Midnight Madness
1954 – RAS (Refuel at Sea) complete and we just did emergency breakaway which is a pretty standard procedure to pull away from the other ship. I was down in radio the entire time so I didn’t get to see much but I can sure feel it. We are booking right now. Heavy Rolls! Tonight is gonna be a long night, I tried to get some sleep earlier but my rack is right below the loudspeaker and every time they make an announcement underway they blow a whistle and it’s piercing. So I got some really good sleep in 15 minute spurts which didn’t exactly refresh me the way I hoped. I have watch tonight and maybe some training, we are time shifting tonight which means an extra hour of watch.
2300/2200 – Time shift just occurred. We are officially on Samoan time. It’s a long way from 0645 and there is not a lot I can do because I am not qualified on anything.
2248 – This boat is rocking and my one Dramamine pill for the day is wearing off. I hope I can make it till 0645. Today we have GQ (General Quarters) at 1300 so if I am lucky, I will get 5 or 6 hours sleep. I am not sure how much of that type of schedule I will be able to take. I thought mids would be a good chance to train but so far it is not looking like that.
2312 – So I started reading Kathy Griffin’s new book that just came out last week and OMG it is amazing. I am only a chapter in and already my stomach is hurting from laughing. I can’t wait to get some free time and read some more.
0219 – Over July 4th weekend, I went to Vegas with my best friend. We had a great time as always, the whole weekend was amazing until the drive home when I ended up rear ending a truck near Riverside, CA. It was a minor fender bender with no damage to the truck and slight-ish damage to my rental. Naturally, I had declined coverage through the rental company because I had coverage with USAA. It turns out that while this is technically true, the denied my claim because of some clause that wasn’t disclosed to me but to the rescue came American Express which I used for the rental. Never leave home without it, indeed! Anyway, Hertz has been anything but convenient in trying to get this situation resolved especially in light of my deployment but after several letters I finally got a response from a live human being who has forwarded me all the correspondence which I can now forward on to AMEX. I hope AMEX covers it but if they don’t it’s only about $450.
0336 – About 3 hours to go if everything goes according to schedule (which it never does.) I was just standing out on the flight deck in the pitch black looking at the stars, listening to the wake from the ship. It’s breathtaking looking up into the heavens. I don’t think I have ever seen so many stars, growing up in the city I never realized how many there were and how bright they are. .
0405 – I am either getting sick or dying today. In the last couple hours, my chest and back have really started aching. It hurts when I breathe deep and I got a cough developing. This is great, we’ve been underway for less than 24 hours and I already got swine flu.
0656 – Waiting to be released so that I can come back in 4 hours. Hurting doesn’t even begin to describe it.
Comments (2)
my bed is jacking up my spine and ribs. They didn't even want to give me
motrin. I was like, are you kidding me? I got a few hours sleep today
and it feels marginally better but I think I might be able to sleep the
whole day tomorrow and maybe that will help.
