I just flew across country on this.  I'm safely in CA.

Last day in NY

Tisha B'av is my last day in NY. We did all we had to do and left base early in preparation for our early flight in the morning.

Busy day

Another busy day, but this will likely have been our busiest for the next few days. We do not have to be in at 6AM tomorrow morning. We get another hour and a half. Our unit did fantastic today, and we are just about getting ready for the next step.

Work, work, work

Today was a crazy day. We were kept immensely busy all day from 7AM to 7PM non-stop. I'm pretty tired. My soldiers were really proficient, however, so despite the work, there was little stress. A good day overall.

Meetings

I spent the whole day yesterday in meetings pertaining to the deployment. I am finally seeing how things are done at the level of the higher leadership of a unit. It is interesting although I sill don't understand much of what is going on.

I also got to see family, have sushi, and spend the night at home.

On Drill Status

Class is now over. I passed. We flew out Friday afternoon.

I am back in New York for a few days. It is good to be home, but we have to be in the unit every day pretty early. We are preparing for the deployment. It is pretty chaotic since we have so many new people. I am meeting a lot of them. There is so much to do and so much to prepare. I brought my foot locker in today, and turned in a lot of my old gear. I packed pretty hastily last night. I hope I packed everything I will need.

Also, note that if you don't know my number and want to call me, you can now use the widget on the right. It will have your phone call my phone. Give it a try. This will be useful as I now have a variety of phone numbers and you might not have the one I am using at the moment. This should work as long as I am in the US.

The little things

Another day, another exam, lots of class. Nothing interesting happened today. We got out about 25 minutes early. As simple as it sounds, it felt pretty good.

I got in a quick run in the evening and somehow our unit's conference call failed to happen which messed up my schedule. No big deal. I ccancelled our study session, but I think it is pretty easy stuff so far.

And, on a happier note, you can now read the first two pages of a recent review I wrote that just came out. Or, you can go to a local Judaica store and get a copy.

The Weekend

We had a test on Friday. I aced it. We have another one tomorrow, by the way and then again on Wednesday and Friday again. Way too much work here. Looks like a few people will not make it to the end of the course.I got what I think is one of the owrst haircuts of my life Friday too. It'll be fine in another day or so.

I had a visitor for the weekend, so it was really nice. Two relaxing days. We saw Brüno on Saturday night and otherwise just spent the weekend hanging out, eating, reading and relaxing.

The other people in the course relaxed too. They went for Hibachi, working out, and some relaxing on the beach. One person broke their leg. Endless drama here.

another day

Another long day. We had class then a 3.5 hour study session for tomorrow's test. There is a lot to know here at army HAZMAT school. I assume that some of this will be relevant to our mission overseas, so I am trying to make sure that my soldiers get it. But these are long days.

First test

Today was another day in Army school. The usual 8-5. I was tired all day from the late study session last night, but all-in-all it was pretty manageable. I met an old friend yesterday at lunch and another one today. It is good seeing people I haven't seen in a while. We had our first test of the course today. I did fine. Otherwise nothing special happening.

Still in school

Another 8 AM to 5 PM day here in Army school. So far so good. Nothing too interesting happened yet.

Class

Got to class at 8 this morning, left way after 5. Had a headache all day, but I'm recovering. Sigh . . . and it is still Monday.

First leg of the journey, first step

Today I flew to some Army base to begin a few weeks of training. There was supposed to be five of us on the flight. The whole trip went off well enough except one person missed the flight, the unit forgot to activate the government credit cards, one person had a government card that had expired 6 months ago and no personal credit card. . . But we managed to do just fine. It is all pretty much straightened out now. The Army has us in a standard motel in the neighborhood; nothing I can complain about yet.

Day 1

Today marks the first of about 400 consecutive days I will be in the Army. I spent it in the reserve center. It was "family day" for the unit, so lots of our soldiers brought their parents, children, and significant others to our base where we spent the day BBQing and chatting on the grass. It was good having fun with everyone as we gear up for what will be a work-filled year. Stay tuned for updates.