Military family and the vacation

While stationed overseas there are a few things a family will want to do,  like travel.  Now not all times of the year are great to go traveling, but it always seems that when you get  to time to go traveling its the most expensive time.  Yet we still go after it and we have fun doing it.

So this year as part of my family's Christmas gift I got with another family and we started down the track to where to go for block leave.  So where did we decided to go?  Prague it was.  Why not I was thinking,  well that was the short answer to a long list of things to come.

First I said, "lets stay at hotels and fly into Prague for New Years".  Well at about 5-6000 Euro for a 8 people that went right out the door.  So I went the way that many may have not.  I was thinking "how about the train and I will rent a house for a week should be cheaper, and it was.  But that's only the beginning of the story.

Once I have more photos I will get them updated but Suffice it to say it started snowing the night before our trip.  Its winter and Germany after all so I did expect it.  The thing that worried me is that the past couple weeks Germany had gotten a few (16+ inches) already. Who knew what the roads were going to be like outside with all the ice and snow on the ground.  We only had to drive about 45 minutes away from where we were to catch the train.  Sounded like a great mix.

Our drive down was not bad at all.  Even with the cold temperatures the roads were not icy at all, it seems like the Germans' learned about the use of salt (smiles). Well we get to the town where the station was in and you know it looked like they had never heard or see the modern invention of a plow.  My cohort in all of this was behind me and we trucked on though and finally made it to the train station.  We quickly unloaded all the kiddies and spouses and headed out to find a parking garage. With only minutes to spare we link back up with our families and proceed to the train.  Was this going to be a Lampoon Christmas? Were they all going to have fun? Were we going to be safe in another country? All things were to come.  Knowing that there were going to be challenges with languages and cultures, I knew that this was going to be an experience that would stick in all the families heads.  Both the good and the bad ones.  

We rush to get on the train and to find our seats.  The first time we get on I think we need to be in one wagon and ended up in another.  It turns out that we are sitting in the open 1st class wagon and not the 2nd class I had no idea.  I just thought wow Germans like to travel on trains this is nice.  But all of this was short lived when an attended came up asked for tickets.  I got up and with to use the facilities, only to come back and hear my wife say that the porter said that we have to get off at a station we were not slotted to get off. So I tracked down a porter and try to get to the bottom of all of this.  It turns out that for some reason we going to have to change trains. 

I didn't think this was going to be a huge problem, until they said that I would need to arrange to get on a different train but they did not know which train or when.  We found out shortly after our departure that our one stop of changing trains turned into multiple.  We ended up having to scramble to trains that were not expecting extra passengers. As well as a family that is nice and just let every person go in front of them.  So where did we end up on the train.  The catch was that there were no seats any where. People were sitting in the isles, we ended up in the bicycle room of the IC train.  Oh yeah Sato what happened to my reserved seats.

All I could think of was "How Ghetto".  Train stop after train stop people got off but more got on.  As a seat would come available I would slip in a wife and kid.  The other husband made a make shift bed out of the luggage and dealt with it while I felt embarrassed and ashamed that I was putting them through this.  We finally got on the last train that we needed and we said hell with it and hopped into one of those cabin cars closed the curtains and rested for the remaining time into Prague.  As we were pulling up into the city of Prague it was beautiful.  The snow capped buildings and it looked so modern at night.  It was beautiful I couldn't wait to explore and check out all the sights tomorrow and the rest of the week.  Oh yeah the housing flat that we rented was on the 5th floor which I knew.  But at the time it had a working elevator now which is not working.  hahahaha  Life is grand.  I cant wait to see what tomorrow will bring.

From all of us in Prague....

Me, the Military, and a MAC

Yes I said it a MAC.  Like in Apple.  I have gone and done something I thought would never happen.  I purchased a Mac.  Now I went for the Macbook Pro 13inch screen and it seems nice.  Little weird to get around but am finding it less complicated that I thought it was going to be.

Now Many people who know me are going to be no you didn't.  But yes I did I sold my tablet PC and went with the Mac.  Why well number 1 reason is the battery life.  With a deployment in my future I wanted to make sure that I was not going to go into withdraw with not having computer access to fumble around, watch movies and such.

It was about time its been 3 years since I upgraded and I am going to make myself keep a journal/ blog for the foreseeable future.  I need to be able to get things out rather than forgetting them or bottling them up.

With a battery life of 8+ hours on a single charge it sparked my interest.  And after watching some of the videos on the software I was convinced.  So I went tonight and purchased it.  Now of course I made sure it was ok with the wifey who apparently was thinking of buying it for me since I am such a tight wad and did not want to spend the money at first.  So it happened.

It has not been all roses though.  I bought this band new to only find out that the new ILife 11' did not come installed and if I want I need to upgrade already. Ok its only 7 dollars but the biggest thing is that it is not a download it needs to be shipped and guess what Apple will not ship to a APO.  They wanted me to use some third party solution to have it shipped.   A little of a bugger.

Second thing is I guess I have been a little spoiled with my IPOD touch in thinking this was the MAC world new and improved with fast and easy apps that upgrade easily and automatically.  Nope not yet apparently  I cant go to I tunes store and purchase software for the MAc like I could my touch.  But who knows what the future will have in store.

But it looks good and the more I research I am finding apps and i can't wait to start trying to put some movies together.

Until then we will continue you to blog and see what adventures my and my new macbook can get into.

The passing of a close family member

We just found out that Mels adoptive mom her Great grandmother as well Vaunda Geartner just passed away.  Space A didn't work out for us but hopefully getting on the plane tomorrow with the help of some good people at BDE we will be there tomorrow afternoon so she can get some closure.

This woman was not only a mom to Melody since like 8 months old but a mom to many.  This is what I would like to say about Gert.

In the year of 1996 I was a troubled youth that was in to all sorts of misbehaving.  I was distant from my parents on an outstanding warrant in another state, High school drop out who was trying to finish his education and living in the basement corner of a house my uncle rented a room from.  But I was chill no cares.  I met this girl and kinda liked her started seeing her and hanging out with her.  I remember one weekend saying I was gonna go hop on a train which I never done and go to Baltimore to see this girl.  Never been to place or been on a train but didn't care.  Her Aunt picked me up from the train station and took me to her house.  This is where I met Gert for the first time.

When I met Gert for the first time she was 88 years old I think, but you could not tell she was.  She was either working out back in her yard moving something way to heavy for her to do, or she was inside taking care of her Best friend.  Her best friend I would mention was an amputee and had Alzheimer as well.  I dis-missed much of this since I was really there just to see a girl I like.

A couple months went by and a couple visits as well.  I was trying to wrap up my diploma and figure out what to do next.  My uncle told me that I wasn't going to be able to stay in the basement for ever and that when I graduated at the end of the summer it was gonna be time to move on.  Me not knowing many people since I was trying to break all contact with my friends I got into trouble with I did not know what I was going to do.

A weekend in July I went to see Melody and I told her my dilemma.  She asked Gran and with no hesitation Gran offered for me to come stay in a spare bedroom she had.  I quickly took her up on her offer.  But that was not the kicker.  A few weekends when by and my mom took me to go see Melody, and took me and her and a friend of hers out to dinner.  Now by the end of the weekend I got stupid and drunk and pissed Melody off by exploding all over her friend and well with in a few days Melody no longer wanted to be with me.

I was sad but I was also worried since now my place to crash was gone.  I mean why would Gran let me stay at her house if I was no longer in a relationship with her daughter.  Farthest thing from what I thought was going to happen happened.  She didn't care, she wanted me to still move in so that I could straighten out.  She gave me the place to stay and food to eat until I got a job.

Around the same time I joined the National Guard and was working full time as a bus boy.  With the little bit of stability I had I turned myself in to the police on my warrant so that I could start a clean slate and join the military.

Gran would pin me down in conversations that were probably over my head or just to complicated for my heart.  She would tell me about god and how he loved me and how he had plans for me and that he loved me.  at that time I didn't think any of that but I knew Gran cared and that was enough.  I won't say I didn't abuse or misuse my affections for Gran to make sure I kept a roof over my head but years later I should find out that she knew I was not fooling her.  I wasn't getting anything over on her.

Gran would tell me stories of her upbringing.  I think she raised like 8 or 9 Biological children a formally adopted child and numerous other heathens, and ruffians up and down the east coast.  Every few months or so some random person would call or show up to see how gran was.  These people were some  times people she had not see in many years.  She may had not seen them since they were teenagers and now they are 30 somethings pluses showing up at her door to check in on her to say hi.

There was this one guy who sang music that would drive up from Tennessee in the morning and leave in the evening just to spend a few hours and talk about life and god with Gran. She would make impressions on everybody that came into contact with her.

The fun thing about Gran is she would sneak up on you when you least expected or she would be doing stuff that there is no way that you would think you could do yourself.  She would get it done.  If you ever get a chance to meet any of her family just ask them about her huge steel filing cabinet that weighed gotta be 3-400 lbs. And she would move in around her entire room from one side to another not even thinking of asking for help.

There are many many stories about Gran that I alone could tell.  There could be complete novel series on her life.

When I was not the best person, father, husband she was there to try and help me back to my path.  From helping my and mel take care of our first kid and practically co-raising her with mel since I was either at work or something. She would always let me know how important I was.  And how she felt good that I was there for my wife even though I knew I wasn't.  She would give me encouragement when I was down, and give me praise when I was good.   It was something I missed in my life I only got that from a few people in my life and that was a rarity.

I took Gran for granted and I am sure I could have done more for her.  I know that she is now looking down at us and her great great grand children and wishing the best for us. I am sorry I could not get there to say goodbye Gran.  One day you will get to play with your kids again and play the way you want to play.  I would not be ten percent of the person I am today and would probably dead or in jail if you never came into my life.  I won't let you down.  I will continue to work hard and I will take care of Mel and the kids.

I love you and miss you

Donny

Space A flights and Emergency Leave

A few days ago we were notified that my wife's mom had only a few days left to live.  SO being the weekend and rushing things I was like ok lets get going.  Now I understood I guess that we could get funded until monday because it was the weekend.  So we were going to do the Space A thing.  Now I have not done space A since the mid 90's.  Back then if you were a soldier and you wanted to hang out in another area for a day, week or longer it was a simple process of showing your ID and off you go. 

Different story today you got categories which in our case is good.  But do to security reasons not much can be released on flights until a couple hours if not a few minutes before they do role call.  So its the hurry up and wait mentality.  Now I am ok with this but it can be stressful on others that are not accustomed to the process.  On top of that having people of multi services telling you why are you doing this and not commercial flights.  I understand but you can see on my wife's face that look.

My unit is ready to assist in every way they can and I have every confidence that when and if I need them they can do so.  Gotta remember that its on the Army's schedule not ours.  Over all I am sure we will make it to our family and once there my wife can do her thing and I can work on getting us back.  Until then I will catch up on some reading and learning some Dari.

Regards

PFC Allison