As I mentioned back in August, there was a possibility of heading back to Sandy Eggo around Labor Day...
Well, say no more, it's been confirmed, booked, scheduled, etc., and Your Humble Scribe is heading back to Sandy Eggo for to work upon a U.S. Navy warship. Hold the snide remarks, I ain't talking about LCS, and no this class isn't synonymous with that train wreck. However, some of the same asshats who brought you the former have had a hand in the latter. There are many reasons why the sumbitch costs so much, but that ain't the point of this here post.
Anyhoo, they liked the work we did so they've invited the same folks back out, all two of us from Little Rhody. Well, then there were three. We have a rookie coming with us to a) see what a real ship looks like, and b) see what goes into a test event aboard said USS Real Ship. It ain't the same as in a lab, not even close.
The boss is confident that the rookie will learn a lot. I'm pretty sure that "swear like a sailor" isn't on the list of objectives. But Hell, I'll do that for free. No extra charge, but don't try this at home I'm what ya call "an expert."
So I've spent some time since returning from the previous trip being a royal pain in the ass asking about the next trip, the one I'm talking about now. For to get good rates, seats, accommodations, etc. one needs to book early. (And often.)
Well I was too late in one respect, didn't get the airline I wanted (Delta) but got one that ain't that bad (United). Unfortunately I got stuck on the aisle for the long legs of the out and back trips but hey, at least I can get to the rest room faster, right? Also, the last time I flew there wasn't all that much to see out of the window, except landing and taking off. Clouds, lots of clouds. Hey, at Salt Lake City all I got to see was smoke. Still no idea of what that looks like from the air. Besides which, I'll probably read most of the way. Did last time.
Now hotel wise I did book early enough. My colleague waited a few days too long and our preferred hotel got priced through the stratosphere. I got in at $161/night, she couldn't touch it for less than $324 on the first night and slightly under $300 for the subsequent nights. I wonder why the rates jumped so fantastically high. Well, it will be Labor Day weekend. Why I was able to get in at the lower rate, I have no idea. But it's booked, we shall see if anything changes between now and Friday. (The day I'm flying.)
So there it is, a return engagement on USS Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001). Looking forward to it, and yes, I'll keep y'all posted.
On another note...
Didn't mean to be so dramatic the other day, but I was having an awfully crappy week after the return from Maryland. My grandson was having a bout of RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) which he shared with his Dad and grandparents. Ouch, no thank you, don't want that again. I was in the grip of that when I wrote the aforementioned post.
I'm getting better now, can't say enough good about Nyquil/Dayquil VapoCOOL. Good stuff, though it did have a tendency to make me wake up feeling like I had eaten sand, lots and lots of sand. Totally dried the old sinuses (and eyes, and throat, and ears and, and... well you get my drift) to the point where the hacking cough was non-existent.
Stuff's clearing out but damn, now I know why my grandson was so cranky. (Well, cranky for him, which is what in other children is called "having a good day." I swear the lad is one of the most even tempered children I've ever met...)
Anyhoo...
I'm recovering and I'm headed back to Sandy Eggo, for roughly ten days this time, much more tolerable...
But if it ain't fun to write, why am I writing?
On Beans' last post (Sunday) I didn't notice the label initially.
I noticed it just now.
FOOD!
I was expecting something far worse, something to rock me to my core. No doubt he did that just to make me nervous.
It worked.
Youngsters are good petri dishes eh? Imagine having to labor on Labor Day weekend, well at least you're getting a paycheck not to mention a shorter stint this time. You get any headgear out of this business?
ReplyDeleteGot the hat on the first trip.
DeleteMy father, who served in two wars, was trained in the electronic wizardry of the Navy. He continued in marine electronics (even taught at college level for awhile), so his career would occasionally take him to the East Coast to work on Navy ships. I remember taking him to the local airport one Sunday afternoon, and watched him leave. I wondered what he would see, and never had the chance to really have the long adult conversations. Cancer took him young, and too much of his life was left untold.
ReplyDeleteBe safe, and send pictures.
Cancer sucks.
DeleteThanks Jess.
Pictures, aye!
Fair winds and following seas on your adventure! May the days be wonderfully rewarding!
ReplyDelete-Barry
Thanks Barry!
DeleteMB and I drove through SLC a little more than two weeks ago.
ReplyDeleteIt was still suffering from smoke.
Friends, family, and neighbors at home report that the situation has yet to improve much in the central valleys.
Sandy Eggo shouldn’t have much of an issue.
Safe travels.
Thanks Skip.
DeleteGood Luck and safe travels Sarge. And glad you are feeling better. Please do not break the rookie (too much).
ReplyDeleteYes, almost anything travel related is getting more and more expensive. I have to book out in six months increments when I go to see my parents just to make sure I am not getting a remarkably silly price.
We'll try and break 'er in easy.
DeleteYes, travel is getting pricey, prolly cause the Wu Flu killed off the competition. As, no doubt, planned.
But if it ain't fun to write, why am I writing?
ReplyDeleteThat's about where I am, now. I have two half-finished projects and I can't seem to work up the interest to finish the stories.
Sucks when that happens, doesn't it?
DeleteThe WWII novel was relatively easy, I wrote a bit each day and that book was in the "planning" stages for a couple of decades. Not to mention that I know a lot about the subject matter, which made the research easy.
I think I started the second one way too soon.
Now I feel bad for suggesting an idea to you. But the pre-colonial wars are an undertold story and I applaud you for starting that project.
DeleteI live in New England and once enjoyed going off into the woods. Now, with Lyme disease (which I've had), Babeosis (not yet) and other nasty tick-borne diseases percolating into the area, it's just not as enjoyable.
Yes, the New England of my youth is gone. Back then the only thing you had to worry about was poison ivy. Nowadays? Nope, tick-borne diseases are out there and really no fun!
DeleteI will finish the French and Indian War book, just not in the immediate future. (Knock on wood...)
Just a comment:
ReplyDeleteI knew the people in the WWII novel; they (on both sides: Allied and Nazis) were my family: my Dad's and my uncle's, their friends also.
I met them when I was a little kid when they (some of them anyway) came back or emigrated to this country. I said "hello" again to them in your novel. I was sitting down again, in a corner (unobserved, quietly listening to them talking to each about what and where).
They were all haimish/heimisch (Y/G).
I've no relationship to people I've met in the new novel (and I can't seem to make one).
I'm definitely with you on that. I like the characters, but I can't seem to connect with them.
DeleteI wasn't going to mention it, but I also had that feeling. I felt I had a bond with the WWII guys (even some of the Germans). I'm not getting that vibe with these ones. I don't know why and didn't want to be a critic. So, I guess take it for what it's worth.
DeleteThe latest effort may be dead in the water. I'm not sure yet, but it's feeling that way.
Deletethree words Sarge...
ReplyDeleteNebulized hydrogen peroxide.
Seriously, it's been remarkable for us with that sort of crud
Most interesting...
DeleteNever heard of that before.
Interesting article at https://www.spiritofchange.org/nebulized-peroxide-a-simple-remedy-for-covid-19/
DeleteBut is IS on the internet, so....
Yabbut, there is this.
DeleteEnjoy your trip, and thanks for your real job contributions to our national defense.
ReplyDeleteOn the colonial "book." It does not have to be a "book." Stand along segments, or a short series are also welcome and enjoyed. Maybe make some connections by introducing descendants who discover the past (doing genealogy research, finding an old family Bible or letters, visiting the family plot in the ancestral home town, kids stumbling into something on the internet, etc.)? Perhaps the heirs have some similar traits. Perhaps some are even distantly related to your WW2 characters. Molly sure has the moxie to breed later generations of nurses. Did any of the French/Indian folks mingle with the Acadians and later migrate to Louisiana?
Damn good tales, all of them, by installment, chapter or book. Write to satisfy your own aspirations, and we can either like it or not, and I have no doubt readers will not be bashful about advising about.
John Blackshoe
Thanks John.
DeleteYour comment struck a chord as regards the book, food for thought. I really like the idea.
What JB said. It's an interesting tale about a segment of American History that, sadly, hasn't been taught much at all in the last 50 years. I'm enjoying it as it has opened my eyes a lot.
ReplyDeleteSo don't worry about writing a book using the segments. That's one of the many deadly sins of new authors. Just leave it as a randomly serialized story that you write when you're in the mood and feel like it.
Having the pressure of the WWII novel bearing down on you, revisions and editing being the worst from what I hear. I mean you can only read your own stuff for so long before you start getting overly critical and also so tired of it you start missing mistakes or making mistakes. Not everyone can keep multiple multiple storylines going at the same time.
And maybe you'll get some time for more photo tourism in the San Diego area. Or at least a nice dinner or two with friends (hopefully Tuna will be in town this time.)
Not every blog post has to be IMPORTANT STUFFS. Some of your best has been off-the-cuff stuff that you may have considered 'fluff' or 'not-serious.' I mean, how many people can write about a frog/fish/algae pond once or twice and then have people still reference it in many future comments even years down the line? You have the ability to make the little stuff seem neat and fun and your life is different enough from ours that it is interesting.
Still waiting for the inevitable bookshelf collapse or random house ghost tossing books at you. Or the also inevitable request from The Missus that you weed your library. Or something.
As to the label, you seemed to be not in a good frame of mind so I followed my mother's raison d'etra and left you worrying what I was up to or meant to do next (questions from her are never straightforward, they always have questions under questions and you play the guessing game of what is the actual question she's asking and then you try to answer said unasked but inferred or supposed to be mind-read that she meant to ask but didn't because....)
When do you ship out?
Sound wisdom Beans. As to the label...
DeleteI KNEW IT!
Wheels up on Friday.
Even little old me added a label. Although I had to switch out of Brave to Firefox in order to do so. Whatever the coding Google uses for Blogger apparently isn't supported in Brave.
DeleteWow, I didn't notice that you had a label on your Monday post.
DeleteSeems somewhat apropos. 😁
My mother's ancestors on her father's side were Glovers from Marblehead who went to Halifax after the Acadians left. Her grandfather and his brother were born on Prince Edward Isle in the early 19th century. They built a schooner, sailed it to Scotland where they sold it, stayed long enough to procure spice (plural of spouse) and came to Providence by steamer. Old Guns
ReplyDeleteI'm seriously considering the whole ancestors of somebody thing. Maybe...
DeleteExcellent news. If you can find 2 seconds of free time, I'll see you for sure.
ReplyDeleteWe might actually get more free time this trip! I'll call you.
Delete"But if it ain't fun to write, why am I writing?"
ReplyDeleteBecause we want something to read. Does it want the hose again?
Heh.
DeleteGood point!
I am sorry you have to work on Labor Day Weekend.
ReplyDeleteNot a problem. Never cared for that holiday if the truth be told.
DeleteHey AFSarge;
ReplyDeleteI like many other readers had a connection to the WWII characters and the storyline, not so much with the French and Indian wars characters, the storyline is good, and you write a good story and it is well researched and put together, but for some reason it just don't "sing" like the other. *Sorry*. You gonna check out the USS Midway again when you go to Sandy eggo?
Same here Mr G. Couldn't put my finger on it for a while. But yeah, I can't really connect with the characters either.
DeleteI don't know if I'll hit the Midway again. It could happen.
My sisters both live in the San Diego area, the middle one discovered that it was cheaper to fly Wednesday to Wednesday...by like 50% cheaper...so guess what days they flew into Albany to rent a car, drive around the Capital District a few days before heading to Saybrook CT and "The Beach".?
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain with the new kid on the block syndrome...I have a shadow myself these days. She is very nice, has had ABSOLUTELY no home care experience AT ALL, but says she is really having a good time (the last 3 weeks have been hell-on-wheels busier than I can remember being in a very loooong time, just nuts crazy) Now, if I could just get her to do the documentation correctly, so the agency (and I) can get paid...I would be a very happy camper. The only saving grace is that she has been a nurse for about 15 years or so, so at least she isn't completely green. When we precept we are supposed to only have 4 patients on the schedule tops....sure...as I have been doing 90-100 miles a day with 6 patients on, can you say kinda short-staffed?!?!! Darn vacations!! But she keeps coming back for more, so, hopefully I wont scare her off. I need to train up some new (younger) home care nurses so I can retire!!
That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!
Speaking of stories--Old NFO did his first book titled Vignettes--great read if you haven't read it yet, but you can take your individual Wilderness characters and fast forward through history...one reason you might feel a bit disconnected is that "warfare" then is a tad bit different than what you experienced, or what our grandparents experienced with the world wars. You have BEEN to Germany, wandered around Belgium, seen the battlefields, and cemeteries in Europe. I know ya grew up in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, but I think it's a bit different when it's right in your own back yard. Sometimes not as interesting somehow.
It's been a couple of decades since I've been up to Fort Ti, but I have wondered around the Saratoga Battlefield, and have lunch sitting in the parking lot at the Philip Schuyler Mansion semi-often (they have toilets). You were kinda juiced up enthusiasm-wise when you went to that tank museum in MA. Maybe if you can get to a museum of the time period it would inspire the Muse. If you decide to come to Ticonderoga,let me know, and we can do a meal, or go up to Boston to check out the John Adams house--think it's in Quincy?
Anyway, have a good flight, and come back safe...pictures are always nice.
And to fight the dry sandy eyes, throat, cough, etc DRINK your fluids...and by fluids I don't mean just beer and coffee...hydrating fluids like water/iced tea/lemonade, etc...that will help. :)
Thanks Suz, I can't believe how much water I've gulped down over the past few days, on your advice.
DeleteIt really does help!