And then one day one of our radars broke. We could no longer do our duties and were told to switch places with another ship and go off and do other things, like defend 98% of Iraq’s economy, a little oil platform. Well let me tell you that when this happens, it sucks. First off I have to write like 800 messages telling everyone that we are leaving one job, and going off to do another job. 800 might be an exaggeration, but my point is that I got really busy.
When you get really busy, you suddenly have lots of things to talk about. I wanted to blog and let everyone know what was going on, but when you are busy, it is hard to find time to blog. As Mobile Bay went off and changed its mission, Mitch (why am I talking in third person?) realized how much more he liked it when things were routine and boring, and he had the time to do the things that he wanted to do regularly, like work out.
Long story short, (already a bit of a long story, that probably doesn’t make sense, but whatever) we got our radar fixed and we are back doing the boring and monotonous. In that time a lot has happened.
Marty and Nisa left the ship. Poop. It is tough when two good friends, the people that you interact with most and feel comfortable with both leave within two days of each other. I miss them both, and I wish I could have gone with them back to good ol’ San Diego where I could be eating what I want, wearing what I want, and doing what I want (for the most part).
Marty left his last installment of the blog with me. From now on he will be a commenter just like the rest of you:
Marty says:
Well, unfortunately my time here on Mobile Bay is coming short. For the last few nights I have had trouble sleeping, I just lay there in bed and think about some of the people and things that I am going to miss out here. And then I think that maybe I don’t really want to go just yet… and then I slap myself and remember how good it is going to feel getting back to summer in San Diego!
I have had a remarkable couple of last weeks here. Probably the most important milestone was the completion of my EOOW qualification. It is a very nice feeling, being done with that. I am in the process of evaluating and saying goodbye to some really great sailors that have done some really great work for me over the past two years. I doubt that I will really miss this job, but I will miss them. I received an award today that said that we received over ten million gallons of fuel during my time here as 1st Lt. I don’t really know how much that is, but considering gas prices, I can understand why taxes are so high.
I am packed up and ready to transfer on a one hour notice if necessary. It seems a little extreme but, that is about how long Nisa had to get her stuff together before she was gone. We miss her out here already. I am traveling across the globe with my ex-boss. He transfers the same day. He has already mentioned sharing a hotel room to save money… can anyone think of a polite way to say no to that? “Gee boss, I would rather pay an extra $200 just to not have to see you!” Sad, but true story.
So, for all of the folks who have been reading Mitch’s blog, this is Marty signing off. Of the great people I am leaving behind out here, Mitch is probably the one that I am going to miss the most. Luckily, I am leasing his place in SD until he returns… something tells me that our adventures have just begun. Thanks for your comments and words of encouragement. Take care everyone! –Marty
P.S. This may not be the last you here of me. I will probably just sign in, view, and make comments on from the states like everyone else.
Before Marty left we had a little bit of fun. A fairly new person on our ship, Tim was asked if he wanted to take over Marty’s job as 1st LT. What the job is isn’t that important,
what is important is that Tim accepted and started turning over the division with Marty. Now I don’t know exactly when this happened, but at one point Tim was lying in his bed and Marty commented on the thick mane of chest hair that Tim had. So in all of his boredom, Marty convinced Tim to let Marty shave whatever he wanted into Tim’s chest hair before Marty left from deployment. I took a video of Tim promising this, and the day before Marty left, we got to work:We had to color in the “1st” so that we knew where to shave, and then the marker wouldn’t come off right away, so we filled it in. I think it is some good work. A masterpiece if you will (I did the shaving, high quality work, and now I can say I have shaved another man’s chest. I don’t think I should say it, but I can…).
Before Marty left, we took a picture of the infamous duo:
Things as always are pretty good onboard. I have been trying to stay busy, and I think today is the half way point of deployment. Soon enough the Mobile Bay will be on its way back to San Diego.
Before I had my slight blog hiatus (High five Hiatus?) I talked about going to SWOS. It turns out that SWOS is not currently paying for people to come back from deployment, because it is costing too much money. So I will have to go to SWOS after I get back from deployment. In the meantime I will start working on my Engineering Officer of the Watch Qualification which will prepare me well for the Engineering part of my Surface Warfare Officer Qualification.
Things have slowed down some out here. The first two months flew by, but now the days seem a bit longer. Don’t get me wrong, I am not sad or bummed, just saying how things are. In fact I have been in a consistently good mood. I am starting to miss things that I did on a daily basis, which I don’t get to do now. I miss going out to clubs (not that I did that daily) and I miss listening to music loud in my own house. I miss going on the internet that doesn’t run at 56k pace. I miss driving and hearing the new music on the radio (I used to be able to always call which songs were gonna be big, “Soulja Boy.” I hope I haven’t lost my touch). There are things that you just take for granted. I am sure when I get back, I will go back to the way things were, but I do miss them for now.
I miss friends and family, and the little things that I did with them, Taco Tuesdays and family get togethers, Five Guys with Fries on a Sunday night even though you got a shit ton of homework, and playing catch in the hall with the football that you swear will only take ten minutes and you’ll be right back to work refreshed as can be.
I am saving money though. And a good amount of it. I have been trying to think of something productive and effective to do with my money, when I get back to San Diego. I can’t think of anything that sounds really useful or will really enhance my financial situation. I think I need more money to make more money. Stupid Capitalism.
I think I am starting to blabber, but I am looking forward to getting all of your responses, and I will definitely start doing the blog and emailing more often. I hope people are still reading this.
I will see you all in 4 months.
