tomnoddy attercop

Brandon has a full review. Collin is combating humidity. Bilbo is barrel riding.

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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE

PROVIDED BY OTTER.AI

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

bilbo, spiders, springfield, weird, people, elves, gandalf, feel, dwarves, big, running, cool, happened, barrels, talk, museum, trolley cars, part, left, call

SPEAKERS

Collin, Brandon

Collin  00:04

Welcome to Oh brother, a podcast of three brothers trying to figure it all out with your hosts, Brandon Cohen and Aaron on this week's show, Tom Noddy at her coffin. Hello. Hello. Oh boy. Oh boy. How are the internet's these days?

Brandon  00:25

Well, I don't know. It was having trouble connecting was doing very weird things. So fingers crossed. Okay

Collin  00:39

yeah, well, hopefully hopefully it's not as hot but it is definitely more humid.

Brandon  00:46

Yeah actually rained which was surprising, right that's new. That's a new feature it's a thing that yeah,

Collin  00:57

I didn't know we still had that that that module installed

Brandon  01:01

Yeah. Whether raining renew or not

Collin  01:08

i i will say it was one of those I want to use our windshield wipers and I was like, what where does that switch go? Like

Brandon  01:17

what is this? I haven't

Collin  01:18

used them in so long. You know they got that kind of old like will will crusty little dried up kinda Yeah, yeah. So fortunately, it rained hard enough that I got to use them for long enough that they kind of loosened back up and they're actually working but those first that first minute was a little touching go when I was terrible. They're like what I don't

Brandon  01:39

know how to work I turned them on like, like Indiana Jones like hey, like old gears like grinding

01:47

yes

Collin  01:52

was definitely yeah, it was definitely a good time. But yeah, it's good to see the brain good to have a little bit a little bit up and yeah, now the humidity the humidity is so bad. And we live in a an old home a very old home such that inside outside air is just a suggestion. Right? It's like whatever it's hard to to keep it and so our upstairs I was had like 67 70% Humidity today. I was like really gross. actually went downstairs to our into our basement and pulled up our dehumidifier and brought it upstairs. Oh, wow. And I have it running just to make it more comfortable. Right. Nobody wants to be in because even at 94 degree or sorry. 74 degrees inside like it. Nobody wants to be in 70% humidity. That's just no file. Now the don't ever so yeah, that's gross.

Brandon  02:52

I mean, it's rain. Yeah, it's rain twice in this last week.

Collin  02:55

I'm surprising. Down here anyway, last Friday. It was like crazy. Storm

Brandon  03:04

Marino, we were down Susan's mom's house. And we're just sitting there we ate dinner. We're sitting there and then like, as soon as it started storming Blam,

Collin  03:15

no power, right. Oh, no. Yeah,

Brandon  03:20

so her husband has like a generator so they we sat in the dark for a while we got the lights out and then he fired it up and we just kind of hung out for a while but yes, the gust front from that thing that came through was like so incredible that it just I guess it just snap

Collin  03:36

power lines. I heard like six eight power poles

Brandon  03:41

just like blam. go

Collin  03:44

wow, that's intense. Yeah, it was that was the same time I did a I did a meet and greet with a client on Saturday. It was after that storm had moved through and they was they were telling me about how they were going back and forth with the fence company because they had just had it installed like a week before and they did it wrong. And all the main posts are like wobbly and then the storm through and believe it or three just fell on all of it. Oh no. And because it was under warranty for tree damage, but not like inappropriate installation kind of brand new fits nice and it was installed correctly the SEC last time they put those let's just put it out there were like yeah, they weren't going to come out and fix it and they said you know we did something to it and blah blah blah and then tree

Brandon  04:38

you you the owner put the posts in

Collin  04:41

wrong. How dare you? Oh, no. Yeah, it was weird. They were like, accusing them of like messing with it or something if I remember correctly, and I was like, who does? What? Why? Why it makes sense. What are we Oh, okay, the owners like watch waits for the crew to leave and then runs out moves the posts back and forth really fast and makes them I'm like, What? What are people trying to do?

Brandon  05:13

We're gonna do for the homeowners that they got their fence fixed anyway, it's Yeah, parable, the tree had to fall on it, because that's annoying, but that's a whole other mess. You got to deal with clean up and everything. But at least I got a new lease. I got a fence. That's

05:27

correct now, yes, yeah, and the biggest the biggest ordeal was the reason they were trying to rush this fence and get it done. Because they have a mini pot bellied pig in their home, who likes to roam and differ a bit. They're a bit anxious about not having a fence to keep carrot contained. It gets corralled. And they did in fact, need a corral. So they were like, very much like, Yeah, this is not good. Like, we need this fence. It's not in it's not even good. And then, you know, now they had been they had no fence. So they were a little stressed out about how they're going to keep pig close at hand.

Collin  06:12

I mean, this is a valid concern. Yes, it is weird when you say it out loud like that. But like, oh, no, I'm worried about my pig roaming. Yeah, right. Lexan. What do you mean pig roaming? Yeah, because they have the two little, little tiny chihuahuas who take like, two steps into this grass and the turn and run right back inside. Meanwhile, pig is like, grand adventure. Let's Let's go. Let's put some miles on. And you're like, No, no, wait, hold on. Over there. So I think pig roaming.

Brandon  06:53

It's a good album name for somebody out there. So if you need a good story about

Collin  07:03

exactly. That's not good. You're right. It's great.

Brandon  07:07

I mean, so as I'm still listening to like, do metal, you know, that's, I think that'd be a good like, Stoner stoner rock name. Roaming ingrowing. I think it's good. The good one. Well, I will now since fingers are still crossed, but I will now attempt to tell you about my week that I had last week before my internet decided to not cooperate with

Collin  07:38

us. Yet we have a little bit of a taste of the of the partial adventurer, I think. So. You were you get to explore a

07:47

museum, right?

Brandon  07:49

Yeah. So we went to the Springfield History Museum. Alright, so now, I will give my summary of the Springfield History Museum. Sorry, I'm a week late History Museum people.

08:01

I must give a shout out to Meg. She was the lady that was working there. nicest lady. Ever. Right. She's amazing. So good job, Meg. Way to be channeled Meg, right.

Brandon  08:17

But like I mentioned last week, we were going to go so we went up there with our friends, right. And we walked in to the building. And they were like,

Collin  08:25

what kind of ticket Do you want? Which is not a question. That makes sense. Right? I was like, right. What

Brandon  08:34

do you mean, what kind of ticket I just want to get into the museum?

Collin  08:39

What does it mean? And then

Brandon  08:42

she proceeded to point to the pricing list. So they have a price for like, adults and seniors, and children and groups and whatever, right.

Collin  08:54

Turns out, teachers are free. And as all of us were teachers,

Brandon  09:00

we did not have to pay any money to get into the Springfield Street.

09:07

This is great. This is

Brandon  09:10

fantastic. Yeah. Susan thought it was even better. Because before we left, she was like, you can buy lunch and all pay for the museum visit. Oh

Collin  09:27

she got away without let me tell you Oh, wow. But in talking to me, well, well played Susan. Yeah, she

Brandon  09:38

I think she knew me. But you know, in talking to Meg, she was like, Yeah, you know, kind of weird because like, we have all this museum with all this cool stuff. But people that live in Springfield don't think they need to go to the Springfield Museum.

Collin  10:01

Yeah, like go. Yeah,

Brandon  10:04

I mean, so that's wrong. That's the wrong thing, say, because

Collin  10:08

it's really cool man. Like,

Brandon  10:13

he's me. So we go inside the first floor is all, like, Native American stuff. Right? So they have this big section of let's not read this this part's not like super big, but

Collin  10:27

it's like a

Brandon  10:29

section about like the Native Americans that lived in, in around the Springfield area, like pre

Collin  10:39

colonial contact, whatever.

Brandon  10:41

So that's pretty cool. It's got like, you know, like the Kickapoo, right? And like the Osage and all that stuff. So it's got much

Collin  10:47

really cool displays there. And then as you go up the floors, you just kind of sort of go forward in time, right? Oh, that's cool. Especially kind of neat.

Brandon  11:03

You go up to the next floor, and it's like very early. Springfield, like, early 1800s stuff, like when it was founded. So it's got a bunch of stuff about like,

Collin  11:14

just like a bunch of random

Brandon  11:16

facts about Springfield in there. It's really neat. They have a thing about they have this like, street car thing. You can go inside and like, quote, drive it, like through time, and you can like stop at time periods. And we're like, play a little video about that part of spring to history. What? Yeah, that's cool. So like, you can sort of do that, and go in there and do all that stuff and talk about and it's so you can get what you want out of that. Because like, you could sit in that thing for hundreds of hours, probably. Or just like pick a couple spots and you know, move on.

Collin  11:57

But that's really cool. You can do a lot of stuff in there. That is where you can learn about the great Springfield Cobra scare. Apu. Oh, wow, that's okay. Wow.

Brandon  12:20

Familiar with the great Springfield Cobra scare of the 1950s

Collin  12:23

just that we had one. And like very vaguely, yes. When you said that my brain was like, well opted. Wow, that was okay. What for those who don't really remember what that was about what happened with the great cope scare?

Brandon  12:38

Right. And now that I have gone through your I can't find anything on my phone anymore. But like, yeah, like 11 Indian cobras were discovered, just roaming about in people's yards in like 1956 or something.

Collin  12:55

11 of them. Most of them were killed by garden hose. You know? As

Brandon  13:04

would be the response. Those are some interesting newspaper pictures of like, Springfield cop like, holding this cobra, and it's like five feet long.

Collin  13:17

Then obviously dead, right. But yeah, so the story is, there was this like,

Brandon  13:28

pet shop guy who was kind of like shady, and was probably selling animals that he was not supposed to be having. Right.

Collin  13:38

And everybody blamed him for the Cobra release forever, right. And he denied it, like, his whole life, denied the whole thing. Well, in the 80s, a guy came forward

Brandon  13:55

after being reassured by attorney that he could not be found at fault for anything. And he claimed responsibility for letting the Cobras loose, right. So what happened? What happened was he bought a fish. He was like, 14, or 1111 or 14 something in there. He bought a fish from this guy.

Collin  14:15

Right? Gotta get just a normal goldfish. And he took it home and it died. So the next day, he went back to the store.

Brandon  14:25

And the guy gave him all kinds of grief. The guy was like super hateful to him was like, whatever kid Sucks to suck, right? And so the kid was mad. So as he was leaving, he saw a box marked snakes and he just kicked it open. Oh, and then ran away. Turns out the snakes were Cobra.

14:46

Oh my gosh.

Brandon  14:50

So yes, the pet shop owner was in fact in possession of many things that he was not supposed to have

Collin  14:57

not let the thanks That's crazy. I didn't know about the eight the that part was hilarious. He didn't tell anybody to like the mid 80s There was him. Didn't happen. Like it was like, I mean as a kid, like, I mean, it'd be that's terrifying to think of that right? Of course, I, I would hide in shame because that like, just were just like, you did that thing. And then that was it's like it's like, as a kid one of your worst nightmares of you causing like something's so big coming. It's like, a lot of the movies that we talked about, like the kids involved in something like way bigger right then you've done themselves. Yeah, sudden, like it's the great example of that.

Brandon  15:53

Yeah, like in way over your head all of a sudden and and now you're like, like, there's what do you do? Right? You just like terrified. So the thing I read said that at urging from a friend so I think eventually he told probably like, his friends or family, but like, he finally went public with the admission in the ad, right? So anyway, this floor also has like a big giant train that you

Collin  16:16

can go sit in. Right? And play this like really sweet.

Brandon  16:22

The Oregon Trail light game of like driving old vehicles from St. Louis to Springfield. Right. It's kind of fun. So I've been there for a little bit new that just kind of like early Springfield history, like just really random stuff. Really cool stuff like about how before the zoo was built, they like kept animals in certain city parks and spring. goes just like hanging out in parks randomly. Hopefully no, cobras, right. But, you know. Anyway, you go up the next floor. And then you're in like, Civil War era Springfield. Right. So like the Battle of Springfield's got some like Wilson's creaky stuff.

Collin  17:06

You know, it's got like, some

Brandon  17:12

got a bunch of like, artifacts from the time, but through the cool stuff. Like that. Oh, I forgot to mention that. As you're going through this museum at the front desk, you can get like little scavenger hunt pages.

Collin  17:27

Right. So that's fun.

Brandon  17:30

They have like different levels of like, scavenger hunt. Like what? As you're going through Museum, one of them's like pictures, like, kid you find this thing, like an eye spy thing? Oh, that's cool. And then there's two levels of like, questions. So it's like, there's like a normal one. And then there's like, a harder version of like, what? In like, what year did this happen? And then you have to find exhibit, right? But there's like two levels of questions. There's one that's like, normal and there's one it's like, harder. We have to like really

Collin  18:00

pay attention. Yeah, you really gotta gotta relax. You gotta okay.

Brandon  18:05

It involves a very large amount of scavenging. Okay, I

Collin  18:09

will tell you that, so probably not for me.

Brandon  18:11

I mean, I did it. And but it's like real random stuff. Right? Like real random. Like, it took me a long time to find one of them. Because like, I have no idea. This is my friend was like, he's right there.

Collin  18:20

Like, Oh, of course, right in front of me. Where I wasn't looking.

Brandon  18:29

Like it's hidden, some of the stuff is hidden very well. And you have to like, find it. Like on Susan's paper was the thing about the Cobra scare. So that finding it in the trolley was like, we had to ask somebody like, Where's where's this? I don't understand. Where it's it? Yeah. Anyway, so civil Civil War area, Springfield, right? You go around the corner. And then there's a whole, like, Wild Bill Hickok display thing. Right. Now, this is very important. Springfield, Missouri history, ladies and gentlemen, because Wild Bill Hickok involved in one of the very first gunfights in the old western history

Collin  19:15

on the square in Springfield, Missouri. Yeah. Right. And the way that this exhibit looks is

19:22

it's on the side of the building that looks out over the square. So you can like, read about this, and then turn around and look out the window and see it.

Collin  19:36

And they have like little diagrams.

Brandon  19:37

That's pretty sweet. Right? They have little diagrams, like by the window showing, like, where things were

Collin  19:43

at the time. You don't have to have something like that for the JFK. For the Kennedy down in Dallas do Yeah, yes. So that's really cool.

19:56

Yeah, it's

Brandon  19:57

right there. And there's a whole thing kind of about him and just sort of his life, which is really insane, right and weird. And then they have like a, like a shooting arcade game, you know? Because why not where you can like shoot a target? Anything? Right? Very cool.

Collin  20:14

Yeah, might as well here in the mood might as well,

Brandon  20:17

right. And then the last part is like route 66

Collin  20:23

stuff. Right, which is like, you know, that basically kicked off

Brandon  20:28

in Springfield about whole thing. So there's the last little section is all route 66 related. There's a bunch of stuff in there. I did not know that naming route 66 was such a fiasco,

Collin  20:40

right? Oh, yeah. Lots of weird goings on. Like, they like they were going to call it like, route 60.

Brandon  20:53

With, like, started in Springfield, and then went to Los Angeles. But then the senator from Kentucky was like really upset because like, his state didn't have any interstates in it. And he really wanted one. And it was

21:07

unfair to Kentucky. And this isn't really even a trans continental highway because it only goes halfway across the country. And I'm gonna cry about it.

Collin  21:15

So yeah.

Brandon  21:19

Been there was a bunch of that. And then the guy from Springfield, whose name I can't remember. But they basically were in a meet a bunch of meetings about naming the road and realized that 66 hadn't been used yet. And we're like,

Collin  21:32

that sounds cool. call it that. That's what

Brandon  21:41

because they were like, Oh, we can it could be 62. And they're like, No, that's lame. And like, I don't want to be blah, blah. Like, it was all fake, though.

Collin  21:49

They decided that 66 was unused anywhere. In sounded neat.

Brandon  21:55

I think the little video I watched was like, the guy was like, it's got a good ring to it.

22:00

And then the rest is they say

Brandon  22:02

is history.

Collin  22:06

So yeah, but it

Brandon  22:09

was really cool. We spent a lot of time in there looking at all the stuff. There's really cool exhibits, like hands on II things and lots of like, little videos, you can watch interactive stuff that are like, they just, they're like a bunch of screens everywhere. But they only play if you like walk up and touch them. You know, so they're just always like, blaring at you and stuff. And then there's a couple big ones that are on the wall that play on a loop, you know, here and there. But it's really neat. It's a cool place. So I enjoyed it was really fun. Lots of neat stuff in there. Lots of interesting little facts about Springfield, right, which is cool. So and it's like right on the square too. So it's really neat. Like, right there. Right on the north end of the square. I buy Boonville or

Collin  22:51

whatever. Yeah. Yeah, help set the ambiance of that for

Brandon  22:56

sure. Yeah, that's really cool. right downtown. Lots of really modern really up to date. Ad mag is amazing. So you go

Collin  23:12

Well, cool. And so you went with a small group of friends or

Brandon  23:16

your friends, right? We've decided to go there. Check it out. And yeah, spent a couple hours and Museum looking at stuff hanging out having a good time. So

Collin  23:26

yeah, very cool. That's great. Well, so out of the number of I don't know, trolley cars. How many what how would you rank it? Um,

Brandon  23:40

let's see, I would definitely give it a solid five out of five. Mule pulled called trolley cars. That's what I love it. Fun fact, Springfield's earliest trolley cars pulled by mules.

Collin  23:51

I figured there was a tie in there.

Brandon  23:54

That was on the display.

Collin  24:00

Cool. Yeah, they just

Brandon  24:01

had this lot of really cool like little random stuff that you like that I didn't know, like,

24:05

I guess.

Brandon  24:08

Right after the Civil War, there was a huge monument to general lion like right in the middle of the square. Right. General lion, for those of you who don't know, has the unfortunate distinction of being the first Union General to die in the Civil War. The Greek National Battlefield died in the Battle of Wilson's Creek. Daisy,

Collin  24:32

it's a wreck. It's it's our recognition. Right? It's yeah,

Brandon  24:36

yeah. And so they basically there's this big monument, big marble column thing that they put right in the middle of the Springfield square right. Later on, when they were running trolley cars, so they ran trolleys down through there, right. So there was trolley line that went from Boonville down south

Collin  24:55

there and they measured

Brandon  25:01

So the trolley lines would not hit the monument. They forgot to think about the trolley

Collin  25:09

itself being too wide. So as that happens,

Brandon  25:14

yes, the tracks fit. But then once you put a trolley car on there wouldn't really work.

Collin  25:22

It's like whenever measured for our refrigerator, and I forgot about the depth with doors, right? Yeah, it's like, Ah, no, like the body fits. Doors. Yeah, not so much.

Brandon  25:35

Yes. So they, they pulled it out. And it's now in the cemetery. That's the big national, whatever, the big national cemetery over on, like, golden stone or whatever. Oh, yeah. And they and in this display, they had a piece of the original fence. Monument. Yeah, I, whenever they moved it, somebody bought it for their garden, and it was in their house. And Susan asked the lady about it, and they don't really know exactly where it came from, because they got it a long time ago. So they didn't, there was not no good clear record of provenance here. But like, somebody bought the fence. And like how to in their house in Springfield, like, around their garden fence. That was a wrought iron 1860s wrought iron fence. Right? Yeah. So crazy.

Collin  26:29

And, and then they,

Brandon  26:33

I guess the owners of the house knew where it came from. Because whenever they I don't know, somebody bought it, blah, blah, blah, change hands. And then it just somebody donated to the museum. So they have it up in the Civil War thing. Like, there's like a whole wall about the monument and then, like, attached to the wall right in front is the fence. It's really cool.

Collin  26:54

Like, ah, it's really neat.

Brandon  26:58

Like little random stuff. Like that's like, wow, that's really cool.

Collin  27:01

Yeah, I was just like little meat stuff. Oh, yeah. You know, well, it's crazy to think about how those how many of those little quote unquote, little piece Oh, anyways, it's a it's an inconsequential piece of history, right? Oh, it's the fence. But it's the fence right, and how many of those pieces are in attics or in people's gardens or in wood sheds or in basements or were used as part of a redecorating scheme of their like, I think about that. The numbers if you go into in the town where we live, if you go and go into a lot of the antique shops there, they I've never seen this before. And I think it's just this place. But when people go in, they remodel an old home historic home or they go to tear it down. They pull all of the crown molding out and like the staircase, banisters out and they will resell that to the shops. And so you can go in and buy crown molding, from a home that was built like in the 1850s and such, which is like how many of these other like historic homes from the town had been pilfered and torn apart? And now we're just scattered now back throughout

Brandon  28:18

the community, why would you take out a banister that seems important to me? I feel like,

Collin  28:25

well, because they're going to, you know, they come in, they go, Oh, I don't want this old banister. We want a more modern one or whatever. So they're going to put in something instead of that old one. Come on, you know,

28:36

do its job. I

Collin  28:37

want the old one. So I'm the person that's coming into the shops going, Oh, look at this crown molding. Oh, look at this. So, I mean, I'm part of the problem. But that's besides that's fine. It's not a problem at all. So good.

Brandon  28:58

Yeah, it's just like, you know, whenever you any museum, right, you kind of have that, like, you're looking at this like, random

29:06

thing. I mean, like, Huh, I wonder how that ended up here. Right? Yeah, what was the journey of this random thing to get here? Right? Whether it's

Brandon  29:19

the Civil War, like little Dr. Bag thing, or like, oh, the drummer boys drum thing, right? Like, all kinds of like crazy stuff, or even just like, you know, the route 66 thing like they have some of the old like, the little driving speakers, you know, like, Where Where did that, you know,

Collin  29:43

what is this? Yeah. Also, I learned

Brandon  29:51

that we're sitting there reading the route 66 timeline thing, because it's huge wall

Collin  29:55

that goes through the middle of that room that they have all the stuff and we were reading about this thing and it was talking about, like,

Brandon  30:03

people that became famous that performed in Springfield, right people like Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley performed at the shrine mosque. I was like, whoa, hold on. Let's

Collin  30:17

back that up. We're just one quick moment.

30:20

Like, what do you mean? Well, I didn't know that. Ah, yeah, I guess there's a. So like, there was this kid. I can't I can't remember the name. But there's a kid who lives in Springfield. And like, he really wanted to go see Elvis. He was

Brandon  30:41

like, he had been teaching himself how to play guitar and had a bunch of guitar lessons. Right. And like, he didn't think Elvis played the guitar particularly well, right? Because Elvis kind of like, just like, smacked it, you know? And he was like, That's not cool. Kids like 12. And he really wanted to go see Elvis. But his mom and dad wouldn't buy him a ticket. So they went to the lake. And he sneaked out on his bicycle. Watch, went to the shrine mosque, got in somehow managed to get backstage and talk with Elvis. And like, showed him some stuff on the guitar and Elvis is quoted as being like,

Collin  31:18

what in? Alright, that's good. Yeah.

Brandon  31:24

Fast forward a few years, Elvis hires this kid to be in his band. And he played in the band for like, ever.

Collin  31:33

Whoa, okay. That's crazy. Yeah. Wow. Wow. Yeah. There's like all kinds

Brandon  31:41

of like really crazy stuff like that, that you're like, I didn't have any idea about this. Right? I know about like, the Ozarks Jubilee. And then it was like, actually a huge thing. Like the new hotness, whatever TV was on like, there was a little thing. Like, you know, when they had those like crazy TV variety shows. Yeah. Country and Western music and all kinds. Oh, yeah.

Collin  32:03

Like the Ozarks. Jubilee was like, where it's at. Right, like, yeah, and growing up and in hearing that and kind of seeing, you know, kind of how its transformed into Branson and some of the shows they put on there. You're just like, okay, yeah, whatever. It's a thing. But

Brandon  32:20

yeah, but like, I didn't really realize that impacted like, how big a deal it was. To you're like reading this thing. You like watching this live video like, oh,

Collin  32:28

oh, okay. This is interesting. Yeah, yeah, it was pretty neat. There's a lot of really cool stuff in there. So if Huawei here Yeah, I will. Springfield Museum. Yeah, I mean, you.

32:53

What was I mean, it sounds like there's a lot of, I mean, a lot of both known and little known facts. I mean, did you have one that was particularly surprising

Collin  33:03

to you? Ah,

Brandon  33:06

I mean, other than the Springfield Cobra scare? Yeah. Because that's pretty surprising.

Collin  33:17

Yeah, that's assumed. Okay, so what's your sorry? What's your second most surprising?

Brandon  33:22

Second most are okay. Like, I don't know, you don't really think about, like, there's just a lot of like, big. Like, that turned out to be like, kind of important things that happened in Springfield, right. And that's like a weird thing to think about, because it doesn't really just seem like a particularly important place in the world. Right? Like, there's a lot like, especially around the Civil War, and like above the ledge, weird stuff like that. There's like a

Collin  33:54

lot of really crazy stuff

Brandon  33:59

that happened there. One of the surprising things that I actually did not know was that Missouri outlawed slavery, like two weeks before the federal government. I didn't know that. Did not know that. Either. They go. So they made it, they made it. They banned slavery. Two weeks before the constitutional amendment, or the federal government decided slavery was no good. Well, how

Collin  34:26

about that was,

Brandon  34:27

I was surprising, right? I was surprising, especially given the current state of Missouri politics, right. They're kind of behind the times on everything else. So it's good to know that we were on the front foot on that one. I

Collin  34:42

just like a

Brandon  34:43

bunch of people like that. You've heard the names before, like John Campbell. Right? Yeah. Like, you know, you know, he's got a whole street named after him and stuff, but like, you really think about it too much like he was really big deal. Like his wife did a whole lot of work. Um, a lot of like, humanitarian projects, stuff like that. I forgot that Pythian Castle used to be a hospital. Yeah. Okay. It was like a huge hospital during, like, the war time, like World War Two time. Like it was like a really big, important medical hospital thing.

Collin  35:23

Because it was so close to the old airport

Brandon  35:25

that's down there, downtown over there. Yeah. Was that division or whatever? Yes. Yeah. And they did that was just big enough to land like, certain military planes. So they would actually it was like, big time.

Collin  35:36

The army hospital. Oh, that's crazy. Yeah. So like, it was like

Brandon  35:41

the O'Reilly the hospital. Oh, okay. Forgot about that part of that. Right. Like, Oh,

Collin  35:51

okay. So I was in another really cool thing, where it's like, oh, and like,

Brandon  35:59

there was a one of the floors had like an exhibit that it's like, not all the time there. It was like a ballad, like, war time, uniforms, and camouflage stuff. And they had just like a bunch of local things in there. Some of them you look at like uniforms from other countries, and you go that's

Collin  36:19

not camouflage. I don't know.

36:24

Why, and they had a, it had a bunch of stuff like that. And so there was this guy in Springfield. And like he couldn't put in this is world war two time, like he,

Brandon  36:35

he was ineligible to serve. Like, he couldn't sign up, I think medical condition like he was he couldn't sign up. And so he was like a business owner. And so he decided that he was just going to send stuff to the soldiers like letters, and like care packages, and like all kinds of like that. And so he like, his company had like this big, dedicated campaign of like, writing to the soldiers, and I do it myself. So they had a bunch of the letters that he either sent or like, they sent back to him, right. Kind of in this cabinet, this display thing it was that was really neat to just seeing how like, you know, little slit, you know, that was such a big important thing to some of these people. Right? This had that.

Collin  37:19

Very touching. Just that whole thing right there. So it was really cool, too. Yeah. Yeah. Again, those those pieces of history that didn't have to be saved, right, but somebody did. And they, they found they found a place now. Yeah, it was really cool. It was fun. It's fun time. That's nice. Well, good. I'm glad I haven't not ever been. So it is on my list. Especially take the kids. So I think

Brandon  37:48

there's some parts that they would really think is cool, right? Like, they can definitely do that. Like I Spy thing, right? Oh, they love there's like a picture and you had to like check back check the box that you found in like, there's some cool stuff

Collin  38:03

and back and back. See, this is a this is a good lesson. Pay attention people. When you tell somebody three quarters cup you do need to follow up or or be be okay with people having concerns when you show up. And cup is is relative because because what they really mean is three quarters of the of the item in the food container. Feel that three quarters way it's not a measuring cup. It's not even a drinking cup. It's like a like a big, big ol scoop thingamabob. So, I had a staff member that was a bit confused because they're like, this is not a cup and like describe it to me. They're like, well, it's more like a big like, I guess I call it a scoop thing. I was like, ah, they just want three quarters of that filled with cheese. They're like, oh three, okay. Three quarters of the included vessel. Yes, exactly. is really what it should have said. But this is okay. This is why that's fine. Yeah. This is why we asked these questions. True. Yes. So yeah, we had somebody say, they were filling out our paperwork. And they were like I I think you would be busier if you didn't have people fill out so much information, because there's a lot of documents here that you're having me sign I feel like you would be it'd be better if you didn't have that. And I was like, Well, let me tell you why we do. Because things go poorly, right.

Brandon  40:01

Really? We need your stance on

Collin  40:03

that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, I was like, Look, yeah, I'm gonna I need to know where your pets are or are not allowed. I do need to know where your water shut off valve is and where electrical box is like, I need to know these things I know you don't think so I know you think it's ridiculous. But trust me, we're gonna have to We need this information. So

Brandon  40:32

I'm on offense, and it's very important.

Collin  40:35

Where's it though? Yeah, exactly. Just Hey, just humor me. And I understand some of our questions. It's like, they're redundant. And we have to ask them for each pet. It's like, so if you have five pets, and you have to say, are they allowed on the couch? But see, here's the thing. In our experience, we have people who train their pets differently. Some pets are allowed on couches. Some are not like, some love, love. People allow cats on couches, but not dogs. Some people have certain dogs on couches, but not other dogs. And then we ask the vet information for each animal. And you think, well, Colin, why would you do that? Well, because we have clients who have like six animals, and they take them to four different vets, just because, like that's just how they run their life. So we need to know, where do we take this animal versus this animal versus this animal like that. And people who have one pet with this, so we do our best to try and keep it as streamlined as possible. But we do also have to be flexible enough to cover these weird edge cases that come up from time to time. So yeah,

Brandon  41:47

I can see I can see, like, if you had a dog and a cat, right, like,

Collin  41:51

maybe there's like, a cat specialist vet

Brandon  41:56

that you want to go to, right? Like, that person has like a cat, like expert and they have like, you know, whatever and like the you know, maybe the dog just needs to go to at somebody you know, I depending on like their medical conditions or whatever who knows.

Collin  42:10

Right? Right. Or here's actually the most common thing. Husband to people dating a

42:17

guy has cat

Collin  42:20

lady has dog, I get married. Now they want us to care for their pets and they have their they just don't bother bringing them to the different vets like they don't bring them with the established exactly player establishing this is that is by far that makes something that we see actually people dating and people get newly married, and now they need care for their pets. And it's this is just where they've been established. And I get it. It's annoying, or like, you have three cats. I'm going to ask you, do they get anxious? Right? And if which one gets anxious? And then what does that look like? Big so that we can know if we walk in and we say oh, the orange ones acting really freaked out? Let me look at my notes. Oh, that's normal. Okay, I'm cool.

Brandon  43:05

Yeah, cuz like cat anxious, you have two varieties, right? You'll never see this ad ever.

Collin  43:12

Or it's attacking you. Right? That's the

Brandon  43:16

gets this kind of important information tend to have about a cat. Right.

Collin  43:24

Exactly, exactly. But here's the thing. I don't blame people because they don't. It's their cat, right? They watch. What do you mean, when this is just how they are? And I'm like, Yes, this but this is why I'm asking you this question. Because because I don't know,

Brandon  43:39

I'm gonna see nine cats today.

Collin  43:43

Or your cat is going to be seen by five different people. Okay. So Help, Help me help you. So instead of this person sitting down and filling out the form by themselves, I just called them and I said, Hi, I have a few questions for you. And yes, they just so happened to be the exact same ones that are on my film. But here we go.

44:12

Tell me about their anxiety.

Brandon  44:15

You'll never know everything

Collin  44:16

else. Okay.

44:20

Oh my gosh.

Collin  44:24

So we survived the it's finally finally to the point where like, the Fourth of July it this is crazy. Like we're mid July, late July right now. Fourth of July travel has finally died down. So weird to me. We're somewhat, we're kind of back to normal. And then all of a sudden I don't it's we are to service areas. We have one with 21,000 people in it. We have another with 190,000 people or whatever. I don't know the populations. It's not relevant ones. It's literally it's almost 10 times the size of the one without the other and Man that 21,000 population town, it I don't know, is insane. Like we were booked to the max on a rant on the most random of weekends and in the middle of weeks it just like, Oh, yes, seven of our clients just want to travel this weekend have fun, like, oh my gosh, like, how, where are you going? Why exactly like, well, and then we found out that sometimes we have several, we have several clients who all travel together, and they're like, oh, let's go to let's go to, you know, bam, for let's go to Colorado or let's go to such and such.

45:37

Or for the weekend, or for our getaway, or they've all been here's the other thing, like a lot of them have grew up in the town, and they're all best friends. And so they take vacations together, or they'll go celebrate, you know, 60th birthday parties together, or that kind of stuff. So that's it.

Collin  45:54

They're all in each other's and they're all in their kids weddings, and that, you know, so they run in the same groups. But then there are times where I'm like, Look, I know you two don't know each other. But like, why are all seven of you traveling? Like, I'm very confused. But okay. So it's, it continues to just I don't know, it's a weird market. It's a weird market. So they go you aspiring pet sitters out there, if you're if you're like, Oh, I'm in a small town, I'm in a rural area. Trust me, you get connected with the right people. Seriously, like tomorrow. So we talked to a lot of people who run solo businesses, and they don't, you know, they will say the maximum, the maximum number of visits I will do is 14 visits a day, or 16. If I'm really pushing it, like that's where people find their sweet spots. And tomorrow is today and tomorrow, one of my staff members in that town. She had she had 12 Just like crazy. And, and and there are more visits than that, because there were six visits in the evening that she doesn't do. She just works mornings and afternoons. And she had one that was like, Well, where did that come from? Good gravy. So anyway, all that to say it's been it's been it's been crazy. But it's been, it's been good hiring is finally we're still we learned our lesson. So we've got a new hire in. He's doing fantastic. He's a younger guy. And just he just just what he wants to do. He just wants to do this. He likes being active. He likes the fast paced nature of it. Which I'm like, great, because I've had people who don't like that. So we're welcome. And he's he's doing really, he's doing really good job. And so that's but what happened was, is it so from start to finish, this took us like almost three and a half months to fill this position three and a half months to fill it. Yeah. And it was the time of the year, right we have it's kind of like it was, it was just after summer it started. So everyone pretty much had their quote unquote, summer jobs, no one was looking. It's also a weird thing to try and fill only morning positions. And there aren't a lot of morning people out there basically is what I'm finding. So so try to find those people who are like, Yeah, I'd like getting up at 5am to start work at six. So I can just work until noon, and then be done for the day. Like that's what I want to do with my life. Those people are rare. And so that just took a while to get that. And what we had done, unfortunately, is we were kind of felt like we were in a good place with hiring and everything. So we had kind of shut off the hiring valves to our different places. So we didn't have a good influx of people. And once you once you post a job posting, it takes a while for that to kind of matriculate through all the systems and surface to other people and work through the algorithms. Yeah. As it becomes engaged with so we had just turned that tap off. And then it took a while for it to get ramped up before we even started getting applicants. And then so with the time of year with us not having staying on top of it really been us so I still don't know really how to manage that well of I have no positions to fill, but I have like we have three different job postings out there. I don't know. I don't know really how to manage that. But that's what everyone says to do. Just like know keep them open. Never take them down. Never say you're not hiring, always the hiring. And I'm like okay, I understand I get it. Yeah, because I didn't do that last time and tired But yeah, and then and then randomly through that. So this whole thing of was crazy because randomly on Instagram, Megan got a message. And it was a guy and he was like, Hey, we really like all of your posts and what you post in these Facebook groups, we'd love to have you on TV to talk to you about your business. And we were like, sorry. What? I literally sliding into our DMS to say hi. And we looked into it, and we're like, Yeah, this is the co host of this basically daytime, local daytime talk show. And on a network, and we're like, oh, okay, so we responded. And we were, we had been pitched this once before, by some guy, and what he was what he was asking it was for us to pay for the privilege to be on a show. And was like, Hey, we like what you do, would you be interested? And we were like, yeah, and he was like, Okay, here's our price sheet. And

Brandon  51:10

I'm no longer interested. Yeah. And they were

Collin  51:12

like, JK, actually, actually, you know, it turns out, I didn't, I didn't want to do that. And we were so we were like, has, so what's the cost? And he was like, oh, no, this is free. Like, we just we just want to talk to you about your business. And we were like, Okay, so he's like, what's a good email, email? And then he was just like, Yeah, show up at this day. This time. Here's the gate code. See you soon. And, and that was pretty much it. Like there was no real prep work or like, what to expect or how it functioned or anything like that. So we just showed up at the TV and sat awkwardly in the greenroom with a musician from Branson waiting for him to go on his segment. And we, yeah, just went on air and chatted, and for four minutes and 3613 seconds, or whatever it was, and it was kind of cool. The kids got to be in the studio with us. So they got to sit against the wall. So they were kind of looking at the backs of the camera operators. Oh, it was then in front of us. Yeah, it was, it was pretty cool. They said they really liked it. Noah

52:24

took a stuffed animal in and that stuffed animal did not make it back out. And so I come to find out, one of the camera operators was cleaning up the set and found the stuffed animal, and reportedly as the co host who I still talk to today about this said, call the parents, the kid left his stuffed animal.

Brandon  52:51

Good looking out, man, good luck canal day job seriously.

Collin  52:54

And the coach ran over, took a picture message us on Instagram and was like, Oh my gosh, like they found this is this your kids? And we were like, yes, we'll come by and get it. And he was like No worries. You know, it's kind of like, I'm sorry that you now have the stuffed animal and like I feel kind of bad that's on your desk and whatever. And he's like, No, that's fine. Sean showed up today. And he said, Oh, come by after four. And it's like, okay, I'll be there. Because that's whenever his the segment ends. So I show up a little bit before, and the front desk clerk was looking at me, and I was like, ah, hi. Because, you know, she was looking at her pamphlet, like her clipboard basically, is because she was looking at that I know, the face of like, I wasn't expecting any people to come by

Brandon  53:40

like, there's

Collin  53:41

nobody else on the list, right? Like, why are you standing in front of me? It's sir. And I said, Hi. My name is Colin, my wife and I are we're here for a segment that filmed on earlier in the week. And my kid left a stuffed animal and he left it here. And when I said that, her eyes got big, and she was like, you're missing a stuffed animal. And I was like, yeah, and she was like, Do you know where it was? And I was like, Well, I think it's in the back. And she like, grabbed her keys and ran around from the desk. I was like, we're gonna fight this

54:15

end. I didn't even say

Collin  54:16

like, the co host has it and like, she was like, she was getting ready to take me back on set the like, hour for

Brandon  54:26

like, No, I just need to talk to so and so. Let me have it.

Collin  54:29

That's what I said. I was like, I was like, oh, no, I think the host has it and she was like, oh, okay, he's around this corner. I know where he like jogging through the labyrinth, also get there like, calling his name and was like, Oh, I got yours and stuff. He got the stuffed animal guy and like everyone took this very seriously.

Brandon  54:56

Yeah, sounds like that's crazy. I am

Collin  54:59

very thing for everybody at the station who, who really? Weren't inconvenienced? I mean, it wasn't inconvenience but like they they knew that like, No, this is serious like kid has lost a stuffed animal like oh my gosh. It was just it was nice. I felt good about

Brandon  55:19

it to the patient

Collin  55:27

Yes, it was all resolved in we are all all together and well today

Brandon  55:33

was the only question I have is a was no as upset as the desk lady. Oh. Because he's like, so chill about almost everything.

Collin  55:47

He actually was he was pretty sad and upset by this. So yes, it was okay. It matched it. Alright.

Brandon  55:56

Good. Then glad that's good.

Collin  56:02

Yes, so yeah, that's that's about all I mean, yeah, that's what we that was our that was that's been our chaotic week so far. Sounds very chaotic. But I am, I am. We are planning. We are planning a train trip. Oh to Kansas City. Time is upon us. We were planning this. We will dry we will we will go from our city because I have never been in a city that has a train station. This is weird. People all over the globe. And I'm sure most parts

Brandon  56:37

of our European listeners are laughing at you right now.

Collin  56:39

Yes. I've never been it's, it's three minutes from my house. So it's like a walking distance. I can't not go to this, but you don't have to drive. And so we have to. And so we're gonna go, we're gonna go into Kansas City. And we're gonna go to Legoland. Because that is in the discovery area, which is right across the street from the train station, which is where also our hotel will be. So it'll just be wonderful. If you don't have to drive anywhere, once we get there, we're just gonna explore like Union Station surrounding area. And I'm very excited. Awesome. Very excited about this. It's been a couple of days over there, and then take the train back home. So its own Union Station has. Right, that's the big giant building, right? Yes. Okay,

Brandon  57:36

I was making sure I was thinking of the same place. In the one of the rooms is just like a model train thing.

Collin  57:47

And it's just like, it's like a donation. Right to get in. He's like,

Brandon  57:53

whatever. And it's like this huge room of like a bazillion model trains, or at least it was there a couple of years ago when we were there. Okay, so because I remember thinking at the time, Susan, I were like, oh, yeah, no one needs to be in this room right now. So that one check out and see if it's still there. Because, okay, really huge, big, just like, like with like diorama is and like all kinds of crazy stuff back there. Like, you know, how they like set it up and all the stuff. And it's got like all it's got like several different sizes, gauges, I don't know, scale, train scale, scale, maybe in certain displays. So it's got, like, all kinds of different stuff back there. So

Collin  58:41

it was really cool. I remember being really neat over there. And so yeah, in I know I am. We're going over for several days, and we're not geographically we're hardly going traveling. Like once we arrived, like, we're not going very far. But I'm already worried about being able to fit like, all these things in because like, there's a lot to do. The children have

Brandon  59:12

the stamina to do them. Or they'll be like, yeah, we're done walking for a little bit while here. You know, just Yeah,

Collin  59:19

I mean, it definitely definitely is a worry. And not and trying to make sure we don't overload our schedule, but will really be a tough thing. Because it will also be very easy to do and with going to places like museums or these activity places. It's like, how, how long does it really take right to go through and judge and I personally don't like getting halfway through the place than being like, okay, and now we're running and running.

Brandon  59:52

Right? Yeah, that's happened to us before, right. And that's what like, that's what happened to us when we were at Union Station because we went up to see that traveling public Last display thing, right? Yeah. And we were like, just over halfway done and they were like, we're closing in 45 minutes. We're like

Collin  1:00:15

not really going to work

Brandon  1:00:16

for us. So

Collin  1:00:20

that's, that's bad news. Yeah, this is what I don't want to have happen. But you know, Hadiya can't really stop it a lot of good senses. So anyway,

Brandon  1:00:35

that's hard. Museums are hard, specifically, if you want to, like exotic that, because it's like really difficult to

Collin  1:00:41

try to, like, really get a lot out of it if you're going

Brandon  1:00:46

kind of fast, right? That's what happened to us in when we were in DC with the Museum of Natural History, right?

Collin  1:00:51

We had like, just a couple hours. That's not enough time. Yeah, really like, picking and choosing and like,

Brandon  1:01:04

let's go over here. And I was like, I was like, I have to go look at the rocks. And Susan was like, bye.

1:01:14

Ah, I can't, I can't be

Brandon  1:01:17

in the Museum of Natural History and not go to the geology wing. As a geology teacher, that seems illegal. So

1:01:26

I went, Yes. Yeah.

Brandon  1:01:30

It looked at some of the other stuff. And there was one we're like, okay, we don't really care about this. So we're gonna walk through this exhibit, to get to this other one that we want to see. So we just like walking by like, yep. Okay, got it. Anyway, here's what we wanted to see.

Collin  1:01:52

difficult choices were

Brandon  1:01:53

made. So yes, I understand your pain.

Collin  1:01:57

So we, yeah, so that, that we're very, very excited about that coming up. And they'll be here pretty soon. Because then we get, we get kind of crazy again.

1:02:11

So you know, that's Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Collin  1:02:15

And while it's kind of weird, but like, while, Megan and I aren't out doing pet visits normally, like when I'm not covering for you, like normally, like, well, we're not doing that. So you're like, oh, like, what's the day hold? You know, it's like, what we do? It's, it's very

Brandon  1:02:33

chaotic, most days, all kinds of crazy managerial things I

Collin  1:02:37

phone calls at all hours of the day. Like, you know, so that's a that's just something where it's like, it's hard to truly take a step away. And and relax. Oh, yeah, for sure. Right. Like that's so that's what we're hoping to be able to touch you coming? Yes. Yeah. Yes. Anyway, yeah, that's what that's what's going on. Very nice. Well, shall we? You know, we sell pies. Ah, last we left our intrepid adventures. We were standing outside of a dark dingy forest. We were indeed. Right. We were, indeed. This chapter was again, sort of odd, right. But now, for the first time we are without Gandalf. Ah, dun, dun, dun.

Brandon  1:03:52

Which, you know, a wizard would be handy thing to have in a villainous Lee enchanted forest.

Collin  1:03:58

But Gandalf is off doing other things

Brandon  1:04:04

that you'll have to read about in appendices.

Collin  1:04:08

Find out? Yes. Find out exactly what he was doing. Tolkien knew later. He wrote it down. Later. Right. So

Brandon  1:04:20

there was really no backfield doing other things right. And now

Collin  1:04:27

we get some, some problems, right. We

Brandon  1:04:31

kind of start to go downhill in a hurry. Now, I promised you a bit of lore explanation. Yes. So now I don't know if this was in Gandalf mind or not. Gandalf in Tolkien's mind. What a timed, right, a true it is one of the same right

Collin  1:04:53

at the time, right. But Gandalf Right, like his whole mission, the whole reason that he is in Middle Earth is to fight against the great evil. Right? That's his task. He was appointed by the gods to do this, right, the WLR excuse me to do this, right. That's what he's there for. So he and the other wizards are not normally supposed to oppose evil, directly. Right? They're not like, on the frontlines fighting evil. Right.

Brandon  1:05:48

Gandalf does that in The Lord of the Rings at the end, but there's, there's a whole reason for that anyway.

Collin  1:05:54

So he is like, part of his whole task is to inspire others. Right? That's his thing. Right? He

Brandon  1:06:04

kind of has this aura about him that is, like, inspiring and like, hopeful, right? He

Collin  1:06:09

instills that in people. Okay. Gandalf. Also the wearer of a ring of power. Okay, so Gandalf wears one of the Elven Rings of Power that were made without the influence of that pesky Soran. Fellow. Right. They were made just by Caliburn. Borg alone, the great Smith of Dells, right. So

Brandon  1:06:44

they're, they're kind of outside the influence of the one right. Right. They don't really have as much sway, you know. And so his particular ring also, right, this is what helps him do his fiery stuff. Enough is a fire was just why he blows smoke rings all the time, too. Because like, that's just kind of he's like, element thing, right? He does all the time, because he can control fire and stuff. But the ring also gives him kind of amplifies his innate power. Right. So like, he is a beacon of hope to others, which is why they did this really good job in the movies. Right? When he's not there. Like it's dire. Right? Like, yeah, when he's not around. It's like, so bad. It's horrible. Right, like Helm's Deep, right? Like, yeah, it's just it's so the despair is creeping in, and it's just blah, then he shows up, boom, like he brings with this like, force with him. So there is a bit of lore reason why, like when Gandalf is not round, like things kind of go bad. And people get like real down because he is like, boosting them along as they go. Right. So there's a little nerdy look into what's going on here. In the Tolkien legendarium. Behind the scenes. Yes. I have one more of those later, but okay.

Collin  1:08:19

Well,

Brandon  1:08:20

we see that, yes, we don't have that quite yet. But they are alone.

Collin  1:08:25

Yes. And everyone in in the party has the sense of, of loss for not having Gandalf around. All right. And and I think, probably for good reason. You know, for more, more than not, but But yes, there's a gloom about the party. Yes, indeed. That is not the right chapter to look at. Okay, now, that doesn't. Okay. So chapter eight. If

Brandon  1:08:51

you align your book to the right page, it generally helps.

Collin  1:08:56

In Alright, yeah.

Brandon  1:08:59

I opened it to where my bookmark is not to where,

Collin  1:09:03

like, you know, so got it. So, yes,

Brandon  1:09:09

they start it starts off okay, though, right. We're where we're kind of worried about this whole thing, because it's, it's been

Collin  1:09:16

built up. It's not great. Right?

Brandon  1:09:19

They were sick for the size of the sun gets very dark. It's very cramped. There is an interesting comparison here to the goblin tunnels, which I thought was kind of interesting, right? Like you think Forrest bigger, but But it's like so imposing that it reminds Bilbo and the dwarves of over the goblin tunnels about how oppressive it is in there. So it's not a pleasant for this is not happy fun for us, like we had earlier right? This is no, this is not ugly.

Collin  1:09:56

Yeah. And it gets worse as they go along. Right. And this is Where yet again the power of His written Word and descriptive nature, just like I love it, he says, occasionally a slender beam of sun that had lived luck to slip in through some opening and bleeds far above and still more luck in not being caught in the tangled bows and matted twigs beneath, stabbed down thin and bright before them. But this was seldom and it soon ceased together.

1:10:29

Yeah, it's like, ah, gosh, it's pretty good description.

Collin  1:10:37

Yes, it's just and then having been in having been in woods and hiked through woods, like, you can just, you know, sometimes you look out and you can see the beams of light coming through and how it's like, oh, that you know, dimly lit. And it just was ha, yes. Good stuff.

Brandon  1:10:54

Sometimes it's pretty, but this is if this is heavily implied. No,

Collin  1:10:59

not right. This is not. This is not a good. No, it's good.

Brandon  1:11:03

Yeah, like beams of sunlight. dappling through the leaves. This is not that. Okay. This is not like, oh,

Collin  1:11:09

pleasant that No, no, no, no. Bad badness. And it gets worse, right?

1:11:27

Because, I mean, it's not going well. Right? It's going poorly. But then they end up at a river. Right. And now they've been warned. Do not go in the river.

Collin  1:11:46

It is bad, right? This is not where you want to be. So they, they have

Brandon  1:11:53

to figure out how to cross it. And it just kind of doesn't work out well for them.

Collin  1:11:57

Right. It goes badly. Mm hmm. Because, yes, this is the river that they are in was warning them about? About? Yeah, not drinking from becoming drowsy. potentially having issues with

Brandon  1:12:13

Yeah, I saw how bad it was bad and champions, whatever. But you know. So this is, this is not where they want to go. So they are okay, at this enchanted river thing. I was looking at the map in the back of the book trying to get my bearings when we're talking about this. Because, you know, originally, they wanted to be further south, where there's a much more straight shot across, but we had to go up further north and they're following this, like, elf path thing, right. And so they get to this river, and there's no bridge,

Collin  1:12:46

which is not good.

Brandon  1:12:49

Right? And they're like, Okay, well, we can't get in the river. So there is a boat. But hit of course, on the other side. Yes. Because things just can't go well, you know, that's not allowed.

Collin  1:13:07

And so, they, they try to, like grappling,

Brandon  1:13:12

hook it over, you know, okay, got a grappling hook over, they come up with this plan. We'll just leave the ropes in the boat and then and then you can pull it back and it will pull you over, you know, making it's like a fairy type situation. They make

Collin  1:13:28

homemade fairy, right. And so this is a video and it's going okay.

Brandon  1:13:35

Until it isn't again, right? We have this continuing theme here. Like it seems to be fine and it's not. Right. It's kind of

Collin  1:13:43

kind of this

Brandon  1:13:43

cycle. This is gonna replay over and over.

Collin  1:13:48

Yeah, we're everything. seems okay. Yeah, you're right.

Brandon  1:13:52

Like, what seems fine. Oh, it's not fine.

Collin  1:13:54

No, it's not. Because, well, we have this problem of Bombur. Right. They're

Brandon  1:14:04

kind of he's upset because they won't let him go first. And like, Dude, you're the fattest, you have to wait. And so that makes him mad.

Collin  1:14:12

Then the balls in the air, right? Just just, you know,

Brandon  1:14:20

because they got distracted by something else right? They they were there was like a deer that like sprang out and a whole bunch of of like turn or like shoot at it. Which distracted everybody right there was like this like flashing this distraction and then like a bomber falls in and they gotta get him out. And he is just like, done. Right? Immediately. Yeah, immediately is out.

Collin  1:14:49

Here he is, like, asleep,

Brandon  1:14:52

which is also not good because I'll have to move him. So they take it in terms of

Collin  1:14:58

four I believe To get him moving from place to place, right?

Brandon  1:15:07

And then that's going okay, right, getting them moved to the thing, blah, blah. You know, then they Oh yeah, this is the part where they like, they try to get their bearings, right. They're like somebody needs to go up this tree and see if they can see anything.

Collin  1:15:24

I wonder who that could be? Yes. Yes. Yet again, like, Yeah, well, huh, huh? Who woulda thunk? Yeah, so Bilbo goes up.

Brandon  1:15:40

And you know, he's looking around. And he finally he does make it all the way to the top of the tree where he is very distracted, because there's like butterflies. And he's like, Oh, look, look, son, and a little breeze and some butterflies. How lovely. And he kind of gets distracted by the butterflies. Because, you know, he's been dank for forever. This is exciting news. But he kind of looks around and you really can't see anything. Right. But is implied by the narration that like he could have if you looked at look just a bit harder for it, right?

1:16:21

Yes, I? Oh,

Collin  1:16:26

yes. Yeah, it was like actually, as I have told you, they were not far off the edge of the forest. And if below had had the sense to see it, a tree that he had climbed, though it was tall in itself was standing near the bottom of a wide valley. So that from its top, the trees seem to swell up all round like the edges of a great bowl. And he could not expect to see how far the forest lasted. Oh, my God. Yes.

Brandon  1:16:48

Rats. Yeah. Again, Close, but no cigar. You know? No, no, no, sorry.

Collin  1:17:01

Yeah, but

Brandon  1:17:02

but now we're getting in tight spot because we're like running out of food right? Out of Water.

Collin  1:17:09

We're kinda like, not really. Knowing. You know, we're, we're,

Brandon  1:17:18

we're out of rations. Basically, right? Now we're,

Collin  1:17:21

they're starting to worry about, oh, you know, starving, or becoming dehydrated or whatever. So they're in this tight spot. And they see, you know, they're, they're drawn off the path by a light. Right? They see something. They send Bilbo of course, to go. Yeah,

Brandon  1:17:52

yeah, go check it out. Right. That doesn't help that Bombur has woken up and it was telling him about his dreams of food

Collin  1:17:58

that really distracts them.

Brandon  1:18:00

They're like, shut up,

Collin  1:18:01

don't worry about that. We got that didn't go over

Brandon  1:18:03

well, without avidly food, and so

Collin  1:18:06

we stop it.

Brandon  1:18:10

But they creep up, and they find like an elephant feast. Right? Some whimsical elven feast in the middle of a word.

Collin  1:18:20

But then the elves like disappear. Right? So it's kind of weird. This is really weird, right? This is a very strange, like, weirdness. Like, Oh, they're

Brandon  1:18:34

here. Oh, no, they're gone. And then they like they repeat this

Collin  1:18:38

process? A couple of times. It

Brandon  1:18:42

really is out like it's really strange.

Collin  1:18:46

You almost kind of wonder, is this real? Or is this like a delirium induced by being starved and hungry and lost? And like, or are they actually tasted chasing these things? But it? Because it is bizarre. It keeps happening, like throughout the night, like over and over and over again? Yeah, it's really,

Brandon  1:19:09

this was really weird. Like, it's like what? Yeah, it is kind of in vague probably intentionally, at this point, right of like,

1:19:17

what the world's going on what's happening. And they're just like chasing this elven feast through the

Brandon  1:19:28

forest, right, which is bad because now we're not on the path anymore. And we were told specifically by Gandalf and Bay horn, to not go off of the path ever for anything at all. So much so that when they sent Bilbo up to the top of the tree to do some scouting, they made sure it was a tree on the path.

1:19:52

Yes.

Collin  1:19:56

But all that is now long, long, long forgotten.

Brandon  1:19:59

Food delivery images sent them like running through the forest like chasing this,

Collin  1:20:04

like elvish feast thing. And that has, as you can surmise, it doesn't go well, right? Oh, no. Oh, no. Because this

Brandon  1:20:25

is where the chapter gets his name from and they find apparently 700 million spiders. Can't or spiders die? Yes, I can't gigantor spiders living in the woods that captured them all right, while they're like, in distress, or not being able to find this thing they are souped upon by some spiders. Cool.

Collin  1:20:55

Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And that's where he, Yeah, cuz he can't find them. And yeah, he sits down and he's like, Well just search for them in the morning. And that's where he Yeah, yeah. Yes. Yeah. Because they

Brandon  1:21:10

stopped making little fires because it was too creepy to see all the eyes stare at them. So there's like, Okay, well, it turns

Collin  1:21:16

out the eyes.

Brandon  1:21:19

Yeah.

Collin  1:21:21

We're following you. Yes. Right. But now we have some like very abrupt, like, character development hear from Mr. Baggins. Right. Yeah, he like, all of a sudden is like,

Brandon  1:21:42

I will save the day now, right? Kinda comes out of nowhere, right? He like slays, the first spider. And now he's just like, Alright, I'm a spider killer. Now. Let's go. Yeah,

Collin  1:22:02

he really he really comes to this is where he names his his dagger, right? Yeah. It's like, well, appropriately, I will call you staying. And yeah, let's go do this. And it's a little it is it is quite abrupt. Like, well, just a few minutes ago, you're complaining about climbing a tree? Like, can we remember that? And now you're here. But I guess. You know, he's got stuff to do. Yeah, and I don't know. I was pondering this while I was reading. Like, why? Like, it's weird to me that he's like, you know,

Brandon  1:22:43

I mean, I guess his little arc is like, kind of big and growing. Because, you know, he, he tried to sort of talk his way out of the situation with the trolls. Right. He did talk his way out of the Gollum situation, right. But now, talking, not really an option with a spider. So I guess we're getting this dab it right. And it's really,

Collin  1:23:12

yeah, and it really is a panic moment for him because he wakes up while he's blood spinning its web around him, right? Like, that's when he wakes up. And it's all pure instinct at that, at that point. And then the other aspect is, he's kind of while he's in an unfamiliar situation, he's on a turf that he recognizes. Because, you know, it talks this way, the chapter starts talking about how hobbits are, again, really good at being quiet, and stealthy, especially in the woods. And he had spent a lot of time in wood. And so now it's like, okay, he's kind of on a familiar plane. And it all not really in his element, but he's not so far removed to being in a damp, dark goblin cave or, you know, face to face with somebody trying to eat him. I mean, not yet. Not for the moment. So I think it's a little bit more to have like, Okay, I know how to be stealthy in the woods, and I need to look for my friends. Yeah, right. And I think yeah,

Brandon  1:24:13

I think also like,

Collin  1:24:15

I don't know what it is about. I don't know maybe, maybe it's because like,

1:24:22

okay, at least, you know, perhaps a spider is like, slightly more familiar than a cave troll or a goblin? Sure.

Brandon  1:24:32

Because I'm assuming like, he's seen other spiders not like giant Panini ones. But like,

Collin  1:24:37

at the same time, this

Brandon  1:24:39

is also like, this is something I could take on right it's a weird like, he's decided, yes, spiders,

1:24:44

my nemesis. Right.

Collin  1:24:46

But then, you know, it says as he drew nearer, he saw that it was made by spider webs, one behind and over and tangled with another. Suddenly he saw too that there were spiders hung, or sorry, spiders huge and horrible sitting in the branches above him in ring Her no ring a trembled with fear like this is you may be fine with Spider Man You may be generally okay with one giant spider but like what a what a horrific scene to walk upon and see moving and it just it gives me the creeps just reading and thinking of athletic especially

Brandon  1:25:19

if you are a hobbit right and yeah not very large so that is also what he does he just kind of goes all like

Collin  1:25:32

Rambo here.

Brandon  1:25:33

Yeah it's like diehard Right? Like Rambo First Blood right? He's just like, Alright, I'm gonna I'm gonna slay

1:25:38

every spike. Yes.

Brandon  1:25:42

As he starts like going after, right these kind of does the like, Okay, I'm gonna but he does he is playing to his strengths, right? I'm gonna distract him and I'm going to lure him this way. And I'm going to do this the throw rocks because if we know anything from the old Lord of the Rings, video games, is that rabbit hobbits. Very powerful rock throwing abilities.

Collin  1:26:03

We do. It's a plus two down

Brandon  1:26:05

to known fact.

Collin  1:26:12

Yeah.

Brandon  1:26:14

And he starts Okay, so this is yeah, here's what the thing is. He attacks them he like, you know, saw the moment of calm and he must do something. He was trying to free found the other guys and he was gonna, like, cut him loose and try to free him. Right? Yeah, he was throwing rocks. And he, he decides I'm going to lead some of them away. Yes. And, and distract them. Right? This is plan. So he, he still he has his ring on. He's invisible. And he throws rocks at them. And he starts singing and calling them names. And yeah, you're Yeah, yeah, do this. And then he they sing the song. And it said, quite apart from the stones. No spider has ever liked being called at a cop. And Tom naughty, of course, is insulting to anybody.

Collin  1:27:06

And I read that and was like, Oh, is it now? Because before he said that, it said, not very good. Perhaps but then you must remember that he had to make it up for himself on the spur of a very awkward moment. But yes, then it's like, Oh, these are how odd that these are. Particularly to a spider. These are very insulting like I just I love that like it is it's so wonderful.

Brandon  1:27:36

It's It's so confusing that I so upon a quick Google first of all, if you google ad or COP, the first results are from The Hobbit right? Because yes, the only time this word is ever been used in the modern lexicon. It is taken from the Old English dialect word that means spider. Right? Coming from the poison head. Poison head. Yes. Yeah. It is. It is a is a English dialect word that comes from the Old English and it means spider. Yes. Okay. Oh, of course Tolkien would throw that in there. Right? Just like Ha. Take that sucker. Gonna flex on you here English vocabulary.

Collin  1:28:30

Yeah. And then to add that not only is it holding this probably the, you know, how do you how few people would actually recognize this, but then we're adding we're layering something on to this and saying, Okay, this old thing, this word that very few people know about? Yes, this is insulting the spiders. And you're like, ah, yeah. Okay. I now know what to yell at the ones I see scurrying about my kitchen. Yeah, right course. But then

Brandon  1:28:55

Tom Nadi can look that one up too, because

Collin  1:29:03

what does that mean? Yeah.

Brandon  1:29:07

It basically translates to

Collin  1:29:09

Doug's crayons.

Brandon  1:29:13

Right as what that says in this

Collin  1:29:17

Yeah, it's like, you know, it means like, foolish or stupid. Ah, so he's basically calling him a dummy. Ah, now go.

Brandon  1:29:35

That's kind of what a beat so another old word, right?

1:29:42

They go meaning foolish or stupid. So of course, nobody likes to be called. Foolish or stupid. Right? Especially not spiders. Right.

Collin  1:29:57

Again, obviously That's all

Brandon  1:30:03

good. That's just that's one of those things where you really like, oh, that's just you like Tollgate what is slipping that in there on it? Yeah, like, throw at us some weird slang and maybe Tom Nadi was much more well known in 1937.

Collin  1:30:18

But they I don't I don't know what kind of

Brandon  1:30:22

crop right? That probably wasn't. I don't know. Maybe they were just people was calling each other that left to right.

1:30:30

being rude was all the rage. All the Rage? Yeah. All right. Yeah, he does this and he loops back around to make his way back towards the spider webby nest there.

Collin  1:30:44

And that's where he thinks he's got them all out. And he comes up and he finds the, the mean old fat one, and slow on their fat bodied spider and thought of starting the feast while the others were away. But Mr. Baggins was in a hurry. Hurry, and he's boom, there you go, roll rolled off the branch dead.

Brandon  1:31:12

He was so good. No, no, sorry.

Collin  1:31:15

I was just gonna say that he doesn't know what to do quite to make this to make this work. So he, What's he do? Oh, he is trying to figure out how he's going to now get the dwarves down. Because if he cuts them, right, they're going to fall and probably hurt themselves quite a bit. Yeah.

Brandon  1:31:36

So he, yeah, he's like, Okay, I don't know how he's like, okay, I can get them out. I don't know how to do that. Sorry. He said I was just like cutting them out of the cocoon, right. And then they can sort of start to cut each other out. Right, which, I mean, that's a fair plan. But yeah, I plan that way you can have faster and go faster that way.

Collin  1:32:02

So that kind of works. They do that they get. They get out. They start cutting each other down. And they start running. And eventually

Brandon  1:32:17

the spiders just stop chasing

Collin  1:32:25

it's so it's an Yeah, they are running and Bilbo is kind of like running back and forth trying to play offense and defense with them. But yeah, he's basically just like, run. And they Yeah, they didn't just solve

Brandon  1:32:40

he did. He did he did have to reveal his secret to his compatriots. Oh, yeah. Right. He had to tell them about his reign, right. So much as he knew. He said, I'm gonna have to disappear. But you keep running. And I love

Collin  1:32:56

I love that. Yeah, what do you mean?

Brandon  1:33:01

And so they do. And they can hear him shouting, right. Lazy lob, whatever that means. Which also means spider, I believe in Old English, right? She loved was where she loves name comes from, I can talk at vn

Collin  1:33:21

Tony. And this is where they start asking you a bunch of questions to write about like, they're, they're trying to figure this out. They're trying to get it understood like they're trying to understand and gratulate it the they go from asking questions about his adventure in the ring to like, what do we do next? And like, next is right.

Brandon  1:33:45

In Bali, though, is vindicated. He's like, I knew you. Pass me normally. Got the best look.

Collin  1:33:52

Yeah. But he's feeling much better by themselves. Yes, yeah,

Brandon  1:33:55

sure. Right. So they then they kind of start asking these questions. They start thinking about what to do next.

Collin  1:34:01

And then

Brandon  1:34:03

we're like, oh, good ol bill, though. And then all of a sudden, voila, and

Collin  1:34:09

looks up and goes. Hey, where's Thorin? Anyway?

Brandon  1:34:16

And then they finally take count and like, Oh, that's not enough dwarves? Oh, no.

Collin  1:34:26

Yes. Turns out all the way back when they were running and chasing elves is through the forest.

Brandon  1:34:37

War Thorin like just fell asleep. Right Bilbo had done that right bomber had done that. It was doors turn and then nobody saw him do that.

Collin  1:34:53

So yeah, Thorin is set captured by some elves. Oh, no. Right? Yes. And this is now we're now we're transported out to get a whole nother thing. Right. And yeah, it it's it's good because we get a brief diatribe about high elves and Wood Elves and kind of this important

Brandon  1:35:27

is important. Similar Brilliant stuff right here right?

Collin  1:35:31

Yeah yeah cuz it now it starts coming in like like the light elves the deep elves, the sea elves, and you're like, Oh, I'm sorry what I was just being chased by spiders Give me a minute. Right? So your brief rundown is when the elves were awoken by the God.

Brandon  1:35:52

They were already in Middle Earth, right? And they were awoken in the time before the trees. Right? Very important because it's the beginning of Tolkien's legendarium there is no sun and moon yet.

Collin  1:36:07

The world is been lit by trees. Yes, it sounds weird, but they were

Brandon  1:36:16

trees. Originally it was lamps Morgoth destroyed the lamps and then there's trees, and then he destroyed us to square. But anyway. That's why elves love stars so much because they awoke. And that's all there was. Right? And so the elves journeyed west, they crossed the sea into Valentina. But not all of them went, and the ones that stayed became these wills. Right, they have never left the kind of like,

Collin  1:36:45

they're not as like,

Brandon  1:36:46

fancy and refined is the other elves. Right? It's like L Ron in them, because they have never actually left,

Collin  1:36:51

middle or. Right. And that's kind of the this is,

Brandon  1:36:56

this is how Tolkien explained how there's differences in the elf language. Right? There's two different dialects of Elvish. And it's because one group stayed and one group left and went to Vallnord. And so the language has some, like, grammatical and syntax differences. Because of this. It's very insane when you think about it like that. But yeah.

Collin  1:37:32

Yeah, anyway, captured, right. And this is

Brandon  1:37:36

where you found out is actually was elves gay? They were not hallucinating elves in the forest. Because they were like, Why did you attack my people? And he's like, What are you talking about?

Collin  1:37:48

Yeah, basically,

Brandon  1:37:49

like, Look at me. Who am I going to attack? No one. What are you talking about?

Collin  1:37:55

Yeah, yeah, we'll just find out. Lauren is in a dungeon in a cave dwelling basically at the edge of the forest. being interrogated by the Elven King. Yeah. You could say,

Brandon  1:38:08

a second instance of out of the frying pan into the fire. Oh, I'm sorry. I mean, escaping goblins to be caught by wolves. Of course. To say yes, obviously. Everyone does.

Collin  1:38:22

Yes, yes. Ah, yes. I mean, it gets a little it only gets testy whenever the Elven kings like, Yeah, but why were you in my would and throw in. And Doreen got angry because he doesn't want to tell him that he's on his quest for gold. Right. And what he's doing?

1:38:42

Yeah, yeah.

Brandon  1:38:43

You don't want to? Didn't want to bring that part. But it gets a little bit get they? Is this the part where they kind of Yeah, they start kind of, they kind of hint at the dislike between elves and dwarves here. A little bit. Right. Is that here? Is that in the next little bit here

Collin  1:39:02

again? Um, I think well, I I'm trying to think if it is here, but think it just talks about kind of the differences between them. Yeah. Oh, no, no, it does. It does talk about the old quarrel. Yeah. Yeah.

Brandon  1:39:25

So we get because, yeah, in

Collin  1:39:29

ancient days, he had had wars with some of the dwarves whom they had accused of stealing their treasure. And it's it is only fair to say the doors give a different account. Right. Very different

Brandon  1:39:39

all the same. Thorin is very upset because his group of dwarves right Durance folk, not involved in this little kerfuffle. at all and also Yes, happened very far away. Right. Nor Gorod, or whatever it is very far away from the Lonely Mountain where the Durance Folk was living, the thorn It's like it's not even my group of dwarves. So what are you so grumpy about?

Collin  1:40:03

Right? Yeah. Basically, the rundown here,

Brandon  1:40:07

deep lore lesson, last one for today. A long time ago in the First Age, right? The king, one of the kings of the elves had the dwarves make him a Nicolas. Right? Like everyone nice little, like a necklace.

Collin  1:40:28

And it Excuse me.

Brandon  1:40:34

It later became attached to the one of the summer reels, right. So Finrod obviously, because all elves in the First Age, their names start with F for some reason. Finrod had them make this necklace. Right. He was friends with the dwarves and they made it for him, right? And he treasured it. And he learned he loved the dwarves, right? He lived under a mountain and he built his fortress under a mountain. He advised he was like took advice from the dwarves and whatever. So they made him this necklace. Right? Well, the mountain gets invaded by a dragon, you know, as mountains do, apparently.

Collin  1:41:15

And later on, somebody takes the necklace out. Okay. And then it ends up in Dora is

Brandon  1:41:27

with the other with King thangal. And he has one of these Silmarils, which is like the power thing in the First Age.

Collin  1:41:38

Right? That like everybody is

Brandon  1:41:40

lusting over like way worse than the ring. Right? It's terrible. So he has it, and he has it set into this necklace.

Collin  1:41:49

It's called the Nagla mirror. Because of course it is talking.

Brandon  1:41:54

Why would you not call it that? Sounds good. That sounds good. Right?

1:41:57

So again, right? Now the dwarfs are like, Yo, single. We didn't make that necklace for you. So

Collin  1:42:11

it's ours actually now.

Brandon  1:42:13

Because this summer it corrupts everyone and the dwarves who like shiny things were corrupted very easily, and wanted the shiny thing. And then there was a whole kerfuffle about owning this necklace. Basically.

Collin  1:42:27

That's why the elves and dwarves

Brandon  1:42:30

are testy with each other. It's because they had a big fight over a big shiny necklace.

1:42:35

Look at that.

Brandon  1:42:36

Look at that. Look at it as the very short version, but that's why they're grumpy with each other shiny magic was necklaces make people angry at each other.

Collin  1:42:53

Alright, well we get well that that then you know that. That same thing will be revisited. Yes. It will be revisited very shortly. Um,

Brandon  1:43:04

for sure enough.

Collin  1:43:05

That's why that. Yeah, yeah,

Brandon  1:43:07

they go. Anyway. Dungeons of the Elves right? Because Bilbo and the rest of them also get

Collin  1:43:14

captured by elves. Well, when I say Bilbo Just kidding. Just Haha, yeah. Ah. Oh,

Brandon  1:43:25

yeah. starts doing the sneaky thing. Right. Yeah.

Collin  1:43:29

Next chapter. Chapter nine. arose out of bond is.

1:43:35

I mean, this is yet another kind of weird vamping chapter for sure. Just personally, because this one we sit, right, we sit for a little bit. And then there's a lot of action right at the very end. So now we are trapped in the halls

Collin  1:43:51

of the Wood Elf King. Right. And

Brandon  1:43:57

this is kind of weird that Bilbo is just sort of like existing invisibly for what appears to be a very large amount of time.

Collin  1:44:06

Yes, that this is a very weird chapter yet again, because like, not a whole lot happens in this is purely a character development or like, deepening or strengthening of self resolve for Bilbo. I guess I

Brandon  1:44:20

think that's he is that's a good way to think about it. Right? Yeah.

Collin  1:44:25

Because it's just like him existing kind of problem solving. And,

Brandon  1:44:31

like, there's a whole lot of time spent thinking about like, Okay, how do we get out of this one? And so he's just sort of like exploring the whole place. Before he does. This is very much how, like,

Collin  1:44:46

you play a video game, right? Like,

Brandon  1:44:48

he's not really doing anything. He's just like, going around and like checking stuff out. Check this door. Like this is how this is how you play Skyrim right. You're like, oh, what's behind this door?

Collin  1:44:59

Okay, cool. All right, okay, whatsoever, okay.

Brandon  1:45:03

Just sort of like getting the lay of the land, like, coming up with, like not really doing anything. That's what it made me think about like, is playing a video game right now he's just sort of wandering around getting some snacks every once in a while Steve wants some food, right?

Collin  1:45:21

That he felt bad about, like he felt bad about having to do that needing to do that. But also he didn't want to like, leave because he was really, really worried about being able to get back into the doors.

1:45:32

I mean, that's fair. Yeah. Like, I

Collin  1:45:35

didn't know. But he did like, but he would leave every now and then he'd follow like, the hunting parties and stuff every now and then. And guess like, I don't know. He just did it. I guess because he was bored or trying to see where they would go or because it for a while, I guess. I think he was trying to figure out like, where they were. And then he was like, I'm Yeah, don't worry about getting lost. I'm gonna go back.

Brandon  1:45:56

Yeah, I think that's kind of what it feels like. Right? He like goes out to see like, is this a viable

Collin  1:46:00

layout? Not really. Right. Like?

Brandon  1:46:06

Yeah, I think I feel like it's just him kind of exploring the grounds and trying to figure out, how are we going to get out of this? Right. And eventually, he does go and start to also they, he, all of the doors are together, except for Thor. And like, they don't know where Thor is still. Which is also kind of weird. And I mean, probably pretty bad for the dwarves, right? Like, they don't know, where Thorin is. So even though Bilbo kind of like, shows up to talk to some of the other doors. Like, they still don't know that Thorin is here. You know, he's like out somewhere else. And eventually, like, again, it feels like a very long time. They find him, right. And he's like, very surprised.

1:46:52

He's like, holy cow, Bilbo get usual.

Collin  1:46:57

Yeah. Because I mean, I think a couple times within this chapter, they say the phrase like, after a week or two, like after a week or two, like you get the sense that this is going on for a very long time.

Brandon  1:47:12

They're, they're very, they're stopped and detained for a long time. Which is crazy. Right? Like,

Collin  1:47:19

it's really weird. Then, below comes up with quite possibly the strangest plan of all plans, right. Like,

Brandon  1:47:32

and it's kind of like just sort of a happenstance thing, right? Like he, in all of his exploring,

Collin  1:47:38

he found this

Brandon  1:47:43

like, trapdoor thing, right? And sort of deduce what it was for and was like, alright, that's how we're getting out. Right? And he decides that they're going to stuffed themselves in wine barrels, and be jettisoned

Collin  1:47:58

out of the floor.

Brandon  1:48:01

And so before we go on, we need to talk about what a horrible system this is, this is the least efficient method I've ever heard of my entire life, right? I don't know if this has like a basis in historical accuracy. Or if Tolkien was just like, hey, this would be funny. But like, here's the plan listeners. Okay. So the elves, right? They take all of their wine barrels, or whatever, any barrels because all this stuff comes in barrels, I guess. And they just bring it into the river when they're done with it.

1:48:34

And camped downstream, I guess, permanently, is a place where people just fish barrels out of the river.

Brandon  1:48:45

Right? There's no telling when it's gonna happen, because there's no like, indication that there's barrels coming. So you just have to sit by river forever, and just wait for barrels to come. And they might not even come or they could get stuck like billows barrel. I mean, like jump ahead a little bit, their barrels almost got stuck on like sandbar thing.

Collin  1:49:06

Right? So like, this. This is a terrible system. It is very, very inefficient, right. But you would think

Brandon  1:49:15

the elves can do better than just Wingstop into the river and hope somebody finds it later. Like this is it's pretty terrible. What else? I got to say, this is not

Collin  1:49:27

fun, I guess then I was like, Well, you know, if they are just like, if there's just that much flow of goods and commerce between them and the lake town, I guess one could surmise that maybe like it makes it worth it because then they're not having to physically transport them down. But then what a weird job is just be camped out on a riverbank being like, Hey, yo, there's barrels there. Catch her?

Brandon  1:49:55

Yeah. And so like, again, I guess if this is a big trade, you could guess Like, this is happening every couple days. Yeah. Right. But you're waiting around every couple of days for just like,

Collin  1:50:07

a shipment of barrels.

Brandon  1:50:10

So maybe they're doing other if maybe they've people at this outpost have like other things to do. I would hope so. Right? We don't really know, because they don't like build lists and stick around. They build what doesn't know.

Collin  1:50:21

And, you know, maybe Tokat knows,

Brandon  1:50:25

but maybe it's one of those letters he wrote. I don't know. But yeah, this just seems like a really, I just wanted to state that I feel this is a supremely inefficient method of trade. Right. I feel

Collin  1:50:37

your your complaint is is noted. All right. Take it up. Okay. Good deal.

Brandon  1:50:47

All right. Anyway, back back to the plan. So after

Collin  1:50:50

he actually comes up with this. He even he has this idea, right. But then he like even in a more fortuitous, or is it event like he the timing of this is also very just like, Go Go, go, go go? Yeah, right. It's

Brandon  1:51:10

a little Deus Ex Machina, right. They're like, well, I just came up with this plan to escape. Just so happens. There's a party tonight.

Collin  1:51:20

Ah, ah. But anyway, you know,

Brandon  1:51:29

I did like, the part where Bilbo just like, shows, like he kind of plans this whole thing out, and he doesn't really bother telling anybody else. It doesn't really feel like because he shows up and he's like, Come on, let's go. Follow me. And they're just like, where he's like, yes. I like again, like, I think these two chapters sort of, they are a big Bilbo kind of like, arc of like, self discovery. And there's a lot of growth for Bilbo personally in these chapters. Because they get down there, and the doors like, I'm not going to these barrels, and he just looks at him, it goes fine. You can go sit yourself and wait for another opportunity. Good luck. Great.

Collin  1:52:13

I'm going very well done, right? It's very like, Oh, okay.

Brandon  1:52:19

And I feel like, earlier, Bilbo would not have said that. Right. Like, he's already been through some real weird stuff. And he's like, I don't want to be in this thinking thing anymore.

Collin  1:52:30

Let's go.

Brandon  1:52:33

You got a better plan, come up with it, where you can stay here.

Collin  1:52:36

I really, I think that sort of

Brandon  1:52:38

interaction really kind of showcases just how much Bilbo has grown kind of already. Yeah. Kind of like his character development as a bit more confident about his ability to be in the outside world, right? Maybe, maybe it was the slaying of the spiders that has bolstered this newfound confidence.

Collin  1:52:56

Right, I think a little bit is also he's a bit he's a bit tired of being where he is. And he I think, just for him personally, he's also in the, in the mindset of like, we're like, this is what's happening. Like, I'm not staying here anymore. Like, we need to do this. And we just need to get out of here. Yeah, cuz it

Brandon  1:53:17

mentions here and then a little like a little earlier, kind of the last time or two it alluded to, like, he doesn't like this, like being trapped underground. Yeah, he's not really a fan. And the the text even kind of goes out of the way to say like, now you you may think that's a weird thing for a hobbit to say, because they like live underground. But like, it's a house with like, sit down, and snacks in a fireplace and window, Home Comfort, comfortable things. And he's trapped in this, like, dingy cave, hiding out, you know, in these, like random alcoves all day long, trying to not be bumped into by? Yeah, I think he's like on edge. He's like real tense. He want this. He sees a way out. And he's like, let's go. He really is. But yeah, but it is an interesting distinction, that Bilbo is a hobbit who lives in a hole in the ground. That's what it says. But he does not really like being underground. That much. Right? Possibly, because all of his experiences underground in this book have been horrible. And so he's just like, super over it. Right?

Collin  1:54:29

Yeah, so far, all the times he has been underground, nothing like his hobbit hole, and he is really not happy at all. Yes, or in

Brandon  1:54:37

the forest like felt aggressive as if you were underground. It makes that sort of connection here. So we've learned that Bilbo does not really like being underground, which is a problem because his end goal is under a mountain. So we'll get that plays out for him. Right, we'll see if it addresses that, you know, in leader,

Collin  1:55:03

they have maps, maps.

Brandon  1:55:09

Anyway, he convinces them after the car, sneak some like super wine, right? They're like, Oh, just take it. They're like the guards are wasted. They fall asleep. And they're this is the chance they're away. Right? I do like this other part where Bilbo has this big, elaborate plan. And he's like, got it all planned out. And they've gotten different barrels over a trapdoor. And they've got all the dwarves in there. And he's packed them in carefully. And he's even put some like straw and other stuff so they don't bump their heads. And he gets the last one sealed. And he looks at them. And he goes, Oh, wait,

Collin  1:55:49

where's my Oh, it's wonderful. It's, I feel like this is me. Right? This is how you get like, This is amazing. Going great. And then all of a sudden, you're like, Oh, yeah. Oh, there is also like one very obvious thing. That's not. Not here. Yeah, my name. Oh, it's for me. Oh, I was trying to find exactly with where he were like, because in the book, there's a very presents that where it's like now, like, you may have already realized build those mistake or something like I was trying to find that language in the book because it is. Yeah, it's like, Oh, yes. Most likely, you saw it coming. It was just this moment that discovered the weak point in his plan. Most likely, you saw some time ago and had been laughing at him. But I don't suppose you would have done half as well yourselves in his place. Of course, he was not in a barrel himself. Nor was there anyone to write a book? Yeah, I mostly Yes. Love that. Yeah, it's

Brandon  1:57:13

hilarious, right. And I just feel like that's a very relatable moment, right? Because I think we've all done that, like in some capacity, right? You like, are getting, you know, like serving dinner or something and you bring like everybody's drink, and then you sit down you go,

Collin  1:57:27

Oh, wait. There's something missing here.

Brandon  1:57:33

And so nobody just decides, well, they're closing the gate. There's nothing for it. I hope I can grab one of these suckers and into the river. Which also is a big moment of growth, right? Because this is

Collin  1:57:50

not thought through. Right? We're sort of just hoping things go okay.

Brandon  1:57:57

But it also speaks to how much he doesn't want to be here anymore. And he doesn't want the he's also worried about the dwarfs right? This whole time. Like he's hanging on to a barrel. Right? He's like, almost drowning. And he is also just like, worried about them, which is also very interesting character trait here, right? You get a lot of that, like, Oh, I was hoping that they were quite alright. Hope that there wasn't too much water in their barrels, you know, that kind of thing. So that that's also kind of just like his personality coming through where he is. He's still playing that consummate host that he was in the beginning. Right? Like even though there's all these weird doors in his house, he doesn't want them there. He wants to make sure they have enough food and drink. Even though it's like a weird twist. He's like, even though he's looking down some raging river, like holding on to a barrel he's still worried about the other people and hoping that they're okay even though he isn't a horribly precarious such

Collin  1:58:53

as he's coming along because I do hope I put the lids on tighten up a wondered what the dwarves were feeling and whether a lot of water was getting to their tub. Meanwhile, he's hanging on to the exterior of a tub being banged around and half drowning himself and being very cold as well. And it's yeah, it's you're right that that consummate host somebody who's always worried about the well being of others in spite of themselves. Yeah, right. Now,

Brandon  1:59:23

he sort of makes up for it whenever they do, like they get down there they finally they are collected by the aforementioned barrel collector people. Right.

Collin  1:59:35

But, like he, he like, while all the doors had

Brandon  1:59:41

to be stuck still in their barrels and things he was on. He is now free to like sneak away and steal more snacks. Right? This is his thing like he's kind of the problem is he's wet and his sneaking is impaired by his wetness because he leaves leaving like wet footprints on things when he's walking around. So he's having to try to get by a fire, but he can't be too close because people will see him. And like, it's a very nerve wracking part here. He's like very on edge still, he tries to find a place to sleep, even though it's like freezing because he's soaked because he's been, you know,

Collin  2:00:15

in the water for a very long amount of time. There's like a very weird

Brandon  2:00:22

juxtaposition. Because like, the people out here are like, having a good time, and they're cooking and stuff. And he has to like, be miserable, and like, sneak off into the woods and do whatever. And although the dogs have it worse, because they're stuck in the barrel. Overnight. Yes. And

Collin  2:00:42

he's kind of getting sick, too. Right? That's the other thing. He's Yeah, he's dripping by. Yeah, cuz he was out in the night or cold, right? Yeah, cuz he's cold. Yeah,

Brandon  2:00:58

this is the thing that your grandparents warned you about? Were in the cold. You build those condoms off a sniffle. And so that makes sneaking even harder. Because he even like milk himself up by sneezing, right?

Collin  2:01:17

So

Brandon  2:01:18

that's, that's kind of where we are. And the chapter even ends on that little bit of tension, right? Because, you know, they had escaped the dungeons of the king, and we're through the wood. But whether alive or dead still remains to be seen. Because the doors are still in the barrel. So he doesn't actually know if they all made it.

Collin  2:01:39

Right, which is kind of a crazy thing. So he has that to worry about also. Yes, yes. We have to open them to see. And but yeah, it's good. This chapter is is very much just for my opinion, just it's purely about character development for Bilbo. And obviously, it does other things as well. It exposes us and introduces us to some characters who will come into play later. The, the, the rivalries or the histories between certain people groups, which comes up to play later and but, but really, from my perspective, it's just about like, this confidence, this newfound competence, this leadership, this like this, it just has to be done kind of thing that the Bilbo was learning about himself along the way.

Brandon  2:02:33

Yeah, right. Like, I feel like, I feel like this is a little bit even though talking, of course, never has self insert moments. Right?

Collin  2:02:43

Never know. This is like a very, like,

Brandon  2:02:48

British attitude to have about things. Right? Like, the like, oh, this really sucks. Alright, carry on. Like, this, like, very, like,

Collin  2:03:01

stiff, stiff upper lip, right.

Brandon  2:03:03

There you go. That's very good. When you think about those, like, keep calm and carry on signs, right? Like, the world is going crazy. The bombs are falling. There's become like, it's very, like, I feel like sometimes in this moment, like Bilbo is James, man. Right? That's kind of you know, not too far off. No, not really.

Collin  2:03:30

Yeah, it's kind of plugging along. Yeah.

Brandon  2:03:33

Who's gonna get on with it? Right? Can't be bothered. This is terrible. No, we have to get on because we're not going to stop here. No one sit on the side of the bank. We won't be stuck in this cave. We don't want to be eaten by spiders. We don't want to be you know, whatever. Like, I'll just go for it. So like, this is very like, he's very like poking. Just sort of attitude. pride yourself. Yep. Gonna keep going. Yeah, we go, we come to the end of chapter

Collin  2:04:04

on to a warm welcome. Indeed, did chapter. Yes.

Brandon  2:04:14

These ones are short documents. So that'd be nice. It felt like the last two. Were there like a bit too long? Right? Because like you said, it is like a lot of development and a lot of like internal things, but they're also just like,

Collin  2:04:27

kind of they do go on a bit, but should you go

Brandon  2:04:31

out to bid so you go. That's it. I just want to say that too. Like it's a little bit draggy at some point, but it's all good. We have had some growth. So we will see how the growth plays out in the future. What will this newfound Bilbo, ba able to accomplish? Right, we'll be able to rise above and keep his stiff upper lip.

Collin  2:04:56

Indeed, we will have done that. Okay that's good. That's good. Okay, well, yeah, until next time,

Brandon  2:05:08

until next time. Bye right