railroad adjacent dioramas

Collin has a clear lane. Brandon found a rabbit hole. We have concerns for the rain in Switzerland.

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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE

PROVIDED

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Winter weather, snow drifts, road maintenance, blizzard conditions, cold temperatures, miniature dioramas, model trains, hyper-detailed miniatures, wild west theme, resin pouring, aquascape competitions, men's fashion, black metal, World War One, trauma and recovery., escapism, billiards, military service, decompression, prison analogy, war, Frederick's struggle, identity, civilian life, Switzerland, boat journey, Lake Maggiore, winter sports, tobogganing, transition.

SPEAKERS

Collin, Brandon

Collin  00:04

Music. Welcome to Oh brother, a podcast where we try to figure it all out with your hosts, Brandon and Collin on this week's show, railroad adjacent dioramas, ahoy. How's your winter wonderland? Oh,

Brandon  00:24

it's wintery. I'm staying inside. It's crazy out there,

Collin  00:29

so I gotta move my mic. Hold on. It's gonna be

00:32

fair. Fair anyway.

Collin  00:36

Yeah, it's um, you know what's what's fascinating is that we didn't even get the amount of snow that they were forecasting by like, a long shot, and yet it's still terrible. Oh

Brandon  00:48

no, yeah. I mean, still going to so we're not done yet. Oh, I know. So there's that, but like, it's, like, it is really fine and very like, powdery snow. It's so dry, right? The cold air, so dry that it doesn't like it's hard to probably forecast that part. But we have a lot out here, like, I'm not going outside to measure currently, but there's a lot of snow out here on my road, and there is a substantial amount of slow snow drifted up against my house right now. So, like, it's a huge, yeah, it's, I think it's

Collin  01:29

30 mile an hour straight line winds that really make this really wonderful. You know, that's the blizzard part of it,

Brandon  01:35

right? So, like, it's, it's okay, like, I still probably have, you know, just like, straight up, over eight inches of snow in the unblown parts outside, which is not insubstantial, but the blown parts, like, how it's, like, it's definitely a foot and a half deep,

Collin  02:01

yeah, I think, think up here it, it didn't quite get to those I was kind of what, as I was walking dogs and stuff, I'd like, stick my hand in the snow. Be like, how do that? I think I only was hitting like, four to five inches, but drifts well over 10 inches or whatever. I

Brandon  02:20

know I usually test the trash can lid because it stands alone. It's nowhere else, right? And it just accumulates all this snow and like it, there's a lot of snow on my trash can like so I'll get a final cat little bit later. But usually, because it doesn't blow, it does nothing blows onto it, and it's flat, so it just sits there, and it gets a lot of snow. It's really weird too, because like, looking out the back of the house versus looking out the front of the house is a very different experience. Because in the back it's like, oh, it's just, like, lightly snowing. We look at the front, it's like, yeah, yeah. But what I ran into

Collin  03:00

where I was like, Oh, this is not all that bad. And then I would round a corner and I'd go, No, this, this is actually that bad. Never mind.

Brandon  03:09

And, and let's not forget, my current feels like temperature is negative 13, so nice. So it's just not exact. It's not like, just a happy, happy, fun time out there. No, like, it's not No, no, no. That's like, without the wind chill. It's around five. That's Fahrenheit for all of you, all of our international friends, I know this temperature talk probably annoys you, because we do it wrong, great, but that's five Fahrenheit. So, yeah, that's we're already well below freezing, right? Yeah, yeah. Well, that's,

Collin  04:02

and that's what's made the road maintenance, like, pretty ridiculous, is that it's just nothing, like no pre treatment. Like, pre treatment really stops working at, like, was like 20 degrees and so, yeah, anything below that, like, this is just, we're just, we're just fapping about here. But the it's so weird, like the roads, like, they've done a really great job keeping like, a lane open, like one and it's like, oh, I can actually drive like, 50 miles an hour on this, but 10 suddenly it'll just be like, and nothing. Everything is covered. There are tracks everywhere. There's inches of snow drifts and things like that. On a three lane highway, and you're just like, No, no.

04:54

So it was,

Collin  04:57

you know, and people will be coming up, okay, I'm gonna go. Go 35 miles an hour, because that is a consistent that I can drive, that feels right, you know, consistently, and I can do this, consider I'm not having to slam on my brakes when suddenly the road turns into Hoth, right? Like I don't, because that's what people were doing, is they'd be going 50 or 60 when the lane was totally clear. Because why trying to go 60 in a blizzard, bro?

Brandon  05:23

Why do well, here's the thing. I know people in Missouri don't know how to drive. I'm aware of this, but drive. But here's the

Collin  05:29

thing, they think. They think the lane is clear, so therefore the lane shall be clear forever. Hmm, false. And, yeah. Then all of a sudden, like, I'm watching, and then up ahead, you see their bright tail lights, like illuminate. And I'm like, Ah, they found the the not clear portion of the road. And oh, look, we're going 35 miles an hour. Hey, look at that, everybody. I can't imagine what

Brandon  05:55

a horrifying experience that is for your car to be going 60 miles an hour and then hit four inches of snow. Like, No, I know. Just ask. No, thanks. That's just, like, death. Like, that's how you become dead, right? This is how, this is how you accidentally follow step one. Don't follow step one. That's important Exactly.

Collin  06:15

Yeah, stay consistent here. Yeah. So

Brandon  06:19

I have, okay, the reason this is funny, and if any of my students are listening, that's they'll understand this. Yeah, I have this video about how fossils are made, and the lady like dead pan face goes step one die. It's like, how to become a fossil. And so we're like, no, no, no, no, don't follow step one. That's what don't follow forward, not going to do, yeah, anyway, just after some brief calculations here for our international friends, current degree Celsius, negative 15, oh my gosh, with a wind chill of minus 25 Celsius. They go. So for all you international people who are like, What the heck is Fahrenheit? That's, that's your number there, wind chill of minus 25

Collin  07:10

and it's gonna give even better over the next, yeah, that's,

07:14

it's going down. That's where. Yeah, that's what I'm like.

Collin  07:22

So I don't know we're having this discussion. It's like, okay, so let's say the snow stops at, you know, at midnight. Will it be at all better by the time that it's in the morning? And the answer

Brandon  07:35

is probably worse, because it would just be this snow is so powdery, it's just going to be us. It's gonna freeze like, just like they didn't even try to do usually, when it snows around here, they like, try to come and do our roads, nah, nothing like, nope, not even worrying about today, because it's just gonna blow and snow more. So too bad.

Collin  08:02

Yep, so that's what we are having fun with. So be out, be out in it again tomorrow morning, uh, sliding a boot,

08:11

having fun. And I was like, Oh, I'm

Collin  08:16

I'm glad I'm not driving my front wheel drive car currently. This is, this is good, glad, glad I have all four wheels turning, because that's helpful right now, that is useful. I mean, it doesn't help on ice, obviously, but, but, I mean, it kind of does a little bit, you know, it's kind of helpful in ice. It's not the magic pill that a lot of people think, because if one wheel is sliding all about all of them will be most of the time. So

Brandon  08:45

yeah, but if you're, let's just say, hypothetically, you're a Finnish rally driver, who cares, right? It's all good, right? You should slide on the ice, and it's fine. And let me just

Collin  08:59

what if I'm, what, if, hypothetically,

09:01

you're Mika Heckman, right driver,

Collin  09:04

is that? Is that a problem? I don't know. I think that's one. I don't should be concerned.

Brandon  09:08

I should have, you know, because this show is so well researched.

Collin  09:16

That's, yeah, that's

Brandon  09:19

a former sports he's f1 driver, but I bet he can do it too. Harlow science senior, he can do it too. I know he's

Collin  09:32

Oh, so I learned some more Top Gear lore today. Did you? I did so you know that the this the episode where they reveal who the Stig is and, oh yeah, and it's Michael Schumacher. It's Michael Schumacher, do you know? Do you know why it was Michael Schumacher?

09:52

No, so. Anyway, on

Collin  09:55

that same episode, he that the Ferrari FX X is driven. Him. Oh, that's because that's his car. That was his car. Not only but could he not, like a, he didn't want anybody else to drive it, but also B, Ferrari is really particular about their special edition cars and who they allow to have it driven by. And, yeah, you have to basically, like, get permission from Ferrari for this kind of thing, which is weird because

Brandon  10:21

you bought the car, but again, that's their car. That's like, the FX X was that that's like, they will deliver it to a racetrack for you. Yes, you actually can't drive it on the road. It's like, not allowed.

Collin  10:36

So he was there driving his and they thought it would be a funny stunt, and look all these years later, that moment still spectacular because it just added to like, the myth and the ethos of everything going on with the show at that time. And I love, I I rewatch that, that that transpired today, and I was like, Yes, this is wonderful. This is wonderful. I love this so much,

Brandon  11:04

nice. Oh, things I have been watching since I've been doing absolutely nothing. Oh,

Collin  11:12

yes, snow days abound and well, yes, it was President's day or so yesterday was yesterday, was but

Brandon  11:17

they, I mean, they canceled school like, yesterday, like, real early. They're like, No, and they cancel school for tomorrow at like noon. Like, yeah, no, we're no way, yep, not even not gonna deal with it, which fair, because no, it's real bad or real bad out there, but so I have doing, you know, lots of nothing, right? Plus, Susan's been like, really sick, so I've been hiding. Oh, right. We went on. It was weird. We went Sunday to eat with her family, because it was her mom's birthday, right? So she'd be feeling like kind of meh or whatever. And then so we go Sunday, we eat at this place, and then Sunday night, she was like, Nope, I am now extremely ill.

12:19

Oh, no, yeah, it

Brandon  12:22

was rough. So we it's weird after we ate dinner, and she was like, nope, done. So she fought through it all yesterday. Uh, she sees you doing a lot better today. So this is good, but I've had even more time to hide because I've just been like, bringing her random drinks, you know, your small water right away,

Collin  12:41

sliding them through.

12:42

Yeah, like here.

Brandon  12:51

Awesome, yes. So between that and playing random video games, right, which slightly distracted me also shirking my homework, right? And I have fallen down because I fell down a YouTube rabbit hole, right? A big one. Oh, actually, a small one, technically. Oh, right. I've been watching people that make, like, hyper detailed, like, miniature diorama things.

Collin  13:26

Oh my gosh. Now, now are these, like, what kind, what kind of miniature dioramas, things? Because,

Brandon  13:35

well, a lot of different ones. Okay, what some of them are like, they're kind of like some of the I feel okay. So I started watching some that were like video gamey, right? Because I did like somebody made, like, one of the Dark Souls boss arenas. So obviously I'm watching that.

Collin  13:58

Did you did you see some, some, Warhammer for 40k or whatever. Well, I did watch those

Brandon  14:04

ones. So I watched ones that people like make like some of them are railroad adjacent, okay, right? Because the the miniature making hobby and the model train hobby, there's a big Venn diagram overlap there, right? But like, they'll just make a little thing. It's just like a building, right, with some stuff or whatever. I watched a couple that are, they're like, super cool. But the one that I've been really obsessed with for two days is my big obsession of two days. If this dude is, is his, I'll link that. I'll send you the channel link here a little bit. But like, his name is, like, Boyle Hobby Time, right? It's his channel name. He makes these, like, little dioramas. They go, I think he's sort of done like, uh, they're kind of like. Like, hybridized, fantastical things, right? Because, like, I've also watched the mini bricks guy. It's like, you know, this video here, this pull up is like a camper, right? It's like a camper, like a swamp or whatever in it's kind of neat. But, like, this dude is, like, partially in conjunction with, I think he's also sort of developed this, like tabletop game that goes along with this, like, weird, fantasy, alternate universe he's created about, like, the Wild West, right? It's called, like, I don't remember the name is kind of, it's like wild imagination West, or something, which is, you know, that that's a name, sure, right? Oh, it's wild imaginary West. This is his, like, tabletop RPG thing that he's kind of like, created, you know. Okay, so again, the name is, yeah, I don't know about the name anyway, but it's like westerny stuff, but with like monsters in it, right? So, like, one of the little dioramas is, like, these dudes, like canoeing across a river, and they're like, one, like, little, tiny 172, scale people. But then he has, like a four inch alligator snapping turtle in the same river with him.

16:32

So it's like, oh, this

Brandon  16:33

is fantastic. It's kind of cool, right? Not kind of, it's super cool, is actually what it is. So the here, here's that snappy Jordan one, but like, this is the thing. I've fallen down. I've been watching other people's stuff, but mostly it because I like the stuff. So it's like, all about the model making, right? He comes up with these. They all have like, these weird stories, because it's part of his, like, expanded lore universe. I see, which is very interesting. Yeah, but like, I like watching them make all this stuff, because they're like, make the diorama stuff, and then they'll, like, do the foam cutting, and then they'll some of them, like, 3d print stuff, or sometimes they just have, like, random model kits, and they're like, the word I learned is called kit bashing, where you just, like, take random pieces from different model kits and stick them together. Oh, well, how about that? Yeah, learn that word. So and to, like, make their own kind of thing. To, like, use a figure from this one, or, like, one of the ones he just, like, had a figure. He just, like, bought it. It's like, for a different tabletop game, but he thought it would look cool, so he put it in his he like, made like a mine thing with a giant spider in it. So there was, like, it was like a cross section of like a mine with like miners inside. But there was also a giant spider, but that came from like, a different tabletop thing that he just like, Oh, that's cool. I'm gonna change it a little bit and stick it in my thing, because it looks awesome. So, like, that kind of really cool. It was really cool, right? It's really neat. And so I've been watching a lot of these videos

Collin  18:19

this, this is oddly adjacent to something that I fell down a little while ago. Aquascape competitions. Have you watched these? No, okay, so, so there's something called the what is it? Aquatic gardeners Association, international aquascaping contests. Click on some of those. It's kind of in the same thing, like the terrarium dudes. Terrarium dudes, yes, only it's like, fish tanks. Okay, right? So this is what they do so that you can compete, yeah, yeah. And they're all sorts of different sizes and things like that. Holy. That's what I fell into a couple months ago of this, like terrarium building, but aquascape building as well. It's, it's pretty amazing, yes, and there's, and then I there's so many different channels to get into with these. But you know, because they'll do like, thimble sized terrariums, and then there'll be these huge things and whatever. Anyway, yeah, so that's why I'm watching that video of the

19:32

term internal diorama.

Collin  19:33

And I was that's immediately what I thought of as I was watching this. I was like, Oh, I have seen some things that are very close to this,

Brandon  19:45

there's, there's, so he also made one. It's like, it's like, not in the same it's not in his Expanded Universe thing. But he made one. It was like a a dragon attacking a tavern. And it may be the coolest thing ever seen.

Collin  19:59

It was. Awesome. I just pulled up his lobster attacks fisherman diorama. Oh yeah, that

Brandon  20:05

one's cool too. I saw that one. I'm right. It's the, I like the resin pouring and stuff that's a lot of like the resin work, which is kind of cool. And so it's, this is what I've been watching. It's just like people making there is kind of a theme of, like, there a lot of people do this, like, kind of like horror adjacent one, where it's like, they play with this the size, where it's like, oh, here's some normal sized people and a giant other thing, right? Like, oh, sure, yeah, like a giant spider on the side of a building, or something like that, right? Like, so it's kind of neat, right? It's kind of interesting. He also did one, he made, like a big display diorama for like, a giant Millennium Falcon model thing, which, oh, wild. I mean, right? I mean, like, it was, like, landing on a thing with it. Like, it was like, Okay, well, I'm sold now, like, half day less Star Wars diorama I'm in, okay, like, watching all that. So, yeah, obviously. So as you've been sort of watching this, I like, it's really fascinating, kind of how they have to work to put the things together to, like, reverse engineer the final product, which I'm assuming they're visualizing, maybe sketching out right then, how do you reverse that backwards, and start from, like this block of foam, and then build up the parts to get to here, right, right? That process is very interesting to watch, because, like, not just the layering up of, like, the painting obviously, because, like, people that paint those little figures are just this is really neat. That process is always really cool, right? As a person that cannot paint anything except a wall, right? I can paint a wall. Boom, I got that. But, like, artistic painting, I can. I've never that of all the mediums I've ever tried in art, that one, no, no paint to me, it was like, Well, this is not good, because

Collin  22:21

in this one, like, I watching this boat, the lobster attacks the fisherman. Like, I really like this because, like, he even takes the boat. It's another model for something else, like a Coast Guard ship or whatever, and he does, he customizes it, and he paints it, and he adds some other things to make it a fishing boat, and then the way he ages it with the paint and does the different lighting with it, like, that's something that's just completely crazy to me. And then just watching him, like, after he poured the acrylic, he I don't know whether it was glue or something, but, like, textured the surface so it looked like water and, yeah,

Brandon  23:00

I don't know. I don't know exactly what it is. It's like, it's called, like, water ripple thing. Oh, it's like, you can it makes it look like the surface of the water. I don't know exactly what it is, but that's what it's designed to do. But it's that. It is that, like

Collin  23:15

you said, reverse engineering. I think that's the great way to do it, because you do, you can't get the cart before the horse on all of these things. And like you, there is definitely a step by step by step process. And you see that in the aquarium builds too, or the terrariums where it's like, in order to get this final result with the plant here and this here, like you have to figure out and back solve into how this is going to grow, or how these two for this thing, about how the clay and the the foam are going to mix and anyway, it's just, it's beyond me. Basically, yeah,

Brandon  23:49

yeah. This is very much a thing that I like, a skill set that I do not possess even a little bit. So I think it's, it's just really, I think that's the other thing that makes it cool to watch, is like, just how all of these different things work together. And I do, like, like, I do like the engineering part where he's like, Oh, I needed something that looks like this. So I dug in my random box of stuff, and I found this thing which I think will work cool. And I was like, Ah, yes, I can get behind that line of thinking. This is how I operate all the time.

Collin  24:22

Yes, exactly. This is just here. I

Brandon  24:26

understand. I understand random parts, boxes. Okay, sold, let's go.

Collin  24:34

I too, have random parts. I think I can do this.

Brandon  24:38

Yeah, like, I cannot do that, but it's really cool. I just really think it's really interesting, like watching that. So that's what, that's what I've been watching, is people building dioramas that may or may not contain overly gigantic monsters and be wild west themed, sort of adjacently. So. A totally fine. There's a lot of, there's a lot of lore in this wild west thing he's got going on. It's like, a very deep lore thing. He's just sort of developed, I guess. I don't really know. I also don't know what he does with all of these things, like he sells, this is, well, some of them, I know he's like, displayed in other places, right? Like the Millennium Falcon thing. He said it's like, huge. It's like, the size of a coffee table, but he said it was being displayed in like, a store or something, so like, for a coffee shop, maybe something like that. That makes sense, like, that's the other thing with a hobby like this, but it's, it's really cool, where you can make, like, tons of cool stuff, when you put it when you're done, you can, you have, you're making display pieces. So like does, is this more like model railroad adjacent? Are there just, is there just a room in this dude's house full of diorum, right? All right, that's the other thing. Like, where do they go? Because a lot of them, like I said, if they're on his theme for his thing, right? His wild the imaginary West. Again, that the name bro. But like, if they're all kind of in a theme,

Collin  26:24

where are they going? Yeah, are there dedicated collectors? I did notice at the end, he does have a lot of Patreon supporters. He does so like, are they buying them at discount? Maybe,

Brandon  26:38

maybe, I don't know. I don't know. Maybe not. Maybe some of them, that could be true, some of them, I think he like a couple of them. He said he's gonna give away for, like, a thing, but like, yeah, that's nowhere near all of them. He's got a lot of videos out now. So like, yeah, where did they go? That's what I wanted. That's what I need to know. The back end of this hobby. Like, what do you do with it? Because this is the general problem with hobbies that make stuff, in my opinion, right? Like, it's all, it's all well, good for like, you know, you can make clothes, right? And, like, drawing is kind of okay. But like, where do you keep all the stuff, you know, when you're, like, making things like this, if you're not selling them, what some people do, because there's like, well, I just like doing it, and then, my God, this, if somebody wants it, I'll sell it, whatever. But like, like, especially something like this, you're making these, like, big, elaborate, or not even big, like, some of these are just like, they're kind of small ish, right? So they're not like, they're like, book size, so they're not like, huge. But wait, do it. What do you do with it? Like, where does it go? Like, it would be, like, it sucks. Just put it all in a box. I'd be lame. But like, just, like, billions of shelves all over the house, just like, full of dioramas and like, if your favorite thing to do is just like, make more dioramas, it's like, Ah, this gets out of control real fast. Yeah,

Collin  28:13

there's got to be, I don't know how you offer

Brandon  28:16

again, as somebody who does not create in this manner, right? Like, I don't know how it works. And it's just me speaking from ignorance, because, like, I don't really art a lot, you know, I used to, like, draw some, but then it's just in a book, and you put the book in your desk, and I never drew enough to, like, have many sketchbooks, you know what I mean? Because I'm not, like, good so I don't

Collin  28:41

know one of those guys. I don't know what it's like to be good at art, so I don't know well, or just to be creating something that you just have now copious amounts of, like, when you're when you're creating slowly, especially in a physical form, like, if it's digital, like, you can just, like, whatever. But like, in a physical form, okay, you pay one, like one thing, and then you pay two things. And if these are spaced out, it's kind of okay, because you can do something with them. But if you're painting on a weekly or multiple pieces a week basis, or you're doing these kind of large dioramas, yep, there's so much space in your house, and then you kind of have that, that plan of, speaking of Top Gear, remember that episode where they had that guy who accidentally built the car in his

29:28

kitchen? Oh yeah, yeah, in the house, yeah, in the house, because he just

Collin  29:31

started to put it together, and then suddenly realized, Oh, I can't actually get this

29:37

out, but I've come too far. So we

Collin  29:39

gotta cut a wall, you know, yeah, it's very much like that, where all of a sudden you're like, Oh, these have to go somewhere. And I guess you hope that you can get them displayed, or have them in different, you know, on display and or whatever it's called, in different exhibits and things like that. Say. It's the same thing. I see people. I watch videos of people who do, like welding, like the the sculptures with, like the, like the scrap metal and stuff where it's like, that you did a life size grizzly bear out of metal, like, where that better have a home, right? You know, yeah, a lot of

Brandon  30:16

those people are selling that stuff too, yes, but I got it, yeah, there's nobody's doing though, that's what I don't know. Or, I mean, maybe there's like upcoming video How to renovate your attic for more stores.

Collin  30:28

You know what creating an attic room

Brandon  30:31

or, uh huh, mini sculptures? No, it

Collin  30:34

would just be for no particular reason. Yeah,

Brandon  30:38

no reason at all. Just needed an attic room. Always liked attic rooms, you know, whimsical and whatnot.

Collin  30:49

Whimsical attic rooms.

Brandon  30:55

Oh my gosh, yes. I and, well, we also had a bit of a catastrophe on the World War One metal album of the week. Oh, because, again, because we do have a no Nazi guarantee here.

Collin  31:19

Oh no, there was just enough questionable

Brandon  31:21

Reddit post for me to be like, dang, it's one red one Reddit thread was like, Oh, well, that's no good because it's here's, here's the problem, right? And I don't, I'm tired. I don't. I'm struggling to continue to listen to, like, black metal, right? Like, it's just it's getting hard, yeah, because I don't, I don't. I was just not my favorite genre, right? I just so I had one that was like, oh, it's pretty cool. I kind of like this. It's more like normal death mentally, which is like, okay, like Melodic Death mentally, so I can't handle that. That's fine. Sure, that's relatively normal. But then it was like, Oh no. So like, this afternoon, I was like, frantically, like, Oh no, no. I have to find more things. Ah. Is, oh no. Well,

Collin  32:24

you know, you fly too close to the Sun sometimes, yeah,

Brandon  32:31

yeah, gotta you, I mean, you see is what happens you fly too close to the German metal scene. It just pop up in right? I was like, Oh no, ah, so we have lid on this. Hold on. Where'd it go? Yeah, wait, yes, yes, why does it show that's very weird. I don't understand. No, wait, what? Why is there? My phone is saying that there's two conversations with you and Aaron, and I don't understand why that is, uh, didn't you just send one over? Yeah, but that's in a different Oh, did I mess it up? Yeah, you did anyway. It's fine. Okay, that was confusing. Okay, so we're going here with this. This is very metally named, right? This guy, this Craig's history guy, yeah, well, really we wanted the reason that we picked this one, that I picked this one, not we, I'm not bringing you into this this year. Guy, this is the montagna del morte, the mountain of death, because this album is themed, uh, around the Italian Austro Hungarian front in the Alps, wow, during World War One. Wow, there. So, there you go. So, yeah, you know. So it's, you know, as it's fine, like it's okay, it's kind of it's all right, but it's very on theme. They're very appropriately themed for what's been happening here. So we going with this so that it's pretty good, right? It's not bad. It's, it's themed around the book. This is the emergency pick, because the pic that I had, I had to abandon. And there was, like, there was some other ones I was listening to today. And I was like, this is okay, like, this is pretty good, but it's like, it wasn't on theme, right? That's the other problem. Had, like, I found some it was, like, pretty good, like, one from Ireland or whatever, and it was pretty good, but it like, really wasn't World War One themed at all. So I don't know why it was on the list of World War one battle band. That was weird. But why is it hard? I just didn't really feel the theme coming from it when I listen to it. So, like, I like it, but it's not really the theme. So I was running out of bands that I wanted to listen well, so, yeah, oh, I got one more to do. So, one more. Yeah, rough this week. So I don't mind there's, there's a lot. There's also, like, I know it's part of the genre of black metal, but like, sometimes it sounds like it was recorded through a tin can. Oh, is that kind of their? Like, their the tone they have to go for you certain groups like that kind of thing, right? Because it's like, and as a person that has listened to a lot of 80s punk. Like, bad recording doesn't necessarily bother me, because, like, a lot of 80s punk is like that. It was literally recorded in somebody's bedroom, right? Like we're in a shed, and so it's but it's part of the DIY charm, yeah? So you're just like, okay, whatever. Like, part of the charm is, it kind of sounds weird, right? It's not professionally mixed, it's not anything. And so you just like, you're like, okay, but sometimes some bands do that, and it's just like, Did you listen to this? Like, what? Yeah, did you want it to sound like, again, as a person who is not, like, in touch with the genre, it's just like, this was the goal. Like, what I don't know,

Collin  36:58

yeah, we didn't do a second past, we just, we just moved on. Is that? Is that what it looks like we did, right? Like you

Brandon  37:05

didn't mix anything, like, where did the sound go? Like,

Collin  37:09

I don't know. Didn't even do like, a test, test, test, test before. I don't

Brandon  37:15

know. This is a delving very long into a world that confuses me is draining me, but um, like, and it's it's hard to find again. Once you get like real deep into a genre, it starts to hard find like. It starts to become difficult to find things that like stand out, yeah, because it's like the same, right? So, Oh, that's good segue. The other thing I miss talking about today, so I also like because I bought a pair of pants, right? The internet thinks I want to watch men's fashion video. Oh, my days, what is is not a good place to be, right? Like, it's, it's a little bit rough, right? Like, first of all, some of them are creatively titled, things like how to wear a blue shirt. Like,

Collin  38:21

who's this for?

Brandon  38:22

Like, again, I accept the fact that I am now 40 years old, and every dude in these videos is like, 22 okay. I understand this. I understand this. These videos are not for me for the most part. Some of them are but like that, we know well, some of them, I'm the demographic, but I'm, like, the age demographic, but I'm going, why? No, yeah, right. So, like, whatever, but the it's just like, What are you doing? Like, first of all, again, not a fashion person. So, like, I don't really care that much, but like, sometimes they wear things. You go, why are you wearing that? Why? Like, I don't know what type of person to help me listeners understand what is happening here. What type of person is watching some of these videos where I'm like, Ah, yes. White pants, beige sweater, brown jacket, yes, you have successfully crawled out of a bowl of oatmeal. And you have said, This is my fashion sense for day. I understand like, if people are, I've watched enough what not to wear to understand that if you are, like, attempting to like, flip like drastically, or like, branch out in your you want like, Baby. Nice, neutral color pieces, right? I understand this, because you have to start so you need a foundation on which to build things. So you need a lot of neutral colors, right? Like always wearing all neutral colors all the time. Is this? Is this what you want? This

Collin  40:17

is the this is the esthetic that people have in their homes where they paint them all like, there's like a beige beige, or like white with black, and it's all

Brandon  40:26

very monotone, yeah, when your highlight color is navy, yeah, I feel like, right, this is not and then, okay, so this is one into the spectrum, like 20 year olds doing 20 year old stuff, right? These guys, like, maximum age is like 25 Okay, so, like, whatever. That's fine. On the other end of the spectrum, right? Again, because I it's like I was watching some other stuff, and it kept recommending me like different fashion videos because I looked at a pair of like, shoes, right? I don't know, heaven forbid I need new shoes. So I'm trying to decide, what new shoes do I buy? Right? But they're like, oh, because you thought maybe you looked at men's boots. Let me show you all of this crazy stuff. It's like, What is this nonsense. It's like all this, like, heritage style, like crazy expensive, like, dudes that wear like $500 boots and like $300 jeans, like those type of dudes, right? And they're all just trying to look like, they all kind of look like James Dean. You know, isn't it that kind of like? Again, we get to this problem where there's all of these people in like, their little genre fashion, little sections, and they're like, all talking about, like, one thing, but then they're all talking about, like, when you're talking about, like, whenever you have a man talking to you, and he's talking about, like, being an individual, right, standing out, and he's wearing black Ray Bans a graphic tee with a flannel, wow, paper jeans that are rolled up a little too high and big lace up boots, like you're not an individual. You're wearing a uniform,

Collin  42:34

and that's fine. That's okay. You are of a type. Yes, you're of a type, but don't pretend

Brandon  42:39

that you are not, yeah, right. Like these, like, even the like, so like, the higher fashion dudes, they do the same thing. Like, they're like, stand out. Blah, blah, blah, be yourself. They're all wearing cream colored pants, okay, and I can't tell you apart, then I can't, then you're not standing out. This is the problem I always had with, like, punk stuff, right? Like, back in the day, like, really into punk music, right? Not so much punk fashion, because punk fashion is lame, because punk fashion, right? People go, oh, I need to be an individual. I want to stand out. And that was that worked good in like 1977 for like, two weeks, and then everybody just started dressing the same, right? So you can't say, be individualized, you know, blah, blah, blah, and then all wear the same thing, right? Like, the message doesn't match, you know what I mean? Like, it's always bothered me, like, I understand you're when you say rebel, like, and when you're talking about fashion, and you're saying rebel, what you are talking about is, like, stereotypical menswear, yeah, right, based on, let's be honest, Prussian army uniforms. That's what it's from, right? Your men's suit is based off of Prussian military uniform. That's where it comes from. That's the manly esthetic, the quote men, right? Oh, and that of the titles that are like, how to dress like a BAM, like, what? Shut up, stop it. That's lame. Like this, this is what you're going for. So current men's, like, quote the suit, right? That is either still controversial, like, Why don't men wear suits anymore? Because they suck and they're comfortable, but it's fine, and they're based on Prussian military. So, like, that's a thing that you can deal with, um. But like, if you want to rebel against that, that's fine. But then, like, don't be like, Ah, we're rebelling by all wearing the same thing, and then we're going to ostracize people that don't wear the same thing as us. See, like, wait a minute, you. I missed the point of your own talk. I don't

Collin  45:02

know what you get, which is exactly you said it earlier, like the uniform, and I see it too. Of the Yeah, the cuffed pants, the the what? What is it now? It's the wide brimmed hat with, it's all creams and browns and beiges with the the blue jeans that are cuffed, and, like, the loafers, um, or, and now they'll wear the, oh yeah, uh, shoulder bags, or whatever they are, the cross body bags. I'm not into, yeah, right, like,

Brandon  45:35

I'm just like, not, I'm just like, not what I'm like against. I just don't like carrying things like, what, and,

Collin  45:40

and, of course, people listening to this going, Okay, well, this is just what's known as, like the in fashion and the in thing. But I think what you're specifically touching on is it's more than just people who go, oh, I want to have this year's look. This is people who are going, I want to identify or I want to express myself in who I am by being totally unique and wearing exactly the same thing as a large group of other people, and

Brandon  46:07

not just all that you can't take inspiration. Oh no, because that's

Collin  46:10

everything is inspiration. Everything's reading, right? We all know that. But like, there is that, that mindset of like, you do realize that that you're, you're individualistic, like, super, super special expression right now is also exactly what millions of other people are doing. It does ring a bit hollow, doesn't it?

Brandon  46:33

Yeah, it's very, like, rapid like, very like, surface level, right? It's just like, absolutely, you know, like, Oh, I'm this. Like, Well, I understand, like, clothes is important, right? And whatever. And then, like, Yeah, but it's so weird. And then you just post that with like, again, there's some people that are like, hardcore, like, menswear, YouTube, like, create, like, short form, creative people, right? It's just like, it's like, super old. It looks like they're stepping out of, like, the 1940s right? But they're like, this is menswear, and these are the rules of menswear, and all men must follow the rules of like, the rules. There's no rules, and I tell you this, but there aren't any rules. You want to wear black shoes in the daytime. Go for it. You want to wear brown shoes. You want to wear brown shoes past five o'clock. Let me tell you what. There's no fashion police coming to get you. You can do it. No one cares, right? No, no cares. You care, but no one else cares. No one's gonna be like, Oh, my God. Oh my days, that man is wearing brown shoes at 8pm Oh, cut my pearls. Wait. What a rebel, right? This is not a thing that's happening.

Collin  47:47

No, it is not.

Brandon  47:51

So, like, I just want to buy a jacket, bro, like I don't want then to feed me, like all this crazy stuff, like, I just need a jacket. It's not, like, really heavy, right? That's all I want. Did you find it? Did you find an answer? No, are you still learning how to know a blue shirt? No, I can do that. I have that. See, I have. The problem I have is like, I have, like, the jacket that I wear a lot is just a flannel shirt, right? Like, my flannel shirt jacket thing, and so sometimes I can't wear that because, what if I'm already wearing a flannel shirt?

Collin  48:37

That makes it a bit hard wear a different

Brandon  48:38

flannel shirt, right? This is a very like Wisconsin problem. But like, I can't it's only a Midwest problem, right? That you would have this. But like, I need, like, just a light jacket to wear in the springtime, because the one that I wear all the time, my zipper totally fell out of so, like, I guess I could fix my zipper, but so, but that's the other problem. Like, just one jacket, that's all I want, right? Like, I don't know. I don't need to be faced with all these decisions. Like, do I need a denim jacket? No, I don't think so. Because, like, can't wear a denim jacket with denim. I know Kendrick Lamar did it, but I'm not that cool, so, like, can't deal with that. No, we're not doing that. Can't wear denim on denim. That's too much. Can't I can't do that. So just trying to buy new shoes. That's all I wanted, because my shoes are kind of dying and, like, I need, oh, so I thought was all I thought. All I was thinking about was like, do I need more tennis shoes, or do I need to, like, step it up a little bit for, like, being at work? Do I need to wear? Should I wear tennis shoes 100% of the time, or should I have, like, another shoe where. I look like I've grown up. Maybe, nah. Like, yeah, I mean, like, that's the only really hard decision I was trying to make, right? Yeah. Do I need a shoe that had me Brown? Like, that's all I wanted. Like, do I need that instead of just black sneakers? Is that? Oh no, yeah. Well, I try to make it my life, and it was that I wasted.

Collin  50:28

I am coming up on needing new, new shoes, and I have, if I'm being perfectly honest, worn the same kind of shoe for the past seven years, maybe different I've gotten I bought new shoes within that time. But when I was at Bass Pro as an aquarist, I started to wear these men's Moabs because by Merrill, Merrill men's Moabs, oh yeah, they're super comfortable. They were waterproof. And I just, I just never stopped wearing them. And then, like, when I was at work, and then I went off and, you know, do toe shoes and stuff. But now that you know, when I do more walking and winter stuff, it's my go to shoe, and I'm needing to replace mine, and I'm, I'm scared, I don't want

Brandon  51:22

to branch out. Well, this is the other problem, right? Like, the problem comes with, let's pretend. Let's pretend you live an hour away from most major retailers. Oh, hey, that's me. Hey, what's up? Yeah. So like, if you like, shoes are a problem because all shoes fit very different, right? I know women, any the one woman listening to this podcast, hey, look what's up? Uh, they're probably like, yeah, tell me about it. Sizing is made up. Yes, I understand this. But like, with shoes, it's a problem because, like, this is why I just buy one brand of tennis shoe, yeah right, because they all fit the same, yeah, right? And whatever. So if you are going to be like, oh, I want, like, a so if you're going to be like, Oh, I maybe I want a different type of shoe, now you have a problem because you don't know how it's going to fit. No, right? And I can't remember the last time I used the foot measuring thing, right? Whatever that device is called, The Thing in the shoe store. You know, switch foot on it, but you measure it right. So I don't know my, like, actual shoe size. I just know what shoe size I am in Adidas. That's all I got. But I think

Collin  52:39

just real quick, obviously, you were referring to the branock device. Yes, the brandnew

Brandon  52:43

device. I didn't buy, yeah, I didn't start with the B I was there. But you know the thing, apparently,

Collin  52:50

there's the genuine braneck device company, branno device company, uh, sells the genuine

Brandon  52:57

thing anyway. Oh, there you go. I don't want to buy my own branding device, I feel like that's a bit much like yes,

Collin  53:05

would you Yes? So you want and even then slight variations, like, for me, the I have been wearing this shoe long enough that it went from the men's Moab two to the men's Moab three, and that was a big adjustment that I had to make to see whether that was a good fit or not. And so you're right, like, it is, it's a big investment, especially if it's like, well, like, I You just, you just got to go with it sometimes. And so then you, you're really stuck with, how much variation Are you going to introduce? Well, it's

Brandon  53:38

hard to because, like, if you wear tennis shoes, right? Most tennis shoe size I wear the same size, right? But right tennis shoe sizes and like other shoe sizes are not quite the same for like, like, if you're gonna buy like a dress shoe or like a boot, perhaps, right then, like, your tennis shoe size is oftentimes too big because of the way that it's made, right? Like, there's like, because I have a pair of dress shoes, and they're just kind they're just, like, a touch too big, right? And I bought them just in my normal shoe size because I have nowhere else to do. So, like, a lot of times they're not, like, compare, comparable I find, right? So you kind of it's one of the things you get stuck, like, Oh, this is my shoe size, but is it really, though, right? And then you start panicking, like, oh, no, now I can't buy something new because I don't want to send it back, because that's annoying. It is annoying. So I don't know what to do. Just like, oh no. Well, we will eagerly be

Collin  54:51

awaiting an update to see which

Brandon  54:53

I wouldn't wait very eagerly. If I were you on that, I wouldn't. Okay. Okay.

Collin  54:59

Well. Well, well, then what we will do is we will dive into book four. Oh, boy. We you want to, want to do that into this, these, these four. What do you have? We had four chapters, five

Brandon  55:12

times, five. I think, yes. 33, 4567, yes. Oh, wait, no, that's book three. Go good again. One of these days I'm gonna remember to use two bookmarks, maybe in the summer book, but one of these days I remember two bookmarks is really the Strat that I should be employing when I do this. All right, there we go. Frantically flipping pages like, where did it go? It's gone. Totally

Collin  55:48

understandable.

Brandon  55:52

All right, so 33 right? 33 we get back in Milan, back

Collin  56:00

in Milan and re entering civilization

Brandon  56:05

on the run. On the run, very

Collin  56:09

interesting. And we're, yeah, this was, this was a, like an introduction to writing, being on the lamp. But also, he's talking to a shop proprietor who knows exactly what's going on, right? Yeah, this little common

Brandon  56:29

yes thing currently, like, you thought you were the only one running away. Haha, about every other Italian like, what's

Collin  56:41

right well, and it starts off with the proprietor. He says, what's happening in the front? And Frederick says, I would not know. And then, for no particular reason, does, he does? The proprietor wave his hand towards the soldiers over there, and he says, they are drunk. And he points over to there, and that was the first clue where it was like, oh, there's some there's some con, there's some sub context here that's going on. Like, there, there's a different conversation that's going on, that's happening, yeah, it's like the old tap the nose, like, yeah,

Brandon  57:15

right. Like, yep, yep, oh yeah. So he's like, Oh yeah, you you know you're if you're in trouble, I know where to do. He's like, are you in trouble? What if I was right? Like, he's like, but if I'm not, but if I were, but if I were, oh, I'm not leaving the country. But if I were

Collin  57:43

Yes, yeah, he's like, No, I don't

Brandon  57:45

need papers. What kind of papers would these be

Collin  57:48

exactly? Yeah, it's just this back and forth of going, Okay, right? Like,

57:56

there's just a lot,

Collin  57:59

obviously, this has been happening a lot for this, for this to have already been developed, oh yeah, people are getting fake papers, and there's like, escape routes, and there's all of this stuff going on. And he even points out, this is where he points out the where he says, You're gonna need a new coat. And

Brandon  58:19

he's like, yeah. It's like, I can see the stars, right?

Collin  58:25

I could plainly see,

58:29

come on, what the heck, bro? And,

Collin  58:36

oh, anyway, yeah. And then he

Brandon  58:38

starts making his way. He goes to the hospital, yeah, and he finds the porter, right? And he meets the porter, his wife, and they're very excited to see him. He's good, we're good. Oh, we're good. He has to see Catherine. Oh, she's not here. What do you mean? She's not here? She's She's gone to stressor. Dang it. So now we have to go to stress, which I did Google Maps, as we are now going, uh, northwest of Milan, right? That's where, that's where we are here. So that's where he's like, come all the way across now, I gotta go back. I gotta keep going more across Italy, or

Collin  59:26

across, well, is it, does he? Does he meet his friend in Milan, or does he meet his friend in Stresa? I forget where that happened. His singer, friend that gave him the clothes, was that in that was still?

Brandon  59:39

Oh no, that's here in Milan, still. That's still in this chapter, right? He goes to see the guy, that random dude that we met, like, many chapters ago, the guy that was the singer, guy that we just, like, randomly met one time. They just, like, stopped and started hanging out with them, right? It's that Simmons guy, yes. Then he's like, oh. Hey, come in. So yeah, but he goes there in this chapter, and he's like, I need you to go buy me clothes. He's like, you don't need I'm just take my clothes. I don't care. It was like, but I need to use like, Nah, take mine. I don't like, yeah, he goes, he meets him. And this is kind of His first stop of, like, trans, because now he's wearing, like, normal human clothes again. And he's like, whoa. This is weird, right? Like, he comments more on it later, but it's like, it's kind of weird, right? Wearing, not his uniform. Well,

Collin  1:00:38

in in chapter 34 it starts right off with in civilian clothes, I felt like a masquerader. Oh, yeah, yeah, right. So go right to that where, again, these themes of of not belonging, of not knowing who you are, like a lot of like identity and are. Now it's, it's physically manifested, and it's very interesting, because in the beginning, again, going, yeah, he he was just kind of going, like putting on airs about the war, like he was just kind of there, very apathetic and detached about it. But it's what he knew, and it's what he was involved in. He still struggled with the how he felt when he had to wear a gun. And, you know, we kind of walked through that, and now it's him trying to leave all of that behind. And here's a physical manifestation of what I think later we kind of get into of a lot of the the internal turmoil, turmoil of this adjustment. Sure, he's on the run, and so we've got that to deal with. But is this now? Like, no, I've left it behind me. I've it died to me. We, you know, he mentioned that earlier, of like, I put that away,

Brandon  1:01:50

and yet he doesn't know who he really is with without that. Yeah, he, he even says, So, he, he, he just to kind of go on the theme. He gets to this, he travels up to stress, uh, he knows a guy there at the bar, and he's talking to him, and he, you know, he's ordering a drink and stuff. But he says, the sandwiches, again, these must be small sandwiches, because he's always like, I ate three sandwiches. I know, so I'm imagining these are like, not American style sandwiches, right? Like a normal human, right? But yeah, the sandwiches came and I ate three and drank a couple more martinis. I had never tasted anything so cool and clean. They made me feel civilized. I had had too much red wine, bread, cheese, bad coffee and grappa. He's just, it's always like, Ah, this is like going again, like he feels out of sorts, a little bit like this is so removed from his reality for the past. Like, what, four years, maybe, or whatever. Huh, that, like, it's jarring, right? This transition is so sudden, right to him that he's, he's struggling to to think about being a civilian, right? Mirroring, of course, the real world, uh, reality of so many returning soldiers after World War, one of like, struggling to find a place in the world, right? Like, where, like, my reality was so horrible, right? And now here he is just sitting on a bar stool, drinking a martini, eating a sandwich, that he's like, whoa. This weird. Well,

Collin  1:03:48

yeah, yeah, especially when you contrast this, I never taste anything so cool and clean, and things like red wine, bread, cheese, bad coffee, grappa. These are heavy, right? These aren't just light things. It's also they're not served in these typical things. So you write like it's a completely different lifestyle, like this whole like, yeah, they sleeped, they ate, slept, they breathed. This for years and years, and now to suddenly be thrown into back to civilian life, whether running away from the police or just coming home because they survived how jarring every aspect would be. And this is even coming from a guy who was away from the front line for a little bit, recovering in hospital and kind of living that weird life. So it's interesting how now things taste different, but I think that's also because he's he's also, again, still putting on airs because he went to a very fancy hotel, and he's kind of trying to, again, live this, live this different life. I

Brandon  1:04:51

mean, the very next paragraph too, right? He says the barman asked me some questions. Don't talk about the war. I said the war was a long way away. May. There wasn't any war. There was no war here. Then I realized it was over for me. But I didn't have the feeling that it was really over. I had the feeling of a boy who thinks of what is happening in a certain hour at the schoolhouse from which he has played true. Boom. That's a good paragraph. That's kind of like the theme of the next, like, this whole couple chapters, right, sort of distilled into that right there. Like, I really like that one that was a good like, oh, so he does find Catherine. Oh, she's with Old Miss Ferguson,

Collin  1:05:43

and Fergie is super she's mad,

Brandon  1:05:50

not okay, right? She's mad at him. It's like, you loser, right? Like this, this woman who said, once I am your friend. You'll remember it eventually, right? Like, don't talk nice to me. Like, I'm your I'm your friend here, but you're being an idiot. Oh, she is firmly in that mindset currently. Right now. She does not really like him at this moment. She's like, What are you doing here? You're ruining everything. Look what you've done to Catherine, blah, blah, blah,

Collin  1:06:22

you're sneaky. Oh, she says you're a snake, a snake with an Italian uniform. He's like, I haven't gotten an Italian uniform. That's just another example of your sneakiness. Of your sneakiness.

Brandon  1:06:36

Yeah, dirty sneaking American Italians. When she calls him later, it's like, I hate you. She can't make me not hate you. You dirty, sneaking American, Italian. But she knows that he is no good, right? She knows that he's bad news, and she is Catherine's friend, and she does not. She knows that if she goes with him, it's if Catherine goes with him, it's gonna be bad, right? She knows this. She's like, this is I know this is happening. I know I can't stop it from happening, but I hate this, and I hate you. This is all your fault

Collin  1:07:15

and and that's this chapter, like, that's really like this, that that part goes on and on out like Fergie is very displeased. And I think it just shows how relieved she was to finally have Frederick, you know, out of there, and have hopefully get Catherine back on a good track and in a better place, and now that he's literally just walked back into their lives. Yep,

Brandon  1:07:44

he's walked in the restaurant. He's like, No, yeah,

Collin  1:07:49

yep. And it's so bad that's like upsetting the the waitress as she's going back and yeah,

Brandon  1:07:55

and it's not. And this is also playing out in a basically empty hotel, because it's only stated most the time, there's no one else here, right? Like, and you know, the the hotel guy is really funny, because he's been like, there's no one else here. There's nobody here. Who else is here? There's like, six people here, but there's nobody here, really, it's fine.

Collin  1:08:16

Well, yeah, the cutting head, he's like, he'd find out that it's one guy who, like, he knows, like, and has spent a lot of time with, and he's like, who else is here? He's like, Well, no one else you would you would know. Like, oh my gosh,

Brandon  1:08:31

that's true. But yeah, do we hold on, is this where he starts? This is him. This is now

Collin  1:08:39

where he and Catherine are together, and he's describing them being together and how they're not lonely, but they are lonely, but they're not lonely because they're together, right?

Brandon  1:08:51

This is what I want to talk about. But yes, this is the, this is, there's a part that I was looking for where they're talking again, but yeah, so yeah, he's talking about how, yes, how they're lonely, but not lonely. And is that here, where he's talking about how I've never felt like I've often like I've been with women and felt alone before, but that's not how it is now. Yes, exactly. Is that here?

Collin  1:09:13

That's where he starts. Um, yeah, I have been alone while I was with many girls, and that is the way you can be most lonely. Okay? But we were never lonely, right? And again, I think, speaking yet again to his just pure detachment and apathy towards everything

Brandon  1:09:35

and and yet, this is has different meaning to him.

Collin  1:09:42

This is also the point where he says,

1:09:48

What does it says, if

Collin  1:09:50

people bring so much courage to this world, the world has to kill them, to break them. So, of course, it kills them. The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the. Broken Places, but those that will not break it kills it kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave. Impartially, if you are none of these, you can be sure it will kill you too, but there will be no special hurry.

1:10:14

I was wondering

Collin  1:10:16

how you thought that fit in with what he's working through with being back with Catherine, yeah.

1:10:23

It's yeah. It's

Brandon  1:10:35

Yeah, cuz he I think he feels guilty, I think he feels broken, because I found the part that I was looking for, or because a little bit before that, it says, Yeah, we were never lonely and never afraid when we were together. I know that the night is not the same as the day, that all things are different, that the thing of the night cannot be explained in the day, because they do not exist, then, right? And the night can be a dreadful time for lonely people, once their loneliness has started, right? So he's again, he is not doing well, right? He's not, I think part of the reason he's wanted to be back with Catherine so bad is because he, like we've we've hinted around before, like he does not do well at night time, right? He's not a sleepy boy, right? When this is not the time he can't deal with it, right? His trauma is presenting like when he's finally alone and there's no one else there, right? He's just, it's just him and his trauma together, and he does not want that, right? He he doesn't like it. He doesn't know how to deal with it. He's like, afraid, and he's trying to, like, find ways to distract himself so he can't deal with it, right? He doesn't know what to do about this, and so I think he wants to get back with Catherine, like you said, because he needs something to focus on, right? We have focused on something else, right? We have to put that out, and we have to look at this instead, and that's where my focus needs to be. So I don't think about these other things. Yeah, I don't think about, I don't think about that ambulance ride down the mountain. I don't think about my knee being in pieces, and the guy above me bleeding on me and right, being in the, you know, Rubble, and them carrying out my friends and, you know, just trying to eat my macaroni, and then all of a sudden we were blown up, right? And this whole thing, he's not the dressing and he doesn't know how to deal with it, yeah, you know. And I'm not saying that anybody would know how to deal with it well, right? Not saying that is the trauma of being in situation, that

Collin  1:12:53

that's what's being presented here, right? For for processing, and I think in the context of of that, and not being lonely, but like that whole many people don't want to be alone, so they go with somebody else. But he said, you know, but we could be lonely together again. We could both be dealing with our own separate things and not talk. And it was great because we were together. When he says, the world breaks everyone and afterward, many are Strong at the Broken Places he's not including himself at the one that's going to be put back together. No, right? No. He's definitely saying I am going to be the ones that it will be killed in no special hurry because of how broken I am. I'm not being put back together stronger here,

1:13:36

yeah, and

Collin  1:13:38

then the next page for at least on mine. Or this next paragraph, the rain had stopped.

Brandon  1:13:43

Oh, hey, what Bill, okay,

Collin  1:13:47

see where we're going. Bonus, right?

Brandon  1:13:51

You know, we don't like that, right? Anyway, the next chapter, 35 is where we do meet our other guy, right?

Collin  1:14:03

Oh, well, I will say real quick in this one, this is also towards the end of this chapter. He's struggling because she has to go do other stuff, because she's got, yeah, you know, again, just like when it was at the hospital and this infatuation started, she has to leave and go do other stuff. And he's like, really not okay with this. And she's like, just, you'll be fine. I have to go do other things. And then we would do chapter 35 we get some other, meet some new people,

Brandon  1:14:29

right? Yeah, a little bit of new stuff. So not like, you know, not just like, tons of things, but he does, you know, he's like, Oh, yeah. Like, there's nobody here. There's nobody here. You don't know anybody. Oh, the count is here. What? Yeah, how is he younger than ever, right? Apparently, this dude is 94 years old, and he's just hanging out and he wants to play pool, right? He wants billiards guy. So, you know. Know he's talking about that. And then he goes, Uh, is it where they go fishing? Yeah. So he's like, Oh yeah, we'll go. We'll go fishing. So him and the the bartender, guy, or whatever, they go fishing, right? There's like, Yeah, well, you know, well, nobody else is here. Let's go. So they just go out and they go trolling. So they're trolling from a row boat, which is a plan, but this is what they do. They're just kind of rowing around, hanging out. It's cold, but they're trolling deep for lake trout, right? That's what we're doing

Collin  1:15:41

here, Hemingway, somebody who didn't like fishing at all. So this was definitely,

1:15:46

no, I think this was another,

Collin  1:15:50

again, you have these moments during this book where it seems very incongruous, and it is a lot of this is very hard for me to wrap my head around that this could actually happen in a war zone of there's all this peace and tranquility going on, and there's like, a really fancy hotel that people are doing things and kind of like life is kind of existing in the surrounding community, but yet it's very it's depopulated. It's not as lively, but the bar man's still showing up to serve people and, like, it's just very odd. Like, when you think, Oh yeah, right. Like, that's what. Again, this is so weird. And then later we get to them actually playing billiards, and it's like, but there's a war going on, and yet these are happening. So this is definitely, to me, like a scene of truly escapism, yet again, of getting out in a way, and using, using fishing to do that.

Brandon  1:16:44

Yeah, also foreshadowing for a couple chapters. Just hold that in your mind,

Collin  1:16:51

right? But it's also just again, this weird, like blip of normalcy in, in amongst that was going on, because the barman does this kind of, it sounds like, quite frequently. This is part of what he loves to do when he's not on or sometimes when he is on the clock. But it just seems very like, I don't know, like it's weird departure from what's been going

Brandon  1:17:14

on. Yeah, it is. It is kind of odd, right? But, yeah, we go and we play billiards with this guy, right? The count here, graphi or whatever. And this is very strange. They also mentioned that he knows at some point. They talk about him, him being 94 and they say, like, oh yeah, he knew maternity, right matter niche is like a general from, like, Napoleonic era, right? Like

Collin  1:17:44

real quick before we before we get there. This is, this is continues to be Frederick's struggle. Sorry, I just, I just flipped over and I wanted to mention this. She said, I know you haven't anything to do. All you have is me and I go away. And he said, That's true. She said, I'm sorry, darling. I know it must be dreadful feeling to have nothing at all, at all, at all of a sudden, he said, My life used to be full of everything. And this is, this was a very interesting statement to me, because you wouldn't have gotten that that from reading any of the other 30, no,

Brandon  1:18:18

not really how he like interacts with her at all or

Collin  1:18:21

four chapters. It's like, I'm sorry you nothing. You You were so disinterested in all of this and and yet he is now looking back and going, that was, I don't have anything without that. That was my entire purpose for four years, or however long this is, that's where his identity was. And even though, reading the previous 34 chapters, you couldn't have told that he cared about that, I think the fact is, it's not that he cared about it, it's that that's all he had in his own lifestyle had developed in that. And now all of that was ripped away, right? And yeah. And now he's just going, I don't know what this looks like after this I have basically, he's saying my life was full of everything, meaning my life is nothing now, because I don't have anything except you. And we all know that that's kind of Yeah, but yeah, like, I just thought I the incongruity of that in my brain when he said My life was full of everything, and going, no Frederick. I mean,

Brandon  1:19:34

he, like, had a purpose, right? He'd be in the army, right? They're just like, go here. Okay, go there. Okay, go here. Okay, yeah, right, yeah. And this is a, there's a thing that I think is still applicable to, like, modern a day, right? Because I really feel like, well, we do a lot of disservice to military members, because we talk about all this stuff, right? Um, we talk, everyone talks about. Oh, blah blah, love the military. Respect military blah, blah, blah, but like the people in the military, like, as soon as they're done, a lot of times, it's just like, All right, bye, yeah, yeah, right. So you've been, you know, some of these kids, right? They go, they're in the military for seven years or something, right? And then it's just like, later, See you, later, bye. That's how they get out. You know, they're like, to go into the military, you have to do all this, like training, to teach you how to be a military person, right, right? And it's all about like, following orders, following directions, because in the military setting, that's how you don't follow step one, right? That's how you you obey orders, because that's what has to be done, and that's how you keep everyone alive, right? So you, you get turned into that right? I don't want to say brainwash. That's not the right word, but like, your mental state is altered to exist in that universe. You know, like that is your world, following directions, following order, having other people tell you what to do, knowing exactly what to do at all time, and then at the end, they're like, see you later, and that's and then they just expect you to go, like, exist in a world all by yourself. And they trained you to exist in a world full of other people and structure and orders and blah, blah, and then they just, like, no transition, dump you back out onto the street, yeah?

Collin  1:21:48

Well, that's, that's exactly it you are, you are molded into, to fit into, uh, again, an environment, right? An environment, a world that doesn't exist. Like, is, that's pretend. It is, it is it has to be pretend for a very specific reason, right? Like, yeah, like, it is contrived in that. But especially when you get young kids who go in there, and then they do spend six years, seven years, 10 years of their life being molded, shaped, impressed upon, and then go, great. Thank you. And again, wonderful service. You. You serve a country. Well now just go be normal and go back into life. And it's like, no wait. But that's not, yeah, there's no like,

Brandon  1:22:34

for lack of a better term, like deprogramming steps,

Collin  1:22:38

decompression stages, right, right? We say that, like, there's no decompression time to go from military service into civilian life, yeah.

Brandon  1:22:49

And I feel like it's somewhat analogous to prison, in that sense, where, like, some people go into prison and then, like, they do the thing they do the time, and then they just go, Okay, bye, right? And we, since we've all watched Shawshank Redemption, we know what problems can be here, right? Like, I know that movie oversimplifies this, but, like, that's kind of a real Do you have a routine? You have structure? You know the rules? Yeah, and there's a very strict rules, right? Some of them are self imposed by the other inhabitants of the prison. But then you leave and those rules don't work anymore, and you're just like, ah, oh no, yeah, right, like. And then you wonder, wow, why do people re offend? It's a mystery. No one knows why it could happen. Wait.

1:24:01

Anyway, that stop it for later. Yeah,

Collin  1:24:03

we don't have enough

Brandon  1:24:05

time for American prison reform currently, no big list. Just mean to count. Yeah,

Collin  1:24:12

what? This was an interesting interaction. It was it like so

Brandon  1:24:16

again, it starts off like this kind of classic Hemingway. Little thing here starts off pretty normal. They're just kind of like, talking and whatever. And he's like, oh, you know, you're looking young as ever. And he's like, blah, blah, blah. Like, he's like, No, you know, you know, he wants to talk in Italian. He's like, I know I'm getting old because I want to speak Italian. So we don't really know who this dude is, but we know he's not Italian. He's been living in Italy, right? I do like, also how he does correct him. He's like, he's like, but you can talk English. He's like, American. He's like, yes, yes. You can talk American, American, right? Whatever. As. Me, but it sort of plays out, right? This dude is a billiards guy, right? So I don't really know anything about billiards, except for I'm bad at it, right? So that's all I got, and I'm at a pool but I'm imagining this billiards game does not sound like a normal pool game. So I know how to play pool. Again, I'm not good at pool, but I know how it works. I know how to play eight ball. I don't know how to play nine ball. I don't really know what game they're playing here. No, I don't have enough context clues to understand what exactly is going on, but the count is way better at it than old Henry. Yeah, he spots him like a whole bunch of points. Whoops. Him. Pretty bad. Can be pretty good handicap

Collin  1:25:42

there. Yeah. And then they're they play, they don't talk much. Again, this, this weird scene of weird normalcy and escapism in this game, trading on the game, just game. We're just gonna play this game and and then the count does finally ask, like, Hey, tell me about the war in Fredericks. Yeah.

Brandon  1:26:00

When they're done, right? They open that, they open the other bottle. He's like, tell me about the war. He's like, how about anything else? One sec? Well, okay, so they try to talk about other things, like what he'd been reading, nothing. He's like, Oh, blah, blah. He's like, No, I read that. It sucks. He's like, but you didn't, he said you didn't read anything. He's like, Oh, I thought you meant, did you read anything good? So you know, he's they kind of start talking about, you know, it starts drifting here, right? You know about how old he is. He's like, you know, the body is old. Sometimes I'm afraid I will break off a finger as one breaks off a stick of chalk. And the spirit is no older and not much wiser. And he's like, You are wise. He's like, no. That is the great fallacy, the wisdom of old men. They do not grow wise. They grow careful. Perhaps that is wisdom. It is a very unattractive wisdom. Yes, yeah. I and so yeah, then we really get here, and it's kind of just kind of, it's, it's a very weird conversation. It's just neither of them are doing great. It turns out, right, they're both pretending, you know that's what's happening here. Because we get, you know, he they talk about cynicism a little bit, and, you know, blah, blah, and they kind of just kind of wrap it up. And he goes, you know, the old guy go, the count says they're leaving, right? And he says, if, if you ever do, become devout, pray for me if I am dead. I'm asking several of my friends to do this. I had expected to come more devout myself, but it has not come. I thought he smiled sadly, but I could not tell. Yeah, right. So they're both playing a little,

Collin  1:28:04

yeah, and I almost viewed this kind of as a little, I don't know, like, for a while, I was like, Is this, like, a weird conversation that Frederick is having with an older self? Or, like, yeah, a little bit, right? Like, because both of them are so, like, there's this contrast of of old and young, but they're also very much alike in their detachment of things and how they are. Kind of, it's all about a little bit through this conversation about like, things you can control and can't control. And I don't know it just felt it was very interesting when I kind of pictured it in that mind frame of like, this is Frederick having conversations with his older self, because Frederick himself earlier chapters and talking with the priest was talking about, maybe, you know, maybe I will find this, and maybe I will find faith, and then, yeah, this stuff. And here's another man who's having that same thing. Of like, I thought it would come. I thought it would come, and yeah, it's just not. It's like, yeah, yeah, oh,

Brandon  1:29:03

Yep, yeah. So that's a Yeah. Anyway, so go from there, right? He goes back up. He goes to bed. Blah, blah, oh, it's raining again, right? There was a storm, and I woke to hear the rain lashing the window panes. It was coming in the open window, and then there's a knock on the door. So sometime in the night, the other night, knocks on the door. It's the barman, his friend there, and he's like, come into the bathroom, right? Don't want to give me up. And he's like, What is this? What do you got to tell me? Is there trouble? He's like, are you in trouble? He's like, No, you are going to arrest you in the morning. Well, what? So, yeah, arrest me for why? Why are they going to arrest me? Or something about the war. Do you know what? No, but I know that they know that you were here before. As an officer, and now you are here out of uniform after this retreat, they arrest everybody. Yep. So he's like, Well, you know, well, he

Collin  1:30:14

said, he says, he said, Yeah. He says, if you have nothing to fear and arrest is nothing, but it is always bad to be arrested, especially now.

Brandon  1:30:23

He's like, Well, I don't want to be arrested. Then go to Switzerland, yeah. How do I do that? He's like, you just go. He's like, my storm. He's thinking, the boat's done, Storm's over. You got to go in the boat, right? And they have to leave now, right, yeah, like, because it is quite far. So we

Collin  1:30:41

learn that later, right? And, oh, he wakes up Catherine. And Catherine's like, she's like, Who's, who's in the bathroom, and why is, wait, what is, yeah, why is the bar man in the bathroom? Very groggy? Yeah,

Brandon  1:30:52

yeah. So they just grab all their stuff and pack up. And, you know, they're like, Oh, we're going for a walk. Oh, oh, here's to

Collin  1:31:03

show the level of Frederick's detachment. Yet again, I forgot when, when he got in contact with the barman previously. He said, Did you he said, Frederick said, Did you get my my pipe tobacco? And he goes, No, did you get my letter? And both of them were lying, because Frederick never sent them to him, so there was no letter for the for the barman to actually have sent. So it was like, wow, wow. And so here she Katherine, goes, who is he? He says he's an old friend. I nearly sent him some pipe tobacco once like,

1:31:38

who he considers

Collin  1:31:41

a friend, not really friendly here? Like, yeah, yeah. I nearly sent him some fight to back once. Like, oh my gosh, surface level anyway, yeah, they get in a boat.

Brandon  1:31:55

And yeah, with some sandwiches. There's more sandwiches, lots of damages, Brandy, don't worry. Yes, fine, yeah, they get in the boat now they are currently, again, I did some Google snooping. Oh yeah, right. So they are currently in a very North Italy. This is Lake megiori, right? It is an extremely long, thin, mountainy lake up here, right? So it's like really, really long up in the mountains. It kind of separates the regions of the Piedmont and Lombardi, for those of Italian geography enthusiasts, right? But this is the this is where they are. So this really big lake here, and yeah, it's really like a long, thin lake. So they're way down. Stresa is kind of towards the south side. It's in the southern like, I don't know, third of the lake maybe and there, but the Swiss border is way far

Collin  1:33:15

away. Yeah, I think in the back they say 35 kilometers, yeah, or something. It's really far, and they gotta get there by morning. Yeah,

Brandon  1:33:24

wise, yeah. And this, this place they're going the place, he says, The you aim for the for the Sago or whatever. Yeah, that's like the first town on the Swiss side. So, like, it's not like, right across the border, but it's like, you know, it's in there, it's on the it's, it's the first, like, town, you will see if you were going up the lake, right? And he's like, Well, I don't know where to go. I don't know which direction. He's like, just go into you have to row into the wind, right? Yeah, because the wind is coming off the mountains, right off the Alps. And so he's like, it'll blow this way for three days. So don't worry, you gotta go up the lake. So he's got to throw 35k up the lake, which does not sound like a particularly fun excursion, right? Like that doesn't sound great. And

Collin  1:34:21

in closing, here, Frederick says, Good luck. We thank you many times he says, barman says, You won't thank me if you get drowned. And Catherine says, What does he say? He says, Good luck. Good luck. Yeah, onward, yeah. Everything's fine. Everything is fine, so yeah, and then we go, but then it was not fun, and we go, 37 Yeah, very long chapter, throwing, though most, most of this hard, arduous, backbreaking. Work of him, yes, like, literally and figuratively, trying to leave a previous life and make it, make it new, right? Yeah, really, you can see it's like this, like, very,

Brandon  1:35:16

yeah, potentially Sisyphean task of, like, really rowing up, you know, really going uphill and rowing into the wind up, like against all the odds, fighting for something different, yeah, but

Collin  1:35:34

yeah, I mean, well, I mean literally trying to get to neutral zone at least, right? Yeah, yeah, is what he's trying to at this point. Yeah.

Brandon  1:35:42

So he does. There is a couple, like, one humorous episode where he attempts to use the umbrella as a sale. Oh, yeah, that doesn't particularly go well. He does take a sandwich break at one point. She rose for, like, a little bit, but just kind of like, you know, some more chill rowing, but his hands are really sore and hurting, right? There's she keeps trying to make these dumb jokes where she's like, Hey, I have a he's drinking water from the balington, right? Yeah. And she's like, Do you want more? He's like, No, I've had enough. And she's like, because there's plenty

Collin  1:36:23

more. There's plenty I know there's plenty

Brandon  1:36:27

more water if you need support. Oh yeah, bro. And it's just what the heck?

Collin  1:36:38

And he's he's trying so hard, like he is doing his best to be protector, provider, like sacrificing for, yes, himself, but also she's in the boat too. Yeah, he's doing this to bring her with him into the

Brandon  1:36:58

slide. Say, you could say they're all on the same boat,

Collin  1:37:01

boat. You could say bye. Yeah. I just this. Just went on and on,

Brandon  1:37:10

yeah. We go to the great detail about all the treacherous danger he's in, right? How about how he's trying to stick close to the shore because doesn't want to get lost in the lake. But when he comes close to when he sees lights and stuff, he goes out into the lake so that people on the shore don't see him. Can't see right? And then he pretty sure he heard a boat motor at one point, but he was certain that they couldn't see in the night. And you know, he's just rowing, so he kind of stopped rowing so they wouldn't have heard him, right? So he's trying to be sneaky, right? So he's, it's a lot of great detail about how he is navigating this, like, his mindset on what he's got to do. He's, like, very hyper vigilant of all threats at this moment, right? Even in the war, he was not like this on end. Oh, and like, alert, right? Or at least whatever got that sense, right, but, but it's because it's in the retreat. He was just like, okay, yeah, go over there.

Collin  1:38:07

But I think that does show you at least his attachment, because the only thing different now is Catherine, right? Yeah, is for amo, yeah, rip amo, yeah. Sorry. Like, hits, it's, it's him fighting for that. And, um, yeah, just that, he's really putting it all out there to make this work. And, and you do get the sense, because later, you know, they land, and it's this, um,

Brandon  1:38:36

like, oh, I don't know, like this, this

Collin  1:38:40

culminates in this big sense of accomplishment, and true,

Brandon  1:38:43

very confident, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, um, even, even then, like, he's like, dead, and they just go into this little, you know, diner thing, and he's just like, and, you know, he's like, how many eggs do you want? He's like, three. She's like, you need four. He's like, okay, yeah. Oh. And it's like,

Collin  1:39:10

I think this ultimately is a tragedy, and we know some of the metaphors, but as they're stepping out, it's Catherine, at least, is like, everything is amazing. Here, she says, look at the houses. Isn't this a fine square, right? There's a place we get breakfast. Isn't the rain fine? They never had rain like this in Italy. It's beautiful rain. And here we are, darling. Did you realize we're here? It's like, no, no, the rain like no, it's, this is still supposed to be like, you're still in danger. There's still trouble here. Well, train is not like a cheerful rain,

Brandon  1:39:54

but I mean, really is it. Is that that day? Curious, because, like, they do get arrested, right? Yes, but it's like, we get this very interesting juxtaposition between what he's been dealing with before and, like, the Swiss way of doing things, right? We start off with the guy that's true, right, the Custom House guy, yeah, who's just like, oh. He's like, What are you doing here? Blah, blah. And then he sees that they have American and British passports, and they have a bunch of money. And he's like, Yeah, okay, well, you welcome, yeah, okay, that's not a nefarious thing to do. So, like, it's fine. And then he's like, we're tourists, and we want to do the winter sport. He was like, Well, this is no place for winter sport. He's like, I know we want to go where they are doing winter sports. Like, what have you been doing in Italy? Um, studying architecture. And my cousin here is been studying art, uh huh. But don't they have winter sports in Italy? Well, not right now because of the war, so wanted to do winter sports. And he's just like, Alright, whatever. Like, yes,

Collin  1:41:03

yeah, and, and he does go into this because, yeah, then he starts, then he's like, Oh crap. He turns to Katherine, he starts asking her about, like, art. She's like, Do you know any artists? And she's like, Oh yeah, yep, I got this one. And he says, I'm like, I will have to send you into Locarno, and boat is confiscated. Here's your bags. But like, you know, what is it he goes into say, I'm sorry, um, where Frederick has a little bit of a disposition about basically, nobody believed this at all. We just had to stick to our guns enough to get through this. And yeah,

Brandon  1:41:44

he's like, they didn't believe a word of it, but they also didn't really care, right? Yeah, they're just like, whatever does it? Yeah? And

Collin  1:41:51

they can kind of go wherever. And they questioned us, but they were polite because we had passports and money. And they start debating about, like, where's the best town to go for interesting, this is the best

Brandon  1:42:00

part, right? Like, this extreme juxtaposition about, like, the way things are, like, all the stuff they've been dealing with, all the like, the serious, like life, or, like the front in Italy, right? You got these two bros here in uh Locarno, and they're talking about where if you want to do winter sports, which, again, I just like how he's just like, we want to do the winter sport, you know? And he's like, which one, but where do you want to go? Well, do you want to go? You could just stay here in Locarno. It's very lovely. But the other guy is like, from the other place that Montreux. And he's like, yeah, no, you should go there. It's way better. And so there's, like, these two guys that are, one is from Montrose, and I think the other one, it sounds like he's from liccardo, because he's like, You should stay here. The is great. You'll never find any place greater than than licar, no. And the other guy's like, obviously Montreux is way cooler. I myself, I myself have luged the streets of Montreux. I have done it not once, but several times, winter sports. And then we get another official turn to me, is losing your idea of winter sports. And Henry's like, what is losing?

Collin  1:43:18

Yeah, she has never seen and then they have a disposition, and actually a discussion about whether losing and tobogganing are all that different. And this

1:43:27

is, this is wonderful.

Collin  1:43:32

I am here for that.

Brandon  1:43:33

It's just really funny. And like, this whole like, Yeah, I'm just okay. So yes, you see, he has never heard of losing that meant a great deal to the second official, he was pleased by that. Luzing. The first official said, is toboggany. I beg to differ. The other official shook his head. I must differ again. Toboggan is very different from the luge. Toboggan is constructed in Canada of flat lathes last and the luge is a common slide with runners. Accuracy means something, gosh. Well, can't we toboggan? Of course, you can, but you could debug it very well. However, it's not luge, yes,

Collin  1:44:14

the import throat, yep,

Brandon  1:44:18

yep. And then And then again, we see like tobogganing requires a special, which I'm assuming means, like a permission, right? Yes, yeah, can't toboggan. You could lose, but you can't debug. It's just this whole, yep, goes back and forth. I must protest against you advising going to Montreux, because better winter sport is an integrand or mini Mirror, mirror. And he's like, no, no, we won. Yeah. And he goes, Oh, at Les Evans

Collin  1:44:47

above Montreal, there's an excellent and finally, Frederick's like, I we must go, Yeah, my cousin is tired. Thank you so much.

Brandon  1:44:58

Just you. Oh, it's so ridiculous. And so they're just free to move about. They just have to report to the police when they get there. Like, oh, hey, we're here. Like, it's, it's so great. Like, it's like, really bizarre, hilarious thing, and then, yeah, then they're, they're, they go on their way. They do kind of have a little thing like they, they don't want to believe that they've made it, right? Yeah. She says, I don't want to believe I, I, you know, I'm afraid I'll wake up and it won't be true, right? It is true, isn't it, darling. I'm not just driving down to the station in Milan to see you off, right? This is real. We did make it all the way here. So there, there. They've made it to Switzerland, to Switzerland, and we enter book five. The end. Look on our way there. Yes, okay,

Collin  1:46:10

indeed. Yeah, these, uh, this is an interesting transition, uh, to a promised a promised land safety. We'll see how long it lasts probably

Brandon  1:46:22

not very long. Have some bad omens about just what's up here, not

Collin  1:46:33

feeling the best about this. No,

Brandon  1:46:34

no, no. So we'll see. I think there's only four or five more chapters, so we'll be done. Yeah, we'll just read them. All. Sounds good, okay, all right, on my actual week. Oh, hi, COVID. Yes, right? We mean updating information. Okay. I was like, try again later. No, I need to open my nap now. All right, here we go. My actual Haiku, since I accidentally infringed on your beautiful lyrics, I could laugh. Oh, that's fine. Sorry. Telling wild story, vivid imagination, big detail, small world.

Collin  1:47:37

Yeah, boom, boom, love it. Good, good. No, I like that a lot. Hey, well, I don't freeze between either

Brandon  1:47:52

driving around in the wood to dog. You better get Balto out there, driving around, boy,

Collin  1:47:58

you need to figure this out toboggan I guess, out there with the dog, see if that works.

Brandon  1:48:05

Yeah, tomorrow, tell me if the snow is better for losing or tobogganing.

Collin  1:48:13

I will see what kind of report I can give back and let you know as soon as possible. All right, and on that, we'll do this again next time. All right, okay, love you bye,

1:48:28

with you bye, bye, you.