No IT for You - (Germany) Day 36

The light dusting of snow we received this morning

This morning I got ready for PT and when I looked out the window I was surprised to see a dusting of snow everywhere. This didn't stop our PT formation, but we did have PT inside (in the racquet ball court) and they also cancelled the scheduled PT test that some in our company were scheduled to take. Our PT this morning was PRT (Physical Readiness Training) which is the newer method of conducting PT and the same method I did in basic and AIT. A lot of units are still working it into their PT schedule and there is a lot of resistance because a lot of soldiers do not think it does much for them, and a lot of others just think it's pretty gay. I was just glad we were inside because it was freakin' cold outside.

Once finished with PT, I was dropped off at my place and had to make a somewhat quick turn-around to get ready and leave. We had to be at the office before 0900 and then head to some training session in our battalion conference room. We arrived in plenty of time and then made our way to the conference room only to see it filled with another meeting. After waiting a bit we were told to come back at 0930, so we all head back to the office and hang out for a bit before heading back. We wait…and wait…and wait, then at almost 1000 we're told that it has been cancelled and to go back to the office. A great waste of time.

In the office we have three machines that are inoperable because they are being migrated to Windows 7. One is a sergeant's machine who is on leave and two others are in our main office, which leaves only one computer for 6 or 7 people. It's great that the army is finally rolling out Windows 7, but however the way they are going about it is pretty bad because the computers were down all last night and all day today.

My big job today was to find a big unused binder and take a huge stack of papers (the entire manual for PRT), then use the 3-hole punch on them before placing them all in the binder. The entire time I was doing this I kept thinking to myself what the heck am I doing? Here I am taking a few sheets of paper at a time, punching holes in them, then placing them in a binder. This has become the extent of my job. I'm a highly qualified I.T. technician with management experience who wanted to serve his country thinking my talents could be put to good use…hold on for a second I have to punch some more holes…I have a number of technical certifications, I have years of experience working with computers…hold on I have some more holes to punch…OK you see where I'm going. I can't believe I'm doing this job, this is such a joke and waste of my time…definitely not anything I had envisioned when I joined the army. In fact I think my previous job in Korea was better. Yes most of it was setting up meetings and serving coffee and water, but at least I was the IMO and I fixed a computer problem here and there. I had the "demigod" card with all the admin rights to all of our computers. People came to me with computer questions all the time. Here…I punch holes in paper and stick them in a binder. Oh yes I also have a lot of paperwork to look forward to doing once I learn the "real" job here…that is all it is…paperwork. I really can't believe I'm in this situation right now. I have no motivation or desire to stay in the army past my contract date, I have no desire to move up past the rank of Specialist. I don't want more crap duties and responsibilities placed on me while still not doing the job I signed up for…..Wow, enough of that…enough complaining…I just had to get that out.

Lunch today was a quick one at the food court and then I joined the guys in a room adjacent to our office that houses a ping pong table. The guys here play a lot of ping pong during their lunch break. I joined in and quickly realized that I was outgunned. Mind you before this moment I thought I was a decent player. I had just come from Korea and I beat two Asians while I was there! In my mind I was even more than decent…I was the great white hope! I stepped up to the table and across from me was a ginger from next door (43rd Signal HHD). We started playing and as I was running all over the place hitting balls everywhere, the ginger calmly stood in the middle of the table returning everything I sent at him. The guy was like Forest Gump! He used all kinds of spin and speed and at the end of the game I counted myself lucky to have even scored 2 points!

The afternoon went by pretty quick, I watched SPC Whirlwind give another security brief to some customers. I will be doing this soon. The first sergeant came in and went over some counseling statements that the NCOs where giving. I am supposed to have an initial counseling soon, but I think my boss has just been too busy. AT 1600 we all started getting into our dress uniforms. We are a mixture of the Class A's (the old green uniform) and the ASU (Army Service Uniform - the newer dress blues). For some reason mine felt a little tight…I'm not sure why :) I still had to finish getting mine ready, then when it was time for me I was docked on my shoes being a little dirty and finger prints on some of the buttons I had just put on. It feels nice to have a couple more ribbons on it though. Last time I wore it I only had the three given to everyone in AIT (Army Service Ribbon, Global War on Terrorism, & National Defense Service Medal). I added the Korea Defense Service Medal and the Overseas Service Ribbon. Not much, but it looks a little better.

Better Prepared - (Germany) Day 25

Kind of hard to tell, but that is a the view of the fire truck from our window. 

The fire department had to come and shut off the alarm for our stairwell.

Last night just after falling asleep…well it was more like the point where I was in-between being awake and asleep…I hear this strange noise like an alarm and my first thought was that my cell phone had a strange ring or something. I then came to and realized there was a fire alarm going off in the stairwell of our unit. Our units have a stairway leading up with a total of 6 apartments (3 on each side). We are on the third floor, I looked out the window and saw a couple of people outside already. My wife and I threw on some sweats and headed out as well. Our neighbors said this unfortunately is a common occurrence, the fire alarm seems to go off without reason at various times. Great! We waited for the fire department to come and turn it off before heading back up. So much for a good night's sleep.

This morning's PT ended up being a spinning class. My boss picked me up and we drove to Campbell Barracks…this after a quick turn around to get my ID card I forgot. Once there since it was raining we ended up going inside the gym, and after a few minutes of everyone in the racquetball getting ready to do some sort of group exercise the platoon sergeant just told everyone to join the spinning class. It was my first time in such a class, and if my legs weren't still so sore from PT the last two days I would have been able to get a lot more out of it. We finished up and SPC Matrix gave me a ride home, then picked me up for work call which was at 0900.

I prepared myself a little better for today. Soon after arriving to work I had to fill out a sheet detailing what I will be doing this weekend. This is a requirement which I have heard about from the guys in the office. They all hate it with a passion. It seems pretty stupid to have to explain everything you'll be doing, we're all adults. I guess there has been trouble in the past with people getting drunk or getting in fights, now if they have this paper and you get in trouble somewhere, I guess you can get in more trouble if it's not on your paper. Pretty stupid, but such is life in the army. After filling that out I headed over to the shoppette and purchased a Stars and Stripes newspaper as well as a Mac Life magazine. Some reading material to keep me occupied instead of just sitting and staring at the wall. I wish I could take my iPad in to read, but there are no electronic devices allowed in our office unfortunately. I spent the morning reading every single article in the newspaper making sure to take my time even scanning the classifieds for the heck of it to pass the time.

Lunch was the usual…Subway in the food court. I then headed back to the office and started on my magazine. Surprisingly we were told we could leave early. We had to clean up before leaving (sweep, mop, wipe down the desks and take out the trash), but that was done pretty quick and we headed out and my boss gave me a ride home.

It was nice spending some time with my wife. We didn't do much even though it was a Friday night. Watched some TV shows, I read some of my book and then we headed to bed. We are planning to get up early tomorrow and ride with my boss and his family to Ramstein Air Force Base to check out their PX.

Weekend Wrap-Up - (Germany) Days 12 & 13

The trash and recycling stations for each of the stairwell units

Saturday: Today we had thought about venturing out and exploring the city of Heidelberg, but the weather changed our minds. It was raining and pretty much a miserable dreary day outside. This naturally kept us inside our new place with my little laptop as our entertainment system. It's strange living with just the bare essentials. We have whatever we could pack in our two suitcases and the few things we picked up at the recycle center as far as dishes and cookware go. We also have the loaner furniture which I'm grateful for. There is a place called The Lending Closet which has quite a bit of stuff we can take out on loan, but the problem is that it's located at another part of the post (the shopping center). My wife was making chili for lunch and went to open a can of beans only to realize that we don't have a can opener…d'oh! I had to walk to the commissary and purchase one. It will be nice once all our stuff arrives.

Since we were staying inside we decided on watching Sons of Anarchy. I have all the seasons on my computer and we sat down and completed the first season, then made a dent in the second. It's a great series about the daily lives of folks in a motorcycle club.

The only other major event happened when there was a knock on our door. Strange…we don't know anyone yet that lives here. I opened it to find who I'm going to call the recycling Nazi. He announced himself as the supreme stairwell floor commander...or something to that affect. He said he found a number of recyclable items in the trash. We learned at in-processing that Germany takes recycling to the extreme. We had been separating the usual suspects such as plastic bottles. We also had a large bag from our recent trip to the PX and it had a few things in it that are supposed to be separated, such as Styrofoam. Each stairwell of the housing have six units in them. Each of these stairwells also have a designated trash/recycling area. In order to throw anything away or recycle, you have to take your house key and use it to gain access. Needless to say we are going to have to do a better job of separating our recyclable items.

Sunday: Today the weather was a little better, but we decided not to travel outside of the post because there is not much open on Sundays in Germany. Instead we did the usual…watched some TV shows. We decided to get out for a bit and take a walk around PHV. The post is not that big as we found out during our walk. When we first arrived, I was a little disoriented and had no clue how to get anywhere. It was nice to get out for a bit and walk around, it's the only exercise I've been able to get since arriving here. We were not quite sure exactly what was available on PHV until recently. PHV as I noted earlier has a commissary, a movie theatre, a library, schools (elementary & middle), a restaurant, a shoppette, a bowling alley and a youth center. There isn't too much else besides housing. I originally thought there was a PX here as well, but unfortunately I was mistaken. For everything else we have to travel to the various other posts that are scattered around town.

Wondering how I was going to get to the central processing tomorrow, I emailed my sponsor. He has to teach a security+ class all week next week, so I knew he would not be able to pick me up. I received a call later from a sergeant in our battalion. He asked if I'd been to a PT formation yet…no. Do I have all my winter PT clothes…yes. Then he asks if my sponsor was the only way I got to and from in-processing last week…yes. A long pause…then he states that he thinks he'll just give me some time with my wife in the morning and call sometime tomorrow to let me know who is going to pick me up. So I guess I'll wait and see.

The rest of the night we video chatted with family and watched some more shows…a pretty laid back weekend.

Moving In - (Germany) Day 9

This morning we had planned to walk from our temporary room to our new place with our remaining bags. Once we started getting ready we could hear the wind howling outside and after taking a look my wife asked if I could call our sponsor and have him come pick us up and drive us over to the new unit. I didn't argue with her because not only was it very windy, it was also raining. Not that the rain bothers me much being from Seattle, but having to bring all our crap with us in the rain wasn't too exciting for me. After talking to my sponsor he said no problem.

We arrived at the new unit right after 0745 and the inspector was already at the door waiting. Luckily he hadn't left yet. Once in we went over everything with the inspector and found that the dishwasher does not work. He also marked the minor scratches on the floor and checked everything else out in the place. When trying to show us the storage in the attic and the basement he found that we had a key to another unit's basement storage and we had no place in the attic. I guess we have to go to housing and get that squared away now.

My sponsor arrived again to take me to more in-processing, so I had to leave and let my wife sign any papers. She also had to wait for our loaner furniture to be delivered. I headed off to in-processing and prepared myself for another day of "Death by PowerPoints". We had a number of briefs including Drug & Alcohol, Fire Prevention, Safety, EO, EEO, IG,  OPSEC, Crime Prevention, & CID. Lots of acronyms I know…the day mainly consisted of people telling us to be careful, don't drink and drive, don't sexually harass others, and don't do drugs. There was a girl next to me that kept nodding off which was actually a little entertaining to watch…LOL.

The briefings ended at 1500 and my sponsor picked me up and drove to our new place to pick up my wife as well. We then headed to the PX and then the PowerZone to pick up needed supplies for our new place. Without any of our household goods, we had to buy stuff like curtains, shower curtains, coffee maker, microwave, bed sheets and blanket + pillows. After blocking the checkout lane long enough to start pissing people off (why they only had one lane open I don't know) we headed back to our new place…our new home.

I went about getting the cable modem hooked up and the Internet connection up and running. I have my priorities! I then put up all the curtains so we could have a little privacy and then sorted out all the rest of the stuff we purchased. We settled down for a bit and had dinner while watching Sons of Anarchy.