tangential musical enthusiast

Brandon likes Zoom (not really). Collin likes chain restaurants (not really). We agree the Cat in the Hat is chaotic neutral.

  • Zoom Updates

  • Safety vests to the rescue

  • Brandon drive 1.5 hrs for a random chicken sandwhich

  • School musicals!

  • Chaotic neutral - Cat in the Hat

  • School carnival!

  • Wankel engine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wankel_engine

  • Smelling heating core

  • Collin’s Haiku

  • Rolling thunder roars,

  • Pins scatter in flashing lights,

  • Lanes hum with strike dreams

Check out our other episodes: ohbrotherpodcast.com

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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE

PROVIDED BY OTTER.AI

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Zoom frustrations, inactive clients, safety vests, route planning, library research, school musical, Seussical plot, Cat in the Hat, heater smell, Wankel engine, Rotary Club, carnival preparations, efficiency improvements, client updates, spreadsheet work

SPEAKERS

Collin

Collin  00:00

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, teens, gentle music enthusiast like that, like that. Why

00:23

that? There we go. That was

Collin  00:27

what on earth I got the little listeners, for those of you who are wondering, what will just happen, columns and mid sentence, and I got the recording stopped, Lady signifying that it went away. And I was like, what? Why mess with your settings while we're doing No, yeah, it's like, well, you're not logged in. So what if I actually, like, no, no, no, no, no, no, you don't get to Barry. So anyway, yes, I was just about to ask. I was just about to lament about how fun Zoom is not it's just this weird thing. Sometimes it's just like, What about if I did this now? But wait, you never do that. Why would you do that? That doesn't make any sense. I don't understand. Oh, technology, it's, it's fun, fun, I guess I don't think so. Yeah, question mark, right? Like, who knows? Oh, so, what have you been up to in the past week? Oh, oh, um, the been doing a lot of deep dives into just death bid, boring business stuff we call clients who aren't who haven't been with us for a while, where we turn them into what's called an inactive clients. They're still active in our software, and it saves all of their information, but they just got, like, a active Yeah, so when I want run my reports on a lot of stuff, their information doesn't show up and and we, we typically do this, try and do this just throughout the years, kind of a rolling like, when was the last person? Like, kind of like, once a quarter, when was the last person? This person, last time this person used us. And we're settling in on about a year. If they haven't used us in a year, you know, they get the AX, they're gone. Yeah, that seems fair. Just Just yesterday, we looked at this client, and we were like, man, you know, she was a really big cheerleader for us on social media. She's kind of gone quiet now, and it's been a year, like, literally, I'm looking at this right now. It's been over a year. And I was like, well, there will, will, will inactivate her. And then Megan was like, No, I don't know. Let's just go ahead and hang on. Well, literally, five minutes before I sat down to record, she requested services for tomorrow. I haven't seen or heard anything for this one in a year, and then they're like, Okay, tomorrow, please. It's like, what you got? I have so much anger and so much rage right now, so I don't understand, I don't understand how people work. It's fine, it's whatever, but I'm not happy. Well, you know, it's pretty, that is pretty abrupt, right? No, here for forever. They're like, I need you tomorrow. Like, wait, hold on, hold on. That's how this works, right? Yeah, literally, yeah. A year they've been doing other stuff, right? Yes, doing other stuff. So we are frantically now, like, oh well, you need to update all of the information, because I guarantee none of it's

04:23

the same. Oh, yeah, probably not.

Collin  04:26

So now it's we're in that mode of, okay, well, what about this? And what about this? And this becomes our 1 million questions, which I know annoys people, but it's like, I know I have to ask these questions, because if I don't know, then I'm not going to know to do it. And so therefore you'll get, you'll be mad at me, like I had a lady. We had a lady who yelled at us recently because unbeknownst to us, never disclosed in any information, or any of the meet and greets, or any of the any. Anything, the dog will pull food bags off the kitchen counter. And we don't set things there by but, you know, normally, but if there was a treat bag on the counter, apparently this dog will jump up and get that and pull it down. Well, we didn't know this, so we found a treat bag on the floor, and we put it on the counter, and then someone mentioned it, and then this client freaked out. What is going on? Why is this happening? I don't understand. Was like calling me at 10pm at night to try and figure this. I was like, whoa. Pump the brakes here, because I'm sorry, what? And it was one of those unspoken expectations that there was just they were legitimately surprised that we didn't know this. And I was like, this is nowhere in any information. Like, I need, I desperately. I need your help right now. Like, I No, I will not, I will not accept being yelled at. Thank you. That's really weird, right? Like, I don't, that doesn't make a lot of sense. Like, no, no, but again, this is part of those people only know what they know, and it's their homes, right? So when things change, it just becomes part of their normal life. And yeah, if it's if something is so second nature to you that you don't even think about it, you're never going to remember to tell somebody if it's you know that it's happening, even if it's the most important thing in the world to you. If you don't never have to take a second to reference or to think about or to double check you'll never remember, to tell anybody, and and then it's like, I, I am, I am good at a lot of things, mind reading. Turns out, not one of them. So what help? I know.

06:57

I know.

Collin  06:59

Man, come on. I know. What are you doing? It's real, real frustrating. But so, yeah, that was that's been fun. So again, we get, we have to turn this, you know, into our million questions. And it's, I know, it's especially frustrating for clients who are trying to leave last minute of I have this emergency, or I have this thing, and the last thing they want to do is have me on the phone going, okay, and is your door code different? No, okay. Is your alarm code different? No, okay. Is like, they don't want to do that, but it's like, it's a very important if your door code is different, yeah. And you want me to come into your house? This is an important information update that needs to occur, right? Like this, turns out rather important. Who'd have guessed you need the pet sitter in your house to sit your pet. Wow. Shocking turn of events, Ladies Gentlemen, who could have seen this coming? Really? Nobody, nobody. Nobody could have seen this. Nobody could say so I have to ask questions. And anyway, so we're getting that schedule. And thankfully, it's we're trying to, you know, it's only two visits, so it's not, it's not some kind of big of a deal, but also it's okay, no, it's just makes it last minute hard, right? Like, which, which makes it all the more frustrating when it's like, it's literally two visits, it's one it's one overnight. So, like, I It's so much prep work now for just two visits, just an hour of work total, quote, unquote, so it's like, we're going to spend triple that making sure everything's okay. That's that's the part that that kind of, that really frustrates me, of, oh man, the amount of work it takes to get up and running and to do this and to get everything covered and have all the bases taken care of, and to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, for only for such a short time, is going, Okay, okay, you know, like, Okay, we'll just, we'll just roll with it. Yeah, well, I'm sure it'll be probably fine, I guess, like, I don't know it's good thing you didn't take her out the system, though. I guess right, right after it even works. Oh yeah, no, exactly, like, I'm glad, okay, like, I'm glad we didn't do this, because that would've been because she literally requested this at 840 Oh yeah, no, like 820 she requested at 820 so. So what happens if you are inactive in the software? You can't log in, and it basically says, go ahead and please, please contact the company to move forward with your booking, because there's an issue, right? And like, oh yeah, I didn't want a phone call at nine o'clock at night about this. That's true. That would have been fun and exciting. Yeah. Yeah. The other thing, the thing that we're working on, and I'm very excited about this, is, every year, like, so we, we have, we have a company. I call a company swag, or, sorry, swag. How do you how do you pronounce SW, A, G, isn't

10:35

it just swag?

Collin  10:36

This thing is swag. But I say, Yeah, swag. Well, yeah, because there's definitely an CH in there, definitely, definitely, I have been alerted that I say the the word appreciate incorrectly. How are you are you supposed to appreciate? No, no, because I Oh, that wouldn't work. That's not how that works. I usually when you say appreciate, it's, it's, it's, it's preceded by the word I, and yeah, my brain, for whatever reason, I've actually pinpointed, and I've already talked to the culprit that has that did this to me. My brain cannot say if I'm just off the cuff speaking it, my default is not, I appreciate you. The I is too high and then to come down to appreciate, yeah, because I'm, I'm from, I'm from Missouri. So I say, uh, appreciate it just comes out. I appreciate you. Ah, it's like the like you would write it with like a hyphen, right? Hi or not. Hyphen, apostrophe, P, apostrophe, Yep, yeah, yeah. Apostrophe, P, yeah. I mean, I think a lot of people say like that. So it's not like, it's not wrong say there's a difference between grammatically correct English and dialectically correct English. Yes, right? Like, the English vernacular region does not make the English grammar that you were speaking incorrect, per se, right? It just sounds different. It's fine, though. I have been trying to right, I have been trying to catch myself, and I have talked to the culprit, ie Father, for why that's true. How did he take this knowledge? He went well. He went, Okay, anyway, yeah, probably, anyway, I gotta. I i am, yeah, very busy in my things, trying to build a radio tower. I uh, anyway, some I don't, something that I've been really thankful for this time was we, every year we have the schwag that we put together, and sometimes it's beanies, most of the times it's ball caps and T shirts. But the problem with those is, then what I'm doing is I'm equipping people for a very specific period of weather in the street. And at one point we had a problem, yeah, yeah. And at one point we had aspirations of we'll all just have weather appropriate branded gear for every employee, for every season. That's a lot of stuff, though, yeah, and there's a lot of inventory to keep on hand, plus the turnover rate is kind of ridiculous. Sometimes that's hard to keep up with everything. You know, keep things nice, right? I don't want to continually hand people just, I think, like a deteriorating shirt over the course of a year of like, seven people have worn this congratulations, because I did. We just can't be blowing money on shirts for every new person who comes in. So we started doing some research and thinking about this, and I came up, you what? Like a pin. We did have somebody ask, actually, could we do pins or stickers or, you know, patches or buttons? Yeah, yeah. I went, nope, oh, not doing that, because I still want to control something. I tried to make it utilitarian. I came up, we came up with the idea of safety vests. Say, what safety vests? Safety vests

14:55

submit anything I'm acting. But go

Collin  14:57

on. Yeah, yeah. I. Know, I know, but couple things here. One, we employ a lot of women in our company,

15:07

a lot of Unsafe people.

Collin  15:11

No, I did not make the connection, but we do employ, well, we have people who just anybody who like who doesn't need more pockets in their lives, who doesn't need more places to put things and hold things and keyboards and bags and stuff? So then we were like, well, what if we get Fanny pouches? But Fanny pouches, they're not very big. It's hard to see. Also, they're going to go under something in the winter time. I don't think so. And then we looked at like hoodies or pull over things. But then again, I'm still in the mind, it's hot, right? I can't people, a lot of people don't like, like, we actually did go the route of hoodies for a few of our employees who've been with us for two years. And they got zip ups so that they could easier than just pull over, right? Those are also, like, $45 a piece, once you do the printing and everything, like zipper adds a lot. No, no, they've been with you for two years, you know? Then you can. That's what I'm saying, you know, I can. We can go from there. So, but, but something that's just like straight utilitarian, something that I can throw over a t shirt and over a winter jacket, something that also is very noticeable when we are out walking, and keeps us safe, especially in the early morning or late night walks or just the 3pm walks when we're in the winter and fall season. So we like we landed on safety bets, and I am very excited about these and but, but the one tricky part is, is when we ask people, What size do we get? Because what size do you get? Do you just go, Well, I am going to be wearing this over a winter coat, so it has to be big enough for that, but it's also going to that's going to dwarf me in the summertime, but maybe I just have to live with that for the summer time so they can wear this, but you don't want it too snug in the summer, because then it will be hot and restricting anyway. Right, right, right. So we are, we are in this balance of making sure that it is not super snug in the summer, but also not too, like baggy and literally falling off of us, yeah, and so, so we are. I am in the middle of, well, for being honest, this is three months past when I said I was going to have it done. But busy, there's things going on. But I'm trying, finally getting to the point where I'm going back and forth with the person. I'm doing very, very minimal logo design work. It's just very straightforward, not elaborate, no colors. It's just black text with a little figure on the back, and then we have a little pocket on the front and it's just going to say staff. So say staff on the front. Ah, nice. That's what we're doing. You. Now, listeners, I would like to tell you a tale here. Let's think back. Since Colin is in the middle of thinking about why he does things right, let's unpack. Let's unpack. Why perhaps Collin landed on safety vest, right? Let's think about that. A little story that you might like to know. Is it a very young Collin, right? Once upon a time, our parents got us all vests. Because, as you know, parents with children, with three boys, you have to get them similar things, or riots challenge too. That's how it works. They got us these vests, right? It was like a denim vest had like a green backing thing, right? And it had about 8 million pockets. And Collin wore this thing all the time, non stop. So I'm thinking, perhaps, to think there was, there may be connection, some carryovers, childhood apparatus, thing that it was like inseparable from you and this current love of safety, as soon as you said, Oh, but we could it's gonna have all these pocket pockets. I immediately thought of those vests that we got because there was, like, Ted pockets, yeah, dudes just wind up with so many, so many. Was everywhere, zippers and buttons and and there's, like, a normal pocket. I was like, it was an absurd number. Yes, not enough. I can tell you definitely, definitely not enough. What I have from what I have learned, and that's the other i. So that's the other thing of let me the number, the sheer number of safety vests out there. I don't even know. I don't even know how to, how to describe the variety of of safety vests. And none of the I can distinguish, none of I have no idea why one is better or not than another. It makes no sense. There is no rhyme or reason. They're all labeled just they're all labeled like, here's here's the one we're going for writing, if listeners, you can, you can knock yourself out. Yeah, Google appropriately. This is the kashigo Six pocket, contrast class two vest. 1580, dash, 1581, what is a class two? Is there a class three? Kind of one? But I was also trying to do the kashigo, ultra cool, solid front vest with mesh back. 1163, dash, 1164, I Yeah, but the mesh would be good for summer, but, like, I don't need ultra cool, and I think you're paying for some technology there that I ain't gonna be using. So I did not go with that one. But there's just, you just, you just scroll, and then scroll and scroll, and then it will, like, buffer, and then it will scroll some more, and you're going, how do so that was my first question to the person who I'm doing this printing for, was, what do I need to look for? And they're just like, oh, you know, just whatever you need. And I'm like, no, no. Why are there 300 different kind of vests? And some of them, you're like, Oh, that can't be a very expensive Oh, that is a $300 and it looks just like the one that's seven. And I'm like, I took the sign out. I just want to know what a class two vested. This is what I I've pulled up this other thing, and there are lots of them on here, but I just want to know what that means. Like, what does it mean to have a class to see? Are there? Ah, you ready? It has at like, okay, sorry, a requirement. Or at least two, 201 square inches of reflective tape. Aha. And I would like to tell you these are critical for airport personnel, Toll Booth operators and forest workers so a safety fest are categorized, apparently, by the number of square inches of reflective to go. So I just found I so like Loki. I think this would be the funniest jacket just to wear all the time. This is a class three OSHA compliant high vis bomber jacket with hood, and that would be that is exactly what we should be wearing. That's what I need, Megan, and I need to figure out how best we can. I mean, this way you might not want this one is $73 but it is just like a whole jacket. And I think that would be the funniest winter coat ever to like, imagine, this is my recess coat. Glam, like, this is like, official emergency responder jacket, right? This is yes, but it is very big, and no, I think really funny that you would definitely, definitely make a statement if you did, like, what are you doing? What is the matter with you? Please go back inside. That'd be great. Great. So, yeah, this is, there's just so many here, and there's like, heavy duty, not heavy duty, all, mesh, front, back, mesh, side, mesh, pocket six, pocket four, pocket, no pocket. Shirts, reflective, non reflective, orange, yellow. I don't I just I, it's, it's like, oh, here's this one. This is a premium, brilliant series X back, dual compliant vest, 15761577, but how is it dual compliant? I don't know, very good question. And what's crazy? What is crazy to me this is, this is, this is one of those worlds where I have, there's a lot of words on this website that I do not understand, and this is what I was getting at, as I have had to dive into this. It's one of those things where you just kind of, I'm peeking around the corner because I'm like, I just wanted to say dog walker on the back, yeah, phone number, right. And there is somebody whose job it is to. Know exactly what kind of vest they need or what work scenario to be compliant and to be safe like they somebody knows the exact specs, the specs needed for their job site. And hats off to that person. Because I can't make heads or tails of this, and none of this makes sense, and I honestly, I wouldn't want to know, I don't think that that's a job that I would want to have those responsibilities for. I accidentally just downloaded the full PDF catalog here. Nice with, like, all the different models and like, everything that's that makes me very happy. So what I actually ended up having to do, okay, and I'm, I'm kind of proud, not really proud, of this. I had, like, I was going back and forth with the person we were ordering from about, like, quality and thickness and whatever. And of course, they're just like, Look, dude, it's a vest. Like, just pick one, you know, and go with it. So that also impacted what kind of budget we were thinking about this. Yeah, okay, well, I do have to order all of these. I don't want to just pay for one and then be putting, you know, because I'm giving like, months out on this, I just, I'm gonna order everything, but we'll just consider this a first run. This will be a learning process. We'll do our best, and then we'll just move forward. So I did kind of cut back of like, okay, maybe let's try and spend like, $20 a vest, and go from there. I had all of these links, and I'm just clicking back and forth between them. And again, I can't make heads or tails of this, so what I did, what I did, what I did was as I grabbed all of the links and I pasted them into chat, G, P, T, oh, dear. And I said, I said, help. I, I, I am not involved in any of these, I need help in figuring out which one of these vests would be good for a dog walking and pet sitting company. Midnight. I was really, perhaps very proud of that and and, you know, it kicked back, um, a couple and was like, it gave reasons. And it was like, Yeah, you don't need to worry about this. And I was like, Well, what about thickness? And it's reading the product pages, right? So I can ask it these questions, and I'm not having to have 17 tabs open trying to go back and forth and try and find because the one infuriating things about even trying to order the same website is they never display all of the same information in the same locations consistently, right? So I'm just constantly like, okay, it said this was a plastic zipper front closure. Okay, what was it? Was it a metal zipper on was like, I don't know. Or like, do I need to be worried about it reinforced D ring access on back? Probably not. I don't think you need that. No, because I'm not thing you create yourself to the dog though. See, this is, these are the kind of things I need to think about. So, yeah, I was, I was going back and forth with the robots, and I'm sure they're just like, Oh no, this is the very sad, sad person, all right, now it's fine. It's fine. So that that's, that was my big that was my big thing this week. Of like, that's a big thing, yeah, I mean, it's a thing. It's weird. I didn't, yeah, it's, you know, it's a weird thing. But thanks. You know, it's fine. That's figure how to delete this thing from my phone. You know, just save it. You know, I don't really think I need that. Like, pretty much, I know, please. Don't need this random product page. Like, what is happening? Why? Ah, no, dude, I'll do that later. So I have no take but I that's what So and, well, yeah, so that's so we've been, I've been working on that, and then I've also been, one of the things that we've been focused on very recently has just been a lot of like, um, just the the anyway, just efficiencies. So trying to figure out, like, where and how to get efficiencies in in the business. So I've been doing a lot of like, really, like, serious route planning. And, my goodness, whenever you start looking at things at scale, like, It's very depressing to realize how much difference, like, two minutes can make from one thing to the next. You're like, wow, look at all the money we make, if not maybe like two minutes, but like, the difference between a 15 minute drive time and a 20 minute drive time on the impact of stuff is like, yeah, oh yeah, ow, that Oof. Okay, today, we'll just sit over here and cry for a little bit mirror. I here. There's a big difference over the course of, like, a whole day, though, that's a big yes, and especially whenever you're going well, also, you know, and also, we need to take into account XYZ and this and this. So I've been expanding. I've been doing ever expanding. And, like, I've been it's gotten so bad that I've had to I've been doing spreadsheet work, and when I do spreadsheet work, I like, I cannot have interruptions because I get one thing off, because I'll have one spreadsheet, but I'll have like, 10 tabs, and they're all interconnected because I'm doing multiple calculations, one by one by one, and I'm building to something right? And I'm pulling from different information and dumping things here and there. So I've been going to our local library. I've actually been able to walk to our library, which has been wonderful. It's a 10 minute walk. I I know that this is like an immense luxury. And if you're listening to this and you don't think being able to walk to your library is a luxury, it is. And I'm I just, I'm very thankful that we have this. We have several listeners laughing in European at you, right? Like, what the what like, yes. But I mean, I've been able to go to the library, walk to library in the mornings, sit in the reference section with the World Book, encyclopedia, encyclopedia. Britannica is behind me and and I Okay, so it's also, like, it's Middle School all over. It's been wonderful. But also, I'll find books, and I'm just sitting, I'm just, I'm just supposed to sit down and work on a spreadsheet, but I know behind me is a bunch of information, so you'll just turn and like, look and see what's there. And I they don't, they don't make books like this anymore. And it's just, it's a sad, it's a shame. But, like, for some reason, you know, somebody made all of the it said the animals of, I forget, of like some County. It's like one county that's nearby. It's just, oh yeah, it's all the animals of one of these counties that's close to us, and I love that I'm here for that. That is what I think random books

32:27

somebody weighs the Public

Collin  32:28

Library Reference section. Sometimes you're just like, What in the world? It makes me so happy. I'm just like, yes, you know what good on you for Yes, I don't know who you are or why on earth you wrote this book, but you you deserve more in life than what you got. Is I can guarantee you that. So I have that to inspire me. I have that to keep keep me going which makes me, which makes me happy. So I've been doing spreadsheet work. I've been trying to, if you're using robots to help me figure out what vests to buy. It's been nice. Robot vest salesman. It's very Jetsons of you, right? It's very like, No, I know my own shopping assistant over here going help. Help me. Help. I don't know what's going on at all. So that's been, that's been my week, pretty straight forward,

33:31

pretty exciting.

Collin  33:35

It's not exciting. It's very sad. It's very, very sad. Oh my gosh. So it's all right, yeah, we did you, we always do Susan's birthday, right? And so what was that? It's pretty it's pretty good, right? We did the the old her mom wanted to take us to dinner, right? But like, had the old classic situation. It's also her mom's husband's birthday is also so similar around here, right around the same time. So, like, it was like a joint birthday venture thing. And so one time, they took us to this restaurant, right? And they're they love it a whole lot, very much. And so they want to take us there, and we ate there. And we're like, it's fine, right? But like, we have to, you know? Like, oh, thank you. It was so good, blah, blah. So they think that we love it. And so it's June's birthday. They're like, we want to take you back there.

34:45

Okay,

Collin  34:47

huh, dig it. So, what did you what'd you get? We went to with that flat Creek restaurants in Republic, you know? Oh, yeah. Like, actually love this. Place. And it's really not that exciting, right? It's just some, like, fried food stuff, so, you know, whatever, like, it's okay, it's fine, it's fine, but it's like, just fine, you know, like, it's not like, Oh man, yeah. So I was trying to explain this concept to my students the other day, because they were like, you know, they they always talk about things. They're like, Oh yeah, I love Chick fil A, like, Mr. Funkhouser, do you like Chick fil A? Like, I really know. And this appalled them and shocked them, scandalized them even. And I was like, Look, if I'm gonna drive an hour away from my house and then eat something I don't want to eat, just like a random fast food Chicken Sandwich, that is not what I need in my life, right? I know I want no interesting I want something substantial, right? And I will give it to the flat Creek place. And substantial is their middle name, because whatever you order, there's a lot of it, right. So, so that's good, right? That's fine. But, like, I don't want just some like, right? I'm not going to drive an hour away and then eat some, like, fast food stuff. Like, come on, I can do better than that, right? Okay, it is true. And I know, like, places like where we live, like we don't have something like a Chick fil A, and so they do send the pity bus every now and then, oh yeah, we get that too, right? And so that is a big thing with that status cited in in town. But I, I know it's fine. We eat there, you know, sure it's okay, um, but if there, and maybe it's just me, like, if there's a local place or something, you know, like, how, yeah, more excited about that, you know for sure, exactly well, like when they send the random truck, right? Because, again, we hear about this, because there's a lot of people just love it. I don't, I don't know why. I don't understand why people love Chick Fil so much. I think it's like the number one most overrated fast food place in the world. I don't understand, I don't understand the hype. I don't get it. And they'll, it'll be down here, and people, there should be tons of people here, yeah. And I'm like, Look, we actually have quite a number of pretty good food trucks here in town. So I could go to the Chick fil A truck and get my little sad chicken sandwich and, like, no french fries. Or I could go to, like, the Mexican food truck that's over there. Far better, way more. So I'm going there, right every single time. Yeah, I'm gonna go there, yeah, cuz it's so stinking good. So like I, it does. It does make me. It takes me to be sad when. And I don't know if you get these posts on your Facebook groups, or if you hear about these things of like, Oh, if there was a new restaurant that would move to town. What would somebody want it to be? And I'm always like, well, you know, and to see what people respond, it's like, oh, I want to jack in the box. Or I'd love to have a, you know, whatever, whatever I'm like, Who is answering Jack in the Box? What I know, what is happening? What is wrong with people? No offense, Jack and your box. But I know if you are saying, what would you want a new restaurant to be? And your answer is, Jack in the Box, you have to be like, 17 or insane, right? Like, what? Yeah, well, and I think it's maybe the same thing, but, like, I don't, yes, we're wanting, I think, where it's just enough of a novelty, where people go, Oh, man, I always stop at a jack of the box when I'm in, yeah, X, Y, Kansas City, or in a million whatever, whatever. And they think what I need in my life, is more of that instead in the box? Yeah, instead of, oh, that's actually just something nice to get once in a while. Yeah, I don't know that nice. It's just novel, because it's different, right? Like, it's good. So I think fast food chains are good. They're useful when you are traveling, because you don't always have time to, like, look around and, you know, try to find that you just, if you just, like, oh, I need a known commodity, right? Because I'm in a hurry. That's what they're for, kind of, you know what? I mean, yes, oh, yeah. That's how it's. Think about them. We don't really eat a lot of fast food anymore, right? Every once while we go to Taco Bell, that's kind of it, like, we don't really go. Or that's just like, oh, like, probably tomorrow,

40:13

because we have to stay at school till like, eight o'clock.

Collin  40:14

So like, Taco Bell, it is, right? But like, that's, no, yeah, absolutely, yeah. And that's, and that kind of stuff is fine. And so when, when I see these, and I then get word of of what is happening, and, no joke, we didn't get a Jack in the Box, which is, which is fine. I'm again, I'm probably okay with that. Yeah, I'm fine with this. But what we do get is another Taco Bell. Oh, that's, that's even worse. And I go a second thing of something you already, yeah, yeah, yeah. A second thing, a second thing, or, or my favorite, we're not getting. We're not. Are we getting anything interesting as far as the cuisine goes? No, no, we are getting a third McDonald's. Oh yeah. And I'm like, Oh my gosh. Oh, this hurts so bad I can't and it's, oh, it's so frustrating. That's quite awful. That's, that's worse than, yeah, the getting the thing that you already have is way worse. That's, that's bad news. Things way worse, way worse. So, so your your time at your, your local joint, there it was filling. Oh yeah, it was fine. It was all right. And whatever. And then the next day, last weekend was the school musical, yeah, so it was that it was pretty good, right? It was very interesting. It was not so apparently, this is a known thing among, like, theater enthusiasts, which I am only, like a tangentially enthusiastic about theater certain things, right? But they did the Seussical musical thing, right? So it's all like, Dr Seuss based stuff, right? Yes. And so I was trying to be like, What is this like? I have no reference for what this is edible, like, a little bit, okay. I was like, What? What is this like? What could the plot of a Dr Seuss musical actually? Okay, I

42:31

don't know what's going on.

Collin  42:32

So when you're saying susical, the musical, it's like, uh, that, in its of itself, is a thing and known, yeah, okay, known thing. People know what that means. That means something to people. So somebody listening to this will be like, Oh yeah, I love that good. But I the first Upon hearing this, was like, What is this? Like? I don't know what this is, right? I'm very, like, I my musical knowledge goes to, like, very classic musicals, right? Like, oh, Oklahoma and, like, Seven Brides and fiddler, these things, right? These very, like classical things, like, it's not that I don't I just don't go to the I don't go to musicals, right? They're like, fine, yeah, and I like them, but I don't like seek them out, right? Sometimes they're like, Oh, they're doing, you know, what's the one, the music, man, right? That's a good one. That's fine, like, so I've seen a lot of these, but, like, I don't just to go see all the musical right? It's not how it works. So apparently this is a known thing. So I spent a lot of time being like, What could this be, right? So it's basically, at least this version that the school put on. I don't know if it's different than the real one. I have no idea. It's like a bay, like a like a jazzed up version of Horton. Here's a who, right? That's what it's about. It's like, kind of that plot. But then there's like more stuff happening. I see, I see, I see, so there's like the whole thing. So that's kind of what it was. It was pretty good. Um, we do need to talk about, right? Sometimes I forget what a chaotic disaster the cat the hat is as a character, just in general, oh my gosh, right? Like, if you were looking for the definition of like, chaotic neutral, I think it may be the Cat in the Hat, right? Just like, do whatever. Who cares. There's so but not for, like, not not to intentionally harm or, like, maim or injure people, or like to break rules, but just like, Okay, why not? Let's, let's just No, it's I like that because, like, the main, it's like, he's there all the time, right? And so in the musical. So he's like a driving force behind a lot of stuff. He's just, like, shows up, and he's like a part of things. He's just like, always there. So he's kind of like the narrator, but like, he's also part of the action. You know what? I mean, it's kind of weird, but, sure, but the I just wanted to make sure that we remember that the Canton had is a menace, like, that's what completely, there's no, there's that, if that, if anybody debates that, like, Nope, no, I think, I think a lot of people forget, right? They're just like, Oh, I like the book, The Cat in the Hat. And the cat in the hat comes back, even though, I don't know if a lot as many people read that one as the other ones, but like, they don't. It's, it's, uh, he's a menace to society, really, is the is the takeaway here. I don't know what, I don't know what all the Theodore wanted us to take away from Cat in the Hat, exactly, but I take away he's a menace. And,

46:01

yep, it's completely

Collin  46:02

a force of chaos at all times. So it was really good, though it was really good. The kids did a really good job with it, and it was fun and stuff. But like, I just kept be like, what? I just kept kind of stopping everyone. So I'll be like, this cat man, holy cow, is crazy. Yeah, no, yeah, even, yeah. When I read the, you know, the sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house like, like that, that one I as a parent, I just, I sit there and I'm like, yeah, no, no. All of this is bad. None of this is good. Why this is Oh my gosh. I remember even having, like, when the kids were like, three and went one and being like, if the cat and the hat came home, would you tell mom and dad? Like, no. But really, if this happens, yes, but yes, if a weird cat shows

47:02

up, weird cat shows up and

Collin  47:04

wants you to play with Thing One and Thing Two and listen to it. No, no. And they ran up. They ran down the you know, on the strings, on the wall. No, you're not going to do that. Remember, you're going to tell us, because you're good children, not like these, no,

47:21

these rapscallions.

Collin  47:28

So yeah, it's very it was very good. There was a lot of, like, funny moments and things and, like, some random other two characters are just there. Sometimes, like, oh sure, the Grinch was there. Okay, so, according to Suzu, called the musical, it is canon that the same who's that are on a speck of dust. Are this? These are the same Whoville, where the Grinch is? Yeah, I guess. And I always wondered about that, is this the same thing his doctor, she's just reusing words. Maybe, I don't know. I need an expert, expert, Susie and tell us this, but like, think canonically, the Grinch takes place on a speck of dust, which I have a lot of questions. That's true. Wow. Like that works, yeah. And how they know about Christmas on the spectrum desk. That's weirder, but I so raises some more questions and answers I feel, but you know, whatever. So, yeah, that was pretty much what we did. It was pretty good, though. It was fun, good thinking about all the good Dr Seuss books and some of the less good Dr Seuss books. But, you know, so easy there. Well, I mean, there's not as good as some of the other ones. Well, no, right? There's like, some that I prefer. I'll say that. There you go. That's, well, that's like, it's like, when I'll go, that's weird. When I'm around the kids, I'll go, that's weird, and Megan will go, nah, not weird. It's different kind of weird. Like, no, that's weird though, no, it depends on what it is like, no, no, no, fine, fine. That's pretty much it. And then I have to gear up for said late night tomorrow, which is, of course,

49:41

the school carnival.

Collin  49:44

What? What have you what have you designed? What you doing? Doing? I'm just doing the same thing as last year, because it caught me off guard. This year. They were like, What are you doing? I was like, and somebody just said, Oh, he'll do the same thing as last year. It's like, I. I don't know what's going on. So sure. Why not? I don't so, but that is tomorrow, and I kind of forgot about it. Oh, like earlier this week. Ah, where is the what did I do last year? Where's my things? I don't where. Where did I put that? Yeah, where's my stuff. I don't know where my stuff is. Oh, I mean, it's just random. I just used random things from my classroom, my classroom closet, X tried to combine, that's why that sounded a bit weird. I tried to combine the words classroom and closet into a single word. That's not how this works. I just use random things in my classroom closet because, you know, some people are like, Oh,

50:41

I have to buy this.

Collin  50:44

No, that's not what we do here. That's not, we don't I'm sorry, you must be new here. That's not what. Yeah, you must be You must be new. We don't buy things for the carnival, silly. No, no, no. We rummage. That's what we do here. We rummage to rummage. Hey, it makes it endearing, yeah, I guess I don't know, but that's what quaint things, yeah, yeah, that's what we're doing. Oopsie, maybe you should maybe, yeah, I don't know, mad scientist, where my science goggles and be good to go. Yeah, that's what I should do. Well, that that actually just triggered in me. So I'm very excited that you are doing that that actually triggered in me a reminder that I promised a friend I was going to give a talk to the Rotary Club next week. Oh, did you know? Did you know started that the Rotary Club are not made up of Wankel engine enthusiasts. Did you know this? I so that is unfortunate, because I actually cut out a good portion of what I was going to cover. I think if you start off talking like that, that'd be even funnier. Like, ah, like, just like a Wankel appreciation speech, and then, like, comedically cut to something else, like, oh, sorry, sorry, I didn't realize that I I, I wonder if anybody understands that I have misjudged this true. I wonder if any of our listeners are understanding this joke right now.

52:38

That's what I really want to know. Gosh,

Collin  52:42

ever the wangle engine with the when you learn about this, like the first time you learn about this, you're, you won't, it doesn't make it. It doesn't make sense. No, there's, you need a diagram, right? You need a diagram to look at it, right? So old Felix was, he was on, you know, he was a thinker, this guy, right? I like, I don't know. This is one of those things where, in the world you go, there's no way that works. There's no way that that would actually produce anything like this. Is just purely conceptual, right? And even then you have to go, how in the world do you come up with this? How? How does this actually make sense? And then to realize, oh, but actually, it wasn't just a theoretical thing. It was to put it into production, and it was used in cars. And yeah, Mazda was all about it. Mazda was like, You know what? We'll do that, we'll do that. We will do a rotary engine. Is what we need. Seven. Yeah, arc seven. It's like, even crazier, the dual rotary dual rotaries. What if we do that? Could we just have that would be great. You're like, wait a minute, like, I so, yes, I encourage all listeners to go and look at this. Yeah, just get the diagram of the Wankel engine, right? The Wankel rotary engine, it's a triangle, right? I can't remember. This type of triangle has a very specific name, and my geometry is failing me right now. Oh, triangle. Oh, it's a it starts with an R, doesn't it? I don't remember, but it's the rounded one, the one that rolls, yeah, roll, yeah, right. And it has the rounded edges. And so it it's rolling around inside an oval, and the stages of combustion take place on the three sides. Right, there's an intake, a combustion side and an exhaust side in the rotation of the triangle. Right, every face, it'll just roll around and the blaze. The negative space in the cavity is intake, compression, and, like, ignition, exhaust, man, yeah, exhaust, right? And it's, it's insane, and it is an extremely, like, high revving engine, yes, right? It's a very, it's a very high revving thing. It's not like, quite as efficient, I guess. I think that's one of the things. But like, boy, can it put out the revs, and so, you know, it works. Like Mazda used it, right? And then the arc sevens are very sporty cars, and they were using them that they I don't know if they still use them, but a lot of them were made, and so they're all layers. And the craziest part about this engine, there's literally three moving parts. That's what makes us amazing. Yes, maybe four, right? Because there's the cam, the triangle, and then the valves on the plugs, that's like, oh yeah, on the intake, exhaust, right? Yes. This engine has, like, three to four moving parts, so you do have to, like, rebuild it every once while, but it just comes out, like, there's no, I mean, I'm sure it's harder than that, right? When you know I've, because I've never, have I ever taken apart a Wankel rotary engine? No, but are there less moving parts than a traditional piston engine? Absolutely. So this is just, this is an incredible feat of engineering that is not talked about enough. I feel Yes, right, right. It's always interesting when there's like alternatives to things and just like what it works. How, what do you mean? Again, you just yeah, how? What? What brain space do you have to be in in order to make this actually, it just, it's it's crazy. I like it a lot. So yeah, so good luck with that. Your Wankel rotary engine appreciation club, right? Speaking of cars, though, I did want to tell you back to driving to this restaurant with Susan's mom and her husband, right? So, speaking of triggering memories, right? So we're in the car, okay? And we drove their car, but I drove right, and he drives some like old giant Mercury thing, okay, very, very land Yachty, okay, very big, very land Yachty, right? But it does have, like a traditional air conditioner, heater, slider system, right? And so and so, like us, I'm driving this car, and it was kind of chilly. So they said, Would you turn the heater on? And Susan reaches over, and she pushes that little slider thing over, and you can instantly smell heater core. Oh, and I went, my brain went, like, I

58:27

oh no, no, no.

Collin  58:30

It wasn't bad. It was just like the smell of, like my car. Yeah, right, because it's just like a thermostat, like you just set the temperature and it's whatever, and it doesn't smell like, Don't smell it. No, no, I, I was reacting to the smell of this as, like, you're saying that, that that, because you hear that like, yeah, and then you smell it like, I was saying, Oh no, because I was getting like, oh, I can smell it right now, yeah, yeah. I'm a little like, suburban or dad's old truck, right? That's what smells truck exactly.

59:03

I was just, that's what I said that. And I was like,

Collin  59:07

That's and I just was like, like, I was instantly, like, eight per minute. And it was weird. I was just like, wow, it's like, a smell that I didn't realize that I hadn't smelled in a long time, just because of the way that, like, modern car heaters work, I guess. And like, the last several cars that we've had, like, they just haven't really done that right. And so when they she, like, hit the thing, and it was just like, wham, the heater is like, wow. Haha. Like, here's that the hot engine air right in your face. Like, here we go. Wow. It was not nice. It was just a very powerful scent memory that just overwhelmed me for a minute while I was driving. Do traffic, it's fine. Everything's fine. We made it but, like, we made it alive. Yes, just wanted to share because I knew that you would also, yeah, understand this, right? And I was just like, it was a very interesting experience, like, just a very, very powerful, spent memory, right? It was weird. It was wild. Like, it was, No, that's, that's a good one. That is a good one. And it's like, I don't know, I get caught with those things a lot too. Like, I still, I still get the smell of gasoline, of like, for some reason it was just always in dad's truck getting gas. Yeah, Mexico, yeah, Texaco. That's where and and I had to fill I was getting gas, and I had to fill up a gas guest, extra gas can, just because we keep someone in hand, because sometimes we need to bolt off and go on adventures last minute, and I don't always have time to fill with gas. So I was like, Okay, I'll just go fill up. But I had to keep the back hatch open of our car, and I'm filling it up. And from the inside, I just hear dad. I kind of like the smell of gas. Like,

1:01:19

oh no,

1:01:22

yeah. Anyway, shut the hatch. Now, like, Okay,

Collin  1:01:33

so just I thought this dad, I kind of like the smell. Don't like it too much.

1:01:41

Like it too much. Like it from over there. Yes, like it too close.

1:01:51

So yes, yes, I'll

Collin  1:01:53

report back next week if I survived the school card and I how it went. I look forward to that. Yeah, that yeah, okay, well, I'll send us off here with a we're ready to close down. I have a, yeah, I think so. I have a haiku prepared, which is good, because for a minute today I was frantically thinking it was my week, and I looked at things like, wait, no, yeah, I have to do that too, all right, several times. Now, wait a minute. Who was it? Except for that in a couple weeks ago, I did forget. Oh, whoops. But all right, so here's mine, Rolling Thunder Roars, pins scatter in flashing lights, let lanes hum with strike dreams. Oh, very nice. Ah, very nice indeed. There we go. Hopefully, Lee, that's, uh, that's what, yeah, we should go bowling. Thanksgiving thing plans together. There we go. There guys, we'll tell dad, okay, Dad, we're not gonna have turkey. We're just gonna go bowling. It's gonna go Bowling, bowling alley, pizza. It's fine. Bye, perfect. Okay, well, we'll, uh, this will do the skin now do the next Time. All right, love you. Love you too. Bye, bye.