 Good morning gentlemen. It's 7.50 in the morning here and it's about seven degrees outside. It is going to warm up today. It's going to get up to like 20 degrees or something later. And the wind is at like 20, 25 miles an hour. It's pretty windy and there's going to be like gusts up to 30 or something. I don't know. Point is, you know, it's less than optimal weather. In most days, you know, I would just want to stay inside and choose to stay inside. Today, I happen to be going out just to do a little bit of training with some guys and we'll have some have some good time outside. So wanted to make a video here to just talk about this is good weather to go out in, right? You're not always going to have more optimal conditions and being used to being uncomfortable and somewhat miserable is a good thing. This is a mental mental toughness factor that gets built in when you're just used to going out when it sucks. And honestly, as an American minute man, those are some of your best conditions because when things get really cold and windy and stuff, that's when technology and sensors and things start to not do so hot. Now, is it a surefire thing that they're always going to fail? No, no, of course not, right? But being able to be out when the weather really sucks can benefit you, both from a potential tactical perspective and also most importantly in this context from a training perspective, right? If you can go out when it's seven degrees and 20 mile an hour winds, well, then, you know, going out when it's 55 and sunny ain't so bad anymore. So I would highly recommend, you know, I know we're all over the country here and your weather might never get this cold. And hey, God bless you. That's wonderful. But when your weather for your area is less than optimal, if you can try to go out for that. And that doesn't necessarily mean you have to go on like a, you know, six mile patrol with the boys through the deep woods. But it might just mean, you know, you're out and about and getting used to it and you're going to go on a walk with your kids and you're going to think, okay, if I was out here for three hours, three days, whatever, what would that look like? What would I need? What's working for me right now? What's not working for me right now? For example, I went on a walk around the block with my kids when it was like negative 20. It was like cold. And one of the things that happened is just from breathing my the breath from my mouth came up to my glasses and it like almost immediately froze. And so my visibility went to near zero within a couple minutes. And I thought, okay, if I had to be out here for an extended amount of time, my glasses being frozen is going to be a real struggle, like visibility just being able to see is going to be a real problem. What am I going to do about that? Right? How am I going to navigate that problem? And so you can just learn things when things get get cold and bad. And again, whatever your weather is for your area might affect you differently. So this is my encouragement to you. Go out there when it's less than perfect weather. Enjoy it and have some fun. And as long as you're consciously thinking and intentionally using the time, you're going to learn something, even if it's just walking around the block with your kids. You know, there is a reason that most armies in history have paused fighting during the winter, right? Like has has fighting still happened during the winter? Yeah, sure, of course, right? But by and large, for most of human history in most places where they have a winter, you know, Europe, America's during the winter, fighting usually stops or pauses, right? There are certainly exceptions like Napoleon's retreat out of Russia, where they lost, I don't know, I think it was like 100,000 guys, they lost a ton of guys on this massive retreat, because they were treating in the middle of the winter and they weren't ready for it and etc, etc. Right? Or Washington's famous crossing of the Delaware to attack the German Hessians, the German mercenaries, right? Very famous. And it was famous and it was a surprise because it was Christmas, it was winter, right? No one expected that. Everybody went they went to usually they would winter down, right? No one would fight in the winter. So being able to have the capability to continue to fight in the winter is just another wonderful tool to keep in your tool set, right? Especially because in general, again, everyone across the board, motivation is low to fight in the winter. It's colder, it's darker, there are just a bunch of additional considerations, it's slower, right? You got to make sure you don't freeze the death, that's the hardest thing to deal with. And that that becomes a bigger enemy than the actual people trying to kill you. So again, I think there's a lot of things that we can learn experientially from being out in the winter. Yes, we can sit down and talk for 12 hours and there's lots of really good YouTube videos out there about winter operations and you know what to do and how to think about it and whatever. And that's all good and we should we should learn that. But at the end of the day, go lace your boots up, step outside, get a little snow on them. One of the other things about going out when it's colder and just experiencing it right is this is such a there's so many different personal preferences and variations. And what I mean is like, for example, right, my hands get cold. That just for whatever reason, I have a terrible circulation or whatever. And my fingers always get cold before anyone else I know, my fingers get cold, right? It's just part of the deal. And as a result, I need to wear more layers of gloves or mittens or whatever, than your average person. I was watching a YouTube video the other day, and they were talking about, you know, using gloves when you're moving and then when you're static using mittens. And I was watching that and I was thinking, yeah, that wouldn't work for me. Like it just wouldn't work for me because my hands get cold easy. And I just wearing gloves when it's really cold, even when I'm moving isn't isn't going to do it for me. My hands will get too cold. And, and I know that because I've been out enough when it's cold, right? I've walked around and I'm trying to dial in how I'm going to do gloves and layers and stuff like that. And so that's something you learn from experience. And I use that as a short little vignette to say in the wintertime, there's so many things like that, right? You probably already know if you run a little hot or a little cold, or your toes get cold easy, or, you know, whatever. You probably already know that. But being able to get out, again, they have a general idea, but getting out and moving when it's cold and stuff is going to help give you to dial in what your, your personal flavor is and what your personal preferences and little peculiarities are, right? How are you dealing with the cold? How does your body process the cold different? Sometimes you can get away with less layers than you think. Sometimes you're like, well, you know, for whatever reason, I just seem to run colder. So I always need two base layers when everyone else needs one. And that's just, that's just the way it is, right? There's, there's nothing virtuous about wearing less clothing and just how it is. So getting out and again, getting your, your lacing your boots up and stepping out is really going to give you that experience to help you understand your personal variations. And in the wintertime and cold, I don't know of any other environment that brings out those personal variations more, right? That that really accentuates what those personal variations are more than, than when it gets really cold. Do brave deeds and do it.