Weeks #9, 10, & 11 Superpost

Another three weeks! That pretty much tells you how busy it's been.

I can't even remember Week 9. But I'm pretty sure it ended with me going up to LA for the second time, helping Kevin and Alison with their new place. This time we were painting. I think the ceilings had all been primed and perhaps painted. So we were doing the walls. That consisted of 'cutting in' the edges. Kevin asked if I was comfortable with the top edges. Since that meant taking a brush right next to the freshly painted ceilings, I said no. Instead, I concentrated on the edges, bottoms, and any outlets. By around 9 or 10 pm, when Alison came up to check our progress, I'd done most of the apartment. All Kevin had to do was cut in the tops edges and go around with the roller.

I returned to San Diego Saturday night because early Sunday morning we started our big training assessment and evaluation. Even though it was focused on the operators, and not the staff, we still got dragged into a lot of the drills. Think general quarters on a ship. It made getting administrative work done a lot more challenging. We're trying to finish our admin preparation for deployment and we're told we can't use our computers, or someone gets stricken with a (fake) sucking chest wound!

We also had to wear our 'battle rattle' everywhere within the base. This includes our bullet gas mask, helmet, and armored vest. Talk about heavy! Plus putting it on properly takes two people.

So Week 10 was a very challenging week. We managed to get through it with flying colors, though.

That weekend (one week ago as I write this) I had asked for special liberty to go home to Connecticut and take care of things. I managed to bring a bunch of stuff home that I didn't need and didn't have a place to store in San Diego. Like two extra uniforms and a bunch of clothes. I also needed to get away from the Squadron for a few days. It's been a very stressful for everyone. But mostly I just wanted to see Katie and spend some time at home.

Katie was at work Friday, so Gary (father-in-law) was kind enough to pick me up from the airport and drop me off at home. Of course I was subjected to his famous interrogation and line of questioning during the car ride (those on the Gold side of the family know exactly what I'm talking about!).

My time at home aligned with a three day weekend for Katie. So we had Saturday, Sunday, and Monday morning together. And more importantly, Katie had Monday afternoon to get caught up :)

So we watched a bunch of football over the weekend. That included the Navy-Notre Dame game on Saturday and the Giants game on Sunday. Last year we raced home from our own wedding reception to catch the end of the Navy-N.D. game, which went into triple overtime and was won by Navy. Not quite the same result this time around, but as our Giants managed to continue their winning ways.

Katie and her mom

We went over to the Gold's house to watch the Giants game with Lauren, Russ, and little Julia, our niece, who is quite the runner and babbler at 1.5 years of age! Alice cooked us a nice brunch, complete with French toast dish. It was the first home-cooking I'd had in a long time!

Lauren and Julia

Monday wasn't a tearful good-bye, as Katie has (or had) eight days of work and then a plane ticket to San Diego to see me again.

This past week was a little more reasonable. A bunch of our unit was on their 96-hour liberty prior to departing for the Middle East later in the week. A bunch of paperwork was accomplished, we got one new person in Admin, and one of my guys got promoted to Third Class Petty Officer. We also loaded up our ISU (I have no idea what this stands for, maybe Individual Storage Units) with our files, supplies, and bags full of our issued gear.

I just came back from my third and final trip helping Alison and Kevin. Saturday was the moving day, at last. I drove up Friday night and was promptly put to work packing up their old apartment. Kevin's brothers Bob and Mike were there to help, as well. Around midnight we went to sleep. Unfortunately Alison is about 8.5 months pregnant and needs to sleep on the couch. So I was relegated to the floor on a Thermarest inflatable camping mattress. Not quite as comfortable. And Alison got up several times to eat, drink, and go to the bathroom. I think I slept through most of them, but around 5 am I started waking up each time.

Mike, Bob, Kevin, with Alison supervising from the couch

Alison is what you'd call a 'hoarder.' I found this sticker in one of her boxes of stuff.

Kevin on the other hand is obsessive compulsive, so we had some fun at his expense. And yes, the label is correct. And no, Kevin was not amused!

Saturday we got up and went to work. Kevin's hockey buddy Danny and Alison's work-mates Brandi and Kenji showed up. Later in the morning Alison went and fetched her parent's from the airport. They had just flown in from Detroit. All together we finished packing, shuttled boxes and furniture to the U-Haul truck Kevin rented, and made a couple trips up to the new place in the Valley. We were successful in moving everything in one day and returning the truck by 7pm. And no injuries!


We had pizza around 8pm and kept working until about midnight. By then everyone was just about useless. We had been drinking Kevin's nice beer since dinner and by around 11pm were mostly just sitting around the living room admiring our work.


I retired to my space on the floor, this time with two Thermarests stacked on top of each other. This was to make up for being on the hardwood floor of the living room. For the second morning in a row my cell phone woke me up at around 5am, and for the same reason: someone calling me from the East Coast regarding work. Don't people understand the time difference? And for the second night in a row I was in the same room as Alison, but I think I slept through until other people started waking up and having conversation with Alison.

I still got up before some of the others were up. Since there was no food to eat in the house, I decided to take a shower, and then get on the road for San Diego. I said good-bye to those that were awake, knowing I'll be back up there Tuesday night for my 96-hour liberty and a family Thanksgiving, though.

Back here in San Diego today. Had breakfast at the diner in Coronado, returned the rental car, did some last minute shopping at the Exchange, and managed to destroy my ski pants in the laundry machine. Still not sure what happened there. At least I got some new ones on the way via my beautiful wife and her trip out here for Thanksgiving and skiing at Mammoth :)