Well,FINALLY,things are starting to get wrapped up for me out here at Fort Lewis.......I've got the results back from my medical board,and,yup,they'll be retiring me-AGAIN.....guess sometimes you gotta do something TWICE,to get it done right.Not sure how much longer I'll be out here-I'm optimistically hoping to be home in time for Memorial Day,but not sure if that will happen or not.The army,being a bureacracy like any other,runs on lots of mindless red tape,which most definitely moves at the proverbial snails's pace,so I'll have to be patient.BUT-I don't do the patience thing well-never have.All of us here in the wounded warrior battallion are about ready to go out of our gourds with the waiting game,and all of us simply want to move on with things-either being medically discharged,retired,or returned to duty,depending on the nature of ouyr individual cases.I had requested COAD(continuation of active duty),but the board ruled that I was medically unfit to continue serving.Oh well-I've got 27 years under my belt,between active duty,national guard and army reserve.(actually,in my 201 file I have an award dated December of the year 1900,so I must REALLY have 108 years of service.I'd kinda like to see the paycheck for all of THAT back pay.....)Anyway,I've spent more than half of my life as a soldier,in one capacity or t'other,and its time to hang it up.All is not lost though.......I'm looking at getting a job with ROTC,as an instructor-44 states have a program where they're picking up retirees,in the rank of staff sergeant and above,to mold the minds of young cadets......boy,can I traumatize THEM..........I don't plan to try to get in to that for at least another year or so though-got plenty of issues to work on other fronts when I first get back,and I'll be drawing both my army pension,and supposedly a pretty fair check from the VA as well,so keeping the wolf from the door won't be TOO bad for awhile,anyway.Plus I want to get caught up with stuff on the house,and just take it easy for awhile,if I can.Yeah right-the wife says I'll be going out of my gourd if I'm not working at something,and methinks she's right on that one......but we'll see what happens.In the meantime,just waiting to get out of here-trying to keep occupied the best I can,watching lots of movies,and hanging out in the kitchen of the barracks a lot,and occasionally going out with the boys and singing REALLY bad karaoke.Theres a group of us here,four of us,who the others haved dubbed "the four horsemen of the apocalypse",and we REALLY give karaoke a bad name......but it passses the time.just picture myself,a guy named Tony the crazy wop,a black dude from south Alabama,and a dude from the backwoods of Oregon,all TOTALLY butchering some Jimmy Buffet......just glad the crowd did'nt throw stuff at us.

Anyway,just waiting to get up on out of here,and get my happy ass home

Well,I was talking to the missus on the phone last night,and she said I have a summons for jury duty at home.Well,I have no problem with fullfilling my civic duty-except for the fact that Waupaca County,Wisconsin is a few thousand miles away from me right at the moment........She's mailing me the summons,which also includes a questionaire.I'll fill it out,and return it to the clerk of court-and if they STILL insist on me reporting for jury duty,well,the army will just have to give me the time off for it.

Hailing from a small rural Wisconsin county,its unlikely that this duty would be for any nice,juicy sensational "trial of the century" or anything.In fact,it would most likely be downright mundane and boring.But it would have still been interesting to sit on a jury.

Well,as you know,I'm out here at Fort Lewis,awaiting the medical board(speaking of which,the doc I saw the other day said the odds of the army retiring me again are about 99%),and I did'nt bring the wife and cubs out here,not knowing if the army would be keeping me or not,and just waiting to see what happens.So,I'm now whats known as a "geographical bachelor",with all that that entails.As a result,I have to COOK for myself.While not totally culinarily retarded,I would hardly include myself among the ranks of the great chefs of western civilization....or even the lousy ones,for that matter.

But,I have'nt croaked off from eating my own grub just YET anyway-and some of it has turned out fairly well.Last night I fixed two dozen pickled eggs-a favorite in Wisconsin taverns.My roomie,a young buck sergeant from Alaska was totally dumbfounded by what I was making-but he was dumbfounded at how to make coffe,until I showed him,too.

Hopefully this batch of pickled eggs comes out ok-I have to give it a few days to ferment properly,and then I'll give them the taste test.I've got a pot of beans back at the barracks soaking,and I'll be cooking them up when I get back over there-my last batch were ok,but were missing something-but I picked up bay leaves and onions yesterday,and I'll add those,and see how they come out.

My next project will be an ommelette-one of my favorite foods(can't get enough of them,and a local truck stop serves up a great ommelette,smothered in SOS).I'll see how THAT comes out.And I'm looking for some cheap ribeyes to cook up-even MY retarded ass can't mess THOSE up too bad........

I think I'll draw the line at trying to BAKE anything-thats what Little Debbies and Sarah Lee is for.......

One cat just leads to another."-Ernest Hemingway

all of us cat folks know THIS one ALL too well

Well,I'm still here at Fort Lewis,awaiting word of what the army will do with me,and just trying to keep from going out of my gourd,in general.Well,fortunately,Fort lewis DOES have a very good library system,and with plenty of free time,I'm using my time to catch up on a lot of reading-(when I'm not trying to drink the NCO club dry,that is).I finished the other day,the uncut version of "The 900 days:the siege of Leningrad".I had read the Reader's digest condensed version as a kid,but this one was certainly much better.I'm currently working on a volume on the Russian revolution,and I hit the library during lunch,and picked up three more books-one,concerning the Warsaw ghetto uprising in 1943,another dealing with the nazi death camps,and one about Arab/Isreali wars.(think I'm a bit of a military history buff by THAT reading list?)

Those will keep me occupied for awhile.Of course,if I get tired of reading,it IS Friday night,and the club is in walking distance.......and I got a case of Miller long necks in my fridge