February 25, 2007 –
I have decided that the blog will be my ‘cruise hobby.’ I’ve always believed that you need a hobby of some sort while you’re on these deployments, mostly to maintain sanity, but in some way to improve yourself. It doesn’t always work out that way, but it’s a good way to approach these extended absences from home. My first deployment, I was the webmaster for the squadron website, so I taught myself basic to intermediate HTML. That was one of those occasions where I did something to expand myself. My most recent deployment … we played video games … Halo 2 to be exact … a lot … every night. I don’t know if it ‘expanded my horizons,’ but it sure was a nice way to put the day behind you. That, and I became quite the fearsome force with that sniper rifle (maybe, subconsciously, I was training for this deployment). I realized this morning (as I was uploading cool pictures to my blog, and making it look somewhat professional) that I’ve always wanted to journal some of my experiences, but have never taken the time (mostly because my handwriting is so atrocious it becomes painful to write – my mom saw me write and thought she had a doctor in the making – instead she got a naval officer – at least I got the white uniform part right). With the digital age upon us, there’s no good reason for me not to document ‘life’s travels.’ I should add that one of my goals every deployment is to get back into good shape, and I’m pretty good about it – it’s that time period between deployments that needs some work (if you listen very quietly, you can hear my wife nodding vigorously right now).
I tend to look at deployments as a series of phases or stepping stones that all deployed military go through during their time away (I already told you about the part where your conversations take on a kind of ‘frat-house’ flavor). I bumped headlong into another of these this morning. As I was walking back to the tent after playing blog-master, I bumped into a couple of my friends over here and asked them what they were doing. They informed me that they were headed to church to, and I quote,”get their worship on.” I was actually embarrassed because, I didn’t even realize it was Sunday. When there is no weekend to speak of, your days become one long string of work-weeks quickly. When I was a young married Catholic, I used to give my wife a hard time about going to church. Our mass was painfully early, and we would usually be up late on Saturday nights doing DINK things (Dual-Income, No Kids). She would drag me there about 75% of the time, but occasionally I won, and we lay in bed for a few extra hours. When you become a father (at least in my case), you revisit the reasons you went to church in the first place (ie. The God part comes back to you when you hold a perfect child in your arms). You also need to be the good role model to these kids you’re raising in the church. Needless to say, I missed mass today. My wonderful Mother-in-Law would tell me that I get the military dispensation (for you non-Catholics, that means you can break some of the church’s rules when you’re dispensed – ie. Meat on Friday during Lent, etc), and tell me not to worry about it (this from the woman who would subject her kids to a blizzard to get to mass on time – or sort of on time). Then my Father-in-Law (the ex-seminarian) would tell us that we are full of crap, and to get to church. Dispensation or not, I feel bad about losing track of the days of the week. I made a point of it on my last deployment to get to mass on Sundays and holy days. I guess I’ll have to figure out some way to remember that it’s Sunday (now that I’ve posted this, my wife will be sending E-mails every Saturday night to remind me – bless her heart).
The first groups of guys are leaving right now to catch planes/helicopters to other bases in Iraq. It’s kind of bittersweet; we’ve been training together for the last month and a half and have become somewhat close. The sad thing is: once they leave, most of us will never see each other again. When it comes time to head to our homes, we’ll travel home from where we’re forward deployed, not from the headquarters we’re at now. I say that it’s kind of bittersweet, and it is … kind of. My years in the Navy have told me one thing, I’ll bump into some of these folks at the most unexpected times in the future. Oh well, enough typing, I’m going to go say my goodbyes to some of the gang. Until tomorrow (or the next day)
-Grease out.
I have decided that the blog will be my ‘cruise hobby.’ I’ve always believed that you need a hobby of some sort while you’re on these deployments, mostly to maintain sanity, but in some way to improve yourself. It doesn’t always work out that way, but it’s a good way to approach these extended absences from home. My first deployment, I was the webmaster for the squadron website, so I taught myself basic to intermediate HTML. That was one of those occasions where I did something to expand myself. My most recent deployment … we played video games … Halo 2 to be exact … a lot … every night. I don’t know if it ‘expanded my horizons,’ but it sure was a nice way to put the day behind you. That, and I became quite the fearsome force with that sniper rifle (maybe, subconsciously, I was training for this deployment). I realized this morning (as I was uploading cool pictures to my blog, and making it look somewhat professional) that I’ve always wanted to journal some of my experiences, but have never taken the time (mostly because my handwriting is so atrocious it becomes painful to write – my mom saw me write and thought she had a doctor in the making – instead she got a naval officer – at least I got the white uniform part right). With the digital age upon us, there’s no good reason for me not to document ‘life’s travels.’ I should add that one of my goals every deployment is to get back into good shape, and I’m pretty good about it – it’s that time period between deployments that needs some work (if you listen very quietly, you can hear my wife nodding vigorously right now).
I tend to look at deployments as a series of phases or stepping stones that all deployed military go through during their time away (I already told you about the part where your conversations take on a kind of ‘frat-house’ flavor). I bumped headlong into another of these this morning. As I was walking back to the tent after playing blog-master, I bumped into a couple of my friends over here and asked them what they were doing. They informed me that they were headed to church to, and I quote,”get their worship on.” I was actually embarrassed because, I didn’t even realize it was Sunday. When there is no weekend to speak of, your days become one long string of work-weeks quickly. When I was a young married Catholic, I used to give my wife a hard time about going to church. Our mass was painfully early, and we would usually be up late on Saturday nights doing DINK things (Dual-Income, No Kids). She would drag me there about 75% of the time, but occasionally I won, and we lay in bed for a few extra hours. When you become a father (at least in my case), you revisit the reasons you went to church in the first place (ie. The God part comes back to you when you hold a perfect child in your arms). You also need to be the good role model to these kids you’re raising in the church. Needless to say, I missed mass today. My wonderful Mother-in-Law would tell me that I get the military dispensation (for you non-Catholics, that means you can break some of the church’s rules when you’re dispensed – ie. Meat on Friday during Lent, etc), and tell me not to worry about it (this from the woman who would subject her kids to a blizzard to get to mass on time – or sort of on time). Then my Father-in-Law (the ex-seminarian) would tell us that we are full of crap, and to get to church. Dispensation or not, I feel bad about losing track of the days of the week. I made a point of it on my last deployment to get to mass on Sundays and holy days. I guess I’ll have to figure out some way to remember that it’s Sunday (now that I’ve posted this, my wife will be sending E-mails every Saturday night to remind me – bless her heart).
The first groups of guys are leaving right now to catch planes/helicopters to other bases in Iraq. It’s kind of bittersweet; we’ve been training together for the last month and a half and have become somewhat close. The sad thing is: once they leave, most of us will never see each other again. When it comes time to head to our homes, we’ll travel home from where we’re forward deployed, not from the headquarters we’re at now. I say that it’s kind of bittersweet, and it is … kind of. My years in the Navy have told me one thing, I’ll bump into some of these folks at the most unexpected times in the future. Oh well, enough typing, I’m going to go say my goodbyes to some of the gang. Until tomorrow (or the next day)
-Grease out.
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