A Weekend in Yucaipa

I sit here writing this blog update as Melissa sits in the other room talking with her mommy and sister Sara. We are “home” for the weekend in Yucaipa, CA which is unfortunately much warmer than Port Hueneme. If you ever have to live in California, live on the coast or up north—avoid the inland areas and deserts!

Anyway, we are here so that Melissa can do a Partylite show for Mom Z. and her friends. We are also here to comfort the family as Mina, the beloved family dog for 13 years has transitioned from this life into the next. She went peacefully at the vet’s around 1600 yesterday. We have brought Tirzah with us in hopes that she will cheer everyone up a bit. I’ve even offered to give Tirzah to Mom and Dad Z. but Melissa has vetoed the offer.

Actually, Tirzah has calmed down considerably of late. A couple of months of go she turned into a chew monster and ate (in one day) a birthday check to me and my Oakley sunglasses. I was really sad to lose the sunglasses because they’ve been with me for so long. Those glasses have sat perched on my nose as I’ve traipsed about to 13 foreign countries, run countless miles around the US of A, and driven cross-country numerous times. Oh well, I suppose that soon enough I’ll have kids who will be tearing into my things.

Tirzah also likes to eat my boot socks, even after they’ve been washed and dried. I guess the socks get mighty tasty sitting inside combat boots for 12+ hours a day! She also loves to lick me when I come in from PT or a long day at work. She especially likes my feet, hands and elbows. I can understand the feet and hands, but I dunno why she finds my elbows so attractive.

Enough puppy news…work has been going ok of late. I tend to go through cycles of work, with some weeks being relatively easy and some being harder. This past week I was swamped with counseling sessions. Most of my time has been focused on two young ladies who decided to abuse over-the-counter drugs to escape their problems. Fortunately, they both avoided getting kicked out of the Navy.

I’ve also counseled two young men who have recently leaped into marriage with women they’ve only known for a few months (one of whom is my own Religious Program Specialist). Since neither bothered to ask my advice beforehand (which would’ve been negative) I’m now trying to help them get everything straightened out. I certainly hope that both marriages will last, but if I were a betting man, I’d say neither lasts two years.

At least my RP got married on the weekend. The other guy went UA from training to get married on Tuesday and showed up in my office on Wednesday upset that he was in trouble for skipping out without filling out the appropriate leave paperwork. I told him to work the issue with his chain-of-command first before I got involved. I’m not about to stick my neck out for him just to have it chopped off because of his mistakes.

The (sadly) amusing thing about the two marriages is that both gentlemen have found ladies who are well endowed and appropriately curvy. Junior enlisted sailors just love to indulge their lusts and hook up with any babe who will have them (the fact that being married brings more pay also helps). Of course, the babes love young sailors because they represent a steady paycheck (complete with the security of knowing that the command can legally force the service member spouse to support the dependent spouse). I suppose marrying because one is horny is no worse than marrying because one is greedy. The two deserve each other!

I’m also working on my response to a Chief who I’d counseled right after he was busted for a DUI. He wants me to write something up on his behalf that he can present to the court. I’m a little wary of being a character witness, but I’ve sketched out a short note that he can use. However, I’m going to go check in with our legal office first. I’m also going to try and convince him that he doesn’t need my statement. He mentioned that he didn’t want to have his lawyer subpoena me. Of course, if he plays that game, I’m going to play my “absolute confidentiality” card and tell him to go to heck.

As a chaplain I also get to plan community service projects. Last week I spent Friday working at Ventura County FOODShare, which is a regional food bank. Over 100 charities “shop” for food at this place. The next day I put in a full day at the local project site for Habitat for Humanity. I spent most of my time painting trim but finished off my afternoon by drilling holes in the studs in preparation for running wire and copper tubing.

In the midst of playing chaplain I continue to play public affairs officer. NMCB FOUR just installed a new flat screen television in the building by the quarterdeck so I have been tasked with keeping it updated weekly with all the news of the command. As a result, I worked late on Friday putting together next week’s presentation.

Soon it will be time to start working on the next cruise book for our upcoming deployment to Guam/Iraq. I’d like to have all the roster pages completed (save for getting photos of new check-ins who join us on deployment) before we push off in April. At least I’ll have 100% ownership of this book, instead of coming in at the last minute on this last one. We’ve begun handing out the cruise book from our Pacific deployment this past week and people have already begun complaining about names being misspelled, etc. I just smile and apologize—not much else that I can do. As it was, I spent a lot of extra time scrubbing the book for errors and caught too many to count. I simply ran out of time to check all the roster pages for accuracy, so I had to spot check them. I hate being the only one in the PAO staff with a decent head for English and grammar!

Well, this sucker is getting quite long. Since you’ve made it all the way down to the end of this missive, I will reward you with a picture of Melissa and me on the beach (from late August-early Septemberish). In honor of fall harvests, I’ll also throw in a picture of me with a pumpkin (from FOODShare).