not rotifers

Collin took a drive. Brandon did many things. We’re excited for the War of the Rohirrim.

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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE

PROVIDED BY OTTER.AI

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Zoom issues, photo exchange, birthing center, emotional trip, toll road frustration, school carnival, silent auction, beaker ball, Christmas pageant, basketball game, Rotary meeting, senior pets, movie review, Mark Twain quote, family plans

SPEAKERS

Collin

Collin  00:04

Music. Welcome to Oh brother, a podcast where we try to figure it all out with your hosts, Brandon and Collin on this week's show, not rotifers ahoy ahoy. How is it going? Well, it was zoom update. Sucks. That's what. Sorry,

00:30

that's okay. It just it.

Collin  00:32

It didn't think, and it popped up, and it won't let me unmute unless I agree. Like I say, Yes, I know it's being recorded. Oh, but the little thing that the button didn't show up. Oh, but for some reason, purpose, yeah, for some reason, minimizing the window and then maximizing it again, put the button on the screen, oh and and then I could hit, okay, that's we agree. But like, it literally won't let ice clicking the unmute button. This happened last week too. I was clicking the unmute button. I was trying to see if I could do it clicking all the things, and it won't let you unmute unless you say okay to the it's being recorded. Oh, interesting. Uh, zoom, I don't, well, it's a security feature, right? They don't

01:32

want you,

Collin  01:33

I guess so. But is there a menu thing I can toggle? Because the whole point of doing this is to record it so, like, I don't know, right? Doing this kind of defeats the This is why not can I just not recording this transaction well? And you would maybe like having a because I know what they would say of going well, we don't want to just have it turned on always, because, really, because, that's how it was, literally, until two weeks ago. Yeah, because, what if you were, what if somebody else is recording who you're not typically recording with, and you didn't want them to be recording, like, whatever? I don't know. What is that sense? What was that? What if that was the thing? So, I guess. But yes, it is weird, but I can push it says yes, just yes for Collin, the only person that is in my Zoom context. Again, you would hope, if there was a always for this person be recording, yeah, there may be. Have I ever done any menu diving in zoom? No, so that doesn't sound like something that they would provide just just knowing what I know about them, I'm yeah, they, I feel like, like, that sounds like, No, we need to have this for lawsuit purpose. So I feel like, but yes, anyway, other than that, I'm fine. It's okay. How are you? Oh, I have I am going to be sending you photo. Oh, okay, anxiously awaiting photo, dude, let me see if it sent okay. It says, Oh, got him, okay. Aha. A return. Now the beginning. I mean, that doesn't look like the side of the highway well, so listen, dear listeners, I have sent Brandon one photo of us standing outside of a birth center. I am sending him a second photo now to answer his first question. All right, here we go. Perfect. Now. Now what I have done is I have sent a photo Brandon of where both of my children were born. Why is this? Why is this important? Well, first off, my children were born nine hours away from where we are currently living. Yes, okay, so the fact that I have this photo is quite the feat. Did you make the trip just for the photograph? Yes, wow. Okay, that is a very dad thing to do. Well, are ascending very quickly in specifically, right? This is very specifically we wanted them in front of their footprints on the wall. So, okay, fair so, when, when? So this is the, I'll just say, this is the Fort Worth birthing Wellness Center. When babies are born who have been at the clinic, they put their the feet in ink, and then they put their footprints, the literal footprints, on the walls. And we were there like the second year that they were open at the slope. Application, so they didn't have a lot of footprints there. But it's very it's kind of cool. It was a kind of cool thing to do. We are recording this on a Thursday, Monday, three, three days ago. Megan is scrolling on Instagram, and she we follow their account. We like a lot of stuff. Yeah, she sees an announcement saying that they're very excited to be moving to their new building. Okay, got you, and we say, I'm sorry, what? And so I called and they said, Oh, well, in one week, we are making the move. And then they said, but just come by anytime, right? And I don't tell them that I live nine hours away, yeah, I just say, I just, can just show up anytime. When they're like, yeah, we're just, we're we open at nine, close at five, we take an hour for lunch. Just come by anytime and take photos there. And so this is on Monday. Now the problem here is, is that this coming weekend, we are exceptionally busy. I would say it is the season and where everyone else is traveling, and just personally as well, like we're doing a lot of stuff, like we're just doing things as a family that's already in there and in the books, again, is the season I also have to, like business stop here, like today. And so Megan says, What do you want to do? And I said, Well, we're going. And so Tuesday, unfortunately, Tuesday afternoon, we started driving to Texas. We drove until we got to Ardmore, Oklahoma. Where? Which? Wonderful town, wonderful town, I mean, anyway, and also, also in our rush to get out the door and travel over there, did, did I remember to grab? Oh, I don't know. Oh, money return. No, no, I did not. I How exciting. So to my dismay, literally, I'm we're driving down. The signs all say, November 20, cashless tolls, November 12, in one week. And I'm like, oh, yeah, rolling nickels. No, you are doing it to me once more. You are doing it to me once more. And we're driving. And we keep saying we were like, didn't we just like, drive through one time? And didn't we just do this one time? And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And yes, yes, we that's what we did the last time we were in Oklahoma. Drove through Oklahoma together because we were in a rental. And in a rental you just drive automatically included, yeah, so, because I have a little sticker thing on there, right? Well, and a lot of times they just take a picture of a license plate and they build your account, right? And that's yes, and enterprise pays it for you, or Avis, or whatever they pay. Oh, yeah, we had to, because then you have to pay the surcharge for the convenience of using the thing. Yes, I remember we had this whole conversation. Yes, yeah, yes, boom. So I had to pull up and I talked to the person, and I said, I have no cash. And the person said, Do you have a quarter? And I said, I have one quarter. And hand him a quarter. And he says, Okay, well, I'll mark you down as partial payment. You'll have to pay this within 10 days. And he gave me an envelope, and he wrote some stuff on it. He says, you'll have to send a check within 10 days to be fine. I said, Awesome. Thank you so much. I really appreciate this. We get on the Turnpike, we're driving, and one of my children says, I need to pee. I I go through that toll booth, and I said, I have no money. I said, I have no cash on me. And she says, Okay, well, she she hands a little thing, and she goes, this must be the worst, like she has to write one out for like $1 she says, You put $1 here's your IOU for $1 and I say, okay, oh my gosh. So thank you. I get off. I'll be back in a minute. I'm gonna change after I buy a peanuts at this guy. I was so focused on getting the kids to pee and back in the car. I did not get money, bro, what the heck? What are you even doing? She turns to me, and she goes, okay.

09:55

She goes, Okay, they'll

Collin  09:56

be 525, and it dawns on me. Oh,

10:01

I was supposed to get cash, and I

Collin  10:04

was like, Hold on, let

10:07

me back up. I

Collin  10:09

was the biggest disappointment to this lady. I The look on her face as she was just like, Oh my gosh. Like, who dealing with so she her, like, her shoulders visibly slump as she she gets out another thing and says, you'll have to pay this. And so I put up in my visor, and I've got two now, and I'm like, thank you. Be back. I felt it was just like a grief. What a numpty. What are you doing? I was it was dark. We were trying to push hard, and I was just so focused on, like, go, go, go, get out. Like I didn't even get gas. Like I was just like, we we are moving. We are moving, moving, moving. I didn't even think to buy anyway, so I, I, we drove, did lots of reading in the car and talking about stuff. Slept in Ardmore, to which I found out that in Ardmore you have to at the hotel that we stayed at and actually pay 525 to get in the door. And then you're like, oh

11:19

no. But

Collin  11:20

what it is, it's very It's very sad during breakfast hours in breakfast hours only, they lock the front doors and you have to use a key card to get in the front doors to get back into the building, because the homeless population is so bad. There Am I that? They will come in, and they have been stealing food the past several months. And so I, of course, left without my key, and then I was standing, of course, because I was just gonna go right like so I had to stand and wave at people, and actually I got annoyed, and I just opened up the doors and forced my way in, and then they open up for you. So that was kind of broken, but we continued our way into Fort Worth, and immediately remembered this thing that happens only in big metroplexes like that, where I had my GPS running the whole time, and I was traveling at 80 to 85 miles an hour in the 80 to 85 mile an hour zone, and unchanged by just booking it and and yet my arrival time kept ticking later, because Because Metroplex traffic, right? And I was just like, I saw that. Oh, we're gonna get there at, you know, 854, and then we're driving, and I look, and I'm like, why are we getting it at 906? Like, wow, did they lose 10 minutes? Or, you know, 12 minutes. Haven't yet. I haven't yet, right? This is, this is the, there's got to be some paradox of there, of like, I have lost time, but I have not lost time yet. I haven't caught up to the time I've lost Exactly, exactly some like, compression and expansion, space, time continuum stuff, right? Yeah, right, yeah. This should be, this should be studied in physics classes and non Euclidean I'm pretty sure Stephen Hawking and wrote about this somewhere. Problem. I'm just imagining that he did, yes, yeah. He was probably talking about, like, the speed of light travel at the same direction as the universe is expanding. But it's fine to worry about. If I'm a car traveling at the speed of light, yes, towards the edge of universe expansion, ie my destination. But then there's another there's another car broken down in the way, what? It's basically like a black hole sucking me, yeah, I think we, I think that hole is stealing the time. Yeah, that. I think all that checks out. We'll do the math later on that. But I'm just like, Oh, right. Like, this is, this is just gonna happen. And then the thing happens where as we're approaching it starts offering, like, why don't you go this way? I'm like, What about? Oh, no, other way, right? That's what. Oh, and we, we, we park and like, I was expecting to be like, excited about this. I'm an emotional person. I don't think I was expecting, I don't think I was ready for how emotional this thing was going to be. Or me of like, I pulled up and I pulled up right along the curb, and as I was stepping out, I was like, Oh, this is where I this is, this is this exact spot. Is where I was when we pulled up here with Lillian and put her into the car for the very first time. Like, okay, that's what's that's how this trip is going to be. And then it just starts hitting me, like they have changed. It's been seven years. Years since we had been there, right? Everything was the same. They had not moved one thing inside the building, which is nice, right? Like, so for me, it wasn't, it was very shocking. Oh, I know where all the bathrooms are in this building. Like, I know where everything is, and we're standing there, and the front desk clerk was like, oh, what's your last name? Because she's thinking, we're there for an appointment. And I'm like, Oh, we're not pregnant, but we did want to be were, as evidenced by these two. So we're going to go find their feet for a second bike. And she's like, Oh yeah, go on up. I'll be going up and right the stairs from floor to about six and a half, maybe seven feet tall, plastered with feet. I mean, just nice, plastered. And it wasn't again. It wasn't like that seven or nine years ago, when we were there, because they had only been open two years, but when we were first there, and that was the part that really was like, holy moly. Like, that's it all of a sudden, just like, really starts to hit you. And then they do things like, for the kids who were born on Christmas, one foot is green and one foot is red, right for the for the rainbow babies, right for the parents who have lost kids previously. They they have a special tie dye print that they put their feet in. And so it's just tie dye prints all over the place, along with just the standard black feet prints, or, you know, for for other families, and the names and people are drawing arrows between, like, cousins or sisters, or like, you know, twins or, you know, the all these, like annotations on everything is just like, hits you and just like, I was not ready for this, really not ready for this. And then, you know, we we found them. The kids took pictures next to their feet. We took pictures of their current feet next to their old feet, which was, you know, had to hold the kid kind of up and put their foot out on it. We went into the room where Lillian was born, and saw the tub and saw the walls and saw the bed and saw all the stuff. And then we come down, and at this point, like we had talked to literally nobody, like we're just doing our own thing. And the one of the midwives comes over, and she's like, Oh, were you guys born here? And the kids say yes, and she goes, when were you guys born? And we told the date, and it made me feel really old. This lady said, oh, gosh, that was way before my time. But she said, But I see those names every time I walk into that room, because they're right on my right hand side, and I'm like, and she she turned to the kids. And she said, You guys will always be a part of our history, and you guys are the reason that motivates us to help more family. And then I'm like, well, turn on the waterworks, right? And I'm bawling. And then they want to know, like, where we are from. And we were like, we drove nine hours for this, and they were like, Oh my gosh, what? And I'm like, I

18:26

know it's kind of

Collin  18:29

and so we're taking pictures, we're hugging we see one of the midwives who was there when we were there. She's still there, and we're talking to her, and it's just was very like, when that lady had said, Oh, and then she said, have you seen the new building? And we said, No. And she said, Well, what we did was we hired a photographer to come and take pictures of all of our feet, and they turned them into a wallpaper. And so we're, oh, cool, yeah. She said, we're taking all of the kids, all of the feet with us to the new building to the new building to get us started. Gonna be my question. If this is such a large part of their identity, how are they handling a transition to a new facility? Right? Like, that would that was my question. I was thinking about, like, how, what are they gonna do? Like, Oh, yeah, right, yeah, absolutely, because this is a big thing, and this building they're they're selling, they're having to sell this to pay back the other thing, because it's not inexpensive, and so they're going to put this up to the highest bidder, and all this stuff is just going to go away. Now, yeah, Was I tempted to take a Sawzall with me? Yes, I was very like, I'll just take this chunk out of here like you best believe it, buddy. Yeah, I like it. Come between, anytime between like eight and five, Colin shows up at like 630 ski masks, sneaking in the window, taking this with me. Right? Yeah, they'll never know who it was. The person that took the these two specific I would have to be with. You would have to take, like, three or four other kids, and then, like, obviously, make sure those got to their families. But just, like, just to throw them off the scent for at least five years, right, get past the statues of limitations. So they said, Yeah, oh, for legal reasons, this is all hypothetical and a joke. Just absolutely this is what we call joking. So they were like, Oh, well, you need to go tour the new place. It's not open yet, but you know, the the Carla, the owner, is over there right now. So they gave us the address, and we just, like, rolled up in there, and she came out, and she was like, they texted me, you guys were on your way over. It's so good to see you again again. Haven't seen this woman in seven years, and she just starts showing us everything, and all of the expansion and all the things and all the renovations, and we're going from room to room, and we're getting this tour of the place, and we get to see the wallpaper, and all you know, they brought him over, and she's like, this is where we're this is where we're starting, and we're going to go down the hallway here, and we've got lots of space for more babies and stuff. And it was all just like, just like, like, one thing after another. And it was just really cool to see how much they have grown to hear from the midwives there, from how there are, you know, the problems that they faced, and how their new building is going to solve that. So it was just very, very neat to see all that kind of pre like they're not open yet in that building, like they were getting inspections that day for make sure that they were up to code for everything. So they still have our ways to go. So that was kind that was neat to see that kind of behind the scenes thing. Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah. And so we on their way, we left, and then Megan kind of looks at me, look at her. I'm like, Yeah, we gotta go. Gotta go to the side of the road. I mean, you have to go to the real place, and we're driving, and then, like, you know, it's been again six years since we were there, but yeah, kind of picked up and remembered a few things. And so we went by our old apartment and went down into the by the side of the road where Noah was born, and snapped photos by the street sign. And Lillian is is is keen enough to remember that, and she's also seen in some photos. She was like, Oh, they've changed the sign color. They used to be green. And I'm like, Yeah, they did used to be green. They're bad, interesting. And then we said some goodbyes, drove through one more neighborhood, and then gone the road, came back home and drove all the way back home the next day, which was, yes, zero without any cash for the toll booth. And so we had to get so at the toll booth, I have them. I have no cash, bro, you had seven chances. What? Seven chances? And she said, you know, where are you coming from? Where are you headed? And I'm like, so this morning, so we got home last night at like, 830 and this morning I woke up and I wrote three checks to the text to the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority, and I'm going to be send them, sending them out in in sequential days, so they don't all arrive at the same day. No, it'll be, that's, that's a bit overthinking. I feel like they, they're gonna be really confused by that, with their processing these payments, like one day, but like, What the heck is happening? Yes, yes, yes. And my big takeaways from this, Texas still has the best toll system. Hands down, you just drive and they just take pictures of your license plate, and they will find you. They will the real takeaway from this find you is that toll systems are stupid. I look and I and if you're gonna obsess about toll roads, and you're gonna build in all of the infrastructure necessary to have toll roads, you should have just put a tax on something and been done with it, right? Because, because it's much more cost efficient, you don't need all these big departments and all these these from state governments that are like, Oh, the government's too big, and we have to streamline that, bro. You have a whole arm that is of Public Works that is devoted to collecting tolls. What do you mean? They all have their own HR departments, hiring departments. They have to have policies and procedures. They have to build a toll booth. So yes, they have. To build the tollbooth. They have to man the tollbooth. They have to build the camera system. They have to have the computers to run the camera system. They have to have people to run the computers around the cameras, tracking and the financing and the billing and like guys just and then just put a tax on gas, like everyone else does. Like, what are you doing? You're wasting everyone's money, yep, yep, and yeah, and I we're driving and Noah, you know, going through toll booth is very fun and exciting for the children, not me, because I was sweating bullets and being like, I have no money. Here's a quarter. Okay, I gotta go. But the kids were like, Why? No one said, Why? Why do they have this? And I was like, no one knows. Nobody knows, actually. But why does Oklahoma have all these toll booths and their roads are still bad? Close, as I can make out, Oklahoma was tired of being a drive through state and is basically saying, well, we're not going to finance the roads ourselves, just for the pleasure of other people. So if you're driving on it, you're going to pay for it, and that's why they have it here. That's if only, Man, if only hear me out, if only the interstate highway system could be run by the federal government and maintained by the federal government, and that's why that states didn't have to do this. Right? What's the problem here? What's infuriating is the Interstate is the toll road in Oklahoma. It's not like, Farm road seven, right? It's like, it's not, yeah, it's now, that's the other thing of in Oklahoma, it's like, you could turn left here and take the toll road to get to this location, and it'll be 30 minutes faster if you stay straight, you won't be on the toll road, and you'll get there 35 minutes later. And you're like, Wait, so you have two roads that go to the same place, and I have to pay for one of them. How was this efficient? How? Yes, why wouldn't you just not get and this is, it's kind of like, I don't know. I guess Oklahoma's like, no, we want to keep all of our roads and so that all of them can be fine in the same and if you want to take the slow road, you can. But there's only two sense. The faster and pay for it. I'm like, just have one road just be more. Why? Why have all these roads just make the other road better? No, it, it's ridiculous, because you're, you're driving, and, you know, I've got the little GPS thing on on my car, and I'm just watching. And literally, there were moments where I was on the toll road, and there was another road off to the east that was also parallel with me that was like, oh, that's the non pay road. And it's just, it's very silly. What? Why do we have two roads going to the same place? And I, yeah, I just, I was like, Okay, well, this is just what we're having to do. So all told, I think, plus, oh, plus, I made the again, I'm trying to just get places the fastest way possible. And normally I have the thing on my phone set to ignore and, like, avoid toll roads. But I know that really, time is of the essence with this trip, because I can't just lollygag if I could, if I had three nights, sure, I would. I would not. But, yeah, a day. So I had, I had, I was we were gone 20 hours. That's it. We were gone for 31 hours. Yeah, like 31 and 19 of that wasn't driving. So, like, this is what we're dealing with, people. And I it was an overnight too. So it's being honest, like, like, Okay, I, I followed the track through DFW, and it was fun, because we got to drive right through the center of the DFW airport. Okay, this is a site to behold. This is a massive city. This is super complex. There are roads that go over the road that are just roads for the for the planes, right? Taxi from one thing to the other. Yeah, planes are going overhead, but you have, but this is a toll road right now. Time was I remembered that if you were, if you if you spent less than, like, 15 minutes in there, because when you get the ticket, it puts a stamp of when you arrive. Oh yes, I remember there was a time and people listeners should write in if I am wrong about this time was, if you got the stamp and you spent less than, let's say, 15 minutes in there, you didn't pay for this at all. So if you're just driving, or, like, dropping people off, or, like, yes, so the goal was, do you get in, you drop people off, you mute your back and run away. But if you spent more time in there, they start charging for you. I don't know when this changed, or if I'm just, I just have amnesia about this. I've slept since then. I don't know, but I'm like, I Megan's like, isn't this a toll road? And I say, No, it's. Fine. We won't have to pay because we're not going to spend that long in there. And it's all time based. And I'm, like, really super confident by this. Well, just kidding. And I spent exactly again from one end to the other. It took me seven minutes to drive at 45 miles an hour, telling you how long this place is, yeah. And she turns to me, the lady goes, that'll be $9 and I said, I don't have cash. And she says, we take card too. And I was like, bear, you go. And I said, I thought it was, thought there was a time thing. And she looked at me and like I was speaking straight up gibberish. And was like, no, what are you talking about? Like, is this a blue nose, black nose thing of the tire, like I could have sworn. So I paid my $9 and I and I went through and went through the toll. Made it also, also with this story. So we left our home at like, 130 on Tuesday. After about a three hour drive, we made it to Joplin, and in Joplin. It was like, It's time for dinner, like we just need to eat. It's the last like, we need to eat here, and then we're gonna bust it through Oklahoma and make it through Oklahoma, as far as we can. And we did, like, we made it to Ardmore, which is basically the end of Oklahoma on the highway. Yeah, we're pretty far. We stopped. We stopped at Megan's favorite place to eat in the world, Chili's, because it's there, right? Oh, Chili's. And that's when we also learned that Joplin is only twice as big as our town that we currently live in. Joplin is not big. It's Joplin is, like people I don't understand, I don't Yeah, it's not, it's tiny. It's tiny. But because it's on the interstate, it has so much more infrastructure built up. I mean, not a lot of, I wouldn't say so much more, but like, more, like, everything in Joplin is on two streets, yes, yes, this, that's the thing that is all super condensed to exactly two streets. There's, like, Main Street or whatever. Like, yeah, Range Line, whatever. Yeah, Range Line, and then, like, double, like, Seventh Street. There's stuff on that street, okay, yeah, so that's kind of two streets in Joplin. They, they make you feel it makes it feel like it's just this hive of scum and villainy and let's just thriving, like, whole thing, thing, because all the lights are on and things are like, Yeah, but only on that end. If you go to the other end, like, by like, campus, like Missouri, Southern State University, it's like, yeah. Like the malls down there, yeah, but nothing that everything is on Range Line, yeah, pretty much exactly, yes. So it just, it felt, I was like, wow. Like, what is this? And so that's things that we're also doing. Like, as we're driving, we're like, how big is this town? So, you know, we're, like, looking that up and having conversations about that or whatever. And I will say, this trip we did. We had the full Texas experience. We got to see a tumbleweed blowing off in the wind. There we go. So pretty much that's it. But we ate a chiliz in the way town, and we ate there, and then we're driving back home, and we're doing all these calculations of where we're going to land, and like, what time we're going to be what, and like, blah, blah. And I'm like, well, actually looks like we're going to be in Joplin for dinner. Where do you want to eat? We're going back and forth. We're having these conversations about who wants what, what's one's what, and we can't assign a plate if Megan goes, you know, we could just eat Chili's. Is that legitimately a place that she likes to eat? I can't tell if you're like joking or not. This is very interesting. I did not not pay her as a Chili's person. This is very interesting at the way, all the way back from DFW, every time we saw a chili sign, oh, there's a Chili's a Chili's over there. Oh, a chili. So she just sit over there on her phone and like, hum this song, chili baby.

34:16

This was

Collin  34:20

really like incepting into her mind, because we don't have one by us. There's just, like, one bounce out. We don't, we don't eat there hardly at all. But it was, we did eat there a lot when we were living in Texas, and now looking back, I don't know, like it was a thing. And so, yeah, we were like, Okay, we'll eat it Chili's for the second night in a row. Hey, you know what? Sometimes you gotta do, what you gotta do, it's fine. And I'm like, I'm like, No, we will not be that family like we will not be those people who show up, I said. And she was like, Are you are you just worried about, you know, being judged? I was like, of course, I'm worried about being judged. Okay. They're they're gonna stand there with it. They still have the flare things, they still wear all the buttons. Is that still no opens, no, no. Wasn't that TGI Friday? Oh, that was TGI Fridays. Wasn't it? Nevermind? Yes, nevermind. That was TGI Friday. I retract my previous statement. So, so no, we show up, and Megan's like, oh, they probably aren't going to be the same. People working. Well, well, well, that's not how this works, not exactly how this works. Literally, as we are walking in, our server from the previous night is walking in to start his ship, he looks at us, and he cocks his head and I go, it's us again. Was he like? Did I compress time?

35:41

What? Was I going too fast to the expansion of the space time? What equilibrium

Collin  35:46

and I approaching? Yeah, this moment, did I pass them? I just circled back to where I started. Yes. Also, this was just one night down and back. And so I'm wearing this like I changed my shirt and my underwear, but my my pants, my shorts are the same and my hoodie is the same. So to him, I have a challenge. I look the same. Alex Megan looks the same. Who remembers what the kids were wearing? They were all brightly colored. Anyway. So like, we're showing up and we're just like, it's us. Like, are we from the past? Are we from the future? Who knows, but we're here and with you. And get free chips and salsa again. Let's do this with Barbara you saw. So, yeah, we rolled back up into home yesterday, last night, all just completely wiped and like, crash, crash and then and then, spent today going to a chamber breakfast and a business networking event like this was very, very ill planned, uh, yeah, timing, yeah, again, had I not, like, called this place, like, oh yeah, we've been completely have missed this opportunity because, yeah, there, yeah. So anyway, so we did a thing and we, I oh man, 30 hour trip to Texas, 3031 hours. 31 hours. Sorry, yeah, the door, it was literally it was 31 my my car has a little timer to tell you that time, and I was just watching that. Oh, man, that was fun. That was, that was, that was my last of, my last 40 hours, whirlwind and a half. Holy cow. It was definitely, definitely a lot, but we enjoyed. It is a lot. Kids had fun. Oh, good, yay. I have also done many things since we last spoke. Actually, I like how this time of year the show is always like, I did 700 things, or I did zero things. That's really very interesting how this happens, yes, but I did, in fact, survive the school carnival. Yes, that's where we left off, I believe, last time. So we had the school carnival. Big success as far as the sixth grade is concerned. Here, really big, rousing success, right? Yeah, we raised a bunch of money for our field trip in the spring, and we sold. They sold. So we took the three pronged approach here, right? We did, there was a silent auction. So the math teacher, Lady is, like, very crafty and stuff. And so she, I don't exactly know how she does all these things, but she made some like things, and like, did, like a basket for the silent auction, right? So little with, like, printed T shirts and stuff like that, right? I don't know, little back skinny thing, put that in the auction, and then they sold hot dogs and water, and they sold out of hot dogs. So I'm assuming that means that was good, right? And then they, so they, they her and the English teacher lady, they sold the hot dogs in the hallway. And then I manned the game room. And so we did, we did beaker ball version two. Yeah, there we go, okay, and how? That's what we did there. And so it's basically throw the ping pong ball down the table and try to land it in the lab glass. Oh, yeah. Well, wait, wait, how was that? How was it different from version. One that were in a different configuration, obviously, okay, well, that's why, clearly, I asked, yeah, they were in like a circular pattern with a random object in the middle. To disrupt the circle, right? So I make it look like a lab table. I put, like, I have, like, a flask, and I also have some, like, graduated cylinders that I set nearby when I put my like goggles right. And as little inside joke to just me, because I don't think anybody else would have realized it. It did, put the chemical formula for sugar on a piece of paper and set it inside a petri dish and, oh, put it so I had the little glucose molecule chain thing as part of the decoration. That was just for me because it was funny. And I thought it was hilarious because I was giving away candies prizes. So I thought that's funny. We're gonna do that. It's good. I do like that a lot. I thought it was good, but, you know, it's fine. And so, yeah, it was two very long hours of a very hot room. I think it was good because Susan was also in there with her Pat stuff, and she had games also. So it was like, there was diff there was lots of games happening in the same area. It made it more exciting. Yeah, I think it drew in the customers also. I feel like this year I never actually went back and looked at the list, because I couldn't be bothered. But feel like there weren't as many people doing, like games, right? Like carnival league games. So feel like that drew because it gave everybody something to do, okay? And it's a repeatable thing, right? The real trick here is you're targeting the middle school boy audience, because they will just keep trying it over and over and over and over again. There's no deterring that, no spirit, No, there isn't so you got to make it like challenging, not like super hard, sure, but challenging. So they will just keep coming back. And it worked so and big, long, carnal night, uh, which was, it was pretty fine. It was good. Like, it's one of the things like, I don't look forward to it, and I don't like it when it's happening. It's fine because you have to be, you have to be like, it's one of those, like, uh, like, social battery situation, things like, because you have to be like, so on at the carnival, right? Like, I have to be like, so, like, Ah, it's exhausting. Like, when it's done, I'm like, I don't want to see anybody. I must retreat right until Monday. I don't want to look at another human being. So, but it was good, it was fun. It was nice to see a lot of people. And, like, a lot of people came, and it was fun to see, like, gotta see a lot of kids I've had before, thinking with, like, their younger siblings and stuff. So that's always fun times too. So big, big, long, exhausting, carnival happened, right? What else did I do? Oh, I have a movie review for you as well. What? Yes, oh, yes. Okay, surprise. Oh, Movie Review. Okay, um, this again, was quite inevitable, because a movie that came out recently is a remake, re imagining. I don't know I'm very imagining, but it is a remake of Susan's most actual favorite Christmas movie of all time, the best Christmas Pageant Ever, boom, right? This is her actual favorite thing, right? I guess it was a TV movie, maybe, I think we own this somewhere, but a long time ago, it's a book. She loves the book very much. And there's old version of the movie she loves very much. And they, they made another one, and so of course, we had to go watch it, right? But it was a very endearing story. Do you know the story of the best Christian Pageant Ever, right? No, you don't. Oh, wow. Okay, so it's like big church, like Christmas program time, right? And like, it's, you know, classic Mary, Joseph, Wiseman, shepherds, Angel, right, you know, and so, but it's, like, a big, important thing, and it's like, run by all the, like, really important ladies in the church, or whatever, blah, blah. And then, like, for some reason, I think it varies by the movie. But like, in this version, the lady that runs it, like, has an accident, and she, like, breaks your leg, right? And so. Or somebody else has to do the program, right? And this is a big, important part of town history, is this church pageant, right? And so this mom does it, the mom of your main character, girl, right? And so mom takes it over. And, you know, there's also, like, another family in town, and they're like, wild heathen children, right? The Herdman clan. They're like, they're dirty, they're poor, they're like, rascally, they're like, all the things that all the good church children in town are not, yes. And so through various circumstances, the Herdman children decide that they're going to come to church and they want to be in the Christmas play, right? And this appalls all of the other, you know, old church ladies who up their noses and are like, Oh, no, these children are terrible, and we don't like them, and blah, blah, blah, right? So they have like, this really bad rep in town for like, villainy, and nobody wants them around. And all the church ladies, like, turn up their nose at them, and they're, like, trying to get them to cancel the pageant and all the stuff, right? But the mom is like, now they want to be here. We're gonna go for it, right? So this is, like, a very sweet story of like, these people, like, you know, these, like, misunderstood kids, like finding acceptance, like learning to accept people, right? And like all this stuff. And it's very sweet, and Susan cries through the whole thing the whole time. It's great, so, but it's pretty good. They did a good job. All the kids in the movie were really good, right? It's very good movie. So, yeah, we went and saw that because it was just out randomly. We didn't saw, like, on Sunday afternoon for the cheaper version, and because, like, uh, can't remember their assistants anyway, yeah, so we went there and did that on Sunday so that was good times. So Susan, two thumbs up from Susan right. So that's the important review here. Two thumbs up from Susan, right, two and then two Susan thumbs right. That's important note. And then, what else did I do? Oh, yeah, yesterday was the dreaded dreary Lady Panthers basketball game field trip. Oh, so every year jury has, like, they do this, like sponsor thing with like Highland, I guess, and it's like kids day, right? So there's like a basketball game in the middle of the day, and like local school children come to watch it, and so it's a basketball arena filled with hundreds and hundreds of grade school age children, yeah, which is a thing that happens. I think there's, like, some kids, some schools bring like, only upper grades, and some schools bring like only lower grades, right? We bring kind of, like the middle so Gotcha. So we had like third through sixth grade, but some some schools just have like third and fourth grade. Some schools have like seventh and eighth grade, right? It's whatever, but just depending on what they want to do. But it's like a whole gym full of youths watching basketball. Now I don't like this field trip because, number one, it serves no purpose whatsoever, because it's just watching basketball like I have better things to do with my life, like I have science to teach. Like, what are you doing? But the kids like to go and, I mean, most of them like to go still, but some of them like to go still in sixth grade. By sixth grade, some of them are like, kind of over it, right? They're like, whatever, sure. But so we did that. And the other reason I don't like it is because this gym is full of hundreds of third graders screaming, and that's not fun for anybody at all. No, it hurts my brain. No, no. Hurts my brain a lot, being and also because those kind of those are well known for their acoustic dampening properties, right where? Oh yeah, yeah, basketball gymnasiums, they're definitely not amplification devices. No, under no circumstances would they ever really have that. Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry. There's no hard surfaces in a basketball gym. No, wait, that's is that you have no hard surfaces, yeah. But it was fine. The bonus part here, right, was actually, for the first time that I have ever been there, and we've been going like forever now, you know, like a long time. Wait, yeah, for a long time. I think we've been going for forever, and I've been teaching eight years, and I think we've gone every year, like just, but like, this was the only, this was the first time there's actually been an actual decent basketball game happening. Oh, really, yes. So the the shining cloud here is that usually, usually it's just like some random school I never heard of, and Drury wins by like, 60.0 and it's they, like, often break 100 and it's real painful, right? Oh no. You feel kind of games, you feel bad for the team. You're like, oh yeah, oh yeah. It's just kind of one of those, like, exhibition games where, yeah, yeah. So it, it was, it was a little rough, but this year, this year, right? It was actually really good. Like, it was as close as, like two points OOF for some time, right? And I think the final score was only, like eight to 10. They only won by like eight or 10 points, which is, like, pretty incredible. So shout out to the University of Central Oklahoma. Oh, second Oklahoma mentioned in this show today. Who Christine that coming? Uh, shout out to the University of Central Oklahoma right in Edmond, right. Go Broncos. Right? Whoo, Go Broncos. That's what we're saying here. They it was really good, right? Really good. It was really it was the best. It was the best Kids Day basketball game I have ever witnessed. Well, you know, at least it was a good one. That's a I'm glad. I'm glad for that. Yeah, it was so good, actually, that I emailed their coach, what I did, what did you say? And I was just like, hey, just so you know, because even a lot of the kids were like, Oh, those that other team was really good. I told him that I was like, Hey, just wanted to let you know we were at the game today, and we were very impressed by your team. I thought you guys were awesome. We were actually cheering for you. Good luck for the rest of season. Thanks. Ceiling, well, that's nice. That's good. I like that. I thought, you know, why not? Why not say something nice to people when you think it right, just go, go for it. And so I, yeah, I emailed, I found, I found the address on the school website. I was like, You know what? You know, I'm gonna email you. I'm gonna tell you, you guys are good. I think that that's important. I'm going to say more people need to do this, because nobody expects those kind of emails, my nobody, nobody. It's like, it's like, when the the road crew in front of our house completed our sidewalks, and it took like, like they took forever, like it was a very long process, but they were facing all sidewalks along our neighborhood, and we watched them every single day, every day those guys were out there. We were watching them for at least an hour total, like so we were the shadow. And on the last day where they finished up our sidewalk, and then they were moving on. They weren't going to do the next neighborhood over. They were just moving on to do other stuff. The entire crew knocked on our front door and gifted our kids to giant boxes of sidewalk chalk. And I was like, Well, I'm definitely crying right now. And thank you. I appreciate this. And I called the city, and I was like, hi, I wanted to call and talk to you guys about, I'm calling about the road crew that was doing the sidewalks over here. And she was like, like, panicked. Like, yes, sir, I'm taking no. Like, would you tell me? Like, what's going on? Negative, yeah, yeah. And I was like, Oh no, no, no. Like, I'm like, very glad they gave a gift. And that was really sweet. They let our side dry, you know, ride in a thing. And then I was like, Oh, I probably should have said that actually. Nevermind. Anyway. But nobody, nobody expects those calls and they really make an impact to people. Yeah, it's true, right? Like, that's why I was thinking too. I was like, You know what? If you might as well just say something, right? It took me five minutes to do, find that and send it off. So I hope they appreciate that, and I hope that, I hope they actually see it and read it. It doesn't get lost in the email. Oh, yeah. Well, especially like they're, I'm gonna guess that they're probably not getting deluged with emails all the time, but I send it to the coach's email address, yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, imagining they probably get a bunch randomly about, like, well, I like, I get a bunch of random deals every day that are not like for me, but I'm on the list, right? So it's like, Sure, right. There are CC or ECC stuff. And it's just like, oh yeah, gosh, but I'm sure you had an engaging headline and title, and you know that was, I did have a headline and title and an unfamiliar email address. So maybe that'll help, as long as it wasn't like, I'm watching you, I think they'll probably open. Tried to word it so it didn't sound like really extra weird, like a random person just emailing out of the blue with no context whatsoever. So I put like, game, basketball game, or whatever, that jury basketball game in the headlines so they know what it's about. But I'm trying to do that. But yeah, that was the big thing from yesterday. So keep you updated on that, if I'll see how that yeah, no, that's good. That's big news. That's I like that, and I'm glad that it went well. Very much, yeah, so pretty much Craven for we survive something. So, yeah, that's, Did I do anything? No, I don't think

55:56

so. I,

Collin  55:58

I, I, I just, I just scroll on my calendar while you were talking and I I was, this isn't that big of a deal, but I did, did get to talk to Rotarians this week. Oh, right. Updates. Have they heard of Wankel? Right? No, no. I think also, Mazda is coming out with a new rotary agent car. I'm pretty sure I got that headline at some point because I had Googled Wankel engine last week, and so my phone was like, Would you

56:24

like to read more about the

Collin  56:29

Yeah, it's learning, right? Yeah, yeah. Uh, if you're trying to learn from my searches, it's in trouble. I don't know. Yeah, that's good luck. Best of luck. Godspeed, Google. Godspeed, I know you have billions of dollars, but you cannot keep up with this. I this was, this was an interesting experience. I've never been to a secret club or society. I don't know what goes on in these things. I couldn't even tell you. Like, we sat down and we're thinking about all the clubs in the area of like, oh yeah, there's the lions and the moose and the, you know, the this club and the that club and these other things, like, I don't know what they do. I couldn't, I genuinely couldn't tell you. And if our uncle has anything to go by, they hang out in the clubhouse, uh, possibly imbibing, and then they raise money for charity. I think that is pretty much. That is definitely what this is, that is 100% like the Moose Lodge. So I went to a mixer, a business mixer, just minutes before I jumped on here they it was at a Moose Lodge. And yes, the it was a moose. And so that that's kind of what I have the the social club portion of it is actually just a bar, like, it's a, it's a, it's a legitimate bar, with the bar, with the tape, with the with the with the bar countertop and the whatever, like, that's what they so, yes, this totally makes sense. Um, yes. I went and talked to some Rotarians, and I was given zero instruction as to what I should talk about, but I was told to not talk about my business. So I was like, Cool. So you want me to talk about, yeah, well, I'll just be educational then. So I spoke on hand, really Winkle. Oh, sorry, wrong people. So it was very weird because I came in and I know nothing about their customs or their secret handshakes or anything like that. Like, they're ring a bell, they all wear, like, really gaudy, massive pins on their in the middle of their chest. Um, there's a a sheriff in there that finds people for, like, really ridiculous stuff, and all that money goes to raise money. So, like, I don't know the guy was like, hey, Henry, I saw you open the door with your left hand and not your right. So, you know, that's $1 and, and you, I, you know, Sally, I, you, you know, I didn't whatever, whatever. So that's $1 like, they just make up, like, these random stuff. And they're, you know, given $1 they auctioned a pie. Someone bought a pie for 360 bucks, or whatever, the previous weeks, and they're offering a pie and, yeah, that's all this is. They're just raising money internally to go to their there's things. And so my talk was, I talked about like, handling pet stress, and then the month of November is all about senior pets. So I was talking about living with a senior pet, adopting a senior pet. And then my my pitch at the end was to go adopt, and I had pictures of the three senior pets at our local shelter that are ready for adoption. And then I talked about how they could help the local shelter, because, you know, they're looking to volunteer stuff, so I figured I could point them over there, yeah, just walking into 30 minutes a day can help them be live their best life with their future families and whatever. So we talked about that and then, but yeah, I started with my opening line was because I said, I'm going to mine my P's and Q's because I have no cash on me. And that was hilarious. So I was like, okay, got him and apparently on brand. So it continued. Into the next day, when I was said, You should talk to the Rotarians. I have no cash. Yes, yeah, I was fine, yeah, yeah, that'd be really great. I was fined by a sheriff for not using the right handle on the door. Long story. Anyway, I'm running from the cops right now, and I don't have cash, so, so no, it was, it was fine. When I go through this long speak spot, it was I also, I came on, I came under time. They said 15 minutes, and I did 13 holy now, this is a miracle. I know it is a miracle, but I also know, like I'm trying to be respectful of people. I I've been at meetings, like I went to our chamber breakfast today, and the person are supposed to have a 15 minute slot, and they talk for like, 23 and you really feel it like those last couple minutes before the end, you're just like, digging your fingernails into the tabletop, like, Oh my gosh. So I want to respect them. It's my first time there. And so I end and everyone's like, shocked that I ended on time, apparently. And and the first question is, how much are your services? And I'm like, I'm not supposed to talk about this. Like, no, yeah, the sheriff told me not to say this. I don't have any cash on me. I'm not even supposed to you're not even supposed to know I own a business, so I don't know what you're talking about. Like, Oh my gosh, I was so so anyway, we talked about that, and I will say that when I don't always have business cards on me, but I do have tennis balls with our name and phone number on them. So I'll say, This is what a tennis this? I said, I don't have business card, but, oh, what am I? What did I say? I said, um, oh, this is the, this is a, this is a business card for a dog walker. And I hand him a tennis ball. And they lost it, and they thought was so funny. I was like, Yes, I can be corny too. Haha. Victory. God, so and I told Megan, I said, at the end, they came up and wanted to, they came up and they said, um, you'd make a good Rotarian. And they said that phrase, that was the first time I'd ever heard that word Rotarian. I mean, that's fair. I Right. Well, actually, I tell this to my I tell this to my wife, and she goes, You mean a rotifer? No. And I went, went, No, um, rotor, like you could be a rotor. But also now I need to go watch a video of rotifers going around in the water, because they are freaking cute, and I love watching rotifers zoom around under a microscope you've never done, if you've never maybe that's just me, but I think it may be just a biologist thing, so I will have looked at pond life under microscopes several times. So yes, that's, you know, video in the show notes, people can not rotifers, but you want to see a rotifer under microscope, you can click the link below. There's always link below. Oh, they're so cute. Look at them, you guys. Distracted. You can watch it when we're done just watching rota fu diatoms down, okay, this is not helpful for affiliated heads and vortex rock. It's a little mouth anywhere it's close. Good, good idea. Put it down. It's okay. Oh, I have a we will all be gathering and accumulating together soon. I would like to publicly place out there a video that we should all watch. Is this like homework? No, we will all watch it together. Oh, oh, that, Oh, okay, so I don't have to pre screen this before I come. No, no, this will be We'll watch it in real time. Okay, do I get to know of what? Yes, okay, yes, I do. We can vote on this if you think we should all watch this as a family. Because I think, I think at this time that we watch this together, and then we can, we can talk about it. I I have obtained a copy of this. It is very hard to find a copy of this. I have found a copy I would like to watch the American television special, originally broadcast 1978 Yes, I am wanting to watch the Star Wars special. I don't think we can talk. I think Mark Hamill will block us if we mention that. I don't think that's how that's. So I'm wanting to watch the show, the movie, that has 17,294 one star reviews on IMDb. That's pretty bad. How did you even get this? Well, you can find it on you can find actually postings. And if you want, there's actually a, there is one surviving version on on YouTube that. But there are also other people have various versions that you can, you can find in one. So I know it will, it will not be exactly life day. But I think we can, we can. That's pretty good. Celebrate life day together. I think, I think this would be a fun way to do it together, to be kind of funny. Okay, if we have, if you have time to do this, we were trying to decide what day we were going to actually be there. So, okay, we'll let you know. I don't see, yeah, I think we're probably going to be there like the day before. Some say Wednesday. Some say Wednesday, yeah, some say but I'm not it might. It might be the the day before, the day before, okay, something Tuesday. Well, we probably wouldn't get, well, I have to work on Tuesday, yeah? So we will be there on that Wednesday, I think, yeah, and we'll stay through the weekend, but I know you guys got to go, okay, yeah, well, that's what we didn't know if we should do, like, Wednesday, Thursday, or Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Thursday, Friday, or like we did. I'm going to be there through will. We're going to be there through the weekend. So I'll be jumping out doing stuff. So anyway, but we'll because I know you said you would be busy, but yeah, only on certain time blocks, not through the whole days. But yeah, so anyway, yeah, yeah, we can do that. Speaking of I forgot. I remembered a thing that we did this week, the thing I did this week real quick. We i This happens every once in a while, right where I will make random references and jokes about movies that Susan has never seen before, ever, right? Because she pre me, she'd, like, never watched any movies at all, ever, like, at all. So I will, like, make these really random off the cuff references, and she'll just look at me and be like, what? So, yes, no, well, this week, maybe it's Tuesday. I made Susan wife, my cousin, Vinny. Ah, it'd be so good. How did, how did that work? She liked it a lot. She thought, Okay, it's a good movie. It's hilarious. Yeah, movie so funny. But, like, she'd never seen it. And I made some sort of joke about something, I think I all, I made a reference to, like, in the court, there's a scene in the courtroom where he's, you know he's talking, and he's like, so what did these two youths say? And the judge is like, excuse me, the what? He's like, Oh yeah, the youths. He's like, did you say Utes? He's like, What? No. So I made some sort of joke about that, and she just stared at me, like, I was like, yeah, these dang Utes around here. And she and I started laughing. She was like, What are you? What are you talking

1:08:24

about? Funny. Why would you say that? So we had

Collin  1:08:31

to watch My Cousin Vinny, right? So that is the other thing that we do this week. I mean, it was great. Though I love it. No, it is really good. I Yeah, the final courtroom scene, right? That's a good. Yeah, it's the best, the best. So yes, that was the thing I did this week. And then again, update announcement while I was in the movie theater going to watch the best grade, the greatest Christmas Pageant Ever. I did see. They do have the movie poster for the war of the Rohirrim. This looks really good. This is I'm I'm very excited about this. They didn't have any previews or anything because it was like more kiddie stuff. But I saw the thing, and I had to look up the day. So December 13 is the official release day of this. Done. That's gonna be a good one. I'm probably gonna be going to that. So look forward to that review coming soon. Yeah, yeah, I need to. So it looks good. There we go. Alright, so do everything else, because I have, I remembered my Haiku this week. Boy, I was a good boy, right? Yeah, oh, but before that, oh, oh, man, so do you have just a. Random Mark Twain quote of the week, oh, completely unconnected to current events whatsoever. Not. Uh, sure I will. I will read it thusly, right? Our Mark Twain quote of the week is there is nothing to be learned from the second kick of a mule, they go do with that what you will. You Yeah, that's good. Anyway, the Haiku, yes, handfuls of tickets, bouncing balls and tossing rings,

1:10:59

prizes to delight.

Collin  1:11:03

Clam, nice. I like that. Delight. Yes, well done. Hey, even topical for this,

1:11:15

I know that look at there.

Collin  1:11:21

Very good. Well, that is a great way to send us off. And I will be doing a deep, more of a deep dive into the war of the rohirr, because I'm very excited about this. So yes, me too lots to look forward to in that. Hey, yes, well, we'll see how busy our next week is, all right? Mike, well, this may be an off week. I don't know. Was he exactly just, it's just, it is one of those, like, maybe, maybe we just, you know, maybe I try for 19 hours, maybe, yeah, or maybe 11,000 things to get done. Yeah, we'll re we'll Same time, same place. We'll report all right,

1:12:05

love

Collin  1:12:06

you, love you. Bye, bye.