Canoes

This week is going by unusually slow and I've been busy. In the weeks since I've been here I usually get all my stuff done in the morning. But this week I've done stuff in the afternoons as well so when I look back at all I've done I think that it must at least be Friday. But, it's only Wednesday.

Monday I had an actual job again. Three other guys and I had to go through each room in the unoccupied dorm building that's being renovated. In every room we had to change light bulbs, put up curtains and blinds, a few other rando things. There were about 60 rooms and it took us a little over 2.5 hours. I felt like I was actually earning money. After going through those dorms (which are old and haven't been lived in for a few months) I am extra thankful to be in the new building. Not only did those rooms look smaller but they were filthy (which was in part because they've been renovated somewhat but not cleaned (cleaning ladies come through next week)). The bathrooms were the worst. Dirt and mold in lots of places and things living in the toilet. I don't care how much those rooms get cleaned I would never live in them. And, coincidentally, all the Air Force Academy grads get here in a few weeks and those are the only dorms available. Ignorance is bliss, though, I guess. I'm def not trading.

That was Monday morning/early afternoon. Afterwards I went to pick up my check. Usually it will be direct deposit but they didn't get me in the system fast enough for this one to go through electronically. So the guy at Finance told me to go to "the cage" in the building across the street. It wasn't intense enough to be called "the cage". Apparently some other guys went as a group later and they said it felt a little like getting a check out of Fort Knox.

At 4pm that afternoon I had to show up with a bunch of other Lts and Airmen outside of HQ for "formal retreat". I guess they do it every once in a while for photo ops. We had to wear short sleeve blues (which we wear on Mondays anyway) and show up at 4. We were set and ready by 4:05. Unfortunately nothing happened until 4:30. So for 25 minutes we had the privilege of standing in direct sunlight while sweat tried its best to evaporate through our shirt and scratchy pants in 80% humidity (mostly the sweat just stayed there). Then the commander came, they lowered the flag, and we went home. Good job team.

That was Monday. Tuesday was a busy day of checking email, then it turned into Wednesday. So last night my friend from Wisconsin told me he and a couple of other guys wanted to go fishing. I've been wanting to fish so I said yes definitely. I was looking forward to sitting in a folding chair on the shore under some sweet sweet shade. Then later he mentioned that they were thinking about renting a boat. Well, there goes the shade. But I could make due. Then this morning I found out that all the boats were gone so it was kayaks and canoes. Now this is wear it started to sound like work. But I had already committed so, whatever. Still could have a nice time, leisurely floating on a lake. 4 hours, 9.5 miles LATER down a RIVER we finally made it to here:

 where we dropped one of the trucks off beforehand. No, that is not our tent but it did look like someone lived there. And fortunately we made it back just before it started doing this:

You can't tell but it was really raining hard. Thankfully, we found shade most of the time we were paddling (and I should really call it working because now I'm tired and I'm sure I'll be sore in the morning) and there was a breeze so we didn't roast to death. I didn't bring enough water and the only other supplies the other guys brought was beer, so they were happy. The first three hours was quite nice. A couple of guys caught fish (two fish) and we hit the occasional current. Had to paddle most of the time. The last hour I went into a dazed zone til we finished. Not the lazy fishing trip I was hoping for. I'll ask more questions next time like, "will I have to do any work?"