Archive for the ‘Life as we know it’ Category

• Lost and burnt

  Date: 2009.04.21 | Category: Life as we know it | Response: 0

  I haven’t golfed a round of 18 in quite a while. The last time I played I was with my dad and uncles and we played best ball. When my shots flew errant it wasn’t a big deal because we didn’t necessarily have to play where my golf ball landed.

  On Saturday I played a round of 18 and I had quite a good time – mostly because I didn’t take it too serious. I ended up doing… what’s the best way to describe it? oh AWFUL but I did have fun. I was probably in the +40 range and I lost 14 or so golf balls during the course of the game. I didn’t loose any of them in the water – I simply lost them. At one point I drove four in a row across the fence and off the course. I didn’t count those as official shots – yep – the good ole mulligan. I acquired a set of golf clubs a few weeks ago and Jessica and I are going to engage in a round of bad golf at some point. I feel sorry for any people that happen to have a tee time behind us.

  I didn’t wear sunscreen and I got a rather interesting sunburn. I was wearing long sleeves, sunglasses, and a hat so my upper body was rather unscathed save for the back of my neck. What did get burned were my ankles. I have a nifty line where my socks were sitting. Luckily, you can’t tell that I have been burnt. Another guy that was with us was wearing a visor all day long – and he is bald. Yes – it looks a funny as you might imagine.

• Rock usually wins

  Date: 2009.04.13 | Category: Life as we know it | Response: 2

  In a game of paper-rock-scissors any of the three can win. In a game of rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock most people can’t keep track of the rules so the winner is seldom decided. When you play rock vs. eye rock always wins.

  On Friday I wanted to take care of as many chores around the house as I could before Jessica got home from work. I started by mowing the yard and it was rather uneventful. I had some grass to trim around the edges of the house so I grabbed the weed eater and fired it up. I made sure to wear my protective glasses because nobody wants to go blind – the chicks really don’t dig it. I was almost done when the really really crappy happened. I hit a rock.

  But wait you might say – you were wearing protective glasses and they should have prevented injuries. You are correct – I was but irony loves to kick me in the ass. Unfortunately rocks like to bounce and this one bounced off my cheek (directly beneath my eye socket), ricocheted off the glasses, and bounced off my eye. Yes – it was painful. Somehow all of that military training kicked in and I immediately shut of the weed trimmer and went inside to irrigate my eye to remove any remaining debris. I knew that I didn’t want to rub my eye or really keep it open. I grabbed my recall roster and called someone to give me a ride to the ER as I felt sheepish about calling an ambulance. Joe, Jessica’s dad, works in the same firehouse that would probably have responded and I didn’t need any excess attention – especially if it turned out that I was overreacting.

  I called Jessica and she wasn’t as calm as I was. I was scared that I would be blind – she was just scared. She quickly jetted out of work and headed down to the ER. She had a visitors pass but didn’t have tags on her car so she had to grab mine to get onto Ft. Lewis. I got to Madigan (the army hospital) about 20 minutes after it happened and I was triaged and quickly rushed through. Most of the people that are in the ER have colds and don’t want to make an appointment – when you have a life/limb/eyesight injury you get pushed right to the front of the line. I was the last one in the waiting room and one of the first ones out. Jessica got to the waiting room without stalling my car – imagine driving a picky clutch while you are extremely nervous while having little experience and driving in rush hour traffic on a Friday. All circumstances considered she did quite well.

  The doc in the ER numbed my eye (hooray for medicine) and went a little overboard with the eyedrops. For the next 30 minutes part of my face was numb. He wasn’t an ophthalmologist so he could only do a basic check to see that I had torn a chunk off my cornea and that it was hanging loose. Gross huh? He called for an ophthalmologist to come in and do a further consult.

  The other doc came and told me that the tear wasn’t in my central vision and I had a giant sigh of relief. I wasn’t going to be blind (HOORAY!). He removed the torn chunk with a Q-Tip and gave prescribed me some painkillers and some ointment. Yes, he touched my eye – some people in my family are probably squirming just thinking about someone else touching their eye. It’s not that big of a deal.

  We had a snafu getting the medication and it ended up taking an extra two hours after diagnosis and consult to get out of there but at least I knew that I was going to be ok. My eye is doing quite well and it should be mostly healed in another day or two.

  I’m a lucky guy – unfortunately I wasn’t lucky enough to have the rock bounce off the glasses in the first place.

• Award winning week

  Date: 2009.04.04 | Category: Life as we know it | Response: 0

  I’ve had an award winning week – of sorts. Last week I won the Knucklebuster award in the munitions maintenance category (a group level award). The annual award is given to the person that creates the most mission impact. Bottom line – as my boss says – I produce results.

  A few days ago I won the NCO of the quarter award for the squadron. This award looks at the whole person concept.

  I guess this means I’m doing the right things at work. It’s nice to get some form of recognition for my work. The unfortunate part is that I hate that actual act of receiving the award. Oh well – I guess its a price I have to pay.

• I’m not avoiding this

  Date: 2009.03.27 | Category: Life as we know it | Response: 0

  I haven’t been actively avoiding updates but it feels like I have.

  The last few weeks have been quite busy and we’ve found ourselves celebrating National Corn Dog Day, running 63 flights of stairs for lukemia, and celebrating St. Patricks day with a few libations. I’ve got a golf tournament to run in about and hour and an anniversary to celebrate (2 years) when I get home from work. We went to a talent show last night (Jessica’s neice) and we have yard work to do this weekend. I think we’ve been busy… and that’s all the time I’ve got.

• 6 hours

  Date: 2009.03.15 | Category: Life as we know it | Response: 1

  It took six hours but it was worth it. Last week (when Duke ran into a solid object) we purchased a new grill/smoker and haven’t had the chance to smoke something. I had half a brisket in the basement and some hickory and it turns out it was a match made in heaven. “Far better than Famous Dave’s” was Jessica’s reaction. I still smell like I was inside the smoker but it was a small price to pay. I’ve got a leg of ham in the basement that is going to come next but I’ve got to find someone that can deliver some wood a decent price. I have been buying the wood by the bag but I think it would be a bit easier if I had split logs.

  I’ve never prepared anything that took that much time and attention but the results were totally worth it. If I had the time I’d probably smoke all of our food. Smoked pie, smoke vegetables, smoked milk…. well, maybe that isn’t such a good idea.

• Dumb dog

  Date: 2009.03.08 | Category: Life as we know it | Response: 1

  Dogs have an ability to know when you can’t afford to take them to the vet clinic. Yesterday, after much debate, Jessica and I decided to replace our grill with a propane/charcoal/smoker combo. While I was putting it together the dogs were running free in the yard. Jessica was in the yard playing hide and go seek with the dogs – one of their favorite games. Unfortunately, they are terrible at this game. We can be standing in plain site and they will run right by us without noticing.

  Jessica was in the back hiding by the camper and called for them when she heard a crashing sound. Duke had run into the gate – the gate that was wide open. He managed to get a two inch gash on his rear leg. We didn’t know what to do so we took him down to her parents house. Becky put some staples in the wound and we brought him back home. He is going to be confined to the kennel (dogcatraz) for the next week or two and won’t be able to get the run of the yard.

  I’m glad we didn’t have to take him to the vet clinic but damn – dogs always seem to know when to get hurt – they always seem to do it after you spend money.

• No Madness? How could it be?

  Date: 2009.02.26 | Category: Life as we know it | Response: 0

  I have been threatened with dire consequences should I engage in March Mustache Madness and frankly – I might still try and grow a gnarly ‘stache. Last year I had so much fun writing about March Mustache Madness that I thought I had better dig up a few links for you to peruse.

  Last year I tried to catalog some mustaches and all of their shapes and forms.

  I also found a reference chart- based upon Mario’s stache – that you could print and carry around with you all month long. Why go bird watching or sight seeing – March is the month to be mustache watching.

  I’m not the only one celebrating – there are chapters across our great nation celebrating the wonderful soup strainer we know as a mustache. Maybe you should join the cause – the cause of the mustache.

• Done

  Date: 2009.02.19 | Category: Life as we know it | Response: 0

  The test is over and now I can get back to my normal routine… oh wait a minute. I’ve got to register for a math class and read a book that is sitting on my desk. Damn, it appears that it is never going to end.

• Almost done

  Date: 2009.02.18 | Category: Life as we know it | Response: 0

  I’ve got one last day of cramming ahead of me and I still wonder how I am supposed to retain all of this information. I’ve picked out the most important bits and pieces but there are still thousands of them to retain. Studying sucks.

  I need to register for a math class on Friday. My boss has really been hammering me about my education and this should be the last class I need for my associates so I’m just going to knock it out. As I mentioned before I won’t know the results till this summer. Isn’t that crummy? If you succeed it takes 5 months to find the results. If you fail you get the results in five months and you also get to start studying again.

• So I won an award

  Date: 2009.02.04 | Category: Life as we know it, photos | Response: 3

  I’ve won two awards since I’ve been in the military – two. In my career field we have little opportunity to rub shoulders with any of the big wigs and we are always seperated by a fence and a large distance from the rest of the base so we are often ignored. In fact, earlier today the wing commander alluded to the fact that we are often forgotten and only remembered when something goes wrong. Luckily for us, we seldom make mistakes. I won the professional of the week award in the NCO category and I got a coin from the group commander and wing commander during the morning standup. They took a photo for the base paper – woohoo…. or not.

  Its a decent photo so here it is for all to see -

  THIS IS THE LAST CHANCE TO AVERT YOUR EYES! RUN AWAY NOW!