Trying to Make it a Habit

It's hard to break a habit, and even harder to instill a new one, especially with so many other things tagging at your heels. And, to be honest, it's been a tough few months since I left the ship. Not so much related to leaving the ship, though there's always a seriously low period in the post-command timeframe. This time I was expecting it, which helped. Also helping was my initial schedule post-command. I spent a week in Memphis, or near Memphis, for the Navy. The Navy part was not exciting, but we did get to do some good eating. I liked Pig on Beale, didn't like some of the more famous places.

Then, I spent a couple of weeks in Monterey, CA, at the Naval Postgraduate School, attending a school for senior leaders. I took my time, taking two days to drive what could easily be done in a day. I stopped to take pictures and drove Big Sur instead of taking the interior route and cutting west. I spent the night in the middle of Big Sur, and pulled into all the state parks along the way. Sadly, the fog meant the pictures weren't all that great, but there were a few gems.

After about a month of loafing around and not doing much other than hanging out, I headed east, again, taking my time. I drove Route 66 and stopped regularly at anything that caught my attention. As often as I could, I photographed myself doing a headstand in front of landmarks. I spent a couple of days in Santa Fe and fell in love with the town - it's propensity to fund and display public art rivals Paris. My Flikr set is here.

Then school started and we did some good stuff. I've still not uploaded my pictures of the visit to Gettysburg, which we toured in the order that the battle happened. It was a great trip and a beautiful day. It was a blessing for us since the year before had apparently rained the entire day. Shortly before the trip though, I got sick. It took about a month to figure out exactly what was wrong, and another month and an overnight stay in the hospital to get it under control. In the middle of all that, just my problem reached it's height, I came home to find Stormy in pain and distress and had to put her to sleep. Thankfully, my mom was just to the south in Virginia Beach with her dog Sweep, and since Sandy had stranded her, she ended up spending about five days with me. I'm afraid I wasn't great company, but Sweep was uncharaceristically understanding, even allowing me to rest my head on him and sleep for a little while. (If you know Border Collies, you'll know how significant that is.)

I still find myself calling for her when I come into the house. Things are getting better now, and there's a new man in my life. Two, actually. The first I met in Monterey and against my better judgement, I've started dating a guy in the Naval Aviation community. In my defense, he's a maintainer, not a pilot, but he still wears brown shoes. I will refer to him as such here - Brown Shoe, or BS. It suits in many ways.  The other man - well, BS was worried about me being home alone (we only see each other on weekends), and after a week without Stormy, he insisted that I "just go look at the rescue cats..."

Harvest, called Harvey around the house. He's five months old now, and certainly keeps me occupied.

 

Comments

[Iris]

Sorry to hear you were under the weather. Gee, what does that mean in aviation? Maybe what it sounds like?

I know how hard it is to choose to put a pet down. Harvey does look like he'll be glad to occupy you. At first glance (coloring, mostly) he looks like our male Korat (Ash, named after the Pokemon character by our daughter, whose cat he is supposed to be but she's at college, who weighs 12 and a half pounds), who succeeded a female Korat (who weighed 4 pounds). Quite a shock as he grew into the horse that he is. His nickname is Fido - because he behaves more like a dog in many ways, than a cat, and outweighs some smaller dogs.

I can't even imagine how busy you are. I can't remember which Heinlein story it was (Starship Troopers?) where the main character goes back for some type of additional leadership training and shares an orderly to handle all of the minutiae that he clearly must have learned early on - because otherwise he wouldn't have enough time for what he was there for.

Take care, and keep us posted when you can.

[BJ]

Oh, Monterey--I am soooo jealous! is the bookstore at the Naval Postgraduate School still awesome? Is the roller rink still there?

(Spent nine months in Monterey at DLI in 1976.)

BJ

[Margaret]

Good to see you back,I hope you enjoy California, I am sure there are lots of nice places to see.
Sorry to hear about you not being well and having to say goodbye to Stormy. It looks like Harvey has made himself at home pretty quick, they are like 2 year old kids, never a dull moment and allways good for a laugh !
If you have an enormous amount of reading to cope with, would it be any use doing a speed reading course?
You were so lucky to have your Mum stay awhile, right when she needed a place to chill for a few days and you needed some Mum time when you weren't well.

Socks....socks, what is it with socks ? I have knitted 3 pairs for myself and we don't get snow here, also I have knitted 3 pairs for friends here and 2 pairs for a friend who lives in a "snowy" part of France, I think it is the fact that you can see progress on the work , they are good to take along and a pair is all finished pretty quickly.I just love making them and buy sock yarn whenever I see it on sale, I suppose it is partly that people LOVE getting them because mostly you can't buy hand made socks.

[Beverly]

So sorry to hear you had been sick, and that you lost Stormy. It's always rough to lose our furry friends, but harder when you are already under the weather. Glad that Harvey has joined your family.