It's all about Attitude!

There is justice in the world, after all!

You remember the little prick I told you about at my last drill . . . the one who was making my life hell when I was PG? Well, guess who the Sergeants picked to fill the slot this go 'round? :-)

Oh man, was I loving life!! The little SOB was completely out of his depth. Nobody would listen to a thing he said and he was completely flustered doing the simplest things; like counting how many soldiers were in a formation. Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm not making fun of him or anything but I was glad he got a chance to understand that leading a hundred or so soldiers is not as easy as it looks. I was really good about it, I made a point of doing everything he said without question -even helped him out a few times- and never pointed out the obvious lesson. Some of the others weren't so nice though. They made a point of giving him as much shit as he'd doled out to all the other PG's. (I have to say, three of the guys I've made friends with there were particularly rough on him as payback for what he did to me. ) I felt bad for him though, he was so bad that they eventually ripped the PG patch off his arm and fired his ass. The kid was -understandably- embarrased and angry as hell. Hopefully, he'll learn from it though.

Other than that, drill was fun this month. We learned some more D&C (drill and ceremony), learned to read military maps and calculate coordinates for calling in artillery. I picked up the basics on how to evaluate and treat a casualty in a battle zone (very cool for the Medic in me!) We even had a "Cadence Line" competition (ala "Drum Line") with my squad facing off against another for nearly an hour, seeing who could do better/louder cadence call. We totally kicked ass! :-) Did I mention to you earlier that I ran into someone I know at drill? A friend of mine for over 20 years is working there as an admin. I don't know who was more surprised, her or me! I went to sign in at the computer and we both did a double take. To be fair - I think she was more surprised. After all, me in ACU's isn't what anyone would have expected to see at this stage of the game! I hadn't seen her for 2-3 years so she had no idea what I was up to and she'd only started her job at the armory two weeks prior. First thing she did was call The Wife to ask WTF????

The Boy (and his parents!) has a scare this weekend. He woke up on Saturday morning (while I was at drill - talk about feeling like a schmuck!) with one side of his face completely paralyzed. Well, as you can imagine we were all freaking out, thinking it was a stroke or a tumor, or some other god awful thing. Luckily, it was nothing major. They're pretty sure it's Bell's Palsy which is temporary and has no lasting effects. It could possibly be Lyme's Disease as well -we're waiting on the blood work- but neither his pediatrician nor the neurologist think that's very likely. They expect it will be gone in a few weeks but he was really nervous about going back to school with it. Luckily, he goes to a great school ,and he's pretty popular, so all he got was a lot of hugs from the pretty young ladies instead of the abuse he would have gotten at the local public HS.

Still struggling with the last twenty pounds I need to drop before shipping. I switched my exercise routine, diet, and everything else I could think of this week. I'll let y'all know if it makes any difference. If it doesn't, I'm thinking my next step needs to be a hunger strike! It's been like four months now and I've only lost three pounds. :-(

Everything else be copacetic. I'm focused on getting into the Army swing of things, learning me some inappropriate cadences, cussin', spittin', and developing a bad attitude! ;-)

Later!

Nothing Much

Whew - time be flyin' by!!!

Can't believe it's mid-October already. I'm scrambling like mad to get work and home life allsquared away for when I depart in January. I still don't feel like I'm ready for basic . . . well, that's not true. I can handle the physical stuff but the weight is still dragging me down, ya' know? I have another RSP drill coming up this weekend. Should be good: weather's supposed to be nice which is always a plus. I hope they don't put me in as PG again, I don't need the extra grief. Still, I imagine I should get used to it, huh? It wasn't too bad really, just a bit tedious.

Big Court of Honor last night at Scouts. The Boy is SPL now and he ran the entire event. Did a damn good job, I must say! He's very comfortable speaking in public. He projects well, stays calm, and isn't easily flustered if anything goes wrong, he just adjusts and keeps going. Pretty damned impressive for a 15 year old. I was in charge of presenting all the joke awards to the adults last night . . . always fun! I'm a bit of a smart ass (I know: shocking, right??) so I always get such assignments. Torturing others seems to be my special gift. :-)

Less fun last night was meeting with one of the Scouts who's trying to make Eagle. Sadly, there's really no way he can get his project done before his 18th birthday and we had to tell him so. He was not happy with that at all, he really thinks he can do it. We left the final decision up to him but I'm afraid he's going to bust his hump for the next two months and still walk away without his Eagle. It's a shame, he's a really good kid and I wanted him to make it. Truth is though, less than 2% of Scouts ever reach that goal.

Otherwise, things are all good. The Wife and Boy are both healthy and happy (knock wood!) Hell, The Wife has even come 'round on the whole Guard thing. She's actually been wonderfully helpful and supportive. Oh, she still hates the idea of me going away for so long but I think she understands how important it is to me now. Bitch and whine about her as I do, in the end, all she ever really cares about is making me happy. Not too shabby a spouse to have, eh?

Well, I'm at lunch (work) and time is short so I'm gonna bail. Damn, this blog has been boring lately! Well, that's cuz life's been dull too. I'm in a holding pattern until I ship to BCT, so no grand adventures to discuss. Bear with, folks, it'll get better soon . . .

Later!

Drive-By Posting

What's up, folks?

Life is crazy on this end - not enough hours in the day it seems. Between getting ready for Basic, The Boy's teenage life, work, and life's never-ending little issues that demand copious amounts of my time it always seems like I'm 1/2 step behind where I need to be. Well, at least I'm smart enough to know I'm not the only one. Most eveybody in this day and age has the same problem, so I'll forebear any additional bitchin' on the subject! :-)

Had fun at drill last weekend - sort of.

The drill was fine but I got stuck being the PG (Platoon Guide) for my phase. Riding herd on ninety three 17-18 year old kids is NOT my idea of a fun day! Seriously, I can see that dealing with these kids is going to be the most difficult part of this whole experience. I had one kid who just refused to listen to anything anyone said. I tried asking politely, then explaining my reasons, then trying to order him. His only answer to anything was "You ain't nobody, I ain't gotta listen to you!" Finally, I just said "Fine, let's take it to the Sergeant." At first he was like "Fine!" but as soon as I took two steps, he was like: "Wait, wait! I'm sorry!"

Amazing.

Anyway, just wanted to stop in to say hi. Crazy crazy!

Later!