Wow, what a relief! Today was the official day... it's been exactly 6 years that I've been in the Navy, and just 2 days shy of 4 years at sea... but it's final... today I handed in mine and Heather's ID's and they handed me my DD-214 (that's "walking papers" to us civilian-types!)
:)

True to the Navy way of things, everything has been a mess for the last 2 months... no one was able to give me a straight answer... the whole time I basically had 5 dates in front of me: 23rd of November, 3rd of August, 23rd of July, 23rd of May, or "a date we have yet to determine, probably sometime in June"... UGGH!!!! Well, last week my orders came in and they gave me just *4* days notice!!! But, happily, I ran around those last 4 days doing all of the things that you are supposed to take a month or longer doing, in order to be able to separate on time...

In one great big wave of frustration and joy I unceremoniously threw away my boondockers (again, to us civilian types, that's jargon for "military boots") and put Heather on notice that I will not be shaving every day anymore... in fact, it might be a good long time before I decide to shave at all!

:)

Course that probably won't last long once the itching sets in...

This is how I found Tazzy the other morning. Normally when I get ready in the morning she waits on top of the covers watching me to see when I'm ready to take her out. This time she must have been cold. She wrapped herself good and she didn't even get up when I left the room to get the camera. She also doesn't like cameras and will get jittery if you bring one around but she just stayed still. When I found her I came out of the bedroom and didn't see her at all and then I saw this little eye following me around the room. I went to get the camera and when I came back she had more of her nose sticking out. It was super cute.

Well, I just completed the Navy-mandated 5-year physical the other day... and the last step of it was sitting down with the doctor and going through an exam and looking over my bloodwork.

It was pretty kewl b/c though I don't know my cholesterol levels and sugar levels and such from the past... I do know that my blood pressure was getting a little high b/c every time that I had to see a doctor about any minor complaint, they always commented that my blood pressure was a bit too high. Also, for years I have had all of the symptoms that I was border-line hypo-glycemic.

Well the doc looked at my blood work results and the first thing he said was "Your cholesterol levels look great... you must work out, huh???" -- wow, I was shocked and very pleased!

As it turns out, my blood pressure was right in the middle where it should be, my sugar levels were right in the middle where they should be and my cholesterol levels were so low they were even well below the low-point of the scale where they normally fall... in other words, they were "off the scale"... all that and yet my HDL-to-LDL ratio is on target as well.

Anyways, it made me extremely happy to realize that the results that I am seeing "externally" are showing up "internally" as well!

On another note, I found out the name for the shaking symptom that I have had since as long as I can remember: "Benign Familial Tremors". Apparently not only is it hereditary and goes away with age (typically), but it can also (rarely) become worse at some point in one's life to the point where it affects one's head also and can become quite severe. Interesting, but as the doctor pointed out, typically it is of almost no concern and should stay the same or get better with age. At least now I have a name to refer to it by... up to now when faced with the "what's wrong with you" question, my answer has always been "oh, that's normal, don't worry about it"... now I have a better answer!

Well, today I got to go "Aloft" for the first time ever... now, I have a problem with heights, so this was a big deal! Not only do I not like to be up high, but when I am up high I tend to get dizzy/spacey and sometimes feel a little queasy... but as we are preparing to enter the yards for major overhaul on the ship, we are required to take down our antennas so they can be overhauled also... so, up I went! My assigned area: "The Stick"... it's the absolute highest point on the ship, that is actually also the narrowest point on the ship up at the very top where when the wind blows, "The Stick" shakes and sways... before you go up you strap on a safety harness around your body, much like the one used by window-washers on the big high-rise glass office buildings... then you walk up 5 stories of stairs, then you get on this HUUUUUUGE ladder and you climb up ANOTHER 5 stories... then you are the bottom of "The Stick"... it is just a narrow beam that goes up another roughly 15 feet and there are these little ladder-like rungs welded to the side of it that you use to climb up it... there is a pole welded in between the rungs to which you attach your safety harness... once you are at the point where you want to work, you verify that your safety harness is "locked in" on the metal pole, you reach out and strap your safety line to a metal tie-point on "The Stick" just in case your safety harness slips from the metal pole, then you lean back and "sit" in your harness so that you can use both hands to do the actual work... at roughly 11 stories above the ground!!!

Anyways, I was up there all day yesterday, most of the day today, and I'll be there all day tomorrow until we are done... I did much better than I thought that I would... but I quickly learned to not look down or up any more than I had to, just look straight at the bolt I was trying to remove and focus on the work at hand!

I have included pictures!



This is where "The Stick" is located on the ship... that small "post" inside the red circle...






Here is a view of the aft-end of the ship from "the basket", which is the very bottom of "The Stick"... it gives you a good idea of how high up it is up there...















Here is the view of the pier and the parking lot from the basket...











This is the focsle of the ship... the red arrow is pointing at one of the antennas that we have removed and it is being hoisted off of the ship by a crane...












Here's me at the top of "The Stick"... uuuhhhh... "fun stuff", yeah...

:)

We joined a new gym. We had grown out of our old gym. They didn't have that many weights and not that heavy of weights. Also, the pool closes early now for Water Polo classes and then the they only have 2 lanes open during the after work traffic so you always have to share with another person. So, we decided it's time for us to move on. We checked into different gyms in our area to see all the different things they had. Only the YMCA and 24 Hr. Fitness had a pool. So, it was between them but the YMCA isn't very close and there is only 1 in Utah so if we were to move back we wouldn't have that many options of where to live. The 24 Hr. Fitness had a lot more of what we wanted so we ended up signing up for the 3 year plan and every year after that is $99/year. It was a really good deal since we plan on really using it and sticking with it. We used our new gym for the first time last night. It was so big and had so many people that it was a bit intimidating to me but I think I'm sure I'll get used to it. There were a lot of fufu girls which I don't really care for that but I learn to ignore that kind of stuff. Our last gym had a lot more older people or less in shape people so it wasn't so intimidating. I'm very excited to learn about the different machines and find out the different exercises I can do that I haven't been able to learn.