1-8-13

1-8-13


Another clueless new guy moment. The schedule I was given said that we were supposed to set the clocks forward one hour. So I did. Apparently the schedule i was given was a misprint. The time change was supposed to be tonight, but no one told me. So I woke up an hour early and wandered around wondering where everyone was. Eventually I wised up. Turns out they had realized the mistake and corrected everyone else's schedule, but I didn't get the memo.

Oh well, call it a head start.

Today I was 2nd call. I again spent pretty much all of the day in the clinic. Eventually I will get this stuff down. Hopefully be tomorrow when I am 1st call.

I miss my family. Sarah emailed today and told me a story about the kids. Max was afraid my ship would be attacked by pirates. I thought about the kids and smiled for most of the day. Not everything is buffets and sandy beaches.

Now, I have to go check the secondary infirmary. Oh well, then a quick bedtime because we set teh clocks ahead by an hour and I am 1st MO tomorrow for the first time.

OK, a few minutes later and I'm back.

Got my work for the day done. I didn't do much in the way of extra today. I wanted to work out, but it doesn't always work out the way you want it to.


Also, I got trapped by the TV. Damnit. OK, I'll watch the last few minutes of MIB III, then off to bed.

1-7-13

1-7-13 2111

Good day today. I'm getting more comfortable at work, though I am still not particularly confident that I will remember all of the various forms and processes. Tomorrow we dock at Grand Turks and I will be 2nd call. That means that I am the primary backup if the main nurse needs help. I have been spending the hours in the clinic as though I was first call since I got here. I needed all of the repitition that I can get. So, the hours have been 0800 to 1800 daily with a two hour break in the middle for lunch or whatever. On my day as first call I will take a break from 1400-1600 and probably take a nap in case I get a call during the night.

I always hate to need to ask how to do things. I don't like it when I don't know everything. Heck of a thing for a traveler, I guess. You would think I would be used to be clueless by now, but it never gets easy. So today, while emailing home, I noticed a very large binder labled 'Lead Medical Officer Manual'. I started reading it figuring that I will need to know that stuff some day and it just might clue me in to some of the things deemed important by the higher ups. I think I am going to try to read a bit of it every night.

In my room there is a small fridge and a small TV. It is so tempting to just come in and veg in front of the tube, but I am trying to resisit the impulse. I need to be writing, working out, learning about my job, something productive. The TV thing is just wasted time. Still tempting.

So instead, I checked out the book Freakonomics from the library and am reading that for leisure.

OK, we are in Grand Turks tomorrow and I am 2nd call, so I can't get off. The next day we are in San Juan, PR and I am 1st call, so I can't get off. I had been attrubuting this to being the junior guy and they scheduled me that way because I was the FNG. Then, I read the LMO manual and found out that all new orientee's are schedule a certain way on their first cruise to maximize the time between embarkation and being first call. It turns out that the port days just randomly hit on the days I would be 2nd and 1st. So, no picking on the new guy, it just seems that way if you are the clueless new guy. The more you know...

1-6-13

1-6-13 1330

Getting closer to being a real boy! Today I got my ID. Got my uniform request form completed. Got my safety lecture done and my NEOP form finished. That's New Employee Orientation Program for you landlubbers.

I have located the gyms, yes plural, but haven't visited yet. I certainly need to. A large focus of cruising life is food. Pretty good food too. I have had sushi twice, Indian food, asian and a made to order sandwich. Hell, I even had breakfast this morning. And I have only been on the ship around 24 hours. I will need the gym.

One of the important things that I haven't done yet is any nursing. Even though I am technically off today, I am going in for the afternoon clinic so I have a clue tomorrow when I actually will be responsible for something. And I am going to, eventually, get to know the duties of the Lead Medical Officer. So much to do. Oh well, it's not like I was going anywhere.

1-5-13

1-5-13 0720am
Sitting in the hotel lobby waiting for the shuttle to the ship. It has been years since I had the pleasure of engaging in air travel, I can see why I waited so long.
I don't see how anyone gets work done in an airplane unless you are beyond the curtain. There is probably enough room to type in first class, but not in the trenches. I am unhappy with Hilton as their coffee sucks and they charge extra for internet. Hell, most RV parks have free wifi. I am anxious to see what kind of company I will be working for. The meal reimbursement rules are weird. They say they only pay you for dinner if you arrive before 8 pm local time. Also can't wait to get on the ship and start answering some of the questions we have about if and how all of this is going to work.

1-5-13 2115

Made it to the ship. We are underway. Needless to say, it has been a busy day. There is a lot to learn not only about my job here, but the shipboard life and routine. I can't seem to get my hands on a can of coke right now and it is frustrating.

At the hotel, there were hundreds of cruise line employees waiting for the shuttle. I managed to get on one and was tucked way back in the farthest interior seat. As the driver pulled off he asked, "Everyone got their passports?" Uhhh...yeah. In my bag, in the trailer behind us.

When we got to the gate at the port, he told us to get our passports out. Oh shit.

I loudly stated it was in the trailer. The guy in the seat next to me said it was OK, they might not check. Luckily they didn't.

 As we pulled up amidst all of the ships, I could hear Michael's voice in my head, "Whoooaaa, do you see that?"

Once onboard I found out that I was the only brand new person on the ship. All of the other staff had at least been on another ship. So, I got to watch a couple of orientation videos all myself.

I got to the clinic, got assigneed my buddy Mary and started learning how and where. Everything.

I still don't have an ID, still don't have any uniforms, and still barely have a clue. All that being said, it is good to be back on the water. I missed the motion of the ocean.

It is going to be really tight when Sarah and the kids come up. I am currently in a one bed stateroom with a bathroom smaller than the big bathroom on the RV. Oh well, the price of adventure.

1-4-13

Last night at home. 

Tomorrow it is off to the airport and a flight to Ft. Lauderdale.  It will be the longest stretch away from my family ever and I am really not looking forward to that part of it.  I have been making the joke that I feel like the dad from an 80s movie about getting your priorities right.  "Sorry son, I would love to see you in the championship baseball game, but I have a really important business meeting right now." 

It is just three weeks. 

So, let the adventure begin. 

There are reams of paperwork for all of this, some of which has even been done.  Thanks of course to Sarah.  She has been the logistical and sanity coordinator for quite some time now and does an unbelievable job with it.  Heck, it might be good for me to leave so she can get a rest from all the crap she does for me. 

I hope that Michelle and the family get along.  I think they will, but you never know. 

Oh well, eventually you just have to jump.  Stop worrying and just jump.

1-1-13

The new year finds us in a new locale.  By new I mean new to us and new to existence.  My sister Michelle had an RV pad built on the land behind her house, had electricity wired in and here we are.  It is really cool having a family member so close. 

That being said, there have been and continue to be some challenges.  First was getting us in here.  If you see a sailboat in the marina surrounded by other boats, you form an impression of its size.  See that sucker hauled out on blocks and alone and that initial impression can change.  Same thing here.  When you see the RV in the park, it looks comparable to the other RVs around, maybe a little bigger.  See it trying to pull into your gate is another.  This thing is big. 

We managed to get through the gate with 2-3 whole inches to spare.  I don't know what I was so worried about.  They only had to pull up one post.  Then we had to back up into the road to make another turn.  Then it was 4 wheel drive time as we drove through unimproved field around the edge of her house.I got lined up and then tried to make the turn up a short, steep slope onto the pad.  The first attempt up I hit a patch of mud caused by drainage from the horse's water trough.  Since I was turning at the time, it didn't go well.  The nose of the truck started sliding down the slope and to the side...right toward the light pole. 

Nice.

I managed to get that slide arrested and backed up to try again.  Maybe if I turn sharper, earlier, I will be straight enough going up the hill that I won't slide sideways. 

Nope. 

Same thing.  Halfway up I start sliding sideways.  It probably didn't help that I had the kids in the back of the truck and they had unbuckled to jump around the back seat to get a look at the horses, and dogs and everything else.  Let's try this again. 

Third time was the charm. I made it up to the pad  However, the pad wasn't really long enough for the RV and the truck.  So the nose of the truck is down and off the pad making it harder to get level and get unhitched.  After several repositioning runs, we were there.  There were some small custom modifications of the pad to make places for the leveling jacks to touch down and we were parked.  Good thing the electrical cable reached.

We got a water hose set up.  The only thing we didn't have was sewer. 

After we set up, we went inside.  My little sister Kerri was there with her son Nicholas.  I was nice to see my side of the family again. 

That night the forecast called for rain.  So Michelle and I had to go out and set up a temporary wire fence to keep the horses from messing with the trailer.  The horses had to come up from the back pasture for the shelter of the barn.  One of the horses, Buddy, was very curious about the new thing in the pasture. 

Next day was fence day.  We tore down some fence from around what used to be a pond and set it up around the RV.  We also took down the fence between our RV and Michelle's house.  Did I mention that it rained the previous night?  The mud was awesome.  Five pounds extra on each foot and all you could do not to slip and fall on your ass. Several hours later we had a fenced compound. It wasn't particularly straight fence, but it was there.  That night, New Years Eve, was supposed to freeze, so we disconnected the water.  Couldn't use it anyway, we figured, we didn't have sewer hooked up.  We rang in the new year with fondue and alcohol.  Good times. 

Next day was working on the sewer.  The problem was that it was New Year's Day.  Not much was open.  And apparently, there is a new phenomenon of giving RV sewer hoses as gifts, because both the Wal Mart and the RV store we had been to on the previous day were out. 

So, here we are.  Set up, but still some work to do.  Keeps it interesting to take it to the last minute.  I fly out Friday. No pressure.


My lovely sisters.

 Time to put up some fence.

 Kerri watched the kids inside.

 Did I mention the mud?

 Yep, mud.

 Not too muddy for kisses.

 The girls getting it done.  Sarah drives a mean t-post.

 They let me help every once in a while.

 Then we started the half naked fondue party.

Then we took some pictures.

 Now for the eating.

Then we started with the alcohol.  And the cameras were turned off to protect the guilty.  All of these pictures were from Kerri's camera.  I may throw one or two off of my camera if time permits. 

12-31-12

It was an interesting year.  Time for another one though.  Time to forget and write 2012 as the year for a few weeks.  I do catch on eventually.

We are safely arrived in Oklahoma.  Getting into the RV spot was probably one of my top 3-4 driving accomplishments ever.  We currently have electricity and water.  No sewer yet, I guess that is a problem for next year. 

I will be writing a bit more of a report, but not now.  We are trying to do the whole New Year thing and probably will fail miserably.  I just can't get excited anymore about the prospect of staying up til midnight for no good reason.  HEY YOU KIDS!!!  GET OFF OF MY LAWN!

Sorry.  Showing my age a bit there. 

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year!  I hope the good is better than the bad and the balance finds you well.