EXPERIENCE 144 | Dennis & LJ Houska of Houska Automotive Services - Reflections on a Family and Community-Centric Business Over Three Generations

Hooska Automotive in Fort Collins was started in 1952 by Dennis Hooska's father, Charles Chuck Hooska, and still operates from the original location at 899 Riverside Avenue in Fort Collins. Chuck had been a B 17 mechanic in World War II and opened the business not long after moving to Northern Colorado with his family. Dennis was crawling around the shop before he could walk and never really worked anywhere else. He took over the business in 1974 and Chuck continued to work there nearly until his death in 1985. L. J. became Little John when he started working at the shop in his high school days, there being three other Johns already on the team, and the nickname is one he's known by in nearly every circle today. Hooska has been growing ever since it started with two bays and only one mechanic, and now includes a tire and lube center, a fleet maintenance division, and a heavy truck center, and a team of over 50, all on one big campus near the intersection of Riverside and LeMay in Fort Collins. LJ has been overseeing day to day operations for several years, and though Dennis still carries the president title, he's not spotted around the shop too often. Dennis wife Noreen and LJ's wife Jen both play key roles within the business too, and have for many years. Service and community are core values at Hooska, and they treat their team like family, resulting in many long term employees and customers over their 70 plus years in business. So please enjoy my conversation with Dennis and LJ Hooska of Hooska Automotive Services. Welcome back to the Loco Experience. I'm joined today by LJ and Dennis Huska, and uh, they are the proprietors, I suppose, the president and vice president of Huska Automotive, Huska Tire Center, and Huska Heavy Duty. Correct. Yup. Yup. And I understand Huska was founded by your father, Dennis. Yup. My dad came to Colorado way back, right after World War II. Okay. He was working on B 17s. Yup. in Denver and then, um, was traveling the front range and decided this is where he wanted to live. Really? Moved in. When was that? What year? Do you remember? I don't remember the year. It was a little before my time. 47, 48, something like that. So he grew mechanical skills in the military working on airplanes? Some of that and also working on the Harvest. Oh, sure. As a kid. Okay. It was just a Where was his family from? South Dakota. Oh, where? Um, around the, um, Tabor area. Okay. I'm a North Dakota kid. I don't know if we've ever really talked about that much. No, I don't think so. Um, so I'm from Jamestown area. Sure. So, uh, it's a hundred miles north of Aberdeen. Where's Tabor? It's kind of over there by Yankton. Yeah, okay. East side. I never really had a good reason to go over there, but So he gets to Fort Collins, sees it, and he's like, this is going to be my, my new town where I live. Right. Right. Right. So he moved, uh, his family here. Shortly afterwards, I was born. Okay. Actually, I was born just before he started the shop. Okay. He started in 1952. Okay. Very nice. So, you bet. And was he Working in automotive before that or what gave him the idea to start an automotive that he was working in a yeah different shop told his boss to Pack sand one day and I'm gonna start my own thing. Right something like that. Okay, so then we've been in that same location ever since It was outside the city limits. It was on the edge of town at the time. Yeah, it was a dirt road out there. Yeah, yeah. In the middle of a junkyard. So you started basically the same, you personally started the same time as Huskas. Right. Virtually. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So, and what was his name? Chuck. Chuck. Very good. And, uh, so, I guess 1952, so that was kind of a resurgence of American Automotive, because it kind of slowed down a little bit during the wartime and stuff, but there was now all these big, uh, Oldsmobiles and Pontiacs were big fenders and stuff, right? Yeah, cool cars. Yeah, yeah. The good stuff. Big stuff. Big iron. Big iron. Big heavy. Like where a fender weighs like 300 pounds and we need three guys to put it on. Right. Was it back then the shop was smaller but the cars were bigger? Yeah, that's probably fair. Yeah. That's probably fair. And uh, were you um, I think we'll probably LJ is kind of next generation. Do you mind if we kind of focus on your dad's journey a little bit? Oh, yeah, go ahead and we'll fold you in a little bit and the story's great, right? And what do you think of when you think of Grandpa Chuck? Were you around when he was? Sure. So yeah. Yeah when I was a kid Actually for a little bit we lived in his basement while our house was being built that we grew up. I grew up in and You know, uh, for me, I was pretty young. Uh, you know, he passed away when I was like seven. So, um, but I knew him as a young kid and him being my grandpa, right. You know, and so, you know, fun memories for me are I'd be in preschool. And my grandpa would come pick me up driving a tow truck. So I thought I was probably the, one of the coolest kids in school that gets to hop in a tow truck to drive away from preschool. Right. Yeah, I dig it. I dig it. And so you were in an entrepreneurial family of like your whole life. You've never known anything else. No, I grew up with grease under my fingernails down there. I imagine crawling around the shop, uh, first one to, uh, find, uh, unsafe places. So, what was your family dynamic? Did you have brothers, sisters as well? It sounded like you had older siblings? Older brother and sister. Okay. They were the smart ones in the family. Okay. They didn't want anything to do with, with the shop, so. Gotcha. And did you right away, like, Even as a 10 year old, you thought it was pretty cool or did you, you know, I was, Oh, it was just like, it was part of the thing, the thing to do, you know? And, and then I went all the way through school through CSU here. And when I got out of CSU, it was like, which direction am I going to go? I'm going to go into the family business or am I going to go? And your older siblings had both, by that time, kind of said, I'm heading out Yeah, they were long gone. Yeah, yeah. Out of this region even? Oh, my sister stayed in the area. Yeah. My brother moved out. Yeah, yeah. And, uh, So, um, what part of what school did you go to and stuff here that was like the schools? Yeah, so you were elementary school. That would have been in the 60s. I suppose or the late 50s, right? So I started at Remington. Okay, great school. Yeah, and then over to Laurel and Then Martin and Harris. We only lived in two houses Yeah, we lived real close to here is where I grew up on is that right lilac Lane? Oh, yeah Yeah, just right over here, yeah. Yeah, a block away. Yeah, yeah, interesting. Yeah, well, the auto shop was right down the road. You didn't even have to, if you didn't have any cars at work, you didn't even have to worry about it. You could just walk to work. Right, that's it. Because you know the cobbler's kids usually have no shoes. No, that's the way it is. There you go. That's what it is. So, uh, so what was that dynamic? Was it a, a pretty, like right now you guys are a pretty big operation, right? They got eight or ten bays, or? About fifty. Oh, yeah. Between all the, the, between the three buildings, we are, you know, roughly like 35 days, something like that. Yeah, yeah. And like 10 of those designated for kind of the heavy duty stuff or whatever. Yeah, yeah. So. Actually, can we, can we zoom in on what Hooska's is? So, let's talk about that today a little more and just take a little bit more. Maybe I'll let you lead that LJ. Sure. Sure. So, the like what all these operations do. Sure. So, um when you think of Husqvarna Automotive, we have our original building. Uh it's the furthest one to the west when you think of our campus and we call that our repair building but that's the building that does cars and light trucks. It does all the different varieties of repairs, oil changes, motors, whatever. We'll, we'll, yeah, we'll So what we do is, uh, is extensive, extensive of transmission and motor replacements to the easiest thing of putting in a new light bulb for you do all changes and light bulbs and lube jobs and whatever. You're not shy of that. Yeah. Yep. Um, we're, we're really heavy into tires. So our next building, which is kind of in the middle of everything is our tire and oil center. And so in that building, it's, it's, it's, uh, more of like the fast food of what you think of, of automotive, right? We're doing tires, we're doing oil changes. We also do diesel emissions testing for the state so we have a, uh, what they call a dynamometer, a chassis dynamometer, more or less like a treadmill for a car that we can put vehicles on and run them up to speeds and stuff like that. And then the furthest one to the east is our heavy duty building and so, um, it's working on the Kenworth's and the Peterbilt's and Oh, so it's a diesel repair, not just, uh, not just the big tires and stuff like that. But when you get into that, it's, um, it's a big variety of what you get because all these different trucks have different beds on them and different controls on them. And so, um, everything that goes through there is a little different just cause it's, a lot of it is custom made. Right. In some sense for the business that's using it. Will you fix things like road graders and stuff like that that's also diesel engines, tractors, stuff like that? We have. Yeah. Only if it's a favor and we think we can do it. Our bread and butter though is the trucks that are really on the road, you know. And we really focus on, um, you know, that building. It's a lot of business that we're, businesses we're working with, right? Right. You know, so. Getting their also fleet accounts and stuff like that, fleet accounts, getting them back on the road. Right. You know, so. Fair enough. How is the breakdown on like, staffing of those three kind of hub operations? Uh, probably about half of our staff is from our original repair building. Okay. And then, uh, the other two are split about evenly. Okay. Yeah. Fair enough. All right. So, um, and is there plans, you have, you don't have any more property, so you can't really add another building there, can you or. There's ideas. Kind of. Yeah, yeah. There's a little bit. We never want to say never, right? Okay. No, but, uh, but you are right. We are running out of, uh, of room, so, uh. We always have grand schemes. It's, uh, figuring out which one we want to do next, right? Fair enough, fair enough. Well, we could talk about that before I loosen you up a little bit. So, um, was it, was, were you middle class at that time? I mean, there's a lot of different ways to run a repair shop, Dennis. Uh, were you already a pretty successful shop back then? We were busy, you know, I don't know if we were middle class yet. Yeah, yeah. Paying the bills. Paying the bills. A couple mechanics plus your dad kind of thing or whatever. Yeah, he started with himself and then one other fellow. Okay. A front desk person or whatever, probably two. My mom. Right, right. That's kind of what it was for years interesting. And then we, he built on to that and then in um, 74, after I got out of college, I took it over and then we've gone through a series of expansions on the building. Oh, so it was still pretty small when you took it over and then you kind of yeah We just fresh blood. Let's build this thing up. Yeah And did your dad stay involved pretty heavily or did he do other things or? He was always, he was involved. You know, he, he loved being around there. And I mean, he, he was our shuttle driver and chasing parts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he, he loved coming down and talking to the customers. And a lot of the old farmers would come in. They'd just stop in for coffee. Sure. And have fun, you know. Yeah, a lot different culture in Fort Collins at that time. Oh, it was way different. Very agrarian. Right. Uh, which is what I grew up in and, you know, what your dad grew up in. You bet. Um, and so, What were those first few phases after you took, and was that a, was that a big decision? Was it a negotiation or was, was he kind of ready and, uh, It was kind of on my deal. Okay. I was ready to do something. Yeah. To, you know, make it grow. Yeah. And so, yeah, it was just, we added on, pretty much doubled our size the first time and then we had two or three more expansions. All in that same building. And with the same business model, basically, is we have mechanics here that will fix your car. Right. And, uh, Bill, is it flat rate, uh, for your pay? Or do you have wage earners? We have every type. There's different kind of positions, depending on how skilled they are and how much credibility they've earned and stuff. They're kind of customized programs. You know, if they were a trainee, they'd get paid different. Sure, okay. And I imagine that's a big part of it. Can you, can you hire ready to go employees or do you have to spend a lot of time training? We have a whole training program. Yeah. Um, we found that we get our best results from training within. Yeah. And so we have an in house apprentice program. So we have, we have right now probably three apprentices going. Okay. And one that is a rotational. So. In our tire and oil center, which is normally where you are going to start an automotive career is in a building like that. Yep We will take you and have you work under our shop foreman on either our heavy duty side or our repair side For two weeks at a time. So that way these people are getting exposed to stuff much more Yeah, but that's good, but getting real scenario vehicles that are in. Yeah, you know working hand in hand with top techs and And if you really show that you have the ability, we're going to try and bring you along. Yeah, we're going to support you. So, and we probably have four different guys right now that are, have went through an apprentice program with us and are now just working out of their own stalls and, uh, and are what we consider, you know, So we have ongoing training outside of the shop, too, during that whole time. We pay for all that for them, too, so they can keep on learning. So, like, somebody doesn't even necessarily need to have a certificate from Ames or Cheyenne or something like that to apply for a job with you guys? No. Or at least an apprenticeship. The aptitude is more. Yeah. If you're mechanically minded, and you come work for us and we can see that, we'll get you in the right path. And then do you guys go and train them, get certifications that they need to get to certain stages and whatever? You get all the certifications. Then you gotta pay them more, but I guess that's okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you can charge more for them too, right? Definitely that doesn't, that's not a problem, right? You know, that's a good thing when you get to that point, right? Well, they work faster, they make fewer mistakes, which are all liabilities to you. We love seeing somebody be successful. Yeah. So, you know, when you see your employees move on up the ladder, Yeah. and all of a sudden they're buying houses and Yeah. We have the babies. Yeah. Yeah. Makes you feel good. Yeah, for sure. So, you grow up pretty quickly to probably, whatever, a 10 person team or something like that through the 70s, kind of? Is that how that works? Yeah. I don't even think we had that many. Not that. Not at the first. More bays. Not necessarily more people. Right. Because sometimes you can work on two or three cars. Waiting for parts. And so then it kept growing and growing. I remember one time I had six techs. Okay. And I was, you know. That's about as much as you could do running the front end. Helping the technicians. Oh, yeah. I think fighting estimates and all that stuff. Oh yeah. Like usually one service advisor is for like, maybe two or max three techs. So yeah, about two. And were you that person? I was, were in the front. Okay. And then at night I'd be doing books. right. Yeah. It was 80 hour work weeks. Yeah. Uh, on a, on a good weekend. Yeah. Yeah. I, my, my, uh, my father started a farm, uh, evenings and weekends when I was. In first grade, right? And so it was the same, you know, you know, most nights if it was You know, appropriate weather and, and something to do, he was gone after dinner, you know, after a quick dinner. Right. Right. Or sometimes we ate at 930 and dad, his dad would come home early that night, you know, have a dinner with the family. So anyway, I understand those, uh, probably lots of books done at the dinner table even. You bet. You bet. So, um, and what was your family that, Noreen is your wife. Correct. And were you already married by the time, that time or where'd you find her? It was after I was running the shop. Running the shop for a while. For a while, yeah. And then she was a school teacher here in town. Okay. Taught Title I reading. Okay, yeah. And then at one point our secretary left. That's when she and I talked to her Coming on board, you know, yeah, she's still there. I mean, she's well as Jen still there, too. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, so it's been a family husband wife operation for a long time a lot of a lot of family involved What what would you remember about like the community of Fort Collins in those whatever say late 70s early 80s days? That was you know, 15 years before I got here. So I have nothing. I'll tell you what Nothing was, you know, now everything has to be signed and everything. It was all word of mouth and handshake, you know. And that's the way everybody operated. Drew Pickle was across the street over here. The what? The pickle plant. Oh, really? Did you know that? No, I don't know anything about the pickle plant. It was right on the other side. So does it smell like vinegar all the time? Yeah. That's fun. But it was right on the other side of the railroad tracks here. Oh, really? And all, I mean, those guys were a lot of our customer base. Sure. And CSU, and, I mean, it was real. Was the hospital already down there? The hospital was there. Okay. But it was on a dirt road. Oh, is that right? And it was called Hospital Road. Oh, really? Instead of LeMay. Oh, is that right? Yeah. And so, yeah, it was a whole, it was a very different atmosphere. Yeah. A lot more laid back. Was it risky for you when you did those expansions? I mean, did you have to borrow money? I always had to borrow money. Yeah. You know, and you sign your life away. Right, right. And the overhead's higher and you don't have that many more customers yet, so you gotta grow into your new customer base. Right. It was, it was always a gamble, but yeah, it always pan panned out and worked out great. Occasional lean times along the way, probably. Yep. Yep. So the, but that's, that was expected. Were you always front of the house or do you have some pretty good wrench skills too, if you needed to? Uh, I, I was a tech for, you were a tech for a while first. Yep. Mm-Hmm? Okay. And so, that's where it started, and moved up. And, uh, so when does, LJ are you the oldest? Yeah, yeah, so I do, I have a brother and sister, but I am the oldest of my siblings. And when did you come along, you're quite a bit younger than me, so, early 80s I suppose? Yeah, 79. 79, okay. That's when my birthday was, so, yep, and uh. So right in the midst of this growth. Yeah, yeah, so. Um, and so, when, uh, when did you kind of think about the next step, or was there a next step? The tire center and stuff didn't come along until many years later, so you just grew on a few phases of the automotive. Right, we just were strictly automotive for a lot of time. Yeah. And then we had some, um, guys that came on board that were well into the tire business. Okay. And, um, one in particular and he kind of got us going that direction. Oh, is that right? And so we moved into the tires. But you couldn't really do that in a regular shop. We didn't have room. Yeah. I mean, we were, we were doing it. You were doing some tires. But it was tough. He had to make a case for it being something that would work. You know, the good story is when he put in his first order for a hundred tires, and he is so nervous on, you know, that, how much am I spending and how am I going to move, you know, sell these now, right? You know? And, uh, um, it's a great story of that. We're working out of the same building and we have a shed that we're just keeping these tires in. They sold, we started selling them. Right. You know, so that that's kinda kind of model little by little the model. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It worked well. And you had built that trust, you know? Did you do a lot of work on like. differentiating, uh, was there a lot of competition in town in those days? And like, like, who is, who's automotive as compared, like, I guess that's a question for you, Dennis, is how do you differentiate other than just the, the time in the market and the kind of reputation, but how do you feel you set apart? I think a lot of it is our community involvement. Sure. We try to be that, uh, not for business wise, but. No, you've raised a lot of funds for cancer centers and different. Music fundraisers and Right, and we have a lot of fun doing it. Yeah. But um, really if you think about it, there's a, every corner has a comp, there's some kind of competition for us. So, I think one time we were counting, there was like 400 competitors in town. Really? Just including like guys in their garage and stuff like that. That kind of, and you know, the gas stations that are pretty entire. Sure, or your Jiffy Lube's. And the dealerships. Any tire shop is kind of, will do some other stuff. Right. That makes sense. So you start adding all that up. It kind of. And did you do any other ventures, uh, in real estate development or commercial real estate investments, anything like that along the way? Most of our investments in real estate have been for our own use. Yeah. We do have some other, other ones that we've picked up along the way. It wasn't a focus though. No, it was mainly, we were. We were the landlords and the tenant. Yeah. That's a lot better than just being the tenant usually. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. That's worked out good. So, um, when did you, uh, first get involved with Who's Kids? Like, were you also grease under your fingernails? Pretty, pretty similar, right? Yeah. So, um, I mean, I got sheets from when I was in grade school. You know, the teacher, what do you want to be when you grow up? And I'm writing down that I want to run the shop someday, right? Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. Unknowing what I'm really writing down, what that entails. Well, your dad took it over from grandpa. Exactly. So there was a, there was kind of a piece there. And, um, you know, I think we both kind of, in, in some sense, I was about 12 years old and, you know, that summer was the summer where you're going to come down and the floors need to be cleaned and the windows and the trash needs to be taken out. And, um, so. Did you get paid? Yeah, minorly, but yes, I would, but it was, it was, uh, it was one of those that, uh, it wasn't saying that I was going to have to go into the shop. It was just more or less. Hey, you're going to learn how to work at least. Yeah. And you'll be a part to help out. And, uh, and then kind of grew into it from there, you know, so. And did you, uh, go off to college as well? Did you, by that time, uh, Have ideas still of ska? Yeah. Yeah. I, I went to CSU also and got a business degree there. Okay. And so, um, very similar, the, the kind of stuck around town, but was able to go to college and still work at the same time. Yeah. And so, yeah, it worked out good. And who's the better student, like in say, in your high school and college days? Uh, Dennis. Noreen. Mm-Hmm. Noreen. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're not pointing at either of us, right. I Did it come natural to you? Uh, education in general? It did. It was easy for me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was alright. Pretty straight forward. Um, and how about, uh, other activities, or either any athletics or things like that in your high school journeys? Oh, you know, team sports in high school. Everybody did. Yeah. Yeah. Football, wrestling, baseball, you know, all that stuff. Then also there was always skiing, all that kind of stuff too, you know. Yeah. Actually kind of became more of a precedent. Really? Getting up to the mountains? Yeah. Too still? Yeah, still ski. Nice. Yeah. LJ ski. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm a big skier. Oh, really? I didn't know that. I'm I uh I came out to Colorado in part because I wanted to ski more and I did for a while but I just don't I don't know. It's it's such a it's it's an investment, right? It is. It takes a lot of time and a commitment to get. Right. Exactly. If you you can't really afford to do it unless you buy a pass. Yup. Uh but then if you buy a pass, you feel like you gotta go like 15 weekends or something and that's like, well, now, I don't have any weekends. To not ski No. So it's an debate. It is a challenge. So, um, so you went to college at CSU for business then? Just hometown here. And did you, um, when did Jen come along in your world, lj Oh, uh, a couple of years after college. So, um, we met at a Halloween party. Okay. And so, uh. Uh, I was a, a big fish, so more or less a fish around me and my arms and head stuck out. And she was dressed up as Marge Simpson, right, you know, and it wasn't so much that the sparks flew that night, but, um, uh, it was, it was funny that, uh, Afterwards, I still didn't know the right real color of her hair, you know, but I do remember asking my friends who was that, you know, who's the one in the blue hair, you know, so I like it. Yeah. Um, and where did she been doing? Was she also a student? She was a student at CSU. She is, uh, originally from Kansas City, so she had kind of moved out here. It's kind of the same thing as South Dakota. Yeah, you know, It's similar, maybe not the city part. Yeah, yeah. Same neck of the woods, right. But no, before I had met her and before she even lived in Fort Collins, she lived in, uh, Estes Park and she was a trail guide for horseback riding for nine years. Yeah. Oh, that's interesting. For a city gal. Yeah. Yeah. So she's got a, a fun pass that has, it seems suiting to her. Yeah. Yeah. That not everybody would know. Right. For sure. Um. What was the, uh, biggest challenge that you faced, um, along, maybe, the time when you were growing Who's Got a Motive? Did you ever get over your skis a little bit, so to speak? Oh, I did. Um, part of it was just knowing that the business had to change from the way it was being run with my dad. Right. And then making those changes. Yeah. To advance and buy the new equipment. Mm. Change, uh, The whole program. Everything was changed. He welcomed that, did he? He liked the old school. He questioned it. Yeah. Which is hard when it's your dad, right? Like you're like, I know I'm this decider, but dad disagrees. And am I really going to do this? Right. There's a bit of that. Right. So I can imagine. Has there been any of that, uh, in your seasons of starting to kind of take over day to day of Huskers? Um, I mean, probably the, the challenge for me was, uh, even though this was an opportunity in front of me, it wasn't going to be, Given to you, and there wasn't a 100 percent road map, if you know what I'm saying. If you want to grow into this, you have to be the one to grow it. And it's not always to say, here's what you need to learn and here's what you need to know. It was, it was, uh, you know. What are you gonna do to, to, you know, build up, build, build it up? What's the next step? What's that? Well, I'd have to think. Even the expansion,'cause when did the, the tire center came first and then the truck center, is that right? So 2012 we opened the tire center in 2017 was the heavy. It's quite a bit different. Yeah. Yeah. So about five years. So I wonder, Dennis, would you have. Yeah. Would you have gone forward with those ventures if LJ hadn't been on the team and, you know, ready for the next generation? Probably not. Yeah. I mean, you know, I was winding down on my career. Yeah. I don't want to work harder. I want to work less harder. Right. Right. And do more charitable things and different things like that. Travel. I don't know what you guys have been up to. I do a lot of traveling. Yeah. And, uh, I imagine that was part of what could keep you excited, right? Like. Yeah. Yeah. The, uh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of should we do? And you had, did you have a truck business kind of like more of a mobile truck business before? We, we, we did mobile tires for a long time too. Yeah. So at one point we had about four trucks on the road where we'd be doing like semi tires, uh, semi tires and, and equipment tires, stuff that you would have to probably tow in to the place. So a lot of those people go out to go do it there instead. The tow truck costs more than the, yeah, exactly. Got it. Um, so that makes sense to me that, that, you know, take, cause those are big, big ventures, right? Like those are large buildings and construction costs were a lot higher than in the eighties when you were riding on or whatever. Oh yeah. We also had a tow company. Right. That's what I was thinking for years. Yeah. And then we don't have that anymore. We sold that to the employees. Oh, okay. Um, can you talk to me about that? What was the motivations and the, you know, it didn't fit. I started with one tow truck, you know, for our own use and then it was like it started growing and growing and pretty soon we were buying more trucks and, and we bought another company here in town, took over their assets and accounts and, and grew it and then sold it off to the employees. Nice. Thanks. Yeah. It worked out great. Is it still operating now? It is. It's been sold once or twice. Gotcha. Yeah. That's how it goes. That's probably a really good employee owned kind of a business, especially because a lot of it's just, you know, how hard do you want to work? That's how much money you're going to make. Right. Kind of. You know, and it's a lot harder to want to work hard if, if you're an owner in some capacity and that makes sense to me. So. Yeah. Yeah. Um. LJ, what have you learned? Uh, like, as you've kind of, I would imagine you're kind of the, the operational manager at this point, mostly. Yeah, yeah. Um. Even financial, bank relationships, things like that. Is that true? Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah. I'm the one that, uh, um, I mean, I mean, right now, I'm there all the time and, and Dennis is probably, 90 percent retired, would you say? You know, something like that, you know, so, yeah, yeah, yeah. I stopped in to get my paycheck. Right. Is your paycheck 90 percent discounted? Yeah, yeah. I'm guessing you're probably still taking a pretty good paycheck. But, but yeah, you know, I'm wearing the, the, the hats or, or hat and, and, and making sure that the other hats I need to delegate down and, and that's, that's probably the, the, the, the thing, you know, I need to know vehicles and I need to know business. But the one thing that you have to really grow into is knowing how to delegate and to follow up on your delegations and, and what tasks do you want to, how involved do you need to be on each task and, you know, and, and it's, it, the, the thing is there's no a hundred percent right or wrong answer to any of them, right? You know, so different people manage in different ways and you have different employees with different skills that you can, uh, uh, you know, set them to do certain things and, and, and be very confident. And so, uh, Um, you know, it's, it, for me, it's really been trying to build the right team, you know? And so how do you, how do you have that set up at Jusca's, like, as far as like a org chart ish kind of thing? You have a, a manager for each of those locations that report to you, then, LJ, kind of? Yeah, yeah, that's, that's essentially how, how it goes. And then a couple of the managers oversee. Further branches of it, yeah. Well, because six or eight people is about all that most people could manage effectively, right? Exactly, yeah. And if some of them are apprentices, it's fewer than that probably still. Right. We have, what, 50 some employees. Okay, yeah. So it's, you do have to branch it out a lot. Right, yeah. And then is there Like, is there like a front of the house, back of the house kind of element as far as like the service advisor and all the billing and stuff like that is kind of the front end and then you got the guys that are actually, and so that communication between the front of the house and the back of the house is probably really important. Yes. Yeah. And the customer. Well, that too. Yeah. And there's always the changing in technology for both on the vehicle and what we're using as far as communication and point of sales and. And all sorts of things. Right now. So it's, uh, how do you feel like the, uh, electric car movement will impact? Do you think there's going to be less and less cars that need oil changes and whatnot? Oh yeah. They go through a lot of tires. Yeah. Yeah. Electric cars are heavy, you know, they go through tires quite a bit, you know, but otherwise like the, I had an electric car for a little while and like the two year maintenance was. Change the brake fluid. Yeah, I know it. And so there isn't nearly as much to do, you know, and it's right You're both a new wheel on if a wheel breaks down. Yeah, we're working on quite a few EVs right now. Yeah, so we We do quite a bit of work on Teslas already. Really? We own a Tesla. We have a, a Leaf is one of our shuttle vehicles. Okay. Um, we've done some pretty big projects for electric motors. Oh. So, um, we worked with the, uh, city of Boulder. We took out their diesel motor out of their big, uh, transport buses for like, uh, busing people around the, the city and we put in electric motors. Okay. We worked with another company that designed everything. Okay. It was kind of a, we were, we were the, you were the contractor that couldn't figure out how to put it in there. Kind of, and you know, when you're kind of doing the R and D all at the same time, there's hurdles, you know, you also go, Oh, how are we going to do this? You know, and if we kind of have to all work together to get that done, what we did, uh, uh, put an electric motor into a Roach coach for Google for, uh, one of their vehicles too. So, you know, we've had some, some interesting projects that way. Yeah, for sure. What do you think, uh, Your people would say is why they stick around a long time. Cause I've noticed that you have a lot of long term employees down there. We're really fortunate. We have such a great team of guys and gals. Um, and it's just, we're kind of family, you know, everybody is. I think that's a lot of it. That mutual respect and appreciation. Yeah, and we like to see everybody succeed. Genuine care. And see them move ahead and do better in life. Yeah. And part of that is actually defining roles and stuff. Like we were talking about those different layers and stuff and mostly people all want to do a good job, but if you can't tell them really what a good job is, or how to go about it, then it's like, well, I guess I just do what I want, right? Right. Yeah. Yeah, we've been real fortunate, and I think, I think it's that we're, we're still very involved with the business, too. Sure. Yeah, you're there every day. Yeah, yeah, for the most part, yeah. I'm sure you take some trips and stuff here and there. A little flock, yeah. Long ski weekends and stuff like that. But, uh, um, and do you have, you've got one child. I do, yes, I have a ten year old daughter. Okay. So, she goes to Harris Elementary, which my dad went to, at least. Uh, and she's in the fifth grade, so she will be, uh, leaving that school at the end of the Do you think she could be your heir apparent? Uh, not yet. What's that? Could she take over Hooska's when you're ready for the retirement? If she wants to, you know, um, She's smart enough, based on what I noticed a couple years ago. Oh yeah, she's smart enough, so, yeah, yeah. I think, for me, there wasn't pressure that I had to, right? Right, right. a good way to go about it because you, you don't want to, nobody wants to work in a job they felt like they were pressured to be in, right? You want to work in somewhere that you are, um, excited to be in it and there's a reason for you to be there, you know? So, but I, I have a feeling she'll be down there doing similar jobs that I had to do. She'll be sweeping the floor in about two years here. Yeah, yeah, so. That makes sense to me. Yeah. Um, like what's next? Is there any, uh, Anything you can talk about in terms of, like, ideas simmering? We always have, we're always looking to the future, you know? Maybe we don't have a location. We're always looking out. Yeah, why not a second location ever? We've got a brand for it, I would think. Customers that have moved all over the region. So we're looking that way, kind of. Also, what's beyond EVs? So we're looking at what might be down the road there. Oh, wow. Different things we can do. I've been noticing that, uh, I mean, there's been some consolidation in the marketplace. Like, like, you know, BG Automotive has maybe four, five, six locations or something, and they've acquired existing operators and now So, uh, Pat over at Performance Auto Tune bought the Maztech Alltech, you know, and co branded there. So now he's got a two store chain, I guess, if you will. Ken's Muffler also owns Gilsdorf now. Oh, is that right? Mm hmm. Okay. Will it be a Ken's? Uh, or they'll just keep the Gilsdorf garage? Oh, no. I think they're keeping the name. Yeah, yeah. As is. So. They've been long term. Uh, businesses in town, you know, so, yeah. Who else is the big competitors in the market? How about, like, the, I noticed the Christian Brothers have popped up all over the region. That's kind of a national chain brand in comparison to the Chili's of, of auto repair. Yeah, yeah. I haven't been, I don't know. They're not hurting you too bad. They're all competitors, but we're all in a similar, um, industry. We see each other. Focus on your own thing. Yeah, yeah, I'm in similar groups with all these guys. And they're good people out there. For sure. You know, so, um. Uh, we're all fighting a little bit for the same company, but we're all rooting for each other at the same time. Yeah, that's fair. You know, so. We want them all to be good. Yeah. Yeah. And if there's some that are out there doing bad work, they should fail and go away. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Those are the ones that should go away. That's capitalism action, right? Yeah. For sure. Um, when you think about kind of transitioning to become the leader of this business, what would you say your, your biggest strengths are, LJ? Mine? Other than delegation. We talked about that. Yeah. I don't know. Um, maybe it's just my demeanor. I, I, I, I don't. You're pretty chill. Yeah, yeah, I don't. For, for the things I'm doing all day long and the, the lists of stuff I need to do and the people I'm meeting with, um, I think, uh, people can come to me and, and let's, let's figure out, is it the issue with the vehicle? Is it issue with this? Is it, you know, what do we got to do here? And, um, and, you know. I think that that's the demeanor. You're a lot like my brother actually in demeanor. My younger brother is a service advisor for a John Deere dealership. And there's chaos all around him. And he's got 70 phone calls a day he needs to respond to in some capacity. You know, I'll get to them when I get to and I just work hard along the way and make good decisions and go on to the next one. That's all you can do. How about you, Dennis? What, uh, what would you say your, uh, strengths in the business manager space was? My wife says delegation. Yeah. She's hiring Noreen. No, it was, you know, kind of working with everybody. Yeah. Now, getting a team together that can get through a problem. Kind of rallying the cause. Right. Yeah. That makes sense. And what does Jen do for Hooska? She runs our parts department. Okay. So, especially on our repair side. So, um, More or less as parts come in, she's getting them over to the technicians. If you have returns or in the automotive world, there's cores, which means the part, the old part you take off the, the, uh, the supplier wants it back. Yeah. Um, if there's any type of warranty going on, supply chain management, right? Exactly. That's what she's doing. And disposal chain, but yeah, it's funny. I mean, I, I haven't really thought about behind the curtain of automotive for a while and you know, you, you look at job descriptions and stuff and you know, Some people are supply chain managers. Well, that's, that's it. She could do that for, you know, some company in a totally different industry, probably with a little training. Yeah. Yeah. She'd have. She has a good concept in her mind on how, what is coming in and going out and what you need to track. Man, that's a highly responsible position because everybody's gonna notice right away if you screw stuff up. Yeah, on both sides, right? All the way around. All the way around, yeah. Easier for you guys to slack off a little bit than it is for her, that's for sure. Um, well, I don't know, is there other things about, uh Like, I know, L. J., you've been involved in a peer advisory chapter for quite a few years. Is that something you talk about? Sure, sure. And how that, it's not loco think tank as a disclaimer for the fans, even though I've tried, but talk to me about that function in your world. Really, it's a group of guys that, um, we all have businesses in northern Colorado that we run, um, or, or some facet of it. There's about nine of us and we get together once a month. There's no facilitator or anything like that. Um, but, uh, I assume you take turns in some capacity. Yeah. Yeah. And so, yeah, everybody takes a turn saying it'll be my meeting and you can bring to the meeting, whether it's an issue you're having, if it's. Hey, I just wanted to inform people that I, uh, there's, there's, uh, industry news I'd like to let you know about, or, or anything that you think would pertain that could be good, uh, for everybody else to, to kind of be a part of. It's been a great, great thing for us. I think we've been going at this for, shoot, seven or eight years now. Is that right? core nine. Is that right? Yeah, you know, so it's a, it's a, it's been an interesting, interesting piece, you know, well, it's interesting, especially I met because you weren't like Dennis was a lot more involved on the day to day when you first started probably. So would you say that impacted your like confidence and ability to kind of take the reins and maybe his confidence in you even probably, you know, I, I think if you've ever, the, you know, When you have somebody you can lean on, it's great, but they're also there to, to lean on them. Right. You know, and sometimes it's, you sometimes are less likely to just go with your decision without stopping and saying, Hey, let me, let me get this other person involved. Right. And, and not to say that it's bad. But it's also, all of a sudden, when they're gone, you are going, you know, you are figuring out these decisions on your own, right, you know, or, or who else do I need to get involved to make sure I'm making the right decision, right, you know, versus sometimes it wouldn't always be, Hey, I'd go to Dennis and be like, Hey, what do you think of this or this? And it may not be that he has the answer, but he may also go, well, why don't you look at. The, you know, talk to these people or talk to this or look up this, you know, Well, and just that experience, you know, I like to say sometimes about business, like I'm not very smart, but I'm pretty experienced. You know, I've seen a lot of things and learned a lot of things from other people's mistakes, frankly. Yeah, that's kind of why you go to college. It's not so much you learn how to run an auto repair shop, but you learn that where to go to find the answer. Yeah, and even just how to find answers and things like that. Yeah, that makes sense. Um, well, I think it's, uh, probably a good time to just have a short break and then we'll get into the less business y topics. Okay, great. So before we do get into the next segment, I want to talk about cars. Okay, alright. Uh, do you guys have any, uh, hot rods or favorite cars? cars as personal collectibles? Are you car guys in that fashion? We have an old Cadillac. Okay. An old white Cadillac. Oh, I've seen that. Convertible, right? Yeah. So that's been, but all It's about 24 feet long from nose to tail. Yeah. So it's, it's longer than my three quarter ton extended pickup. Right. I like it. But, um, through the years, you know, I had, I had a lot of cool cars. Yeah. That kind of thing. Any favorites? Oh, I had a 68 SS Camaro. Mm. Yeah. It was really a nice car. Yeah, that's a 396 396 and of course we had to pull it out and beef it up. Yeah, sure. Do you do stuff like that still? Like if somebody wanted to Uh, performance can put in a V8 or something. We can't, we don't really go after that market. Yeah. You know, it's um, it's a different market. And um, a lot of those people They're kind of specialists in it when they want to supply all their own parts and Yeah. If they don't have the right part, then you're held up. And it's And they bought a cheap part and it spins the crank right away, or the cam right away, or whatever. On and on. So yeah, it's very long projects too, right? You know, right. Taking up a lot of stall space for a long time. Yeah, that's better, better made for a garage, right? Like not your garage. Good way to put it, right? And how about you, LJ, if you have any, uh, favorite cars or have you along the way, you know, even though I work with cars every day, I, I. I drive an old Toyota pickup, and I, uh, uh, I, I owned a, a real old Chevy pickup at one time. But, um, yeah, I, I mainly mountain bike, you know, on my pastime, that's what I'm trying to do. That, that or ski or other stuff, right. You know? So. Awesome. Well, um, we always talk about faith, family politics, and so, um, where would you like to start? Uh, any preference? Anyplace. It's fine with me. Let's talk more about family. Absolutely. Alright. Um So, what was your, your dad's family? Was a total of five children, did you say, Dennis? Uh, my dad's, my dad, my dad. Your, your brother and sisters? Yeah, the brother and sister. Just the two older, but then there didn't come any youngers? No. Okay, sorry. And I'm ten years behind. Oh, wow. So I was a, a little. You were a oops baby kind of. Yeah, oops baby is right. Yeah, yeah. I see, that's why he was ready to retire by the time you got out of college. Yeah, yeah, no kidding, huh? That's right. The math makes more sense now. Gotcha. So, and um, my brother didn't, he had another career path he wanted to do. And so, so Noreen, you guys got together and uh, she jumped in a couple years in to your relationship at Miska's. Right. Well, we had a bunch of kids, um, not, not only our own, but we were doing some foster stuff. Oh, is that right? And, and so. Tell me about that. And um, so. She was from her teaching. Yeah, you said she was title one title one reading teacher Yeah, and we really didn't have time for that anymore She needed to stay home with the kids and then when they started getting into age where they were going to school Mm hmm, and she had some more time I see and we could bring her into the shop and the dude Just like a maybe six months year multi year. Sometimes you grew up with other people Children in your house then? I was, I was pretty young when there was any foster kids. Okay. Yeah. Probably one or under. Oh, so you came a little bit later. Yeah. Gotcha. Something like that. Then once these guys started coming along and then it was like, okay. Yeah. Enough of that. Plus she's working at Hooska's more. Right. And then um We have his brother and sister who are adopted from Korea. Oh, I see. Okay. Oh, I think I've met your brother at a You probably have, yeah. at an event, one of the fundraiser events there. I had mistaken that or forgotten. And so, she's so involved with all sorts of things, dealing with that kind of stuff. Yeah, she's, uh, would save the whole world if she could. Right. That's, uh, that's my imagination of her and kinda Um, what would she say that she fell in love with about you, Dennis? She was blind, I think. Oh, shush. No, we just had a great time together, you know. We were, we were Charmed. Yep, kindred spirits, you know. Yeah, yeah, I like that. How about you and Jen? Yeah, same sort of thing. I think all our But it wasn't your fish costume, right? No, no, and all our friends thought there's no way these two would be, uh, be good for each other. I mean, even to the point where I was asking for her phone number and For some reason, getting stalled out and stuff like that. But she was out of your league or what? I think it was, you know, absolutely. But, you know, I mean, eventually it all kind of worked out. Right. You know, so yeah, but. It's been great. Do you guys spend a lot of time together as a family still now? We do. Ski weekends or different things like that. Ski weekends and trips and whitewater rafting and just a lot of biking. Yeah. Do you have other grandchildren as well? Just the one. Just the one so far. Maybe. Maybe. Totally spoiled, right? Right? You're the only grandchild. Multi generational focus of spoiling there. Yeah. Yeah. No kidding. Anything Annie wants, she gets. Seems likely. Um, we always do a one word description of, I think we'll just choose Annie this time, but I want to get one word from you, Dennis, and one word from you, LJ, for your one grandchild. For the one. A one word description of your one grandchild. She is, huh? She is my heart. Yeah. Yeah. She's sweet. She's the greatest. I'd say the smile. Annie the smile. She just smiles all the time, you know, so. It's hard not to love somebody that's smiling all the time. Um, anything, uh, that I would overlook in that family area that should be mentioned? Um, so how did you choose to adopt, uh, when that time came? Uh, LJ's Brother and sister, you know, it's just, it was like one of those things that wanted more at that time it was the thing to do, you know? And it was from Korea though, right? And so I guess was that, was there a re, was there a reason it was Korea? No, not necessarily. No. In fact, I was trying to think, wait, no, the Korean and war was 50 years ago, so that was right. There's no refugees or anything. Like sometimes there's. situations where there's an influx of women. In fact, uh, one time I came home for lunch and she was looking at a adoption magazine. She said, look at these two twins from, uh, India. I said, give me that magazine. You know that. We had enough kids, I think. Yeah. You were already there. Yeah. Well, let's talk about faith. Uh, I think I remember, uh, Lutheran background, is that true? Right, my brother is a Lutheran, was a Lutheran minister. Okay. And so, we grew up in that faith. Okay. There's a couple, three different Lutheran churches around town? I don't know, are they all the same? I know there's different, like, synods and different things. Yeah, Missouri Synod. And then, his church was, main church was down in Texas. And that's why he was pretty much out of the picture here. Gotcha. And, uh, where's the Lutheran church? Oh, is there a Lutheran church just by your house? Yeah. Yeah. My wife and I got married in that church. Yep. Yep. Actually that's, that's the church we went to when I was a kid. No, it's St. John's. St. John's. St. John's. Yeah. Yeah. We chose it'cause of the great stained glass. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. At that time of day. Yeah. Yeah. And so, yeah, we're still active in our church and I'm. I'm in a men's Bible group and different things. Yeah, this Bible group. It's all guys from different denominations. So, Oh, not two of us are from the same, different Lutheran denominations or, Oh, a Bible study fellowship or a different thing. Most of us went to high school together. Oh, cool. Connected somehow. And so all of us have a connection to it. Gotcha. Gotcha. To each other in a different way, but I think we've been meeting for 30 some years. Wow. That's extraordinary. Yeah. I, uh, I became a Christian relatively late in life, like 28 or 30 or something like that. And soon after did the, this thing called Bible study fellowship. Right. And yeah, BSF. Yeah. And the same kind of thing. Like people from different denominations and stuff and you know, there's try not to bring your preconceived notions and let's just look at this book and see what it says. Right. And, uh, that was actually, that's part of, I was taught facilitation by Bible study fellowship. Cause I. Was asked to be a discussion leader early in my Christian faith. And I was like, I don't know anything about the Bible really, but like, well, you don't have to, that's what facilitation means. Right. You can learn together with everybody else. And, uh, it's been a great way to learn it. Oh, it really was. Yeah, no. And we did, uh, there was history of Israel and the minor prophets was that season. Wow. So like right after becoming a Christian, I've, I've, Came to understand why a little bit, or have more meat on the bone of why I would want to believe what I'd come to believe already. Sure. If that makes sense. Yeah. And did you grew up in the faith as well then, LJ, or you also go to the same church, or? I don't go to the same church as my dad right now, but, uh, but yeah, we grew up, uh, going to church as a kid, and so, yeah. Fair enough. Yeah. Yeah. Um. We just had the, uh, Republican debate the other night, we just had an election two days ago. I know it. Yeah. Crazy. It's, uh, and there's lots of fireworks at the, uh, Republican debate, even though the leading candidate didn't even show up and he's up by 60 percent or something. Isn't it crazy? Yeah. It's an, I, I, like usually I can at least throw a guess at what an upcoming election is going to shake down. But I absolutely have no idea what to predict in 2024, a year from today. No, what's that? No, what's his name from Virginia that's not going to run for? Uh, send it again. Oh yeah. Mention. Yeah. Yeah. So that opens the Senate up in an interesting way. And if he runs, you know, it's going to be a 3 1. Oh, you think he might run for president? That's what the scuttlebutt is. Oh, interesting. Huh. I don't know. I don't know if that's right. A midstream candidate. Well, that would be wild. I don't know if there's room for two independents because Robert Kennedy's polling fairly high, especially among independents. Right. And he's going to pull a lot. More from Trump, probably, I think, because a lot of the Trumpies are also kind of the anti vaxxers and stuff, and Trump's still married, it's a, so your prediction, LJ, uh, how do you think this race is going to go? Yeah, like you said, uh, no prediction right now, this is a, this is a, a pretty wild figure. It is. That'd be wild if, have you seen anything as, as unpredictable as right now in your life of just watching the world of politics go by, Dennis? I haven't. With everything going on in Israel and Gaza and Ukraine and Russia and China. China, Taiwan, who knows when. I, it's like. But Janet Yellen says we have enough money for at least two more wars. Great. I know. Great. It's right. But you know, growing up here in Vietnam and all the. Sure. All that marches and everything, I thought, hopefully we'd get through this and the world would get more sane. Right. As we went along, and I don't think we're getting there. Doesn't seem like it, does it? No. What, uh, like, not that you have any power, but what would you say the world needs more of, uh, from a political, social, element? World needs now is more love, or sweet love, with a song, you know. It's the truth, isn't it? I mean, you can't be after everybody just because they look different or believe different or talk differently. I mean, we gotta be more open. Yeah, I would agree with that. I mean, we don't want to be siloed. That's what makes the world so great, is to have all sorts of friends from all over the world. Yeah. And get to know other faiths. It's part of what makes Fort Collins so great. Yeah, sure. Is the melting pot, you know. Thank goodness for CSU. Right? Yeah, yeah, that really brings a lot of A lot of different people to our area, you know? It sounds like you'd be a really good congressman there, Ilja. Oh yeah, I don't know about that. Sounds like a future candidate. Uh, any interest in your, uh, like, where would you put yourself in the, uh, here's what I think the world should be like. Oh boy, that is a big question, isn't it? Well, I mean, the more love is one thing, but what are the actual things we could do? I feel like the parties have too much sway right now, even though they're obviously both dysfunctional. It's like the person with all the power is also the most dysfunctional entity. I think it's tough that people are so, um, uh, If your mind is set within one way, it's almost like you can't, people aren't, can't see eye to eye on almost anything, you know, and it kind of makes for too much stalemate going on, you know, it's like, it's not the way the normal world works. Right. You know, I mean, the normal world where, you know, Yeah, people don't see eye to eye on stuff all the time, and we have to make it, make it go, right? You move forward, yeah. But sometimes you get to a certain level in politics, and it doesn't seem to be the same way. Well, nobody ever says I was wrong. Yeah. Like, nobody can ever confess that what they thought two years ago is not what I, so they just continue thinking wrong things, or something, or defending those wrong things. Right. That's exactly right. What do you think's gonna shake out in this, uh, Israel situation. I mean, that's obviously the probably the scariest situation in the world right now. Yeah, I just hope Like I ran doesn't get it more involved, you know, which they already are Yeah in the background, you know, and that could really open it up for a whole world world war but play bring in the aircraft carriers and well, but our aircraft carriers even Like, I feel like there's missiles now that can just take out an aircraft carrier pretty easy, right? Yeah, they are. And uh, yeah, it's an interesting and not, yeah, hopeful. Hopefully it's not another Pearl Harbor, you know, get all the big ships in one spot, right? Yeah. That would be, and then how do you project power without a Navy, right? Yeah. Right. Well, I guess I was listening to some description of, actually, I was listening to Elon Musk on, uh. Oh, the, the Ukrainian Russian guy, uh, Lex Freedman podcast. Mm hmm. And, uh, he was just out, I think, just yesterday, but talking about the Ukraine Russia war, it's basically a stalemate. It's basically World War I, because the anti aircraft is so good that neither side really can use airplanes. The tanks just get chewed up. There's trenches that if you get out of the trenches, so any offensive, basically, you're going to lose, like. Five or 10 to one versus the other side. And so neither side wants to do an offensive and they're just kind of stuck waiting now. Right. Lobbing long range artillery and sending drone attacks. I know. Crazy. And so we just like let people die at a rate of a few thousand a month to have a stalemate. I know. It doesn't make sense. Does It doesn't make sense to me. Yeah. No, I don't, I don't. And I don't know how to get out and I don't think another a hundred billion would change it. Uh, it's a problem when you have one guy, um, Putin, it's. He's controlling all the shots. Right. And what he says, he's not going to back down. Right. Not at this point. He would rather make Russia bankrupt than back down. Right. And he's not going to have to. No. You know, they're just kind of like, okay. Anyway, uh. Somebody's, I heard of something that they've used up 40 percent of their arsenal. Russia has? Yeah, on that war. Yeah, wouldn't shock me. Well, we used up half of ours. Like, we don't have any bullets hardly left. All the bullet manufacturers are being pressed into 24 hour service right now to restock our supply in case some other shit hits the fan. Isn't that crazy? Seems irresponsible. Uh, as was draining the strategic petroleum reserve. Let's talk about that in politics. I know. I know. To control the price, you know? Right. To play the price. Yeah. I mean, strategic means, like Oh, shit. We don't have any oil. We need some oil, but not to control a price, right? Yeah. Drop it 10 cents. Well, you know, the elections are important. Yeah, that was, that's how you buy your election. Any, uh, any hot topics for you guys on a politics basis, like local issues, minimum wage, does that affect you? You probably don't have too many minimum wage. We don't, but everybody has to go up a little bit If minimum wage goes up a bunch, I suppose. Yeah. You know, I mean, if you, I always think of it that if you are, if you have employees that are not that far off the minimum wage, right? If it goes up, they definitely feel it too, just because they're not quite at minimum wage. Right. Right. Um. But it was 4 over minimum wage. Now I'm a buck and a half over minimum wage. So, uh, you know, once you get above a certain amount of the gap, you don't feel that same thing, even if, even if it does jump like a dollar or a 50 cents or whatever amounted, it goes up. But, um, but yes, if you are, um, on, on kind of that lower level, we, we definitely have to keep an eye on what that means, right? But a lot of your techs are probably upper five figures, some low six figure. Yeah. Yeah. If you're, if you're a seasoned. Automotive tech you can make a great living. Yeah, I'm thinking more on the side of an entry level position for us, you know So that doesn't affect you necessarily. Do you have any hot topics? local political issues Not too many. Um, I always have a bunch, you know, I guess but nothing too vocal about nothing that you're on a soapbox about regularly I, you know, a lot of people hate all the emissions stuff we're doing, but the air is so much cleaner than it was back in the 70s, and I mean, even though it's bad now. You saw my MG out there. Yeah. It's a 1975, so I don't have any emissions ever. It's the oldest or the newest car you can have that doesn't require emissions testing. And it smokes a little bit. It's old enough. But I won't drive it too much. Yeah. It's a pretty little engine. So it ain't making that much smoke. How about you, LJ? Any, uh, important things to you on the, on the radar? I mean, like one thing I noticed was my, my clients in the oil field services industry, they had all their growth in like Texas, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Colorado hasn't grown their oil field output for, uh, So, since pre bullets, I guess, is probably the way to say that. That's probably right. Sure. And that seems like, kind of, like when we're dumping out a strategic petroleum reserve, maybe we should actually just develop our assets instead. Right. We, I mean. These are hot topics. I, I keep a close eye on it because a lot of our customers, I mean, we do a lot of oil field work for, um, for companies out there, right? And we can definitely feel the ebb and flow of when. Um, especially in a heavy truck center, I suppose. Yes, yeah, when things are hot, and, and, and it's, I mean, how fast can you get that thing back on the road right now, right? And then, um, all of a sudden, it cools back off. Right. And it's not nearly as sudden of a rush. Whenever you get to it. Yeah, yeah, exactly. We got three trucks already sitting here. So it's kind of crazy when you have somebody in state politics that can get on the wrong side of, like, oil fields. Right. And one person can make such a difference. Yes. Yeah. Into that whole industry. It doesn't look, sometimes you don't think, you're looking at both sides. The argument is, you know, the, the, the cities are more important and we want to make sure we have, you know, clean air and, and whatever, I guess, we can get our oil from North Dakota. But it's in healthcare and everything else. Right. I mean, it's, if you're not on the right side, that's probably my biggest complaint about government right now is that, that compromise that you were talking about that isn't being used now. It's kind of like. Like, even when Trump got elected and he took the, he messed with the, uh, income tax to, to, like, make it so state income tax was no longer deductible. Right. Like, that was a big club on California. Right. In New York, right? And then, you know, Biden comes out and, and he cancels the Keystone Pipeline, like first day, which is like billions of dollars of somebody's legitimately invested money. It's trying to do something that was useful and good. And it was already been, had already been approved and spent in a lot of cases. So that's what I don't like is this, this wagging of, you know, if, if I got the club, I'm going to beat you with it. Right. It's like, well, no, it should be more like I got a little bit of it. Advantage right now. Let's compromise. But, and I get a little bit more of what I want. And you give up a little bit more of what you wanted, but let's move forward instead of beating each other with sticks. What a waste of money and effort. That's what really disgusts you, isn't it? Totally. Well, and, and more is even worse, right? Like, like It's not like building a bomb and dropping it counts as a positive GDP thing, or selling it to Israel, right, or whatever, but it just wrecks things, like it should be a negative GDP, like anything used to destroy should count against you. Yeah, you gotta take that off your positive wins category. It's not like building a school or You know, developing infrastructure of any sort, right? Like, those are things that are for the benefit of people, but it don't matter how many bombs you drop, you're not gonna make the world a better place. No. Yeah, that's true. The low code experience is the, uh, the craziest experience of your lifetime that you're willing to share. Uh, it could be, uh, something near death. It could be, uh, I won the lottery. It could be I caught my baby when she fell out of the tree. Annie. Yeah, yeah. Do either of you guys have a loco experience? I don't want both of you to share, but uh We'll share. We had one together. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We were thinking about this just a little ahead of time. So, we 10 years ago, something like that. We bought a whitewater raft together. Okay. And so we've been doing, um, river trips together, you know? And, uh, so one, one day, quite a few years ago now, right after we bought it, right when you were still learning how dangerous it was, we decided, well, let's bring it up the pooter and see, you know, how we do here, right? You know? And so we were doing the, uh, bridges section with our raft and. where, uh, the bridge that goes over for Gray Rock Trail is. On our second run, we wrapped our raft around the pillar. Oh, okay. I was the oarman. Yeah, yeah. So it was your fault, mostly, is what you're saying. So, um, you know, the, the, the one thing we can brag is that we had to be saved by Search and Rescue. Oh, really? Well, luckily the Forest Service was already having like a day right at the, the trailhead where they were giving away chapstick and different things, right? So, I mean, we were obviously, uh, pinned up on this. It wasn't really dangerous at the time. It was more like, what am I gonna do to get my boat off here? Right, because you're like wrapped in a U shape. Yeah, right. But it's not tipped over or anything. You're all kind of a taco around it. Okay. We're up on the side, but the water pressure was so much How many people? Three of us. Okay. There's three of us on there. And uh, before we knew it, people were leaning over the bridge going, oh, hey, what's going on, you know, we'd like to be rescued here. We're the center of attention. Yeah. Luckily, a guy had what they call a Z drag kit. It's like a pulley system that will give you the leverage, right? So he lowered a rope down to me that I was able to then hook onto one of our loops on our raft, right? You know? And then we got to climb up the pillar to get off of our boat, but nobody wanted to jump or do anything at the time, because if you left it You might as well, your boat's done at that point, right? And then we were able to climb up it, and get over to the side where we were able to hook this to a tree, so that would then anchor it. They could come along, but probably with about, what, five different pulleys going back and forth, so if you think of the the mechanics of how you are then gonna get your strength because of the pulleys. Right, because if it was just a come along, it's like It's not gonna work. Yeah, yeah. So, similar idea, but more pulleys, and we were able to pull our raft off of the, uh, the pillar. Um, what did we lose? A, uh, a cooler, and I think, uh, a jacket or something, I mean, a minor amount of things that we lost. Could have been a lot worse. Yeah, yeah. Could have been my life. So then we, we got it off and you and I hopped back in the raft to row it the rest of the way down. And the other guy that was with us decided to just walk down the road. He was not getting back in the boat for the rest of the day. Not if Dennis is driving. Yeah, exactly. So, um, which is kind of a funny story just because we can say we've been rescued by Search and Rescue, even though we're Right on the side of the road and a bridge that everybody could see. Did you get a chapstick when you got to the side? I kind of needed one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And uh, it took a little bit, but it was uh, quite an experience to tell. So anybody that drives up to the pooter, you know, can see. But that, that one bridge is where we were caught up on. Yeah, no, I remember seeing that bridge. Is that where they actually show the water level even is right there? I don't think it's at that bridge. Okay, not that bridge, but it looks a little similar. Yeah, yeah. So, well, um. Who's got a motive located at where? Uh, what's your address there? 899. 899 Riverside. That's right. That's a, should be an easy number to remember or who's got a motive. com. And, uh, any final words of wisdom? Um, no, nothing for the Broncos this year. Yeah. They don't, they need wisdom. Yeah. I may have used all my wisdom up, you know, well, we'll catch it up next time. Yeah. Yeah.