standing outside the fire

Let me tell you about my weekend! Whew! Never has so much gone wrong that all amounted to nothing. OK, well, my weekend started Thursday after work. I got off an hour early because I didn't exactly know how this new "Super 70" construction would affect my travels and I wanted to be prepared. So obviously, there would be an accident on I-465 just a few miles after I get on it. OK, not bad, it's four lanes so you can avoid that usually if it's just one or two cars. Eventually I get off 465 and onto 70. Yes! I get on 70 right at the edge of construction, it doesn't even pertain to me. Woo! La-la-la. Driving at a steady 80mph it takes me over an hour to reach what would usually be my first stop. Well, I ain't stopping today. I'm making good time, I've got plenty of gas to reach my destination, and so I keep on truckin'. Now there's a ton of construction going on in both Indiana and Ohio on 70. Still, I make good time until I reach the I-675 junction, about two miles from the exit to my relatives'. I'm listening to my CB, apparently two Synder drivers decided to have a race and see who was stupider. It ended in a tie. I think 4 or 5 cars got caught in it too. So my whole side of 70 was at a dead stop. Ugh. It was stopped for awhile before I got there and I sat around for another 40 minutes for them to clean up the mess. Well, there goes all of my lead time. Of course by now no one is letting anyone over and I'm in the far left lane. So I miss my exit and I have to take a back route to get to my aunt's place. It's cool though, the way I ended up taking had lots of gas stations and I could take my pick. I pull into the Speedway and some lady is working the fuel cap on her car. Originally I stop but then it's taking her awhile so I end up circling the station to get another spot. I fuel up and just as I finish the same woman comes over and asks me if I know anything about those locking fuel caps. "Not really, but I'll take a look." I say, she gives me her keys and I take a look. Now, there's three (3) keys that make up her set of keys. One obviously looks like a car ignition key. The one she handed me <- (that's important) is like a mailbox or door key. The third has "GAS" in raised letters on it. So I use the "GAS" key to open up the "GAS CAP" on her car. Viola!
Yeah, that was a lot of work to get to that point. Still. So Friday, I have to wake up around 0100hrs to get dressed and start my car by 0130 and drive off at 0200. Yes! Get there at 7pm and just getting up in a scant 6 hours. No, I didn't over sleep. I wake up on time. Get dressed. Start car at about 0120hrs, I figure if I leave earlier then I can go stop for some coffee and water, and gum. Heading up back to the house I get to the front door and turn handle. Uh-oh. It's locked. My cell phone(s) are inside. My lock picking tools are inside. Ring doorbell, bang on door, ring, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, Ad nauseam. OK, don't panic, you've got your pants and shoes, keys to the car, just go to your cousin's, he's got a key to this house. Doh! He's not home. I get back around 0149hrs and the door is open. My aunt explains that she thought I was packing or something that was loud so she didn't want to be rude and interrupt. I'm laughing though because I really didn't know how else to react. I mean, I couldn't even explain this to my Army superiors. Still, I was on schedule-ish.
Well, I get to the unit on time and we get on the buses. "Umm, aren't this buses supposed to move to get us where we're going?" I ask everyone. Someone tells me what's going on. Two new soldiers came to the unit and weren't told that this was an overnighter sort of deal. They didn't have clothes or basic hygiene stuff and so they went to Wal-Mart to get it. The only problem was that they weren't from Columbus and they didn't know how to get to Wal-Mart, let alone navigation the streets at 3am. Then I'm told that it's one of my soldiers. Ah crap. Hey, I didn't know I had another new soldier! Nobody tells me anything until they mess up!
I ended up doing much of nothing all Friday. Oh, well, I cleared two jammed weapons (with live ammo in them). OK, to be honest, it was the same weapon that I cleared twice. Somehow, "Don't fire this weapon" translate into "Wait five minutes and try again." Ugh. People always trying to kill me.
Saturday was my bread and butter. The weather called for showers throughout the day. Still, "if it ain't rainin' we ain't trainin'." Wake up is 0430hrs to have formation at 0515 to go to chow at 0530. Be back by 0630 to go out to the range. It takes about 30 minutes by bus to get to the range. So what time do you think it would start? 0700? or somewhere around there? Nope, 0900hrs. I sit around more before 9am than most do all day! Just before 9, it just starts to pour down. Woo! Aww, it's easing up now. We get our brief and I get on the first firing order to zero my weapon. Since it's been raining for about 20 minutes now, 10 of them heavy, all of the fighting positions are just puddles of water. Sweet dude! "OK firers. Lock and load one 18 round magazine. Rotate your selector switch from 'safe' to 'semi' and watch... your lanes." Pop, pop, pop (pause) pop, pop, pop (pause) pop, pop, and pop. OK, zeroed in 9 shots. Not bad, usually it takes 18. Go sit back in the bleachers. About thirty minutes later they start letting us qualify.
"Go ahead firers and take up a good prone supported position. Lock and load one 20 round magazine. Rotate your selector switch from 'safe' to 'semi' and watch... your lanes. OK firers, push your sandbags to your right. Get in a good prone unsupported fighting position. Once you're set go ahead and lock and load one 20 round magazine. Rotate your selector switch from 'safe' to 'semi' and watch... your lanes.
I didn't do as well as I would've liked, 35 out of 40. On one of my shots, the little display off to the side that tells us how to zero nearly fell on my and I panicked for a second a pulled my shot to the right. Also, I just plain didn't see one of the targets pop up so I didn't fire. Otherwise I would've shot expert. And apparently if you qualify once they don't let you try again.
After we find out our scores it stops raining. Yup. For the rest of the weekend. God felt that it was necessary for me to qualify in the rain. I look at my watch, it's now 10:20. Great. I just zeroed and qualified in less than an hour and a half. What to do now? Go qualify on some other weapons? Nah. Fired them. Not as much fun anymore. After awhile it became clear which soldiers needed help so I offered to coach them. As I was coaching one, I saw someone else that needed my help. The person I coached qualified. And so I moved on to this guy. Hardesty, one of our medics. He shot a 16 (out of 40). So I went through and showed him what he was doing, pointing out what was right and wrong, and how to shoot better. We go back out a little later and he qualified with a 37 out of 40. Damnit! He did better than me! He did better than about 98% of the company. He did better than about 99% of the battalion! What the hell? Still, I was proud.
So not to ruin the rest of my day, I went back to the barracks after that. What? You got to end your day on a high-note! Look, it don't get better than a 105% improvement with just a few minutes with Coach Dan. And I wasn't about to have my record sullied by some crappy shooter. No, no, no. Of course by going back to the barracks I left two of my soldiers out there that needed help. I sort of felt bad until I hit my bunk. That was a nice guilt-free nap.
I didn't do anything Sunday except clean-up and sit around joking with friends. Cutting each other down and sometimes ourselves, trading stories, jokes, and the likes. Some of the new people are integrating well. Got up at 0430 Sunday and I didn't get home until 10pm that night. It was a 5hr bus ride back to Columbus. So where exactly did the other 12 hours go? Sitting around. Sitting around. And more sitting around.