So. Where to begin? For me it would be easier
if we went backwards in time, starting from right now. Like that movie,
"Memento," that was causing such a buzz last year.
Just got the credit card
replacements today. Which allowed me to go back and re-vitalize my .Mac account,
wherein this blog is hosted. To those of you who noticed my absence, thanks for
noticing!
---------------------------
You
know - in a strange way, not being able to post was somehow liberating - I was
freed from the implicit need to scan memeorandum on a daily basis for ammunition to
re-fill my bile glands. Neither was I compelled to launch into much-anticipated,
breathlessly awaited opinions on who won the debates, whether vice presidential
(Cheney, by a length) or presidential (Kerry, by a lap), or whether they would
make a hair's breadth of difference (I don't think so, in the long run).
And since you've been spared my
political commentary, lo! these many weeks, I'll encapsulate the depth and
breadth of all I've thought and learned over the past month: I am simply
astounded, given the vast amount of talent in this country of 300 million
people, whether that talent be in the law, business or politics, or whether it
is measured in terms of intellectual capacity, cultural understanding or moral
strength, that we are once again going to the polls in November to choose the
next leader of the free world, and we are once again stuck with trying to make
the least-worst choice. What
is
it with
us?
----------------------------
Because
I was at sea for three (count them, three) weeks (not that I'm complaining, no
one shot at me), I missed the entire RatherGate kerfuffle, including
the aftershocks, that blazonednewnames across the blogo-heavens, while casting
down the minions of Sauron from their creaking pinnacles at Barad
Dûr (ed. Hold on - how does a
pinnacle creak?)
Eh. I've been at
sea, my metaphors have gotten rusty. It's the salt air. The sun was in my eyes.
The deck was up. There was an earthquake. A terrible flood.
Locusts!
Anyway.
-----------------------------
And
while away, in the midst of a three-day final battle problem aboard the USS
Carl
Vinson, the Hobbit's purse was stolen from
her car. Which led of course to our having to cancel all of our credit cards,
checking accounts, etc. Just stop
everything!
Which I can now reveal to
you is damned awkward, if you haven't lived through it lately. Because in order
to be sure that no one else gets access to your capital or credit, you've got to
go a non-trivial time without access to them yourself. Which is one thing when
you're 19 and hiking the Appalachian Trail from end to end with nothing more to
worry about than where the next candy bar is going to come from, and a whole
other thing entirely when your only son has gone to college leaving you alone in
a house full of
women!
-----------------------------
So,
how was my time at sea, you ask? Uneventful. The strike group did a great job
actually, and the ship herself is a good fighter. I've had the opportunity to
sail on any number of aircraft carriers in my career, and I can say that of all
I've ever been on,
Vinson
was far and away the tautest ship. For one thing, everywhere I went everyone was
shouting "Attention on deck!" and throwing themselves up against the bulkheads.
Which was a little embarrassing, because I figured out ultimately, after coming
to attention and throwing myself against a bulkhead a number of times, that it
was me they were talking about. So we all would stand there for a moment not
saying anything before I'd finally figure it out and say, "Carry on," so we
could all go back about our
lives.
Now, it's true that this was
my first time to sea as a captain, but I'm fairly certain nothing like this ever
happened on any ship that I was on before, unless that captain was The Captain,
which I most assuredly am not.
There
were a number of other features, which stand out in stark relief to those of us
in the business, but would be sand-poundingly dull to share with my land-locked
readership, so I will spare you those
details.
And how was I billeted? I'm
glad you asked - in the very lap of luxury was I, and my captain
roomate:
Not
much better or worse than what you'd get in any of your federal penal
institutions, but we were guests after all.
The food? Let's just say I should have
lost weight. The fact that I didn't is not the fault of the Supply
Officer.
----------------------------------
The
old joke among the aviators is that you can tell the moment you're aboard ship,
because you instantly become hungry, horny and sleepy, all at the same time.
Ship time is not like beach time, in a way that can be hard to describe - once
you've been aboard for 24 hours or so, the ship becomes your frame of time
reference - you are aboard. You have always been aboard. You always will be
aboard. This is the only life there is, there was never any other, everything
else is an illusion.
All your previous
at sea time telescopes, and leaps across the intervening periods ashore to join
with this time at sea.
But then the
day after you leave the ship, it is as though it never was. It is like the
memory of pain.
But, you've got this to
look forward to every
day:
Which
is
nice.
-------------------------
OK
- got to go. It's good to be back, look forward to seeing everyone around the
neighborhood.**
Posted @
04:05 PM
|
Posted in
""
|
Sendit
|
Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." - John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Ceasar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friederich Nietzsche
