18 - Low Crawl

The other day I came to work and a soldier in our Company was low crawling through the sand around our buildings.  His Platoon Sergeant stood over him giving encouraging words while sipping from his morning coffee.  I asked Tom (Tom = Tom Pierce = 1LT Pierce = Good friend of Caroline's) what was up and he told me the dude was 45 minutes late to work that day. 

That evening we had a formation to give out awards for some soldiers who traveled to another post to fix a helicopter that was broke.  (It was actually a helicopter I was flying, but that's a story for another day that I'll probably never get around to telling)  And who was up in front of our entire formation getting an award but the same guy crawling through the sand earlier that day

Tom summed it up best at lunch today when he said only in the Army can an adult be dragging himself across the ground as punishment in the morning and having medals pinned to his chest that night.

17 - Package from Whoville

I had pretty much given up on the holidays.  Thanksgiving came and I spent that whole day going out of my way to be grumpy.  It seemed, though, the grumpier I was to people, the more it entertained them.  Like poking a bug with a stick, at work people would amble up to me to talk.  I'd greet them with a "Go away," but instead they'd smile and stay to torment.  I dig the holidays (minus shopping for presents) so much, that my defense mechanism for spending it over here was tune it all out.  "Christmas is canceled," was my creed.  But then those crazy kids from my neighborhood growing up had to go and ruin it all.

In the mail today comes a package that would warm the heart of any grinch.  Thoughtfulness, consideration, and general Christmas cheer are just mean ways to come at a guy trying to martyr himself for the Noel.  Kill your enemies with kindness goes a famous saying.  Yeah, well, my holiday humbug is KIA.  Barb, Art, Judy, Jan, Linda, Jon, Reed, Patti, Jim and Diana, thank you for your kindness.  Most of the goods went to the heathens in my Company, who quickly pillaged the package for sustenance.  I picked out a few of my favorites (air freshener - my room smells like a locker room these days / smoked salmon - most of these guys wouldn't know smoked salmon from a can of tuna, best to go to a Pacific Northwest connisoure / and exotic almonds to name a few).  The postcard of the Mukilteo lighthouse is going up on my wall as well, right next to the reminder to call my mom that works about as well as all the other reminders she's sent me (I'm an absolute first-ballot selection in the Sons-Who-Don't-Call-Their-Mothers-Enough Hall of Fame).

Today's package, along with the annoyingly festive Christmas lights people put up around the office, irritatingly delicious homemade cookies and fudge showing up on tables that should be used to brief missions, and confusingly splendid mood everyone skips around in has broken my spirit.  The Whos have won.  As much as I didn't want to, I'm going to be forced to chalk this Christmas up as: sort of OK.

But no Christmas music.