BOO!

Happy Halloween!



I'll be back on All Saint's Day to ask how your Halloween was, so be ready... and don't kiss any beagles.



In honor of the dark side of the season, I thought this survey might be appropriate...

You Are 48% Evil

You are evil, but you haven't yet mastered the dark side. Fear not though - you are on your way to world domination.

How Evil Are You?

That's a good sign, right? Have a great weekend and don't forget to set your clocks back. Hmmmm... extra sleep... ZZZZZzzzzzz....

Another week is almost over

Well, another week is almost over. I seem to recall that I owe you some pictures of the birthday cake made in honor of the ship's anniversary a couple weeks ago. Check out these shots...


This one shows the back of the "ship" and even has a little LCAC (hovercraft) coming out of the back...


Did you notice the biscuit helicopters? The chef that made it was pretty pleased with himself. He should be. It was a good cake. Still, it only seemed to accentuate that I missed the birthday cake I really wanted, which I wrote about in my last post.

The Ohio State Buckeyes are on a collision course, I think. In a few short weeks, they will be playing their annual grudge match against the "Loser-ines" from Michigan. This game is setting up to have serious implications in the hunt for the national title, and not just for OSU. Big Blue has been winning games in a convincing fashion of their own and they've been climbing in the rankings since week 1. I'm sure it doesn't hurt them that the number 2 team keeps losing and dropping down in the polls, and that leaves room for Michigan to advance.

I'm sure there are some of you out there (especially my folks) who are interested in how the North Korean nuclear test is going to affect me personally. In the short term, it doesn't look like it's going to. We're still on our scheduled training exercises and there hasn't been any serious talk of the battalion re-deploying other than going back to SoCal. I can hardly wait for that. My kids have been growing without me, my wife has a new ride, and I just want to wear something other than digital green camouflage for a few days. Even after we complete our tour on this ship, we still won't be home yet. We have to get everything ready for the next battalion to come in and relieve us. I think that's how these six month deployments turn into 7 month deployments. We have to do our thing for six months, but there are two weeks at either end to do a change over with our sister battalions. It's weird, but hey, it's a living, right?

Sorta.

By the way, I'm toying with changing the name of my blog. I haven't made any decisions yet, but I'm thinking about it. I'm not planning to change my address, though, so if you've been kind enough to link here, it should still work. At least, I think that's how it works. To all of you who read even when there's nothing very interesting to tell you, I thank you. Please let me know what you think and have a great weekend.

Where does the time go?

This post was constructed on 10/17. I was not aware that it had not posted correctly...

Today is my son's birthday. It seems impossible to believe that it's been 5 years since my wife and I were in a hospital and going through the birth experience. My parents and her mother were in the waiting room all night. They had arrived at the hospital earlier in the afternoon of the 16th and stayed,

and waited...

and waited...

and waited.

Finally, at 3:19 the next morning, our son was born. I was thrilled. When the nurse asked if I wanted to cut his umbilical, I almost tripped over myself trying to get to the incubator where he waited. I called his name and said, "Daddy's here, Trey" and he turned toward me. I caught the whole thing on video, too. Jen was attended to for the next hour + to repair the damage caused by his passage into this world. He was a big boy, weighing over 9 pounds at birth. He's still a big boy, but more in regards to his height. I swear, if you didn't know he was only 5 years old, you'd probably think he's at least 7. He plays soccer (sorta) and loves to run.

And I'm here.

Trey, I hope you understand, or learn to understand, why I couldn't be there for your special day today. I love you and I will be home as soon as I can.



In an ironic coincidence, today is also the birthday of this ship that I've called "home" for the last couple of weeks. The USS Essex celebrated her 14th anniversary this morning, complete with cake. I have a couple of pictures that I'll try to get uploaded soon.

Whoa!

Living on a ship is definitely a new experience for me. I would recommend that if you've EVER gotten just a little woozy from being in a moving vehicle for an extended period of time that you prepare yourself by taking some anti-motion discomfort medication before you board a vessel of the U.S. Navy. Even a "big deck" like the USS Essex (LHD-2) can churn your innards just as well as the next ship. I'm just glad that we're actually in fairly calm waters right now. I'd hate to think what this would feel like if we were in some serious weather. The sleeping part isn't so bad. In fact, it's kind of nice. I managed to snag one of the top level bunks which means I don't have a ceiling 2 feet over my head. This means I can actually turn over in the middle of the night without banging my head, or knees, or some other body part on the the rack above me. What's the down side? Well, I have to perform gravity-defying feats to get into bed and if I were to ever fall out... it's about a six foot drop (assuming I miss the bunks on either side) and I would land on a very hard deck (or "floor" for you land-lubbers out there). That's not something I would like to experience.

When we first got to the pier, I was part of the embarkation team. That is an experience I'd just as soon not repeat. It was a serious mental and physical drain for about a week, and this comes right at the beginning of the new fiscal year as well. Anyway, we got through it and got just about everything on board in a timely and efficient manner. There were two boxes left on the pier, but they weren't on my manifest, so I am not responsible for that. The first couple of days out of port, I was sick. Very sick. In fact, I slept most of the time away and spent the rest in the head (bathroom). Then I found my way to the pharmacy where they freely hand out these little pink pills. Feeling woozy? No problem. Sign this log book and chew these two little pills and we'll see you tomorrow, Shipmate.

(As far as I can tell, "Shipmate" is the Navy equivalent to "Devil Dog.")

So now I feel better, but I still can't really get much done. We can't seem to get transportation coordinated between ships. I'm focusing on the guys who are here with me now to get them hooked up and I'll let the higher-ups worry about getting me around to the other Marines. I guess that's about it for now. My wife has some exciting news, but I'll leave that up to her if she wants to tell or not.