Moving Off Ship, First Watch and The End of the Beginning

Goodness, this is the ninth workday since I've last posted (as I check my little day log).

Friday, July 27th was a big day... and also a short one... I finished the test for "Between the Life-Lines" around noon, and we were let go after that. After a month of living on the ship (since 28 June) I was able to move in to my permanent housing! That was a great feeling! And also much of the reason I am behind on here: been very busy getting set up at home.

Monday, the 30th, we had our first uniform inspection, and I had remembered, and worn my new boots for the first time. I was given special liberty to come in late Thursday because my boots looked the best. :) Sure glad I learned how to shine them between boot camp and now. :) It was also my first time going to command PT... Ensign Leonard and I ran for 10 min. on the treadmill and did an upper body workout together while everyone else from the department ran outside in the heat (they're nuts!). The rest of the day was filled with trying to track stuff down, more training and yet another NKO course.

The 31st, I conquered a fear. The duty section (E-5 and below) was called away in the afternoon to carry small, but super-heavy boxes below decks. I had to go down a couple different ladders to drop it off... and when I came across the first one I thought, "Oh, no way." Ladderwells are roughly 12 feet deep, and very steep. With a 40-50 lb box in your hands, you can't hold on to the rails when you go down. Usually I grab on with both hands when I go up or down... I'm terrified of falling... and my knees are kinda weak. But I had to do it anyway. So I slowly moved down and learned after the 2nd or 3rd time that if you keep the center of weight back (with the box resting on the hips) that it's rather easy to do. Yay.

I also took the MOOW (messenger) written exam in CSMC (combat central) and passed easily. And I also did some training on another PQS while I was there. During training that evening, we had a drill in a super-secret space that hardly anyone ever goes in... so that was interesting. To relax, I read a comic book I bought at Fort Story a week or so ago... a collection of all of Pvt. Murphy's Law... sort of a modern-day Willie and Joe strip that used to run in Army Times. It was pretty darn funny. And another neat thing about the day... while I talked with Mike and Meggan on the phone from the fantail, I saw lots of sea creatures swimming in the water... crabs, jellyfish, and lots of fishes, the latter jumping out of the water every so often. :)

August 1st was odd. I watched the forecastle all morning while they tested missile launchers (for safety). I even saw the CO and XO making rounds and remembered to pop up and salute when they came by. More training in Sonar after lunch... and even helped out with firing the torpedo tube! :)

Coming in late on Thursday the 2nd was amazing! I was so tired from my duty day (I didn't sleep enough the day before it). Worked mostly on the next required NKO course. This one was super hard though. I didn't finish it until the 6th! Printed out the cert for it and found it awarded 16 hours of class time for it! Yikes! So long! It was about the U.S. Military Code of Conduct.

I never learn... didn't sleep enough before my last duty day on Monday, the 6th. And again, I had trouble remembering to go to duty section turnover... thank goodness for the announcements! The watchbill coordinator asked me about my MOOW progress, and when he found out the PQS was routed for approval, he told me to take the 5-hr afternoon one that my friend was just mentioning she was on. :) I was also on the ship's lighting detail for the first time, although I had done it before while doing PQS stuff.

After regular sweepers we were called out again to help carry drinks aboard and forward. The dozen or so of us made a chain-gang and passed the cases from one person to the next. Had to go to early chow to eat before watch... then changed into my whites and took over for the first time. And of course that day they were late with the 12 o'clock reports, so my first two minutes on watch and suddenly I'm reporting to the CO's stateroom and delivering a prescribed, formal speech to him... with Senior Chief looking on. Goodness. But, whew, I remembered what to say and got it out fast (and got out of there fast!).

The OOD had me refill the water cooler for our drinking water (it was pretty hot outside in the bright sunshine). I even was able to call "attention on deck" when the CO came by the quarterdeck... but the most fun was the big thunderstorm that hit us around 1515... first a strong, cold breeze, then a little rain, then a sheet of pounding rain, and we all huddled under the quarterdeck canopy. At one point, the canopy blew a few feet to the stern... lol. The lighting and crashes of thunder was within a mile of us. I got pretty wet before I was relieved a little early.

That evening I was blinking out as I sat on the mess decks after dinner... and later on at our training. Chief yelled at me to stand up... I felt bad about that... I've never been one of "those" people before. Sort of put me in the mood to be grumpy about our casualty training. Again it was over before I had all my gear on. Can't wait until I know what I'm doing during these things! I enjoyed Lighting Detail though... beautiful sunset over the bay from us. I went to bed after finally finishing the really long NKO.

Yesterday the 7th was sort of a rushed morning. Lighting Detail happened just after I got ready to go, then I had to scarf breakfast before quarters (I was in charge of getting the muster report done for Sonar). Sweepers was short because it started raining heavily after we began to wipe the water from yesterday overboard. This made us have quarters inside the skin of the ship for the first time since I've been here. Later that morning I was called topside with a few others to sweep water over the side. When we got there it started to rain again, but the Chief on watch didn't care. He asked us if we were afraid of melting before sending us up top to get the big puddles swept along. What fun! And that was after I was starting to dry off from carrying the Berthing 2 trash down the pier. :) Oh, I also received my first pieces of mail on the ship today... CD from eBay, and a bill from the government. :)

Today is my last day with the division for the next four months... sort of an end of the beginning. Everyone is assigned work with the cooks for 4 months early on... and tomorrow is my first day of that. We'll see how that is.