8 June 2008
Well for all you nonbelievers, there is a summer season in Alaska. It currently gets to a blistering 70 degrees when the sun is out and the rain is dried up. Needless to say, I have never been much of a fan of heat, so I'm not really complaining. But when I do think to myself, gosh it's a bit warm out, I then think, and lucky me it'll be 50 degrees hotter where I'll be in a month and I'll be wearing a lot more 'protective' gear. Not protective from the heat though, just to clarify. But, I have never been hospitalized for over heating either and I'd like to maintain that standing, so I've been diligently upping my fluids (of water that is) daily in preparation for summer in the desert. One of the Soldier's who works in the medical warehouse I'm trying not to run also gave me my own IV set, so worse case scenario, I'll stick myself and continue on building my x-cell spreadsheet. Oh the glorious life of the lowest ranking officer in my office, I get x-cell duty.
I've been privileged with having my name 'CCed' on several e-mails concerning the medical readiness and jobs of the unit. These e-mails are not exactly written in a friendly manner, nor have they produced any sort of positive solution to the problems or foster an attitude for all parties to want to improve the situation. Which is why, as blind as I may be in a year because everyone likes to have 18 pages worth of text on 1 x-cell sheet forcing the font to be size 4, I'd rather be on x-cell duty than reading Army manuals proving people who have been in the Army 10 times longer than me that they are in fact incorrect about what my job is. And I will tell you that my x-cell spread sheet is awesome, color coordinated, and just all around an outstanding Lieutenant product. And what is on my x-cell spread sheet you may ask, a tally of who's winning at the 'That's not my job' game.
So there's a glimpse at what work has been like. But on with the more exciting stuff. For any of you who didn't believe me that the vehicles in my unit were going to be loaded onto trains and line hauled down to California for our training, don't feel bad I didn't really believe it myself. Or maybe it's not that I didn't believe it, I just didn't understand what it would really look like. But here's the general procedure. It's taken about 2 months for all our equipment to be loaded onto the trains. I won't lie about how many pieces of equipment it totals, but it's several hundred vehicles (everything from Strykers, 5 ton trucks, wreckers, and regular HMMWVs with trailers for just about every type of vehicle) and containers for just about every vehicle. So it's a lot of equipment. But each unit had a time to bring their equipment to the airfield where everything was lined up and then at some point loaded on the trains. This past week was my battalions time, we were the last to get loaded since we have all the equipment to do the loading. Due to road construction I was driving through the gate onto post that follows the rail road tracks and low and behold, here comes a train towing all the vehicles and containers for my company, which is about 1/30th of the Brigade. I was pretty impressed. The next day we learned that one of the trains carrying one of the Stryker units derailed, apparently the train and the Strykers are all okay, so we still have to do our training, darn.
The great moose migration is over. I haven't seen my resident moose in about three weeks now. I've been told they move up into the hills once the snow is gone...that's where the boy moose are. I think I may have to mow the lawn now though because the moose haven't been around to eat the grass.
The demolition of the old Hospital on post was paused for a couple weeks. I don't really know why, but now it's almost all down. The tower is still standing, but I suppose in about a week it'll be gone as well.
It's tourist season here which means there are a lot of coach buses cruising around town. It took me about 30 minutes to go three miles the other day because people are just impatient. You'd think in a town where for several months it's so cold people literally don't do anything they'd be a little more used to taking there time, but God help anyone who tries to slow down a Fairbanks-erite when they're off to where ever they go, actually probably four-wheeling or hunting so it's probably safer not to mess with them.
It's surprising to hear how many people talk about 'packing heat' like we're in Baltimore or Detroit something. I guess Greg would probably do better up here as far as fitting in with the lingo because I've never really heard old white people casually ask each other if they're 'packing heat' so I have to suppress a giggle when my boss talks about his wife insisting they 'pack heat' to go on a hike. I haven't seen a bear yet, so this whole 'packing heat' necessity is a little beyond my grasp, but note to self...road rage is probably deadly up here.
I've been privileged with having my name 'CCed' on several e-mails concerning the medical readiness and jobs of the unit. These e-mails are not exactly written in a friendly manner, nor have they produced any sort of positive solution to the problems or foster an attitude for all parties to want to improve the situation. Which is why, as blind as I may be in a year because everyone likes to have 18 pages worth of text on 1 x-cell sheet forcing the font to be size 4, I'd rather be on x-cell duty than reading Army manuals proving people who have been in the Army 10 times longer than me that they are in fact incorrect about what my job is. And I will tell you that my x-cell spread sheet is awesome, color coordinated, and just all around an outstanding Lieutenant product. And what is on my x-cell spread sheet you may ask, a tally of who's winning at the 'That's not my job' game.
So there's a glimpse at what work has been like. But on with the more exciting stuff. For any of you who didn't believe me that the vehicles in my unit were going to be loaded onto trains and line hauled down to California for our training, don't feel bad I didn't really believe it myself. Or maybe it's not that I didn't believe it, I just didn't understand what it would really look like. But here's the general procedure. It's taken about 2 months for all our equipment to be loaded onto the trains. I won't lie about how many pieces of equipment it totals, but it's several hundred vehicles (everything from Strykers, 5 ton trucks, wreckers, and regular HMMWVs with trailers for just about every type of vehicle) and containers for just about every vehicle. So it's a lot of equipment. But each unit had a time to bring their equipment to the airfield where everything was lined up and then at some point loaded on the trains. This past week was my battalions time, we were the last to get loaded since we have all the equipment to do the loading. Due to road construction I was driving through the gate onto post that follows the rail road tracks and low and behold, here comes a train towing all the vehicles and containers for my company, which is about 1/30th of the Brigade. I was pretty impressed. The next day we learned that one of the trains carrying one of the Stryker units derailed, apparently the train and the Strykers are all okay, so we still have to do our training, darn.
The great moose migration is over. I haven't seen my resident moose in about three weeks now. I've been told they move up into the hills once the snow is gone...that's where the boy moose are. I think I may have to mow the lawn now though because the moose haven't been around to eat the grass.
The demolition of the old Hospital on post was paused for a couple weeks. I don't really know why, but now it's almost all down. The tower is still standing, but I suppose in about a week it'll be gone as well.
It's tourist season here which means there are a lot of coach buses cruising around town. It took me about 30 minutes to go three miles the other day because people are just impatient. You'd think in a town where for several months it's so cold people literally don't do anything they'd be a little more used to taking there time, but God help anyone who tries to slow down a Fairbanks-erite when they're off to where ever they go, actually probably four-wheeling or hunting so it's probably safer not to mess with them.
It's surprising to hear how many people talk about 'packing heat' like we're in Baltimore or Detroit something. I guess Greg would probably do better up here as far as fitting in with the lingo because I've never really heard old white people casually ask each other if they're 'packing heat' so I have to suppress a giggle when my boss talks about his wife insisting they 'pack heat' to go on a hike. I haven't seen a bear yet, so this whole 'packing heat' necessity is a little beyond my grasp, but note to self...road rage is probably deadly up here.
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