A Semi-Normal Workday and a Wild Day Off

We were supposed to get underway Tuesday morning... for Home. The whole ship anticipated it to a point you can hardly describe. We had enthusiastically taken out all the trash and set out new bags to separate the metal, plastic and bio-degradable. It was twenty-five minutes before Sea & Anchor was supposed to be set, and I went out to the flight deck to be early. I was decked out in my parka liner and gloves, because of the cold wind. Then the Captain came over the 1MC speaker and informed us we were stuck here for another couple of days due to some sort of condition of the bay in Norfolk. He was just as disappointed as we were.

So then it became a normal working day. And how very disheartening it was to go about the routine knowing we weren't making any forward progress towards home. We had to deal with all the paper trash bags we had set out for separating trash at sea... paper/food, plastic, and metal. Don't remember much else from the day... When I came in from the flight deck, just after the announcement, I ran into a chief who told me that I wasn't allowed to wear my fleece liner with my coveralls while we were pier-side. Well gee... I thought we'd be getting underway... give me a break.

Wednesday the 31st was wild. I was let go for the day after Quarters. As I popped into Sonar 1 to grab my filled out form for the yearly physical health assessment (PHA), STG1 asked me if I was excited for tomorrow. I was very confused when he said I was the only other person he knew who was... I thought he was referring to going home... in fact, he was talking about the special TAD (temp assigned duty) orders that came in for most of the sonar techs the night before... including me... to go out to sea with a couple of destroyers for over two weeks starting the next day! Dumbfounded, I stared in disbelief. My husband had already bought a ticket to come see me when we got back to Norfolk. It would have been exciting, but I had a greater longing. STG1 said he would talk to Senior Chief about it for me, and I thanked him.

But as I walked down the p-way from sonar, I came across the CO at the cash card machine. He proceeded to tell me how he had thought of me personally for these orders: how it would be good for learning my job. Immediately I felt bad for asking to get out of it. STG1 hadn't thought the orders would change, so I agreed with the CO that it was a great opportunity, although I mentioned it was too bad about missing my husband in Norfolk. Then I stopped by medical for the PHA. Found out I was way past due for my dental checkup, but other than that and a hearing test, good to go. Then I weighed-in for the Physical Readiness Test... 9 lbs over, but my BMI was just fine... so I passed with room to spare.

I set out to enjoy my time off before the world turned upside down the next day. Went to the gym and biked and ran the elliptical for 30 minutes. After the shower, I had a text from my friend saying that admin was waiting for me (paperwork for the TAD) and I hurried back. When I got to admin, they needed my bank info for some special pay, so I went to berthing for my checkbook. When I returned, I ran into the XO, who told me that my chain of command had worked everything out so that my friend could be substituted for me.

[She was going to Mast that day with our LPO (leading petty officer) for having a personal relationship with him. I know they didn't do anything morally wrong... like showing favoritism or anything like that, but it is against the letter of the Navy's law... no relationships in the same chain of command. The CO was gracious, and only gave them restriction, and moved our LPO to a different ship.

Actually, that was one of two other Masts today. Last weekend, a couple GM3's decided it would be fun to steal some candy and headphones from a local store. Except they were caught, arrested, and went to court... missing a day of work. The CO, over the announcement system yesterday, said they embarrassed the ship. I thought he was pretty easy on them, giving them only the full 45 days restriction. The third wasn't too big a deal... an E-3 overslept off the ship on a duty day. She got only a little restriction. Goodness! So many in one day!]

So everything is back to normal (I'm excited I still get to see my husband, and disappointed I missed out on the training at the same time... very conflicted). I spent the rest of the day at the NEX and the Internet cafe, and even found time for a stroll on the beach, picking up a few last shells before we leave tomorrow. I also picked up dinner for my friends who could not now leave the ship, and we spent the evening together talking about everything. They're both leaving for Norfolk by van in the wee small hours to go to those destroyers tomorrow. 

Working Weekend and a Medically Messy Monday

Saturday was super long. Little confusion in the morning about if we were operating the wardroom. After breakfast Young and I worked our tails off field-day-ing the mess decks. The cooks were working hard on the galley, and I don't believe we had a break before lunch began. Juggled the jobs around a bit, because I did not have to do the Chief's mess (weekend in port). After lunch we all watched the Florida-Georgia game... so many turnovers! Unfortunately, it took 2 hours for Chief to let us off after dinner, instead of the usual 30-40 minutes. She had us field-day-ing some more... including cleaning under the scullery equipment. We were all ready to leave when we did.

I took the duty van to Town Center for a visit to Panera Bread at 1945 (about 20 min after we were let go). They gave me a free coffee when they noticed my NWU-style laptop bag! Not only that, but when I went back to pick up the chicken noodle soup-to go I paid for, the guys in the back gave me two extra bowls of broccoli-cheddar for free (they were closing soon). I spent all the time there posting the pictures of the dolphin encounter I had at Marineland a couple weeks ago. Wouldn't have been able to finish if they hadn't been open the extra hour for Saturday night.

Sunday was a little better. More easy-going cooks (they rotate every day), and I was asked nicely to field-day the Chief's mess corner of the galley. Inspired to put everything straight, I worked the entire time between meals again. The most difficult thing was cleaning all those salt and pepper shakers; they were a shambles. :) After serving a very satisfying brunch (tuna casserole and grilled sandwiches) I was pretty tired from standing up for the two-hour meal. After taking out the trash, and watching a bit of the Dolphins-Jets game, I took a beautiful, half-hour nap in the back corner. It was grilled steak for dinner... and that was so popular, we ran out for the last half-hour of the meal. Sailors had to satisfy themselves with the baked chicken breasts and legs. :) After everything was cleaned up, a bunch of us watched the Cowboys-Giants game. Nail-biter to the end!

What really surprised me though was after watching an ad for the new movie Lincoln, one of the guys started talking about how Lincoln didn't care about slavery, and how he owned slaves himself! I stood up for the former president and emphatically denied these absurd allegations. Oh, here's a neat site on the topic: http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2008/02/lincoln.html. The cook who swore up and down that Lincoln did, said he found this undeniable fact on the Internet somewhere. Sigh.

It was so surprising, because earlier in the day, while Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter was playing on one of the mess decks TVs, another cook swore up and down that Lincoln actually did believe in vampires and sent out military units to destroy them, or keep them from coming here from England. LOL! Where and when will it stop? At least the cook admitted that this was a conspiracy theory. But he seemed convinced of it himself because of "documentary proof". Oh, dear.

~

As for my medically messy Monday, I worked breakfast and then found out after quarters that I was off for the rest of the day. But my name was mentioned on the list for people still needing the yearly Typhoid shot (I was due yesterday, actually). HM1 told me to go to the medical building on base to get my blood drawn for an HIV test (mandatory, of course) first, so after changing into my regular working uniform, I walked all the way to medical... in the refreshingly chilly October wind (that reminded me of my favorite parts of boot camp... when we got to march outside).

The problem was, they didn't have the order in their system. So after sending me to go put my info into the system with records, they said I'd have to get with whoever sent me to put an order in. Unfortunately, I didn't have the quarterdeck's number (it's changed a few times with all our recent moves) and all my friends were not answering. Thankfully, the assistant supply officer was there too, and she gave me a ride back to the ship. But when I dug my hand into my pocket, I realized I had left my ID card at medical. I showed my driver's licence, and both watch stations let me back onto my ship. Thank God, but it scared me!

HM1 had sent the order in, but it got fouled up along the way. As she had me right there, she gave me the Typhoid shot in my left arm. Since she needed to pick something up from medical anyway, she drove me back over there, got me in the system and blood was drawn from my right arm. Drove me back too! So nice! Although punctured twice, and although I was very flustered and frustrated about the whole thing, I found my ID card in the waiting area when we went back to medical, so everything ended well.

I stayed on the ship to eat lunch, and fill out the form for my yearly physical health assessment (PHA), but they didn't have time to finish it with me. Will have to do that tomorrow when we start the weigh-in's for the PRT. So many acronyms!

For the rest of the day, I bummed around on base between noon and six-ish. Did my laundry (took a nap while I did), ate at Pizza Hut, went to the NEX at least twice, and bought a sandwich on my way back to the ship. Ran into someone from A-school the 2nd time at the NEX... turns out she's on the other DDG on our pier... #68... USS The Sullivans. But after dumping my things off at my rack, I went back outside to see if the duty van with my friends going to Town Center was still there... and it was. Four of us Sonar Techs went out to eat at a sushi place, then looked around in B&N, then got cheesecake to go from the Factory on the corner. Took a while to get picked up again, but we all got back to the ship in one piece.

Part-Timer

Wednesday the 24th was my scheduled day off before getting underway this weekend. I left Tuesday night and Got Out of Dodge. Turns out with the submarine that pulled in that day (and docked next to us!), the Best Western I stayed at was nearly full (but not full enough!). That meant I did see some uniforms the next day, but I didn't see them long. Picked up my car rental and spent a wonderfully lazy day of doing whatever popped into my head. Some eating, shopping, reading and also swimming a 500 at the glorious, 7-lane, Olympic-sized, outdoor pool that's only open til 1300. That's the problem with NS Mayport... everything closes way too early for working Sailors. When I took a friend out to dinner, she told me about the schedule change, and about how the barge was taken away that morning. I hadn't got my bike off yet, so I was a little worried until I got back that night and found it safely parked in the port helo hanger with everyone else's. Whew!

Thursday morning was a wild one. As soon as breakfast was over (I spent about 5 minutes eating mine after quarters), I went right to cleaning the forward Chief's berthings. The male berthing took a while... I cleaned and set up the hand soap dispenser that was lying on the counter and had to wipe down practically every inch of the sinks and mirrors, besides the usual sweeping. The female berthing took about one minute... had to empty the trash.

When I got back to the galley, the cooks were yelling for me to set up the Chief's mess. A busy one too... Taco Thursday. Besides the usual line items that sit in the heating sinks, there were the taco fixings and lots of fruit to set out. Besides all this (and making sure everything was kept full during the meal), I took care of all the galley trash, taking a load of six bags out to the dumpster. I had about 10 minutes to eat my taco (while watching the stupidest zombie movie on AMC... of course), and besides that, I was on my feet all day. So by the time lunch was all cleaned up, I put myself on break. Lay down in the rack below mine (which is empty) with my pillow and fell asleep for almost an hour. Got up refreshed and ready to take on dinner and with the firm belief that the Navy should adopt siestas into the working day.

Due to the schedule change, I was told I had the rest of the day off when I got back to the mess decks. And just 15 minutes later, over the 1MC (announcing circuit), the XO said they were holding a mock PRT (physical readiness test) for command PT that day. I was excited, as this was the first one I had been able to participate in (due to my FSA schedule... we have to be ready with dinner when everyone is done) and with the upcoming PRT, I could check myself. Passed everything, and blew the curl-ups out of the water like normal. 96! ...an Outstanding without practicing for them! My push-ups were dismal, as normal; only 26 (but a Satisfactory is a mere 13 for my age group). I walked with a small group to the other on-base gym to see what my bike score would be. With 103 calories burned... that was a Satisfactory... which is really not, in my opinion. I need to burn 138 for an Excellent, which would be just fine by me. But we only did 12 minutes, whereas in the actual thing, it can take up to 14. So I think I was on a good track.

Silly weather... Hurricane Sandy popped onto the weather map and delayed our getting underway. And because Chief didn't want the other section to have to work a 3rd weekend in a row, she changed up the schedule, and now I'm working Saturday and Sunday, even though I worked last weekend.

Because of this, I was given half of Thursday off, and all of today off, although I had to be there for our "Fast Cruise" drills. I was under the impression that we'd actually be getting underway for the day, but all it meant was that we would be pretending to in order for everyone to know what to do (especially our new people). The first was Sea & Anchor, where I read my book out on the flight deck (where I'm assigned as a line-handler). The second was a General Quarters drill, and I remembered where I was supposed to be. This was the general purpose, and I did learn that I needed to have my flash gear (knitted hood and arm-length gloves for fire-fighting) with me; so it was a success. But what I really loved about the day was being able to sleep in and eat my own cereal for breakfast (on my own time) and not worry about any work. I ate lunch on the ship (took a break from watching a movie in Sonar 1) and felt very odd, just eating and letting everyone else do the work. It was very Deja Vu from before I was cranking.

When Monday Feels Like Thursday

Monday was my forth day in a row working, but it is also the first day in the week and the first normal working day in a few.

The worst thing about life in the Navy is waking up. After that, things went fine for me today. Started out right, making coffee for the Chiefs, then I cleaned up the previous night's mess in the scullery... digging the food out of the grinder with little paper plates. Set up the washer, sent everything through it, then got the dishes out on the line with a little help from my friends.

Worked the Chief's mess, then had quarters like usual. CSC then gave the other guy and I a tour of the Chief's berthings and showed us what we needed to do. I'm in charge of the forward berthings, and have to sweep them, empty the trash, and stock the TP and brownies (paper towels). I was unable to do all that yesterday (especially as I had to hunt both down), as I was kept busy in the galley hauling trash out (I lugged 19 bags myself over the day... pretty much everything) and doing the deep sink for one of the slackers in the division. This last thing took from well before lunch to well into dinner. The other guy simply refused to do it even though he was assigned to it as I found out later. Not a big deal for me though. It was my first time on it, so it wasn't so bad.

CS2 got me out of there at 1800, and I went over to the barge to finish up getting moved back onto the ship. Took a shower, did my laundry, then packed it away and made my very own rack onboard Truxtun. It was a late night, but well worth it to be moved back in.

Today has gone much smoother... It's good when a person already knows what to do when the day begins. After all my duties were done in the morning, I went out to the bow to sit and rest. Saw a few schools of Jacks... they were huge! ...as they swam next to the ship, just below the surface in the parts illuminated by the penetrating sunshine. Also saw dozens of pelicans out for a feeding frenzy, a seahawk circling above, a heron gliding across the bay, and the usual egret.

This time I did the Chief's Mess during lunch, like I'm supposed to, but I also helped out the new guy on the deep sink. I scraped the remaining food off of pans and put some of the clean things away for him. Took out a few bags of trash (can never get away from it), and helped out in the scullery, putting things away, or out on the line where people needed them. After breakfast I had got some condiments up from stores, and just before dinner I was able to get CS1 while he was at his desk so he could give me coffee creamers... both the mess decks and the Chief's mess were out. This could have been a crisis. :)

CS2 had me wrap nine loaves of white bread, five for dinner and four for tomorrow. There was the usual trash after dinner (a good shrimp dinner too!), and then I helped with breakouts for the next day, organizing the bread cabinet and putting the six trays of 30 eggs each into the refer. I felt like I was all over the place. Had to sweep the p-way after all this, then to top it off, the mop handle broke just as we were about to finish. Randomly, Chief had us gather up all the paper plates and plastic utensils just before we were let go, for the people working tomorrow to move down to stores so no one wastes them.

All Sorts of Emotions

Friday was the last day in drydock. Everything was normal until lunch... The air conditioning went down during the thickest part of the meal. Normally the scullery gets to about 88 degrees... Without the air, the steam from the 180 degree water made it 98 in that little room. It was about 15-20 minutes before the relief began to blow down on me. The sweat was dripping off my face, but I knew I just had to soldier through it.

As I nearly finished, I was aware of someone with a khaki belt behind me. Assumed it was either a duty officer come to read the temps, or a Chief come to rinse out a coffee mug. Turned out to be the commanding officer... who stopped by in order to compliment me on my writing of this Navy blog. He said he recently happened upon it, and that he enjoyed it, and that I should continue it. Was that ever nice to hear! Absolutely made me smile the rest of the day. :)

Saturday was rather singular, even though it was a typical breakfast to begin. I worked the scullery on the barge alone for the last time. Lots of things were carried over to the ship while I finished up the dishes. Quarters was brief, and right afterwards I made sure to get my bicycle aboard before we sailed away. By 0830, I figured out that we didn't have to haul *everything* over to the ship that morning, so I made my way to the ship with a book in my pocket so I wouldn't get bored out of my mind with all those hours of waiting.

I went straight to the port helo hanger to wait with the other sonar techs assigned line-handling near there. I fell asleep sitting in a chair from the gear locker. When I woke about an hour later, I had a perfect imprint of my belt buckle on my right forearm. A self-inflicted, extremely temporary, very red tattoo of the ship and crest (with every detail showing).

Right as I woke at 1000, the drydock began to intentionally sink into the river. We watched for the first hour as the water slowly crept up under us, finally lowering us to water level a few hours later. It was neat to see the steep steps up the side of the dock disappear into the murky depth every few minutes.

A few minutes after the hour, we went in for lunch. Tuna sandwiches on paper plates... And then I hung out in sonar one for the first time in a long time. Watched a bit of the air show going on in Jacksonville Beach, then it was time to man the sea & anchor stations. I am a line-handler on line four (on the fantail). My line leader assigned me to help get the three aft lines out of the hold. The other guy assigned wasn't very pleased about having to do it, but I didn't mind. What you haven't done, you can't truly dread. :) It wasn't too bad... A little warm... And I had always been curious about how to get the line out.

Then we waited a real long time. Got underway (clear of the drydock) on schedule, and we were towed to Naval Station Mayport by various tugs. Saw lots of dolphins around the the ship, especially as we arrived. Saw lots of pelicans, gulls, bright-orange butterflies, a few floating jellies, and the ferry all loaded up with people (who looked like they were taking pics as we passed in front of them). But the most thrilling thing was watching the Blue Angels perform as we transited. The #5 jet circled our ship! I was suddenly struck with how cool it was that we were in the same service. Fat Albert, the Angels's C-130 transport plane was the first to fly over us... and it looked like it was right over my head!

Dinner was pizza and pasta... By that time we had tied up to the pier and been let go from our detail. So I stayed on the mess decks after eating and helped out with the trash and the like. We had a bunch of breakouts of food for the next day. I had to carry big hunks of frozen meat up the three ladderwells on the barge in order to cross the brow onto the ship, then down two ladders to the galley... Over sixty steps, one-way. After finally being let off, I went fishing off the barge (to escape the long wait for the shower) and caught a salt-water catfish within seconds. Then I decided I'd start moving my stuff over to the ship to avoid having to do it while the whole ship was busy. I ended up taking nearly everything over, and that wore me out.

Today drove me nuts. We in supply put in a whole workday's worth of effort by the time the sun came up. We made countless trips over those sixty steps, bringing *all* the mess gear (what a loose term!) back to the Truxtun. With that completed, it was time to clean. I was shown what had to be done in the Chief's mess, as they picked me to be their "crank" or food service attendant because they felt they could trust me not to talk about what I hear in there. I'm very flattered, and I hope I keep the coffee to their expectations. :)

We even served lunch in there today after CSC said I didn't need to get it ready for a few days. I made sure all their things were moved over with everything else. I even made a special trip for carrying their little brass bell. Oh, that's right... I need to find some polish for tomorrow.

Dinner was disasterous though. My knees and feet hurt pretty bad from all those steps... Combs and I even took out ten bags of trash ourselves before it started. Then I had the great idea of getting the dishes out for dinner to help people feel back to normal. Didn't bother to check and see if the food grinder (garbage disposal) was working or not. Turns out it wasn't. So there is a huge mess there still, and I hope it can get straightened out tomorrow. It was the last thing I needed right then, after a really long and tiring weekend. I wanted to tell the cooks to leave me alone and other worse things... and I nearly burst into frustrated tears. Thankfully, nothing like any of that happened, and they finally let us off at 1900. I'm now resting (with my feet up) and I feel tons better.

Just a Few Things

Monday, Tuesday, and half of Wednesday, actually.

Monday the 15th, the best thing that happened was being able to see the dolphins so close to the barge as they went on a feeding frenzy. They were even jumping out of the water completely, and I saw one juggling a fish as it did! What a circus! I was able to catch a Jack again on my newly replaced pole from Walmart.

Tuesday, I kept myself busy by cleaning all the 600+ yogurt lids we're saving to send in to the Susan G. Koman Foundation. Otherwise, Chief went off as she does sometimes about the FSAs not cleaning between the meals (I was guilty myself of napping in the lounge on Monday). That night, I had a nice long talk with Mom, Dad, Andie, Beckie and Micah! Beckie had just gotten her first pet... a blue and white parakeet she named Tweety-Bird. :) Just like my little Sweet-Peep. :)

Wednesday, we had command sweep of urinalysis testing. I nearly forgot about it I was kept so busy in the scullery by myself for breakfast and lunch. I would have hopped on a van for Town Center before I remembered, but the first one before dinner was going to Mayport. CSC conducted it for NC1, LSC and myself. I felt a little out of place as these senior petty officers were joking around together. And to top it off, I was in my civies! Thankfully, that made no difference for providing a urine sample. :)

I've been keeping my boots very shiny as I have lots of time to shine them. The ship was drawn freehand by one of our Ensigns on the wardroom whiteboard... !

Berthing... view from my rack.

Here's a pic of a t-shirt from the NEX this last weekend. It's the same as my maiden family name's (Payne) motto.

Feast or Famine

The deal was that Combs, another FSA, would take my workday today after I took his Monday. He had a four-day weekend last weekend, and I'd have a four-day weekend this weekend; and combined with my half day yesterday, makes it more like five.

As I noted last, we had a problem with the water tanks... the problem continued all day long on Saturday, even though they promised we'd have it back Friday night. They had it up and running on Sunday though, so that was nice. I had a job again! Weekend duty isn't too bad... there is no quarters in the morning, no stores on-loads, and no berthing inspections... so I don't have to worry about straightening my rack, folding my blankets, locking everything up in my drawers and hiding my nearly-empty-backpack behind my pillow (I don't have enough room)... at 0445. :) So one can relax a little bit. I think I took several naps over the two days, watched a lot of football (Navy/Air Force, Gators/LSU college games on Sat -they let us off for dinner- and a bit of Dolphins/Bengals on Sun), and read quite a bit in The Hobbit.

I was sort of ready for everything to start up again on Monday, and the transition wasn't as bad as coming back from a weekend off, believe it or not. It was kind of hard to go straight into long days of work though. We had stores on-load right away. My self-appointed project of this week was to straighten up the condiments on the mess decks. Separated out the ketchup, mayo and relish packets... and good thing... we had burgers yesterday and we're out of the mayo bottles. Also, no one had bothered to notice that we were out of coffee creamers all weekend, and I even had the CO ask for some Monday morning. That really got my interest spiked in getting the 1st classes to get some for me from stores (only they have the keys). Put them out after lunch, and got several comments in just a few minutes... especially from the wardroom. Also thought we needed ketchup and mustard, and brought up a couple cases of those. Good thing, because people drink ketchup on burger days. :)

Tuesday was the other scullery guy's last day. We got an un-designated seaman as his replacement, and I like this guy a lot better. Takes care to do everything well, and thinks about what's going on. We talk about music too, because he likes classical and singing. I showed him everything and set him up to work that day, and the next day he told me he wished that FSA was a rate! :)

It helped a whole lot to have this long weekend ahead of me through Monday and Tuesday. Even though Wednesday was a half-day, I worked like crazy. We had stores on-load and a milk on-load right after it. Helped CS1 down in the refer (walk-in fridge and freezer next to it), and took the trouble to get the milk and juices loaded up, even though I'm not in charge there. Our new mess decks MA is not a hard charger like FC1 was, and I find myself leading quite a bit. I don't mind though... :) We've had a lot of new people in, and since I celebrated my half-way mark yesterday, I have a bit of seniority.

The five long days in a row are over, the four off are upon me!

Water, Heads, Rain, Fish & Chaplains

Well, yesterday and today were a little wild. Thursday began normally enough... Until the sewage backed up onto the mess decks and galley again (first time in a week or so, actually). So we shut off the dishwasher, and I was out of a job. During quarters we found out that we had a mandatory flu shot at 0800. After the shot, we did some sweepers and took out some trash, but then I took a wonderful nap in the lounge because there wasn't anything else. That was, of course, until lunch, when I had to get the washer up to speed post haste. So that was hot and heavy. Chief even came in, checked the temp (88 deg. F) and told me to go get a drink of water.

Right afterwords I got off since it was my early day. Walked to the parking lot in uniform just as it was starting to rain. In seconds it was pouring. I was on my way to the Lay Leader training at 1400 on Naval Station Mayport. Borrowed the restricted FSA's black Mustang, and got there just in time. This training is one of the three things a Sailor needs to become an official religious leader on their ship. The other two are letters from our church confirming the tradition you say you belong to and also a letter from the CO at the end, confirming it. It was nice to get the first step accomplished, and get to know exactly what I'd be doing. Main responsibilities (while underway) include conducting services (with only a devotional... no sermons), leading the evening prayer over the 1MC (general announcing), organizing Bible studies, and providing general encouragement.

When I got back, the water was off yet again. But on the way home I stopped by Target for some steel spoons (the ship is running dreadfully low because people take them... and I have to work harder to get the few we have out on the line), and got Arbys in the drive-through... With the two-hour training, I didn't get back to the barge until 1800. Somebody else was waiting to use it. :) It started pouring soon after, so I went fishing for a while, until I caught two little trout, lost my bait,and ended up breaking the tip of my $8 rod trying to get it unstuck from a rope in the water.

Today we had more trouble with the water, so I was bored out of my mind whenever we were not doing stores onload or breakouts. They even delayed quarters by ten minutes because of the food truck that came. It was mostly frozen meat... which was very heavy, especially down the skinny, steep ladders. After breakouts for tomorrow, a milk truck arrived with fifteen, five-gallon boxes. Those also had to go down into the refer. Other than all that, I took a couple nice long naps between meals, even dreaming during them. Dinner tonight seemed to take forever, but here I am, resting in my rack, finally. I made it through another day. Hopefully we will get the use of our heads back tomorrow. Kind of odd, having to use a trailer.

The Next Three Days... and pics

My new home... the scullery. These are the wardroom silver, that I tried to de-tarnish by scrubbing... the stack of mess trays that I have to keep moving back to the line after every meal... and a typical breakfast. The pizza boxes were ordered the first time we lost the water on the barge.

 










I did see one during a late-night talk with my husband... :)

The mirror is at an angle, so it makes a person look a bit skinnier than they actually are. :)

I thought this last one was funny at the time... this is in the crew's lounge. An officer and a 1st class with some sort of expectations... :)

I think the river is beautiful! Lots of time to sit and watch it, that's for sure! In fact, I go out there often between meals since it's right next to the mess decks, but it's serene. I fish there a lot, and sometimes just relax... and sometimes I see turtles! One of the officers agreed with me when they stopped by one afternoon.

There's only been three working days since last I posted! Thursday the 27th was a long day, and besides not even getting a bite while fishing, the only thing of note is that I set up my boot polish in the scullery for myself and the other FSAs to use before quarters. I put a good shine on my own, touching it up the next day. I gave up my early day on Friday, switching with GM3 so she could go out with a friend. I'll get one back tomorrow!

Yesterday, October 1st, I had the scullery all to myself; and that means a lot of work! The other guy who works in there had the day off (like me today!). Chief did a uniform inspection at quarters, and only one person was talked to about their boots. :) Afterwords, Chief told me that I had been selected as the Chief's Mess FSA. So I took the time to straighten it up a little (that's really all I need to do, anyway). It was another long day, but I got to stay at a hotel that night! :)