SandBox Salutations Wk 26

Camping

The Shinanigans Start now.  We all moved into the trailers this week which is a big mess as you can tell.  Everyones stuff is scattered around, and you cant really tell when your space starts or ends.  It's especially nice when everyone is on a different schedule and comming and going at all times through out the day.  And then you have those of us that love to goof off and race RC cars up and down the corridor keeping others awake.  Oh well, it's only for a short amount of time, I'll just do with no sleep till i get home.  The bright side, this is one more step closer to coming home!

Here is my little corner, Thanx again Teresa for the quilt, it's come quite handy in keeping me warm and locked into the small bed, I'm deathly afraid of falling off the top one night.

See You soon!

SandBox Salutations Wk 25

"B-9"

B-I-N-G-O

Recently, I have been going on my day off and playing bingo with some of the fellas that also have the day off with me.  Well, after 4 weeks of going and at least 15 or 20 games of Bingo, I WON.

This is especially amazing since the Bingo caller is usually a middleeastern man with a really thick accent.  So it is very difficult to understand him, plus he goes very fast.  Every Time I play my heart races because I am trying to stay caught up, and as Teresa will tell you, I am not the fastest person in the world when it comes to games.  But long and behold I won, and it was on the hardest card to play, a coverall.

My winnings, a 25 dollar gift card to the BX.  May not seem like much, but when you factor in that we don't have to pay to play, it's pretty cool.

Well, 2 more post left and I'm outa here.  this week we are suppose to be moving out of our rooms and into trailers or tents, no one really knows which yet.  But either way, it will be 30 to 40 dudes living in a room together, we like to think of it as camping.  I'll let you know how it turns out next week if we move that soon.

Sandbox Salutations Wk 24

Surprised Sighting

The "Pride of Detroit"

I was sitting in my truck a couple of nights ago and noticed that a Michigan Tanker rolled past me.  So later that day I drove around the flightline to see where it went and found it on the other side of the airfeild.  This one just happens to be called the "Pride of Detroit".  Seemed fitting as we all know this past weekend secured the Lions first playoff Birth since 1999, Did you know that was also the same year Berry Sanders retired.  Such a long time ago.

Only a few weeks left, It's nice to say that I'll be home this month.  I miss my family like crazy and can't wait to get back to them.  I love you all, Teresa, Nate and Anna, Oh yeah, can't forget about Juki Bird.

Sandbox Salutations wk 23

Merry Christmas

Just some Christmas cheer and fun from work!

Mom sent some lights and a tree and some stockings, I could think of no better place to put them  than inside my truck.  Afterall, this is where I spent all Christmas Eve.  The stockings say: Dave, Juan (the other shifts Driver, also my roomate), and CC's for all the Crew Chiefs.

Somebody left some milk and cookies on the fire extinguisher...Possibly the next best place since we dont have a chimney.

A Santa Sighting... He later launched out an aircraft.

I also got to spend Christmas morning with Teresa and Nate.  Here is the thing he has been asking Santa for for the longest time.  He just loves Cars!  really, who doesn't?

And here is the next best thing to Cars, anything with Toy Story.  He got everything a little boy could want.  It's kinda funny, if you look at Teresa's post you can see her same pic from her angle.  It's like a family photo in a way.

Thank you all for the gifts and cards that were sent our way here in the desert and back in South Dakota.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Sandbox Salutations wk 22

It's beginning to look....... a little like Christmas?

I walked outside my bunk one night and saw this.  I thought it was hilarious and a little sad.  But to tell you the truth, the less christmasy stuff there is around i think is the better.  The more decorations I see and the more that people talk about it just makes me even more homesick.  It's hard enough to be away from my wife and kid, but it's even harder to celebrate a joyous occasion when I know that I can't be there with them.  One comforting note though, my day off next week is Christmas day in the states.  So that means that I can at least webcam with Teresa and Nate while they wake up and sit around the tree opening their gifts.

Merry Christmas All.

One last note

A lot of you may remember my truck Lucy from earlier post and all the issues I had with her.  Well I got her back for quite a while but then she finally died for good this time.  She blew an engine, go figure.  I guess it's from all the oil she was burning.  But now I have a Diesel truck that has both A/C and heat, but is uglier than heck.  It has paint missing from every panel, it's all faded and greasy.  But it's not all bad, at least she runs and I don't have to fill the oil every day.

SandBox Salutations Wk 21

These past few weeks have been Flying by, it feels good to say that we are close to the middle of December.  This next week brings us even closer to going home, not just in time but in milestone as well.  This week we get the first of many swap out jets that are from the squadron that will replace us in January.  It will be a lot of work, but a good feeling to know that we are that much closer to the end.  This week I got a morale box from Rebecca that had lots of goodies.

The punchballons were by far the biggest hit.  It took me a long time to get these guys back the flight-line for work.

Then later that day, while were waiting for a jet to come down, they started to hit the balloon back and forth in the back of the truck.

It may not be the conventional fun everyone else is use to, but when you get bored out of your mind from working all the time, anything to break the monotony can be the greatest thing ever, no matter how childish it may seem.  the got so worked up, that this one took a nap.

Thank you Rebecca for providing a full day of fun!

Sandbox Salutations Wk 20

Lucky Me

2 Pounds of Sour Patch kids, All the guys went crazy for them.  I don't think I have ever seen that many sour patch kids in my life.  Thank you Dad and Ruthann.

So it's week 20, I can't believe that we are under 50 days left.  It feels good to almost be done with this deployment, although we still have the holidays to get through.  It will be tough to miss Christmas with my family.  I'm going to miss Teresa and Nate opening all the gifts and having a delicious meal.

Sandbox Salutations wk 19

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  We had a pretty good one here in the desert.  We all worked our long day and then most of us got off at noon and went to eat easily the best dinner I've had since I left home.  They served up a pretty good spread for all the troops here with lots of turkey roast beef and all the fixings.

This is just a small group of us in the chow hall, no! they did not serve champagne to us, that's just sparkling grape juice.

After dinner Drinks at the "Bra" 

some guys grabbed their dinner to go so that they could eat it with their beers.  The only thing missing was football, which was playing the next morning here.  So sad that the lions lost, I really thought it was our year to win the Turkey.

Sandbox Salutations Wk 18

"The week of the Fog"

Every day this week so far, we get at least a little bit of fog in the early morning.  This day was the worst of all.  It was so thick that you could swim your way through it.  It's pretty weird when you are driving around and know that these aircraft are 20 feet from you but can't see a single one untill you are right on top of it.

I hope everyone is gearing up for thanksgiving this week.  The people at the chow hall are planning quite a feast.  They had the stats posted of everything that they are preparing, the one that stood out the most was the amount of turkey they are cooking, somewhere around 10,000 pounds of the stuff will be served to us.

Happy thanksgiving everyone, and eat lots of good home cooked food for me.  And Teresa, I'm going to miss your sweet potato casserole, yumm!!

sandbox Salutations Wk 16 and 17

10 weeks left

it still seems like a lot, but compared to where we started, it is not that much.  everyone here is getting excited that we are almost down to single digits on the weeks, though we still all the Holidays to get through.  That will be the toughest part  for all of us.

Last week the "plus up" personnel and aircraft arrived.  WE now have even more jets to worry about but it is nice to have the extra personnel to take some of the workload as well.  it's kinda funny to see their enthusiasm and gung ho attitude.  All of the guys that have been here since the beginning are wondering how long that will last.  It seems so long ago that we arrived with the same type of mentality, now for most of us it's just going through the motions to get to the end.

well there is not much more to share, I just want to tell Nate and Teresa that I miss them a ton and can't wait to see them again.  Love you all and thank you for constant letters, e-mails and packages of encouragement and support.

Sand Box Salutations WK 15

That about sums up my Halloween.  Didn't have time to have a party or anything.  We got really busy at work right off the bat and pretty much did not leave the flight-line all night.  In Fact, most of my guys ate lunch on the flight-line as so did I.

I hope everyone else had a great halloween and had fun trick or treating.

Sandbox Salutations wk 14

Well, we made it to the halfway point.  It seems like forever ago that we got here and now we have to do it again before we leave.  The good news is that everyone has finally settled into work and it seems as though we have gone into autopilot.  My job has settled down and some and I am to the point where I feel that i am being successful at it on a daily basis.  It was a rough start, but hopefully a smooth finish.

I finished my class last week and i got my results back from the final exam.  Well actually I did not find out what i got on my Exam, but I did get my final grade in the class which turned out to be an "A".  I'm pretty sure this means that I did quite well on the exam since it accounted for 40 percent of my grade.  But a pass is a pass and now i only have one more class left to get my degree.  I'm just really glad that I'm done with the class now because I have been missing alot of sleep because of it.

I hear the weather at home is getting colder, which is also true here.  The other night it dipped below 75 and we all were shivering and putting on our long sleeve shirts.  It's quite amazing how some one can get acclimated to 120 degree heat.  We also had a major fog out.  It got so bad that I could not see more than 5 feet in front of my truck, which is not a good thing since we drive around multi million aircraft all day.  I made one of the younger guys get out of the truck with a flashlight so that they could guide me back to the building.

I hope everyone is getting ready for Holloween next week, we are planning some sort of party.  maybe I will be able to take some pictures and post them afterward.  Of course it all depends on how busy we get at work.

Love you all

Sandbox Salutations Wk's 12 and 13

I'm sorry to all of my Faithful Followers about not posting last week, it was a rough one and i just couldn't find the time to do it.  So to catch you all up on whats been going on over the last 2 weeks.  Last week, I started coming down with a cold, a real nasty one.  I had a sore throat, head pressure and a\n aching body.  It got so bad that I had to go get some nyquil tablets to help stop the pain.  Now normally I don't ever really feel a response from over the counter pain killers, expecially one's that may cause drowsiness.  I think it's because I normally just pass out when I go to sleep anyway, just ask Teresa, she is always complaining that 5 minutes after I hit the sack i'm sawing logs.  Well, I had no choice but to take nyquil because they don't sell any day time medicine.  So I took it before work and I will tell you that about the first half of the shift I could not keep my eyes open, it probably was not safe since my job consist of me being behind the wheel for 12 hours a day.  So i spent last week dealing with this, but we did have some fun out there too.  Just watch the video.

This is one of the younger guys, they spent some time with big pieces of foam and speed tape (Silver Duct Tape).  Just stay tuned for additions to this, they have more plans to add to the getup.

This week we had interesting weather, first it got down to about 75, then yesterday we had a big sand/Thunderstorm and it rained a ton.  Well maybe not a ton, but alot for the desert.  I will say that this is the first time that I saw clouds since I have been here.  Take a look!

ne last thing, I had my math final last night.  It seems to have gone ok, but I'm hoping to get the final class grade this week, so I will let you know what I end up with.

Sandbox Salutations wk 11

Ground Hog day

This is pretty much my life now.  I think I am at the point of the deployment where every day just runs into the next.  It seems like I just repeat the same steps over and over and over.  I wake up at the same time, eat the same food, see the same people do the same work and repeat it the next day.  The only excitement I get in my life is when i get to skype with Nate and Teresa.  It's what I look forward to every day.  

Well I hope everyone back home is safe and sound.  Not much new happening around here, and sorry if the update was a little boring, but as you can see there is not much new going on anyway.  

Love you all.

Sandbox Salutations Wk 10

Double Digits...

Finally in the double digits this week, it seems like we have been here forever already, and we have even longer to go.  This week we didn't have much happening, our days just kind of run together.  Someone compared it to the movie Ground Hogs Day.  Since not much is going on this week, I thought that it would be cool to show you all what we are doing over here.  Below is a link for a video of the B-1 at work, hope you enjoy

LUCY UPDATE:

She's Back, yay!!  However, the day I got her back I noticed she has a bounce in her step coming from the rear.  Well, I got out and checked the tires and noticed that we got new one's, sort of.  What they did was put on 4 tires with more tread but were really dry rotted.  They were so dry rotted that one had formed a bubble out of the sidewall, and I'm pretty sure the cause of the bounce in Lucy's step.  So I had to take her back in and get a better tire.  Then today I went to check the oil, and she was 3 quarts low, which I'm pretty sure is like half of whats suppose to be in there.  So, they had her for a month, and she comes back to me in worse shape then when i dropped her off.  Oh well, at least the A/C works in both cabs.  I'll just deal with putting oil in her every other day.

Sandbox Salutations Wk 9

Well after my last post of my Birthday, the next day I went to work I found these boxes sitting there waiting for me.

 Teresa Finished a quilt for me that I had actually started a little more than a year ago.  Teresa did most of the work (actually pretty close to all of it) and it turned out just great.  It is very nice to personalize my room here a little.  My roommate even commented on how nice it looked and asked who gave it to me.  When I told him that my wife made it, he seemed very interested in it.  I'm thinking of sending some money to Teresa to make him one.  I hear he likes the San Diego Padres.

I also had a package from Jim and Sue.  It had lots of goodies, Beef Jerky (an All time favorite)peanut butter crakers, a couple of magazines, some much needed Foot powder, and some news From the Tri-city Times. It's fun to look at the paper from back home and see whats new.  Thank you Jim and Sue.

The weather seems to be turning for the better finally, The nights are cooler, and the days are not as hot (still in the 100's though).  It's to the point where I can step outside for a few minutes and feel like I'm not in an oven.  I hear the next few months will be nice, even maybe get some storms.

Thank you to everyone again for the great Birthday presents and wishes.

Bye for now!

Sandbox Salutations Wk 8

A Desert Birthday!

Thank you to everyone for all of your Birthday wishes and gifts and cards.  It made my day feel very special.  What did I do for my Birthday you ask?  Well, I actually worked for my Birthday here, but on the second day of my Birthday (Because of the time difference I get 2 Birthdays) I spent watching football and talking with the family, which is all I could ask for on my Birthday.  I also went to the chow hall and ended up enjoying a peice of cake, although there were no candles on it, but I did get a birthday song to go along with it from Nate (see previous post).  Thank you all again.

Lucy Update:

Every day I ask about her, and I keep getting the same answer, it'll be a couple of more days.  Dang it!

Sandbox Salutations wk 7

FUN IN THE SUN!

So this week I got a package from Sandy, Sean, Sue and Saxon (don't you just love that name).  I opened it but apparently I did not see the huge "HAPPY BIRTHDAY".  

So I opened it a little early, sorry.  But inside was a lot of goodies.

There was a few magazines, some swedish fish, a smores candy packet.  But the biggest hit was by far the pack of water guns.  I opened them up almost immediately, and the water gun fight had begun.  At first it was just a few of us Crew Chiefs messing around in the parking lot, but it quickly spilled over to the flightline and involved us doing driveby's on unsuspecting people from the other career fields, which quickly turned into acts of retaliation by dumping bottles of water on us.  It got to the point where I had to keep a gun loaded in the truck with me

You can see it there on the middle console, right on top of my sunscreen.

But thank you to the Haley Family for providing a little bit of fun to our day.

Lucy Update.

She's still MIA, somewhere in the vehicle repair yard.

Sandbox Salutations Wk 6

Ball of Sweat all day long!!

The worst part is not the Heat, but the Humidity.  Just look at the "Feels Like" on the top, 120.  Woof, And then the Humidity on the bottom is what kills ya.  I pretty much leave my dorm room, and then spend the next 14 hours in a pool of sweat.  I'ts so bad, that when I step outside from an A/c building, my glasses fog up for a good 2 minutes.  Now mind you that my job entails me to drive around the flightline almost all day.  It's not smart to put someone who can't see behind the wheel to navigate around multi million dollar aircraft that are taxing by and getting towed around.  Lets just say that I do laundry almost every day for the sake of my roommate, and thankfully he is thoughtful too.

Lucy Update:

Still not back from the shop.  Apparently thay put some parts on order and are waiting for them to get in before they release her back to me.  The good news is that I got another replacement truck.  This one is Diesel, with nice A/C up front, but no A/C in the back-I think I'll call her Berta, it sounds like a good name for a diesel.  It's an improvement, but until I get a truck with all a/C working , I wont be happy.

Thank you all for the letters, It's nice to see my name on the "You've got Mail" list and be able to open something.

Bye, for now.

Sandbox Salutations wk 5

Oh Jeesh, Please help

So, I decided to sign up for a math class while i was here.  It starts next Monday, and I'm not really looking forward to it.  The thing is, I was always good at school, but it was never really for me.  That's why I did Vo-Tech back in high school and joined the Air Force.  Unfortunately, the Air Force pretty much requires you to earn at least an Associates Degree before I can make the higher ranks.  The cool part is that all the training I took to learn my job counted toward a big part of earning one.  It's just that it has taken me almost 10 years to finish the rest of the classes.  All I had left was Math, Social Science, Humanities, Speech, and English.  I have been able to finish most of the other ones, however I was dreading to do a math class.  Then I got here and I learned that they require no pre-requisite or placement test to take the class I needed to finish my CCAF (Community College of the Air Force, this is the Associate degree program that you automatically get enrolled into when you join the Air Force.)  This was great news not to have to place into a college math class.  the last time I took a placement test was 2 years ago, and I was placed into Math 009, (pretty much math for dummies).  This meant I would have had to finish Math 009, 012, and finally college level.  So to immediately go into a math class that counts is great news.  Plus I hear it's pretty easy to take here, BONUS!!!

SMALL POX SUCKS

The vaccine anyway, I'm pretty sure that real small pox sucks too though.

LUCY UPDATE.

She is still in the shop, they decided to do some scheduled maintenance as well.  Hopefully they will replace the brakes, not 100% sure, but I think there is metal on metal grinding going on down there.

So my replacement truck had no A/C, no Radio, and burned more oil than lucy.  I said had because the second day I had that Beautiful thing, she threw a serpentine belt and they towed it away.  I swear I did not do it on purpose, but my replacement, replacement truck has A/C, radio and is a Diesel.  Nice!!  Stay Tuned for More updates on Lucy.