February 29, 2008

My Bookworm Starved To Death

This ain't my first rodeo, so I've got a few things figured out by now. I like to read books, but it's a pain to carry a two-month's supply. So two weeks before this float, I ordered a bunch of novels from the SF Book Club. The SFBC takes about three weeks to get out to me, so when we got our first mail call, I'd receive a package of new reading material.

It didn't work out somehow. I finished the six books I brought in my initial packup, a mountain of mail arrived when we had a working port in Subic- but my books weren't there. I've read everything interesting in the ship's library, and I've been reduced to borrowing whatever anyone else happened to bring along. I've read some terrible books in the last two weeks, folks. Several million neurons in my linguistic center signed a protest petition.

We're expecting another mail call in a day or two. I hope my books arrive, or things are going to get ugly.

Oh, and this is not an appeal to send me books. They'd arrive way too late anyway.

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Hirstute

We had an underway vertical replenishment today, in which a helicopter flies pallets of stuff from a supply ship (the USNS Niagara Falls) onto our flight deck.

What made this one noteworthy was that the helicopter wasn't military; it was a civilian variant Sea King operated by an American charter airline company.

They landed to take on fuel from us, which was a complicated evolution. They didn't have a crew chief, so the pilot hopped out to supervise. He had to rig an adapter hose because the military spec fuel hose nozzel wouldn't fit his civilian size fuel intake. And we watching troops were mightily amused by the copilot's truly impressive, flowing, pure white beard and moustache.

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February 28, 2008

Happy Leap Day

Well, here we are, on Leap Day. Fredric's birthday! One of the guys in the airframes shop also has his birthday today, and we were harassing him about it. There's no way to have a party on the boat, so now he's going to have to wait another 1460 days until his next birthday. He'll have to reenlist if he wants to get a Marine Corps party.

I'm unwell again, with the upper respiratory infection that's swept through the boat. I've not gone to medical though, as I hope I would have heard about a cure for the common cold.

Sick or not, I had a class scheduled for this morning, so I did my egress and explosive safety lecture for ninety-five people. My many years of singing training have given me good vocal projection skills, but as I'm sick I couldn't manage and had to just shout. Which is inelegant and also not healthy for the vocal cords. Ah well. As usual the class went over well, because I make tremdous efforts to not lead yet another dry and dusty lecture. We Marines get way too many of those already, mostly inflicted by each other.

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February 26, 2008

Sixty Days

It's official, my extension package was approved and I signed a stack of paperwork. My exit date is now mid-July, although I would expect to be back stateside in mid-June.

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February 25, 2008

Fish and Whale Watching

The waters off the Philippines are still teeming with life. We've been watching more dolphins and whales, and watching entire schools of flying fish flee the giant ship bearing down on them. I've still yet to get a photo of a flying fish that I was actually happy with. They move really fast, low to the waves, and are camoflaged. So all my photos are of water-colored blurs with a background of water. Not very compelling. Part of the problem is that I'm eighty feet up; if I were in a small boat I might be able to shoot the fish with the sky as a backdrop, and the contrast would make the fish more visible.

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February 23, 2008

Class Up Da Joint

Today I'm chained to the desk, doing a mountain of paperwork. (When I've got everything typed up, there will be about 450 pages to file.) No one else in the shop likes my music, so normally I don't push the issue. But if I'm going to be at this desk for the next six hours typing, I'll be damned if I listen to the same crap songs I've been listening to for the whole boat ride.

So I hooked my laptop up to the shop's speakers. I started with some techno, but that wasn't the right mood for hours of typing. I switched to classical.

It got depressing very quickly. The 1812 Overture came on, and someone asked "Is that from a movie? Cause I think I've heard it before!" I had to concede that "Yes, that particular song has probably been in a movie or two."

And now, I've got Peer Gynt going. Chavez was getting his hair cut, and I think In the Hall of the Mountain King was making him nervous. Maybe I should switch to Stravinski's Rite of Spring and freak them all out.

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You Think You're Funny, Don't You

Last night's dinner entree: Yankee Pot Roast.

Last night's dinner vegatable: Fried Okra.

Thus making everyone unhappy, regardless of where they grew up.

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February 21, 2008

Obsessions

Yesterday evening the sun was fixing to set over the mist-enshrouded mountains that surround Subic Bay. I had my camera, and I was waiting until the moment became perfect.

But even as the sun was setting, the clock was ticking. Dinner service was almost over.

Ah well, I could stand to lose a couple of pounds anyway.

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February 19, 2008

What the Hell Is a Balikatan?

I forgot to mention that we arrived in the Philippines a few days ago, and have been busy doing the annual excercises. Whee. It's hot and humid, and the ventilation in our shop is broken, so it's like a locker room in here. Most unpleasant.

For a while it was looking like I'd go ashore for a few days with a detachment, but then the powers that be switched up the aircraft mix, and someone else got to go. Woe is me.

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February 18, 2008

Did I Slip Inside a Sitcom?

Today was my duty section's turn to clean up the berthing. Cleanup happens at 0730, so day crew is about to go in to work, and night crew just got off. Me, I'm swing shift, so I have to wake up. It's annoying.

It also means that everyone else is in their working uniforms, but I'll be damned if I put on more than my shower shoes and the T-shirt and shorts I was sleeping in. Because when cleanup is done, I go back to bed.

Anyway, someone cleaning the head managed to break one of the showers. They somehow got a shower unscrewed from the freshwater supply pipe that feeds all six showers. This leads to a large volume of water gushing out in there. Anyone that attempts to correct the situation is going to get soaked.

So gee, isn't it convenient that someone isn't wearing a uniform and boots that would get annoying if wet? Someone wearing shower shoes already? That's right, I'm the sucker.

So I peeled off my shirt and went to do battle. Where I learned that the classic scene of a beleagured dude trying to reconnect plumbing with the water on, is really just as hard as the sitcoms make it look. The pressure was such that I just couldn't mate the pipes back together again to screw them back on. And we couldn't find the water shutoff valve.

All this water pouring out was a problem. First, the shower room was flooding. The floor drains of all six showers, plus the mop drain in the hall, were incapable of dealing with all the water. It was at my ankles and rising. Second, fresh water is a limited commodity on the boat. The navy is always complaining at the Marines to use less fresh water. So a thirty gallon per minute leak was an issue.

Sgt W_, who is excessivly calm, made the first trouble call to Damage Control Central, telling them that, and I quote, "We've got a leak in the showers." After some discussion, he realized that perhaps DC Central would assume that we meant a 'drip drip drip' kind of leak, as opposed to the 'shout to be heard over the gushing water' leak. So we called back, and explained the problem more firmly. At which time they dispatched a sailor on the double, who found the water shutoff valve (three compartments away, unlabeled), and stopped the deluge.

It took the navy a good hour to get the plumbing fixed, during which time many people were annoyed, as they couldn't take showers. It didn't really bother me though. Sure, I hadn't used any soap, but the volume of water blasting over me during my losing battle with the pipes scoured me clean quite nicely.

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