Busy Week!

Monday the 13th, worked all morning receiving lots of boxes of XBTs; had to consolidate some of them so they'd fit. Got to install the new trackball assembly for one of the consoles then I was let go to get a quote for open purchase office supplies at Servmart. Managed to drop off copies of my Lay Leader certificate and church letter to the ministry center on my way out too. Tuesday morning I put the system in training for the ship's events this week. Printed out the open purchase requests, then spent the remainder of the day replacing all 35 pieces of non-skid in all our division's spaces. Got the materials from the deck department in their forward locker. Had to cut the big pieces in quarters, then rounded all the edges to make it look uniform. I only measured the first piece before I realized how easy it would be. Folded the big piece before I cut it to keep my scissors straight through the middle. The result looks fantastic! Before we used three skinny strips laid down together to make a big enough strip for walking safely through doors and hatches... now they are all brand-new, solid pieces, that sparkle in the bright indoor light. Just another reason why Sonar has the best looking spaces on the ship. Wednesday was an odd day all around. Our LPO was in school, so besides quarters being a little different, Senior Chief asked me to attend our DITS out-brief in the wardroom with our Divo and himself. Division-In-The-Spotlight consists of an overall inspection of all a division's programs, binders and spaces. I am in charge of safety, security and repair parts. All three of these received the best marks possible... and high praise from all the inspectors; words like "flawless" "perfect" and "Bravo Zulu" (which is Navy for "well done"). This was only possible because I corrected every hit from the last DITS we had. Still, it felt really good to have things like that said in front of the command. After this and after lunch, I worked on organizing the ZIDL hits (zone inspection deficiencies list) into categories. Also, the Fathometer guys came over to teach me about replacing one of the springs for the chart paper, and they taught me a bit about the wave analyzer that I have to use for one of the annual checks that I have to accomplish this week.  Thursday, I had the first watch... five hours that never seemed to end. Between checking in over fifty contractors and visitors, passing the word, answering the phone and transferring calls (usually more than one at a time), blowing the whistles for colors, and ringing the CO aboard, I was pretty much plum tired out by the time my relief came. I spent the afternoon working in Sonar Control by myself, repairing lagging so I can complete those jobs I wrote for DITS last week. I had trouble with the pennants just before colors... I accidentally let one of the lines go as I was transferring it, and we had to fight with a very heavy safety net pole to bring it back down. But eventually we got it done. So glad I was able to get a full night's sleep!  Friday was a bookend to Monday, since I was able to complete the second Fathometer check that gave me so much trouble last year. This time I was prepared! I knew what I needed (test equipment set up) and I had it explained to me by the experts! Helps a lot! But I knocked that out at the end of the day... I started by going to medical for a screening for an upcoming event.