whew

been a crazy month and a half...jeez has it been that long already?

m'k, i've been home on leave it was a sureal experience up until the wheels on the cessna 207 touched down on the runway. Three hours after getting home I run into JB who I've always tried to avoid when visiting. Nothing against her, she's a great person but everytime we get together the rumors start flying that we're having an affair. Each of her kids have been rumored to be mine at some point or another. Doesn't bother me what people say about me, i know the truth, but with her being a teacher in a very small town, I am more concerned how things will effect her.

We sat down over coffee and got caught up. She picked my brain about life/experience in the army since one of her brother's joined up and is heading off to Basic soon if he hasn't already left.

I'm noticing that the more I reveal that I'm not as "perfect" as i seem to be the more she opens up with me. I have a lot of flaws, make mistakes, get into mischief but since hardly any of it happens around home I have the "boy scout" reputation.

Well, it was nice to get some sleep for a while. Being sick is a good excuse for spending a lot of time in bed. Haven't been sick since....the time I left alaska and got everyone sick during new hire orientation.

The morning I was scheduled to start my leave i get notified that instead of the 4 weeks I put in for it's getting knocked down to 3. So the first week at home i was scrambling to reschedule my travel and the trip to south carolina.

That was an intresting part of the trip. Finally assembled the computer parts into a working computer, ended up having to get a larger case and a new mother board. For as much time as we've spent building computers since '96 we were totally lost trying to assemble this new one. Tested it over that weekend playing World of Warcraft. First time trying it out and can see why it's addicting, lots of the time to go but just need to do this one more thing.

I get back to the ship two and a half weeks ago and have just enough time to put on my uniform and I'm back standing watch. The 2nd mate was sick and it's spreadig throughout the watch standing crew, damn this open berthing (although we're compensated nicely for having to live in it). Just get over the cold from home and I'm back dealing with congestion and the sniffles.

Doesn't help things any that i'm working the midnight to 8 am shift and we've been conducting drills starting from 8 am to 5 pm. Between hearing the general alarm blaring, PA announcements and heavy coughing, sleep has been limited at best. This has been going on for the past 10 days. Wednesday was our final day of drills and I was so exhausted that I missed the morning drill, slept through everything and didn't rouse from my slumber. That 4.5 hours was the longest continious period of slumber i'd been in since getting back to the ship.

So to say things have been chaotic is an understatement, the sleep deprivation signs were really starting to show. My short term memory was shorter still, became clumsy and uncoordinated, couldn't concentrate on anything for long. Sported a bit of morning wood and about passed out from the sudden shift in blood from one head to the other.

So I'm back in Norfolk to pick up my vehicle and return it to New Jersey where we're currently in port and treating myself to a few days in a decent hotel. Gonna head to the store in a little bit and pick up another bottle of Mr. Bubbles. There's a mongolian bbq place a few blocks away, for some reason i've been thinking about some for the last few days.

So that's a quick overview of the last month and a half.

Oh, for LadyRed, a couple new pics of home.