Texas Cop Vanessa Protects & Serves, NYC Marathon GameDay Signs & Tyson Etienne From Way Downtown

Let's get the day rolling with some inspirational messages from readers

I want to start with Todd W. in Mesa, AZ because he's about to go through a life-changing moment that includes hauling his four kids from Arizona to Tennessee to live on 30 acres.

Take it away, Todd.

Joe — the Zillow Gone Wild house in Battle Creek, MI that you featured at the end of Tuesday’s Screencaps is owned by a guy called Per Wickstrom (rhymes with ‘pear’), a Norwegian Scientologist who owns a gaggle of bogus drug rehab facilities. He’s divorcing his most recent wife Svetlana and owes more than $3 million in federal taxes! He has a long history of abuse and fraud at his treatment facilities and pulls the typical Scientologist trick of threatening journos with libel lawsuits when they attempt to report on misconduct—including some suspicious deaths—at his facilities. Total scumbag!

I know you were just posting an impressive mansion, but it turned into some top-notch Googling for me this evening!

p.s. we’re moving to rural TN this winter to get away from the heat and influx of Californians (God bless them). I’ll be on 30 acres out there so next year I get to join the mowing league!

This is also my 'Do Hard Things' moment. I’ll be in way over my head as an overeducated, west coast, tech nerd yuppie working remotely from an isolated house five miles outside a town of 2500 people, with three kids under 7 plus a newborn. If you don’t mind I’ll submit my adventures trying to garden, and maintain a 3/4 mile driveway, and finish the apartment in my basement, and do whatever the hell it is you’re supposed to do with a tractor.

Anyway, love the column, Joe. Thanks for featuring real people and real life. Makes my day, every day.

• Talk about an action-packed email. Look at all that adventure heading Todd's way. It sounds like Todd's about to start some YouTube channel with all of this stuff on his plate after moving across the country. Next thing you know, Todd's going to have a beard, an accent, and a guest spot on an HGTV show where he works on reclaimed wood in his shop for women wearing Coachella hats who sell fixer-uppers.

All joking aside, this is going to be a huge storyline for 2022. I can't wait to hear stories from this life transition. I want to hear about the highs and lows.

• Next up is Mike in Pasadena. I know it's hard for you to believe there are red-blooded Americans in California who read Screencaps/OutKick, but they are out there and I receive emails from many of them who are thankful to have an outlet like this where they can feel alive.

Take it away, Mike.

Couple of items;  Your IG game lately has been spot-on !!  Perfect selections...stay in that lane and all will be good.  Really appreciate your "research" there. 

Big-ticket purchase regrets - I can go back over time and come up with more than a few for sure - you posted the Golden Tee machine - and I started shopping for one!.. didn't come down to the price,  it came down to "where was I going to put it".  

The way I see it,  life is a series of choices, and the better (smarter) choices we make the better the quality of our life will be.  I have told my sons (23 yr old twin boys) the fewer "shoulda coulda woulda's" you have in your life the better your life will be.  Again applying the principle of "smart choices".   We can all go back and "Monday Morning QB"  purchases and expenditures and find some real doozies... the question becomes "are we still making bad choices?" 

Lastly - TNML season is over - what about the "Sun-Coast" divisions?  So. Cal, Florida, southern states ??  We're still grinding...  I know you have PLENTY on your plate...I'm just saying.

And finally - your Screencaps "places of interest" section a couple of weeks ago had shots from Olympic National Park in Wa.  Never thought to go up there...because of the post - I'm taking the Wife up there (as a surprise) for her birthday next month!  The pics were all the inspiration I needed!!

Keep up the Grind Joe!! 

• I consider it a high honor when someone emails me to say they have decided to take action in their life based on something they saw in Screencaps. Months ago, a California reader emailed me to say he called up his son and said they were going to go grab a meal based on a photo he saw in Screencaps. It was something like a two-hour drive to get to the restaurant, but the Screencaps reader needed to try the burrito.

Now Mike in Pasadena is basing his wife's birthday trip off destination photos he saw in Screencaps. Guys, I hate to get all sappy here, but this is what it's all about in my world. This is why I get up in the morning and grind away at this job that the employment gods have bestowed upon me. College didn't train me for this career. My parents barely understand what I've been doing for the last decade-plus. How did I end up here at this moment? I ask myself that question quite a bit.

Here I am, just trying to channel the common man and get into his (yes, there are plenty of women who read Screencaps) brain to figure out what it is that makes him tick on a daily basis. I'm trying to figure out what it is that will make him feel alive on a random Wednesday in November when the weight of the world might be on his shoulders.

And then Mike in Pasadena emails to say he's basing an important trip off this column. HUGE honor. It gets the juices flowing and keeps me going that's for sure.

• The firewood theme keeps chugging along. Wednesday, I heard from Andy G. who was doing some wood research, and came across a 2016 article on how important wood stacking is in Norway. It's how Norwegians measure a man. That's right, on his stacking abilities.

https://www.wpr.org/author-explains-how-norwegians-can-measure-man-his-woodpile

• Last night I found myself watching American Veteran : The Return, the third episode from a four-part PBS series focused on personal recollections from vets ranging from World War II all the way to vets who have recently left the service.

I know what many of you think of PBS, but I think this is also worth your time to hear directly from veterans and their deeply personal reflections on what it was like for them to return to civilian life.

• In honor of Veterans Day, I'd like to hear from vets who read this column. If you feel so inclined, share something about your service to this country for the Screencaps community. Or just share which branch you served in and the timeframe.

Or shout out a loved one who served.

I'm all ears.

Email: joekinsey@gmail.com

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Written by
Joe Kinsey is the Senior Director of Content of OutKick and the editor of the Morning Screencaps column that examines a variety of stories taking place in real America. Kinsey is also the founder of OutKick’s Thursday Night Mowing League, America’s largest virtual mowing league. Kinsey graduated from University of Toledo.