Three-Hundredth Post

An extra duty day... with no watch! After Labor Day now, the ship has gone to three-section duty. And as a benefit to the crew, the Executive Officer put out a late Liberty expiration this morning in order for parents to be able to take their children to their first day of school... and I know one Mom in my division was very happy about being able to see her kids off. I really enjoyed the late expiration too... I slept in, had a wonderful breakfast and time for one episode of Dick Van Dyke on Netflix before I went to work. It was time for lunch only minutes after Duty Section turnover.

Finally found time for a security spot check before I went to eat, and I helped another tech with trying to find the right item for a job to be written, then took care of two maintenance checks during the rest of the day... both needed hazmat checked out... grease and detergent (the grease gun needed loading... what a nasty job that was... I think it would qualify for the TV show Dirty Jobs). However, the LS checking me out the hazmat did it for me... I only helped by holding the can of grease as he dug into it with his gloved fingers. I'd never seen it done before, so that was very helpful and nice of him.

And they both required Danger tags on the relevant circuit breakers... and people in the division were very willing to help out with that too, so it didn't take too long. Every tag-out requires a "second" in order to verify that everything was actually done correctly.

After dinner I finished up the second check, then we had Duty Section training. After that, I finally ordered the expendable parts I've been having a whale of a time trying to order... when I finally got with Supply, it took a few tries to figure out that I needed a certain kind of access to our system before I was able to get to the right screen... and it only took roughly 15 seconds. Incredible how important it is to know what you're doing in the system and have access to it.

If that wasn't enough, I was on the hit list for not having completed an Information Awareness training online (that I had completed back in the Spring). But if they say so, you do so... and I did. Another wonderful hour on Navy Knowledge Online. This one is more creative than most... but an NKO is still and NKO no matter how up to date they get. This time around I didn't get tripped up by the question that requires me to take my CAC (common access card) - commonly referred to in the military as a "CAC Card" - before I left my desk to investigate something in the virtual government office I work in. Hah! So even though my name is printed in the POD for tomorrow as a delinquent, I am not!