delighted to have you as a listener. I particularly like that you have no clue what we look like. Yeah, that's so fun.

That's really fun. And now I'm just staring at you guys. And now I'm going to tell you guys on all the socials. Oh, my God. Wow, you're waiting for me.

Wonderful.

“This is kind of my technique to build Murray, right?”

Where I don't want to meet him unless he talks to me. Like I've been around him, but I won't talk to him. Right. And those plans don't work, but in this case, it works.

I know I'm shocked and never got leaked.

But this is great. Because now you can watch us on YouTube. You can do a lot of things. You can do this. We're all this up and up for you.

Like a million posts to go through. I was just waiting. It was lovely meeting. Yeah. Yes.

You two, could I just give a few really quick shout-in? Yes. Yes. Okay. First, to my mother, obviously, who I love dearly, and now she has to start listening.

Yes. Because it's you. She got me. I've been begging her. And you just interviewed Brandy Carlisle, who's like her favorite person on earth.

Oh, great interview. Perfect. Gateway for her. And then secondly, my boyfriend said he'd be really upset if I didn't give him a shout-out. And he started listening to you guys on his own, apart from me, pretty recently.

Oh, my gosh. He's like that. He's special boy. Very proud of him.

My friend Gia, who I haven't seen in a little over a year now, and I love dearly, and

“she has now pregnant with her first child.”

Oh, congratulations. Congratulations. Gia. Her own little armchair. Yeah.

I keep proliferating. Profraiting. More. Make more listeners. All right.

Well, we sent her. I loved all those folks. Yes. And then lovely meeting you. Lovely meeting you guys.

Thank you so much. Okay. Take care. Bye. All right.

Okay. I just thought of something. Okay. If you're born in the year 2000, you're so lucky. For math?

Yes. Because she's 26. So she was born in 2000. And two years ago was 24. And she was 20.

It's so easy. She was 24. She just has to remember the name. She has to remember her name. Her name in the year it was.

And she'll know exactly how old she is. So cool. Let's so cool. I do think that's really cool. As convenient.

Yeah. Yeah. And super cool, too. [MUSIC] Mark?

Hello. Hi, how are you? I'm doing great. How are you? Oh, so good.

I see that you're in a bedroom. Where is this bedroom located? It's in Winnipeg, Canada. Oh, a Canadian. Mark, I don't.

You'll care about this. But when we do armchair anonymous,

“it's almost like 50% of our callers are Canadian.”

I need an explanation for it. Because I don't think 50% of our listeners. Have you been to Winnipeg? Either of you? Not been to Winnipeg.

But they film a bunch. They're right. Is that where they film Fargo? It might be Alberta, but they do film a bunch here. For sure.

A lot of friends that kind of help in the industry. And then we hear about all the celebrities coming through. Sure.

It's always big news here.

Is it a mountaineer where you're at? No, it's the prairies. Right in the center? Oh, okay. To the best of my knowledge,

you've only had one Winnipeg guest on. Who? And it is such a small town here. I mean, it's 800,000 people. But that's my best friend's wife.

What? Wait. That was an armchair anonymous. She was a full on guest. Her name's Kate Bullard.

She's an author. Yeah. Oh, my God. Fine. Wow.

Small world. Small town. If you have another Winnipeg girl,

“I'll probably be close friends with them too.”

Exciting. That works. You know, every time we meet someone from Boston, which is several million people. Monica always says, you know, Ben and Matt. And they never do.

And they don't. But one day they will. But you need like people you love from Winnipeg. That way. I don't get to pick and choose where Ben and Matt are from fair enough.

No, you don't. Okay. So Mark, you have an extreme weather story. I do. Takes place two hours east.

Place called Lake of the Woods in Ontario. So we're in the prairies, but it's Canadian shield there. Like it looks the same as the miscocus. And this weekend, it was 2015, June. Lots of friends coming out for the weekend.

All of them are pretty close friends. Other than one friend of ours, Andrew is bringing a guy. Kind of plays in the story a bit. How big of a group is the group of people? So we are nine adults and my two children who are three and five at the time.

So Saturday morning, weather's gloomy. It's supposed to be a miserable weekend. We'll make the most of it. So we have breakfast on the dock in the rain under the roof. Weather clears up towards the end of that.

Let's go for a boat ride. Might be our only chance. The only boat that we have that works. It's my father's pride and joy. So probably has more hours like waxing it on the lift than in the water.

Well, summer, but I'm going to take it 26 foot in board in a work. But I hate driving. I do not want to fix it if I break it. Oh, those things. So we head out to friends place tried to just go for a boat ride 30 minutes east of that yet.

Huge lake goes down into Minnesota even you can go for hours in any direction. Wow. So we get there. We're going to take a scenic road back, but it starts getting a little darker. So we're going to go straight back the way we came.

So head and back halfway through that. It starts raining. So it's not a big deal. We're going to put the top up. We'll keep going.

Some people have been stating the front. We'll get wet. We'll dry off when we get back to the dock in a minute after that. Start tailing. Oh, worse.

That's painful. Yeah. So they're coming in. It's fine. But it's still.

We're just going to go back. We're probably halfway there. A minute after that, tailing so bad. Feels like it's going to smash the windows. It's a five or glass boat.

It just sounds way worse than it probably is. So we stop. And that's what I noticed. There's a cloud ahead of us. It's the whole sky.

Never seen anything like it before.

Never since. But it's like churning like a paddle wheel. Oh. Oh, no. Like a horizontal tornado.

Exactly. And it's greenish dark blue. Not an expert in that. Doesn't sound like something I want any part of. So we're going to turn around.

Oh, we're going to go back to the way we came.

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And we're going back to the way we came. And we're going back to the way we came. And we're going back to the way we came. But it does not really matter. We're cutting through it okay, but it's bad.

We're not getting away from it. So I realize at one point not only it's choppy, but that boat has high shoulders, but we're at a 45 degree pitch. So the water's almost swamming us on the one side. But there's like like granite cliff on the side.

So I don't have 50 years of piloting experience. So when do you're going to turn into it? Can't do it because there's a cliff right there. Jeff on the other hand is telling me to beach the boat. Because he's kind of freaking out.

But he doesn't know us well and he doesn't know me at all. So he doesn't know if I'm capable of like sustaining his life. And he doesn't want to die with people he doesn't know. So he's giving me a lot of advice. But great guy.

Chuff when I tell it told it a lot of times over the last decade to like fully experience again. The emotion that I was. I don't really fully remember. But I remember one thing.

And that's when the boat's sideways. I don't know what to do. We're pinned. The water is almost to us. And I remember thinking.

Okay, my kids are at my feet. When we sink. So I'm sure I was this was ending disaster. When we sink. I'm going to take those little handles on the back of the life jackets.

I'm going to grab them. I have to remember to swim backwards. So that we don't drown. Because the roof's up.

“I remember thinking like that's what I got to do.”

When this boat goes down which seemed like an inevitability at that time. But I'm standing here so I'm like talking to you. So we're okay. But tornado hits us. It goes right over us.

So I can only navigate on the GPS. So it's pitch black out. It's hailing so hard. I'm just looking at the GPS. And this again seems unreal.

But go to my grave swearing this happened. We're just going as fast as that boat will take us in one direction. And then on the GPS all of a sudden we're just like a top. Like we're going at 150 degrees. A diff like it's spying us.

So now we're going in a different direction towards where we can't go. So kind of like wind or down a bit. Okay, let's correct.

And then a second later again.

Oh, we're going in a different direction. And then wound it back. I've seen the movie Twister. That's my only experience with these things. But it's like where we I guess in the eye of a tornado or other two.

But I don't really know what it was. But then because I'm not very smart. Now I assume it's past. We'd realize this later. But we're like now chasing the tornado at 50 miles an hour because we don't know what we're doing.

Oh my god. You're so disoriented. And you can't see. Oh yeah. So it's like pitch black.

And then you're worried about other boats coming in. So I'm like sticking my head out beside the windshield. And then trying to hear something. But you can't really navigate. And then Amy with the cold allergy.

Like the blankets are off of my children. There's like people surrounding her. Trying to keep her warm and like kids are freaking. And then Amy's not doing well. Jeff's telling me to beach the boat.

What does beach the boat mean? Just drive it to shore. It's fucking slamming to shore. Yeah, just get off the lake. Right.

So we can't go to where we're going to go. Because it's a dock in the storms wild. So then we end up in kind of an area. I knew that at a beach. So just ran up saw cottage.

And then I was the last one because I tied up the boat. And then when we got in there. Everyone's like looking at me a little strange. Because I was putting my head outside of the boat at hunter claw. Yeah.

And then I like welds all over my face. Oh. Storm passed. Went back. Everyone survived.

I've asked other people. It was a fairly calm experience. I then a few.

“I think it was just so hectic that people didn't lose their minds.”

Yeah. They knew to not make the situation worse instinctively.

A friend of Alex was like, so I always thought from this comment that I was like a hero in this.

And that's not the case. Because I've reviewed to come on here. I realized like all the mistakes that were made are solely mine. And if it wasn't for me, we wouldn't have been on the boat. But he was like, oh, what was it?

I didn't hear anything from you. And then he said, well, you're just was looking at you. And you were calm. So I thought must not be as bad as it seems. So I always thought, oh, man.

Like, I am in charge. People are lucky to have me around. But every single decision made on that entire trip was mine solely. And we ended up under a tornado. Oh, I see.

I'm like evaluating a captain. Oh, oh. Yeah. If you drive your passengers into a tornado. That's right.

Not a good deal. But not panicking is essential. Although, I don't know if he was panicking to what a lot much worse. So I mean, I can't imagine. But maybe Jeff went to take an over.

So we all read dead then. Oh, that's so scary. What was the dynamic between you and Jeff the new alpha male after that experience? Were you closer or you know bonded? Yeah.

Well, I still see him. Him and Andrew did not work out. I don't think you can face a relationship on that traumatic of an experience. It's a really old one. But I see him around town because wouldn't pay.

Like I said, yeah. We're all friends of friends unrelated to that. But I think it was good. Like that afternoon was the best afternoon. Because everyone's just ready to go.

It was a good party afternoon. Because we all survived. When through it, you just like tell different versions of that event. I remember calling my dad to be like, hey, save the boat. Like this is what happened.

And boats on the lift and we're good. And then getting an almost no reaction. And then maybe the next summer he just said,

“Oh, hey, remember that thing that you went through last year?”

The tornado like took down all the trees in my neighbors. It was verified.

Finally it was like a real like it went through Brown's Island.

And then came across the Bayer. Then I think he realized that I wasn't just in some wind. Exactly. Yeah. Oh.

I thought you were going to say next summer he texted you. Hey, you only six thousand eight hundred. I was like, just look at the boat. No, thank you. I know.

He's replaced a few props that I've busted on. That day. I kept it safe. Wow. Oh, heroin.

Look how I didn't get that extreme. But I know that fucking feeling because we were coming up the locks. It takes a long time to come up in the locks. Like maybe 25 minutes. And just watching this insane thunderstorm move over the lake that we're about to get deposited.

And just going was absolutely nothing to do. I'm stuck in the locks. And sure enough, they opened up. We're just in an insane lightning storm in the middle of the lake. It was so bad.

Yeah, he's got to get all like I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

“And there's like a weird lake effect for weather where you can almost see the exact edge of the rain.”

And you're like, well, I can just zip around there maybe because many times we've been stuck in rain. I was looking out and going, like, I'll think, God, there's other idiots out here. I'm comforted by the fact that these people are on jet skis and that seems more dangerous. But just barely. There's no windshield wipers.

So then when it's raining, it gets really awful out there. Yeah. I was looking through some tiny sliver between my sunglasses and the windshield. And still getting pelted. Well, Mark, thanks for that heroin town.

Are you guys heading back out soon? It used to be every single weekend, but we have one sun that plays baseball. And so now every single weekend is baseball. And you kind of hope he doesn't make the good team. So you can actually have a summer, but that'll ends in July.

So then we'll go out literally every weekend. That's the prairie way. You live in the town during the week. And then you take off for the lake if you can, if you're lucky enough to have a spot. Oh, I'm happy for you.

That's the best kind of summer. It is great. Well, Mark, great. Yeah, thanks for chatting. Yeah, you guys too.

All right.

We look forward to our third win of pegging.

This has been two for two success. That's right. We're nailing it. Bye. Bye.

Hi, is it Janine? You're in a kid's bunk bed. Minimally of two, I would imagine. I do have two kids. This is true.

And I didn't have a closet. And I tried to follow the rules. This is great. Yeah, you've done an excellent job. And where are you, Janine?

I am in Pacific Northwest. I was going to make you guess, but I didn't have any context. To be more specific where I am.

I live in Tillamac. Oh, wow. Home of Tillamac cheese. Love the cheese. Is that an enormous operation?

Because I always think because in and out famously uses Tillamac cheese.

God bless them.

“And that's how the reason that place is so delicious.”

Yeah. And I do wonder how big is the Tillamac cheese plant? It's pretty big, but it's not the only place they make the cheese now. But it is really good size. And it's our largest employer here in Tillamac County.

It's the cheese factory. There we have a couple of others. And like right now, this is peak season for us. So we as people who live here do not frequent the cheese factory from about April to October.

Because tourists are there. Oh, busy. And if you get to it, I tell every tourist that comes through. Just be okay with ice cream at 10 a.m. when they open. Because like, I'm not going at two o'clock in the afternoon.

Yeah. So you can get ice cream to the also give out cheese samples. I do sense COVID. It's now the little like wrapped cheese. Yeah.

You have a full service restaurant.

And you can get all sorts of stuff.

Oh, do they make a great grilled cheese there? I hear that they do. I have the unfortunate affliction of not being able to eat dairy. So I don't know. Same girl.

I mean, I can. I'm just miserable when I do. Correct. Sometimes you commit to the misery. You know, you're going to be home.

Oh, great. Here's some are a little lower GI. My suggestion. Yeah. It just fucks me out.

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So I do have an extreme weather story to set the stage. So I do have an extreme weather story to set the stage. Enough footing, or maybe it was not deep water, whatever. We were able to get off at like a side maintenance road. And unfortunately, with soon as we get 20 feet, not even, maybe 10 feet.

Up this road, the car just dies. Oh, sure. It's had enough. Well, he was like, I screwed up. I in a panic hit the gas.

Not realizing that I was not in control of the car that we were in water. He's like, I didn't comprehend that. So as you know, when you hit the gas, you can take all the water and boost the motor. So we get up this road. And we find that we are accompanied by about like six or seven other cars.

Other groups of people that are up on this road. Just kind of hanging out. I immediately burst into tears because that's my response.

“Because I'm thinking, oh my god, what if our son had been with us?”

He's eight months. We're doing this is so crazy. And Dave, my husband, the calm cool clicked to one. I was like, but he's not with us. We're going to be fine.

So I feel like 20, 30 minutes goes by.

During that time, we turned around and a Honda Civic just floats right on by. Out to the ocean. Out to the ocean. Out to the ocean. It's gone.

And I'm like, is anyone concerned about those people? We see a city bus. And this is the funniest part. They float through. And you could tell the moment where the bus driver probably goes,

Yeah, I can't float through. So then he tries to back up the city bus. That did not work either. Thankfully, he was heavy enough to just float forward. Instead of floating.

That's the way. So how many people were on said city bus. And then all of a sudden, thankfully, we see sirens. And we can see the flashing lights and the waters receded enough that the fire truck can get through. And all these people who probably are locals are starting to like leave.

And they know all these other backgrounds where our car is dead. And I think another group also has a dead vehicle. So we all hop in the fire truck. And they back is out. And it's great.

We think perfect. Problem solved.

“They're going to take us to a fire station.”

So we can figure out where we are to call for help. Because that's the other problem. Cell service wasn't great. Where we were. And we're not from here.

So I don't even know how to call a ride. And I don't even know where to tell my dad to come and pick us up. Right? We now called him to say, hey, we're safe. But car is dead.

We need to figure out to get home. The fire department just says, glad we could help you today. And they move on about their day. And so we're just stranded on the side of the road. No idea what to do.

How to get home. And then cue random guy in his 50s in a buick. And he's like, are you guys stuck? You know, I kind of heard you talking. I have to turn around.

I'm headed to work on the other side of the island. But I'm happy to give you a ride wherever you need. Okay. It's eight o'clock at night. It's dark.

It's 50 some year old white male. And my girl feelers are like, no. We don't get in cars with people. We don't know. This is a bad choice.

We should not do this. And my husband's just like, sure. Yeah, yeah. In for some reason, he sits in the front seat. Well, I think that's the right move.

In case the guys gets wild. He's got to be able to attack him. So funny. That's exactly what Dave said that you might say. Yeah.

It's the logical. That are directly behind him so he can strangle him. We get in and we head down the road. He says, oh, you know, I'm so sorry. I have to stop at home because I have to go all the way around.

I was going to pick up my lunch on my way. And now I won't have time because it can take us longer. The way we're going. I need to stop at my house.

We don't go at a second location.

Like, this is terrible. I can't say anything to Dave in the car. So we get to this man's house. And he's like, I really need to pee. I'm going to go inside.

Oh, my God. He's going to grab a shower in a meal. What is happening? This is it. Can you just pee in the yard?

Yeah, I'm going in this house. He's like, it's going to be fine. You're going to go in with me. And I was like, absolutely not in my mind. I didn't go in.

And he was like, no, you went into the foyer and just stood there. Like a creeper in the foyer of the house. And he wouldn't be anywhere. And there's like a random foreign exchange student. A random 20 something year old girl hanging out in his house.

It was the honest situation. And he came out and Dave was like, yeah, that was pretty weird. I'm not sure the vibe in that house. But I'm pretty sure she was there because she wanted to be. Oh, boy.

It also could have been maybe she was forced to be there. We don't.

“And I was just like, dear God, why are we in this car?”

But we get back in the car. And he drives us back and all goes swimmingly. My dad picks us up wherever. I remember where we rendezvous at that point. And that was it.

But that radio announcement that comes on. It says at the very end, turn around. Don't drown. Oh, yeah. Oh, no.

Now we take that very seriously. Anytime I hear that, I just stop and make sure I'm not wherever that's supposed to be. And now any rain that we have.

Don't drown rain. Yeah.

We use that for everything.

Marker for how bad things are scary. Well, I'm glad that you guys are safe. And that should be my priority.

“But all I can think about is was the mini Cooper salvageable.”

Did they get it back running? No, they did not. So the next day, my dad and Dave went out to go find it and look for it. And what's really funny about that is they're waiting for the tow truck to come to pick that up. The tow truck comes and the guys are like, oh, man, I'm really surprised that this still has all the wheels on it.

And Dave's like, why do you surprise? Because they're like, this is a really rough neighborhood. I can't believe that the car is not in pieces in the morning. Yeah. But the only silver lighting to that is he got that car for like $2,000.

They had to total it and insurance gave him eight. So he made money. Okay. Oh, well, good. He should have given you guys a thousand foot depresses.

Janine is lovely meeting you. Yeah, thanks for calling. I want to say one thing. My shout out is to my kids. They listen to this all the time.

And my daughter her name is Camille. And the fun story about that is she was 100% named from watching parenthood. Oh, wow. And then my son, Archer, who was featured in the said story.

We're lucky to have you guys as listeners. Yeah. Enjoy that organ coast. Take care. Bye.

Hi. This is crazy. Hold on. Let me make sure I'm recording. Okay.

Where are you at Samantha? I am in Bradford, Ontario, about an hour north of Toronto. Oh, lovely. We've had a lot this week of folks from that same area in Ontario. It's true.

I always ask how close to Miss Goka are you about an hour and a half,

depending on which part of Miss Goka.

“Yeah, and do you get up to the lake a lot in the summer?”

As much as possible. It's so dreamy. It is. It's the best. Where does your extreme weather story take place?

It actually happens in the Quarthas. So more to the west, but also a very beautiful area of Ontario. Oh, nice. Quarthas. They're going to go.

Quarthas. Never heard of the Quarthas. But before I jump into this story, can I tell you a crazy side by our story? Yeah, yeah. Monica, you're going to hate this.

Uh-oh, is it like a vagina? Malcerca or a mouse? And a lot about it a few weeks ago, I get a call for my sister in law. And her and my three nieces, my youngest niece likes to play in their van. And so all the three of them are in there.

And all of a sudden, my middle niece says, "Mom, why is that cup moving?" No, thanks. Yeah. That's her little sister was playing with this reusable mug.

I guess is what was inside the mug? Rat water bottle? No. A rat water bottle? Oh, my God.

I was joking. Number two. This is crazy. This is pandemic level. This is you guys check your water bottles.

The lid was on, I guess, because she was playing with the lid. The lid was on.

“Did they turn into squids and liquefying it for themselves?”

No. They can remove their ribs and stuff like that. That's so disgusting. I know.

And also, I thought that was like a one in a million story when I heard that.

And now I'm like, "Oh, these rats are just infiltrating our vehicles." Fuck. Oh, God, disgusting. All right. Well, now everyone can resume their terror.

Okay. So my story takes place back in 2022. It was the May 2 for Long Weekend, which is the first long weekend of the summer in Ontario. So tons of people go out camping, go up north, go to Miss Goka. You're opening your cottages.

And so my husband and I decide that we are going to go back country camping. And we're going to bring our five-year-old daughter with us on this adventure. So we're meeting two of our friends there. So we drive to the Quarthas. We drive on this very long logging road.

So in the middle of nowhere, we park our cars and we start to portage. So we have our canoes, we have all our camping stuff. And we have to do this one-hour trek to the lake where we're going to launch our canoes and go and find a camping spot somewhere. You Canadians get after it, man.

Because the other person we talked to had a lot of portage. We've heard a lot of portage in lately. You Canadians are like, "Yeah, it's going to involve some canoeing to get to where we want to go." We're glutting for punking, you know? It's all part of the fun.

So we get to the lake. Everything is great. The weather is beautiful. We launch the canoes. My beautiful daughter is leaned back in the canoe. Her five-year-old self and she says, "Mom, this is just the best day ever."

So we're like, "Okay, we have to get off the lake. We start counting because that's an indication of how far away the storm is."

And we figure we have about 12 minutes. So we're paddling along trying to get to the first bit of land that we see.

Our canoe lands on the land. Within two minutes it is raining aggressively and the winds are insane. So I grab a tarp and I put it over mine and my daughter's head and she's understandably terrified. And I'm like, "No, this happens all the time. It's going to blow over quickly and we're going to be on our way and everything's okay."

The storm came on so quickly that she didn't even have time to take off her life jacket. So we're under this tarp and all of a sudden, "I hear a tree snap." And in my head, I'm like, "Wido maker."

“Because that's what they call trees who fall on campers in the middle of the night and kill you.”

But I don't hear my husband or my two friends screaming saying, "Get out of the way or anything like that." So I'm like, "It's probably fine." I grab my daughter and kind of tuck her under me as much as I can. And within the same second, bam, a tree lands on my daughter and I know." So the impact from the tree had a pulse my daughter out of my arms.

Oh my God. Like a loose football.

Yeah, so in my head, my daughter is dead and I brought her on this trip.

And now she's gone. I can hear my best friend screaming, "My daughter's name at the top of her lungs." And so I whip the tarp off of me and by the grace of God, I hear my daughter say, "Mom." And I just look at her and I say, "Run." And I look over and my friend's husband was coming around and the look of terror in his eye.

I was like, "Oh, this is bad." And so my daughter runs to him. I like Hulk this tree off me. Get up and start running. Realize that the wind has been knocked out of me.

So I'm like, "You know that feeling." Yeah, you're gonna die. And I'm screaming, "Get under the canoe." Because now I'm like, "This whole forest is coming down top of us." Yeah.

And my friend's like, "Sam, we can't get under the canoe because when Alex, her husband was trying to pull it in, the wind was so bad that it lifted him off the ground." Oh, wow. We again are just hiding under a tarp. And I'm like, "This is it for us." Like we're done.

Nice knowing you. So when the tree fell on me, my ankle popped out of the socket and then popped back in. I'm injured at this point.

“Luckily, I think because my daughter was wearing her life jacket, it absorbed the impact of the tree falling on her and saved her life because it protected her.”

Wow.

Basically from beginning to end, it's five minutes.

After the storm passes, I'm like, "Get me the heck out of here." We're going back to our car. This weekend is done before it started. I'm traumatized. Yeah.

And so we get back to the Portage Trail. And in my head, I have this like third degree leg sprain. I have no idea what just happened. I'm terrified. And I'm like, "I just need to get to my car and go home."

No. When we get back to the Portage Trail, it's literally like a giant stopped through the forest. The trail is completely gone. The forest is completely torn up. We have to like hike over and under trees to get back to our vehicles.

Are you in this canoe the whole time? No. We left the canoe.

“We were like, "We'll deal with that after.”

Let's just get to our home base." We get back to the vehicles. It took us like two hours to hike back to them. We get back to the cars and there's no way we can drive it out. The logging trail is gone.

The forest is destroyed. There's nothing. And I'm injured. So luckily I had a tiny bit of service. I call 911 and they're like, "Yep, you're not the only one out there.

We're sending a military helicopter to come pick you up." Wow. The military helicopter comes. They strap me to a board. Strap my daughter on top of me.

She instantly passes out from like shock and stress. What happened? It's called like a drench hero. I always say it wrong. But it's essentially like a tornado.

But it's a huge gust of air. That's more like an arrow. Travels really far really fast. And the radars can't really pick up on it. The same way they do a normal thunderstorm or a normal tornado.

And that's why there was no warning. Wow. My God.

I text my mom and I say, "We're going to this hospital.

Bless her soul." She drives four hours.

“One way to pick me and my daughter in my husband up from the hospital.”

Her two friends have to stay there and hike out over like three days. Oh my God. Because again, the vehicles couldn't get out. Luckily, all I had was a sprain. My daughter didn't even have a scratch on her body.

And then my husband and a group of his friends and our friends who were there with us. Spent the next three weeks. Chain sawing out the logging road so they could get our vehicles. Oh my gosh. This is nuts.

I didn't have to military helicopters take the others. I mean, I know. Limited space. Yeah, but three days. Okay.

They could have died also.

All right. So we have some photos. Yes. Okay. I'm looking at one.

Someone in a blue jacket standing next to a tree that's fallen over. Is that the specific tree now? No. Or just one of them resilient. Yeah.

This whole forest is a level. Whoa. So there is one picture with a canoe and like a hat in it. Yes. Looking at now.

That's the tree that fell on us. Oh. So we were under that. Oh, wow. And a tree fell on someone's car.

Yep. My friends. Oh, wow. No shit three weeks. Yeah.

There's a car covered in three fallen trees. Oh, my God. You don't really hear about that kind of hear about tornadoes and cyclones. That's wild.

“Yeah, the military guy said to my husband, we're going back out because I think 22 people died from that swarm from trees falling on them.”

So we had the best of a bad situation. Yeah. Oh, well. So what would you say? Yeah.

Yes. Lovely meeting you two. Docs I have to say. My mom passed away March of 2025 at the age of 62. Oh, I'm sorry.

From a rare and aggressive type of breast cancer called metaplastic carcinoma less than 1% of people get this type of cancer. But I was her caregiver just like you were with your dad and your description of like the immediate aftermath of grief and feeling that moment of relief and your talk you had with Anderson Cooper. It just captures that specific experience of being a caregiver for a sick and dying parent so well. So I just appreciate you sharing and writing and grief is very lonely. Even if you're in it with siblings or other family members, it's so lonely.

And you just capture the experience so well. So I appreciate that. Oh, yeah, my pleasure. Thank you. And I'm so sorry.

Yeah, thank you. It was the best.

“And Monica, please make another best dad.”

We just might. I also have to shout out my son Mason. He was very upset that the story involved his sister and not him. So I love you both. Thanks for chatting.

Yeah. Lovely meeting you. I have a great time. Bye. Yes, you too.

Bye. These trees are falling on people. The rats are in the. The rats are in the. The rats are in the drinking containers.

The trees are falling. Happy summer. Happy summer.

I never worry about trees.

And here we go. I mean, they're coming down left. I really are. It's time to worry. I got to think about this because as you know,

every time we do one of these camping prompts, I want to go camping. But now I really got to. I've a surrounding. Do some course samples.

All right. Love you. Love you. Do you want to sing a tune or something with him? Oh, okay, great.

We don't have a. So for this new show. So here I go, go, go. We're gonna ask some random questions in the. Help.

Oh, oh, jerry's will get some suggestions. Beautiful. I'm a fire-rime dish. I'm a fire-rime dish. Enjoy.