Suicide Prevention Saturday

Hey guys, uh, sorry for no announcement until about like 5 minutes ago. I forgot to post something up for you all. Uh, so got a minute or two until 9 to start all official-like, but, uh, welcome to Mike Ballinger, who's first in the room because, you know, he is. And, um, welcome to all the replay viewers because you all are the ones who normally are here first thing. And yes, today there is no video because I don't know if you can tell from my voice, but I'm definitely under the weather. And so I'm not going to whine and complain, but I am going to just keep this kind of short tonight. It's been a long weekend, um, and it's only Saturday, but that's okay. So anyway, hello, Moo. Oh yeah, and I'm on my phone which means I will not reply to you in the, uh, yeah, I do want to feel better soon. I don't want to reply though in your, uh, in the comments section just because I'll probably hang up on y'all if I do that. So yes, I'm hoping to feel better very soon. I actually have the day off tomorrow, which is a miracle because I don't usually— I work on the weekends. And unless I get something to drink, this may be even shorter than I intended. Sorry guys. All right, so this is my bunny. I hope you all like my bunny. Um, and, uh, it's 9 o'clock, so you know what that means. It is Suicide Prevention Saturday, and I gotta drink something— water, just for y'all knowing. And why do we talk about suicide prevention? Because 2 out of every 3 gun deaths you hear about are actually suicides. And if we actually want to save lives we need to talk about mental health and suicide prevention. So with that, I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend. Hello, Hillbilly Up. Um, uh, thank you for popping in here. I'm warning everybody, this is going to be a short one because I'm not sure how long my voice is actually going to last. All right, no real topic today, but figure I will give you all an update. So Sue Serving Saturday has been here since 2018 on Saturday nights. It started on Facebook, and then some friends decided to pull me on over to YouTube, and now it resides mainly on YouTube. Mr. Mike Ballinger, who is here in the chat, has followed me through all of those years. Um, and I think because Mike is here, I'm going to talk about Mike. So Mike had a traumatic experience where his best friend died while they were on a camping trip together, and it's been really, really hard. And because of that, Mike is stepping up and he is going back to the campsite, and he is finding his strength to go and go back and find the joy that he and his friend had. Those places. And I think so many people forget to do that. It's one of those things where when people die and we lose people in our lives, there is a great hole and a sadness because we know we're not having any more new memories. And for Mike, I know it took a lot for him to finally get to that point where he's like, okay, I'm going to go and overcome and realize that my friend would want me to have the joy that we had in those camping areas before and do that again. So I am just sharing that with you all so you can put some good vibes out there for Mike. The camping trip isn't till later this summer, but, uh, it's a big deal. And I think that it's just an example of, holy smokes, what can people, uh, overcome. We all have adversity in our lives, and somehow we always think somebody else's is more traumatic than ours, and we should just get out over ours. So as far as Mike goes though, I think that's pretty amazing because I have no idea what that would be like, and most of us hopefully never will. And I'm super proud of him for going and, uh, I don't know, I don't know, I just— overcoming and realizing that his buddy would want him to still have joy in camping. So I told DJ tonight we are not going to be here a terrible long time, so he's not here to announce everybody in the room. Um, I'm going to say hi to Keith. Hey, Patriot in the Dark. Uh, Ozzy, how are you, sir? Um, so that is, uh, um, that is what I thought of just because Mike was the first one here. Now my thought is, is that if Mike's up to it after he goes and does this, uh, event, that, uh, have him on here so that we I can actually do an interview and just talk about like how important it is and, you know, how hard it is. But I think the hard stuff— I think we all know this, right? The hard stuff is what makes us better. The hard stuff is what makes us stronger. It's like, as far as I know, most of the people that are the strongest are that way because they've gone through the most stuff. Another regular that we have here on in the chat here would be Tara Smith from Tara Smith's kitchen. And, um, you know, she's— she went through a crazy bike accident a couple years back, and, you know, just injuries. Like, we are all, uh, physically injured at some point in time in our lives, and it just changes everything. But here's the cool thing about injury: when you break a bone, when it heals, it's actually stronger. And I think we forget that that's the same with our emotions as well. Not that I'm suggesting we want broken emotions, but the reality of it is going through the hard stuff is what makes us better. So, uh, because Hillbilly is here and I'm going to talk about him, uh, uh, if y'all haven't been up to Hillbilly Up's channel, definitely check that out because the way he starts his show is always, hey buddy, what have you done to make someone's day better? And if we all had a little bit more of that focus, as far as what did I do today that made someone's day better? Um, today was a pretty awesome day for us. Uh, my son's Eagle Scout, um, celebration was today and his court of honor or however it's put together. I'm not a Boy Scout, so I don't know the proper terminology, but we had a big party and, uh, I got lots of people telling me how awesome my kid is and what a good job he's done and what a young man. He's turned into and just how, you know, it's great that he serves in the community. So I don't know how I got from there, from hillbilly, but oh, making someone's day better. That's it. So everybody was happy to be there to help celebrate my son. And as a mom, it was great to have folks just come on up and say, good job, Eagle Scout. Good job, Mom. Good job, Dad. So that's how I made other people's day better. We fed them also. They enjoyed being invited and being part of the celebration. And then I, they all made my day better because they're telling me how great my kid is. And I'm pretty sure there isn't a parent out there that doesn't love to hear about how great other people think their children are. So hello, Viejo, nice to see you, sir. If you can't tell by my voice, there's a reason I'm off camera. Um, so those are it. So Mike, I cannot— oh, all right, I really want to put Mike's thing up on the screen, but I'm afraid I will do something and hang up on y'all, so I'm just going to read it before I can see it. It took a year and a half to recover. And for those of you just joining us, Mike Ballinger woke up from in a camping trip and his best friend who was camping with was literally dead next to him. So when he's talking about it took a year and a half to recover, that's what he's talking about. It takes time and some professional help. This is the final healing. Congrats to Max. Yes. So the Eagle Scout thing is super cool and awesome, and it was very fun, and, um, it was just great to get family and friends together and neighbors and just all sorts of stuff. And the cake was good too, so that's always fun. Um, I don't know, gentlemen. I hate to cut it that, that short, but I kind of really don't have a lot for y'all. If you guys ever have questions, uh, or topics— I mean, Mike actually, just so y'all know, also Mike also helps with topics from time to time. He will send me texts. Oh, Hillbilly, since you are here, ah, I almost forgot. I did want to let you know, uh, Hillbilly sent me a card. And one Saturday night, because he does his show at the top of this next hour, um, I popped into the green room, but Hillbilly wasn't there at that time. Gizzard Gary was running the show. And I thanked— I told everyone in the green room to make sure they told Hillbilly thank you for the card and the stickers. But since you're here right now, I'm just going to say thank you for the card and the stickers, because the stickers are awesome. Because they say make somebody's day better. So I think as short and sweet as this is going to be tonight, that's what I'm going to leave on. Uh, thank you all for popping in. I really do appreciate y'all stopping in here. I will be better next week, as in I will physically better. I will actually put the link up before 20 minutes before the show and all of those good things. So by all means. All right, Hillbilly did get the message, so I'm glad to know. Um, but I feel like I was like, oh, I gotta call you or something, because in this world it's so easy to be impersonal and too difficult away. So, all right, love you all to pieces. Thank you for popping in, thanks for chatting, and, uh, I will see you all on the flip side. And yes, I'll be much healthier by next Saturday. Thanks a ton. Love you, and see you next week. Bye.