My blather

Long time no comment

2006-09-27T12:09:43Z

A ton has happened since my last entry. Frankly I've been so down I've had no motivation to write or share since my last entry, and didn't want to make a ton of 'fake' entries that didn't reflect what has been going on in my mind (completely different than what's been going on in my life).

I do promise to catch up eventually. I had to keep a written journal from Aug 15 to Sep 15, so I have alot of material to transcribe over, most of which isn't time sensitive. It isn't very emotionally engaged either, so don't expect any gems once I type them in - most of it is leadership observations & reminiscing.

* Recent event highlights, starting w/ the most recent then proceeding mostly backwards but skipping around some as things come to me:

One of my guys tried to kill himself by swallowing a bottle of Tylenol & half a bottle of Motrin after having a really bad day. He's still alive (thank G-d), but he's obviously headed out of the Navy. /sigh

One of my other guys is in treatment for alcohol abuse. Hopefully he finishes treatment in time before our next underway.

Work is frantically hectic (just put that down to every day of the last two months) and stressful.

I've been promoted to Chief Petty Officer in the United States Navy.
My parents, lovely wife, and all the children were able to see my anchors pinned on at the promotion ceremony which was held while I was out to sea, which was THE highlight of 2006 for me. Mom & Dad flew out 6,000 miles w/ basically 48hrs notice to spend 15 minutes w/ me. Wow. I'm still amazed.
Immediately after the ceremony, we turned the boat around & headed back out for more at sea operations while my family went back to shore on a small boat used for personnel transfers.

I made it through the whole CPO Transition period largely intact.
I did pull one of the major muscles in my upper back during the last underway, but Flexoril, Naproxin, and Motrin helped the recovery & I'm pretty much 'back' in business.

I'm suffering from horrible insomnia lately and can't seem to sleep for more than 3 hours at a clip.

I should be seeing new written orders for another submarine sometime soon (I hope). I won't be leaving this boat as soon as I would have liked, but I will 99% sure be transferring before 2007. All indications are that I'll remain homeported out of Pearl Harbor, so the family won't have to move.

More info later. I'm off to NOT sleep in my bed for 3 hours until I have to get up again for work.

silly blog surveys

2006-09-27T11:53:43Z

You Are 58% Evil

You are evil, but you haven't yet mastered the dark side.
Fear not though - you are on your way to world domination.

How Evil Are You?

Hmmm. I don't feel evil. Dirty, sick, and twisted...yes. But not evil. I'm one of the good guys, I swear. Where's the How Good Are You test?

cavmn @ 2006-07-11T20:37:00

2006-07-12T07:10:01Z

We did better in the trainer today, but still made some errors. We missed a zig. =(
Then it was off to a quick lunch at Taco Hell w/ a few of the guys. Sina met me at Club Pearl so I could snag the van for a meeting in the afternoon that was too far to walk from the boat. Sina arrived w/ the van - and all the kids in tow. I had to disappoint them all by running them all immediately back home - they were expecting a free take-out lunch. Megan plaintively asked Sina as we turned around in the parking lot (talking about lunch)"does this mean peanut butter again?" Sorry, but yes it does...

So after racing back to the boat I managed to catch the last half of the night work / LPO call meeting. I'd only received a 30 second turnover from Chief as we crossed each other in the parking lot, so I was really unprepared to discuss what had happened on the boat that morning (while I was at the Attack Center). The CO asked me a few pointed questions, and I had to tap-dance a bit. We're still behind where we need to be in order to leave on time.
If we do finish this upkeep period as ascheduled, I'll be amazed. We're trying to cram two months of repair work into a 5 week upkeep. That's like putting 20lbs of garbage into the 5 gallon trash bag at your desk waste bin --the bag isn't going to survive intact.

Anyway, after that I drove off (speeding 40 in a 30 zone on base - a dangerous pursuit) to make it with seconds to spare for the DAPA meeting only to find out the meeting was MONDAY, not Tuesday. I must have marked my calendar wrong last week when writing up this week's appointments in my planner. /sigh.

I talked to the SARP desk staff and got caught up on what I missed at the meeting (not much after all) then showed them the Faces of Meth pictures I've been using as posters for the crew on the dangers of using Ice (meth as it is called here in Hawaii).

Then is was back to the boat to crack the whip on the guys for awhile before cutting them loose. Overall it was a much better day. In at seven thirty, home by a quarter to five.

Tomorrow is command PT at 6am, then duty. I've written the watchbill and put myself on the evening (1930-2330) Belowdecks Watch, so it will be a very long day for me.

cavmn @ 2006-07-10T20:58:00

2006-07-11T07:03:18Z

Bleck. I didn't get home until after 6. In at 6, out at 6 sucks.
I had an early lunch from the bowling alley because of the attack center trainers (where, once again, we sucked overall - but at least we didn't get counterdetected this time).

The bowling alley serves breakfast also, and their fried rice omelettes (wrapped in a soft tortilla shell) are to die for. Probably also about a thousand calories, but so very tasty.

The morning and evening were tied up mainly with work controls processing to try to get permission for the IMA to commence repair work. It looks like this is how all week is going to be if things don't change drastically.

monday, busy monday

2006-07-10T16:49:40Z

It was a quiet weekend. Friday I finished another Prey book by Sandford (Mortal Prey). Duty on Saturday was busy in the morning, then I had watch in the afternoon, and Sina & the troupe brought me dinner in the evening.

Sunday was spent at home. The kids were a bit whiny & quarrelsome. At a few points during the day Sina & both talked about wishing we were 23 again w/ no kids, and how that made us guilty to feel that way. We DO love all our kids, but sometimes it would be SO nice to spend a week without any parental responsibilities or worries. I finished Secret Prey about midnight. I think I'm just about out of John Sandford's Lucas Davenport novels. =(

Guess I'll switch to Jeffrey Deaver for awhile.

I worked out this morning for a half hour for command PT. We did the deck of cards thing (Spades=Squats, Clubs=Crunches, Diamonds=Push-ups, Hearts=Jumping Jacks) until we hit 7-7-2 twice. The last seven came with only 2 other cards left...

This week we're in the trainers & have alot of production work to track & support. It looks to be very hectic, but hopefully I'll be home by 5 or so every night (barring duty).

cavmn @ 2006-07-03T14:40:00

2006-07-04T00:43:34Z

I saw The Da Vinci Code last night. It was a long movie, and while enjoyable, it pretty much followed what I remembered from the book (I read the book before all the hype/furor w/ the Catholic Church started), except the character development was obviously not as fleshed out in the movie. I really like Tom Hanks, but I didn't think his performance was that fantastic. Decent, but not amazing.

Work was mediocre today, but at least I'm home before 3pm. Most everyone else has tomorrow off, but I have duty. Blech.

Off to read more of Chosen Prey & do a few 12oz. curls.

cavmn @ 2006-07-02T17:21:00

2006-07-03T03:35:29Z

I finished Mind Prey by John Sandford today. The only one I have left to read in the house is Chosen Prey. I'll start that one while waiting in line for The Da Vinci Code.

Tomorrow is a workday, and Tuesday I have duty. /sigh.
Monday I have to get one of my screwups over to SARP for screening, and he's finally going up for NJP this week. This last Friday he was supposed to go to an Advanced Firefighting trainer, which is a one day course to refresh us on the latest in techniques & involves fighting an actual fire (propane fed in a controlled environment). I went years ago, and I'm probably going to have to go again sometime soon. Anyway, while he was SUPPOSED to go to that, he didn't. Since he was scheduled for the trainer, nobody missed him at muster on the boat.

Meanwhile I was attending a CPR Instructor update course over at the clinic on base. The # of compressions and rate has changed significantly - now we use 30 compressions per cycle at a rate of 100 compressions per minute (much faster) in between rescue breaths. Since my school started early in the morning, Chief took muster. He didn't figure out our guy was late until after lunchtime, when the other guys who went to the trainer returned and remarked that he wasn't there.

Chief hadn't said anything to me (we were both on duty) and we were both stuck in a meeting after lunch. Immediately after that, I had to give training to the "High Risk" training group, which is basically all the really young guys and sailors that have made poor decisions while onboard. I had a recovering alcoholic talk for about 15-20 minutes, and then spent the rest of the time discussing Depression (which is ironic, since I have just about EVERY symptom) and what to do about it. Our problem child was there, and my Chief pulled him out of my training. At the time I had no idea what it was about.

An hour or so later Chief and I went over everything & figured it all out. Our screwup got his ass chewed in the Goat locker, where they basically punched giant holes in his really crappy story. He said he was at dental. A quick phone call proved that to be false. Then he made up some other BS, which was also disproven. So he's finally going before the CO at the green table (Article 15 NJP) for Captain's Mast.

At about the same time, we find out my idiot FNG has decided he'd rather hurt himself than work on the boat, so we had to have somebody escort him to the hospital for a psych eval. It looks like he won't ever be coming back. So we'll probably be losing him for sure, and possibly the other guy (though I think he'll just lose a stripe & some $).

Which means I'll have to train up two more FNG's right before we deploy...

cavmn @ 2006-07-02T09:30:00

2006-07-02T19:36:24Z

Yesterday we took all the rugrats to see the animated movie Over The Hedge, with the voices of Bruce Willis, Nick Nolte, and a bunch of other stars. Kyle & Megan really liked it. Natalie enjoyed it, though I don't think she understood most of the humor. Rachel had enough of sitting in her chair after about 45 minutes, and Sina had to take her out of the theater.

Taking the whole family out to the movies on base is really cheap. The little girls are free, my ticket is free for being active duty, so I only had to pay six bucks for the other tickets. Popcorn & beverages were twelve bucks. A family outing for under twenty bucks is an awesome deal in my book.

Not sure what we're going to do today. The Da Vinci Code is playing on base at at 7pm, and I want to see that, but the kids can't go of course. Stained is playing tonight at Kbay (other side of the island), but that really isn't a family concert. Monday is a workday too, so that's pretty much out.

cavmn @ 2006-07-01T16:56:00

2006-07-02T02:56:13Z

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Daddy at home, Daddy at work

2006-07-01T20:07:04Z

Sheeesh.
I have to tell my kids to put their toys away frequently. Routinely have to tell them to make their beds, clear the table, etc. etc. I EXPECT this with my pre-pubescent children, and expect it to to probably get worse during puberty and hopefully diminish at least somewhat during their teen years.

At work, I DON'T expect to have to tell my guys to put their tools away frequently. Or that I should have to tell them to make up their racks, clean their workspaces, etc. Yet I am doing that EVERY DAMN DAY. It is really frustrating. I have a 15 man division and maybe 5 of them do not require me to treat them like a child at some point during the week. I have a 15 man duty section, and the ratio of sailors acting as adults w/o my intervention is about the same there.

So instead of having 4 kids, I feel like I have 2 dozen.../sigh
I expect to be completely grey by the time I leave this boat.

One of the adult kids in my duty section yesterday showed up almost 5 hours late for duty, and didn't even have an excuse, nor could he even account for his whereabouts since lunchtime. During our counseling session (I had the Duty Chief present as a witness), I was amazed at how he couldn't remember what or where he had breakfast or lunch, or recall ANYTHING he did during the afternoon (when he was missing). He's a complete space cadet.

cavmn @ 2006-06-29T22:27:00

2006-06-30T08:27:37Z

I finished Silent Prey.
I've got two John Sandford books left to read from the library.
Hopefully they'll last through the 4th of July. These books are like potato chips for me. Satisfying but I can't stop with just one. They aren't very filling, but they are good.

There are a few Jeffrey Deaver books lying around also (the Lincoln Rhyme series). Those are also decent, but I think I like Sandford better. Neither author comes close to being one of my favorites. All my very favorite authors are dead. =( Most of the authors I like that are still alive & publishing seem to be writing on auto-pilot lately. =/

Maybe it is time to step away from popular fiction for a bit and read something really decent, yet without requiring me to think too much.

cavmn @ 2006-06-27T19:04:00

2006-06-28T05:04:43Z

I escaped from the Dungeon of Owlfish!

I killed Irisbleu the fire elemental, Retsuko the leprechaun, Haggisthesecond the rat, Forthright the rat, Frostfox the leprechaun, Paladyn the mind flayer, Amberspyglass the leprechaun, Theengineer the zombie, Phonephobic the floating eye, Coth the owlbear, Evieb the gelatinous cube, Coalescent the zombie, Lazyknight the floating eye, Makyo the minotaur, Jerryrigged the floating eye, Darkling Dreams the cockatrice, Lemur Catta the troll, Keira Online the leprechaun, Cataptromancer the giant spider, Relentlesstoil the rat, Artifuss the nymph, Nou Cooks the orc, Coughingbear the leprechaun, Anayajay the goblin and Doctor Mama the rat.

I looted the Wand of Ad Astra, the Sceptre of Opera Atelier, the Wand of Musicals, the Crown of La Monday, the Sceptre of Medievalist, the Shield of Carmen Sandiego, the Crown of Garrity, the Armour of Temperantia, the Axe of Italy, the Wand of Cookbooks, the Amulet of Italy, the Sceptre of Maps, the Wand of Bonibaru, the Sword of Lady Ceres, a Figurine of Zephre, the Sceptre of Current Events, the Sceptre of Italian, the Wand of Cms St Kitts, the Dagger of Opera Atelier, the Shield of Suslikuk, the Dagger of Svb1972, the Axe of Smith College, a Figurine of Skeller and 358 gold pieces.

Score: 758

Explore the Dungeon of Owlfish and try to beat this score,
or enter your username to generate and explore your own dungeon...

cavmn @ 2006-06-27T17:23:00

2006-06-28T03:35:32Z

I'm reading Silent Prey by John Sandford now.

The day started off lousy, and didn't get any better. Off-going duty section muster was delayed due to an evolution that kept people from coming on board. You can't fault people for being late if they weren't allowed to cross the brow. Then the COB (Chief of the Boat) had a hairy conniption fit over people not making their racks on the boat. So I had to run around figuring out who had to make their beds. Finally I temporarily delegated the Mommy duty to a few others. Tomorrow I'll have to see how well they did. How hard is it to keep your rack made up neatly? /sheesh.

The rest of the morning was spent bored to tears listening to a classified lecture about stuff that our boat doesn't have, and probably won't get until AFTER I leave. Complete waste of my time. I'm glad I kept a few guys on the boat to do production work, becaues the "great training opportunity" was of zero value to my division.

I came home from work today even more pissed off. We were in the Attack Center all afternoon. Simulating we were out to sea, pretending to be in waters owned by country "Dragon". Read the Jack Ryan book by Tom Clancy that had Dragon in the title and you'll know where I'm talking about.

Anyway, afterwards during the debrief, everyone was saying things like "we need a little work, but we did suchandsuch and soandso really well". I was the only one who gave an honest appraisal. WE SUCKED. We didn't do ANYTHING really well, except practically get run over by a hostile warship. The only reason the debrief didn't degrade into a major argument was that I just wanted to leave so I let them continue their wrong-headed group-think after putting in my 2 cents of dissent.

The absolute BEST part about running simulations in the Attack Center is that no matter how horrible the scenario finishes, you can still go home (as long as you aren't on duty) & have a beer (or many beers) at the end of the day.

Which is what I'm doing right now...

wasted day off

2006-06-26T05:44:15Z

After working 12 hours on Saturday, I completely wasted today.
I had tentative plans to at least get a haircut, take the kids to the beach, & enjoy some family time out of the house. It probably didn't help that I didn't get to sleep until 3am.

Instead, I slept in. Then read in bed. Woke up, had a sandwich, played a little Battlefront (Kyle's reward for his report card) w/ Kyle while Megan watched, and watched the kids while Sina did some shopping and took some personal sanity time sans kids. Then I went back for another nap.

Tomorrow is duty. I'll finish Eyes of Prey (John Sandford) tonight.

cavmn @ 2006-06-25T01:25:00

2006-06-25T11:32:16Z

Went in to start work at 8am, came home about 12 hours later. On a frigging Saturday. The first completely duty free weekend I've had in months and I wasted so much of it stuck on the boat due to stupid delays. At least my welcome home was nice. Can't complain about 4 women all greeting you warmly when you walk in the door!

Eight of my guys ALSO wasted 12 hours of their normally scheduled off-time. /sigh.

After that I came home and rotted my brain for several hours watching bad cable. I SO need to just cancel our subscription. Then again, I spend so much time at work & Sesame Street saved on DVR is key to saving Sina's sanity when it comes to the little girls, I guess I'll just live w/ it.

Alan's eye is still all weird, so he's going back to the vet tomorrow.

My work schedule continues to change. Now we're doing MORE sea time before we actually leave for our six month deployment. /grumble.

a bad case of the Mondays on Wednesday

2006-06-22T03:31:45Z

Bleh.
Alan is on medicine for his freaked out eyeball & old age.

Work is alright but lately I feel like I've been spinning my wheels very fast while barely moving forward, which is very frustrating. Especially so the last two days. The only upside is that today I was able to get dropped off at home before 1600. I did go in at 0600, so it was still a long day, but manageable.

With the kids in swimming lessons every day & the Buick still unreliable, it means I'm tied down at work all day. I can't run any work or personal errands in the mornings. Grrr.

Somehow my pay has been screwed up for the entire past year. Here I was thinking we were doing SO well in saving extra money every month. Two weeks ago I sunk the bulk of our savings into a 1yr Certificate to earn a little more interest. Now I find out I was actually OVERPAID every month by about $270. Not an incredible amount, but now they want to recoup the entire overpayment in my next paycheck all at once. /sigh.

So I have to rely on the boat's Yeoman to help me fight this battle, since I was actually entitled to SOME of that money, though not for the entire year. I probably DO owe somewhere between $1500 & 2 grand. But if they overpaid me (their error, not mine) over the course of an entire year, the way I see it they can recover the overpayment over an equal amount of time, so it doesn't hurt as much as taking it back all at once. These kinds of things usually take months to straighten out. My last pay fiasco took years to fix, and even then it wasn't absolutely right, but I gave up trying. Looks like now I'll have to resume the battle, and fight with them all over again.

Talking to my Father last Sunday (of course), he also brought up that the overpayment had tax implications that I hadn't thought about, so I have to figure that as well, PLUS having to possibly amend our '05 tax return, which we sent in months ago (& have already received our refund). /sigh again.

I hate this crap. Is it too early for me to be having a mid-life crisis?

cavmn @ 2006-06-20T20:39:00

2006-06-21T06:45:19Z

I really love my IPOD Shuffle.

Sina's Grandmother, Father, and Aunt all left for the long return trip back to PA today (while I was at work). I think they enjoyed themselves.

I finished Winter Prey & Night Prey. Just in time, Sina returned from the library with four more John Sandford novels I haven't read. Did I mention how awesome my wife is?

Work has been only mildly hectic this week. I was actually able to walk off the pier before 1600 today, and even better I was able to cut out most of my guys before 1500. Those guys deserve some early days (though 1500 to them isn't very early) for a change. Two of my guys have a 96hr special liberty chit this week, so they have the rest of the week off.

Liberty is the best incentive/reward I have to motivate my guys.

cavmn @ 2006-06-19T14:30:00

2006-06-20T00:30:15Z

We spent a wonderful day at the Polynesian Cultural Center on Saturday. The Center has seven island "villages" spaced throughout, each one representing a different Polynesian culture. We visited Samoa, Tahiti, Hawaii, New Zealand, and Tonga. Setup was similar to EPCOT's world expo thing, if you've ever been there.

We didn't get to the villages for Fiji or Aoearoa. Our guide (we paid for a Guided Tour + Luau + Evening show) was (being generous) lackluster. At the Luau I was given a CSR survey to fill out, and hopefully they'll take my feedback constructively and move him over to food services or traffic management or canoe-pole-boy or something, because he sucked as a guide. Some of the guides were wonderful, but we weren't that fortunate.

Anyway, despite the lousy guide, we had a great time. The Tahitian dancers were very sexy, the Tongan drummers very enthusiastic, and the Samoan fire-knife guy was absolutely amazing (& hysterically funny).

We arrived a little before 1pm, and went on a canoe ride, watched a canoe parade, did a little spear-throwing (we all sucked, but I sucked the least out of our group), and did alot of watching and learning about the different cultures.

The food at the luau was only so-so. The food at Germaine's luau was better. By the end of dinner I was running out of steam, so I switched from the fruity juice to Coke. Sadly though, the Coke was unleaded...No caffeine! Blech. Tea & Coffee were the same thing. No real sugar available either. The Polynesian Cultural Center is run by Brigham Young University, (Church of Latter-Day Saints, aka Mormons) so there was no alcohol or caffeine anywhere on the property. Since I had duty on Sunday, this wasn't a big deal at all for me (& the rest of our group isn't big on booze anyhow) but I definitely understand now why most sailors shy away from this (dry) luau. They did have the best evening show I've seen thus far on Oahu though.

Also on Saturday, since I had duty on Father's Day, Sina & the kids presented me with my gifts a day early. I am now the very proud and happy owner of an IPOD Shuffle. Small enough to easily fit in my pocket, and light enough that it won't weigh me down the way a regular IPOD would, and since the Shuffle doesn't cost an arm & a leg I won't be heartbroken if it breaks while I'm using it on the boat. I LOVE it.

Sina had absconded with the original (black-on-gray) IPOD my father gave me awhile back, but I didn't have any of my music downloaded on it. The original IPOD's only accepted new downloads from an actual Apple machine, and we don't have one. So we were stuck with what my Dad had on it (mostly audio books). Then Sina's brother Michael visited (w/ his Mac laptop) and downloaded all HIS music and some of Sina's music onto my old IPOD. Which made it great if you were a chick. Sorry Michael, but 90% of that stuff you listen to is chick music. /vomit

In addition to the Shuffle, Sina has been sneaking around the house while I was working or sleeping and filled my Shuffle up with music already, so when I opened the box it was all set up to play. Most of my music CD collection was ripped off about six years ago, and my audio library has never recovered. About 80% of what Sina put on the Shuffle will stay there (The Led Zeppelin & Billy Joel especially), and over the next few months I'll fine-tune my playlist for optimum boat use.

In addition to the Shuffle, I received multiple hand-crafted cards & Photo album of the kids & Sina. Music & Pictures were the things I've been lacking the most over the past several underways, and now I've got that mostly covered. This was definitely the most thoughtful selection of gifts that I think I've received since we've been married. Two thumbs up!!

Duty on Sunday was no picnic, but it did have one nice highlight. Sina brought the family down to the boat, and I gave them all a tour of the sub. I think they enjoyed it. The kids had never been down on this boat, though Kyle & Megan were regular visitors on my last sub (which was almost twice the size of this one) although they were much younger.

I'm home now babysitting Rachel & Natalie (both down for naps) while everyone else is out shopping. I hate shopping, so this worked out well for everyone. I just finished reading John Sandford's Winter Prey, and now I'm off to begin reading his book Night Prey.

cavmn @ 2006-06-16T19:45:00

2006-06-17T05:56:57Z

Thursday night ended pleasantly (thank you wife!), but Friday began rather unfriendly.
Mustered for Physical Training at 6am, which after my mini-vacation was way too early for me.

Then the Captain decided we'd run a little farther than normal (maybe an extra mile, not really all that bad). If I could have just ran on my own I wouldn't have minded, but when we run in formation (w/ cadence calls & what-not) we have to run at a slow pace, which drives me nuts. One guy in my division didn't show up at all for PT.

Later in the morning, I take muster for my division. The same guy had duty today (supposed to be in early for duty section turnover) but he hadn't showed up for duty section muster OR for the all hands muster at 0745. He waltzed in at a few minutes after Colors (0800), with no excuse. He did admit to being out late until 2am. Why the heck go out until 2am when you have to muster a mere four hours later. /boggle. I remember partying all night when I was younger, but I made it to work on time. I was always taught if you can't hang with the big dogs, stay off the porch.

This little dog of mine is about to get (metaphorically) beaten.

cavmn @ 2006-06-15T18:11:00

2006-06-16T04:26:00Z

Sorry if I've been remiss in keeping this up to date lately.

Alot has happened.
My long term deployment schedule just shifted AGAIN - farther to the right. While this initially doesn't sound too bad, a closer look at where I'm going to be over the next year means it will actually be more hectic instead of less. /sigh.

I just finished a very brief three day mini-vacation. It coincided with Sina's Father, Grandmother, & one of her Aunts coming to visit us here on Oahu. Yesterday they left for Maui, but we'll get to enjoy their company again soon when they return tomorrow.

While they were here we visited the Dole Pineapple Plantation (something I've wanted to do but hadn't) and the http://www.audubon.org/local/sanctuary/Brochures/Waimea.html Waimea Valley Audobon Center, which I hadn't even heard about until my Father-in-law mentioned he really wanted to see it. I took a Claritin beforehand so my allergies were under control the entire time. Unfortunately the mosquitoes were out of control and my whole family is now suffering through the day-after itchies.

The best part about the trip to Dole Plantation was watching Natalie enjoy her Dole-whip ice-cream waffle cone. Even though the whole family was there, Natalie & I were at our own table and had some quality bonding-time over the ice cream. It was great.

On the work scene I am 90% caught up on all my admin taskings, and the last 10% isn't due for awhile so I have some breathing room finally. The work schedule has slackened a bit as well, so I'm actually coming home before dinner more often than not, which has been a nice change.

I've put in to take off next Monday as well, so while I'll have duty on Sunday, the day after should be all mine. We're scheduled to take Sina's family to a luau this Saturday night, to a place we haven't luau'd at yet, at the Polynesian Cultural Center http://www.polynesia.com/ . Should be alot of fun. Sadly since I have duty the next day, Sina will be the one downing the Lava Flows & other assorted alcoholic drinks.

Kyle & Megan are out of school, slowly driving their Mother more insane with each passing day.
Megan did so well on her report card I bought her a new bike as a reward (her old one was way too small for her).

Natalie has outgrown her shoes. Another sign that these darn kids grow like weeds!

I let Sina splurge on some new bras from Freddy's that got her all excited. I figure excited wife = more 'lucky' time for me, so it is money well spent.

I've got the rugrat watch tonight while Sina is at a meeting, so I better go see what bedlam they have created while I've been typing this.

back again

2006-06-04T03:16:14Z

I'm back from another few weeks at sea.
We didn't do as well on this inspection, but we passed.
This one didn't have anything to do with Sonar, so I don't feel bad about the boat not doing well. Obviously we had hoped to do better, but it wasn't anyone in my division's fault.

The kids look great. I swear Sina has lost weight since I've been gone.
It is VERY good to be home.

I'm going out with the guys tonight to dinner & a movie, and bringing my troupe along with me.
After the movie when the guys go out to party, I'll just go home w/ my family. =)

cavmn @ 2006-05-20T09:58:00

2006-05-20T20:14:17Z

So duty Wednesday was stressful, but not too bad. I managed a few minor crises & was able to get to sleep about midnight.

Reveille was at 0430. Muster at 0500. Ugh. We got underway about a half hour late because of some mixup which thankfully didn't involve Sonar, and moved over to West Loch, which is where fast attacks generally handle weapons. Weapons being torpedoes, missiles, etc.

Taking a little extra time to be careful, we finished offloading 4 live MK48 ADCAP warshots (& an exercise torpedo) by about 1300. Everything was wrapped up & ready for the trip back to Pearl Harbor less than an hour later, but we ended up waiting for tugboat support before we could come back.

By the time we pulled back in to Pearl Harbor, it had already been a long day. Sadly, it wasn't over, and I didn't end up getting home until 2030, which is past the kids bedtime. /sigh I did get to kiss them goodnight, but that's about all I remember before falling asleep myself.

Friday we had command PT at 0600. I managed to puncture my palm w/ one of my keys while clapping my hands during cadence as we were jogging in formation. I looked down at my bloody hand in surprise, but there wasn't anything I could really do about it. I won't be clapping w/ keys in my hand while jogging anymore... The pushups after the jog had me worrying about infection, but I couldn't wimp out over it, so I just sucked it up & did them. The scab on my arm from my other accident earlier in the week looks to be healing up nicely. I can't remember the last time I've been this banged up as a result of general klutziness. It has been years.

I arrived home right as dinner was being served (Sina doesn't wait on me, with four kids it just isn't prudent to wait for Daddy when my work schedule is so crazy).

Two more knuckleheads on the boat came in Thursday smelling of alcohol, so as the command's Drug & Alcohol Program Advisor I have reams of paperwork to fill out on each one before they can be screened by the Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Program clinic (counseling & rehab basically). What a major PITA. Why would anyone go out drinking all night when you have to be at work at 5am???? The stupidity of youth.

Sina handed me a library book recently by John Sandford, titled Certain Prey. I finished it this morning, and am absolutely thrilled to have possibly found another author to read. Almost all my favorite authors are dead, so finding a new one that is worth reading is something to cheer about.

I have duty again tomorrow. =(

cavmn @ 2006-05-16T20:53:00

2006-05-17T07:11:43Z

This week still promises to be extremely hectic. Our next underway will also be savagely busy. I can't wait until June when things will hopefully slow down a bit. My sunburn from yesterday has only became worse after another 5 hours in the Hawaiian sun today, despite donning both sunblock & aftersun goop. Which means I should be peeling nicely right about the time we're getting underway. Lovely.

Today I put an inch & a half gash on the outside of my arm, about an inch below the elbow. Pretty scary looking, and it hurt alot initially, but it settled to a dull ache & now I don't even feel it most of the time. I'm more worried about infection than about scarring. It is unlikely the wound will be completely healed before I go out to sea again, which stinks, because cuts heal VERY slowly underway - something to do w/ the lack of sunlight & the submarine atmosphere. I can't really explain it too well, but that's the way it is. I covered the cut with 2 bandaids and some medical tape, but it didn't stick too well. When the Captain asked what happened during Officer/LPO call, I said it was "merely a flesh wound". I don't think he understood the reference... Doc thought he was going to have to put in sutures, but it isn't serious enough to warrant that.

I finished Gone. It was alright. Not one of my favorites by Kellerman, but not his worst either. Today was another long day. I've sinced started the book Certain Prey by John Sanford, a story about a female assassin & the cops going after her.

Today I was in at 7am, out at 5pm, so not too bad a day. Tomorrow I have duty, so in at 6am, stay the night, (get to sleep about midnight) and I'll be lucky to be home by sundown on Thursday.

Rachel is sick. Sina is sick, but looking skinny & sexy all the same. Kyle & Megan seem to be doing well. Natalie has too much energy for her own good.

cavmn @ 2006-05-15T16:58:00

2006-05-16T03:05:56Z

A long day at work today. In at 6, home at 5, w/ a 20 minute break to chow down around noon.
I was out in the sun all day, and my arms & neck are already an angry shade of reddish pink.

Our FNG looks like he's not going to last the week. A couple of the guys are betting over/under on him. The shortest under (2 days) has lost already, but we're all pretty leery of him lasting past this coming Friday. Some people just aren't cut out for submarine duty...

2/3 of the way through Gone.

Oh, I forgot to mention the BIG NEWS...
Looks like we'll be moving to Portsmouth, New Hampshire (near the Maine border) in the Fall of 2007. Life in the military is one of frequent upheaval. I wasn't really expecting to move for a few more years (2009 or so), but the needs of the Navy come ahead of the wants of a sailor.

Back again

2006-05-15T03:45:05Z

Returned home recently. The Tactical Readiness Evaluation didn't go as well as I would have liked, but we fared better than I honestly expected. Sonar division did well, and I was very proud of my guys.

The dogs are finally back, looking & acting SO much older than when we had them last. I think they are very happy to be back with us.

I'm only back for a little while, then it is back to sea again for the ORSE workup & that inspection. I'll be so glad once that's over.

I had duty Saturday, which was pretty quiet, but I didn't get much sleep. Sina picked me up from the boat this morning, we came back home w/ plans on going to the beach in a bit. A little Mother's Day loving later & our plans went awry. I fell asleep afterwards. =P

Kyle & I went to the big NEX for haircuts when I woke up & also did some very last minute Mother's Day gifts. Sina seemed to like them. Who knows what's really ever on a woman's mind?

Me, I'm an open book to Sina.
Speaking of books, I'm reading Jonathan Kellerman's book, Gone.