First of all, work has been non-stop. I won't bore anyone with the details. Basically wake up every day at 0530 (that's "oh-dark-thirty" to you civilians) and either P.T. or go straight to work. The novelty of waking up so early to go P.T. has worn off somewhat. Especially since the groups were broken up and most go elsewhere. The limiting factor is shower facilities, so most P.T. at whatever base they are staying on, or if local to San Diego, then at 32nd Street or at NOLF Imperial Beach, where the squadron is located. Here at NAB Coronado we've had groups as small as six. Monday it was just myself and the Commodore, so we just went into the gym across from the field. I wanted to just to push-ups and sit-ups anyways. I still have to take the semi-annual Physical Fitness Test, or PRT.
Then its work straight through until 1800 at a minimum. I'm still there at 1900 if not later. Tend to get more work done the later it gets because the interruptions die down. Another factor in work accomplishment has been office space. We've been playing musical offices at work the past few weeks. First we moved out to a common set of cubicles that became available when someone retired. We also have a brand new building behind the main building, but it didn't have the computer network energized or computers until just recently. When that happened, the Commodore and a couple others vacated their old offices for new digs, allowing us to leave our previous seats to half my department.
Two weeks ago, last week I guess, was weapons quals for much of the staff. We were scheduled to shoot on both the pistol and rifle. However, so many people had trouble with the rifle the staff wound up just being required to shoot the pistol.
Part of the pistol shoot was a PWC course, where you run up and down and then shoot at the targets. For this you only had to hit the silhouette on the target, it didn't matter where. We also had obstacles to shoot around or through such as: windows, walls, or barricades. But the real challenge was the background music they played and the range masters yelling at you every step of the way. Basically trying to simulate combat as much as possible. This was the first time I'd been through this and thought it was extremely valuable.
Part of both shoots was a low-light course of fire, where you essentially shoot in the dark. Again, this is probably very realistic since "Haji" doesn't necessarily come out and pick a fight in broad daylight. The range masters gave us some tips on how to overcome the lack of light. On the pistol we were taught an 'unsupported' grip where we held our issue flashlight in our other hand. Very good technique to use.
As far as the weekends go, it's been a mixed bag. I decided not to stress about starting my masters online and put it off for another semester. I wasn't happy with the college's information flow.
I went sailing one more time. We had a lot more wind, so that made it much more exciting. We got the boat keeled over pretty good on a couple of tacks. And Brian let me drive, which I have to admit I'm better at. These little boats don't 'point' into the wind very well. Amazing I can tell the difference between these and how the Navy 44s handled from my days at the Academy.
Two weekends ago I planned on going up to Los Angeles to visit my cousin Alison and her husband Kevin. But I was still recovering slightly from a head cold and congestion so I decided against it at the last minute. Last weekend I finally made it up to LA.
Alison is about 8 months pregnant. About two months ago they closed on a condo. It's a fixer-upper, and Kevin has been working non-stop to get it ready. All new appliances, new light fixtures in the ceilings, and a bunch of new dry wall to start with. The downstairs had new hardwood floors and the garage was painted.
On Saturday Kevin had his helper finished up the sanding on the dry wall so the place would be ready to paint. Kevin and I tore up the carpet in the bedrooms upstairs and the stairs. It was an amazingly dirty job. A lot of sand gets into the carpet, and goes through the carpet. I didn't wear a respirator at first and paid the price, sneezing the rest of the day. But we got the job done.
One thing I will say about Kevin: he has great taste in beer. We even paid a visit to BevCo on the way back from the paint shop. Kevin has somewhere north of 200 specialty beer glasses and the beer to go in them. I should have brough my camera and taken a picture of the refrigerator. Top to botton beer, and he even had a sixer in the freezer to cool it off. Here's a method to prevent forgetting beer in the freezer: put your car keys in there. Of course that only works if you are leaving in a few minutes.
So I'm back at the grind this week. The exciting thing at work this week is we're all wearing our 'battle rattle.' I've done this many times in Korea, but that just consisted of belt, canteen, gas mask, and helmet. Here we also have our body armor, which is very heavy and requires a battle buddy to help finish closing the sides after you get it over your head. I will try to get some photos for next week's post.
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