Well, one thing I’ve learned in the Army is to be flexible and sometimes you have to be able to bend backwards completely just to keep up with the changes that go on. To make a long story short, I will now be going on R&R in May. This works out better for me because I wanted to go as late in the deployment as I could and I have a new Soldier who wants to go in April. I should be getting home about the time the girls are getting our of school for the summer, but they don’t know that and we aren’t going to tell them. Of course, if Courtney or Mary get onto this site they could read it for themselves. Courtney is doing very well with school and Mary has already learned how to read. These girls are smart and I don’t think they got it from me.
Today is Sunday and I have been trying to take Sundays as an easy day. I still go into work but I don’t stay too long and I also wear my PT (physical fitness) uniform instead of my ACUs. It makes for a nice break before we start another week. I worked to get my Soldiers a day off and that paid off last weekend when they are started a schedule of less hours and a day off a week. Most of them didn’t have a day off for about 2 months and they were working 12 hour shifts. That has changed and I think we will be better off for it, a little bit of time off will pay off greatly.
Nothing much new is going on, just counting the days. It’s hard to believe that March is half way over but there are also times when it’s hard to believe it is only March. I will be ready to go on leave but I don’t think I will be ready to have to come back here.
It’s also hard to believe that I will be putting in for my retirement in just about 1 year and 3 months. The Army has given us a good life but I think it’s time to hang it up and move on. Paula and I are pretty much tired of moving every three years and not knowing what the next duty station may hold. It can be a bit exciting at times, like Germany, but there is a lot of stress involved. It’s one of those things that most people in the states have to idea about. It’s a tough life and I am glad I did my part but I think it’s time to let others to thiers for a while. So with that, I will be looking for a job soon. I am pretty handy with a hammer, a computer, a camera, an Air Traffic Control Tower, Lego, shooting things, tanks, brooms and mops, shining things (boots, floors etc), cooking, I think I remember how to muck (but I never farmed it, only seemed to wear it), lawn mowing, fence and deck building, and a whole other laundry list of things. I guess I would be considered a “Jack of all trades and master of none”.
On a good note, I am only three classes away from finishing my Associates Degree in Information Technology and I am in two of those three classes now, math and english. I will have them done before I go home on leave and all I have left when I get back is Speech. I am also already planning on my Bachelors and hope to have that started before I leave here in about 12 months or so.
Anyways, take care all and I will try to keep this updated once a week at least. Bye bye.
