Weekend update

 
Susan and I are well settled into our new home, and she’s almost done with the seemingly endless orientation for her new position at the VA. (Since she’s being paid as much per hour as I earned per week in my first job, I’m thinking she can hang in there until they run out of new hoops for her to jump through.) We don’t yet have dining room furniture, but we’ve never been big on formal dining anyhow, so we might wait awhile on that just because we don’t care.

Last weekend my unit had a three-day drill to knock out the major paperwork for next year’s deployment projected. Three things about that. One: Susan attended her first Family Resource Group meeting, and there met her next bunch of new best friends. Two: I came back home that first day still in uniform, and Susan’s poodle would not stop barking at me; he’d become accustomed to me, but not to this new person in digital camouflage. Three: back in October of 2005, while in Afghanistan, I made reference to a “sort-of-you-could-look-at-it-as-a-date” with a female NCO in our company (which date fell through and was never rescheduled), and the female in question is now my company’s new First Sergeant.

I got the cable modem hookup I was seeking, so my Internet access has been greatly facilitated. I bought and set up a treadmill in a spare bedroom, so that I can maintain a regular running schedule regardless of weather. (One small problem: I bought the cheapest model available, believing it would be suitable for my/our modest needs, and only after assembly discovered that it wasn’t sturdy enough for Susan; she’ll have to lose significant weight before she can use it for further reduction.) I already had a  regular television, which is now in our bedroom, and a smaller model which will be set up in front of the treadmill, and we indulged ourselves in a new 32-inch flatscreen. Moderate luxury, but — for me — still luxury.

(The treadmill being a lighter model also means I can’t use it with a field pack to condition for the 10K ruck march scheduled for March drill.)

Most of the items on my original to-do list have been completed. I still have to move the remainder of my belongings from my former lodgings to my current home (I’ll spend the coming week on that), but I’m close to a point where I can institute a new schedule.

In other words, I’m almost ready to resume fanfic production.

And about time.