At Home

I have been quite busy at home the last week and I have still have one week left. I have been trying to squeeze in family and friends around my grueling schedule of sleep and play. I wanted to bond with my homeland once I got back, so I found some camo and went huntin'. I bagged sixteen of some of the most fearsome creatures known to man...ground squirrels...or whistle pigs as us locals refer to them. I even got my picture taken in front of Wal-Mart with that ridiculous gear on! I am pretty sure if I hadn't of blended in with the surroundings so well, we wouldn't have killed so many varmints. We wanted to see how many looks we would get in this garb...and as we thought, we just blended in with the high class society of Wal-Mart.

I also found time to visit my work and made sure they still wanted me back. After much begging and promising that I would do something the second time around, they agreed to consider hiring me back in a year or year and a half. Then we all went to lunch to celebrate the fact that I would be coming back...actually, I celebrated and they mainly cried.

Against better judgement, I got back on the motorcycle track. I rode twice this past week. Yesterday, my buddy (who has a bouffant) and I went to the track to test the skills and speed we once had. We also met another friend...they actually still have the skills and speed and I started to see glimpses of mine by the end of the sessions. It was a good time and I got some jumps that I didn't think I would get...they look a lot bigger since I hadn't raced or rode track in quite some time. I started to get a little too daring, so I called it quits. I really don't need to suspend my career because I thought I could go twenty feet further and land on a different dirt mound. That is all for now, I will continue to keep you "posted." SEE YA

Life's a beach

I finally upgraded my Air Force ticket to a populated, U.S. city…although now I am with the Navy. The Navy has it figured out with training by the beach and civilization. The Air Force is still looking for deserted areas to corral young people and teach them that small trees are better than big trees when they are in the air.

I used the express checkout line out of North Mexico and moved to Corpus Christi three days after track select. Speaking of track select, a big “hallelujah holla back” to 07-14 for making it this far. A big shout out to “my little ball of hate” for tracking to the pointy side of the house. Pointy means faster and Strube-y-doo has a need for speed. Most everyone else got what they expected and congrats on that. I was a little shocked to see that I got what I had known I was going to get for the last three years because this is the Air Force and nothing seems to go the way you think.

Back to the CC, Rosewell Atkinson the third (a.k.a. Jaime) and I hitched up the wagon and headed East. We stopped when we ran out of asphalt and found a crib. We had our prayers answered and found a place on the first day and moved in that very day. The house is a two-story pad on the water with three bedrooms and a two car garage. Two of the bedrooms are filled and we are hoping that “Hicky” Bill Walker the fifth moves in once he gets to the carbon copy. On that note I went golfing a week ago with four Bills and three of them were named Bill Walker…that is just cool and weird at the same time.

Here are some pics of the pad.

This is the living room that looks out over the deck and water.

Off our deck, looking across the waterway

Front of house...if you couldn't tellOff the deck, looking the other way

We probably won’t make MTV’s Cribs, but I think it is nice. It is over 2100 square feet and it is ON THE WATER. Jamie thinks it is a slight upgrade from the refurbished dormitory at Laughlin and I think that it i s cool that I speak the same language as my neighbors...beats the ghetto by a smidgen. Most all of the houses on the island (Padre Island) are on the water or close to some water. The island is mostly residential and most everything else is OTB (over the bridge). The everything else includes more than three places to eat and stores where you can buy clothing that has not already been worn . To top that all off for entertainment they have go-karts, putt-putt golf (I usually make it putt-putt-putt-cuss-kick it with my foot-putt golf), and this big long area with surging water.

I had a sensory overload and had to leave after three days. I am actually on my way back to pick up something I forgot in Boise…my wife. We will travel to the CC around the 1st of April. My training starts the middle of the month, but we are suppose to report in early and we want to get settled with a little time to spare.

I will keep you update on the breaking news as it unfolds, but now I off to see how my brackets are blowing up in college basketball’s March Madness. Thanks to all for the prayers and support and if you would, remember my roommate’s (Roswell) mother in your thoughts and prayers, she was diagnosed with colon cancer. Thanks! SEE YA

Mustache March

I feel a bit like 8th grade, trying to show we have facial hair when you really can't see it. I won't go as far as I did in the ocho grade, when the use of hair dye to make the three hairs stand out, gave me big brown stains on my face. It is horrible around the base, everyone with dirt on their upper lips. Here is all but two in our flight that are growing these pedophile accessories.

We all look horrible with these lip brows, but as long as everyone looks creepy, why not? I have a feeling I won't last until the end of March because it is already bugging me. Although, I did get a head start...some even had a two week head start and you can't tell...STRUBE and BAKER! Hallaluha, holla back!

DONE...with Phase II

I am finally done with T-6s. I can't believe that I made it through this phase. It was due to a lot of prayers, support, and miracles...but I made it. The past week was a crazy, full week. Monday saw me take a 4.5 million dollar aircraft by myself into the air and fly it with reckless abandon, 10 feet away from another aircraft, just to hurl the piece of levitating metal at the ground multiple times...and walk away with a smile. It was fun, but during the flight I was more tense than normal because I had someone else right there, as opposed to my other solos. You would think having someone close by would provide some type of security, but I didn't feel that way. I also got to experience going nearly a hundred over the "speed limit" over the airport and going inverted at the end of the runway...not that that means much to most, but it isn't the standard. Of course it was all IP demo and not me flying without regard for life.

Then after multiple flights each day, I finished on Thursday with a "Good" on my checkride. The ride wasn't my best formation flight, in fact it actually was one of my worst flights in some regards, but I still passed. I did better overall in formation than in any other stage of training, but I think it was mainly due to just being more experienced in the jet. I found it really challenging, but fun. I received better daily ride grades in that phase than any other phase, so it was nice to end on a positive. I really didn't want to end on a checkride bust! I use to get nervous before games/meets in high school/college, but it is nothing like inversion of the stomach that I get before a checkride. When your future can be altered by one flight, it seems to have a bit more of an effect than does whether or not the chicks are going to see your name in the lights.

Anyway, I am done and we have a ton of administration things to get done this next week. My plan is to get done, go find a place in Corpus, come back to move my stuff down, and then go home to get my wife. I am so jacked that she is going to live with me in CC. There are a lot of things to be figured out between now and then, but I will just take it one day at a time...it seems if that is how the days come any more. One right after the other, weird.

Well, I am off to get some of those things done...right after I go wakeboarding and play a round of golf. Maybe I won't get things done, but I think I deserve a bit of play time. Thanks to all for your support and to my retarded classmates (which I was the head tard) that read this now for putting up with me. I will try to update this while I am transitioning, but I will definitely have the blog running full AB (after burner) when I get to the carbon copy. Kick the tires and light the fires, time to fly...SEE YA!