Now, why bring up a movie from 1988? Because today I read about a new bill in our state that would make it easier for bears and other dangerous wildlife to eat you and your kids. Not a joke.

Senate Bill 1582, sponsored by Democrat Marko Liias (D-Mukilteo), would restrict local law enforcement from using dogs to hunt down these apex predators.

Instead, Liias wants every instance of tracking a dangerous animal with a dog to go through a bureaucratic approval process before officers can act. Because when a bear is stalking a neighborhood, nothing says “public safety” like government paperwork!

More from Jake: What if the pay-by-mile tax is really about speeding tickets?

Unleash the hounds!

Call me old-fashioned, but I say unleash the hounds!

I spend a lot of time hiking with my kids, and we love Washington’s beautiful outdoors. But the last thing I want to encounter on a trail is a hungry bear or cougar. If there’s a report of a dangerous predator lurking nearby, I want our local law enforcement empowered to handle it—immediately. I trust their discretion and expertise far more than some government desk jockey tying them in red tape.

At the time, lawmakers were just implementing the toll lanes on 405 and 167 (we’ve all seen how that turned out), and Dori was smart enough to realize that once they got a taste of your sweet, sweet toll lane cash, they’d be hungry for more.

The Road Usage Charge (RUC), if adopted, would charge you 2.6 cents per mile you drive throughout the year. There’s some fuzzy math required to decipher how much of the gas tax you’re already paying every time you fill up would be credited to your end-of-year bill for the RUC, but at the very least, like everything in government, it sounds overly complicated and likely means more from your pocket.

More details: WA eyes pay-by-mile system as gas tax revenue declines

A pay-by-mile conspiracy theory

Not to be an alarmist but let me inject another possible conspiracy theory into the mix: How are they going to accurately monitor the miles we’re driving for the RUC? What happens if I drive out of state? Am I paying for those miles as well? Are they going to require some sort of transponder in my vehicle to be accurate?

And privacy issues aside, who’s to say what else they might cleverly decide to do with that info?

What’s to stop them from noticing that occasionally I drive above the speed limit (hey, we all do) and issuing me a speeding ticket? Call it a conspiracy theory, but funny how often those come true.

I don’t like anything about this potential new tax and I hope you agree with me.

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Anytime we talk about WSDOT and money (often over budget), two things seem to happen. First, the numbers for WSDOT projects are always so astronomically huge that I rarely notice them anymore. Second, my eyes immediately begin to glaze over and I start to fall asleep from sheer boredom. But now I’m thinking that’s exactly what they want us to do. They want us to go to sleep and not ask any questions.

More from Jake Skorheim: Winter is coming. Let the battle of the thermostat begin!

Let’s take a look at this $500 million that they say they’ll need in order to upgrade the current rest stops. How much is that going to be per rest stop? I’m no mathematician,Ìý but I do have a calculator app on my phone. And that number is (drumroll please)…$10,638,297 PER REST STOP! WSDOT says they will take 15 years to do all this work, but still, that number seems generous to me.

Does that seem crazy to anyone else? How on God’s green earth can you spend almost $11 million on a bathroom and a stretch of grass for your dog to relieve itself? Couldn’t they just spend, maybe, half on these rest stops? Bring them in at $5 million each and call it a day? That would still be about $250 million for the 47 rest stops and seems like it should be more than enough.

Gourd named ‘Michael Jordan’: Giant world-record pumpkin seeds sell for how much?

WSDOT spokesperson Tina Werner recently told , “It has been 15 years since this last strategic plan was updated, and 15 years ago, the needs of our travelers were different.”

How are the “needs” different? I’ve been using these rest stops for much longer than 15 years and without going into too much detail, I’ll tell you I’m doing the same thing in them now that I was doing back then.

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You can also follow Jake on , and for more.

One: I am getting older. Because now when I watch that movie, I no longer identify with the child Ralphie, but now with the grumpy father who I feel more like with each passing year.

Two: The battle over the thermostat is timeless and will never be won.

More from Jake Skorheim: I bet you didn’t know this about Costco …

Every year around this time, when the autumnal foliage finally falls to the ground and the cold weather sets in, there is a clear battle line drawn in my house and it goes straight through the thermostat on the wall in my living room. I won’t say this is a battle of good vs. evil, because I would never call my wife evil, but I will say that I think there is a clear right side and a wrong side. I’ll let you judge which camp you fall into.

On the one side, there’s me, a reasonable man (most of the time). I grew up in a house where the heater was turned down at night. Not only is this better for the environment (somehow, I guess), it’s a massive saver of energy costs. The idea is that if you are sleeping under warm covers, you don’t need expensive heat to keep you warm. This logic also followed during the day as well, where any complaints about a chilly house were quickly dismissed as weakness and I was advised to put on a sweater. (That’s still good advice!)

On the other side of this conflict is my wife, a woman. (Is this a truism for all women?) She, apparently, grew up in the tropics, because the prospect of turning down the heat just doesn’t seem to occur to her. In fact, if I had to guess, I’d say before she married me, she wasn’t even aware a thermostat could be turned down. It just went from hot to hotter!

Fall content from Jake: Giant world-record pumpkin seeds sell for how much?

Now, I love my wife, but how warm does a house really need to be? I am spending a fortune on energy bills. And when I think about it, I believe the cold house I grew up in (warm in love, though) was actually pretty great for building character (and it developed a passion for sweaters)! What lessons are my own sons learning in a house that’s never dips below 74 degrees? They’re children now, but someday these boys will be men. I don’t want them complaining about being “chilly!” Layer up, man!

But maybe the best thing for me is to take a step back and consider the true cost of this war. What if I won? What if I prevailed over my wife to allow our house to drop down into the high 60’s at night? Maybe we a save a few dollars ,yes. But do I really want to go to bed every night with a cold wife? I think I just answered my own question. It’s time to wave the white flag.

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And after his entry this year, a gourd he named, “Michael Jordan,” he is now the world-record holder for growing the largest pumpkin ever recorded at 2,749 pounds. That’s about the dry weight of a Toyota Prius. Crazy!

If you want to know how long it takes a pumpkin the size of a car to grow, you might be surprised.

“So, I planted the seed on April 10th and 184 days later, we have a pumpkin,” Travis explained.

And most of the pumpkin’s weight is gained near the end of that time.

“Actually, they’ll do most of their growing in 60 days and up to 70 pounds a day,” he said. “Really, the process goes pretty quick.”

More from Jake Skorheim: I bet you didn’t know this about Costco …

I was also curious about something else. A world champion horse like Seabiscuit, Secretariat or Seattle Slew. (All “S” names I’m noticing. That’s weird.) After they retire as winners, they get to live of life of leisure, raking in a fortune in stud fees? (Can you imagine if they did that with human athletes? I guess in a way they… never mind …) Do they have something similar with pumpkin seeds?

Travis laughed. But, to my amazement, he said they did.

“That’s exactly what we want to do,” he said. “Some we give away, some will go to auctions worldwide, it really all depends. Then some, we will sell too.”

On average, they can get anywhere between 0 and 1,000 seeds per pumpkin. They won’t know until after they cut it open.

But if there are seeds inside to be harvested, how much does a world record pumpkin seed sell for?

Travis said, of course, he’ll donate a lot of the seeds to growing clubs and high schools. But when they do sell some of the seeds, he said, “I would say minimum price people will be paying for these is $200 … per seed.” That’s pretty good money considering he already won for producing the world-record pumpkin. That’s in addition to other prize money.

More pumpkin content from Skorheim: Sorry, these pumpkins cost how much?

The pumpkin itself will now be carved by Guinness World Record pumpkin carver, Eric Jones. He will carve it up and eventually, it’ll be put on display as part of a veterans’ memorial.

Check out the full interview below:

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I had the misfortune of filling up my gas tank a couple of days ago. As you can see in the photo (which I took out of anger at the time), it was $5.199 for a regular gallon of gas. What made the experience even worse was that just before I pulled up to the pump, I was listening to 97.3 FM ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Newsradio (as I always do, of course), and the top-of-the-hour newscast had a report about the national average of gas prices. In much of the rest of the United States, gas is still halfway affordable at around $3.600/gallon, according to . But not here! In the state of Washington, thanks in very large part to outgoing Gov. Jay Inslee and the rest of the bureaucrats in Olympia, we get to pay more than a dollar more per gallon. And for what?

Next time you’re stuck in traffic (which will be very soon if you choose to drive anywhere on our roads in Western Washington), sneak a peek at yourself in your rearview mirror and ask yourself what good that extra $1.60 per gallon is doing to improve your life on the roads here in Washington? Answer: Nothing!

Just over the state line in Idaho, do you know what they’re paying for gas? It’s less than $4 dollar/gallon. How much longer are we going to do this? When is it going to stop? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. Actually, some crazy pills might be a nice way to make the pain at the pump go away. Does anyone know where I can get some? Asking for a friend.

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Among the many topics we discussed in the interview: how the products vary from store to store. Specifically, I wanted to hear about the food. I know there’s more out there than hot dogs and chicken bakes.

Susan explained how, “in Alaska (home to one of the smallest Costco warehouses in the world at just 75,000 square feet), you’ve got reindeer sausage. And in Taiwan, the rotisserie chicken has its head still on.”

The front cover of “The Joy of Costco: A Treasure Hunt From A to Z”
(Image courtesy of David and Susan Schwartz via Amazon.com)

I was pretty shocked by the chicken part. But that’s not the strangest item they discovered in their travels. That honor is found on the other side of the world, where David tells me that, “South Korea has a holiday called which is their autumn harvest holiday, a very important holiday there.

“Costco puts together gift packs for people to buy and take to their ancestral homes,” David continued. “These gift packs are amazing, and in the seafood section, there are tons of live seafood that they put in these packs. Live lobsters, live crabs, live clams. They pack them in the gift baskets alive.”

I couldn’t believe it. “How?!” I asked.

“They’ve got air holes,” Susan assured me.

If you’re looking for a fun read, I highly recommend their book. The pictures inside alone are worth your time. Take a look if you get a chance.

Listen to ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Nights weeknights from 7-10 p.m. on ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Nights with Jake SkorheimÌý±è´Ç»å³¦²¹²õ³Ù here, on , or .

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According to the professionals, including our own Ted Buehner, you can expect some beautiful weather this weekend. it’ll be near 80 degrees in Seattle Saturday! I’ve lived in Washington most of life and this might be my favorite time, weather wise. If you like to recreate outdoors, you might want to get out there and soak up the sun while you can. It doesn’t look like it will be here for long.

When the grey clouds do finally settle in, I’m thinking about getting one of those . I’ve never tried one, but I was just talking about them with someone on my show and they swear by it. I don’t know, we’ll see. In any case, I will be outside Saturday, working on my farmer’s tan! Have a great weekend!

Listen to ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Nights weeknights from 7-10 p.m. on ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Nights with Jake SkorheimÌý±è´Ç»å³¦²¹²õ³Ù here, on , or .

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The interview discussed the effects of AI on both the business world and its employees. Dimon claimed his company has studied the many benefits AI tech can bring and had some thoughts on what it will mean for the future.

More on AI: Tech companies need to be held liable for AI misinformation

Dimon said it will have some drawbacks, of course, but mostly made it sound like some sort of utopia where “your children will live to 100 and not have cancer because of technology and literally they’ll probably be working 3 1/2 days a week.”

The part that got my hackles up, specifically,when he started talking about what AI will mean for my kids’ and your kids’ future.

Now, I have no qualms with the cancer part. I’m all for cancer going the way of the buffalo — or polio. I’m happy to have that disease eradicated. The part I think he’s dead wrong about is the benefits of the 3-1/2-day work week. You may think I’m crazy or some sort of glutton for punishment, but stick with me here.

More on a 32-hour workweek: 32-hour workweek becomes a reality in San Juan County

When I was a kid, I used to watch “” with my mom. Remember that show? You might think it’s silly, but I love it and it still holds up. Anyway, the father on the show, Charles Ingalls (played by ), said something that has stuck with me my entire life. I’m paraphrasing, but the gist of it was, “God put sweat in a man’s body so he could work hard and to know that he’s done a good day’s work.”

The value of working hard is something we need as humans. Think of how you feel after you have completed something that is hard. That feeling that only comes after you’ve conquered a difficult task. That feeling is pride. I don’t care what your job is, if you work hard at it, when the work day is done, doesn’t it feel good?

Now let’s imagine this CEO, Jamie Dimon — he’s worth about $2 billion — is right and in the magical future where benevolent machines do the hard stuff, our kids will only have to work for half the week. What will life look like for these super young retirees, or trust fund babies? (That always turns out well.) What are they doing with the rest of their time? Look at all the cities in our country where work is scarce. Specifically, look at what happens to young men when they don’t feel like they have value. Where are they getting the pride and purpose that happily comes with a good day’s work?

More from Jake Skorheim: Sorry, these pumpkins cost how much?

I don’t know, maybe I’m way off (It wouldn’t be the first or last time.), but I don’t want my sons to spend their adult years just hanging out, killing time. That will go south and fast, especially if they’re going to live to 100. No, thanks!

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I can at least wrap my head around why the cost of oranges has skyrocketed, but we don’t get too many hurricanes here in Washington. So, what is going on with the price of pumpkins?!

More on inflation in the state: Washington fears grocery merger monopoly as inflation worsens

Last weekend, my wife and I took our boys to meet up with some friends at a local pumpkin patch. If it’s October and you have kids, you probably already know where I’m going with this. It is nearly illegal to not visit one of these “farms” at some point, especially when the leaves are so pretty. We get there and, of course, it’s perfectly picturesque. In fact, I’m almost positive the whole layout was curated as a backdrop for social media snaps. And I’m not complaining about that. I get it. We all like to have pictures of the kids doing cute stuff.

What I am complaining about is the price associated with these lifetime memories. Avoiding to name names, one very popular farm near my neck of the woods has an entry fee (pumpkin patches didn’t have entry fees when I was a kid) of $26.95 plus taxes and fees just to get through the barn doors. For that insane price, you get to wander around aimlessly in a corn field plowed into a maze, stand in line for a hay ride and take all the pictures you want. What do you not get with that entry fee? A pumpkin!

From the archives: See the Dori Monson Show Pumpkin Carving Contest entries

Now I know every patch doesn’t have an entry fee, thank the Lord. The one we visited didn’t, which is why we went there. But we still had to fork over 45 bucks for the five of us to go in the corn maze and when we finally got to the pumpkins, I literally did a double take as I tried to decipher the sign explaining how much each pumpkin would cost, according to size — and kids never want small pumpkins.

Were these pumpkins made of gold? Were these gourds stuffed with cash? No, and I’ll tell you something. It really sucks the joy out of the experience when you have to consider taking out a second mortgage just to pay for a few pumpkins.

Since 2018, the average price of pumpkins during Halloween in the U.S. have increased by almost 40%, reaching approximately $5.40 per pumpkin in 2022, according to . The price jumped 12% over the last 12 months.

According to , Americans spent $804 million on pumpkins in 2022.

I almost gave in and bought the glorified squash. But, fortunately, sanity prevailed. I made my kids a deal. If they agreed to bypass the patch, I’d buy them each two at Fred Meyer. I wasn’t sure they’d go for it, but I could see the wheels in their greedy little minds turning and the deal was just too good. Two is better than one.

More from Jake Skorheim: Yes, Seattle is crazy

Happily, they agreed and we went on our way. So in the end, we left the patch without any pumpkins, but we did get a few nice photos. I can’t wait for next weekend: We’ve been invited to another patch. So, we’ll probably be going again.

Listen to ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Nights weeknights from 7-10 p.m. on ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Nights with Jake SkorheimÌý±è´Ç»å³¦²¹²õ³Ù here, on , or .

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Sidenote: It’s always a good idea to keep track of your fluids, especially in an older vehicle.

After confidently handing off my baby to a confused looking kid who couldn’t tell if my truck was running, I headed to the waiting room where I drank in the warm aromas of stale coffee, old popcorn and oil. (Actually, they were quite a nice mixture of smells. Cologne idea? Yes, please!) At that time on a weekday morning, the place was pretty empty, just me and another gentlemen browsing on his phone. As is often the case in such tight quarters (i.e. elevators, airplanes), I had a choice to make; scroll on my own phone or make conversation with a complete stranger.

Now, this is more of a delicate proposition than it appears. Someone’s mama once said, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.” If I got this guy talking, he could be a real dud or, maybe, he becomes my best friend?

Fortunately, I chose the latter and we started chatting. Turns out, he was a great dude and we had a lot in common. (This has actually been true most times I start talking with strangers.) We obviously both like getting oil changes, we both have loud kids and we both think Seattle is crazy. Isn’t it funny how something as trivial as thinking a city is crazy can be so bonding?

Seattle strikes again

I was reminded of this conversation Tuesday morning on my way into the studio. I was in traffic at a complete stop and had time to take in the views. I chuckled at the driver in front of me who was having a meltdown as he tried in vain to change lanes. (Calm down, buddy!) I scanned the nearby freeway retaining walls out of my passenger side windows for the newest graffiti, attempting to decipher what was either a gang sign or the head of a gopher (probably, a gang sign).

More from Jake Skorheim: Ex-Tesla engineer becomes barber who cuts foster kids’ hair for free

Finally, my eyes wandered out my driver’s side window toward the massive homeless encampment in the median that seems to be getting bigger by the day. That’s when I spotted a young man, no more than 45 feet away, in full view of northbound and southbound I-5 traffic, taking care of his morning business, and I’m not talking about No. 1.

There are only two options in this scenario and I’m pretty sure you’re picking up what I’m putting down, so I’ll spare you any further description. I’m not often shocked in the city anymore, but this was right there for all of us to see. Crazy, right?

Mercifully, traffic started moving and I got on my way. And as I drove over the Ship Canal Bridge, I thought again of my new friend. I wonder what his commute was like? Oh well, the view of downtown from the bridge is always stunning. It’s pretty gorgeous from up there.

Want more like this? Subscribe to the ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Nights with Jake SkorheimÌý±è´Ç»å³¦²¹²õ³Ù on , or and we can hang out everyday! I bet we have a lot in common. 🙂

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I recently had Tommy Andrade, one of the shop’s owners, on ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Nights to chat about something very unique he and his co-owner, Jeff Chou, have started doing at the shop. I’ll get to that in a minute, but just know that Tommy would have been a great guest if all we did was talk about his life story and how he ended up holding barber clippers in his hand.

A few years back, Tommy was living in Austin, Texas, and working as an engineer for Tesla. Then a job opportunity at SpaceX brought him up to Redmond.  He said that he was trying to find that work-life balance between, “unemployment and having no time at all. And working over there, you pretty much have no time for your family.”

Jake Skorheim once walked away from becoming a PI: Here’s why.

Family is something very important to Tommy. He has a young son and says after losing his own dad when he was just 10 years old, he knew he always wanted to be a present father. So, as he considered looking for another career that would allow him the time he wanted with his wife and son, he looked to his own family for cues.

Tommy talks about a major career pivot

“My grandpa was a barber for 50 years, my uncle was and one of the things that always stood out was that they always had time for their family,” Tommy told me.

So, with a pretty decent resume of working for Elon Musk at both Tesla and SpaceX in his back pocket, Tommy enrolled at a barber college. It was, as Tommy put it, “definitely… not the traditional path a lot of people would make.”

While at the barber college, Tommy met Jeff Chou, his future business partner. The two bonded not only over their passion for hair, but over the opportunity presented to do some good in the community.

That brings us to why Tommy was on the show recently. At his barber shop, they offer free haircuts for foster kids. For Tommy, the passion for helping kids in foster care goes back to his own youth. “When I was a teenager, I experienced homelessness for a while, and a lot of my best friends that I grew up with were in the foster system,” Tommy explained.

More from Jake Skorheim: The story of a ‘village idiot,’ a large-horned steer and a chop-top Ford

He knows how hard the kids who are in foster care have it. One day, he and Jeff were talking about how they could give back and the idea of helping kids in the foster system with free haircuts was born. They both wanted to help give the kids confidence as they were getting back to school.

When I asked Tommy if the free haircuts were just a back to school initiative, he told me, “No.”

“We do it all the time and will continue to do so as long as we are in business,” Tommy said.

I couldn’t be happier to highlight the work Tommy and Jeff are doing and I know they are making a real difference in the lives of these kids. If you’re interested in finding out more about them, check them out on Facebook .

Lee Meyer is the owner of a now-famous bull who goes by the name of Howdy Doody. I recently had the chance to get Lee on “³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Nights with Jake Skorheim” and he told me the steer is “half longhorn, half watusi.” The watusi, an African breed, is where he gets the large horns coming out of his head.

More from Jake Skorheim: Free (tiny) train rides in Skykomish

A few years back, Lee decided he wanted to bring Howdy Doody around with him to local parades.

Trucks are boring. So, naturally, Lee modified a retired 1996 police cruiser, reinforced the suspension, and made himself a pretty sweet steer transport. Unfortunately, the local cops weren’t thrilled by it, which is why Lee made national headlines when he was recently pulled over while out for a drive with Howdy Doody, or just “Howdy” as Lee refers to him.

Apparently, driving with a steer in the passenger seat isn’t completely legal. Who knew?

The pictures are pretty unbelievable when you first see them, but they’re real. And if you’re worried that this seems like animal cruelty or that Howdy doesn’t enjoy it, let your worries be at ease. Lee told me that Howdy “really seems to enjoy going over bridges or looking at water or driving by a lake.”

Lee strikes me as a pretty interesting guy, so as we were saying goodbye, I asked him if he had any other strange hobbies we should know about. He said this one was pretty much it, “Somebody’s gotta be the village idiot. Just as well it’d be me.”

I guess every town needs one, and I don’t think I could sum it up any better.

More from Jake Skorheim: The ‘³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Nights’ host once walked away from becoming a PI. Here’s why.

If you should happen to find yourself in Nebraska and spot a Longhorn/Watusi steer heading down the road in a modified Crown Victoria, it’s a pretty safe bet that’s Howdy Doody.

And be sure to throw a wave over to Lee ad he’ll be the one in the driver’s seat. However, if Howdy is behind the wheel, something is desperately wrong, and I suggest you get out of the way.

Listen to ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Nights weeknights from 7-10 p.m. on ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

More from Skorheim, host of ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Nights: Skorheim once walked away from becoming a PI. Here’s why.

So, we’re heading east with no particular destination in mind when out of nowhere, we see a sign up near Skykomish that read, “Free Train Rides.” When you have three kids and a limited budget, “free” is a word that tends to catch the eye. We turned right over the old bridge and into town. What we found next was a complete delight: , holding a prominent spot in the middle of the tiny town. In fact, it’s really the ONLY recreation in town, as far as I could tell.

Pulling into the gravel parking lot, our eyes were immediately drawn to a beautiful, old-fashioned truss bridge, only this one was miniature. If I were standing up to walk across it, I might have hit my head.

We parked our van, piled out and that’s when we saw five or six of some of the most classic-looking trains ever seen, all at 1/8 scale. The kids couldn’t wait to climb all over them. The trains are painstakingly recreated models of real trains. The rides are free and plentiful. You can ride as many times as you like, as long as you follow the rules.

If you can spare any money, a donation is appreciated. The Great Northern & Cascade Railway also has its own museum, gift store and visitor center — open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays — alongside its near-3,000 feet of track.

This serendipitous discovery on a random drive has now turned into a family tradition. We make sure to hit it at least once or twice during their operating season, which runs from May through the end of October. I highly recommend a short road trip up to Skykomish to check it out.

More from Skorheim, host of ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Nights: Jake Skorheim learned this tip to stay mentally sharp from his time in NBA

If you end up visiting, tell them Jake sent you. They won’t have any idea who I am, but it just sounded cool to write.

Listen to ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Nights weeknights from 7-10 p.m. on ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.