A Goofy Foot in Mouth

Today I participated in my first IDPA  (International Defensive Pistol Association) event.  It was a long day, longer than I expected, but a lot of fun.  It was really nice to make some new friends, be around people with similar interests and learn new skills.  Some takeaways…

• I need a shotgun.  While IDPA is a pistol only discipline, the club usually sets up the patterns for multi-gun.  I shot under the IDPA rules/config.  But I could have borrowed someone’s shotgun, the guys are very generous and offered numerous times.  I just figured I would stay with a handgun for my first event
• Shooting clay pigeons at 20 yards with a bullet is HARD.  I hit about 1/3
• 2 magazines is definitely not enough for an event like this
• I really like shooting my 45
• Moving and engaging different targets is a lot of fun.  It’s like playing a driving video game with a steering wheel instead of a thumb controller: You are doing the same thing, but it’s so much more realistic
• I need to practice speed on target and changing magazines from the hip
• I shoot moving targets pretty well
• Shooting from cover, to the left of an object is much harder than it looks (if done correctly)

After experiencing an organized match, juxtaposed to all the commentary around gun-control lately, I thought I would take a few minutes to address issues with specifics, that people never really understand in detail.

Why does anyone need more than one gun?  There are more guns in the US than age-eligible owners.

This makes sense only if you walk into a thought with the mindset that something is unnecessary.  I own 4 vehicles.  To someone living in NYC this makes no sense.  But one is for Taylor, one is for me, I need a truck for house projects and the bus is for football.  There is a reason and specific purpose for each.  Why do baseball players need multiple gloves and bats.  Taylor has 4 pairs of cleats.  Horse people have multiple saddles/bridles, bits, halters, crops, etc.  I own at least 10 hockey sticks.  I have 5 shovels and at least 5 rakes.  I own 3 cameras.  I could ask why you need more than 1 pet, or more than 1 kid.  Take this last one, if your definition of the purpose of having children is procreation, well then certainly 1 is enough.  Is that not preposterous?

Consider for a second that your definition of purpose might not be universal.  I own 4 firearms and each has a different purpose.  Honestly, I want 3 more to fill gaps in things I can’t do.  The guys on the range today all owned more than me.  One guy brought 2 shotguns and they were completely different for different scenarios.  He wasn’t sure what the competition set-up would focus on, so he brought both.  My 22 is great for leagues and practice, but it won’t knock down a steel plate target, and those are fun.  It’s the same fun you get from throwing horseshoes, bocce, cornhole or darts.  It’s an individual challenge of skill and accuracy with instant feedback.  The theory is no different.

Guns are unsafe and so we need to take them off the street, regardless of whether you are responsible or not.

Let me describe the safety process at the range.  A trained range safety officer (RSO) inspects each weapon in a metal 3 sided box with the owner, ensuring it is safe and secure.  He inspects the magazine slot, makes sure the chamber is empty, slide is closed and dry fired (de-cocks the hammer), safety engaged, then holstered.  No one touches their weapon until they are on the firing line.  We are 100% serious about this.  Everyone polices the waiting area and line. When their turn comes, all weapons are pointed down range (a dirt wall 20′ high on 3 sides), inspected again by the RSO.  They take their turn shooting while being watched by at least 2 people for etiquette and technique (I got some useful feedback from the scorekeeper).  When finished, the RSO goes through the same procedure.  Magazine out, slide back, chamber clear, cycle weapon, chamber clear, slide closed, dry fire, safety, holster.  Anyone who has ever gone to a range, knows the process.  We are those “law-abiding citizens” that you hear about but don’t believe exist.  We take it seriously.  We are responsible.  Remember when Plaxico Burress shot himself in the thigh?  Not responsible handling of a weapon.  Just like some asshole drunk driver is not a responsible vehicle operator.

Gun laws do not place a burden on people who follow laws.

The problem with gun laws is that they include language like “at the discretion of “.  That is when we are troubled.  What that means is that we have no liberty and a “bureaucrat” has control over our rights and freedom.  If Obamacare had language like “care facilities can apply treatment for cancer at the discretion of the hospital’s CFO…” people would go insane.  Why is this different?  When I applied for my license to carry in Massachusetts, I took the required safety class, filled out paperwork, and got 3 letters of recommendation: One of which was from the city police detective who was in charge of processing and investigating the applications.  But it took the state 4 months to process and send me a 3×5 piece of paper.  That sounds like an awful lot of “discretion” no?

You don’t need an assault weapon for self defense.

At this very second, no I do not need a firearm for self-defense.  But if you can accurately predict the future with 100% certainty, then PLEASE, do something useful like manage my 401k or tell me who is going to win the SuperBowl, or tell the military where ISIS is going to strike next.  Until then, SHUT UP.  Did anyone predict that Putin would invade Crimea?  Or that Hitler would invade Russia?  You do not know what my self defense requirements will be under any future timeline.  So while you may conclude that a 6 minute response time from the police is ok for your family’s safety, I prefer that I have the capability to try to actually keep mine safe for those 6 minutes.

There is no such thing as an “assault weapon”.  There are weapons, and there are people that assault.  No weapon is inherently more “assaulty” than another.  When you use an adjective, it must have a reason for being used to describe the noun.  If the adjective has no meaning in adding to the description of the noun, it makes no sense.  If you don’t understand the difference between an AR15 and a semi-automatic rifle that fires Winchester 223, then you are ignorant (those words describe essentially the same thing).  That is the same ignorance I display when I pronounce that a first baseman or catcher doesn’t need a special catching glove.  It catches a baseball.  Why is one ‘special’?

If anyone wants to come to the range with me and learn how seriously law-abiding gun owners take their responsibility in handling a weapon, I would love to take you.  Target shooting is an art.  It is enjoyable, it is something you practice, it is something that takes skill.  I wish I had more time to enjoy it and I wish more people would give it a try before unilaterally berating it for no rational reason.

Tomorrow is my birthday.  And before you say “Happy Birthday” or post on FB or some other silliness, instead I would ask you to take 5 minutes, read one of my blog posts, and give me critical feedback on it…in the comments section.  That would make me much happier.  I honestly could care less about you reminding me of something I already know.  Might as well just post “The sun is up!” tomorrow morning.  Yeah I am a little punchy today, and I know I am an asshole, no need to remind me of that too.

As I drove in this morning I was listening to MTP and the nightmare that is the current GOP nominee.  I felt sad for the country.  I felt depressed that I contribute nothing to making it better.  I felt incomplete that another year has passed without any major goals accomplished.  As I grabbed my bags out of the back seat, I realized that I had not recited Invictus today, which is my new daily ritual.  Depending on how I feel, I emphasize different lines.  “…my unconquerable soul…the menace of the years…it matters not how strait the gate…” and I always finish with an emphatic “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”  I started feeling a little better.

I have tried to explain SealFit and Unbeatable Mind to people and why I have become such a fan.  I think my whole life I’ve been looking for a holistic mind:body training regimen that actually has practical applications and strategies.  In the book, Coach Divine talks a lot about negative emotions and strategies to interdict.  Some of it involves pre-work that I haven’t gotten to yet.  But this morning I made some progress.

Coach’s process goes like this

1. Identify that you are having a negative emotional experience
2. Based on your self exploration of these negative emotional states you should know the true underlying cause (aka the pre-work), and are thus able to quickly recognize the opposite emotional state to combat that negative one
3. Re-orient yourself to the corollary positive emotional state
4. Reinforce the positive state with self talk and mantras that solidify how you want to live

So for me, depression and sadness at my lot in life is really caused by a sense of disappointment in myself and what I have accomplished (lack thereof) exacerbated by the annual reminder of my birthday.  “I don’t believe in the no-win scenario”** and so I refuse to accept where I am, or to look at the bright side of what I have accomplished.  The glass may be half full, but just looking at it that way, doesn’t negate the fact that it IS half empty.  You are deluding yourself if you think you can look past the stark reality of the emptiness of the glass.

So the opposite of disappointment for me, is determination.  Determination in accomplishing my goals, kicking ass until I get there and never quitting.  The whole purpose of 20X was a realization that the human spirit can take 20 times more pain and punishment than you think before it truly breaks.  What seem like breaking points are just temporary and fictional surrenders to minor challenges that are easily overcome with grit.

I remind myself over and over:

• Know that you will reach your goals: Focus, Drive, Determination
• I AM the master of my fate.
• The only easy day was yesterday.
• Don’t ever ring the bell.

These thoughts awaken my kokoro spirit and get me focused on doing what is important.  Hooyah 44, bring it on.

**If you don’t know this quote, well I can’t help you, watch the damn movie!

When Taylor was an infant, she was not a good baby.  You’d never know it by her sleeping habits now, but she did not sleep for long stretches at all.  Megan and I had a system during her maternity leave; she would cover the day, and then when I got home I would cover the night until about 5 am.  That was a painful time

Tay would cry a lot and nothing could calm her to the point that she could go to sleep, except me walking around the house holding her.  I did this figure 8 loop around the dining table and then back into the living room around the coffee table.  Back then late night TV was limited and there was no DVR.  There might have been YouTube, but not like now.  At 2 am all the news shows started looping and even ESPN started repeating the prime time coverage.  I watched a lot of cooking shows and CSPAN.  I love CSPAN.

I’ve had this theory for a long time that I call “Spheres of Intellect”.  Basically each person has a pool of knowledge that surrounds them and sometimes overlaps with other people’s spheres.  But no matter what, no two spheres are identical.  There is always something you know that someone else doesn’t and more importantly, that applies vice versa.  

I have long held Spheres of Intellect as a self motivator that no matter how much I admire and respect a person, I know something they don’t.  I am a huge Bill Gates fan and I have always held to the fact that there is a part of my sphere that includes car care and home maintenance that his probably does not.   And that makes me feel better about his success and my lack thereof.  

One night in 1999, I was watching CSPAN and Warren Buffett was giving an interview and he spoke about his Circles of Competence theory.  I have since learned this term first appeared in a 1996 Berkshire annual report letter.   I was so excited that one of my heroes had the same theory as me.  But more importantly it meant that someone of his character and caliber recognized that there was something he didn’t know, and no matter the income or educational background of the person he was talking to, that person might know more about a given subject.  How amazing is that?  I could talk to Warren Buffett and he would acknowledge that I know more about… say building a tailgate box, and listen to me intently and respectfully.  This seems such an obvious concept and yet in this world of following-news-on-only-the-social-channels-I-agree-with world, it is now dead.

Eric and I were talking the other night about how we can fundamentally disagree on issues and yet we both respect each other’s opinions about how to interpret facts and that when we do this, I recognized a few things about the very notion of intelligent discourse.

1. Each of us is a good person with a good heart who loves this country and its people and wants it to be a great place to live and raise the future generations
2. Just because we disagree on the mechanism to get us to a better place, doesn’t mean that one of the two opposing ideas is intentionally aiming to “ruin”, “destroy” or be a “disaster” for the country
3. [This comes from a college class I took in philosophy] Opinions must be based on facts.  There can be two differing opinions about the same set of facts.  As you debate the merits of each, what you are actually doing is debating how rational the reaction and opinion is to one or multiple facts, assigning weighting factors to each and leveraging them cohesively to form an argument about the validity of your opinion

Eric and I noted with dismay that the act of rational and calm debate has completely disappeared.  We got to talking about the idea of creating a podcast or YouTube channel that would attempt to find decency in political debate in what is sure to be an insane political season.  But since that medium is now unviable as platform, I recognize that I would need to do something new and different.  Since we spoke, I have an idea and I am actually excited about trying to put this together.

Everyone has different circles.  Respecting that doesn’t make you weak.  It actually makes the humbleness of your own self respect portray you as much stronger.  Playing to that reality I think could be a winning formula.  When you make an argument, the first thing you must do is to agree to a set of facts, and if your disagree, the basis of your argument has to be rooted in a fact.  This is done by introducing new facts that come with mutual agreements.  I’m going to create structure around this, I think it will be cool.  More to come.  

A few weeks ago Senator Jeanne Shaheen came to Merrimack to participate in a town hall meeting at Fido.  The company had started a program about a year ago to help pay back employees’ student debt.  Many participate and this event was used as an opportunity to showcase what we were doing and discuss the issue of debt.

Yes I think the cost of higher ed is too high.  Unlike many Silicon Valley types who doubt the value of college education, I think the act of immersing yourself in a 4 year exploration of thought is a good thing to mature young minds before they enter the workforce.  I don’t think the curricula match the needs of the modern workforce or industry needs, but that is another topic.

I also think that students need to be rational about their financial footing when they make choices about college.  Not everyone can or should afford $50k per year.  And if you decide that you must have that costly education, you either need to not complain after you make that decision or get creative in the way it is financed.  I know this isn’t fair in the Bernie Sanders world but it is reality and you better get used to it.  I don’t drive my dream car or live in my dream house, but I live within my means and I get all the same benefits (transportation and shelter).  This is a lesson kids need to learn earlier in life.  There are lower cost options.

At the base of the conversation about student debt, everything came back to educating students on paying debt, refinancing, managing money, etc.  The panel kept talking about how kids don’t understand the financial implications of their choices.  I found this to be obnoxiously ironic.

When I worked in the Bursar’s office at NECC, we were constantly in contact with the Financial Aid office.  All they ever talked about were federal regulations on what they could and could not do in order to maintain our eligibility as a school that could award aid to students.  So the government can stipulate rules for the office, accreditation for the school, and which majors are eligible, but not requirements for basic student knowledge to receive that taxpayer paid funding?  I asked the question of the Senator; why not make a basic finance course a requirement of receiving aid?  If the problem is education, isn’t it irresponsible to finance a life at an educational institution that doesn’t educate on the most basic of needs to understand that financing just received?  I can’t believe how stupid it was to even ask the question.  More amazing is that the panel, including Senator Shaheen, enthusiastically agreed.  Yet I doubt this will ever become real legislation.

The default rates on student loans are nearly 10 times higher than mortgage default rates, 5x higher than credit cards.  We are talking about a subsidized interest rate with zero capital backing.  The government passes new and onerous regulations all the time, but we can’t require that students actually understand the financial implications of their debt?

College education is important.  And I do believe a much higher percentage of Americans should be college educated to prepare for the jobs of the future.  But I have to say that Bernie’s free college for all is not the solution.  Students need to understand, appreciate and value that education.  The first step is to understand that all this free stuff we give them, isn’t really free.  Isn’t that a crazy thought, woa.

I believe in saying hello or hi to people that walk past me. I just like being friendly with strangers.  I don’t want to stop and talk or be creepy, I just want to express the notion that I see you and hope you are having a good day.  I little smile, head nod, or the actual spoken words just seem to make the world more pleasant when you aren’t overtly ignoring the person 3 feet away as they pass you by.

I understand that some women don’t like to say hi to men because the general scumbag types interpret that as an ‘opening’.  So some non-intentional rudeness in the world is understandable.  Rob B used to talk about “the mutual interest wave” where two exercisers of the same discipline, always acknowledge the other.  Runner, cycler, roller-blader, the motorcycle low-wave…whenever you feel a kinship with the person heading the opposite direction, you have to say hi.  It’s an unwritten rule.  I have to admit that when a mutual-interest person ignores me, I actually feel slighted.

I also like saying “good morning” to people in the office when I get coffee and first walk in. I know that everyone thinks I am an anti-social jerk, and while I don’t necessarily want to be friends with people I see as I walk by, and I certainly don’t want small-talk, I do think it’s important to acknowledge all of them equally.  Kids, colleagues, support staff, and other workers not part of ‘fido’… I say hi to them all.

But in my limited travels I feel I have to point out some generalizations.

1. People in the south are the nicest and ALWAYS say hi
2. Local islanders (Caribbean)  are nice, but that might be commerce based
3. New Englanders are a mixed bag.  Unpredictable
4. Older people tend to be friendlier
5. French-Canadians are the absolute worst (sorry Derik)

I don’t care who you are or what you do, saying hi is the polite thing to do, stop ignoring me 🙂

Let me say this as clearly as possible, I will never support Trump.

• I will not vote for him as the lesser of two evils
• I will not vote for him just to be against Hillary
• I will not vote for him to blindly support the party
• I will not vote for him because he happens to be right about a few problems concerning the nation
• I certainly will not vote for him because he won a plurality of votes in the primary
• I will not ‘rally around the presumptive nominee’
• I do not believe he can ‘evolve’ his policies

I will support Hillary by actually voting for her as the surest way to ensure a racist, misogynist, hate-mongering, xenophobe is not the next President.

• I believe in country before party.
• I believe in country before person
• I may disagree with Hillary’s policies, but she will not be an embarrassment to the country (truly think about the word before you disagree with me)…(too late, you didn’t)
• I don’t want history thinking that Moron Trump represents the view of our party
• I believe in the long game, and showing the shallowness of the support for Trump and his ideals, is the only way to save the party

Sometimes you have to sacrifice a rook and this election is that sacrifice.  While Hillary may be a conniving politician, being conniving is not the same as a con-artist.  What politician is not conniving?  Yes it is refreshing to think that someone can be successful for NOT being that conniving pandering politician.  But if you just listen to what he is actually saying, you have to fear MORE the impact he will have on the nation, than you fear 4 more years of partisan stagnation because Republicans are once again relegated to being obstructionists.  That is the smarter bet.  Take the hit.

I hope that I have made my position here as clear as possible.  Over the coming years I hope to be in a position to run for office and I do not want to have to defend my support for Trump.  Since the beginning I have been against every policy and pronouncement he spews on the American people.  I have not wavered.  I will not budge.

#NeverTrump

A few weeks ago I ran a 5k as part of a fundraiser for some friends. I perpetually have the goal to get under 20:00 but have never done it.  My best yet is 20:06. This course ran through fields and forest so I knew I would be slow.

Near the end I came up on some kid, low teens I would guess, running ahead of me.  He seemed so bothered that I caught up that he sprinted ahead.  And then he ran himself tired and would walk.  I caught up.  This happened twice.  The third time I caught up to him was at about the 1/4 mile to go mark, when I normally push it. I said “OK pal lets get” and started running hard.  About half way to the line he caught me and passed me.  I finished about 15 feet behind.  He collapsed and I walked over and gave him a fist bump.
My overall time was in the 22’s. So I was not proud.  But what really got me was that 10 years ago I could have smoked this kid.  I could actually notice how much slower I have gotten over the years.  My stamina is at an all time high, but I really am slow.  I knew it would happen.  And to some extent I have felt it even before now.  But it was really strange to feel it so quantifiably and in the moment.  Getting old sucks.

I just got to see and be part of a whole auditorium of parents and students stand up and cheer for a music teacher leaving for a job closer to home. That was pretty cool and moving. 

I never really thought about what “A Crucible Event” was before I signed up for one.  I have been following the SEALFit training regimen for about 2 years now.  I have read the descriptions about the single and multi-day camps but I didn’t really get what it meant.  Coach Divine describes it as something that fundamentally transforms your life.

Signing up for 20X is a commitment in itself.  Besides the cost, knowing that you are asking to be put through serious stressful conditions for 13 hours, is significant.  For me, that meant that my life changed to adapt to what I knew was coming, over the past few months I amped up my training.

But the biggest change came during the day of the event and reflecting on it driving home.  I left the house at 4:40 for a 1:20 drive to Kingston, MA and Crossfit Kells.  I parked, did some ROM drills to loosen up, got changed into BDUs, boots and my t-shirt and headed in.  I stretched out maybe 5 minutes before the coaches started up.  This is 6:30 am.  The pre-event emails were in my spam folder so I didn’t really see them until late and I didn’t really get all the nuances, which was about to be made clear to me.

One guy in the front row had written his name on his t-shirt instead of “STENCIL”ing it.  Oh shit.  Coach Jim let into him first thing.  Coach Kyle then came up to me and asked what I didn’t get about the word “stencil”.  I just screwed up coach.  Great.  Within 5 minutes I was the class idiot.  One other guy wore a brown t-shirt instead of white and he got more shit than us.  A few people didn’t wear belts.  A few others were late.  “All buttons buttoned, all snaps snapped, all belt loops hooked and all shirts tucked in.”  We would hear it all day.  We even got good at inspecting each other.

A few warning messages not to be weak and then we were off.  The first evolution was a 45 minute plank.  Not some BS on your elbows crap.  But in a “leaning rest” position, which meant the upper part of a push-up.  I’ve done a few minutes before, but nothing like this.  What was I going to do?  I’m going to collapse.

A bunch of guys dropped their knees.  I never touched mine once.  Oh I moved my arms and did a stretch in a downward dog position and an arch, and I cheered on everyone as much as I could.  But somehow I found the strength to suck it up.  Porter couldn’t get the music to work from Coach Jim’s phone and so for each 30 seconds that it wouldn’t work, we added a minute.  We got to 53 from the music ordeal and then a few more minutes of punishment near the end because of some other screw ups.  At 60 minutes, we could get back to our feet.

We then took off for some running around the neighborhood.  We warmed up a bit and then Coach Chris (ex SEAL) told us to stay within 6 feet of him and he took off at a fast pace.  On the whole of the day, I was always around 12-17th in order of finishing stuff of the 35 that showed up (42 signed up and paid).  When some got too far behind and we didn’t go back to help them finish up, we did burpees.  “100% effort.  100% of the time.”  A few guys would put their hands on their hips and then we would do burpees with our hands in our pockets.  Hitting the deck on your chest was rough.  But getting up was harder.  It became a theme all day.  The Coaches would add burpees that we owed them for each infraction and then take a few off if we did something well.  By the end of the day, we owed 580.

We got back to the gym and did a fitness challenge.  Everyone had to do 15 pullups; full drop, no kip.  I did 14 and then slipped off the bar.  My swim buddy did 13, but put his hands on his hips and so we did 30 burpees together.  Next was a timed run.  It was supposed to be a mile but the Kells crew told us two laps was .9 miles.  I came in at 6:04.

Next we packed some gear in our rucks and boarded a bus.  On the drive we were told that we needed to memorize the poem Invictus and it would be quizzed.  Now I suck at memorizing and we all chanted it on the bus a dozen times.  I stared at the words over and over.  If someone gave me the first words, I could finish the sentence, but I just couldn’t remember the damn thing.  And then I actually read it and listened to the words.  I could tell you what every line meant from memory, but I could not memorize it.

We got off at a public beach and headed down with rucks and a “weapon” which is a 4′ by 2″PVC pipe filled with sand.  We stowed our gear, drilled on being neat and organized and headed to the surf.  Arms linked, fully dressed we took 1 step at a time into the 54 degree water.  We got all the way to our chest/necks and stayed there for a while keeping the weapon out of the water and then headed back to our rucks.  “Don’t shiver!”  We then proceeded to become “sugar cookies” and then ran back to the surf.  Sand and then wash it off, over and over, that was fun.  Make sure your swim buddy is covered head to toe and face.  We loaded trash bags with 20 lbs of sand, added it to our rucks and then held it over our heads until it was obvious we had at least 20 lbs.  When I got home at night, all my wet gear I carried in the bag and the sand weighed 38 lbs.

We then started a series of “good pace” jogs on the beach and would jump in the water every once in a while for good measure.  Then we would run in the surf.  Downward dog, head on the ground with surf submerging your head.  Situps in the surf.  Pushups.  Don’t Shiver!  All with the packs on, we even did this crazy thing with rolling over backwards, pack on, touch your feet to the ground over your head while in 1′ of water.  We were frozen but were having fun.  We’d laugh and joke together.  Don’t let go!  Don’t break the chain!  On your feet!  Drop!  Feet!  We helped each other each time.

Next we ran games where each boat crew would compete against the others.  “Pays to be a winner”.  Proud that our boat crew won 2 of the 4 challenges and so we got to warm ourselves while the others hit the surf.  We ran some sprinting races and I always seemed to be 2-3 out of the top 10 for skipping more surf torture or “water appreciation” as Coach Chris called it.  At one point I got dizzy, and almost passed out.  I didn’t break, but I worried that my body did.  The best part was our inability to count.  We were in 4′ of water, arms linked and all we had to do was to sound off by whatever count the coaches said and we could get out of the water.   3-6-9-12… never ONCE did we make it.  We could do ones, twos, and fives; that was it.  Man we killed a lot of time in the water with that one.

We did some more beach drills and then ran for the buses.  100% effort.  100% of the time.  Do not walk.  Do not put your hands on your hips.

The bus took us to the Marshfield Fairgrounds where a horse show was taking place.  The irony was not lost on me as Haley was in Deerfield.  We got some calories and water and tried to get the sand out, while on the bus.  We did a ton of log work.  Holding that thing over your head was exhausting, but just when I thought I couldn’t do it anymore, somehow my body kept my arms up.  My boat crew won the team race and we also won this crazy tire challenge that the coaches were particularly proud of their creativity.  We ran 100 meters and grabbed a bunch of old dirty car tires that were in a pile for probably years.  The water in them was brown and smelled nasty as it splashed while we ran back to the start line.  We stacked them over one of our team-mates Michelin-man style, flipped him on his side so the tires were upright and then rolled the tires with him inside 200 meters down the field, tagged the coach, rolled 200 meters back, stripped off the tires and sat down.  All the while making NASCAR motor sounds as loud as we could.  We were in second place out of the gate but managed to catch up and win that one too.

On the bus ride back to the gym we had some sandwiches and more fluids.  I partnered with a guy who worked at the gym and we did a team Murph with our packs on, switching responsibility for every other set.  I did 5 pullups, he did 10 pushups, I did 15 air squats, he did 5 pullups, etc.  20 rounds.  Before we started the coaches challenged us that if we could sound off by 3’s we only had to do a .5 mile run at the end instead of 1, but if we screwed up, 2 miles.  …63-66-69-71 oh 72 AAARRRGGGHHH.  I sucked on the pullups, but I kicked ass rucking out the miles with my pack.  We finished 6 and 7 at about 43 mins.

The day was getting late.  I have seen a false summit before.  Eric and I had one on our hike of Mt Toll and while that was hard on me, I never really experienced it like this.  Coach Kyle led us on a 25 minute yoga session to calm our bodies and relax our minds.  The coaches started talking about handing us our completion pins and then, “Hands on hips?!?  Are you fucking kidding me?!?!”  Bear-crawl your asses outside and line up.  Burpees.  30- ok that’s a lot.  50- we gotta be done right?  75- holy shit.  100- I might die. 110 we finally stopped.  The whole time the coaches were spraying us with hoses and dumping ice water on us.  Next came at least 60 by 4 count flutter kicks.  It still hurts my abs to sneeze.

Finally we did this pushup in a line where you put the feet of the guy ahead of you on your shoulders so that the only thing touching the ground is your hands.  After a few tries we got it right and earned the right to file back into the gym.

Thank god a few guys had the poem memorized.  One led the whole group in reciting Invictus in perfect unison.  Somewhere there is video of it, I got chills.  We screamed it a few times.  And so I was transformed.

Out of the night, I did not cry aloud, my head was bloody, but I do not fear the years and I reject the horror of the shade, I will figure out how to write my scroll because…

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul.

Thank you Coaches Chris, Kyle, Jim and Abram. Thank you Boat Crew 3 – Murphy.

Hooyah Crossfit Kells 20X

So why not. Everyone is prognosticating, so should I.

Hillary will take the nomination and right before the convention, someone on her staff will float a rumor that she will name Kasich as her running mate. Kasich will say some nice things but it won’t come to pass. Those of us rational republicans will vote for her because the country and the office is more important than a person or the party. Hillary will be the next President in an electoral and vote count landslide.

If Trump does win (heaven forbid) it will be with Newt Gingrich as his VP. I don’t think they will win. But if they do, here’s what I think will happen.

• Since Trump is on the ballot, the Senate will flip to democratic control
• Within 100 days there will be some sort of constitutional crisis, because Trump will try to do something that is illegal. When pressed on the issue, he will hold press conferences yelling at the press and stage rallys and say that the people are with him. He will not give in.
• The senate will acquit Trump
• The house will stay republican, but with Paul Ryan and Newt pushing the issue behind the scenes (palace coup), Trump might actually be forced out of office (ok I am dreaming a little here)

Kelly Ayotte will lose in NH as part of republicans losing the senate because she will get cornered on her waffling of support for Trump.

All of this republican insanity will spur Josh Rutstein to run for some elected office, brandishing the “rational republican” mantra as a way to bring the country back to civility.