Leader’s recon November 25, 2009

As many of you know, the Captain is called “The Captain” because that was the rank he attained by the time he left the Army.  Even though he’s now been out more years than he was in (WOW), he still talks about his service and keeps in touch with his buddies.  He’s also taught me some lessons that are wonderfully helpful in civilian life.

One of those lessons is leader’s recon.  Leader’s recon is when you scout out your next location so you know what to expect.  Before I met the Captain I was certainly familiar with the concept (civilians call it a “dry run”), but never had I met anyone who valued it so highly and who practiced it so regularly as the Captain.  If we have to be somewhere unfamiliar, for example, he’ll drive there the night before.  If he wants to serve our guests a new recipe, he’ll test it out on me weeks in advance.  He truly makes a habit of getting things ready before they’re needed.  As for me, the only time I ever had done a dry run was when my mother drove me the night before to the high school where I was taking the SAT.  At the time, I thought the exercise overkill.  In retrospect…well, I did get into Brown.

This is all a very long way of saying that I’ve caught on to the idea of leader’s recon.  Which is good, because the spicy caramel popcorn that I wanted to serve my guests in a couple weeks did not turn out so great last night.

Spicy caramel popcorn