Yesterday at around 10 am the power went out. This was not surprising for me since the power has gone out quite a bit since we moved here and it was windy yesterday. I decided since I couldn’t use my computer I’d read the assigned chapters for this week’s assignment instead. Not a big deal.
About three hours go by and I’m getting tired of reading, plus I have a “date” to chat with Mr. I at 4pm. At this point, I’m also starting to get a bit nervous because the electricity usually comes back on by now. I figure I’ll go next door ask the neighbors if their power is on, drive by the housing office on my way to Panera to have dinner and talk to Mr. I. The neighbors aren’t home and the housing office is closed. I thought to myself, “Oh, well. I’m sure it’ll be back on by the time I come home.” So, I go to Panera, I get to talk to Mr. I and I drive back home. My neighbor meets me at the front door and at the same time we both ask each other if we have electricity. The obvious answer is no. Then she proceeds to tell me, “I think the electrical box caught on fire.” HUH?! What?! I follow her to her side of the duplex and sure enough the box is covered in black soot. Her husband is on the phone trying to call anyone and everyone. It is Saturday and the housing office has closed early. I guess they got a hold of them before they closed but the person working there earlier in the day to ask about the outage but they didn’t know who to call…don’t get me started. He ends up calling the emergency maintenance number and the electric company. They came out about an hour and a half later.
It’s about 7:00pm and it’s getting cold and dark! Apparently, the electrical box didn’t catch on fire but the wires under the ground were rubbing up against the foundation of the house which caused them to spark and inevitably shoot black soot all over the box. They didn’t get done replacing the wires until almost 10:00pm. We did have a lot of great conversation and learned that the guy working on fixing everything has been in the business for 37 years.
Now, I can add “exposed electrical wires and 12 hour power outage” on my list of deployment woes.
Showing posts with label deployment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label deployment. Show all posts
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Is the Army Giving ME a Logistics Test?
Often times I wonder if the Army is giving me a logistics test...
The Army Gods: "You know I feel like we should test Jessica just to make sure she is commited to this whole college thing. Ahhh, you know what we should do? We should give Mr. I the report date of October on his PCS orders, you know, right in the middle of a semester. That way we'll see just how savvy and logisticly inclined this milspouse student can be. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Me: "F You!"
Many of you don't know but I started college in Hawaii (at the ripe age of twenty-one because I thought I was too cool for school at eighteen). Mr. I put in for an extension to stay in Hawaii for an extra year because UH had an AWESOME accelarated program where I could finish my BSW in three years. I would have been willing to stay an extra six to eight months to finish.
Well, the Army had other plans. Instead of extending Mr. I the retention guy "messed up" and Mr. I somehow got orders to Virginia...and his report date was a month from when we received the news. Needless to say we were PISSED! Oh, and the orders were only for a year and a half...I know, completely weird.
Anyway, I tried to take this as a sign and forced myself to look for the silver lining. I researched and found a great school in Virginia that had one of the best programs in the country. Being that I don't qualify for financial aid (booooo), I decided to take my undergrad courses at a community college to save money. I figured since we were only going to be here 1.5 years I might as well get my A.S. because it would transfer to any four-year university. I looked at it as a college insurance plan.
Mr. I was suppose to deploy 6 months to Haiti for relief efforts and be back in time to PCS. All weekend we waiting for the call for him to get on the bus and ship out. We waited....and waited...and waited. We never got the call. Here I am thinking, "Yay! He might not have to go!" I should have knocked on wood when I said that. Mr. I calls his higher up and asks what's going on. He was told to report to formation first thing Monday morning....uh oh! The next morning Mr. I was off to formation and I impatiently waiting for him to come home. He came through the door and things didn't look promising. He sat next to me and said, "I'm deploying to Iraq for a year." SILENCE. "Okay," I said hesitating and thinking a million thoughts a minute. I was in shock. This wasn't how it was suppose to be! Then again, when is it ever?!
The next day Mr. I goes to formation again and comes home. "I'm going to Afghanistan for a year." NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! At least that's how I felt inside. I said, "Okay," again and immediately started crying.
Needless, to say Mr. I is almost done with this stinkin' deployment. We have been here for almost 2.5 years now and I'm finally graduating with my A.S. in May and attending that wonderful school, I researched about back in Hawaii, this summer.
Now, back to the logistics test. The Army decided it would be a good idea for us to PCS in October, right smack dab in the middle of the semester! I contemplated moving ahead of the report date in order to start the semester on time but I couldn't do it, especially with Mr. I returning from a deployment. So, I finally accepted my fate that I would have to take the semester off. My reason for not wanting to take a semester off is because I REALLY want to finish my BSW and MSW in Colorado. I DON'T want to move again without finishing. I will have already attended FIVE schools by the time I'm done with my master degree...that's just not normal!
So, this weekend I was stalking the college in Colorado website and found they have something called "2nd session". It goes from OCTOBER 10th - December 11th! I think this was made for me...okay, probably not but it's nice to think about :) So, my plan is to apply to said college, register for those courses, find a home, unpack an entire house and attend classes at the same time. I can do it!
I've actually done it before. The move from Hawaii to Virginia I took four online classes while PCSing across the Pacific and the continental United States. It was also January and I had to do our taxes...without internet...and mind you we lived on tumbling mats for three months while our household goods traveled across the ocean on a boat and road across the US on the back of a semi. Oh, the glamous lifestyle we live! And you ask yourself, "why didn't you just buy a bed?" BECAUSE WE WERE POOR!
The story could go on forever but I won't bore you with anymore details. The point of this post is...
The Army Gods: "You know I feel like we should test Jessica just to make sure she is commited to this whole college thing. Ahhh, you know what we should do? We should give Mr. I the report date of October on his PCS orders, you know, right in the middle of a semester. That way we'll see just how savvy and logisticly inclined this milspouse student can be. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Me: "F You!"
Many of you don't know but I started college in Hawaii (at the ripe age of twenty-one because I thought I was too cool for school at eighteen). Mr. I put in for an extension to stay in Hawaii for an extra year because UH had an AWESOME accelarated program where I could finish my BSW in three years. I would have been willing to stay an extra six to eight months to finish.
Well, the Army had other plans. Instead of extending Mr. I the retention guy "messed up" and Mr. I somehow got orders to Virginia...and his report date was a month from when we received the news. Needless to say we were PISSED! Oh, and the orders were only for a year and a half...I know, completely weird.
Anyway, I tried to take this as a sign and forced myself to look for the silver lining. I researched and found a great school in Virginia that had one of the best programs in the country. Being that I don't qualify for financial aid (booooo), I decided to take my undergrad courses at a community college to save money. I figured since we were only going to be here 1.5 years I might as well get my A.S. because it would transfer to any four-year university. I looked at it as a college insurance plan.
Mr. I was suppose to deploy 6 months to Haiti for relief efforts and be back in time to PCS. All weekend we waiting for the call for him to get on the bus and ship out. We waited....and waited...and waited. We never got the call. Here I am thinking, "Yay! He might not have to go!" I should have knocked on wood when I said that. Mr. I calls his higher up and asks what's going on. He was told to report to formation first thing Monday morning....uh oh! The next morning Mr. I was off to formation and I impatiently waiting for him to come home. He came through the door and things didn't look promising. He sat next to me and said, "I'm deploying to Iraq for a year." SILENCE. "Okay," I said hesitating and thinking a million thoughts a minute. I was in shock. This wasn't how it was suppose to be! Then again, when is it ever?!
The next day Mr. I goes to formation again and comes home. "I'm going to Afghanistan for a year." NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! At least that's how I felt inside. I said, "Okay," again and immediately started crying.
Needless, to say Mr. I is almost done with this stinkin' deployment. We have been here for almost 2.5 years now and I'm finally graduating with my A.S. in May and attending that wonderful school, I researched about back in Hawaii, this summer.
Now, back to the logistics test. The Army decided it would be a good idea for us to PCS in October, right smack dab in the middle of the semester! I contemplated moving ahead of the report date in order to start the semester on time but I couldn't do it, especially with Mr. I returning from a deployment. So, I finally accepted my fate that I would have to take the semester off. My reason for not wanting to take a semester off is because I REALLY want to finish my BSW and MSW in Colorado. I DON'T want to move again without finishing. I will have already attended FIVE schools by the time I'm done with my master degree...that's just not normal!
So, this weekend I was stalking the college in Colorado website and found they have something called "2nd session". It goes from OCTOBER 10th - December 11th! I think this was made for me...okay, probably not but it's nice to think about :) So, my plan is to apply to said college, register for those courses, find a home, unpack an entire house and attend classes at the same time. I can do it!
I've actually done it before. The move from Hawaii to Virginia I took four online classes while PCSing across the Pacific and the continental United States. It was also January and I had to do our taxes...without internet...and mind you we lived on tumbling mats for three months while our household goods traveled across the ocean on a boat and road across the US on the back of a semi. Oh, the glamous lifestyle we live! And you ask yourself, "why didn't you just buy a bed?" BECAUSE WE WERE POOR!
The story could go on forever but I won't bore you with anymore details. The point of this post is...
HA! Army you will never defeat me! Logistics test or not I shall prosper!
Too much? Yeah, I think so too.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
I Hate This Part of the Deployment
I hate this part of the deployment. The part where we've come nearly 3/4 of the way on this year long deployment to still have a few months left. You feel like you've been run over by a semi truck and still have to crawl your way to the finish line. I feel defeated and weak. I just want to have a tantrum and yell, "I don't wanna do this anymore! I want to get off this crazy ride! I want off!"
I was talking to Mr. I this morning and I was telling him about this awesome music festival that is coming to our area this summer. I heard about it on the radio and it sounded like so much fun. You camp at this campground for 4 nights and during the day you enjoy five to six different performers. When I looked up the dates, I realized it would be a Wednesday through Saturday night type of thing and Mr. I's command thinks it would be better to "hold off their leave until school gets out" so he'll still be in-processing and "working" during that time. I literally started crying (yeah, I'm telling you people, I'm losing it).
I wasn't crying because we couldn't go to this festival...it was deeper than that. I was crying because so many times me and my husband have wanted to do things and couldn't because of the Army. We have never had a honeymoon, and we've never been on vacation...we really haven't done much. Between my school schedule, the cost of my school, and the Army, I feel like we never get to do anything. We both work our butts off to make a better life for ourselves and our future children, but we need a break for ourselves.
A couple months after Mr. I gets back, we're going to PCS. I feel like its a vicious cycle. Like we're never going to win (whatever that means). I feel like this is how our life goes:
He works. I go to school. I work. He trains. We move. He works. I go to school. Iwork. He trains. He deploys. I work. I go to school. He comes home. We move.
I just want to go somewhere warm, and sunny, that has a beach where we can enjoy just being with each other; no Army interuptions, no assignments due, no distractions. I really, really want that and I think that was the reason I started crying today.
I'm just trying to crawl my way to this deployment finish line the best I can but some days are harder than others...today was one of those days.
Monday, June 14, 2010
I can finally relax…a little.
After talking to my husband this morning on Skype I sat down on the couch, leaned back and took a deep breath. I felt a small sense of peace knowing that he made it there safe, he obtained an internet connection and I will have the privilege of being able to communicate with him somewhat frequently.
I feel lucky. Our last deployment was not like this at all. Our last was actually our first. We had no idea what to expect and our communication was limited. And on top of that it lasted fifteen looooong months. My fingers are crossed that this deployment will only last twelve.
I miss him terribly and the house feels so big and empty without him in it. I do feel more confident this time around. I didn’t handle deployment day as badly as I thought I would and the past two weeks have been so jammed packed with stuff that I finally was able to take a big deep breath today. I truly hope this deployment flies by.
And speaking of flying…today is Flag Day.
I feel lucky. Our last deployment was not like this at all. Our last was actually our first. We had no idea what to expect and our communication was limited. And on top of that it lasted fifteen looooong months. My fingers are crossed that this deployment will only last twelve.
I miss him terribly and the house feels so big and empty without him in it. I do feel more confident this time around. I didn’t handle deployment day as badly as I thought I would and the past two weeks have been so jammed packed with stuff that I finally was able to take a big deep breath today. I truly hope this deployment flies by.
And speaking of flying…today is Flag Day.
One thing I love about living on post is the amount of American flags being flown. They’ve even decorated the main gate with flags all along the road. I love it!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)