Category Archives: Grrrr
Standing Down
The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning.
~Ivy Baker Priest
This is going to be a short post. Mostly because as an officer, I have to be careful what I say.
Let’s just say that I’m very, very angry. Very.
And frustrated.
Less than 18 hours before I was to leave my house–and with my boarding pass in hand–I am now not going to South Korea.
Someone screwed up. Royally. The exercise I was going to be supporting is NEXT month. That is not what was told to the Reserve side. We even have documents to support this.
We are very lucky that I sent my travel itinerary to the fleet. That’s when they asked why I was coming now. Had this not happened, there would have been two Ensigns stuck at a South Korean airport with no ship (it’s not even near there!) to go to. That would have been interesting.
Now I get to try to pull off the greatest surprise ever (don’t spoil it if you know!).
However, I do believe I’m still scheduled to go to DINFOS (Defense Information School) the beginning of August but I’m waiting on confirmation from that. If I don’t go to the school, we’ll try the South Korea route again.
Never a dull moment in the military.
A Not-So-Quick Update
When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Looking back at my blog I’ve realized that I haven’t given a real honest-to-goodness post in a while. Snippets here and there, yes. But not real meat ‘n potatoes.
*sigh* Is this deployment over yet?
The deployment is plodding along. Well, his, anyway. But then I head out to Ft. Meade the first week of August to go to DINFOS, or the Defense Information School. This is the last of the training I have to do to be ready to learn all that the Navy wants me to learn. I won’t get out of the school until the first week of October. Looking at the schedule, it looks like we might have a four day weekend for Labor Day, so Huzzy and I are hoping that one of us can fly to see the other. If we are lucky, we’ll get a few days to a week total between now and when I return in October to see each other. Then, we can start living together as a married couple… well, until his next deployment, which isn’t too far after October.
Seriously… can you believe that I go to the school in just over a MONTH and TWO MONTHS from then is October? You hear that ladies (and gents!) who have spouses that are deployed? October is not that far off!
And on the Navy Reserve front… my orders may not go through! No folks, no need to check the date and think this is a post from my cancelled orders to Hawaii from April. Or my canceled orders to Central/South America in May. Nope, these are my order, my two weeks’ AT to South Korea. Yes, we are working on the third set of (hopefully not) canceled orders.
Remember when I talked about being TNPQed (Temporarily Not Physically Qualified)? Well, my doctor has said I am all set to go back full duty with no restrictions. Only, my reserve center (NOSC) isn’t satisfied with the letter. They need more information. So I have to go back tomorrow and get it. Then hope that my PCM will have time to sign it. Because in order for me to go on AT this year, my orders have to be approved by 30JUN or they won’t be funded. In order for my orders to be approved, I cannot be TNPQed.
Tomorrow is 29JUN. Ya’ll know how quick the Navy (or any branch) is to get things done. They are even talking about having to go through BUMED to get approval because SOMEONE in the NOSC somehow put in that my problem was orthopedic. Never has it been orthopedic. It’s always been muscular/nerves. If BUMED has to get involved, there is NO WAY I’ll be able to get off TNPQ in time for my orders to be approved.
And that sucks. That totally sucks. I’ve been looking forward to going to South Korea for months. Every time I had problems with the cancel/no cancel on my orders, I’ve always told myself, “Well, at least you have South Korea.” And now that is in limbo.
In other news, I’m very very excited that a friend from Michigan is coming to visit Seattle/Portland with one of her friends and they are going to stay with me for a bit. Di was one of the first people I got to know when I moved to a new school my sophomore year. I remember being invited to her 16th birthday party. She wanted a “grownup” party, so we all dressed in formals and were served tea and cookies.
Seriously. No joke. We had a tea party. HA!
Then we went into her house and Di picked up a guitar and we all started singing songs. Sitting on the floor. In our formals. Good times, good times.
Di is the ying to my yang. She is an earthy soul who is a kind of “namaste” calming spirit. Which I’ll need. Because while she’s here, the landlords from hell are going to be doing what is going to become their monthly “inspection” of the house… both inside and out. Because apparently, I’ve violated the lease. She doesn’t know it yet, but if she’s here, she’s going to be my witness when the landwhorelords come in. If not, my friend R will.
Yup, we are horrible, rotten no-good tenants because there were two occasions where I didn’t mow the lawn for two weeks. Once because it rained for two weeks straight and the grass didn’t ever dry out enough to be cut. And the second time because… uh, it rained and then I was gone for five days to a conference in Baltimore. Then it rained some more after I got back.
Yes, we are horrible tenants. Landlords beware. And be afraid, very afraid because when it comes to our rent… we pay the day it’s due. Oh no. Very horrible tenants. Never rent to us. Because we just may not mow the lawn for two weeks. And that is–apparently–unacceptable.
Some Days You’re the Dog, Some Days You’re the Fire Hydrant
I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.
~Agatha Christie
Sometimes submarine duty just sucks. Deployment is never fun but when you thrown in weeks and weeks of no communication (not even an email), it really gets tiring. There are just times that I want to talk to Huzzy. Actually, I’d settle for just an email. Though I email him (and have been told by the COB from the off crew that they are indeed getting our emails… just none coming back), I have no way of getting support/answers from him.
Not that I can tell him much of what is REALLY going on lately. We aren’t supposed to tell them negative things. Nor do I really want him to worry about things that are going on here when he not only can’t do anything about them, but can’t even talk to me about them. He doesn’t need that stress.
You all know of the comedy of errors that has been my life recently (Last year and again and some from this year). Actually you don’t, because I generally don’t blog about all the negative things (though if you follow me on Twitter, you get a pretty good show of what’s been going on).
Well, Chase had a dental done yesterday. I was told he was going to lose 2-4 teeth. It wasn’t surprising for me because I knew his teeth were bad and, if you know Greyhounds, you know that it’s pretty normal for them. But what was surprising is when they called when he was finished and they told me they had to pull nine of them. My poor baby. I feel so bad for him. Not only because of the pain he’s in right now, but also because of the pain he must have been in before in order for them to feel pulling nine was the best choice for him.
Poor baby has a hard time coming out of anesthesia. His hind end doesn’t come back very quickly (keeps folding under him), so he had to stay overnight at the vet’s. Today, he’s definitely in pain and is still very lethargic. Still has a bloody mouth, too. And the poor baby has a droopy lip since his tongue is poking out in places because there are no teeth to hold it in.
Beyond that, the end result was a vet bill that doubled what I was expecting. Double. The original estimate is what we had left in our savings account plus $250. That savings account was supposed to supplement our household income since I was unemployed and we are living on less than six months ago. Luckily, the vet allowed me to pay just the estimate and I gave me 30 days to pay the rest.
So, I believe I will have to sell my car to make it through. The car that we bought to help save money so I could sell the small SUV I had that I was making payments on. The Jetta was purchased with the equity I had in the SUV. Which left several thousand still in the bank to help supplement the household income until I found a job.
Only… the car started breaking immediately. After that reference, there was the shocks, struts, tie rod and motor mounts that were found that needed to be fixed. I’ve paid more in repairs than what we paid for the car. And now, I guess there is something else that is wrong. I was going to take it to the dealership (well, ask someone else to take it there since I haven’t had an opportunity to learn how to drive it yet) and see how much it would take to finally and officially get it fixed.
But… I’m thinking the only way I can really pay for the vet bill is to sell the car. We won’t get it all back, but with the “brand new” stuff on it, we might at least get what we paid for. We’d still be several thousand in the hole, though. Normally, we’d definitely need two cars, but with Huzzy still gone on deployment for a while and with me leaving for my schooling in August (supposedly, according to the Navy… we know how that goes) and not getting out until October. So really, we don’t need two separate vehicles until then. And the extra money would be nice to have as a bit of a cushion. Hopefully around that time we’d be able to afford another cheap car.
There’s more, but I’m just exhausted from writing all of this. Maybe later. Or maybe not since I don’t always blog about it.
I hope you all have a great week!
Update… or Not
The one function that TV news performs very well is that when there is no news we give it to you with the same emphasis as if there were.
~David Brinkley
Nothing to report on the deployment front. Er, I mean my deployment front. I’m hoping to hear back tomorrow (Monday). Most likely at 0510… because that’s 0710 where my CO is. But that’s okay as long as he has concrete news for me.
In other news, I’m typing on a new laptop. My dream Mac is going to have to wait until Christmas… or my birthday next year or even Christmas 2011. So for now I got this (hopefully) great Asus for only $410 before taxes. Best Buy matched buy.com’s price. Sometimes all you have to do is ask… Woot! That’s about 15% off Best Buy’s “best” price.
So yeah… hurry up and wait. That’s me.
Dare I Ask What Next?
“The robbed that smiles steals something from the thief.”
-William Shakespeare, Othello
Dear Adversary,
You are good, I’ll give you that. You have been playing ping-pong with my nerves the last week. Deploying (in 9 days), not deploying. Deploying (in 6 days), not deploying. Deploying (in ? days)… and now “hold for possible stand-down.”
And then I was promised that I’d know for sure by end of business today. It’s 530pm PST and I still haven’t heard anything. This would be so much easier if Huzzy wasn’t currently deployed because I wouldn’t have to worry about finding and letting a stranger into our house to watch our dogs. But you knew that… that’s why you are playing your games at this very moment.
I have three escapes in this world: books, my computer and TV. In the last 36 hours, you’ve systematically taken out two of them. You can’t fully take away books because there are libraries around. But that takes effort and seeing people, which I don’t feel like doing.
You can stop now. I believe I’ve shown that I have patience. But it’s beginning to wear as thin as the hair on the heads of the members of the Hair Club For Men. Maybe thinner.
Oh, and I had my hair cut short when I was thinking I was being deployed. That way I didn’t have to hedge my bets on a ship’s barber 1/2 way through. It’s WAY shorter than planned. Really short hair looks good on lots of people. Not me. I look like a boy. And not a cute one. Oh, and add in pimples. ‘Cause stress likes to do that to me.
Are we done yet?
-Wifey
