Birthdays and Other Things

Howdy, all!

Miss me? (Nah, I didn't think so.)

Last week was a much needed vacation, though it didn't come without cost! For starters, I got a call on Friday afternoon (The day before my vaca started!) from my recruiter, telling me that my drill weekend had been moved up to -you guessed it- the next day! The worst part of this of course is that The Boy's birthday party is that Saturday. Well, as you can imagine, The Wife was less than happy with me. The Boy had no problem with it, he just shrugged and said "that's fine," when I told him I'd miss the party. It wasn't too bad really, it meant that I had the entire week, including the Labor Day weekend entirely free so I got to spend plenty of time with him. We did our annual birthday dinner at our favorite restaurant (Oh yea, did I mention I turned 41 last week?) and we took a few days to head out to Hershey Park in PA with The Wife's sister and her family. It was actually a lot of fun. I'm not a big fan of amusement parks as a rule (Go back and read any of my posts on Disney if you doubt me!) but the place was clean, not too crowded, and it had a nice mix of water rides and coasters. Little something for everyone. I ate way too much crap and didn't exercise (beyond walking the park) for the week and man, did I pay for it in a big way when I went back out running! Talk about painful! Luckily, it was only the first day, after that I got back to eating normally and the body fell right back into the swing. (Thank God!)

The drill weekend was actually fun this month (No, I'm not kidding! I actually enjoyed it!) I moved out of Red Phase and up to White. That means we actually get to start doing some "real" training (or, the closest thing to it I've seen as yet!) We ran the obstacle course on Saturday, which was a blast. Walls to climb, monkey bars to cross, tires to run through, pipes to crawl under and through . . . it was like being a kid again! I was a little nervous at first, being the old man in the group, but I did alright. We had 14 soldiers in my squad and I was the last in line to go off the start line but I finished 7th, so that ain't half bad in my book, ya' know? Later that day, we trained on moving through hostile terrain in a two deep "Ranger Column". We learned to pass hand signals for silent communications and the correct way to cross a linear danger zone and set up a 360 perimeter. We did some work on how to respond to a close ambush, breaking into two fire teams and using flanking maneuvers . . . it was cool as hell! Odd moment: I was talking to my brother-in-law (MSG in the ANG with 23+ years in) and I told him what we were doing: "Dude, it was like being a little kid again and playing soldier," I said. He raised one eyebrow at me and shook his head slightly. "Only one problem there, bud. . . you ain't playin'!"

Damn me if that wasn't a sobering realization! Still hella fun though. :-)

Sunday morning, cadre decided to forego our PT tests in favor of a platoon "fun run". We did 3-4 miles in formation at a pretty relaxed pace (for me anyway, lot of folks were hurting!) I enjoyed the hell out of it: shouting cadences, running along the beach as the sun was coming up . . . good stuff! The best part was when they made us do "Indian Runs" which is where the last two soldiers in the formation have to sprint to the front. As soon as they get there, the next two sprint, and so on until the folks at the front of the column wind up at the end and have to sprint back to the front again. My old ass ain't exactly speedy but I did it with no problem. I have to say, I was really impressed that nobody dropped out of the run. Some folks had to walk a bit and drop to the back but everybody made it. That thrilled the cadre. They were thrilled that we were so "motivated" (That is the biggest word in the Army!) They congratulated us and told us they were proud of us (unheard of!) because we kept cheering each other on and not letting anybody fall out or fall behind, we acted as a unit.

Well, that lasted all of fifteen minutes. We went to morning chow and some folks just can't seem to get the simple concept that there is NO TALKING in the DFAC. The PSG was not happy and he smoked us all with a vengeance. (No surprise there!) He made us high crawl in PT gear (shorts & short sleeved shirt) across a few hundred yards of gravel, sand, and scrub weed that was covered in goose shit and morning dew. I still have huge scabs on my knees and elbows . . . that crap chewed us up! Oh, and talk about being filthy and stinking! WHEEWWW!!!! Between the sweat from the run, the sweat from the crawling, and the goose crap - we were some NAAAASSSSSTTTYYY mo-fo's! After that though, things went smoothly for the rest of the drill. Oh, one other good thing about White Phase: we got moved to much nicer barracks! Dorm style rooms with only six beds (Yup, real beds!) and a latrine with showers for just the six of us . . . sweet! The Wife keeps shaking her head at me over this; when we travel I won't stay in a hotel room unless it's five stars with king sized beds, a separate siting room, and a fully loaded wet bar. Not quite the accommodations the Army's providing, ya' know?

What else? The Army did finally fix my pay issue so The Wife is glad to see some extra jing in the bank each month (not much admittedly, but it's better than nothing, right?) We got the family ID's all done and did our first trip to the local commissary and PX. Got me a killer backpack, cheap, one I can actually carry when in uniform! The prices there are good, not amazingly cheap but I'd guess about a 10% - 15% or so savings at the end of the day, which adds up.

So, The Boy is back to school tomorrow and -geek that he is- (Sorry, bud, had to go there!) he's actually looking forward to it. How many other 15-year-olds out there love their schools that much? We're pretty lucky that way. The Wife is not happy right now (and for once, it ain't cuzza me!) She's having a bunch of dental work done over the next month and she am not a big fan o' d'needles! That's why she has to have so much done, she kept putting it off to avoid the shots. Silly woman! She's been through a dozen surgeries, chemo, childbirth and a zillion other things without a single whimper but she REALLY hate d'needles!

I think that pretty much catches y'all up on my brilliantly interesting life . . . Oh, except for my birthday gifts! I got the best stuff this year: two movies (The Omega Man, and Darby O'Gill & the Little People, which should give you a solid idea of just how strange my brain is!) and two albums (ok, CD's if you insist!) George Thorogood & the Delaware Detroyers greatest hits and a collaboration CD between Robert Plant and Allison Kraus . . . awesome! Better yet, I got some really wonderful cards from The Wife and The Boy. They wrote some really amazing stuff in them and it meant more to me than I can say.

Later!