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.