Wednesday, October 22, 2008

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!

2 comments:

Ethereal Highway said...

Bell's Palsy can certainly cause a panic until getting to the hospital to find that that's all it is. I knew a young lady who had that and she was fine later on. Still fine. It guess it's not that rare in young people. I'd never heard of it until I knew someone who had it.

Jim, I admire your fortitude here. Even if you've lost only three additional pounds, it's three more than what you lost before. Want a tip? Works for the husband. Flax seed oil. You can get it in gel capsules at the drug store. They are healthy for the heart, too. Also, eat most of your fats at breakfast. It trains the body to burn more fat.

{{{{Jim}}}}

Ethereal Highway said...

Hey, Jim. I just came from Holly Lisle's blog. Check out the post from Oct. 21. There might be some useful dietary info in there.