Time to Make a Change

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An ironick media production visit us at I R O N I C K media.com.

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It's the market will show the market story, the meteorologist who does it for the viewer. Whoa melser Can you get out of here and the man who rides the coattails of his friends and family? Marc Ronick The amplifier now, here they are radios equivalent of a dial up connection. Hello boys, Mark and whoa

Marc Ronick  00:47
Hello and welcome everybody to the mark and Lowelll Show. I am your host, Marc Ronick. And here with me as always, which is kind of a weird thing to say right now is my co host lol melcer. Hello, lowell.

Lowell Melser  01:00
I can't believe we're back.

Marc Ronick  01:03
No one believed it. No,

Lowell Melser  01:05
they thought it was over COVID ended the show. And that was it.

Marc Ronick  01:09
I gotta tell you, I think that I was at the point maybe a month or two ago where I just believed we were not coming back.

Lowell Melser  01:17
Well, it was the time factor. Yeah, it was like figuring out when we were going to do it. We had well, if we're if we're going backwards, you know, we had this plan to like record for like two hours straight and chop up the shows in the mini shows. And that was a thing we were doing and Yep. Then that kind of fell off. I don't know how that fell off the wagon.

Jonah Berger  01:36
Ain't nobody got no two hours on their hands. That's why it fell off the wagon chair.

Marc Ronick  01:42
And hey, that familiar voice is Jonah Berger. Hello, Jonah.

Jonah Berger  01:46
Hello, brothers.

Marc Ronick  01:48
Welcome back, my friend.

Jonah Berger  01:50
We have not recorded any shows since COVID. I thought we did

Marc Ronick  01:55
it. No. I mean during COVID. Yes. And it did last year around this time we were doing a new season. And that was what Lowell’s referring to by we were doing that batch recording thing. And I think the reason why we're not doing that. And it's not to say that we won't ever it's just I think the reason why we're not doing it that way is a it felt a little weird to us. It just was hard to do it that way after doing it for years and years the way we always do. And I and I we definitely saw some feedback here and there from listeners that weren't crazy about it either. Because they felt like we are a more timely type show. And it felt weird to hear us talking about something that happened two months ago, for example.

Lowell Melser  02:38
Yeah, because some things would get dated like quickly, and then we'd have to figure out how to undo a thumb in editing. And it just I don't know, it wasn't.

Marc Ronick  02:47
Yeah, everything. Okay with your mic there.

Lowell Melser  02:49
Yeah, it's I haven't used it in a while. So I'm trying to balance it out. It's like if, if it's in the middle, you have to keep it exactly in the middle or else it just starts sliding.

Jonah Berger  03:01
I like how low is leaning as he's talking, you know?

Lowell Melser  03:05
Let's see. Maybe make Oh, no, it's got to be more less in the middle and more to the other side. So that it doesn't There we go.

Marc Ronick  03:13
Man. I gotta tell you, lo, I guess Rusty from not podcasting in awhile. And you know, now that he's retired from television, he's really rusty lost it.

Lowell Melser  03:23
I am Rusty the clown? The clown? Yeah. Yeah, it's been a crazy, crazy couple of weeks for me a couple of months. Really?

Marc Ronick  03:32
Yeah. And this past week or so we're recording this just a few days after the official announcement, the official retirement of Lowell melser from not just web Al, but from TV basically. Right.

Lowell Melser  03:44
Yeah. For now. Yeah. I mean, I'm going into a job where I will be interviewed by the media. So I will probably be on TV in some sort of fashion. But it'll be on the other side of the camera, which is going to be interesting. But I've got a lot of friends that have gotten out of the business that go that do that now. And they say they they love it. So I think it was really just about it was just time for me because the schedule was so demanding. And the daily in and out of it was just it was just a drag mentally for me, you know? Yeah, I hear yes. A lot of negativity and, you know, just on all a bunch of different aspects. I can't talk about too much sure of it, because I've signed an agreement to you know, not say much, but just from my point of view, doing general assignment reporting is it's a younger person's game, and it wasn't. It wasn't my plan for my career to do that forever.

Jonah Berger  04:48
I'm just curious, was whether or not your main gig were you still like 5050? Like, what? I didn't get the balance of that.

Lowell Melser  04:57
I would say it was like 60 4070 30 more reporting then oh, wow, weather, okay, and I was trying to get a full time weather gig at the station because I'd worked hard on that. And it wasn't in the cards, okay, for whatever reason. So they liked using me as a utility player, I was getting tired of that, I didn't really want to do the the general sentiment reporting anymore. And I

Marc Ronick  05:25
gotta say, Lowell though, that I think not just the station, but from everything I've seen, it seems like the audience, the Baltimore community liked that about you, they liked that you were jack of all trades on the station, and that they would see you in whether it was at the desk on the field doing the weather, I think that you kind of you kind of wore that hat for them. And people were impressed by it. And they liked that about you.

Lowell Melser  05:51
Yeah. And I mean, you know, for a while I was I was into it, too. But you know, the, the, the daily grind of a general assignment reporter is like, you got to be more mentally there. And, you know, I've got, I've got a nine year old and a seven year old now. And I want to spend as much time as I possibly can with them. And getting home at 730 Every night is you know, not it's just not ideal, or, you know, a lot of times when I'm filling in on the weekend, it's waking up at, you know, 233 o'clock in the morning to do the morning show. And, you know, so I gotta go to bed early the night before and you know, there's the, the hours are not great.

Jonah Berger  06:33
I was gonna say that the one best thing about having kids, like, there's a lot of challenges to it, but one of my favorite parts is that there's no question about priorities. Like when you have kids, you full blown understand what's most important and what shouldn't be and to your credit, you're, you're acting briefly on that front. And that's cool,

Lowell Melser  06:54
right? I mean, and my station was cool about like, you know, if you have sick kids, you know, staying home or they got things they got to do, like they were letting me i They asked me to volunteer to help like, uh, you know, assistant with his winter Lacrosse League, and I asked work, and they let me do that every Friday, like, they let me do some stuff to, you know, be involved, but like, just the daily grind was, it was just getting to me, you know, we're, you know, I'm, you know, gonna be 50 this year in November, and, you know, it's, uh, it's, yeah, I had to make a change. Because if I didn't make it now, I would have been stuck there. And then and, you know, my attitude was to make it change. Change one. Yeah, so it was either it was either shit or get off the pot, as they say, and I started shitting. And,

Marc Ronick  07:50
and then you got off the banana.

Lowell Melser  07:52
I got off the pot, right. So, ya know, but the way I found this job that I'm doing now was just, it was just so the, the Baltimore County Executive, his name is Johnny Olszewski. They call him Johnny yo, he, for the last couple of years has been, you know, wanting me to come work for Baltimore County, because he had a good relationship. And, you know, I kept putting it off because it was like, no, no, because I was kind of in denial of like, wanting to leave, like it was a big, it's a big step to leave a place that you've been for 20 years, like

Jonah Berger  08:23
BHEL it's like the big gun, you know? Yeah.

Lowell Melser  08:26
I mean, it was like, it's like, you know, and it was, but you know, as the days went on, and different things started happening. And, you know, Ali would always say to me, she'd say, she could tell and I know, marks like this too with me, like, you can tell when I'm not in a great mood like Indiana, to some extent to us, you know, from when we see each other. But she I've been

Marc Ronick  08:50
I've been married to you longer than Ali has, right? Exactly.

Lowell Melser  08:53
Yeah. Like she could tell. She could tell as soon as like, she would call me like at work and I pick her up, she could tell as soon as I said, the way I said hello, she would know I was in a bed. She's like up what happened? What's going on? So, you know, she and I, she and I would talk a lot and she's like, You got to you got to just get out of there. So you can be happy. She's like, yes, you're miserable all the time. Because for what it was, for me, it was like, you know, a week would go by and I'd have a good week and I'd be like, Oh, this isn't so bad. It's great. And then like, I'd have like three bad days in a row and I was like, I gotta get out of here. I gotta get out of here and that was the the up and down that that was my life. Really for the past like, I want to say like, from being honest like the past like three to five years. Yeah, life has been like, This is so amazing. This is complete shit. This is amazing. This is complete shit. No way to live. It's no way to live. So I had to make a move and

Marc Ronick  09:54
and to be fair, it it's not necessarily those ups and downs aren't nice. necessarily the fault of where you worked, it was more the fault of the type of work that you were doing. And you've mean, it's somewhat sounds like to me is that you've almost outgrown it. Right? It was like something that, yeah, sure. 510 years ago, that was something right up your alley today just doesn't fit with who you are today.

Lowell Melser  10:19
And, you know, there's, there's people that it doesn't bother them, you know, they're and they're older than me. I mean, we got guys that are stationed that are in their mid 50s, early 60s that are still doing the general assignment gig. And that's like, that's just not for me. That's not where I wanted to end up. Like, yeah, I just just get be an angry person. Like, I was just angry all the time, you know, and I was angry because I wasn't getting the job I wanted either. So when I was angry at the, the work I was, had to do, and then I was, you know, it's just a culmination of a lot of things. And it just like messed with me, mentally.

Jonah Berger  10:54
Was there any thought on your part to try to find another station in a smaller market that would let you do exactly what you want to do? Or was it just not worth stepping down?

Lowell Melser  11:03
There's 100%, I wouldn't have had to go to a smaller market. There's the the TV business right now is like they're begging people to work in it. And I had a couple of people reach out to me from other stations in markets the same size as Baltimore, like seeing if I was interested in doing something. But the problem is, our roots are really deep here. I mean, the kids are in school. Yeah, Ali has a Ali has an amazing job with the federal government, which is like, she don't mess with benef, the benefits and the in her work schedule, and her work life balance, it's like to uproot. So I could go make, you know, less money, but beyond TV and a different market just wasn't, it wasn't in the cards, like I should have done this, like before we had kids or something, you know, but it is what it is. You can't you can't look back. And second guess you just had to, you know, dealt the cards you got and you got to just keep moving.

Marc Ronick  11:59
So what's your official title with your new job?

Lowell Melser  12:03
Chief Public Information Officer for the Baltimore County Department of Public Works. It's a fairly long title. But

Marc Ronick  12:11
so then does that mean, technically? Are you a police officer?

Lowell Melser  12:16
Yeah, the chief Yeah. Hey, Chief, we fold them again, shave? No, it's just it's like, it's signifies that it's a managerial position. Okay. So the long and short of it is it's it's a position that they wanted to create for a long time, but they were looking for like, the right person. So this was another thing. It was kind of flattering to be like, sought after. Yeah, yeah. Because I haven't had that in 25 years. You know, my whole career. It's really I've always had to beg for the jobs. Do you

Marc Ronick  12:47
think you could ask for a badge just to have

Jonah Berger  12:49
a bad like, a plastic badge? Even?

Lowell Melser  12:52
Yeah, I'll get I'll get a badge,

Marc Ronick  12:55
Safety Patrol badge, maybe?

Lowell Melser  12:58
Officer through or draft or through that you can? Strap? Yeah, a safety patrol officer to you.

Jonah Berger  13:05
So how would you explain it to like a kid what you're doing? Is it that when the county has something to report to the media, you're there, man?

Lowell Melser  13:13
Yeah, so But the long and short of it department of Baltimore County Department of Public Works is a $2 billion operation. They control all the county roads. So it's anything that has to do with roads, that'd be snow removal, construction, bridges, infrastructure, things like that. They do the trash, they do the water. So if there's water main breaks, things like that, that are affected. They have a big, green infrastructure thing that they're working on now, which I you know, so it'd be a lot of like pitching these stories to stations and having them come out and do stuff. So they are excited, because they went in the big snowstorms. They do a lot of the snow removal. So they want me to like do my shtick. Nice when we have the big snow storms, so that'll that'll be good. Yeah, so So the goggles

Marc Ronick  14:00
are not retired.

Lowell Melser  14:02
I don't think they're retired. Or retired. Yeah.

Marc Ronick  14:05
Because that definitely came up a bunch on your tweet when you announced this a lot of people sad to see the goggles go,

Lowell Melser  14:13
I know I well, you know, it's funny as the day we're recording this I have to go into the station today for they're doing a little set goodbye party in the Oh, I gotta turn in all my gear and do all that and they're going to do something so I don't know if they're going to retire the goggles there or what they're gonna do but now is that on the air or is that just not on the air on there? It was nice. My the photographer that I've been working with pretty much every day for the past since COVID began Mac Feeny he organized this whole thing and had a bunch of the photography this is this meant a lot to me because like you know, they all came in at like, you know 930 In the morning on a Sunday to the station to I don't know if you saw the picture of them. I'll still Yeah, on the desk or anything. Yeah. So they all came in to say goodbye. And then a couple of the anchors and reporters came in as well. So it was like, it meant a lot OPERS that they all came. Yeah, that's awesome.

Marc Ronick  15:11
So you mentioned a moment ago about your schedule and how grueling it is and how sometimes you have to do those early morning weekend shifts. And your last day was an early morning, Sunday morning. Shift. Right, right. So were you okay with that being your last? Or would you have liked a more prime time? Goodbye? 

Lowell Melser  15:32
No, surprisingly, the Sunday Morning Show is one of the highest rated shows because everybody's at home and they just have a background. That's right, a lot of people and the fact that I was able to announce the day before on social media that I was leaving, I'm sure a lot of people and that was the best way to do it. Because I got the most time it was during the week, they wouldn't have given me they may not have even done anything to be honest with you. But I got to I got to do it my way. My way. Right. So but so yeah, so they gave me like, you know, like, almost five minutes to say goodbye at the end there. So that was that was nice. So it worked out great. It was it was actually good that we were able to do it on the Sunday morning broadcast. Yeah.

Marc Ronick  16:18
Okay, so speaking of that, Jonah, did you get to see that at all?

Jonah Berger  16:23
I never get to see Lowell

Lowell Melser  16:25
Are you gonna? Are you gonna put it with your, your the video from your first marriage

Marc Ronick  16:30
by my hit? Hi, my I have it here. I want to make sure I'm playing it through my computer. So I want to make sure you guys can hear it. And then if not, I'll have to make a quick adjustment so that everybody including our listeners can hear but let me just see. Can you hear let me pull this up here.

Lowell Melser  16:48
And by the way, this exists on the internet forever. So that's great, too.

Jonah Berger  16:52
Are you telling me there's a pee? No, I,

Lowell Melser  16:55
I kind of gotta have a clamped.

Jonah Berger  16:59
That's dude, I was literally gonna say a minute ago. Like, this is no joke. This is a good chunk of your life. The majority of your of your adult life. You've been doing this one thing. It's like, it's a big deal.

Lowell Melser  17:12
It's like yeah, it's like a whole second chapter in your life. It's like just like going from like kindergarten to graduating college pretty much

Jonah Berger  17:19
Ramblewood to Saginaw if you will. Now why not

Lowell Melser  17:24
take that's one of the biggest mistakes of my life.

Jonah Berger  17:29
You went right my dad went you went yeah, there was like a handful of traders know your dad didn't he went he went for one year remember? He went I feel like it was Yeah,

Lowell Melser  17:41
yeah, it was the year I went and Ryan Keller was there I was never I was I appeared PTSD. Homesickness Yes. And like, the kids were so rotten there. Yes. So rotten. They were all like, you know, they were just so mean. And they were all into like sports. This is really pissing me off on that. That's great. Yeah, some way to keep the show company gray know how to do the audio. No,

Jonah Berger  18:11
what sucks about that is that it's only done when you're already frustrated. Like, once you're frustrated, then they start pooping on your gray. Right. Thanks, boys. Thanks. Give me a second. Okay. Yeah, okay. Dude, it was so funny. I three counselors of mine were together this weekend in Pennsylvania and they texted me probably drunkenly one night. And we're like, do you have nicknames from your past? We don't know about and I was like, trying to think and then as soon as I thought you guys always like oh yeah, loops, loops bone Bonarda like I came up with like six of them. Bernardo, Bernardo, Bernards, bone loops, bone, traps, bone. Simply traps hold the bone. Alright,

Marc Ronick  18:55
so then since you haven't heard it, Jonah, and I'm going to guess that some of our audience hasn't heard it either. I want to go through this with you. So let's let's dive into Lowell’s final moments at WBA l his sign off earlier this week.

19:19
It's a bittersweet day you can see there is a crowd of people you know you are loved. When folks come out on a cold Sunday morning to say goodbye to somebody who's been here two decades on TV Hill low it's your final broadcast. I've only worked with you a few short months but it's been fantastic.

Lowell Melser  19:36
No, yeah, it's been great. And you know, just seeing so many familiar faces here like this is some of the best photographers in the business standing behind me here. You know, after a lot of soul searching and consultation with friends and colleagues and family members and some prayer I've decided to step down as

19:56
Border Collie

Lowell Melser  19:59
everyone here Yeah, and it's been 20 years that I'm very grateful for. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Oh, get a hold of myself. All right. But then I got it together. opportunities and experiences and relationships that I've formed are fantastic. General assignment reporting, as folks know, is a very tough gig. And while it is rewarding at times, it can also be a mental drain. And that's what I dealt with in this job. And that's why I pursued meteorology to kind of create a new challenge for myself and create a new path. And it worked very well for me. And this isn't goodbye for everyone, I will still be around in the Greater Baltimore area as I've taken a job with Baltimore County as their Chief Public Information Officer for the Department of Public Works, where I will also be able to take advantage of my meteorology skills, which was very important to me. So you'll still see me on social media I'll be very active there. I'm just can't thank you enough for all the outpouring on social media and all the kind words that everyone says that it means a lot to me that I was able to touch your lives. And thank you for inviting me into your homes every evening and afternoon to deliver the weather and the news. And I just want to say for you know, all my friends here at WB, Al everyone working behind the scenes, I see you I appreciate you You are the hardest working people in the business. And thank you for making me look so good. And that's it. So thanks again. And thanks. I got my wife got me the champagne. My wife Allison back there really slow. So thanks. Thank you everyone. And it's been a crazy crazy wild ride. So

Marc Ronick  21:41
alright, that's good. So yeah, so really lost it there a did you think but I

Lowell Melser  21:47
got it back. I had my I had my one little like outburst and then got it back

Marc Ronick  21:54
you did and what was what I enjoyed about it just from you know, being your friend at all, but what I enjoyed was, there was a nice little ramp up you could tell he got a little choked, and he tried to hold it back. Right? And then that that the worst thing that can happen when you're already trying to hold it back and then it just is pushing out and then you do the whole Yeah.

Lowell Melser  22:15
And it's like you're like snored. No, it's you know, and I know that it's, you know, it's you can feel it. You know, you can feel it when you're getting like emotional and you're like you're trying to hold it in you're trying to hold it it's almost like a sneeze right? Yeah, yeah, because you're holding it in you're holding it in you feel the emotion and then finally you're like, I got I gotta get this like it's like a chemical almost right? Like I gotta get this I gotta get this out. So I had that brief like breakdown how to get we have like thing is

Marc Ronick  22:46
then after the snort I thought you were gonna get it together and then you lost it. This snort

Lowell Melser  22:51
LEDs crying?

Marc Ronick  22:52
Yes. I

Lowell Melser  22:53
think the snort was part of the, like the dam breaking. Right. Like that was part of the dam break. And then yeah, you know, it really, you know, it really broke my heart like Sloane, she's such a softy, too. She was like crying. She was crying. Well, that

Marc Ronick  23:08
was what I was going to ask you. You had your two kids there. And at that age, it's rare for at least many kids. It's rare to see your dad cry. Right. So I was curious what what their reaction was to that

Lowell Melser  23:21
Reid didn't really have much of a reaction. I think he was kind of just like stunned and trying to be like, you know, holding it together. But like Sloane like definitely cried like she. She cried. But Daddy was crying and I was like, No, Daddy's daddy's not sad that he's crying because he's happy that you know, you can cry because you're happy. You know? So, you know? Yeah, it is weird. When you see when you're young and you see like your mom or your dad cry. It's

Jonah Berger  23:47
actually really weird. Healthy. I think it's really good for kids to be like dad that has emotions. That's that's something that generations pass. You would never see emotion from your father and like, I think it's good to it's all right.

Marc Ronick  24:04
I am just waiting though for the payback. Lowell because I can't tell you how many tweets I've seen you post over the years of the whole Jordan crying thing.

Lowell Melser  24:14
Oh, the Jordan crying meme.

Marc Ronick  24:16
Yes, you do that mean all the time? Where is the Lowell Melser Crying meme.

Lowell Melser  24:22
that will happen. I appreciate my station putting the thumbnail for that story is me like a little teary. I don't know if you've noticed or not did. Yeah. Oh, thanks. Thanks for that. That's nice. And I think the even is like I mentioned before this is on the internet forever. So you know, anytime you you need a laugh. I guess you'll pull it up and

Jonah Berger  24:46
I'll think about it. Do you have like a public job and so it's not when you decided to move on? That's step one. But as soon as you're truly public about it on air where you did your job that's that makes sense. That's where that that's where it would come flooding in, you know, like, Yeah, this is it man like, it's it's intense.

Lowell Melser  25:07
Yeah, it's like 20. I mean, you go all the way back to when you know you guys were in Grosvenor and I left to go to it early.

Marc Ronick  25:14
Right. So yeah, when in back back in the day when we were first out of college, we were Jonah and I were living together. And then we were the three of us with one other person. We, our friend Dave, we were thinking about getting a new place together, all four of us. And all of a sudden, like one or two months into the search. So I was like, Hey, I got some news for you guys. I'm leaving down. Yeah, I was the I that was the Idaho gig your first TV gig?

Lowell Melser  25:40
Yeah, that's like 97 Yeah, and hidden code and never looked back. And then what the south wasn't there one that I went to? I went to Montgomery, Alabama, Alabama. That's right. Yeah. And then after that went to Norfolk, Virginia Beach. And then then Baltimore. Yeah.

Marc Ronick  25:59
Yeah. Wow, back. So listen, here's what I think as far as the mark and Lowell show because I think we've talked about this plenty now. Right. And congratulations to you. Lowell I think this is an awesome movie. That's coming from behind the scenes. I know you were having such a hard time. Yeah, in these last couple of years. Again, not to the fault of the business that you were working for just more to the fault of this was not your thing anymore. Right. So I applaud you for taking that step and making a move as hard as that may have been well and also

Lowell Melser  26:29
Yeah, I mean, you know, I called you what was that in? Was that in like, December or November that I called you I was like the fall it was fall. I was like, I mean in full panic mode when I called you like I was fully about to lose my mind. You know, I was like, I gotta What do I do? You know, like, yeah, you know, so

Marc Ronick  26:51
and actually and that's a good transition and we're not going to dig too deep into it on this episode. Maybe the following episode, we can dig into this. But as some of you may know, I moved I liked Maryland talk about low leaving something for a long time I left the place that I've lived really my entire life with the exception of first few years of my life in New York and then the few years at college. So yeah, Amy and I picked up and moved to Asheville North Carolina a lot behind that decision and the the easiest one I can share with you right now is simply it was time for a change after all these years in Maryland. We and our kids are all in college Oh time to change

Jonah Berger  27:33
on a make it change change. Oh, man nice

Marc Ronick  27:41
yeah, so we all the kids went to college and it was time and we got an offer on our house before even putting it on the market and that we couldn't refuse so we made things happen in like six weeks over the summer and here we are so we'll get into all of that but Jonah did get to come visit us just this past week which was really cool is first time here with us so that was that was really cool with the whole thing the Kinder

Jonah Berger  28:07
with the fam 10 hours each way uphill in the snow.

Lowell Melser  28:13
Yeah. I don't know how you did that with the two Kinder

Jonah Berger  28:17
well, you get to a point where it's just time to make a change, man and you know,

Lowell Melser  28:22
time to make Yep. No, no

Jonah Berger  28:34
they did crazy.

Marc Ronick  28:35
The show titled Yeah,

Jonah Berger  28:37
our kids do awesome in the car. We are twice blessed man Millie is amazing. And Arthur was a rock star VHS is first how many stops how many stops not that many stops. I got it. We we broke the trip into two. We didn't go 10 hours. In one day. We did five hours a day and got a hotel motel. Actually, I taught Amelia that the other morning. I said it's time to increase your cool points. And I said now you go to a meal you go home tell mo tell she'll go Holiday Inn just like that.

Marc Ronick  29:10
She will. And by the way, sidenote, we'll have to have her on at some point. Because also Lowell she is obsessed with calling me every night to say thank you. We really and she's all in on it. She doesn't just say it she just she does it like the way

Lowell Melser  29:27
a scream

Jonah Berger  29:28
when Reed was doing it on the little read. Yeah, tiny read. Yeah, every time she gets out of a bath. I put the towel around her and the first thing she says is can we call mark and AB and say PUE? Oh, yeah, yeah,

Marc Ronick  29:44
that's great. Jonah, I didn't ask you permission. So I need so I'm just going to ask you now and if you say no, that's fine. You told me a story. The what didn't happen here. It was when you were home recently, and Amelia had walked You know you in the bathroom?

Jonah Berger  30:00
You can tell I don't care. Well, I'd like you to tell I see it's kind of a funny one. I would not a little backstory, I would not say that I am a consistent spin special place groomer. if you will. I every every blue azmoun I'm like, scared a little trim. See what's going on, you know? And yeah, I'm standing over the toilet with with my trimmer, making making magic happen. And

Marc Ronick  30:40
Amelia is three, almost four years

Jonah Berger  30:43
going on for a few months. And she walked in and she said, Dad, why you shaving your penis beard.

Lowell Melser  30:51
This is nothing like five years of therapy won't be able to fix later.

Marc Ronick  30:56
But the terminology they came up with the pain is

Jonah Berger  30:59
beard.

Lowell Melser  31:00
Oh my god. And you? You're like, why?

Jonah Berger  31:07
Jerk because I was shocked. And I was like, well. Oh,

Lowell Melser  31:11
and cut the winner in half.

Jonah Berger  31:13
Yeah. Yeah.

Lowell Melser  31:15
You did a nice bleep bleeding when

Jonah Berger  31:17
she's still at the age where she doesn't think anything of it. She's just like, hey, you're shaking your penis beard.

Lowell Melser  31:23
Yeah, yeah. You know, it's funny. You mentioned that. So my kids finally are both at the age where I used to shower with with both of

Marc Ronick  31:33
them because yes, he's had this conversation. Yeah. Over the weekend. Yeah, he's

Lowell Melser  31:36
nine. So he's, he's out. That's he's out. And then Sloane just turned seven. And she's kind of like, she either wants to take a bath or by herself or shower by herself now. Yeah. Yeah. So

Marc Ronick  31:50
yeah, no assistance. And yeah, we were talking about what's the appropriate age to stop showering with your kid you know how sometimes you just throw them in the shower? And you know, do you just clean them off while you're cleaning yourself up?

Lowell Melser  32:06
The problem is to like with read and you know, boys that he doesn't someone who doesn't wash himself very well. You know, he just wants to go in there. A little water? Yeah, like a thimbles of shampoo. Yeah, yeah, maybe? Maybe a soap? Maybe not. So yeah. So I kind of got a ride. And then I'm like, read make sure you clean and make sure you clean your balls and asshole too. All right, god. Wow.

Jonah Berger  32:33
Yeah, that's to the point.

Lowell Melser  32:35
Yeah, I mean, it's like an ally will say it too. Because like, there's nothing worse than, you know, nine year old boy sitting on the couch and you can you get like a little whiff of something going on. And

Jonah Berger  32:48
Terry was the first one to hand me a stick of deodorant. And she said Joe, use it. And I was like, all right, but here's the thing we like from the get go when Amelia was born, Megan was very clear. And I actually agree with this. No slang terms for private parts. So not pain, not thing not at the young age like that. You just say penis. You say testicles if her area hurts. I'm like, What's wrong with your vagina? Like you get them used to? And but then I kinda like the fact that there's no like, shame around that she walks around naked. I walk around naked and I get that at a certain level of development. You gotta make adjustments. But they were all the other night. They were all like, Dude, it's gonna be soon and I'm like, She's three, man. So I think it depends on the kid. Yeah,

Lowell Melser  33:36
I mean, kindergarten, pretty much once they get into Gen pop. It's yeah, it's on. True. Yeah, cuz. Reed's wiener balls. Yeah. But, Sloane still, vagina is like it's your vagina hurt, or, you know,

Marc Ronick  33:53
like that the way the excuse or the example we're giving is if it hurts,

Lowell Melser  33:57
right? I mean, that's really that's really what you're going to talk about. Right? Wash your wash your balls read.

Jonah Berger  34:04
Well, I I got crap from my wife and mother in law for saying vagina. Even I'm like, What? What would you have me say? And they're like, it's her labia majeure. And while they want you to really get Are you kidding me? And so I I called it New England. I'm like, that whole area is called the vagina. It's like New England is like three different areas. Yeah, geography. Yeah. Why England? Yeah, I'm comfortable with VA just give you that. You know?

Marc Ronick  34:31
I'll give you an array right all right. So here's what it how I want to wrap up. I want to tell you guys a little story since I have moved and you know, I'm meeting neighbors right like all these neighbors now

Lowell Melser  34:43
odd you move here? Yeah. Yeah.

Marc Ronick  34:46
friendliest name.

Jonah Berger  34:49
We went on a walk. I met two of them. They couldn't have been friendlier.

Marc Ronick  34:52
Yeah, everybody's been very welcoming

Jonah Berger  34:54
your counter party

Lowell Melser  34:56
are gonna take you back by the shade.

Jonah Berger  34:58
Yeah, but she It Ain't nobody ran for half a mile.

Marc Ronick  35:02
And to give our audience some context, I have moved to a very small town outside of Asheville. This is like a population two to 3000 people. That's it. So yeah, it kind of has that mountain town feel

Jonah Berger  35:16
for sure. Where some tight jeans boy,

Marc Ronick  35:19
we met a bunch of our neighbors, they kind of and I feel like it was kind of for us and for them to meet us. They did it. Early Fall when we moved here, they did a little neighborhood outdoor gathering just kind of a social hour. And we got to know people there and some of the neighbors. What one couple in particular heard us talking about our love for pets and dogs. And she did the neighbor kind of yells out to Amy. Oh, you guys. Do you guys ever watch other animals watch pets? Right? And we're like, oh, well, yeah, we love dogs. Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah, we would you know, let's talk maybe one day if you need any help, let us know. The same neighbor also the guy of the couple. He was he had showed us recently some he does woodwork. You know where kinda like if you remember our good friend hawk. He was doing all that wood work for a while where he was doing like that burned in thing the wall sign? Yeah, right, the mark and little sign that we have yet. So this guy does that. And we were impressed in admiring some of his work. So fast forward. He and She both start texting Amy and saying we've got to we've got something for you. We want to give you kind of a little welcome gift. And it was right around Thanksgiving, we were distracted because we had family in and we were like, Yeah, we're gonna definitely come by and we'll get it. And after a couple of tries, they were very insistent on come get your gift, come get your gift. And so we finally made some time. And Amy went, I think I was working. She went over there. And they they hand her this sign because we had wanted a sign for our driveway coming in, because it's kind of hard to see. And so we put a sign, we want to put a sign there. So he made this a nice little wooden sign indicating our, our house number and street name and all that. So he gives it to her. She's thank you so much. This is so nice of you. And then literally, I think it was the next thing after that exchange was, hey, we're going out of town. Would you mind watching our dog and two birds? Now my question is, how was that whole thing orchestrated? Do you think that?

Lowell Melser  37:44
salutely 110%?

Jonah Berger  37:48
Yeah, I do do? I do?

Lowell Melser  37:51
Yeah, they put you on the spot? Right. Yeah,

Marc Ronick  37:54
that's what I was thinking that by the way, honestly, I'm not just saying this the sweetest couple they're older, they're probably closer to our parents age than they are to our age. And really sweet,

Lowell Melser  38:04
sweet as can be. So what do you have to do? Did you just have to go over to their house every day to take care of the dog and birds? Or did you have to bring them to your house?

Marc Ronick  38:11
Well, Amy was hoping we could bring them or at least the dog to our house. And again, so when they put her on the spot like that? I think it was she was pretty quick to say yeah, okay, sure. Because she's thinking in her head, I'll bring them or the dog to the house. And the woman didn't really feel comfortable with that she doesn't trust the dog. She's afraid the dog is going to try to like get out and go find them and get lost or something. So she's like, I'd really prefer if he wouldn't mind. You don't have to stay overnight. But if you could come and check and feed him and do all the things. It is like Okay, I think I can manage that. They want they had her come four times a day. Give them the sign back then twice during the afternoon and then again at night before bed. And and then the dog requires multiple he gets an appetizer before he gets his dinner.

Lowell Melser  39:04
This is this is a nightmare. The birds the

Marc Ronick  39:07
two parakeet or parrot birds, they get this whole meal planned for them. I mean, this was a thing and it wasn't for just a couple days. It was like over a week. They're gonna hold this sign

Lowell Melser  39:19
over your head forever. The birds, the birds

Jonah Berger  39:21
every time you feed them they go Briar Jewish people are the meat brah Yeah, right. And you're like, Oh, great.

Lowell Melser  39:29
Great. I thought he was I thought he made you a big cross.

39:33
Oh, yeah.

Lowell Melser  39:35
That's I thought you were gonna say, yeah, the Jewish guy. So wait, so now Are you are you on the hook forever with this? What's the what's the I think?

Marc Ronick  39:44
I think Amy has said, you know, because she did actually kind of bond a little bit with the animals and she likes the animals in general. I think what we're going to do is if we're asked again, we're going to say to them, we'll do it but let's find another person who can In alternate the shifts so that we're not responsible for all four. And by we, I mean, Amy because when she told me she was doing that and told me the schedule, I'm like, Listen, I'll come and support you as much as possible, but I ain't taken any responsibility for that nonce or,

Lowell Melser  40:16
or then if they wanted again, they bring it all to your house like, you know,

Jonah Berger  40:20
right, right. I don't know that you want both dogs and both birds flying around? Come on,

Lowell Melser  40:27
I would say never do it again. But you know, that's who that is. Yeah, it's rough. Man. That's

Marc Ronick  40:33
that again gets because they were so sweet. They're just really nice people. Yeah. And, you know, and we certainly don't want anybody to be in a bind. That's a neighbor of ours. But yeah, we just have to think set some some more strict boundary.

Lowell Melser  40:46
I mean, I've heard of like, you know, go in the morning and go at night and night, you know, yeah. Or yeah, but I don't know, man. Yes. A lot. Four times a day.

Marc Ronick  40:57
Yeah. Amy barely walked out of that house. And they were like, suck. Yeah.

Lowell Melser  41:01
When did they what would they what did they leave on a Friday and come back on a Sunday or something

Marc Ronick  41:06
they know, they left on like a Tuesday and came back on a Wednesday, the following Wednesday. Oh, this was like a week. It was over a week.

Lowell Melser  41:14
Oh my God. Are you kidding me? For a wooden sign. All right. Yeah.

Jonah Berger  41:21
Can I just throw something out here by in addition to the multitude of other benefits, one of the things that mark and Amy have moved from and towards is a more is a different culture. It's It's the old school, especially mountain Hills way of everyone takes care of everyone. And that's not how you function in montgomery. Yeah,

Lowell Melser  41:42
there's, there's that but like, I feel like there was a little bit of a taking advantage of here, I'm sure. Come on.

Marc Ronick  41:50
And I think I think Jonah is doing a little dreaming right now.

Lowell Melser  41:55
That's a truly burning, and he's all wasted. I know

Marc Ronick  41:59
the will. Because when Amy would walk over to the house from our house, you know, she'd walked by different neighbors and they'd be like, Oh, hey, what's going on? Where are you going? And she's like, Oh, I'm going to the neighbor to take care of the dogs and every one of them that she said that to they'd be like, Oh, I see they got you didn't they? Oh, then

Jonah Berger  42:16
oh, it's public domain. Then you just gotta lay down the law next time you're like, Oh, I'd love to but we've got a bar mitzvah practice right

Lowell Melser  42:25
one and done. Yeah. And one currently Yes. So they've been they every neighbor has fallen for this stick so yeah.

Jonah Berger  42:33
Serial loopers right.

Marc Ronick  42:35
And I really genuinely feel bad because they really are so nice and such good people and they even came by after I will say they came by after the whole experience during the holidays they brought us a couple of little gifts too so like they're definitely appreciative and grateful it was just a weird exchange especially so as such a new neighbors right right you know and I mean like this didn't come to us right away but it's because they obviously exhausted

Lowell Melser  43:02
examiner's and I'm just gonna throw this out there I mean, how could they trust you without even really knowing you? They don't know anything about you guys. What if you're not what if you're not responsible people right? What if What if you're like oh, we forgot to go and who cares we'll just go at night

Jonah Berger  43:19
if you're not even going to be a neighbor's true just buying the house to fix it up and rent it out on like Airbnb or something like what if

Lowell Melser  43:26
you're not even gonna be there much longer right now?

Jonah Berger  43:29
terrible terrible right right.

Marc Ronick  43:32
We'll see we'll see. Yeah, so All right, I guess guys as as we used to say that will do it for the mark and lol show please follow us on I'm not gonna even say Facebook even though we have a Facebook group there so yeah, follow come find our Facebook group. Mandell fans over there. I'm saying that because Facebook I just yeah, it's ending right. It may be good for staying in contact and socializing and all that stuff. It is not good for promoting a business right now unless you got the cash to pay to get seen. Oh right. Right. So yeah, and follow us on Instagram follow us on Twitter all of that good stuff. And if you need that information or any other information Marc and Lowell Just go to MarcandLowell.com

Lowell Melser  44:17
Oh yeah this is when I do my plug right yeah well still get me on the social medias I you know I think I have to change my you have to change your Twitter handle that yeah my change my handle on Twitter and Instagram. Yeah, well no, my Instagram is fine it's that's the newsmaker 22 but um, I think I might change my what's gonna change I was thinking to just change it to like melcer WX like melcer web or something like that your

Jonah Berger  44:42
Baltimore yeah pain

Lowell Melser  44:44
beard Baltimore. A pm beard.

Jonah Berger  44:47
Add appearance. All right.

Marc Ronick  44:49
So then I guess right now get

Lowell Melser  44:51
me on the social medias just look up my name. You'll

Marc Ronick  44:53
see you'll find me. Yeah, there's not many Lowell melser out there. I'm

Lowell Melser  44:57
sure if you just type Lowell you'll find me

Marc Ronick  44:59
And Jonah,

Jonah Berger  45:00
I am starting with the man in the middle. I'm asking him to change his ways.

Marc Ronick  45:09
I think I miss the old and you can reach me at www

Jonah Berger  45:14
the one that's never called out in the title but still carries 1/3 of the weight that gown

Lowell Melser  45:24
with broken equipment Yes, never prepares

Jonah Berger  45:27
Whitman feeds me out people with me up on the socials. Look up my name. Don't forget about

45:35
me.

Marc Ronick  45:36
I forgot how I end the show after that. I don't do well.

Lowell Melser  45:41
Next time. Ababa. Yeah, we'll see you next time on the market.

Marc Ronick  45:46
Yeah, there was a line and I forgotten that I said,

Lowell Melser  45:48
You'll set you say and we'll see you next time on the mark. And we'll show and then I go back the line there you have it. Yeah. All right. So do it. Yeah, do it doesn't feel right. Plan. Come on, or then do something new.

Marc Ronick  46:03
We'll see you next time on the Marc and Lowell Show

Lowell Melser  46:24
the PPP B BB eight BP we're gonna re be Jonah parade. Joan has come into town. Sorry, I can't meet with you there but I'm gonna be at the different parade. I can meet you there. Jonah parade. Jonah parade. Joan. I can only meet you on this day. Ooh, can't do that. Oh,

Jonah Berger  46:48
if you reach out to the tune up later, maybe that can be worked out.

Lowell Melser  46:52
Yeah. Jonah parade. Jonah parade.

Jonah Berger  46:58
Jonah, Ray see you guys arrayed