July 11, 1997 - "If I were in the Air Force..."

970711 - Woke up @ 0230. Ate chow and slept until 0700 when I went to work. At work we did unimportant and extremely easy work to keep busy. After work we had to go work in the chow hall. It wasn't bad. When we got back here, we worked out and did max sit-ups in 2:00 (85!). I have firewatch tonight but I'm not too tired so it's ok. I got a letter from the entire family and for some reason they still think I switch platoons. I'll have to straighten that out. 49 days left. 7 weeks left.
Near the end of boot camp, recruits have to take the Physical Fitness Test. It's the same test taken annually by all Marines. The test consists of a 3-mile run, maximum pull-ups, and maximum sit-ups in two minutes. The highest possible score is 300, and in order to earn that score, you must "max-out" each event. The best time for the run is 18 minutes; the maximum for pull-ups is 20; and max sit-ups is 80 (well, it was 80 when it was sit-ups. When they switched to crunches, they changed it to 100). Hence my delight at being able to do 85 sit-ups in two minutes.

One of my favorite things to do is math, because I'm cool like that. I really enjoy thinking about numbers in various and sundry ways. For example, last year, I spent the entire year studying the accuracy (for temperature and precipitation) of several popular weather apps (If you want to be bored/enlightened, I'd gladly share my data and results with you). Also, years ago, when I had a 50-mile commute to work, I would spend my drive calculating the hours, minutes, seconds, and even weeks and months that I had lost just driving. Well, I did something similar in boot camp. As I walked my post during Early Chow on this particular day, I reflected on the fact that I had been here six weeks. This meant that, if I had enlisted into the Air Force, my training would already be complete. Instead, I was still less than half-way there.

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