Just a Swingin'

What a good week! I'm finally back into running full bore again, completed approximately 26 miles this week and chasing the leader in my Nike+ competition, Sarah. So far I'm about 29 miles behind the lead. There are 4 of us that were deployed together and we decided to call the competition the "Kandahar Kup". The first one to complete 500 miles wins the trophy, a viking helmet complete with blonde locks and an Afghanistan campaign medal bumper sticker on it, it's been a lot of fun and really keeps you focused on running.

The pics show me driving the ball at the range, feel free to critique the swing! Golfing is much like riding a bike, once you get your swing down it comes back quick when you pick up the clubs after a while. We are going to go again today and then hopefully hit a course in the upcoming weeks.

Next week is the Marine Corps Lemoore Mud Run, we have a team of 5 called the NHL Mudslingers. I'm sure I'll have some interesting photos for next weeks post. The race is about 4-5 miles long through water, mud, hills, tubes to crawl through, walls to climb and ropes to swing on. Should be a blast and hopefully injury free.

I saw something really funny yesterday. Shayna and I were on the way to Target in Hanford, CA. At the light before turning in we saw a Hanford Sheriff and a Hanford Police car pull up like there was a robbery somewhere. They responded quickly to about 10 kids hanging out in front of McDonalds goofing off. What's funny about this is that there are homeless people hanging out in the median right next to McDonalds bugging the crap out of all the drivers coming out after finishing shopping! The police and sheriff don't even bat an eye at them. Is that ridiculous? I know that homeless people need money and I pray that I'm never in that situation, but come on. I think I'm going to write the local paper and see what kind of comments I get back, we'll see.

Well that's about it for this week, hopefully some good, muddy photos for the next post.

Dave

Cleaning the Sticks

I broke out the WalMart clubs, washed them up, ready for the season! I originally bought these around 6 years ago telling myself that if I enjoyed playing I was going to get a new set in a couple of years. I'm going to use these one more year and then pick up a set of Pings, that's going to be a good day! I really believe that a new set will improve the length of your drives, I'm hitting straight as an arrow a majority of the time, just not getting the distance I would like. The last time I played was in Qatar on our 4 day liberty from Afghanistan. We rented Ping clubs out there and it definitely helped my game. Tomorrow Shayna and I are going out to the driving range to see how bad I've gotten in the past year, I'll post pictures of the disaster next week!

We are officially the couple that is not going to get invited to any neighborhood parties. It was verified yesterday when everyone got together on the block except for us, no invite, oh well. I guess it's because I got on about 4 of the couples for them letting their kids play baseball in the 10 foot space between our house and our neighbors. It would have been okay except the ball kept smacking against our house and the parents were right there watching it, not saying anything. Every time the ball would hit the house I kept thinking there was a rocket attack! Not good! They really don't understand because they deploy on ships which equals no rocket attacks! It's the first time that I haven't been invited to a neighborhood get together and it's kind of nice, no feelings of responsibility to be anywhere, all we have to do is relax! Oh well, that's life.

That's about it for this week, take care and keep in touch.

Dave

Hello

Well the past week was a bad one. I was really sick for the entire week, didn't work a single day! It was nice being off for the first couple of days but after that you can only watch so much TV and play only so many video games! Shayna also received the virus from me, I guess it's the gift that keeps on giving. She is feeling much better also. Nothing much else happened, just a lot of crackers and Canada Dry Ginger Ale, it's amazing how much better that simple fix makes you feel. I'll write some more interesting stuff next weekend.

Dave

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