The Spirits Are Not Calling

Ring! Ring!
Hello? Hello? Is anyone there?
Dial tone.


My life regardless of how happy I try to make it so, just doesn't go that way. I don't think I need to go into my wrist situation, that is well covered. My Dad is in a questionable state at the moment and hopefully will hear more by the afternoon. I have been trying to find and buy a reasonable home and that has not been going well at all. (The whole east side of NC is swamp land.) I have some issues with people that were, in theory, looking over my interests while in Iraq and at the moment doesn't look like a pleasant ending. I am not really happy about my current living situation, but I figure I can hold out till I close on a home. I flat out told my "housemate" that I was depressed and he ridiculed me even further. What kind of bastard does that? The good part at the moment, may be a happening or two in Pennsylvania in about two weeks. Plans for that are looking good at this time.

Something to Say

I have been trying to do some planning for my vacation and for the record, it is looking like it will be a good leave period.

This makes me happy.

Nothing to Say

I have nothing to say today.

I am in pain.



Sometimes a hug would be nice.

Fun with Navy Medicine, Part X, The New Experience

I feel like today was a waste of a day. I went to Wilmington to see a civilian doctor, which is about sixty eight miles from Jacksonville with my vehicle. I know that is the correct mileage because that is what the sign read on the road and my odometer confirmed it. So, I go to the doctor's office and see a "nurse" tell her all my ailments that I have with my wrist she sends me for x-rays right after I said the x-rays in Iraq didn't do the doctors any good since I don't have any broken bones.

I go to another building in Wilmington get x-rays which takes about an hour and a half. "They" put them on CD. I go back over to see this nurse and she says wait here and takes the CD. I am put in a room about eight feet by three feet. It has bad paneling from the seventies on the walls and orange/brown carpeting. By this point in time my wrist is throbbing with pain. See the nurse had me take my splint off for the x-rays and discarded it for me. How nice of her.
(I did a bunch of paperwork as well before and after the x-rays, mostly saying if my insurance doesn't pay, I have to. Go Navy team!)

After about fifteen minutes in comes the "doctor" he presses on my wrist and thumb in ways show pain in my face. I tell him this hurts, that fucking hurts, don't do that again, you all know basic doctor-patient stuff. He pulls out this needle of white fluid and tells me, "this won't hurt me at all." I think that was a joke, I didn't laugh. Before he injects me, I tell him "they" did the same thing in Iraq and it last a few days. He just ignored me and tells me that I might feel a slight pinch.

This guy obviously needs testing on because it fucking hurt a lot. Then he says I won't need a splint and use my wrist and hand like I would normally. After a brief pause, he then says he will need to see me in 3 to 4 weeks. It has been about three hours since then and I am in more pain than "normal" at the moment.



Tell you all the truth, I am fucking depressed right now.

Updating Pictures

Slowly, I have been updating the pictures of me through out the web. It takes a little longer without the full use of my left hand. The above picture is me with the air traffic control tower at Kuwait International Airport in the background. Obviously, I am wearing my MARPAT utility uniform and my sidearm is a Berretta 9 mm.

For now, my profile picture is the last thing we see leaving Navy customs in Kuwait before going home. (Unless you have a crappy plane and get delayed several times and have to go through customs several more times.)

**Upadate for MEL*** I am not on a flight line, I am in a parking lot. The flight line was on the other side of the wall. Which if you ever get to come out to Iraq you can witness that for yourself. Hugs.

Fun with Navy Medicine, Part IX

After being dicked around a bit on that XXX-HELP number, I finally got some head way and Tricare has issued a referral off base. So I call up these people and I have an appointment to see a "real" doctor! I am so excited. Well, a little bit at least.

The lady I talked to said just go their website and fill out the patient forms prior to arriving.
Holy crap! There is about 20 pages of redundant info. If they wanted a copy of something why not use a copier.

I am just glad, that I seem to be going somewhere with this.

Coming Home - Time Off

Everyone I talk to lately keeps reminding me I will be taking time off or will be going on vacation. Okay.

After 392 days of doing the same routine day in and day out, time off sounds good, but so far, for me, it lasted one day.

I still get up at five in the morning. I do a little exercise that I am able to do without hurting myself more. I then have been wandering around aimlessly for the last few days.

In a nut shell, the only real priorities in my life is to have semi meaningful sex with a woman. I realized a long time ago that it is highly unlikely to have completely meaningful sex so I don't push my boundaries on that.

I have "technically" gone out on two dates. One with girl that is five years my junior and jumps around like a pixie a lot. She also doesn't shut the fuck up, so kissing was a utter disaster. The other girl is ten years my senior and very physical when the lights go out. I am sorry, I am not a rag doll or chew toy.

I had met some friends for cocktails on Friday four women and one other guy. The guy is dating one of the girls, but secretly wants to date one of the other girls. We had a good time in general, lots of love taps on the ass. (Would call this the good game slap, but there was no game on the TV.)

Silly People in this World, We Call a Blogsphere

I really ought be on my way out the door right now. I am supposed to be meeting up with a some friends (girls) around nine. I stopped by a blog or two and it kind of turned into a dozen blogs or so. It seems like everyone is welcoming me home. Wacky and crazy and snazzy and silly all at the same time!

I appreciate it and it means the world to me, thank you all for your posts!

RevGals Friday Five: Lent

Mother Laura at the RevGals produced the following questions about Lent:

1. Did you celebrate Mardi Gras and/or Ash Wednesday this week? How?
It has past without me knowing about it.

2. What was your most memorable Mardi Gras/Ash Wednesday/Lent?
One year when I was much younger, like a pixie, myself and a few others rented a UHaul and drove to New Orleans. We used the UHaul as our bed/transportation/happy place for the four of us. It was the best non-remembered Mardi Gras that I have had.

3. Did you/your church/your family celebrate Lent as a child? If not, when and how did you discover it?
I went to church, got some ashes on my forehead and went back to school. The Catholics sometimes would just not show up to school and do some church thing. Wacky.

4. Are you more in the give-up camp, or the take-on camp, or somewhere in between?
I do not understand this question. I actually have no idea how I am supposed to answer this question.

5. How do you plan to keep Lent this year?
Sacrifices, right? I did that last year, thought I did a pretty good job at it. I think I am going to take a break this year. Time off for good behavior type of thing. What you do think?

Dating and Giving

I had asked this hot single mom out as I previously stated I would and she said yes. But there is a catch, she works a lot. So finding a time to "go out" is going to be harder than I thought. We might go out on a lunch next week and then go from there.

It was definitely a confidence booster, I asked out one person and one person said yes. That is 100 percent. I think when I was in my twenties my percentage was like four percent. Plus, I am wearing this cast/splint on my arm so I was worried about that part as well.

I have another friend who is having transportation problems. I said I would pledge some money for the cause but put a time limit on my charity(Monday). This was Tuesday when I talked to my friend and I have not heard crap since then. I am thinking if I was in the situation and someone had offered to help, I would take the help. Hell, I would take help, now if I could get it, but this person's situation is far worse than mine. Their are still a few days to go, but there was also a good reason to put a time limit on my offer. This not a stringing offer, it is a one time deal. I had watched a show on TV yesterday that was similar to my offer with my friend, wacky.

Fun with Navy Medicine, Part VIII

Going by the preliminaries, it is sad to say it but my care was better in Iraq. The theory was once this magic email occurred then I would see some orthopedic doc, maybe get an MRI, receive the surgery I need and then be on my merry way of recovery. That was a beautiful theory wasn't it?

Well, my doc can't get a hold of this other doc so he gives me this number XXX-HELP. At first, I am thinking my drugs have me thinking funny, then I remembered I didn't take any yet. Then I was thinking, he is playing a joke on me. Nope that was the number. (I purposely didn't give you all the prefix.) So I called the number and this is my conversation:

Lady: Blah blah blah, HELP line.

Me: This is Staff Sergeant Wyldth1ng is this the number to set up an appointment with orthopedics?

Lady: Do you have a consult?

Me: Yes.

Lady: Give me you blah, blah and blah?
(I hear "blah blah and blah")

Me: Can you repeat that? I didn’t understand you.

Lady: Give me your SSN, your address and birth date.

So, I give her the info and she says: That is not your address.

Me: Yes, it is.

Lady: No we have ____ as your address.
I then explain to her that this address she has is an address I used when I was stationed here in 1996 and I had just returned from a deployment and what I gave her is my true address.

Lady: Have a good day.

Me: Hold on! Hold on! You didn't give me an appointment date or time.

Lady: You won't have one for at least a month. You will need to call back to this number in about a week to ten days, select option four and then you might have an appointment to see orthopedics.

Me: You have got to be kidding me.

Lady: No, sir, this the process.

Me: I have been dealing with this since November in IRAQ, there has to be a solution that is quicker.

Lady: I am sorry sir. You are just going to have to call back, maybe you could try early next week. Have a good day.

Me: Have a better day.

Vacation Winter ' 08

Roughly, this is my travel route for vacation. I will be getting about two weeks and I plan to have about 5 solid days in Wisconsin. Then it goes by the way of the caribou. If you would like to sport for a dinner or lunch on my travel, please email me at my Yahoo/Wyldth1ng address and we can try to set something up.

I have lots of leave I am going to have to "burn" this year so opportunities are up the wazoo.

Fun with Navy Medicine, Part Seven, Subsection A

For the most part my wrist hurts all the time. On a scale of one to ten, during the early morning it is a bout a two or three, unless I sleep funny then it is hard to predict. By mid day, if I keep it immobilized, I am looking at about a six; if I use my left arm (like a dumbass) then it tends to be about an eight or nine. By the time someone would have their afternoon tea it has never been less than an eight. As you can see, it is obvious that by the time I go nightie-nite the pain level just fucking sucks.

On my trip back I had to "ration" my meds so I was waiting until I felt I was going to cry from the pain before I would take anything. So for about a week or so my pain levels never really dropped below a six. Since being back, with the invention of beer, I have been able to not take my meds as often as I would have in Iraq. Also obviously, I do not take meds with alcohol. If I have a beer or whatever, I wait until the theoretical chart says the alcohol is out of my system before taking any medication. Because I love beer more than I love being in a loopy state, I prefer to drink my beer when I can.

Some of you have inquired about the typing thing, well, I probably should not be doing that. I should probably have someone else type it for me, and since I am single the odds of that happening are pretty slim. (On the lighter side of life, I am thinking about asking this hot single mom out for a date on Friday or Saturday which ever day she may have free.)

Fun with Navy Medicine, Part Seven A

I am waiting on an email from one doc to another doc. I will not receive the email. In theory, once this so called email occurs, the care will follow soon afterward.

I will keep you all posted.

Coming Home - The Transition

First, I want to say thank you all very much for the super warm wishes. I cannot tell you all how much it means to me.

I am writing this at about five in the morning, I have been awake since two and cannot get back to sleep. ( Technically, this is not my computer or connection, I am borrowing a friends since my computer is not connecting for some darn reason or another.) I did watch the first half of the game, saw a little of the half, then an overwhelming tiredness(is that a word?) came over me. It has actually been like that since I have been back. I figured it out toady what it is, I was "going to bed" at noon and waking at six pm in Iraq. Well, that would be about 8 pm and two in the morning here in North Carolina. So I am going to have to work on that one.

I have been having a hard time focusing my attention on anything longer than about five minutes. Which I have not figured that one out yet. I have been driving okay, it is just conversations with people have not been going the way it should.

I had a beer! I have had several beers. My first was actually in Shannon, Ireland and it was a Heineken (not sure on the spelling). Since being back I have been sticking to Miller Lite, except for one Arrogant Bastard I had with a meal on Saturday. I also had a "body shot" on Sunday. My friend said it was a "welcome home body shot," who am I to argue. It was a Washington Apple.

I am living with two other guys and a girl. One of the guys is dating the girl, all of the guys were in Iraq. This should be a temporary "home" for me, maybe a few months, since I have been looking at homes. This house that I am living currently, I would never be able to afford, it is at least double the size home that I am looking at and new. I have been focusing on homes that are at least twenty years old and have good (proven) foundations.

Hopefully, sometime today I should find out the when, what and where of my wrist. The doc game me another prescription of "Vitamin P" and I nearly had to give away my first born just to take it away from the pharmacy.

It will be a few days at least until I get back into a routine on the Internet. So am sorry if I have not visited your blog or website. I am thinking, I may shut down some of my other blogs. I have five. And I have a website that I really have not been using to its full potential. Actually I have two websites that I have not been using to the full potential, going to have to figure something out about that as well.

My leave is in question, big time. Everything is pretty much hinged on the wrist. My command all knows about it. Which is to say, the CO, XO(Executive Officer), Sgt. Maj. (Sergeant Major), my boss which is a Captain, his boss which is a Major, and a whole bunch of enlisted people in between. I have about eighteen combat leave days to take, which means that my first eighteen days of leave will not be taxed or you could say I will get all of my pay whenever I do take it.

I am sorry for such a lengthy post, it is not like me to write so much at one time. But if you made it this far, you have the basic gist of what is going on during this transition.

Coming Home - Surprises

It seemed that God did not want us, my squadron, to come home to the US, at least not on time. We had delay after delay after delay, well, you get the picture. I personnaly had one extra days worth of clothes with me, which turned out to not be enough, so I bought forty bucks of "skivies" and a towel to accomodate the delay we had in Kuwait. It appears that when a unit departs from wherever they are assigned a number that cooresponds with an aircraft. My unit is large enough to use a whole aircraft by themselves, so we were using a plane that seated a few hundred. Well, we were to fly on that plane no matter what, and that particular aircraft broke down often, hence the delays.

Six days later, on January 31st, we finally arrived in North Carolina. After, a brief formation in which our CO(Comanding Officer) told us how good we had done and one Marine was granted the "First Kiss"( another example a depressing moments), we were dismissed.

On my way to grab my seabags and get out of there, another Marine approached me and said my Mom was there. His proof that she was indeed my Mom was, he rattled off my family's names and my first name. Still, in disbelief,I walked about the hangar to find my Mom. Now you have to imagine about three hundred Marines and twice as many people in civiliain attire at five o'clock in the morning, not the easiest of situations to find one person. I did a once over decided he was mistaken and went to grab my seabags and get out of there. As I was picking them up he comes back and points to a sign in yellow and black writing that says, " Wyldth1ng, Welcome Home." Okay, well, that pretty much cinches the disbelief at that point, someone is here. Yes, it was worded exactly like that.

So, after grabing my seabags, I go to the sign and behold my Mom was there. Wacky. Thirteen years, and this was a first. Wacky.

My Mom and I spent a day and a half together, did the lunch thing and recieved pedicures. (My Alpha Male brotherhood would never admit to going to get their feet done, I personnally think it is fucking awesome and worth the twenty bucks.) (No, I had clear polish put on.) The next day we had lunch again and then I drove her to the airport. Surprises can be fun.

300th Comment of the January

Magdalene of Magdalene's Musings* has given me my 300th Comment of the month.

Congratulations! You are now entitled to my virtual collection of jackalope ear warmers.

Roar for Powerful Words

Evil Twin's Wife has presented me with this award.
`

In order to pass on the award, I am dish out some advice:

1) Write what is familiar to you.
2) Add humor, because life is humorous.
3) Never forget the little things.

I present this award to (not in any particular order)

distributorcap NY
Blonde Sagacity
Seeking Authentic Voice*
LadyBurg*
Beyond Assumptions

Fun with Navy Medicine, Part VII

It looks like I am in holding pattern with my messed up tendon. My last visit with the Doc, the drugs were downgraded instead of refilled. Vicodin for pain and Benadryl to help with sleep. It has been a few days and neither work as well, if they work at all. It is definitely not cool. I am going to give it another day and see (feel), then I may go back to the Doc. Everyone has said I have been more of a prick lately(not necessarily that nice). I have no doubt the pain/drugs are a factor with that.

Global Warming Here? Part II

It has been in the twenties eight straight nights here. The highest daytime temperature in that time period was 41.

I am sorry, I do not believe that global warming is the cause of the 140 degree heat in the summer and the chilling 20 degree nights in the winter in Iraq. This is a dessert. There is very little vegetation to keep the warmth in the winter and stay cool in the summer.

I do believe the Earth goes through its own temperature shifts. To say the maybe 200 years, being generous, of data suggesting that man has created a warm shift significant enough to change the temperature to extremes out of a planet that is 4.5 billion years old is asinine.

Was man here to create the Ice Age? No.

Maybe TRex was polluting the Earth with his SUV. (I know I am being silly here.)

I believe the Earth will correct itself, no matter what man will do it. I believe the Earth can survive without us. And it will.