Vid has a new game where the soldier has to roll him up in a blanket like a burrito and carry him around like a freshly killed corpse.

“P, he want me to do that 100 times and it wears me out. He weighs 65 pounds,” he explained.

“Yeah, that’s heavy.”

“Yeah, it is. A rucksack should weigh 45 pounds and no more. I am used to that, I carried one of those all my life but 45 pounds and that’s it because I have to carry bullets and ammunition too. I never carried a rucksack with more the 45 pounds in it, it’s just not what you do.”

“You’ll have to explain this to him I guess. I’m not sure what to tell you but I surely understand your distress.”

The other night the soldier and I were watching Sniper. I’d never seen it and was surprised how good it is above and beyond the obvious eye-candy. The first two thirds of the movie, this is. The last third was a little much if you have Libra but anyway, the soldier has worked as a sniper…

“Yeah, I liked it but nobody likes you. Everyone hates snipers,” he said.

“Why? They seem very necessary. Aren’t they necessary?”

“Yeah, they’re good for all kinds of things. Psychological warfare…” he went on to elaborate. “You can hit a guy from almost a mile away. There’s no way they can know what’s coming.”

“I see. So why don’t they like ‘em?”

“Well, it’s considered somewhat cowardly in the military tradition,” he said.

I was fascinated to learn this, maybe you feel similar.