Man's got to know his limitations

He's also got to know his limitations aren't as limited as he "knows" they are.

One day a very long time ago, at least from my perspective, I took and went and joint the navy.

Now here's the cool thing. My fellow Americans, who were footing the bill for it, just let me join. They didn't know me from a box of breakfast cereal, yet they said fine, if you can fog a mirror and count the change in your pocket (to within 10 percent or so) we'll let you join. We'll feed and clothe and house you, give you medical care, send you to school, teach you cool stuff, provide leadership and supervision, give you a chance to to learn and grow professionally, a chance to see the world and see and do incredibly neat things, and on top of all that, we'll pay you a good wage. In exchange for all that, you have to follow the rules and do your job for four years. Yeah, we'll take you.

That's just pretty damme amazing if you think about it.

One of the earliest and best lessons the navy taught me was that my limitations weren't nearly as limited as I "knew" they were.

And now, more than four decades later, I'm still finding that my limitations aren't nearly as limited as I "know" they are.

There's just no doubt about it. I got the best of that deal.

Thanks America!

Yesterday I really crushed it with my workout, running 240 flights of steps. In distance, that worked out to about 4 miles, half of which was on a 45 degree uphill grade. The other half was, of course, on a 45 degree downhill grade. All that uphill running is very hard work, and at the end of the workout I was very tired and more than a little bit sore. Crawling into bed last night felt good.

This morning nearly all the aches and pains were gone, and I popped out of bed like an E-1. Well, like an elderly E-1, but still.

Today I did a 4 mile sprint-walk including 11 30 yard sand sprints -- a first for me since aircrew school. I also did 60 flights of steps.

Now I know for a fact that olden people like me can't do that stuff!

At the end of the day the fact remains that my country did for me things I didn't even know I needed. How can you repay a gift like that?

I do know that there are ways to trick or manipulate America into giving you things that are bad for you, too. I'm very blessed that I never stumbled down that path. Maybe, if I'm lucky, I'll find a way to help someone find the right path. That might constitute a partial payment of the very great debt I owe my country.