Shadow of the ALMIGHTY!

Hello again, Dick Fothe here with stories from the road. It's almost 15 years ago that Ruth and I hit the road from D.C. to Northern Colorado. Fort Collins in particular, that's an hour north of Denver, 45 minutes south of Cheyenne, Wyoming, it's ranching country. We went sort of from monuments to mountains, if you will, and we thought, man, we're coming to Colorado. It's going to be recreation and wide open stuff, which is all true. There's just a couple of degrees difference in latitude, actually, between Washington, D.C. and Fort Collins, Colorado. The difference is that Fort Collins has in Northern Colorado, has 300 days of sun a year. The word on the street was, you know, when you put altitude, because we're at the same latitude, but we're 5,000 feet higher than D.C., that altitude and sun could be a challenge. And the follow-through to that was, in a word, protect yourself. In five ways were suggested, where sun glasses, you sunblock, drink a lot of water, have a water bottle, as much as you can, long sleeve shirts if you're outside, and head covering, either a cap or a hat. Think about that, head covering. Think of all the ways we work to protect ourselves, whether it's drinking a lot of water, using sunblock, whatever it is. We put lots of effort in dollars to do one thing. Again, protect ourselves. It sounds defensive. I would submit it's really offensive. I'm recording this, as the National Football League playoffs are in the spotlight. I mean, they've had some games. And a couple of things about the game of football are absolutely observable and true. One is the quarterback, in the team, the quarterback is the key. He's the field general, starts every play. If he doesn't have time to execute his play, the game will be lost. Even amazing world-class quarterbacks need one thing. They need protection. That's why you have the big boys on the offensive line, 300-pound wide bodies. What they're doing is buying him time, just a few extra seconds, oftentimes, to hand off or run or fake or throw. Individuals, of course, also suit up to protect themselves with helmet and pads. Protection, I would submit to you, is a proactive part to the game. And I would say it's a proactive part of life. Let me give you a definition of protection, and these are sort of synonyms, actually, means to defend, to guard, to safeguard, to shield, and while all these words mean to keep secure from danger or against attack, protect implies the use of something, such as a covering, as a bar to the admission or impact of what may attack or injure. So, where do you look at coverings? How about a town called Greeley, Colorado? I told you we were in the Fort Collins area. We were in the Fort Collins area, and we were in the Fort Collins area, and we were in the Fort Collins area. How about a town called Greeley, Colorado? I told you we were in the Fort Collins area, our north of Denver, 45 minutes south of Cheyenne, Wyoming, but about 20 miles southeast of Fort Collins is Greeley, Colorado. It's a historically livestock and ranching still that. And there's a wonderful store there that my friend, John, introduced me to his cousin is the owner, and what they do is make hats. Cowboy hats, primarily not exclusively, all kinds, it's called Greeley hat works, and the owner's name is Trent Johnson, and I asked him, so how long have you been doing this? And how do you, how do you custom make a hat? And these are just some of his comments. We've been building hats here in Greeley, Colorado since 1909. I'm the fourth hat maker to own the company, but I'm like the newest one I've been doing this just over 30 years. So what we're going to do is we're going to put your head inside here, we're going to move all these pins around with your head, and it's going to give me a picture of your head that is one sixth size scale. Okay? You might feel these getting close to your ears, but I measure it up here where it makes that 90. Okay. And I'll make sure not to mess up your hair. Thank you so much. Yes. I think I'll miss both of them. So there's a few holes that are a little out of whack, but you could see, that's amazing, how your head gets a little narrower here and here is a little bit longer. So even if you wear a ball cap or something, you usually feel more pressure across your forehead and you don't feel as much contact kind of at the temple area, it's a sign of intelligence. Thank you so much. So having hats in mind, I'm thinking, you know, we think of ranching and for sure rodeo as dangerous work. How about hat making? Here's just a little trivia point, just a factoid. There's this interesting phrase, a mad hatter. Now Trent is a funny hatter, certainly not a mad hatter, but hatters or hat makers commonly back in the day when hats were huge, back 100 years ago or more, they commonly exhibited slurred speech or tremors or irritability or depression or other neurological symptoms, hence the expression, mad as a hatter. The symptoms were associated with something they used to make the hats, which was mercury, and chronic occupational exposure to mercury causes neurological problems. Well, that's, I just threw that in there for free. So I went on to ask Trent, what are the parts of a hat, like the pieces? How does all that work? Three different grades of European hair, European hair blended with beaver and pure beaver. One point of clarification, when Trent says hair, he's not talking about HAIR, he's talking about H-A-R-E, that other word for what we would know as a rabbit. So two different kinds of hair, hairs means two different kinds of rabbit for. There's different grades of beaver, there's different grades of leather, wood, steel, right? So this entire thing is beaver, so you could say you're building a pure beaver and use the cremiest hair. We are only using the finest under hair off the beaver's belly, the stuff that keeps that animal alive. That downy part is what felt together to keep that animal alive and warm, think of them swimming, right? All their insides are down. Right. You have the coarser hair, thicker even the leather across their back is thicker, that's the guard hair, that's protecting them from predators. Our felt maker in Europe has been a business for over 200 years, he's the best in the world. So that's how we start. So don't have it right that the hats you make, you do have straw hats, but the bulk of the hats you make are beaver. The bulk of hats we made are either European hair or European hair blended with beaver or pure beaver. Okay. And when you say something is felt, what is that? That is just the hair from an animal that is felted to get oiled pressed, whatever. Oiled pressed, put into the centrifuge and all of that. Wow. How many different steps to make a hat? Oh, that's a great question, the way you made it. So we would start by, I mean, how technical do you want to get? We measure your head, we cut it out, we put it in the familion, we cut the sweat band, we pull the hat body, we block it to your head, we flange it, we sand the crown, we sand the brim, we cut the brim, and that's just, we haven't gotten very far yet. Yeah. I'm tired just listening. Right? You sound like the rest of my staff anytime I talk. So finally I said to Trent, let's get personal, like, let's talk about hat size, like my hat size. Here's what he said. So you have in my hand there, the in paper, the shape of my head. Can you tell from that or do you have a machine or something that tells me what my hat size is? Like if I just go to a Fred Farco store and I'm just get something off the shelf, is there like six and three quarters? Well, yeah, yours is about 23 and an eighth inches, which is over a seven and three eighths and under a seven and a half. However, you could put a tape measure around your, a cloth tape around your head and get the same measurement. Okay. However, that isn't going to tell you the shape. Yeah, yeah, that's not the same. Right. Fred is a little bit different, just kind of like shoes and jeans and everything. You always wear a size 34, but in this one brand, you always wear a 35. Right. I'm a bald guy, almost bald, right? Fulically challenged. Fulically challenged. Yes, sir. So when I think of the hat, it isn't just style, I'm thinking of protection. Trent, thanks a million for doing this for me, yeah. It was huge fun talking to Trent about making hats and there's so much to see there. And so I mean, these folks make hats for television programs like Yellowstone or movies and all of that. And they're not cheap friends. You can't go there and get one for $32. I've just put that out there, but it's a wonderful place to visit. And if you're in the area, I encourage you to check it out. And then I sat with another friend from a very different kind of covering and here he is. So I'm sitting here on a wonderful Saturday morning with a friend, Aaron Pettigrew. Aaron, nice to have you here. Thanks for having me. Now you're in a business where you are director of sales for a company and your company specializes in what? We specialize in manufacturing protection equipment for law enforcement and first responders. Protection equipment for law enforcement and first responders. So when I think of protection equipment, I'm thinking, well, what kind of guns you got for me? But what is your product? So our product is armor vest, ballistic armor vest, and vehicle armor that actually goes in the vehicles for law enforcement and first responder protection. Vehicle armor, what is that? How's that work? We have a very unique product that's innovative that drops in to the actual windowsill of the vehicle or different makes and models. And it's a very quick installation for the armor panels. And it literally takes five to 15 minutes to install them. They're custom built for those vehicles, and it gives an officer protection in the vehicle which they spend about 80% of their time in those vehicles. Your primary protective device is a vest. I love vests. It leaves my arms free, I can do stuff, but I've seen your vest. I might have even put one on, just messing around. I'm not allowed to buy one, right? That's correct. Our vest and vehicle armor are specific to law enforcement first responders. Because anybody, if anybody walks in, they might be using that for as we would say, a nefarious purpose. They're the bad guys, right? That's correct. I love that thought. The early in the cell of the good guys. Just talked to a man, wonderful guy, that does custom made hats for people. That kind of protection. Tell me about making a custom made vest for somebody. When we go to measure an officer, we meet with them. They have their duty gear on. Our specific rep goes out and goes through measurements with their duty belts and uniforms on. It's like a tailor for cops. It is. It's like a tailored suit. It's a custom vest to those officers. We want the best fit form and function for those officers. We have some science behind the measurements and how things come out in our manufactured. It's a pretty in-depth process that we take very seriously because the way that that fit form and function is on those officers is very important for their safety. By measurements, that means this is like a designer vest. Absolutely. This is not both going into what's at store and buying something off the rack. This is me having my own dude to measure and do all of that. That's like a tailored suit for these officers. There's a higher level of protection that can be added to that vest for more intensive attack. We actually incorporate a rifle plate pocket in our carriers that carry this off-darmer for protection against rifle-rated rounds. That protects the vitals. It allows for officers to be able to protect it against all different calibers that they come against. You can just drop that in that vest pocket that's centered over your chest. Yeah. All of them have it. It scales up with the individual's body size. Those are also, even those are set sizes. They customize to the officer's side. We have a unique rifle plate system that's modular. It stacks up different materials. We have a ceramic strike face with a polyethylene base plate. They help each other defeat certain rounds that maybe one set of material would not stop without the other. I appreciate that. I just can't spell that. Clearly, this is an expensive process. This is a significant process. We probably ship it out someplace to get it made, right? I mean, send it to China or someplace to... No, we actually manufacture here in the United States in Fort Collins, Colorado. We have some third-party partners that we use here in the United States, but everything is manufactured in the US. I think I heard you right. If I go to Rhode Island and get stopped by a police officer, chances are he's wearing your stuff. Absolutely. I don't have 75 places in Texas and get stopped. Not that I'm planning to get stopped, but if I got... He or she would be wearing your stuff. Absolutely. Louisiana, Florida, Mountain West here, Denver, Fort Collins, El Cajon, California, you said. Portland, Oregon. Yep. If I go to the capital of Montana, it's there. If I go to the capital of Wyoming, it's there, correct? Yep, that is. And all kinds of other towns across the country. Well, let me wrap this up this way. Thank you for protecting the people who protect us. It's truly an honor. Yeah. And by the way, what's the name of this company? It's Angel Armor. See now that in and of itself tells me a ton. I love it. Aaron Petter, who thanks for being with me. Thank you for having me, Dick. Be cool. Bye-bye. It's interesting that in the New Testament, there's a Greek word for protecting that area of the body. And interestingly enough, it's thorax. It's the root of the English term thorax, properly a breastplate which protected the chest of soldiers extended down to the hips and figuratively or in metaphor. It protects the heart. Or if you use it as a metaphor, it's our capacity for moral deduction or choices. It's the area of the body. The thorax is the area of the body between the neck and the abdomen. And it contains the vital organs, including the heart and major blood vessels and lungs. And it's supported by the ribs and the breastbone and the spine. Proactive protection is offense. And with that as a metaphor, here's the thought. In a day, inundated with theories and images and appetites and practices and the siren calls to destructive and addictive behavior, stuff that would take your stuff and take your life. How about considering proactive protection for your mind? Thousands of years ago, a fellow wrote this proverb, Proverbs 423. Above all else, guard your heart for everything you do flows from it. And the heart suggests the seat of your affections, your appetites, how you think about life. And I think hats and vests in my word are great intro metaphors for protection. It's protection from sun and bullets, but how do we protect guard ourselves from ways of thinking and acting out that will steal our souls? I believe we need the largest, most powerful protection possible. And there's a wonderful psalm, a psalm that captures it from me and I'm going to wrap our time up with this psalm 91-1-4. Whoever dwells in the shelter of the most high will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. Surely He will save you from the foulard snare that someone who catches birds and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His feathers and under His wings you will find refuge. His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. In my mind's eye, that's the strongest father in the world, and even if you didn't have one like that or you didn't have a father that you knew. Just think of it this way, God is the strongest father in the world and one of a father's major focuses in life is to protect the children. And you climb up on His lap and He wraps you in His arms and says, we're good and we say in response, yes we are. That's it. The Dicphoth saying we're out, catch you next time, thanks a million for being a part of