Empty Nest Snow Days – E122

Rick Denton (00:00)
This week in the Loud Quiet, empty nest snow days. Hey everybody, welcome back to The Loud Quiet. Take a look if you're watching on video and if you're not, we'll narrate for you. We are in sweats and house shoes because we are in the middle of day three of being snowed in. In North Texas, it doesn't take much to snow us in and we are here.

Clancy Denton (00:19)
I'd say iced in not really snowed in you're right. did get we did get and the snow was pretty yesterday We did get snow yesterday, but the ice is what kills it here

Rick Denton (00:29)
Yeah, and especially when you don't have to leave, there's a no good reason to leave, so don't leave, and we have essentially not left. Before though we get into the episode, do in our mind everybody, we do have the book coming out soon, and if you want that introduction, that free download of the introduction of the book, and then to be placed on the ongoing newsletter that gives you early information about the book, along with just the weekly The Loud Quiet newsletter, head over to theloudquiet.com.

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Clancy Denton (01:03)
So yes, we are on day three. You know, the last time we did this was a while ago. We had just gotten back into somewhat of a routine, which we talked about last year or last week, overindulging. We had just gotten back into our routine for, you know, four days and

Rick Denton (01:28)
I

felt so good about myself. I was eating healthy. was consistently in the gym, which is, that's normal. That's not an abnormal thing for us, but it was that return four days.

Clancy Denton (01:39)
Because then when we knew we were going to be stuck starting Saturday through however long, what did we do on Friday night with our friends, Brandy and Brian? Let's go get Mexican food. That's right. So we need to load up on that.

Rick Denton (01:56)
And that being some good queso, lots of tias, and I'm still coughing and I'm still coughing and I was like, yeah, I think it's time to have that margarita. And not only margarita, it came served, was plenty sized. And then there was a sidecar with it as well.

Clancy Denton (01:58)
Very freedom.

I still didn't understand that. Yours was, you got the sidecar, but I still don't understand why.

Rick Denton (02:22)
I think to misquote a famous poem, ours is not to wonder why. Ours is but to do and well enjoy the sidecar.

Clancy Denton (02:32)
So, yeah, so we have been out of our routine. know, Rick and I are very much. We go to the gym every morning, except on the weekends. So what have we been doing? Garage workout. And luckily, the first day. I've worked out all three days in the garage. The first day was still pretty warm because on Friday it was warm here. It was not cold. So the garage.

Thanks to our new garage door that we got a few months ago, kept it insulated. Now as the days progressed, have added a hat and gloves.

Rick Denton (03:14)
that'd be kind of funny to see the stages of what

Clancy Denton (03:17)
I

will have to work out. will. If I put together this video that I've been compiling for the last two and a half days and I will continue today, you can see the progression of what I have on. So.

Rick Denton (03:34)
did that the one day. I can't, I hate garage workouts. Now, one of the things that's good now is supposed to like decades ago when we would burn through the same workout DVDs out there that I would just get so bored with. Now you can pop on YouTube and there's a workout that's available to you at any moment. Stream that and there's something fresh to do. And I had a nice cardio workout and then it was able to come inside in the heat and have a nice stretching workout, which I'm still sore from.

Clancy Denton (04:00)
Yes, because we don't stretch.

Rick Denton (04:03)
Yeah, I, I'm having a little trouble walking because of that silly stretching video. I'm old. There are some good things though about getting out of the routine and, and it forces you to do something else when you're trapped, when you're stopped, when you are in slow down mode like that, that you can't fill it with other activities. You even see to me, Hey, let's play backgammon. We haven't played backgammon in years.

Clancy Denton (04:09)
You

Rick Denton (04:32)
Decades maybe.

Clancy Denton (04:33)
Yeah, and I saw it on a show that I was watching. was like, huh, we haven't played backgammon in so long. And that's a good two. We needed two person things this weekend.

Rick Denton (04:44)
Yeah, because when you've got the kids in the house, there's a whole series of games that you could choose to play all the various board games. Well, there's not a lot of fun in doing Pictionary with two people.

Clancy Denton (04:54)
No, and you said, you know, it's nice to have a slow down. just I wasn't ready for it yet because we had just really gotten back into regular life. And so I was not.

super excited knowing that, okay, and again, because it was on a weekend, doesn't make it as, but now we're bleeding into the week. ⁓

Rick Denton (05:23)
Yeah,

I absolutely was going stir crazy today. And even though it was, and this is true, nine degrees Fahrenheit, got out geared up and just went on a walk this morning. And it's actually kind of nice. was without exaggeration, the only person out there and was able to head out over to the PGA course. The views that you get to see in this sort of peaceful, tranquil course that you never get to see. It was neat to get out there and see that.

and I listened to things on the way out there and then I took my headphones out and just enjoyed the silence and I think that was what was most striking about the walk was just how silent things were. There wasn't road noise. It was not

Clancy Denton (06:07)
Yeah, I mean I really have not heard one come down our street and usually there are some people that are now today I figure today this afternoon people will start venturing out and there'll be more people outside and walking because the Sun is out but you know, they've canceled school already for tomorrow. So it's just

Rick Denton (06:27)
I've got to shout out a specific individual and I won't do name because people aren't going to know it, but we still get the newspaper thrown onto our yard. And Dallas news had said, look, weather, we're likely to suspend operations. Your carrier may not be able to get your paper to you. Every single morning, the paper has been there. I I'm impressed with this, this carrier and we know his name. We know who he is lives in the neighborhood. I'm impressed with ⁓ this Dallas news carrier. He's

going above and beyond to still deliver and stay committed to what he has said is his commitment.

Clancy Denton (07:04)
I wonder how many that'd be interesting now. I wonder how many papers he delivers these days, you know, because it's just going declining. But and of course, then like we talked about last week, the food, there's always the eating because, oh, it's going to be cold and we're going to be stuck. So what are we going to do all day? We're going to eat.

Rick Denton (07:11)
Well, certainly.

Well, you you've got to be able to insulate for the dangers of this cold winter.

Clancy Denton (07:39)
I put on several of my group chats because we were all talking about the same thing that calories don't count if it's below 30 degrees.

Rick Denton (07:46)
It's scientific fact. Yeah, enzymes, calorie burning, all of that. Absolutely. Well, and we actually put that question out on the Facebook community asking, hey, what do y'all use? What's your comfort food? Because we know what our sort of go-tos are when it's cold. And I do want to thank Kristy Zenni and Katie for responding. Kristy, love the chicken and dumplings. That is when you think of just that food and how it absolutely kind of warms the inside and the soul and the memories and everything else associated with that.

It is an absolute classic for your winter warmth. Zinnia suggested soup, fresh fruit, and veggies, and smoothies, to which I thought, man, that's healthy. Well done.

Clancy Denton (08:30)
Well, yes, and you replied and I said, excuse me, we have fresh fruit and veggies in our fridge too. You just don't choose to eat those.

Rick Denton (08:38)
It's true. I did not represent our family well with that one. I was not authentic when I said well we got plenty of carbs

Clancy Denton (08:45)
And we have that too, but...

Rick Denton (08:47)
And we have that and then Katie suggested chili and what I found funny about the not Katie suggested the chili. What was interesting to see is how many people were cooking chili on the exact same night. Everyone here did it on Sunday night.

Clancy Denton (09:05)
Yeah, our neighbors in a picture like in the morning, oh, got the chili, you know, going. And I had just started the meat and was about to put ours in the crock pot. Then our other friends texted and said, Chili's ready on. Yeah. So yes, every it seemed like everyone was doing the Sunday. And you know what? Maybe that goes along with football. Yeah. Maybe just people think of football, chili, cold. You know, this is our first chili of the season because it hasn't been.

that cold and when it has been we haven't been here.

Rick Denton (09:38)
You were calling out, you opened up the fridge like, why do you still have Oktoberfest in here? Because it hasn't been cold enough to drink all of my, because I like it to be a nice cool day. So you're right. There's a, an actual indicator of it has not been that cold if I still have lingering Oktoberfest that were purchased back in August, September.

Clancy Denton (09:55)
We had other drinks this weekend, but you did not drink one of those and it's been plenty cold.

Rick Denton (10:01)
⁓ I have no comments, Your Honor. I will just accept the accusation.

Clancy Denton (10:06)
I know this storm, which I didn't realize it had a name, Fern. It's Winter Storm Fern.

Rick Denton (10:12)
I'm gonna old man here back in my day. We did not have yeah for winter

Clancy Denton (10:15)
I didn't know the storms

had names, but this is Fern. And I know it's affecting, you know, a great part of the country. I don't know how it is in other places, but for us, everyone freaks out and goes and buys milk and bread. And I love someone said, are y'all just making milk sandwiches? What's going on with the milk and bread? We don't usually have milk in our house because now that the children are gone, neither one of us really drinks it.

So I bought a gallon of milk, because I was like, ooh, I want pancakes. And I also had a biscuit mix that I needed milk for. Put it in my car, and it leaked in my car.

Rick Denton (10:57)
Of course, the first milk jug you buy.

Clancy Denton (11:00)
Yeah, in ages leaks in my car. So I've been dealing with that this way. mean, luckily, at least I haven't had to drive my car anywhere. So I've been able to put things in it vinegar and that, you know, you can't really be driving around with. But so that's been on my to do list while we've been thanks a lot. Yeah.

Rick Denton (11:24)
You've mentioned you have like you don't have milk that often because the kids are out of the house This is our first winter storm where we have none of the kids in the house last time Tanner was gone Tegan was still here and that was the one that was super intense. Yeah, that was It lost power that was a storm that was even longer than the one that we had here and that's the one you said the power was coming in and out mostly out sometimes

Clancy Denton (11:38)
when we lost power.

I mean, I was cooking with the camping headlight on my, because we have a gas stove, so at least I could still cook some things. if you wanted anything in the microwave, you had to have it queued up and ready. And as soon as the power cycled on, you could run in there and hit your button to cook it.

Rick Denton (12:09)
yeah, was crazy that the cycles that we had to do that what? What has made this feel different without her in the house? It's just you and me. What makes that different?

Clancy Denton (12:22)
Well, I was just thinking too about the power being out because the last time we'd all sit downstairs and read books and we'd play games. But if, if the power would have been out this time with it just being you and me, I don't know how that would have gone. At least we had a buffer the last time.

Rick Denton (12:43)
we talking about like the shining? it misery? What are we looking at here?

Clancy Denton (12:48)
No, I just... You and I spend 24-7 pretty much together. So, if we did not have our escapes these last few days, you know, without the kids being here, no one's in the media room commandeering that TV. So, you would go up there. I would go to our bedroom and watch TV because for you, luckily, it was the weekend.

College basketball was on all day Saturday and then the NFL playoffs were on Sunday. I didn't care a ton about any of those. I did like seeing one of our high schoolers play. He plays for the Broncos. So that was fun. But, you know, so I could go to the back and get caught up on Emily in Paris and Paul Morial. So that was just nice that we, and we're fine with that. We can be a part. We don't.

That doesn't, I'm not, my feelings aren't hurt, because you don't want to watch what I want to watch, and I don't want to watch what you want to watch.

Rick Denton (13:54)
And

I think that's... I'm making an assumption here because it's kind of a parallel universe sort of thing. I think that's something that's different about empty nesting versus, say, young coupling. That there might have been the, ooh, it's cozy, let's stay together. And there may be kind of the desire to stay together then, but there also may have been the expectation to get cuddly with each other and canoodle all the time or those sorts of things, as opposed to...

Alright, I'm going upstairs and I'm gonna play Outer Wilds and you'll see me in a couple hours. And that's good!

Clancy Denton (14:28)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I was thinking back to our younger dating days, early married days. I don't ever remember storms like this where we were stuck. I just don't remember that. mean, we were in Houston for part of it, you know, but and then we had kids, but I don't remember anything even in all of our dating days of these storms that would just

have you stuck for days?

Rick Denton (14:59)
Well, neither do I. With one sort of kinda, do you remember how I always would go into the office when it was bad roads and it was optional?

Clancy Denton (15:12)
But that was when we had kids. I was thinking about... Oh, pre-kids? Yeah, I'm just talking about when it was just us as a couple. Oh, I don't remember any of that. the time we had kids, I didn't need you to be beside me for 24-7.

Rick Denton (15:28)
Hey, don't you need to go to work? Well Clancy? There's like four inches of ice. Yeah, don't you need to?

Clancy Denton (15:32)
There

were times that I did get irritated. was like, why are you going in to work? ⁓

Rick Denton (15:38)
I

just said the answer a couple sentences ago. You had kids at the home. No.

Clancy Denton (15:45)
That's fine. We just stayed here and made cookies and had a good old time. but yeah, I just I can't remember. I don't recall any being stuck like this, like we've had in these, you know, past.

Rick Denton (16:01)
I certainly don't remember either. I don't remember that. you know, well, we've got at least one element of that experiment to watch, right? Tanner and his girlfriend are bunkered down in the town home down in Dallas, and they're not able to go anywhere either. And they've sent pictures of the snow in and all that. It'd be interesting to talk to them about, okay, did y'all find a way to, okay, I'm going to go watch this show and you go watch that show somewhere else.

Clancy Denton (16:30)
I bet today they will venture out if things are open, because he has access to so many things that they can walk to. If things are open, I bet they will venture out because and to the sun is out today. So that always makes it nicer. But, know, when you were saying you don't have to be, you know, together all the time, we don't have to be together all the time. When you're sending a picture, look at the front yard and they're like.

yeah, we haven't made it downstairs yet and it's 11 o'clock. Alright.

Rick Denton (17:03)
Definitely different age category and stage of life category, you know, I was quite delighted that I slept till 6 30 this morning. So I was proud of myself and I'd already gone out and walked and heck I had a business meeting almost a little bit after they were still saying, yeah, we'll get around to getting out of the upstairs.

Clancy Denton (17:24)
Yeah,

I mean we were already in there, you know answering emails doing you know today is Monday. So yes, we're Back to somewhat of a work routine now. Will that continue the whole day? I don't know but we are but I I won't I did

Rick Denton (17:42)
I'm gonna tell you right now cuz I'm about to finish the video game and so I got I'm so close and so I gotta see what this is

Clancy Denton (17:50)
I did give myself, you know, a little later start this morning. I was awake, but I don't usually lounge as much as I do on a typical weekday, but I did let myself do that because I was like, what do we got to do?

Rick Denton (18:05)
Absolutely. You had talked about a couple days ago when I was starting to do something in the morning and that kind of stuff and you're like, hey, we got a lot of time to fill the day. Let's slow our roll a little bit. It reminded me of the Friends episode where Joey was helping Ross understand, hey, you can't do all that activity. That's an entire week's worth of activity when he's on sabbatical. So I felt a little bit of, that's right. And you know what? And I really was thinking about this on the walk.

were no cars flying about and that meant that there weren't people going to where I know there's a lot of work from home but there's a lot of not work from home there's a lot of just non-work that's happening today and there's such value in that it just I do think of this as a society we're over productive over focused on productivity and stopping down and being forced to stop down kind of opened

my eyes to that realization that productivity isn't everything.

Clancy Denton (19:09)
Yeah. And again, like I said earlier, I totally agree with that. I just wasn't ready for it to happen right now. I needed I needed another week or two of getting myself back into my routine.

Rick Denton (19:25)
I think it's the forced aspect of it. It's not a desire. It was forced upon us.

Clancy Denton (19:29)
And

I, and I know so many people's, you know, trips got messed up. NCA's was here for the high schoolers. And if you're at all in the cheer world, this was for the high school division. There was so much drama revolving that and teams that couldn't get here. And then teams that got told the last minute, okay, you can go. mean, it was just, it was a lot for those girls and.

guys and parents to deal with. And so, you know, I hate that so many things just get disrupted. You know, we are headed out to see Teagan, you know, soon. And so I'm like, please don't let the weather mess anything up. And speaking of Teagan, she got her sweet revenge. Boy, did she ever. Because.

When we were stuck in the, what year was that? 2021, It was 2021. in the power outage and everything. Tanner is sending us pictures from Arizona, you know, on a hike, beautiful. she got... Taint top. Yes, in the dark. And she got her sweet revenge because she did send us a picture of

Rick Denton (20:42)
just I mean spectacular and we have all of our clothes on.

Clancy Denton (20:55)
the blue sky sun. You know, she was walking on campus headed to the gym, I'm sure.

Rick Denton (21:01)
Oh, it's out there on that green space, the ball just looked lovely.

Clancy Denton (21:07)
But what I loved is first she texted and said, how miserable are y'all? And I was like, ⁓ good morning. Then she sends us that picture. And I was like, that's nice. And I'm sure she was like, haha, it's my turn.

Rick Denton (21:20)
You

And you know what? I would do the exact same thing in reverse. 100%. So kudos to her. Yay for her. This was your time, Tegan.

Clancy Denton (21:39)
I will say there better be good weather when we go out there soon or I'm gonna be really mad.

Rick Denton (21:44)
Yes, absolutely. Yeah, if I don't see crystal blue skies, we're we're filing a complaint with the the Arizona weather board

Clancy Denton (21:52)
I am so thankful that this time the power did not go out because that just adds another element that is not fun to deal with.

Rick Denton (22:02)
Yeah, we're trapped but you know, oh ha ha. we ate a lot. We played some games. We watched some TV. It's not the same as are we going to be able to have the pool equipment not blow up? Are there pipes going to burst in our house? All those sorts of things. So we're very thankful for that.

Clancy Denton (22:17)
Yes.

And we know that a lot of y'all are dealing with the same thing and, you know, probably have it worse than we do here. So we hope everyone is staying warm. And again, we thank those that contributed to our question in the community. And again, if you want to join our community, just go to the loud quiet dot com, hit that community button at the top and it will send you directly to our Facebook group.

And thanks you guys for listening to another episode of The Loud Quiet.