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.