Welcome to “Ear Biscuits”, the podcast where two lifelong friends talk about life for a long time, I’m Link. And I’m Rhett, this week at the round table of dim-lighting which is a little bit different. We’ll talk about that in a second. Oh, yeah. I’m gonna be talking about my recent trip to San Francisco. You got back last night. The San Francisco treat. Yeah, did you get some treats? I did get some treats. I, you know, it was quite an experience, made some memories. What was the mission? The mission was college visits for Locke, trying to decide on where he is gonna go. So, there’s a few schools in the San Francisco area that we visited. So, you’re yeah, you’re entering that phase of fatherhood, that I went through last year. And then next year with Lincoln, I’ll be going through it again. Second time will be a breeze though. I hope so, I mean, it’s like, I wonder what you’ve learned from me and I wonder what I can learn from you for next time. It’s funny, I wasn’t thinking about, what, I wasn’t… Well, the funny thing is, is that if I recall correctly, Lily kinda, she kinda had her mindset on what she wanted to do, where she wanted to go. And there wasn’t like, Locke has applied to like 25 different schools. You know, we visited multiple schools, we’re gonna do, for his spring break now, the spring break trip is shaping up, and is turning into a tour of the Northeastern United States. Oh wow. Including New York where the, you know, so some schools up there that he’s interested in. That’s why I think, I, maybe I can learn from you because I didn’t, you know, ours was not nearly that involved. Yeah, it was like a handful of schools that she applied to. And, in the timing of the pandemic of it all. Yeah. There was, it was much more limited what we were capable of doing, and what colleges were capable of giving us as far as like information. Well, the funny thing is, is we don’t, you know, we don’t, McLaughlins are not great planners. And so, they’re, we have not taken any official tours. We haven’t talked to anyone official, like literally one of the campuses we were walking around and there was like a group of official kids with like an official representative. And we’re just like, “Hey guys, losers.” “We can go wherever we to, we don’t need…” I’ll bet you, we’re gonna hear lots of the stuff that’s gonna be pertinent to your decision. We don’t need an official person. We’re going to the snack shop. Yeah, right I mean, we make our own rules, man. I feel that. But I’m not gonna spend a, I’ll spend some time talking about that, but I also wanna talk about San Francisco. Turns out there’s a lot to talk about, as it relates to San Francisco. And I saw a picture that you texted Christy and I, and I’m very intrigued. I wanna talk about the specifics of this picture that you sent us too so. Yeah. I’m excited about that. But yeah, we’re also excited about the fact that the “Ear Biscuits” set has been updated. Our backdrop, this reflects an expanding universe of mythical podcasts. That is our, that’s our vision, and we got plans to back it up baby. Matter of fact, the first new podcast coming out of Mythical Studios is, “Trevor Talks Too Much”, tomorrow, episode one comes out. You know, Trevor, he’s one of the Mythical Kitcheneers. Well, there’s a few things about Trevor. He’s a goofy, young guy who talks too much. Yeah, Trevor, I don’t know if he is still the youngest person to work in Mythical Entertainment, but you know what. I mean, he’s a Z-er, a Gen Z-er. And so, he’s interested in things and talks about things that we’re too old to understand, or appreciate. And so… Don’t, stop talking to us, just start talking to other people you’re interested in talking to. So… He is gonna have guests. He’s gonna have guests that are kind of in his world. One of the guests we’re not gonna mention, ’cause we don’t know. You never know who you’re gonna get in here. I do know one of the guests, I mean, I have heard of one of the guests and actually have had conversations with one of the guests. But, the other ones I’m like, I listen. The fact that I don’t know who they are, is a good sign that Trevor’s doing the right thing. But, if what we’re seeing intrigues you check out his podcast. What we’re saying doesn’t intrigue you, all right don’t listen to us, just check out his podcast. Don’t let us be the reason you don’t check out his podcast. Trevor’s a lovely man. “Trevor Talks Too Much”. It was almost. Wherever podcasts are found. It was almost the name of the podcast. That was my vote. Trevor’s a lovely man. Also there’s a YouTube channel, dedicated to the visual version where you check out this backdrop with his own signage up here. But apparently… He doesn’t get, he doesn’t get our round table. I think they alter it. They put something over it. But apparently, this wood, which I love wood, I love touching it. Is a wave form, we’ve been told that it may or may not say Mythical is Love. It also could just be someone farting. Yeah. But. It looks like it could be one of my farts. It’s very beautiful. I like to fart love. Could you, what are you… Pretty cool, huh? I think farts. If you’re just listening to this, pretty cool huh? This would be a pretty, this would be a fart that started strong and had a whimper in the middle, then came back. Yeah, yeah. Really picked up again, which are my favorite kinds. Right. You’ve made people think they’re over and you bring it right back. It’s called breaking the second wind. Yeah, okay let’s talk about this trip. Now, you’ve made this, you’ve made the trip to the Northern part of our state. I wanna talk a little bit about that area that you… I have not gone north of San Francisco. Well. That’s pretty. Neither have I really. Okay, there’s still a lot more. A whole lot more. Yeah, so yeah, we, I still wanna go up that way. I’m talking about, this is the experience, okay, just in case you’ve never taken this route. And I’m talking about being on the five, the Interstate 5, going north. You take it outta town, you go past the, sort of the remnants of civilization on the north side of Los Angeles, like up to Santa Clarita. And you’re kind of enter into this mountain pass, and all of a sudden it’s like, okay, there’s no people here anymore. I mean, there’s mountains. It’s a wilderness area. Kind of. Yeah. It’s actually where we drove when we went, we took Shepherd up and did some off-roading. There’s like a little off-road- On the vlog channel. Place there, but you drive through this and then you kind of come down, out the mountains. And it’s very, very sudden. Mountains, and then all of a sudden flatness. Yeah. For as far as you can see. And it is, for like four and a half hours straight, you are on what feels like having just recently driven across North Texas. Feels like North Texas, like flat and just crops. Yeah. Like this is where the stuff that’s grown in California, is grown. It’s the central valley, right. 18 wheelers on the road. And it is so desolate. Yeah, it’s a tough drive. Yeah, ’cause it just never changes. Yeah. But did you, have you noticed this? All, the people who grow the food in this area, have very, they seem to have a very particular political viewpoint on our governor. Have you noticed this? Well yeah, they tried to recall him. No, no, no, I’m saying, I’m not talking about just Northern California. I’m talking about specifically the people who own the farms, there’s all these signs calling out Governor Newsom about water. Yeah. You notice this? Yeah. And it’s just like, and there’s a play on words. It’s like, “Give us back our damn water”. But they spelled damn with a D-A-M. Oh. And then there’s the sign, like you, the signs soft of educate you as you go along. There’s there’s other ones that say, “78% of our water flows into the oceans, without us…” So, you know, obviously there’s some, there’s two difference of, there’s a difference of opinion here. Yeah. There’s probably like a progressive environmental side. That’s saying that we can’t just dam up, and use all this water for whatever habitats, et cetera. I don’t know any of the details. I’m just kind of pulling this outta my butt right now. And then the second thing is, “Well, we wanna grow the crops, let us just use the water, let us dam this stuff up so we can use it.” whatever. And so these two, you know, ideals are sort of bumping up against each other. And making signs. For like four hours, and it’s just sign after sign, after sign, after sign. There’s no, ’cause there’s really like, there’s hardly any billboards is just these… You saw all these signs, and you never figured it out? I think the signs have worked their way into my mind. And now I’m like, “Governor Newsom, give us back our damn water.” Like, I mean, this propaganda has worked for me. I don’t know the details. So I’m actually, I don’t know where I come down on this issue because I don’t have any idea what is at stake. I should probably look into it. But that was your first thought, okay. But then, did you notice that the desolation turns into rolling hills? Yeah. With no trees. And it looks, I mean, it looks grassy. There’ll be some… It’s beautiful grassy, some yellow flowers. We, we’ve benefited from a lot of rain, which is very unusual. It’s very… It’s typically brown. But once you, what I’m talking about, you’re almost in the Bay area. Okay. You guys like to go to the Santa Cruz area. So, at some point you kind of go off of the five. Right. But we were going all the way up to San Francisco, and we were, in the way that it was navigating us was coming all up through Oakland, almost to Berkeley, and then cutting across the bay into San Francisco, right. So, for like another two hours, I mean the whole trip is like five and a half hours. So like, it’s like three and a half hour, four hours. And then like the last hour and a half. Is these rolling hills with nothing on them except cattle. Yeah. And windmills. It’s pretty cool. It’s beautiful. But this is where this dynamic begins, where I begin pointing out things. I’m totally dad-ing it, when I’m driving. everybody’s on their phones. I’m not on a phon, I’m on a car. Yeah, you have to see everything. And I’m like, guys, look at those cows. In fact, we literally had this conversation, Jessie and I did. And then she ended up tweeting about it, ’cause she thought I was so funny. I said, “Look at those cows, just living up there on those hills.” And she said, “I’ve already looked at the cows.” And I was just like, “But look at them now.” You know. Now that I’ve, just given you a philosophical point of view on them, right? But, yeah. Let’s be thoughtful about these cows. And I don’t really want to go into listen, some people say that the tendency to want people to look at things is narcissism, okay whatever. I think it is, what I want is I want a connection, man. It’s just like, when you’re with somebody you’re watching a movie. What you want somebody to, you wanna bring somebody into a collective experience. I’m just looking for a connection with my family, man. I get it, man. You’re a, you’re… That’s all dad’s want. You’re a dad who wants, when you’re all together, you want the, you want to have a shared focal point. And if, if that’s the cows, so be it. And it’s the dad’s job. The dad’s role in the family, is to find the focal point into exclaim it. Yeah, just grab everybody’s face and say, “Look at the cow.” “Look at the cow living his life.” “He sits up there living his life.” Just think about those cows though, man. They just make their, they make their lives on these hills. Hey, I’m not on your trip, don’t drag me into this. But one of the things that started happening as we got closer, is I started realizing that I was literally seeing the screensaver, not screensaver, but the background for what is it? Windows Vista. Yeah. The two beautiful green hills, with a little yellow flowers on, and the beautiful blue sky behind them. Oh. The reason that you see that, is because you’re getting into Silicon valley, man. Silicon, Silicon. You’re up there, where all this stuff is actually originated and made. And so I was like, “I bet you, I’m looking at these two hills.” “I bet you, these hills are, I think I passed the Microsoft hills, man.” I think it’s an early Dell commercial too. Dell’s probably up there too. That’s why the Dell. Is cows. Is cows. Your focal point. We’ve just unLocked the mysteries of Dell. Is Dell still around? Hell yeah, yeah they sponsored an episode like last, Dell Small Business man. “Is Dell still around?”. They sponsored two episodes of “Ear Biscuits”. Woops. This podcast within the last 12 months. I remember that now. You’re still around. I meant now, you know. Is it in our contract for Link to know that they’re still around? Because we might need to need to amend it. It’s been a year. It’s been a year, a lot can happen to a cow in a year. But that’s what the, where the cows come from. All right, and then you, okay. See, these are the things. I see the cow, I’ve seen the cows. These are the things that dads are thinking about. You know, just let ’em have their moments, okay? And, when you’re experiencing something that you don’t see all the time, and you see that the rest of your family is uninterested, or in their phone or asleep, you’re like, you gotta, “Hey, this is a moment.” Well, I end up saying things like, “Guys, whatever is on your phone right now, whether it’s a game, or Snapchat, or Twitter, it will still be there in five minutes.” “But you know what won’t be here?” “Those cows.” I mean, there’ll be new cows. There’ll be new cows. There’ll be more cows, different cows, that look exactly the same as the cows that you could see right now. But, just look at those cows. But you kind of, you know, excuse my French, you blew your wad on the cows, when you should have saved it for like seeing the skyline of San Francisco for the first time. I was trying to train the family to be, if they, if I could get ’em to look at cows, I could get ’em to look at the Golden Gate Bridge. And I think, I think blowing your wad is a, it’s a firearm thing. It’s like a gunpowder, firearm thing. So, I don’t think it’s French. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, right. I agree with that. Yeah. It’s, think it’s been co-opted by the sexually minded, but that is not what I was thinking of. Well, I’ll tell you some more things I was thinking of in a moment, but we do want to remind you, even though Link already said it. We do wanna remind you that Trevor’s podcast, “Trevor Talks Too Much” has a YouTube channel. Just like “Ear Biscuits” does. Subscribe to it. Go ahead, you know what? Go ahead, go over there. Even if you’re not gonna listen and watch, just subscribe. Give it a shot. It’s for support. Support Trevor, try new things. Show him your support. It’s not easy to start new things. Just ask a cow. Mm, that analogy didn’t work. Yep, yep. Fell apart pretty quickly. I can’t, I just, I can’t support you on that front, but I do sort of understand. Startups, startups like in Silicon Valley. Okay, there we go. There we go. Trevor’s podcast is a startup. “Trevor Talks Too Much”, super proud to be launching some, another podcast, more to follow. Mhm, that’s right, we’re cooking up some more podcasts for you. I wanna talk about the process of a college tour. And again, made clear that this is not an official college tour. This is just a family walking around a college campus. You’re just showing up. Pulling on doors, seeing what’s open. Parking in places that you may not should park, hoping you don’t get towed. Trying to interpret parking signs. That’s a gift of mine. Oh, it is? Yeah, living in Los Angeles. I’ve had to learn how to take. It’s a good training ground. Three different rules that unrelated, and figure out if the moment right now I’m able to park here. Yeah. San Francisco has the same deal. I really wish it were diagrams. You know, like a Venn diagram of… I just would the whole… And then I could go up to it, and I could put my finger on where I’m at, and then I could look and see if I could park there or not. Well in the future, the whole- Or maybe use a laser pointer. The whole curb will be either green or red. Can I park here now? Or can I not? Yeah LED that thing. Yeah, LEDs are cheap, man. Yeah. Led the whole, if I was Mayor of Los Angeles, we would LED all curbs. Get rid of the signs. That’s a fun idea. Yeah, I mean, just vote for me. I’ll figure it out. What’s your stance on the water situation? You know what? I’m taking that under advisement. Okay. And I believe both in crops, and in ecological environments. And I believe that there is a way that we can both win. We can all win. California can win. Did you? Now, I’m running for Governor. Did you go? Did, I mean, when we were looking at the few campuses that we looked at, I mean, you really couldn’t go in anything at the time. So, we were like looking, peering through windows. Nobody was there. Yeah, so we… We’re walking around. You can go in. You got a little bit more… You can go into a few places. Like every, the student centers are open, and like bookstore, actually the bookstore at one place was closed. Because we are still in a little bit of a, at the time that we were doing this, we were in a little bit of a surge. So, but the thing that I don’t, I’m trying to be helpful, right? Like it’s, what you’re trying to do as a parent usually, always, if you’re being healthy, you’re trying to actually be helpful. And so, which the only way to do that usually is, you picture yourself at that age, and what would I want somebody to tell me? And, I try not to, I really try not to do that because I’ve found that not to be effective. But also, with Locke in particular, like the moment that he senses a dad-ism, or sort of a lecture or a perspective coming from on high, he bristles at it. Was the cow thing, a wake up call for you that you then applied to being on campus? The cow thing was… Don’t answer that. Just tell me your story and that’s gonna be my question. Well, I can go ahead and answer that question for you because the cow thing was more me and Jessie. Like, the kids are so in their own world, in the back of the car on their phone. They didn’t even hear you. It was just me talking to my wife. But you know, and I, and the thing is, is I see the way that Locke is so similar to me, in the way that he places himself in an environment. And he, you know, he immediately fast-forwards through the next four years. And it’s like, this is what it would be like, and this is where I would live. And this is where I would live after. And this is the kind of job that I would have. He can very quickly picture his future, at this particular place. And that’s kinda how I’m, and I’m the same way. I do it kind of just, it’s my nature. And that’s how you figure out if you are into it. I do the same thing if I read a book, I do the same thing as I’m driving across the fricking state. It’s like, I’m reading these signs. I’m like, “Yeah, give us our damn water Newsom”. You know what I’m saying? Like, that’s what I do. I embody the perspective and see what it feels like. And then, I pull back from it once I’ve kind of, investigated it. I’m very open in that way right. And, to like the possibilities of the future, and so… So, you would expect him to be excited at each place he went to. And if there wasn’t an initial excitement, and that’s a huge red flag for somebody who can embody a life there. Well… Like in a fantastical kind of way almost. But this is the thing, because he’s so, does that so naturally. I don’t, I, there’s, with Locke in particular, there’s none of, I don’t have to do what I think is probably more typical. It’s just like, “Hey man, think some things about this,.” you know? Yeah. With Locke, it’s like, “Hey dude, let’s like, let’s pull back little bit.” And you know, ’cause the way it, the way I feel about it is, is that whatever mood he’s in, when he is visiting a certain place and the timing works out. It’s just like the old principle of, you get married based on when you meet somebody in life circumstances. It, the super practical, like completely unromantic, there’s no such thing as soulmates, which I’m not saying I subscribe to, but some people would say marriage is a, is just a, is who you are in love with at the time when you could get married, right? I don’t necessarily believe that, but there is an element of circumstance with who, and hopefully you get lucky, and you’re with the right person, I feel that way about my marriage. But, when it comes to college, it’s just like, you think about how circumstantial. And again, we just chose between Carolina and State, right? That was the two only two schools we applied to, got accepted in both. Yeah. And then, like, I remember taking a tour of UNC. And again, if you remember this, I was probably talking to you like, “This is what, we would do this, and this is how.” I’m living out the next four years and being like, “This is what it’s gonna be like.” And then going to state, and doing the same thing. In the end, it was… I do have a hard time remembering the specifics of it, but knowing how different. UNC was just the two of us. we drove ourselves up there, I remember that specifically. Oh, really? No parents, we just drove up there together and walked around. And it’s a really impressive campus. So, it was very enticing. But the entire time, like we were never Carolina fans, I was always a State fan. And you were a Duke fan. I was a Duke fan. So, we were from out of town. It was like, we felt, we didn’t want anybody to see us. Like, not that anybody would… Yeah, I, you may have felt that way. I didn’t have a strong feelings about that. And my brother was already there. You know- Okay, yeah. my brother was at school there. We ended up going to State just because it was like, “Oh yeah, I’m taken physics, and I like Mr. Bryant, who’s teaching it.” You know what I’m saying? It was such a… Oh yeah. But, because I know that that’s how kids make decisions. It’s, and Locke can get so passionate about something. I’m trying to sort of modulate, mitigate, whatever the word is. And then, the opportunity to go to a basketball game presented itself. Oh, okay. And this particular school that we were looking at, Locke gets on his phone the night before. And he’s like, “Dad, they’re playing Gonzaga.” Gonzaga- Pretty good. Number two team in the nation, with the number one player in the nation. It’s like a six, it’s like a seven-foot point guard. I don’t even remember the dude’s name, but he’s like a seven-foot point guard. That’s like very, it would be amazing to watch, you know, just imagine that. Be a good game. And it might seal the deal for like, “Oh, I had such a great experience.” “I have to go here.” Well, that’s what I was thinking. And I was also thinking like, you, ’cause this is a, not, it’s a relatively small school with like a gym, That’s like the size of like Campbell’s gym. Oh wow. And going and seeing like Gonzaga play, in a place like that. So we get on, we go on SeatGeek, not a sponsor. And we find three, we find three tickets, not four. And Jessie’s like, “It’s fine, I don’t really care. I’ll just like, well, I’ll go to a coffee shop, hang out while you guys go to the game.” So, we’re like, “Okay”, three tickets. Last minute, Gonzaga tickets, 150 bucks a pop. Okay. So it’s like, this is a, but I’m like this, “Hey listen, let’s do this because this is…” What else are you gonna be doing? It’s a cool experience. But I was also thinking, “Man, even though they’re definitely gonna get beat by Gonzaga.” this is going, if he sees like other students like there, and he has this experience, this is, might seal the deal for him. So, but that’s not necessarily a good thing. I’m worried about it, but I’m almost so like, I kind of wanna see this game. Okay. So, we get the tickets and then game day, which was the next day. We go up to the gym, you know, like half an hour early. And the guy like sees that I pull out the tickets. He’s like, “So we’re operating at 25% capacity today, due to COVID.” “So, we’re gonna scan your tickets.” “If they scan green, you can come in.” “If they scan red…” Oh wow. “You can’t.” And he said, “And the way we’re doing that is, is that all season ticket holders are allowed to come in, but anyone who bought single game tickets and then resold them, they’ve already been refunded for these tickets. And so, it’s not necessarily a scam, but they should have contacted SeatGeek, and taken the tickets off. And so he is like, “I don’t know if yours are season tickets, or single, the only way to find out is to scan it.” You’re like, “Oh my goodness”. And I’m like, “Oh man, this could change like…” like I’m thinking the, I’m thinking on I’m on a dad level at this point, right? So, it’s like the green for me, represents him being excited about this school and the red I’m like, this is gonna ruin his, everything. He’s gonna have this sour taste in his mouth about this school, and he’s not gonna want to go. Hmm, and did the guy tell you that if it was red, that it was, you didn’t get your money back, or you did? He said, well, he didn’t tell me that yet. Okay, well go ahead then. He scanned them, and they scanned red. And I was like, “Oh gosh man, dang, we’ve planned this whole day, coming down here to watch this game.” And like Locke is obviously really disappointed. Shepherds, just kind of chilling. At that point, he said, “You need to contact SeatGeek.” because and the person’s name, I’m not gonna say the name, the person’s name is on the ticket. And so, like the things that we were saying about this person who had done this to us was very, we were, it was a running joke the rest of the week, about how we were going to hunt this person down. Obviously, we didn’t have to do that. ‘Cause we contact the SeatGeek and actually, well they’re like investigating it. But I’m pretty, they said that you will get up to 120% of your money back. Well, you might make money off it. Yeah, this might be a new way to like make some side money. Okay, there you go. Go, not go to basketball games. But I think- So, you had to pivot. It happened with multiple people, I think we’ll get our money back. But, it was interesting ’cause like, Locke was definitely disappointed. And then, but he’s kind of been very interested in this place and it kind of was a, threw a little bit of cold water on him. But then, I felt like it was, it kind of centered him a little bit. And he’s still very into the possibility of going, but he was very excited about the next place. And he’s very excited about places that we’re gonna see. He’s gonna hear back from soon, but places we might see in the spring. And so, I think it actually was a blessing in disguise, because if we had gotten the green check. Yeah, it might falsely weigh the scales, tip the scales. But one of the things that I found myself thinking, and I wonder if this is- You might really just want to go to Gonzaga, is really what- Yeah, right. You know? If this is the case with you, not just, I mean even just like helping Lily move into college, and like being on a college campus. We were, Jessie and I were trying to explain to the kids how different our college experience was. There’s all these like groups of people doing things, and like clubs, and it, activities. There’s so much to do in college. And I was like. Yeah. I don’t think you guys understood. We did two things. The first thing we did is we went to class, and the second thing we did is, everything with Campus Crusade. Yeah. We did not do anything else. Our entire social life, every single activity that we had was- Yeah. Just, it was our campus ministry that we were involved with. Which, you know, again, I don’t have any regrets about where- There were a lot of people involved. All this lead. So, it was like from a social standpoint. Oh it. You know. We made a lot of great connections, and we had a lot of great relationships. I don’t regret any of that, but it was just so interesting how, going in with such a singular worldview that had already, you know, solidified and really hadn’t solidified, but it felt like it had solidified. Yeah. It just, I was like, “Man.” that’s one thing that I see when I’m on a college campus. “Just like there’s so much to like learn, and experience, and do.” That I just completely sealed myself off from, because of my worldview at the time. Well, I mean Lily’s experience so far has been it’s, you know, the opportunities have been pretty limited. The majority of her classes, she’s on a quarter schedule. So, it’s like, and she’s like three out of her, four classes were online. Even though, she’s was like taking ’em from her bed, and from her desk- Yeah. In her dorm room, and only one was in person. And now, this year, things have been delayed getting going again, everything’s been online, at least temporarily. You know, as they’re monitoring things, but she’s, I mean, she is on campus. And so, I mean, it was like, man, if classes continue to only be virtual, it’s like, should we rethink this whole thing? You know, it’s like you start to think those things because her experience is- ‘Cause it’s not any cheaper. She got a, no, she’s got her room mates. She’s met a few people. She’s doing, you know, she’s, she got involved, she joined a garage band. That’s cool. Which I was real, you know, I’m like, “This is cool”. “This is another, this is a, this is another experience that you, that you haven’t had.” That was so formative for us, Right. More in high school, than college for us. But, I’d still get this sense that like, you know, clubs really aren’t kicking into gear and the amount of camp, the campus life is still very stifled by COVID. So, it’s, I’m frustrated on her behalf, that, you know, her first year Yeah. Is kind of a, it’s kind of a half college experience. But at this point we’re like, “It’s still going good.” “And it’s definitely better than nothing.” And- Well, that was… She’s trying to make the most of it. And we’re just trying to encourage her. It’s it’s harder to say, “Well, go out and get involved in this group or, you know, expand your potential, your pool of friends.” you know? So, it’s not just whoever you were assigned with, it’s who you’re with. But you know, have some autonomy, in being able to like meet people, get involved in different circles, so that you can start making some decisions about the type of people you want to associate yourself with. I think as a parent, I get concerned when it’s like, this is who you’re assigned to live with. And, you’re kind of limited beyond that, you know? So that’s an, I’m excited about the band thing, just because of what I said. That was formative for us, but also just that it’s, it represents a, an overlapping but different friend group, you know. And you, so you think about Locke going off next year, hopefully things will have gotten, you know, gotten to a point where it can be a dynamic experience, and it be for Lily and then for Lincoln too, eventually. Well, ’cause when you walk around a college campus, and you see the buildings, and you see the residence halls, and you see the gathering areas, that actually hit me. It was like, “Man, this place is designed to be at, it’s not designed to be at home, or in you taking online classes.” Yeah. You know, that’s the wonderful thing about a classic university experience. Which let me just say, has become, first of all, has always been, and is becoming more and more a privilege. Right, but also I think it’s becoming less, and less of a necessity. Because for a lot of people, if you don’t have a way, if you’re not getting a scholarship, if you’re not finding a way to pay for it. Whether it’s your family, or your scholarship, or you, you’re working through college or whatever. Like for most people, it’s gonna be taking on a bunch of debt, and not necessarily having a job to pay that debt down. So, I do think that I, it, I also had this feeling as I walked around and looked at all these buildings that kids were just beginning to enjoy. But for the past two years, they’ve just kind of been sitting there in a lot of ways. This college campus, that’s not being taken advantage of, it’s being paid for by a bunch of kids who are at home on their laptops. But, I was just thinking about like, “Yeah, this is not, you know, this isn’t for everybody.” and it’s gonna become, it has a, you sort of feel like you’re walking through something that’s just not a lasting way of doing higher education. Hmm. And so like, take advantage of it while you can kinda feel because, there’s, I mean, you have to think that all these people taking online classes has, well first of all, I think we can all agree. They’re not as good as in-person classes, and we don’t want that to be the new normal, but. No good God, I look over Lily’s shoulder when she, you know, she didn’t go back as early as we planned because she was like, “I’ll just stay another week, ’cause I’ma take all my classes online.” See my high school friends, that I’m still been hanging out with, have some quality time with them before I go back. I’m looking over her shoulder, at like a lecture, she’s like eating breakfast and like walking around the house with it on her phone and with her, I was like, “Take your earbuds out, let me listen to this.” I wanna hear this. And it was just some guy just, I mean, just drawning on and on, and on, about just like speaking extemporaneously and like trying to find his words. he might be doing that in class as well, but. Yeah, but when you’re there in the room, and there’s other people and you’re like, okay… It’s, yeah, it’s not as hard. It can’t, I mean that, it’s just so hard when it’s just a screen. Well, and getting out of your, I think for me, part of it is, get getting out of your roots, getting out of your house. And literally having to like put a backpack on, and walk to a place, and go into an institution of higher learning, with other people who are there for the same purpose. Yeah. There’s a lot of psychology in that. Right. That is helpful to most people, but there’s no doubt that this, that COVID has accelerated the shift, right? ‘Cause people are like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, I’m paying,” you know, in some cases like “$50,000 a year for like a private school for like University of Phoenix.” You know what I’m saying? Like nothing I mean. And nothing against people who have online degrees. I’m just saying that the difference in value, but to the value proposition, between these two things over the past couple years has really, really gone down. The difference in the value proposition because, you’re not really, I mean, you’re not getting that much different than what you would’ve gotten from something online, but you’re still paying so much for it. And in the meantime, the prices just continue to go up. I mean, listen, as a person who’s potentially considering a run for Governor, I gotta say, this is a real problem. This is a real problem. We gotta figure this out. Well, I mean, I wanted to ask at this point, do you have a sense of like, and this is kind of switching gears but still with parenting, of the stakes associated with this decision? ‘Cause you can really, I mean, I think for me, I could really overthink it, and kind of wig out over it. It’s like, you know, if Locke gets accepted at multiple places, he’s making this decision that then he’s keenly aware because he’s future-minded, that it’s like this leads to this, leads to this, leads to this. And there’s a fork in the road that, that leads to that, leads to that, leads to that. And never the two shall meet. It’s like you can, maybe you can overthink it, over dramatize it, and the butterfly effect of it, so to speak. But it’s, you can really get in your head about it, ’cause it’s a huge milestone decision. And you’re not quite there yet. So, maybe it’s not… But the, but I, no I think about this. There’s a few things that are helpful, in this particular regard. The first thing is Locke’s nature, right? So, even if I had a specific plan that I thought was best for him, I am incapable and believe that, anyone would be incapable of prescribing that to him in a way that would be effective. So, it would be kind of a hopeless, it’ll be a lost cause to try to tell him where he needs to go, or tell him what’s best for him. He is gonna learn things his own way. I can provide advice and I can provide information, but it’s, he’s so on his own that I have such little influence in that area, that it feels like there’s less pressure. The second thing is just a general, I think it’s very healthy, the thing that we’ve been talking about a lot, in, Jessie and I have been talking a lot about, is loving detachment. You know, the principle of supporting- So, loving detachment is not a verb and noun, it’s a term. Yeah. You don’t enjoy being detached, it’s practicing something called loving. It is detachment, that is loving. Okay, what is that? So, it is, I mean, first of all, your motive is you’re obviously you love your kid, and you are invested in their future. You’re helping them, you’re providing them with resources. You’re doing all the stuff that you have control over, right. But what you do not have control over, is the decisions that they make. You have control over how they’re supported, and you can have control over like whether or not you take them to the school to look at it, right. But you don’t have control over what they choose. And if you think you have control over that, you are sorely mistaken. And if you exert control over it, then that’s- It will backfire. That could be trouble. And so, this isn’t just to do with college. This is a principle that we have sort of been, really talking about a lot over the past couple of years. Jessie and I have been talking about. Just raising kids in general, but especially raising teenagers, as you begin to get to that threshold where they’re beginning to become their own people and they are making their own decisions about things. And if, you know, kids are different. Like I’ve said, multiple times, Locke is on the high end of the spectrum when it comes to autonomy and self-motivation, and just like his will, right. And so you have to, this is the only approach that you cannot dominate him. Right, he’s in Enneagram eight. And their greatest fear, is being dominated. That is the fear of the eight, right? And so, that’s why sometimes you could be like, “Listen to this book on tape.” or “Let’s try this.” or “Let’s do that” or “Let’s go eat at this place.” And he’s like, “No, let’s not do that.” It’s in his nature to be like, “Oh, I’m not about to be dominated by you, am I?” right. Okay. And so, it leads to people who tend to be do-ers, and self-motivated people who go out, and make shit happen for themselves a lot. But, it also leads to people who are gonna learn things their way, and maybe learn things the hard way sometimes. So- Yeah. It’s, this is not easy, and yet, in loving detachment, so, you have to, you gotta still bring the love to the situation. But yeah, I, so to answer your question specifically. 100%, I am aware of this dynamic, which is the slightest little thing, the butterfly flapping its wings, could have this catastrophic, or very monumental effect, right. And so, where he decides to go to school is going to determine his life path. But, this is the third piece of the puzzle for Locke, is that he, I mean, he’s probably gonna transfer no matter where he goes, you know what I’m saying? Like he’s so like, he’s always looking to mix it up and try something new that I just don’t even have the… Like, he’s, I mean, maybe he’ll stay at the same place, but he’s gonna want to be something else. He’s gonna do something else. He’s going to try something else. He’s gonna go to a different place. And so to me, this is just like, this is nature of him and he’s going to do a bunch of different things and I wanted to help him make the best decision possible, but he’s probably gonna change his mind anyway, you know. It’s kind of, it’s akin to our, my experience with Lily in that like, I really built up the rite of passage of her leaving. I’m mean you can go back and listen to those episodes. And like, there’s a, like in that, when I was in that zone of sending her off and like dealing with it. I said that I dramatized it to fully embrace the experience, but it was, you know, it was, okay, she’s going off. And she’s, our relationship is different, and she’s gonna come home a different person, and she’s not, she doesn’t live with us anymore. And low and behold, you know, after last Thanksgiving and Christmas, and then like the pandemic situation and virtual learning, it’s like, she’s still home way too much. You know, like man, it’s like, we got over that really quick. You know, it’s like, “Get on back to college”, you know, kind of, kind of a message it’s like. Yeah, so it’s as big of a decision that it, as it is, you know, there’s always room to pivot and you’re kind of always looking for, Okay, do I need to, is there a change on the horizon or not? Yeah, and you know, this is- Takes a little of pressure off. This is really something that I, it wasn’t even on my radar when my kids were little, and I don’t necessarily think he would be on my radar if I wasn’t in therapy. I mean, I’m, there’s other ways to get to this but, just beginning to recognize how much of what we want for our kids is just about us, you know. And like we say that it’s, we say that it’s for their best interest. And I do believe that a big part of it is. I think we all love our children, genuinely. But there, but mixed into that love, is a lot of how this reflects on you, you know? And so, like what my kid ends up doing, and who they end up being. And like, are they gonna be like something I can be proud of? Are they gonna be someone that I’m gonna be ashamed of? And it that’s all about you, am I gonna be proud of them? Am I gonna be ashamed of them? Am I gonna need to help them? Am I gonna, you know what I’m saying? Like, and there’s a lot of that, that I have to, that’s, it’s very difficult thing for me to just, again, that’s part of the detachment is detaching my self-worth, to, with my kids’ self-worth, or my self-worth with my kid’s, you know, accomplishments, reputation whatever, whatever it is, right. And kids can feel that too. I mean, this is, the story as old as time, that kids feel the expectations of their parents, right. But, that’s been a helpful thing to just be like, man, okay, what ends up happening with our kids? Where they end up, the career they ended up choosing, the person they end up, you know, getting into a relationship with. Whether or not, they get married or not, like all these things. And whether we like it or not, we’ve got sort of these ingrained scripts in our minds, just given where we’re from. And even though we’ve kinda laid aside a very traditional way of thinking about things. When you look at lives that we’ve lived, well they’re still pretty traditional, right? Like we got married, we’re still married. We, there’s, Yeah. There’s a there, and so there you, there’s sort of these built-in expectations of like, that I want that exact same thing for my kid. Whether you say it out loud, and if my kid doesn’t get that, then something wrong with them, right. That’s the narrative that can kind of be going in your head. Yeah. I think for me, it’s an impulse, like to believe the illusion that I can control their happiness, that I do know what’s best. I think when you taking this big decision of like, going off to college or any big decision, or just any life decision. It’s like, there’s this illusion that you can make the right choice. You know, a lot of times it’s that, that is just an illusion. It’s more of like, or illusion that you can have all the information that like makes it a mathematical, there’s a mathematical solution. Like, I tend to believe that thing, and believe that in the back of my mind, about a lot of things. And when it comes to parenting, it’s like, I can control their, I know what’s best for their happiness. But then realizing there’s so, you know, we’re making these decisions based on limited information. And, so just saying, “You know what, I’m gonna do the best I can in my role.” But it, and it, even if I think something’s the best thing to do, but I’m relinquishing that decision to them. Even if they do something different. It’s saying, “Okay, I’m gonna lovingly detach, in a way that lets them go for it.” Yeah. You know, obviously within certain reason. Well, and it’s like… And I tell Lincoln, it’s like, “Okay, Lincoln, your mom and I have decided,” this is both of us talking to him, “That you have to, you gotta get a job.” “You gotta get a job for a number of reasons, but it’s, and you got X number of weeks to really start to get some answers on this front, generate some leads.” Like you can, you can find a, you can try to find the best place that you wanna work. But, the fact that you have to get a job is something that we’re saying for you, you need to do. So it’s like… We’re looking for a pool guy. A pool guy? Yeah, I don’t think that’s steady enough work for him. No, but I mean, what if it is just like- Full time? Full time, one pool. He’s just constantly… He’s like the lifeguard and the pool guy. 40 hours a week. At my pool. I mean, he keeps it spick-and-span. I pay minimum wage. I give him 30 hours a week, I can’t do more than that. No, I don’t think I want to have this type of, I don’t wanna bring nepotism into this. So, I mean, what else do you have to say about subject, or do you wanna switch to the syncresisco of it all? ‘Cause you also teased that. Yeah, yeah, I do, I wanna say, I do wanna get to that. I had one, as you were saying that about Lincoln, I was thinking something, it’ll come to me in a second. But then when I was like, he should be my pool boy. You had to go for that, just to… I kind of lost it all. Well, I was saying, “Hey, you gotta get a job.” “But you decide what kind of job you want to get.” “As long as you get one within certain parameters.” Yeah. “I’m letting you make that level of the decision.” Yeah, well, and I don’t, this is what I wanna say. It’s, I don’t wanna paint the picture that parenting is this like hands-off, wish them well type approach. I mean, I think, when they’re 17 and about turning 18 in a month, it kind of is. But, I think that it’s recognizing what you actually have the power to do, right. And again, it’s that I have the power to create an environment that is catered towards their happiness, success, flourishing, but I don’t have the power to guarantee it. No. I don’t have the power to guarantee anything. And that’s a very difficult thing. And you know, one of things that I found with Locke, being someone who doesn’t wanna be told what to do, is that maintaining the relationship being the goal, through ups and downs, and the craziness that was COVID, and the restrictions, and our kids’ lives being turned upside down. Making the goal, maintaining the relationship, so that we’re still communicating, we’re still talking about things. So that then, it might not be like I have to resist when he brings something up potential circumstance, or something he’s going through, or something he knows that could happen. Getting in there and trying to dad the situation to death, and like give my perspective, and try to control the outcome. Yeah. But if it’s, I can just have a conversation about something and not come in real hard with the moral of the story. What I’ve found is that he is actually interested. He’s interested in my perspective, not that my perspective is not gospel, is not always gonna be right. But you know, Jessie and I are his closest advisors and we’re doing our best. And I think we give some pretty good, some pretty good advice, but yeah, it’s just that balance. And then, I mean, like you said, once they’re gone, it’s a, you’re even less, there’s even less of an influence. They’ll be back, yeah. And it’ll still be more than you think, is what I’m telling you, from the other side of that. But you have, but I’m saying you have less of an influence. Yeah, but not as- With every with every year that passes. But it wasn’t nearly as drastic as I thought, at least for us with Lily. So, San Francisco. I love San Francisco, I didn’t realize how much I did love it. It it’s been a while since I’ve been there. And we realized that we had never been there as a family. And it was, you know, this was MLK weekend that we traveled. And it was kind of like, Locke saying, “Hey, like yeah there’s some schools up there I’m interested in, so let’s make this happen.” So we made, it was a family trip, of course. And I was just reminded, with how awesome San Francisco is. What resonates most with you? Because I think you might just be city deprived. Well, I love cities, and I’m a big fan of New York City. Now, I love LA and no plans to move, right. But the thing about LA is this giant, super spread out city where you just go through miles and miles and it’s just like, I don’t even know what this is. This is kind of like urban sprawl from like the forties. You know what I mean? And there’s no discernible like change in landscape in many places. And it’s like, just like, okay, there’s a convenience store. There’s a place to get my car repaired. And there’s a place to get hamburgers. Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. Yeah. For miles, right. You should be governor, you have the tourism. And so, but if you, once you live in Los Angeles- I just you may need to be mayor. I just gotta start with mayor. Once you live in Los Angeles, you start figuring out where the cool stuff is. And there’s, you know, it’s a never ending party if you want it to be. But there are places like New York, where I call ’em the nooks and crannies. Where you literally can be on the island of Manhattan, and walk in any direction, and there’s gonna be people eating, shopping, having a good time, talking, and it’s never gonna stop. And you’re never gonna go through any like weird urban sprawl where you’re just like, I don’t even know what’s happening here. It’s just like, it’s just more city. And a lot of people turn off by that. But I just like that. So, what of that applies to San Francisco? San Francisco- It’s not plus hills though. Yeah, exactly. San Francisco is the nooks and crannies of New York city, without, with the exception of downtown, without all the high rise of San, of New York. So, it’s more like two story town homes, with restaurants, and like restaurants, and cool shopping kind of mixed in. And it’s all similar to New York, in that it’s, so this is my theory, isolated to a body of land that’s surrounded by water. So, you know, that the basically, Yeah. The peninsula comes up in the bay, and that’s where like downtown San Francisco is on the, anytime you start putting water in a situation, and surrounding things with water. People don’t like to live in water. It creates this barrier. But then with the undulations, and the land that you get in San Francisco, it’s like, everywhere you turn, you’re getting these spectacular views of the whole thing. And you’d be like, “We were just right there.” “Now we’re right here.” And then, because you’re in North California, Northern California, Nor-Cal, you’ve gotten out of the desert. And so the green is everywhere, right. And that’s the thing that kids were saying is like, “It’s so green, there’s so many trees.” and you’ll be like chilling out in an area of town. And then like, we were, we went to Haight-Ashbury, which is, you know, like, it’s basically like the Greenwich village of San Francisco. So, like the history of like music, and drug culture. Yeah. And it’s now, it’s kind of like- Hippy movement. Hippie hippie place now, and a little bit touristy, but we kind of were walking next to this little park. It was like Buena Vista Park. And we’re like, “Let’s just walk through this park to get to the other side.” And we start walking in there, and then we’re like, “Man, this is like a big place.” And it’s like a big hill and all, and all of a sudden, we’re at the top of this, like and the trees, you could feel like you’ve completely stepped into nature. And you’re literally just like- Really? 200 feet from more, just San Francisco. But you get, you’ve got the food, you’ve got the art, you’ve got the culture, that you get in a big city, but you’ve got this… And then you’re really close to incredible nature right outside of the town as well. And then, they basically have their own Central Park. Thanks, Jennifer for recommending, I don’t know how I missed this, but like I’ve only been at San Francisco a couple times, but in, kind of in and out, but the Golden Gate Park, which really isn’t close to the Golden Gate Bridge, you can kind of see it from there. But it’s sort of like its own version of Central Park, with museums, and a Japanese tea garden. Huh. And a botanical garden, which I love. Botanic. I love botanical gardens. I, when I die, I want at least a portion of my ashes to be sprinkled in a botanical garden. And it don’t mean just like the woods. I mean a place where they’re like, somebody’s taking care of the plants. Just a random one? I mean, I have to pick one. Okay, I have to pick one. I need to put that in my will. I wanted to ask you, I mean, to kind of end on a happy note. Yeah. I wanted to ask about the picture. So you can, I mean basically, can I describe it? You want to describe it? You can describe it. So, this was- There was a couple pictures though. This was, there was two pictures, you and Jessie, and Locke standing with the backdrop of the Golden Gate Bridge. And, but it, you had split screened it, where you had taken a picture with Locke as like a, a one year old, and now as- Less than one. Almost 18 year old. So, 18 year difference. You matched the same photo. Well, we’re trying to match it as well as- You did a damn good job. That’s why my question was like, did Shepard take this photo? And I didn’t, you know, I wanted to talk about it ’cause this, that’s an, it was an amazing, but there’s so much. I love these images. I’m glad that you thought it, so. First of all, I don’t wanna get into the technicality. First, I just wanna say, it, that is a super sweet photo that, you know, you got this little baby Locke, and you’re visiting San Francisco and then you never could have known that like almost 18 years later you would, you’d be visiting colleges. And he would be huge. Huge, that’s what happens to ’em, they get huge. They get huge. Well, and, okay. It was beautiful. So, we knew… Beautiful. We did all, you know, we did a bunch of cool stuff, but that day, you know, we had like hung out at the Fisherman’s Wharf and like gotten something to eat. Did the touristy sites. And again, lovely, I love it, it’s great. Some people have offices out there on those piers. Maybe we could get one. But the, I was like, let’s drive to the Golden Gate Bridge. And I, if I was like, I seem to remember that you can kind of park and like walk on it, you know. Yeah, you can. And so, we get down there and we park, and we’re like walking, like right around. It’s almost sunset. That was kind of the plan to get down there when the sun’s going down. And, first of all, do you know people surf at the Golden Gate Bridge? Locke had said something about… Behind boats or something? No, there’s waves coming in there. Somehow there’s waves that work their way around, like the point break that’s on, under the bottom of the south side or the west? Yeah, the south side of the Golden Gate Bridge. And there’s like three or four guys out there surfing, in very cold water I’m sure. Oh yeah. I mean, not only is it just Northern California, Three or four guys. January. Okay, so it’s not a hot spot of… No, but like they were like getting legit waves. The waves were big. But, we had not planned on doing that photo. Okay, we had forgotten that it existed, but we get out, and we’re walking around and I’m like, “Hold on, we took pictures here when we were on summer project.” So, the old pictures, would’ve been from 2004, ’cause Locke was born in 2004. And this was, he was born in February 2004. This was like June, or July of 2004. So, he’s just a few months old. Yeah, he was in like a Bjorn carrier type thing. And we were on project at Santa… So, with Campus Crusade, basically the way Campus Crusade works, is if you’re a student or staff, every summer, you go on these summer projects. Where you essentially go to a city, like Link went to Santa Cruz as a student, Christy went to Santa Cruz as a student. Yeah. And then, that’s where we went as staff. And you basically just like, you get jobs at the local community, but you’re kind of there as a group of Christian kids who were… The students get jobs, and the staff come and put on the project. Programming, yeah. So it’s like a, it’s kind of summer camp-ish. But the, but for college students who get jobs. But you’re kind of there to get jobs, to learn how to evangelize, and witness to people. You know, it’s like get- Yeah. Get a job, and tell people about Jesus and… But when we went back as staff, we were helping train them and facilitate the whole program. And yeah, me, Christy, and Lily were there. And then, and you, Jessie, and Locke were there. We didn’t go to San Francisco with you, on that particular day trip though. I don’t think. Yeah, I guess you didn’t. ‘Cause I don’t have any pictures with y’all. So, you remembered taking a picture. I was like “Golden Gate Bridge.” I was like, “We were here.” and Jessie was like, “Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.” “There’s a picture of me and Locke, and Locke was in a Bjorn.” And so, going into the situation with that level of planning is like, okay, this is, ’cause then I’m like, “Well, we totally gotta recreate this picture.” And then she gets to, she gets to the pictures on her phone. And, which I don’t even know how she’s got pictures from 2004 on her phone, somehow like. I think you moved them over to, yeah, I moved all my stuff to Google photos. You moved your stuff to like Apple photos. Yeah, they’re in… And now, you have it all on your phone, which I do too, which is awesome. Yeah but hers are. Every digital photo. Hers are, she’s, I don’t know. Hers are organized. Mines have like before a certain date, they’re just all in there. But like, somehow I dated these right on her phone. I don’t know. So, there we are. And there’s a picture of, I mean, I’ll bring up the picture so you can see them because we’ll… Okay, so the first picture, is the picture of me, and Jessie, and Locke in the Bjorn. And you can see the Golden Gate Bridge behind us. And also like the little, there’s like a little parking area, that’s where those guys were surfing is down there. With the, and so we could be like, “Okay, I think we know where this is.” I actually don’t think that we found exactly the same place, or else they had built a new thing here. That’s in the way I couldn’t really tell. But so, once we realized that this is what we wanted to do, I was like, “Okay”, our family is, everyone is so opinionated and strong willed that getting anybody to like participate in… To take a group photo is, just immediately brings tension into a family. And then you’ve got like… To match a one from like 17 years ago. What then you’ve got the 17 year old, and the 13 year old and they’re like, you know, they love each other and they get along. But then, it’ll suddenly turn into 17 year olds and 13 year olds like fighting. And so now, we’ve gotta get Shepherd to take this photo. Yeah, so I’m like, Shepards gotta take it. I was amazed at how much of a match there was. ‘Cause I knew behind the scenes, there had to have been anguish. Well yeah, it was not pleasant. So, the first thing happened was, is I kind of get up there. I’m like, “Okay, this is where we need to be guys.” “This is where we need to stand.” And I’m like, “Shepherd, this is how you need to frame it.” Then he’s got like, he’s looking at the old picture on Jessie’s phone. Then he’s got my phone, and he’s taking the picture. Yeah. And like, he’s not saying the, one thing is he wasn’t saying when he was taking the picture and Lock was like, “Shepard, say when you’re taking the picture, I’m squatting.” And, then I looked at the pictures, the first set that he took and I was like, “Ah, the angle’s not right.” Like this isn’t actually, you don’t need to be there, you need to be here. And I was like, “Actually, Shepherd, let’s do this.” “Locke and mom, you get in this situation, this is…” You’re gonna take the picture. “And then shepherd, you get in where I’m gonna be.” “And then we’ll switch places.” Uh-huh, do you have that picture? I don’t think I took the picture. Oh, you didn’t even take it. But you were like, “I’m gonna stand right here and hold the phone here.” “So, now you walk back over here, stand where I’m standing, hold the phone where I’m holding it.” Which is what I would’ve done. Yeah. And, but then if you look the- And that makes everybody happy. The thing that I’m a little bit disappointed in, is like, if you look at the previous picture, so Locke’s in the Bjorn, and like my hand is on his chest. And Link, Jessie’s hand is on his crotch. Right, ’cause he’s like in a Bjorn, and she’s kind of holding him and then he he’s got his eyes closed. Like you get, you gonna put your hand on 18 year old crotch?. If we had of done the complete, like I didn’t even put my hand on him, and he’s not like, you know, it’s sort of just like the same three people. He’s kind of unwieldy. He’s not a baby, anymore. The same three people, right. So, and here’s what I… But you were in the same place, that was amazing. Well, here’s what I told Jessie and the kids. I was like, “Guys, this is good enough for family.” “It’s not good enough for the internet.” That’s what I, that’s what I actually said. Yeah. Of course now, it’s good enough for the internet, ’cause you’re seeing it. It’s cool, it’s cool. But then. It’s a much better camera. But the second thing. Yeah, ’cause the first one was probably just a film camera. The second picture was while we were walking. So, it’s really easy, you just walk on the Golden Gate Bridge. And, this one was much easier to sort of get the angle, and it was just two people. It was Locke in front of Jessie. Dang, look at that noggin. And it, and me taking the picture, so. Like Dr. Evil. Let’s see, so again. This was not easy, and there was some consternation from Locke in this one. Because I was like, “Dude, no, you gotta look mean, you gotta look madder.” And like, this is as mad as he was willing to- That’s pretty good. To go, but no. You should have shaved his head for it. So, Jessie posted this one on her Twitter, it’s got like, I don’t know. It’s got like 12,000 likes, when I’m recording this. I’m sure it’s got more than that now but, people were really into this and commented on the fact that Jessie does not age. Which she, she really hasn’t. Locke has, look at him boy. Yeah, he’s changed quite a bit. He’s still a little, got a lot of angst. Well, it seems like you made him do that. But you know, we had a… This guy, you know what, it was worth it. We had a really good moment on the Golden Gate Bridge. Like I said, you know, there was a moment when we were getting ready to, when we had just gotten into the car to leave, where Shepherd was like, “Dad, couldn’t you just let Locke drive in his own car, and follow us up to San Francisco?” And I was like, “You guys are so spoiled, man.” “Like, the fact that you would even ask that.” “You what my dad would’ve said, if I had asked if one of us could have driven separately?” I was like, “I’m not even gonna answer that question”. But, they weren’t getting along, right. And this is probably typical of a lot of families when you’re getting ready to travel. It’s like, that just seems, that’s when everything goes wrong. That’s when everybody starts getting mad, everybody’s fuses get super short. Then y’all just get into of the car together and go, right. And we did, everybody did calm down. But there were some times where there was some, Locke and Shepherd will kind of fight each other a little bit, like playfully. And sometimes, it’ll get a little bit outta hand, you know. Two boys fighting, and then all of a sudden somebody’s upset, and I kind of have to break it up. And of course, everyone has their own stuff that they get upset about. But when we were walking on the Golden Gate Bridge, I don’t remember exactly what Locke said, but he essentially says something like, “Listen, we’re all gonna die one day.” He was like, and I, we were also kind of, honestly, we were thinking about people- Jumping. Jumping off the bridge because it’s like, Locke was like 1,700 people a year or, or 1700 people total. I can’t, it’s a lot of people. In fact, they’re installing a net right now, and the supports are out there ready to receive the net. So, people won’t jump off the bridge. But, once you get to the middle of the bridge, there’s nothing to keep you from jumping off. Like there’s no more fence and stuff. They have fence up so that you can’t get on the giant circular wire that goes to the top, ’cause they don’t want you to like dare devils. But in the middle, they’re like, “If people are gonna do this, they’re gonna do this.” Until now, that they’re installing the net. So, it was on the brain. So, it gives you this sense of your own mortality. And he was just like, “Listen, we’re all gonna die one day and I love you guys.” Ha. “And I’m sorry for when I’m a jerk.” And it was like, this is beautiful. And we were all like, “We’re sorry too.” “Like we’re all jerks sometimes.” Huh. And just, I think he ended up saying something like, and “I like what, you know, where I go to school doesn’t even really matter.” Huh. And I was, I was kinda like, “Well, it kind of does, but no” but I didn’t say anything at the time we had like a beautiful group hug. That’s great. You know what I would’ve said at that moment? I would’ve said, “You know what? This is beautiful.” “Let’s get a picture.” And then I would’ve thrown it back into chaos. Yeah, we didn’t get a picture of that. You just got a group hug on the Golden Gate Bridge? We did, we got a group hug on the Golden Gate Bridge. Wow. We also had a really interesting thing happen, where right, as we taking our, we were trying to get our first picture with the three of us. Some dude came up and it was like, “Can I help you guys?” And I was like, “Ah, it is cool.” “We’re just trying to…” and we were like, almost there. I was like, “We’re just trying to recreate this photo.” And he was like, “Cool.” And he was with a group of like five or six young adults, you know, 20 year olds, whatever they were. And, then they kinda like stand off to the side. And then when we finish, he’s like, “Hey, can I get you to take a picture of us?” I was like, “Sure.” And so, they gave me their Polaroid camera that they were using. Oh, okay. And they all pose, and I’m like, “Okay.” And then the guy’s like, “Okay, on three Good Mythical Morning.” And I kind of suspected that that was what was happening, but I didn’t wanna be the guy that says like… You got pranked. No, so shout out to the Mythical Beast that, we actually, you know what turns out, there’s a lot of Mythical Beasts on the Golden Gate Bridge. Mm. Passed like- We just hang out there. Passed like five of them. Boost your ego. So, I hope the picture turned out good. We took two of them, because Jessie took a picture of me, taking a picture of them. And then I snapped it again, and wasted a little bit more of their film. All right, well, this brings me to my rec. I’m pulling an audible here. I had another rec, I’ll save it. ‘Cause my recommendation is to take some photos that then 18 years later you can recreate, or if it’s later recreate ’em. And if you’ve done this, I wanna see. You know, a number of people do this. I saw a few of them like back around the holidays, people doing like recreating family photos. I love seeing these. So #EarBiscuits, if you’ve already done this, my recommendation, is the next time you’re together with your loved ones. See about recreating a photo, if for no other reason to send it to the Linkster. #EarBiscuits and let us know, we talked about parenting a lot today. You know, making big decisions and not wigging out about it. And I think we’ll probably wait until… Perspective. You know, one thing we talked about is, we gotta go back 18 years or 17 years from now, you know, and do this all again. When Locke is what? 35, is that how old he’ll be? No, I can’t do math. 18 plus 18. 18 plus 17, yeah. He’ll be 35. Yeah. And maybe he’ll have a little child in a Bjorn, Ha. Who knows. We’ll have to go back and do it. Of course, Shepherd won’t be in any of the photos, ’cause he wasn’t in the first one. Nope, nope, nope. He wasn’t there, so he misses this train. All right, our train will keep going. We’ll catch you next week. To watch more “Ear Biscuits”, click on the playlist on the right. To watch the previous episode of “Ear Biscuits”, click on the playlist to the left. And don’t forget to click on the circular icon to subscribe. If you prefer to listen to this podcast, it’s available on all your favorite podcast platforms. Thanks for being your Mythical best.