bicycle brigade

Poop scooping transects. Weather alerts are fun! A DOUBLE haiku week. It kind of all goes wrong in A Farewell to Arms.

  • Chapters 29-34

  • Collin’s Haiku:

    • Tiny steps they march,

    • one by one to fate unknown,

    • save them or they fall

  • Brandon’s haiku:

    • An eye to the sky

    • Temperature fluctuations

    • School days in limbo

Check out our other episodes: ohbrotherpodcast.com

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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE

PROVIDED

oh-brother-bicycle brigade - 2_16_25, 12.33 PM-leveled

Sun, Feb 16, 2025 12:45PM • 1:37:31

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

furnace issues, airflow problems, lockout mode, snow day, school cancellation, poop scooping, training employee, James May's Reassembler, Farewell to Arms, Frederick's struggles, war experiences, Italian soldiers, German advance, retreat challenges, emotional impact, executions, paranoia, interrogations, German agitators, retreat, officers, questioning, escape, river, hunger, train, guns, army, duty, new beginning

SPEAKERS

Collin, Brandon

Collin  00:04

Music. Welcome to Oh brother, a podcast where we try to figure it all out with your hosts, Brandon and Collin on this week's show, bicycle brigade ahoy. Ahoy. How goes it?

00:23

It's very cold.

00:26

My gosh, how's the heat persuasion?

Collin  00:31

Okay, so, like, our furnace is, like, okay, it's, it's 30 years old, like, kind of, at least, um and so we are kind of in the kind of, we are in the furnace of Theseus realm. Oh, right. Where is it? The same furnace as it was 30 years ago? I don't know, but we are having to just replace little pieces. And it's also because it's like, I don't want to have to spend, like, $16,000 for a new furnace and everything, because what they won't do, what they really want you to do, is say, well, you're replacing the furnace. You know what? You also have an AC we just did all of that together, and then it's the same age. And I'm like, yeah, no, I understand. But see the problem is I have, I have dose furnaces, furnace i and i also have dose AC units. Is so everything just gets doubled. And I'm like, I don't want that so, and I'm perfectly fine to like, if, if it's like, okay, this part is broken. Let's just replace the part. Let's do this thing. But now, like, this is throwing some weird stuff where I'm learning a lot about furnaces that you would be surprised having. You know, the father that we do, like I didn't already know most of this stuff. But apparently, when a furnace goes to light, it has to do something called where it has to prove air flow, right. It has to prove that whenever, especially because I have, we have a gas furnace, so it's like, Hey, I'm about to throw a lot of fire here in a minute, so I gotta make sure that I can, like, exhaust and I can supply the fire with oxygen and stuff. So it like, it's called an induction motor, and it runs, and it's basically just meant to run. And while it's running, it's pulling a vacuum to try and prove I have airflow. And that's where my system is like, do I though? Do I Is there enough airflow? Maybe I don't. Hold on everybody, let's let's stop and let's just rethink this. And if the system does that too many times, it goes into quote, unquote lockout mode, at which point the only real solution is to throw the breaker and wait,

03:08

yeah, efficient solution.

03:10

Wait, no.

Collin  03:15

So yesterday, we had run into an issue where it was like, Huh, well, that's weird. Like, it's 66 in our house. It should be, not that, not that, yeah, okay, weird, like we, and we keep our house at like 68 to 70 anyway, so we're not blasting out. It's we don't that's just what we're done. We're not a hot house. And so it's fine. Sounds like

Brandon  03:39

a chagrin of one resident, at least one resident. Well,

Collin  03:42

she has her own personal heater that travels from room to room with her. Okay, so that's fine. We bust that baby out and yeah, so we there's this one, this little valve that's supposed to pull the vacuum, that's the pressure switch, or whatever it is, like, that's the thing that like, is it doing? The thing? Is it not?

Speaker 2  04:02

So we need to be one of those sides point to No, that's fine. All sides point

Collin  04:07

to No, it doesn't it's not doing the thing. Oh my gosh. So we did get it fixed. And then I was like, Okay, it's fixed. And we were like, follow, la, la, la. And then within like, 30 minutes, it was like, No, I'm not fixed. I'm just really not fixed. And so I did the I did the ultimate move here where finesse wasn't working. So I I hit it with the end of a Phillips head screwdriver, and I fixed it. Hey, you know what?

04:43

Sometimes that's all you need,

Collin  04:44

right? Sometimes violence is the answer is, what we're lacking still connected,

04:48

right? Just

Collin  04:51

well, and so I don't know, like I So anyway, we have a new we have a new part. It's like this, like, it's super simple to replace. It's literally like two screens. And it's just right there, so that won't take me too long. But yeah, it was like, well, all other recourse has exhausted itself. Now I get to beat things right? Oh my gosh. So anyway, that's been fun. We do have heat. It's been working, and it's been working flawlessly. So that's, you know,

Brandon  05:27

knocking on some wood for you. Click, click here, knock, knock,

Collin  05:32

knocking. Oh my gosh. So we that's been, that's been fun, and then, yeah, we got, how much, how much snow did you get today?

Brandon  05:42

Um, maybe, like, it wasn't a whole bunch, just couple inches, I think, okay, but it was also there was, like, a ton of, like, a little freezing rain, sleet stuff beforehand, so it was pretty frozen. So we didn't have school today. That's what

Collin  06:02

I was gonna ask. We were, yeah, they did you guys call it this morning? Because our schools like, yeah, this morning our our call our community college, like, canceled yesterday? Like, they were like, nope, yeah, some of them did that. But like, the

Brandon  06:21

superintendent is very uh, forth coming with his, like, weather plans. And apparently there's some sort of like conference call that happens between, I guess it's like superintendents and like weather people or whatever, at like, 415 in the morning. And so he was doing that sounds not good, no, because, like, the timing was all weird, because it was, like, it was pretty rainy yesterday, right? Like, a lot, but then it was the snow part, like it was like, rain, freezing rain, sleet. Ish right, okay, kind of most of the evening, and then, like at night, but then in the morning, like the snow wasn't supposed to start to like five or so. Ish Right, yeah. But when the snow came, it just like, stuck immediately to everything on the road, right? It was just like, because the road was already kind of wet and frozen, because it's been real cold like, all week anyway, so, like, it wasn't one of those times where it's like, oh, it's been warm, but then, oh, surprise, it's cold. No, no, it's been really cold all week long, right? So it's and it was, there was still, there was like, a little bit of freezing rain on Tuesday, right? But it was just like, like a little bit, it's like, trees were kind of gross and like mailboxes and things, but the roads were fine because it was it was just like, a little bit, right? So Tuesday was kind of already gross, right? It was kind of like, man. And then, I guess we take that and then put on top of it, the stuff that happened that night. It started like, I don't know, a little bit later. So all the stuff that was already there from like Monday night into Tuesday

Collin  08:26

because that was already kind of gross, and then

Brandon  08:31

another round of that, plus more on Tuesday night, we're like, Nope, no school, all right, oh my gosh. It's really was kind of Yeah. So like, even Monday night we were like, are we gonna have maybe we're not. I don't know. Are we gonna have school? I don't know. Is, how much did this freezing rain stuff's gonna happen, like, so it's a bit of a limbo conversation. And I don't know about tomorrow either, because, oh, like I said, it didn't

09:00

get particularly warm today, and so I don't know what they're gonna do about tomorrow. I don't know if we're gonna have school tonight. Definitely, not 100% sure about that either. Just because,

Brandon  09:18

like a lot of our bus routes are the roads are really gross. So today was not sunny and it was not warm. I think the high today was, like 30. So

09:34

doesn't help, like, and it's our road is really cold tonight too.

Brandon  09:37

Is that? Yes, our road is pretty clear. I mean, we didn't leave the house today, so I cannot confirm a whole bunch of this, but like, our road has been cleared by the city, so, like, it it got some help, right? It would. It didn't get this way all by itself. Yeah.

Collin  09:58

Like, the sun didn't really come at it all the day. Day,

Brandon  10:01

and it wasn't really warm, like it was kind of hanging out right around 3132 degrees. That's kind of as warm as it got today. So, yeah, I don't know. And tonight's gonna be really cold, so I have no idea.

10:19

Good luck, and I don't

Brandon  10:22

know what, like, the other thing that factors into this is we were already supposed to be off of school on Friday, right? Oh, so like, yeah, yeah, that, I think that also factors into the conversation slightly. Like, well, do we go back anyway, because we're only gonna be back Friday? Or do they say, Oh, well, we're already gonna be off Friday, so just forget it. And just like, whatever.

Collin  10:49

Sure it's interesting how those kind of things like, you wouldn't think that that would really play into a lot of these conversations, but they absolutely do right there, yeah, because logistically, I'm sure that's a lot to call back in when you're just going to not be there the next day. So

Brandon  11:05

yeah, what I mean, not Yeah, logistically, but also, like, how much is actually going to happen on that one day? Oh, kids come back for one day, right? Like, yes, yeah, that's the other part. That's kind of like so I don't know. I don't know what they're gonna do. Who knows?

Collin  11:26

It's a fun adventure every day. Yeah,

Brandon  11:31

we did have to do AMI work stuff today, though, so we'll see how many children did their thing. I don't know. I haven't actually looked at a long time. Let's do a live update on how many children have completed tasks now. A lot of them have commented and said things like, Hi. Okay, the thing but is their work done? Is there? Oh, well, over half of them have turned it in, okay, so that now all these other ones have to go and see in. But like, sometimes people like do it and they don't turn it. So we'll see how that goes. But they got a large number of people currently have over 50% have done it and clicked the turn in button. So I'll have to go and see, oh, this person, theirs is also done, but they did not hit the turn in button, so they're messing up my plan here for a lot, but so I'd say there's a pretty big number of people. This person emailed me earlier. Did they do it? They did. They just didn't turn in. So that's right, so I'll have to go through and just click through these later on. But it appears to be quite they did look at them, look at them doing things. Hooray. Well, I have just learned

Collin  13:07

by because I have a little tab open here. I just flipped over to that, and our local school has called off for tomorrow, so it is an AMI day for them. Here's hoping.

13:24

Who knows? Well, we'll find out. Yeah, yeah. I'm not gonna go through all that right now, but so

Brandon  13:35

there you go. Have things to go through and click through and see how they did later on, I don't ever start grading until we actually get back, because it's just supposed to be due when we return. So, yeah, you can't, they still have time. They're still time. Don't

Collin  13:51

say that, because then they actually won't do it. So, oh, I mean,

Brandon  13:54

I mean, like, as of right now, as of this moment, oh, I'm not gonna start grading until I return to my desk. No, he's

Collin  14:01

he's no no listeners. He is grading actively as of right now. The papers, no,

Brandon  14:06

they're just, it's supposed to be due upon return to school, just like if they are working on it right now, like, whatever. That's fine. Oh. Want to go ahead and I want to grade it now and then I'll, like, Miss off. I give him a zero because I haven't done it yet, but they're like, getting ready to do it. That's not fair. So well,

Collin  14:39

yeah, we I was frantically so we had so we offer a service called poop scooping, and we've

Brandon  14:48

YouTube you only personally, only mean the service is not the best, really use of your time, if only you are doing it. Only me.

Collin  15:00

So with everything going on, I have these poop scooping services, and in one of our service areas, I was like, I'm really tired of me being the only one who does this.

Brandon  15:12

I would also be very tired of that if I were you, like, extraordinarily tired, because I wasn't done with that after the first week. Nope. Okay. Just kidding.

Collin  15:22

No. I will say I like, on some level, it is very, like, transitive of like, you can just, like, it's just you some air pods and the weather, and it's just like, Cooper poops. You're just chugging, chugging along. It's actually really nice, like, really therapeutic in that sense. However, yes, this is also very frustrating, because it does take, like, an hour or an hour and a half of your time, and it's like I could be doing a million other things like this right now. So I made an executive decision where one of our service areas, I basically contacted one of my employees who, you know, I hired, and I was like, Yeah, you, I am training you on this meet me at this person's house, and they were like, oh, okay, cool. And so I trained somebody on poop scooping this week. Good job. Congratulations. Look, I'm proud of you. Now that's only in one service area, but

16:18

you know what that is a start.

Collin  16:20

It's baby steps. It's baby steps.

Brandon  16:23

Did you do it in the service area that you don't live in? Is that where you train this person? Wow, okay, really, kind of you kind of did this backwards,

Collin  16:36

opportunistic about it, and we moved it because it was supposed to be today when, like this morning, but because of all the snow, I moved it to yesterday, and then that happened to slot nicely in with this other person's schedule. So I was like, hey, guess what you're gonna do. You thought you were done. You're not done. Add an extra half because it's really freaking cold outside, and we're just gonna go mosey about somebody's yard for an hour. And it was, it was really hard for me to not passenger driver this, because the whole point is to, like, help somebody set up the system. And I have a system for how we do this, like you walk the perimeter like, and then you walk it back, and then you do transects of, you know, north to south, and then you do other transects. Once you do that, then you do transects east to west. And then what you do is you go back to high traffic areas, but, or specifically around patios, decks or like, play equipment for kids, and make sure those areas are hit basically three times.

17:48

And like,

Collin  17:50

I'm walking the transects with the person and trying really hard to not be like, Oh, are they gonna miss that one? Are they gonna get that like, it is. It was angry. It was so much anxiety

18:01

closer, like,

Brandon  18:05

because I weird that you have such a problem letting go of the page keeper, right? Like, oh, but such a weird sentence that I you just made me say, like, I know, because

Collin  18:18

it's like, I'm here training. This is plumberty. This is my employee who's literally been with me for coming up on three years. I shouldn't have this issue. I'm just walking them and talking to them, and I'm kind of using it just as a point to, like, catch up with them. Like, that's fundamentally the other day, I know they're going to be fine, but just me walking a path and I see the poop, and me, like, feeling anxious, of like, are they, Oh my gosh, I didn't see it. Do I need to speak up and like, you're getting closer and closer? It's like, well, they're not reaching for it. So do I need to point out? But I don't want to be that guy, because I don't want to always be the one going, Oh well, did you see that one? Or did you see then? So I

18:55

definitely don't do that. Oh God.

Collin  18:59

So I was very proud of myself. I didn't say anything in the moment, and I even let them miss one or two that

Brandon  19:05

I Oh, my gosh, I'm surprised. And then I was immediately

Collin  19:09

like, Oh, there's one right

19:12

there. No,

Collin  19:17

it was a big, like, eye opener for me. Of just like, I'm supposed to be out here, like enjoying this, but also like my I was, I was I was ratcheted up, and towards the end, I was able to come back down and relax and just have a conversation. And we were talking, and it was fine, but I was, I did notice that about myself yesterday. I was like, I have learned something about me. Like, this is, this is weird. I Why, why? So somebody has trained. So this is good news, and hopefully that will continue. But yeah, I was like, Oh, I actually have to write, like, so, yeah, I wrote an SOP and a policy and, like, had a little diagram for like, generally. Not trans sex well, because it's also very tempting.

20:06

Scooping diagram is right?

Collin  20:08

But here's the thing, what's the natural tendency whenever you see a little pile or you see something on the ground, you just kind of breadcrumb your way to the next one that you see, and then the next one, and you don't see anything else that you passed along the way. And so it's like, no, this needs to be orderly. This needs to be methodical. This needs to be in a way that you grid search. Grid search is what it is. It's what I did, double grid search, because you go this way and then you go the other way. That's the kicker. And I did tell the tell the employee, we have these kind of things in our business, and I'm usually not very like, we don't talk about them a whole lot, but it's fine. This is just a more costly service, because it nobody really wants to do this, and it takes so much of our time. So compared to our other services, it is more costly, and we have a clean, clean yard guarantee, or whatever, of like, hey, if we, if we miss more than you thought, or what, you know, whatever the language we have around that, I told the person. I was like, Look, we have this thing, but we don't actually want to have to come back over here and pay for that time. So don't miss anything. Thanks,

Brandon  21:24

but which is not an all threatening sentence, don't mess

21:27

it up. Don't mess up.

Collin  21:31

And that's a good thing, right? It was very, very, very open, right? Meanwhile, I'm my blood pressure is going through the roof as I'm stepping taking another step closer to the poop pile that they may not have seen. This is all very normal, and people do. I think, I think that's not true. This is pretty fine. I think it's not fine, though, oh my gosh. So yes, I am doing another one tomorrow in our other service area, but I don't have anybody to train because nobody's available. So unfortunately, durat Amy, do I could? I try too many I don't know. Maybe I could. I don't know if they'd be interested. That's the other problem. Of like, yeah, I hired them to, like, give puppy cuddles and Kitty kisses, not wander around aimlessly in people's yards scooping up poop. So, I

Brandon  22:28

mean, that also makes it's fine, you are giving a monetary compensation for it. Yes, and

Collin  22:35

I did. I did tell, tell the employee that, of like, Look, I know this isn't the best thing. And, like, probably this isn't the most fun you're gonna have, but, um, like, you can like, this is, this is just some extra hours that I have. This is, these are hours that we have from time to time that I want to give you. I want to have you employed. Secretly, it's like, I don't want to do these that much, but this is, this is for you,

Brandon  23:07

right? For you, yes, of course. Man,

Collin  23:19

oh goodness. So anyway, yeah, so it's been that's been fun, and just battling the cold, I think that's been the weirdest. I don't know I wasn't apparently supposed to get more snow, like this weekend, and then, like next Tuesday, already it's on the calendar. So,

23:34

oh, really, yeah, at

Collin  23:36

least for us, we we're supposed to get more snow on Saturday, and then next Tuesday is supposed to be like the next the big one already did. I know that. I for just so everybody. I don't know if this is actually true. I'm just explaining this,

23:56

which is the thing that I heard. So it's fine, don't worry. Yes,

Collin  24:01

that's that's how this goes, right? I don't actually need to prove any of my statements. I can just say them, and then we can just move on. And I think that's what makes it work

Brandon  24:11

beautifully. Well, that's what the weather app says. Then that's who I to go with for now, right? You always have to take it with a grain of salt, like, that's what it says. Now, subject to change. Later, I'd worry about Saturday first, and then go from there, yes, just start with that one, and we'll see where that goes. And then, yeah, and then we'll just, you know, take your baby steps from that. But gotta start small, right? Like it's

Collin  24:44

so, yeah, that's been that's been fun. That's what we've been doing. That's what we oh, and I watched, I had some some evenings that weren't quite so hectic or chaotic, and so I found some time to watch. Um. A program that I watched a while ago but didn't really pay attention to, because it's also like, this is really great background programming, except the check in every now and then I watched more of James May's reassembler. Oh yes, is this? Is? This is fantastic programming. Yes, I've

Brandon  25:20

seen these, yeah, for a while, but they show up on my thing at Russell, well, I highly

Collin  25:25

recommend these. Basically, it's him putting something back together very slowly. That's it. That's the whole, that's the whole pitch people, and it's James May. So it's brilliant. And there's some history thrown in, but it's mostly him, just like, searching his toolbox for the right screwdriver. And I am here for this, but I am here for this.

Brandon  25:58

It made I was like, Oh my gosh, I do. I do really enjoy this. So I, you know, that's what, yeah, you go nice. I sometimes, whenever it shows up on my thing, I also all the man lab stuff is on YouTube as well. Oh yeah. So, like, it just pops up on my thing. It was, well, like, Oh, do you want to watch this? I'm like, Well, you know, actually, yes, I do.

26:28

How did you know? Like, that's exactly what I wanted,

Brandon  26:33

yes. So there is, like, some, all of that stuff is on there as well. So if you need more James made to watch, you can watch those weird like, Oh, do we need to solve this problem that is not really a problem in some really convoluted way. Why? Yes, yes. You do want to watch that. Yes.

Collin  27:00

Yeah, yeah, man,

Brandon  27:01

they're quite old. Those are quite old, but they're pretty fun to watch every once while, right? So those are on there. There's even one. I was watching it the other day, like, because it was one of those things too. I was doing something else, and so I just had some background noise action, and it was just, like the two hour compilation, nice, like, all right, yep, it just turned on the background and sit and listen to it and then do to do, right? It was fine, yes.

Collin  27:35

Oh, that's brilliant. So that was good, like that, yeah, I like the ones. Oh. I also may need your help preparing again. I actually, I saw your help for this a while ago, because you are our international correspondent. I am interviewing another pet sitter from New Zealand. So well, hey, any refresher that you have specifically, if you are knowledgeable about local labor laws, would be beneficial to me right now, so I

Brandon  28:07

don't really have a lot of information about that, but I'll see what I can do anyway.

Collin  28:16

I i, and I will say this is something that I can I tried. I had I got to be I realized how much, like, there's a lot of things in life that you do, or at least I do, where I just have a firm belief of, like, well, this is, I believe, this is the amount of work that XYZ thing should take. And I believe that by putting in this work, you get a quality product out of it. And I try to apply it in all sorts of aspects, and then you find areas where it's like, where, like, obviously, other people don't think that same thing deserves that same amount of work, or like, effort to make it happen. And like, when I when we put together an interview, like, I'm scouring the internet, I'm watching their shorts on Instagram reels, or, like, if they have a YouTube video I'm watching that, I'll read blogs that they write. Like I'm doing all of this stuff to get to know the person, so that I can come up with these questions. I'm trying to figure I'm doing so many, like Google Translate, or like, how name pronunciation, videos and stuff to figure out, like, how do you see this person's last name? How? What? Like, oh my gosh. And just trying to, like, figure out, like, Okay, I'll listen to five different ones and kind of average them out and try and make a good guess.

29:45

And

Collin  29:46

then I I did get to get interview. I was being interviewed for something, and this person had, like, no idea, like, anything about, like,

29:59

who you are. Or why even you're here?

Collin  30:01

No, they were just like and like. So you do, like, I think you do like, a pet sitting thing, right? And they weren't even trying to be, like, fake naive. Like, I've had that happen before. Like, and I will do that too. We're all all Fain, like, I don't know something because I'm trying to prompt a

30:17

comment, because you're like, tell me more about Yeah, XYZ, right?

Collin  30:20

They're like, oh, so I kind of got the gist that you like, really like this thing. Could you tell me more? It's like, actually, yeah, that's my, my thing, yeah, how'd you know, yeah, right. Like, no, this was complete ignorance on their parts. And it was like, like, Oh, you didn't even

Brandon  30:36

like, mess with them. You're like, so, yeah, sometimes pets try to get away. So I sit on them.

Collin  30:41

I sit on them. Obviously,

30:44

no, so they can't, they can't run

Collin  30:46

away. But

30:49

it was just like this

30:51

time, think of that. Yeah, that's why, one

Collin  30:56

time I was talking, okay, so one time I actually was interviewing somebody, and they called themselves a pet nanny. And I said, although that's a very interesting term, I know a lot of people would just call themselves pet sitters, you know, tell me about why you call yourselves a pet nanny, and kind of how you see that different than a pet sitter and just straight faced and deadly serious, I don't sit on pets. That's all the person said. And I was like, well anyway, like, tell me about

31:25

good to know.

Collin  31:27

Like they had such disdain for this word. And I'm like, Oh, well, that's sorry to touch on a sensitive answer. Was

Brandon  31:35

not expecting such an angry answer. Okay, moving on. I'm like, I don't

Collin  31:41

I feel so all this to say that the person who I'm interviewing has YouTube videos, and these are exceptionally beneficial, because I'm trying to get into the mindset and like, the groove of dialect and the groove of like, just how words are said, so that I can actually pay attention to the interview. And it just, it's just so wonderful. It's such a beautiful language, and I love it so much, and I'm very excited to get to talk to them. And that's, English

Brandon  32:13

is a beautiful language, but they speak English in New Zealand, I know prize for you, right? Do speak Maori as well, but

Collin  32:26

words funny though, they don't say the same, words that they say differently. And

Brandon  32:31

I mean, but it's by and large, you can understand what they're talking about. Australians where they just, like, have other names for everything, yes, where you're like, what? Because they can't be bothered to say, like, full words. They're like, Nah, that's for losers saying full words. Lame. Let me tell you what's cool. Abbreviating everything. That's what's that's the way to do it. And they're not necessarily wrong about that, but it does sometimes like they're just talking and then obviously he's going, what I missed something, especially with, like, a name of something, right? That's what they will, like, chop, you know, right? Like, what's like,

Collin  33:13

yes, yes, she they this person is fully understandable. I just really like their accent. Okay, that's what I There we go, people, I just like their accent. But yes, there are times where I'm like, like, there was interviewing somebody, and I found out that they were Oh, like, when I interviewed the person from South Africa, it was like, Okay, I need to listen to this accent for a little while so that I can understand this better and not like, like, like, those things where it's like, oh, I don't share this

Brandon  33:45

thing, South African accents are quite heavy. Yes, have a lot of Dutch

33:52

in them, yes.

Collin  33:53

So for that one, I was just on, like, you know, like, you know, South African, you know, it looks I was listening to, like, news programs and things like that, trying to just, like, get in this vibe, so that whenever I sat down with this person, I wasn't just like, I'm sorry, what?

Brandon  34:09

Yeah, there was a, I can't remember. I don't remember what the name of show is, but we did. There was a show on National Geographic for a while, and it was a dude in South Africa and his like, girlfriend or wife or whatever, and their job was like, Snake removal. So people would call him up and be like, Oh yeah, there's a bush Cobra in my kitchen. And he'd be like, All right, my coming. And then they just wrangle these like crazy, like, oh, there's a black mamba in my living room. Please help and like, he just comes over and then takes it out, you know, like, goes and re releases it somewhere far off away from Durban or whatever. But, like, that was the show, like, oh, there's a forest Cobra in my kitchen. Come get it out. And he would do that. Like, what's. Just like, okay, dude. Just like, casually strolling in to get a black mom out of somebody's living room. Like, what?

Collin  35:15

That's how you casually do that. Just like, oh yeah, no biggie. No, thank you. I'll pass. No, no, no. Like, yeah, I was interviewing somebody from England, and obviously their accents are very insane. It depends on where they're from, yeah. So, like somebody this guy, he had a very heavy, cockney accent. Oh, okay, that's a rough one. It was like, okay,

Brandon  35:45

so it's like, from the Midlands. She was like, I actually can't

Collin  35:48

understand what you're saying. I'm sorry. Can we get a third party in here? Like, no offense. But also, like, beautiful, sounds great. I don't know what you're saying. So I tried. This is what I'm saying. Like, I this is one of the things where, like, you just kind of get into that groove where, like, isn't this just what everybody does to solve this problem, and then you realize you are so like, over engineering and so like, going way past what you were

Brandon  36:15

overthinking and over engineering solution. Let me I'm shocked. I tell you I did not see that one coming at all. Let

Collin  36:23

me tell you about the time I was physically anxious as I approached a pile of poop, worried that the other person wasn't going to anyway. Let me tell

Brandon  36:30

you about the time I mapped out a grid system for scooping poop from a backyard. Let me. Let me tell you,

Collin  36:37

am I? Am I? Triple system to make sure that the door was locked, and the photo that we have to take in order to prove it to the clients. So, fine, yeah, yeah, no, I, I, when I, when I'm training people, and I'm like, let me tell you about the three different states of a door. And they're like, I'm sorry, what

37:01

solid, liquid and gas?

Collin  37:05

No, it's shut, it's shut, locked and latched, and they can exist. They don't like, we need to make sure they are it's in all three of those states. But

37:15

door superposition,

37:16

right? Like, yeah,

Collin  37:21

like, and when you it's like, I just, I this is I've told people I'm like, Look, I'm going to talk about doors for about 10 minutes right now. Trust me, you're gonna. It is my goal to make you really anxious about doors while you work for me. So Well, that's not

Brandon  37:38

it's my job to give you a new, new neurosis that you did not know existed up until this point, I feel like that's not necessarily

Speaker 2  37:49

you'll be job of a boss. Collin to your therapist about this one

Collin  37:54

later years. Let me. Let me talk to you. Let me show you about the horrors of doors. See how this one looks like it's shut. It's not shut. And because it's not shut, it's also not latched. Look at this door. It's shut, but it's not latched. I can just push on it and it opens right up. Oh, we have a client who their front door has no door handle, no door handle. It's this big, huge, double door, Dumbledore. And you, you, jeez, and all you do is you push in the door code, and then the door just swings open. Ah, this like a fault, like a wall door. Yeah, there's no, like, little little chunk, or little lever or thing that you pull, or whatever, as soon as the dead pole is gone, unsatisfying, I know, and also how terrifying, because it's like, if you do not then turn and lock this door, it is just going to swing open and the dog will run out into the front yard. And we don't want that. So, so I found, I found a new level, because

Brandon  39:02

then you have to sit on it to get to stop, right? Yes,

39:07

and they'll like it. Oh my gosh.

39:13

Anyway, that's my, my 10

Collin  39:14

minutes on doors there.

Brandon  39:22

The it's very normal to do that my he says here, what do I know

Collin  39:32

things that keep you up at night? Are they tours? I

39:43

Oh my gosh, indeed. Uh, before we I have really nothing else. I didn't do anything this week. I was only in school for two days, and then I got but I do have a metal band in the. Week. Oh, still finding them right?

40:09

We are doing this. You better.

Collin  40:10

No, I don't want to know. I don't know how you're doing this, and what corners of the internet you're having to scrape these things out of, because

Brandon  40:17

there's a lot of, there's a lot of Reddit involved. Well, just like lists like, hey, here are some lists, speaking of the land down under today's bed, does come to you? Oh, my from Australia. Why? Right? It is right. This is, I

Collin  40:40

believe sacrifics, maybe question mark. I think that's who this is. I think that's how you pronounce this name. Not really 100% sure. I didn't do the the old like

Brandon  41:02

you know, I forgot to do the pronunciation look up here, but I'm gonna send you their band camp thing, just like that. But I listened to the Western Front album. This is from February 2013

Collin  41:19

right? I don't think

Brandon  41:24

they're currently together anymore. It's also just like two dudes also, I believe.

Collin  41:33

I don't know. I think they have don't think they're active currently, right? I don't believe they are, but it's pretty cool, right? I like this one. The, I don't know if it was like, I think like, I don't know exactly here, but the, I feel like the vocals weren't like, as good as some of the other ones, right? Maybe that was just like the production and how they were mixed in the thing, I'm not sure. Maybe just a style, wasn't it? I don't really know. Like I said, not death metal enthusiast. This one was also a little bit like, slower, a bit more like, just like normal metal. There's a lot of like, just like straight up metal in there, which was okay. I like that better with, uh, some different style vocals. But like, not like, they weren't like, really extreme, or like, really guttural, or like, really, like brutal sounding. It just kind of like there, right? So it was, it was okay, but it was not bad. The EP is pretty good. It's only I do love a good, like, I do love, like, a 30 minute album, right? This is kind of my jam, right? This is just like in all music genres, this is what I like, right? I like to be able to just, I like to listen to the whole thing, right? So I don't really like super long albums, right? With there's few exceptions, right? You know, most of you need Dream Theater in there, you know, things like that. But like, don't love, like, mega long things. So I did really love the length of this. A couple of the songs were really good. They do have the obligatory, like acoustic song in there, right? Which one is that? Let me see the track list here. I think it's like the third fatal from no the number six, right? The personal Ridge, one, that one, that one's like a acoustic key track, right? But, okay, yeah, there we go. I don't think I didn't like it quite as good as some of the other ones, right? I still think that 1914 is my favorite one that I listened to so far. Yeah, but I did like this, right? Are you saying there's something weird with the vocals on this one? I'm not sure. Again, as a non expert in this area, right in the you're dating your repertoire on a daily basis. True, true.

Brandon  44:27

So, yeah, that was the middle band of this week, sacrificing. I think it's how you say that we're gonna go with that and yeah, let us know. Sacrifice if that is correct or not right. I'm sorry for butchering your name. I apologize. It's okay. I don't think they'll be be bothered too much. Never know, right? These so that's yeah, okay,

Collin  44:53

well, that's cool. I will obviously have that in our show notes. We can add, you know. Do that. You're just building out the massive playlist of Yeah,

Brandon  45:04

right. God keeps going, yes. Now I gotta do some tomorrow. Dive back into the trenches, as it were, and go looking for more, right? I it.

Collin  45:32

Well, I mean, I think that's a well, we'll end on that high note before we dive into the book. Because, oh

45:38

yeah, gone well,

45:41

oh Megan, yeah, you want to you said, Man, I know. You know

Brandon  45:45

what makes a good winter. Read something more sad. Well. Collin, guess what? Guess what? It turns

Collin  45:52

out that this is really like, I don't know, nerds

Brandon  45:58

out. Farewell to Arms. Is the answer to that, right? That's what it is. I think, I think

Collin  46:04

chapter 29 is, is this, like this really, is where it all really just goes wrong. Like, wrong, wrong. Like, everything up until this point has been kind of a inconvenience. It's not their best favorite part, but they're like, They're retreating, and obviously, okay, it's not as bad, because he's in the field and he's not with Catherine, and, you know, blah, blah, blah. But now we get to 29

46:39

and just kind of this really

Collin  46:41

changes the tone of the rest of the book

Brandon  46:44

that, at least, yeah, yeah, yeah, I would say, right. Well, you know, we do, they do say that in literature and the arts, like rain is often a symbol of changing, right? And Ta da, like, let me show you this chapter, right? Well, yeah, because, yeah, like, we get in here again, we start right off, right the very first line at noon, we were stuck in a muddy road,

Collin  47:24

right? Yep, yep. And, and this scene of them just, like, just literally bogged down, like, just stuck, unable to move, and kind of frantically trying, like they're doing everything their best effort to get this out of there. And it's just, and while they're here, they're watching the planes right fly overhead, fly overhead, which is what he was worried about for staying in the main line to begin with, right that was he was like, oh, man, we're just sitting ducks here. We've got to get out of here. But now he's also a sitting duck watching planes fly right overhead.

Brandon  48:01

Yes. And so the they're trying to get the cars out, they're stuck right, surprised, and the sergeants just like, leave. There's like a Forget it, right? They just leave. And they started off down the road without a word. He goes after him. Starts yelling at them, get back over here. We got to do this. And they just like, walk off. They're like, I order you get back here. And they're like, shut up. You don't know whatever we're leaving, right? And so he shoots them,

Collin  48:36

well, specifically he aimed at the one who talked the most, not Yeah,

48:41

fired

Speaker 3  48:44

and yeah. Like, you could just sense of this. This is a desperation,

48:48

right? Like, pure desperate. Like, we

Collin  48:51

need everybody. Everybody's needed, yeah, and, and he's the only one that's trying to keep this together at this moment. And the only, and I don't know if this is more of a him stepping up to, like, take charge and take over here, or if this is really also a kind of a condemnation of nobody else was going to do this. And I know he also had position over everybody, so it's kind of him to lead this as well. But yeah, just this pure desperation and frustration as well. Of literally nobody's listening to me, and yeah, like, I really felt that as he was saying, halt, and they don't even respond, right? They're just, they just keep walking away. And it's just this, no, like, I'm I need this right now, and you're not even giving me the dignity of saying, No, you're just walking away, like, complete loss of control.

Brandon  49:46

Yeah, they were problematic anyway, you know, because they were trying to steal from the house and all that. Yeah. So Right. So these are shooting them, and he hits one of them, right? One of them, the other one, like, runs off. And we think he's. Fine, but one of them is shot, and he's laying in the thing, and one of the other guys says, I'll go, I'll go finish him off for you. Give me a gun and go shoot him. Right? And he does. He just walks up there and shoots him in the head, right? Like, what in the world? Excalid so quickly, all of a sudden, right? Like, very, very dramatic, right? And then they just come back and just like, Okay, we're gonna start digging, try harder, right? It's very

Collin  50:32

weird and abrupt, right? Like, yeah, they're all just completely like, Oh yeah, well, yeah, no, obviously you could he like, it's basically like, yeah, you couldn't have shot the other one. He was too far. But, like, that's too bad. Yeah, anyway, this car, it's like, I'm sorry. What? How do you like in the movie of this, the rest of the team would have been, like, in arms about, like, I can't believe you did that, and this guy's crazy, and we gotta take his gun and we gotta blah blah and like, this is that I can't believe he went that, but this, they're just like, Yep, okay, back to the problem with the cars. They were useless. It's like,

Brandon  51:06

yeah, that's okay, yeah, okay. So they, they try to get him unstuck. It doesn't really work. They're like, we're gonna have to walk. They send the girls away because the girls are still in the other truck, and he they try to get in the different car, and they try to drive that one aways, but it doesn't really make it very far across the field. And so they just like, give up. And they say, All right, you guys go back that way towards the road and you'll be fine. Just go that way. They gave him some money. And they just point like, go that way. All right. Blah.

Collin  51:39

And then they just, sort of, right, they just kind of take stock and

Brandon  51:47

go. They talk about how they wish they had bicycles. It would be much better. Like, oh, yeah, bicycles, hi, it's not no Walker, right? I don't like walking. Give me a bicycle, right? So you start walking there, bantering. And then this, like, really, right? Like, I don't know, like, this, that kind of sets in. What's happened, right? All right? Because hello

Collin  52:12

is saying, yeah, he's, he's suddenly, like, I've been in war this whole time. And I've never, I've never killed anybody, um,

Brandon  52:24

yeah. But he's like, Well, the other guy's like, yeah, you shot that sergeant. He's like, Yep, I sure did. It's kind of like, they're, they're just kind of trying to play it off and, you know, but he's kind of like, that's what, you know. He just keep talking about it and talking about it. He's kind of like, you can tell he's just sort of now registering what happened, right? Because in the moment, he just did what he had to, he did what he thought had to be done, and now he's like, struggling with the consequences, right? You know, yes, yeah. So even says, What will you say in confession? He says, I'll say, Bless me, Father, I killed the sergeant. And they all laughed, right? Like, Yeah,

Collin  53:11

guess that's it, right? Like, that's all further processing we're going to get here, because then they start talking about antichrists and socialists, and they're

Brandon  53:24

just, like joking, making jokes about these things, right? Like, yes, to try to play it off, like, whatever. And that's the end, yeah. And that brings us chapter 30, which is the big, long one here, right? Yeah.

Collin  53:38

That brings us 30. So, yeah, this again, like, 29 really? This, this, this brought so this whole time too, like, Yeah, sure. Like, we've got, we've got violence happening to people now we have our main character like this. This is actual violence that's taking place, and it's all becoming, like, really close to him too, right now, yes, of all, and the implications of this. So this whole time, he's been so apathetic, so like, couldn't care less. It's way over there, right? It's on the other side of the mountains. It's so and now he's the one pulling the trigger. And it just shows how close this is that, that Nobody escapes from this, nobody gets out of this, thinking that, that they're not part

Brandon  54:20

of this right now, yeah, yeah. And it's, it's come to them, right? And it's not COVID away spoilers, like it's not,

Collin  54:31

yeah, no, it's not, because, again, we get into we were wet and muddy, and the muddy was stuck in desperation, and we're still wet and muddy, and muds everywhere.

Brandon  54:42

Yeah. So when we keep going here, they get to the bridge right later, we were on the road and that led to the river, and so they were trying to figure out we got to cross the river right? So how are we going to do that? What are we going to do? I.

Brandon  55:00

You know, they're gonna, they're trying to blow it up. They're, they're like, oh, it's, is it mined? He's like, Yeah, it's probably not mine. It's fine. You know, everything's fine. It's probably, it's probably, it might be mine, but it's okay. You go first lieutenant, well, you go first.

Collin  55:14

He's like, that's, that's pretty good. That's pretty good. Yeah, and he goes over it. He's like, come one at a time. He's watching the ties and the rails for any trip wires or signs of explosives, but saw nothing. And is this the one where they're disappointed that they hadn't blown it, or that they thought they were going to blow it? Because I know they No, so they

Brandon  55:31

they were, there's one down so there's one, there's one down there, and it's blown up. And then there's this one which, right, isn't blown up. And then they look, they're as they cross this one, they're looking upstream to a different bridge. Oh, that's right, right? That isn't blown up. And they're like, why did they blow that one up? That's the main road. Why did they not blow that one up? And they see the Germans advancing across that bridge.

Collin  55:56

And here again, I see the car that's lost, because the whole point of this was to get to Udine or whatever, like, they need to get to this place. This is the place we're going to go to, and then we're going to figure it out. But they're there, right? They're

Brandon  56:10

crossing the bridge. Germans are crossing the bridge, yeah? So they're like, oh, and

Collin  56:14

he looks over and there are Germans already there, and it's, oh, this is a whole lot messier, right? Like, I, anyway, that was just my realization when I was reading this and going, Oh no, this was supposed to be the safe place, yeah, oh no,

Brandon  56:31

yeah. So the Germans are there already, and then there's so there's a staff car that comes by, and then, like, awkwardly, a bunch of Germans on bicycles come riding by, right? Which is kind of funny because they were talking about how they wished had bicycles, but like, now we have the German bicycle brigade here, coming by here, you know? And they're like, oh, no, those aren't us. Those are Germans. Those because none of the other guys saw it. And they're like, because he's like, Did you see the car? Didn't you see the soldiers? He's like, they're like, No, we're watching you make sure you didn't get blown up. So then they're like, Oh no, those, those are not Austrians, those are Germans. Oh no. And we learned before we don't want, we don't want to deal with Germans. No, no, no, no, no, no. So now they're like, kind of panicking, right? They're like, well, our plan is not really working, because, like you said, the safe zone is not safe, so now we have to figure out what to do now, and we're on foot, and we're only kind of sure where we are, right, like,

Collin  57:38

not 100% sure what's happening here. So this is, uh, well, and this is, this is where he Frederick has, this is where he says, Why isn't there somebody here to stop them? I said, Why haven't they blown the bridge? Why are there machine guns along the embankment? Because he's going, that was the plan, like we were going to come here for safety, and then Bonilla says, You tell us. And this is the first time that Frederick expresses, really any sign, any sign of anger, says, I was angry. And it's like everybody has let this down, and this has been completely in shambles.

58:23

Yeah, oh. And

Collin  58:24

then, oh yeah, right, sorry, I just clicked the next button and my next book was like, because then he asks more questions. He says, the whole bloody thing is crazy. Down below they blow up a little bridge. Here they leave a bridge on the main road. Where is everybody? Don't they try and stop them all. And the panel asks you tell us this, this moment of like, well, aren't you like you're higher up. You tell us why this didn't happen like we're looking to you now, like you're you. You need to be answering these things for us too. And he just says, I shut up. It was none of my business. All I had to do was now get to point to known or whatever with three ambulances, and I had failed at that, and all I had to do now was to get to this place, and I could probably not even get into you dine. It's like I I don't have answers for any of this, because the one thing that I was just supposed to do has completely fallen off the rails, and I failed at that, so I don't know what to do now.

Brandon  59:21

Yeah, and so they he says, Hey, did you have that canteen open with wine in it? That's the solution, right? Solution, right? So

Collin  59:35

isn't isn't it, though, isn't it always Frederick's way of escape? That

Brandon  59:39

is his, yeah, his go to right. So, so they did. They did walk along the railroad track right,

Collin  59:50

and then right. They

Brandon  59:56

get shot at. Yeah, you know, I. Get shot at. Boom, my shot was fired at us from the side road. The bullet went into the mud of the embankment. So they yell, like, Oh, back, back, back. And then they realized those weren't that's not the Germans. That's those. Those can't be there. Can't be Germans over there. Those are the Italians. The Italians are shooting at us, but then they talk about how it's because they're so afraid, right? And they're just like, looking out and they're scared, and they're trying to defend but because everything is a disaster, and it's not, you know, gone the way it's supposed to go, they're just shooting at the wrong people, and they've, they've shot them, and they shot I am, oh, they hit a mo, yeah, they killed him, right? Boom, right. But no, even goes well. He's like, Yeah, I think that's, I think you're right. I suppose if they were Germans. They'd killed all of us, right, right? Yeah, the rear the rear guard are afraid of everything. The Germans know what they're after, right? So, so, yeah, where do where do we go now? Well, we better lie up someplace till it's dark. And so now there's just three of them left, and they kind of sneak off, and they find a barn, right? They sort of leave ammo there, just kind of cover him up with his little cape or whatever, and then they just leave him there, and they head off, and they find another little farmhouse,

Collin  1:01:39

right? They could

Brandon  1:01:42

they stay up in the barn. They're gonna stay up in the barn because there's like little windows up there and they can see kind of out. And so they just kind of, they're gonna do the whole thing. We're gonna search through the thing. He says, We gotta lie up in the barn. Do you think you could find anything to eat? And piano says, Yeah, I'll look. And Bonilla says they'll look to and he says, I'll go. I'll go make way. I'll go look in the barn. So he goes up there, and he kind of checks it out, and he sees if it's all right. And he's talking about how there's a way, there's like, a hey, shoot. So there's, like, a way to escape if they get cornered up there, and, you know, they can pry open the windows to peek out. And he's, like, very like, focused right now about their problem, right? Because he knows that this is kind of a big deal, right? He even mentions, again, like, there are Germans here and there are Germans everywhere. Then it's not impossible that there are Germans here, but the Italians are still the most dangerous. Because, you know, after all, they did kill it, right, right? Well, yeah, again.

Collin  1:02:45

Talks about how scared they are, how frightened they are firing anything. And he goes into say that there were these rumors that there were Germans and Italian uniforms mixing with retreat. And you can see how this is. This would be a total tail spun to kind of get off people who pulled the trigger, because on their friend, right, or on somebody and thought, oh, no, I thought it was a German coming up behind me. And I was like, Well, yeah, he's like, I do not believe so that was not one of those things you that was one of those things you always heard in the war. It was one of the things the enemy always did to you. You did not know of anyone who went over in German uniforms to confuse them. Maybe they did, but it sounded difficult. I did not believe the Germans did it. Yeah,

Brandon  1:03:28

well, I was gonna say the last part, it's like I did not believe they had to. There was no need to confuse our retreat. Yeah, the size of the army in the fewness of the roads did that. Nobody gave any orders, let alone Germans. Still, they would shoot us for Germans, they shot ammo, right? Yeah, and

Collin  1:03:54

and then he goes into a

1:03:58

fugue state.

Collin  1:04:00

Something happens here. We transition to time and halof in Milan. Is that what happens at this point?

Brandon  1:04:06

I think it's a little is that here? Is that, well, he's sort of like talking about stuff, right? He's kind of like, well, because he says, yeah, the Yeah, we, we had

Collin  1:04:19

lain in hay and talked and shot sparrows with an air rifle when they perched in the triangle cut high up in the wall of the barn. The barn was gone. Now, in one year, they had us cut the hemlock woods. And I

Brandon  1:04:30

think he's talking about when he was a kid back home, right, right? Yeah, oh yeah, because of branches and firewood where the Woods had been, right, you could not go back. Oh my gosh, right, if you did not go forward, what happened? Right? And then he says, You never got back to Milan. So he's like, you know? He's just, he's thinking, I think he's thinking about his childhood, right? And then he's thinking about, you know. Then he's, I think he's sort of starting to think about Catherine, because he's like, You never got back to Milan, and if you got back to Milan, what would happen anyway, right? Yeah. And then I could hear machine guns firing with

Collin  1:05:11

that transition of Yeah, because he's talking about, basically how these memories that he has are of places that don't exist anymore. The barn's not there, the woods not there. So you can't go back to those. There's nothing there for you. Even the memories aren't good enough. There's nothing to go back and even have find solace there, because it's not real. And then you're right, that transition into Milan of like, there's no reason to go back there because there's there's nothing there for you. Even those memories are worthless and pointless right now. Because what would you even do? You can't make anything happen there. The trees aren't going to go back, right? So you can't rebuild the barn to make it like when you were a kid, it just doesn't exist. And there's this deep like, sadness, like, Man, this is Oh, when he said, like, you could not go back. Oh,

Brandon  1:06:04

wow, yeah. So then he hears somebody coming, right? And he goes, Oh, I should help. He's like, Oh, yeah, I should help come up the ladder, right, right. So he goes over there, all right. He says, I was vague in the head from lying in the hay. Had been nearly asleep, right? And he helps piano up there, and he says, Where's benello? And he goes, Well, he went away 10 and day he wanted to be a prisoner that he was afraid we would get killed. So he just thought, well, if I just go off and maybe they capture me and maybe I don't die that way. Instead of they find us and they shoot us like they shut eyeball, right? Like, yeah. So he just kind of said it. So now there's just two all of a sudden, now there's just two people, oh, and

Collin  1:06:59

you can tell, and then there's, there's this phrase. They're going back and forth. They're having a conversation. He's like, why didn't you go? I didn't want to leave you. Where did he go? I don't know. Tonight he went away, all right. I said, Will you cut the sausage? Piano looked at me in the half light. I cut it while we were talking like, like. And I don't know if this is a like, oh, no, I already did that. Like, you should have said that, or if this was really to show that Frederick was really not present and paying attention. Yeah, he's

Brandon  1:07:30

really, yeah, he's kind of freaking out, right? And, and it, it's things are going so badly, right? Uh, that we even, even the wine is not good, right? Which is, this is very interesting, because it's the first time that this has happened, right? Where he talks about it, and he's like, they says, it must have been wine that they had saved for a wedding. It was so old, it was losing its color. And then just, kind of, as this page goes on, he kind of talks about, he's like, he's just not he, like, keeps bringing up how it's not good, like, it's not

Collin  1:08:05

well. I think this is another example of that. He said, I drank the wine and it did not make me feel good. Yeah, every other time that we've had talks of drinks or things, it was his escapism and a way of not dealing numbing, right? This was supposed to make me feel like I'm not here, and he's drinking. It's just, it's just water, right? It's just, yeah, he's, he's actively trying to get drunk, to numb what's going on, and be and disappear. And it's not doing any of that. And, you know, it didn't say that. It made me feel sick. It made it didn't, it didn't say it made me want throw up. He said it didn't make me feel good, like I wanted, I wanted that feeling Yeah, because I don't feel good right

Brandon  1:08:51

now. Yeah. So they decided to just kind of lay low in the rain. Goes to sleep, right? He lets him sleep for a while. He doesn't and then he wakes him up and he says, Okay, we gotta go. So they decide they're gonna try to go somewhere else. They're gonna sneak in, just kind of walk off and see what they can figure out where to go, right? It's kind of like, well, we don't really have a plan, but we're gonna go this way, and we're gonna

Collin  1:09:20

see what happens, right? Germans are all around them, right? They get passed a couple times through this process, too.

Brandon  1:09:26

Yeah, we got past the town to the north without seeing any Italians. Then after a while, we came to the main channel of the retreat and walked all night towards taglimento. I had not realized how gigantic the retreat was the whole country was moving, as well as the army. So they, they've joined the main line again, basically, right? They kind of fallen back into the into the main line, you know? And we got back. It seemed so silly for vanilla to have taken prisoner. There was no danger. We had walked through two armies without it. If amo had not been killed, there would have never have seemed to be any danger, right? But that event was just so traumatic. Well, yeah, he said. He keeps wondering about where vanilla is, right, yeah,

Collin  1:10:20

and he says the killing came suddenly and unreasonably. Yeah, I wonder where benevolent was again, um, he's, I don't know, disassociating, having trouble, you know, wondering what's going on here. But like, on one hand, he's like, there was no danger. There's no danger, but ammo is dead. The Killing came suddenly and unexpectedly, unreasonably.

Brandon  1:10:41

But which is, which is exactly what killing is, right, unreasonable in case. Yeah. And he's really trying to work through this, yeah. And then piano kind of brings up some things like, so what are you going to tell them about? He goes, Well, I don't know exactly. Well, you see, if the war went on, it could make bad trouble for his family, so maybe you should just tell him that he was taken prisoner. Just tell him he was prisoner, right? Just say, like, Oh, he got taken prisoner, so that you don't make trouble, right, right? So they're talking about this, and then all of a sudden, he somebody hears him, call him by his rank. And like, you know, he the other people start yelling, and he's like, Oh, maybe I should, I'm gonna start. Maybe I should call you by your name. They've shot some officers.

1:11:36

They want, they they want to make trouble, right? And so that's where we that's kind of our first hint that it's gone, it's not going well at all. So they Yeah, when you have that

Collin  1:11:56

kind of thing where all of a sudden it's like, oh no, you need to be kind of hiding a little bit, because there's active, not mutiny here, but like there's great disdain

1:12:12

from this, yeah.

Collin  1:12:16

Oh, and then they find them in the Peace brigade brigade, right? Because they were talking about like, Oh, we're throwing down our rifles. Yeah, we're fine here, because we're done right. We're done fighting right? Because this is what they have been. People have been saying all along, well, if we just throw our rifles down, we'll be fine. What's, what's the wrong problem here? So we're just, we're just peace, right? We're just peace right here. And he also makes a note to say, I didn't see anybody throw their rifles, and everybody still had them in their hands,

Brandon  1:12:44

right? Yeah, anyway, um, he even starts talking about it, because they're like, why do they why the Germans stop? They shouldn't have stopped. He's like, I don't know, but I think that's why this war will go on. Like the Germans could come on, I said, I wonder why they don't. And then he's like, I don't know, I don't know anything about this kind of war, like beyond, he's just like, I have no idea what's happening. What? So we keep walking. We just get more talking. Your feet tired. Yep, they're sore. Blah, blah, blah. Is this where? Yes. So right here they come across. They get to more like of a another place here. They're another bank of the taglimento, right? Yeah, another bridge. And they find more people. They find a bunch of officers here, right? Crowded, right? It's very crowded, crowded,

Collin  1:13:47

yeah. And somebody came up and they, we were almost across, yeah,

Brandon  1:13:57

yeah. And there's a big Lieutenant Colonel here, right, and he's like, grabbing people and shoving them right. And he, he said, he came through the edge of the column toward me. I felt him take me by the collar. What's the matter with you? I said, and hit him in the face right. Like, uh huh. So they, they grab him and they, they take him over here, and they're, they're, they're the battle police, right? The MPs, I guess, right. And they're basically saying, well, the the office is the officers are at fault for this, this whole shenanigans, right? So take him with the others. So they're, they're collecting officers, right? And they're sticking them over here, and, you know, they're asking, they're interrogating them, what's your brigade? Where's your regiment? Why are you not with your regiment, right? Do you not know? An officer should be with his troops. So he's listening to them interrogate these other people. And he's talking about, how have you, you know, why did you do this? Blah, blah, blah. And the guy even lifts back to him. Said, have you ever been in a retreat? And he says, Italy should never retreat, yeah, and, you know, we were facing the officers and the prisoners stood in front of the little to one side, and so they're just basically like court martialing them and executing them right here, because they think that it's their fault, so they're basically trying to get everybody rounded up and to turn them around and to fight the Germans more and but to do this, they were just executing all the people who they thought were at fault, right? They were executing officers of the rank of Major and above who were separated from their troops. Uh huh, right? They were also summarily dealing with German agitators in Italian uniforms, right? So this thing that's not real, this thing that's not actually existing, they're up in arms, in a fuss, and this is their solution to deal with the problem that doesn't exist. It's

Collin  1:16:31

this level of paranoia, yeah, right, and it is they said, you know, they were questioning someone else. This officer, too, was separated from his troops. He was not allowed to make an explanation. He cried when they heard the sentence from the pad of paper and they were questioning another man when they shot him, they made a point of being intent on questioning the next man while the man who had been questioned before was being shot. So they were actively doing both of these at the same time, basically to prove a point of like, there's this is exactly where you're going, and there's nothing that you can do about this. That he said, I saw how their minds worked, if they had minds, if and if they worked. They were all young men, and they were saving their country. The second army was being reformed beyond the tegla Minto. They were executing officers, as you said, but rank above. They're also dealing with these agitators, like they and they So, and he's, he's starting to see like, right, I'm separated. And also they said I have an accent. And, yeah, so he's a German, obviously, yes, right? So, yeah, we stood in the rain, and we were taken out one at a time to be questioned and shot. So far, they had shot everyone they had questioned. The questioners had that beautiful detachment and devotion to stern justice of men dealing in death without being in any danger of it. Yeah, right. They were questioning a full kernel of a line regiment. Three more officers had just been put in with us. And so you know what? He's kind of sitting there, and he goes,

Brandon  1:18:10

nah, screw this. And he just takes off running, knocks one of them over and dives into the water, right? Like, I mean, what else you can do, you know? Like, well, this is a, this is a lose, lose situation, because there's no way he's getting out of this with not getting shot. So he just makes a break for it, right? Yeah, you know. And the, you know, he just, he just does. He tripped on the edge and went in with a splash. But it was, I do, like, the like, it's all very serious. He says it was easy to stay under with so much clothing on my boots and

Collin  1:18:51

my boots, yeah? Like, that's fair, yeah. Well, because yeah, he's worried about coming back up and getting shot. Well, I mean, yes, right, like, yeah, and yeah. And he's just hanging on to this piece of wood, yeah, wood. And he just lets it take him, just, let's just again this, like, whatever happens, happens. And it's interesting because as he came in over the bridge, he's he noted that the water was within, like, what, like, three feet of the bridge, like, and it was rushing, because it's all the rain. And, yeah, it's very high, very high. And here, now he's literally just being swept

1:19:30

away with this, yeah, yeah. And he, that's what he does, yeah. Food,

Brandon  1:19:46

right? Yeah, and yeah, so that the ladies here like you do not know how long you're in the water when the current moves swiftly. Oh, it seems a long time, and it may be very short, right? The water was cold. And in flood, and many things passed that had been flooded off the banks when that river rose. So he's just hanging on for the ride at this point, right in the next chapter, he just whoosh, boom. He realizes there's not any bridges around here, and he's pretty good, right? But, man, he's a he didn't really have, yeah, he says I hung on to the willow branch and did not have strength to pull myself up. So he basically like, Let's go of his branch. He just grabs a tree, right that's going by, and I held on to the branch and waited when the sick feeling was gone, I pulled on the bushes and rested again my arms around some bush, holding tight with my hand to the branches, and then I crawled out, pushed on through the willows and onto the bank. Boom, right. So he's, he's out of the river, not in a great way, nope, nope. And he's Yeah, I began to think of what I should do. Yeah, that's what.

1:21:09

What should you I don't know.

Collin  1:21:15

And now he's starting talking about feeling hollow, feeling sick. I think, throughout the rest of this chapter, we start seeing the theme of of hunger, right, emptiness start creeping in more and more throughout, yes, he

Brandon  1:21:31

did also make sure that, he said, before I put my coat on, I cut the cloth stars off my sleeve and put them in my pocket. Yes, yeah, just to make sure, like, check his paper, checked his he had everything, and he's just

Collin  1:21:44

heading out now. Yeah, and

Brandon  1:21:50

he even saw some troops, so they just didn't pay him any mind. He just walked right that day I crossed the Venetian plane. It's a low level country, and under the rain is even flatter, boom. So he's just going down very just walking right? He's getting his Hobbit on, and he's just going for Uh huh

Collin  1:22:14

And but now he's what, he developed some plan to get to a different town, right? Because he comes across a railroad track. Yeah,

Brandon  1:22:23

he's, uh, he's, yeah, he sees a tre, he sees the he said, I'm gonna wait. And he wants to hop the train. He's tired of running while walking, really? And so he says, Wow, this, he kind of has an idea where it might be going. It's the main line from Venice to Trista. Try stay, I don't know. Yeah, my Italian is bad. Sorry. Trieste, maybe vanese, sorry. Then, so he's gonna go. He's gonna catch a train, right? He's gonna catch a train. So he there's a guard on the bridge, but, you know, he's kind of sneaks around. This is like, this is like, those, those train hopping videos that I watch on YouTube sometimes, right? This is kind of what reminder of real for you. Just like, Well, yeah, I was like, Oh, I've seen this. I know what's happening. Yeah, I've seen them do this before. Right? My boy shy is him right here, right channeling him? So he's like, yeah, he's kind of sneaking around. And I knew there'd be guards, and so he, he kind of goes farther back, and he, he's kind of angled himself, where the there's a person that far on a bridge, and there's somebody on the other side of the in the thing, right? So he's just waiting. So he's kind of like waiting a little ditch, whatever. So he sees the engineer pass, and he stood up, and he stepped up close to the cars. So there's some freight cars passing, and then there's like a low, open car gondola that's covered in Canvas, so it's going real slow through there. So he just kind of stands up and he just grabs hold of the handrail and hops up there, and he has to, like, kind of cut open the little ties that hold on the canvas so that he can, like, get in. So it's like an open top gondola car, but it's got a canvas covering over it. But, like, but before this, I before this,

Collin  1:24:29

he passes the guard, and he's Oh yeah. Oh is that? Oh yeah, yeah. It's right before there was a guard in the freight car. He was looking forward to let go the handrails.

Brandon  1:24:40

Oh, wait, uh, oh, no. Okay, so

Collin  1:24:45

yeah, no, the guard on the, on the, on the bridge, or whatever he's

Brandon  1:24:48

on the No, he's like, yeah. He's like, standing Yeah. So he's like, he's in between the cars,

Collin  1:24:53

yes, right? And he, and the guy is, like, on the platform, well, you mean guy, it says he was a boy. Me, yeah, helmet was too big for him. Yeah, I stared at him contemptuously, and he looked away. He thought I had something to do with the train we were passed. I saw him still looking uncomfortably, watching the other cars past, and I stooped right so, like, it also just goes to show, like there's not a whole lot of other people in charge too. Like, we're kind of in this war where, like, children are being put on the front lines and being asked to do things. Like, that's where we are. People, yes. And here, like, now, now, here is what you're saying, where he was trying to get into that Canvas,

Brandon  1:25:39

yeah. And he like, he like, gets it open, and he like, tries to dive in there, and he smashes his head, oh, my god, on something he did on whatever's in there. But it's the it's a gun, right? I was under the canvas with guns. They smell cleanly of oil and grease. I lay and listen to the rain on the canvas and the clicking of the car on the rails, literally, yeah, he's

Collin  1:26:05

now lying on top of guns. Yeah, the guy who doesn't want anything to do with this, he's so fed up, he's tired. He never wanted to even really be a part of this. He didn't like carrying a gun. He's literally laying on a bed of guns. Like,

Brandon  1:26:22

yeah, I know I think these are, like, uh, like, mortars or, like, big guns. Like, sure, that's what these are, yeah.

Collin  1:26:30

But, like, yeah, not, like, like, rifles or whatever, yeah, like, like, weapons of war.

1:26:37

Yeah, here. And

1:26:41

what did he say? Like, is this where he

1:26:45

Yeah? No. He said, Yeah. He said

Collin  1:26:47

he would have to move out beforehand. I didn't have to get before they got to nestre because they would be taking care of these guns. They had no guns to lose or forget about. Basically, yeah, desperate, like they're not to just forget about these things.

Brandon  1:27:02

And in typically, typical Hemingway fashion, immediately after that sentence is, I was terrifically hungry, like, what?

Collin  1:27:15

Yep. And then we start the next one, where he says, lying on the floor of the flatter, flat car with the guns beside me under the canvas. I was wet, cold and very hungry. Yeah?

1:27:28

And we

Collin  1:27:29

get into weird discussion here about how, once a doctor works on you, like, your body doesn't belong to you anymore. It belongs to the doctor who fixed you up.

Brandon  1:27:37

Yeah? Because he's like, yeah, yeah, because he kind of getting his move, his knee around. He's like, Yeah, Valentini really had done a good job, right? He was, yeah. So yeah, yeah. The doctors did things to your body more. The head was mine, and inside of the belly, it was very hungry in there, I could feel it turned over on itself. The head was mine, but not to use, not to think with only to remember and not much to remember, right? Not too much remember. And he's like, I can't think about Catherine right now because I'll go crazy. So I'd have to think about other things like this flat car and this cold floor and how hungry I yeah,

Collin  1:28:34

he has this, but he does a very bad job, not thinking about, Oh, he does a very bad job, right? Yeah, because he said the COVID clothes wet and the floor moving only a little each time, lonesome inside wet clothing and hard floor. For a wife, you did not love the floor of a flat car, nor guns with Canvas jackets and the smell of Vaseline metal or a canvas that rain linked through, although it is very fine under canvas and pleasant with guns, but you love someone else whom now you knew was not even to be pretended there. Yeah,

Brandon  1:29:05

like, yeah. And he starts talking about how empty he is and how he's like, he has a weird, extended analogy about salesmen. But then basically, like, he this is him going, like I'm done, right? I'm not going back to the army. I'm over this, right? The anger always washed away in the river by any obligation. Love

Collin  1:29:31

that line I highlighted twice in a note, and I was just about to read it, when you read it like this washing away. And can we, like, almost like, it was, it was, it was his baptism of

Brandon  1:29:48

sorts, through this, yeah, it really kind of was right. Like, we're reverse back to, like, I don't know, but like, yeah, it's a new beginning, for sure. The river is a new beginning, right? Yeah, he came out of. That river a different person, because before he was trying to hold on some sense of duty, he was trying to do the right thing, and it just, it was just all going so badly that he's just given up, right? And, you know, you know, I said, yeah, the this whole rest, this whole section is this whole paragraph is very interesting, right? Which is like, although that, you know, yeah, after the anger had washed away in the river, along with any obligation, I would like to have had the uniform off, although I did not care much about the outward forms, I had taken off the stars, but that was just for convenience. It was no point of honor. It was not against them. I was through. I wish them all the luck. There were the good ones and the brave ones and the calm ones and the sensible ones, and they deserved it, but it was not my show anymore. And I wish this bloody train would get to this day and I would stop and I would eat and stop thinking I would have to stop,

Collin  1:31:05

yeah, this isn't for me anymore, right? You guys go do your own thing.

1:31:10

I just Yeah,

Collin  1:31:12

yeah. He goes on to say, like, what other people do? He said, piano would tell me that I wish that they shot me. They, you know, they took the papers of the people that they would shot, they would not have my papers, and they'd probably just say that I was drowned, right? And he's just working through all this stuff, what was actually going to happen, and start thinking also, like, what are the ramifications of this in the States, right? What's my, you know, is this, what was it his granddad has was sending him money? Or, like, yeah, sometimes, like, you see him kind of blip over there for a real quick second of like, what's that impact? But anyway, back over to the, you know, the priest and Rinaldi, and he just starts going down about what are now the lives, what's going to happen to all these other people? And you do see that he now has a sense of attachment to these, where to

Brandon  1:32:02

some of them, right? Yeah. So the people, not necessarily the idea of the army and the war, but the people he's gonna miss. Yeah, he does it. Where's my I wonder how Rinaldi saying, I wonder how the priest is doing, right? So this is where he's, yeah, and he's trying to figure out, what is he going to do now, he's, he's basically saying, well, well, I hope Bernal is good. I hope the priest is good. How do I find Catherine? Though? Yeah, this is gonna be a problem, right? I think he says, like, he's like, Yeah, I think she'll go. I hope she'll go with me. Right, right, right, yeah. When would we go? That was something to think about. It was getting dark. I lay and thought where we would go. There were many places. Boom, book four, yeah,

Collin  1:32:56

yeah, yeah. I man. 29 was really a turning of the tide. Yeah, for real, like, real. So that was, uh, that was a lot. Was a lot to take in in that chapter. Uh, those, those chapters that we read, just the amount of the difference of, like, we thought that the pace had really changed for past couple chapters, but like, once you once that was all downhill. Yes, quite downhill. So, yeah, so we'll, we'll dive into chapter or book four. Um, there, what? There's only five chapters in this. I think there's only five. I was

1:33:40

just, that's what I was looking at. I think there's only five chapters in

Collin  1:33:42

book four, so try and

Brandon  1:33:44

read all five of these. Yeah, I think that's fine. Thank because I think that is Yeah, because then I think book five is also just four or five chapters. Yeah, that'd be good. Okay, yeah. So we'll do that, okay,

Collin  1:33:58

oh, and we'll see how quickly we can then, then we need to. I'm already thinking about that spring summer, pick me up reading. We'll,

1:34:04

yeah, something

Brandon  1:34:05

peppier in your steppier. Something tells me we're not it's not going to get better, better. It's not so. But you know what is better? Haikus. Oh, that's

Collin  1:34:22

better. It is haiku. And I have a haiku for you. Hey, what a bonus one. What? What do you mean a bonus one? Oh, isn't it my turn? It's not my turn. No, you did one last week? Oh, I did. Yeah, I will read you. Um, absence, avalanche.

Brandon  1:34:37

Oh, that was last week. That's the weight return. Oh, I thought it was my week. I made a little note and everything. Oh, well, there you go. Okay. I mean, we could do both if you want to. All right, yeah, do your Yeah, because I want you to. I'll read mine anyway. Yeah, double

Collin  1:34:52

whammy, okay, I'll read I'll read mine first. We'll see if you get this reference, I don't know. All right. Right, tiny steps, they march one by one to fate unknown. Save them or they fall. So that might have been a bit too obtuse. That was from the 1991 lemmings game that we discussed last

Brandon  1:35:22

perfect opportunities are the best I'm talking about. It's very good. I don't even want to remind you more.

Collin  1:35:31

Send us out. I'm ready.

Brandon  1:35:35

Mine was an eye to the sky. Temperature fluctuations, school days in limbo.

Collin  1:35:48

Very nice, very nice, very, very topical. I can see, I can see what you've been doing on your days off. Yeah,

1:35:56

scary. You know, dude to do, to do everything's fine. Well,

Collin  1:36:01

we'll see how many days you miss for school now, by the next time we talk, we'll see, and we'll go from there. We'll wrap up. We'll go through book four. And

Speaker 2  1:36:12

good. So all right, and and next week, death metal band, who knows who it

Collin  1:36:18

will be? Who could possibly

Brandon  1:36:21

guess? More importantly, what country will they be from? I'm quite of a worldly theme here, developing also very interesting. I was not expecting that to happen. I was, really

Collin  1:36:32

was gonna be like, this is very good to be very European focused and like, central here. But like, No, you're pulling

Brandon  1:36:38

them all over. So, I mean, mostly, but yeah, we, we have had a lot different we had Ukraine and France and Germany and Australia. Surprise, Australia

Collin  1:36:46

coming in surprise. There is there want to do,

1:36:54

so we'll see what else. What other

Collin  1:36:55

mysteries unfold before us, indeed.

1:36:57

Okay, love

1:36:59

you. Love you too. Bye. Bye.