On the Road Again
Well, here I am, once again, playing the part of the motivated, dedicated, traveling soldier who willingly abandons his family in search of the next great adventure. My hopes are that my superiors believe the acting job and that the ones abandoned see through it. Angie gets extremely frustrated now, each time I leave. I know her anger is targeted at the situation, which leaves three females crying as I drive away (very pitiful), but sometimes it seems she can't help but be angry at me, since I am the one who volunteered my family for this service. Nothing I do on the road is is as fulfilling as spending a Saturday in the backyard with Angie and the girls, but I have to admit there are times when my job is exciting enough to temporarily distract me from how much I miss them.
This past week, we've been conduction insertion training from helocopters. This includes fastroping, rappeling, casting zodiacs and swimmers into the water, and spie rigging. Spie is basically dangling yourself and 4 of your best buddies from a rope underneath a helo flying at 100 mph at 1000 feet. It's just a little bit of a rush, especially at night. Don't worry Mom, the pilots we're working with are literally the best in the world. This was best demonstrated when during one of our night insertions, we experienced an unexpected, drastic altitude loss, and bounced off the water. Most pilots would have panicked, but these guys just laughed it off and said over the radio, "Whoops! Sorry fellas, have sombody paint that yellow." In the crew area, my assistant cast master cut his eyes at me and mouthed, "What the @$#?" I then did the same to the crew chief, who just shrugged, so I turned and gave a thumbs up to my assistant and said, "He's not nervous, so we must be good." It was pretty funny, but I think everybody's orafaces were puckering a little.
Anyway, all that said and done, my most exciting moment this week was seeing the picture of Squirt. Angie, my nickname could not have been more appropriate when I saw the ultrasound. Also, the picture of Pops with the grandkids got many comments. One of the guys looking over my shoulder noted that Delaney and Maddy really stuck out in a crowd. I could not have been more proud of those two beautiful girls.
Well, that's all for now. I'll write again in a few days.
2 comments:
Hello Sweetheart! I'm glad you finally posted. Don't be ridiculous, I'm never mad at YOU when you go...my anger is more targeted at the idiot that says, "You're leaving Wednesday...No, Monday...No, Friday!" You're just the one that gets to hear me bitch and cry. Sorry! Give me his name and I'll gladly call him up;) I just wish they could get their crap together sometimes. It's obviously NOT a woman running the command!!! Sure, it SUCKS when you're gone, but it just makes us appreciate you and everything you do that much more! COME HOME SOON!
I love reading your posts. You note that I am commenting on your post. I know it is nice to know that someone really does read and appreciate what you write. Please be careful and let us hear from you as often as you have time. Be thinking about when you all might come for the weekend to visit. We would love to see ya'll when we don't have a lot of other stuff going on...just a nice relaxing weekend visit. We love ya'll. Love, MOM
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