Batten Down the Hatches!

For the second time in as many weeks, we have a tropical storm passing through the Columbus area. Last week it was the left-overs of Frances, tonight it's the remnants of Ivan. 50+ mile an hour winds and 3-6 inches of rain is what Ivan brought with him when he came to visit.

Today, all non-essential training was canceled at Ft. Benning. Since we have 600 trainees, we figured we were pretty essential, so most of us were there. We figured wrong. As we tried to call around and chase down issues and do business as usual. we found that we were the only battalion doing "normal" business. Everyone else was on a skeleton, hurricane-watch crew.

I've experienced a lot of God's power in my life: earthquakes in Cali, twisters in Iowa, t-boomers in Wisconsin, and now hurricanes in Georgia. BY FAR, the wussiest people are in Georgia. Most listen to the radio and the news and make plans, without bothering to go outside and see what's going on.

*Shrug* I guess I shouldn't complain; I got to leave at 2:00 this afternoon. ;-)

O Captain, my Captain

Yep. It's official. I'm now a Captain! I now outrank my brother-in-law whose one a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy. Captain outranks him. What? A Captain in the Navy is an O-6, not an O-3? Ooops. Never mind.

Wanna know the really funny part? Here's the first sentence of my promotion order: "The President of the United States has reposed special trust and confidence in your patriotism, valor, fidelity, and abilities" HAHAHA! Does he know what that means? Does he have any clue what he's getting himself into by giving me more power? MUWAHAHAHA!

There is a down-side to this: "In view of these qualities and your demonstrated potential for increased responsibility..." More responsibility? That sounds like work to me. Maybe I want to go back.

Let's read on: "Your promotion pay and allowances and time in grade for promotion to the next grade will be effective on [22 July 2004]." More money? Woo Hoo!

All totaled, I guess this is a good thing. I'll keep the extra bar and just suck up the extra work.