don't block all the water
Collin is designing things. Brandon has a bin and questions Collin’s decisions around strangers with needles.
Collin designed a business card
Bins of random things!
Collin’s quantitative analysis
Brandon has a conference
Pro-tip: don't block all the water
Collin gave a shot
And went kayaking
Collin got a shot
Haiku:
Ancient stone secrets,
Trails wind through Ha Ha Tonka,
Missouri whispers.
Check out our other episodes: ohbrotherpodcast.com
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
PROVIDED BY OTTER.AI
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
business card redesign, digital file organization, data analysis, conversion rates, client inquiries, Google search, Facebook conversion, kayaking adventure, James River, stream erosion experiment, B12 shot, mega burn, wellness shots, parent-teacher conferences, school email.
SPEAKERS
Collin, Brandon F.
Collin 00:05
Music. Welcome to Oh brother, a podcast where we try to figure it all out there. Brandon and Collin on this week's show, don't block all the water. Ahoy. Ahoy.
Collin 00:22
My voice is going out, not to the point where I don't quite trust it on Cole opens, so I was over here in the background on mute, being like that makes
Brandon F. 00:34
two of us that are feeling that trash today. So this will be fine. I gotta go.
Collin 00:39
Oh no. Well, it's dangerous times over here, true, Megan and I were trying to redesign a business card.
Brandon F. 00:52
Oh no, the ever pleasant present quandary of business cards.
Collin 01:00
Well, no, it's just redesign anything in general that is horrible and horrendous and awful. And I don't, man, I'm glad I don't. Anyway, like, have a business card that we've used, we have, we use, we hand out magnets, and we can put them on, like, light poles and people's refrigerators and stuff. And I've always been really tempted to, like, do a throw it out of a window whenever I'm at a stoplight with a with a dog, you know, if I see somebody in a car that's littering, and they'd be able to, like,
Brandon F. 01:33
fling it onto their car, like, yeah, and then drive away, yes. Like,
Collin 01:37
that, man, yeah, this is what I want, but it's a magnet, and it has my phone number on it, so they they know, right? But anyway, we've had it for a while, and we're running out. I was
Brandon F. 01:48
like, I guess people have the bumper stickers like, I love our you know, dachshund. You're like, well, let me tell
Collin 01:55
you something. I still love dog walks from a professional dog walker. No, I always come to like, Okay, I've got to reprint these. So do we reprint them the same? Do we redo? Do we do we redo them? What do we do? And I had at my head of like, okay, we're trying to do this new angle, this new approach. Let's just, we're going to blow everything up and do it all from scratch. But then, like, Megan, I are, like, going through, and she's like, I don't like this, I don't like this, I don't like this. And I'm like, Yeah, I don't like that either, but I'm trying this thing. And then, like, yeah, we'll get all these ideas going. And basically it's just like, we boil down to like, we hate everything and nothing is wonderful and we don't like it. It's just like, this big blow up. And then we realized that after we went through that entire design process, it was like, it was like 20 minutes of discussion, all we were like, Oh, this is the version we love the most. And if you take our first version and compare it like the one that we have now and prepare it to the one that we were like, This is it. We changed. He changed exactly one word. And so I'm printing those tomorrow, because we're gonna sleep on it. We're gonna make sure it's
Brandon F. 03:15
okay, but then so that one word change is sufficient, right? Sufficient? Yeah, we
Collin 03:20
technically, we changed the order of the other two, but the same word, though, in the sentence, one word is different. Okay, so, like, like, No, that was good. And we're also trying to design a fitted table cloth, or a table, obviously, for a table, because that's where table cloths go. That
Brandon F. 03:40
is where tablecloths generally go, although, as a science teacher, I will say, tablecloths have a great many uses, right? And so it's fine. Do tell what they make excellent parachutes they should carry, and they do
Collin 03:57
nice not for the children, but for objects, no no, for the
Brandon F. 04:00
things that the children are throwing off the good for that, right? I have a bit my I'm slowly realizing my dream having, like, bins of random things on my shelf, yeah, slowly coming together. My dream of being Adam Savage is just one step at a time, right? Like, here we go.
Collin 04:24
I like it. Man, did you he? He's got a YouTube video of him designing his own, like, tool chest. Have you watched that one?
Brandon F. 04:35
Oh, yeah, I watched several of his things. I like the ones. I don't know if I've seen this one. Is that, like, a recent one?
Collin 04:41
No, it's a couple, it's a few years old. It's not a recent one. I saw one where he was, like, messing with a tool box. I don't watch it, okay, but I saw that where he was trying to design it for like, how he works and how he wants tools to be accessible. Basically, he. Yeah, I've seen that one. That's the
Brandon F. 05:01
one where he's like it, it basically looks like a ladder, yeah, right, with caster wheels on it, yeah,
Collin 05:06
yeah, yeah. Because he just wanted everything to be accessible, like, all the time, yeah, because he hates
Brandon F. 05:13
drawers, right? Hate draws. He hates drawers because he wants to see the stuff. Yeah, because he feels that he'll use it or be inspired to use it if he can look at it, which I guess that makes sense, right? Oh, yeah, yeah. I totally agree
Collin 05:33
that that's exactly how I am, which is why I have organized piles throughout my office. Right over here. It's out of sight, it is out of mind, which is how I end up with multiple copies of things. I mean, yeah,
Brandon F. 05:48
that's fair. Why I can never find the digital files or things I need for class. Like, where did I put that? Like, I have a like, I have some stuff, but like, the thing that I use the most is just it looks those things that are, like milk crates that have that you can just put hanging file folders in. Oh yeah, I just have that right for like stuff. And I'm like, oh, I need this sheet. There it is. Thing. It just sits next to my desk. I have, like, a little two drawer file cabinet, but it's for, like, records and stuff like that, and like, sure other things. And it was there when I moved into the room. So there's also, like, mystery things in there. I put in, like, I also rearranged it so I can just put in, like, my some of my modeling clays in there, my sling psychrometers are in there, right? So it's just kind of like candy storage, like instrument storage kind of thing, yeah? But, like, all the stuff I use daily is just in a milk crate thing, because I find that it's just the easiest to use. And be like, oh, I need this. Yeah, okay, got it.
Collin 06:59
No, I I I have officially come to the point where the keeping track mentally of where digital files are is becoming increasingly impossible. Like, I've got digital files on my computer that I've kept since senior year high school and but now, like, for like, business files and stuff like, and we get all sorts of like, oh, use this Google Sheet to track these things. And this is the auto calculator that does this. Or here's a new SOP that you should try. Or here's the like, now all of those documents are burgeoning, and they're not even stored locally. They're like, yeah, cloud. And now, like, I I genuinely have reached the point I have no idea what's in my Google Drive anymore, and so more often than not before, I'm like, let me go search. Let me go see like, let me go find that thing. It's just, I spend a few seconds just in Google Drive, like, searching some keywords to see what pops up, to see if I haven't and it honestly makes me want to go
Brandon F. 08:03
and this is okay.
Collin 08:03
This is where I am at. Like, I really want to just print off a physical copy of this with notes on where to find it in my digital because I know if I have a physical copy of it, I'm going to remember it better than it just not existing or being real. That's true.
Brandon F. 08:22
That's why you so. It's even worse for me, because at school, right? The because we use Gmail suite for our school email stuff, right? Sure, there is a Google there is just like, Google Drive that everybody has access to. Oh, what? It's so annoying. There's so much junk in there. Like, I just need these, like, two folders that I finally made, okay, and that's all I want. And every time you open it, there's, like, a billion things in there. You can see stuff the admin is shared and, like, I don't want this
09:00
going I need,
Brandon F. 09:04
I need the My Drive thing with, where is my history folder? Where is that? Okay, that's what I want. Only stop it. Oh, wow. I don't want all this other gym.
Collin 09:18
Yeah, I'm just, I'm the same way. And, you know, I've, I've been, I've been generating a lot more digital things recently as well than I have been before, like, just straight up documents. And that's where I've been. It's been harder for me to keep track of things like I have, okay, so I realized, like, trying to do a big data analysis for, like, the business side of things, and that just generates so much cruft that you kind of throw off, but you may need later. And I was getting tired of doing all this analysis in in a Google Sheets, because everyone's like, Oh, you got a spreadsheet for that. You got spread. Sheet for that. And I'm like, no. What I'm trying to do is wait, like, I have questions that I know how to answer, and I've been really reluctant to go down the road of, like, dusting off my quantitative analysis skills. But I'm like,
Brandon F. 10:14
Yep, I don't need to stay in the bag. You don't need that.
Collin 10:18
Like, no, I guess I just have to blow I just have to load it, crank up the old statistical software and start running some linear regressions. Is what I need to be doing, and that's what I need to be spending my time with. No, well, because, because, here's my question, here's my question. Okay, we have, we have a tracker of every person who's contacted us for services for the last year and a half, okay? And I know how they found me. I know how they contacted me first, you know, email, through our software, phone call, social media. You know that thing I know. So I know that. I know the their their zip code, because I asked that on the you know, through this process, I know, and I know whether they converted to an actual client or not, right? So I have an end point for each one of those line items. And so I want to know, is there some combination of those other variables that lead to higher or lower conversion rates to
Brandon F. 11:22
actual clients. Ah, dear. Oh, dear. Ah, yes. And then
Collin 11:31
can I do? Can I then, when I was like, well, a year and a half ago, we weren't as good as we are now. So I have to do a quarter by quarter analysis, but I also need to see if certain, if I can find patterns within each service that they requested, so like jog walking, can I compare q4 of 2023, conversion rates across client pipeline to q1 just so this is what I mean. But I
Brandon F. 12:12
Oh, no. And so I'm constantly
Collin 12:13
having to, like, generate graphs and vision see it, and then, like, dig into the tables that it generates, and then like, graphs and tables and so all this stuff is being generated now, and I'm trying my best to keep it in all one spot and figure out what's going on and whatever. So here's the main takeaway here, here's, here's the main takeaway though, people ready? Ready for this? Ready? Okay, if somebody, if somebody, contacts us, regardless of service, and they find us on Google, and then they book and then they go to our website to contact us that has the highest conversion rate of everything. So it doesn't matter what service, except for the ones that we just don't offer, like that, I'll throw I throw those out. They go through Google directly to our website. Super high conversion rate versus if they call having
Speaker 1 13:01
Magnus thrown at their cars, right? Super low conversion rate. Who could have seen this coming? I know. Oh,
Collin 13:10
so I was, I was out trying to talk to other businesses and stuff and hand flyers, and I come in, and I wasn't having a good day, because I had some people who were, like, really confused by what we did, and unintentionally, I was like, No, I'm not a franchise. And they were like, Oh, wow. Well, okay, like, I'm not a franchise anyway. So I was upset, but I came in to this realtor's office, and I came in and she ladies at my desk looked up and she goes, Oh, you're the dog walker. I was like, Hi. And she was like, I was just on your website. So I said, that's the kind of service you could expect from
Brandon F. 13:53
and then, like, something
Collin 13:56
like, I knew, I know. So yes, I I have this feeling of just like, of, I'm making good progress on this, but then I just have this feel of overwhelm and dread of I'm kind of, I'm doing my best to stay organized as I plow forward with this by, like, labeling files appropriately and putting them different folders and but I just feel like I'm because I'm on a fact finding mission, and I'm not really, like, I'm not presenting any of this. I'm not doing anything with this externally. I'm just, I just have an answer, a question that I need answered, and then, like, we can start making decisions from there. I'm just throwing off all of this stuff behind me as I go, and I'm starting to get a little bit overwhelmed that I'm not going to be able to trace my way back through. So
Brandon F. 14:48
that makes Okay, yeah, right.
14:50
Just yeah, right.
Brandon F. 14:51
So I leave, you know, Wake of like, I have this visual image of you, like, running down the street with, like, actual spread. Sheets, like flying off of you, literally, like, yeah, you know. And like, disintegrating into ash as you run down with a dog, yes, yes. And as I'm, like, doing hand calculations on paper, yeah? And I'm like, I'm like, Okay, three
Collin 15:13
on coffee house napkins, wow, yeah. And then I go, Okay, I learned it was three. And I just take the cut the napkin, and I throw it over my shoulder, and I go, Okay, now that I know it's three, let me do this next thing. But I don't, I don't know how I got three in the first place, right? And so I'm having to, like, Okay, I gotta, I gotta get my text editor, and I gotta start saving my code and annotating it and making sure I have my thought processes out there so I can work my way back through this and generate everything again. So that's I've been my last three days have been a little like frenetic in nature, as I've been doing. This
Brandon F. 15:55
does sound very overwhelming, as of as the person that's like, allergic physically to paperwork, this is like, I don't, and I haven't. There have been
Collin 16:07
a few points where I've generated a bunch of graphs and I've hovered over the print button and I've backed away so I haven't printed anything off. It's all going it's all all going into folders. So we're all Oh no, but I'm really close to just pretty often, because I'm like, Finally, right, like, go with it. Oh my goodness, yeah, that's been, that's been what I've been just first, I don't know, like, I just caught this bug, and I because someone was like, Oh, we're trying to answer a question on well, your client, your current, your active clients per month has stayed the same, but your new client inquiries has dropped drastically. How did that happen? Right? And so I was I at first, I was just like, well, let me just calculate conversion rates of new clients that come in, how many convert to an actual client? And I realized that there's just like, looking right, right, because that I was getting frustrated, because that's every time, because people will say, Oh, do a data analysis, and what they mean is, like, have a spreadsheet and kind of use your best reckon and I'm like, No, that's not
Brandon F. 17:21
an analysis. If you're just like, Hmm, laugh, speculate. Like, let me figure, let me put my
Collin 17:26
finger in, add on. Because I'm like, No, I know, because that's what that I lost. I that's when I jumped off the deep end, and I was like, I know how to analyze this and actually get a statistically relevant and significant answer. I know correlation
Brandon F. 17:42
coefficient functions, yes, exactly, right. Yeah. I did some geography class, weirdly, but anyway,
Collin 17:51
yeah, right. So that's where I was like, let me I've got a I now sure it that's not quite useful in this, but I have a book called biometry. It's Stokoe and Rolf. It's like, the go to Data Analysis book for biometry, right? And so was like, I can, I can do this. And so that's because, again, I was just getting frustrated because everyone was just like, I figure, and I reckon. And I kind of looked and I see this thing, and I'm like, No, I need to know if there's a trend or not, because this is, this is kind of important. Yes, right? Like, I don't want to just, I don't want to double down on, oh, because honestly, graph
Brandon F. 18:34
go up. Ah, wow, guys, I care. That's why I did. When some people do say they do data analysis. They do just generate a graph and then, like, look at it, which, I don't know how to tell you this, but that's not really data analysis, right? Like this. I mean, that's like a step, you know, that's like a piece of it, but there is more to it than that. Yes, right? Like, you have to do stuff. You can just be like, yes, well, I noticed that this graph line went down. Thank you. My sixth graders could have made this exact same observation, and so you have not actually analyzed diddly squad, right? Like,
Collin 19:25
you've done nothing, right? Well. And you know, like, visualizing data is really important, like, again, that's why I'm I have all of these PDF files that I really want to print off, because it's like, I need a bar graph, I need a line graph, I need a cluster analysis graph, I need to see these PCA components and how they're arranged spatially together in these groups. Like, that's good for me. But I also need to then say, is this, does it matter, right? Can I say if this matters or not? Because if we're really doing things like, hey, you need to double down on the things that work and get. Rid of the things that don't well, then I need to know whether it's working or not, you know? And one of these things that came up was like, hey, when, like, this is, this was the my big like, Okay, this totally makes sense. Okay. So if somebody wants pet sitting services, they find us on Google, they go to our website, they convert to an active client, like 30% of the time, which is actually a big percentage, right? 30% of the time that that that line happens, or when that happens, 30% of the time, yeah, I get a brand new client out of that versus, if the one difference that you have here is, if somebody finds us on Facebook, it goes from and everything else is the same. They want the same services. They go to our website, they go through all that stuff, but they found us on Facebook. Those people only become a client 14% of the time. And so thing, yeah, it's weird, yeah. So then, so then it's like, why? Right? Why is that happening? And come up with a lot of different explanations, but, like, really foundationally, it's the the search intent in Google is so strong that those people were already primed and ready to use you. And so, yeah, whereas Facebook, they could have just come across it in a thing, right, a random comment or something. No, it's not. It's not in consequence, not 14% still 14% sure, I'll take it, right? It's now I'm going, Okay, I need to like, for me, that tells me to stress less about Facebook, right? And like stress less about the content and the quality that comes with that, because they don't convert over the clients as much. So, yeah, whatever someone when they find you by googling
Brandon F. 21:47
dog walkers near me, yes, right? Like,
Collin 21:52
exactly. So, like, from a mindset perspective, it's like, okay, this makes sense. Now I need to figure out that. And that's not to say that we're not going to try and, you know, make the Facebook one larger, but it is saying that I'm not going to worry about that. So that's why this kind of stuff is important to me. I don't just want to reckon or count things and say, Okay, well, I had four, and then there's three, so, oh, one's bigger. Like, no, I can find trends. And that's what I was trying to dig into with this. It is why my stats program is still open and I'm still making it's
Brandon F. 22:39
very nice,
Collin 22:41
but, yeah, so I'm sorry you're not feeling well, and you're, you're,
Brandon F. 22:45
yeah, I don't know. I just, like, didn't really sleep very much last night, and then so I have like, headache, and then I think, like, sinusy Nonsense happening in my life currently. So just kind of like a general like, blah, which is great, because I have to stay at school for like 90 bajillion hours tomorrow for parent teacher conference. So, oh, it is that, yay for that. That's nice. Yeah, so it's a that's not looking, not looking forward to that if I feel like this tomorrow. So just like, I don't know, we'll see how. Sorry. Like, how's my kid doing? Fine in the fine, it's fine. Everything's fine.
Collin 23:35
Do you you have three you get three questions.
Brandon F. 23:41
Luckily, we do do all of our conferences as, like a team, as a sixth grade team, right? So it's not like me alone, right? We just all sit in the same room and then they just talk to us. And sometimes they're like, they don't want to talk to me, like, okay, that's fine, yeah, they want to talk to the math person, so they just go over there and talk to math person, and then it's all right, yeah. We just
Collin 24:01
now, I know that when you say that, like, are you at the same table? Are you just in the same room altogether?
Brandon F. 24:08
So I think we may bring in a table, but like, yeah, we just kind of in the room. So, like, we can, kind of, if people want to talk to us, like, only to you, they can let you just, like, go over to the corner and, like, talk, and then they can switch out to another person, and it's all just in one room together, makes it easier to deal with. And then when it's like, low flow, one person can come in, and we can all just be like, Yeah, talk at the same time, and then they leave, and then it just gets
Collin 24:37
over quick. Oh, I I like that. I mean, I know it's way more convenient for the parents, but also because you all six, you all work really closely with one another, yeah? Stuff, I'm sure that help that's helpful for overlapping conversations or things like that too.
Brandon F. 24:56
Yeah, it just kind of makes it go quicker. I. Like, you can just kind of, you know, it's pretty casual, right? Like, because by this point in the year, like, if we, like, we would have called you already if there's, like, a significant thing we're concerned about, like, we would have, like, called you or sent you a letter, right? So, like, it's pretty just kind of like, Oh yeah, you know, that's no, you know. So the people that do need, like, more, like, in depth stuff, we've already reached out to them and talked to them about stuff or attempted to. So, like, it's pretty chill, right? It's kind of like, just days come, we talk a little bit, and parents ask questions, and then kids talk about stuff, and then they
Collin 25:47
leave nice, hopefully that, yeah. So how long do those typically go? It goes till seven.
Brandon F. 25:55
Okay, so it just feels like a very long time, because usually what ends up happening is like, no one comes, and then like eight people come at once, and then no one comes, and then like five people, right? It's like, oh, it's very rarely, like a steady stream of trickle of people. It's always like a whole bunch of people, no one, a whole bunch of people, and then like a small group, like, right at the end, right, like, I see, yeah,
Collin 26:29
and yeah, then you're trying to, I guess, you know, then you feel like you're kind of rushing at the very end to get everybody and so, I mean,
Brandon F. 26:40
the school is going to provide us sandwiches, but they are providing us said sandwiches at 330 Yeah. So this isn't very long after I've just eaten lunch. So like, while I appreciate the gesture, this is not super helpful in the grand scheme of things, right? Like, I don't know how this is supposed to happen. It's not like I could eat it while I'm talking to a parent, right? That's awkward. So you have to, like, do it in the middle. So I think I usually just get some chips and then just wait and come home and eat something. Yeah, absolutely right. Like, but then I know, but then it's like, if you're like me, you reach that point where you're just straight ravenous, and now it's like, no, no. Like, I'm just, I'm eating the door handles and everything, yes, so that is a problem also, but, you know, it's something that we have to overcome, so it's okay. I'm sure you'll survive for one night, maybe hopefully. I hope so. So we'll see that. But we're also doing we're starting our, what is it called, our little science side quest experiment for this month, right? Fully, Yeah, Bryce is right up your alley. We're talking about stream erosion, okay, right? Nice,
Collin 28:07
nice.
Brandon F. 28:11
I have made some little miniature stream tables out of some pastry tin, perfect with some sand. And I will say getting the sand to a wet enough consistency where it firmly sticks together and then starts eroding quickly when you introduce more water, like, you have to get it like, just under the saturation point, right? Because you want to make erosion happen. So it does have to be wet, like wet, right? Because otherwise the experiment is just, like, not very exciting, because, like, nothing happens. You, like, pour the water in and just like, soaks into the sand, like, Ah, no, that's not. Hold on. Oh, that's wrong. So trying to find that ratio of how much water do I put in the sand first? And then the kids like, build their little thing in there, and then we add more water to it, sure to see the erosion happen. That is where I'm at. Currently trying to discover how much water the sand needs in it
Collin 29:20
first. Yes, what is, how is saturated? Is
Brandon F. 29:23
that very it needs to be very
Collin 29:25
cool, turns out,
Brandon F. 29:28
but they did some good designing today. That was good. Like, oh, they had some time at the end of class. So they were, they were going for it today. So I found some like, I was like, I have these random things that you can use, right? But if there's other things you want to use, just ask me or bring them from your house, and we can make that happen. But these are the things I have, right? Like popsicle sticks, and I did get handfuls of like, rocks, like small, like quarter size rocks from the place. On, like, between, like, nickel and quarter size, because that fits best into my thing, and then, like, just a bunch of little strips of cardboard, because that will that works pretty good for stuff. Though we had some very interesting ideas today, so we'll see how they go. But they are looking pretty good. Yeah, yeah. So some of them looking really good. Some of them are like, I don't I was like, I don't think good. Because some people, they're just like, well, we'll just block the whole stream. Like, no, you see, I do know what will happen if you do this, right? I do know what happened this hand will get saturated enough, and now the weight of the water pushing on your barrier, and the weight of all the sand trying to go down there will collapse the whole thing. Oh no, yeah, right, I do know. And the whole thing will just like, because I like angle it obviously right. So the whole thing will just like, slide to the bottom.
Collin 30:59
Oh no, because the water gets
Brandon F. 31:01
to the bottom, and it increases the friction between the sand and the pan, and then just like, breaks off and hunks and just the whole thing just slides down to the bottom, right? So maybe they'll do that, because I told them, I was like, I was like, you could try that. But I do know that doesn't usually work the best, right? Here's my pro tip. Like you could try to block all the water, but maybe, maybe don't, yeah, I have to leave it a place to go, otherwise it will find its own place to go, and that's when bad things start happening, right? And Sneaky, sneaky water would just get in anywhere and start breaking stuff. So you gotta,
Collin 31:56
yeah, yeah, I try not to. Hey, tie in for last week's episode and our discussion of
Brandon F. 32:03
dams. You know, it did. I, after you said that I watched this video, I meant to send it to you. I forgot to it's called why all dams are permanent, or why all dams are temporary, rather, oh. And I was like, Oh,
Collin 32:18
why? See if I can find that layer by our alternates, I
Brandon F. 32:21
was talking about silting right, and changing the water flow of the river, and the silt flow right, and how it raises, like beds eventually, when you have like, mass amounts of inflow and no outflow, right? Just just dredge. Just dredge a bit. I mean, that's what the solution is. Sometimes, right? Like, that's what they do. There's like, well, I could rip this up. I was thinking about that after we said that, after last week when you visited, said, Damn, I did. You're doing more water adventures this week. Is this true? Like you just can't get enough of early spring, not
Collin 33:05
warm water. Now, in my defense, the last time we did this was in June, and the water was also not warm, so that was fair, but so it's fine. But yes, we I had to be in town because I had to, I had to give insulin shots to a cat. His name is, his name is Spartacus, with a nickname of Sparty, and it's because he used to be a wild cat, and he got into a fight, and that cat ripped off his ears. So he's a very interesting cat now, but he's super cute, super lovable, just requires a little shot, and so I need to be out helping, you know, do some training and oversight with that, because it's just we don't get that frequent enough in order to for like, that skill to stay relevant for A lot of my team. So I have to do, I have to step in quite a lot when that happens. And so we were in town, and we were like, well, what can we do? Because I it's every 12 hours, so it's like, we have a lot of free time. Oh yeah, my leg is every 12 hours. And and so we went, Oh, we will go kayaking. And so we went on the James River on that little jaunt it only takes. I mean, this time, it took us two and a half hours. A, because there was no wind in our face. B, God, we were not jumping in the water to play
Brandon F. 34:40
awesome. We did speed up the expedite the process by not swimming. It
Collin 34:45
turns out, when you don't stop to swim on the gravel bars, it speeds it up quite a bit. But it was seen that coming lovely. It was a 50 degree day with not a cloud in the sky, and we were on the river. And. And it was wonderful, absolutely wonderful. The water level I'm honing in five feet is a great water level. So last time I floated 4.93 we came over and it was like 5.3 Yeah. And it was beautiful. It was a wonderful trip down the river. Was just high enough from all those places that we were dragging we were just going over. There was one spot where the river split into there is definitely a side loop on that river, and you only get access to it above five feet of water. And is that by the old concrete pilings and stuff. It's just downstream from that a little bit. Yeah, okay, yeah, okay, yeah, because there's this big sidearm that goes around. Well, we're sitting there and and Megan, we, I was like, because you could go the main way, the straight way, the main channel way, but it was really hooking, and I was a little worried about being swept into a branch. Well, actually, it was a log, kind of like being swept into that and being the old strainer. Old strainer, right? We, if, we if I was like, hey, if we go through this, I've got to really hug the right bank. I got to really hug that hard and and we can probably skip through that, but if I get any further out into the channel, I'm just going to go straight into that. So I'm Megan's in her a little kayak. I'm in the canoe with the kids. And so we're like, well, Megan, why don't you the adventurous one and you want to do kayaking things, because, again, when she gets in the kayak, it's just like, I am kayaker,
Brandon F. 36:47
as it does to everybody. I mean, that is true, yes, because almost like a vibe going on, you know? I
Collin 36:52
know it's a total vibe, so I'm like, Hey, go kayak. And so she went off on this adventure with this little narrow shoot. And suddenly, suddenly she we have the radios say, I brought two way radios with us. All I get back from her is, Don't go this way.
Brandon F. 37:10
And I'm gonna sign it from a kayaker. Don't come over here.
Collin 37:14
Don't come over here. So I'm like, okay, okay, we get out.
Brandon F. 37:18
You actually said Roger, 10 four, Roger.
Collin 37:24
Rogers, okay. Well, we'll meet you on the other side, and we we shoot the thing, and all paddling on the left. And the kids did great. And we get through, and then we come around the band and and the part that she had come on, just it. It kind of just touches right there, just around this little block where this little gravel bar. But then I can see there's a larger channel that shoots way off, and Megan is stuck and unable to come over to us with how the water is flowing and kind of how she's pinned. Oh no. And every time she tries to turn towards us, she gets really tippy, because the water is saying we're not going that way. You're going this way. And so she keeps trying, and she can't get out because, well, she doesn't want to get in the cold water, and it's fine. So I'm like, well, see on the other side?
38:20
Wow.
Collin 38:22
So I'm like, I'm like, Well, you know how to get back here? Like, well, we'll just stay in radio contact if you run into anything. But it looked like a big channel. A lot of water is flowing. So I was like, you'll be fine. And then, of course, it's she, she heads off, and the kids and I head down the river. And they're like, where's mom? I'm like, Here, talk to her on the
Brandon F. 38:43
radio. She'll be back. It's fine. And then,
Collin 38:48
and then we go down just a little bit more. And I, I had to get out and port the boat over a gravel bar because, oh yeah, it was really like, it was like, There's no way we're making it through the straightener like I just cannot. I'm not risking it so it's freezing cold water. I don't I had to take off my shoes. I've got my pants pulled up, and I'm dragging the kids across the travel bar. And I was like, Yeah, this is the start of some movie. I feel like this is the wife goes off on an unknown part of the river has been pulling kids. Oh no, we were just supposed to be God for the afternoon. I pull us over, we get back in, and we start going down, and then we join back up. It was a happy ending to the story.
Brandon F. 39:42
All right, Greg
Collin 39:44
and I still not out on the river. Don't worry. Okay, yes,
Brandon F. 39:47
that is good. Thank you. I'm not just leaving her out there. She may be cross about that. So,
Collin 39:56
so we survived our trip. It was fantastic. I. Again, I was a little, I was a little hesitant, because I'm like, Look, it's, it's not going to be a particularly warm day. And there are factions within my family who really did test the chilliness So, but one of them
Brandon F. 40:14
was in a kayak, so their headspace was completely different. Now, right? So this is true there.
Collin 40:20
That's a good kayaking headspace. So we're nothing matters. You're just Yeah, kayak right, sliding through the waters. So yeah, she was told she was, she was more in the minute she was in the boat, because she wasn't thinking about the cold. But we still pulled off a couple times to go, you know, look for shells and just see stuff and, you know, play. But, no, it was fantastic. I recommend winter, if not early spring, water activities, because it's just beautiful and to see, see some fun stuff.
Brandon F. 41:01
That's true. Very nice. I always like going in the spring or winter because there's just less people in the way, right? However, it is very cold, and oftentimes the water is, like, quite low in the winter. So that is less exciting, because then you have to, like, get out and Portage. And that sucks when it's really cold, yeah? Like, I begged. I made a mistake here. What am I doing? My toes are freezing. This is bad. I don't,
Collin 41:36
yeah, yeah. And then I was like, Well, my shoe, my I'm, I'm sopping wet. Um, I like my my legs were, I'm not gonna, and of course, we didn't have a towel because I was like, it's fine. We're not gonna. So I'm like, Well, put my shoes back on. So then, of course, that meant that I just left, sat there in the boat without shoes on for the next 45 minutes, as one does, as one does. But it was fine. Everything was fine. Yeah, okay, yeah, I recommend it next time. Here we go, hooray. Oh, I have a oh this week. Oh, man, I don't, I don't know. I just, we'll just mark this top mark today. Like, if, if, like, everything goes downhill from near just know it's because I got a, like, a super maxed out, like, B 12 shot today. So, like, I don't know what's gonna happen today.
Brandon F. 42:41
Well, okay, who did jump starting? Like, we're good. Oh my gosh,
Collin 42:47
no. What happened was, is we went to a chamber event, and they had given out a gift card. And I was like, sweet, I'm gonna use this. I don't know what it is. I don't know what's for. And Megan was like, you do watch these are for shots, right? And I was like, Oh, well,
Brandon F. 43:00
I am now less excited. I don't know about that,
Collin 43:03
but, you know, it was like, it's a B 12, so it's gonna be like, you know, energy and, like, vitamins, and like, ah, let's do this. And I getting this thing was insane. Um, I'm not gonna say the shot, the shot wasn't even that bad, but, like, getting to the point where we needed to do the shot that was hard, because I came in and I didn't have it with me, and I was like, Hey, I won this thing. I don't have it with me. I just want to know, like, what's the process with getting and at the desk, a lady said, oh, so I was talking to one lady, and she's talking to me, and then she turns to her coworker and tells her the same story that other lady audibly says, yeah, so he says he got a free one.
Brandon F. 43:53
Like, I'll come back. I just am in the neighborhood. And I know,
Collin 43:57
I know. And then I was like, we'll get in touch with you. And then it was days before they got in touch with us. And then, and it's like, it's supposed to be, like, a nice, like, high end thing for, like, health and Med Spa things, right? Then it's like, oh, you've got this thing at 230 and then they came back and like, oh, we need to schedule a phone call with a register with an RN to make sure everything's kosher before we do this. And then I said, Okay, well, let's just do it at two, right? And then I'll be out for the thing at 230 and then at 206, they reached out to my private Facebook and were like, Hey, are you coming in? And I went, Oh, the appointments Not till 230 I'm waiting for the phone call at two. And they went, Oh, no, we do the phone call here at our place. I was
Brandon F. 44:39
like, probably should have
44:42
mentioned that before not
Collin 44:44
make no sense. So I go in, and then the reason I'm saying if this all goes downhill is because I was supposed to get a B 12 shot, because I'm like, it's harmless. But instead, I. I don't appreciate the name of this thing, but we're just gonna see what it does. It's called, it's called mega burn. Oh that
Brandon F. 45:13
no, oh no.
Collin 45:19
This is very and I was like, I was like, what like, does it like hurt? Like, I don't, yeah, but it's all like, I'm supposed to have, like, amino acids and vitamins and like, but like, metabolism boosting, energy stuff, kind of thing. And I'm like, okay, like, let's do this. So I will see. We'll see. I We got Megan, I went to so, like, both of us are in this. So, like, we start, like, going, like, we're gonna be able to see. And
Brandon F. 45:56
I'm like, Man, the naming, the marketing and this is not I know, right? And I realize I'm saying this from a point of not the target audience, right? I'm aware it's not for me. I get it right. Fine. Wellness is not that's not my marketing, right? I eat healthy, and I like walk and stuff, boom, that's pretty much it like.
Collin 46:27
I like cosmetic wellness is not my but mega burn, yeah, yeah, man. And I think it's because, in higher dosages, it's used for, like, like, for people who are doing, like, intense workouts and stuff that can help, like, convert more fat to energy burning kind of thing. But, I mean, yeah, but like, low dose anyway, I don't know. It's not really like my thing typically, but I'm like, hey, it was free, so why don't we, why don't
Brandon F. 47:07
we just try? But I feel like this is the wrong attitude for, like, cocktails of shots, right? Like,
Collin 47:14
but it was free, though, so it's filing. Here's the crazy thing, okay, well, that's, this isn't crazy, but, like, because making it to a fact
Brandon F. 47:23
that this place exists, and does this, like, frequently, yeah, kind of crazy, right? That's check
Collin 47:31
out. Check out. Like, again, like, med smiles are your big thing. And like, this is what they do. They're just like, Oh, you want this vitamin? Well, sure. Like, give me your arm. Like, wow.
Brandon F. 47:41
Mega is very like dystopian cyber punky,
47:45
right? Like
Collin 47:47
Megan went to a women's health fair, and no joke, there was a health spa there, not this one, but they were giving out free B 12 shots that you could take home with you.
Brandon F. 48:07
Like, I have not given myself a shot at nothing. No,
Collin 48:10
they were handing out and and she got two of them, and we didn't go through with him because I freaked myself out, because it was literally a syringe with like, a little like card on it that was like, B 12 is great for you. Ma, it was a syringe filled with red liquid. And it was like, take, ah, no,
Brandon F. 48:29
that's way cyber funky and and like, okay, look, people I don't know. Like, do you because nobody else remember the 90s. Do you remember that needles are bad, right? And like, what you need is, like, extreme sterilization, or you just get all kinds of exciting illnesses, right? You cannot just be giving people,
Collin 48:58
yeah? Oh, yeah. So this, this is, this was my intense aversion to holding these free things handed to me. Like, she's like, Oh yeah, they were just giving out these. I just grabbed some from
Speaker 3 49:12
a basket, like a basket of the riches. Now,
Collin 49:16
there was no yeah. It was like, Oh, here. These are free. Take these. So, like, oh, they were passing out free lighters to, uh, you know, three, three. Like, it's fine. Like, it's my spoons here. Everything's fine. Got some mirrors in the corner. Yeah, I know I was so so, like, comes with, Oh, yeah. So those, they were just hand those out. And I'm like, Okay, this is, this is too this. This is too far. Well, Flash forward to today. I have two syringes sitting in a refrigerator because they let us take the other two. Oh, I'm floored. 100,
Brandon F. 50:00
You get. But this is a red liquid. It's an amber liquid, right? So it's fine, oh, yes, because that makes it more safe, right? I've heard that Amber is the color of your energy, right? Ah, there we go. We missed 311 day yesterday, so today, gotta sneak it in. There we go, Bucha, oh my gosh.
Collin 50:30
And on the way out, they were like, oh. And if you like these, we sell, we sell them in 10 packs,
50:35
10 packs.
Collin 50:41
I realized just like, Oh my gosh. Like, we're doing this because it's a free thing, and I don't know, like, sure inject me with vitamins, whatever. But like, there are people that I'm pretty sure, like, religiously go to these places and are just walking out with arms full of syringes filled with, I don't know, just all in their arm. Like, yeah. They're just like, yeah, just bundled all down, and they're just having a blast for whatever they're trying to do. And I'm like, Oh my gosh. Like, this is this is terrifying. This is terrifying. This is okay. Oh, my gosh, I can't process this. Yes, so that's, I think I'll
Brandon F. 51:32
just stick with my Flintstones vitamins, right?
Collin 51:34
Oh, that was the other No. Okay, you see, you break that up as she's giving Megan the shot, she's like, Oh, some people taste Flintstone vitamins after I give this to them. And I was like, is it actually just ground up Flintstones vitamins? You know, the more I looked at it, the more I was like, if
Brandon F. 51:56
I were to crush up Flints vitamins, was, was the amber actually just the orange Flintstone vitamins.
Collin 52:06
It's just made from concentrate Flintstone vitamins.
Speaker 1 52:10
Oh, no, those are already making concentrated anyway, yeah, which is why I had to have the poison control calls left, right. Oh, yeah.
Brandon F. 52:16
Oh, that's right. Listeners, Collin thought that the Flintstone vitamin vitamins were candy, and he just downed like, a handful of those suckers. Yeah, so we did have to call poison control again for that. Uh, fun times. All right. You don't even need to be 12. You hate that many Flintstones vitamins. You're good to go. It's still in there, right? Like,
Collin 52:44
I think we also need to just pay real quick attention to the statement of, we had to call a poison control again for that. Because, yeah, no,
Brandon F. 52:51
it's fine. It's okay. It's a thing that happens. Like,
Collin 52:58
oh my gosh. So, yeah, this has been a wild week, I gotta say, like, I don't know, like, is,
Brandon F. 53:04
this is a wild week. I just, I cannot get over this, like, mega dystopian vibes of like, just handing out syringes to people. Yeah, there was a whole the 90s. The whole time they were like, don't give people syringes. Don't do that. Here we are, like, hey, guys kind of got some more syringes.
Collin 53:27
Exactly, no,
Brandon F. 53:29
no, not the thing we said not to do.
Collin 53:35
Remember that? Yeah, oh yeah. Okay, so, yeah, so, so here's the thing, like, we have these two like, we're supposed to do shots, like, another two weeks. Like, another week, two two weeks. It starts two weeks on the calendar. Oh, remember it? Oh, my gosh, fine. Always fine. She did say not to do within the same week. And I was like, why? She's like, Oh,
Brandon F. 53:55
for the same take half a bottle of wine. So Exactly,
Collin 53:59
yeah, exactly. Like, well, you'll, you'll be on their records. But no, yeah, she said to do it in two weeks. And so we are, I was like, Okay. And she, right before we left, she said, so you'll just need to make sure that you put them in, like, you know, like some container, you know, like a coffee can, or milk jug, or, you know, something like that. Because in my head, I was like, Oh, right. Sharps containers.
Brandon F. 54:27
Yeah, I sharps containers. Your thing. They have to be disposed of in a specific way. It's really specific.
Collin 54:34
And I was like, I don't have a specific way, yeah? I just have a trash
Brandon F. 54:42
Yeah, which is not okay.
Collin 54:46
Nothing realized. I'm going to be part of the problem. Yes, I kind of like, oh, just put it in a milk jug. You're fine. Like,
Brandon F. 54:54
bro, what? Oh. Uh, I have a video you need to watch every year. I have to watch these training videos for school about, like, personal protective equipment and the sharps disposal, if container one is on there, and I think we need to give it to these people.
Collin 55:19
Yeah, it is, it is wild. That's all I'm saying. So, yeah, see what happens. Yeah, you know. And she was
Brandon F. 55:31
like, e 12 syringes all over the playground, right? I think, I'm sorry, I think you mean mega bird. Mega bird. Oh, no, are they like, fancy syringes? I feel like a place like this, we have, like, Swank syringes too, or are they just, like, straight up ones, right? They're like silver, right? They look like, they look like
55:52
a medical doctor 1860
55:53
had them, right? Yeah? Like,
Collin 55:57
with 20 gage needles? No, yeah, right.
Brandon F. 55:59
Like, no
Collin 56:01
there I have, I have had to deal with, like, cheap ones. Like the really cheap ones are the ones that you usually use for, like insulin shots, because you go through so many of those as an individual. Like, they are just, like these things just sort of a single purpose, and all syringes are single use. So I do have to say that, but for these, but that
Brandon F. 56:23
is true. Disclaimer, please remember, ranges are single use delivery system,
Collin 56:33
but like those tend to be, like, really, really cheap, because you have to go through so many of them. Yeah, I've also had these. These are definitely nicer ones. They are very sturdy. They don't they're not flimsy at all. The plastic seems nice and thick, but no, they're not like silver and have the glass tube or things like that. Unfortunately, unfortunately. I mean,
Brandon F. 56:54
that's good. I also had this image in my head from, I'm gonna send this to you. I had this image in my head from BioShock, the video game. This is what this is. The other thing I was thinking about, where
57:07
you like? They just gave me a syringe with red liquid.
Brandon F. 57:10
Oh, no, oh, let
Speaker 1 57:21
me see. Very bad. Oh, very bad. You don't want that.
Collin 57:27
That's fantastic. That's, that's show art. That's what that. That is perfect. Yeah, I know we should, I should ask him if they could start doing that. That'd be really fun.
Brandon F. 57:41
Yeah? Like, Oh, hey. Or the ones that have the rings on them, like the old timey ones, right? Like the three rings on the back the plunder, yeah,
Collin 57:51
that's what I that's what I was thinking of. It's like old timey like, fancy ones. But, yeah, no, so, yeah, we'll see. We'll see. I was told that it's not gonna, like, not supposed to make me, like, super jittery, or, like, yeah, actually burns. Like, I don't need that in my life. Um, it's just supposed to, like, help like, Pep kind of thing. So we'll see. I don't know. There you go see anyway. So that's, that's my week. I It's only, it's only Thursday. There's a lot, it's a lot of things happening,
Brandon F. 58:33
optimization, fancy needles, I know, loading adventures going all over the place. I don't need to rest now, yeah, but you might not be able to, because it's a big bird.
Collin 58:55
Now we gotta. We're gonna be ready for our going to a chamber breakfast tomorrow. So we're gonna start off the day with, like, we take the kids to these because they like to go. And I was like, Why do you like to go? And they both agree that they like snack biscuits.
Brandon F. 59:08
Oh, there we go. Good job chamber for having good biscuits.
Collin 59:15
That's what they are excited about tomorrow. And some biscuits.
Brandon F. 59:21
Bingo. It's more important than networking good biscuits or exactly, oh, my goodness,
Collin 59:34
yeah. Other than that, I have a if we're reaching the end here. I do have a like, who? All right, let's go.
Brandon F. 59:44
Yeah, I have nothing else. I'm very boring this week. I'm sorry.
Collin 59:48
It's fine, but I it's been a manic week. It's been I'm on the upswing here for the episode. But no, here's my it's
Speaker 1 59:57
the mega bird. Mega bird. I. I want you to say that to them when you go back, like, I'm here from around two of my mega burn. See what they say. Like, say, like, you got, y'all got some mega bird, yeah, you got any more than mega burning today? Like, oh no,
Brandon F. 1:00:19
yeah. Need to make sure you're wearing a monster truck hat or something when you when you
Collin 1:00:24
say that, yes, yeah, cuz I can channel the hat through the phone. So the intent of what's going on, like this idea, okay, well, here is my, my, my Haiku, ancient stone secrets. Trails wind through. Haha, Tanka, Missouri, whispers, Oh,
Brandon F. 1:00:50
very nice. I
Collin 1:00:56
got off on there somewhere. Keep this joke going. So we don't
Brandon F. 1:01:02
free form. One free form. You see the total syllables in there eventually, doesn't you know if you want to mix up how they get there. That's like, art man.
1:01:13
Just like, Don't put me in a box.
Collin 1:01:17
You know the box that is the
1:01:19
format. Oh, yeah,
Collin 1:01:24
yes. So very good. Well, I'll continue. I'll take I'll do a daily log of how I'm feeling after the burn, and
Brandon F. 1:01:30
okay, if you feel the burn or not.
Collin 1:01:35
This goes and forward to I'm putting down some statistics and seeing how your your bin collection continues
Brandon F. 1:01:44
to grow. All right. Well, sounds good. Do this
Collin 1:01:47
again next time indeed. Okay, love you. Let me
1:01:51
do Bye. Bye.