Oh, wow

Time flies when you're...having fun?

It's been a blur of teaching classes, running ranges and pushing units through scenario-based lanes. 

Which is less exciting than the I've-been-out-of-the-county-on-a-Top-Secret mission option as to the extended unannounced hiatus, but also more accurate.

A note

After significant experience, I probably wouldn't have recommended New Jersey as a vacation destination in the summer.

At this point, I feel further qualified to disrecommend it in the winter, too.  Although a nice coating of snow manages to make it look clean (which is nice), Aspen it ain't.

The snow we've had has made some things challenging (run a shoot-while-moving pistol range in knee-deep snow?), tonight's wind is downright insulting.

New career options...

for my Navy sisters!  Looks like the Big Blue Team will be opening submarine billets to women.  Now, I do have to admit that serving on a submarine is one of those things I don't think you could convince me to do with a cattle prod and a suitcase full of unmarked twenties...but to each their own.

It takes a special kind of strange individual to find the Silent Service appealing, but I'm pleased to hear that women who are qualified and inclined to do those jobs will have the opportunity.

Change 397

After some head-scratching and discussion in North Carolina, it was decided I didn't really have to leave after all.  So I drove back up I95, and I've returned to my previous duties (or whatever they're evolving into).

I should get to spend a couple of brisk days this weekend out working on ranges, which will be a nice change from some of the classroom stuff I've been doing.

Because the party never ends...

I'm packing my trash and loading up the Wrangler again.

The Army finally got around to producing some promotion orders for me - as of 1 January, I became Sergeant First Class Abby.  The downside of that is the vacancy-based promotion system.  I got promoted into a specific slot in a specific unit, and they don't seem too keen on letting me stay in the job I'm in.  So...I'm off to outprocess in North Carolina, and then go meet the new outfit.

Sigh.  Just when you think you've got a job and a place to offload your stuff.

As a side note - I've had the Wrangler since summer of 06.  It didn't get driven for a year (other than little runs just to fire it up) while I was deployed.  Thus far, I have 59,000+ miles on it.  Regular oil changes and tire rotations, and it's running like a clock.  A gas hog and not the most comfortable ride for all the miles I travel, but surprisingly reliable.  In case you're considering one.

%$#%^# New Jersey

The snow, ladies and gentlemen, is knee-deep on Your Author.  I have some pictures from our beer-and-smokes run this morning, and if I can ever find my camera cord, I'll share them. 

In fun news, I did get to use the shovel I keep on the Jeep to help dig a guy out this morning. 

The gay thing

The whole brouhaha about Don't Ask, Don't Tell's possibly pending demise...

LabRat hit it out of the park on this one, just for the record.

But as far as I'm concerned...

I've been doing this whole "in uniform" thing for a while.  I've had a couple of mildly-awkward encounters with gals who...played for the other team (no more challenging to square away than mildly-awkward encounters with military dudes, by the way).  I had an incredibly amusing run-in with a gay Navy Corpsman while I was in the Marine Corps, who, after overhearing me ask a video store employee if they had Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, asked if I was "a member of the tribe."  (No, just a big fan of heartwarming drag-queen movies)

But the thing that sticks in my mind is...someone I knew at one point.  A person significantly senior to me.  Hell, senior to a whole lot of us.  Nearing the end of a long and very distinguished career.  Now, the prevailing wisdom was that said senior servicemember was probably queer as a three-dollar bill.  I don't know that - but it was the community assumption.  The thing that struck me as unfair was that this individual, who had a "roommate" of significant permanance, it seemed, went to all the social events alone.

I get that a lot of military folks are a little creeped-out by the idea of the gay pride stereotype leering at them from the next bunk over, but I don't think that's probably the sort of thing that's going to happen a whole lot.  Hell, women are outnumbered eight zillion to one, and there aren't that many cases of excessively creepy man-on-woman leering.

The thing that I find offensive about DADT is the lying and ommission that it forces.  When we're in an operational position where we've realized that a servicemember's personal support structure is vital to coping with the stresses that are piled on during endless deployments, it doesn't seem right to me to make some servicemembers pretend they don't have personal lives.

Ever gotten a Dear John (or Jane) letter?  Imagine if you'd gotten it in a combat zone eight months into a 14-month deployment.  Now imagine you couldn't tell anybody.

Ever been to a promotion ceremony where someone's husband put her Chief Petty Officer rank on her collar?  A retirement where the retiree's wife got flowers?  A unit barbecue where PFC Umptyfratz shows up with the latest tacky chick he's found?  The normal events of military life in which we involve our servicemembers' loved ones in order to create the sense of community that is so very important when times get hard?

A welcome-home ceremony at the airport where the wives run out and hug their husbands, the husbands run out to hug their wives, the parents run out to hug their kids?  And maybe...somewhere in the back of the group, a man walks up and delivers the warmest, happiest, most-socially-acceptable-handshake ever, to another man?

If gay people really are the threat to our national defense that some make them out to be, then our policy should be to never let them serve.  But since we do, and since they're in our ranks, it is the decent and human and correct thing to do to not make them lie about it.

Strange Company

I checked into the Air Force lodge.  Of course, it's nicer in almost every way than the Army verson.  Although a little smaller, the rooms are just a little more...civilized.  Example - the Army has the no-steal type of hotel hangars.  And the ones with trouser clips are lowest bidder - so much so that the clips don't actually hold trousers.  You put them on, and they fall down.

The Air Force provides normal hangars, and the trouser clips work.  A little thing, but much appreciated.

Also, I haven't found any dead bugs in this room yet.

However...apparently the Air Force somehow knew I was suffering from not having my dog around.  Feeling like the spaces I've been occupying are kinda cold, and a little lonely.  So they did the best they could, and provided me with the World's Most Interactive Refrigerator.

It's a basic dorm-size fridge, pretty standard in hotels/motels.  But it burbles and hums and gurgles.  Sometimes it's quiet, but mostly it's like having a perky little pan of water bubbling away on the stove.

It might be pathetic, but I kinda like it.  I think I may even name it.

Monday!

In my new, slightly chilly (compared to Georgia or North Carolina) temporary home.

Speaking of home, now is the time when I check out of the creepy billeting I was stuck in for the weekend and go badger the logding people into putting me into one of the decent locations reserved for our group.  The Army being the Army, of course, they didn't reserve that block of rooms until the first, regardless of those of us who were slated to arrive here before that date.

When is the last time I've pointed out how much I love dragging all my stuff around? 

And I'm off

Headed for the mid-Atlantic.  Yesterday's move was one of those things that reminds that there are some things in life I either need to start paying other people to do, or allow more time for.  I returned the UHAUL at 1700 (90 minutes before deadline), but I was (and remain) whupped.

Oh well, 900 miles to go with nothing to do except take motrin. 

Moving

I know I am a winner because I managed to single-handedly wrestle a queen sized mattress and box spring into the back of a UHAUL.  Now, if I can get the ratbastardsunuvabitch desk in there, I'm going to floating on such a cloud of awesome that I might just buy a lottery ticket.

UPDATE: The desk wasn't bad.  Taking the two pieces of the recliner apart?  That was bad.

Ugh.

Fort Bragg to Georgia...8 hours on the windy road in a vehicle that's like driving a frickin' kite.

Tomorrow I re-pack all my earthly possesions, setting aside a couple duffles of stuff to throw in the Jeep.  Wednesday I pick up a UHAUL vehicle, put everything not in the Jeep into that, and empty it out at a storage unit.  Then I return the UHAUL and go crash at Cousin R's place.

Thursday morning I get back in my trusty Jeep and head north to the military installation where I'll be working.  And, folks, about the only nice thing I can say about that place (and it's one the joys of which I've shared with you in the past) is that at least I won't be unemployed.

Well, that and I'm going to work there, not use it as a jumping off point for the Middle East. 

Another wild day

in the training-for-the-new-job pipeline.  I think we've all given each other classes now, and although we had a fairly long day on weapons training, I think we may be doing more of that today.

Just as soon as this position gets interesting, or at least when I get my dog back, I should have something less stupifyingly dull to post about.

Watching the world go by

Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne lifted off last week to ride to the rescue in Haiti, and my comrades and I stood below and watched the plane climb past us.

The voters in Massachusetts went to the polls today and made a pretty clear statement that while they were all about change, they were maybe not so sure about the current change in Washington.

There are times when one feels as though the things one is doing are vitally important, and times when, at least from my perspective, all one can do is switch on CNN and watch interesting things happen.  It's been one of those weeks.

I think I may be becoming the enemy

I've been tap-tap-tapping away since my return to Fort Bragg.  I'm taking an old lesson plan on an enduring subject in our field, and updating it with new and better doctrinal terms and concepts, as well as massaging its companion slideshow into something a little less...bright blue with yellow writing.

I'm hoping that after our little working group gets a couple of them approved, Higher's attention to our output will drift.  Then I can start inserting pictures of Jack into every class.

I can see it it now - Developing Measures of Effectiveness (one of the two most dull classes we've got to deal with; everyone is ignoring this one and I assume it will stay ignored until the day before our deadline):

If the average local dog is currently eating one stick per day, but after your project he's eating three, does that indicate your canine dental outreach program is a success?  Discuss among yourselves.

Back out of the snow

for now, that is.

After a fairly harrowing drive back to North Carolina, I find myself yet again combing through tedious civil affairs lesson plans, cutting out old terms and inserting newer and better buzzwords.

It's a wild and crazy job, I tell ya.

Tonight, though, instead of sitting quietly in my room, contemplating the best ways to use MS PowerPoint to explain the doctrine Nation Assistance, I'm headed to the bar to catch the Texas/Alabama game.

Ah, yes...winter

The last time I was in Michigan with bad roads was...2001, for the World's Snowiest Wedding.  The ex-mister and I actually weren't entirely sure anybody would make it, but thanks to 4-wheel drive, it was a nice event.

But since then...all my visits have been on clear roads.  Until this one.  Also interesting is that I had never driven the Jeep on winter roads.  Fortunately, it handles acceptably with just a little care.  Nonetheless, I've been doing a little white-knuckle driving, particularly on the back roads.

One of us, however, is madly in love with winter and snow.

There may be time, while we're up here, to introduce him to the fact that in some of those brushpiles, there are rabbits.  And rabbits need to be chased.

Too much Christmas

For Jack - he's kinda like a four-legged little kid.  He opened presents and ate and had treats...

And now he's sacked out on the couch.

Merry Christmas!

We have a standing rib roast in the oven, and are enjoying the day with family. 

Jack (and my Mom) hope all our readers are enjoying their Christmas as much as we're enjoying ours!

I know he loves me

because he pees on my feet.

I dropped off a hastily-prepared draft of some training materials on a captain's desk this morning, badgered the admin guy about getting paid, then made fabulous time from Fort Bragg back to Georgia to pick up the Man In My Life. 

Kinda depressing that he's neutered and has a tail, but...hell, you can't have everything.

I'm back at Bragg, snorffling out of the government trough, in early January, but til then...we're going home for Christmas!

Since I'm in Georgia and home is in Michigan...that means more driving.  As my Dad would say, yipee shit.  Today's drive was fine, and letting the dog drive through Indiana usually helps, but I did check the weather tonight.  And saw this:

Another major winter storm will move out of the Rockies and slowly eastward over the Plains and Midwest over the next few days.
[...]
On Wednesday the storm moves out of the mountains and into the southern Plains and produces snow, freezing rain, rain, and possibly severe thunderstorms.


Snowfall will start out light across the western Plains, northern Plains, and upper Midwest early Wednesday. Later Wednesday afternoon and Wednesday night the storm will gain considerable strength and ample moisture will be pulled in from the Gulf

Great.

I'm heading straight from Michigan back to North Carolina.  So I'm taking Army stuff.  Jack will stay with Dad in January, so I'm taking the dog and all his crap.  And Christmas presents.  And decent clothes and rabbit hunting clothes.  And now, apparently, in addition to the usual road-rescue kit, medical kit and jack, I need to take the trapped-in-a-ditch-in-an-icy-snowbank kit.  Also, boots and gloves.  Fortunately, the Jeep is highly expeditionary and I already have a shovel and winch mounted.

It should be an adventure.  And, best of all, at the end, there's Christmas with the people I love.  You really can't beat a deal like that.