Saturday, November 15, 2008

First Day Back--PT Test

When I showed up this morning for my first day back to pre-deployment training everyone was in PT gear. The PT test started immediately after morning formation. They already had enough graders so I read the Task, Conditions and Standards--the 200 or 300 words that begin each event and say what each soldier has to do and how it has to be done to pass the test. Standing and watching in a sling, I really wished I could have been taking the test. Especially the run. The two fastest runners came in at 14:17 and 14:18. If I had been able to run I could have stayed with them, they ran together from lap 2 till then end at a good pace. Oh well.
I spent the rest of the day in the motor pool revising vehicle inspection forms for a file we are setting up for deployment. It's something I can do with one arm.
I also issued some tools and went back to being the tool bitch--as much as I can with one hand. When I showed up in the morning a lot of people welcomed me back and asked how I was doing. It really is good to be back. But in the motor pool a few soldiers seemed very happy I was back signing out tools. One said the guy who replaced me for two weeks didn't like the job. "He really put the Bitch in Tool Bitch Sgt G."

"Blindness" by Jose Saramago--terrifying look at society falling apart

  Blindness  reached out and grabbed me from the first page.  A very ordinary scene of cars waiting for a traffic introduces the horror to c...