Long Time No Post
Holy Sh*t, it’s been 15 months since I’ve blogged.
Isn’t procrastination a wonderful thing?
Truth be told, I needed to create an account so I could post to Booger’s BLOG (another area where I’ve been remiss…) and decided to try my own. Well you can see how well it has taken off. Still, in the off event that someone actually reads this thing, I’ll see if I can do better. Call this a pre-New Year’s resolution.
So, what has happened since September 2006? (My last post.)
Amazingly little when you take the year (plus) in review, but here goes.
I had to dock GW (again) in preparations for the homeport shift. Docking a CVN is never any fun, and Mom, having been through 4 dockings with me, decided to take off for a whirlwind tour of Asia. She’ll tell you a variety of reasons for going, but what it all boils down to is that my hours run late, and when I do get home, I’m cranky and generally unpleasant to be around so she looked at the schedule, grabbed Pam and the two of them took off. Problem was that my schedule changed and she still had to deal with me for at least the first 2 weeks. I delivered the ship in August, well ahead of schedule and WAAAAY under budget. That wrapped up 40 months and 2 docking avails on that ship with both avails ahead of schedule and under budget. (A previously unheard of record BTW…)
Jimmie won the 2006 Championship and followed it with a 10-win season (and another championship) in 2007. I was fortunate enough to be present for 5 of those wins so it was a good year (plus) from a NASCAR standpoint. Jonathan and I went down to Darlington only to be rained out and then made a speed run back home in time for Mother’s Day. (We TIVO’d the race when we got home…)
Work took me all over the planet it seemed, with meetings in Yokosuka, several trips out to the west coast, and more time inside the beltway than I’d like to count. The upside of being summoned to WNY is that I get to spend time with Pam, Chris, and Amy, although now I need to make sure my trips are at least 3 nights long so they can “timeshare” their gopher.
The summer hashing calendar was good. The Revolution went off well as did our annual pilgrimage to Camp Clearfork.
TriF*ckta got moved at the eleventh hour; it seems that the campground proprietor from last year bears quite the grudge and convinced this year’s campground to not allow them in the morning of the event. The hash gods looked down on Carolina and smiled, providing them an alternative site nearby that didn’t break the budget.
Similarly, VAIH was relocated half-way through the event when the proprietor’s girlfriend got jealous that all the hash bimbos were way hotter than she, and you can imagine where that one went. Fortunately, Sigourney saved the day. Her folks live within a stone’s throw and she hooked us up righteously. Imagine the phone call;
“Hi Mom, do you mind if I stop by for a visit?”
“We’d love to have you dear, when can we expect you?”
“In about 5 minutes.”
“Oh honey, that would be lovely!”
“Uh… Mom??? Can I bring a couple of friends with me?”
“Certainly dear, we always like to meet your friends. How many will you be?”
“Um… About 150…”
Jonathan found a wonderful girl. Attractive, intelligent, articulate and pleasant to be around, she’s a welcomed alternative to the hose-bags he had been dating. Basically, we explained to him that if he goons this one up, we’re keeping her and he’s out the door. They’ve been together 14 months now and by all counts, they both seem quite happy with each other.
What else? Oh, yeah… the bedroom ceiling fell in during the night. Talk about a rude awakening! If anyone ever tries to sell you an APOLLO hot water heating system, run like hell. Ditto if anyone shows you a house built by SANRON builders. 6 weeks and several thousand dollars later, we moved back in the bedroom with new paint, carpet, and an intact ceiling.
Lastly, work found me on board HARRY S TRUMAN. I’m seriously digging the job and looking forward to the next 2 years. It took the guys a while to adjust to a Redneck Senior Officer, but they’re slowly figuring me out. We deployed in November, visited Naples (don’t bother) for Thanksgiving and spent Christmas in Jebel Ali. (The subject of another post in and of itself…) Like I said, the job is great, the ship and crew are awesome; it’s just the food that sucks. Of course, when you’ve been medically diagnosed as a fat bastard, food that tastes like ass makes the decision to diet that much easier.
Alright, so now we’re caught up… sort of… Call it the Reader’s Digest condensed version of late 2006 and all of 2007. I’ll see about documenting my travels with this ship (as much as I’m allowed at least) in this forum. Either that, or it will be some time in early 2009 when I post next.
On-On,
Gopher
Isn’t procrastination a wonderful thing?
Truth be told, I needed to create an account so I could post to Booger’s BLOG (another area where I’ve been remiss…) and decided to try my own. Well you can see how well it has taken off. Still, in the off event that someone actually reads this thing, I’ll see if I can do better. Call this a pre-New Year’s resolution.
So, what has happened since September 2006? (My last post.)
Amazingly little when you take the year (plus) in review, but here goes.
I had to dock GW (again) in preparations for the homeport shift. Docking a CVN is never any fun, and Mom, having been through 4 dockings with me, decided to take off for a whirlwind tour of Asia. She’ll tell you a variety of reasons for going, but what it all boils down to is that my hours run late, and when I do get home, I’m cranky and generally unpleasant to be around so she looked at the schedule, grabbed Pam and the two of them took off. Problem was that my schedule changed and she still had to deal with me for at least the first 2 weeks. I delivered the ship in August, well ahead of schedule and WAAAAY under budget. That wrapped up 40 months and 2 docking avails on that ship with both avails ahead of schedule and under budget. (A previously unheard of record BTW…)
Jimmie won the 2006 Championship and followed it with a 10-win season (and another championship) in 2007. I was fortunate enough to be present for 5 of those wins so it was a good year (plus) from a NASCAR standpoint. Jonathan and I went down to Darlington only to be rained out and then made a speed run back home in time for Mother’s Day. (We TIVO’d the race when we got home…)
Work took me all over the planet it seemed, with meetings in Yokosuka, several trips out to the west coast, and more time inside the beltway than I’d like to count. The upside of being summoned to WNY is that I get to spend time with Pam, Chris, and Amy, although now I need to make sure my trips are at least 3 nights long so they can “timeshare” their gopher.
The summer hashing calendar was good. The Revolution went off well as did our annual pilgrimage to Camp Clearfork.
TriF*ckta got moved at the eleventh hour; it seems that the campground proprietor from last year bears quite the grudge and convinced this year’s campground to not allow them in the morning of the event. The hash gods looked down on Carolina and smiled, providing them an alternative site nearby that didn’t break the budget.
Similarly, VAIH was relocated half-way through the event when the proprietor’s girlfriend got jealous that all the hash bimbos were way hotter than she, and you can imagine where that one went. Fortunately, Sigourney saved the day. Her folks live within a stone’s throw and she hooked us up righteously. Imagine the phone call;
“Hi Mom, do you mind if I stop by for a visit?”
“We’d love to have you dear, when can we expect you?”
“In about 5 minutes.”
“Oh honey, that would be lovely!”
“Uh… Mom??? Can I bring a couple of friends with me?”
“Certainly dear, we always like to meet your friends. How many will you be?”
“Um… About 150…”
Jonathan found a wonderful girl. Attractive, intelligent, articulate and pleasant to be around, she’s a welcomed alternative to the hose-bags he had been dating. Basically, we explained to him that if he goons this one up, we’re keeping her and he’s out the door. They’ve been together 14 months now and by all counts, they both seem quite happy with each other.
What else? Oh, yeah… the bedroom ceiling fell in during the night. Talk about a rude awakening! If anyone ever tries to sell you an APOLLO hot water heating system, run like hell. Ditto if anyone shows you a house built by SANRON builders. 6 weeks and several thousand dollars later, we moved back in the bedroom with new paint, carpet, and an intact ceiling.
Lastly, work found me on board HARRY S TRUMAN. I’m seriously digging the job and looking forward to the next 2 years. It took the guys a while to adjust to a Redneck Senior Officer, but they’re slowly figuring me out. We deployed in November, visited Naples (don’t bother) for Thanksgiving and spent Christmas in Jebel Ali. (The subject of another post in and of itself…) Like I said, the job is great, the ship and crew are awesome; it’s just the food that sucks. Of course, when you’ve been medically diagnosed as a fat bastard, food that tastes like ass makes the decision to diet that much easier.
Alright, so now we’re caught up… sort of… Call it the Reader’s Digest condensed version of late 2006 and all of 2007. I’ll see about documenting my travels with this ship (as much as I’m allowed at least) in this forum. Either that, or it will be some time in early 2009 when I post next.
On-On,
Gopher
posted by Gopher at 11:19 AM
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