Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Iron Culture podcast presented by the Mass Research Review.

I am Eric Trexler joined by the Dr. Eric Helms. Helms, how are we doing tonight?

Hey, I can actually say that tonight, almost. It's like late afternoon. Do you think

4 p.m. is evening or afternoon? That's a real, that's a litmus test right there.

4 p.m. in the fall after the clock's changed, it's going to be dark in an hour, so you can call

that evening. It's going to be dark in two hours.

Yeah, no, here, here and Cali, it's dark right around five, a little bit after five. Okay.

So I think for the first time, I can say that this Monday evening, just like you, I'm doing well.

Nice.

So Helms, we see the, um, all the photographs behind you, uh, clearly a, a nostalgic setting for you as you're back in your old stomping grounds competing on the stage that you've observed so many fine competitors share in the past. So why don't you give us,

just to start out here, a little recap of how the week wet. You know, we kind of previewed you're

going to be up on stage with your colleagues, a big show, a return to, like I said, the old stomping

ground. So take us through, take us through the competition, the non-competition, the nostalgia, what it's like to be home among friends.

Just give us all of it to get us started here.

Yeah, man, it's definitely been a time of reflection, which I really appreciate and gratitude.

Because I think, as you know, contest prep kind of turns people into,

uh,

human doings rather than human beings in many ways.

And you just kind of focus on one foot in front of the other.

And if you don't have the right mindset,

you can just let it all paths by and not actually stop and smell the proverbial roses.

Or the pro tan or green tan in this case.

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