The Grey Nato - Ep 24 - Favs Of 2016

Published on Tue, 20 Dec 2016 09:13:18 -0500

Synopsis

This episode is a recap of the best highlights from The Grey NATO podcast in 2016. Jason and James discussed their favorite watches of the year like the Seiko SRP "Turtle" diver, the Doxa Sub 300 anniversary edition, and the vintage watches they acquired. They also reminisced about the trips and adventures they went on, including summiting Mount Baker, driving a Porsche on the Autobahn, flying in the Breitling jet, and various scuba diving trips. In the "Final Notes" segment, they recommended checking out the ClickSpring YouTube channel showing a craftsman building a clock by hand, the "One Hour Watch" Instagram feed showcasing daily watch design sketches, and the classic Christmas story "The Shepherd" by Frederick Forsyth about an RAF pilot's harrowing flight home for the holidays. Overall, it was a year filled with interesting watches, travel experiences, and entertaining content for these two adventurous watch enthusiasts.

Transcript

Speaker
James Stacey Welcome to episode 24 of the Graynado, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, gear, and most certainly watches.
Jason Heaton I'm Jason Heaton. And I'm James Stacy. Has it been a year already? Like, 24, this is 24th episode, last episode of 2016. So we thought we would do kind of a A look back at the best bits of 2016. Don't worry, it's not like a clip show. We're not going to cut together things we already said. We're just gonna... We went through our notes for the last 23 episodes and kind of picked out our favorites. So if you're kind of just getting to the show in the last few episodes or... Maybe you just kind of want to catch up. Bring you up to the new year. I think this will be a fun episode for you. But before we get to that, I do want to remind everyone that we're running a giveaway with our buddy Max. who's at WatchMax on Instagram. We're giving away a PADI edition Seiko SRPA21, the Prospex Diver. You have to follow WatchMax, you have to follow TheGrenado, and then you have to comment on a specific post. It's in our Instagram feed by the time you're listening to this, with a secret hashtag. We told you in episode 23, and your favorite adventure buddy has a tag. The giveaway runs until the end of the year, and we will pick a winner in early January and get you the watch. Also, a quick note about scheduling. To better synchronize with SIHH, the big watch show in Geneva in January, episode 25, the first episode for 2017, won't be out on the 3rd of January, but rather the 10th. So you'll have to wait an extra week. That's going to be the one week that we take as a bit of a break. We were really worried about having an episode come out mid-SIHH and having really no reason for half the stuff we talk about. We will be back on the 10th with a pre-SIHH episode and then we're headed to Geneva and should see some really great watches and have plenty to talk about a couple of weeks after that. So, on with the show. Let's give it a bit of a recap. You want to start with watches, Jason?
James Stacey Yeah, it seems like it was actually a really good year for watches. I think you and I have both not only handled some cool stuff and reviewed some fun stuff, but we've also acquired some really cool stuff on our own. I mean, we got to kind of share pieces and look at each other's stuff in person when we met up for our summit in Vancouver. 2016 and watches without bringing that watch up first, because in my opinion, it just stands above and beyond almost all the other watches. Yeah.
Jason Heaton You know, I think like, like, you know, we've mentioned it before and it's always a ongoing online discussion, but the ideas of value and what's expensive and what's cheap is like fairly fluid throughout all of watch collecting. You know, right now, if you could get certain vintage watches at the price they were even two years ago, we would all be going nuts, but two years ago they were considered expensive.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton So it's kind of a crazy space to lean too hard on the value, but it is really nice when you get a watch like the 777 or its many variants, including the watch we're doing a giveaway of. It's kind of nice with these watches because it's a really easy argument to establish just how good it is for what you have to pay. Yeah. Even at its list price, which is a hair under 500 bucks, and you can pay way less than that, more like a hair over 300. Yeah. It's a really nicely made watch. It's definitely the sort of watch you could buy. And you guarantee that people will, you know, when we get to TGN three or four thousand, many, many, many years from now, we'll be talking about, oh, went diving to Bonaire and some guy was wearing an SRP, but, you know, he had only ever never had its service and it's 15 years old. Yeah. And that sort of thing. Like that's just kind of the next generation of these watches that enthusiasts kind of claim as their own, but kind of really exist as a sport watch.
James Stacey Yeah, I think, I think it's rather than, and we're not doing it, but rather than rehash, you know, the specific traits of the SRP family of watches that Seiko came out with this year, I think what strikes me is what it has kind of done to the watch world in general. And that's kind of level of watches. We're talking about the sub thousand dollar and the sub $500 level. Um, it's, it's kind of become a new benchmark. I think everybody's talking about it. I think people that weren't, you know, Seiko wasn't on their radar before, people that weren't into dive watches. You know, I've got a friend who's a big collector. He's got lots of, you know, vintage Rolexes and Pateks and everything in between. And, you know, he was so smitten by the SRP that when I showed it to him that, you know, he went out and bought like one for each of his three kids. You know, it's like, it's just that kind of watch. You know, Hodinkee does this, um, when they do a watch review, oftentimes they'll, they'll weigh it and then they'll compare its weight. to a Seiko SKX diver, and they kind of use the SKX as like a benchmark.
Jason Heaton Yeah, a base standard.
James Stacey Because so many people know an SKX, so to say, okay, the Rolex Subways X, you know, compared to, I think this is what's going to happen with the SRP, and it's already starting to happen. It's that benchmark of the $500 dive watch, Seiko or whatever brand. It's just, it's become, here's what you can get, here's how good things can be at that price.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah, I think it reestablishes all the many things that make Seiko great at what they do. And I think it also, yeah, it's kind of reconfigured the way that people are going to talk about watches that cost under $1,000. Certainly the way that you and I have talked about watches this year that costs under $1,000. It's always with a bit of an asterisk, which is if you just want a relatively safe play, and luckily they come in quite a few different versions. just go with the SRP. And for years, I've just been telling friends that wanted to go to a mechanical watch or, you know, a kind of wear it and not worry about it sport watch to go with an SKX.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton And now you only need a little bit more money to go to an SRP. So, I mean, if that's their situation, now I have this new de facto choice. With an enthusiast, sure, I might talk about Hallios and Raven and Helsin and all sorts of other brands, Autodromo. Right. especially when you're talking about the less niche interest level of watch collecting or watch interest.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Oh, it's just an all-star.
James Stacey Yeah, it is. It's a, it's a new classic, you know?
Jason Heaton And it could easily be your first watch or your main, your everyday watch, your, your only sport watch if you're a diver. And, uh, you know, it's definitely a watch that we've talked a ton about, and now we've talked about again for a few minutes. But it is, I think it is the watch of 2016. For the sorts of watches that you and I are really fascinated by, these watches that are built for actual daily use, but are still enthusiast products at the same time. Right. And can exist in almost any price point, but that's what makes the Seiko special is it's at a very low price point.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And I really like the fact that Seiko looked into its archives. I mean, I think there are a lot of brands that do that. almost to a fault. I mean, there's brands that just lean entirely on their archives. For sure. But I think, you know, Seiko is one of these brands that they've made so many watches that have kind of just, they feel like they've existed forever. I mean, the SKX, you know, I have a, like a reference 7002 from like the early eighties and it has like almost the same case as an SKX. I mean, you can just, it's like it, it's always been in existence. And I think the SRP has that same feel to it, even though it's a new watch, of course it conjures up something from the seventies and Seiko kind of just dropped it. They kind of just, there was no fanfare. It was just suddenly these watches just appeared.
Jason Heaton There's a few leaks on like WatchiSeek. I remember seeing some images of it, but it was hard to really tell what the dimensions were like the proportions.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton And then it was all of a sudden, like some people had some photos that, you know, it was in, it was at some retailer in Taiwan. It was at some retailer in Malaysia, something like that.
Unknown And yeah.
Jason Heaton And then it just kind of became this thing that's now it's, it's like a, a plus sign on everybody's kind of dive watch collection, also an SRP. Yeah, totally. But I suppose that's enough. We'll move on from the SRP. Did you get anything else this year that really kind of resonated, that stuck with you for the duration of the year?
James Stacey Yeah, the other watch, the other kind of biggie this year, the big new release that got me really excited about was the Doxa 50th Anniversary Sub 300. Um, which actually is just being shipped. I, you know, I've seen a lot of posts on forums and on Instagram just this week, um, from people that are finally receiving the watches that they preordered. I was lucky enough to get, you know, one of the prototype pieces, uh, back in the summer. And I, I took a diving for a review for revolution magazine. I got the professional version with the orange dial and it was, it was as good as, as you could imagine, as good as you could hope for. You could argue that the bar is kind of low for them because they have this built-in enthusiast base. They're a very niche brand. Um, they, they generally appeal to kind of a core group of guys that like sort of weird looking, really purpose-built watches. And so they almost don't even, I hate to say it, they almost don't even have to try that hard. You know, they kind of just keep churning out the same look. Yeah. But with this one, they, they took it to a different level because they went back to the very first one and they, they did stuff like shrink the dial down. domed crystal, different font. It's a thinner case. It's so authentically vintage that they just, they knocked it out of the park compared to so many other brands that are kind of like I was talking about earlier, just leaning on that archive, that vintage appeal. Doxa just took it and just said, you guys aren't doing it right. This is the way you do it. And it's just great. It's a wonderful watch.
Jason Heaton Speaking of Doxa, was it this year that you got the Teagraph?
James Stacey Yeah. It was a good year for me with Doxa. Yeah, for sure. It was kind of the other end of the spectrum because it was a vintage piece that I got mid-summer. It's a 1969 Sub 200 Teagraph, which is the chronograph. And that's one that I brought to Vancouver and you got to take a look at. It's the Sea Rambler with a silver dial. Another really satisfying watch. I'm an unrepentant Doc's a fanboy. You know, I love, I love the watches. As a diver, I just feel like it's, you know, I have to own one.
Jason Heaton And, um, it's, uh, it's an amazing watch, the crazy bezel for a watch of its age, really cool bracelet. We've talked about all of this, you know, in, in previous episodes with that one, if you actually just go back to the TGN Summit episode, when Jason was in Vancouver, you can hear our discussion more so about the, the T graph, but That's a, that's a really crazy catch. And then, you know, you had a great post on Hodinkee about the watch and it's a definitely a really, really cool one.
James Stacey Yeah. Um, and, and on your end, I mean, you, you landed a pretty interesting vintage diver, uh, this summer as well, the Silvana.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I got a little, I guess I spoiled myself or I got lucky. I don't, I don't know how you call it, but you know, in, in, in the span of the year, you know, I was planning to really only get the Explorer II that had been on my list for a while. and went from the explorer 2 to this dope sylvana skin diver that i just absolutely adore and been wearing it recently on a mesh which is on my instagram and i think it just looks perfect it's really cool and then yeah then that seiko world timer the 6117 6400 which You know, it's so nice. I am finding myself a little scared to wear it. It's in such nice condition and it's been so wet in Vancouver recently. Oh, yeah. So I find that I'll come home and when I know I'm going to be in my office for a little while, kind of a safe space.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton I'll put it on. Yeah. But I think it's going to get more and more wear throughout next year. And certainly I think that's the kind of watch that would be fun to take to an SIHH or a Basel. It has a lot of wrist presence and it's cool. And yeah, it was a really good year.
James Stacey Those two examples, the Silvana and the Seiko, they kind of, you know how you, you have this short list in your head of watches that you kind of aspire to, or you, you are on the lookout for, and then you get these that sort of drop out of nowhere. And I got that impression, at least with Silvana more than the Seiko, that you weren't planning on those, but they sort of arrived and they end up being just such satisfying watches. Don't you think?
Jason Heaton Yeah, the Sylvana was entirely like an impulse buy. It was under $1,000. You know, it was through the 1025 guys, an analog shift. So it was a fairly easy purchase. And it was one that I bought because as soon as I saw it, I knew, yeah, I'd really like that. And it kind of tied in with something like I knew, I knew the rough aesthetic was kind of being established in my brain because of that blue water, white death. Yeah, yeah. And we'll talk about that later on, because it's also in my final notes recap for the year. But yeah, the SIL is, um, it's super, it's so much fun for the money. And it, of course, it doesn't wear anything like a new watch. And it's very refreshing because as a watch writer, you tend to get almost exclusively a bunch of new watches in, you know, with some frequency, as much frequency as you want, really. And it's, it's interesting to, to have that kind of contrast. And I can see why, why vintage becomes fairly appealing when you can send an email and pretty much borrow anything.
James Stacey Right. And that, that Seiko world timer, it's just such a visually such a beautiful watch. There's so much going on in that watch. And it's one of those watches that when you've posted it on Instagram, it's like, it's such a photogenic watch. It becomes like this hero piece. You know, people just love that. It looks good on any strap. Um, it shows up really well in photos. Um, so yeah, two, two really cool scores for you.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Cleaned up. And the, uh, yeah, the, the only other thing that kind of stood out in my list is obviously this is The year that we came across Toxic Nados, the only Nado I've been wearing basically since I got them in. And then, you know, I really liked Terry and what he's doing with that company. And he's offering, every time you go on the site, there's more and more and more straps and options and that sort of thing. And I think all of that is, you know, is really, is great. And then the rubber, the rubber Nado, the Zulu Diver 328 from Bonetto Cinturini, also great, you know, took one on Baker. Uh, probably not where you would expect a rubber Renato band to go, but just super really, uh, really fun. Yeah.
James Stacey It was a good year for, for bands and straps, wasn't it? Cool. Uh, that really awesome, like $15 steel bracelet this year too.
Jason Heaton Yeah, for sure. I mean, we'll put all these in the show notes if you're, if you're, it's like your first time coming to this, but yeah, I sourced a $15. It's probably a little bit more now. We talked about it so much. They probably sold a handful of them. Yeah. Let's hope it's not a fortune more, but it was a 15 bucks when I bought it, uh, for a, uh, this kind of steel Speedmaster style bracelet, like old, like a Mark II Speedy style bracelet and kind of like the Orfina World Link, but it's solid steel and it's super. We'll throw all these in the show notes, of course, if you don't know what we're talking about. But yeah, it was it was actually a pretty fun year. And some of that, I think, was fueled. You know, it's like a circular feed where it's fueled by looking for stuff you want to talk about on the show. Yeah. And and then just kind of refining a focus down to a lot of these kind of watches and, and, and these niche watches under a thousand dollars, whether it's vintage or new. Right. I think there's just a lot happening there. And I think that we're, we were able to capture a little bit of that in kind of the ongoing saga of TGN.
James Stacey Yeah. And with, with, with straps, it kind of, I think it sort of fits what you and I are really all about. Um, obviously the name of the show, the gray NATO, I think you and I are real fans of NATO straps. And I think it, it's beyond just, decoration for the watch. I think it kind of represents an ethos about, you know, having a watch, having a lifestyle that's sort of ready to hit the ground running. And I think NATO straps are so, or straps, you know, a good strap sort of prepares you for that. Pairs well with a watch that is a good companion for your life's adventures. And I think one of the, you know, the Toxic and that Zulu Diver 328 rubber NATO were two real big finds for me this year as well, thanks to you on the rubber one. But the other one that kind of came out of the blue too was the Marine Nationale straps that are made by Erica's Originals over in Spain. Yeah, for sure. I think you and I both first saw something like that at that Tudor event.
Jason Heaton Yeah, that was the first time I'd come across it. The launch of the Black Bay Bronze.
James Stacey The launch of the Black Bay Bronze, we were at this Tudor event and they had a strap on that new watch that was inspired by these surplus reserve parachute straps that the guys in the French Navy used to, they used to take these straps and turn them into watch straps by stitching them and they're elastic so they could run them through the spring bars of their Tudor Submariners. And I picked one of those up. I got one at the show. at, uh, Basel and I started wearing it, posting it on Instagram. People got really kind of excited about it. And then I just did a little bit of research and, and this, um, woman in Spain, Dutch woman, Erica, she, you know, turns out she makes these, she buys this material and makes these straps. And I wore that for quite a while early, early in the year. I haven't worn it as much, I guess, in the last six months, but, uh, I still see them popping up. They look great on watches that green elastic with the yellow stripes.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it was a good good time to to be not a fan of the OEM bracelets and that kind of thing. You know, the, I think there's obviously tons of stuff happening in the NATO space, you know, we've received a handful of emails from random, you know, new brands popping up with with various new materials, seatbelts, smooth, etc, etc. And I think it's a neat time for for that kind of thing. And maybe it's simply that There's now, you know, more heat on Instagram for this or there, you know, it's easier to set up a web store. I'm sure all of these products have been around. Right. In one form or another. Certainly NATO is not even remotely a new idea. Yeah. I love that at least a handful of it is coming from small manufacturers as well. Yeah. Whether it's kind of mom and pop businesses or, you know, you know, a brand like Bonetto Cinerini making a strap that that is actually really, really cool.
James Stacey So the other area that we actually devoted an entire show to this year was, um, was bags. I think you and I, you know, I don't know if we're certain. Yeah, it's a problem. It's certifiable. I think you and I have kind of both settled on good bag solutions. Wouldn't you say at this point?
Jason Heaton Um, or are you still looking? I guess it depends on the struggle. I think I found one for carrying camera gear to and from these sorts of watch coverage events or just various coverage cars, things like that. Yeah. I don't think I have a solution necessarily for hiking that I'm really thrilled about to just depending on size. Oh, yeah, because I have a little bit more gear for some plans for next year. And it's more than will fit in the F stop. Oh, sure. So I might have to go to like a legit, you know, like a 7080 liter bag. But I think for the most part, yeah, I mean, like I came across this 10. But after getting really excited about that Kickstarter bag from peak design, oh, right. And then the 10 by I think was largely ended up being what I wanted the peak design thing to be. Yeah. And now I'm just excited. You know, I used the Timba a couple times for shoots around Vancouver and then for a trip to Colorado. And then I'll take it, of course, to SIHH, where I think it's going to shine. I think it's really going to aesthetically work well for that space and that sort of work and then carry just a ton of gear. And I found a way that it'll hold a like a good size tripod for those of you who are into tripods like I use a set of 190XB Pro legs from Manfrotto and then like a 486RC2 head and I can get all of that basically in the flap. Oh wow. On top of the gear and it doesn't like move around or shimmy or anything. It's great. Huh. Nice. So I was doing some product stuff downtown and just, you know, collapse the tripod, put it on top of the gear with the bag open and then just latched the, you know, it's cause it's like a messenger bag, shoulder bag style. Sure. Just latch that big flap down and tighten the straps and it was golden. Yeah.
Unknown Huh.
Jason Heaton Yeah. It's been a great bag. Definitely worth, uh, worth the money by, by any measure in my mind. Uh, what, uh, what bags did you find this year that, that you think have actually scratched an itch long-term?
James Stacey Yeah. So I guess I was, I was looking for that, what we termed the Basel bag, um, for lack of a better word or term, we, yeah. We were looking for a bag that's great for these watch events and for travel with camera gear and maybe a laptop and a sweater or something. And I guess what I was looking for, I actually already had right under my nose, which was the Topo Designs Mountain Briefcase, which is a bag I used last year at all the shows that I went to. And I'm not quite sure why I was looking for something else. I think the hang up for me was the way to carry camera gear in a sort of a organized padded way. which the Topo designs did not have. And while I love the Topo for all of its other organizational abilities, what was lacking, uh, I was actually able to find again from Tenba. Um, they make like these small organizer pouches that will just hold a lens and a body and then you can just drop it into another bag. So that, that kind of solved that problem. I can use that inside the, the Topo bag for more sort of outdoorsy or, or casual adventure travel. I picked up a Patagonia Black Hole, the 32 liter backpack. And what it kind of replaced was, I was using a GORUCK GR1, which is a bag that we have talked about a bit on a few shows, particularly the bag show. Yeah. But mine was, it's a heavy bag. It's not particularly weather resistant. And mine was actually starting to tear at a couple of seams. I'd used it for a few years. I was at REI and came across this Patagonia bag that was on sale and snatched it up, and I've used it on a few trips, and it's been great. It has this really weather-resistant, sort of shiny outer coating, some really smart pocket locations, it's got a laptop sleeve, it's very comfortable, and it's really light, and Patagonia quality is good regardless, so it's turned out to be And between that and the Topo Designs briefcase, it's turned out to be a good two-bag solution for pretty much any sort of carry-on style travel.
Jason Heaton Which color did you get for the black hole?
James Stacey So, you know, I'm, as people might know from my Instagram feed, I'm a big fan of the color orange. And they had a, like a really obnoxiously bright orange one. With like green accents, right?
Jason Heaton Yeah, which I... Yeah, I saw that one downtown the other day. It was less pretty.
James Stacey Yeah, I had one in my hand, I was walking to the register and then I thought, you know what, I'm going to get something more discreet. So I went back and I got the black one, which I'm really happy with.
Jason Heaton Yeah, the black's a good look because it's kind of dry bag-esque. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, cool. I like that design. I would definitely, and at 32 liters, typically I find that's right around where a bag will still go head first into an overhead. Yes. On the plane, whereas like you gave me the F-stop, which is the Satori EXP, which is nearly 50 liters, I believe, maybe even as much as 55. Yeah. And that one you had to put sideways. Right. Which really draws some attention to the size of the bag. Right. When other people are trying to get their roller luggage on and, you know, they're glaring at this guy with the Lamborghini blue. Yeah. Giant hiking backpack is, you know, can't put it in nose first. That's why I like that 511. bag that I have, the Rush 24 can go nose first into that space. And then that Tenba bag, even with the laptop upright, can slide under the foot well in front of you. It's worked on two planes, two different airlines, United and maybe I think it was Delta. So that's a good format. It feels silly to like really focus on the size of something for those reasons, but when you plan to use it for travel, how well it integrates with that tiny bit of space they give you is crucial. Yeah. So if you can get, if a bag will sit upright, that means I can get at least one of my feet next to it. Right. You and I are both fairly tall and we both are going to be majority of the time flying coach. Yeah. So leg room's at an absolute premium. You know, we're both well over six foot and I find if I have to put the 511 in front of me in a case where there's no space overhead, then I have nowhere to move my feet. And if I'm not on the aisle, then I have no option to really ever extend my leg all the way. And it's not even recommended at like a health level for very tall people with long legs to sit without the ability to, you know, because you get blood clots and things like that. So that kind of thing, it's really, it seems petty or like minuscule to how much space it might take up in the overhead or in the footwell. But I find those things make a big difference in just kind of how much I want that bag versus something else. Right. That might carry roughly the same amount of stuff.
James Stacey It's probably a good segue since we're talking about travel and travel bags to kind of move into some of the interesting trips that we did this year. I think the one that it wasn't so much travel for you is travel for me. But one of one of my great trips this year was was coming to see you in Vancouver. We had our our TGN Summit, first annual.
Jason Heaton It was good. Had a great time. It was great. Would have liked a little bit better weather. Yeah, but yeah. Some more cooperative dive gear. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But we weathered that storm, both storms, and it was a great weekend. Definitely need to do something a little longer, I think, than a weekend.
James Stacey Right, right. But it was cool. We got to record an episode face to face, which. Yeah, real strange. Which was strange, but I I would argue it was one of our better episodes. I think it was great. So go back and listen to that one if you haven't heard it before. But I had never been to Vancouver and I really enjoyed that trip. I traveled a fair amount this year. In fact, it was for the first time I've achieved platinum medallion status on Delta, which I'm not sure I'm really happy about it because it means like I flew like 75,000 miles or something. And on Delta too. Yeah. Yeah. So it gives me some perks for next year, but for sure it was a bit of a It was a lot of flying this year.
Jason Heaton I assume that gets you included checked bags?
James Stacey Oh, yeah. Yeah. Checked bags. I can get two or three checked bags for free, as well as any companion that flies with me. I can get lounge access for international travel, even if I'm flying coach. Very nice. Yeah, sure. You know, so it's stuff like that. And I'm not one of these guys who chases status. I know there are some people that they get to the end of the year and they need 500 miles, so they'll fly to Chicago for the weekend or something. I don't care about that. But, you know, Yeah. So you, you took a couple of cool trips this year. You were, um, I think you went to Germany and then of course you did the infamous, uh, Mount Baker trip a couple of times.
Jason Heaton Yeah, we did Baker, Baker twice. That's probably my highlight. Like if I had to give up the other trips, I, you know, Baker would have been the last one I would have wanted to give up. And luckily, despite having to do it twice, both, both weekends were crystal clear, beautiful weather, nice people. And I had a blast. I would like to do way more of that kind of stuff. You know, it takes a huge amount of time. and i actually think like the everything that leads up to when you leave yeah was the hard part yeah you know you'll remember i trained quite aggressively yeah because i didn't want to be that one guy on the team that wasn't strong enough and having no legit mountain experience just hiking around vancouver and such yeah i didn't want to get to a mountain where everybody paid a bunch of money to get to the top and then not be strong enough so i trained really hard And it was kind of my first time doing the extended gear planning.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton So they give you a list of everything you need and you look at it and you go like, well, it's just stuff. How hard can it be? But then do you just go the quote unquote easier road and buy everything or do you rent some of it? Right. Being a bit of a gear nerd leads you to kind of have this kind of anxiety about packing for trips, whether it's like a Baker trip or Basel. Yeah. I often start packing like more than a week beforehand. I start planning and making little notes and lists. of things that I know I'm going to want. And then I, I like once I kind of had a list, I don't know if everybody's like this or it's a little bit different, but once I have that list, then seeing the list repeatedly means I start to say like, I don't actually need that. Right. I don't need that. And that, that does 90% of what the second thing could do. So I could trim that. Yeah. I re I really enjoyed the, the mountain experience. I would love to do some higher peaks and bigger challenges, that sort of thing. So I think that's all ahead of me. Uh, maybe, maybe even as early as next year would be fun.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton And then yeah, the Porsche trip to Germany was crazy. You know, nearly 300 kph on the Autobahn. Definitely a bucket list item for a car nerd and sometimes problematic speeder like myself. And then I got the ride in the Breitling jet, which of course you had done the year before, but that's not something I ever would have imagined even as I got into watches and you start to experience the kind of crazy trips that they often offer. Yeah. Or that exist. Yeah. I never thought I'd get a ride in a jet. Yeah. Especially not like in my own province, roughly in my backyard. Yeah. No traveling to Switzerland or anything like that. And it was, um, it was awesome. I was really spoiled this year when it came to, uh, came to those sorts of things. And, uh, hopefully I can keep, keep that on a roll. Cause it's a lot of fun.
James Stacey Yeah. You, uh, I mean, flying in a jet, driving a Porsche on the Autobahn, summiting a peak and, and we even did some diving together. I mean, it was, you kind of hit the, Hit the bucket list stuff for a lot of guys. I just need more. Yeah.
Jason Heaton I was really, yeah. You had a great, great year for trips too. It seemed like, I guess like this is kind of the first year where we've been in constant communication.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Like we're fairly constantly on Slack talking. So maybe this is what your normal years are like, but you've been away quite frequently all year.
James Stacey Yeah. And I've got, we're pushing the end of the year here and I've still got two more trips ahead of me before I can relax a bit for the holidays, but yeah, it was, it was a pretty, not really, um, it kind of all came up organically. Um, not a big master plan, but it was a, it was a kind of a dive heavy year. Um, other than our hiking in Vancouver and a trip to Colorado in June where we did some, some peak bagging, uh, it was a lot of diving. I started out in Sri Lanka back in January, um, which seems like forever ago now. Um, and I, you know, I visited places I've never been this year. Um, I was in Tenerife. Uh, for a free diving clinic with a Tudor watch, uh, went to Mauritius, which, you know, I'd scarcely heard of, um, that was in July or August. Um, went to Bonaire twice, Curacao. Um, so yeah, it was, I've logged a lot of, a lot of dives this year, uh, which is great. You know, it's always fun in a lot of different places. Uh, Vancouver was fun, cold water diving, um, a couple of dives in Lake Superior and then a lot of, a lot of warm water stuff, but, uh, Yeah, I'm, I have to admit, uh, I'm kind of ready to, uh, put my feet up by the fire at home.
Jason Heaton Yeah, no doubt. I mean, by the time this comes out, that's roughly when your vacation time actually starts.
James Stacey Yeah. And I'll, I'll talk about a bit more in a new business, but I've got, I've got two more trips coming up, uh, leaving one, leaving for one in two days. And then I got another one back to back on the day after I get home.
Jason Heaton So, so just after, just after this comes out, we'll see your Instagram transition from kind of Adventure and travel and probably some pre-holiday layover trip delays to like fireplaces, books, glasses of scotch. Oh, exactly. I can't wait. Just counting down. Yeah, that's good. It's a perfect Christmas gift, scotch, always. Yeah, exactly. And yeah, really, really fun year for trips, no doubt. Do you have, I guess, you know, where we basically finish up with most of these things is with final notes. And I think we had a pretty cool collection of final notes come out this year.
James Stacey what what kind of stands out anything anything stick with you i went over it and a lot of it was like i i liked a lot of this but then a couple i was like oh no i've actually gone back to this independent of the notes to kind of reassess or take them back in anything stand out for you yeah i mean there were kind of two general ones i mean you know i've i've read a lot of good books this year and a lot of great articles but there were two items that stood out and i think you and i both agree on one of them because i can see it on your list uh and that is the movie meru which You know, what can you say about Mero that hasn't already been said? It was a great mountaineering film put together by one of our heroes, Jimmy Chin, and another hero, Conrad Anker, about a trip they did with Renan Ozturk to climb this peak, the Shark's Fin, over in the Indian Himalayas. And just everyone I've recommended that to or watched it with has loved it. By now, if you haven't seen it, you've just got to go see it. It was a film that I think you brought up in a Final Notes quite a few episodes ago.
Jason Heaton Yeah, because I think it came out in 2015. Oh, did it? I think maybe that's when it started to hit the small, the Jackson Hole film festival, things like that. I definitely didn't get to it until then. Yeah. And I think I watched it four times this year. Yeah. And it was like I got a new television a little while ago and the first thing I did was go dig up the HD copy that I have and start playing that. And it was like too much for my computer to show it on this screen and all those sort of things. But man, it's really fantastic. And certainly, you know, you can look back at lots of great films about climbing, but it's nice to have another generation where it was shot in HD and it features, you know, today's kind of biggest names. And yeah, I thought Chin did just an amazing job and all three of those guys tackling an unclimbed peak, especially one that had some history for Anchor. Yeah. Was a fantastic story, an amazing physical challenge and a huge mental challenge as well. And I think it was really well told.
James Stacey Yeah. I love it. Very inspirational. And I liked the kind of cross-generational aspect of it. You know, Conrad Anchor's in his fifties. Renan Ozturk is probably in his twenties. And then Jimmy Chin is somewhere in between. And it was just that interplay of personality with the adventure.
Jason Heaton Um, yeah, it's it's such a good formula for a movie and that that really had it It could just be for me that like I have a young family Yeah, it could be for me, but I appreciated that it wasn't just three guys in the wilderness not paying any attention to what? Their non-wilderness life is yeah, it showed that blend that I have to imagine if you're a full-time adventurer Is really difficult to maintain a family. Yeah Because your job requires you to be away. I mean, um anchor this week suffered a heart attack Yeah. On an unclimbed peak. Um, I'm not sure where. It was in Nepal. You know, now he's back with his family and he'll have to recover. And I imagine there's a certain side of him that's kind of like reassess where you move on from here. Cause you obviously you can't climb forever. And, and, uh, that's why I think Maru is, is such an interesting film. Cause it does kind of capture these guys at a certain stage where they were capable of putting down that peak while still having all of these other elements in their life. Yeah. Yeah, that's so true. Very human. It's a very human story. It's not just they're very strong and they went to the gym for a long time and they had everything they needed and they just blasted up this mountain from bravado and cigarettes. Right. You know, I thought that the way they told it, maybe because it was told by one of the climbers, like directly by one of the climbers.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton It came off as very human and seemingly very real. Yeah. I think it's great. And one of the reasons I think it's just you can rewatch it. There's a lot in there.
James Stacey And speaking of Conrad Anker, and a good segue here too, is my other sort of favorite final note from the year. And that is the one that we've brought up on multiple episodes. And that's the Outside Magazine, the Outside Podcast. They do this series of podcasts that are a mix of kind of interviews and interesting sort of science-y kind of stuff and some great adventure tales. And one of them was an interview with Conrad Anker, which is worth a listen. But I think the one that most recently you and I really got jazzed about was the, the, I think it was the science of survival, the cliffhanger.
Jason Heaton Oh yeah. Fantastic. Three, three, three part series about the, uh, yeah.
James Stacey Plane crash in the, in the, uh, in the Andes mountains and, and these, these two sort of amateur mountaineers that, uh, take it upon themselves to go find the black box and kind of all the interesting adventures and twists and turns that that story takes.
Jason Heaton Yeah. It's a fantastic podcast. And I think definitely one of the best series of the year for me.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton And a great tie-in with, like, I think if you're going to listen to something with the Grenado, you're going to love Outside Podcasts. If anything, it's just going to make you wonder why you listen to us.
James Stacey I was going to say they fall slightly behind the Grenado, but we'll let listeners decide.
Jason Heaton Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Subscribe and decide, but the Outside Podcasts is an absolute requirement in my podcast feed, and it's been really, really good this year. I really loved each and every episode they put out. Always great storytelling, well-produced. And for me, I would the only things I would add to that is I really loved Apex. Oh, which is the story of the hyper car. It's now on Netflix. When I first talked about it, you had to go buy it for 15 or 20 bucks or whatever. So you can now see it on Netflix. And if you're even remotely interested in cars or really, really advanced product design and manufacturing, things like that, just check out Apex. It's so so good i've watched it just like maru i've watched a handful of times and i absolutely adore it and then the uh the last one i would add that i've i've enjoyed quite a few times this year and like i said it kind of influenced a watch buying decision is blue water white death which is a documentary from 1971 from uh peter gimbal and james lipscomb it's super dated because it's from 1971 so a lot of the understanding we have of sharks now isn't in the movie and a lot of the understanding we have of general ecology and sustainability isn't in the movie. But it is like watching a time capsule of what it was like to do like a Steve Zissou-esque mission in the late 60s. So awesome watches, really rudimentary gear, crazy diving. Yeah. Like really crazy diving that would not be considered possible today, certainly not safe today. And I highly recommend it. It's I think you can just find it on like daily motion. Yes. You can just stream the whole thing. Right. And if you want to kill some time this holiday, you want to get away from your family because it's too noisy or, you know, you're stuck at your parents' house and they go to bed at 730. Cue this up on the laptop. I think you'll really enjoy it. It's strangely dated, but still super watchable. And because it's real, because it's documentary. It's a real head scratcher at times. It's a great, great, great piece of kind of dive icon.
James Stacey Yeah, it's great. And I love everything about it. I mean, there's like a folk singer on the crew and the music is good. And there's like this Kodachrome tinted old 70s film.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it looks great.
James Stacey It just looks so good.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And I think that pretty much wraps up, you know, what I kind of really like that we chatted about earlier in the year. So, you know, I hope people enjoyed kind of a quick look back and if not, we won't do one for 2017. You want to move on with some new business, I guess? Yeah, let's do that. I'll be back after, you know, a little bit of music. And we're back with a little new business. I don't really have that much going on this time of year. You know, I'm, I'm doing like end of year sort of stuff and kind of winding down and planning some holiday travel and none of that's exciting. So I'm just going to pass it directly to Jason. Jason, you've got two trips, so that's enough to chat about what's, uh, what's going on and where are you going?
James Stacey So, um, this Thursday I'm, I'm flying out to Los Angeles for, uh, it's the launch of a new IWC watch and it, there's kind of, it's kind of a interesting sort of synergy for me because The, the watch that IWC is launching, which is, uh, it's under a press embargo as we're recording this, but of course, through the magic of, uh, podcasting, by the time you listen, it will be public knowledge. So I can, I can talk about it. Um, it's part of their AquaTimer family, the dive watch, and it is, it's called the sharks edition. And the reason it's called that is because it's named to commemorate, uh, a book by the same name that was published by Toshin this year. Taschen, the German publishing house. And the book is the product of a photographer that I think you and I both are fans of, a guy named Michael Muller. Oh, for certain. And Muller's, he's a Los Angeles-based, fairly well-known photographer who kind of made his name taking celebrity portraits and doing a lot of movie posters. He has a very distinctive style to his photography. So he's kind of made his money doing that, made his name doing that, but he's taken that money and fame and he's turned it to what his real passion is, which is diving and sharks. And he's a very passionate ecologist, very much a proponent for shark conservation. And so over the years, through all of his very innovative shark photography, underwater stuff, he has collected hundreds of great photos of all different species of sharks and compiled it in this big, beautiful coffee table book, which I recommend anybody pick up. And Muller also happened to be someone who in 2009 did all the photographs for IWC's Aquatimer catalog.
Unknown Oh, okay.
James Stacey And he's a kind of a longtime IWC fan and I know he wears a number of Aquatimers when he dives. So there's this connection with the brand and with this book and with their watches. And so this event is to commemorate the release of not only his book, but also the presentation of this limited edition watch. And So I'll be going out to the, to the event in Los Angeles, uh, later this week and then following that up, headed over to Catalina Island on the ferry for a couple of days of diving with this sharks edition Aqua timer. So, um, it's going to be the subject of a review that I'm doing or sort of an article about the watch and the connection with Muller that I'm going to be writing for gear patrol. Um, so I'm really excited. I'm excited to meet Michael Muller. I'm going to be doing a short interview with him and, uh, and then getting to dive with this watch, I think it's going to be kind of a convergence of a lot of things that I really geek out over.
Jason Heaton Well, that'd be cool. In episode 25, which again, we're going to delay until January 10th, if you didn't hear the intro, but in episode 25, we can talk about what the diving was like in Catalina. I've been to LA a few times and I've heard that there's some diving there. I imagine it's like a slightly warmer version of Vancouver. You probably have a larger life form as well.
James Stacey Yeah, I mean, from what I understand, and we'll certainly report back in our next episode, but, you know, you get some kelp, you get rays and octopus and kind of a lot of interesting species that, you know, I'm certainly not used to seeing the places that I dive.
Jason Heaton I know the waters off of LA, sometimes they see like juvenile great whites, but they're not going to come anywhere near a diver. They'd be pretty cautious.
James Stacey Yeah, I hope not. Although it would make for a great, a great story, especially in a watch about... Yeah, for sure. ...called the sharks, Aquatimer. So then, um, I come back on, you know, early next week and then the day after, uh, I hop on a flight to go over to Switzerland. Uh, it's a, it's a press trip with Oris, one of our, one of our favorite brands here. They're, they're doing sort of a pre-Basel presentation in Zermatt, which is beautiful little mountain town, just below the Matterhorn. So it's, it's, it's really just like a one day trip, which is kind of crazy for all the travel to get there and back. but they're kind of rolling in a day of skiing with the presentation of these watches. So, you know, it could be cool. I haven't actually been on downhill skis for more years than I want to admit. So I might be doing episode 25, you know, from a hospital bed or with a compound fracture or something, but we'll see. We'll see how it goes. So yeah, then I'm, you know, then I'm back and it's just about a week before Christmas and then I've got a ton of shopping to do. And then like we talked about earlier, I'm just going to chill out by the fire with some scotch.
Jason Heaton Nice. Well, you can always buy everybody flashlights. Oh, that's a great idea. I haven't gotten my flashlight yet. I haven't gotten it in yet, but I'm excited and I'm treating it like a little Christmas gift to myself. Maybe it will arrive before Christmas. I have no idea. You feeling some final notes? Yeah. Why don't you jump in? What have you got? Sure. So the first one, no doubt some of you who are listening will know the YouTube channel ClickSpring. It's this guy who does these really beautifully shot and, you know, nicely voiceover sort of videos of him slowly building an entire standing exhibition clock. Imagine like a JLC Atmos clock.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton You know, with the oversized gearing and everything. But basically what he's done is he's devoted his YouTube channel or the last 23, 24 episodes of his YouTube channel to building this clock by hand, all the pieces. And he walks you through everything that's basically, you know, he's milling and lathing all of these parts and creating all sorts of custom jigs and tricks to be able to make these parts as a one-off item from stock cylinders of brass and things like that. If you haven't come across this, by all means go back and check it out. Maybe you won't want to watch all of them, but I think you'll be really surprised by how cool it is and how kind of soothing it is to watch this guy work. You know, you're not, it's not like a Bob Vila thing. He's not, you're not watching the macro. You're seeing tight zoomed in shots of various pieces being created or lathed or designed. And many times he shows you the computer rendering of the part and how it was designed and then planned. Really, really fascinating stuff. But I bring it up now because he's finished his clock. Oh, wow. And, you know, in the final episode, it was assembly and he made like a traditional style turn key to wind the clock. Huh. He holds, you know, he shows you what the key is going to look like and then he starts explaining why it's difficult and how he's going to make it. And you're like, this is crazy. sure enough, you watch these kind of sped up sequences of it's cool because he'll he'll even do like he uses the frame rate on his camera to to basically make the drill. It's kind of like one of the things he's known for is he makes the drill bit look like it's not moving. He can pause, you know, drills moving at 60 RPM or whatever it is, then you can essentially pause it with the frame rate of the camera. Oh, so there's little tricks like that. They're beautifully produced and and really a treat to watch, especially Because, like I said, there's something kind of oddly hypnotic.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton About the process of seeing these things created and kind of milled and constructed and such. And check that out. I think anybody who's interested in watches would find a lot of value, certainly because you're allowed, you're able to see some of these pieces and these rough mechanics in a larger format.
James Stacey Very cool. I've got kind of a somewhat related, but on a very much a different scale. There's a guy on Instagram that I would encourage people to follow if you aren't already. He goes by at one hour watch that's one spelled out o n e hour watch and um it it's a really simple feed and with a very simple concept the guy like sketches a different watch design he says he does it in one hour and he does it every single day and he puts it up on his instagram feed and what's really fascinating about it to me is he's very creatively talented his sketches are nicely done but you know, for anybody who's kind of dreamed any watch nerd, who's sort of dreamed of designing a watch, you know, you, I always think, oh yeah, one day I'd love to design a watch. And then I sit down at like a blank sheet of paper and I'm like, everything I draw or can think of looks like something that's already out there. That's, you know, I just don't have a knack for it. Um, but this guy, he comes up with every single day, he comes up with a completely different design. One, you know, one day it might be a field watch. So another day is a dive watch. Another day is like a, you know, sort of an off center, you know, regulator style watch. Um, really, really cool stuff. Just really creative. It's just a fun feed.
Jason Heaton So yeah, I just pulled it up now. This is, this is really cool. I like, some of them are quite like, they have like a, uh, it's not just like a simple drawing. It's more artistic than that. Yeah. They look almost like a painting. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, this is cool. I'm not, I've just followed, this is neat. Very cool. So good stuff. So, uh, do you have another one? I do have another one and it's one that I tried today. Cause I thought I would try it before talking about it. And I'm going to say that it didn't go well for the first try. So this is, um, I I've been, you know, focused for the last few years on refining kind of an everyday exercise plan. And it's usually a mix. I won't spend much time on this cause I don't think anybody really finds it interesting, but it's usually a mix of a strength workout one day and then a run and then just repeat indefinitely.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton But I found that I didn't always like running. So I would swap in yoga or stretching or different things like that. And then I started to get more into stretching specifically, you know, I spend most of my day sitting in a chair and that has specific stresses on your body. So if you read up enough about that, you eventually cross paths with a guy named Kelly Starrett, who helped create CrossFit in its original form, not so much in the mass produced form that it is today.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton He talked with Outside Online. about six daily exercises, and I wouldn't even call them exercises, I would call them roughly stretches, or something in the vein of a stretch. I'm going to try and stick with it or at least try and mold it to something that I enjoy. But certainly this time of year is a good time of year to try and develop a new good habit. It takes 27 to 28 days to develop a new habit. So you if you wanted to have your goal of doing something, you know, a New Year's resolution or something like that, if you start in December, you have a better chance of nailing down a couple benefits, which is what keep you kind of tied into these sorts of things. By the time you actually have to start telling people like, Oh no, I'm, I'm going to work out every day, or I'm going to do this, or I'm not going to eat as many chips or drink a little bit less whiskey, all things that I'm not great at, but it's always worth trying. And I thought that all of these seem like things that would apply to the average person who maybe spends a lot of their day at a desk. So, you know, give it a try, or if you don't care, you know, let me know in email, thegreatnadoatgmail.com. I won't bring up exercise and workouts anymore. It can be a fairly divisive subject. Some people, you know, I think it's don't want to talk about it or hear about it. I'm fairly fascinated by it.
James Stacey So, yeah, no, I'll definitely give this a shot. I just took a look at the link and it looks, it looks doable, you know, in kind of an average day, nothing too daunting in terms of the time.
Jason Heaton It's in kind of two phases. And I think your total input's about 15 minutes, I guess, if you wanted to count it that way. There's kind of a when you wake up warm up and then there's right before you do whatever exercise you're going to do for the day. And the second one is more about mobilization to minimize injury.
Unknown Oh, sure.
Jason Heaton And these are all things I did not care at all about when I was 20. But I suddenly care about more because I feel old. Yeah. When I don't do a few basic things like a little bit of stretching. Yeah. So and then, of course, we've both said that, you know, we've had issue with plantar fasciitis. Right. And that's something that I'm trying to to deal with every single day, because it'll take me probably about a year to actually heal up, and I'd rather have that kind of process locked in to prevent it from coming back. Because, you know, it made Baker a little bit painful at times, and certainly running post-Baker quite painful. But imagine if you decided you were going to do Kilimanjaro or something really major like Aconcagua or something like that, and then you had that flare up and you couldn't finish because of it. That I find kind of terrifying. When you have certain goals, you start to try and measure out small doses that could make a big difference all said and done when push comes to shove.
James Stacey Well, cool. So I've got kind of a last final note that's, I'd say it's sort of seasonally appropriate. You might be familiar with this guy, Alan Maitland. I think he's a Canadian actor of some repute. Don't recognize the name. Will Google search? So apparently, It's sort of a tradition on the Canadian Broadcasting Company, the CBC. I think it's on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, they always play this recording of Alan Maitland reading Frederick Forsythe's short story or novella called The Shepherd. Oh yeah, I know this guy. Yeah, so I came across this via Schofield Watch's Facebook feed, and Schofield is a brand that I kind of like their vibe. I'm not a huge fan of the watches, but I like the, uh, an amazing aesthetic. They have an aesthetic and they have this sort of life view or worldview. That's sort of very nostalgic for kind of old England and, you know, lighthouses and maritime things. And anyway, so, so they posted this, uh, a link to this YouTube, uh, recording of Alan Maitland reading fourth size, the shepherd. And I listened to it. It's like 31 minutes long. And it's a great story. It's sort of seasonally appropriate because it's about – it's set like in the 1950s and it's told first person from the standpoint of an RAF pilot who's returning home from continental Europe to the UK flying his de Havilland Vampire, which was one of the early jets that the RAF used. And somewhere on the North Sea, crossing over to England, he experiences some difficulties. Um, he's trying to get home for Christmas. It's foggy. His plane is acting a little wonky. He gets, he gets some mysterious help that, uh, that guides him back home. And I'm not going to kind of give away the story cause it kind of goes on from there, but it's a kind of a nice little combination of sort of this warm, cozy holiday story, uh, reading with enough kind of geeky aviation, uh, details that kind of kept my interest. Sounds really cool. Yeah, it's cool. It's worth a listen. I wish I could find it to download rather than just sit and watch like a YouTube video that's really just a single image with the audio playing. You can pull the audio off of YouTube. Yeah, so maybe I'll do that. I would love to kind of just keep it on my phone and play it as I'm going to sleep at night or something like that. And James, you know, if you're going to be in in Canada over Christmas, maybe you'll tune in and hear the CBC play this.
Jason Heaton Listen to it live. Yeah, exactly. My childhood home is a big CBC house, so I'm sure we'll catch at least one piece of it at some point.
James Stacey Oh, nice.
Jason Heaton So with that, you know, that's kind of it for our final notes and maybe it's... And yeah, we just want to say whatever you do with your December into January, happy holidays or otherwise. We hope you have fun. and certainly happy new year from us. We'll be back on the 10th with a standard episode. We're going to be really excited for SIHH and that feeling may or may not still exist when we get back from Geneva, depending on how tired we are. Would like to say as we close kind of the first year of the Grey Nato, just thank you so, so much for listening and commenting and sending us emails and everything. We have some huge plans for next year and for the future of the show and different content and all that sort of stuff. And we just want to say thank you for all of the support. So much of it we had not earned by the time you decided to offer it. And we won't forget that. Really, thank you so much for listening. We will see you in 2017.
James Stacey Hit the show notes for more details. You can follow us on Instagram. I'm at Jason Heaton. James is at J.E. Stacey. And follow the show at TheGreyNado. If you have any questions for us, please do write TheGreyNado at gmail.com. And until next time we leave you with this wise quote from Rob Zombie, great things come out of being hungry and cold. Once you're pampered, you get lazy.