Military Changing For The Worse

Yes, I know, two days, two posts, wtf is going on? Well, anyways... as usual I have so much important stuff to say, figured I'd actually post it here.

Yesterday marked the 19th anniversary of my induction into the military, on December 9th, 1989, I stood up and said an oath to protect the United States, yada yada yada, scared out of my mind, a 17 year old completely unsure as to what was going on.

A lot has changed over the years. When I first joined, I hated the military. Coming from a farming background, I was used to "do your job, then go take a nap or do whatever", so the idea of "hurry up and wait", a common phrase that pretty much describes about 90% of what we do, was so foreign to me and depressing. Fast forward to the present, and I am now working as an active duty member of the military. I would have never in a million years have guessed this is where I would be.

I have always prided myself both on personal appearance, as in wear of the uniform, and relatedly, my ability to max the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT). When I joined, to max the APFT, you had to do 82 pushups in 2 minutes, 92 situps in 2 minutes, and run the 2 mile in 11:57. The minimum standards were 42 pushups, 52 situps, and the 2 mile in around 15 minutes. I didn't have much upper body at the age of 17, and at the reception station at Ft Benning, Georgia, to move to the next step of training you had to do 15 pushups. I was only able to do 12.

Yes, pretty pathetic. But, I did the 92 situps and ran the run in about 11:30, so the drill instructors sent me on my way to Sand Hill, Infantry School, figuring that I would gain the necessary strength through my training to pass the pushups. It took most of the 3 months I was there, including a drill instructor who took me under his wing so to speak, when he wasn't chewing my ass non stop he showed me some key points to help me gain upper body strength and slowly increase the number of pushups I could do. I passed the PT test only one time at basic training, the very last test, which was for record, so that was all I needed, 52 pushups and I was on my way.

Within 2 years I was maxing the pushups along with the situps and the run, and I've done that constantly for the last 14 years. Physical fitness is a HUGE part of what we do in the military, and it is extremely important. I do not want to haul an overweight solder out of a burning truck, and much the same, if I get shot on the battlefield, I do not want some fat bastard with no stamina to be backing me up, trying to carry me to safety. To me it is ridiculous, if you are in the military, that you do not take care of your body by running at least 3 times a week for 45 minutes, and doing pushups and situps (at the very least) 3 times a week for 15 minutes a session. That is ALL it takes!

So I was pretty happy in October when our senior course manager SFC for our section mandated 3 day a week PT, 0730 to 0900, monday wednesday friday, for everyone to do. And everyone did it, for about the first 3 weeks or so. Then the fat bodies started to drop away from doing it, and now they never do it, which is a bunch of bullshit, because they are the ones that need it most of all. Not only that, but we were told we could work out 5 days a week, if we wanted, as long as there wasn't something that really HAD to be done, and one particular fat body, another SFC, is butting heads with the senior course manager, and trying to tell everyone they are NOT allowed to do PT on tuesdays and thursdays. Not coincidently he is one of the fat asses that never does PT.

And as if that isn't bad enough, he talked the course manager into forcing us to be done with PT by 0830 instead of 0900, severely impeding on those of us who enjoy running. We complained about it, and got it changed to 0845, but it is still frustrating as hell, especially considering that there is nothing so incredibly important to do right now that requires us to be there that early in the morning on any of those days.

I guess this is just what the military is getting to, not just on the lowest level, but the entire Army fails to recognize the important of basic soldiering skills, be it PT, marksmanship, land navagation, you name it. And they'll promote someone who can't make weight, and/or can't pass the PT test, to an E-5 Sergeant, AND they will allow them to complete the school (albeit with a marginal note on the paperwork DD 1059). How lovely is that? Our future leaders in the military, the most hands on NCO's, the E-5's, who can't even pass the PT test or make weight themselves, way to lead by example there, Army, bravo!!!

The Army gives out stupid uniform pins for all sorts of things, basic shit that medics get, recruiters get special patches, but maxing the PT test, you get nothing for your combat uniform to show you are exceptionally fit, all you get is an iron on badge for your PT uniform. To me that is ridiculous, there should be some sort of recognition for those who max the PT text to wear on their duty uniform, hell they have enough velcro on them to allow it, that is for sure.

Blah, if I get more into this I'll be writing all night. Suffice to say, I get very irritated with people who do not take care of themselves physically, and make excuses for it, or just don't care.

So I Ended Up Buying A Car, And Other Things

So, as winter approached, I knew I needed a vehicle as a daily driver that would make it through the snow. Obviously the SRT-4 was not going to do that...


Commemorative SRT-10 Viper, SRT-4 Neon, and SRT-10 Ram, none good in snow. As much as I wish I owned all three, I only own the one in the middle.

...so it will remain parked. I searched craigslist thoroughly for a good month and found a 2000 Dodge Neon SE, listed for 2500 dollars. This particular Neon has a 2.0 liter 4 cylinder motor, very basic, very thrifty, but it was a little rough, and had 105,000 miles on it. It was owned by a nice young couple with two daughters, it was also smoked in, which never makes me very happy.

I offered them 2000 cash for the vehicle and they agreed to the sale. I spent about a few days doing some sanding and repairing, put a new driver's side mirror on the car, cleaned the vehicle inside and out (still the smoke smell exists, YUCK!), and repainted a few areas to finish it up. On the interior I glued a few things back in place, and took the seats completely out of the car and washed them with a hot water hose. The back seat must have had about a gallon of pop spilled into it over the years because brown water just poured and poured out of it endlessly, until finally after about 10 minutes it cleared up.



So now the car is reasonably fresh inside, for lack of a better word, I don't know that you can ever entirely get rid of that faint musty smoke smell but I'll continue to work with it. I don't much care for FeBreeze because despite their claim that it doesn't 'mask' odors, the smell of FeBreeze gets mighty overpowering after awhile. I do have a vanilla Glade candle just sitting in one of the cupholders. Problem is, in December in Nebraska, the temperature being around 20 to 40 most of the time doesn't really allow something like a candle to really make a car smell nice, especially when it's not being lit (as that would likely be a tad bit unsafe, right?).

In other news, yes, we did purchase a house.



Roughly 2200 square feet furnished, another 1000 unfurnished in the basement. I forgot how much I just LOVE moving. I don't think I need to put anything into italics for sarcasm do I? I'd like to say things went smoothly working with the bank but he made a very jackass'ish mistake and it cost us a lot of money, but if interest rates continue to go down, we will likely refinance and work with the same bank, hoping that they will do the morally right thing and waive some of the financing costs. Yah, not likely right? We'll see, if nothing else I am VERY tenacious.

So, now I find out all the lovely things that cost money when you own a house. Of course you have to mow your lawn (lawnmower, push type, 6 hp, 100 bucks off craigslist), you have to scoop your snow (snow shovel, 20 dollars, Home Depot), and among other things, a true kick in the balls was finding out just how much window coverings cost. So I'm gradually putting up shades, trying to go with what belly likes. So far I would imagine I'm about 10% done, I have the living room completed, the master bedroom, and the master bathroom. That was probably 300 dollars, maybe a little more. So I'm probably still looking at anywhere from 2500 to 3000 more to get all the rest done. Yes, I'll be doing this a little at a time, that is for sure.

I don't want it to sound like this is some horrible disappointment though, ultimately it is quite satisfying to pull into my own driveway at night, walk into my house, be as loud as I want to be (as long as lil' n is awake still) and not have to worry about the idiot neighbors making a ton of noise upstairs or downstairs. We do however already have some strange noises in the house, that I hope I can attribute to being on a hilltop and having wind blowing around, and not a possum or racoon living in the attic, or Beetlejuice up there somewhere (although, I think he'd be a lot of fun to hang out with).

So, the little girl has a lot of space to run around in now. This is a picture from this past summer when we went to see Grandma and Grandpa G in Wisconsin...



She seems to really enjoy the house a lot, so much so that I had to purchase a bunch of childproofing drawer locks, following an unfortunate dishwasher tab ingestion moment... oh so easy to install right? NOT AT ALL, takes about a freaking half hour per drawer. You drill, you screw the pieces in, they are not right, you remeasure, you bend the locking tabs, you redrill, repeat, until hair falls out, screaming profanity commences, and finally they work, barely.

Little n' is 15 months old now, and continues to discover new things. She is walking, or running, all over the place now. She likes to dance, clap, high five, strut, no idea where she got that from, strutting for her is walking along moving her head forward and back like she's cool or something, and come to find out yesterday that she has just learned how to open doors. These are doorknobs, people, nothing special, and she has figured out how to work them. I could understand that if these were the doorknobs with the handles, but no, just round simple doorknobs that a normal 15 month old would not know how to use. But, she is my daughter, so normalcy may be out the window, in a good way I guess. Still though, seeing her in the bathroom with the entire roll of toilet paper on the floor, and a shit eating grin on her face, well, it is hard to be angry with her, so being impressed that she somehow got that door open is enough, for now. I'm sure spankings will commence for such actions soon enough.

Anyways, that is enough for now. You have some pictures, you have explanations, and I have to get up early in the morning because, no matter what the temperature, no matter what the weather, I run three days a week in the morning at work. And you thought the postal service was dedicated. I have to run because I don't want to become a fat ass soldier, something that really irks me when I see it. But alas, that is for another time, trust me though, I have plenty to say about certain things the army is doing these days.