Stick of Context

We learn we’re, no surprise here, all extroverted. Aaron tentatively accepted. Brandon is attending literally all of the Zoom meetings. Collin shares the siting of a blue footed booby. We also discuss small town life and politics.

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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE

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SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, town, city, chicago, house, downtown, moving, area, big, question, remember, shark, long, nice, sit, true, weird, bad, sharks, night

SPEAKERS

Collin, Aaron, Brandon

 

00:05

Welcome to

 

Collin  00:06

Oh, brother, a podcast of three brothers trying to figure out your host Brady column. On this week's show, stick of context. Why did you tentatively accept a calendar invite? You're here?

 

00:30

I'm just letting you know that

 

00:33

don't have to do it tentatively. Just say I'm here. Accept the invite.

 

Aaron  00:37

If you say no, but fun is that

 

00:42

you don't know why schedule.

 

00:44

I'm important.

 

00:47

I know you're scheduled because you said you could record right now.

 

Brandon  00:50

Hi, did you get through you did tell us your schedule. So that sort of invalidates your a large portion of your argument.

 

Aaron  01:00

I have been I've been in zoom meetings all day. And all every single one of them was dumb.

 

Brandon  01:08

And I thought this one's gonna be the same. You're well

 

Collin  01:14

I call this consistency. It's a service we provide. Yeah, it's true.

 

Aaron  01:19

This one I can actually like, talk and communicate with others ones I just had to like sit there and be like,

 

Brandon  01:27

Listen, that's true.

 

Aaron  01:29

Yeah, the those were, I wasn't one that was like an hour and a half long and it talked about this new sense instead of doing monthly pay periods, we're gonna do bi weekly stuff, and they are teaching us how to do the new system, which is complete Garbo. And I just wanted to sit there and little comment section just twiddle away and You know just kind of voice my opinion but my supervisor was also in that same meeting and I can't

 

02:07

that's not do that.

 

Aaron  02:09

Or so I sat there and took notes like a good kid job. And then I had to go out and the hundred degree weather and see people so I did it was extended a long day for me

 

Brandon  02:29

it sounds pretty rough. I'm glad it didn't get that hot here Jake is yuck.

 

Aaron  02:32

Yeah, it was a it was nice and nice and toasty today. Usually we're supposed to, to kind of look a little bit more like for like slacks and like a polo. But it's all my supervisor and like, Hey, I'm gonna put my you know, hiking pants on and wear a T shirt. He's like I do that's fine. And I went out there and talked to this guy for about 30 minutes and I was just sweating. Like my mask. There's a nice little sweat over here. Around my math that I was wearing like it was it was so gross and I had to sit in the car for about 10 minutes just to cool down like it was bad.

 

Brandon  03:12

But that was my day, what do you have similar, but my meetings all in person today back at work. And so it's meeting time. It's all very, very tired. Because yesterday, I only had meetings like half of the day. So it was kind of like the here's the new plan. Here's the welcome back the precursor meeting, and then the other half of the day was like, do whatever thing in the room. So that was cut for me may make my room not look like trash like last year. And then, but today, it was basically meetings, all day, all day long. Wow, gross says very, very a lot of sitting. A lot of like really tired now just sitting here. I, unlike Aaron did not keep my opinions to myself. So I know you're supposed to do that. But I know any longtime listeners will be shocked by that I'm sure right like, oh no Wow, Who would have guessed that but I'm gonna say the bad ones but just think concerns things and confusions that people feel like well we talked about I don't know what that means. So like that kind of thing. So it was that yeah today so

 

04:47

you know, I get you attack

 

04:52

seriously

 

Brandon  04:54

yeah I have

 

Collin  04:56

the book today and yesterday I called out to

 

Brandon  04:59

be like yes Got up. Let me tell you about being tired.

 

Collin  05:03

No, I mean, the only thing I'm gonna say is, is it sounds like we've been in meetings. Um, but between yesterday and today, by the time we get off the phone call, I will have done over eight hours of zoom interviews with people.

 

Brandon  05:21

Which is there we go, which is a lot.

 

Collin  05:24

Yeah, no like today yesterday,

 

Brandon  05:27

I did

 

Collin  05:28

three, but two of those went over an hour and a half. And then today, I also did three, and one of those went to an hour and a half and I'm gonna do this one. I'm just like,

 

Brandon  05:38

Oh my God, who knows how long this will be.

 

05:41

But I was like, I was like, it's at least I'm just calling it it's eight hours. Yeah, just rounding at that point and that stuff probably being on the conservative side.

 

Collin  05:53

But I will tell you it is uh, I don't I don't know if you guys get I don't know. I don't know. You guys get like this. I consider myself very outgoing. I enjoy talking and being in front of people, but my goodness, is it exhausting or? i?

 

Brandon  06:10

Yeah, it's, uh, yeah, I feel that way. Like, you know, it's like I don't always, I don't always enjoy it for that reason, right because people, you know, I am a very extroverted person. Again, not shocking, obviously, but like, it's tiring to be that on for a long time. You know what I mean? Yeah. So like when you're at school, like when I'm at work, right? You are in the mode all the time. You always are in this like hyper. Kind of state where these I am like when I'm on you know, going, go going. And it can be really packed like you get hungry and I met my, like, I've met my people in quota for a long time, especially now, I haven't seen any people in like, a year it feels like so now I'm like, Yeah, oh, no. All I had the the teacher thing happens like when you go back to school after the summer and you start talking a lot, often your voice doesn't really work. Yeah. Because you talk to your to talk to you over, you know, seven, eight hours a day. So I'm like, Oh, yeah. Yeah, and again, listeners might might notice I'm not exactly a quiet talker. So like, it's no one ever says, What's that? I can't hear you. So

 

07:43

like, I never have I ever not been able to hear Brandon talk.

 

Brandon  07:47

Yeah, that's that's not a problem that I have. You know, people today are all like they're talking. They're kind of like moving their masks around. Now. I'm just like, boom shot now.

 

07:56

Like, here we go. For this.

 

Brandon  07:58

Yeah. cares it's fine so yeah but that's

 

Collin  08:06

yeah well I think that part of that idea of going oh are you oh you're extroverted like you you're gonna you love being in front of people but part of it too is going you may be x extroverted but I still think there's a side of thing like being some people get energized from being from doing that kind of interaction. And you can still be extroverted but it still be really draining. Yes. be drained, energized, right. Yeah. I think there are those people who they are extroverted, they get energized, they get energy from the crowd or from talking to people or for that kind of engagement in other people is extroverted, but it's like work but they still enjoy it.

 

Brandon  08:42

Yeah, I definitely get that energized for like a short term. It's a very short term, like for a little bit, and then it really starts to drag you down. Like Okay, I'm done. Yeah, even but then someone else, someone the other part of my personality, someone will say something and I'll have to be like, Well, I can't not say something in response to that. So here we go. Like, I can't, I can't just let it sit there, you know, even if it's just a comment or like a, you know, I have to say something because, you know, that be like, wait, what that happened like this afternoon. Sure elementary meeting, you know, not like bad but you know, like we're talking about part of the thing was like one of the things we talked about today was the and that when we introduce a topic today, it's going to be continued next week, I think, for Chairman, but like, what happens if we have to go virtual again? Right. So what does that look like? So we've contracted with some sort of company, obviously, right these companies side note these companies are going to be making bank this year I should have I should have invested with these online companies because like days after school started canceling in the spring, I started getting emails, hey, I need help preparing for virtual learning, check out bla bla bla, like 7000 of those emails do I have in my inbox that are in the trash folder? Right? Because it was like, nope, nope, bye bye, but I'm not buying things and talking about get out. But so we've contracted with that, but nobody really knows what that means. Like, what is it? How does it work? What does that mean for all the curriculum I already have? Like, you know, we don't really have the answers. We just kind of know these vague things, like, you know, because a lot of elementary is like, Okay, well, what about a first grader who doesn't use online learning? Ever? Right, right. So we need a program that's able to be used for them, but also in the sixth grade land, like we use online stuff, all day. Every day already. So like, they're like, Oh, you got to use this. I'm like, Yeah, but I already have this other thing though, right? Like my google classroom is like, it's done. Right? It's there. Go there, go use that done. Right. So what does that? Does that mean? Like, is there other resources included in this thing? Or is it just a platform What in the world is going on? So more answers forthcoming, but like, that's what I couldn't keep my mouth shut about today was like, you know, my teaching style, my classroom space is not a lot of the things that we do are not compatible with online just like how I function in mean, because there's lots of discovery, lots of interaction, lots of discussion, that kind of thing. That so I don't have material to just like Dump online, because I have like these big slideshow things. But a lot of it's talking, pausing, having kids look up stuff, talk about stuff, write some stuff down, look up more stuff, you know what I mean? It's very interactive. So, like, does this thing have material that I can be like, Oh, that's like what I do. Let's slide that in there. Sure, so that they can supplement my classroom discussion time with some sort of activity that I don't actually possess currently, you know what I mean? The answer to that question is, maybe, I don't know. Then, you know, somebody was like, Well, if we're even doing the virtual if we have this, why are we even here? You know, why? Why don't the kids just do that? Oh, me. You know, I mean, like, okay, yeah, I get bad grades like safety thing that makes sense. But like, you know, also, if you're not in my class, You're really missing out on a lot of stuff. You don't I mean, sure you miss out on a lot of things by not being there. You miss out on like that discussion. Bat group discussion is really powerful. You miss out on expertise, not just mine, but other students, you know, they have knowledge that we need to share. So like, that's what you miss out on in the online space. You don't get that. And some of that stuff, so yeah. You know, I kind of said that because her comment was more like, well, what am I even doing wasting my time here right now if we're just gonna be online in a month Anyway, you know, I mean, like, damn. I was like, that makes sense. But also, yo, don't diss me like that. I'm good at this. Stop it. Like

 

13:45

I like this is what I want to do. I want to be doing this in person. Like this is where Yeah, it's

 

Brandon  13:50

good. Yeah. Is it gonna suck? Absolutely. You know, can be terrible. I mean, not terrible, but it's gonna be hard. You know what I mean? So But our school as basically said, you don't come in without a mask. You don't go anywhere without it. Done. That's it. So, mask for everybody there, they're even buying everybody. Students and staff like those faceshield things. Oh, a shell deals to where like with your masking stuffing in the hallway, so, boom, yo, look at that.

 

14:34

So

 

Brandon  14:37

mask masker Reno, so they, they said, you know, oh if you're like the little kids, you know, if you can spread out far enough you can wear like only the face shield, you know, blah blah. Sixth grade is kind of decided to have our sixth grade teachers are in high risk category. And we're gonna have to wear the masks anyway. And our rooms aren't big enough to move bar apart. So Yep, mask for you to stay on the classroom. No big deal. It's fine. I gotta wear it anyway. So keep like, so. I was pretty good. I was happy about that. Like, okay, well, I feel slightly better now about this whole situation going on we have administration and aboard that's taking it seriously. That's pretty good. A plan, we have a big plan compared to some of the other schools in the area. Our plan is like, excellent. You know what I mean? multi page documents. There's like all this stuff in there. There's all these procedures for everything. Like some other like some of the bigger schools in the area. There's like a bulleted list. Excuse me, whatnot. Like

 

15:53

it's fine.

 

Brandon  15:57

You know, so That's good. We'll see how it goes. Again, we'll see how long we're in session before, you know, something happens and the county health department's like, Yeah, no. Need. Right, like you plug out. So, yeah.

 

Collin  16:15

So question. If If a student or faculty member does test positive, is that it, there's no like closing and then coming back, or Well,

 

Brandon  16:25

we don't know. Exactly. It sort of depends on that's on this. If we start talking about today, and there's more details about that forthcoming, I has to do with where and whom, right. So like, bids a student like, maybe if it's an elementary where they're self contained in classrooms, they might just quarantine and virtualize that class, right. Sure, if I don't really know nobody actually asked the question, what's it going to take for us to shut down? Right? What's the limit? Like? What's the hard question might we have tomorrow? So we'll see. But like, yeah, nobody asked the left line. Where does it stop? And again, it might not even be our school, our school might be okay. But like one of the other major schools, they might have like a big thing in the county, you might just say, Nope, done, you know, for however long, so, we'll see. Many to be determined, but

 

17:43

we'll see how it goes.

 

Brandon  17:46

Lots of I think they're deleting seriously. That's the good part. Makes you feel slightly better about all this stuff. I also made the official social distancing ruler Today, the official one, the official one, I taped two yard sticks together the six foot long yards. Because Because even in the sixth grade, we have absolutely no idea about distances. Right? You could tell somebody six inches and six miles and they'd be like, What? What's that mean? Oh, no. So like, it really helps to visualize things. was another good reason that I walk around in the class fidgeting with a meter stick all the time. Because in science, it comes up and they're like, how long is that and I just kind of go about this long hoping you know that. Or we can count floor tiles, we're gonna say how many feet is that? We just count the four tiles because they're all one foot squares go. It's this long for me to the wall. That's what we're talking about here. So, because I don't think we have a good grasp of six feet of horizontal distance, you know, and they're like, Well, why do I have to wear this thing in the classroom like ah as you See, we cannot all be this far

 

19:04

yeah, it's physically impossible.

 

19:06

Let's listen to some context for

 

Brandon  19:08

you oh look a stick of context. So I have I have the social distancing ruler for demonstrated purposes I might carry it around for a while Who knows? It's very like Gaddafi I kind of like it that's what I was just about. striding through the halls with your cloak billowing behind you that may or may not happen we will be We'll see. But

 

19:34

angry wizard brooding in the corner. Yes, stroking his beard.

 

Brandon  19:39

Like this. I like this. I need to go for it and just quote gandel things all day long and see how long it takes for someone catches on. It's my favorite thing. Just saying random quotes. And then seeing if anybody gets it today with no no when he said something like one of the Boy George saw. I quoted as saying part of karma coming Why we were doing some sort of weird game. And like, on this app called Quizlet. And the Yeah, you were taking it was at the end of our little session about special education, and special education department and stuff. And she had made this presentation. And the end was that she put these questions in there. And we had to get in these groups and sort of like, answer the questions together. And it assigned us the chameleon as our mascot. And they're like, they said something else. Like, you know, it's fine. We come and go, and nobody be mean, looks like we've got good karma. We come and go, and they and nobody, and nothing. Well, maybe next time,

 

Collin  20:49

I think we need to get you a shirt and all it says was, it's a bit obscure.

 

Brandon  20:53

And that's, that's fair. That's fair. That could be my official obrah Just get to merchandising levels. We'll get in there. I know. We can make the font like hazy. So it's like a joke.

 

Collin  21:15

I'm sorry, what is that? I can't. I'm reading that. I know it's your write ups here.

 

Brandon  21:19

You're welcome. It'd be great. Oh. Speaking of a bit obscure, yes. I saw this week online. And I almost died laughing. Oh, yes. And it said like, this is just a reminder that the game is still ongoing. And you just lost again.

 

21:51

Oh, geez.

 

Brandon  22:15

Why, ah

 

Aaron  22:18

it was pretty funny though, but

 

Brandon  22:22

I thought it was fantastic. I was like, oh my god. My first thought was actually Oh no, I've been winning for so long. Oh, that was great. And based on the comments on posts, you could tell somebody people actually had no idea what I'm talking about. So sure, they It was great fun. But very speaking of obscure, there you go. There's your your reference

 

22:58

for today. For the month's time

 

23:08

Oh, but

 

Brandon  23:13

they go they go you haven't thought about either have you know haven't welcome thanks appreciate it

 

23:34

update on

 

Collin  23:37

Bollywood film Oh, I I have almost done nope I haven't watched anymore I

 

Brandon  23:45

very quick update

 

Collin  23:46

very quick update unfortunately I'm still an hour and 11 minutes in and waiting.

 

Brandon  23:51

Well I mean when you're on zoom calls for 47 hours a week has hard to find time to watch lengthy bollywood movies

 

23:59

you I'm going to be housesitting tomorrow through Sunday. So

 

Brandon  24:04

all the way through Sunday. Yes. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I have some time for that. It's true. In house it much anymore. So this is interesting. I was surprised when you said that.

 

24:19

Yeah. It's

 

Collin  24:22

it's not a lot of people do it. I mean, when we first started out, yeah, we were exclusively houses getting to the point where we wouldn't be in our house for our apartment for like, a month at a time. And we sat multiple houses, and Megan, I kind of split up the city in different sections, like okay, well, you're staying at this house for the next four days, and I'm staying at this other house for five days and we're gonna, you know, work at it. So it's just a lot of work and really takes you out of your groove, for your schedule. And here in town, people are more spread out. Like the houses, they're kind of further away. But people wouldn't we have gotten requests. And so it's hard to keep it within our our service radius.

 

25:09

But we've

 

Collin  25:10

done it just a small handful of times.

 

Brandon  25:14

Since moving here, yeah, no reason to just like all the time, like,

 

25:21

forever.

 

Collin  25:22

So yeah, that's, that's what we started. That's basically all we did. We didn't do daycares. We didn't do drop ins we didn't do we didn't do we would do drop ins, but we wouldn't do walks or boarding it was we will stay at your house while you travel to Europe. And

 

25:37

check in on things. Okay.

 

Brandon  25:42

There, you know, we're

 

Collin  25:45

just I mean, I gotta say like, it's nice. I mean, you do get these I was telling Megan the other day like there was also this streak where like, I think both her and I were heaviest into our true crime, murder mystery documentary kind of things. Dressing

 

Brandon  26:02

being in a strange house JJ because all houses have weird noises they make you know so like in some strange house it's all weird and dark there's a creaky like I die right now here it is

 

Collin  26:14

like or before the like like this chant something just feels weird about this house like the client was kind of distant and blah blah and so you're laying in bed at night going hot today murder somebody and they're hidden in the basement Did you do that

 

Brandon  26:28

like I'm gonna go look in the freezer?

 

Collin  26:30

Yeah no like okay so like yeah you're gonna creep like you you you respect privacy you don't open all of the bedroom doors but you're gonna be like okay I need to at least know what's here. So if anything moves or if that secret panel pops open at least I'm ready to you know go and tackle but yeah, you'd be like huh

 

26:50

I there's here compartment in the garage where the bodies are hidden that I need to go double check. Just so that I can report this and not have my fingerprints found all over the place.

 

Brandon  26:59

It Yeah and I have a question for you Are you picturing Collin sneaking around the house like Don Knotts in private eyes right now?

 

Aaron  27:10

So I not not the dots but I am kind of like picturing like kind of like it's one of those like Quentin Tarantino scenes where the camera is in the room and see column like opening up and going oh that's there and then like closing the door but having like the person's dog like behind Collin

 

Brandon  27:29

no context of what's in the room just like yeah,

 

Aaron  27:32

and just like just like kind of like follow like the dog is like following kahlon around and like the dog is having an inner monologue with itself and it's a watch the strange man enter my my owner's home I started to contemplate what the instant like just something kind of like to that effect of

 

Brandon  27:50

Wow.

 

Aaron  27:53

I just the image just came to me of Collin doing like no just slow and like his eyes all big like Oh, that's there and like just slowly closing it, like making a mental note of it.

 

Brandon  28:04

I don't know. It was more like private eyes and then like every little noise he was like runway like

 

28:11

or so

 

Aaron  28:13

in the the the movie clue like oh yeah, here like him running like Tim Curry. Yes

 

Collin  28:22

I was I mean the Tim Curry runs pretty accurate for most of my interactions

 

Brandon  28:27

with homes

 

Collin  28:29

but there is also the sweet so when we sit like the really large homes the the nice part of the neighborhood by the country club or you know what that kind of stuff? Yeah, you definitely when you're sitting in a house that is completely new and it's like 5000 square feet. Yeah, you're like, Who am I? I am all sudden very uncomfortable.

 

Brandon  28:50

Yeah, right.

 

Collin  28:52

Smaller homes, you get used to that easier. But yeah, it was always in those really big ones were like everything's done. Nice Betty's really

 

Brandon  29:00

creepy the one with like more nooks and crannies

 

Collin  29:04

exists. Like seriously exactly where you're like like well those cupboards sure nice to hide and

 

Brandon  29:12

right second obscure reference to the day saying you start remembering all those really dumb chain letter emails that he used to get in middle school. Right? Like this on Yeah. That why 2020 so bad none of us forwarded those emails. I just taste just just till now to to catch up with everybody you know?

 

Collin  29:38

I think that's pretty good. That's bad because any I mean, I

 

Brandon  29:43

was it. Did you guys did you

 

Collin  29:45

guys send it to me that China went and locked down certain areas because of a breakout of the bubonic plague?

 

Brandon  29:51

Oh, yes. They quarantine the whole entire village in Mongolia.

 

29:55

Like oh, okay,

 

Collin  29:57

great. on a happy note today, a peek behind the curtain August 12 2020 is actually a pretty historic day in Missouri. It is the first sighting in Missouri of a brown footed boobie really on the current river of all places.

 

Brandon  30:22

Oh really? Yeah. Look at what year

 

Collin  30:26

that's pretty cool. This year

 

Brandon  30:29

today Oh, yeah, the first

 

Aaron  30:32

Oh, I didn't get that part.

 

Brandon  30:33

Not first ever since first ever period for those of us for those listening column that have no any word document. What on earth is brown footed boobie if you would please like to elaborate slightly? Oh,

 

Collin  30:46

well, they are. They're typically a seabird found in the Caribbean, and Pacific Coast, around Central America. And so they do migrate around but Not here. Take don't it's really it really is an anomaly to see especially a tropical bird. Yeah. in the Ozarks. Very

 

Brandon  31:09

Yeah, they have made hot enough so like,

 

Collin  31:13

right well, that was it with some of the recent weather patterns the really big storms that we've had pushed through Yeah, may may have actually pushed this bird off course it of course in way inland.

 

Brandon  31:25

They don't they don't do that. Really. I mean,

 

31:30

it's pretty wild.

 

Collin  31:33

Guinea, so I think I think it's pretty cool. I don't know. They're just kind of checking on it. I don't. It seems to be very confused. Obviously. It's like, Oh, wait. So I don't know if there are any plans to to relocate it or to drive it back somewhere. I think they're just going to kind of let it do its own thing and monitor it but see where it goes. Yeah. See if and then if and then later if they're like, okay, bro, that's the wrong way. Let's go this way.

 

Brandon  32:01

Yeah, yeah. But yeah, yeah, I saw that I was like,

 

Collin  32:07

you know, everyone's heard of the blue footed booby prize of course, the most famous. Yeah, most you know, because it's just funny to say but

 

32:15

it's failure so blue. So

 

Collin  32:17

literally all the blue um, I know it's funny because the headline was like, blue footed boobie makes a rare appearance in Ozarks. And I was like, You mean first? Give me first to

 

Brandon  32:30

be rare.

 

Collin  32:32

I mean, sure. It is never before happen. Never before it's so rare. It's never happened before.

 

Brandon  32:38

So rare generally never happened.

 

Collin  32:41

That's fine. The rarest. But I see I see the I see the word rare. And I'm like, oh, how long ago was the last one or like,

 

Brandon  32:49

at least? Yeah, at least more often than never. So that's

 

32:55

really go let's write a little better headline.

 

Brandon  33:00

That's true. They probably don't know what to do with that, like weed. What do I do with this headline? This is a mysterious headline.

 

Aaron  33:07

So did someone like, catch it? Or they just kind of like, like, Is there a field cameras out monitor was there like there wasn't

 

Brandon  33:13

one of those sweet things where someone's like, took a picture like, Dude, what the heck is this? I've never seen this before.

 

Collin  33:19

No, seriously, a lady and her family were rafting down the current River. And we're taking pictures of wildlife. And we're like, Huh, that's a weird bird, and took a picture of it. And then posted it on Facebook. And we're like, we saw this today. People were like,

 

33:33

why?

 

Collin  33:35

And so the snare or you just Yeah, exactly. The state ornithologist was like, could you tell me more? And sure enough, brown footed booby. And it was just because some people were kayaking that day, right? It just happened. Yeah, this thing, right. It's just wild.

 

Brandon  33:54

Wow, that's pretty cool. Isn't that better? Basically Exact Same thing happened on the last night's episode on Shark Week. That's right. It's Shark Week. The best week of the year is sorry. Last night they were doing one and that first of all, I just like say, this week's this year's Shark Week episodes. Brilliant so far. Anyway, there's been a bunch of like weird ones with like celebrities because overcoming their fears of sharks. They had three of those. One of them was Mike Tyson. Weirdly.

 

Aaron  34:34

I see him on on like, Instagram and stuff and like, is he hosting darkly? Like if he had a show

 

Brandon  34:41

or get a show? It was it was okay. wasn't bad. is weird to see mike tyson being afraid of something. So that was interesting. There was another one with Shaq that one was not as good. And then last night there was only Will Smith which is also what is good. But there's been some really excellent shows about like Like, how the quarantine and stuff has affected shark populations because there's no boats anywhere, and there's no like extra noise and vibration in the water. Like what's happening to these sharks? Like they're kind of doing different stuff than we normally see them doing because it's like, more normal, you know, quote unquote, normal sea conditions without all these boats everywhere and how that works. And there was another really good one about like shark like sizes, you know, because the conservation efforts that we've been doing for the for the last little bit like in some areas might be working fairly well, because some of the sharks are getting enormous, like sizes that haven't been seen in decades. Because it takes sharks so long to get that big and before they're being hunted and killed and all that stuff. So the sizes of the sharks were much smaller. So like, what we thought of as a normal sized shark was like, you know, 14 feet long for like a great white in this case, but the structure like 1718 and a half 19 and a half feet long. Be like, Oh my gosh, and this is like a historic size that hasn't been seen in decades yet. So that was kind of cool.

 

Aaron  36:38

isn't someone didn't they find like a new species of like hammerhead shark? That's like, coming out more towards like beaches.

 

Brandon  36:47

Was that a thing? Yeah, I think that's so that's on tonight that I was part of earlier. Yeah, Florida, like I didn't possibly need to be a hammerhead shark. But the reason I brought this up is there was an epic said last night with that Forrest Gump a guy that we've talked about before, the guy that does that looking for extinct or, you know, not animals that you don't see very often, right? There was one last night with him and he was looking for these like hyper rare sharks off the coast of South Africa. One of the reasons that nobody has seen them and they're in this like really deep water reefs, and the water is like, fast moving the crate, like inaccessible, you know, and so he was doing that he was looking there for one and I can't remember the names of them right now. But he was looking for one of them was a species of Ray, you know, it's like, oh, this is this is Ray, I'm looking at this. He was looking at this saltwater lake and he's like, normally I would just dive in and kind of go snorkeling around but, you know, this lake has full sharks, now crocodiles and hippopotamuses in it. So I think I'm gonna stay on the boat. As a that's a smart plan, sir. I like that point. Yeah. But they weren't looking into it all this stuff and this dude just called them up. They'd been there for, you know, two weeks, whatever it is called, like, Hey, I took some weird video, I had some weird sharks. He's a divemaster. He's like, I got some weird videos and stuff I'll show you. So you think about it. Like, okay, and him and this other shark guy went down there. And I apologize gonna remember his name right now, either he's like one of the shark expert dudes, right? He's like, discovered more species of shark than anybody else. And they show up and he's a he's like, hey, check this out. And the guy goes, holy cow. That's the Austin's guitar shark. I discovered that two years ago. And this is the first one I've ever seen alive like that. Wow. Well Wow. like he'd only seen dead ones. And found dead ones into fishing nets and classified the species like this the first living footage of one I've ever seen and say, yeah, the guy's like, Oh, hold on. I got another One and they showed this like it was like a ray looking thing, but it's the ray that they were looking for earlier in the lake. He's like, Yeah, I just had this video this thing. I don't know what it is. And he's like, holy cow. It's like it's the thing they've been spending weeks like looking for. And this guy's got this video. Like, okay, he Yeah, what do you think? He's like with the Navy? Yeah, I found it. It was a because he was night diving I guess off something he just found it sitting there eating the clam or whatever he said. Oh my god. Like freaked out? It was awesome. Wow. Like, sometimes you just random to take a picture something like hey, that's weird. Check it out. And then someone's like, Oh my gosh, it's the rarest thing in the world. Alright, I thought it looks odd. You know?

 

39:53

I wonder why I'd never seen anything like it before.

 

Brandon  39:56

Because literally no one's ever seen this before. That's why

 

Collin  40:00

Well, I guess we're on the good news bandwagon and it seems to be all the focus around conservation biology. That's fine. I put

 

Brandon  40:10

in your wheelhouse.

 

Collin  40:12

Yeah. You know, whatever. It's fine. I can't get out of it. I came across this article from the Chicago Tribune, about fish species recovery and around Chicago. So put this into perspective. 30 years ago, about the time we were all busy being born, there were fewer than 10 species in the Chicago and kalimat rivers in the area that they could find when they when they did studies in the 80s. Wow, fewer than 10 fish species. Wow. Now they are finding 60 different species.

 

Brandon  40:49

Hey, six exciting. Yes, I was like, unless one of them is the Asian carp. And that's bad. That's

 

Collin  40:58

no you Yeah, I don't I didn't get the detailed list

 

Brandon  41:03

of which ones

 

41:06

but which is naked? Like I

 

Brandon  41:10

don't want that one either like

 

41:15

the issue we want there as a question.

 

Brandon  41:18

Oh my gosh, Yeah, I know.

 

Collin  41:23

It's crazy, but it's just insane. It's the the amount of conservation work that has gone up there have just been insane to what they've done with the water like they've built underground tunnels to help air rate water and move it more efficiently. They Wow. handled and all sorts of stuff. Yeah. Right, like

 

Brandon  41:47

filling in canals and stuff like that and like divert traffic and kind of improve water quality in some areas and do like a water runoff and watershed conservation stuff. I didn't know about underground tunnels. That's like A whole new level

 

Collin  42:02

did tunneling between rivers right to increase water flow to to carry chlorinated water in different directions, from the natural, natural water, and just just insane amounts of infrastructure that they've had to go in. But because, you know, basically, they had to do all that because they were using the rivers as their infrastructure. Yeah. And when they could no longer do that they had to build it up and around and through and between everything else, which is why it was like don't like it's so it's so crazy to think about the amount of work that's gone into that.

 

Brandon  42:37

That's one thing I think people need to remember. Chicago is a port city. Right? That's a that's a fact that's lost on a lot of people based on its geographic location because it's in the Midwest, yet, right. I think you can see it if you put your nose in the crease of the map, you go. deep cut number three. Welcome But it's in the middle. It's in the middle of the United States. So, you know, think about it is a port. You know, I mean, but Chicago historically is a huge port city, right railway and port, just distribution hub, and the amount of river traffic and Lake traffic and, you know, all that stuff is immense, historically. So that's pretty impressive that they were able to do turn that around because yeah, that the industrial complex and shipping complex it is Chicago is huge, right? You can't get underestimate the size of this. The scale of how much stuff moves through that city. You know, even now, it's still a big port city and deny just the scale of that and we forget about it, because it's You know, the middle of the country, we don't think about it. We often forget about the Great Lakes, shipping lanes, you know, when we talk about you know, shipping and distribution and, and stuff like that we kind of forget, I think we might know about it a little bit, but we kind of forget about the Great Lakes we think about like, Florida last the Port of Los Angeles, New York even is a port city, but we

 

Collin  44:24

forget about Chicago. Yeah, no, we totally we totally forget that. Chicago is not just a port city, but an international,

 

44:33

like shipping container.

 

Collin  44:35

Yeah, city. Yeah. Right. Like, yeah, teenagers from Asia and in China and Austria. Come into Chicago, Chicago. Yeah. Right. Right. Like it's,

 

Brandon  44:47

yeah, that's a weird sentence. But it's true. Like the Great Lakes, the Great Lakes. shipping lanes are enormous Li traffic, you know, and it It is kind of it's a weird thing. You don't think about these places like being just massive shipping hubs. But yeah, Chicago, international port city. What? Like not that we're not just talking to Canada, right. We're not just talking. Because it's like, right across Canada. No, no.

 

Collin  45:21

Thank you friendly neighbors to the north, but we're not quite counting you in the spring. We are

 

45:26

but like, that's not the only reason. It's me. Yes. And yeah.

 

Brandon  45:31

But yes, and also South Korea, like what?

 

45:40

Holy cow.

 

Brandon  45:43

So yeah. Thanks. Very cool. That's pretty impressive that they've done that much work up there. Yeah. Good deal. So that's been nice stuff. Good for you, Chicago. Yeah. Nice job.

 

46:02

Oh, man, they're going through some weird stuff, aren't they? You heard about what they're doing Tuesday,

 

46:08

Chicago.

 

Collin  46:10

You know, I don't resent. So for geopolitical reasons Chicago has, what's it called? It's the high district. Hyde district, right.

 

46:25

Hold on Chicago.

 

Collin  46:29

Yeah. Hyde Park, Chicago. It's a really, really nice, fancy part. It's on the island of Chicago because there's an there's a part of the town that's kind of an island in between the rivers. Yeah, um, in recent nights, the looting and destruction has been so bad that they had been raising all of the bridges onto the island at nighttime.

 

Brandon  46:51

I don't know that.

 

Collin  46:52

Yes. So I've seen this movie. It's called Batman, where they just can't get off. Island but yeah, it's now a nightly occurrence where every night at like 8pm all the bridges go up and they don't come back down until like six or seven the next morning.

 

47:11

Dark Night arises that's Yes.

 

Collin  47:14

Yeah to prevent looting because they they had people were coming in from all the suburbs and surrounding area are literally driving u hauls into downtown and smashing into storefronts and then looting and piling everything in the U haul and driving away.

 

Brandon  47:28

What the heck? No, I missed that somehow. No.

 

Collin  47:32

It's crazy. So they're I'm like, What? And they're like, it's not just shops out there. But they're like, houses on there to where people are now like, well, I guess we're on the island tonight.

 

47:46

Yeah.

 

Brandon  47:48

Yeah. Anyway, Chicago, there you go. I seem to have like I seem to recall liking Chicago when I was there. Again. This was Oh boy, ladies and gentlemen. This was a long time ago. I have not been enough

 

Collin  48:05

these memories.

 

Brandon  48:06

Yeah, I haven't been to Chicago since I, I'm gonna go with

 

48:16

my gosh, I don't know.

 

Brandon  48:19

I say early in school now as before that even probably. So.

 

Collin  48:25

Yeah, I mean I remember taking the train from St. Louis to Chicago. Yeah, we did that. We did that. And then I think we went one more time drove up there once we drove up there with mom. Yeah, from

 

Brandon  48:35

Illinois with

 

Collin  48:36

Marvin. And we went to the mall and got the sand. Layering things and we do

 

Brandon  48:41

that. That's true. I still have that somewhere. 90 scan a box of dad's house. The other color sand. Yo what's up, I do have a distinct memory of being in the in some sort of food court thing. Eating

 

Aaron  48:59

hotdogs, the The only Association I had with Chicago when, especially when I was younger was the rain forest cafe. Yeah, yeah, we had that. I remember that was like the only reason like I thought like, that was like the biggest thing in Chicago. That's true. Because it and I was like, you know, we're in Illinois. So clearly, there's no The best thing to go to. And I was like, oh, Chicago was actually like the legit city. Oh,

 

Brandon  49:23

my God, you would have been very, very young because I am not putting myself older than fifth grade. When we did this.

 

Aaron  49:31

I remember I remember going on trips with when it was just mom and myself, and we used to go. But But then we went, What years that it was the same summer that we as the choir went up to Carnegie Hall up in New York. And then it was that same summer because we got back. I had to do laundry that night. And then the next day, we went up to Cedar Rapids, Ohio for band Oh, We came we went coming back we went to Chicago where we saw Blue Man Group. Nice. Right? And I remember walking around like the the pier and stuff and all that. And I was like, Oh yeah, there's, you know, all this stuff here forgot about that. But that was I think there was like, that was been like 2009 2010

 

Brandon  50:21

must have been. Yeah, probably. That sounds about right. Yeah, but I haven't been since Yeah, I'm gonna go with somewhere around fifth grade, possibly younger. I definitely remember wearing the Chicago Bulls t shirt, obviously. Because it was in the mid to late 90s. So, we did.

 

Collin  50:44

I mean, I would like to go back because I have fond memories of it and I would like to see more of the city and do

 

Brandon  50:51

I have only a vague memories. Right? I do you remember? Like I do have a very distinct memory of wheat. We We went to the Field Museum The first time. Right? When we took the train up there. Yeah, I do remember go into the Field Museum. That was so cool. Even when I was like, This is the coolest thing ever. But I have a very distinct memory of because I've been to like St. Louis and Kansas City, you know? And you're like, Oh, these are some pretty big buildings. You're driving to like pet party, kids city. I'm getting I we took a taxi somewhere to the rental car place or something. And I remember driving I was in the backseat this taxi, looking at the window like, Oh, my God, like you're downtown Chicago, just like a gas like, Oh my word. This is enormous. I have this very vivid memory. I just like staring like, sort of like looking up out the window like putting my head on the window and looking up and just be like, geez, Louise, this is cool. Like I've been another distinct memory. There isn't it's very vague. I do remember sitting in traffic for about 97 ours. One afternoon, driving back from somewhere. I think probably from the museum, the afternoon we left the museum. We're on a freeway just like not moving. For what felt like an eternity. I don't know how long it actually was. But for me, it was like, This is literally the longest thing ever. I've never been on a highway sitting still before. This is very weird.

 

Collin  52:26

And I don't, it might not have been that exact one. But I remember doing that having to sit on highway a couple times when we would drive up with mom and sitting in the blue suburban. And that was still the time where the best advice for that they gave was if you're going to sit for a long time in your car, just turn it off. Yeah. Sitting in there with the windows rolled down the car turned off on the interstate just being like, What?

 

Brandon  52:50

What is this? Why do you think that it's all that? Yeah, we're all in there. Yes, I don't remember. I just have these like vague memories of like, a mall. A Park. Lake Michigan, like, like, I have no idea. I have this vague memory of like kind of the Lake Michigan beach. Like this kind of thing. I don't really have any other, like solid ones. Yeah, it'd be kind of cool to go back there. I don't really know.

 

53:43

So that's it. We're taking the train.

 

53:47

Meet up meet at my house.

 

Brandon  53:50

This is still go does this. I'll do that to the so yeah,

 

Collin  53:52

there's a Trump trail here where you can get on it. Really? Yeah. And go into Kansas City or St. Louis. Come on. Really? What

 

Brandon  53:59

I was unaware of this. No, yeah, it's more stops

 

54:03

in town. And really it yeah, it stopped like, three four times a day. Yeah. I'm like, What? Are you kidding? Are you kidding me? And you're like, Oh yeah, no, it's just it's just think. So, the reason this comes up is because the town

 

Collin  54:17

sent out a questionnaire because they're basically retrained to rebrand as a town and get better messaging. And they were like, Okay, interesting. I don't have the the blood pressure to go back through this, but it was like when you think of Sedalia, what do you think of when you tell people? Oh, sorry. I said the town. Let's just say that. Uh,

 

Brandon  54:40

we've said it like 75 times before?

 

Collin  54:43

Yeah. When when I was forgetting people, were you when you tell people where you're from, what do they say what are their thoughts? It was quite it was things like where is that is that? What do they have to do there? other other I put like math problem, huh? Because seriously, like, I mean was, that's the real problem here. I mean, there's literally anywhere in Missouri, let's be fair, I know. But Israel bad. And the cops are to the point where they're putting out like, a lot of like there are actually been a huge increase in fentanyl overdoses here in town last month again like like, Missouri, I know. So and then it was asking like when you think of the town as a person, what are the characteristics that you think of? Or the last commute? Yeah, the last community event that you went to? First it was like, What are the community events were known for? And I was like, Oh, that's a good question. It's a great question. You have three spaces. I have one answer.

 

Brandon  55:50

We have a farmers market that I'm aware of.

 

Collin  55:56

The answers that I put were the state fair, obviously Yeah the the downtown bike races that come through once a year. All that's true. And the Scott Joplin Music Festival.

 

Brandon  56:08

Scott Joplin music guzzle, see? Oh, I know.

 

Collin  56:13

Yeah. And so, you know, they were asking like, what? Like, if you've moved here, what keeps you here? Okay, it's definitely Yeah. But, you know, it was like, all these questions and none of them were they were all just like, what do you want us to help me whitewash the town to make it more appealing for people? Right. None of it was the answering the fact of like, the big question I want to know and ask the city council is the town's population and I know why this guy before but the town's current population is the exact same as when my house was built over 100 years. Why Yeah, right. Like that tells me something. And it doesn't really sound like the questions you're asking are getting at that. You you there's a problem here. They're and and this may be a first step in that direction. But if you're not even, like, the questions weren't even around like housing or infrastructure or anything like that. It was like, what are we known for? And I was like, you're known for the goober burger, which is peanut butter on top of a hamburger, which is freaking disgusting. And that tells you everything you need to know about the town. Right?

 

Brandon  57:23

Wow, violent response to peanut butter on hamburger.

 

57:28

Why? Why would you put peanut butter on top of a hamburger? I mean,

 

Brandon  57:35

I think I've actually had that before. Oh, because I think I was at a restaurant and I was like, No, I have to know what that's like.

 

57:42

It's so disgusting.

 

Brandon  57:46

I don't really have any recollection of being offended or liking it. So it must have been pretty like, Huh,

 

Collin  57:52

yep, that's the thing. Okay. Anyway, sure. It's right. I get it. I get it, but it's like, I don't know. It's just one of those things that like you have to at some point, decide what you're going to hit your wagon to and ask for this from up until now, the town has really basically been like we're, we're the state there is. That's that's what they that's what they're known for. That's like, are you going to continue that? Or are you going to lean into things like the Katy Trail, the fact that you have a train depot that has a trainer that nobody knows about? I don't know about that. Right? Or an art museum that nobody goes to or the downtown area with brand new shops that are opening up that don't get any highlights? Because, yeah, you know, the big box stores on the west side of town are opening up and they get all the glamour, like, what are you going to do here? And our town

 

Brandon  58:45

definitely does a lot of like highlighting the downtown thing. Like they have been. Like I said, they're redoing they're kind of like re again, we have a downtown. I've mentioned this before, we have a downtown flooding problem. So currently they're addressing that But they've done a lot of stuff like where we had changed graduation party downtown. They had built this like big pavilion, I had no idea was there, right down by the old railroad tracks. And we still have a bit of a railroad depot. But it's just kind of like a it's not big. It's kind of like a track merger. Just trains wait in like a pass through place. It's not like an offloading zone anymore. But there's all these old buildings that that's where they used to be. That's what it was. So we have this Front Street right there. Just goes right parallel to the railroad tracks. And they've been doing that. They've been they really pushed the revitalizing of the downtown street with all the old brick buildings where the stores are, you know, there's new stores down there. There's a pharmacy that expanded to a new like soda fountain thing. Have they're currently painting a mural? Another one, which is, it's fine. It's fine. Okay, it's fine. But

 

Collin  1:00:01

it's really, yeah.

 

Brandon  1:00:03

So they, we, they have this one mural on the side of this building. They've already painted one and it's like really cool and it's kind of like town history. And it's got like all this stuff on it's really it's good. It's really interesting. The guy that painted it's, it's really good, right and I remember his name is but he's like a muralist. He's a pretty renowned guy he's doing he's the same guy that's doing this new one. There's this like grain silo, in the track yard, down there in the rail yard. And it's been there for like, it's like 130 year old grain silo. Right? It's really neat looking, and they're like, we should like paint something on it. But we've just decided, you know what we should paint on this, to really solidify a sense of our town and our community. We should just paint generic flag and eagle on this silo Sure. Which again, it's fine but I Literally seeing the same thing on a mailbox. So like, it's not. I like I like it. It's cool. But it's not representative of our town at all. Right? You know what I mean? It's just kind of like a generic like, I think it's cool. If you wanted to do I think it would have been cool to paint something that's like a local veterans thing, if you want to do the patriotic motif sweep, but make it like a little flavorful of where we are like, let's honor our veterans from our town. Right. You know, I mean,

 

Collin  1:01:30

that's the kind of thing that I get really passionate about when these discussions of like, Who are we as a town like, what's our identity? What's our mission of like, if all you're focused is if you only focus is how can we make ourselves more tractable to businesses? Like that's, I don't think that's right. I don't think that's okay. Like you're missing out on a whole swath of the discussion. Yeah. The whole thing is, how do we get better tax incentives for businesses to come in you will lose the soul of your town. Right. I mean, that's

 

Brandon  1:02:01

fair. But like, I think our town does a pretty good job because we have some big industry in our town. Right? We have like, international industry here in a weird like, town with like 15,000 people in it. And they, you know, it's kind of it's they've done a pretty good job of like, okay, we're bringing this business into our community. Okay, so this is where our people are going to work. Now we're going to give our people places to go, like, what are they gonna do when they're not working? Right? Like, I don't know if I mentioned this, but they're they just bought 50 acres south of the park, and at least half of it is going to be for an expansion of the park. Hmm. So like some of its going to be for housing like a new housing, because there's not enough housing ever, right? But Excel expanded some housing, developmental housing areas, but at least I think over 50% of what they bought is going to be for the expansion of the park. Sure. Which is really cool because like our like, that's what our time zone for it. When you talk about our town, it's the park. Right? The South Park. We have a North Park, we have another one too. It has like baseball fields and stuff, but the South Park is where people go, like hang out and do stuff. Yeah. And why is the golf course that's where people go. That's why there's a walking trail. There's like bicycling stuff like

 

Collin  1:03:44

yeah, that's a town that goes this is an asset. We can we need to lean into this and continue to invest in it. Yeah, I was I was impressed

 

1:03:51

with that. I thought that was a good choice.

 

Collin  1:03:54

But I don't even I don't even think this town knows what its assets are yet. Right. Yeah. They're they're trying to figure that out and go, what is it that makes us better? What make what is it that makes us? Us? And that's it. I understand that I'm just like, but I see all the other work that's going on in the background, all the tax initiatives, all of the things, all the funding, unlike, so they're moving, they're racing ahead in one step, with

 

Brandon  1:04:23

not initiative supporting and the other one, but not

 

Collin  1:04:25

supporting anything other one, and it's like, oh, then there's the side side to the conversation of like, oh, what do we want to be known about? Yeah, what do you know, like, Yeah, but you just invested like, millions and millions of dollars in all this infrastructure for for industry, and, and are moving the image in one way, but you're not like Disney. At the same time.

 

Brandon  1:04:47

I will say there is a benefit to having the industry, right. Not only do you have a large job benefit, but here's one interesting example. As we were getting Electricity, like the city switched electricity, co op company things, huh? Right. And it was cool for a little bit. And then or they did something they adjusted with the co op providers or whatever, because the electric Co Op. That's a whole bizarre situation. If you're not familiar with what that is, listeners, don't worry. It's confusing and no one actually knows what it means. Anyway. Yeah, they're getting from the end, the rates just started going up. and up and up. Right. So everybody, the whole city, the electric rates were going higher. And Tyson's was like, Yo,

 

1:05:43

what the heck.

 

Brandon  1:05:46

If you don't knock this junk off, we're gonna have to leave. We'll leave and we'll take all our thousands of jobs with us. Sure, we'll go somewhere else. And it seems like Oh, all right. Just Just kidding. Just Hey, let's get in. We switched back to the other or let your grades dropped back to where they had been before. nice and stable. So there's some benefit well to when they're like, yo, yeah, no, I've come on, help us out here. Like, we're using all of your power. Okay. Yeah, you gotta get some,

 

Collin  1:06:19

some bargaining of India. I don't hear what I'm not saying as far as like anti industry are developed. No, I don't I just

 

Brandon  1:06:24

I just have one very specific instance. But I could look at that happened here.

 

Collin  1:06:29

It does allow you certain advantages for those kind of things. It's just when the city is it seems so lost as far as what they what they even want. Yeah, right.

 

Brandon  1:06:41

You have to remember like, okay, these industries are here. That's cool. Our citizens are working there. What do we do now? Yeah. To help build our community. How do

 

Collin  1:06:51

we retain how do we keep

 

Brandon  1:06:53

here? How do we because we have some problems with housing, right. We have some areas that need help. But they're working on some stuff. They're doing some road revitalization to kind of get traffic into other areas to bring they do really try to get businesses funnel downtown. To the more locally run areas. Yeah. Are they there's lots of Yeah.

 

Collin  1:07:22

Yeah. I will say that they recently in a really good move is they actually expanded the quote unquote, historic district in downtown, and which, which officially includes our house now. Hey, I don't know. I don't know what that does. I don't know. Don't don't don't I mean, you can't paint your house without anybody without telling the city. Sure. You can't i can't tear anything down around. I don't think it declares the building historic. But I think it just means that Yeah, the area so I think that puts restrictions or like, again, I have no idea they weren't like with this. Move will be able to dedicate X number of dollars to renovations of streets or whatever they were just like, and this is the historic district to draw, like, so it can just crumble more peacefully now, I guess. But sounds like there are some of these these small moves. It's just, I get fired up when, when I so worry that the whole point will be, we just need we just need to attract businesses and get jobs in here. And then that'll solve all our problems. Right? Like, like, Yeah, but But what about that? If you're asking questions about the town, what is what do you want the town to be, to visually appear to be to have a feeling of and to be known for? As Opposed? You know, being known for being friendly to businesses is great, awesome. But what are the business people going to be doing there on their off time?

 

Brandon  1:08:55

Yeah, right. What are they giving back to the community? What are they what are those people that work there? spend their money in town where do you go for recreation? What do they you know,

 

Collin  1:09:04

I will say one of the some of the questions were really good about like, do you go somewhere else in the state to shop or to recreate? Where do you go and why? And I was like, okay, that's a really good question because that's going to tell you like why people are leaving and I can tell you what most people are leaving because there's nothing to do right. which is again, you have to start somewhere it just Yeah, when I get when I saw that survey come across my desk I just got this like, this pulsing vein in my head and I was like, Oh, no, oh, gosh.

 

Brandon  1:09:38

Be kind Yeah, there is a bear quickly bring up that. The the other end of the spectrum, which is the town that I work in, and I do not work in the same town that I live in, if there's like in Southeast Missouri, there's like a town every several miles in the you know, all that stuff. So It steadfastly refuses to do anything. Right? We have they have this chronic problem of they can't get money into the town to pay for stuff. Nobody will ever vote to expand city limits. They can't without voting to do that they can't expand city resources like sewer electricity and water. They can't provide more housing because that's a chronic problem. In the place where I work is that there's no housing, there's none. I can't get it. Right. Or the problem is there's, it's surrounded by like farmland. And the people are like, no, they will not, you know, there. can't go anywhere, because it's like, oh, these people own this. And this, it can't go that way. Because they're just farmland and then There's this constant like back and forth of anytime any land becomes available one of like five people buys it. Yeah before immediately, like this land barren thing happening, right like, so they can't go. They want to expand it the only major business in the whole town is actually located outside the city limits bilat feet. So like,

 

1:11:21

Oh my gosh, it's

 

Collin  1:11:24

Yeah. And that's, that's this this whole, like, I see people discussing the town of like, they get angry when property values go up because that means that the taxes are going to go up to and, and I just

 

1:11:41

I can't I

 

Collin  1:11:44

I don't know what to do with those kinds of statements because on the one hand, they complain about the city not having money to do anything. Yeah, their hand. They're like, I can't believe how much my house value rose last year. Now they're gonna raise the price on You know, raise my taxes on it. And I'm like,

 

Brandon  1:12:02

that's true. But I've also never heard anybody say, Oh, no, my house is now more valuable Ah, out there.

 

1:12:09

To my town where people know

 

Brandon  1:12:11

about it. I've never really been out here say ever.

 

Collin  1:12:15

We were in our house for eight months, nine months in the assessor came through and was like due to raising property values. We are increasing taxes. And people were like, they were filing complaints about assessments of their property values, trying to get them lowered and devalued, so that they wouldn't have to pay higher taxes and all sorts of stuff. And I'm like, I'm just looking around going. I'm sorry, but do you want the potholes fixed or not? Because who's something people we need to pay for that to make it nice, you can't complain that it's not nice and then that pay for it like I'm sorry, things I don't understand. And didn't have any answer.

 

Brandon  1:13:01

It's it's definitely more than I mean, no, nobody likes taxes, obviously. Right? No, but like, on the local level if you actually see the benefit of it happening. Yes. Like, nationally, I have no idea what's happening with my tax money. It's probably being mirrored horribly. Like Don't,

 

Collin  1:13:19

don't look at the graphs or charts that tell you like, per every dollar that you pay in federal taxes where it goes, it's very depressing. Yeah, totally agree. Like, I would pay I would gladly gladly pay more in local taxes to actually see good things happen. Like, that's where I want my

 

Brandon  1:13:34

daughter because I want my I want my city to be better. Yeah, I want the people in my town to be better.

 

Collin  1:13:41

I want the people who are running the services who are sitting behind the front desks who are out doing inspections, I want them to be able to earn more right for

 

Brandon  1:13:53

a, you know, and a part of people to be well equipped. I want I know these this Important meat. Yeah. It seems like that where I'm like, I don't want my other city services I want like my walk I want that to be functional.

 

Collin  1:14:14

Yeah, no I I'd love for, you know the city to be able to do like more code enforcement that they have in place so that these houses that have been sitting derelict and like are literally falling down for years and years, something can be done with them, right like those action can be taken on those and get up start.

 

1:14:37

You have

 

Brandon  1:14:40

another town around here. Yeah, he's doing that they're, they're dead. They're picking up some old buildings. They're falling down, but they're kind of going through in the area and getting that straightened up. And hopefully that's going well. I don't know how but like cordoned off, and then just like sinks hanging wall three stories. Yeah, that's that. Sweet. All right, and go ahead.

 

Aaron  1:15:08

Oh, no. So what I was gonna say is that that's kind of you know, bartlesville is kind of considered like a real stagnant town because you know, it being bartlesville that pretty much oil capital for years and it has a lot of old money. And a few weeks ago and chili myself, you know, had a date downtown, it's like, oh, this, this is here, I got what this is here. And then we got lost going through, like the old money District, which is like all these really nice houses. But then the moment you turn a block there, there's just these, like, houses and roads that just aren't being focused on it, but all the money is going to that area because you know, there's still a lot of old people that live there that still you know, are pretty prominent members of this of the city. And bartlesville like it just isn't growing. It just kind of stagnant. Like there's a lot of nursing homes here. There's a lot of those kind of facilities. But there's also not a lot that brings people here except for conocophillips, or the college and that's really about it. And I definitely agree with Collins, like, I'd be happy to, you know, pay more in taxes just to have

 

Brandon  1:16:22

have stuff, you know,

 

Aaron  1:16:25

propped up or you know, furnace better, but I'm also in the same boat where I'm moving and I'm like, bartlesville doesn't get my money anymore.

 

Brandon  1:16:33

So

 

Aaron  1:16:35

but it the bartlesville is, is a stagnant town like it has a mall, but there's maybe like five stores in it now because, you know, it's owned by, you know, older rich people that are like, Oh, you know, the rents this gets people in there and then they jack the price up and it's like, well, no, like the city needs to help them step in and actually promote that because if you get more things in here, people actually shot more in because I went there. Over tax free weekend to watch some baseball at Buffalo Wild Wings. No surprise. And there was like, when you're no one's there, and there's still no mask ordinance, and I was like the only one wearing a mask, like in the mall and like there was just no one there. And people either leave town to go shopping, or they just you know, order it online and so nothing is his grand dear and so it just kind of just, it's not a dead town, but it's just a stagnant town where nothing is happening and nothing is progressing and nothing is you know, moving.

 

Brandon  1:17:37

Ours is growing. I don't think we're fast because we built a new like beta new little shop century thing. One of those like stripping ease. It's not a big five store thing. full of stuff. So a couple of stops there. This isn't new restaurants. They're all the big thing we're doing though, is we're building new hospital. Which is pretty exciting. Just because like our I mean, our OLS was really good. It's a good hospital actually did one of the best in Southeast Missouri in this area, I mean, in a smaller towns thing because there's a lot of the other towns are and there isn't. Oh, because a lot of a lot of small town halls closing the last week because they're just you know, they just can't stay open and they can't do it. But ours is kind of become a hub. Without expanding. They're building a brand new one. Oh, it's supposed to be super awesome. I don't know if that means the old normally do that. The old like old, old it used to be by nuns in the day persa Yeah.

 

Collin  1:18:59

It's gonna be out. Permanent haunted mansion is what I'm hearing from this

 

1:19:03

work there.

 

Collin  1:19:06

So, hotel make attorney downtown.

 

Brandon  1:19:09

I don't know. No. But yeah, there's a probably something other another medical thing because there's the one downtown. Sure I'm sure they'll have like medical offices we but yeah, they're building on everyone I hear on the highway that means new roads. You put another stoplight here but like for the ambulance, you know them act so cool. But that's a really built in that because that's a thing that our time has not a lot of exposure. You do it right, that becomes a medical. Our medical centers are really good. Now,

 

Collin  1:19:50

so that becomes a regional asset at that point. Yeah, right. And you start leaning into that. Um, yeah, it's, again, I I don't know Don't hundred percent know why the survey triggered me and got me thinking about the town

 

1:20:06

the way it did

 

Brandon  1:20:08

I never doing anything ever. And they're not actually doing like evil things. Again, like I said our cities like they're buying and trying to solve this like systemic flooding problem that we have in our dining area right there taking big active steps to fix this problem has happened for decades. Right? Yeah, boy at the guys I see that, you know, road readings that they're trying to do, allegedly if I missed this but love the there's going to be a traffic circle somewhere 100% sure where it's going, and all right, but see, I'm not sure where that

 

Collin  1:20:54

doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. It'll be there. Before we actually get

 

Brandon  1:20:58

to go around. We have On some stuff have a every university satellite campus. Cooney, yeah. Some stuff there. So, we have a regional Technology Center. All high schools go. Okay, we used to go to OTC my high school, we went for all that stuff. Yeah, I made it and go back to that place that you're in town kind of building those resources up. I like it. I mean it grows I grow at it like it went here. But sure. Now once you kind of like, Oh, this is useful. Okay, I got you have that moment of love. Richard, you're like, Oh, this is like a porn star. Right. Yeah, and part of that,

 

Collin  1:21:50

too, is is, is also educating some of the city rez the current city residents on things in the city that maybe they didn't know of and Doing a BA because like, like, there's the there's the DOM art museum here in town, which we love like we go there a lot of these we did before COVID. But like it was always empty and the the guest log was always never fun, never full and that's like days and gaps between people visiting. And I'm like,

 

Brandon  1:22:21

why isn't? Do people not

 

Collin  1:22:23

know about this? Are they not impressed about the art that's here like, or like already not communicating it properly or like, I think the things like the campus that's all here in town of going, you know, so many opportunities, they just, yeah, it's a two year college, you need to lean into that hard and really look at the opportunities that the students are bringing that the the classes that are there and and the programs that they have going on there and start building that out into the community instead of just being like, get this thing whatever, like, lean into it Come on. So I that to have just going Assessing and looking around and helping the community as a whole understand like what they actually have versus the preconceived notions that they may think that they're there there.

 

Brandon  1:23:10

Yeah, we don't have enough Well, maybe do it I just don't know about because I don't go out every now we don't have like museum things. Right. We did have a County Museum. Thing Sure. like old VFW feel. There have to call it a move because the building like falling down but at this little building that kind of stuff. I didn't buy them a lot of I don't think a lot of people was there. That's that kind of thing. next phase thing up. is getting mass going. Oh, I do have another festival. We have a we have the live fireworks thing. That's huge. Normally, yeah, have a huge like the park like Like festival thing, like Fourth of July is huge fireworks display. And then there's also a sometime in I guess timber. I think there's a Hispanic Heritage Festival Park. I mean, I don't know about here. But normally there's a Hispanic Heritage Festival. It was something else downtown maybe tre themed thing or other? I don't know. But yeah, that was it. That's a big Hispanic Heritage was a big one. Yeah, that one's really things like that.

 

Collin  1:24:36

Like, more people need to know about that like, and I think that can be overlooked from a city organizer, event planner kind of mentality. Like, yeah, this event we've had for years and years. What else is out there? But like really taking a hard look at that going? Does everybody know? Right? Yeah. Everybody know about this? How can we get more people involved?

 

Brandon  1:24:58

Everybody knows fireworks. Does your county come over? exempt? I'm sure. No, I'm serious when you go cuz normally normally under non insane conditions we do our park. It's kind of like bought the golf course, as we all do is that everybody works on the side of the highway. They park in the park. It's all located they park on the highway is fine. The cops are like, yep, they're all out there. Doing all that stuff, drag traffic everything. People park on the highway, jump the ditch, just go sit on the golf course and walk out to the fairway and the things go off everywhere can actually there's actually thing you can walk under the highway at one point. super convenient but you can do it down into the park all the festival food in the US on the golf where people fund the house. Way to sit in the power lines of business like they quit and they order food and then they bring it outside and sit and watch the highway it's it's crazy it's so so many people ridiculous wow

 

1:26:19

yeah oh again like yeah things like

 

Collin  1:26:22

things like that where you're able to go like way like obviously that's a huge strength so as from the city's perspective going like we need to make this better like we need to get more involved we need to make it more accessible we need to make it more convenient for people we need to to build this out add attractions add you know services in these areas where people are parking and like in and not saying that they're not doing that that's just as an example for people yeah you know if you're thinking about it in your town and going like really thinking about how best to serve the community and I Just I always hope that those conversations are going on, but I worry that they they are.

 

Brandon  1:27:05

They aren't right. There just is again, you can't always go what new thing can we do? Sometimes it's what's the thing that we do? Right? And but more can do exactly. Yeah, start there.

 

Collin  1:27:21

Right? Because then you're coming from a position of strength and confidence and and like yeah, history and character to have like, yeah, this is the one that Sure, let's go with it. you lean into the farking goober burger. And you go, this is the thing we're hanging our hat on. And we were gonna do we're really gonna market this and because this is the one thing we've got, and we're going to, everyone's gonna know about the history of this and and we're gonna have four or five different places in town that serve it and market it and certain things and like, we're gonna do that fine. But to go like, what new thing can we create, like what's the new, you know, food dish that's going to define the town like Stop it. Yeah, you already have something. Yeah. Have fun thing. Go for it.

 

1:28:04

Yeah.

 

Brandon  1:28:07

Are you actually like it? I'd say you're stuck with it now. Sure.

 

Collin  1:28:12

Right, for better or worse, and then you can lean into like the, the awkwardness of it like you lean into that part. Yeah, I know. It's peanut butter on a hammer. I know. It's really weird and kind of gross is what? Guy?

 

Brandon  1:28:29

Right. So,

 

Collin  1:28:30

I don't know, I just it's a, it's always an interesting discussion to see towns grappling with what they want the future to look like, and especially whenever they start opening up to the public, because I think that's really beneficial. The interesting thing will be whether they make the public comments, public, right, so they solicited unsolicited comments from people, I with no note about how they're going to report back or how it's gonna be used in decision making or whatever. So I don't No for going to get like a pipe, you know, lots of pie charts or you know, kind of summary from from them probably will see nothing. And, and then they'll come out in next year and be like, here's the new town colors and our banner. Congratulations. Yeah. Sweet.

 

1:29:22

So anyway,

 

Brandon  1:29:26

does that they really lean into the whole the school colors? Yeah, there's lots of thing. I like them. They're not really pleasant, but boom, here we are. We have a slogan. Great. I don't love it, but boom, it's on the powers tear on the sign. Like the history of historic town. Boom. Yeah. All right. alliteration. It's item raucous. That's not bad. You know, whatever, but okay. I do like Good job.

 

Collin  1:30:02

But it's one of those things that like, you could do worse. At least you haven't. Right? Unless you're using at least you're leaning into the colors that you have. So that Yeah, people know like, town colors like,

 

Brandon  1:30:15

I mean, it's not really like, kind of a lot of places like, into the buckle school color. You know, sure. The things it's painted a different color, but we never find Well,

 

Collin  1:30:26

I remember growing up in rogersville, right, everything

 

1:30:29

right, everything really

 

Collin  1:30:30

Maroon right. You immediately knew Maroon?

 

1:30:34

Yeah. Like you do.

 

Brandon  1:30:38

One thing and I know your towns that have multiple schools. It's hard. Yeah, I get that. Oh, about like in Tulsa can't do that. Like,

 

Collin  1:30:50

this isn't doing that right. Yes,

 

Brandon  1:30:51

we'll be like 75 Big D It's not bad for one, you've been before it. So it

 

Collin  1:31:06

sounds like we're all running for city council. I like that. That's next week's challenge run for I don't think they

 

1:31:13

know about that.

 

Collin  1:31:14

I'm putting it on there challenge revere city. I did. We just did. We recently did local elections. election, you know, for the primary. Yeah. And I, I did have to do my civic duty and look up what that heck a county commissioner did because I was like, I actually don't know what their job duties are. I didn't, you know, I'd, because we haven't been here long enough. They didn't have an election for him last time because he ran unopposed. So he was so opposed to get somebody this time and I was like, Oh, yeah, like what do you do? Yeah, I think what commission What

 

Brandon  1:32:06

though? Wow. Oh, now you Oh, now I know if I do well. Yeah, so

 

Collin  1:32:20

it's a well we, I mean, mostly we just solved all those problems so we can go ahead and jump off the call. That's where you know we have to stick

 

Brandon  1:32:30

to something for next week. Right? We need to

 

Collin  1:32:33

save some problems for somebody else. Well, do you guys have a good rest your evening

 

1:32:42

and you tune us well, we'll talk soon.

 

1:32:49

Love you guys.