10 September 2007 2217 EDT
It started with the ride to the airport in New Orleans last week. I didn't sleep Tuesday night. Instead, I stayed in the office doing work until nearly midnight. I mean, the bus picked us up at 0145h and got us to the airport some time around 0400h for the 0600h flight. I could have done a few things differently if I'd known better, but oh well. Anyway, with the direct flight, I was landing in DCA by 0930h, and the gf met me there at the baggage pick-up. It wasn't quite one of those movie reunions with the two star-crossed lovers running across the airport to leap into each others' arms, but it was still pretty nice. From there, we took a quick break to nap before linking up with Thuy for lunch at the OG back in Fair Lakes. The plan was to stop back by my place to change clothes, but it didn't happen exactly as planned because the roommates lock the door now!!! I know. Crazy. Having not locked the door in the last year or so, I hadn't bothered keeping a copy of the key with me. So I just went to lunch dressed as I was, and followed with a trip to Target afterward to pick up some clothes for the afternoon.
After that, it was off to the parents' for the fantasy draft. Ben and Lenny jumped on board at the last minute...which was good for the numbers, but bad for the draft. You see, with only one of them signed up when Yahoo! was about to select the draft order, it gave some sort of error because of the odd number of participants. The end result was a number of phone calls to New Jersey, Blacksburg, San Diego, etc, in order to get everyone on to AIM in order to do the draft that way. Ian did his part in randomly assigning the draft order, and Matt created a Google Spreadsheet to help keep track of the selections as they occurred. Anyway, it took about four hours in total, but it was worth it.
The next day started off a little slower...sleeping in until 0900 or so. I think breakfast was a bowl of cereal, and we tried this new Korean/Japanese place in Centreville for sushi before linking up with Thuy again - this time at the Centreville Multiplex to watch Superbad. It was a pretty funny movie, in a vulgar, nerdy kind of way - kind of a mix between Napoleon Dynamite and Clerks. It was kinda cool going to such an early show, though, because we had the whole theater to ourselves. We circled back to my place to watch the Protector back at my place, but I kinda fell asleep halfway through. I think Thuy and the gf enjoyed it though. There wasn't enough story in between the martial arts parts for me. After that, Thuy went back home for a little bit and we met back up at Glory Days to grab some cheese fries and hot wings while watching the Colts and Saints on the big screen.
Friday lunch was at the Malibu Grill in Fair Lakes with Thuy and Jane. Yenny was supposed to show up too, but she ended up running a little late because of traffic. We tried to pace ourselves throughout the meal to see if we could wait for her, but we were pretty stuffed after an hour or two. We did link up with Yenny eventually, and we spent the time loitering around Best Buy shopping for odds and ends. Oh yeah. I forgot to mention that my computer from Dell arrived the night before. So part of the trip to Best Buy was to pick up a mouse...which I got, along with a couple of movies to watch over the next few days. Friday night ended up being date night with the gf, and we grabbed dinner at Sweetwater before watching the new Halloween next door. I used my military discount on the tickets too. Bonus! But yeah, being Friday night, the theater was a little more packed, but scary movies are always better with a crowd of people screaming around you...not that the movie was all that scary - more gory than anything else. I jumped a few times though.
Saturday afternoon was the usual lunch at the parents' with all the usual suspects except for Lenny. I kinda got the heads up he wasn't going to show, though, since we took a walk by his place earlier in the morning. We'd made plans with him for some Chinese take-out and mahjong for the evening though. Actually, now that I think about it, Jane and Ian had to miss out on lunch too because of his brother's wedding. So it was kinda light on the attendance that afternoon. We still left relatively early and then circled back around for nap before heading over to Lenny and Steph's. There was the requisite order of GTC, and then we spent the evening just chatting and playing with the baby before changing plans and swapping out mahjong with Medea's Family Reunion. Still good times, as always.
Sunday was when things started to get a little sad. It's like you know that time is winding down, but you don't want to acknowledge it. I mean, you have about 24 hours left, so why bring yourself down with sad thoughts, right? We did lunch again at the parents - this time with everyone in attendance. We caught most of the skins game there, too, with grandma flipping back to WWE on Telemundo during commercial breaks. We went from there to take another quick nap at home before meeting up with the sibs+ back at...o'Toole's was the original plan, at least. But that place wasn't open any more, so we switched venues to Bungalow's down the street for some pool and golden tee during the last few games of the night. Thuy joined us, too, after a little nap.
Which leads us to today...it actually started with a 0900h appointment with the A/C maintenance guy because the system had sprung a little leak which had put my laundry room under about a half inch of water for the last who knows how long. So he fixed that up in about an hours time while I was between packing up my things for the trip back and checking fantasy stats on the new computer. For lunch, we ordered in some chicken and spinach pizza and watched Children of Men, one of the movies I'd bought at Best Buy a few days previous. The gf got a head start since she'd already seen the movie once before, but we followed up the movie with the requisite nap, seemingly the activity of choice over the last week. Then we threw everything in the car, and took one last trip to the parents' to say goodbye. I brought along my old laptop and external DVD-RW drive to give to my dad. I know both of those were gifts from family (thanks, all), but I figured they'd be put to better use in his hands while I'm away. Anyway, it was the first time the parents and grandma met Aurora (gf's dog). That was interesting. But we left there after a short stop and took a quick break at the gf's place, dropping off the dog before heading off to the airport.
The airport...so many feelings come to mind whenever I think of airports. I haven't taken all too many trips, but it's probably somewhere in the twenties. The first one was back when I was in junior high, heading out to San Fran with the fam. The one trip that stands out the most, however, was the trip to and from Paris from Afghanistan/Kuwait. It was the first time I'd truly flown somewhere just for pleasure. I mean, I enjoyed my other flights, but that was the first time I remember ever picking out where I wanted to go just to visit, not for some other reason like a wedding or a convention or anything like that. This one was similar to that. It had all of the same components. I was finally leaving a military environment where nearly every minute of my day was regimented, and going back to the civilian world where I could do whatever I wanted. There was no schedule I had to follow, no set time for each meal, no jambalaya MREs, no rules against naps. It always amazes me how things are so different and yet the same. This isn't the first time I've gone from a schedule where I've worked for two months without a day off, and transitioned right back to being a normal civilian. Heck, the last time, it was nine months. But yeah, we were talking about airports. The one difference between this trip and all of the previous airport trips I've had was that I had the gf there to meet me and pick me up, and I had her there to drop me off and kiss me goodbye and miss me. As much as I hate to go through all of that, I actually liked that feeling. I mean, it'd be nice if the gaps between seeing each other weren't so long, but it's almost worth it for the build-up for when we see each other again.
I'm not in the airport any more. I'm probably flying somewhere over Tennessee as I type this. Don't worry. That light thingy turned off and they said that I could operate electronic devices. There were a bunch of delays tonight due to weather tonight, and we've even had to follow a different flight path. The turbulence has been fun though. It's kinda like watching a horror movie. It's kinda thrilling while it lasts, but you know that everything is 10 September 2007 2217 EDTgoing to be okay when the whole thing is over...for the most part. I can't help but think that the next time I step on a plane, it'll be to head overseas again. I thought this flight was long - two hours in the air, and one hour on the runway waiting for the change. I peeked at the itineraries for the other units who have already gone over before us. I think the last guys had 27 hours in the air or something crazy like that. I'm sure there were a handful of stops here and there, but still. I'm lucky in that I can fall asleep in any position, under any noise, light, or space conditions. For anyone else, good luck...speaking of which, I have three hours left of leave. I think I'm going to squeeze in one last nap. MTF...much more.
04 September 2007 2319 EDT
Seriously, though, I've got a few things to wrap up and I'm thinking about getting at least an hour or two of sleep before heading out to the airport. Wish me luck.
03 September 2007 2228 EDT
For us, that amounted to a couple of key staff officers. So when we had our meeting yesterday, surprisingly enough, I was the senior guy on the ground. And as much as I hated to do it, we ended up taking some time in the morning to do a pre-meeting synch in order to make sure we were all on the same page with all of the stuff going on. We kept it short, and I think it went well - it helped me out, at least, and I think I gave a little bit of direction to the LTs involved.
The funny part came when the meeting started in the evening though. You see, the XO usually stands by near the entrance and speaks the phrase, "the Battalion Commander," in a nice, strong voice as he enters the meeting. It's then that the rest of the staff and commanders rise out of respect. So with the XO missing, one of the LTs nudged me to fill in. I know he was half-joking, but what the heck, right? So for the minute or so before the meeting, I'm just hanging out by the BC's office door; and when he walked out, I announced, "the Battalion Commander." *grin* It's the little things, you know? I think you'd be proud.
02 September 2007 2226 EDT
Today, I was able to let my guys sleep in a little and not come in to the office until 0900h. When I think about that, I guess it isn't that much of a concession, but it was a hard decision for me to make for some reason. Me, I slept in until about 0630h and threw my laundry in the wash before personal hygiene and breakfast chow. I don't know...I don't think I'm a workaholic, but even the night CQs are starting to give me hourly reminders to tell me that it's time to go to bed...speaking of which. I'll have more tomorrow.
Oh! Happy birthday, sis!
01 September 2007 0014 EDT
The countdown has started, though. It is now September, and leave (along with the fantasy football draft) is just a handful of days away. Is it going to be possible for me to keep my phone off for the whole six days? Yeah, that's the big question. We'll see. BTW, whose got wireless so that we can do the online draft in a live-draft kind of format? I volunteer Lenny's house if there aren't any other suggestions. And the second question is whose house are we watching the games at on Thursday, Sunday, and Monday nights? Just half-kidding. Definitely gonna be spending a lot of time with the gf, but I wanted to plan a few days to get some good QT with the fam and friends. Discuss...
31 August 2007 0016 EDT
On the bright side, I have a nice little 3-mile run to look forward to in the morning. We've been fortunate enough to get some consistency in PT this last week, doing some push-up ladders yesterday and some sit-up ladders today. I'm pretty much sore all over right now except for my legs. I'm hoping tomorrow will take care of that.
Last thing. General Honore is on the ground now. He was just on CNN a few days ago talking about Katrina and we were supposed to brief him about our unit today, but he cancelled. That was kinda sad because I was hoping that I would get him to autograph one of my spreadsheets...you know, one of my really good ones. Anyway, he ended up cancelling on us because he figured that we'd had to brief enough generals already - I've lost count at this point, but it's been a lot. So even though I was a little disappointed, I did gain back another hour or two of my life...which I subsequently spent digging through regs. Oh well. MTF
29 August 2007 2158 EDT
As September and Labor day weekend inch closer, so does block leave. It's getting to the point where everyone is starting to smile just a little more because they know that our experience with Camp Shelby is coming to a close. There's a bit of a downside to that too. People become a little less focused, a little more complacent, and they start to let little things slide...whether it's a minor suspense or something more significant. I don't know. I guess it's good to take a break every now and then. It's tough working 14-20 hour days for two months straight. I have to admit - even I'm starting to count the days now.
Anyway, tomorrow promises to be an exciting day, so I'm going to rest up. MTF
29 August 2007 0021 EDT
Other than that, today was another productive day, and I'm looking forward to another half-dozen like this until I go on leave next week. I did make a little impulse purchase tonight, too...finally ordered my new laptop from Dell. With some luck, it'll show up on my front step the same day I get home. That's all I've got.
27 August 2007 2105 EDT
I've got the team split up a little now, with one of my sergeants with the LT out in the field doing our final exercise while the rest of the shop is in the cantonment area working more of the real-world issues. It's been a good balance so far, and we've been making enough progress on things to keep me hopeful. I had a nice little chat with the S4 after dinner today. It was raining when we walked out of the DFAC, and we just pulled off to the side a little to kind of give each other some feedback on how the other's been doing...positives, negatives, concerns, etc. We did a little bit of gossiping and stuff too, but it was a good professional conversation. I think we both felt a little better about things afterwards, especially considering the number of FRAGOs that came up over the last few weeks.
Tomorrow, the plan is the same, divide and conquer. No worries. Oh yeah, today is the one year anniversary for me and the gf, too. Go us.
27 August 2007 0110 EDT
25 August 2007 2237 EDT
Yesterday was SRC, when we went through our final checks to clear of for deployment. They had us take some more medical surveys, do some more paperwork, get some anthrax shots (#3 for me, and it burned real good) before stamping all of our paperwork and telling us we're good to go. That was yesterday. Today was just spent prepping slides and briefs for some visiting generals and getting things ready for our exercise. I still need to do a little bit of packing though, so I'll sign off. MTF
24 August 2007 2319 EDT
Today, we had a conference call with our State HQ in order to deal with our pay issues. It was really interesting. Our BN Commander lined up the call, and I sent out some read-aheads last night with a document I drafted, along with a really long spreadsheet. Today, though, some interesting people ended up on the call, and it made me a little nervous. I did the roll call of who I thought was attending from our BN and then I asked who was on from State. Two full-bird colonels answered, along with a lieutenant colonel and I took a deep breath before jumping in and taking charge. It was a little awkward for me to lead off the call and directing traffic with such high-level officers on the line. But they let me take lead and I think we got a lot of things worked out procedure-wise. With some luck and some hard work, we'll have every single pay issue worked out before we head overseas. That's the goal, at least. I know that's a little optimistic, but why not aim high, right?
Anyway, I didn't update last night because it was basically a choice between that and calling the gf. If I had done that two nights in a row, I don't know how that would have turned out for me. But yeah...clock's ticking, so I'll have more to follow tomorrow. Until then...
22 August 2007 2327 EDT
This morning was kinda rough. I think it may have been the long night yesterday that did it to me. But I just started off on the wrong foot. We were doing an exercise designed to simulate some of the things we might encounter while we're overseas. So being an admin guy, I was presented with situations like a soldier getting pregnant, a soldier catching some disease, a court-martial involving a soldier threatening to shoot someone else, and a sexual harassment case...all of that within the first two or three hours. I don't know what it was, but I was about to let off some steam and I started getting snippy with the fictional characters I was dealing with. Good thing the S4 was looking over my e-mails though...he corrected a confrontational e-mail I was about to send, created some goofy powerpoint graphic with my head on top of some clip-art character, and my mood slowly turned around. By the end of the exercise, I think I was back to my cheerful self...I hope.
I felt even better when I got a chance to talk to my NCOIC and he told me that today was his most productive day in a long time; that the shop had walk-ins all day coming to him with issues he was actually able to action now that he was back in the office. That felt good...that I was able to get some decent bonding time with the LT and still take some of the weight off of my NCOs so that they could do their job. Tomorrow will be more of the same except I may have some internet access to work some real-world issues while I play pretend. Smile.
22 August 2007 0112 EDT
Anyway, after this exercise for the next two days, we have a couple of rest/prep days before seven straight days of twenty-four hour operations at Forward Operating Base Hurricane. That's the big ARTEP, and I have no idea how that's going to turn out. On the bright side, I get to go on leave after that last one...so no matter how it turns out, we'll be glad when it's over.
I need to go to bed though. Everyone's been stressing out a little more these last few days, and I'd hate to fall prey to that.
20 August 2007 2216 EDT
Anyway, by the time we went back out to the FOB, everyone was racked out and there weren't any cots left out. So we scavenged a little, tiptoeing through the tents until we found some open space for the four of us. Then we plopped our gear down and started setting up, trying not to make too much noise, but banging away and laughing at the ridiculousness of sneaking around. It really was like brothers sneaking around when they've made dad mad.
But yeah, that was last night. We woke up in the morning and ironed most of it out, I think. It really is difficult balancing all of the time out in the field with all of the paperwork. I mean, it's one thing to be able to sneak back into the office during lunch or at night; but that doesn't help with all of the coordination that you have to do with your counterparts during the day when most office-types are working. I don't know. I think I'm holding up alright considering the circumstances, but I'm definitely feeling a little drained after spending so much time out in the sun. I know my guys are taking a big hit too. I just hope that we can narrow our focus as it comes down to the home stretch, but only time can tell.
19 August 2007 1337 EDT
Right now, we're on our three-hour Sunday stand-down...and I think I'm going to take advantage of it today and take a nap. Good night, all.
18 August 2007 2315 EDT
Anyway, the reason I bring up work and spreadsheets is that I finally played around with macros on Excel today in order to do a case statement for a spreadsheet I was making to help track promotion ability. It was fun to do the little bit of programming that I did, as I'd never really used VB before except when I was helping the gf with some of her homework last semester. It took me about an hour or two to finally get it all together, with a little help from google and a couple of Excel tutorial sites. But in the end, it was worth it, as it is a skill that promises to pay dividends in the future, whether it be work, school, or the spreadsheet competition.
It is time for bed though. Considering we're driving around shooting live rounds over the next couple of days, it probably wouldn't hurt for me to get a little sleep.
17 August 2007 2246 EDT
Anyway, I'd chat more, but I need to get off to packing before we head out to the field tomorrow morning; and I'd hate to keep everyone up if I head back to the barracks at the same time as I did yesterday.
17 August 2007 0209 EDT
Today was actually a really interesting day with a number of fortunate circumstances. It started with after my meeting this morning as I was waiting for the shuttle bus around post to get me back to the office. As I was waiting, this young soldier asked me where from Virginia I was from when he noticed my patch. I told him Fairfax, and he said how he wished he were in our unit. He had been transferred to another unit, and he said that they didn't take care of him where he was at. But with 3-116, and he knew a number of the soldiers in our unit, he knew that he had leaders who would look out for him and take care of him. At the other unit, he felt more like a number. That's interesting because I always figured that a lot of our soldiers felt like they weren't taken care of. But I don't know, hearing him say that about our battalion made me feel kinda good.
My second neat little circumstance occurred as I was stuck going through a bunch of paperwork and sitting through a meeting during the afternoon, all the while forgetting about my laundry which was in the dryer. By the time I got to it, my clothes had been done for over an hour, and I wondered if they would even be there when I went to pick them up. When I opened the door to check, all of my clothes were gone and I panicked for a minute before thinking that maybe someone grabbed all of my clothes and brought it back to my bunk for me. So I walked back to my building only to find...that all of my clothes were lying on my bunk! Yeah, apparently one of the medic sergeants noticed my name on the laundry bag and decided to help me out. Wasn't that nice?
Anyway, I'm about to go delirious from lack of sleep, so I'll call it a night. MTF
15 August 2007 2200 EDT
As the afternoon wore on and we spent hour after hour in the sun, there came a point when I couldn't drink any more water and I had to take a break. I mean, you know me. I like to play the tough guy most of the time. But even after drinking two gallons of water yesterday, I was starting to feel a little uneasy - not sure if that had more to do with the heat than the second jambalaya. But suffice it to say that I was happy to be heading back to garrison to go to my evening meeting.
Today, I spent the whole day in the office tracking down a number of issues, with a priority on officer actions and OERs. I followed up on a couple of promotion issues, made progress on about eight evaluations, and completed editting my second draft of a powerpoint brief designed to help officers through the whole evaluation process. Between that and the normal drop-in traffic we got in the shop, I kept myself pretty busy during the day while the rest of my guys were out sweating in the heat.
Tomorrow, it's back to my normal S1 meeting routine. Can't wait.
13 August 2007 2222 EDT
I guess there's not too much else to write about. The bad part about staying out in the field is definitely the heat and lack of creature comforts. But the positive side is that you get to sleep once you're done with your work for the day...hopefully...if we ever get back out there. Tomorrow morning's start time is 0600h for training, so we'll probably start another hour earlier for personal hygeine and breakfast. Oh, our last instructor today recognized that we were staff while we were doing training out there, and that the tasks we were completing were very different from what we'll be doing in theater...not that he'd make any exceptions, nor would I expect him to. But he noted that we would wrap up training early enough tomorrow so that we could make our big meeting. *chuckle* Greeaat. I like how he was thoughtful like that.
12 August 2007 1118 EDT
With just about all the shop away at training during the afternoon, I was doing my typical memos/e-mail/spreadsheet work when I started to dawdle a bit myself. We somehow got started on General Honore quotes, and one of the LTs e-mailed me a speech he gave to a bunch of National Guard leadership at the National Guard Association of the United States (NGAUS) conference lat year. And for some reason, I liked it so much after reading, I ended up taking nearly an hour cleaning up the transcript, correcting a few words here and there so that I could either a) post it online and/or b) e-mail it to some fo the other officers to read. General Honore, btw, is the 1st Army commanding general, so he creates most of the policies here around post. He also made some headlines during Katrina in the way he addressed the media.
Anyway, having spent way too much of my afternoon working on that, I ended up spending a little extra time in the office last night working CCIRs and my special spreadsheet while chatting with the gf since she was working too. Then yeah, I slept in this morning, cut my hair, and was ready at my desk around 0800h. I've gotten a little bit of work done, but it could definitely be more productive. Give me another hour or so, and I'll be back to normal. I hope I'm not burning out.
10 August 2007 2141 EDT
This morning started off with the road march like I mentioned yesterday. I finally stepped out of the barracks fully dressed around 0400h and my glasses instantly fogged up. It must've been in the mid-80s already with a humidity of 50-100%. Anyway, after about an hour or two of walking in the near-pitch-dark (so much so that the reflective belts with 2-mile visibility could barely be seen from 20 feet away) and building quarter-sized blisters on the heel of each of my feet, my uniform was completely soaked with sweat, and I was ready to call it quits. There's just something about a road march; whether it's two miles or four miles or ten...when you hit that final stretch where all of the terrain looks so familiar, this sense of relief and accomplishment fills your entire being. It's almost worth waking up at 0330h, developing two huge blisters on my heels, and sweating my butt off...almost.
09 August 2007 2149 EDT
08 August 2007 2226 EDT
As for the rest of the day, most of it was spent escorting DVs (or Distinguished Visitors) from Virginia. The TAG (our 2-star general) was here along the State Sergeant Major, military advisors to Senator Webb and Senator Warner, the Secretary of Public Safety, and a bunch of state legislators from our local districts. We put together a pretty awesome powerpoint brief for them...hehe...and then took them on a bit of tour of our units in training before catching lunch off-post and then sending them off back to Virginia. They got to talk to a bunch of soldiers and I think we made a little bit of money on our soldiers' behalf and on the behalf of any Virginia soldiers mobilized in the future...which probably includes me. Oh yeah...for some reason, Major Z, with full knowledge of my narcoleptic tendencies, still chose me to drive the delegation around. Imagine that.
07 August 2007 2056 EDT
On a completely unrelated note, I got into a couple of conversations about cars today. First with one of my old sergeants from support platoon when I saw him looking at some Lexus models online; and then when I saw Major Smith in the P/X and noticed that he was riding around in a brand new Altima during his visit down here. There really isn't any point to this paragraph except that it was nice seeing the familiar faces. I wouldn't mind getting a new car when I get back, too. No idea what model I'll get considering my last two vehicles were Maximas.
Anyway, the last thing I'll bring up is one of the specialists here pulling night CQ for us. He took some time tonight to demonstrate some of his musical talents. Apparently, he'd done this before, but usually with the S4 shop which pulls even longer nights than me. He goes by Black Nite and even played some stuff from his album for me, available here.
06 August 2007 2149 EDT
On top of that, the A/C is acting up! I know. I'm horrible. I am completely dependent on the A/C these days. I don't know what I'm going to do when I have to actually spend a whole week in the field. But I'll cross that road* when I get to it. Anyway, I don't know exactly what tomorrow has in store, but I'm up for a couple of nice surprises. We'll see how that turns out.
* denotes inside joke
05 August 2007 2223 EDT
The office was just as quiet and desolate when I returned. I had one message on my desk and a couple of e-mails, so I wasn't missed too much, I don't think. And now, it's nearing closing time; but because I'd already taken my mid-afternoon siesta, I'm feeling a little guilty about heading back to the barracks area. So I'll stick around for a little bit longer and fix up a couple of spreadsheets before calling it a day.
04 August 2007 2011 EDT
Today, I'd actually left the office early (around 1830) to go to my bunk to read a couple of letters I got in the mail. After that, I called the gf, but she was busy leaving for dinner with her sister. So it was 1845 and I was lying in my rack and I had nothing else to do. I honestly couldn't think of anything to do. So I put on my shoes and came back here to my office. Is there something wrong with me?
Yesterday, we found out that we'll have an opportunity to get some commercial wireless internet where we'll be in country. It costs about 20 bucks a month, so that's not too bad. Of course, this time, I actually didn't plan to bring my personal computer. I just have my work computer this go 'round (this computer maxes out at 1280x800 resolution, btw. OMG, is that killing me). So anyway, I did take about twenty minutes today to take a look at the new laptop models on dell.com. Would you believe that their new 17-inchers have a built-in keypad now? I was actually ecstatic when I saw that because I thought about how quickly I'd be able to enter numbers into spreadsheets with that extra functionality. Anyway, the new 17" Inspiron with 1920x1200 resolution is anywhere from 1100-1250 with DVD-RW and 2GB RAM. I'm half-tempted to put in an order so that it'll be waiting at home for me when I get back. The other half is telling me that I could actually try to save up a whole bunch of money this deployment while also paying off both mortgages for the next year. Suggestions are welcome.
04 August 2007 1859 EDT
03 August 2007 2206 EDT
Talking about free stuff, Army was kind enough to supply me with a hundred live rounds to shoot on the range today. It was reflexive fire, so it's designed to build your reaction when dealing with close quarters combat and you don't necessarily have the time to take a perfectly aimed shot. Nothing fancy...I had a chance to do that last deployment and a few years back when I was going through my officer basic course. But it's just nice to get a chance to fire off some rounds every now and then. For an infantry officer turned REMF, you come to cherish those occasions when you get a chance to smell the field again. The only downside is now I have to clean my weapon.
01 August 2007 2151 EDT
Hmm...I hope I don't sound too complainy when I journal. I understand that complaining can be a good stress reliever, but all of those negative thoughts and comments can't be good for morale in the long run. I haven't done any scientific studies about it, but I would imagine there's some truth to that. Like when you watch the news. All of that bad stuff can't be good. You have to throw in some nice fluff pieces every once in a while. That's what makes people feel good.
On a positive note, it's already August. One full month down and eleven to go. Plus, we're not that far away from our block leave either. Before you know it, it'll all be over.
31 July 2007 1453 EDT
30 July 2007 2152 EDT
This morning started off with the usual 0530h formation for our section run. We went about 2.8 miles today, with a newer, more scenic route. Plus the LT took PT today and he definitely had a different style of running things. Instead of singing cadences to start off the run, he took the first ten minutes or so to tell a joke. It was a rather long joke, but it was interactive, too, with parts where the formation repeated a particular line. Anyway, by the time he got to the punch line, we were probably close to the one-mile mark, but it was worth it. It was actually a joke I'd heard before, but re-wrapped and told a little differently. I still laughed.
Tomorrow, the shop will be empty because the whole team will be out doing some secret squirrel training. It's raining right now, so hopefully, that'll cool things off for tomorrow. We'll see though. It's already past my bedtime.
29 July 2007 2145 EDT
Other than that, I think it was a pretty productive day. I did some other regs research that I think was pretty promising, as well as about six hours of spreadsheet manipulation that I hope will help our soldiers with saving money on travel to and from the airport when they go on leave. I worked with the S4 on this one, so that was kinda fun. It was more along the lines of the transport stuff I used to do when I was the support platoon leader.
Anyway, it's Sunday and we started at 0430h and I didn't get my afternoon break, so I think it's time for bed. Good night.