They say time flies when you’re having fun… guess that excuse is as good as any when trying to explain why it’s been so long since we’ve posted something… or perhaps the novelty of Japan just might be wearing off... either way, allow me to take this moment (OK, it’s going to take me a lot more than that, but only a moment for you to read) to get everyone caught up on the last 2 weeks… and since I have a night at home to chill (and Meg is dying from indigestion and an active kid kicking her in the ribs… and everything else that’s in that general area), I have decided to jump on and take another hack at this blog thing!!!
1. Meg grew A LOT – I don’t want to say she’s huge; I am just going to say that I’ve met truck drivers with beer bellies smaller than her stomach!!! And it’s not just me that thinks that (although he put it a little differently) the Doctor thinks that Meg is carrying a whopper of a ‘lil guy in there (she’s at 30 something weeks… hold on… 34 weeks and the Doctor thinks the kid is 5.5 lbs – now I have no idea what that means, but she seems to think that’s huge and since she has a little more experience at this than I do… well I’m pretty excited)!!! To boot, since ‘Lil M is crowded in one specific area (basically all bunched up under the belly button) I think she looks even bigger!!! I personally think it is VERY cool – especially when you see ‘Lil M moving (OK, it’s a little reminiscent of the movie Alien, but it still just blows me away)!!!
2. I’ve been underway for about two weeks! OK, not very exciting and not very out of the ordinary, but we’ve been doing a bunch of inspections and things are going fairly well (i.e. it could be better and it could be worse)… I will say that my worst experience as the First Lieutenant occurred about a week and a half ago… So we have to prove that we can recover a guy who has fallen into the water in “X” amount of time (for ship-board recovery I have to be able to show that the ship can maneuver to pick up a guy in the water in less than 10 minutes). So we wait until it is dark and throw our doll (Oscar) over the side with a life jacket on (which houses a flashing light and a homing beacon) and catch the watch standers by such surprise it takes almost 3 minutes for the guy driving the ship to get the message that Oscar is in the water… and that sets the scene for the rest of the evolutions. By the time we got around to where Oscar should have been we realized the homing beacon was not working… and for the next 45 minutes I got to stand there while the crew valiantly looked for the lost soul (Oscar the dummy), the inspectors told me I failed (about 4 times) but they were curious if we would ever find Oscar, the Admiral’s representative kept looking at me and opening his mouth to say something, but I guess he couldn’t think of anything to make me feel better… and the Captain yelling stuff like, “1st if we don’t find that thing then I’m gonna throw you over and see if we have any better luck with you,” and “1st I could choke you right now.” Luckily for me, the light on the life vest was eventually seen and Oscar was rescued…
1. Meg grew A LOT – I don’t want to say she’s huge; I am just going to say that I’ve met truck drivers with beer bellies smaller than her stomach!!! And it’s not just me that thinks that (although he put it a little differently) the Doctor thinks that Meg is carrying a whopper of a ‘lil guy in there (she’s at 30 something weeks… hold on… 34 weeks and the Doctor thinks the kid is 5.5 lbs – now I have no idea what that means, but she seems to think that’s huge and since she has a little more experience at this than I do… well I’m pretty excited)!!! To boot, since ‘Lil M is crowded in one specific area (basically all bunched up under the belly button) I think she looks even bigger!!! I personally think it is VERY cool – especially when you see ‘Lil M moving (OK, it’s a little reminiscent of the movie Alien, but it still just blows me away)!!!
2. I’ve been underway for about two weeks! OK, not very exciting and not very out of the ordinary, but we’ve been doing a bunch of inspections and things are going fairly well (i.e. it could be better and it could be worse)… I will say that my worst experience as the First Lieutenant occurred about a week and a half ago… So we have to prove that we can recover a guy who has fallen into the water in “X” amount of time (for ship-board recovery I have to be able to show that the ship can maneuver to pick up a guy in the water in less than 10 minutes). So we wait until it is dark and throw our doll (Oscar) over the side with a life jacket on (which houses a flashing light and a homing beacon) and catch the watch standers by such surprise it takes almost 3 minutes for the guy driving the ship to get the message that Oscar is in the water… and that sets the scene for the rest of the evolutions. By the time we got around to where Oscar should have been we realized the homing beacon was not working… and for the next 45 minutes I got to stand there while the crew valiantly looked for the lost soul (Oscar the dummy), the inspectors told me I failed (about 4 times) but they were curious if we would ever find Oscar, the Admiral’s representative kept looking at me and opening his mouth to say something, but I guess he couldn’t think of anything to make me feel better… and the Captain yelling stuff like, “1st if we don’t find that thing then I’m gonna throw you over and see if we have any better luck with you,” and “1st I could choke you right now.” Luckily for me, the light on the life vest was eventually seen and Oscar was rescued…
Well, I'm heading back out to sea for a stint and we're both crossing our fingers that I will be here for Lil M's arrival. In the meantime, when I get home I'm busy helping get house ready for baby......
Addendum: Greg DID get to attend a Lil M check-up this weekend, meet Dr. Higashijima and see the birth center where we'll finally meet lil M. The picture above is of some monitoring done while waiting to be seen ---- heartbeat still looks like a BOY, though after the weekend Meg's convinced M is a GIRL now.....
3 comments:
Great report Greg ------ The pictures look great ------ I am sure it is only you with the beer!BTW - what kind?
I can imagine you looking across the entire sea for poor Oscar ---- and hoping it was not you that would be laying out there with him!
All three of you keep up the great work ---- Miss you all!
Dad
Wow- great post, little brother! Your story was most humorous. I laughed out loud so loudly that Paul asked what was going on!
Take care,
Al :)
Good to hear from you BIL (bro-in-law). I honestly cannot remember my Captain ever threatening to toss me overboard. I've had some close to that, but never that one...
You must possess a special place in his heart to get that response. :-)
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