Sunday, July 30, 2006

Maybe he's not ready to die

My lizard just ate for the first time in over a month. He was in his thing on top of a rock, he hasn't done that in a while either. I thought, hm let's just see. I took out a cricket, one of two that are left because the rest died wating to be eaten, and threw it in. He seen it and was off that rock quick. He got up to it and waited for it to move again and got it. I'm so proud of him.

I have tried to keep his light off at night and his heat pad plugged in during the day when the air is on to try and keep his cage temperature right. I also did that soaking him thing a couple of times this week.

I guess that if he's going to live I'll have to find a person that will take care of him while I'm on all my trips and deployments. And by take care of him I do mean a person that is smart enough to know that lizards don't drink Power Aid.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

365 Mother F*c*in Days!!

What? That's right, today is the one year mark. One more year and I'm done with all the stupid shit in the Air Force.
Today the security manager for the squadron, or whatever, wanted to know where I was born. I asked her why she wanted it. She said it was for my secret clearance. I thought I had one from years ago, I guess not. I asked her how long it was going to take to get done and she said it was going to take a while. I told her that if it's going to take more than a year, and it is, not to worry about it. She asked why. I told her that I'm getting out in about a year. She wanted to know just how much longer I have. I told her a year today. She was like if you don't get it you won't be able to get a good job when you get out. Oh well, pretend that I care.
Don't you just hate that people in the Air Force try to get you to do things that may or may not benefit you later in the Real World? Why waste my time? If I happen to stay I'll worry about a clearance then. I was able to put off getting a line badge for seven years, you think I'm going to rush out and get a clearance. No.
Also got an email that sais that everyone on my AEF will be going to Jersey, and by Jersey I do mean Fort Dix, in November for training. I sure hope I get over to the desert. I would hate to once again waste my time getting trained to not use what I've learned. I'm guessing that since I have to go train that I'm not going to the vacation spot this time. Yes, that would be Qatar.
I'll probably get on writing that SERE story that I've had to do since the end of last month. Then I probably should get on writing more so that I don't completely suck over there.

Monday, July 24, 2006

Another crazy day out

This morning I woke up to the dog jumping up and down because he got out of bed. It was about 11, he went out at 8 and didn't really go back to sleep. I heard the neighbors discussing the power lines going to our houses. They had been talking about cutting a dead tree in between the housed down. A little after they quit discussing power lines I heard what sounded like a hand saw. I tried to go back to sleep then I heard the branches start to fall, no big deal. Then I heard a couple fall on the roof. I decided to get out of bed since I sleep right under that tree.
Pedro really wanted out so I put on my shoes and went outside. He goes running to that side of the house. I notice a ladder leaned against my roof and see the gate open. Pedro stops and I rush to get him. That's when I seen the big pile of branches on the ground. He said he had come and knocked on the door to let me know he was going to be up there cutting the small branches so they wouldn't fall on the wires. Since Pedro's room is where the door to the house is and I kept the door from his room to the main part of the house closed I didn't hear him knock. After all the small branches came down, the lady and me carried them to the piles by the road. Yes, I helped, I was awake and didn't have anything better to do.
After the little branches where out of the way it was time to cut the main branches from the trunk. A rope was used to pull them so they would fall on the ground and not the wires. He chainsawed while I pulled. Those came down and then it was time for the trunk. He cut through it a bit and we pushed it down.
I noticed something in the front yard. I went to go look and it was what used to be a squirl. It was no longer recognizable as a squirl, except for the color and tail. It is now in one of the piles of branches.
I decided to cut the grass today. I was going to do it tomorrow but I figured that since I was already awake and productive then I should just go ahead and do it. I only did the front because the back is all dead, even the weeds. Everything in the front is dead too, except the weeds. It hasn't rained all month. That and hundred degree heat seems to kill grass. Who knew.
This was also the second time I've been to a movie alone, this month. That part wasn't too bad. It was better than last time. I also actually went to a restaurant. That part was terrible. I probably won' t do that again. Although I did get to listen to a couple discuss the conditions of a three way, if they ever have one. I'm going to get me a dinner and a movie girl I think. That's a great idea.

Monday, July 17, 2006

Damn near 3 o' clock... and I'm awake

There I was, trying to go to sleep. I had a headache and took some pills for it. They seemed to take a while to work. I was laying in the bed until 1:00 or so. I got up to get some water and while I was up decided to get online and see about why my lizard is about half the size it was a month ago. It, like the dead one, hasn't eaten in quite a while. I came to the conclusion that there could be a couple of reasons for this.
The first reason might be that he has eaten a bit of moss and caused himself to become blocked up. Any time that I've seen him get a mouth full of the stuff instead of a cricket he spits it out. I put together the little aquarium and put him that while I cleaned his. I threw out the moss, took out the mat, disinfected the glass, and washed his water bowl and rock cave thing. I'll have to get some disinfectant for the water bowl and cave tomorrow. I guess that I can't use the stuff I have for the glass. His cage has the clean mat, which seems to have shrunk in the dryer, in it. I also sat his little cage inside it too.
The second reason could be that his cage temperature doesn't seem to be changing from day to night. That could be because he's been in the kitchen since I lost the electricity in the bedrooms a month and a half ago. I got that problem fixed but never moved him back. The living room and the kitchen don't seem to ever be too cool compared to the bedrooms because I keep the door to Pedro's room open most of the time so he can get to his food and water. We'll see if him being back there helps the temperature problem.
If he doesn't eat in the next couple of days I read about a warm water soak to help move the blockage. Apparently he's supposed to be soaked for 15-20 minutes twice a day until it's gone. That should be fun.
Well, it's now ten to three so I think I'm going to try and do the sleep thing.

Flashback guy update: After almost a month of quiet and only occasional spottings, he seems to be back to his old yelling at whatever time of night ways. I've also seen him watching me a couple of times this week. Once, he was in a crouching position against his house. The other time he was standing up leaning agains the corner. Both times he was gone rather quickly after I seen him. I turn to see where the dog is and turn back and he's gone. It's that quick. I guess as long as he doesn't mistake me for "Charlie" I'll be ok.

Friday, July 14, 2006

Next time I see my CDCs... I'll be burning them

I tested out of my CDCs today. I got a whopping 83. Not too bad for just studying the double highlighted questions. The bad part of that is I had no idea what the answers where for any thing that hadn't been double highlighted. I passed and that's all that matters. It's Air Force stuff, it won't matter next year when I'm rockin the civilian world.

I got my final grade for my social class yesterday too. Final test = 91; Final overall grade = 93. That's right I'm still hanging onto that 4.0. I started to look into classes and since I have trips planned for the next two quarters that would clash with finals, I decided that I will just wait and go back in January. If I don't go over I will be able to get two classes done before I get out. I would do online classes, but the ones at UNC are regular semester schedules. The ones at IU seem a bit shady. That, and I know that I would suck at a self paced year long course. The good news it that the social class will transfer to UNC if that is where I end up going. I'm not too sure which it will be. It will probably be easier for me to get into IU. I'd like that UNC degree though.

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Testing out

I finished my CDCs Wednesday and have my test scheduled for Thursday. I remember back in the day when people got a month to study for the test. Heck, they even got to take practice tests that they had to pass before getting to take the real one. I guess that doesn't happen any more. I asked the civilian in charge and she said that ther are no practices, it's right to the real deal. She also said that there will be no going to see the commander if someone fails the first time. How's that? I don't know. Apparently it's not a big deal until the third failure. I might be a bit nervouse about this test. I shouldn't be since there won't be many reprocutions if I fail since people are normally kicked out after three tries and I'm leaving anyway in a year.

I also got a RIP down today that sais I'm in the bucket for a January trip to the sand box. It's not a for sure trip, they just wanted me to know that I'm on that AEF. I want to go since it will probably be to Qatar and I could use a good long tax free vacation right before I take my terminal vacation and then separate. I'm just not into the idea of not having enough time when I get back to get everything I need to get done before I can go terminal. Oh well, it will work out to be an extra damn near couple grand a month in my pocket. That money will come in handy in the real world, maybe pay off the car without hitting the pocket too much.

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Blue team go. Blue team go

Wednesday, the airman and I went with the SERE Specialists to take pictures of them training the flyers how to evade and survive if they crash. Here are some of the pictures.






Sgt. Turner is teaching everyone how to read a map. I'm sure this shot isn't going to make it into the paper.










Sgt. Turner is showing just how delicious grass- hoppers can be.







Sgt. Turner (the hostile) discusses what is on a blood chit with one of the flyers after finding him.



SrA. Wilson pretends to be in an airplane while running radio comms with the flyers trying to find where they need to be.





Sgt. Turner shows what a good camo job looks like.















The first shirt tries his hand at camoing up while hiding from baddies. That's desert cammo he has on.




This story might just make it into the base paper next week, that is if they put it in. It's been a bit hard to get stuff in it since the big guy PCSed and the other one we deal with has been in the NCO Academy. He's graduated now so we should get more into it. We will also have it in the next Eye in the Sky, in December. Oh, yeah, the current issue came out Friday but it isn't up on the public site yet. I'll let y'all know when it is there.

Monday, July 03, 2006

Homies out of his comfort zone

Today I did two things that I normally don't do.

First, I went to a movie alone. It was Superman Returns and I really wanted to see it and since I don't know people around here to do things with I went by myself. It was a bit weird but I survived, and got to see a pretty good movie.

Second, I actually returned dinner. You see, I went to get pizza and ordered a meat one. When I got it home there was a mushroom and tomato pizza in the box, gross. Normally if the order is close I'll not tatke the time to drive clear back across town, but since this was nowhere near a meat pizza and I don't like mushrooms I took it back.