Over a month, geez...

Well, it's been a while since I've updated this but here's what's been going on.

Shortly after I bought my truck our boat came out of drydock and went back into the water and sat for about a week and a half while we put it back together (Lots of stuff had to come off so the shipyard people could work on it). Once most of the equipment was back on we got underway and did a sub escort. It was pretty cool while at the same time pretty uneventful (a good thing). We stayed underway for the week, came home for the weekend, went back out on Monday, and Wednesday I was sick with strep throat and got sent home from the boat. That pretty much shot the rest of my week, laid on the couch and watched TV and munched on meds that the Coast Guard gave me. This week and next week are repair periods and most of our time has been/will be spent on preventative maintenance. Some of it is kinda fun while some of it is not so fun. The Coast Guard is a job just like any other, high points and lows.

One low points for me so far is that the whole time that I've been here I've been working on "Inport OOD" qualifications (lots of demonstrating that I can do something and getting a signature saying that "yeah he can do it") and I haven't really gotten any relax time away from the quals. Today I had my OOD board, it reminded me a lot of a Boy Scout board of review; all of the higher-ups asking me questions about the boat and what to do if something breaks/explodes/catches on fire (don't worry, only the dishwasher has exploded while I've been here). The high point is that I passed my board on the first go, YAY!!! I now get to stand a regular watch on a regular rotation, no more staying on the boat every other 2 days.

On the non-work side of things I'm not really doing a whole lot but I'm having a good time. Tonight I went to Ferndale and played poker with some of the guys from the boat and lost $5 but it's cheaper than going to a movie and more entertainment hour for your dollar. Fun stuff for Saturday, too, the morale officer set up a game of paintball for the afternoon so I'm pretty excited about that since it's going to be the first time I've played, I'll try to get some pictures and put them up here soon.