sunday aug 31, 2003 pt2

I know for a fact that she could talk, because she would talk with me. I would drop her off at her head start school, and she would say bye to me, and hi to all the kids and the teachers. Then when I picked her up in the afternoons, oh damn would she come running at me with her arms wide open and DADDY coming from her mouth…! At a dead run too…the hugs that girl would give me…it was the best I tell you…! Brooke would give me big hugs too when I got her from school…Ricky, he would just laugh and not want to let me go. So yeah…it was really neat to talk with my son. Would be nice if I could talk with the other to kids, but I don’t think I can do that right now. Will have to wait and see though.

As we all know, Monday is Labor day. A three day week-end for the people there in the States. As for us, well we are doing a stores unload in the morning with our supply ship. Have no idea how many pallets of food we are getting, but that is the main stuff that is coming. But of course there will be mail, I hope…and most likely some supplies that have been building up, or waiting to get to us. With the area of the gulf that we are in, we are not able to get mail and supply parts from helo drops. We have to wait for the supply ship to bring us food and supplies, or get lucky and get in close enough so the stuff can be air lifted out to us. Most of the time though, it’s just a lot more simpler to wait, and meet up with a supply ship, or one of the fuel ships to get parts and mail. Mail is a good thing to get…let me tell you. I have not gotten a hole lot of this deployment though. Mostly bills…or statements saying that I don’t owe anything on this bill. I like those kind of statements. Then of course there is the bank statements. Well I have only been getting a statement from one of my banks that I have money in. I don’t know what is going on with Navy Fed. But hey I know how to call the 800 number to check my balance…and I do. So it’s all good. Would be nice to get a statement from Navy Fed, but oh well…I may have told the bank to not send me statements too…there is that option you can do with most banks now days. Since there is the world wide web, you can just check it on line…when I am in port that has computers I do that too. That is how I found out my checks were being cashed at the wrong time. Damn in laws…! See I have an idea how much money should be my account, and when it’s not the right figure I wonder what the hell is going on. And there for a while things were not right with what I was thinking, and what the 800 number was telling me. Yeah, I could have gotten on line here on the ship, but doing that underway is so slow…and well it could wait for in port. So that is what I did. I found out what happened, and it was all good. Well not really all good, but I at least knew what happened with the money that I was missing. 300 dollars may not seem like a lot, but when it’s just not there, and there isn’t anywhere it could have gone, then I worry. The one thing I don’t like about post dated checks…you can still cash them before the date they are dated for…and well that is what happened. To say the least, I wasn’t very happy about that…but what can I do about it…? I’m 10,000 miles away and not getting any closer, any day soon. Lets see…anything else for this one…? I should take requests…leave a note, and ask me a question…or something. I could dedicate an entry to someone that asks me a question, or makes a request that they want to hear about. Should I make rules…? Ah hell no. I’m to laid back for rules…I wonder what I am getting myself into on this one. Well most likely nothing at all since once this is posted people will read it, and forget it. There isn’t much to what I say, I know that. Just words, thoughts, feelings. I write it here because I can, and I can’t say it helps, but I do not mind writing. I know there has been some times when I haven’t posted in a while, but it’s hard to sit down and talk about the same shit that happens out here. Who would want to read: “We are still in the gulf, making holes in the water and trying to chase down ships so we can board them. No luck today with boarding, and that isn’t a bad thing. We don’t need to thinking about boarding ships out here as it is.” Yeah, boring…! And talking about the heat, that is even worse…it is like 100 degrees even before it reaches 10:00 in the morning. Had to go out in the crap Saturday afternoon because of a stupid ass gun shoot. Talk about a waste of damn time having us out there at 1:00 in the afternoon shooting guns. It was HOT, it was nasty, and well it just wasn’t a hole lot of fun. I think I have said this before too, but since I am the Ranger Master, I have to be out there to make sure shit is done right and that call the line…I don’t trust anyone else out there to call the line. I let someone else call the line a couple of times Friday morning, and well…he needs to learn the commands better…and being user friendly is always a good thing. That is one thing he lacks…Nice guy, but not user friendly. So really…that leaves just me to do all the coaching. Anyway, it’s my job, so just shut up about it Rick…! I am here to do just that…my job. So I have to go get all sweaty and smelling…so what. Yeah, so my nose is sun burnt and my neck isn’t much better…it’s only skin. It will heal. I will heal…and my voice will stop being horse in a couple days. I know I am not going to get anything for doing my job…that is not why I am here. I am here to do my job, and do it the best that I can…it’s that simple. But I think the way that I think is the reason why I am doing what I am doing on this ship. Then again, who am I to know.

I will go ahead and wrap this up…send it and hope my care taker posts it for me…! Again, lets all say thank you to her…she is great…! And well cute too. But she knows that. Take care my readers, and well your always welcome to come back and read more, post notes, and yes you can even write me an e-mail here at the command. I won’t mind…! Promise I won’t…Laters…Rick