Day: April 19, 2009

Day: April 19, 2009
Weather report: low-70’s today, humidity 94% wind is about 10-15 SE today, cloudy with rain and possible thunderstorms 80%

Laundry day! I guess like anywhere you go your laundry follows you. We dirty up a lot of clothes around here with physical training in first thing in the morning, falling all over the place during the day and getting our uniforms really nasty, and of course something to relax in when you are finished with having you tail handed to you all day. I went down stairs earlier to put my clothes in and there was a line of people waiting to do laundry. If it is still there later I will go to the post laundry and read my book while I get my clothes clean. I have started John Grisham’s book, “The Innocent Man”. I really haven’t gotten into it yet. It is slow going to start; hopefully it will take off soon and keep me wanting more. I am going to Krispy Kreme for a couple of original glazed and my first cup of coffee, for $2, since I have been here. I normally drink coffee on a daily basis at work. I have had zero sodas or coffee, the only thing I have been drinking is water, tea on the weekend, milk, and sports drinks. It is real easy to go into hypovilimac shock in a training environment. I do not want to be the one that gets dehydrated and needs an IV to get me going again. At this point I really haven’t given lunch much of a thought, maybe some type of pasta to carb-up for tomorrow and our 4.2 mile formation run. I definitely am going to mail stuff home today for my children. A shower and I’m off to get donuts. I CANNOT WAIT! I nearly forgot; I have to get a HAIR CUT today. Can you believe I have hair? I have not had this much hair on my head in over a year and had been shaving my on head about two or three times a week. I look pretty funny with hair; guess I am not use to seeing myself like this. I shaved my hair off to honor a very crazy and wonderful woman that has loved and supported me since I became part of her family, my mother-in-law, GIGI! She is remarkable and was victorious over cancer and it was a privilege to shave my head to support her. Now everyone just expects me to shave my head. I grew some hair for this course because of the helmet we wear in the training environment. It is a little heavy and gets filled with dirt and grim. If I didn’t have hair it would be like someone sticking a piece of 60 grit sandpaper on top of my head and putting the helmet on it. My head would be so raw, man that would be painful. I have started working on my Blog and making it more military like with crests, coat of arms, creeds, and photos. Amanda was so proud of my efforts to get with the 21 Century and come on board with the times. I am not a Blogger or Facebook, Tweeter, or any of the other internet places you can talk and catch-up with people. This is a new experience for me and is kind of fun to play around with. I have attempted to find pictures of the training environment and of the tasks we must complete during each of the three phases of this course. Some of the photos are old and the soldiers pictured are in the old Woodland Camouflage Uniform, but it is still the same training. It has been raining off and on since about 1000hrs. I wish it would either rain and continue to rain or stop and move on. It is crazy, the weather around here. Can you believe that I started calling Spa’s on Thursday and attempted to set-up an appointment for a massage and they we all booked. I guess I was a little behind everyone else on the pain issue and they set theirs up or had inside information on what to expect. That really sinks. Maybe next weekend?
Enough of that time to eat.

I bought a new pair of boots (Blackhawk) they have extra ankle support and have additional cushion in the sole. Most of the Sergeant Airborne’s are wearing them so they must be pretty good. They make every jump with every class they instruct.

I went out today and started by going by the post laundry and it was packed full of people trying to clean their clothes. I left there and went to get my hair cut at Ranger Joe’s Barber Shop. It cost me $9.00 to get a hair cut. I can by razors that last longer than this one cut that I paid for today. My adventure continued with trying to find a coin laundry to wash clothes. I would rather pay five dollars and be finished with laundry than sit around all day waiting in line to attempt to get a machine on post. I found one of Victory Drive and it was very shady. Moving on to find another one, so I headed off to exit 10. The HOT light was on and after $2.12 I had two hot donuts and a cup of Joe. Man was it good! Hot and melt in your mouth, slap your mama good. I left there and went to find a FedEx Kinko’s. I found it near a Target off Bradshaw Road. I mailed out a package today and it should be there on Tuesday. The boy’s are going to have fun with the army parachutist. After talking with on of the employees he suggested a place I could get my clothes clean. I headed down two exits and started to Warm Springs Road, made a left and there it was, U.S. Washboard Coin Laundry. It was in a nice neighborhood and was very clean to my surprise. I only had to pay $3.75 to wash and dry all my laundry. I finished my laundry and headed for my room. I need a nap for some odd reason; my mind must have finally caught up with my body. Change that, I saw a nail spa and stopped in and hand my feet taken care off. It was great! I couldn’t get a massage so this was the next best thing. They were packed! The man running the place got me in a chair and put my feet in some hot water to soak. The massage chair felt really good too. An hour and a half later my feet were finished and my back relaxed from the kneading motion in the chair. Thought about pasta but changed my mind. I found a McAlister’s Deli and ordered a Spud Max with a large sweet tea to go. Back at my room and downed the spud and half of the tea, it is really sweet. I had to add water to it to even the sugar out. Put my clothes away, took another shower to get the hair off my neck, and lying back in a chair with my feet elevated on the bed. Formation tomorrow morning at 0530hrs and another 4.2 mile run. They did not tell us what we were going to train on, it’s a surprise for some reason.

PULL-UPS for the day: 0