“Do the next thing”

Did you know that you can more easily spot scorpions with a black light?  That is why we just purchased one online and had it shipped to Fran at his new camp.

Fran is part of the pre-advanced party in the move from Navistar to Virginia.  Alas he learned that his new locale is bad for scorpions, or I should say, bad for people who don’t like scorpions.  I guess the white ones are the worst.  I saw a black one in Georgia once, and, well, in Arizona we saw plenty of your average orange ones pretty much anywhere we went!

So, Fran is in a quiet tent alone with the scorpions for a little while until his “buddies” arrive from Navistar. He’s watching Monk episodes on DVD and practicing his Woodrow!  Somehow his bunkmates didn’t quite appreciate his strumming practice, so he thought he’d make some headway while he is alone.  Maybe it would even drive away the scorpions…

For those who have asked, he still really craves dry roasted nuts, without peanuts.  I remember him buying some when he was home in January, too.  So, that is a sure thing if he were to receive it in the mail!!  His new zip code is 09327.

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Special Coin, originally uploaded by Midcoast Mainah.

This note and photo came from Fran yesterday. Pretty Cool!!

Well I had an interesting day. I was having my stuff inspected by the Navy Customs people, for the items I was shipping home now. It was 11:30 and a SPC found me and told me that a 1SG from HHC wanted me in the orderly room by 11:45. I rushed down there and he was hanging up the phone and told me to come back in 10 minutes. I kind of asked if I should be worried, he said “No. just come back.” So, I came back and they herded me and a bunch of other soldiers into a conference room where there was a Brigadier General (One Star) from the State of Wisconsin. The commanders had gathered select soldiers together to be recognized and receive a coin from him.

My friend Karen in western Maine sent an informative email to a bunch of us near and far telling the story of the storm here on our corner of the country.  It made me think that I ought to do the same for my friends and family.

The weather here over the last few weeks has been unseasonable!!  After a while it seemed if there was a holiday coming, we could count on a storm. First on Valentine’s Day, then on St. Patrick’s Day, then on Good Friday. Another storm came the next week which wasn’t exactly a holiday, but it was our Awana Favorite Bible Character dress-up theme night! Then, of course, Patriot’s Day.  Patriot’s Day is a New England tradition not recognized by the rest of the country.

This storm is the second of the season to rob us of power.  We are some of the fortunate ones since we only lost our electricity for 10 hours.  For some it has been days.  We did learn that we aren’t ready for cold weather without power.  No fireplace and no gas for heat.  So, when it dropped to 60 inside and was still dropping, we decided to go catch a movie in the next town where there was power.  While the movie wasn’t all that great, the theater was warm!!  I knew the power was back on when my radio blared about about 10 pm while I was fast asleep!

Tree limbs are down everywhere.  There are detours all over town, but not all for the storm.  In fact, most of them aren’t storm related.  On Sunday they started construction on the viaduct that passes over Bath.  They’ve promised, contracted actually, to finish it in about 6 weeks, so, wouldn’t you know it, they’ve been out there in these 50 and 60 mph winds working away!!!  The police are out all over town helping drivers negotiate the modified traffic patterns….and they are all wet all the time.  What timing!!!

So, all in all Bath has fared pretty well.  There are flooded places down in town on the shore of the Kennebec.  That is not all uncommon.  Just this time it’s a bit deeper.  It is odd to have banks and businesses closed in the middle of the day.  We have absolutely no snow left accept some plow piles from previous storms.  At night I hear generators going on this street or that.  One night one street will lose power, the next another.  The friends back the next street over went to a hotel last night to escape the cold.

Well, that’s my chatty, and by no means carefully crafted, report.  Sometimes I ramble and that’s the case today.

Well, it is hard to count down the days when we don’t know what day to count down to!  I’ve sort of chosen August 1st as Fran’s “At Home” date.  I’m truly thinking it could be a week earlier than that, but it is all so up in the air, that I don’t dare to plan for anything earlier.  So, if we do count days and we do pick August 1st, that means 112 days.  Anything earlier than that is, as they say, icing!

The latest word is that he is moving south to a new spot sometime before he comes home.  When he does that, he will commence living from just a couple duffle bags worth of stuff for the duration.  That means, he will begin shipping things home soon.  So, I would guess that sending anything but food things to him would take up valuable space that he won’t have.

I do know that the big welcome home ceremony and such will take place not in Augusta where the send-off happened, but rather in Bangor.  That is quite a hike from here!  I guess the powers that be reserve a block of hotel rooms for families when they know dates. The families don’t necessarily know the dates when they do, though.

112 days…..