- Joined
- Jun 9, 2006
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As some of you who know me know, I haven't been happy with the shape I'm in physically, or the progress of my writing, or with my life in general.
It is difficult when you do physical work all day to come home and want to do anything but crash.
Like **** is THAT going to be my excuse anymore.
It came to a head this last weekend.
It is bad enough both my parents have had heart attacks, both are diabetic, and one has had a stroke, nevermind my Mom's current situation which we will find out on 10 Oct if it is benign or not.
I've inherited just about ****in' every defective gene there is. The only Heart/Diabetic risk factor I DON'T have is I don't smoke.
So In My case, I'm at the point in my life now where I'm neither young nor old, physical stuff's not gonna get any easier the longer I wait, and since the bioloical trend is for your body to try to get you to shut down in your mid -30s, exercising more regularly isn't just a good idea, in my case it literally is a matter of "March or Die".
But it came to a head this last weekend I got a call from my platoon sergeant asking if I would come up to Camp Edwards this coming weekend since the State Guard didn't have many volunteers to assist the National Guard in an OPFOR exercise( OPposing FORces--Could be anything from capture the flag to Red Force/Blue Force opposing infantry scenarios, to security breach exercises to anything in between--one side tries to do theTerrible Horrible Things, and the other tries to intercept them before they can, or do them FIRST). This was a voluntary exercise, this was not our regular Drill for that month which I will be at( Security at a dedication ceremony for a local Korean War Memorial).
I wanted to Do This. It's nigh on the end of year one of my three year hitch, and this would be the first time I got to participate in an OPFOR exercise( OPFOR exercises are, indeed, the very reason I JOINED the State Guard in the first place--if we catch 'em some way in training so that they don't get caught the same way in live fire when they deploy, if even a SINGLE American Soldier's life is saved because of something I was part of, I cannot ask to have served my country in any better way during time of war in the only way left open to a man of my limitations( my hearing kept me out of federal service so the State Guard was the only military service open to me).
And as much of an absolute sonofacheesysecondhandelectricdonkeybottombitingbitch the 5-hour drive from my house up to Camp Edwards on Cape Cod in 5 0'clock traffic on a Friday night after working 8 hours is, I should gladly suffer its torment for such a chance as this.
And I had to tell him I couldn't make it because I recently recieved a minor injury to my back( i say minor because there is no break and no paralysis, I can do everything I otherwise could, just as soon as I bend more than 45 degrees at the waist right now it starts to tighten and hurt). and who knows what sort of crouching, bending, twisting,or holding awkward positions I might have to perform over several OPFOR scenarios that might aggravate it.
But here's the thing: It could be maybe I just lifted something wrong ( whether unloading a trailer at the receiving dock at work or dogging file cabinets up three flights of stairs with a hand truck and one other guy when my Civil Air Patrol Squadron moved to its new location ( I thought officers weren't supposed to DO this **** anymore, WTF?) but I am thinking it is far more likely that, since regular exercise increases one's general resistance to injury, me being out of shape had a direct impact on receiving it.
This, needless to say, gave me an unexpectedly large amount of impetus to get about the business; I may be a Private in the State Guard, but the Andy that faced me in the mirror some few minutes afterward was a spit and polished Drill Sergeant to be sure. Long story short, I made the argument to myself that if my health alone wasn't good enough reason, think about duty: What I have to do, what sacrifices I make in the State Guard are minimal--are stone cold MINIMAL--compared to what the regular and reserve forces get up to in the sandbox. Because we are volunteer, and I am currently, AFAIK, the State Guard's second youngest man at 29 and we have some guys in their 60's, regular PT (Physical Training for you sillyvilians out there) is not part of our regular drills partly due to that and partly since the moment we arrive we're instantly shuttled off to begin whatever exercise with whatever battalion.
"But the thing is," I told myself, "what some of these guys , in particular the Infantry battalions and the Military Police battalions, are training to do, you know that a large percentage of them, there's no two ways about it, they're GONNA use their skills out there. And if you are not equal to the task of physically hanging with those guys enough to present a credible "enemy" there's no excuse. NO EXCUSE. Unpaid volunteer or not, You are an American Soldier--START ACTING LIKE IT".
So here we go. I'm part of a group motivation thing right here at martialtalk.com where we're gonna try to each get to 100 pushups by Christmas and I am, though I started out a pathetic shadow of my younger self, progressing fast enough now that I'm back into it--I try to do my pushups correctly by military standard--Full up and down, hands shoulder width apart, toes back at a 45 degree angle to the ground, thumbs along the hand. the first day, a week ago, that i tried, I could manage a creampuff 29 *good* pushups without form suffering.. As of five minutes ago, I just banged out 42. Progress.( says he, grumbling about how 10 years ago 2 sets of 50 was *normal* for him...)
I have here a shiny new Marine Corps Workout DVD since twice a week of Martial arts ain't gonna cut it( The only art I feel a real connaction with that's offered there, Pencak-Silat, only occurs once a week and Saturday's an open class. Sticks are overused and blade and especially unarmed, are underused, in the Filipino classes to the point I never wanna see another Kali stick again and Wing Chun is just too counterintuitive for me to pick up and actually be able to USE.)
Getting in more shooting range time too, it's not strenuous in the same way, but it's at least getting off my *** and getting outside.
Using a borrowed computer so I may just ask to install Movie Magic Screenwriter on here to get back to being able to write in format, if not, I'll just have to keep doing sections, messaging them to myself and adding till it's ready to be formatted.
Right. Between "March or Die", I am inclined at this time to choose "March".
"Yo' left.....yo'left.......yo' left-right.....
Yo' left.....yo'left.......yo' left-right.....
1-2-3-4..........
1-2-3-4..........
Mass. State Gua-ard
Patch on my shoul-der
Pick up your weapon and fol-low me
I am the In-fan-try................................."
It is difficult when you do physical work all day to come home and want to do anything but crash.
Like **** is THAT going to be my excuse anymore.
It came to a head this last weekend.
It is bad enough both my parents have had heart attacks, both are diabetic, and one has had a stroke, nevermind my Mom's current situation which we will find out on 10 Oct if it is benign or not.
I've inherited just about ****in' every defective gene there is. The only Heart/Diabetic risk factor I DON'T have is I don't smoke.
So In My case, I'm at the point in my life now where I'm neither young nor old, physical stuff's not gonna get any easier the longer I wait, and since the bioloical trend is for your body to try to get you to shut down in your mid -30s, exercising more regularly isn't just a good idea, in my case it literally is a matter of "March or Die".
But it came to a head this last weekend I got a call from my platoon sergeant asking if I would come up to Camp Edwards this coming weekend since the State Guard didn't have many volunteers to assist the National Guard in an OPFOR exercise( OPposing FORces--Could be anything from capture the flag to Red Force/Blue Force opposing infantry scenarios, to security breach exercises to anything in between--one side tries to do theTerrible Horrible Things, and the other tries to intercept them before they can, or do them FIRST). This was a voluntary exercise, this was not our regular Drill for that month which I will be at( Security at a dedication ceremony for a local Korean War Memorial).
I wanted to Do This. It's nigh on the end of year one of my three year hitch, and this would be the first time I got to participate in an OPFOR exercise( OPFOR exercises are, indeed, the very reason I JOINED the State Guard in the first place--if we catch 'em some way in training so that they don't get caught the same way in live fire when they deploy, if even a SINGLE American Soldier's life is saved because of something I was part of, I cannot ask to have served my country in any better way during time of war in the only way left open to a man of my limitations( my hearing kept me out of federal service so the State Guard was the only military service open to me).
And as much of an absolute sonofacheesysecondhandelectricdonkeybottombitingbitch the 5-hour drive from my house up to Camp Edwards on Cape Cod in 5 0'clock traffic on a Friday night after working 8 hours is, I should gladly suffer its torment for such a chance as this.
And I had to tell him I couldn't make it because I recently recieved a minor injury to my back( i say minor because there is no break and no paralysis, I can do everything I otherwise could, just as soon as I bend more than 45 degrees at the waist right now it starts to tighten and hurt). and who knows what sort of crouching, bending, twisting,or holding awkward positions I might have to perform over several OPFOR scenarios that might aggravate it.
But here's the thing: It could be maybe I just lifted something wrong ( whether unloading a trailer at the receiving dock at work or dogging file cabinets up three flights of stairs with a hand truck and one other guy when my Civil Air Patrol Squadron moved to its new location ( I thought officers weren't supposed to DO this **** anymore, WTF?) but I am thinking it is far more likely that, since regular exercise increases one's general resistance to injury, me being out of shape had a direct impact on receiving it.
This, needless to say, gave me an unexpectedly large amount of impetus to get about the business; I may be a Private in the State Guard, but the Andy that faced me in the mirror some few minutes afterward was a spit and polished Drill Sergeant to be sure. Long story short, I made the argument to myself that if my health alone wasn't good enough reason, think about duty: What I have to do, what sacrifices I make in the State Guard are minimal--are stone cold MINIMAL--compared to what the regular and reserve forces get up to in the sandbox. Because we are volunteer, and I am currently, AFAIK, the State Guard's second youngest man at 29 and we have some guys in their 60's, regular PT (Physical Training for you sillyvilians out there) is not part of our regular drills partly due to that and partly since the moment we arrive we're instantly shuttled off to begin whatever exercise with whatever battalion.
"But the thing is," I told myself, "what some of these guys , in particular the Infantry battalions and the Military Police battalions, are training to do, you know that a large percentage of them, there's no two ways about it, they're GONNA use their skills out there. And if you are not equal to the task of physically hanging with those guys enough to present a credible "enemy" there's no excuse. NO EXCUSE. Unpaid volunteer or not, You are an American Soldier--START ACTING LIKE IT".
So here we go. I'm part of a group motivation thing right here at martialtalk.com where we're gonna try to each get to 100 pushups by Christmas and I am, though I started out a pathetic shadow of my younger self, progressing fast enough now that I'm back into it--I try to do my pushups correctly by military standard--Full up and down, hands shoulder width apart, toes back at a 45 degree angle to the ground, thumbs along the hand. the first day, a week ago, that i tried, I could manage a creampuff 29 *good* pushups without form suffering.. As of five minutes ago, I just banged out 42. Progress.( says he, grumbling about how 10 years ago 2 sets of 50 was *normal* for him...)
I have here a shiny new Marine Corps Workout DVD since twice a week of Martial arts ain't gonna cut it( The only art I feel a real connaction with that's offered there, Pencak-Silat, only occurs once a week and Saturday's an open class. Sticks are overused and blade and especially unarmed, are underused, in the Filipino classes to the point I never wanna see another Kali stick again and Wing Chun is just too counterintuitive for me to pick up and actually be able to USE.)
Getting in more shooting range time too, it's not strenuous in the same way, but it's at least getting off my *** and getting outside.
Using a borrowed computer so I may just ask to install Movie Magic Screenwriter on here to get back to being able to write in format, if not, I'll just have to keep doing sections, messaging them to myself and adding till it's ready to be formatted.
Right. Between "March or Die", I am inclined at this time to choose "March".
"Yo' left.....yo'left.......yo' left-right.....
Yo' left.....yo'left.......yo' left-right.....
1-2-3-4..........
1-2-3-4..........
Mass. State Gua-ard
Patch on my shoul-der
Pick up your weapon and fol-low me
I am the In-fan-try................................."
