Monday, November 12, 2007

Jimmie wins 4th straight and Reflections

Jimmie did it again, winning Phoenix yesterday- I stayed up far too late and watched it thanks to the Armed Forces Network. One more race left, and he is well-positioned to win the "Chase" needing only an 18th place finish. It is a clear omen that signing to work with Lowe's after my deployment was a good call. It must be obvious to all rational people that a company that sponsors a race car that wins must also be a great company to work for..... And I've had some readers let me know they don't care for my racing updates. News flash- this is my blog, not theirs. ;-)

The Training Center is in preparation to kick off an interesting basic training cycle- we've started receiving folks, are issuing gear, and start actual training soon. This cycle will be getting some media attention as well. But that is nothing new, it is theme and variation- the unique demographics of this group are what make this group special. I'll go into that more as time goes on. Don't want to draw indirect fire just yet.

And I'm about a month away from leave. There's chatter about availability for seats on flights, or lack thereof, because of an oddly unforeseen increase in demand for leave and passes during Christmas season. Who-da-thunk it? Boy, I tell you, I didn't see that coming!

I'm a bit lonely lately because my NCO buddy, MSG "Timmy" is still out on leave, and many of the folks I've worked with here have either resigned or are on break. I'm not an Army of One today or since Saturday, though, because a LTC Davis (MP type- woo-hoo!) has come to cover the stories of some of the recruits coming in. It has been pleasant to have him here with his interpreter. We'll have them for another day or so, and he'll come back down at a later date with more reporters. Also entertained another reporter for Army magazine for a few hours yesterday- I think I'll be on my third oak leaf cluster with a V device for my TourGuide Tab by the time I leave theatre in April or so.

We also have four Iraqi generals here for the time being. I don't want to holler micromanagement, but I have never observed a ratio of 1 general per 125 recruits before. One of our contractor interpreters here uses the phrase "land of 1,000 generals", which I think I've also heard elsewhere. I'm guessing that is a conservative estimate. But they are all pleasant enough at this point.

No comments: