too cool

What a day! I did nothing at all really today! What a liberating feeling...wake up and don't do shit! Wonder when the reality will set in that I have a wife and son? I will enjoy it while it lasts.

I did actually do some things today. I had to go bring my car in to get looked at. It seems to be having transmission problems. I wasn't too shocked when they told me an estimate as to how much that would be to fix...$2,007. What a figure to put out there. Where did they get the $7 from? They did also offer financing which is nice. My wife has a friend in PA that works on transmissions and may be able to give us a break. We'll see!

I also had to bring the boy in for a check up on his arm. He was a bit freaked out when we told him they used a saw to take his cast off. He was certain they would also be removing his limb. Once the nurse was there and assured him no such thing would happen he seemed to be cool with the idea.

They took the gross smelly cast off and his arm (right above the wrist) looked like it was still broken. Me and the wife were a bit freaked out but the doctor assured us that it was normal and healing nicely. BUT, he did have to put a smaller cast on for another 4 weeks.

I was also chatting with my sister-in-law this evening and she put me onto a great site for searching just about anything anywhere. I think a former commentor had put me on to that site some weeks back. I never really saw the whole site and never appreciated as much as I should have. It seems to be a pretty damn good tool to use for any damn thing you can imagine!

Shenandoah 2005

Alrighty, if I have anybody that has been a reader of this lame blog for any time they would know that I had been planning a trip to Shenandoah National Park. I had to cancel the first trip in early April due to rain and weather. The moons and stars were alligned again for me and my wife to go to some backcountry hiking/camping. The forcast called for rain and unseasonably cold weather. Screw it! We had a babysitter and petsitters so we would be damned if we would not go this time.

We had planned on leaving our house at about 6-7 a.m. on a Monday and enjoy the scenic back roads we take and enjoy the 3 or so hours it takes to get to the park. Well it tirns out that we stayed up a bit too late the night before and would up crawling out of bed at about 9:30 a.m. My wife doesn't know what ugency is and took her sweet time getting ready to go.

We finally left and were on the road at about noon. It was a bit later than I had wished for but what can you do. We had wanted to use this trip as a nice getting closer with one another type thing. So I bit my tongue and drove.

The weather was calling for rain and colder than usual tempreatures. We were hoping that we were in luck because the sun was shining and it was warm out. I was just hoping that we hadn't wasted all that time sleeping when we could have been on the road and eventually the trail.

All was well and then we were about 20-30 minutes from Shenandoah and the sky erupted in a downpour. There weren't the tell tail sign of rain (besides the dark clouds) when it rained so hard that I considered pulling over to the side of the road. I just laughed out loud and drove on. After a good 10-15 minutes of rain it was done. The sun came back shortly after and we could see the hills that we would be climbing soon.

We entered the park and filled out our backcountry permit and headed towards our trail head. First we stopped off at a gas station/gift shop and bought some coffee and filled our water bottles. You could tell that we had driven to a higher altitude by the fog that was rolling over the hills. We were soon off to find our trail head.

We had found the parking lot to the Little Devils Staircase trail covered in a veil of cold fog. To no surprise to me there were no other cars there. We pulled in and started to get our gear out and ready. I changed from my shoes and socks to my nice wool socks and hiking boots. In a matter of minutes we were dialed in to hit to the trail.

In good spirits Day 1 of 3

Here we are seconds before we headed out on the trail. It was foggy and cold. I was hoping that it wouldn't rain until later that night so we could enjoy the trip and surroundings. Within minutes of starting out the fog had lifted and it was sunny and turning out for the best. The trail was a nice slow down grade and made the hiking easy. I knew what the next two trails had in store for us though.

The sun was shining brightly and all was going great. I had spotted a crazy centipede or something of that genre hanging out on a rock. Turns out that it wouldn't be the last time I would see them as they were scattered everywhere. I also found that if you don't look where you place your hands they squich very easily and stain your hand with guts and gore.



Cool bug 10 minutes into adventure

The hike was going great in the first 20-30 minutes. We were lulled into nature by a nice downward hike and the sun was shining. We had come across some kind of lizard/amphibian soon after the centipede. It was a beautiful creature. It was a brigh orange with spots on its back and and it just stayed and posed for pictures. I had seen these the summer before on trails but they had been stepped on and dead. So needless to say, it was nicer seeing them alive.


Cool something 15 minutes into adventure

After the encounters with the local wildlife we had to make a left onto the dreaded Little Devils Staircase. Now that we turned off the fire road we had started on we were entering the canopy of the green forest. Again we were on a nice down hill and all was well. As I had found out last year when I hiked this trail that there is a reason that the word DEVIL is in the name. We were soon next to a waterfall and had to cross the higer than usual water to get to the other side. The "staircase" part of the name is appropriate as well. Only these stairs are on a grander scale than the ones in your house. The trail keeps crisscrossing this creek over and over again. In between crossings you have to climb down the "stairs' which are as high as 4' in places. Not to mention that most of the rocks were covered in the slipriest substance known to man. There was a section of a nice smooth rock that was about 4'-5' down at an angle. My wife had the great idea of sliding down it on her ass. Not me! I am a neanderthall man. I walked down and soon found myself on my ass hold my wrist. I had slipped and fallen and didn't want to get up. We continued and had to deal with more crossings and loose rocks.

Wife on Little Devils Stairs

It is a beautiful trail to go down when not so rainy and wet. It just added to the danger of this trail. My wife soon found out that I wasn't full of shit and that me and the guys weren't pussies like she had called us. We were so into hiking that we had barely noticed that it was getting darker and starting to rain.


Fatty me on Little Devild stairs

It was nice refreshing sprinkle rain and was almost welcomed. We had put our raincovers on our backpacks and headed out again. Soon after it had started to rain a bit harder and I was getting wetter. It wasn't too bad because we were under the foliage of trees and all was well. Besides we were making pretty good time. It became aparent that I'm a retard and was oon soaked. We stopped again to put on our rain jackets and headed out once again.

We soon were done with the Little Devils Staircase and I vowed to myself that I would never return to that trail again. We entered a parking lot outside the park and relaxed for a minute and headed up the backside of the fire road that we had started our trip on. Again, I had taken this trail before and knew this was going to be a bitch. It was a mile straight up a hill. It's a killer and did nothing for the great spirit we had 2 hours before. As a matter of fact half way up we stood in a steady rain and had wondered what the hell we had gotten ourselves into.

Eventually we made it up the hill and had started to look for a camping place. They have all of these rules as to what and where you SHOULD sleep in the backcountry. We had come up on the fork to our next trail and an old cemetary. There was a clearing beside the fork to the next trail but it was all mud. Then we had looked behind the cemetary and found a nice place but decided that we didn't want to sleep that close to cemetary. We humped it up the trail about 100-150 yards and my wife spied a mini clearing about 30 feet back from the trail. It loooked good and was getting dark so we moved some branches and made a spot for the tent. We had made our dinners and had some much needed heat put into our bodies.

Wife settling in for the night

We retired to the tent at about 9 p.m. It was of course raining and started to thunder and lightening. I had started brewing a nasty headache so I took some tylenol and tried to sleep as best I could. My wife was coughing her ass off which made it a bit harder to fall asleep. She failed to tell me that she hadn't been feeling all that great before we left for the hike and that a friend of hers was sick as well.

Nothing much we could do at that time we were about 4 miles back in the woods. Plus, I am sure the hill from hell didn't help out. Then of course the outstanding weather we had was grade A. I could barely sleep with her coughing and the rain bouncing off my rainfly. At point at night I was awaken and saw that the tent was lit up. It had stopped raining and was clear...the fullmoon was showing through the leaves and lighting up the tent. I had to unzip and take a look myself. Then it was off to sleepland again.

Day 2 Morning wood T-shirt

We had woken up a bit later than I had expected. It was some insane bird above us that did the job. I layed there and didn't want to get out of my sleeping bag. I was so snug and warm. I had kept all of my wet clothes outside under the vestibule. I had decided to put on my "quick-dry" pants again. Of course they were still wet and damp from being outside and it did nothing for my manhood when I slipped them on again. I should have just worn my rain pants so I wouldn't have to go through this. I am Polish though. So I just slipped on my long john shirt and my new hiking t-shirt. It was dry and was all good for me.

We had a lull in the rain and took that time to break camp and pack it up. My wife was sounding really sick now and we had decided that we would just follow the trail we were on and head back home. First we had to have some food and coffee. I just ate some granola bars and my wife had the same plus coffee. We had traveled back to the cemetary to look around and gather some pictures. It was good so far as the rain went. We snapped a few pictures and went about our business. As soon as we started up it rained. I should have put my rain pants on right there.

Day 2 at cemetary




cemetary day 2

It was a decent rail but we were walking up a hill again. It wasn't as bad as what we had put ourselves through the day before but was not helping the wife's chest cold. This trail was bit more open above so when it rained you were getting hit. Not like when under the cover of trees. I had told my wife before we left that we won't be fighting while out there. She assumed we would. I told her that I don't talk all that much when on the trail. I assume this is a normal thing? I was in my happy place especially with the rain dribbling down my back.

Huge snail day 2

About half way back to the car my eagle eye wife spotted this huge snail. It actually moved fairly quickly across the ground. I would say that it was about an inch high and huge. I took this photo op as a time to relax and get some water.

Almost back to the car

The trail wasn't bad as far as walking it was just the grade of the incline at times. I would enjoy taking this trail but going the other way...down. We had agreed that we will attempt this again and do just that. I was a bit disappointed that we weren't able to see to much wildlife. It was expected with the rain and all. We did however manage to get spooked by a deer. He let us get close to him on the trail before he darted away about 10 feet. He just sat and stared at us and now I am pissed I didn't take a pic. He was close to the trail and didn't mind seeing us. We bid him a farewell and watched as he watched us leave.

We arrived back to the car in fog as thick as soup. We threw our gear in the back and put some comfy footgear on and wentback to the gas station/gift shop. We ordered some chili and bacon cheeseburgers. It was pretty damn good too. We also bought some trinkets for the people babysitting our son and dogs. Of course we bought the Boy some gear as well. He is now the proud owner of a Shenandoah NP hoodie and a t-shirt.

We had a ton of fun but it was time to go. We had to drive all the way to south Jersey to pick up our son from grandmas. Then the next day I would have to drive to Philly and drop off my sister-in-law. So it was time to go. The rain was still coming down steadily and showed no sign of giving up.

Too funny!

There was the furniture store that we had seen on the way in to Shenandoah and found it to be pretty funny. So naturally on the way back we had to take a picture. Too funny! Antique tables--made daily? Can that be? Is that possible?

who knows?

I am going to have a nice relaxing weekend and chill out a bit. I will finish my resume finally this weekend. I think I have tweaked an dpeaked it enough to be hire worthy. I was pretty amazed at how well I was able to to make myself look! It was really harder than I had imagined. I think from now on I will just keep it updated and it will be easier from here on out.

I know I promised better stuff and I stand by that. I have been busy with a lot of other crap so hang with me and if all goes well you will reap the rewards of my life and what this blog should be about!

umm are you sure...

Jake looking at dad and nurse putting his cast on. He loks like he wants to see her credentials. He was awesome and was very excited to have a cast. We will go back in 3 weeks and see how he is doing. They may put him in a cast for another 2-3 weeks after this one. It will be a smaller one though. It's not like this one is stopping him. He is a wild man!

do you know what your doing

getting a cast

Here he is getting wrapped with his cast. He picked out the color he wanted. I was hoping he would go for a red or some other flashy color. He chose the glow in the dark kind.

getting cast

actaully pretty bad break

Jake had actually done a pretty good number on his arm. He broke it right above the wrist and was close to having it set again. He broke one bone and cracked half way through the other.

unwrap2

Daddy unwrapping

Dad taking of Jake's splint for the doctor to look at. He really wasn't all that concerned about what was going on and what may happen!

unwrap

Sitting and waiting!

Jake sits smiling again as we await to see if they will cast him today or not! He was such a trooper through out this.

smiles

I hate blogger!

I have no patients for blogger tonight so I am just doing it this lame way. Sorry!! Her is the big man the day after he had broken his arm. All smiles!


day after

just a guess

I am taking a stab in the dark here and guessing that this blog will (for the time being) be about me transition into the "real world". I am about 80% done with my resume and will be getting it out there by the end of the week.

I am guessing that I have become boring or people are now busy with the weather getting nicer. I haven't had much to say so that may be a reason but still would like to get some comments. I will be going in a different direction in the days to come I promise.

I am going to go eat and try to get a post together about my son's broken arm.

Honorable Discharge

This is my second post today on this thing. Blogger was all fucked up earlier and the wonderful "recover post" thing didn't do shit for me. That one was funny and this one will suck.

Anyway, I signed my discharge papers today and pretty much offically out of the United States Navy. I had spent 8 years 5 months and 20 days in the Navy. It was a blast. People are surprised that I have a great outlook about things. No need to have a pity party for myself. My wife of course isn't the happiest camper in the world but what can you do?

I am proud of my time in the Navy. It kind of taught me a few trades and the confidence to go out and kick ass in the "real world". I should be done with my resume this weekend and I will have some people look over it next week and then I will finalize it and hopefully have a handful of resumes out there by this time next week. I would like a month of to do nothing. I don't have to shave or wear a uniform anymore! Sweet!

All went well throughout my check out process. Again people were shocked to see a smile on my face. It went well until I had to talk with the Executive Officer (XO). She presents herself as a Molly Homemaker. I soon found out that she can be easily turned into Linda Blair. I was asked to fill out a questionaire prior to our meeting and it asked some silly questions but I felt obligated to answer truthfully. So, the first part was ok and I answered her questions and thought that there may be a chnage in things after I had left. I was giving great "input" on what was fucked up with this place. Then we started getting into other areas and I am not one to keep my opinions to myself and shot from the hip. She started to yell and raging. I took it upon myself to end the session at that point. I got up and left.

The Navy was really never my thing. I didn't mind the whole function as a whole but it soon wears on you. I have 5 years 2 months and 19 days of sea time. That is a long time especially with a family brewing!

I am looking forward to this Forrest Gump type life I am leading at this point and can't wait to see where I wind up. I am sure I won't wind up a multi-millionaire but I think I will be living more comfortable and will be much happier in the end. The Navy has given me the tools to succeed and I am going to do just that after I have not shaved and not saluted a person becaise they have a college degree.

Life is good!

camping pt.2

I think that I will go camping again soon. Actually next weekend 22-24 or something like that. I am thinking that we will do the same route and we are going rain or shine. I will be sure to take some pics as well. I am horrible about saying I will take pics and post them.

I will also bring th eold school 35mm Minolta. I wish I has skills enough to now how to use that and the lenses that I have for it! It should be all green and beautiful now. When we had planned on going about 3 weeks ago the trees and bushes were just sprouting. We then could be able to see a little bit in the woods and see whats around us.

It is now time to get anal and make sure that we have all the gear ready to rock. I am trying to not bug my wife about this trip this time. I will just let it happen and she can just come along for the trip I have planned. It should be good stuff!

I am also goiong to start getting off the beaten path with my posts. Just a warning to anybody that reads this thing.

this stinks

How are ya? I am so slow tonight. I am trying to finish my resume and get it out to the masses. As you all can tell I am such a great creative writer here my resume must be stellar? You would be wrong! Dead wrong!

I have the last 3 years of my life pegged but need to razz it up a bit. Use these fucking buzzwords that I hear about! I am going to take a time out and have a beer and clean. Then I will come back and try to at least do the next 5 years of my naval career. That should be fairly easy and then comes this damn "cover letter". I have no idea how to compose this but will give it my best shot.

I am having some people that know what they're doing check it out tomorrow and send me home with my homework. I only have 3.5 days left in the navy! Better turn and burn as they say! I will keep you all informed as I know you are all on the edge of your seats waiting to see how I do...

possum rescue

I am Mr. Critter finder! Yesterday when I came home I saw that my maintenance man was keeping a rodent at bay with his foot. I thought it was a rat at first but then looked closer and saw it was a baby possum. I quickly ran inside and told the boy that I wanted him to see something.

We went out with some towels and picked it up and were on our way to the woods to let it go. My wife saved the little guy at the last second and wanted to find a home for it. So our search of the Deapartment of Natural Resources put us in touch with a woman that took in these animals and will later release them.

We arrive and this wonderful woman greets us and picks this baby possum up with her bare hands. Making me look like a girl. She then put it in a cage and was even bitten in the tranfser. Didn't even phase this woman. She doesn't usually handle possum but she knew of another woman who did and she would bring the little one over there. The lady we were dealing with had 9 racoons and had just released some fox a few days earlier.

We asked if we could be there for the release of the baby possum. He was pretty young but had some swagger to him. They like to let them go when they are about a pound and a half. So that will be a few weeks off. I will keep you posted!

***WARNING******TOO MUCH***INFORMATION***ABOUT AUTHOR***

Yesterday was almost a good day. I had done a lot as far as me checking out of the Navy. I have been busy as a beaver of late. I found out that I will not be getting nearly $20,000 when I get out. More like $13,000 because I am getting out because I am a pig. I will however be getting 6 months of medical coverage which comes in handy now that the monkey boy has broken his limb.

I had moved on with the bad news of my monetary compensation and was getting the other things that I needed to get done. I had planned a seperation physical with a doctor in the afternoon. It was a good way to skate out of work early. I show up for my physical and find out that the doctor I had scheduled with was a no show. The check in people then went with the next available doctor. Turns out that it was a bombshell good looking woman doctor. Not a problem right?

Well, I am sitting in a room and directed to take off my uniform top and sit there. I am sitting there and she walks in. She is going through my medical record and notices that the last physical I had 4 years ago mentions a hernia I had. She asked a few brief questions about the hernia and some other health related things. I answered them and she continued with the physical pressing here and shining lights there. I thought that I had dodged a bullet with her checking my undercarriage for my hernia.

She stood up and went to go get some rubber gloves. The sweat was starting to roll now. She sat back down on her stool and looked at me with those doe like eyes. "Stand up and you know?" she said gesturuing with her hands. I reluctantly stood up. As I did her face was level with a certain part of my anatomy. I reluctantly pulled my belt apart and unzipped my pants and pulled my boxers down.

I'm not sure how familiar people are with penises but for whatever reason I had retracted my my penis. So it was smaller than usual. I am not going to lie to my loyal readers I am hung like a light switch. I quickly grabbed it and pulled it out a bit more. I looked in those beautiful eyes and pleaded with her and stated, "It gets bigger!". I heard a giggle and soon felt a gloved hands rubbing my balls. Then was told to cough soon after.

I am not sure what the deal was but I was I wanting a man to to do this exam. Weird I know but I am sure that women are fans of other women checking them out.

In any case I am in good health and I have no signs of testicular cancer and I still have a slight hernia. So, that was my day yesterday. Sorry if I have scared some of you away. It needed to be shared.

UNBREAKABLE

What a wonderful few days I have had. I am convinced my wife hates me and we will be seperating eventually but hopes are high that she is stressed to the max. Time will tell.

The insane boy Jake broke his arm this weekend at the playground. He had tried to slide down the "firemans pole" and didn't get the grip he wanted and fell roughly 7'-8'. His right arms cushioning most of the drop. As great parents that me and my wife are were no where to be found.

My wife had come home from grocery shopping and needed help bringing it in. It was a nice day and some of the neighbor kids were outside. So, he was able to go and hang out with the older kids (about 10-13 yrs old). I brought in the grub and my wife was snatched by a yapping neighbor. The kids had asked if they could bring Jake to the playground. My wife said they could and that she would be over soon. I couldn't fit all of the frozen food in the freezer and went to go get my wife to help.

I came out to see my son crying his ass off and sitting on the curb with mommy. I came up and asked what the deal was and she told me and I figured he would be fine. He had slid and even fallen from this thing before. Probably not as harsh as this though. We brought him inside and put some ice on his arm. He was crying and whibing every time I moved his arm. My wife was panicked right away. I told her that we should him relax and shake it off and see where he is in an hour or so. I looked at his arm and noticed a bump and he whimpered in pain. We decided to take him to the ER.

We were there for a short amount of time and they came and told us that he had broken his arm. Wonderful! It seems that it was a pretty bad break. It broke one bone and cracked the other one. We put a cast on him today. It is almost up to his shoulder. He got to pick out which color he wanted. Him being a party boy he picked the one that glows in the dark. This should be on him for about 4 weeks. After that we will get him checked out again and and maybe get a smaller cast put on.

We had taken various pictures throughout this ordeal and I will try to get them up tonight.