On All My Motions

 
This was a drill weekend for my unit. Relatively light — two days at home station, completing paperwork and checking the boxes on required briefings — but we’re coming down to the wire. Only two more drills remain before we go on mobilization orders: a four-day field exercise with as many things as they can throw at us, and a one-day drill to relax us and have a family picnic before we assemble a couple of weeks later to start downrange.

This is probably a really good time. The success in Iraq has to have stunned even its most ardent supporters: NO responsible person could have predicted how well things would work out, or how quickly. Last month, more soldiers died in-theater in vehicle accidents than from hostile action. And, for a change, I’ll be located at (not with, but alongside) our company’s headquarters, in duties that are unlikely to expose me to any significant danger. Except for my time at Guantanamo, this will probably be my least hazardous deployment.

However, it is still technically a combat theater, and things can change for the worse just as quickly as for the better. We’ve been enjoined to be ready for shift in mission, in location, in intensity, in duration. Even if this goes as steadily as seems likely, we increase the odds of a favorable outcome by being thoroughly prepared to deal with any adversity that might pop up.

I love this life. I take it seriously, though, and we’re approaching the time when seriousness will be called for.

 
Quite a bit of today’s post is devoted to matters in the military side of my life, so I’m putting it in a cut.

( Coming Events )

The preceding does have an effect on other things in my life. Susan and I have finished the pre-marriage counseling sessions we were having with a church-sponsored counselor; in fact, we stretched it out into half a dozen visits, instead of the one required. There are other requirements, however, and there may be some small problem in meeting them. Catholic practice is to require a minimum of five months between the church being notified and a wedding taking place, with certain preparations mandated to ensure a proprely functioning marriage. I leave in two weeks, I won’t return until October, and my unit is expected to be back on orders in January. We’ll need to meet some of the requirements by e-mail, and manage others in the three-month interim, and I don’t yet know what can be done or how we’ll need to do it.

I don’t want to go back into a combat theater without Susan as my wife of record. We were apart for ten years, and now that we no longer are, I want it properly settled before I proceed. No foreboding, no presentiments of dire events to come; I just want things to be right.

I’ll be going back tomorrow to stay with her for a few days, then I’ll have to return to my current ‘home’ to finish preparations for the coming duty. Not long now.

– – – – – –

Different things to think about and talk about. I’ll tackle them a few at a time over the next several days.

( Cut to save space )

More as events continue.

– – – – – –

I was serious when I set myself the goal of finishing “God Save the Queen” in November, and I seriously devoted myself to the task. All the same, I didn’t quite make it. I put the last word in before going to bed on December 2nd.

In my defense, it was a bigger project than I had realized. The initial story ran three chapters, at just over 8,500 words; by the time I was done, it was six chapters, and almost 22,000 words. Pending sroni’s approval, this collaborative work will bulk 250% of its original form.

Meanwhile:

( Personal military plans )

I just got this news last week: my son is getting set to go on a mission trip to Jamaica over spring break. He’s the only one in the family who’s never been out of the country, and is looking forward to becoming a world traveler like the rest of us.

Okay. Finally done with “God Save the Queen” (unless sroni wants to revise my revisions, in which case it could go back and forth for a while). I have to prepare for and complete the duty in Virginia, but once that’s done, it will be time for me to get started on “Queen’s Gambit”. And only seven months after sroni finished her draft of the story!

– – – – – –

Yesterday, like the day before, I spent the entire day writing. And, like the day before, none of it was for NaNoWriMo.

This is getting comical. Who would have thought the impetus of a deadline would have so powerfully motivated me to do other stuff? But that’s what happened; I started off with a little “God Save the Queen” revision — wanted to get that out of the way before I buckled down — and then seriously got into it, and kept on going. The original story was about 8,600 words; I’m now past the 10,000 mark, and I’m barely two-thirds of the way through the second chapter (only, by my mark, it’s now Part 4, with at least one more full chapter to go).

I’m not going to abandon something while it’s hot, but I can see the pitfalls here. I drill with my unit Saturday and Sunday (unlikely to get much writing done those days), and just like that I’ll be down to twenty-five days in the month, with 50,000 words still to go. So, adjustments have to be made.

At the library, I’ve now reviewed all the Farsi lessons I’d already done, and am ready to break into new ground, but in the meantime I said the heck with it and ordered the software directly from Rosetta Stone. If in fact I am given the DLPT in January, I want as much advance preparation as I can get. Besides, I enjoy language study, and I already have a good foundation in Farsi, and Rosetta Stone is easy, and — as I’ve noted before — I may wind up having a direct need for fluency in Farsi.

Or possibly not. My unit just passed on a call for volunteers to deploy to Bosnia. Starting in mid-January, either six-month or one-year tours, and I don’t know if that means that you have your choice or that the length of the tour hasn’t yet been decided. I find that I like going on deployment, and I like coming home again, and after three or four months I’m ready to go back on duty. I came back from Iraq in April 2004, and was at Fort Bragg to study Farsi by the end of August. Following my Afghanistan tour, I’ve been back five months already, with two more to go before I even have a chance at my long-term dream of going to DLI, and I’m getting a little edgy.

Besides, Bosnia. Overseas service, in a relatively settled theater … I’m interested.

There are only two significant arguments against it. First, it would further delay the already-delayed opportunity to go to DLI. I truly, sincerely yearn for that, and they’ve said they’ll send me, and I hate to put it off any longer than I have to. Second, my daughter is supposed to be back in the States for five weeks in May; I could — probably — get leave time, but not five weeks’ worth, and I want to see her as much as I can while it’s possible. (Of course, DLI would likewise interfere if I get it, so it’s pretty much a toss-up.)

I suppose, if you’re going to have a problem, too many choices is a good one to have.

– – – – – –

Now that I’ve finished the APFT (and I won’t have another for six months or my arrival at one school or another), my body seems to have relaxed, and I’m now running at the 70% level. As long as I continue to work out a minimum of three times a week, I should keep improving, so that the next such test will be easy.

My re-enlistment got put off a few times, as some of the paperwork was being held up by people in Atlanta, but it finally went through. I got the call, I reported, was duly sworn in … and my commander took me directly to his office and filed the request to get me into DLI (November slot) while I watched. Could it really happen that quickly? I’d best kick into gear in getting my possessions packed (some for storage, some for moving). No guarantees, but ready is always better than not.

As I promised, I did some work yesterday on my revision of “God Save the Queen”. Not a lot — barely 400 words — but the amount doesn’t really matter as much as that I stay at it. The original story was less than 9,000 words, so a steady 400 a day would have me doubling the story size in a little over three weeks.

( Thoughts on ‘Heroes’ – cut for spoilers )

I’m supposed to have lunch with my youngest brother tomorrow, and I think I’ll probably head downstate early Friday, to spend the weekend with my son and ex-wife. Meanwhile, more writing to be done.

– – – – – –

I didn’t return home (upstate) on Tuesday as intended, but I did get some writing done on “God Save the Queen”. Not a lot, but enough to say I’d done it and (one may hope) prompt me to keep it up.

No, I came home yesterday, to prepare for drill this weekend. And to check my progress on the Army physical fitness test. And to watch television.

APFT, better but still not great. I’m at 100% on sit-ups (of course, have been for weeks), and now past 90% on push-ups and continuing to get stronger. As for the two-mile run … good news, I made qualifying time after a substantial period of time off; bad news, it’s the worst I’d done since the middle of September. The APFT is this weekend, so I have two days to regain some lost margin. My legs were strong, didn’t give me any suggestion of weariness, but I have to work on my wind.

I’ll pass. I always do. But I have a chance here to SOF-qualify, and I want to do it. Army standards call for 60% overall to pass the APFT, but the units (like mine) included in Special Operations Forces prefer for all their people to pass at the 70% level. I had worked up to within 16 seconds of 70% on the run; today I was 49 seconds away. I’ll have to do a lot of improving fast.

Now, thoughts on television. Any potential spoilers hidden in the cuts.

( Jericho )

( Lost, Season 3 )

( The Nine )

I messed up Tuesday night, arranged to tape one show and watch another … but instead, taped and watched the same program. Bad enough in itself, but the one I’d meant to record, but lost, was the opener for Veronica Mars, Season 3. Several different intensity-levels of drat. I mess up like that every now and then — not much recently, because I was out of the country — but I wish this hadn’t been one of my bobbles. Now I have to check for any re-broadcasts, and I’m not really in good position to catch any such.

Still, I’m lookng forward to seeing how this goes. Veronica and crew in college. Think anyone learned from the less-than-outstanding move of Buffy & Friends to the university scene? I’m hopeful. The VM writing team has a good track record, and (if nothing else) they have the BtVS example to serve as warning.

Much to do before Saturday. Still need to work up a list of exactly what.

– – – – – –

Weekend is over. Five days till departure for Alaska.

( update on recent events, mostly military )