bathtime for yodi

well, the dirty ol' dog was scratching himself a little too much lately, and since it's spring, he decided mud was for him. so although we can't keep him out of the mud and clean, we can at least wash him off, then saturate him with anti flea medicine.


also, here's a picture of seth with his grandma, liz's mom. becky is her name. it's very rare for him not to smile in a picture. or in life. in fact, it's only when deep in thought or observation this happy young fella isn't smiling. (and of course when the snot sucker is applied to his nose. hates that)

i just got done from a week in gunnery. i wish i had a picture or two from that, my last gunnery, almost last evolution on the tanks. i like the marine corps, too bad it sucks soo bad. so i have a plan, it includes a little bit of education. so i'll work somewhere during the night, and take classes during the day. that's the plan for now anyway. i've been inspired by stories and stories of a particular job. that job isn't available in it's entirety here in utah, but some acceptable form of it is. any guesses?

there's some pictures of the baby room here too, it's of course not the whole room, but it kind of gives the gist of how it's gonna look, the colors, and what have you.
i painted the whole thing, then it was decided that the color wasn't exactly as wished, so while i was away the paint fairy came and changed it.
for some reason my debit card stopped working. wierd. ordered a new one, and it won't let me activate it.... maybe i'm under some investigation! (jk btw) so today is easter. it's not a bad day i guess. it's the first night back at home, and so i slept for like 13 hours last night in my comfortable non-cot bed. then took naps during the day. a gunnery doesn't allow for much sleep. there are eight "tank tables" which actually there aren't, there are 4. but they start at four, and work to eight. four uses .50 rounds through the main gun, and inexpensive way to fire the main gun as each round costs 800 dollars! the slap t round we use is of course much much less. well, each tank table takes two trips down range, one during the day, and the second during the night so we can show we are able to shoot it through the night sights, and the day sights. well, here's the schedual for those interested.
600: wake up
630:morning chow (nasty)
7: safety brief
8-10: boresight tanks, set up for battle
10-5: tank tables. (there are at least five crews, each taking some amount of time, there is some sitting around in your tanks waiting, but sleep is impossible because of the necessity to stay monitoring the radios, and watching engagements)
5-6: tank maintainance
6: evening chow
7: safety brief
well, we get back around midnight, depending on the crew, the latest being around 2 or 3. to wake back up at six, and to be performed every day until we are released.

for those interested, i qualified as a gunner. the last time i may ever fire the tank again.

after drill, we ate little ceasars pizza pizza at sharps house, to celebrate his new found freedom from the marine corps, napped a little, and showered of course, then drove home.

i've been sick all week. a cold is a cruel joke when sleep is few. laying down activates the "invade the nose with stuff" reflex of the virus. the bitter bitter cold, and cutting wind, hail, snow, and rain didn't help at all. i've come to dislike deserts i think. very horrible things.

well, one more thing before i'm done here.
the fighting.
i set up at least thirty fights on the last day of gunnery. our marine tank unit is ripe with paid fighters, college wrestlers, police officers, and young pfc's with everything to prove. it was very easy to do, and very entertaining. people one would never think to be handy in that sort of way was secretly training, or turned out to be a state champion wrestler, or this, or that. we would fight to submission, so one had to do more than wrestle, one had to inflict pain, or utilize a choke. people that were thought to be weak showed amazing ferocity. i went against a man who weighed fifty pounds less than me, and lost 4 times, he turned out to be a paid fighter. i was happy with it all. we fought for three or four hours after evening chow, the finale was two known paid fighters, one weighed more, but the other had better technique (admitted the heavier) it went on for five or ten minutes, and ended with an arm bar.

the end