Work and Wheelchairs

Well.

Today I woke up, and went to work at 0900. It was cold outside! And only because of the wind. It was like 50 degrees outside but the wind was just blowing so hard. It was freezing! We had a battalion formation and our colonel told us that every weekend until March was going to be a 3 day weekend, because we busted our asses in Iraq and there’s no reason to be working so hard here.

And for the first time in months, I saw ALL of my coworkers again today. I was actually kind of glad to see them. I suppose after a full year of being stuck with these people… you grow to somewhat care for them and their well being.

Rosado, Hemenway, Eaton, Radcliff, Crabtree (roommate), Lucio, Johnson, Mccloskey, Crittenden (the only other 25B — my job), Taylor, Shuman, Flores, Holguin, and Storey.

I tell you, The S6 (my section) runs deep! That’s 14 of us right there. And we’re gonna be getting new blood soon! Young eager privates we can pick on, mold, and meld into good soldiers.

We have a wheelchair in our office… and I love that thing! I don’t know where it came from or why it’s there, but I am the Wheelchair King! I can pop wheely’s, stay on 2 wheels while turning, driving forward (and backwards). It’s definetly my hobby in the office. No one else can even pop a wheely. =)

And what’s great… SFC Taylor had a group meeting with us all and he said “Now that we’re back in the rear, we’re going to focus on the 25B side of the house. Out in Iraq we kinda abused Riggs and Critt, there was only 2 of them for the whole battalion, and like 10 of us for radios. Now we’re going to focus on helping THEM. We are gonna pick their brains for knowledge and help them”.

Everybody started staring at Critt and I. We really did have it rough in Iraq. An entire battalion and only 2 computer nerds. What the hell? And for the rest of the day, for every minor task I had (Printer installs, ApproveIt installs, gpupdate /force, Admin cracks, IP conflicts)… I had 2 or 3 ‘minions’ to come with me and do it for me. Training. =)

I guess you could say I’ve got slaves. =) It’s nice.

Of course, I wont teach them the ADVANCE stuff. Job security. I don’t wanna become the office bitch just because I can type 90 WPM. That would definetly suck. I’m nobody’s secretary.

I figure I’ll keep my web design knowledge, my regedit abilities, and my hardware prowess to myself. Those are tasks I like doing and I think I’ll just keep those for myself. As for Critt, well… Whatever Critt dishes out, Critt loses. So I’m sure he’ll keep something for himself too.

You have to be irreplacable, elsewise you’ll find yourself on patrol in a Humvee driving towards an IED in Iraqistan. That’s not the one you want.

Anyways. So tomorrow is GOING TO SUCK. Because tomorrow… we start doing PT regularly again. And I haven’t done PT (real, hardcore PT) in MONTHS.

Oh, My, God.

I am going to be hurting. We are supposedly going to do “an easy 4 miles” tomorrow. But what mile has ever been easy on a run? Unless we’re fricking walking it, I don’t see how 4 miles can be easy. Especially if it’s cold wind again tomorrow.

And then, during lunch today, something very odd happened.

It SNOWED, in El Paso. 50 degree weather, but the wind made it cold enough to snow. That was odd. lol. My room mate (Crabtree) and I were like “What the fuck? Ashes? Did something blow up?” lol. We didn’t even consider the idea that it could be snow for the first ten minutes.

After work, I realized that I was in DIRE NEED for a haircut. I think my hair was actually long enough to be COMBED.

Oh, My, God.

In the army, that’s a huge no-no. So I got it mowed down again. Back to short and useless. Can’t really do anything with it. High skin-tight fade on the sides. The usual.

Did a lot of bonding with my room mate Crabtree today. He really is an awesome guy. He’s also a gamer, btw. We talked about Final Fantasy 7 and how great it was most of today. I guess I should consider him a friend. And friends don’t call friends by their last name? His first name is Justin. I’ll try to call him that more often.

He had to take his car to the shop today. I’ll be giving him a ride to go pick up his car when it’s ready.

I called my bank today, because my Debit card had expired at the end of January, and I knew they had already sent my new card out, but had yet received it. It turns out they sent it to the wrong address. Hopefully there is no Bruce Andrew Riggs at 5th Platoon, 82nd FA. Because that’s not me. So they corrected the address and sent me a new card. Wont get it for a few days.

I checked my account balance: $12,272.03

Maybe I shouldn’t even BOTHER with a job when I get out and go to college. Just do college full time. Be a professional bum. Be the guy that everybody hates because he doesn’t fucking work.

Till then readers… I’m going to be hating life tomorrow… Wednesday morning… Be thinking about me! Huffin and a puffin…

~Bruce