But, since you opened it...... nahhhhhhh, only kidding!

Thanks quirky!  That was an excellent post and I understand what you were trying to communicate. 

Yes, I have significant military time under my belt and it had a distinct impact upon the way I do things, as does the scientific community with which I "commune" these days

By way of explanation, I am an astrophysicist in my off-hours and make my sheckles in the IT-world.  You might ask, "What?  An astrophysicist in his off-hours?"  The answer is, "Yup!"  If I did that for my living, I'd be spending most of my time looking for grants and such.  I'd have to do projects that had grants associated with them vice doing what I want to do.  In other words, to keep it fun..... I do it for "free" most of the time.  I do receive grants on a regular basis, but they are on my terms, not someone else's terms, if you catch my drift.  I can and do volunteer my services to any project that interests me, as well as doing a few of my own (one is in progress leading towards my Doctorate).  Yeah, the PhD is mostly a pride-thing, I admit it!  So, you see, it IS possible to have your cake and scarf it, too!  HA!

Now you know why astrology isn't a favored word in my vocabulary, but we can save that discussion for another time