Getting mail out here always reminds me of that great old Howlin Wolf song,
"Nobody loves me but my mother
And she could be jivin' too."

With those lyrics in mind, I stopped by the mail shack the other day and was surprised to see a stack of letters waiting for me. Huzzah! I thought to myself, they do love me! Heeeee heeee heee I eagerly thumbed through them to see who cared enough to write a letter and wouldn't you know they were all bills. They're always all bills.
This time though one of them was a letter from Juan, a kid I sponsor in Columbia. He wanted to know what I do for a living. I told him I ride on civilian ships and protect their crew from pirates and smugglers.

My baby brother! He's the one with the Matt In The Sandblog.

So I just got off the phone with my detailer and he basically gave me the option of going to Whiting Field Florida or to a base in New Jersey. He also offered me brig duty in Charleston, but screw that, I refuse to make my living out of telling a man to squat and cough.

I told the Chief I wanted to stay overseas or go to California, but he said that it was time for me to come back stateside (as if three years over here is going to kill me) but that they would only move me to the east coast. So now I'm thinking of finishing out my tour here in Bahrain just to save up some cash.

Another bonus to staying here is that I'd get out six months earlier than if I transferred to another command, because of how the length of billets works out.

Decisions decisions decisions.

My friend Dahn is moving in :D
He's been her much longer than I have but has a barracks room instead of a flat because they send him TAD so much. His roomate's a wanker and I have a big old spare bedroom that isn't doing anything, so he's moving some stuff in and making himself at home.

Some things are just to tempting to resist...


In Alexandria, Egypt.

Life on the sea...

I ran today for the fist time in a month and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be... I'm back into the swing of things here at the command, so I'm sure there'll be many more chances to practice my run throughout the comming weeks. Not sure yet when I'll be shipping out again, but I have to say that I miss it already.

I get to apply for new orders this month, and that means a whole new set of headaches to deal with. Bahrain is notorious for not letting people go, so I'm gonna be praying that my paperwork goes through smoothly.

So I'm in Crete today and am almost home to Bahrain!!!
I can't wait to get back. I was in my place for such a short time before embarking that I don't even remember my flat number. That's ok though because I have a pretty good idea of which one it is, which means that I'll only have to try two or three doors at the most before I find the right one.

My flight boards in half an hour so I should start heading that way. Stand by for pics and more blogging over the next few days.

I'm back...
Also, my kid brother Matt has a blog now too. .

The schedule was pretty tight for a while, in fact this is the first day off I've had in about a month, but should be loosening up for a few weeks now...

I've got to run but will wright more later,
Ace