not how sentences work
Brandon is updated. Collin experienced train enthusiasts. We get a haiku.
Brandon is up to date!
Kobe went on an adventure
Collin witnessed a Quinceanera
Also didn’t drink enough water
School carnival trepidation
Train enthusiasts
Brandon’s haiku
Crickets quickly crawl
Wind and rain lash the window
Leaves still on the grass
Collin’s train haiku
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
PROVIDED BY OTTER.AI
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
train, scale, bluebells, kobe, haiku, diorama, cool, today, photos, talking, work, heard, table, car, crickets, remember, trees, texas, ran, carnival
SPEAKERS
Collin, Brandon
Collin 00:04
Welcome to Oh, brother, a podcast of three brothers trying to figure it all out. Is your host, Brandon. Colin. Aaron. On this week show. That's not how sentences work. Hello. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. You all update?
Brandon 00:25
Apparently, I heard doesn't tell you anything at all. And then when you try to use it like one time it's like oh, mandatory updates. Sorry loser minute, 90 years to do this and then it's like do you want to sync with your Google net? No, I just give you the Meeting button point. Oh, no. No, don't do that. No. Just want to stop. I don't think so. It's working now. There we go. Yay. Here we are. Yes.
01:03
Welcome, welcome.
Brandon 01:06
Okay, wait. Okay, nevermind. We still there. I'm here. I'm not gonna pushing more buttons till we're done. So huh? Yes. No. Oh, no. What happened? I was just trying to close a window. And it's like, leave meetings like No, no, no, no. See?
01:20
See now soon. You'll be muting me and then I have to have you yourself.
Brandon 01:25
Oh, yeah. That mysterious thing? Yes. So I'm just going to minimize everything and just not touch it. That's gosh, oh, man. I don't know. Well, we
01:43
had we had quite a late night adventure.
Brandon 01:45
Oh. So
01:50
Kobe is an old dog. And recently has been really just who just wants to go out on our back deck, we've got some stairs can't really go down or up those at all anymore? He goes on his back on the back deck. And he he does his businesses ready to come back inside. So that's fine. Every now and then we will not. Then we'll take him down into the yard carry him down and do this stuff. But if it's in the evenings, he just wants to go out do his business on the deck. We clean it up and we go from there. Right? It's just he's a small old dog and he doesn't want to go far. So yeah, we he paced by the back door, we knew we needed to go out we let
Brandon 02:30
them out. Make an eye or are talking. And then I go Well, I I gotta get upstairs. So I'll go get coffee. Can I step out? And
02:41
can we squeezed out on the back deck anymore?
Brandon 02:45
And I'm like, well, he is probably scamper down the steps. He's in the backyard. And then I go down the steps and I turn around the corner and I noticed the gate that goes across our driveway is a wide open know Kobe? Oh, no. So I scampered up the steps. And I said Megan, I need some help. Like what? Like what's going on? I was like, Kobe is off a midwinter. She was like what? Oh my gosh. How did Kobe Open the gate? That's what we really need to know. Well,
03:30
what are the docks in open? What had happened was, was it just had the car in
Brandon 03:39
earlier and just ever shot it? Oh,
03:48
that was bad on us. Bad on us. And so he just saw I'm like, Okay, well, one. It's like, really, there's a lot of leaves in our neighborhood. We live in a very mature neighborhood. There's ancient trees all around us. Very Leafy, David. Very, very leafy neighborhood neighborhood. And so I'm like, I'm just gonna, you know, I'm just gonna stop and listen. I'm gonna listen. It's pitch black. I can't hear anything. And, and Kobe is you know, he's an old dog and he's kind of unstable. So he's just going to be, you know, rocking around. And sure enough, I just hear this
Brandon 04:32
I shined my flashlight and II had made it all the way down our driveway, all the way across the road and was standing in the neighbor's yard. What the heck man? Did he look real guilty like he tried to run he tried
04:53
to run away from me when
Brandon 04:58
he's used to do that. She was really annoying. She would do that all the time he would do that she would get out and then she would be running around the yard and like, she would do that to her. She'd never went anywhere ever. Now ever. And then every once in awhile, you'd be like, Alright, come on, and then she would just like, take off like, what were you? What do you know? That's not how this works like. I was
05:24
standing there,
05:26
and he was just doing every everything his little body could do just evade me and I was like, Oh,
Brandon 05:31
come back. You're like ah, and he was just he was just
05:38
the proudest dog in the world. His tail was wagging so much. He had gone on his little little wiener wolf adventure across the
Brandon 05:49
across the road.
Collin Funkhouser 05:50
Oh my gosh, I was so glad I made it across the road safe. That's terrible. Now, I will add that we do not live on a busy road. It is a side as a side road to a side road and it doesn't get much traffic on it. But yes, still, your heart drops whenever you see your little tiny, tiny black dog in the dark. On the other side of the road you like
Brandon 06:15
to hang out there good. So angry. So we
06:25
bring little guy implementing some new protocols
Brandon 06:29
for getting him you know, gate closure, a closure. The eight closure protocols. Yes, he was. Oh, that's just yeah, that just happened a little while ago. Well, how fun is that?
06:50
Yeah, he came in and then all of a sudden, like, Okay, now he's gonna be restless like we get him inside and now he's like, No, I can't settle down. I tasted freedom. I kind of pace Yeah, I just got like, he's like, you could tell he was like, worked up. He's ready. Ready to go?
Brandon 07:08
Looking at him, I remember this tomorrow. I want to get the leash out, buddy. I hear like Nah, I'm not going to move and are they playing coy with me little guy. Try not to try not to I want to make you walk all the way down the in the block.
07:26
Like we know you can now don't try and play this.
Brandon 07:30
Sleepy. Pick me up. Yeah, that's it. Your cover has been blown. Good sir. Cloud messed up. Notice what you can do so now
07:43
Yeah, it's like the superhero who's trying to not trying to be go under the render the radar and they just can't help it but catch, you know, the speeding bullet or the spilling lunch tray. Right at school. Yeah, I mean, everyone's like exactly like that right now with
Brandon 08:05
kind of, you know. That's great. Yeah. I'm glad you have re wrangled him. And hopefully he can contain the wandering that is. Yeah, that will mean he Yeah, so yeah, that's,
08:27
we'll see what happens with that. But that was a that was just like I said, I was just like, Okay, I'm gonna open the door and go get Kobe and do
Brandon 08:36
huh? What is? What is this? Nope, it's gone. Can Happen instead people happen in an instant. I'm glad that you have discovered him. He's back. Hopefully not to go flying away. But you know, it's fine. Can't can't always control the Wiener wolves. That's true. They're very wily. You know, as Yes. As is known. That's, that was
09:11
our our fun adventure. We just went on.
Brandon 09:14
Well, that's pretty exciting. I don't really know I got everything else? Ah, yeah, we haven't had any adventures. We went to the we just went around town today a little bit into the antique mall, did the things like that, you know, out about dropped off the recycling. Not very exciting. Real, real awkward moment at the antique store. Right? It was like this dude in there. Right? He's just like, real brash. And like, Yo, like, trying to ask the dude at the counter, like how much things cost? And it's like, that's not how teams work. First of all, because every single item in the store is owned by a different person. So you can't do that. He was like being like super loud and super obnoxious. He was like, talking to that guy. And he's like some lady was walking by we started talking to her. And at one point, it was really kind of funny because she was standing there doing something, and he was talking. And she just turned around. He goes, Are you talking to me? He's like, Yeah, she goes, Why? Wow. Because he was being playful at this ridiculous. And it was really awkward. I was like, in the back of the store, and I could hear him just carry God. I was like, ah, oh, making this Oh, not a fun place to be for anyway. I hate that's that's terrible. When they're making it weird on everything weird. Like, what? Go away? Why? That was fun. That was my adventure day. Weird dudes. Making a scene in a flea market. For some reason. I don't know why you would still wife. Yes. Trying to avoid him? Because I probably wouldn't have said nice things to him. So I was like, No, I'm just gonna stay back here. Hide in the corner. Attend avoid conflict. Right. I don't want to be. Oh, we had
11:28
we had a Kevin and Kyle and their families up here today. Oh, or an adventure where we had had lunch at the house. They
Brandon 11:37
ran across the road as well. Like where did Kevin go? He stayed out yard looking at you like what? Well,
11:45
think about like, do we need do we need to because this is like a lot of our clients do this with their little dogs. They put glow in the dark like those crack, glow in the dark bands, whatever that you get. Oh, yeah, the little like little do things there for like bracelets for kids? Yeah, yeah, they have those. And they'll make little that they put that on the dog's neck or like a collar when they go out at night. And I think this is what Kobe needs. But no, we didn't do that. But we did. We want to do a couple things. We want to go to the old train depot to go through that museum and read about some of the cool stuff. And I was reminded yet again, what a cool town this place was back in the 30s and 20s. The we hadn't I realized that we hadn't remembered we had an electric cable car, electric cable card that went through downtown extensive system of cable cars here in the area. He's, which is amazing. And then did I tell you where like to once these, these all shut down in 1935. And then the rails were torn up and distributed about through town. And as in many old towns, these were repurposed across the city. And there's a building next to us where it was built in the late 30s. After this, to all these cable cars had been torn out. And instead of doing traditional trusses for the floor, the of like, you know, playing the big word, you know, big two by 10s or whatever to create this all yems Dangerous used old lengths of the cable car railing color underneath this bill ice to support it. And so it's kind of cool to know like that kind of history. It's like right over there and everything. But yeah, we did the the depot, ran around dare talk to a bunch of people. And then we went hiking up at the lodge. Because Mr. Mr. Bothwell had lots of money. And he was a little eccentric, like many of the wealthy people back in the 30s. Were right where they were like, I don't know what to do with all this money. Let's build a chateau inspired lodge in the Ozarks. That'd be fun, wouldn't it? I
Brandon 14:08
think like many people with too much money anyway, become weird. And they're just like, I don't know what to do. I know. Bill, the Chateau right, this
14:18
radio ad saw, it's beautiful. And now it's a it's a it's a state park. So you can go there and, and hike and see beautiful things. And while we were there,
Brandon 14:29
this limousine pulls up and
14:33
out, then two other cars pulled in around it. And then out popped this little drone and this little drone went full. And it's hovering. And of course, this stock. This is quite, you know, and this is not something I normally encounter in my day to day operations. And so we all stop and we're looking and I'm like, I don't know what's about to happen, but this is gonna be kind of fun,
Brandon 14:55
I think. I think maybe
14:59
we're all So we all stop, and the limo driver gets out, walks around opens the door, and then this person starts to stand up. And they have this beautiful crown. And this huge, huge like, out of this world blue dress. And then I noticed that other people start getting out of the limo as well. And I grab Lillian tannic grab nose hat. And I'm like, right,
Brandon 15:29
it's totally about this happening. I've heard tell this legendary time.
Collin Funkhouser 15:48
And so we watched this, this, this young lady and her her group, I don't know what they do if there's a technical term for her entourage that are accompanying her, but they're all in somewhat matching attire and the cool boots, and I was like,
16:05
gather round. That story. I've heard tell us. It was just, it was cool. We were at the end of it was at the end of our hike. And so it was we were all cooling down anyway. So it was neat to see this going on. And you know, everybody's talking about it and seeing her and her and her and her day going about this. But me and the photos were taking very long time
16:35
to get everything. Okay, cool.
16:38
Yeah. So I guess I was Yeah.
Brandon 16:41
I've heard tell. Yeah, yeah. So there you go. That's where those big pictures on the tables come from. That's where they're gonna mystery solved. Whenever you know, the time where you walk in for the dinner part. There's like this table, where you put like, presents things and then there's just like these giant pictures everywhere. Turns out, that's where yeah, they have photoshoots in the middle of the Chateau apparently.
17:18
In the fall in there. Yeah. Yeah. On the on the edge of the cliff.
17:23
Yes. So and then, and then we as we were leaving, we saw another family doing their fall photo shoots in the field, as well. I was like, Oh, here's like this is a popular place to go. Okay, everybody dropped the camera out.
17:38
Remind me of when we were in Texas. Texas is very well is known for its bluebells. And as named by the ice cream. And yes, you know, bluebells are beautiful flowers found in some of the native prairies and things like that of Texas. And they also grow with a very hardy as well, so they grow around the Metroplex animal cities. And so, if you go into anybody's house in Texas, chances are you will see a family portrait of them sitting in a field of bluebells. And just like the median
Brandon 18:14
of the highway. It is what you said Hardy was like, I bet you've ever down the road. There's dudes in the ditch, like laying.
Collin Funkhouser 18:25
Yeah. And when you really think about it, you're like, peace. People aren't driving an hour outside of the city. You're just suffering so when the bluebells are in season, you just see cars on the side of the highway and families running across six lanes of traffic to go and take pictures in the bluebells. And the problem is is that the cops get called on these people. And so the the photographers are like you want bluebells? I got bluebells here's what we're going to do. And it's like this like stealth photography. It's like, everybody runs out they sit they snap these photos. And so it's like it's so funny to think of these nice close intimate photos and this beautiful background of the bluebells when all around it is 12 lanes of highway and like massive amounts of of cars going everywhere in like a very, very dense urban setting. But you look at it on their little on their kitchen counter on the water dining room. You're like oh, how idyllic Oh, it's so fresh.
Brandon 19:26
It's layered. That's right. That's this stuff photography thing reminds me when we did our engagement photos right so 100 years ago at this point, actually ah we we were we were driving we were cuz we were like we're gonna do the guy was like we're gonna do some here. I will drive over to this other place and we'll do some there right well, and so we were just following him you know? And then we were gonna go back to his house slash studio and do like that portrait things like in his little boy tries to do that he had set up in his house, but we're driving, and all of a sudden he just like, turns around, pulls into this place. And we're like, okay, and he was like, he just got out was like right there. And it was like, the side of like some old store. Right? It was like a brick wall, like an old store thing. And it brands it somewhere. And he was just like, here. We just got out and we sat by the thing and took a bunch of pictures. And I really good, but like, yeah, that's how that happened with you is like, literally driving. He's like, Ah
20:46
yeah,
20:46
it looked fantastic. And I know in these settings, where it's like, you just got to do what you got to do. But it's it was it's very funny to think about that in that setting of like, yeah, like, no one else knows that story of just exactly. What's, what's going on, or whatever. But,
Brandon 21:03
but how do you know?
21:05
How do you get those photos? Well, sometimes
Brandon 21:10
that side of the interstate, or the site or some random store, Branson, where your photographer just veers off suddenly
21:25
that was that was our cool, cool sighting. Nice that. And that was that was pretty much our day. It was a I did not drink enough water. So I had a
Brandon 21:38
cake dad had a
21:42
massive headache. I tried to take a nap between like four and five to try and get it to go away. Yeah, I was like, Oh, well, I did it again. Like I'm just like, get busy. And I'm doing all this stuff. And then I'm like, then all of a sudden I get this like little bit of a 10 twing twing in my mid neck twinge. Because I don't know a Twain like it's
Brandon 22:04
2020 is like how you sing bluegrass music. I would imagine you're not gonna do and ah, do you? Does your neck all of a sudden be like, Wait, you're saying I was rocking? Which,
22:17
speaking of which, no joke. Today as we were waiting for our guests to arrive I heard
Brandon 22:24
heard me say Alexa, play Rocky Top. Oh, no. Ah. We got Oh no. These will be greatly distressed by this. Does not not bluegrass fan. So naturally. I always do my best Bill Monroe voice when I sing them because she really doesn't like the Susan's least favorite thing about bluegrass music is the singing like the really nasally Yeah, She despises it with a fiery passion. So naturally, I always sing in that manner to her. She loves it greatly.
23:06
It's I think it's genuinely required at all times. Yes.
Brandon 23:17
So yes, I'm so now I'm guzzling, guzzling water. Well fit into commercial breaks this this episode listeners is Collins brings to the bathroom for drinking gallons of water all at once. Always a good plan. Yes, nothing. Nothing could go wrong. That's what's good to know. Or it's not this was not Oh, my week has not been very exciting. In general, I we haven't really done much at all. I realized this. So we're having the trauma that I'm having currently is we are the school and we the school is hosting a school carnival this year, for the first time since 2019, I think. Okay. And so, so we haven't done it a long time. I dislike the school carnival immensely. Well, I mean, I have to stay after school. Till like 730. So that's not fun. I have to like, do things like the grade levels have to host carnival league games. Right. And so we have to do that. What? Traditionally, the sixth grade like sells food. I thought they've always done and this year they're like, Hey, you can't sell any food like that. This Oh, oh, no. Well, Carnival is on Friday, next Friday. And I don't know what we're gonna do.
25:16
Oh, no.
Brandon 25:20
has come up with a carnival game this week that I don't want to do anyway. So it's really hard to be highly motivated and try to find like something that makes something cool and interesting when you don't want to be there. Not very passionate. Not we don't have eat. Okay. And, and the lady. Well, the lady was like, because we were joking. We're like, do we have to be there? She goes, No. Are you sure about that? She's like, Yeah, I'm in charge of PTSO. I can you know, you guys want to comment? Like, I don't? I don't think that's true. You should probably ask about that. Because there's nothing that we would like more than to not come. But I don't think that's an option. Right? I'm holding, you may think you're in charge of things. That's not how this is gonna go. I promise you. Oh. Turns out I was correct. So I'd have to go. But I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know what I'm gonna carnival. I mean, it does? I don't know. I don't
26:39
know. I'm trying to figure
Brandon 26:40
out how to have to look at I'm gonna have to look at the there's a spreadsheet somewhere that was shared with me. Probably providentially that. It's like what other people are doing, because like, I can't do those things, obviously. But yeah, we always sold hotdogs. And then we were informed that you're not allowed to sell hotdogs. Is this is this health codes? stuff? No, no, no, no, it's because selling food makes the most money. And the PTSO organization itself wants to sell the concession. Well, that's lame. I mean, yeah. But like,
27:22
it doesn't all the money go to the same place?
Brandon 27:27
Yeah, well, so except for if the whatever grade level the money makes, like, Wait, hold on. That's not how sentences work. Whatever money the grade level makes, there we go that tracks. They keep it and it goes into like an expense account that they can use for field trips and stuff. Oh, wow. So like, Yeah, like that. It's not your fault that you guys have a good day. Right? Like, that's fine. Oh,
28:05
I agree.
Brandon 28:06
I know this.
28:08
Okay. Okay. I just
Brandon 28:12
this is one of the things we haven't done it in like, four years. And then the people that are writing it are like, all new and they never bothered to ask anybody like what happened before, right? Like that. Nobody bothered. Nobody ever bothers to ask like, Hey, what happened in the past? Like, nobody cares about that. There's like, I envision this like, no, no, no, I don't know, if you start saying the word envision. I'm out. Okay. I don't want any part of that conversation. Here's what I envision, like I was leaving, right? How do you know that I'm out. So that's what? Like, nobody asked anybody else. There's like, oh, yeah, we'll do this. Why? So that's not fun. I don't want to go to school. Because it's really not very exciting. And like, it's not really fun. And say, they're ready day watching the kids, like throw a thing or whatever. It is not really. Super exciting. So not looking forward to that.
29:20
I'm trying to think of ways to help brainstorm this to get you some, some idea Janowitz you're gonna have access to
Brandon 29:27
I don't even know what room I'm gonna be doing this in. Like, nobody has assigned us a room. Nobody said this is where you're gonna be like, I have no idea. It can't be in one of our rooms because they're not using our building for the thing. It's that that side of the school is going to be like closed. So like, I can't be in my own space. So I don't know where I am. Go. Oh,
30:01
yeah. Which
Brandon 30:03
is also problematic. Like, I don't know where it was just so I don't really know. I don't know, again, I have to there's a list somewhere of like other games people are doing so they can't have you can't have duplicate games. Right? You know? So like, I don't remember. Yeah. You don't want to have like, three people doing? Like, Plinko that would be boring. Three Plinko rooms like lame sauce, but that would be very exciting. So I don't know. I don't actually know. So, yeah, they come up with a carnival game this week. Which you could do?
30:56
I mean, I don't I don't know what I mean. Do you? Have you been given a budget to do or like?
Brandon 31:04
No, like, you have to? Are you?
31:06
Are you footing the bill for this? I guess. I
Brandon 31:09
think that's probably how it gonna work. Ah, although I imagine if I Well, yeah, I so I want to be obviously, this needs to be something that can be made, like, in no time. And with no dollars, and I'm going to have to buy prizes as well. I'm gonna have to buy some stupid like, Yeah, I'm they're gonna be like, they're gonna do a thing. And like, give out candy. I am probably responsible for buying this candy, which is what I'm thinking like
31:43
a balloon pop would be really easy. But yeah, but then I'm like, but not because you got to get something like, yeah, you got to get you have to get a piece of a board that you have to transport there. Yeah, and you.
Brandon 31:57
There's things that I have currently in my possession, I have some rings from something. I don't really know. Like ring toss rings. I have ring toss rings. I also have a great number of ping pong balls for some reason. So I feel like this is important. For I feel like this is the way to go ahead here. I feel like that's ah, so you
32:31
could know well, okay, so you have the ring, the top of the Rings, but those are stationary and you just label them with different points. And you have to I don't know you situate those on top of something. So they have to get the ball through the ring. Rather than better because yeah, like you have to toss it landed in the ring thing. Yeah. Or, or have them be good. Yeah, except I know that part of the ping pong is are going to bounce. So you have
Brandon 32:59
a guy is more exciting. Yeah. Harder. Because if there is at least a table somewhere, that could work, right? Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser 33:11
Yeah. And either either that or roll them or something or, oh, yeah, yeah. Or blow them or you could do that they would have to blow the ping pong from one thing to the other and then has to go a set distance or whatever. Like you could do that too. Like they have to crouch down and that's grosses me spit
Brandon 33:31
I don't want to do that right the whole reason we stopped having a condo was because it COVID I don't want to keep COVID ping pong balls would be gross. Like I don't
33:39
Yeah, I think like a ping pong toss into into buckets or something thing in the
33:47
would be a good idea.
Brandon 33:52
I see how many different size beakers that I have.
33:59
Not well, because then you can have
34:02
like a variation of skee ball, right basically. You have them up there. Yeah.
Brandon 34:10
Okay. Look at this app. offered to the high school be like hey, do you have any like the court ones like the big The this is? This is all coming together. Like this. Okay, so it'd be funny, then. Yeah, they could arrange a mountain thing? Uh huh. Uh huh. He goes those games like throwing games are good because number one, we have like real little kids. You can just put them like, oh, you stand here, right like and then whenever you have like the secret kids, you got you guys stand way over there.
34:54
You can kind of change.
Brandon 34:57
Yeah, so changing the difficulty for the Kids is, is very simple. So that would be good to rip my closet what cup shaped containers do I throw these like a skee ball. But they could like bounce it instead. But you could still send them out. Like in a round? Yes. Yes. Yeah, this is necessary. Okay. Well, I think it about this. Yeah. I like this. I have a big I have a burner stand that has the circle. Because like syrup. Yes. Yeah. Do you make it through? It's like a big, like, put it way up high. See? Just suspend it from the ceiling. Yeah, go. Oh, that you could do that. You could have a lab. Yes. Science. Pong. I don't know how this works.
Collin Funkhouser 36:06
Because, I mean, what's hard is to be able to judge like, because then what I was thinking of is you could hang the, the rings from the ceiling at different heights. And some of them aren't that big, though. Yeah, but that's that's the problem. And then also, it's hard to know if they actually made it through or not. Oh, well, then we got to get a bag on the other end to catch it in.
Brandon 36:30
That gets a bit. That's a bit annoying. Yeah, I think we just have a cup that is lazy to go. Ah, yes. Yeah, see? I look at that report. I think not really not very excited about any of that. That's not going to be fun in the slightest. So that is that I have trepidation carnival trepidation. So we
37:04
we we started this morning by going to a train Expo
Brandon 37:11
very rail theme day for you, hasn't it? It has so, um,
37:18
we this is something that's helped us to hosted once a year here in town as as our convention hall. And vendors come in local and from far away to sell their wares of of train related things.
Brandon 37:37
It does it does cost to get whistles in a no, no, no. Like, like, model trains. Oh, like, like,
37:47
here's diorama pieces. Yeah, yes, exactly. So he's Gail. Stuff things. Yeah. So this is this is the Oh, no, here's this very rare. And Jen released something something thing, like, what these are all, they're all, they're all trained enthusiasts, very much, very much. So of the train enthusiast variety. So that we paid to get in to go and see everything. And yeah, it's just rows and rows and rows, and rows of training. And, of course, before we left, I was like, okay, like, I know, it's very important that we know a few things about our current train set. Because otherwise, I'm not going to know what we're doing once we arrive, like being very overwhelmed. So I actually had Megan's Take, take photos of like the box, the train came in, I was like, this will help. Now. It is we have a Akito train set, which means that many, many, many of the words are in Japanese, which is kind, which I don't read, but just by
Brandon 38:56
Google Translate does. And so, but
38:59
I did know that we have and we are in scale, we have the in scale of train.
Brandon 39:05
Oh good. Yes. Ah, yes. Because
39:10
that is is very important that you know, this know this because if you don't, um, things get very, very high.
Collin Funkhouser 39:20
But in I learned is not the smallest scale that is the Z scale. OZNHO H O is like the bread and butter. This is what everybody does. They all love. h2o. Because a gas it's like the size that it's larger, large enough to like, make an impact. But also it's not so large because after h h o you get oh, and then large scale and these are like the ridiculously huge models, model trains that are operating. They're like, Oh, here's an engine and it's the size of half of my You know, yeah.
Brandon 40:03
Right, like, yeah,
40:04
long model. And so we have in and it was kind of cool jumping forward a little bit here is that they always have a train table set up with running trains up on the stage. And so they had a one person had a Z scale train set set up in a suitcase. Nice. So they had a traveling suitcase that they had opened up like that clamshell suitcase type is hard. And it was a Z scale. And I was like, Oh, hey, that's actually like that's, that's a great design. And then so anyway, we arrived and we're looking and Noah had some money from his his birthday and he knew he was like, he wanted to get some one thing he want to get one thing for his train and one thing for his for the table is what's his what's his thought process? Ah,
Brandon 41:00
yes. And so
41:01
we arrived and we're walking around and these I will let you guess the age demographics of the vendors. There are 70 Yes. They are all of a type that is when I will. Oh,
Brandon 41:22
yeah. They're all old dudes. Possibly wearing overalls. Are they doing the doing the thing? Were they wearing the overall overalls in the blazer?
41:34
This one no, I did not see a blazer today. Unfortunately,
Brandon 41:37
sometimes they do that too. That's like overalls and like, but it's not like a it's like it's like an old style blazer like it's not like fashionable. It's like a weird, like a weird like, plaid. Wool thing. How many pocket watches Did you see today? Two? Oh my gosh, only two. Now I will say do we worship? We were only there for 35 minutes. Okay. Okay. So they were probably more. Yes. Were they get the overalls though? Yes. Okay, good. All right.
Collin Funkhouser 42:13
So we, we, we came in, we knew we wanted we needed an inscale. And Noah thought this was very easy to remember because his name starts with an N. So N Z T is
Brandon 42:23
correct. That is
42:27
very, very good to remember what we have. If we had an H O. I don't know what we would do.
Brandon 42:33
Yeah. H O. Home we have the home train.
42:41
Owners train. Yeah, a lot. So we, we went in and interestingly, actually, this is the today was the second day and as many days that we had gone to the keep the depot here in town, because we were there yesterday, which is fine. Lots of stuff to do about it. Where we learned we learned about the M K T line, the Missouri Kansas Texas rail that used to run and this was pretty fascinating.
Brandon 43:16
I like Uncle Oklahoma what not that though the word like it's not real Missouri, Kansas, Texas. That's because those States border? Yes. All of them all of them.
43:31
No ugly, tight. No air gaps.
Brandon 43:33
Yeah. Can you tell that Kansas and Texas don't both like they both are like Oklahoma? So he's got it as a whole deal.
43:39
It is a group effort, for sure. And so we we showed up and he had the idea to he want to find something with MKT on it, which I thought was pretty cool that we could like write like, true. Thanks. Here we are, like we've learned about it. Now let's go find this. And sure enough, we found several many, many MK T branded boxcars, and trains and cabooses of the ilk. And like, so we what's tough is it is just a mass of stuff. I mean, on tables under tables, and they do their best. Yeah. categorized, and they try and categorize them somewhat by scale.
Brandon 44:26
But like,
44:28
for me, anyway, it's still very confusing to figure out like, what am I looking at? Where do I need to go and people asking you like, oh, like, one lady was like, Are you ah, oh, and my brain was like, I'm sorry, what? And I just pretended like I didn't hear her. And I said, I'm sorry. What? Because I didn't know what she was referring to. He made no sense to me in this context. And then she said, Are you are you are you a Joe? And I realized that's a scale of train like no, I
Brandon 44:54
brain I ran all the way.
44:57
Oh, no, no, we're looking for it. And she was like, Oh, I'm sorry, I don't have any of that I haven't had chance to walk around. And that's okay. I'm worried about well, we'll just we're just looking. And so we did lots of like, no stopping and looking, holding something up and go, can I get this? And I was like, not the right scale. And so just asking the vendors like, Hey, do you have any in it just not being afraid to do that? Because it's like, yeah.
Brandon 45:24
You know, not going to that they don't care. Right. If they don't have it. They're gonna be fine. And so we, and sometimes they're like, no, but if you go down there, yes, he's got some like,
45:37
yep. And that was one guy was like, I think Donnie usually has some in from over there and blah, blah, blah. We we found one and then course no was like, Okay, well, here we are, I found in and me being like, well, let's, you know, let's go. Let's remember where we are here. But let's go look other places. Let's go find other things. Because then the other other thing is that we not all the connectors work for all of the train bottle. So how the pieces connect is not the same, like they will sometimes generally work. But there is there are ones that are have a very square coupler, and then others are very round. And these are a little
Brandon 46:20
piece of wire. I'll fix that. All the trainees are going to hate me right there.
46:28
Yes, you anathema
Brandon 46:32
to this. So we
46:36
went in and found actually a Cato setup of a person who's selling these things. So I was like, Uh, huh. Look, and they had the MKT stuff. And he got very excited and then went and brought over a train engine to me and was like, I would like this train engine. And I said, I don't we're not going to spend $145 right now on the train engine. That may be a future
Brandon 47:06
How about this sick boxcar though? I
47:09
found the boxcar and he was all about no we found appetite. We found a caboose with MKT
Brandon 47:16
this does not have a caboose. Currently there yet, so we got it taken care of. I felt like I feel like I would be the worst train diorama. Set or upper ever. Right? Oh, cuz Why would be like? I mean, well, I mean, the only the only time the only previous experience I have with trainset is I did with the help of dad make a DeLorean to put on the train tracks have gone back to the future three. So already, you can see listeners where my brain goes, but you, you just hit boxcars like bro, I would just get a boxcar. And then I would put it in the woods. And then I would get some little children and put it in. Now, I don't know, I might be full of that stuff. Right? Just
48:16
Well, so here's the references until
Brandon 48:18
they get a sense. Like, I would definitely have a little hobo on my train. Right? Right for No.
48:27
Or training hopper. Like you'd have a guy that you would just move around your diorama constantly. I
Brandon 48:31
just move around all like that, dude, I'm like, shy like the dude on the internet, right? Just play him kill him. I was putting on my train, like every couple of days is moving around, like put them over there, like on a shelf. But like shy and yeah, on the trail.
48:48
But yeah, we were talking to this lady. And she was she's all about the inscale. But she didn't have any there she does in her husband is all about h2o. And as we talked about, like, some of the reasons and one of the reasons she likes in is because you can make very complicated diagramas. So if you are trying to add something with a ton of detail, that's what people typically do. In scale. Really ate it. Yeah. Ah, because you can. Everything is very small. And so you can pack in a bunch of it stock. So
Brandon 49:21
there's a lot more things you can guess. Okay. This is what I was kind of thinking, but I wasn't
49:27
sure. Yep. And so she was started to talk about like, oh, there's a table over there like you can get and that's here's the other thing. I'm like, yeah, he's a diorama. You have to, quote unquote, have to buy the appropriate. Yes, it's scaled everything else. Right. So like, do you go to a table which we did, and we found the H O scale chickens and then the inscale chickens. And I was like, I was like, I really appreciate that. We are currently using magnet blocks to build our train station. So, scale consistency is not a big concern of ours
Brandon 50:05
yet yeah, not yet yet.
50:07
We're just you know, building with this stuff and information and so no no's diorama I am really thrilled like he he did it all himself.
Collin Funkhouser 50:18
He we have some gravel so he has a quarry over on one side he's using using some trucks and dump trucks and and a front end loader that he had to set the quarry into place. We had hit got a bunch of trees for his birthday to put on the table. And so he has some trees trees displayed around. But then he also wanted to make the Missouri Department of Conservation. So he actually put a bunch of stuffed a bunch of these trees into the bed of an 18 Wheeler that we had a nice he also has a crane. And so he made the crane grab a hold of one of the trees and so that they are putting up trees to conservation part of our building, building out our forests here. Megan's mom has a
Brandon 51:05
one of those Christmas Town sets.
51:14
Oh, yeah.
51:15
Right that you're supposed to sound like the white cloth and whatever. Those are over here. Now. It's for little town corners. And he's using Lego and bears and, and all sorts of stuff to build out all of the rest of its the rest of this stuff. So it was a it's very, it's a very well thought out laid out diorama. And Well the one thing that we added today was a in in scaled, oh gosh, what is it? Ah container, like off of a container ship that that sits on one of those? Oh, yeah. It's it's on a trailer and it has a little, little semi to move it around back and forth. So we have that positioned on our on our
Brandon 52:02
table as well. So I it was yes.
52:08
It was very good. Very good.
52:09
So that was that's how we started our day, by going to train Expo talking to a bunch of train enthusiasts, getting an MK T line
52:19
branded.
Brandon 52:21
Caboose getting it on our train. And we're ready go. It was I want to know, I'm looking at just looking at train scale related things while you're speaking. Right. And I need to know train people. Why nobody just has a there is like what, what would make sense to me in this context of if you have this many different scales. And if you have somebody new to trains, and you have no idea what these things mean, right? I think that needs to exist is a picture of like a train car of every single style next to like a ruler. That is that does not exist. There's lots of these like esoteric things, right? They type they have like about like, just like descriptors and stuff like that. And then they have like a ratio like what I don't know how big an actual train is like, in Rhino like in I've seen them like I was at I would drove by the rail yard today, right? I've seen a train but like, I don't know how many feet a train car is. So if you give me a ratio, this does not mean anything. Right? Mathematically, that just doesn't Yeah, help at all, like, nowhere is there actually a measurement? Right? Like, why would you not give me why is that? Not that this? metric
54:08
space is very hard indeed. Wrong brain people. Yeah, to wrap your brain around this because it's like again, I don't know. Same I don't know what makes it the end. The letters don't even make sense. Z in H O. S? Like what why? Why is he apparently
Brandon 54:22
who? Yeah, it's
Collin Funkhouser 54:26
at some of the some of the scales were in fashion and out of fashion and not made anymore. And so like they're more rare than other things. And then like one of the guys there. He makes all of his own train models now with like 3d printing and other things like that. And I was like, Okay, well, that's cool. Because then you could just like, he's kind of sweet, actually. Whatever you want. Yeah.
54:51
So it was you know, it was it was fun and just getting to talk with with them and they were let me tell you, they were very excited. To see a little six year old boy in a conductor hat walking around, ready to buy, trained for his? Yeah, like, this is like, I look me in the background. I'm not in this Don't talk to me talk to this guy. Right. He's in charge of this.
Brandon 55:16
So what we're doing right now. Also, I just had a thought. I don't know, this is also breaking all the rules of train diagramas that I'm aware of. Right. But I want you to go on this vision journey with me. Okay, you ready? The train? Table I'm envisioning doesn't move. Okay, so breaking rule number one of models. But what would it look like, if you had a display setup? Where you had like, different scale on the same platform to just look to show like perspective? Right? Yeah, like in perspective, thing would be like a 3d picture where you can have like this stuff in the background be like way small, because it's like far away. And then all the stuff at the front is bigger. Because it's clear, because we think so. Yeah, I kind of think I think I actually think when we went
56:22
to pass where do we go in Kansas City? Oh, no. In the station? Yeah. At the station. They I think they have something like this where there's like a mountain and up on the mountain. Maybe it's different thing there?
Brandon 56:33
I'm not sure. Because I've been in that we went to that trade room. The two summers ago. Maybe there's a lot of really cool stuff out there.
56:40
Yeah, it's wild. There. It's very overwhelming.
Brandon 56:46
Because there's a lot. Yes. Yeah. Cool stuff. Is I went somewhere with dad to a thing like that. At one point. I don't know where it was. But I was also had must have been very young. I don't know, what did you go? Where did you go to a train thing with me? Because like, we had that train table at home for a while in the basement. Remember? It was real official. There was like two houses and a station and a DeLorean which is of course, the most important part. Very good. But we went to something like that we went to some sort of thing. Feel like it was a house. But that doesn't seem right.
57:34
I don't know where this worry, right? Or the kind of people dad was probably connected with
Brandon 57:37
as a good point. But I don't know where it was. But I went to thing and there was just like model trains, like literally everywhere. And I don't, it didn't feel like a convention hall. Felt like a building or house. Or maybe something that used to be a house. But there was like, I don't know. But I have a vague memory of walking around and there being like, tons of like train diorama was everywhere. Like, was it in South Dakota? Was it? I don't one of those places? I don't think so. But I don't actually know where it was. Yeah, this is our very faint memory. That's like, I remember there being a lot of trains. That was all Yeah, no, I'm glad. No, we got to actually find something in the Yes. Weird, like swapping style. That sounds like it was because in that kind of environment, it's sometimes really hard to like, actually find something that you want, right? Or that you could use, like you said, if like everybody wants the H O, then like, that's the one that is going to be the most prevalent he liked. But I want this one. To hang out two things. Right. That's, that's, that's stuck.
59:02
Yeah. And again, that was
59:03
just part of that. Having that conversation with everybody like,
Brandon 59:08
and because they are open about it. Oh, yeah. Because, you know, they
59:15
want to make sure like, one guy was even like, Are you are you looking for trains today?
59:21
And yes, good. Good question. He
59:23
wants to know, like, are you actually engaged in something? Or are you just walking around?
Brandon 59:29
So I'm not this guy though. Right here?
59:32
I did.
59:33
I was like, Yeah, you know, here's how I could start a little bit of conversation. But then having Noah pick out his thing Go and helping him count out the money about what he would need and walking it down to the person and having you know, to the exchange and everything so yeah, he's very, very pleased.
Brandon 59:50
I need to actually send a photo of what he I didn't get a photo of his Little oh gosh, little cats. No the container I think, oh, that thing. But but you can see his little MKT on the line, it'll open the diorama, which is very full of things a That's right. That's important. Now what's good in my diagram would have like a crash train off on the side somewhere, right like
Collin Funkhouser 1:00:28
weird thing in this in this photo that I'm sending you, you can see the front back of the front end loader on the left side with some of the quarry rock spray. Oh, yeah, front. Okay. And then you can see over on the right side, you can see all those little bears. And as a cleanup, they are on the platform. Our train is
Brandon 1:00:48
Lego trees. I approve of this. Yes.
1:00:54
Oh, that was the other thing. There was a guy who had built an entire train table out of Lego. Yes. Correct. Exactly. We came up and we were looking at looking and would notice how this has like his birthday, two pillars of his life coming together, right? He was just like
Brandon 1:01:19
what do you mean, you could do both at the same time? The actual is this is your tree. So it was pretty, it was pretty neat. To go see everything again, these young guys, guys, gals, there they were, they wanted people to, to have fun and be engaged and everything. And so I can't you know, that's a that is an extremely niche hobby. Right? And so like yeah, it's a thing. That was like, extremely popular once. Right? And like, I feel like a lot of the people in the hobby were on that wave, like the initial wave. And then that was it. Right? It's really hard to get, you know, new, you know, they probably don't often get like a lot of new people in into the training hobby. I'm not real sure about this. This is all speculation. Yeah. I don't know how to, like Google, like how many people a lot of tables holy cannoli.
1:02:34
Yeah, it was I just sent some more photos over and it's, it's, it was, that was all it was, it was all it was just these the white tables with just rows and rows and rows of these little boxes with stuff
1:02:47
in them. Like,
Brandon 1:02:50
it's, it's insane. That's cool, though. That's good that, you know, just Yeah, it's weird that, you know, I don't know, how common that is of a hobby. Again, I don't know if you can Google that answer. I don't know if that exists. But it's very interesting. Because it's a very, it's very nice thing. Like it's like, engineering ability, but also like very arts, it's same time because like you it's about the setup, right? It's about the table. It's not about just the train itself. And like not the mechanical workings of the train. It's about like, the diorama piece. You know what I mean? And like the moving parts and how it all looks together? Yep. There's,
1:03:37
it's very intricate. And then you get to people who like the collecting aspect, right? So that's the thing, or the history is the history aspect of it. Apparently, according to trains.com, and gauge forum, of course, I keep saying I keep using scale, and that is wrong. People. I'm sorry. Again, model trainers don't write in, I recognize my error. They're not scales of H in H O, tt, whatever. These are gauges, obviously, obviously.
Brandon 1:04:13
And, but confusingly that everything it's the gauge and then it's listed as a ratio, which would think it's a scale scale. Okay, sure. Sorry. Okay. Don't think of any way.
1:04:24
Any way overthinking?
1:04:26
Ah, the research I'm pulling here is there about 500,000 people in the market of model trains with an average age of 56.
Brandon 1:04:35
As I say, that's not very many people. Nope, nope. But they the markets like a Springfield number of people. Yes, that is, is my other question here? Yes,
1:04:48
the market cap of this is $450 million.
Brandon 1:04:55
What's that? Well,
1:04:58
so well. It's Think about this again. One one engine that was brought to me that was a US engine not not us, not not new by my son was $145. So all this means is that each year, these half million people spend roughly $1,000
Brandon 1:05:20
on there's other sets which, which isn't in the grand scheme of things like a ton of money because this also includes yeah the trains but the tracks, the electrical systems, the lighting, the trees, the diorama the board's like there's a lot of accoutrements that go along with this. Yeah. That's true. But that's, that's wild. A there's also a Ozarks model railroad Association, or you miss their show. It's in Oh, no. a save the date. Okay, tell no, let's save the date. September 28 and 21st 2000 for the Springfield version of this at the Ozark Empire fairgrounds. Okay. Okay. You go door prizes, baby. Yeah, well, we
1:06:21
had, we had door prizes, but did not win any unfortunately. I you
Brandon 1:06:25
know, I don't think I've ever won a door prize ever. So this isn't surprising, but I did Yep, well, we'll continue on with this. I think before before we before we jump off here, you had
1:06:48
a poem of sorts sides.
Brandon 1:06:50
Right. Colin challenged me to write my Haiku. I don't remember quite exactly how this came up by there was st with the vast number of crickets in my house. Yes, they're everywhere. Now there's less of them. I think now what?
1:07:07
Still after you've captured them all and put them in boxes to fight for them in boxes,
Brandon 1:07:12
I've vacuumed some of them. Okay, so So I have been inspired because crickets often associated with fall well, who knew? Not me. And just sort of in parallel with everything is like one of those it was was that thing was that was that thing where like you once you start thinking about something you like, see it everywhere? You don't I mean, that internet effect, right? You're talking about? Oh, yes, yes. Yeah, I don't remember the name of this. But like, crickets have just been appearing everywhere in my life lately. Right. I played through this playing that video game playing lies a piece I'm saying Jiminy Cricket. Right here. Pinocchio today at the flea market. I felt like Pinocchio record. as well. As weird, like Disney record thing like the story of Pinocchio and vinyl. Crickets all of my house. It's all time. Although you wouldn't know it by the weather this next coming week? Nope. Thinking has very weak. Side note on that. The heater in my classroom was not working. Sorry. What? Yeah, yeah, that's fun. So at the beginning of the year, right, the air conditioning wasn't working. And so now went to go turn the heat on today. Nothing. Nothing. Like if 85 degrees of like glass. Oh, no. Bring me some like space heaters, right? A couple of milk barn heaters from the Ag building. Right? But they figured out that just they never finished connecting all the wires to the thing, right? And the guy was like, the maintenance. He was like, Yeah, we just never guy thinks he never connected the heating wires. I was like, Well, that does kind of make sense. Because who's worried about checking the heater when it's 105 degrees outside?
1:09:14
Makes sense?
Brandon 1:09:16
Not really. I just really worried about oh, man, I gotta make sure that works. So again, fall crickets everywhere. Pinocchio references showing up in my life. Oh, okay. So I've written a haiku. Right. So James may watch out. Haiku battle. Ready? Okay. My syllabic count is correct. Here we go. My cricket inspired haiku. Crickets quickly crawl. Wind and rain lashed the window. Leaves still on the grass. Thank you. That has been my
1:10:02
I this is perfect
Brandon 1:10:10
I think you nailed that. Had the syllable count I have that nature references I have the juxtaposition in the first and last lines were quickly moving in line still crazy looking at
1:10:26
all the kits all metal kit a couple of
1:10:32
all of them all of them perfectly. No issues there for sure. Yeah. Hey. I like that. That was perfect. I will I will turn this into a literary podcast snack. Okay,
Brandon 1:10:47
I mean we're already two books in you know pretty much got a haiku go now.
1:10:53
Yeah, this is the first installment right of our annual haiku challenge there we go. That's all you have to say. Is it
Brandon 1:11:01
true we're really waiting for you we're waiting for yours at a future date. Yes very you know may or may not be trade related who knows but as throne Okay.
1:11:18
Well, just this is the thing we do now we and each episode with a haiku that oh dear. Maybe no, every single one is part of the format now.
Brandon 1:11:30
Maybe some time?
1:11:32
Maybe? Yeah, maybe sometimes. But possibly never again. Possibly
Brandon 1:11:37
never guys true. wait and find out. Next time. I don't die mystery. With that cliffhanger. Who knows? We'll we'll
1:11:53
love you. Bye