The Suck, The Blow, and The Snow

The Suck was very interesting today. You never really know how much you depend on computers for your work until you cannot use them. I was able to complete my 3 supervision sessions with my case workers but after that, I could do little more than proof read treatment plans and quarterly reviews. That took all of about half an hour. After that I could do nothing. I could not check e-mail, update my travel log, review assessments, update the productivity tracker for each of my workers, nothing. This situation led me to take an early lunch to come back to work to straiten out my desk, deliver mail, plan Monday's team meeting, and go home early as I do every Friday. Luckily, I started the clock out process about 10 minutes before I was actually scheduled to leave because it took me that long to just clock out. Sometimes I really hate technology. Of course, I understand the irony that I am typing this blog from my laptop which connects to my wireless router and internet. Life is funny sometimes.

Tomorrow Sweetie and Buddy will be in the Quad Cities and I will be here in Springfield. Although I will miss them, I will certainly be looking forward to my sleep. I predict a week of good sleep, unhealthy meals, and a lot of quiet time that I will try to fill with a conversation with the pooch. Tomorrow also marks 11 days until I hope to hear from Oklahoma about an offer to their doctoral program in Counseling Psychology. Did I mention that I do not enjoy waiting?

To top it all off, it is supposed to get cold and snowy this weekend. It is during these times that I really miss Southern California. It is so much easier throwing on a t-shirt, shorts, and sandles, than to layer up. I really pray that Sweetie will push to move to a warm climate location if and when we decide to leave Springfield.

What is a Chalk Time?

My non-military friends may wonder what a "Chalk Time" is. To give you a simple break down, a chalk time is the time assigned to a unit to get ready to go out on a mission or to proceed through the process line in preparation for a deployment. For the latter, a military member can expect a lot of hurry up and wait, dragging bags, and being barked at by some die hard admin chair warmer.

I chose to start this blog with this simple definition but it also seems to be an analogy for my life. Sometimes it seems as though I have no idea where I am going. The big deployment coordinator upstairs is directing my life and its as though I stand in a long line just to pick up some bags that appear to do nothing for me but weigh me down. I know deep down that those bags are full of gear that will no doubt help me on the battlefield but until the time of their use, they are only a hinderance. And most of the time, I don't even know what line I am standing in. Is this the line for the bathroom or for the finance briefing? Has anyone seen my power of attorney?

In this blog, you will notice that names have been changed to protect the innocent. Much of my current job is a lot of paperwork and ever-changing policies and guidelines that I am convinced are present just for my annoyance. Although there are many things about my job that I like, those down sides seem to over power, much like a small burnt morsel of food will over power the smell of a delicious meal. For this reason, I will call my job "the suck." My boy, who I love very much will be my little "buddy". My beautiful wife will be my "sweetie".

To all who have made it this far, welcome to my world.