Ben Sloot

I spent my New Year’s Eve at the on post Morale, Health and Welfare Club(1) conducting Courtesy Patrol(2).
1- The MWR building is actually a sports bar, with a pizza joint and bowling alley
2- Courtesy patrol is part high school dance chaperone, for adults, and part baby sitter for 21-45 year olds that might have a bit too much to drink.

Normally it’s not a position I would find myself in, however, I drew the short straw with another teammate on the staff, and so I found myself settling in to a seat with a bird’s eye view of the bar at 1900 trying to remember the last time I stayed up until 0100 in the morning. (It was an overnight shirt at Fort Hood, TX at Warfighter 21-4.)

Ultimately, the evening proved to be uneventful (mostly). By the time I needed to walk over to a table and suggest someone go home, their buddies were already preempting me with “Don’t worry sir, our ride is on the way,” and “We’re getting him some water, sir, no issue.” Carry on, gentlemen, carry on.

No fights, happy faces and unlimited Diet Cokes made for an easy shift. I took the opportunity to consider my goals for the year. I came up with a few simple ones:

• Daily reading to include Robert Greene’s The Daily Laws and a year “big reading” of War and Peace and an overall 25 book goal for the year.
• Get a faster 1 mile and then 2 mile run time (baseline 1 mile tomorrow)
• Blog more consistently… think journal as opposed to blog
• Eat well – this one requires more thought.

Here’s to 2022! Happy New Year.

Love, Your Courtesy Patrol