The Revenge of the Chili Dog

Well after a long week at work, time for some relaxation at Bass Lake, CA. Well it was relaxing for about 4 hours or so, then I had the chili dog for lunch. Shayna said, "Are you sure you want to eat that?", and of course I said that I would be fine, I want to drink, smoke a little, and eat bad food all weekend. Well I did have a couple of cigarettes, didn't have a single beer, and ended up in the bathroom all night Saturday and Sunday morning. It's now Monday and still has me running to the bathroom every 1/2 hour or so, not good! As you can see by the picture to the left we were very happy to be there, it was taken after eating the chili dog and before the canoe trip. We were on the lake for about an hour and then had to head back in, I was tired, little did I know that it was the beginning signs of a very long night. Well enough bathroom talk. We did have a good time overall, it was only 1.5 hours from Lemoore and it felt as if we were in another universe. Fantastic place to get away to relax, we're going to do it again in a couple of weeks, sin chili dog! The picture on the right is of our view from the back porch, fantastic. It was nice just sitting there in the complete silence, and perfect weather. I have duty next weekend so no trips. You guys take care and keep in touch.

Dave

Reason #596

Well no pictures this week, I'd probably get in trouble from work if I posted pictures of me doing what I'd like to be doing! Now that was confusing, I even confused myself. To explain a little further, we are down to 2 OR nurses due to deployments, and that means we have duty every other day, every other weekend. Duty is carrying the pager just in case there is a c-section, appendectomy, cholecystectomy that needs to go to the OR. This becomes a problem when you get called in for a case around 1 in the morning, when they usually go, and then have to recover the patient, this equals an average of a 3 hour stay after the page. So that leaves us getting home at 4 in the morning, going to sleep for 2 hours, getting up at 6 in the morning and working a full day, not good, not safe and not smart! Now we knew in January that we were going down to 2 OR nurses on 9 April. We brought this point up at that time and were told that it was being covered, so much for that idea! We were finally told on 16 April that the contract is in place, I'm thankful for that but now we have to train a new employee to get him/her credentialed, etc., and that will take at least 3-4weeks, what a mess. I really don't think that it's our command's problem, I believe that the whole system is a mess. Can we bring it back to a simpler time? If you need a worker why can't you just go out and get one instead of going through mounds of red tape to get the problem solved. Believe me, with our economy in the toilet there are plenty of people that need jobs out there, am I right? Reason #596 I'm turning down Lieutenant Commander and getting out in 532 days, but who's counting? haha.

Take care and keep in touch.

Dave

The Couch

The first picture is how Shayna and I basically spend our time, on the couch! That is if we are not working out or running, so I guess the couch time is justified! The second pic is of Mohinder sitting up, not that he follows any of our commands though. He sure does love the straws, he's mesmerized by them, hilarious.

We actually got off of the couch last night. We went to the Cellar Door in Visalia, CA, nice place. Basically it's a big dance floor with a stage for a band and a bunch of couches all around the room, very nice. The band was pretty good, but the solo artist that played in between sets was fantastic. He played the guitar with that Southern Louisiana sound, I love that. We went to another place called Crawdaddy's down the street, it was a dance club, I felt out of place there, but still it was nice to get out and do something. We went with my friend Aaron from work and his wife Oksana, sp?. We are looking forward to spending some more time with them in the future.

That's about it for this week, I have duty again next weekend so definitely more couch time to come!

Dave

First Run After Hernia Repair

The first run after a two-week lay off due to hernia surgery went well. The first picture is actually when I was walking before the run, not a bad recovery at all. Now I'm ready to start training for the Marine Corps Mud Run in Lemoore on 22 MAY, the Disney 1/2 marathon in Anaheim in September, and then finally the Army 10-miler in DC in October! woohoo. There are a bunch of my friends getting together for all three runs, it'll be nice seeing some of the people I was deployed with again. I spoke with my friend Keith that ran the OR in Kandahar after I left and he said that there are a bunch of people coming from Denmark, Holland, Canada and throughout the States to Vegas sometime in October. I'll definitely attend that if it all comes together. If any of you heard about that please email me at ltjgdave2003@yahoo.com and fill me in.

The second pic is how our cat Mohinder gets our attention now. Very smart, but I still like watching TV so he'll have to try something else! haha. He's now 14 pounds, getting huge.

The last pic is of the welcome home signs for some of our local squadrons. It reminds me of the past when armies would return from battle to a huge celebration, it's nice to see that the tradition is holding strong on the base here.

Shayna is doing great and will be updating her blog also in a couple of minutes, check it out at the link to the right "Building Shayna". Well that about does it for the update this week, take care and keep in touch.

Dave