Day: October 11, 2020

On rainy and cloudy Sunday, not much to do other than watching football, so you get a lengthier backblast from my Q at the Coconut Horse. Most of the time you get the standard “We ran or rucked or biked,” some form of movement to get begin the day. The forecast looked ominous so that kept a few people snuggled in their fartsacks. I’m one the talk, coming off the IR, my knee can be tight in the mornings (what a convenient excuse), especially when the alarm goes off in the gloom. So the one time I finally make it out, I’ll be happy to swallow at least one red pill. I thought I had EH’ed a Kotter for a ruck this morning but I should have been more emphatic that I was 100% committed – but that is a lesson to be learned (more on that later). At 6:30 am, I load my ruck and to Gastone’s dismay that I’m actually going to ruck. I send off Stroganoff, Roscoe and Gastone. Linus read up on QSource F5 Q-point on Preparedness posting in full rain gear; he and I take a lap around the parking lot in case the Kotter is late – no show, we move on, making up the route as we go.

In the Fall of 1985, after a high school football game a tradition was to spend the night at my friend’s house. As 8^th graders, there wasn’t too much to do other than walk around the neighborhood. To create some mischief, we’d tie empty drink cans to either end of a fishing line and string it across the road, find cover in the bushes nearby and wait for victims to come flying through our trap and shout expletives once they were stopped, realizing the gag, maybe relieved car parts were not spilled into the road behind. On a slow night, we return to his house and into the kitchen. Shortly thereafter, we hear the rattle and hum of a sweet 1978 Ford Pinto conk to an erratic stop. I included a link for the millennials. Safe to say, it was a sweet ride, one that had the ladies melting for an opportunity to be with its driver. In walks the big brother.

“What’s up butt-head?” he snarls, almost mocking a scene from Weird Science. “You boys hungry?” We both nod our heads affirmatively. Brother goes to work and we take a seat for the lesson. He grabs a kitchen plate and then a bag of Doritos – the original, before they created all the new versions. Once the chips were spread onto the plate, he went into the refrigerator for American cheese slices. I wasn’t even sure he washed his hands, but I didn’t care, we were captivated watching the master chef at work. Each square of orange cheese was stripped apart and laid gently across the mountain of chips. Into the microwave the creation went for a brief period of time. Half a minute later, the hot plate came out. Brother sampled the appetizer and gave the okay. My friend and I dug in for a snack of all snacks. Simple, yes, but very good. One that I would make over many years. I tried to share the recipe with my daughters, but they had little interest. Maybe it’s a guy snack. I’ll find out with my grandkids one day.

What the hell does this have to do with the Coconut Horse? Actually not much, but like Dredd, there is a lesson in Sua  Sponte leadership. For those attending Q Source today, we learned about Individual Initiative or I2 and how a Lizard organization thrives when a HIM steps up to solve a problem within the context of a mission. Then not only sharing that lesson, but passing it along to others for a legacy to be left. What was the problem: hunger. Big Brother steps into action to solve.

Now after this walk down memory lane to my youth, I’ll share with you my friend in the story is Re-Run. Who is Re-Run, none other than the little brother to the GasHouse HIM but Linus. It’s the circle of life.