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Greetings and Welcome to The 405 Coffee Break with O.K. Solberg
New episodes tend to air over the local KMMR radio station @ 5 minutes past 4PM each M-F. And have been doing so, nearly every week since Sept 2018.
I'm D.J. Rasmussen, O.K.s friend since junior high, possibly your neighbor & this websites maintainer, whom strives to get each episode's show notes written, the transcript proofed and the audio posted to the internet within a few hours of that days KMMR air time. NOTE: recently been publishing most new releases by 4:30PM.
Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy the time we can spend together.
I want to again welcome to The 405 Coffee Break, Guys, a little rain coming down. Get a jacket on. Get your cup of coffee, glass of iced tea, or bottle of water. Let's see what's happening.
OK Solberg:Spring wheat $6.94 a bushel. 550lb steer calf $4.60 to $4.90 depending on their quality for fall delivery, and a 100lb fat lamb in Billings $3.10 a pound to $3.20. But guys there's more, much more.
OK Solberg:Okay. I'm gonna quote for you a few lines from a famous poem and and you need to identify the poem. Are you ready?
OK Solberg:If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same, if you can make one heap of all your winnings and risk it on one turn of pitch and toss and lose and start again at your beginnings and never breathe a word about your loss. End of quote.
OK Solberg:Can you name the poem? Anyone? Anyone? 5 seconds now. Scream it out loudly. 4, 3, 2, one. The poem is titled IF and it was written by Rudyard Kipling. If you don't know it, pull it up and savor it.
OK Solberg:It's a great poem. And now I use that segment of the poem to get to this line and never breathe a word about your loss. That is the foundation for my story today. And, guys, I'll also pay any and all listeners who can come up with documented evidence that this same theme has been covered before.
OK Solberg:If you can, I'll pay each and every one of you a $20 bill. Guys, this is new. I'm certain you haven't heard this sort of thing anywhere else before. My idea, and it really is a good idea, is to create a pension fund for carpet layers of America.
OK Solberg:No. Wait. I wanna create a pension fund for carpet layers of the world. These people need a pat on the back. These guys need to be recognized as faithful troopers that don't give up even when the battle begins to rage.
OK Solberg:In the world, we understand, well, there are things titled occupational hazards. There isn't a welder out there that didn't get burned once in a while, while welding. I believe every electrician that has worked for longer than six weeks has gotten a shock at some point in time.
OK Solberg:If you had talked with miners, and I'm talking about underground miners, there isn't one of them that didn't fear the possibility of a cave in. Each occupation has its hazards. Now what kind of hazard does a carpet layer encounter? Any guesses?
OK Solberg:The smell of toxic glue? Well, maybe, but they navigate that quite easily. Slice a finger when cutting the carpet? Sure. Sure. Oh, that happens. But put a Band Aid on and keep on working. The occupational hazard that I'm speaking of the of is this, for a carpet layer.
OK Solberg:As he looks over the beauty of his work, still on his knees, mind you, as he admires the tight corners, the wrinkle free transition down the steps, and suddenly the door bursts open and he hears the dreaded words that every carpet layer through the decades has heard. Hey. Wait a darn minute there.
OK Solberg:That ain't the color I ordered. Pull up that ship and get what I wanted. Guys, around coffee the other morning, I told of a carpet layers encounter and his dilemma with that same kind of thing.
OK Solberg:Now after I told my story, a fella sitting right next to me said, listen to this. I came home expecting my new brown soft brown carpet to be laid, and I'm looking at an ocean of pink. Pink. Pink carpet.
OK Solberg:Well, with those 2 stories surfacing right here in tiny my tiny circle in little Podunk Malta, Montana, I knew I was onto a story that doesn't get much coverage in the real world.
OK Solberg:But I also know it's true that it happens often. So I went to the Internet. You know, you can find so many stories with that source. And I find dozens of stories from dissatisfied customers.
OK Solberg:And I mean, this happens more than you think. I find them all over The United States. I have one from Europe, and here's one from Australia. A 2026 Australian review says the company delivered the completely wrong color and the reviewer specifically notes that the carpet fitter had already traveled to the property and was out of pocket for that travel time. All the accounts are out there.
OK Solberg:You have to believe me. But in all my searching, I can't find one carpet layer who tells his story. We have evidence that it happens and it happens often. Wrong color, wrong fabric, but I can't find one carpet layer themselves that is out there on the Internet belly aching. Now remember how I opened with a few lines from Kipling's poem titled IF.
OK Solberg:Remember? The line I love is and never breathe a word about your loss. Well, hey, the carpet layers of the world all have encountered something like this, and they aren't out there screaming bloody murder. They're professionals. And they take their lumps, they take their wraps, and they don't say a word.
OK Solberg:Now if you're familiar with the poem from Kipling that I just told you, do you know how it ends? Including, if you can do all this, including not saying a word about your loss, then yours is the earth and everything that's in it. And which is more? You'll be a man, my son. Well, my hat is off to all the carpet layers of the world.
OK Solberg:Know this, I think we should set up a pension fund and get it going for the carpet layers. If you laid carpet for a year or more, you automatically qualify because we know you didn't control the color, you didn't send in the order, you didn't make the mistake.
OK Solberg:You just drove to the job, you carried in your tools, you started doing exactly what you were supposed to do and then someone says, hey, wait, That's the wrong color. I didn't order that. And what does our carpet layer do?
OK Solberg:He doesn't write a 700 word Facebook post. I can't find one. He doesn't call the newspaper. He doesn't start a podcast called the carpet layers revenge. He takes the hit just like a man.
OK Solberg:He rolls up his carpet. He picks up his stools. He gets back in the truck, and apparently he doesn't breathe a word about his loss at least not publicly.
OK Solberg:So perhaps the National Carpet Layers Pension Fund isn't a bad idea after all, because if Rudyard Kipling was right and a man can lose everything at a game of pitch and toss and never breathe a word about his loss, then somewhere between the tack strips and the carpet knife, America and the world has produced a whole bunch of men or women who already know how to do that.
OK Solberg:What about that then? Help me start this fund. Just email me at I don't like the bellyache either @igotmoney.com. I'll close with a bible verse and it fits this theme perfectly.
OK Solberg:Philippians 2:14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing. Philippians 2:14 Yep. Do all things without grumbling. Take a lesson from the carpet layers of the world.
OK Solberg:So until next time, as you go out there, remember now, don't be bitter.