First Week of Phase III Down

The first full week of Phase III was pretty standard for an Air Force person! We were forced to wake the chickens and burn the midnight oil. The Navy invites you to the classroom around 9:00AM (I mean around, too. They just kind of suggest a time and everybody gets there when they can...including the teacher.) just to make you sit for a grueling two hours before letting you go for an hour to hour and a half lunch. Then they make you come back for another hour or two before letting you go for the day. I think I was at the beach everyday before 3:00PM last week and that is not an exaggeration.

I have been enjoying the life because this week we start the new material and it should take a bit more time and studying. We will start simulators in a couple of weeks and it should get more backed up and the free time reduced.

The weather here has been pretty good. It has been in the 70s or 80s every day. It seems to be partly cloudy for a few days, then real cloudy with bad weather and rain for a day, and then clear up for several days. The bad weather and the season has led to a lot of sea weed on the beaches, but we don't let that huge downer keep us from working on our tan. We have never been this tan before the end of July, not to mention the end of April.

Candi has been hard at finding a job. She makes the Navy look like busy bodies. She wakes up in time to catch the noon news and then looks online for jobs until about 12:15 and the goes and lays out until I get home and we can go to the beach. Just joking, she has been a little more ambitious about not being such a deadbeat, but the burden of being the sole bread winner can some times be almost more than I can bear!

Actually, she turned in an application to a veterinarian clinic on base to be an office assistant. I think she could just be a zoo keeper here on our bed, but she is looking to get out of the house. We will see what becomes of that, but I think this week will be a little more on the serious side when it comes to looking for a J-O-B. Although, it has been nice coming home to a clean house, with the laundry done, and meals ready...come to think of it...I hope she doesn't get a J-O-B. It has been very nice and she really has done a lot the last week.

Well, I have to study for a test, so I will write more when there is some more news. I am giving you a break from those obscene pictures of me...I really do apologize...but on the bright side Victor's Secrets has asked me to model for them if this pilot thing doesn't work out.

The Vacation is Over...sort of

I had to find my game face this past Friday because the coach put me back in the game. I started my advanced training on Friday. I am now a "wise owl" in the VT-31 squadron. I went from being a Knight to an Owl...Candi thinks Owls are ferocious...so maybe I won't lose all my street cred. We will have ground school for two weeks, simulators for a week, and then we will hit the flight line around May 11. I will be flying the T-44a when that time comes. My roommate (which has an interested party) will be in the same squadron, but will be flying the new "c" models and will be spoiled with a glass cockpit...meaning instead of actual gauges, there are "tv screens" of them. It gives you a lot more options as far as how you can arrange your displays, but I guess I will have to settle for the old school gauges. I am sure I will be a better pilot for it!

The last week of freedom saw me go to the beach, sleep, fish, and go dirt bike riding on the weekend. The dog loves going to the beach because it can chase birds for hours...not to mention show off the latest swimwear. Although we are all glad the dog wears more than the dad! That was just disturbing and my family has asked me to kindly "GET OUT!"

I also purchased a chiminea that we use on the deck at night. I have to scrounge up fire wood, but I hit the jackpot with a couple of pallets. Sitting on the deck, which over hangs the water, watching the fish swim around the lights on the bottom of the waterways is a hard job! Yeah, and thanks to each of you for paying your taxes which are paying me to do it. But I do hope you did get a little back on your taxes or else I will feel like I owe you something...never mind, I don't. I am busy putting myself in harms way for your freedom, never know when Mexico may invade the US and I would be on the front line. I know my peeps back in Del Rio think the invasion has already happened. At least Strube is still there to love them all.

The dirt bike track was not near as nice as the ones I have been spoiled with back in Idaho, but at least there are tracks here. They don't have sprinkler systems to keep the dust down, but at least they try to keep them in good shape. I met a lot of nice people that shared some good information on where to ride, unfortunately there is no public land were you can ride like there is back in the Ho...don't fire me like Don Imus...I am not talking about black women, just I-da-ho.Well, it was a pretty uneventful week. I still haven't caught any fish even though I have used every type of bait. It could be due to my A.D.D. and lack of patience, but if I can't catch one after 3-5 casts, I go back inside the house. That is all for now, sorry to all of those that were offended by my Baywatch photo...but it was worth it for some of your reactions! C-YA

UPDATE

For those of you wanting our address...like to send cookies and other goodies, it is:

15349 Beaufort Ct.

Corpus Christi, TX 78418

Please give the parcel carriers job security by sending packages and sending them frequently. Also, if you would like to visit us, please let us know and we can get something setup...and I promise I won't wear my Speedo at the beach with you.

A cool picture of the Blue Angels from our house.

Beginning Life in Corpus Christi

We have started getting things in place and in the mean time, spent a small fortune getting settled into our new house. I never knew that you could spend your entire retirement fund on a flippin' mattress (literally, you flip it) and wood to hold your clothes. I figured at the price tag of these pieces that they would be made of gold, but apparently wood down here is pretty precious because they charge an arm and leg for it. Well, enough of my complaining, but at least I don't have to sleep on the floor any more or go through piles of clothes to find my Speedo for going to the beach...and you think I am joking...read the entire blog. Below is a picture of the new bed, dresser, and chest of drawers.

With daily stops to Wal-Mart and Lowe's, we have bought enough shelves to start a shelving company. We have heavy duty, plastic, wood, and metal shelves and not a one of them match, but we are slowing getting things off the floor and now they are two feet above the floor...funny how a few feet can make you look organized.

Each morning I have to report in so some Navy dude can check me off a list and then I go to the gym. After that, I go home and have the rest of the day to go to Wal-Mart, Lowe's, and the beach. The beach is really nice and I would like to invite you all down to come and swim and work on your tan...where ever your tan line may be...

Wow, that even took courage for me...not a lot of people wear water wings at the beach.

Candi and I have done a lot of sight seeing and getting around the area to see where things are located. We went to the Texas State Aquarium, among other activities to keep us from getting bored. I had to work an airshow this weekend and got to see the Blue Angels, along with other cool aircraft. I got the opportunity to say "hi" to the Blue Angel pilots and I think they were impressed that I had all 103 hours in a T-6 (not to mention 72 hours in a Cessna 152), although they didn't really show it. The little bit of training that I have completed sure gives you a greater appreciation for the things the performing pilots are accomplishing during the show.

Other than that, I haven't really done a whole lot this last week. I am trying to take it easy since I start classes this Friday. I guess I will have to start focusing on school work instead of beach babes, but at least school work won't get me slapped. One last piece of exciting news, Hicky Bill bought us a 42" flatscreen LCD TV...what a good roommate. C-YA

p.s. For the interested party, the reason the roommate looks devilish is because he forgot to put on sun block at the beach. The above picture shows this. You also might picture a southern accent, but it might be a "special person" accent...see the below picture. He is the one on the left.

The Clampett's...er-r-r...Presley's go to Corpus Christi

Well, as you know, I went to Idaho to see family and friends and then bring my wife back to the Carbon Copy..."cc"...or Corpus Christi. The seeing the friends and family went well, but I wasn't so sure the trip back was going to follow suit. It ended up being a pretty good trip, but it didn't start out well.

Starting out, I think you will find some similarities between the Clampett's and the Presley's. We both overloaded our vehicle, we both took our dog, and we both used an obscene amount of rope to keep it all on (I had, no kidding, 200 feet of rope securing my ramp that laid of the roof racks and the luggage that was on top of the ramp). At times I definitley felt like the Beverly Hillbillies, but at least we got everything down here that we needed to.

We took some time trying every possible configuration to maximize the excess space, but luckily we didn't have to leave too much behind. I kept trying to tell Candi that the cats were taking up the most space and that we should leave them behind, but they are now residents of CC. I guess I need to work on my negotiation skills.

The trip started out with me getting 17.3 miles out of Boise (five hours later than planned) and having to stop because 75 feet of the 200 was following us, causing its previous location to come undone and the tarp to act as a sail. I had to stop one more time to retie the rope before our first stop for gas. The first stop for gas was an experience in itself. There I was cruising along at 169 miles into the trip with over a quarter of tank of gas...then there I was at 207 miles with the gas light on and in between somewhere and nowhere. A few quick calculations and reading of the owner's manual, we figured out we had roughly 227 miles on the 16 gallon tank at the current burn rate....only one small problem....the nearest exit (hoping it had a gas station) was going to come up on the left hand side at about 233 miles. I know I can forget to carry the one sometimes, but I still think my arithmetic is decent and I was sweating bullets. We said a quick prayer while I went over the scenarios in my head on how to hitchhike for gas and how to minimize the chance of someone getting kidnapped by the crazies that inhabit the lonely highways. Long story short, we made it on fumes and prayers and we put in 15.902 gallons into the 16.000 gallon tank. Carrying the one or not, that is cutting it close.

The pets did a lot better than we thought during the trip, although they put up a little bit of a struggle to get them into their carrier. The medical professionals think they will be able to salvage Candi's arm, but she may never had full use of it in the future.

I also found that a quick way to get a 70 pound, fat dog in your lap while driving was to hit the rumble strip on the the side of the road. Trust me, driving with a face full of dog can be a bit challenging in traffic.

Fortunately, after the bad start, things went pretty smoothly for the rest of the trip. I had to stop many times to retie the rope and keep the tarp on the hillbilly pack. We stopped in Green River, UT the first night and El Paso, TX the second night. The weather couldn't have been better for the trip, although the first clouds we saw where 100 miles from CC and by the time we got there it was starting to rain. I thought CC was suppose to be the nice weather place. However, it is a lot warmer than Idaho. It froze the night before we left in Idaho and it was 70s and 80s when we got here.

I checked in on Monday and had a lot of in processing things to do, but everything went off without a hitch. I take that back, at first they tried to tell me that I couldn't start until sometime in May, but then they came to their senses and put me back into the April 20th class. We have been burning money like kindling, buying a new king bed, bed frame, chest of drawers, dresser, sheets, stands, shelves, etc. We need Candi to find a CEO job just to pay for the spending spree, but I got tired of sleeping on the floor next to all of the piles of clothes.

I know your A.D.D. is probably kicking in, so I will wrap this up, not to mention mine is in full swing. All is well for the Presley's in CC and we look forward to getting settled in and seeing the area before I start class and Candi starts looking for that high paying job to support her spending habits. Thanks for reading, we will keep you informed of all happenings. C-YA!