So, it's been nearly five days since I turned command over to my (former) Executive Officer and friend, Joel. My last two weeks were a wild ride, all the way to the final days...
I'll post the whole series, but this one was the most dramatic. I'm still putting together the rest of my thoughts and pictures, so stand by.
More pre-deployment preparation...but also some Midshipman training. We shoot close to 1000 rounds on this particular weapon over the course of the week - I got in the last 100.
Yup, I'm short. It actually works better when I'm standing on those particular ammo boxes when they're stacked two high. Then I'm a dead-eye. Even got a good shooting comment from the inspectors who were onboard watching our firing runs this week!
On my way out the door....eight days and counting in the wrong direction...but I'm still getting to go out with a bang!
There was a big bang as we got to execute DECATUR's first missile firing in five years, which culminated in a very visible, if difficult to photograph intercept as our missile met up with the inbound target.
After serving in four Arleigh Burke Destroyers over nearly two decades, there aren't many places I haven't been - as far forward and aft as you can get, under engine mounts, inside the firing mechanism of the five-inch gun. In fact, there was really only one place I'd never been - to the very top of the mast. We don't have a Crow's Nest, and we use a wonderful (if not particularly reliable) electro-optical camera as an elevated lookout, but we still have lots of antennae that need to be mounted high.
I got my chance a little while ago when a couple of the Sailors who work on those antennae wanted to re-enlist up there. I wasn't going to pass up my chance, and neither was the XO, so we got ourselves into harnesses and headed aloft.
The very top of the mast doesn't acomodate so many people, so we did the ceremony on an intermediate platform, then a couple of us headed the rest of the way. Here's what the forward part of the ship looks like from way up high...
and the after part of the ship...
I really do have the coolest job in the world, even if it's only for another 20 days.
I've had a hard time coming and updating lately. Part of it is the pace of life, part of it is the immediacy of Facebook as opposed to blogging and even more of it in the impending end of my tour in DECATUR. It's hard to maintain daily life and figure out how to detatch gracefully without hurting anyone (myself excepted, that's just a fact of life) or anything. I'm probably not doing it as gracefully as I'd like, but hopefully in a way that people will remember me well.
A few weeks ago was my final return to San Diego in command.
It was a tough one, but I made it through. There are still two more sea details, one leaving San Diego and one entering San Francisco in my future, and one final Underway Replenishment. It's hard to believe after what will be 19 years (next month) those may be my last big moments on a ship. There's always another possible command, but I'm not sure anything will ever top this tour.
I'm slowly beginning the transition to my next tour, which will be at the National War College in Washington, DC. I'm headed out to do some househunting, hopefully to find a place close to the school for the year I'll be there (maybe longer, maybe not...that's left to be seen.) I'm looking for a two bedroom place because I've gotten used to having a place to work.
I don't think I showed the final results of the last baby quilt I made, but now that it's been delivered, I can:
I'm pretty proud of myself for having managed to work all of her color choices into the quilt, from soft and pale to vibrant. I'm even more proud of myself for finding the perfect backing fabric online.
Actually, by some freakish coincidence the stylists of the world have decided that giraffes and other safari animals are in this year, (I don't remember seeing this number of giraffes for the last three kids that have come along), just in time for the arrival of the first-born of a giraffe-loving friend. It's perfect, isn't it?
And I've also decided that the only way to learn how to free motion quilt is to actually do it. And so, my first attempt...
I had practiced on some scrap until I figure out that I needed to be moving my hands more slowly and my feet faster. The bit above is the first free motion bit I did on an actual quilt. I've been slowly improving as I work through each of the segments...
I have more improving to do, but I've run myself out of the purple thread, so I need more. I sort of wish I'd used a solid lavender instead of the variegated purples, but that's a lesson learned for later. I showed this to a friend and she really loved the colors, so it will probably go live with her almost three year old when I'm finally done.
