For you, my faithful readers
All three of you that I have left...
Well, it's been a while since I posted anything other than fantasy sports updates... The easy answer and what most people would guess is that World of Warcraft is my new net mistress and I've sent JU to the curb. I wish it were that simple. While I still play WoW a fair amount of time, I worked most of the addiction out of my system during the holiday half day schedule. Two weeks of coming home and lunch time and playing until the early AM hours can do that. Now, I still get on most days, but I am able to quit and do things as mundane as bathe, eat, and go to bed at a normal hour (10 PM is late for me). My wife still thinks I play more than necessary, but she's biased. HAHA!
The reality is that there has been a lot going on in real life the past couple weeks and I've been choosing to spend my free time away from my blog. Last week, my supervisor and friend retired after 20 years of military service. He asked me months ago to be the coordinator and narrator for the ceremony, and it seemed that no matter how up on my checklist I was, little crap sprang up everywhere. I also learned some valuable lessons about prior planning that you'd (or at least I) think shouldn't have been necessary... Like, apparently, you should not assume that the company commander will be prepared to something as company commanderly as present the retirement certificate or orders. I'm not saying read the things, I mean stand there on the stage and hand them to the retiree, unless you plan with him, apparently, weeks in advance. I mean, that's just a stressful thing to prepare for, I guess. Honesly, I didn't really get any grief from the CO. He was happy to do the job and ready with minimal notice (he needed to be notified he'd be doing this?). But, I did get my ass chewed by the 1SG for my apparent lack of foresight... But that's my fault for assuming, right? Yeah.
The ceremony went off well, though. Everything came together in the end and it turned out nicely, I think. But, I'm biased here. I also learned that public speaking is a lot easier than public reading. I can stand in front of a room of students junior in rank to me or a room filled with general officers and speak about things I know well, with little fear or problem. Reading from a script, however, is a bit more difficult, I think. When posting orders or reading from a certificate signed by the president, you kind of want to get everyting right the first pass. Not only for your own sake, but for the sake of the person you're doing the reading for. It was very important to me that I get everything read well and on the first pass. No stutters or misreads. I mean, for me this will be a fond memory of something I got the privalege to take part in. But for my supervisor, it's a huge moment in their life, right? You only retire from the military once. So, I was very happy that it went well. And there's video to prove it!
Also, in addition to jumping through the occasional hoop to make that happen, I had some other miltary related business spring up. Not much on that to talk about here. Issues are still being worked and it will be a while before it's all said and done. But, my work stress has been high lately and it's carried over to my personal life. I haven't had the desire to write about it, and I may never, but it's been such a main issue for a bit of time now and has sapped my desire to write about much else. No worries, it's nothing extreme. Just something immediate and important and a bit stressful to deal with. But, it's going OK.
So, I would like to thank you, my faithful readers (you know who you three are) for being patient and checking back on occasion.
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