Still waiting on orders, which is getting to be a trial of patience on a Biblical scale. How do you get ready to move, sell your house, pack your stuff (or sell your stuff), plan a smooth departure from work, make arrangements to see friends and family, plan a vacation, get into SoldierShape and get ready for a massive sea-change in lifestyle, all while not knowing which continent you are going to be living on in two months? Well, ask me again in two months and I will be able to tell you.
For now, we still only have the date of my training start, which actually complicates things, since it means if the house doesn't sell, that Dana will have to come back to Colorado on her own and finalize everything by herself while I learn how to throw hand grenades. Of course, she is completely capable of doing it by herself, but it is not a prospect she is exactly looking forward to.
For now we are trying to stay focused on what we CAN do, such as selling the house and getting my sorry carcass into SoldierShape. We listed on Wednesday, so if you know anyone who is thinking of moving to Aurora, CO, please tell them that there is a pristine, adorable, magical and attractive home for sale at well below market value with absolutely 0 damage or repairs needed. We really have taken very good care of our home. (Seriously, if you know anyone who is thinking of moving to the Denver area, please send them our way.) [Seriously.]
As to the SoldierShape aspect, I made my first real gains in the fitness arena. My first 2 mile run was embarrassing. My time was somewhere around 25 minutes, including stops to talk to my wife, who I think had driven out to find me and make sure I was still alive. My second run time was more precisely measured, and came in at 21:30, and my third came in at 20:19. I will not be racing in the Olympics any time soon, but I was pleased with myself that I knocked over a minute off in a day's time.
The other two parts of the fitness test are push ups and sit ups. On the push ups I am close. I can crank out 30 without difficulty, and should be able to work up to the 40 needed relatively easily over two months. The sit ups are a different story. Sometime between my wrestling days and now, I appear to have misplaced my abs. I thought they were just hiding under my new upholstery, but it turns out that I have lost them entirely, and will have to grow new ones from scratch. For the test I will need to produce at least 45 sit ups. At present, I am on the verge of a hernia just trying to eek out 18. This is both puzzling and embarrassing. I blame it on Carl's Junior, my massive head, and 6 years of sitting on my can for a living. (For the record, and because she insisted, Dana can do 50 situps. There is no end to my flabby shame.)
So, over the last three days of training, I have succeeded in making every major muscle group painfully sore, dropped more than a minute off my run time, and had a rude reality check about my strength to body weight ratio. I am optimistic that I can still make the minimums relatively easily, but the sit up number has got to climb in a hurry.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Joining the Army
Those of you who know me will probably already know that I have accepted a commission to the US Army. This is, of course, a major change in our lives, and is part of the reason that I haven't blogged since January. When so much is up in the air, it is hard to know what to write about.
But now we know for sure, and we are getting ready for this new adventure. Since I have never done anything like this, I figured it would be interesting to keep a record of it. Think of it as An Army Newb's Diary.
The first thing that I learned in this process is that the Army is a very, VERY large organization. And like any very large organization, it is common for one office to not know what the others are doing. We got a lot of quazi-conflicting information during the recruitment process, and a lot of soft commitments that didn't quite work out as advertized. Most specifically, we have learned that "by the end of the week" is Army code for "sometime in the near, or almost-near future."
We also learned that, like other large organizations, they can be worked with and are succeptable to horse-trading.
My recruiter was a trooper. I think he suffered more from the changes in plan and misinformation than we did, because he had to be the bearer of bad news when time-lines changed. He also had to do some damage control, because a few of the perks that he said were a virtual lock turned out to no longer be offered by the Army. All in all, though, he did right by us and it was clear that he was doing the best that he could to represent a complex and constantly changing organization. I felt bad for him, since we were intentionally picky and made him double-check on a lot of things.
So now we are experiencing what we have been told is standard practice for the Army: Hurry Up and Wait. We have put in all our papers, my commission has been approved, and I have been assigned a spot in the Officer Basic Leadership Course. The only thing we don't know is where we will be spending the next few years of our lives. I am currently exchanging emails with the Career Specialist who makes those assignments, and she keeps telling me it will be done by the end of the week. Of course, she started saying that three weeks ago.
My training will start on Aug 30. I will be training at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. Based on what I have read from other bloggers and from the official site, the training sounds like it will be a lot of fun. I will get some basic training on several types of weapons (possibly even a 50 caliber machine gun, WOOT!) as well as some other practical field training. To me it sounds like an awesome two week adventure camping trip. To Dana, it sounds more like the third ring of hell.
The only thing I am worried about is the Physical Fitness Test. Right now my running times are, well, less than ideal. So I am on a program now to get in shape before I report. I have two months to get my 2 minute mile times below 17:00 minutes, which is the minimum. I am shooting for 15:00, but as long as I pass I will be excited. The push-up and sit-up portions of the test should be less of a problem, but I am training on those as well. I will keep track of my times on this blog, mostly as a way for me to track my progress over time.
More thoughts to come later. Signing off for now.
But now we know for sure, and we are getting ready for this new adventure. Since I have never done anything like this, I figured it would be interesting to keep a record of it. Think of it as An Army Newb's Diary.
The first thing that I learned in this process is that the Army is a very, VERY large organization. And like any very large organization, it is common for one office to not know what the others are doing. We got a lot of quazi-conflicting information during the recruitment process, and a lot of soft commitments that didn't quite work out as advertized. Most specifically, we have learned that "by the end of the week" is Army code for "sometime in the near, or almost-near future."
We also learned that, like other large organizations, they can be worked with and are succeptable to horse-trading.
My recruiter was a trooper. I think he suffered more from the changes in plan and misinformation than we did, because he had to be the bearer of bad news when time-lines changed. He also had to do some damage control, because a few of the perks that he said were a virtual lock turned out to no longer be offered by the Army. All in all, though, he did right by us and it was clear that he was doing the best that he could to represent a complex and constantly changing organization. I felt bad for him, since we were intentionally picky and made him double-check on a lot of things.
So now we are experiencing what we have been told is standard practice for the Army: Hurry Up and Wait. We have put in all our papers, my commission has been approved, and I have been assigned a spot in the Officer Basic Leadership Course. The only thing we don't know is where we will be spending the next few years of our lives. I am currently exchanging emails with the Career Specialist who makes those assignments, and she keeps telling me it will be done by the end of the week. Of course, she started saying that three weeks ago.
My training will start on Aug 30. I will be training at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. Based on what I have read from other bloggers and from the official site, the training sounds like it will be a lot of fun. I will get some basic training on several types of weapons (possibly even a 50 caliber machine gun, WOOT!) as well as some other practical field training. To me it sounds like an awesome two week adventure camping trip. To Dana, it sounds more like the third ring of hell.
The only thing I am worried about is the Physical Fitness Test. Right now my running times are, well, less than ideal. So I am on a program now to get in shape before I report. I have two months to get my 2 minute mile times below 17:00 minutes, which is the minimum. I am shooting for 15:00, but as long as I pass I will be excited. The push-up and sit-up portions of the test should be less of a problem, but I am training on those as well. I will keep track of my times on this blog, mostly as a way for me to track my progress over time.
More thoughts to come later. Signing off for now.
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