Coming up to speed

[aadler]

 
There was a long period during which a number of small things happened, but no major events. This is catch-up, then, but without any single large item of outstanding significance to report.

First Cut — Personal Issues

I sent a long explanatory e-mail to the priest in charge of Susan’s parish, detailing our situation, and then made a follow-up phone call a few days later. He’d read the e-mail, but then dealt with other matters in the interim, so he wasn’t completely in tune with the specifics; he thought I wanted to arrange for us to marry before I leave for my upcoming duty assignment, and began to lay out the issues we would need to make sure had been satisfied. When I clarified that I wanted instead to make sure there would be no impediments to our proceeding with a marriage (presuming we still wished to do so) between my return from the currently planned duty tour, and the expected Iraq deployment sometime in early 2008, he said that as far as he could tell, we’d met all necessary requirements. Susan and I will look at doing marriage prep and/or a set of meetings with a sponsor couple, sometime between the middle of October and the end of December, but even those aren’t absolutely required; we just want to make sure we don’t miss any bets this time through.

During my last (long) visit with Susan, I tutored her in how to drive a manual transmission, with the notion that I’d leave my car with her during my absence. (I did that while I was in Afghanistan, but it was my son who was the driver, and he had two accidents within a month, so that he’s now explicitly excluded from my insurance.) As an adult driver — and with my expert instruction — she picked it up quite a bit more quickly than a total novice would have done. Her biggest problem is starting off from a dead stop when going uphill; in fairness, that’s probably the single trickiest task any stick-shift driver faces, short of NASCAR or long-haul trucking. The last two times she had to do it (once on a gentle slope, once on a steep one with our son in another car behind us to make sure she had enough room), she managed to carry it through. I figure one more trial run with her to her work and back, and I’ll be comfortable leaving her in charge. Along with giving me a place to leave my car, it will make things a lot easier for her and our son, and save gasoline for them: Susan’s other vehicle is a minivan, which was great when she had two kids at home, but not so much when she drives three hundred miles a week to work and our son does almost that much going to and from college. Everybody wins.

My daughter turns 21 tomorrow. In mainland China. It’s ten months now since I last saw her.

My son leaves for his mission trip to Jamaica this coming Friday. This will be his first time outside the borders of the United States. He’s excited about it, and well should be.

Close First Cut

Second Cut — Military Issues

According to the original schedule, I would already be under orders by now, but the schedule got adjusted a few times during the past couple of weeks. The latest tentative word was that I would report on April 2nd, with arrival at duty station sometime toward the 14th; however, there are no guarantees it won’t get altered yet further. I could stand one more; if it gets deferred another week, I can be present after all when Susan and our son are received into the Catholic faith. Not counting on it, but I’ll try to be ready to follow up if the opportunity opens.

I got back ‘home’ yesterday, and found that my passport had at long last arrived. Oddly (because I won’t really need it for my coming duty assignment), it makes that assignment seem more real to me. I’ll spend the next few days packing what I’ll take with me and shifting the possessions I’ll leave here; I still don’t know exactly when I’m leaving, but I now know what I’ll have to take along, so I can get the packing and other preparations out of the way early.

Close Second Cut

Third Cut — Fanfic/Buffy Issues

With one thing and another, I haven’t really added anything to my remix_redux assignment. I pretty much know what story I’m going to write, I just haven’t done it yet. That’s something else I’ll try to focus on during the remainder of this week and next.

Because I was expecting to be out of the country by now, I never got around to pre-ordering the Buffy Season 8 first issue; how to do that, when I didn’t know what my mailing address would be? Today I called the natural outlets and learned that it was sold out. They already have more on order, but don’t know when the shipment will arrive. In my defense, I graduated from the comic book scene almost twenty years ago, and the few things I’ve gotten from Dark Horse were online orders; I’d forgotten that there were physical places that dealt in such things. One way or another, I’ll catch up … and, with any luck at all, I’ll be in my new duty location when the time comes to order issue #2.

Several years ago (five, I think), I posted on my main story site that 1) all the stories in my Backstage Series were designed to fit canon without conflict, and 2) anyone who saw any contradiction with canon was encouraged to let me know. After all this time, someone finally sent me a note. It regarded a small thing I’d picked up on myself (a semi-Jossing occurring during Season 5, affecting a story I’d set in Season 3); I’d considered possible adjustments, but it didn’t really seem worth the bother since no one else had noticed it. Once the actual comment came in, I shot back a thank-you, mulled on it for a few days, made my adjustment, and notified the original poster that I had done so. She approved of my corrective measure, and now it’s all good. So, yes, people, I did mean what I said, and I will deliver when something is pointed out to me.

Close Third Cut

That’s it, then. More as it occurs.

Comments

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

My husband tried to teach me to drive manual. After a few hours of futzing I begged him to stop for the sake of his truck's transmission. :) He plans to get an automatic for his next vehicle so we can both drive it.

I'll be very interested in your son's experience in Jamaica. I may have mentioned before I very much want to lead a team from our church on a Jamaica mission and insight would be wonderful.

[aadler]

I told my son I wanted him to type up a general report of his experiences, so I could get all the cool details. So far I haven’t heard any. I guess I should remind him.