Veterans Day

I'm pretty fired-up on our Vets. I grew-up in a staunchly conservative family. My dad, grandpa and uncle have been big history/military buffs. Not me. Interestingly, I have chosen a profession that is, at least in my "neck of the woods," fairly liberal. Either way, I am genuinely grateful and exceedingly appreciative of the sacrifice made by our military men and women. It's fucking awesome. I remember thinking very hard about officers candidate school. I was a sophomore in college. The Navy was non-responsive. So I headed down to the the Marine depot for my "interview." Classic. There I am, pigeon caught in outer space, trying to make myself credible in front of this gunnery sergeant. He gets to the "have you taken any drugs" portion of the application, I pause, try to forget the drugs I've taken while at the same time recall all that I have done, and say, quite convincingly I'm sure, "No." Brilliantly, he took his colored marker and crossed-out that entire page. In blue. Great stuff.
I think I blacked-out after that. In other words, that move there was one of the best highs of my younger life.

So I get home, still "shook," and proceed TO CALL THE RECRUITING OFFICE, TALK TO THE SAME GUNNERY, AND ADMIT THAT I HAVE DONE DRUGS. He said he appreciated my honesty and told me to stay in touch if I was still interested.

I should have stayed in touch. I would, I'm sure, be a much better man for it.
Here's to you all in uniform kicking other people's asses in the name of crazy ass freedom.

Went for a 2 hour hike today. The six year old was a freaking stud. I have to really coach him on some of these (today was BIG) but he's doing BIG hikes. Probably 6 miles, 1500ft of vert. Got a little warm today. He's six years old. And we do a fair amount of running, "One the flats and downs, son."

Last night I ran 3 miles in about 22 minutes. Sure not that fast, but juxtaposed with the hike today, I think I might be onto something. I need some 2 miles of w/u and 2 miles of c/d on that run and kick that pace-up a bit, but the deal with a masters runner who isn't very fast is this: Run hard more often than not. I need to explore this more. And I will.

Now I'm a sipping a Union Jack IPA. At 7.5%, this may be the one. I love this beer.