You know, first, Jeff, I want to commend you for the amazing control and the mental mindset that you were in, performing CPR on a child, keeping the family calm in their terrible state, and calmly walk into the ambulance you know there's there's a lot of stressful factors that are hitting you on every aspect during that call um so i want to commend you on that that's not that's not an easy task for anybody um so run us through that day man

so the crazy thing um a m Part of my story, my dad was a cop for 49 years.

And he recently, within the last couple of years, we had to put him in a skilled nursing center that's out here in Rowlett.

And I live out, at the time I was living in Rowlett.

I leave work and actually the nursing home had a complaint on my dad because he was kind of being an ass up there, which is, 100%.

Yes, he was.

And I knew that when they called me, I was kind of like, I've been waiting for this call, you know? And so I'm debating on going up there and talking to him and traffic was bad.

walker things

Uh, are those the same technologies we're seeing in Oregon? Or are they different for various reasons because you get a different crop mix?

mix?Yeah, I, I think when it comes to drones, uh, they're...

Because we have, you know, a lot of wet ground at times during, during the off-season, um, you, you end up with, um, challenges to, to get out and, and treat and spray, uh, crops.

So, um, I think there's a number of retailers that have jumped on the, um, on the bandwagon to provide those, those services.

Um, and, uh, you know, you can kinda go bleeding edge, leading edge, and then jump in when it's, when it feels a little more safe.

Um, uh, we haven't been, uh, focused on custom applications, so let some of those others do it and partner with, uh, folks that, that can do it.

So it's become a, a, a piece of the market.

Um, tell me a little bit about some of the challenges that Marion's had to deal with and how you're managing those.

What is your take on the current state of US travel ahead of America's 250th celebration?

Yeah, I think there's a lot of good news that's out there.

I think overall the situation is mixed.

As I talk to leaders in the industry, I get the sense that things are mostly good, but their attitude is it could be so much better without government shutdowns, without a war in Iran that's driven up fuel prices.

without other things that are stealing consumer confidence, it could be so much better.

But yet the numbers are good.

If you look domestically, hotels had their best first quarter in U.S. history.

So how do you think we can close that massive perception gap and balance national security without actively driving away billions in international visitor spending.

you would like to

yeah and uh 2021 um we're going back even back to the early 2000s um One of my really, really good friends, Guy Helms, we worked together in the Sheriff's Department as jailers and as deputies.

And I went to Rowlett in 99.

He came out, I think, 2000 or 2001.

And we kind of grew up together as police officers and worked together in investigations and Then I went one way, he went another, and he promoted.

In November of 2021, a guy completed suicide.

And you wanna talk about something that'll rock you to the core.

uh if you will of somebody who's not afraid to share the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress and that you didn't have to fear the rubber gun squad you were open honest everybody knew what was going on you got the help that you needed and you are highly effective detective very good at your job and so that stigma of uh sorry instagram family uh if you can't see me the that stigma of asking for help getting help there's no shame There's no shame at all and you can be very effective in your job and I disagree or agree once if you go there and you get the diagnosis and you go back to your job to that department and you're able to help other folks understand what they're going through is that is that helpful or

How should we anticipate the next few weeks' worth of air travel?

Yeah, you just said Christmas or New Year's.

I, I beg you to please not say that.

Um, please tell me that wiser minds are gonna prevail and we're gonna get this thing put behind us.

But you're right, this is coming at absolutely the worst possible time.

It's coming when demand for travel increases, it's coming when the weather creates uncertainties.

Uh, it's, it's creating for Americans, I think, a great deal of discomfort here.

The, I mean, I think we lack a, a, a lovely train service in this country the way you see in Europe.