DASH TO THE END

I’m at the White Elephant again, inputting my comments for the week. I have to time this right as every sailor and soldier without a computer or internet connection tries to make their way here for computer time. So I’ve written my notes in advance and sent it to my COMCAST email address. From there, it’s an easy cut and paste.

It’s getting stranger here by the day. Supply is almost packed up, we have a team of folks departing for an assignment in Kuwait, and everyone in ‘management’ is planning for drawdown. But I can’t get too excited yet as we still have several months to go.

Planning for departure creates a whole new set of challenges and my supply ethics are running up against the "I will do whatever it takes" attitude of the Seabees. Civilians might imagine a Supply Office like Tony Curtis in the movie Operation Petticoat, who will take what he needs regardless of who it belongs to, or the guy who cuts deals by trading things from his Supply warehouse. We’re a professional bunch of officers, taught to account for everything that moves in and out of our control. With this drawdown, the Seabees are looking for easy ways to get rid of excess items. It runs up against my better judgment and we've ended up in the Skipper's office a few times. So far, he's supported me, which ultimately helps keep him out of jail (that’s my job by the way; to keep the Skipper out of jail). I'm not here for a popularity contest but I suspect my name is mud in a few quarters these days. For the record, I am all about getting the mission done. However, accountability is a HUGE issue these days and the regulations are designed to ensure proper oversight.

Now for more fun things….

Earlier in the week, I woke up at 3:00 AM in a sweat. Aside from the heat, there was also complete silence, unusual, since I keep to A/C running at night. My first thought was there was another generator failure but it turns out that my A/C unit finally conked out. It had been troubling me with loud noises and freezing up the past few weeks. As I may have mentioned before, birds have occasionally perched on the window unit, most often at dawn (around 0500 here). I didn't think much of it until the technicians pulled the unit from the window. It seems that a lot of pigeons had roosted and left a deposit through the top vent of the A/C unit. To them, it was the ideal bathroom; take a poop and it disappears below their perch into the base of the A/C unit. Well, the electricians had the bright idea or rolling the A/C, in a controlled fashion, down the steep stairs to my office below. Good idea for them, bad for me. Dirt and pigeon poop started to pour through the stairs (thankfully all dry) and onto my second desk where I keep the Secret computer. Around here you expect anything so it's wasn’t that big a deal. I grabbed the broom and air duster and went at it. My room was also trashed with boot footprints on my floor. I have mats specifically for my boots, but they were all over the floor. A good mopping took care of the problem.

I had fun playing ping pong a few nights back. It was doubles against an Iraqi I played a few weeks back and another Army soldier. My partner was the same Army fellow I played with a few weeks back. We won the match and I announced our “Navy” victory at the morning staff call.

Today is our 60 yard dash. It's to raise money for MWR and is broken out by age category. Luckily I have a chance in the 50+ category but I may end up racing the Skipper (not good). If I win in that category, I will eventually race someone in a lower age group. I doubt I'll go far but it should be fun. I got some tips on how to start out but I'm more like a skater, pushing off side to side, than running straight ahead.

Yesterday was 'Flak Friday' again, (reminder) where we wear our tactical vests and plates and our instructor pulls a card from the deck. We ran through the entire deck, all 52 "missions" as he calls it. I'll never look at a deck of cards the same way again!

I hear there is rain in Atlanta (always good) and then too much rain in Montreal (not good). Erica finished her first week of college and so far, so good. She seems to enjoy it and the class sizes are very reasonable (around 20).

Well, I must get ready for the sprint. It takes us old guys longer to warm up. Until next time... stay well.

LONG TIME NO BLOG

Well it's been a long time since I last wrote. I've decided it's not worth paying $60 per month for poor internet service. Most nights, it's impossible to gain access as the system is so overloaded and the rest of the time the service just doesn't work. So here I am at lunch at the "White Elephant" MWR (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation) Center, using computers that aren't tied into the military network. The military does not take kindly to blogging and other social networks so it blocks them 24 hours/day.

So there are few things going on these days. We are packing gear and equipment up for our eventual move in a few months but it almost feels like we're going now. It's kind of wierd I must say. I am also going to loose a number of my personnel at the end of this month for another mission but they are going somewhere safe, just not home yet. So we are definitely on top of our game and ready to move out when the word comes down.

I was at the Class IV Yard today, where we keep our construction material. It is definitely getting smaller as we move material to where it is most needed (sorry for being cryptic folks). It's nice to see things getting accomplished, all due to the hard work of our Seabees.

My A/C has been on the fritz the past few nights. Apparently it freezes up! Can you imagine anything freezing up in the 100 plus degree weather? So I go to bed with a comfortable A/C setting and wake up at about 0400 feeling rather warm. Luckily we have A/C specialists here and they will probably have to replace the unit. I shouldn't complain because I'm not sure what they have in Afghanistan, other than a cot and tent!

Yesterday was Flack Friday. I attend a 3 time/week fitness class run by one of our corpsman. He is a physical fitness trainer in civilian life and very good at what he does. I have a few more training routines to add to my workout now, thanks to him. He is both creative in his routines and fun. We love to complain about how hard he works us but it's all good. So for the first time Friday, we brought our tactical body armor with front and back plates, to our workout. I figured it weighed about 25-30 lbs. He then took a deck of cards and explained that each suit and number/picture represented a routine and the number of times we had to do it. Spades represented push ups; Clubs, crunches; Diamonds, squats; and Hearts, planks. So, given there ae 52 cards in a deck, we did this 52 times of course. For example, the Ace of Spades, meant we had to do 14 push ups. He would immediately draw another card and we went into that routine. Now I know how a turtle feels on it's back! It was a fun workout though.

Yesterday was Loretta's birthday (I won't say publicly how old) but the girls took her to lunch in Roswell and she seemed to have a nice time. Loretta and Erica went to orientation at the Art Institute the day before so Erica has all the information she needs to start school Monday!! Wow, I can't believe it's here already for her. Apparently all of the 12 graduates this past year ended up in NY or abroad with jobs. It's a disciplined program and they run it very much like a business. Loretta and I think it's the right environment for her. She would probably feel lost at a larger public university and not get all of the technical training she will get at this school.

I've been told that things are tough now in the body armor industry and that all the manufacturers are having to make changes. I'm looking forward to getting back to civilian life but am not sure what the economy will be like when I return. All I know is that I can sell and look forward to getting back into the saddle (after taking some time of to be with the family).

I think tonight will be pizza night with the dentist. I try to get to Pizza Hut once a week or so. It's been two weeks. Our Battalion is having another MWR fund raiser with golfing as the theme again. Last time I paid dearly for trying to be the longest drive. They know a sucker when they see one as they asked if I'd be interested in participation in a closest to the pin contest. Of course!!

That's about it for now. I'll try to keep this blog updated once a week at least. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

Take care.