The begining of the end

It's Sunday, and tomorrow begins my last week here at Sheppard.  I went out early this morning to Target for my last purchase of water for my room, some warmer waterproof gloves for an upcoming exercise and my Starbucks hot chocolate.  YUMMY!

Then I needed to go to Lowes an buy a water hose for my washing machine which broke before I left Florida.  Actually, the hard water in Florida simply made it impossible to unhook it from the wall so I just left it there and bought a new one.  So it will stay in my car until I get to my new home!  On my way to Lowes, I passed one of the restaurants that some of us in HSA frequented, The Texas Roadhouse.  I had never heard of it until I got here, but turns out it is a chain.  Very good food.  I found myself a little sad when I passed it.  I am going to miss going there with the gang. We had a lot of laughs there.  Good memories.

Louisiana is giong to be great.  I am going to be working in Logisitcs.  It was a one in 6 shot where I would be put to work, and logistics will probably be a challenge.  Not the most feminine of duties, but one that I would have had to learn eventually so it will be fine to get it out of the way in this first assignment.  I will be heading up a Mil Con project (military construction).  Hee hee.  It oughta be interesting.  I wonder if they make steel toe combat boots in a size 3 XW. 

Thanksgiving

It's Thanksgiving weekend.  It's been a long while since my last entry back in September.  HSA school is almost over, and even though graduation is only about a week away, I decided to fly home to Florida for Thanksgiving.  I paid way too much for a plane ticket, but I would have paid more to see my family as I got to do yesterday and today.   There are some things just more important than money. 

I have enjoyed HSA for the time that I have been here, and for sure it doesn't feel like it's been almost 3 months that I have been in Texas.  This is a good thing.   It sure helps to be having a good time where you are.  One of the best parts about HSA has been the PT in the morning (if you can believe that!).  But we did our normal running, pushups, and situps 3 mornings per week, but then we played volleyball in teams right afterwards.  I had such a blast playing volleyball.  I pretty much sucked at it, but it was an awful lot of fun.  Spurred some great, healthy competition between the flights.  We had our final PFT (Physical Fitness Test) on Wednesday (right before turkey day), and I did well.  At least as well, if not better than I had done in COT. 

Academically, HSA was not as intimidating as I had anticipated it to be, and I was quite pleasantly surprised to find such a large group of bright young (and some older) people all in one place.  Sure there are one or two that you find yourself wondering how they ever even made it past the 0-6 interview, but you get that in every group I suppose.  Then there are one or two that I have come to know, respect, and care an awful lot for as well in the time I have been here.  The past 4 months between COT and HSA have been anything but normal, and you just tend to get close to those who have shared similar experiences.  Generally speaking, the folks I have been here with are well above average.  Instructors too, which surprised me.  Very sharp individuals.  Some can be a bit hard-nosed, but nothing you don't get over a few minutes after your nerves have been tested.  Of course, as I have gotten older, I have chosen my battles more wisely.   

For now, I am going to get to bed.  I have the most pathetic flight schedule tomorrow for the trip back to Texas.  I will be in 5 different airports by the time I get home.  But the good news is that parking at the Airport in Wichita Falls is only $2.00.  How un-real is that???

 

 

Hi Y'all

I am here in Wichita Falls Texas.  Sheppard AFB.  HSA school.  I found the Starbucks.  Things are good.  I have been here for just over a week now, and the class is going well.  There are even a few other officers that were in COT with me that are now here and I am getting to know better.  We have a relativley small class (34 folks or so) compared to some of the other HAS classes, but I prefer that anyway. 

PT here (Physical Training) is better than it was at COT.  Instead of getting up at 0400 for it, we get up at 0500.  Amazing how relative time becomes, ain't it?  PT consists of a 30 minute run and 3 games of competitive volleyball.  I only played volleyball once in my life.  I was stationed in Germany at the time, and about 38 seconds into the game, someone served a ball and it hit me in the face and broke my nose.  And my glasses.  I haven't played since.  So, I was a little nervous about the whole volleyball thing, but I played and even scored a few points during serves. 

My Florida blood is not used to the cool nights and even cooler mornings here.  As the month rolls on and we get closer to winter, I am actually feeling cool most of the time.  I don't like cold.  Never have, not likely to ever will.  But, that is ok.  I have a coat.  And a sweater.  And socks.  So again, life is good. 

I am meeting some nice people in class, and since the entire MSC (Medical Service Corps) is pretty small, we will all likely run into each other again in the future.  We all eat together in the evenings and sometimes during lunch.  The days are a bit shorter, but the workload (and information for class) is more extensive.  But so far I have been doing well, and even enjoying myself.  After all, I found the local Starbucks. 

*whew*

COT is finally over!  Life is good!  And, I am down to 102 pounds, which by itself is reason enough to be happy.  However, I graduated from COT and things are really good.  I am on my way to Sheppard AFB in Texas, and after leaving Montgomery Alabama yesterday, (just in time as it turns out, they were SLAMMED by hurricaine Ivan mere hours after i got out of there) I am now in Shreveport Louisiana.  I figured i would stop by my new base, Barksdale, where I will be stationed come December and check things out.  I am encouraged.  There are a lot of growing areas, and some decent areas to live as well.  I found the Target and the Starbucks so I could be very happy with that.  

Sleeping in a real bed, in a real room felt very good last night.  And the pedicure I had today felt even better.  My muscles are still sore from the events of the past weeks to include our field exercise and Confidence Course (obstacle course), but I shant let myself go!  I will do more pushups and situps this evening so I don't loose my stride.  I will take off from here tomorrow morning for my drive to Wichita Falls, Texas.  Which is only about 6 hours from where I am now. 

Graduation day was really spectacular.  The only unfortunate thing was that because of the storm, they were closing the airports and the interstates, and many of my classmates family memebers were not able to make it to graduation.  Either way, we graduated that afternoon in a fairly simple ceremony, during which I found out that my flight was HONOR FLIGHT (because Alpha flight RULES), and that evening we had our formal Dining Out.  It was great to see everyone in their Mess Dress uniforms.  Even the FTO's (Flight Training Officers) were there and looking good.

I am only one day post graduation and already the memories are fading.  But I know that overall, I had a good time, I got a lot out of it, and I came in contact with some really great people, that I know I will miss, and hope to see again eventually during my Air Force career. 

Here I am

I have been here at COT for two weeks now and I have survived.   I don't want to say it's been hell, really, but it has been a process of acclimating.  A very UN-pleasant proceess of acclimating.  But what can you do.  You take the good with the bad.  To me, bad is getting up at 0415 to do PC (workout).  I enjoy working out, but I feel somewhat less than enthusiastic about doing it at that time of day.  And I use the term "Day" very loosely.  To me 0415 is still "the night before". 

I feel my age here as well.  I never felt 34 till I got here.  Now I do.  I am very glad I have been working out on my own for the past year and a half.  I would have been in some serious trouble if I hadn't done that. 

Meanwhile, I have about 3 more weeks till graduation, and while I have moments where it feels like a prison sentence, there are other moments when I look back on the previous two weeks and say "where did it go?".  I hope these next three weeks just fly by.  That would be sweet. 

Time is limited here at COT and I will write more as time allows. 

Sitting in the Hotel

So here I sit in Dothan Alabama.  The Marriott here is decent, thank goodness.  I had my doubts driving here, I must admit.  This town is not South Florida.  But it has it's charm, I am sure.

I have just started feeling a bit nervous about the start of COT tomorrow. I called my girlfriend Laura and spoke to both her and her husband, both of whom have already been through COT recently.   They both did thier best to put my mind at ease.  I suppose I shouldn't be surprise at my nerves.   But I at least it only started now, and not weeks ago.  I would be in serious trouble. 

On the drive up here from West Palm I saw a sight I was not completely prepared for.  Hurricaine Charley paid a nasty visit to Florida (just missing us in Palm Beach, thankfully).  But while driving up north on the Turnpike, there was a about a 60 mile stretch from just south of Orlando to about South of Ocala which was just torn up.  There was a diagnal path of trees down, houses with their roof's ripped off, and turnpike road signs and power towers just shattered like they were toothpicks.  It was mind boggeling.     With the stress of COT weighing on my mind right now, I knew if I didn't jot this memory down, I would likely forget.  I didn't want to forget.

It's about 6pm and my body clock says 7pm because I am now in Central Time.  I am almost ready for this whole thing to just start already so I can just get ON with it, you know?  Hopefully I will be able to find time to post entries after tomorrow!

Six days to go

I can't believe it's down to the final week already.   Seems like only yesterday I received my assignment and class start date.   At this point, I am eager to just get going with this already. 

On Friday night, I had dinner with a few friends from my old office.  I can't believe that even though I have been gone for almost 5 weeks, that everyone who was told about it (with the exception of one) was able to come.   I guess I kind of thought that after 5 weeks, most folks wouldn't even remember my name, let alone come to a dinner to say "ciao". A dutch dinner at that!  So I was humbled to say the least.  We went to PF Chang's in Boca and all was plesant.  One of my friends stopped a person outside the restaurant and asked him to take a picture of the group of us and he did.  I will likely get that picture emailed to me today or tomorrow and I can post it up here.

Right now, I am having a craving for Starbucks, so I must answer the demand!