fishers of disappointment

We’re at a lake. Fishing was attempted

• Lake recording

• Fishing trip

• Bug issues

• Knight errantry

• Lake management

• Pilgrimage issue

• Marketing knights

• Enchantment perception

• Holy fountain

• Miracle prediction

• Collin’s haiku:

• Quiet lake waits,

• my line dances, fish scorn me,

• empty hook returns.

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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE

PROVIDED BY OTTER.AI

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

lake, people, year, oklahoma, water, softball, fish, happened, flood control, aaron, starts, weird, talking, place, chapter, spiral staircase, baseball, driving, glass, fastpitch

SPEAKERS

Brandon, Aaron, Collin

Collin  00:04

Welcome to Old Brother, a podcast where we try to figure it all out. Your host, Brian, Colin Aaron. On this week's show Fishers of disappointment. Well, hello.

Brandon  00:19

I don't mean a whole day as we are

Collin  00:24

live and in person always this week like gentleman in a brand new unanticipated location. Yes, I mean, it as much as it was anticipated that we knew about it for a month in advance. Just but we didn't know. We didn't know exactly

Brandon  00:40

where we'd be doing that it come to you this evening. smushed in a lake bedroom. Oh, man, here we go. I'm on top of a kitchen carton. Because it turns out, there's a lot of bugs outside in Arkansas in July. And, you know, as much as I like outside. I don't like bugs that much. And so I didn't really not many people like bugs that much. And the longer we kept the lights on outside, the more bugs would come. So.

Collin  01:11

Yeah, yeah. And the outside table barely functioned as a table. It where you would set your elbows down, and the other side just kept coming up. And I'm

Brandon  01:19

like the worst version of a cafeteria table. I really wouldn't be.

01:26

Like, either Nobody puts

Brandon  01:27

their elbows on it, or everyone puts their elbows on it and never move. So

Collin  01:31

yes, those are the two options and they have to be placed on at the exact same time. Otherwise, nothing will work because you're one go. Brace brace. It's a team where it's a team building exercise to make sure everybody's doing their part. So yeah, so we retreated inside away from the bugs and the terrible terrible table. And here we are find ourselves after a long day on the lake doing Lake activities.

01:56

That's true. We've learned once and for all.

Brandon  02:00

Aaron is the only fisherman here. That's what we really learned today

Collin  02:03

is the only official fisherman as it turns out, and you know how I know Aaron was the only person our guide let cast.

Brandon  02:17

The guy took a shine to him. Him and Him and guide dude, talk fishing. And then Aaron was just in there. yanking fish out of left and right. It was upsetting.

Collin  02:31

Me Well, the guide put the bait on my hook.

Brandon  02:35

Okay, I did sorry listeners. I was firmly in the middle here. I did it. Okay.

02:41

Respectable for a person who has not held the fishing rod for approximately

Brandon  02:47

15 years, maybe more. So I feel like I did. Alright. respectable. Mine was the biggest one just saying.

Collin  02:58

Do True. True. So hello. Yeah, we did. We didn't Aaron just had the mostest ones. And so it was the the fishers missed most visionis

Brandon  03:09

man in the land. Yes. So congratulations,

03:17

I had a ribbon. I would pin it

Collin  03:19

upon you. And here we have the fisherman himself winner extraordinaire of the of the first annual funky fishing tournament. That Aaron How does it feel to be first place winner?

Aaron  03:32

Oh, it's been out in the water for five hours only catching 12 fish I'm feeling a little bit overly exhausted for that much time. It was some experience of fishing before and minor competitions here and there. But never actually purposely went and caught a certain fish and try and try to typically catch that fish for a purpose was a lot more challenging than I thought it would be. I always caught fish by accident. But going going for a certain fish on purpose seemed to be a little more of a challenge than for the for the targeting. Yeah, the technical aspect of fishing. I'm so used to just throwing you know, a bait out there and just flailing wildly and hoping li to catch something Oh, this actually you know, strategically placing a lower although it helped to have you know several $1,000 worth of equipment to help find that said fish that makes life 1000 times easier when you're trying to fish out stupid things.

Collin  04:36

I can't I up until right now I would never have described my fishing experience as just a successive series of happy accidents. But that's exactly what it is. Just like this chronically like II Oh, wow. Like because yeah completely surprised that anything ever been in my life? If you ever watch

Aaron  04:56

any like fishing videos, that's usually the people when they want to you can see here that This is a new though. Oh, oh, I got something. Oh great. So like then the panic sets in because you're not expecting to catch it just oh, here we go again zing. And then when something like that that's why people say phishing is the most exciting, boring sport ever. Because nothing happens for a long time, then you're shocked that something actually happens. And then you look around and other people are going out to fish to catch

Brandon  05:21

lips. Oh. That's true. So yes. Yeah, it was interesting. It was fun, just kind of hanging out. Did these are you a little too hot? But other than that, it was fine. Well,

Collin  05:35

I think also, mostly because we extended it by an hour. Because we were catching nothing. Oh, yeah. And so we'll just do one more hour. Ah, yes. I did not plan for that extra hour. It's amazing how much one little hour makes?

05:53

I mean, yes.

Brandon  05:54

The setting when you're in the middle of a lake in July, one hour, can be a very long time.

06:00

Who decides? What's right, though? It's fun. Now,

Brandon  06:03

just to piggyback on something Aaron said, I'd like to listeners to know 12 Fish brought back home. Yes, not crying pancake. There was also a little tiny baby fish that we couldn't keep the skabe back into the wilderness and the guard and the guard. Yeah, they might have getting by guard but it's fine. So so it was a little better than the lead on the gas want to say, but throw that out there

Collin  06:31

for that. So that's true, too. And he did say that the fish were not really biting much. The lake is going through big changes. They're letting a lot of water. So yeah, so it's fine. You're and and whatever. He was also saying that mostly they'd be biting mostly in the evenings. We were in the morning. So it wasn't our fault. Basically what I'm saying so sure, temperamentally may be better than we know. We just didn't get to test our mettle to say, Yeah,

Brandon  06:59

I mean, we even did it yesterday on our own and Aaron's still caught more efficient, so

Collin  07:03

Okay, look. So there's two points. That's not a trend yet. Yeah.

Brandon  07:09

I don't know when two really strong data points were really

Collin  07:11

strong data. Really, very each data point has very small margins of error.

Brandon  07:17

No, there was no margin of error. Didn't catch any fish.

07:24

Oh, I do

Brandon  07:25

think though, it was very, we had a very interesting conversation with the guide man about Lake usage. Right. Yeah. And I feel like this is interesting point because I

07:36

was confused. Right. About this whole deal. And about what a lake is for. Right now in Missouri, slash Arkansas. first podcast from Arkansas, by the way, this gloss

Collin  07:52

over that, oh, you're a multi state? Yeah. podcast

Brandon  07:57

recording is on fire is our third state. Yes. Like that.

Collin  08:03

This is amazing. The other one was, it was in fact Oklahoma. True. So we got

Brandon  08:07

the whole region completely hidden. Right, we're gonna have to go to Kent, maybe skip Kansas, we'll

Collin  08:13

talk we'll see jump to the other side. It's

Aaron  08:15

all fans go ahead and call the hogs out there, that's

Collin  08:17

where they go or down.

Brandon  08:18

Anyway, Lake usage, right.

08:23

So in my mind,

Brandon  08:26

I would assume like lakes have different uses for different things, right. But always a byproduct is recreation. Right? Because you have a big body of water there.

08:40

And people like water. So it should

Brandon  08:44

make sense that you need to make the lake as accessible as possible to people, right?

08:51

Now, some lakes

Brandon  08:52

do this in different ways, right? Like some lakes are reservoirs. So certain activities are not allowed there because people are going to drink that water. This is fair, right? This is good. I don't really think we need a lot of boat oil in the reservoir Lake. But this lake is not a reservoir. Um, and apparently the people in charge of the lake currently according to the guide, right, who will admit does have biases because his living is made by fishing that the people currently charged like only are seeing like as a flood control device, right, which is part of the reason that they dammed this river system right to provide flood control because let's face it, the floodplain part of lower Arkansas is like big farmland, right? Like downstream from here it is farm. Crazy. Right? So controlling floods is very important. or agribusiness,

10:01

I get that that makes sense. But operating a dam only for flood control.

Brandon  10:10

When it affects all a lot of other things, including recreation, he said fishing is severely affected by this. So I imagine then other pleasure boating and things like that would be affected by this. It

10:24

just doesn't bring a lot to

Brandon  10:27

the area, right? And I feel like it's a missed opportunity because then you don't have like, Yes, I understand people want, like, you don't want to have it like super build up. You don't need like, big hubs all over the lake, because that won't be good for anything either. But like,

10:41

not having any doesn't bring any

Brandon  10:45

thing to an area that's like, sparsely populated in quite a poor area. So I think it's weird to take that track, right? I understand why they would do that, because that's what his job is, as the lake regulator, like to regulate the flood level. But I feel like by not engaging the whole community and working towards bigger things that we're missing a big piece of stuff here, right, I think we're just missing out on so much that could be had by only focusing on one single possible aspect.

11:18

I feel like it's a missed opportunity.

Collin  11:20

But you know, it's one of those, each lake, there are four primary objectives for every lake flood control, hydropower, water, and recreation. Yeah. And I think what you would be interesting to see is in this will actually probably be increasing in frequency as like flooding events and stuff change. As those four rearrange priorities as the one becomes more and more like, outspoken or more detrimental. I wouldn't be surprised if all of the flooding that they've had in the last decade here, like, if that's made them think differently about how and what the purpose of the lake is, to where they've gone, you know, what, we need to go hard over to flood control, because we haven't done that. And that's gonna be our primary focus to maintain pool level. So we have the capacity to take flood water in different time periods in different seasonality. But at the same time, you're right going. But it's not that like it kind of is like stripping away the cultural significance of the leg and the end the economic impacts to the area. And just going that unilaterally going, No, none of that is important or relevant moving forward. We just need to be worried about the water level. And I think that doesn't miss out on a lot of

12:39

better partnerships they could have. Yeah,

Brandon  12:41

because I mean, if you think about it, like, like the cultural aspect of it, like growing up in the Ozarks, like people go to the lake, it's a thing that you do, right? It is like a big

12:55

thing. And like, peep,

Brandon  12:58

it's like a bit like these boats are stupid, expensive. Like, I don't even understand how people have them. But like it's like a big touchdown cultural thing and like, just doing things that make that not as accessible as weird, right? It's

13:16

just a weird plan.

Brandon  13:19

Maybe that's just me. Maybe I'm overthinking this, but I feel like you're just missing out on some things. But yeah, I understand what you're saying about the flood control because that is a big problem. Because we have had years where like, every lake in the chain is at capacity still raining. And oh, no. This is gonna be bad. Right? Because it's all in one drainage basin.

13:44

So like, that's bad, but that has happened in a while.

Collin  13:54

But I think it is. It would be interesting to see because they're the three in the chain here on the White River but we've got Table Rock Taneycomo and Bull Shoals. Isn't beaver on this and dever as for Yeah, so four is to look at the mix of use across all four of those. Because I get I will guarantee you that things like Table Rock which have much more of a developed recreational industry around it. Probably they've got a lot more powerful stakeholders can come to that can come to it and basically say, No, you're you're as economically damaging millions upon millions and millions of dollars versus with the more underdeveloped lakes. Right? They don't have that big lobby arm can go to the core and go, No, you're actually damaging because what are they gonna say? Oh, well, from the courts perspective. Oh, okay. Like a couple businesses like oh, wait, that's not important. Obviously, it is and you can never have a foundation for the future if you don't sustain those existing ones. But I could definitely see how they'd be more preference and more deference given to places like Table Rock where it is so much bigger. And

Brandon  15:04

we also have to do something with the fact that bushels is the last lake in the chain O Lakes, right as is clinically known. And so it sort of does have more responsibility in the flood control level because of it floods a lot and the other ones and they're dumping water, guess where it's going here,

Collin  15:23

it's got to be ready to take that it's got to be ready to take

Brandon  15:26

not only additional rainwater, but additional dam relief from the other lakes there. Right. So that does sort of make sense because if you're operating like 40 feet above level, and then the other leg start dumping water, you are in trouble because you can't get enough out faster because a dainty the dam down here is not that big. No. So it can't release like the Table Rock dam is bigger. Yes, it can release a lot more water faster. I

Collin  15:56

think he's I think so. Yes. And to if you also also like, again, if maybe, you know, Beaver, I don't know. They're just randomly it was like, No, we need to be doing more releases for power generation. Well, that's more consistent flow. It may be more awkward times throughout the year, because it's also weird. We're sitting here kind of at the wall at the end of spring in the summer, like there's not going to be any more like huge rainfall events. Like all that happens earlier in the year. So they swell on the spring. Usually there's a slow release, but they're really bringing this down hard going into the fall. So I that's what's also interesting about this, so it has me thinking of what other uses upstream are occurring for this lake that they're trying to maintain capacity for. So I don't know. I don't know.

Brandon  16:41

Yeah, cuz at the BGA the next few months will probably be pretty dry. You want a one? They usually are. Yeah, anyway, based on records and things so that would be a weird Yeah, releasing all the water before the dry season.

16:59

It's a plan. Right? It's a plan right. But whatever, right yeah.

Collin  17:06

I mean, like it's it's especially it's it's for me it's interesting too because it is a man made lake that now has a manmade problem that we have like it was this problem didn't exist prior to the 1950s because the lake to Dixit you know, whatever. However, I forget how old this dam is, but it's like

17:22

I was it. It's it's a 30 I don't

Brandon  17:26

remember when this one was built. Right only there was only there was a device in Maine. Probably

Collin  17:31

not a place to do

17:35

that. Yeah, that's too bad.

17:40

What does it say?

Brandon  17:41

Uh oh, of course no year just to debt. Oh, history. That's what history Yeah. 247 19 in 1951 Okay, so

Collin  17:50

So my statement of prior to the 1950s it was kind of kind of true.

17:56

That's true. But yes, so that would be it. Yeah. But that doesn't mean Yeah, so that makes sense. I think I think we learned that

Collin  18:09

not many of us regularly recreate on lakes or boats

Brandon  18:14

that is also relearn Aaron Are you have you been secretly you Lake Lake real Lake

Aaron  18:18

enthusiast status. I mean, like, I can just like people who live on the lake doing Blake things every single day. But me for people kind of like us, you know, this is a vacation. You know, either we drive hours away or, or days away, like the things that people look forward to the League of others something from their childhood, or something is, I mean, I've learned a lot today as an adult and things I didn't put into perspective as a kid. And so like the things that people do for implicits Getting close to the end of the year where you know, we got to go back to school so we're kind of like throwing in these last minute vacations that it's going to be able to live close by like vacation destinations that like oh, this is just a typical day but for us like this is a big event that we get to go out and enjoy something that's essentially free except for all the extra well yeah, by but I mean there's something like this of getting the last hurrah and before the summer ends is is

19:21

kind of big. That's true. We also learned other fun facts I don't know how to drive a boat

Brandon  19:31

was throw that out there too. Right? I don't really have any idea I didn't try Colin allegedly has driven about for lunch and he drove it yesterday and we didn't sink so I feel like don't as you did with Ashley's Yeah.

Aaron  19:48

Or, and I was told to go straight and not wreck it was like when I was 12.

Brandon  19:55

Navigating

Aaron  19:58

because that was my biggest thing of watching. like you all yesterday and then our guide today like there was no map me living his entire lake out, you know life on this lake, you know knows, like the back of his hand. Meanwhile I'm over there like, ah, that rock looks the same as that rock the dabit that bow looks the same to I don't know where we're at. And that isn't when you when you think of lakes and like movies or something you think of like around like, I also think of like, Crystal Lake with Jason Vorhees where it's like very like circular not like this whole jutting moving body of water that jets out and everything. Yeah, it's so it's much different from what, you know, the TV tells you. It's true.

Brandon  20:47

The fact that it is a flooded river basin makes navigating the lake like really weird because it's like, it's just a few 100 meters across, but it's like miles long. And so it's you can't go around the lake. The nice thing that can happen, right, this thing that makes driving around here so tricky, because like I need to go the other side. Oh, no. Oh, that's a million actually a million miles.

Aaron  21:19

There's no direct road is you were at the mercy of the LI as you're driving into here the other day. We got sages. Oh, yeah. Down the hills. That's like, yeah, there's no there's nothing straight. You follow the lake? Mm

21:30

hmm. Yeah. So

Brandon  21:32

being on a lake is the same though. Because like, there's all kinds of little inlets and twists and turns and curves and things and points and everything you have to be like, Yeah, and it doesn't help and apparently Arkansas has not painted the mile marker signs in an extraordinarily long time or bothered to make sure they were standing up. That's true. That's true. They are laying down and all of them like half painted so you can look at it and go what number could that be?

Aaron  22:03

The fact that artists are fishing guys like I'm going to take his other spot and then we drove what felt like miles away to the bike the direct spot? What I wouldn't never been able to that no identifiable markers anywhere. No lands, you're just like, oh, I have no spot resume over here. What magic is

22:20

this? Yeah. Yeah,

Brandon  22:22

he could have had some pins on his GPS true. No, but

Collin  22:24

I didn't look. Yeah. But it made me think to have like the hierarchy of boats because I'm like, Oh, right. There's like, you know, pontoon boats, which were we went out on and then there's the cruisers, there's the speed boats, but truly the speed demons of the lake, or the bass boat.

22:42

That's true.

Collin  22:43

Because what did he say before we got in? He's like, Oh, we're not going much more than 50 or 60 miles an hour.

Brandon  22:48

And quite fast on insane on

Collin  22:53

a boat. You don't even whenever we were we were only with 30 on the little pontoon. And it was like this is too fast.

Brandon  23:02

Like I just because you were driving I think it was also

Collin  23:04

because I was driving. I was also like white knuckling of it. Like there's no way like why would we need if I go faster than this there's no reason

Brandon  23:15

if you gotta get to the fishing spot quick which has been which is what again,

Collin  23:19

what was rolling through my mind of like, right because you go there you fish for like 30 minutes, 45 minutes, and then you have to go 17 miles in a different direction as fast as humanly possible to fish for 45 minutes and then go another 17 miles to go fish. And that's all you do all day long. But it was really cool when we were going super fast with the guide. And you know, we went through a couple different kinds of water like there's really choppy waters, but then when it would go into the super smooth Oh, it was almost like it was kind of like trance like oh my gosh, like this is one of those things I was like you know what, while they had to put curves into interstate roads so that you didn't Oh yeah,

Brandon  24:00

you go crazy hypnosis

Collin  24:01

really like hypnosis lately? Because everything was just one glass in front of you.

Aaron  24:08

You guys felt that I was facing the opposite direction dizzy I didn't see any of that

Collin  24:12

fair point fair points when you saw it I think one and that was a terrifying

Aaron  24:16

thing because like I couldn't see death coming at me because my back was turned to it so that's why I was bracing myself every time he like although I could tell is gonna be a gradual turn any turn like I felt like oh, this is it. We're gonna flip

Brandon  24:38

this is fine. There's only a few logs out there. Again, terrifying. We're not small logs. Like you know, there seems to be out there like near the log debris, like like floating laundry like what

24:55

are you doing?

Brandon  24:58

System Where's place to take that

Aaron  24:59

I could definitely kind of tell the I mean, we are probably the prime examples of this of the people who are like true Lake people. And then much like hooligans like us, you know, people who are out there just for the weekend renting a pontoon boat, just like thrashing around, you know, no Causeway, like we were pretty cautious. But then like, you look over the other aspect of the people who like live on the lake, who knew the ins and outs. Who knew like, oh, the river currents here, I'm gonna stay on this side because all the logs are flooding this way. And you know, our guide, you know, just had that natural instinct of like, Oh, I'm gonna avoid this area because there's logs that's what he was saying when we were casting is like I went the other way, because there was logs there. I'm like, how did you

Brandon  25:40

not? Yeah, well, because he's been out every single Yeah, it's all like he knows,

Aaron  25:44

but it's just fun to see that from our perspective of being with a veteran, and then us you know, webbed feet hooligan and then seeing people out there that's like, I've never been on a boat before. Lake

Brandon  25:58

based activities

25:59

fun and exciting. As always, as

Brandon  26:03

always, well I mean, I don't know this is the first time we've done this in ever so like as this time chode

Collin  26:12

can be fun and I will say the place that we are in the metal spiral staircase I have decided and officially decided that a I really need a staircase like that but be it's in a place that doesn't have a lot of foot traffic because it is really annoying to go up which is really cool. It's very cool. Very fun. You don't

Aaron  26:37

look very majestic if you're like in a hurry like hold on digital no to digital.

Brandon  26:40

I would also say it needs some tread on the stairs. This is where grippy slippy and curious true because I went up there just like once to check out then I was like nah Oh no wait a minute.

26:58

Let me slow down

Brandon  27:00

a little Yeah, because I'm a feeder not like sliding all around on the spiral staircase is a bad idea.

Collin  27:06

They're installed well they're sturdy but yeah, they're definitely not a graceful like you said earlier if I can it's not a graceful experience and you know No, but to cool air cool.

27:18

That's true.

Collin  27:19

I need one to go from our from our upstairs office into the attic room that I haven't made yet. So do you

Brandon  27:27

make the attic room first and then put the stairs or do you put the stairs because here's the problem if you make this is what I can't forget about this place if you make an upstairs how and you have a spiral staircase how on earth do you get anything upstairs? I've

Collin  27:44

been I think about that literally every time I have to go up because there are full mattresses upstairs. Yeah, restaurants upstairs there's a bathroom. Toilet. Yeah. How did they get that?

Brandon  27:57

Did they do the hoisted up and then install the stairs after

Collin  28:01

the only thing I can think is that genuinely there's that random hole over here where we think is a void that goes into the attic. I feel as though they lifted things up through the attic space and then punch them through a wall because there's no way I couldn't I could barely get our suitcase up the stairs. I can't even imagine a dresser.

Brandon  28:21

Yeah, I know. Yeah, that's the problem. I don't know. So if you make a spiral staircase

28:26

Yeah, you're gonna have to like

Brandon  28:28

never redecorate the room because at the top whatever goes up they're staying up there forever. Here like Secret Garden stuff it's stair always

Collin  28:39

know here's my plan everything goes up and but it has to come up in like a cubic foot increments and then assembled in the at all so Ikea furniture and I came back for years only only Exactly. Do you feel

Brandon  28:52

like beanbag chairs if you're going to have an attic loft that has a spiral staircase and maybe beanbag chairs are the only answer I think it's the only I guess the only it's the only move you can make literally literally can't move anything else.

Collin  29:07

It's so terrible getting up the staircase

29:17

was terrible.

Brandon  29:20

So other than leaking Aaron and what have you been up to?

29:23

How have you been doing how is your grass getting ready

Brandon  29:28

for the return for coaching?

Aaron  29:33

Ed's been alright the you can always kind of kick off the season. Every year in Oklahoma they have the Coaches Clinic the osaa puts on a an all athletics coaching clinic for every coach in the in the state. We go down there listen to speakers and then we talk about new there any business changes that need to happen. And then if there's any new rules,

29:58

softball always feels like me accomplish

Aaron  30:00

things very quickly, because there's not really a whole lot of changes. Baseball is just always a mess. Because there's always something that makes somebody unhappy as far as different classifications, but that's usually my mark. And that kind of the mental change of whenever Ohio season started because of coaching clinic because then next week, we got games or next week, we got scrimmages. And then the week after that we got, we got games, and then we started school. And so softball is just weird. Excuse me here in Oklahoma, because we always start playing before school even starts,

30:36

which when I was coaching football, we'd teach

Aaron  30:39

a few weeks, and then there'd be a football game, but softball is over really quickly. And I mean, it happens so suddenly, and so fast. And so the first week, parts of school were always chaotic for me, especially transitioning to a whole new subject area of teaching. And plus, I gotta move my classroom. But I have a group of awesome assistant coaches who've been holding down the hatches. Since I've been gone to coaching clinic, which is a week long. That's a mean transitionally wise, that's really all I've been up to was just getting moderately mentally and physically prepared for the chaos that is about to ensue.

Collin  31:17

So what what, what sport to kick off with because you teach a couple of coats a couple of different things, right? What do you kick off with?

Aaron  31:23

So in Oklahoma softball starts now like going from the summer into the fall. And then I coach baseball, which happens later, and often the spring. And so softball season kicks off first, we got to first game, August 13. And then we did like, we go into a first festival and we got a tournament. Then we got another tournament right after that. And then I'm, I'm barely gonna be in school for the first week, because we got so many games scheduled, which I kind of scheduled that way on purpose. So don't have to be in class the whole time. But yeah, so we got softball first and then. But softball happened as the same time as football, although we get done sooner. So in Oklahoma, they go. So there's volleyball and softball, then football, and then football transitions into basketball. And then basketball will transition into for our school, baseball and track. And so as the year progresses, the the athletics progressive, because this season will be only a few months long, and they'll transition to another one.

32:29

Nice map.

Collin  32:31

And so you are used to you had to also you had to move your your classroom to so yes, so I'll be teaching. So I taught sixth grade geography, which in Oklahoma is pretty much Western

32:46

Hemisphere. You know,

Aaron  32:49

Canada, United States, Mexico, Central Latin America, if you're in the Caribbeans. One place I taught we got into like starts of Europe, and we bled into Africa. But my only parameters were just covering North and South America. And everything in between, especially with such a young group. But now I'm transitioning into Oklahoma history and civics. So the first part of the year will just be Oklahoma history from 1000, to now. And then we'll transition into civics, people, government, all that kind of stuff. But it's also teaching high school, which I've never taught before, except for a few fill in classes. So this will be a completely new change for me. But I like making the changes because I'll be able to be up with my students, my players that I deal with on a regular basis being up with the high school kids. My classroom is right next to the exit, which I can walk a few feet and there's my fields. So instead of walking a complete mile, the opposite direction or from the opposite direction, to where I'll end up, I don't drive as much because I teach on a big campus. So I'm literally moving from which my school is not big by any means. We're a small rural Podunk school, literally out in the middle of nowhere. But that changed from getting all my stuff from my classroom, all the way down the hallways to the other end of the school. It just a trek in itself. But once I get settled up, like I said, we start school the 20th and we're rockin and rollin.

34:18

That's pretty quick. When

Brandon  34:20

our school does softball in the spring. Yes. So it's really weird to hear you talk about this because like, I went to some softball games, and they were cold. And I was like, wait, I mean, yeah, so I just had to quickly Google when our softball season when I was I skipped it last year. Yeah, it's like March. Yeah. I don't know if that was it. Should we had a conference choice thing? I don't really know.

Aaron  34:41

That's like that is the traditional part when softball starts doing pretty much everywhere else in the country. I think it's Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The only three states that do it differently because in Oklahoma, when like they Baseball season starts we have slowpitch softball why I don't know but at the beginning of the school year it'll be volleyball and Fastpitch softball but it literally if you go to like Missouri or like Colorado it

35:16

is they will have they don't have

Aaron  35:19

slow pitch like at all like no other state has low pitch except for Oklahoma. There might be like one other state

Brandon  35:24

but really boring national championship. Very good.

35:30

So only only state good hitters.

Collin  35:31

Exactly. By state state nationals actually same thing, same event. So we'll we'll

Aaron  35:37

play and because every every college in the country, that is when they play Fastpitch softball is like in beginning of March. And so

35:47

Oklahoma's just a weird

Aaron  35:50

weird to I don't know why. I have asked no one could give me a direct answer. I'm sure Google can possibly give me something but talking even like talking to like some old coaches at the clinic, they're like, well, who's just who's always been like, that doesn't help me at all. I running into some of these coaches at the clinic, a lot of them do coach Fastpitch softball and baseball. So it's easy to because that I mean, that's what I do. Because I go for I'm the one of my ever I'm the bats coach, I coach all bat related sports at my school, because I know FastPitch and baseball, so I use my the same facility for both. Now and a lot of coaches around that in the state do that. Some of the coaches, they'll coach like football in the fall, and then they'll coach baseball, and but a lot of coaches just to keep for simplicity purposes, they'll coach FastPitch and then they'll coach baseball later on. But as far as like why Oklahoma doesn't I haven't got a clue.

Brandon  36:44

Just to be different. Yeah, just to be different. Just to mix it up. You know,

Collin  36:48

I wonder if that was if that one came first and people moved away from it or if Oklahoma decided they wanted to do something different to match more regional proclivities, probably you should include that in your history of Oklahoma class. Actually, all you should do is actually just make it the history of Oklahoma sports.

Aaron  37:07

I've been talking a lot about the Oklahoma Sooners at that point, because that's been the dominant of the sports but in every every college even colleges in Oklahoma FastPitch starts in March. We just had the College World Series not that long ago for softball and baseball and have the same time but no, not no go on High School Sports.

37:30

I don't know what to do with it. Okay.

Brandon  37:36

This is warehouse like which some schools decide what to do. It's a really weird like conversation, I imagine because it has to be like conference wide decision because like our school plays baseball in like, fall and spring.

Aaron  37:49

i Oh, because you guys don't have football. I mean,

Brandon  37:53

that might be part of the reason. But I don't know if they just really love baseball like spring and fall baseball.

38:01

And

Brandon  38:03

then spring softball. And basketball is in the winter, I guess in I can't remember if it was before after basketball.

38:15

I think it's after I think volleyball

Brandon  38:17

goes into like, I don't know, I have to look that up. I know a lot

Aaron  38:22

of those smaller schools who don't have football will have like fall baseball. That's like one of the biggest splits now in Oklahoma, is because like fall ball schools, historically are just stupid. Good. Because if you think about it, a senior in a spring baseball school, you know, has played four seasons of baseball. Meanwhile, a senior at a football school has pretty much played the equivalent of eight seasons. So there's there's usually a night and day difference in class A classifications, those foul ball schools win state every year. That's what happened to us. When we went to regionals, we were paired up against a football team, who was ridiculously good. And so we show up. And we just, you know, get the snot kicked out of us. And it shows because they had guys on there that have that are seniors and eight seasons. Compared to for me, that person is way more developed that have had way more ground balls, they've been able to hit, you know, top speed pitches before and then compared to our guys and it definitely shows and it's just hard to practice. Like you can't be you can't practice a game. Like it's hard to mimic that because you play all these people. But a lot of like the small schools if they don't have football, they will have the foul ball to kind of replace it because things like Title Nine they have to add that nouns that through so

39:41

what about Colin?

Brandon  39:42

How's Colin outside of breaking it up

Collin  39:45

outside of liking it? I haven't been doing a whole lot. Genuinely. It's been wonderful. It's been actually wonderful. You know, one of the things that we did for Just a second year that we moved in, Megan threw out a bunch of seeds. I like to call it chaos farming, because she can't take a bunch of seeds and throws them in a general area, but

Brandon  40:10

not just like wildflower seeds like Ash like plant like garden plant. Yeah,

Collin  40:15

it happens from time to time where you're like, Oh, is that a squash? Sounds cool. But most, most the time, it's like flat flowers. And those kinds of pretty things were like, What did you plant in Chicago? I don't know. It was in a pack. And I just threw it over there. So one time she did this, and she got some flowers at random, like as a surprise. She really likes some flowers.

40:38

So every year since we grow some flowers, but also every year since

Collin  40:45

one that actually is whatever the sunflower is going is the first one that looks like it's about to bloom. We have

40:52

a squirrel who will come and

Collin  40:56

chew off the head of the sunflower and wow, what prior to it opening and then right away it's it's happened several years in a row now. Where Louise look at the one and you're like, here it comes. It's gonna be blooming. It's gonna be like, exactly. And our neighbors. We talked to our neighbors last week. And they were we were telling bemoaning this, and they were like, oh, that's what it was. And we were like, what they said, We were out on the in our backyard, doing yard work. And we noticed that your sunflower was like violently shaking.

41:34

And he thought it was me

Collin  41:35

trying to scare him. He was like, Yeah, I thought it was you call it out. They're trying to mess with me. And I was like, quite. And also, when have I ever done that? I have done weird things. So it's okay, well, that's fair, but like, not out of the ordinary. Or like I want it to be it's it could be expected. It's in the realm of possibility. Okay. Anyway, and he's watching this on fire and all of a sudden, the squirrel pops its head over, looks left looks right. dives back down. It violently shakes more, and then head pops down, and the scroll jumps up in scampers away. We were like, Oh, you saw the culprit? You you have permission to shoot. You have permission to shoot across our property. Sure. We have a tiny, tiny backyard and you immediately be at our neighbor's yard. That's fine. He began

42:24

yet the squirrel began at a time

Collin  42:27

so he hasn't bought the squirrel has prevailed yet again this year, taken out our largest. And we have got the mammoth, the giant sunflowers, the stock on this thing is about actually a little bit more than like a coffee mug of the stock of is the sunflower. And so yeah, it's been issued. And so yeah, so we have been watching that. Also a good another plant related thing, because this is just what we get to do, you know, two years ago, and Megan will correct me on this because I'm getting to that point in my life where everything is either like two years ago or 10 years ago, there's not a whole lot in between. And we went to a butterfly event where they gave out milkweed. And we planted them that year. And the first year we had them we had like four monarch butterflies land on these itty bitty teeny, tiny milkweed plants. And they stripped them all like four times over the growing season, because there just wasn't very many plants. So we let them die. And I didn't know anything about milkweed. Turns out they come back every year. And now they're like six and a half feet tall. So now I am ready for the monarch butterflies. But now I'm like oh no. Now they probably aren't going to show up. And we've got all the milkweed and we want there I don't know. So we'll see. We'll see. We're still watching. Learning about milkweed. I also learned that aphids are bad for them.

43:59

So

Collin  44:01

we walked out and we saw millions of aphids on them.

44:06

Kind of today that

Collin  44:07

surprised and I was surprised I looked up more kind ways of treating this because I didn't want to spray a bunch of chemicals on a plant that butterflies are going to be landing on. Not good. No turns out you can use diatomaceous earth mixed with water and you spritz it directly on the aphids. Now

44:28

I say this is what should happen

Collin  44:29

because I did spritz them and then they did do jack were all still there, Emily and came back later with Chino you can just scrape them off with a stick. And I was like look fine. Look. That's better. We'll just scrape off the prints with a stick. I won't waste any more of my diatomaceous earth

44:46

on the aphids, like,

Brandon  44:48

I like how your daughter's solution was these wagon with a stick while

44:52

it's fine. Like

Collin  44:53

I'm going gently spraying and mixing and making jello Okay, and she's like, I just scraped them off with the stickers. Well, that works actually don't don't damage the planet. You'll be fine.

Brandon  45:06

Yeah. Or yourself.

Collin  45:10

Or yourself. Yeah.

45:12

No.

Collin  45:15

Beyond that, and finding the glass floors in our library, which was really cool, because exciting discovery. Yes. Yeah. Aaron did I tell you about this note

Brandon  45:23

is somewhat terrifying at first, when you realize you're standing, I like to look at a milkweed was

Collin  45:30

our library in our town is one of the Lord's considered, it goes back and forth. But it's arguably the largest Carnegie Library west of the Mississippi in the running for in the running for now. We're not that far past the Mississippi. So that's what makes it kind of hard for me to believe button, that's fine. Anyway, in the back light catalog where they used to keep the library books. First off, I learned that when it was originally built, only the librarians would go back there and get you your books, you could not go back and get the book yourself as a you had to know what book you wanted, browsing was not an option. Additionally, you could not check out a file or not, you cannot check out just a fiction book. No, you had to if you got a fiction book, you had to take a nonfiction book with you.

Brandon  46:21

At some school librarians still believe this.

Collin  46:27

But then they opened up the back library stacks so that people could go in there. When they did this apparently this was like only in the 30s. When they opened up, let the peons come and touch the books. They have a basement, a first floor and a second floor. It was very, very dark in electricity, they didn't have good light bulbs and everything back there. So their solution was glass floors. Oh, on the first floor and second floor. Yes. And so when you go back there, and the reason they did this was so that the sunlight from out of the windows could come down all the way through illuminating the areas right. And so now you can go back there and walk onto these are original to this construction, not to the the library itself, because it's much older, but they built them in the 30s. And there they still are, or you to walk upon which my family says that I knew about this. However, I argue that I did not know about this, mostly because when I stepped onto it, I was terrified. And one of them is loose. I would have remembered that. However this

Aaron  47:41

is fine. As we all know Colin is very fond of fights. But

Brandon  47:45

yes and totally not clumsy at all. Now what could go wrong with glass fillers?

47:50

You're also I'm showing I'm showing Aaron pictures? Look, that's the floors. These huge panels

47:57

of though.

Collin  47:58

Yes and big tiles. Yeah, yeah, that's what the floors are. That's glass. That's

48:03

glass. A glass glass.

Aaron  48:05

Not like plexiglass fake glass.

Collin  48:08

No who have glass, just glass? No. From the 30s. Sturdy stomping around on that stuff. Potentially leaded?

Brandon  48:16

Just no,

Collin  48:17

most definitely leaded

Aaron  48:20

pass the Senate. Yeah, so that was their solution with for just for electricity

Collin  48:26

purposes, because they couldn't get the damn good lights. So they went you know, we'll do class floors. And like, it's like, you can see pretty well this. Well, now they have been how they have now. Yeah, I mean, for the time prior to glass floors. Yes. Now, you could have seen amazing

Brandon  48:42

where you could have seen? Yeah. I mean, I

Collin  48:46

don't think you're reading the book back there. But if you go and grab it and then leave. Yes. So that means that when you're on the in the basement, the ceiling is glass above you, and there's tons of windows on the first floor. So all that light comes down. And then when you're on the first floor, now you've all the windows above you are also doing that and you've got the light bulbs. So yeah, all fits together. And I found this all very fascinating. So I talked to my library, and she was very busy and wanted to go. Like, no, you will talk

Brandon  49:17

to me to show me these dabit go away. But it was also

Collin  49:22

funny because then she started talking about how they have, like, architectural students come from Kansas City in St. Louis. And like, see this, and it's part of their studies is to come out and see this old building and stuff.

49:37

I thought that was really cool.

Brandon  49:39

That it's kind of cool that they textual history in the

Collin  49:41

flesh. Yes, I that's what generally like that's what people do like for

Aaron  49:46

the Frank Lloyd Wright. Bill I didn't downtown Bartlesville people like coming like from miles and just like the building, but like being inside the building. I could see like the architectural and engineering wonders because it is an oddity in itself. So, like, the fact that this library is decision to do a let's put glass floors and it's still standing the test of time, like that is fascinating. I probably wouldn't have thought of anything of it as like, Oh, that's weird, like kept walking. But for people who like truly studied this, this, you know, art if you will. Is there any I could definitely say how they find it, you know, intriguing and fascinating.

50:27

Yes. So that's what we were doing

Collin  50:28

Trade Center Library carefully, carefully.

Brandon  50:33

Thank you for not falling through the glass learn.

Collin  50:37

How are you wrapping up your summer Brandon. I'm

Brandon  50:39

really just not doing a whole lot of anything. Susan has to go back to work before me. So but she's been working here and there anyway, go and do it and family visits, off and on. Just scattered throughout. So just trying to enjoy the last little bit of time before I have to go back and do whatever it is. I have to go back and do I have to see what sort of exciting adventures we have. But I think we will have one season as after next week.

51:11

I think Susan has to start going back and doing some stuff so we're just gonna kind of take it easy next week. Chill. That's pretty much it. Nothing really exciting other than being slightly sunburned.

Brandon  51:26

That's really all I got. Like I Yeah, mission.

Collin  51:29

My chin still is Tinder I missed I missed my champion did my cheeks my nose, my part, my forehead. messed my chin, just this nice little chick

51:38

there. So good times.

Collin  51:41

Well, I mean, that's exciting to you. You're Not You don't have to move. Rooms yourself got everything set, you're not just going back to another year to Yeah, fun

51:53

times.

Brandon  51:55

I'm just gonna go unpack when I actually had to go back for in service, because I don't want to go in

51:59

before that and mess with it. So I'm assuming

Brandon  52:05

I don't have that much impact anyway, it's all on the shelves and my shelves are so big, they don't move them. So my secret strategy is to just pile as much stuff as possible on all my shows. Not to worry about it. And so then it's fun.

Collin  52:20

It helps us you also teach geology, so rocks, rocks, that

Brandon  52:28

was like, Nah, forget that. It's too much.

52:30

Good. Good. Yeah, we have that and then that's gotta go make sure like did you put on my desks in here? Kanima. Okay, okay, good to go.

Brandon  52:41

to neighboring clashing, like steal it back.

52:43

Give me the meeting. To my table that happened one year they put it in the wrong room. I had to go hunt it down. That was annoying. Do you have them secretly labeled

Collin  52:51

or could you easily to they're not secretly

Brandon  52:53

labeled. They're definitely labeled in big masking tape with my room number in Sharpie. Oh,

Collin  52:57

so Okay. Okay. I was just curious, because all school desks kind of look the same to me. So I was wondering if how you discerned the but you had the very labeled, yeah, not

Brandon  53:09

mine. So different than the other. Anyway, a band well,

Collin  53:13

that helps, too.

Brandon  53:13

I can tell. That's mine

53:16

can be my desk. But

Brandon  53:18

yeah, also the masking tape or Sharpie helps

53:21

to really track them down. Last thing I do before I leave, label everything, meet this backhand or miss. Now,

Collin  53:35

you could do worse

53:36

through to this

Brandon  53:40

time I did integrate, I'd say about my map. I may try you know, so they didn't tell us this this year.

53:46

Because communication is fun. But

Brandon  53:51

they used to tell us to make a map for the custodial crew. So I made my map. And this year, instead of attempting to label and describe all of my furniture,

54:01

I just thought

Brandon  54:04

why don't I just gonna put I'm just going to label them all with letters. So I also just put like, this is a this is the so on my map. I draw the shapes just went a B, C, D E. Boom. Nailed it. Nice. So I was trying to some because that would be like brown desk and then I

54:23

look and be like, Oh, wait, or like, you know, light brown table.

Brandon  54:28

I have three of those. Um, dang it I'd read it didn't have enough Descriptors to to discern between my tables that look the same. So I just

54:46

this is giving me DD

Collin  54:49

vibes. Yeah, the windmill was really a

Brandon  54:53

very dead vibe. So I this is what I did is my inspiration for mapping out I have room I think the room mapping. Very, very

Collin  55:03

helpful though. Yeah.

55:06

That's yeah,

Brandon  55:08

that's what I do look forward to disambiguation going back in unpacking my stuff.

55:15

I have less impact though. So I got rid of a bunch of stuff last year. So was young girls. Nice? Yeah. Not gonna think about too much to get they're probably good. Not worried about it.

Brandon  55:28

Yeah, putting it off as long as possible, mostly putting off a lot.

55:33

That's it

55:43

Well,

Collin  55:43

would you like to dive into a book?

Brandon  55:45

And would we talk about this right, we'll finish up here a little bit with some chapter Reno's and we find the chapter that we started not no, that wasn't it? What

55:56

did we start on? 19, which is not 20. There we go. That's all right. Okay. 19 is another boring chapter. That's why

Collin  56:08

I didn't remember this is really been interesting, haven't they? As far as what is being covered? And what Twain's

Brandon  56:16

editors left in? Right. Like,

Collin  56:19

it was very interesting to see what the process was like for this. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie for this. Because

Brandon  56:27

this is more this is Sandy continuing to tell her little story thing, price as it's happening, although this time, we do have

56:35

a bit of a footnote. Right. In these minders. Did

Brandon  56:39

you have a footnote? No. Oh, no. My one footnote that well, it says it's labeled three. I don't remember. Any other footnotes. Anyway. I do have a footnote I said this. The story is borrowed language and all from the mortar tour. So this is basically just Sandy retelling some story from Thomas Mallory. Right. Like, that's what? So I think he's I think he's still pointing on the fact that this this, I think this is his critique on the writing style of Mallory, and how it's bad. Like, it's just because it's still all and then he did this. And then he did this. And then he did that. And then this happened. And so I think, these little digs of it, because again, Twain is kind of saying that this gem of these stories are not good. Right. And some of these, like random side chapters are critiques on the Arthurian stories. And here he is specifically referencing Thomas Mallory's the murderer Twitter, which is like the big collection that like everybody knows about, and was the one that was being revived at the time. Right, the one that was really popular that everybody was reading, in starting to read and gain popularity again, in the mid to late 1800s. And so I think he's this is like a very specific dig. Pad Mallory thing. You're boring, bro. Get out of here. It?

Collin  58:16

It really is. I can't I mean, I can't imagine reading that story. Because, again, when you go through this one, the number of sentences that start with, and then and then staggering. And then and then and then this is this is supposed to be, you know, a light commentary on for the wave stories had been told to maybe that's the whole point here. Yeah, I think just genuinely, the stories are boring and can be done so much better.

Brandon  58:47

Yeah. And it is kind of interesting, because he's talking about how the only other references this has to actual events. So in that regard, it is better than some of the other ones that have happened is that it is

59:03

he's saying that these

Brandon  59:06

The story is about this group of knights, which she tells him is the same group of knights that he defeated and sent back to Camelot also, and he's like, what this has happened to them before. They must not be very good at lights, right? It's just, he's just, he's also kind of talking about how this night the chapter is called Night entry as a trade. And he's kind of talking about how it's kind of not really that great is kind of like just random knight errant going on little quests here and there and wandering around the land, kind of like me. So he's trying to

Collin  59:41

be useful in some weird way. But mostly just the trade itself is wandering about. Yeah.

Brandon  59:47

Which kind of comes to in a minute because it's the it's the next chapter. Right? We come across one of his other wandering billboards. Right? So he's in the beginning of Chapter 20 we segue into there and he comes across one of his other guys is wandering billboard people where he's he's saying, you know, this is the boss, Hank here trying to like, change the idea of what a knight errant is, I think that's the reason that he picked them for advertisements, like they're already going around the country anyway, I'm gonna give them something more useful to do, than whatever the Knights are doing. Now they're going to be selling stuff to people and buying things or whatever. He's, he's changing that job. He's trying to make it appeal to himself more in what he feels he feels is like, a more useful, modern thing, right? And so this is interesting that we have those two things juxtaposed together is the last time for him like being like not answered, dumb. And then we have like, Oh, here's another one of my guys who wasn't an errand but now he's useful.

Collin  1:00:58

Because like you said, he's trying to go, Okay, well, you're wondering about anyway, why don't you actually send beat be useful to this purpose? If you're just going to be wandering Heather into there? It just makes more sense for sure. Yes, it's

Brandon  1:01:14

right. It's very weird. But the then all of a sudden, he like hits this like,

1:01:21

real serious

Brandon  1:01:23

note, all of a sudden, like right before they get to the castle that they've been going trying to get to for like, 82 Chapter that feels like, right, he starts talking about, because the guy is telling him about, you know, what he's been doing and everything in. And he,

1:01:41

he says, that

Brandon  1:01:46

he realized he has like this realization that like, what he's doing,

1:01:51

won't change people's minds. Right? And he

Brandon  1:01:56

says, I really wish I had gone some other road. This was not the sort of experience for a statesman to encounter who was planning out a peaceful revolution in his mind, for it cannot help bring up the

1:02:09

Aangan around double fact that all gentle can't philosophizing or in the world, skip it, blah, blah, he talks about how all Yeah,

Brandon  1:02:22

all revolutions that will succeed must begin in blood. And he's just like, really down? And he says, if that's the way it is, I am not the guy for this job. Right? I can't. Because he starts talking to he he's going on about this serfdom and the things and

1:02:40

all this stuff. And and he just, you know, he's

Brandon  1:02:42

realizing like, no matter, no matter of gentle prodding, will make this happen, right? There needs to be some severe thing. And he's like, I am not the type of person that is able to do that. And so he's wondering if anything that he's doing is actually useful

1:03:03

to anybody. Right? Yeah,

Brandon  1:03:08

what these folks needed then was a reign of terror and a guillotine. And I was the wrong man. For them.

1:03:13

I'm like, which

Collin  1:03:15

really makes you start to question like, the the, to what is he doing all of this then? Like, how is he like it? Yeah. When you think about if he's really, if he's really coming to the Oh, right, because he started off his stories, and his interactions in talking about how simple people were and how they were very superficial on how they process things, and all of this stuff. And he's trying to do this, like, Subversion and all this tactile, and you know, this high level stuff, and now he's going, Ah, none of this is going to get through to them. Like it's going to actually take blood and to know that like, that's, to what avail to what end, do the blue all his experiments, you know, go forward. And, you know,

Brandon  1:04:01

it's weird to me, because I just remember, it's brought on by his nightmare and encountering the people leaving the dungeons of Morgan la fey, right. Because somebody told him, Hey, there's traveling people over there, and he's like, ooh, traveling people. I'm gonna go see him. And he's like, Oh, the Oh, okay. Well, I can't tell these people anything because they don't have anything because they just been released from a dungeon. And so that I think that brings him back into a dark headspace too, because like you said, that was the darkest chapter we'd had so far.

1:04:31

So that's weird. But yeah, his

Brandon  1:04:35

his ideas kind of transition into the next section in the chapter because they do arrive at the quote

1:04:42

ogres Castle, Castle? Yes. Yeah. And oh, man. Um, yeah,

Brandon  1:04:55

so the ogres Castle

1:04:57

appears to be Some sort of hut.

Brandon  1:05:03

And the princesses that are trapped are definitely just pigs. Right and

Collin  1:05:12

has nothing but a pigsty. Yeah. pigsty with a fence around it. Uh

1:05:18

huh. Yeah. And so he like he's just like what the heck? I rode

Brandon  1:05:27

like a million days for what in the world is happening? Right and so he realizes

1:05:37

right like

Collin  1:05:39

that was Sandy start seeing something like it was not enchanted a four time how strange is this marvel and how awful that to one perception is isn't chanted indict in the base of sample aspect? And just start talking about like, how, how weird it is that this is like she's, she's surprised and distressed by the same thing too. So I wonder this is this little sidestepping her going. Well, this must be an Enchantment was a

Brandon  1:06:05

Yeah, so that's where we bleed into the next chat. Oh, right. So like, so to finish this up? He he goes, and he he quote, rescues the maidens. Yeah, he buys them from the farmers. And then she calls them by their royal names. Uh huh. And she says, We have to take them to see their family. So they're basically herding pigs. Yeah, across the countryside. They get to this other castle where they just go in. And it turns out, she doesn't actually know who owns this castle either. But she does go in and make herself at home and just let the pigs come in. I mean, princesses

Collin  1:06:43

I was also say it is it is funny how like, that he's really frustrated by this whole process, because he starts like, he's complained about how the pigs aren't even good at being herded. And being driven. He's like, they would stay in no road. No path and brush and also, yeah, it's a lot of trouble for him. Yeah.

Brandon  1:07:02

But then we get back to what we were talking about a minute ago. Right? He starts saying like, well, this is a product of, of Sandy's upbringing, because Sandy is brought up in a world that believes in enchantment and be which meant, right? He has to say like,

1:07:19

because she

Brandon  1:07:23

like it, basically it comes across as she is seeing them as maidens and he is seeing them as pigs, right. So he is basically saying, Oh, the enchantment is still upon me. So I believe you, right, I see them as pigs, but you're right. They're totally

1:07:41

princesses. Whatever the answer is, yeah. Because

Collin  1:07:45

yeah. Other otherwise, you know, he realizes, otherwise, he's gonna completely shatter. You know what the Sandy's entire, what's going on?

Brandon  1:07:55

And he talks about that. He says, Well, you know what, she crazy, blah. But it's like, No, she wasn't crazy. This is just the world that she lives in and believes. If I was going to, if I started telling her about the world that I live in, she would think I was crazy, right? If I started describing her telephones and horseless carriages and hot air balloons, and the commonplace things of his time, she would not believe him, right? He would sound crazy to her. So it's a matter of like perspective and like time in place, right? What's normal for one person is not normal for another person. And here's just amplified because we're in such different time periods. Right? And so her he's saying that oh, you you know brought are brought up in a world that believes in magic and witchcraft and hocus pocus and all this stuff. And I'm brought up in the modern age believes in science and technology. But those two things sound crazy to the other one. Right? There's no really way to like he basically decides there's no way to get her to understand what I'm coming where I'm coming from without sounding insane myself, so I'm just gonna drop it and leave it. Yeah, he says. He says,

Collin  1:09:06

Yeah, but as I was the only person in the kingdom afflicted with such in pious and criminal opinions. I recognize that it'd be good wisdom to keep quiet about this matter to basically saying he has to keep up the charade of this because he knows that if he's word gets out that he believes crazy things like the world you know, world is not flat and doesn't have pillars to support it, and bad things will befall him. There's

Brandon  1:09:29

no world turtle

Collin  1:09:31

It's turtles all the way down

Brandon  1:09:36

so anyway, they take refuge in this place. He does enjoy being out of armor and in a bed and you know, free from the constraints of night air for a moment.

1:09:47

Um,

Brandon  1:09:47

but then we like this chapter is weird too, because it's like, longer and like, it's like two things happen at the same time, which is a little bit weirder from from how it goes before but they They encounter some pilgrims, right? So they encounter some of pilgrimage, right? And they're trying to figure out what's going on. And it turns out the there's some sort of like, holy fountain in mountain question mark, and the, you know, it's a holy place of pilgrimage. And at one point in time, they had built some baths there, for people to come in bave and be free of sin and whatever. But then they that caused the flow of water to stop. So these people took that as a scientist stop bathing. Yes. And so that's what they first people ask because they're like, we heard that the flow, if this spring stopped, and someone's like, do they bathe again? And like, No, I don't think so. I think

1:10:54

so the, uh huh.

Brandon  1:10:58

So that this is the problem, right? There's their, their their pilgrimage, the Pilgrims say that where they're going to is afflicted with a problem and they can't go on the pilgrimage. And so they're, you know, he's deciding that he's gonna go see what's up, right. He wants to go see what this whole hubbub is about. Wherein as we encounter another traveling night air and billboard this one, confusingly, sells 19th century headwear. That's his thing. He sells hats, Jen, which is a plan, right? So he sells like Top Hats and bowler hats to people. Because again, his plan to end the knighthood altogether is to make them look ridiculous. So by making them wear suits of armor and top hats, jaunty hat, he says, maybe people will just stop all this nonsense because it looks so goofy, so. So he says, his night guy tells him oh, we're, uh, you know, when they were trying to find you, boss because, you know, they wanted to see if your magic would help. But they found so they sent a note to Camelot. But Merlin heard about it and he's going there instead. To which Hanks responses. Oh, yeah, watch this. And he writes some kind of like weird letter in one of the hats and says, Alright, buddy, take this back to Clarence. He'll know what to do. Yes.

Collin  1:12:32

Yes. inside of his head, chemical departments laboratory extension section. G AI. Yeah. It's

Brandon  1:12:39

real confusing. Scripts. stuff here.

1:12:42

Yes. Yeah. Just sent because

Brandon  1:12:47

we know he has some sort of manufacturing up and running. What exactly this particular manufacturing is, we don't really know. But he's, you know, send first two sighs number two of number three and six of number four. You're like, wow, it is happening. So he's gonna go, he's gonna go up here. And I feel I sense another miracle happening, right? I feel like it's over going. I feel like that's what happened. That's what I'm sensing. I'm sensing another miracle coming. Right. We're going to show up Merlin again. Perhaps that's my prediction, because I didn't read it. Read the next chapter right now. Okay. I was making sure I read the right number of chapters but so that's my Yeah, cuz the next chapter is the holy fountain. So we're gonna see. See, what's up? What is what is this scheme he's hatched to fix the water? Will he humiliate Merlin again? I think that might be a bonus. Right? I think it's gonna be but it's he's gonna fix the water for the monks. But I think the harness is making Merlin look foolish. Right. I think that's his other goal here. So we'll see. But I feel

1:13:57

another miracle coming on. I

Brandon  1:14:00

don't know. It's just kind of where I'm feeling right. I don't know much about where this story is headed. But I really feel in some shenanigans with the miracles happening in the next chapter. So we'll see. Yeah,

Collin  1:14:14

I still have no idea where this where this is going to go. Because I kind of I keep expecting Hank to have a downfall and for Hank to like, really stick his foot in it.

1:14:28

But as of yet, yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I

Brandon  1:14:32

don't really know. I don't know about the Hank character arc. It's a little bit weird. I will

Collin  1:14:37

I also don't know if that's part of like, part of the story in that like, in the night Arutz tale, the night can do no wrong and like has all these things that just happen and let's try his luck. Is Hank going to become that character might be that just all these miraculous things happen. And we get to see the behind the stories of like, well, it really wasn't that miraculous and it was kind of like messy, old way through and whatever I don't know,

Brandon  1:15:01

it could be, it could be just one commentary on that, right? That could be part of it. Because a lot of it is like social commentary reading between the lines, but I feel like that could be another thing like, where he's talking about like sci fi stories where there is no character development or not good. Like I wrote one for you and see how it's not that great. Yeah, I will. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see what he says to say, right, we'll see. But at least there's gonna be at least one more miracle coming in the next couple of chapters. It may take him forever to get to it, but we'll see how long

Collin  1:15:34

or it might not because some again, some of these things, it's just like, well, like whenever you blew up the tower, he's like, so anyway, I had a man working on it for a little bit and now it's done and that's fine. So anyway, and and now the water flows so great. I'm pretty meaning Yeah, so we'll see. So do you have a quote for us? Right, do

Brandon  1:15:54

Do you have the Mark Twain quote of the week right. Do the right thing. It will gratify some people, and astonish the rest? Damn not too bad. Not too bad. I also do have a surprise haiku Friday is my roof. Raikou I didn't remember this until like, right before we started doing this, so I run it

Collin  1:16:26

late. Today was your Haiku. Yeah.

Brandon  1:16:31

I thought you did one last week. Oh, hold on. Let me look at this. Let me look at this. This year. Oh, I did one last week. All right. Nevermind. It's your week. I'm gonna throw mine away.

Collin  1:16:52

About the shark IQ. Yeah. Well, I too. Forgot about the Haiku. So I wrote not too long ago. So this is my Haiku. Laura. Here we go. Quiet Lake waits, my line dances, fish scoring me MT hook returns

Brandon  1:17:17

as good as some deep personal connection right there based on not based on real events. Oh, yeah. No, of course not. Not based on true story.

Collin  1:17:26

So save yours.

Brandon  1:17:32

I'll probably have to fix it and make it better because I was rushing. So I may be come come with a better one. Who knows? Okay,

Collin  1:17:41

well. All right. We will do that then. All right, say bye bye.