touch the weather

Wanna play a game? Brandon has jigsaw fever, and has recommendations for what makes a good group puzzle. Collin has not made any modifications to his car…yet…where did that snorkel come from? Brandon has window gripes and Collin has been on-boarding new staff.

• Jigsaw puzzle time

• What makes a good one? The collage puzzle!

• Modifications to vehicles

• Embrace the danger

• Overlanding

• Hiring and on-boarding

• Holiday headache time!

• New windows in the classroom

• Touch the weather

• Negative in context

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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE

PROVIDED BY OTTER.AI

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, windows, veterans, fine, puzzle, car, classroom, important, collage, problem, bad, week, assembly, coloring, broken, situation, seat, floor, understand, road

SPEAKERS

Collin, Brandon

Collin  00:04

Welcome to Oh, brother, a podcasts of three brothers trying to figure it all out with your hosts, Brandon, Colin, and Aaron. On this week's show, touch the weather. Oh boy. Oh boy.

00:22

I don't know what we're gonna do with another recording, because that was kind of weird. So what are the recording? What are they? Exactly? Exactly what's on the shows on the show? So yes, it is another day. It's nice outside. It's what's new. Luckily.

00:46

I had another bout yesterday, we had some friends over to hang out, have some dinner? And, you know, hang out in we did another jigsaw puzzle. So it's fine

01:00

with us. As one does as one does,

01:05

we did big jigsaw puzzle yesterday.

01:10

Do you use what makes a good jigsaw puzzle in your brain?

Brandon  01:16

Okay, so for this particular activity, of doing jigsaw puzzles with your friends, what you need. The key here is the collage, jigsaw puzzle. Right? So it really helps.

01:32

In this circumstance, if you want to hang out with your friends. If you want to put a puzzle together with others, right? You need a collage, jigsaw puzzle, because that way, everybody can focus on individual parts. And then you can just sort of slap them together at the end. Right, right. It's a much better process. We did one one time, that was like a picture picture that that was tough. Not so good. It was hard. It was hard mode. So the more collage II the better. Right. The last one we did before this was like super collage II, it was like book covers. And so it was like all very square individual, like everything was like, oh, that's yes, we did that one in like, no time, like church really like two, three hours done. This one took longer, because I had a lot of like middling

Brandon  02:27

stuff. Right. But this one is movie puns. So Oh, that makes up for it. Yeah. So that was good.

02:37

It was pretty, it was hard. But it was pretty good. But the collage bits help? Well, you can be like, Okay, I'm going to work on this area. Yeah, no, I'm going to work on this area, I'm going to do this section. Because then you can kind of be sitting at all different spots on the table and just do whatever. But still working on the same thing. Yeah. It makes the division of labor much better. Right? Because, you know, like, Oh, I'm doing this, and I'm doing this, and I'm doing this. And so it's fine.

Brandon  03:09

It's all right. In the end, it gets very stressful, because everybody has like slightly different

03:17

theories about how the end of a puzzle should work. Right? Oh, so that is intriguing. It gets wildly stressful, because I'm like, stop, I'll be like, stop

Brandon  03:30

focusing on this, because some of them one of my friends, she will do is she will get a piece. And she will just stare at that one piece and decide where this one piece goes. She will scrutinize it to death. And say what do you suppose this is? Where it is this go? Lab level?

03:52

Justice, they're the one piece for like effort. Yeah. Now we're at the end of

Brandon  03:58

a puzzle. I'm like, does this color look broadly similar?

04:00

Is it the right shape? I'm just gonna try all the pieces that look the right shape and just like black black, swapping them in pretty fast. Yeah. But you know, it's good to have both of those approaches working at the same time. So that you can kind of get, you know, kind of rolls through yourself is are. putting puzzles

04:20

together is definitely a situation where having different approaches can is is really beneficial. It is infuriating, in the moment when you're well, yeah,

Brandon  04:30

but when you're almost done, there's like 50 pieces left. Plus, you're always waiting. Because there is a rule that when you're putting a puzzle together, somebody will inevitably say are you sure we've got all the pieces?

04:48

Yeah. And then you have that moment where it's like you're not missing any pieces and then you stop and look at the floor and you check it out. Right? That happens all the time because there's an interesting situation that happens in puzzle When you get done and like this your spatial awareness becomes obscured. So you're looking at this like massive puzzle. But what with what looks like a large number of empty spaces in it, right? Look at your

Brandon  05:19

pieces. And your brain is struggling to go. Your brain always goes, there's literally no way that you can fit in there and it'll be full. Yep, every possible every, every single time that happens. It's usually fine. Right? There was one time where definitely wasn't fine. But other than that, it's the one time Yeah,

05:46

you know, there's extenuating circumstances. But like, it's fine, it's fine. But somebody will always say, Are you sure there's enough pieces here? Last night, I was just waiting for it. Ah, there it is. Right. That means we're almost done. We're gonna signal that's a sign that someone doubted our ability to fit it means invariably we are almost done.

Brandon  06:15

So it's fine. Yeah, that's basically all stay with me. I did a puzzle way until way too late last night. Oh, man. Yeah, that's about it. And as that is my exciting life right there. There we go. Full of excitement and wonder. Sounds wonderful. Yeah, yes. Well, I'm

06:44

continuing to learn things about the GX. And different does different stuff. I haven't quite figured out patterns of when it will do certain things and will when it won't do certain things because the car definitely does. Hardly does things. So one of the things that it does is it will,

07:05

when you

07:07

it will assist you in changing the position of the seat and steering wheel to help you get out of the car easier. It kind of gets everything kind of expands out and moves everything away, so it's easier to get out. However, it's really cute into whether you have the seat buckle plugged in or not. If you're buckled and you turn off the car, nothing changes. But the moment you unbuckle it the the steering wheel retracts and moves higher and the seat moves back and lower. And then when you get back in, you press start it all kind of collapses back together and unfolds you in the little cockpit. This is this is fine. You can turn this feature off it has. Okay good. I was like, my, my brain was going no, I don't Yeah, you can definitely there's a there are three settings is off. Um, I forget what it's called, like, not mild. But then like extreme. I don't, I don't remember the terms. Like a word like if it's off the seat doesn't change position at all. If it's the up one tear changes, just just a little bit. And then the other one is like, slams you on the floor and like really spread through a bar, which is

08:18

I think it was like us like I have I don't know, like my mind is thinking about something and I don't know where it comes from but like it was like a sci fi car right where you like get in like the cockpit like slides over the top of your head like exactly you fighter like,

08:33

like an ROTC motorcycle or something. Yeah, and the steering wheel comes down in their lap right in there, they launch off into space. Yes, it definitely feels like that when the car is moving and adjusting you. I really liked this however, when you have children and, and all of a sudden the seat starts to like cold turkey. It's like the it's like the trash compactor scene from Star Wars, right? They're watching this wall move closer and closer to them. So it's definitely turning off. Where it's like okay, maybe I'll I won't have this on full full bore is is is definitely a nicety. And then it does this other thing when you put it again. It has done this and I don't know the exact conditions under which it does this every single time I've been trying to pin it down. It um, when you put it in reverse the the side mirrors automatically adjust downward, so that you can see you know, your corners, right when you're backing up. It's really that's that's really nice. Um, but it hasn't done it every time. But then every time I put it into reverse I'm not in the same situation. So I'm trying to figure out when it decides it needs to do it versus when not to is my

09:51

current conundrum. does. Does that mean it's like not working properly?

09:58

Well, that because I was doing some reading there. It's broken, but like I was just Yeah.

10:02

Like every once in a while, you know,

10:05

right. Yeah. All all these things have like, usually that is the case, but I was reading and people were saying that it doesn't, it doesn't in certain circumstances. And I think it has to do with, with OTS with with Proximity Detection, if it thinks you're close to something, it will do it versus not, which is an interesting,

Brandon  10:23

interesting plan. Like, if it thinks there's a small turtle behind your car, it'd be like, Whoa.

10:31

Yes. Terrible. Eazy E for sure. So, I know, it's been been interesting. So far. But yeah, I definitely am perfectly ready to get into some snow. And I not that I have. But you know, there are gravel, as I say, there are, there are many, many a Facebook group dedicated to enthusiast that you can join, to talk about modifications that people make to the vehicles, which is an interesting thing, where people are like, Oh, I'm gonna buy this luxury SUV. And then I want to change everything about

Brandon  11:21

this nose, I am fixing my elbows to the table and resting my palms, rubbing your temples, yes, rubbing my eyes with my palm pilots, this lands, things like shaking my head back and forth ever so slowly. It's things

Collin  11:36

like I watched a video about how to add USB ports to the center console for the back seat. Is that is that a great modification that you can make so that people in the center can charge their devices, and they'll be fine, you can make that there's a little bit handle. And then the wiring is really easy. And

11:57

there's one thing I've learned in my years of life, people lie and say things like, the wiring in the car is easy. It's never easy matter how it works. Well, something always goes straight into like, what is why is this doing that? I don't get it.

12:15

Yes, I have watched many videos of them removing the head unit and the wiring behind that. And I'm like, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. No, thank you,

Brandon  12:23

man. Even my friend's dad when I was younger, he was a Volkswagen enthusiast, right? And even on something as simple wiring as a Volkswagen. Okay. Every once in a while things would happen. Like you'd wire some he would wire something and then he would like turn the blinker on and the windshield wipers would move. Sure, wait a minute.

12:48

Something horn

12:50

goes off, you're like, Oh, hold on. Well, that's not right. That's

12:54

well, and then the thing that the other thing that that I get into my brain of they're all these things where you watch the video, and it truly is a 30 minute process, you're not really diving into the guts or anything, you're just dealing with, you know, very surface level, adding features. The thing that I keep coming back to is, to me, it's a few things are more annoying in a vehicle than when body internal body panels squeak and creak and move. And a really good way to make sure this happens very quickly, is to take them on and off a couple times

13:32

to have children in your car.

13:36

Well, well, that that to where they're stress tested constantly. But then to add that well, you know, because you know, like once when their records are all like clipped on now, they're all clipped on into those little plastic clips, and the spacers all those were out and when you if you're putting it on and off. So it's like, okay, what are if people go, Oh, we just do the upgrades over time. And I'm like, first off, take the door off time makes notes. The little tab is gonna break. And you gotta like some guys like oh, you can add this thing and then come back into and it's like, I have to remove the head. The control unit, you know, the center console thing, like three separate times. No, that is not what I was wanting to do at all.

Brandon  14:25

If you're going to be going in off road mode, a little bit of squeaking is what you want. Right you need some squeak Enos delete some feedback from the call. Yeah, you let you let you know that you're off road. Right. Whenever things in the car are shifting and making weird creaking noises

14:40

That's the you know, right. That's yeah, that's what all off road enthusiast centerstand like to be making odd noises so like, that's means you're doing it right. So Fine. Also, the problem nowadays is like your watch for the things there'll be like if you don't want to take this panel off you just all you got to do You download my link for the 3d printed access. No, no, no, no.

15:08

You're Yeah. I do need a 3d printer. You're right. Yeah, I

15:13

do. But I also don't because I really understand how they I don't know how to use it. So like that would be a broken thing in a hurry. I imagined

15:22

lots lots of melted plastic and yeah, burning on the floor. Yeah. Yeah, I actually did a meet and greet the other day with a client. And they were actively 3d printing something in the back room and boy did it smell.

15:38

Yeah, some of them are like Mega loud to like, yeah.

15:41

I was not prepared for just the smell of heat, which in my brain is always like, anytime you smell that where it's like the plastic or rubber is hot. Like that's, that is immediate.

15:54

Except in additive manufacturing, so it's fine.

15:58

Embrace the danger, right? That's what so, no, I haven't gotten into 3d printing car parts yet. But now that you mention it, it would be fun to be able to 3d print one of those little clips whenever you break five of them treasuring panel. Listeners,

Brandon  16:13

that's how it starts, I want you to make sure that you understand that you're here at the beginning of times, Collins gonna start with all I gotta do is attach this thing and I can have USB connectors in my back seat. How long listeners is it before he goes, Oh, I got the thing. I just plug it into the engine and I can tinker with the compression on my cylinder heads to get maximum gas mileage for off road mode. Yeah, yeah, it doesn't

16:37

help that like I just have

16:38

I just just I just plug in my laptop and I hit this button and I just auto selects my new tune for the type of weather revenue that day. It's totally easy, man. Yeah, it's fine. Like,

16:49

it does not help that on a daily basis. I drive by a store called overland addict. Magic not help. The worst route cannot drive by their rock back home with like gas cans on the roof. What No, yeah, a modded front bumper, and changing the suspension and tire size and avidly. What people love to do in the GX is they throw away the rear seats, which it gives them some more depth and then they build custom cabinets in the back for storage. Yeah.

17:26

Setting accessories.

17:29

Clearly, this is a business expense. Exactly. This is

17:33

obviously, right tomorrow, but by next Friday gonna come home. They're gonna be like these steps sides here. Yeah, no, yeah, those were great. They were Yeah, they came with a car we're talking about. Oh, this

17:47

the snorkel. Yeah, that was in the back when we bought it. I just got it. I just think

Brandon  17:51

it just wasn't attached. You know? It was. Yeah, it was sitting in the back. You didn't see. It's fine. Like this gas can Yeah.

18:03

I didn't tell you that. The hood scoop. Yeah, they had a spearhead for this. And I just finally got it. Were on to getting that. Yeah, no, it's the shackles and

18:11

winch. Yeah. The, you know, they they said the it came with the car. But they didn't have it attached yet. So I had to go back and do

18:19

that. Pick that up. Yeah, it was part of the package that came with it. They were fixing it for

18:23

me though. Yeah. So I got it all.

18:27

Yeah, I haven't I haven't stopped at the store. But it's definitely a siren flippin siren call, or just want to let you know, I just want to stop in and just say hi. That's where it starts. And,

18:39

you know, talk shop. That's that's I don't know if you're ready. Totally. Okay. That's a commitment. Walking in that door. Is a commitment. Yeah. Okay, you're need to be you need to be fully prepared. What's about to happen? Like, if you go through that door,

18:56

I know. I

Brandon  18:57

know. It's one of those doors that you can't and go through. This is like, this is the problem. This is once you're in, you'll be like, you'll be in that store and you'll be like just, you know, just maybe want to scrap

19:13

it. Can I can take this out just to see how it would fit or look. Yeah, you're closer to France. I need to straighten

19:23

and then you'll be like, well, this is bumper guard is actually pretty good. Really when you think about it for for all the use I'm using out of the back and with all these petsitting accessories that I'm taking in and out of the back. This bumper guard really is really is a key feature.

19:46

No, I know. I know my Achilles heel. My Achilles heel will be

19:51

the phrase. Do you have some just

19:54

slightly more aggressive tires? That Oh no. That's the phrase I'm worried out of my tread

20:05

pattern just because what I was the inside of my car is too quiet. What I really need is a tire hum. On the road. I just need to hear like something that's driving

20:15

simple. really help me wait long dries really monotonous. And yeah, going

20:22

to luxurious and quiet and more road noise. Really that's what I need in my life. I need more road noise

20:31

we got in terms of so I'm staying away from that store. Because I know.

20:42

Oh, no, wait, here it is. I found it. You know, I do do a lot of pets at night. So this light bar might like, oh, I mean, roof lights on up to southwest Missouri House at night. Like

21:05

if I Yeah. The light of 1000 suns. I'd appreciate it for say it's for safety is what we want to make sure the safety

21:14

make sure yeah, for safety purposes. Yeah, the spotlights totally important. Obviously,

21:20

if the dog gets loose, somebody has to go and find it. Yeah. So

21:27

it's Casey, Casey lights on the front, right. And it's definitely

21:31

important. So I'm staying away from the overlanding store. I do i It's a very interesting angle like attached to the outside. That's what you need. On the back of the back, swing gate, what they do is they've reinforced the hinges, and then they put up more racks on the outside of your swing of the gate so that you can really load up more stuff there. And rails and your yes and your unnecessary. But yeah, overlanding really took off the last two years, three years, because flights were crazy. And everyone went well, I'll just drive everywhere. A gas was really cheap. So the every like, there's a huge, huge community who went out bought for runners, G X's Land Cruisers, and 565 70s. And they also bought a ton of like full size trucks, like hundreds, and then kitted them out to go trailing in driving long distances, and camping and living out of them as well.

22:32

Oh, are you gonna get a roof tent?

22:35

I so badly want a roof tent. It's really,

22:39

really cool looking. Yeah. So what you do with having no experience with actually using one

22:45

kind of RAD and once you once you can do with this is you can actually have a roof tent that pops up and have the roof part. And then you have a ladder that comes down across the back. But you leave your swing gate open. So you descend into another tented area that's being kept open by your wide swing gate off the back. And so you can move seamlessly from the interior of your car where all of your new cabinets and storage bins and cooking areas into your living quarters which are on

23:16

the high tech modification of like supergluing a penny over the little sensor so you don't wear your battery down. Yeah, yeah, the light doesn't come on every time you open the rear gate. You just have to switch. You push the button. Okay, now that's fine. Yeah. haunts people.

23:37

That's what we're all about here. Yeah, only the highest technology. And

23:44

that other guy would pull the panel off and route it to a switch. But no, no, no. Glue a dime on that. VR will be okay.

23:51

Yes, everything will be fine. So, yes, that is. That's the that's the status of that. Exciting. I know, I know. So no modifications to modifications not modified. No, no, we're not. Can't can't do that. I need you to

24:17

get it broken in first. I said yes. Yes,

24:22

I know. A few miles on it. Yeah. Then we'll really start seeing how we can improve this baby. That's what I want. I want to I think I'm an Engineer Engineer that Lexus, Lexus, Lexus Toyota. I know what this car really needs. Don't tell me otherwise. Don't be silly.

24:46

Of course, how could they?

24:48

Which is why? Which is why I'm trying to focus more on the under this like the internal comforts of like, oh, add some chargers here. Not like let's change how this color completely handles the rode and how it functions. That's what I that's what I'm an expert at.

25:03

I mean, it's just baby steps to the same.

25:07

I just say get comfortable playing with it. That's

25:11

the practice soldering. That's really what I need. You know,

25:14

when I get to that point where I'm soldering I just send over the health

25:35

so anything else exciting happening in the land other than Oh, not modifying your number, not modifying the definitely not definitely not if,

25:47

well, no, nothing, nothing very exciting onboarding a bunch of new new hires. So that's fun. So the next two weeks will be miserably exhausting. But hopefully, the end is in sight of all of that. I'm sitting over here with just before we were recording, I'm glad that you had a delay in updating because I got notification of the Amazon driver was getting ready to deliver at the office, which I'm at the office, so that's good. But also, the towards the outside is very much locked on the weekend. And so it's sprint to the front door, because the delivery driver was just turning their back to the door because it was locked. Oh, going to take away things that I need to hand to my new staff. No, no, no, come back, sir. I did. Open up. I was like, I'm here. I forgot it was locked. Okay, I'm sorry. So I have my bottles of mace and my first aid kits, so we're all good.

26:48

Well, hey, there we go. We got an onboard package.

26:54

Here's a weapon and here's how to fix it. Yeah,

26:57

that's a weird first give. You give them context. You're just like, Okay, here's some of your stuff. What's

27:07

up the main, the mace is a citronella based animal deterrent spray. Dogs are very sensitive to citronella. And they stay away from it. So you can spray this at them. It also works on people too. So

27:26

it's kind of a a better, more one. But yeah, exactly.

27:31

It's a two part. And then the first, the first aid kit is just a very basic, it's not a very basic, it's a slightly upgraded from that it's more of a

27:41

I went for a trail, first aid

27:45

kit, because it assumes you have less things accessible to you. So you get more items with that kind of

27:54

starting starting base. So it's

27:58

because you can get some like really super basic ones. I hear some tweezers and some gauze and I'm like a band aid right a little bit more than that. So yeah, when people come on board, they get

28:12

a cool at poop bags, keys.

28:14

Nice first aid kit. Later they get there they get a shirt and a hoodie. All sorts of good stuff going on.

28:25

Like a mace comes before shirt or like the priorities here. Hey,

28:29

yes. Part Part of that is this is also cheaper than shirt probably so it's actually cheaper than shirt cuz I don't have to custom design the shirt.

28:39

It's definitely cheaper than hoodie. So like yeah, 100% Confirmed.

28:44

Hoodie comes a bit later. In the process, make sure people stick around. Basically, I give them everything that can be returned that's not customized to them. Like the the one size fits all hat. I'll give you that. Thanks. I'll give you the mace and first aid kit that you will return. And so here so yeah, just getting all that kind of stuff ready. And

29:12

it's gonna be gonna be a hectic week.

29:14

I already started pre onboarding some people today. Tomorrow, we hit the ground running with new staff. And then next weekend onboarding two people for weekends. So hopefully that'll get us covered. That's the new new innovative procedure of when when one person we used to or model used to be when one person leaves you hire two people. This time one person left we hired five so it's a plan. Yeah, it's already working out because one person shadowed for one day and said Oh, nevermind. So great. I still have backups. This is why because people just they just don't know it's not their fault. And I I mean, I go through I am a I talk a lot about what we do. But until you're in a visit, you don't really know what to experience, or how the process of moving from one visit to next to the next really works. So we do our best

30:13

to,

30:17

to give them as much information as possible, but we fully understand that they've got to, they've got to put it in an evening, or an afternoon or a weekend to get an idea of what that actually looks like, and how we implement stuff. And so that's, I recognize that they may have an idea, I can explain it, as much as I know how they can watch a video that can listen to my podcasts about it. But until you're actually in house, doing a visit, you really learn Oh, this is not what I thought or whatever. So I was I had been driving about the city and stopping in at coffee shops to work or get a coffee, I had been talking to the baristas, and seeing if they're interested in that setting to be just be like, Hey, are you? Are you looking at what you are you looking for? Just like, you know, like, five hours a week? Would that want to play with dogs?

31:10

How do you feel about pets and sitting?

31:13

Come to my company?

31:17

Yeah, totally that guy coaching the baristas man. It's hard

31:29

not to steal people. But also I'm going Hey,

31:31

like they probably like basically, I'm trying to think of

31:35

who has like, part time jobs, or even full time jobs that would be looking for something extra periodically. Like that's kind of where my brain is right now. And targeting those people to talk to. And usually, usually it starts with my bit my intro is I come in with a flyer with a couple flyers and some business cards. And I say, Oh, do you have a community board where I could post about my business? And they

32:00

always ask, What's your business?

32:05

Look, and then I can't if they have a community board, I can cloud hosting. Or if they either way, I can talk about my business. Why I even did, I even did a meet and greet the other day. And the person I was talking to. I was asking some questions. And she said this phrase of, well, when when I trained this, we always had them take the litter out to the trash. And I paused and I went, trained who she went, Oh, I used to manage a pet sitting company in the early 2000s. And I went I'm hiring there there's an application on our website. i Please

32:51

send you a link right now.

32:54

I was really close to be like, here's a direct link. So trying to get the word out anyway now that's all that's all the fun stuff we've got going on.

33:14

Unfortunately, that's there's not too much in the world of, of outside of that looking around my office currently saying Is there anything new or?

Brandon  33:26

No? No. What about you? Um, I don't think so. I'm just doing some

33:39

stuff. holiday time set for holiday headache time. So but I don't need to tell you that because it's like your busiest time of the year ever. So.

33:50

So much fun. Yeah. So for you it's a headache because of the time constraint or just that. Yeah. And I'm sure also the just the general distracted pneus and unattentive nature of the kids kind of during that.

Brandon  34:05

Yeah, the whole like, the whole, like, yeah, we're distracted. We're off topic. We're all doing our stuff, because it's like, oh, we're gonna be in school for like, two weeks, and then we're gonna be off for a week. And then we've got three, three something more weeks. It's Christmas time. So it's like, um, need to sort of plan out my, my life here. What is going on? How does this work? So just sort of thinking about that. Trying to plan my life accordingly. Hoping that my new windows in my classroom didn't just leak disastrously on Friday. Oh, mystery time.

34:48

What a wonderful mystery to walk into tomorrow.

Brandon  34:51

Yeah. I don't really know. I was very grumpy about this whole situation anyway, so like

35:00

Don't know. Basically, here's what happened. All right. So, last Monday, I was in service day. So no kids, but I had to be at

Brandon  35:15

school doing stuff, right. So I was like, Okay, I'm gonna come in a little bit early, and I'm going to do some stuff up. I walk into my classroom and

35:24

it's destroyed. Right? Like, my desk is all moved. My computer's all messed up. My desks are all moved sideways.

Brandon  35:35

Because they had replaced the windows in my classroom.

35:39

Yeah, but like, you didn't know about this. No. Now. Now, I don't know. I was.

Brandon  35:47

I don't really have words describe my anger on this family friendly show. But know that rage inducing, is where I was at. It was so mad. were so angry. These people came in they just like destroyed all my stuff. They like screwed up everything is the whole deal. So I was like, really angry. They tried to put I have those like, you know, those really like terrible school pulldown shades. Uh huh. Right. So I have those in my room. But like,

36:18

they have to be put up just so otherwise they don't work. Right? Did they bother to put them back? Just so no, of course not. No, no. Why would we do that? Why would we ever do anything like that? Exactly. Was like cement dust? All over my classroom? There was broken glass. On the floor. Oh, I don't really know.

36:44

I don't really know how they did that. That was a mystery. Like, what? Are you idiots doing that you broke all this glass? What is going on? Why

Brandon  36:50

are you so incompetent? Like, like big hunks to like, this is like safety glass. Like, really understand, like what you did here like, just like industrial window like safety rating glass. So like, I don't know how they broke it. But they did. That's crazy. So it was just like everywhere. So I've spent like, all week like fixing this junk and like, my windows look bad? Because I don't think they're done. And so there's like these huge gaps between the window and the cement wall where the old windows used to be. So like,

37:33

I didn't trust that they're finished properly. Right? Me I wouldn't either. Like, you know, could they be done? Maybe? Where they all sealed up? 100% properly? I don't know. So I lined the windows with like, just mop heads, right, just in case because it rained really, really bad. I made like along on the windowsill. Yeah. And then some on the floor under the window just

Brandon  37:59

so we'll see. Tomorrow, test run. We'll see how that went. But I was so incredibly angry about holdest thing. And then my boss was like, oh, today I want to meet with you guys and talk about your frustrations. And I was like, No, you don't know.

38:18

No. Cool. Now hold down period.

38:23

You don't want that like today you're always talking about how, what the struggle is for like finding the balance between doing something like pleasing others. So today is not today to kind of speak to me. You don't want to be here so that was exciting for dealing with the fallout of that all week. And the surprise of leg is somebody's going to come finish these windows. Do they leak? No.

38:56

Will you be

38:59

tasked with cleaning up after them? Well, of course, because I was tasked with cleaning up last time. Yeah. Like wow, whatever. So yeah, that was my excitement for the week. My windows were destroyed. And now I have windows that don't open. So um, I feel about that either. Like, oh, that's awkward.

39:26

I'm sure they said that was for a safety reason or blah blah blah.

Brandon  39:31

I'm sure it's because they are cheaper.

39:33

Because solid pane windows are less expensive than sliding or hung windows. That sure and fair though. I'm sure that's 100% the reason no Wow safety safety around not being able to leave the building. That's not safe. That's that's not good. Oh,

39:58

well, they're not gonna pay for a they're not gonna pay For a ladder, so you know it is it's,

Brandon  40:03

it's, it's fine, but like, it's simply not safe. So that's that it's very annoying being a person that teaches weather science to having a window that doesn't open. That's bothersome, because the weather is on the other side of the window.

40:20

Well, but you don't want to be you don't want to touch the weather, anything you need to do. You just see, that's really the owl,

40:28

I have thought I had an epiphany. I should get some of those liquid chalk markers, things ah, and then I can like write stuff on my window instead. So now that it's like just one big fat, flat plane of glass. I should probably be utilizing the space with those like glass markers. You should

40:53

absolutely doing that. Leaving kids involved and doing that to assignments,

41:00

I NC stuff on their heads. I'm pretty sure faultline diagram would look really beautiful on my way.

41:11

Well, yeah, cuz then, yeah, it's something else you can continue to add to throughout the year

41:15

or, you know, just do it for like, you know, whatever unit or lesson like we're gonna put this information up here. It's important, like your anchor chart, right? Yeah, like, and then I could just like wipe it off, and it's gone. So that might be something to look into what markers right best on class.

41:34

See,

41:35

it's not all answer. I mean, I'm trying to find one positive thing here. bhcc Look at my principal's face, if she walks in my room for an observation is like what have you done to your window? It's fine. Don't worry.

41:52

I have improved. I'm using my environment and permanent situation.

Brandon  41:56

Also, do you have some spackle to clean up this ledge that they busted hunks of this concrete on whenever they were taking the old window out? Do you have some of that? I can. Yes.

42:04

And a trowel, please.

42:07

Yeah. Ask the maintenance department. Hey, can you just leave a bucket of that in here? I'll do it. Because you know, it won't get done otherwise.

42:17

But when you stop touching my things? Yeah. mostly.

Brandon  42:22

Mostly. Let me do this. Because number one, if I asked you to do it, it will never happen. Number two. I need some control back in my life with my classroom.

42:38

Look, it's not that I don't trust you. But But

Brandon  42:41

I don't trust you don't. I mean, this wasn't the maintenance people's fault. I don't even think they knew that the windows were coming. Oh, this is just a yet another communication breakdown. But not in a good way. Not in a good like Led Zeppelin the way. Bad way

43:00

off the bat kind? Oh, that's icing on

43:02

where? Where no one knows what's going on. Now why would we bother to pay attention to these?

Brandon  43:10

Yeah, well, I did tell my principal because she did come and talk to me for some reason. And I was like, Look, this kind of thing. And other things makes me look like a moron. Because administration will say do this. And so I do it. And I'll tell the kids do this. Some instances, I sent home notes to parents and say we're doing this. Yeah. And then like two days later, I get? Well, actually, no, no, no, no. It's already done. It's done already.

43:46

The die has been cast, we must now live with our decisions. We don't get to back out of this, right. This is not the cards. I already told

43:55

everyone what we're doing. You don't get to be like, Oh, actually, we're not doing that.

44:01

Oh, that is so annoying and frustrating. And I definitely have that tendency to continue to change adjust it, which is which is good. But at some point, you have to just say, No, a decision has been made. This is what we're doing. Sure. Could we continue to yank the chain and jerk people around? Yeah, that's absolutely within our power. Is that the right thing to do is that we're going to waste I think of this law. Am I going to waste the the goodwill that people have towards me right now on this? And usually the answer is no.

44:36

Well, it's also frustrating because it's like, okay, the way that I've received this information, right, it seems to indicate that this is the plan. Somebody has put thought into the plan, like a big email, right with stuff, you know. Sure. And this, this, you know, indicates that somebody put some thought into it. This is wrong. This is the wrong assumption to make. Yes. You know, oh, we need to do this. I'm gonna send this email to everyone to do it. Yeah, have to clear they realize, Oh, I didn't actually think about this plan. I didn't actually plan a plan. I just like said words. And so now, I realize those words don't work. We have to do something. But like, that's not my fault, buddy, I need to do that. I'm just doing what you told me. And I was doing it in a timely fashion. I was trying to relay the information quickly, because that is how information works. The best, right? If I just say, oh, doing this now, I'm done. Move it along.

Brandon  45:39

Because I have my own things to worry about. Like, yeah, here's this. I think it's happening anyway. Next. Like, so. Yeah. So well, that's, that's the fun, fun, exciting excitedness.

45:56

But it really does get to a lot of the failure to plan and working on it and really taking into people other people's

Collin  46:08

schedules, things that are on them. There's that saying, like, I think about this of going like, It's not my fault, but it's my problem. Like, we have to own up to a lot of those kind of things. But in many cases, what has happened is, is they have taken like their emergency, they are trying to make their emergency my problem. And yeah,

46:28

yeah, exactly. Like, I'm not the one who didn't think through all this stuff. That was your role in this. I'm not that's not to say it's not to say, Oh, I was just told to do it. So blah, blah. That's not we're not showing

46:42

you didn't you didn't take into account my need to respond to this. What does that mean for me to have to respond to this crisis that you have created? Right? Because now all basically all this means anytime is all this happens is I have to lose time. Yep. From whatever it was I'm doing, which allegedly,

47:01

you tell me is the most important thing. Oh, my classroom, instructional time is important. Bla bla, bla, bla, bla,

Brandon  47:06

no lies, it's all lies, because they keep changing the mind to keep moving things around and writing it, it comes out of my personal time. Like, you're lying to me, just tell me that you at least don't lie is Tell me.

47:22

This is more important than my class. I disagree with you, but at least tell me the truth. Whatever, like, stop lying to me.

47:35

Yeah, and that's because then you, you really do see you really, you really see people's priorities in the situation of what's actually important, or what's actually motivating them. And those in those times when they start to, to change or try and get out of something when they're under pressure.

47:58

Yeah, right, that. So that's the, that's the other problem, right? Is like the optics appear to be one way, but like, in actuality, it's something else. So like, the my other problem is, they did all this stuff where they have like, we're gonna have like emergency drill practice. That's fine. That's relatively important situation. Sure, we need to know that.

Brandon  48:23

But they came up with all this stuff. They did all these things. But like, when I looked at the times, they just decided to do every single drill at the exact same time every day, like, oh, wait a minute, why, first of all, that's dumb. Because like, whatever you're supposed to be teaching during this time. Now, you're not teaching. And you're going to lose, like, over the course of the month that like, it's like one here, one there, one there. But the first one was bad because it was a tornado drill. And they did like four and a week. Like, that's like, X number of, you know, approaching hours of instructional time that's lost or because, right.

49:09

And it's not useful. Like, we don't need to do this, this mean time is not a bad thing. Right. I understand what you're doing. Why you can say this, my pet theory is that it's just because the superintendent can now say, revamped emergency preparedness plan on his little look great. I am sent as part of his like Board report or whatever. But like, what's actually doing is just taking away from everybody's day and like disrupting everyone in the world. Right? Like, we need to, we need to have emergency drills. It's important to understand what to do a bridge situation. Okay. Having four tornado drills in a week is not necessarily

49:54

Oh, so it's not just checking things off boxes. You have to implement them appropriately. Is that what I'm hearing it That's Mm hmm. That seems pretty tough. Oh, no.

50:03

You don't know why you would expect that. Yeah, yeah, that's the

Brandon  50:16

Well, sorry. All right. But it's just that kind of ADC. Like, what do you mean, this is happening? Like, this week, this next coming week, this is going to Okay, so I want to preface this next sentence, this is going to sound very negative in context, but let me explain. We are apparently now required to go to the Veterans Day assembly. Right? The high school Veterans Day simply. So this and, you know, this is like, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. Right. Veterans days off when it was you know, it's

50:54

important, these important people in our lives to acknowledge in blah, blah, but our Veterans Day assembly is ostensibly the same every year.

Brandon  51:10

And it's like this big series affair, which it should be.

51:13

Right. What a big, long, boring affair. Is this really a place for fifth and sixth graders to be? Yeah. Is this the prime environment to have a sixth grade class? Sit still and quietly? For an hour? Right. Yeah, it's answered. Now. Is this appropriate for a year old? No, notice not. And the big problem is, because our school is divided into like, K six, and then 712.

Brandon  51:51

That means that if the fifth graders go these kids are going to have to watch basically the exact same assembly for eight years, starting now. Oh, interesting. Because it's the same thing. Every year. Yeah. Huh. Right. It's not a bad thing. But no, by the time they get to sophomores and juniors, they're going to be so done, that they are not going to care about the veterans Hmm. Hmm. In the way they think they ought to write? Because they've been like, I've seen it 100 times. It's the same. Hmm.

52:36

So I worry that that is bad for the long term sustainability of this, right, like I did. This is not like I understand like, it's because they're lazy. And they don't have a plan for the like, basically, normally, what happens is the 712 go to the assembly, this elementary school of which we are apart, gets a coloring sheet, and they talk about veteran. That's not age appropriate for a sixth grader either.

Brandon  53:05

So like, yeah, so what do you they don't know what to do with us. So they just like, give us this, like, random nonsense. That's not good for our class. Right? So like, as if you want me to show a video in class about Veterans Day, I can do that. I can, we can do something blah, blah, blah, whatever. But going and sitting for like, a very somber serious assembly for an hour. Probably not the best place for especially the sixth graders they're not know, like, not really what their needs are, like. Ever. Right? Do they take anything seriously? No. So like, that's hard. I feel like this is not an appropriate solution. Now, I'm not saying this because I don't want to go to Veterans Day. I want everybody listening to understand that, where I'm coming from loud and clear. Not like I don't like veterans, not saying that. That's not what I'm doing? Sure. I'm saying that this is not a developmentally appropriate way to celebrate a Veterans Day for a 12 year old. Sure. Right. This is what I'm saying. So like, that's, that's all I'm saying. That's all I'm really worried about. And I need to talk something about this tomorrow. And I'm going to get hate in the email I'm gonna send but I need to say just like, look, I think this plan is not great.

54:34

So what well, so we always like to address problems and have solutions. So what you would you would spend that time doing I would

Brandon  54:43

rather them like if they want to do that, like, maybe not on Veterans Day but a different time during the week have because the Veterans Day assembly is produced by the National Honor Society. Right. So if you would like to engage the children, it doesn't have to be on Veterans Day. At another day during the week, you can have some members of National Honor Society come to the class and discuss what Veterans Day is. And give a presentation that is more geared towards 12 year olds. Right? I will set aside part of my class time, I'm not giving you the whole hour, because we have to do science. But if you would like 20 to 30 minutes for like, half my classroom, that's fine.

55:22

I can I mean, the thing to get something out of, to me to play a video for them, I do that I come with my own thing to do, I can do something else. But

Collin  55:42

well, yeah, that'd be that's actually a really good idea of what we need to do this in just a slightly different context to meet the key kids where they are. And yeah, I'd like to have a one on one presentation or that video that you can put together really easily. You know, that'd be that'd be really good. Yeah, the NHS

56:00

would like to make a short video that I can then play my children have even better, but I will find one. I will do something.

Brandon  56:07

I will do it myself. If you want. I don't care. But our long assembly where we must be somber and quiet. That's not really going to work out. That's fine. You're worried harshly concerned. Because during one of the tornado drills, right, we were in the tornado shelter FEMA building thing for 10 minutes. 10 minutes. To have my children got ISS for punching each other. So show my where my concern is coming.

56:41

That is that's rich.

56:42

This is Yes. This is where my concern is coming from. This is not

56:52

so you're so you're saying it's it's founded? i Yeah. This

Brandon  56:57

this is not coming from like a disrespect of veterans and armed services. This is coming from a don't trust sixth graders to sit for an hour. Can't bear.

57:09

Bear enough. Make sense?

57:16

Yeah. So

57:20

well, good luck on that.

57:22

Yeah. Sorry. Yeah, that's all right. Yeah. That'd be fun email the random morning that will be received well, no, no. Because they're very like, rah, rah, Go army. So like, I feel like this will be bad. But I just need to I just need to tell somebody like I have concerns about this. Don't really know if it's a great idea.

Brandon  57:48

We do as your third option. Is there a third option between sitting for an hour and American flag coloring page? Is there? Perhaps a middle ground?

57:59

Sitting while coloring? Oh, no. Do that. Fine. Yes. Well, best of luck to you on that. Yeah. Well, we'll check in next time to see how

58:22

well maybe not. Might not. Well, it might not have happened yet. If depending on where we record this next week, so

58:28

you know, we'll, we'll we'll try and record earlier in the week so we can have a couple days to get caught up. Okay, yeah. Lots going on this week. We'll get caught up in all this next time. Okay. Good, love you. Oh, let me see you. Bye. Bye.