what are snow days

what are snow days
Brandon & Collin

Melting isn't going to happen. Collin is learning to wait. Brandon is trudging through snow. We cover A Farewell to Arms chapters 7-12.

  • It’s not going to melt

  • Trudging through snow

  • Getting yelled at in the snow

  • What are snow days?

  • Collin is learning to wait

  • Getting into biographies

  • Stop being precious

  • A Farewell to Arms: Chapters 7-12

  • Collin’s Haiku

    • Golden hues beckon,

    • Crisp edges, soft heart within—

    • Perfection in fries.

Check out our other episodes: ohbrotherpodcast.com

Follow us on Instagram

Check us out on Youtube

A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE

PROVIDED

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

snow days, weather app, ice melting, snow depth, outdoor recess, school schedule, work packets, snow days policy, sleep schedule, Zoom interviews, podcast recording, biography reading, Napoleon comparison, war discomfort, St. Anthony necklace, war, government, defeat, consequences, soldiers, battle, hunger, macaroni, shelling, medical tent, ambulance, priest, faith, Milan, hospital

SPEAKERS

Collin

Collin  00:04

Music. Welcome to Oh brother, a podcast where we try to figure it all out with your hosts, Brandon and Collin on this week's show, what are snow days? Ahoy. Ahoy. Pretty good, right defawing For a moment, momentarily, you know, yeah, momentary detail. And then back into the freezer, you know, just so enjoying a little bit of her moment. Look, I think tomorrow's supposed to be like, up here it's supposed to be like 50. And I was like, Oh, wow, look at all this. Yeah, Sunday, though, not not 50, definitely not, not not 50. That's one of those days where it's like, you know your weather app. Sometimes it'll be like, Oh yes, tomorrow is going to be like, x degrees colder, right? And so it's going to be like, Ah Yes, tomorrow 40 degrees colder. No, no, that's not what you want to see. Ah, no, no, no. That's very depressing. When you do see that, you're like, wait a minute. And then I always have to do that quick math in my head and be like, is it possible? Wait a minute, really? No, oh, wait, yeah. It's like, oh, oh no, that's why would you say it like that? Maybe I'll just stick with the it's gonna be colder tomorrow. I don't need to know 40 degrees. Exactly. How many degrees you know, like, could let me down a little bit easier? Like, harsh, man, I gotta, I don't need to be that. Yeah. Like that weather app, what you do? Why I kind of made me feel so bad. I it, yeah, it's, it's not gonna be good. I don't know. I am very curious to see how much ice ends up actually melting. I will say, like our entire driveway and back part of our house is still a solid sheet of ice, but, but we had, like, I think it was, I think it was like four inches of ice, like, it's all compacted and like crunched. Noah noted the other day that, like, Dad, you can walk on top of the snow, like Legolas. And I was like, yes, that is where we have reached. Me, me, like I a guy here could walk on top of the snow without crunching down into it, and it was still like six inches deep in some areas. Like, it's gonna be here a minute, isn't it, so I fully anticipate that, if anything, whatever doesn't melt tomorrow, is gonna be basically with us for the next month. Like, I am wholly, uh, convinced of this at this point. I mean, you might not be wrong, like, we'll see we don't have any ice. We have, there's still snow about right? And so it's like, I mean, it's kind of like crusted, so it's, I guess, got a little layer of ice on top of it, but it's definitely not that firm. Is what you're describing. It's like it ours is, I had to so we don't like parking our the Honda out on the road, just like getting it in our driveway, but I'll pull it behind our gate sometimes. And in order to then, like, have room there, because our garage is actually detached from our house. It sits just just a little bit away from it, we I will pull the Honda in a jaunty angle in between our back deck and our garage. And when I do that, like, it's fine and but sometimes I have to pull out the other cars, and so I'll have to pull the Honda just a little bit further, just into the grass temporarily. Or in this case, I pulled it, I pulled the Honda up onto the top of the snow, and drove it out, and it was living there was there's an ice block there that had just like, and I could pull it up on top of it, and it didn't crush it down so it supported a car. That's what I pulled my car, quite solid indeed. Yeah, that's yeah. So I'm really pulling for 52 tomorrow. I'm like, come show me melting. It's true. But if it's all that compacted together, it takes a long time for it to melt, and it only gets up right now, like, it only gets up to the high temperature for like, just a little bit before it starts cooling off again, right? Because the days are still just short enough that it's like, okay, what doesn't like? It's like, oh, we just almost get like, sometimes that doesn't even quite get. There and then, Nope, just kidding, back down again. What doesn't help us is that this is also on the north side of our house, which just let me tell you, gets all of that wonderful session. No, it doesn't. It doesn't see any, oh yeah, at all. So that's the other factor we have going against us is it was a lot of snow with ice pellets that's now been compacted through several like, light thaws and refree hard, refreezes overnight, and it's in the shade for all day forever, any size. So, yeah, double whammy. That's seeing March people, Yeah, no kidding, like, Oh no, no. I haven't looked at that Extendo forecasty thing too much. I just was sort of focusing in on, like, Sunday and Monday, because that's when it's supposed to be really cold and gross. But like, we at school today, we just, we went ahead and took the kids outside to recess. Like, there's still snow out there in some places. But we're just like, All right, look, if we don't go outside today, next week, probably not going outside at all, so we won't have any other chance run away, frolic, right? Like, we're like, stay on the black top part, stay in the rocks area. Don't run in the field, right? Or you get to play, stand on the fence and watch everyone else have fun. That gets to be the game you play at recess. So, yeah, like, but they define it. So, but we've, I went down and I was talking to the fifth grade teachers, and we're just like, yeah, no, we're going outside. Because this I'm already tired of indoor recess, and it's only going to get more so I need to mix it up a little bit here. Like, yeah, at least have something to do, right? Like, yeah, go, you know, go, do something else and frolic and whatever. So we so we did. We braved the snow covered ground. It wasn't like, it's not like bad. It's just still there, just in like, random spots, and so it's muddy, so it's like, nope, stay on the hard surfaces. Run, go, frolic, run away. Basketball's over there. Go maybe five. So yeah, it's not looking forward to that. Like, if it's gonna be cold without any it's like, almost not even worth it if it's gonna be that cold with no snow, right? Like, yes, like, if it's gonna be cold, there might as well be snow also, you know what I mean. But if it's just gonna be that horribly cold with, like, nothing, just kind of rude, really. It's like this. This is a controversial take in some of the household members that I your house. Yes, my household that it is better for it to be bitter cold and no snow on the ground than to be better cold with snow on the ground. Um, I mean, if it's going to be cold, you might as well also get snow, right? Like, make it worth it, right? Release it. Like looks nice, instead of just like, bleak and freezing, you know, yes, like, get something out of the deal. You know, that's, it's my opinion. Okay, apparently, I'm at odds with a certain someone, perhaps. But, like, who knows? I'm not, I'm just saying hypothetically, yeah, yeah. But although, like, snow is fine, right? It snowed, uh, quite a bit here. Actually, after we spoke last, we got, uh, six inches. I saw photos up there, yeah, yeah, roughly six inches. We were not supposed to get six inches. The likelihood of that was quite low on the forecast I saw, but no, statistically impossible, no, no, if it was a greater than zero chance. And surprise, surprise, it was actually a little bit more. So we have just, just around six inches. So we went out, and it is customary that we go wander about in the wilderness, for in the snow, right? Look at all the everything. But, like, it did get to a point where it's like, okay, dear, we, we need to coincide. I'm getting very tired to so we like, we need to, we can. I'm okay, we we don't need to go look at that corner of the field. Also, we can see from here it's fine. To coincide, it's, I'm tired of walking like it is, it is, this is going to sound I was continue. I was shocked twice this week of just like reminding myself of how exhausting it is to trudge through snow like it, it does eat away at you very quickly, even though you're like, Oh, I'm just it's just a little bit extra, but it adds up after a while. Really does right? And so when you're. Out there. We were out. We were outside for a very long time, right? Like, really, hour and a half. Susan just walking around, like, I get pictures of stuff, like, look, it wasn't bad, because it really wasn't that cold, right? Or maybe I just actually layered appropriately this time, right? I have this really bad habit of, like, wearing too many clothes, and then, like, you don't walk around, you're like, oh my gosh, so hot, so head layered responsibly this time, because there's always it's hard, because you have this big especially when we go with Susan, because there's this big difference between like, we're gonna walk around and look everywhere, and then we're gonna stand in one place for a very long time and admire good stuff. Yeah, well, admire, which is fine, but also, like, it's just now, I'm now, I'm standing in six inches of snow, and did I mention it's cold? Yeah. So it was all right. It was fun. They just wandered about for a while, right? It was really great, because at one point her mother called us, oh. She's like, What are you all doing? Susan's like, we're standing out in the woods. Oh my gosh. It's not like we're in the short sleeves and T shirts here. My like, yeah, we're dressed, dressed appropriately, right on the boots and the jacket and the little hats. It's fine. We dressed up a little bit for this. Yeah, it was really hilarious. It was really, I'm sure that made her very happy. Definitely made school all awkward, though too, because we had like, came back from Christmas break, had three days of school and then another three day weekend. So, I mean, not that I was complaining about three day weekends, you know, but like, it was just like, Oh, we're just starting to get back in the group. Just kidding. Nope, right. So it made this Monday very like, what's happening? Wow. How was how was your How was your school handling the snow days now, because I know, like, you were doing a lot of the, oh, we have to prepare, like, packets for if they go home, kind of stuff. Are you still doing that? Or we still have that? So we have all that stuff, but, like, they kind of take into account. Uh, generally, the the superintendent, he kind of said, like, we they take into account, like, how many days are they expecting to be out, right? So, like, on this last one, it was just going to be Friday. So he was basically, like, all right, if it's gonna be one day, we're just gonna call it a snow day. You don't have to do any work and then nothing, right? Now, if it's gonna usually, if it's gonna be, like, an event where there's gonna be, like, two days in a row, then they'll bust out. They like, okay, these are gonna be work days, right? You'll have your work packets. You can use them for that day. But he said in his email, and, I mean, unless we run out of like, those couple extra days that we have here and there, right, then we'll use the AMI stuff. But he basically said, like, if, if it's just going to be like one day, especially, like last week it was gonna be like a Friday. So like, if it's a Friday and it's gonna be only one day, we're not gonna worry about work day, right? It'll just be like a snow day. So it's just kind of a they kind of base it on the how many days consecutively are we thinking it's going to be right? Because I'm sure if it was going to be like, we had so much snow that if it was going to be like Thursday, Friday, like if it would have come a day earlier. I think we probably would have had a work day, right? But because it was just Friday, and then the weekend, and then it was supposed to be a little bit warmer, you know, the roads would have all the time to clear off by Monday. So he was right. So they kind of go case by case basis and think about, like, the couple days out extended forecast, kind of, they look at that and say, Is it, is it going to snow a lot and be there, or is it going to be, like, just one day we're expecting to be out? That's kind of how they said they were handling it this year, which is pretty I can, that's fine. That's, that's I can. That makes sense to me, right? Reasonable? Yeah, yeah. Because we have, you kind of need this, like, it's kind of a hard balance, because you kind of want to save some of those work days. Because, like, every once in a while we get, we've had snows where it's just like, nope, a whole week out. So it's like, yeah, I don't want to save them for something like that. But like, you don't want to save all of them, because then you, like, run out of. Snow days and, you know, then you have to, like, do, like, makeup days on. No one likes that, you nobody. So, like, so it is kind of a weird call that he said, especially for this one, like, it was just, it's probably just gonna be one day, so we're not gonna worry about it was, like, all right, I still did make sure everybody had all their stuff, right? I didn't tell the kids that, oh, he told us that in the email. Like, I don't know, maybe, like Wednesday and I or maybe Thursday, I don't remember exactly, but I didn't bother telling the kids. I still let them take their stuff home. It's like, yep, remember where all your work is blah, blah, blah. So like, Tee hee, I care. Yeah, I I was like, Nah, they kept asking me. I was like, we're gonna have to do work. Like, I don't know. We'll see what the phone call says exactly. Pay attention, Yeah, cuz I'm not saying nothing, in case somebody changes their mind, right? And they're like, that's what happened? Mr. Funkhouse, yeah, that's what would have happened. If I would have said something, they would have changed their mind, and they would have been different. So that I'm not about to walk into that situation where I pretend to know what's happening, because I don't have any clue ever what's actually going on, so I'm just gonna it's gonna be like, yep, kids, be prepared. All right. Bye. Stop asking me questions. I'm gonna get in trouble eventually because I don't know the answer. So exactly right, we're just gonna go with it. It's fine, don't worry. So but it was, was like, because it was just back from Christmas break, it was just for me personally, and I'm sure for the kids as well, based on their behavior and reaction to being back in school for only three days, it wasn't quite long enough for my sleep pattern to, like, fix itself, you know, of like, I got into the real bad habit over Christmas, of like, staying up way late, sleeping in a little bit, but like, a little and so just enough that it would be bad if I did it on a school day, it would be Collin me be Like, where are you anyway? So, like, it was like, oh. And then, so I was only back at school for like, three days, so it was not enough time for it to fix itself. And then the weekend came and said, Well, why fight it now worry about it next week. And then the first couple days of this week, I was like, MJ, no, this is so that's just a personal issue that I have sometimes with that particular Well, you know, it's, it's hard, like, you know, knowing that again, with the sleep schedule things, it's a I have never been good at having a varied sleep schedule. I know, though about myself, that I cannot change it, like, from place to place, like, once it is set there it shall ever be, because I, I used to do that of, of, Oh, I'll sleep in this day. Like, like during college, like, oh, I don't have a class till this, so I'll do this. I was just miserable trying to do that kind of thing. So I just realized that, no, but I just need to pick kind of a generalized thing and just stick with it, because I'm a mess other otherwise, yeah, but I don't really feel like on, especially like over a two week Christmas break. I don't really feel like continuing to get up at six o'clock every day that just doesn't really feel I like to see, like, so like, I'm, I agree. I'm just saying I get off of it. And I'm, yeah. So, yeah, yeah, let's see. But yeah. So I was telling the kids like, listen, I understand, but get your head up. I'm busy. I'm right there with you, buddy, but we can't do that right now. You have size notes to be taking get so that's already sort of muddling through all of the like, ins and outs of coming back to school for the second semester and getting all that stuff ready, we've been headlong doing, trying to do a little bit of A new fake coaching program thing in our business, and I've been on, been on, I've been on Zoom a lot this week, and I've struggled even more than normal well. So here's the thing. Like, all of the like, I call them office hours. To just attend with everybody that's kind of in the group. And I was, I just made a commitment. I was like, You know what? I need to make the most out of this, and I'm just going to commit to hitting all of these, right? Because I know I need to start off strong, because things are going to happen. I'm not going to be able to meet these. But, like, we are also in the middle of trying to actively hire employees, and we, at the beginning of the year, made the decision that I didn't want to have to drive two hours to do a one hour interview with somebody and then turn around and come back home. We're in another two hours and spend five hours away for that person to not work out in like, you know, 36 hours, to not hire them, or to not hire them there. So I was like, we'll just do zoom. We'll just try zoom. That's what everybody else does. So we're doing zoom interviews, and, oh, by the way, I also do zoom for another podcast. And, and we were and this one and this one, but for my interviews, for the other one, like I was, we really, like, barely, like, coasted through December, and then I was like, Meg, like we were watching it, and it's just November and December of bad times to try and interview pet sitters, just because, like, we're all busy, and so we almost ran out, like I was one week away from not being able to release an episode. So in my earnestness, I have been I booked three to four interviews every week, all through January and February and into March. But now I'm having to suffer the repercussions of like, oh my gosh, like today or like tomorrow, right? I've got an hour call in the morning and I get to go do a dog walk, so I'm excited about that. Then I have an hour and a half interview, then I have to do a phone interview, then I'm having a break for lunch, kind of, it's late lunch, then I have to do another phone interview, and then another, like, podcast interview. And I'm like, this wasn't thought out well by me. I'm very mad at my past self. Yeah, I It's so bad that yesterday, I had a little bit of break in the morning, and I can remember my previous statements about the level of ice and stuff that my my city has. I walked to our library because I was like, I must get out of the house. I must go do something. I must go be in the real world and not just staring at a solar screen for 14 hours today. So I trudged through the snow. It's it's only it's 10 minutes away. Okay, so it's not that bad. But like, got there, I realized I remembered that they do free coffee on Wednesdays. So I sat down and I was like, Yes, I will have free coffee. Sat there, checked out a book. I'm working through another book I've been inspired. I don't know if this is just me approaching, me approaching 40. I think I figure it's either the time where I really need to get serious about understanding one of the world wars, or get into reading biographies about people, and I'm going to try the latter, as opposed to the four. Okay, yeah, okay, good, that's good. Usually, the World War what happens earlier, and then it either sticks or it doesn't, right, right? Like, it's like a middle school thing where you like, oh, yeah, and then it's either falls off or it's there for the rest of your life. Yeah. So I've, I've had a so anyway, so I part of my commitment to reading more this year fits in nicely with what we're doing on the podcast here. So I'm very excited about that. But also I was like, Well, I have a library, and there's lots of books that look very lonely there I do like a good book, so I went and grabbed Edison by Edmund Morris. So I'm gonna read Mr. Edison here and see what happens. Go. Yeah, I did want the next one. Next one I am going to read is on Theodore Roosevelt. That is, see, this is, see, very excited about this um. And so that's on my list as well. Trying to turn around here. But I have, I've read a couple of books about old Teddy it's pretty interesting guy. Think he's probably one of my, definitely one of my favorite presidents, right? Just because he's so interesting. Yeah, yeah, no, he is. He is this one that the one that our library has. I have a couple e versions of these, but the specific one that's. Specifically that I actually piqued my interest. It's called, like, wilderness man, or wilderness something specifically, just talking about his, his campaign to, you know, build parks, and why that was important to him. And it details his life well on, on that aspect alone. And that's I was like, oh, yeah, I need to read that one. Yeah. That's interesting thing about some of his stuff is you can there's definitely things that are just like, just about certain aspects of his life, because he did so many, like, really random, strange things that you can just kind of hone in on. I just want this part, right? This random part where he went, like, the one I have somewhere, think is the one where he, like, towards the after he's president, when he's just like, yeah, no, I'm going to explore the Amazon buy, like, yeah, um, pardon me, what? And like, just, you know how bad that hole went. Because, really, I mean, I think even now, if people are like, I'm gonna go explore the Amazon, there's a high probability that it's gonna go badly, right? Like, in the entire history of Western Amazon exploration oftentimes goes bad, right? Like the first big one went real bad, like Francisco Oriana didn't go well, lots of other ones like that. Percy Fauci guy looking for the Lost City of Z went terribly, um, Teddy Roosevelt, bad. Like, just all the time. People like, I'm just gonna go casually stroll through the Amazon. No, no, that's not that's how it works. Guys, no, stop it. What do you do? You can't do it never works. Do not do that. Yeah, yeah. There's a lot going on there that didn't quite understand. Yes, they're like, oh look, malaria ray or other, just horrible things and sickness, and it just rains all the time. And like, Oh, wow. Why do I have trench foot, oh no. Like, just, yeah, don't. Don't just casually go explore the Amazon. That's my pro tip for today. Like, just, don't do that. Yeah, I'm not gonna put that on my list. I don't think of going that's good, right? Is the point of that tip was to not put it on your list as well. I Oh my gosh. So yeah, I so, yeah, anyway, so I did. I was like, I've just been I've been confined, and so I might as well do something else about this, and I've really found that I've been really having to work on my schedule, because I know that me like, I need a long time to both a process things and B decompress about certain things that come up, and that if I don't have at least a little bit of space in my schedule, it just all, like, stacks up and like, sometimes I just want to, like, sit down and do nothing, and that's me processing the day. And man, I did not gift that to myself when I scheduled all of January. Just like, dang it, no, I did not do that, right? Sorry, sorry, trying. We're trying to block off I've already said no meeting Mondays. Like, that's something that I was like, no Mondays get no meetings. And nobody likes meetings on Monday. So, like, right? And it's everything always happens on Mondays. That's when I get all the emails, that's when we get all phone calls. And it's like, I just want to ease into the week. It's, I'm not trying to gain a third, you know, weekend, but, like, a third day of my weekend, because I there's still a lot of work to do. But just like, meetings make it miserable anyway. And so many people, though, are like, Can I meet Monday? Or like, hey, why don't we schedule this for my come and do a quick call on Monday, and I have to be like, No, Tuesday. Tuesday, not allowed. And, and it does feel weird to say that, because especially if somebody reaches out to you on like, the previous Thursday, and is like, Hey, can we meet on Monday? Or hey, can I schedule the interview on Monday? I go, No, I don't do that. And they So, so what you gotta do, right? It's okay to lie to them. Oh, right. So you don't need to say, No, I don't do that. I don't meet on Mondays. You could just be like, I'm sorry this next Monday is booked. I should just tell them it's full, because it is full, yeah, other stuff, yeah, I should just say my earliest availability is, yeah. I should, yeah, you should, right, right? So don't be like, Yeah, I don't do that, bro. I don't call people up instead, like, it's Yeah, I feel like I have to go, well, actually, let me tell you how I try to work my schedule. Yeah, don't do that. Just tell them. They don't. You don't over explain them. They don't need to know that. Number one, they don't need to know number two, they don't actually care, right? So you don't need to waste a lot of time explaining something to somebody who doesn't actually care what you're talking about. So you just need to say, Yeah, I am, uh, yeah, my first availability would be Tuesday, yeah, right? Or Monday is, uh, my schedule is full on Monday, right? Just that's all they need to know. That's all they care about. That's they like, boom, that's me, that's, that's fine. That's all they need, right? That's a way that you're telling them no, but like, you're not just like, No. Who does Monday meetings? Bro? Like, let me tell you about that little Yeah, that you gotta, you gotta be gentle with their fragile little business heart, right? They don't understand things like that, so you just gotta put it in there, in terms they'll understand. Be like, Oh, I'm sorry, but, uh, I'm not available until Tuesday. Like, right? So you they don't even know what you're doing. You don't have to, like, give them any more information than that. That's it. Yes, I will get better at this. There's also, also the other day that I have got to block out is our Thursdays. And why Thursdays? Because Thursdays are when Megan and the kids go to Co Op, and they are gone all day, and Megan and I don't interact with each other at all. And so by the time they get home, like she and I need this big like, debrief about anything that happened, and then, like, we still have family time and all this stuff. And the last thing that I need to do is also have other things, other things, like in the afternoon, or to have done three interviews that I need to talk to her about, like, it just adds so much complexity for that day. Don't add anything else to the debriefing that already needs to happen, right? Like, exactly, yes. So trying to, like, she came home today, and I was like, again, I had today's recording people behind the curtain on Thursday, I had, I had our big, the big like coaching call. I had a phone interview. I had two podcasts I had to listen to for her. I had another coaching thing. I had a zoom interview for somebody. And then they came home. So I had those five big things. And then she comes home, and I'm like, I have so much to tell you and talk to you about. And then I was dumb, and I scheduled a sixth thing, another zoom interview. 530 I was like, I'll just get this in real fast, and because I gotta get through this. Oh no. I was so, so angry, so angry. And I was like, lesson lesson learned, bad, bad, bad. So I'm I'm still growing people. This is what that means is I'm bad at this. You're doing too much, right? You got you doing too much. I know that you're you got a lot of things have to happen. Too much. You gotta call the talent well, I need to be okay. And what's hard is, What's hard is I need to be okay with saying, like, like, like, the whole like, I'm not available Monday. I need to be better at saying I'm not available next week at all, like I already have. I meet my I've met my maximum number of things on my calendar. I am scheduling out till the following week. And that's hard when we're like, trying to hire and that's, that's really where this, this, this comes from. Because I go, well, people are interested. They're coming through. Let's keep coming them through and try and do everything within, you know, 48 hours. And then I have to remember that that's not how any other business hires anybody for anything. And I get reminded about the rejection letter I got from the department from the forestry department a year and a half after I applied. God, that's pretty that's efficiency, right there. Yeah, and apply. And I It sounds, it sounds like a joke, but it is not. It was an it was a full year. And because I had to, I had to, I, like, logged into USA gov's jobs, or whatever job, whatever that board is, and like, they didn't remember. I had to go this whole process. And I found. My original application. It was a year and a half ago, and I was like, sweet, I'm glad I wasn't holding out for that one. Yeah, true. Just like, waiting for me to go right. Like, hey, let's thank you for the application. We'll get it reviewed, and we are scheduling interviews out next week. Like, that's, that's fine. I need to just play with that. Yeah, gotta comment, yeah, don't wait to don't wait that long. Too much inspiration from that particular anecdote, right? Don't like, Oh, we got an No, no. Yeah, that's the wrong lesson that you could take. We're not doing that one. Don't do that one. Okay. Collin is learning to wait, but I like my walk to the to the the library. That's my that's my new favorite thing right now, walking to that. That's pretty good. Yeah, I have, I have all these other books that are like, staring at me and I'm dabbling. I have a hard time, like, fitting in all the hobbies at once, right? It's one of the other thing you're talking about this for. But like, doing some reading, doing some this, and, like, I wanna do other things. So it's like, oh, so I need to balance the reading and then balance this. So it's like, No, I haven't read a little bit. Um, I just before we move on too much, I'm, I don't really, I'm very proud of you for reading biographies. That's one genre that I'm just like, I don't nah, like, I've read some, every once in a while, try a couple, and then just like, you know, no, I don't like, I just not really my jam. Like, there's a few, right? Yes, not, not really just a big biography guy, like, just, don't, I don't know. I don't know what it is exactly about them. I just don't really mesh with that usually, and I don't really enjoy it that much, right? I don't know. I don't know why. Just don't really, because I love non fiction. I like a lot. I'd like to read a lot of non fiction, but I don't know what it is about the biography. I'm just like, Nah, pass like, I don't, I don't know. I don't know what it is. I don't. Yeah, I've tried to pick up a few in the past. And I will say that this is one lesson of it does not matter how fascinating the subject matter is. If the biographer is not good at their job, it will never be interesting, right? Like, Well, that's true too. The author makes a big tip, yes, yes. So I am, I am not. I am sticking to known quantities during this during this endeavor, like, like Morris, like he's done some some big hitters. He's very well acclaimed. Isaacson as well, has done big figures and is highly acclaimed for his biography. So the I am, I'm sticking to those. I'm not doing the like, a second or third tier, or even some where people were like, Oh, if you really want the true story, you got to read the like. These are the more popular. Now that that's an author talk right there that right like, these are, these are popularized biographies for a reason. Like they are written to be popular. They're not. They're not somebody who goes, I've always wanted to talk about Andrew Jackson, and it's the only thing that I want to write about. So I'm going to write a biography about him. Like, these people come from more of a story based right? They have that about them. So I am, that's where this is coming. I am sticking to those authors in this endeavor, and I think I'm hoping that that will pay off more. Yeah, I do like the ones that are like, the kind of, I don't know, the ones that I have read like, I've read some books about like a person, but it's kind of like, like, I said, it's like, about a specific moment, and they often talk about, like, all the other things in the surrounding situation, right? Like, I've read one about Churchill, right, in, like, World War One, right? Just, just that bit, right? And so they were talking about him and like, and then she talks about, like, all the other things that are going on that are influencing all this stuff, right? So it's just like, it's just like, Churchill's like, Army career, that's really it, right? And so that I like that kind of thing, because it's, you're getting, like, more of the full picture of, like, Okay, here's what they were doing, here's why they were doing it. Because here's the other thing. That were happening at that time, you know what I mean, and so that I like that type of look at a thing, like a more full of picture, right? Because I have read some other ones, or tried to read some other ones that are just following the person only. And it's kind of like, oh, this pretty dry, don't really like exactly, little rough, I don't know. And it's, yeah, where they're trying to, where they do hone in on, or if they do try and follow the person, there's a theme that they're trying to weave together like that. I those pay off where it's like, where it's ever where they would say, ever since a young boy so and so was like this, like, and then here's the theme we're going to follow through the rest of their life, and how it had the major impacts. That's very different than even the well, on Tuesday, they like to go, it's like, oh no, no, no, that's the wrong back out. So like, like that, like the Edison biography. I'll pull this up, and then we can, we can move on. But like, It details. There are what I like about this. There are eight chapters, and each chapter is a major thing that he contributed. So it's like, so it's botany, defense, chemistry, magnetism, how do magnets work? Right, light, sound, no one knows right telegraphy. I love that. And then natural philosophy and and then it has the dates that he was involved in that. So it's, it's, it's all. It's categorized around his, his body of work. And that's why I was, like, that sounds fun that I yeah, that's that's an interesting way of what trying to walk through that life. So that is interesting. Does it mention the people that he stole those ideas from and then took credit for? Well, there no, but the book does have an acknowledgement section, so maybe there's an acknowledgement to the acknowledgement. I think that's nothing. That's what that means. I think that's acknowledging the people that helped write the book. No, maybe it was dark in my own glossing over the fact that Edison also kind of a jerk, right? Can't forget that part about him. Like, if you want the full picture, also a trick, right? Like, just Yes, it's like, yeah, no, I'll pay you to work for me. Oh, you've been invented this thing, cool. I own it because I paid you. So it's mine. Now, hey, look everybody, look what I made. I'm so cool. Like, right? And that is, you know, and that's always the gamble with these, and I do have that in mind as I go through this process of going, how much is this going to be a fair treatment of this person for life, or how much is this, you know, a fan girl, fan boy treatment of this person's life? And then, not that you can't enjoy reading it, even if they are, you know, fanning over the person. But you just do have that, that lens, extra lens, that you have to to go through. So, yeah, I don't know it's literally, again, I went to the library yesterday, and the book is sitting over here, my right at my desk. I don't, haven't, haven't touched it yet. That is the hefty one? Yeah, they often tend to be that way, right? So that's I finished books. I read enough hefty books as well. So it's like I know more genres and hefty book like I don't. I know. How many more can we add to this? Yeah, I don't think so. Yeah, so, yeah, currently, hold on. Let me stretch here. Okay, I got it. I managed to get it from my seat. Yeah. I like current books. I have things like reading. I have the volume one of like history series, the history of the ancient world from earliest accounts, the fall of Rome. You know, just a little bit of light reading, a little bit for your time. So, like, I like things like this, but this is extraordinarily hefty. So like, I don't this is one that you like. You read a little bit of it. Put it down for a while. You can just read a couple chapters here and there, because you don't have to. It's not like a through. I mean, it kind of is, but like, could just read, like, bits and pieces, and it's not too bad. So it's like, yeah, yeah, okay, go back over there. Yeah. So, yeah, I got it back on the spot, right? So, but yes, I have a selection that I'm looking through. So the in case anyone's interested, I have people selected for like so Walter Isaacson has done like, you know, Leonardo da Vinci and he's done Eisenstein. He's done Benjamin Franklin. I'm also. So interested in reading some Robert Caro, specifically the power broker, where he details Robert Moses and the roads through New York, and kind of how he broke New York, and they're still kind of like he was. Anyway, yeah, yeah. I'm very excited about that one. And then David McCullough, McAuliffe, I don't know how to pronounce his last name, um, he has, he is ones where he details, uh, the Wright brothers and John Adams. So I'm interested in those as well. Oh, so, yes. Anyway, this is my reading list for the year. Oh, we shall see. Oh, and I'm gonna go in there one by Brian Jones for becoming Dr Seuss. Oh, I hear that's a really good one. Interesting. Yes, I don't have an order to these. It's going to be kind of whatever. No, it's, it's, it's, I find having a set order is a little intimidating, right? You just gotta you finish one, and you just kind of feel out where you are, and then kind of go with what you want to do next, right? So this is being like, Oh, I'm gonna read this one after this one, and this one next. And yeah, then you get kind of like, Oh, but I don't you get what happens if you set a rigid order? This happens to me anyway. I don't know if this happens anybody else. So listeners, you can tell me if this happens to you. But like, if you set out a very rigid order, you'll kind of like, I'm always like, okay, and I'll get done with the book I want. I'm finished, and I'm like, oh, maybe you don't want to read that one. And then so it sort of puts you off your game. And then you like, don't read anything for a while, because you're like, not Uh huh. You just like, weren't ready for that one yet, right? But you maybe you were ready for something different. So you should have grabbed something else, you know, but so you just kind of, kind of feel it out, grab the one you're feeling, and then go from there. Don't, don't plan it out too rigidly. Otherwise you get stuck. And then you like, don't do any of it, and then you start reading it all. So, yes, yeah. Anyway, I guess it's a word that this is a this is a word and a mindset that I have I've been focused on the beginning of this year is not becoming too precious about things in like, the negative sense, like, obviously you should care and you should you should have passion for things. But like, in through middle school, high school through undergraduate, the way I read was first off, my bookshelves had no organization to them other than, like, size and some color. Like, that's how I organized my bookshelf, because that's what I did, and second. And so when I would pick the next book to read, it was literally just the next book to the right of the one that I had selected. I would start to the left of the bookshelf, and I would work my way right. And there was no rhyme or reason for any any purpose or any reason for those books to be next to another other than they were kind of of similar size, or they're there, they were of the same hue. And now I'm like, Well, do I want it like I'm in my head about like, well, do I want to start with the biographies of the people who lived furthest, go and read more modern? Or do I want to go modern to far away? Or do I do, like, science people? It's like, mix them up. Yeah, I just need to whatever one is next available at the library. I need to take that one, and that's what I need to do, right? Like, just stop caring and just just go in and have more more joy in that spontaneity of like. Because also, and I think that part of this comes in of, like, I have so little time in my day. I have in the back of my head of going, I don't want to waste it doing X, Y, Z, like, I don't want to Yeah. And so I think that's the other reason why I become so wrapped up in and precious about the next book or the book that I'm going to be reading, because I go, Well, I don't want to waste my time reading a bad book, but it's like, well, then you just stop reading it, and you move on to the next one, like, it's the it's not that big of a deal. Like you just it's fine. Like, there's gonna be bad ones. You're not gonna like everyone. That is true. Yeah, you'll read some junky books here once. Well, it just happens, right? You just gotta try to get your average up, right? Because I definitely have read some books before. Some books before. I'm like, What the heck is this? I just powered through them because they were, like, non fiction paperbacks, and so I was like, Well, I'm gonna finish it and whatever. But yeah, I've definitely read some that are like, what is this? Why? Or it's happened to me before, they're like, I'll read like, you just kind of like, don't want to read anymore. I've read, like, some Series books before, right? And then it's just like, I just don't want to read this anymore because it's like, the same. It's just like, not interesting. I'm just done with it. So you move on. Just like, All right, well, just, and then go on. Whatever. So, yeah, it's gotta, you gotta feel the vibe down. It's gotta go with what my, uh, weird reading thing. I do. Think I may have mentioned this for too, but like, I don't put any books on the bookshelf until I've read them. This is, that's I do. I like this. I like this idea, like they're not on the bookshelf. Now, it does become a problem when I get, like, a few too many, right? Because they're kind of sitting, currently, they're sitting on the floor in a pile next to the Bucha, but I don't put them on the shelf until they're done. Like, that's kind of the thing that I do this like, all right. Now this is finished funk. It goes on the bookshelf. There's not really a rival reason to how they get on there. Just like, oh, this book will fit here now that I'm done. Whap, like, yeah, no, I think that's I like that idea too, because also it's just a visual, like, your stick, I don't know like, I like it, yeah. Susan has a similar version to this. She has like a one shelf on a bookshelf in the living room that's like, all her to be read bookshelf, so that that shelf is only book she has not read. And then once they get read, they go to a different shelf, somewhere else. So, like, that's her sort of take on this very bizarre method that I have developed. I just leave them here on the floor, and then they're in this pile on the table or whatever like, because piles don't bother me. They bother her a lot. I'm a serial pilot, and so I just have these piles, and they don't go anywhere till they're done. And then they go on the shelf as, like, the, ah, yes, Ka Chung, the accomplished, finished, bang. Like, that's how they go. So every once in a while I will say, like, if I can't decide what to read, I'll kind of look at the books and be like, that book will fit here. I'm gonna read that one. So us. That makes literally zero sense whatsoever. But I have, I have done that before, like I have this hole right here, that look of fill it. I'm gonna read that one perfect. Yep, that's exactly what we need to make any sense at all, but doesn't always have to whatever. It's fine. Well, I think, speaking of books here, oh yeah, I think we should, I think we should dive in. Because a wow, I didn't realize we've already been recording, recording for a little bit, but these chapters are a little, a little a lot. I feel like they are quite a lot, right? Maybe not chapter seven. Chapter Seven is kind of, anyway, like, the last couple chapters are a lot, right? The first couple is kind of the same old, same old, right? So, yeah, again, yeah, chapter seven, not really very great. They just like my summary for Chapter Seven is, he's hanging out with the guys. He gets a little drunk. He wants to go see Catherine, and she's busy. There you go. That's it. That's what that was, all of seven. I mean, that's pretty that's a little bit more. You get some background with some other stuff they're talking about this. I will say that I wasn't going to bring this up, okay, but he did in chapter, chapter seven. Here we do have, of course, we are in the Italian front, Northern Italy against Austria, right? We do have a Napoleon comparison. Okay, that's important, right? This is uh huh. I wasn't gonna bring it up. One of the biographies I have read is you boy, Napoleon. So the Okay, so one of the biographies about Napoleon I have read is actually, like a third edition biography that was, like, written while he was alive, still so interesting. Yeah, it's very it's very dry and boring to read because it's really old. So, yeah, oh yeah. Well, I like the anecdote when they when they're talking about that, because they're talking about, like, who's gonna win, and especially with the Austrians and they, know, the Austrian army was created to give Napoleon victories, any Napoleon. I wish we had Napoleon, right? But instead, we have this fat and prosperous, you know, whoever had ever like you could see how I wish we had Napoleon. Yeah, okay. Yeah, and that, you know, that's kind of funny, because Napoleon is fame like his, a lot of his early victories did happen in Austria, right, when he was fighting the Austrians, like Australis and all that stuff, right? Those are the big, like, early Napoleon things, like, trying to remember, there's some weird stuff about like, like, his, his battlefield tactics and prowess, like, that's the first time it kind of happened was in, in the Austrian campaign, right? He did some, like, really strange things that, like, won, and they're like, oh, okay, so, like, what, whatever. So they, they did have that comparison. I wasn't going to bring that up, but, you know, you know, they brought it up there, so it's fine. So, so we did have a Napoleon reference, right? And, yeah, he, he's talking about that. And then he wanted to go see Catherine, but she was busy, or, you know, she was not feeling well. It's hot, yeah, yeah. So that's kind of it, right? Yeah, well, oh, sorry, in there's, there's some, there's some brilliant things in here, talking about the apathy, again, the app, the sheer apathy in here. About how at the store, the beginning of the chapter, he's like, Yeah, I sat in a fee out, and I thought about nothing. But then, and then later on, I don't know what page this is, but he says he's talking about how he would about, you know, people were dying as ambulance drivers, because that's, you know, his job. And he says, Well, I knew I would not be killed, not in this war. It did not have anything to do with me. It seemed no more dangerous to me myself than war in the movies. I wish to God it was over, though, so I just again. He's so disconnected from this. He's trans. It's so bizarre, because he's actively transporting wounded men in this chapter himself. He's helping a guy with a massive hernia. Oh yeah, is that this? Okay? This chat, this part is kind of bizarre, right? He like, he says, Oh yeah, I can't take you. I'm just gonna leave you here and I'll come back and I'll pick you up, and then I'll take you to the thing. Yeah, because he said, he said, pretend you've fallen and hit your head, and then you'll then, then you'll have to go back because you've, you know, injured yourself because of these injuries, and, and he, you know, he drives up, but yeah, he's like, this is been around this. You don't get much more intimate with the atrocities of war than this. And he's like, yeah, it doesn't have anything to do, to do with me. And I'm like, what this actually, this part actually did remind me of another book, right that takes place in Italy during World War Two. Right? That is catch 22 right? So in this book, in that book, yossarian has the same kind of idea. He was like, because he's a bomber, he flies the bombers, right? He's like, a bombadier or whatever. He's not the pilot, but he's like, he flies in the B seventeens or whatever, and like, so he he's thinking, he thinks about this in that book too, where he's like, I'm dropping bombs on these people. Why am I dropping bombs on these people? I don't think don't even know who they are. They never did anything to me. Why am I doing this? Right? Like, this doesn't have anything to do with me. I'm not like, why are they shooting at me? I didn't, never do anything to them. Why are they mad at me? They don't even know who I am, right? He has this, like, very similar thought process, like this war has nothing to do with me. I'm just sort of here, right? I don't even want to be here, but here I am, like, I'm just here still. Like, it reminds this chapter kind of reminded me of that right of catch 22 Joseph Heller's book, of the way that they talk about it, like that. This is pointless. This is still going on. Why am I getting shot at what in the world is anybody going to accomplish with this mess? Right? It's the same message, right? It's this very similar idea, and it reminded me a lot about that, yeah, yeah. And, and he's also, anyway, yeah, it just how there's so so much disconnect between these two and but they're just kind of going about their their job, right, and their duty, and they're just there, yeah, it's also in this chapter where I started to count the number of times he talks about heat or hot. Did you pick up on this throughout this book. So, yeah, yeah, I kind of, I was like, All right, this is weird. But like, I really, I he really goes out of his way to point out. And I think what, what, what triggered me is this is whenever he starts talking about, um, shortly after what I just read. And he's talking with Rinaldi, and he's like, You know what the French mutant, and they've stormed on Paris. What'd they do? Oh, yeah. He's like, Oh, they stopped them. And then shortly after that, he's like, again, this stream of consciousness of like, hertz mountains. Where are the Hertz mountains? Well, we're in the Carpathians. What was going there? Oh, I would like to go there. And he says this, I would go to Spain if there was no war. The sun was going down. And the day was cooling off after I would go and see Catherine. And then he jumps to I would eat. And, you know, in the hot evening and the hot and I started to see like this. This heat that he's using here of the war is heating up, danger, discomfort is all around. And he is noticing it right? There's this sense of what's happening, of this kind of overall suffocating atmosphere. And we talked a little bit about that last time, of of our guy here and Rinaldi, of like they were literally trying to do anything to get some newness in their life. And it's just this how everything's just being smothered by this, by this heat, and it contrasts it with every other, with with cool, or with, you know, cooling of evenings, and how he relates that to, you know, whatever, whatever he's going through there. But like, it's, I'm, I'm gonna, I'm interested to see how that's used further in this book, because I think it's I was getting it a lot, a lot, a lot in this one, yeah, he did bring it up a lot, and he kind of, yeah, that makes sense, right? Because it is getting hot, the book is hotting up as well, right? Because we're on our way to our big inciting incident here, oh yes. And real quick here, he's starting to talk about how Catherine's gonna pretend that he's the boy, and, oh yeah, like this, this whole thing where he's like, and there'll be a bottle of Capri and we'll be in the hotel. And then he says, I don't, I don't know. I think something else is going to come from this. But he starts to say, and when it's dark afterwards, and you went to the window, very small bats hunting over the houses and closed down like, who's the you? Yeah, that's I'm waiting for more, because you're talking to somebody here, and it's not Catherine anymore, yeah. Like, I that that stuck out to me, like that, that all of a sudden, like, Oh, you, you, doesn't belong there, because she's not here. Is he saying this in terms of another woman? Like, I don't know. I just thought that was an interesting thing. And then he yeah, there's a big, weird aside that he has there that he's like, Oh, yeah. Anyway, drinking with Rinaldi, yeah, this was, this little bit. Is this where he's where they are getting drink, where they are drinking a lot? Yes, yeah. Writing all these here, so, like, it's my he does that in the, in the at the end of the other chapter as well. Yeah, right, yeah, I was gonna bring it up there, yeah. He's like, whenever, whenever they're drinking. Like, he forgoes traditional dialog writing, right? Like, the how you write dialog. You know, where you just every like, what's the word I'm trying to look for here, the how you not how you write it, but like, how you present it, right? You write who? Whenever you're writing dialog, right? You a person says a thing, and then the next line below it, but another person says a thing, and then below that, he's like, it goes back and forth. But whenever he's writing, when people are drinking together, all of the lines just, it's just a giant paragraph, right? And you're kind of not always sure who's saying what, and it's everything is like mixing and blending together all the time, right? Like the the traditional format, that's the word. The formatting goes out the window when he's drinking with his friends or drinking with somebody, right? It all just kind of together, right? Which is a very interesting thing to do, to like, visually show that, like, things are getting a little bit blurry. And, like, you know, he's kind of aware of only some things that are happening around, mm hmm, where it is all and I just wanted to read, I mean, to get a sense of this. He says, like, he's talking about, I thought he had a fine name, and he came from Minnesota, which made a lovely name, Ireland of Minnesota, Ireland of Wisconsin, Ireland of Michigan. What made it pretty was that it sounded like an like Island. No, that wasn't it. There was no there was more to it than that. Yes. Father, that is true. Father, perhaps. Father, no. Father, well maybe Yes. Father, you know more about it than I do. Father, like, what is going on here? Who you don't know? Who's saying this? It is just. One mumbled, jumbled and, and, yeah, like, when you say, it's a very unique device to put you in that kind of confused mindset, because he's obviously confused. Like, yeah, there's because, like, it's like, it's almost like everybody's talking at one time, and you're not entirely sure who's saying the thing, right? Yes, but he's just playing that visually, yes, which is incredibly interesting, right? Like, it's amazing. Yes, I was not, like, it did it a little bit in the previous chapter, but this one, it went on for a very long time, and that's whenever I really like, oh my what is happening here? Yeah, it's here, and then it happens again at the end of, like, chapter 12, I think 11 or 12. I can't, I guess, well, I think, I think it might be 12, because again, Ronald is there again. I think does, well, he was just Ronald, I don't know, but he, he does it again there too. So I, yeah, I did pick up on it this week. Of like, man, what is he doing? What in the world? It was that was hard for me to suddenly follow. And I was like, wait a minute, huh? What? That's the point, right? It is the point you're kind of supposed to, yes, it's part of, it's part of the realism that he's that you're supposed to be experiencing. Of this is drawing you more and further into this, to make it feel like you're there, but like it's now an experience that you've had as well. And I think that's what makes that device so interesting. Of going, Hey, I have now had also a confused conversation about, what was what? What was it even about? I don't know, but something about Minnesota, like, Okay, that was the main takeaway. There was something in there about, okay, what that was funny? Like, it's now a shared experience between the reader and our our boy here, yeah, yeah, it's pretty cool. So that's where we leave him. He's like, Okay, well, guess I'm going home now. Boom, yeah, I was feeling lonely and hollow. Ah, good times and that, yeah, next afternoon there were, they're getting ready to head out, because there's going to be an attack, right? The offensive is starting. So we got to ship up, ship out, up to the front, up the mountain there. So he goes to see Miss Barkley real quick, and she gives him a present, right? But the heat knocked her over yesterday, by the way, just to heat, yes, your theme here, yeah, she gives him a little present, right? So she gives him a st Anthony necklace, which is weird, right? It's very interesting. It's like, are you cat? It's like, you're not Catholic. Are you? She goes, No, but they say, St Anthony's very useful. Yeah, I'll take care of him for you. Goodbye, right? No, not goodbye. Okay, all right. And so this, I like this part because he, he says goodbye. You know, they kind of awkwardly say goodbye. She's like, No, you can't kiss me here for all these people love. So he goes to the truck. He hops in the truck, and the driver's like, st Anthony, yeah, I have one too. He flips it out and shows him. And he's he goes and put it in his pocket, and he and the driver goes, You're not gonna wear it. No, it's better to wear it. That's what it's for. Like, yeah, you got to wear it. It doesn't work. If you don't wear it, put it on. What are you doing? Like, and that little exchange was just super it was very interesting too. I just, I liked it. I don't know why, but, like, there was something about it. Just it was, again, it's very realistic dialog. Just, like, Will you do it? Put it on. Wait, don't put it your pocket. Get it. Put it on your shirt, going like, that's what it's for. It's like to wear it, and then he has on a necklace. Put it on, and he's right after that exchange, I have this highlighted where he says, and dropped him under my shirt, under the shirt. I felt him in his metal box against my chest while we drove. Then I forgot about him after I was wounded, I never found him. Someone probably got it at one of the dressing station. Like, no foreshadowing here, but also you forgot about the protective amulet, and like the symbolism in that of like this was supposed to keep me safe, and what even is there? Like, even what your your God was supposed to protect me, like, forgetting about him entirely. Like it just, it just in three sentences. Was like, true. Tied that up. I was, like, the other comic irony here is st Anthony is the patron saint of lost items. Last items, yes, yes, which he is the Saint of lost items, right? And so the fact that you lost Saint Anthony is is kind of ironic and funny, right? Like it's a little bit it's funny. This is a very funny that, like you said, those, those sentences are very deep, and it has a lot of meaning, and there's like, seven. Meetings there, and one of them is, you idiot. You've lost the thing that's supposed to help you find things. What are you doing? Like, yeah, yeah. I had actually forgotten that entirely until you said that. Oh, what? Oh yeah, that, yeah, and yeah, after I was wounded, I never found him. Oh my gosh. And then, so it's like, oh, it's a foreshadowing, lots of foreshadowing, but also like, okay, like, what else was, what else was lost that will never be found because of this incident. Yeah, that, yeah, there's, you know, anyway, anyway, yeah, probably yes. So, yeah, we go up or driving. He's talking about driving. He's sort of describing scenery as he's going up here. Road, right, yeah, new road. And then this chapter is, again, this chapter is, like, this one's super short. It's like two pages. It goes up over the river, and it was nearly dark. We came down and turned onto the main road that ran beside the river. Glam. That's it. But then the next chapter just picks up immediately. So they're going, it's like the road is like, it's got like screens on one side to, like, hide the comings and goings of things up and down the road, right? So they've built some like rudimentary screens out of like corn stalks and straw to like, so that the enemy can't see what's moving on the road, right, right? So they've kind of leaned them all up on the side there, so they're driving slowly going through this like man made tunnel thing, so that they can't see the troop movements. You know, that's the interesting part here, like this that they've done. So you can tell it's definitely coming to the front. Now, we're, we're getting close because it's, it's a lot more serious. There's the even the geography is altered, right? We can see we're hiding things. We're doing all this stuff. So we're, we're coming up to, like an actual like, This is getting interesting, right? Like, we get to the top and we they start having this big, long conversation that I can't follow because they're talking about like people or like groups of people, and I have no clue. Okay, you had some deep Italian knowledge as you're about to drop on me, so that you help me understand the section I'm imagining. These are like units of things, right? Because I know the carbon Yari is currently the like Italian police force, right? Okay, that, and they're talking about, like, the grenadier and all this stuff. So I'm thinking these, like, you thinking these, like units of stuff, and they're just talking about, like, which one is better? And like, oh yeah, because like, the granite that sounds like grenadiers, right? They these sound like things and and army units or some sort so, like, I don't know exactly what they're talking about, or the Barcelona. That's the they've mentioned that one before, too. I don't know what that word means. So, like, I didn't look it up because I was just going for it, right? Like, I figured, yep, I I was, I was curious. I just kept reading. And basically, I understood that they held some of these in esteem and not others in the only important part here that you take out of this, like, I think that's what, yep. So I didn't really stop and Google too many things here, like, just to do that, right? And so they're, they're getting up there, and they do that, and they're trying to get ready, right? They're like, we gotta get ready for the thing. Did you, you know, they're trying to make sure they're all in the right spot, and getting the cars and the right things. And, you know, we keep talking about this weird, um. Who's he talking to here? When he says, um, oh, they're talking about the again, they keep talking about the war, and it keeps going on, and they're not liking it. But he says, Uh, he's talking to one of the guys up there. Says, Yeah, we think we read we're not peasants. We are mechanics. But even the peasants know better than to believe in a war. Everybody hates war. They're talking about like, oh, war's dumb. Nobody likes war. Nobody wants war. Only the random people in the government want war. They don't care. They're this war is dumb. Like, we don't, yes, like, they don't want the war. Like, we don't want to fight the Austrians. We don't care about fighting the Austrian. Why do I care about fighting the Austrians? Like, it's not me that wants a war. There's always somebody in the government that wants a war and they want and we want somebody, yes, someone said, Oh, it's because they want money. And he said, No, because they're dumb, right? Yeah, exactly right. Like, oh, but this is, there's a statement in here where they say, it could not be worse. There is nothing worse than more. And somebody says, I don't know who this is. Somebody says defeat is worse. And he says, I do not believe it. And still, respectfully, what is defeat? And you go home, and then somebody says, they come after you. They take your home, they take your sisters. And casinos like, let them, you know, let them keep their sisters in the home. And we'll just, we'll just all do this from our own homes, right? Like, if I come to my home, it's going to be fine. And I'll just, I'll just protect myself, and that's what really needs to be matter, um, and somebody says this phrase. And I thought this was very interesting, is when they said, you know, an outside nation can't make your soldier. Manera said at the first battle, you all run like the chitcos. And then somebody says, I think you do not know anything about being conquered, and so you think it is not bad. And I thought that was very, very like, yeah, like, like, I don't think you fully understand exactly what you're saying. Isn't so bad in, in that in these instances where you are at war like, and I think this is them trying to this is, this is a conversation about, what are the true costs of war, like, and who really pays those? And what are the, what are the consequences of not, of not winning? And that's what they're struggling with. If somebody's, like, What do you mean? Like, if we don't win, we don't win, like, Okay, we'll just go home, and other people like, No, you get conquered, right? And then they come for you and your family and your sisters. Like, there are repercussions of this if we don't do something. And then you get it and people say, Well, if they'll, if they don't stop, because that's this, is that this conversation where they're like, well, they stopped fighting first, right? We'll just stop. Yeah, because he says, like, there you can't win. He says, There is no winning, right? There's no it doesn't finish. There is no finish to war. Yes, there is war. Is not won by victory. And he says, one side must stop fighting. Why don't we stop fighting? If they come down to Italy, they will get tired and go away. They have their own country. But no, instead, there is war, yes. And then that's where they say there is a class that controls a country that is stupid and does not realize anything and never can This is why we have war. Yep, bang. You can go ahead and stamp that on 2025, right? Just pull that sentence off forward 100 years that's pressing. And then says they also make money out of it. He's like, No, most of them don't they're too stupid. They do it for nothing, for stupidity. Yeah, for nothing, too stupid. Oh my gosh. This was, I, anyway, I this, this, this take on this, in the way, in the setting, again, of what's happening here is, is fantastic. So yeah, and then, and then they start to go. This is what they say. They're hungry, right? Yeah, this is what they say, if we're gonna we need to eat. Otherwise, you know, we gotta eat now. So they go and they, they look for some food, right? And he says, we don't have any food. He's like, Well, just give me whatever you have, right? And we'll just take it. And because we, they we, you know, we need to eat before the offensive starts. Otherwise you're not gonna be able to eat for forever. So he's like, just give me some food and and, you know, give me whatever you got. And he's like, Well, we don't have any of this. He's like, Oh, I have a little this pasta. And he's like, okay, just give me that. It's fine, yeah. So he gets some, like, pasta and some cheese. And it's like, cooked macaroni and forgetting, slices of cheese, right, right? He's doing this while they're actively being shelled. Yeah, okay, just like walking around, he's talking with the major and the majors, because, again, they had thought that they had pushed it back an hour, but now we find that they've made it right now. And he had just been offered a bottle, a glass of cognac. And then he stands up and he's like, it starts now, and then he's like, there were shirts, searchlights, and then the shell started. And yeah, he's having a conversation of, like, Can I have some cheese while being actively mortared from the mountains? Yeah? But, like, yeah. So he's just weird, because he's like, just sort of non walking around. And they go and they get to macaroni, and they, they're like, well, there's no forks. He's like, Yeah, just eat it. And he's like, just grab it. And so they just kind of all sit down around this pot, and they pinch the macaroni, like it's, it's weird, they're eating macaroni and cheese, but like, it's just macaroni and also a piece of cheese, like, it's, yes, so they're just kind of like scooping it up and eating it with their hands, and there's no fork, right? Um, just kind of all hanging out over the thing, and they're casually talking about what, what sort of like shell that is hitting outside. And he's like, No, it can't be the fouries. They don't have any of those here. He's like, no, they have big scooter guns. I've seen the holes. Man, it's fine. Um, and then all of a sudden they get hit with a trench mortar. Blam, right. They're sitting there eating their cheese because Pacini says this is. A deep dugout, and somebody says that was a big trench mortar like again, going, Yeah, we're really exposed here, yeah. And then there's a flash as when a blast furnace doors are swung open, and a roar that started white and went red and on and on in a rushing wind. I tried to breathe, but my breath would not come, and I felt myself rush bodily out of myself and out and out and out and all the time bodily in the wind. I went out swiftly, all of myself, and I knew I was dead and that it had been all a mistake to think you just died. Gosh, oh, this, this, this style writing up until this point is a great way to clip through heavy amounts of information to get to use to the point of like, moving the story along, and to get you in the detail, as soon as he layers in just a little bit of sprinkling of more detail in depth, you get this stuff. And it's like, holy, like, I just went from eating pasta with some bad water because it sat in a car too long, like, and this is, what? Two sentences, cough, right? I heard a cough. And then came the three sentences later. It's Oh my gosh, and then we are in the middle of a the ground being torn up, right? Yeah. So he, he reverts to, it's the same writing style as when they're drinking, interesting, yes, right? It's all just in a paragraph, like there's dialog. He's talking to the guy next to him. He's shouting and screaming because he's dying and, you know, right? It's all just mixed in here, and, you know, it's like yelling and weird noises, and he's trying to figure out what to do, and he's checking to see if people are alive and they're not. This other guy is right, like, he all of a sudden, feels his leg. My knee wasn't there. My hand went in and my knee was down on my shin. I, at this point, I had to put the book down because I was like, Okay, we're gonna like, because it's here's like, you're just part of this. This, it is a stream of consciousness. But he's also throwing things in here, like he remembers what kind of, not pouties. I don't know what these are. They're like, leg, oh yeah. Like the little. They're like, the little, it sounds like they're those little over boot things you wear, right? World War One they had they wore, like, the boots and the socks. And they're like, the gator things, yes, the Gators. That's kind of what I spent that's kind of what I think they are. Like, you're clipping along through here and and our boy here is, is, is processing all this stuff, and he's pulling up these details, and he's working on this thing, and you just slam right into this detail about his knee is where his shins are, yeah. And it's like a little warning, like, oh my gosh, but again, we are processing in real time, just like he is, and that's what makes this so like, stomach churning of you're just, you're just you're at this point, you're long for the ride, and you're, you don't really know what's what. Obviously, we don't know what's coming up, but this writing slams you through it like it's just dragging you through the all of these details all in a row. Yeah, yeah. And then then we jump back because the two guys show up to pick him up, and then we're, we're back into normal dialog, yes, right? He's like, he's, you know, telling him who's here, who's not. He's like, Okay, I've got you the other guy's like, I can't find this guy. He's like, Oh, he's over here. He's holding your legs, right? And so he picks him up, and he's carrying him out, because they couldn't find any stretchers. And so they're carrying up out of the thing to the tent, right to a medical tent, you know? And, um, where they're talking about all this stuff. And he's like, Oh, I'm, you know, here's your thing, what happened? Blah, blah, oh, and you can start to the English doctor, yeah, they drop him. And he's like, I thought this, if you drop me again, they drop him again. Yeah, you know, it happens. There's a lot going on. It's happening, right? It's just one of those details where you're like, of course, like, it's just like, how angry would you like, just, like, I might what is going on with my legs? I don't know if I'm going to be okay. My friends just died and you dropped me twice. Like, yeah, we won't drop you again, right? Yeah. Yeah, they bring him into the English doctor, right? He's the English doctor, and they're talking to him there, and they're getting them all set up and trying to figure out what to do. And he's like, Nah, is this part where he's like, yeah, no, I'm okay. You can send those other guys down first. I'm fine. I'm just like, a little wounded. It's okay. Yes, yep. Oh, and he gives this great detail. Again, I have to, like, pause these for the details. When he writes the doctors were working with their sleeves up to their shoulders and were read as butchers, yeah, like, but yes, he does wave off immediate assistance and say, go, go. Help get something else, right. But they're like, Nah, shut up anyway. And then they're like, now we got to get you down. And there the English guy starts, I did like, so it's again, the levity here is very intriguing to me, because it was, like, super bad situation. His knees aren't attached to himself currently. And then he's like, he's like, I'll I'd rather wait. I'm fine. There's people more hurt than me. And the English doctor is like, Nah, shut up. And he turns the other person, he says, like, uh, careful of his legs. Pick him up. His legs are very painful. This is the son of President Wilson. You have to be careful with him. You know, I know, I love that so much. This is the legitimate son of President Wilson. He just like, comes up with this, and in a minute he comes up with it, tells him something completely different, just like, what random stuff just get. He's important. Get him out of here. Yes, yes. And then he he gets, he's, goes to a French guy, right? And because he can say, sava, he's like, Wait, you're not English. I thought you were French. You speak French easy. You said, like, one word of French. And so, yeah, then they same thing. They're kind of getting them out of there. They're taking the, they cut his pants off, and they're working on, like, field dressing, the wounds and stuff. And they keep saying, like they're looking at skull too, which he hasn't mentioned up until this point because he's so worried about his knee, right? They keep they just go, Oh, you get this description paragraph here, the of the doctor being like, Does this hurt? And like, poking? Yes, scalp. And he just all of a sudden goes, Oh yes, Yep, yeah. But he's also also the doctor this again, this is the stance where the doctors know things that they report how they're going to be interpreted back at headquarters. Yeah, right. Because he says, here. He says, Does that hurt? He said, Christ, yes. He says, with possible fracture of the skull incurred in the line of duty, that's what keeps you from being court martialed for self inflicted wounds. Yeah? And then he's like, Okay, I'm sorry. So would you like some brandy? He's like, Yeah, absolutely, yeah. Things are about to get real bad. And we had a little tease of that kind of thinking about wounds and trying to get out of the war because of our good old buddy with the hernia and, yeah, dropping the truss and the trying to like, Oh, now we're in that situation where here on the medical field, they are making determinations, and it's like, yep, that's what they were doing, right? And make a cross on both legs. Thank you. I'll clean up this little wash it out. Your blood coagulates beautifully. Yeah. Oh, man. And then they're asking him, like, what hit you? And he's like, a trench mortar shell. It's like, Are you sure? Like, yeah, he's asking him. Think, okay, here's what's going on. Actively being shelled outside. He's in here. The reporter is, is asking these questions. The surgeon is actively cutting on him right now, and shells are falling out by the door. Like, are you sure you got here with the transporter? Like, looks outdoor. Yeah, pretty sure. That's what it was. Not dissimilar to that one that just landed 20 feet away, like, Good grief. Yeah, right. It was also the absurdity of just like a hospital in general, right where they ask you all this stuff all the time. You're like, bleeding. They're like, Well, can you tell me your date of birth? Like, guys, wait, come on. Like, yeah, you have things to do here. Yep. And then he's also, like, retracting the brandy at this point, because he's like, how's your head? And he's like, Oh, better not drink too much. You don't want the inflammation from it, yeah, because, like, if it is a fracture, because they're like, they don't know, but they're like, if it is fracture, you don't want to be too inflamed. He's like, Oh, you should go. Too inflamed. He's like, Oh my gosh. So he rides, they get him in the ambulance, right? They get him bundled up down there, and this is a very awkward, uh, ride. So he's, he's, they're bounded down. On the side of the road and the thing, and the the guy above him is lean on right and then, but before this again, he he was an ambulance driver real quick. Yeah. And so the details that he is reporting are all the things that he used to do and was so familiar with right? He says, he says, I felt the engine start, felt him climb up into the front seat, felt the brake come off and the clutch go in. Then we started right? I lay still and let the pain ride as he's about to ride in pain. And also let the pain that he because earlier, he's like, yeah, the pain that the doctor had said was starting now, and he's just in here writhing in pain. But also he's got a a guy in here that's not not doing well at all, yeah. So he Yeah, the guy above him is like, bleeding, and he bleeds like it's it starts his drip, and then it bleeds like a whole lot, and then it stops again. And he's like, yeah, oh, oh, dear. So he's sitting there covered in this other dude's blood. It's all it's all gross. It's nasty, right? It's old, and because they're so high up in the Alps, or in the in the mountains, and the it's cold, it says, you know, and they fell from an icicle after the sun has gone down. It was cold in the car in the night and the road as the road climbed, yeah, oh, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. So the next chapter 10. Here we're down in the field hospital and got his first visitor, right? Boom, here's your boy, Rinaldi, coming back in. He's back as brandy. Surprised, right? Nobody's, nobody's surprised. Yeah, I'm not surprised at all. Yeah. Again, here we have, I think this is, this is the where I literally start to highlight hot day, hot day. It was very hot. It was hot. It was like, here, more of the the suffocating atmosphere of costs of war. Here, it's literally around you. You are now part of this. You You're not escaping this. What's happening around you. Yeah and, yeah and, but my favorite part of this chapter is the conversation with bernaldi. Oh, nice, because he's talking about this, and he's like, Oh, it doesn't matter. Look how you're wounded. Look at your valorous conduct. And asking you to go always in line. He's like, he's like, Oh, we can get you the bronze. And he's like, actually, tell me exactly what happened. I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure we can get you the silver. Like, did you tell me more about what I know guy? We can come on. We gotta do this. He's like, I don't wanna. He's like, no, no, you want this? I'll be fine. I'm gonna get you the silver. I think we can do it. Like he said, Did you do any heroic act? Said, No, I was blown up while we were eating cheese. Yeah, serious. He must have done something heroic, either before or after. Remember carefully. And I don't know if, like, Rinaldi genuinely doesn't believe him, or if he's like, just saying, say anything, buddy, that's what we were all doing. Like, everyone's just, I think that's what, yeah. I think that's yes, yeah. I think he's just saying, Oh, come on, just, you just have to say it, and I'll report that you did it and you did it, and you'll get these all accommodations and energy. Is just like, No, I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything at all. Yeah? And he's like, come on, you got it, yeah, it's kind of like, you got to play the game, right? It's a game. It's not, we got to do the things we gotta do it, right? Oh, he said, he said, corodini says he you carried several people on your back. But the medical major at the first post declares it is impossible, right? Yeah, yeah, didn't have a knee, right? Get out of here, yeah. What are you doing, I guess. Oh my gosh. Anyway, yeah, this, this was hilarious, hilarious, back and forth. Because, yeah, you do see this. Just like, Come on, just say. All you have to do is say the thing and we'll get it for you. Come on. Come on. Yeah, right. And he's even like, Oh, I'm gonna go talk to the English doctors. I'm gonna go talk to the English and maybe see if we can get you an English medal too, right? Yes. He's like, they don't do that. He's like, Well, we'll see about Yeah, he's like, he might, you know, no, we're gonna ask him. Like, you so bravely, wave treatment and let other people go in front of you. That's good enough. We gotta go right? Yeah. So, like, Oh my gosh. And he keeps saying, anyway, he keeps saying, like, tell me exactly how it happened, tell me what happened. And then he just doesn't give him a word in edgewise about what is actually going to happen. Actually let him talk, which is very funny, like, I'd Yeah, like, he gets so annoyed that he just like it, because, again, this is another really short chapter, so he kind of, at the end, he just, like, starts insulting him. He's like, just go away. He just starts calling him names. Like, he's like, I just want to be left alone. Like, I just want you to go away. Go away, go away. And he was like, you know, Rinaldi knows what he's doing, right? He's like, he kind of plays it off. But even all this, after all that, he's like, this, back and forth, all this, he's calling on these, like, slurs and stuff, and he goes, we won't coral, baby. I love you too much. Don't be a fool. Don't be a fool. Yes, don't be angry. Take a drink. I gotta go see you later. Like, oh my gosh. He's, like, I know you don't really mean it. It's patmans. Like, right bye. Like, oh, get well. Suit, yeah, Cognac is under the bed. Get well, and he was gone. Man, yeah, this anyway, yeah, that was again, just, I'd love that scene. I love that scene so much. That chapter of just, you can picture it anyway, yeah, it was very, interesting to come after, immediately after the last chapter, right? Serious, like, two chapters of, like, serious, bad, blah, blah, this chapter we're in all these here doing weird Rinaldi things. So, like, it, like, breaks it up a little bit like, now it's like, a little bit more lighthearted, right? Even though Henry isn't feeling it like it's still more lighthearted for you the reader, right? Trying to break it up, trying to add some levity a little bit in here to the situation, you know. And the second visitor comes in the next chapter, which was the priest. The priest comes to see him, right? Yes, so, yeah, this is a very different conversation, right? It's a little more awkward because he doesn't really know how to talk to him all the time. You know? He says he misses him at the mess, you know, why? Why do you think this conversation was awkward? Well, I think partly it's because it's always kind of awkward, right? I don't really think the priest just Well, I mean, it's partially it's awkward is because there is some denominational differences occurring here in that the priest, the priest is a priest, and Henry doesn't believe in anything, so, like, that's a bit awkward, right? He's like, it's like, we can't really talk about that, because I don't want to talk about that, so I don't want to. So yes, and it also shows, I think, in that line of just how their relationship was before Yeah, it was only in the mess and it was only in mocking and fun, right? Yeah, or at least that was the majority that that we saw and that now in this very serious situation, it's like, what, what? What do we talk about? Yeah, is outside of their normal conversational purview, right? This is a bit more serious, because he's like, being genuinely concerned and priestly, because I think it's one of those situations where, like, the priest considers Henry like an acquaintance, not a friend, maybe, but like a pretty you know, he, like, feels like he knows him, and that idea is not reciprocated the other way, right? It's sort of like a unrequited friendship, right? And so the fact that he's come here and he's done this stuff, and he brought him some drink and he brought him some newspapers, and Henry's also kind of like, oh, oh, okay, you're serious about this. Okay, yes, you know, like, he's kind of cut off. He's like, Oh, you, oh, okay, I Yeah, okay, yeah. That makes me taking this relationship seriously before, but like, All right, well, yeah, I see that. Like, I think that's the other thing that makes awkward. He kind of feels like, Oh, I was, you know, was, you know, it's kind of a jerk. I was kind of mean, like, I don't know. So think that's why, maybe also, but it's kind of, it's very strange and very stilted, right? But they, he kind of gets around that by talking about, like, what the priest wants to do, right? Like, about Abruzzi again, right? You want to live there. I want to go back there. I want to do all that stuff, right? So then the conversation is a little bit heavy, you know? And, uh, they start talking about the faith, right? He asked him about his he's like, yeah, no. And then he talks about the priest. He's like, Yeah, I always want to do this. I, I always like this. I This is what I always felt like. So it's a very interesting dichotomy here. The juxtaposition of both of them and where they are currently even is is very interesting in this chapter, I think, right, because then they start talking about, I thought this was interesting. Talking about that love, right? Like I'm afraid of him. What does he say? It's like you do not love him at all. He says, I'm afraid of him in the night, sometimes you should love him. I don't love much. He goes, yes, yes. You do when you love you wish to do things for you, wish to sacrifice for you, wish to serve. Yeah. And then he says, I do not love, yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's Yeah, well, and then the next one, he says, You will, I know you will, then you will be happy. And our voice says, I am happy. I've always been happy. The priest says it is another thing. You cannot know it unless you have it, basically saying, like, No, you're not even that happy. Yeah, you're not really. Oh, really, right, okay, yeah, yeah. I thought that was Yeah. He said, Well, if I ever get it, I'll tell you, yeah, like, okay. Oh no, yeah, yeah, boom, yeah. Then our last chapter. Here we are, let's see, oh yeah, this is he's getting ready to leave for a bigger hospital, right? He's gonna go to Milan? Milan, yeah, yeah. He's getting transferred out to Milan, to a red heart, a Red Cross Hospital, right? Because, right, the the US has officially declared war on Germany, right? But not Austria, but like, so there's this big, long conversation about, like, Oh, it doesn't matter. They will eventually. Like, do you think they will? And he's like, Yeah, sure they will. It's fine, right? Sure they will. So we get that, but that that puts us firmly in, uh, about 1917 I think, right? That's, this is the first, like, definitive date that I have been able to ascertain in the book, right? We are currently in 1917 if, if this is right, when the US has entered the World War One, this is 1917 which means potentially, well, I mean, which means the war has been going on for three years at this point. Which explains all of the, all of the other talk about, you know, that we've been talking about and capturing about it just going on and on, and there's no end, and it's pointless and useless, right? This, this whole show, has been happening for three years. Three years, yes, right? Yeah. And he's been in Italy for at least two of them, right? Because, like, at the beginning it's very vague. He just says, like, the following year we were blah. So, like, kind of the opening Prolog introduction parts of this book is like, we get since he's been here for at least two years, possibly just since the beginning, right? Like, so this has been going on for three years at this point, right, roughly, somewhere in there. So that that is a is to confirm some of the timeline things that we were talking about and about why all the characters feel this way, and about kind of the the tone, and why he is so melancholy and morose about everything like this is, this is what, after three years of being in the war, this is what he has to show for it, blown up by a trench mortar in a hospital. This is, this is what three years of war is, God no, front moving at all. Right, basically, basically the same spot for that long. Well, never really moved at all. Nothing has changed, except for now he's gotta go to the hospital, yeah. And even in this chapter, he says, you know, they were wanting to move for when the offensive starts. So it's like, we've been hearing about something starting, and they're gonna do something, and this, this is gonna, like, you know, gonna move this forward at some point, but you're right, like, all that for what now? And yeah, now he's, now he's actively drinking with Rinaldi. And the the major is, he is that, is that what they came in, right? Yeah, yeah. I'm trying to remember, yeah, Major, yeah, Major. This is where he makes the they asked me if we would declare war on Turkey. I said that was doubtful Turkey. I said was our national bird, yeah, yeah. But so badly and they were so puzzled and suspicious that I said yes, and we would probably declare war on Turkey. It's very weird. Yeah. I just, I've got a, yeah, it was great. It's great. So, which was funny, yeah, so they talk about going to the the best parts of Italy. Again, talking about, we should go to Rome. We should go here. Blah, blah, like, oh, and you. Up very, very drunk at this point, like extremely because, again, our text is just a giant block, no more dialog lines, no more formatting, just a big blob of strangeness that you have to sort of be like. I'm not entirely sure what's happening, but we're just gonna go with it, yep, yep, oh. Then he says, um, oh, because Yeah. At this point, Ronald is like the mother the father of nations. I said Rome is Roma is feminine. Said Rinaldi, it cannot be the father who is the father of the Holy Ghost. Don't blaspheme. Yeah, I wasn't blaspheming. I was asking for information. Yes, it's just this. It's just constant back and forth, and it's just names and places and things and like, I just in very confusing about what's going on. Well, you always know when Ronald is talking, because he says baby at the baby sentence. So he calls everyone baby all the time. So you know, when we're in all these there, right? So, get that bang. So, right. Oh, that again, just these, these great, like, these dead pans, again, this back and forth. And it sounds so like they're just, they're, they're in the mode of drinking, where they're like, of course, we're gonna go there. We're gonna do the thing. And, right, yeah, we're gonna do this stuff. And to to the Scala, said, Rinaldi, you will go to the Scala every night. I said, you won't be able to afford it every night. To the major tickets are very expensive, right? They find out that the English girl. He says the English. I like how he just calls him the English, right? The English you go to see every night at the hospital. She's going to Milan too. She goes with another to be at the American Hospital, right? Yes. So they do not have yet many nurses from America, so they need more. So she's going to, she's going to be there also, so double, right? She's going to go to Milan also to be in hospital, so maybe she'll see him there, probably, I'm guessing. And then, yeah, then they're saying chow chow, because they're being told to be quiet through this whole time. He's like, You must be quiet. We're being told to be quiet. Stop. They tiptoed out. I found I was quite drunk, but went to sleep, yeah? And then, and then we get a car ride. Yeah, yeah. We get a train ride. Sorry, train ride. They Yeah. The next day, they get up, get on the train, uh, arrived 48 hours later, which, that's one slow train ride, because the northern Italia, the Northern Italy in Milan are not very far away from each other, so there's some more efficiency for you. But like he did say it was a bad trip for a long time. Yes, he does. It was a bad trip, and they were side trip for a long time, right? Yeah. So yeah. He got a little boy to go get a bottle, yeah. But I like, but he Yeah, I bought. I got a little boy to go for a bottle of cognac, but he came back and said he could only get gruff. Oh, well, I gave him. Said I drank with the guy next to me. He got very sick on the floor. But does not matter, because he'd been sick several times earlier anyway. So what did he get? Some water anyway? Yeah. So it just kind of, it's just kind of like, Yep, this is this. This paragraph is like, Yep, I did go to Milan. Bang. That was pretty much. It tried to drink and pass the time away, and then the train started again. So that brings us to the end of book one. Book one, yeah, so far, yeah, quite a lot, right. So yeah, there you go. Yeah, it's gonna be good. Yeah, no, it's I, you know. So we've and all of that was, I know, like setting up, like, our views on more how we're processing things, lots of CO dependencies and toxic relationships, and lots like, how, where does this go from here? Like, right? Like, no one from Milan. We're gonna see the woman again. So, like, that's probably gonna go, well, probably, yeah, what's gonna go, yeah, we'll see Yeah. So I'm, I am thoroughly enjoying this. I'm excited to go through, to keep checking through this. So we're good, yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you make a decision on how many we can talk offline, about how many chapters more you want to try and read? I think this is the same length as the book one. Okay, from my quick calculations, I believe this goes from chapter 13 to 24 Okay, so I. Do you want to do the same amount? We'll just do six. Okay, yeah, that's fine. All right, yeah, sounds good. Just that way. Because I again, kind of want to, not, I want to end on the books, because I feel like it's good. Yes, I think, yeah, I think that'll be fine. That'll that'll work. All right, sweet, yep, okay, I've miscounted. I'll let you know. Yeah, that's fine. It's fine. Well, I will, I will wrap us up here and send us off to the evening with a haiku. What? Hey, golden hues back in crisp edges, soft heart within perfection in fries. Ah, yes, beautiful. Amazing. We had, we had wedge cut tonight. We I made wedges because that's what called for. And I made sure I had to try to Chris them just a little bit longer to make them a little extra, little extra hump. And it worked out. Worked out pretty well. So nice. That was on my mind tonight as I was in there, laughing to myself, there you go. We will. We'll pull on that. I was gonna say bombshell, but that's a little too Yeah. So we'll. We'll start with Lucky 13. Next, oh, boy. What could go wrong? Probably lots of things, yeah, probably lots of things. So well, love you, love you, bye, bye.