TTT - 6/28: Winding Down?

Another Tuesday is here! Last blog for June 2011 from Kuwait. Ahh, the milestones we keep track of here. ;)

Really the only things I want to write about in this latter portion of the deployment are gripes and complaints. That, however, is not the purpose of this forum for me, and if the command found it they would not be gentle. So I'll keep the ranting to a minimum and try to be civil. :D

We are into the push for the next crew to get here. Boats are getting pulled and given a good once over to make sure nothing major is jacked up. We are making plans for what boats are going to come in and when...futile given the fact the boats are still operating and breaking, but we do what we can. It's hard to make a schedule, and a tool for retrieving boats has essentially been removed until the new crew arrives. That's about it for that because everything else will be me venting about something...

It is staying fairly consistent in the heat category here. The average temperature is roughly 115. It makes it difficult to be outside, but those of us who need to be out in it are managing. (I have an office with AC so I'm not one of the tough ones! :p)

Another event going down right now is the range. All PSU personnel will be filtering through the range between now and when the next crew gets here. I'm going this week, and if I want to stay positive on this blog I probably won't write anything more about it after this sentence.

The countdown is in full swing for a lot of the guys, but I'm trying not to get in to it. The command is making everyone aware of the time left as well so it has been difficult to avoid. I keep telling people if the number of days left has more than one digit, I don't want to hear about it. Maybe when the next bunch gets here I'll start paying attention, but until then I have stuff to focus on.

I think I'll call it good there this week. There hasn't been much else exciting going on. My caching supplies shipped on Friday so I might be busy putting all of that stuff together in the next week or two to keep me sane!

Until then, see you next week!

TTT - 6/21: What's next?

Another week has passed us by. Yay! The good news about this week is I don't remember much of it. ;) Time is starting to blur together in a rapid fashion which makes time seem to fly by.

As I mentioned last week, this was our big show. There wasn't a whole lot going on in my world, but we got the last major milestone of the deployment out of the way from the command standpoint. Now we are on to the next phase, which is get ready to leave!

This week also was Father's Day week. There were lots of presents received, kind words exchanged, and a RC car road race. ;) My lovely wife got me a book, that I asked her for two months ago. There is more to this story that might seem comical to some and very angering to others. Let's just leave it at it is signed by the author, and I loved it!

"Books" seem to be the common gift around here during this deployment. Whether it be a gift to ourselves or from home, the literature is flowing! Now you'll notice how I wrote "books." In this fabulous age of technology it isn't good enough to get a bound book anymore. (This is my preference, and it's hard to sign a digital book!) There are all sorts of eBook readers around this place.

I know of one Kindle received this weekend. Just in my division that makes 4 people with them. Granted one person has gone through two since we got here...ironically enough he's the electronics specialist. :D There are also a few iPads floating around. I guess these are great pieces of technology, but it will never substitute holding a book and turning the pages. Plus, how am I going to have a study or den or library if all my books are all just bytes on a hard drive somewhere....LAME!

I'm sure these things are very handy to have on a short trip or when you have to pack light, but I have yet to find a justification for owning one myself. Most of the books I read aren't even available in digital format so now they really seem useless! ;)

Now that I have finished my eBook reader tangent, all I have to say is that the next couple weeks hold a trip to the range, (not excited about that,) and getting boats and records ready for the oncoming crew to take over. I can only hope it goes fast, but at least I have this weekly ritual to help me pass the time.

With that, I bid you adieu, and I'll see you back here next week!

TTT - 6/14: Showtime!

Good news! Another week has passed! ;) That is about all though, that I can talk about. I'll do my best to say what I can this week.

So the title of this blog may be confusing, but I will explain the best I can without saying too much, as I said before. Last week was relatively busy for the Boat Maintenance Facility. We were playing the musical boats game. We had all of our boats in our shop at some point last week for various reasons. Most of them were getting preventative maintenance. The Navy side also had a few boats in. Right now, there are no boats in the shop. (Maybe we can get it cleaned out before we have to pull one!)

This is where the title comes in, our purpose for being here is upon us for the last time before we leave. I can't say how long, what it is, or when we are leaving, but there it is! Showtime, the pucker factor is at it's peak. Is it dangerous? I guess, but the command is on alert so everyone else is a little edgy. That's pretty much the extent of what I can say without getting myself in trouble.

Highlights from last week for me other than work...I made my iPhone work as a phone for the first time in 5 months. :p I lowered the number of caches I can find by 2 last week as well. That leaves 6 that I can realistically get to before we leave. There may be a possibility for more since I found out everyone has to go to the range before we leave here...(not a happy camper about that btw.) That will be a tale for another time though.

This is where I sign off for the week. I'll be back next Tuesday for more "exciting" tales from Kuwait! See you then. ;)

TTT - 6/7: Short and Sweet

Ahh, Tuesday. The first Tuesday of June! Someone gave me a number of Mondays we have left. I told him not to tell me that again...it's still way too many. :p

This week, like so many before, has been uneventful. I can't even think of anything interesting to write. And the things that I can think of to write, I'm not allowed to. So this week I'm just going to make this a quick, "Hello!"

Everything here is fine, other than the 115 degree heat that is only going to get worse. Work is picking up briefly, and then we'll be in full swing to get ready for the new crew.

I have a feeling the remaining weeks are going to follow suit with this blog, but you never know. That next exciting moment could be anywhere around the corner! (Hopefully it's sooner rather than later! ;))

So I leave you with that for the week, and next week there will be more words on the internet! :p