Maryland Bound

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Time to visit The Nuke again. It's Finnegan's 2nd birthday.

And hey, I'm retired, I've got the time.

Read the folks on the sidebar.

Play nice with each other. At least try.

Keep an eye on the pilots and aviators, they tend to get into the liquor cabinet and "forget" to replenish it. Though I'm sure they'll get around to it someday.

Be back soon, but I gotta pack, then I gotta drive.

Hopefully, the weather cooperates!

Talk quietly among yourselves.

Ciao!

Cool Stuff

LUSH and Your Humble Scribe
OAFS Photo

Looking back over the years since I retired from the Air Force it struck me, I got to do a lot of cool stuff in those years.

The photo above was snapped in January of 2016 aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71). LUSH and I, along with quite a few other family members, were there for the baptism of my then youngest grandchild (three others have joined the tribe since then) aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt.

Belle Belle, as we call her, is LUSH's youngest child, she remembers nothing of her baptism as she was, to be fair, only four months old. But I remember the day very well.

The carrier was undergoing repairs at the pier so she was pretty deserted. I'm not saying we had the whole ship to ourselves, but damned near.

At the time I had no inkling that someday I would be staying at that hotel across the water (the two tallest buildings in the right background are the Manchester Grand Hyatt. I stayed a few times in the rightmost building. Why was I staying in a hotel in Sandy Eggo?

Why, to support waterfront testing of the combat systems aboard this ship -

USS Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001)
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Which was cool and awesome until they sent more gubmint people to "help" with the testing. Yup, that ruined it for me. (Four trips in total - three good, one "meh.") But still, it was really cool to exercise the actual systems aboard the ship and interact with the crew.

Good times.

Another odd thing was that a few short years after the baptism, Belle Belle's Dad, Big Time, would be a member of the TR's airwing and have to spend quite a few weeks stuck in Guam aboard TR during the opening days of the Covid-thing.

Because of my kids' being in the Navy I've had the opportunity to also ride two carriers at sea. Once when The Nuke was assigned to USS Dwight D. Eisenhower's (CVN 69) reactor department out of Norfolk and then again when LUSH was assigned to USS Ronald Reagan's (CVN 76) airwing out of Sandy Eggo. (Of course you might know this town as San Diego, Sandy Eggo is what I call a Lexism.)

Also got to tour the White House, which was also awesome.

OAFS Photo

Dang. I need to smile more. But anyhoo.

Cool stuff.

I get to do it.

Can't wait to do more.

Can I Get That With Extra Freedom?

OAFS Photos

On the left is "Work Sarge," on the right is "Retired Sarge." While they are both old photos, not taken on the same day or even in the same place (though I am wearing the same shirt in both ...), both represent certain aspects of my personality.

Sort of ...

Though I could get intense at work (just ask Liz, though she might say that "intense" is just a different spelling of "asshole" - and she wouldn't be wrong) I am, underneath it all, a cuddly old teddy bear. (In the photo on the left, in the background over my left shoulder, is a panda. I've had him since I was nobbut a sprout, a very long time indeed!) The photo on the right, that's closest to my "real" personality. For whatever that's worth.

I've been having trouble forcing myself to sit down and write. Couldn't figure it out at first, then I realized what it was.

I was free.

Free to do whatever I want. (Within reason, of course.)

But I can write, or not write, I'm on my schedule now.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy writing and I'll be getting back to it soon.

But I've been out of harness for a few weeks now, the first few, well, that was just an extended Christmas vacation. Now I'm just free, free as the wind.

That will take some getting used to.

But I'm getting there.

Believe me, that picture on the right, well, that's how I'm feeling these days.

Happy and ready for whatever lies ahead.

Can't believe I waited this long.

Man, I Really Am Lazy ...

OAFS Photo

Had snow Sunday night, three to four inches was my estimate. (Don't look at the deck railings, the wind normally cuts that down by an inch or so.) It was warm, then it got cold, it was raining, then it was snowing.

Luckily enough, our house has a southern exposure so I didn't need to shovel the driveway, the good Lord cleaned that out for me with the rays of the sun. It stayed in the 20s all day but the sun plus the underlying blacktop in the driveway was enough to clean that out.

All I had to do was shovel the deck off (mostly to make a path for the oilman) and clean the cars off. The sun had done a lot of work on the cars but the north-facing portions still had a good four inches in place.

The snow came off fairly easily, only the bit closest to the skin of the vehicles was icy. But once the outer layer was brushed away, the sun helped melt that.

As I was traipsing about cleaning off the vehicles, I noticed that my right foot felt cold. Which seemed odd, until I looked down and saw that the outer layer (a plastic/rubber mix) had cracked and about two square inches of material was gone. The liner was still intact, but the snow directly on that made my foot notice.

That sucked. I've had those boots for 12 years or more, so one might think I got some good use out of them. Considering that I've only worn them maybe five or six times though, I didn't really. Oh well, time to get new ones. (One of the things I dislike about synthetic materials is that they seem to deteriorate over time. Maybe I'll get some old school boots this time.)

Watched professional playoff games Saturday and Sunday, two of the games were played in snowy weather (Philadelphia mostly, some in Buffalo) which I enjoy. After all, football should be played out in the elements. I've played in mud, snow, and rain. Sometimes a mixture of all three. Sigh, I get domed stadiums, people like to be comfortable. But it leads to weakness. At least I think so.

College playoff game Monday night, I have no dog in that hunt but as I've always had to work the next day, I've never watched one. That changes this year.

Do I miss working?

Seriously?

Not a bit.

See you soon.

Baby, it's Cold outside!

 

Yeah, I know. it's an oldie.  But, for a large portion of the country, it's a fact of life right now.  Had a bit of an "aww Feces!" moment, yesterday when we woke up and the water wasn't running.  Fortunately, the temperature got above that magic number before noon.  I spent a bit of time adjusting and adding insulation to the well.  Thank you, Lord!

Last week was pretty busy and this week doesn't seem that it's going to be any different.  Mrs J's OPlan phase 1 is to fix up the old house.  Phase 1, part 1 is to refurbish the front porch.  25 years in the Texas Sun did some destruction on a lot of the wood.  

Phase 1, part 1, action 1 was to remove the warped deck boards, remove the railings around the porch and steps.

 

That phase has been successfully completed.  A lot of pent up aggression was released during that phase.  

  

While I was taking out my desire to destroy stuff, Mrs J's Phase 1, part 2, action 1 was to "Do" the kitchen.  Again, 25 years of use, took it's toll.  It's much cleaner now, but there's a bit of carpentry needed that's above my skill level. So we're going to be hiring a carpenter shortly.  

Having come to a stopping point outside, I checked with the Boss Lady about what to do next.  She advised me that the two bedrooms needed attention.

 

Meanwhile, Mrs J's Phase 1, part 2, action 2 was to clean the bathrooms.  My brother thankfully stepped forward and took care of that action.  25 years of hard water residue took all day to somewhat remove.  However, not quite up to management expectations.  Our carpenter friend will be tasked with replacing the Shower Insert.  This was not unexpected, so within the budget.

Phase 2 will begin, (we hope), on Wednesday when the temperature returns to somewhat normal (50ish).  I estimate the porch will take 2 days max. (Gee, I pray I didn't jinx that).  Cattle panels with frames will be the upright "walls".  Replacing a couple of deck boards shouldn't be a big deal, but...

Which will bring us to Phase 3,  Exterminate the rapidly reproducing stored junk. 

Main Problem Area

 Phase 3, Part 1, Action 1 Delivery of the refuse bin should occur the morning we start this phase.  An 8' x 6' x 30' bin should be sufficient for the main problem area although it will likely be full.  A second one will then be delivered to the rear of the house to facilitate de-junkifying the back patio.  

Completion of these three phases should bring us closer to being ready to put the property on the market.

It will also bring us very close to a bit of a vacation.  Mrs J has spent the last year or so, planning and scheduling a family trip and cruise in Australia and New Zealand.  The end of February, she and I, and MBD and family will be flying out of Austin, to Honolulu (a time zone rest and recovery stop) then on to Sydney.  Little J, LJW and Miss B will head East out of England enroute to the former colonies and join us.  

Looking forward to all that, because when we get back, it's our house that needs prepping.  (I actually started on my "office".  I managed to get down through the stuff and can now place things on the desktop.  (I was very excited, Mrs J, not so much.) 

The house overall is mostly "stuff" removal, although there are a few things the carpenter will have to take care of.  We'll get through this campaign, one way or another.

Then, with a little luck, some one will stop by, "Love it" and that will be that.  Or, at least, that's what we're hoping happens.  We'll see.

Stay warm! and....Peace out y'all!

Breakfast With Tom

OAFS Photo

The prediction for tonight is snow, Saturday evening it was rain, lots of rain. It's New England, who knows what the weather will do?

It's been bone cold for a few days, the precipitation usually brings warmer temps along the coast. Usually, sometimes it doesn't and we get the white stuff.

We shall see.

Before I retired, a good buddy of mine and I swore to get together for breakfast at least once a month. That happened Saturday morning and it was great.

My buddy, I'll call him Tom (for that's his name), and I have known each other for a few years, we work in different fields at my old company, but our paths crossed for quite a while over the last couple. Great guy, we have a lot in common, particularly music.

Though I had to break stride and get up early on Saturday, it was worth it. Great breakfast, great conversation, and a lot of laughs.

There are other former colleagues who have expressed an interest in joining us for breakfast and I really hope they do. I don't miss the work all that much (okay, maybe a little on some days) but there are people I worked with that I miss, a lot in some cases.

We'll see how that goes.

I'm working on a few things. First priority (when I'm not doing whatever I want, which I enjoy) is looking at publishing Almost a Lifetime. I'm looking at both Barnes & Noble and Amazon for the moment. Beans mentioned Raconteur Press the other day, thing is, they don't publish novels, yet. Apparently they want to start that this year. We shall see.

I'm also going through the Prequel/Prelude Part I to bring myself up to speed to write Part II, which you've been getting a taste of, there will be more. In order to write Part II, I need to refresh my memory from Part I. It's slow, because I like re-reading large chunks when all I really need to do is read a couple of paragraphs.

That's why I'd make a terrible baker, I'd sample everything I baked and wind up with no product. I mean YMMV, but I like what I wrote. (If I didn't, I wouldn't be doing this.)

The NFL playoffs continue, so I continue to watch. Speaking of playoffs (Jim Mora echoes in my mind) this year I will actually watch the NCAA football championship game as I don't have to work the next day. This will be a first. Looking forward to it.

Until then, stay frosty.

Back to the game, er, the book, I mean the book.

Preparing for the Return

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"Damn it, Gentile, you gotta get lower than that!"

Flavio Gentile grimaced, he didn't think he could get any lower, but damn it, he'd try. As he crawled, lower still, he could hear the zip and whiz of the machine gun rounds whipping by above his head.

The point of the training was two-fold, first it was to induce stress in the men, get them as used to being shot at without actually endangering them. Secondly, assess their agility and ability to function under fire. Again, without actually being under fire.

Some armies trained with live ammunition, he'd been told. Every hundredth round was live, so he'd been told. Recruits actually died in those armies during training, shot by their own during field exercises.

Just as he was reaching the end of the low crawl course, a nearby explosion made him freeze in place. Another recruit, not thinking, jumped up to get away from the blast.

"Cease fire! Cease fire! Goddammit, cease fire!" A number of the drill instructors were screaming at the machine gun team, who had tried to cease firing as soon as they'd seen the recruit jump up. Far too late for the recruit in question.

"Geez Stephen, what are we going to do when we meet the enemy, march around in formation and impress them with our snap?"

Hernandez chuckled, "From what I understand, Juan, it's meant to instill discipline in us and teach us to respond instantly to orders. Even the Germans and the Japanese march around in training, every army worth its salt does it."

The two men had survived the march back from the field problem, now they were drilling not far from the barracks. Left, right, left, platoon halt, platoon march, column left, column right, it was getting so that Hernandez could march in his sleep and stay in formation. It was becoming second nature to him.

"Hernandez! Your other left! Wake the f**k up, recruit!"

Well, almost second nature.

Oskar Olson, late of the Royal Norwegian Army, now a member of Number 5 Troop of Number 10 Commando, was a happy man. After all the screening and investigating of the British which followed after he'd escaped from Norway, they had actually found a Norwegian officer who could positively identify Olson and vouch for him.

The commando training was brutal. Upon arrival at the train station, somewhere in Scotland, Olson wasn't sure where, the recruits had been marched eleven kilometers to where they would begin their training.

It rained a lot and the training was intense. Calisthenics, field problems, learning to read maps and terrain, training on all sorts of weapons, it never seemed to stop. Officers and men trained together, side by side, the instructors treated them all the same, with no mercy.

"Mercy will get you killed you fat Norwegian bastard!" Olson recalled a sergeant screaming at him when he had stopped to help another recruit over a difficult obstacle. "Move, move, move, if the bastard can't keep up, we don't bloody want him in the commandos!"

They even used live ammunition in training exercises, move wrong, stop paying attention, and you could wind up very dead.

But Olson revelled in the training. He couldn't wait to get back to Norway and kill Germans.

Von Lüttwitz stirred, he had been sleeping very deeply, had been dreaming of home, when one of his men started shaking him.

"Wha .. what is it?"

"The Ivans, Sir, they're attacking. Major Hassel wants us in the line!"

Von Lüttwitz dressed, grabbed his gear, and got his wits about him. "Alright lads, don't panic, get your gear and fall out in the trench. Anyone seen Oberleutnant Busch?"

A head poked into the dugout, "Come on Jürgen, what are you waiting for, an engraved invitation from Stalin?" Busch looked exhausted. At least that answered the question of where the company commander was.

Von Lüttwitz gasped as he stepped out of the dugout, when the cold air hit his lungs it actually hurt. He tugged his muffler up over his face and breathed shallowly until the air around his nose and mouth warmed up.

Artillery explosions in the near distance made him realize, this was a serious Russian attack. Where had Ivan gotten the ammunition for this?

"Jürgen, take your boys to the left, set up your machine guns to sweep the ground in front of the burned out T-34. Let's go!"

The 5th company commander was already moving. Von Lüttwitz had his men moving as well. Why did the bastards always attack in the dead of night when it was so damned cold?