Hey Monster get over here it’s time for you to earn your keep. The world’s a rough place and you gotta work hard or you’ll starve and you might as well learn that sooner than later. As in now.

And then he came and said sure I like my bison venison stuff and the steak you throw me from time to time and I know it’s not free so what do we need done today – I’m in. Man did that catch me off guard and show time came fast and Bullet Rucks at the Team House was the play and Monster was the star.

Expectations are our own doing and our own downfall. We control them and they’re hard to communicate to others. But not impossible, that’s the good news. Usually in life, when something is not quite right it’s because someone else has different expectations of us or we have different expectations of them. And talking about those gaps is the missing piece. Because we evolve together and apart and the world takes its toll no matter what, the frequency of communication matters. Like leadership, expectation management is a process. You don’t make a decision or have a conversation and call it a day. It never ends. Not. Ever.

I digress as Monster sits perfectly in a 10L Bullet Ruck that I’m about to zip all the way up…

OK not really, ha ha right? Yeah, ha ha.

More space, try a 15L but don’t get comfortable, we’ll do more in that one when you’re bigger and at the eating 100 times a day and me going through plastic bags like parents go through diapers rate, that’ll be soon.

So… you may be too big for this one and by may I mean you are but let’s go ahead and try the 5 Liter Bullet. Softer than the deck is it?…nice.

And you wonder why I think you look like a flying bat even when you’re not flying.

At a certain point how many 1,000’s of pictures can you take of just Monster. Actually, 1,000’s more. But Jack was still like hey Emily put the 5L on and here ya go, here’s Monster what’s cooler than kids and puppies.

Lick lick and Natalie leaned out and said no no…

And then life got existential. Monster or Natalie, Natalie or Monster…

As usual, Monster survives and all was right in the world and I got him and I’m probably the luckiest guy that’s ever lived.

And Natalie said put me down and she likes walking places on her own now. I’m pretty sure at this point that nobody will ever want to be around any photo shoot I’m ever a part of so I guess it’ll be back to me and Java I mean me and Monster and yeah, it was worth it because you can’t make this stuff up and the telling is too much fun.

Monster moved on, got dressed up in The Man Tie and he already forgot the past and shouldn’t we all sometimes.

But then he said yeah I’ll take a steak dinner and an apology and can I have the steak waiting for me when I’m done napping and some questions in life aren’t really questions.

“Not for Monster’s mouth” is an oft heard phrase at HQ and wherever Monster and I are together. He’s teething and really doesn’t discriminate. One minute it’s the metal handles on a filing cabinet the next it’s the zipper pulls on a ruck. Sometimes it’s 3 in the morning, other times it’s every other time.

Until it’s teddy bear night night time and could I interest you in a 10L Bullet inside a GR2. It’s not a tempur pedic but back to the expectations thing, in life you gotta be grateful for what you got. Not what you wish you had or what you might have had if dot dot dot. No. You have to be grateful for what what you have today because tomorrow is not promised.

You never fully know what someone else is expecting, so sometimes you gotta sleep with one eye open and take it as it comes. For as long as it takes and just be grateful you were on the stage at all, with the monsters you love. Because if you say you’re in, be all in.