Working Girl

24. September 2008 · 2 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

At least for this week…

…and part of next week…

…and a teensy part of the following week.

After a 2 1/2 month hiatus, Monday was my first day of doing any reserve work. My first workday since we moved to Nebraska. I’m working every day this week here in the local area, telecommuting with my Reserve Unit I’m still assigned to in South Carolina.

So I’m sitting in an unoccupied office right downstairs from Dave’s cubicle.

Yes, I have an office…he has a cubicle.

No, not even. He has a desk in a large area. No walls. He’s okay without them…

Anyway, while it’s great to be back doing good stuff for the Air Force, this is Timmy’s indoctrination into a full-time child care center. We’re using one of Offutt Air Force Base’s child development centers, which is a top notch center…the military’s child care center standards are stricter than any of the 50 states, so you know it’s good! We will be able to use the center full time when I take my trip to the desert in January.

In North Carolina, Dave took time off to watch the kids or else one of my friends would watch the boys while I worked. When I worked in Norfolk, my Mom would watch one or both of the boys. Definitely one of the things I miss about living in the east.

Dave dropped off Timmy on Monday and when we picked him up 9 1/2 hours later, he wasted no time telling us what a great time he had. He was even okay with going back again Tuesday.

WOW!

So I got a bit cocky and figured I could drop off Timmy today. I walked him to his classroom (the Purple Room) and he went right over to the circle area where a teacher was reading a story. I said goodbye and walked right out. But then I forgot to leave Timmy’s backpack with his change of clothes. Without thinking I walked right back into the room — Timmy saw me and proclaimed that I can’t leave without him. And he ran over to my leg and made quite the scene.

Thankfully, the teachers were good about peeling him off me and diverting him so I could sneak out.

When I picked him up today, he again seemed okay. He showed me more artwork and talked about some friends he made.

As for Jacob, he’s enrolled in a before/after school care program run by his school. So he goes to school early each morning, and we pick him up at the school once we get home. Jake enjoys going to Kid’s Time with his classmates.

On top of the full time work this week and the full time child care, we still have soccer this week, and I’m still trying to keep the kids fed. Monday was absolutely nuts — I feel like all of my interaction with my boys on Monday was drill sergeant style:

“WAKE UP! TIME TO GET DRESSED!”

“BREAKFAST! WE’RE LEAVING IN SEVEN MINUTES!”

“YOU HAVE THREE MINUTES TO GET ON YOUR SHOES AND GET IN THE CAR!”

“JACOB, READ ME THESE TWO BOOKS FOR HOMEWORK!”

“YOU HAVE FIVE MINUTES TO WOLF DOWN YOUR PIZZA BEFORE WE LEAVE FOR SOCCER!”

“BATHTIME! BRUSH YOUR TEETH! PAJAMAS! GOOD NIGHT!”

I was exhausted beyond recognition last night — I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow and didn’t feel a thing until my alarm clock went off this morning.

Tonight wasn’t quite like that — no soccer, for starters. I was able to make a nice baked chicken dinner for the family. I did some light house cleaning and caught up on bills. And wrote this blog.

PS: Late next week Dave goes solo — he has both kids and he’s still working, while I hop on a plane and fly to SC for 4 more days of work. I’m playing major catch-up on the workdays, I shouldn’t be required to work again until December after this stint…

S.C. Route 441 Near Dalzell, SC

14. July 2008 · Comments Off on S.C. Route 441 Near Dalzell, SC · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,
Okay, if you’re a USAF Safety Officer, stop reading!
I drilled at Shaw AFB this past Sunday and Monday. I left the office at about 4pm and drove east from the base, behind a cold front that brought thunderstorms to the base about an hour earlier.
So I was behind the line of thunderstorms driving out of town and saw this beautiful cloud. I photographed it through my front windshield with my phone and then e-mailed it to my blog.
Yes, I was driving while I did it, but I didn’t have to type anything more than “v”, the first character of the e-mail address that sends the pic to the blog.
This cloud is GORGEOUS and I had to share it with the world.
Today was the last drive I’d be making between Shaw AFB and the Raleigh area, so today I took a more scenic route that didn’t seem to add more than a couple minutes to my trip. It was nice to drive past the cotton, corn and tobacco fields. The variety was certainly nicer than what I’ll be seeing in Nebraska!

Stunned!

06. June 2008 · 1 comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

For the uninitiated in the Air Force/military lifestyle, Dave and I are what you might consider “middle management”. The tasks we do often involve having to tie Airman issues with “the bigger picture”.

Example: “Ma’am, I’d like to deploy to Iraq and work with the Army.” In this case, the Airman might never have been to Iraq or worked with the Army.

Me: “Well, the Pentagon just put out policy that all weather folks deploying to Iraq have to have Battlefield Airman training, so once you’re through that training, we’ll see what we can do.”

[What the #$%^ is she talking about?]

Here’s my point — lately I’ve been bringing a lot of bad news to my Airmen from higher-headquarters directed policies that all tie back to Secretary Wynne and General Moseley having to trade in people for aircraft parts.

1.) As a reservist, you can only be activated approximately 3 out of every 4 years. After you’ve worked 1095 out of the past 1460 days, you have to deactivate. This is an effort to save manpower. This year we’ve had to tell 3 exceptional members of our reserve unit that their honorable service to the Global War on Terror is no longer possible after September.

2.) Reserve officers now have to wait extra time before becoming eligible for promotion to the next rank. This is an effort to save money.

3.) About 2 years ago, the Air Force underwent a MASSIVE personnel chop exercise that resulted in about 40,000 Airmen getting cut. Dave even had to wonder briefly if his job was secure. Air Force Weather took a lot of their cuts through their Reservists. There simply aren’t as many jobs as there used to be. Another attempt to save money.

4.) With Active Duty taking massive cuts, the Reserves are so overfilled right now, a lot of opportunities for promotion and career growth are stunted. I’ve had to explain to 3 Air Force Sergeants why “now is not a good time to pursue that military commission you’ve been working so hard for”. There’s no room for new officers in weather right now.

At the same time, we’re trying to modernize our force. Keeping our eyes on other world threats, the Air Force has been very aggressive in purchasing the new F-22 stealth fighters…some of manpower cuts has helped fund that.

Unfortunately, two things have taken a big bite out of the potential cost savings of cutting 40,000 Airmen:

1.) Rising Fuel Costs. Imagine how much fuel our aircraft take!

2.) The Army and Marine Corps needing more personnel. Before they actually received that additional manpower that President Bush promised in the 2007 State of the Union Address, the Air Force stepped in and helped out with some of the ground requirements. The Air Force is STILL helping with tasks such as convoy vehicle drivers and third-country national escorts.

So, in this Airman’s opinion, we haven’t gotten very far with these efforts.

Over the past year or so, our Air Force leadership has really been aggressive in making their cases for more F-22s and trying to show that we can perform all these missions with 40,000 less Airmen and minimal increases to our budgets.

Between their bold rhetoric, along with other things that have shined an ugly light on the Air Force = resignations today.

I fear that things in our Air Force are about to get much worse. Here’s hoping the interim leadership exercises good judgement!

Grey’s Anatomy — My Soapbox

09. May 2008 · 7 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,


Grey’s Anatomy is my favorite show. Now it’s going to have to struggle to keep my loyalty.

Let’s start here.

I was very very shocked to see them put one of the gay lovers in a no-kidding Army uniform, complete with 2nd Infantry Division unit patch and combat patch (by the way, since there’s a brigade of the 2d ID assigned at Ft. Lewis up the road from the fictitious “Seattle Grace Hospital”).

The other soldier is a patient preparing to undergo a radical brain tumor treatment, and he isn’t in uniform during the episode.

The two share a steamy kiss, which has received all sorts of press already. Let me honest here, homosexual situations in movies, on television, in my life, really truly don’t bug me. One of my favorite shows, Six Feet Under on HBO, had one of the best gay characters on television and it was fascinating to see the character develop. I have several friends/colleagues in my personal and (civilian) professional life who are homosexual and it’s fine.

I don’t judge what’s out there, whether I agree with it or not. We’ll leave it at that.

But to have that guy in a real-looking Army uniform performing homosexual acts gives a very awkward perception to viewers. I don’t agree with that and I was not pleased with seeing that on TV. Homosexual conduct is deemed incompatible with military service. It’s the law. ABC should not have put it’s spin on their opinions of the matter when we’re a nation at war. I don’t know whether it’s really happening in the military now, and if it was happening in my unit/workspace I’d have to take appropriate actions on it. ABC should have left the uniform out of it. Really.

And I’m not the only one with reactions to this. Yes, even an hour after it happened!

I hope AFCYBER don’t come after me for saying these things. I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong.

Drilling With a Kid! Dave and Jake are on their Dream Train Vacation!

04. May 2008 · Comments Off on Drilling With a Kid! Dave and Jake are on their Dream Train Vacation! · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

Greetings from South Carolina again!

For the first time, I brought Timmy with me on a drill weekend to South Carolina.

Dave and Jacob are with a group of Pennsy N-Scale Model Railroaders in Central PA, folks he’s had many conversations with via his Railwire discussion group. In fact, here’s a post discussing what these guys were up to today, with special mention of Dave making the trip up from NC.

While Dave had kindly offered to take Timmy along on the trip also, we both realized that even if both boys were angels together this weekend, having Timmy along with have been more work. He needs help going potty, cleaning up after meals, etc.

In the brief conversations I’ve had with Dave, this weekend has been fantastic for him. He said it was like the train vacation I’d been encouraging him to take for a couple years now.

Dave and Jacob had dibbs on the Prius, DVD player AND the GPS for this trip. I guess they deserved it since they drove twice as far, huh?

Back to drilling with Timmy. When I was working for Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, VA, I routinely took Timmy (and Jacob) with me on drill weekends. My Mom would watch the boys while I worked, and it wasn’t so traumatic for the boys to not have to see me for 8-10 hours per day, instead of missing me for 48 hours straight.

Last week I asked a couple of the full-timers in my unit to inquire about babysitters for the weekend. Younger Airmen would suffice, although I would prefer a teenager to whom I would feel more comfortable paying an hourly wage.

So a Master Sergeant in my unit has a teenaged daughter who kindly offered up her weekend to take Timmy at their house, where her father and 4 siblings were also to be home. Based on my meeting the kids before, and stories of what great times all the flight member’s kids have at their house, I felt trustworthy enough to bring Timmy with me this weekend and give it a go.

Friday night I met up with the family at Sumter’s local hotspot: Chuck E. Cheese. Addie (short for Adeline) immediately took charge of Timmy and let me tell you, my son was in LOVE! She taught him how to play Skee Ball, helped him accumulate his tickets on that and many of the other games, then showed him how to cash in the tickets for prizes.

So this morning we switched off Timmy at a midway point between the base and Addie’s house and Timmy took off running with barely a “goodbye!”. I guess that’s a good thing, right?

I was able to have a pretty productive day at work.

This afternoon, the active duty weather squadron had their annual spring picnic; we reservists were cordially invited, which was very kind of them. The gang Timmy was staying with today all came in around 3pm, Timmy arrived quite exhausted from playing all day with his new friends, but after a meal of a couple bites of hot dog and a ton of potato chips, he was off and running again. Playing in a bouncy castle, blowing bubbles, running in circles, etc. He and one of his new friends enjoyed pretending the sand in the volleyball pit was a beach and the sand was “water” in which they “swam”.

Translation: What a mess!

He even got involved in a game of kiddie tug-of-war. But when I saw Chief Tinglehoff helping his 3-year-old daughter’s side, I jumped in and helped Timmy’s side! I think there were pictures taken of that little disaster, we’ll have to see what ensues when they get posted.

Timmy was very friendly to everyone most of the afternoon, and I received many nice compliments of what a friendly, cute kid Timmy is.

This is MY SON? Wow, I was very flattered.

By the time Timmy and I returned to our on-base lodging room this evening (8pm), all his exposed skin was caked in sand, dirt, Kool-Aid, potato chip crumbs, melted chocolate chips, Cheeto residue and Skittles food-coloring. As soon as we walked in, I had him halt in his tracks and strip down. Straight into the tub he went!

He was quickly bathed and bedded. He was asleep by 8:45pm.

Phew!

My Latest Cake Creation

09. April 2008 · 1 comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

This is my latest cake creation. Duff Goldman, I’m not.

This was made in honor of my reserve flight’s outgoing commander, Lt Col Chuck Buckler. He drinks 6-8 cans of Diet Coke daily, and we would watch him accumulate a pile of empty cans on his desk every drill weekend. Sort of horrifying, if you ask me…all those chemicals.

Anyway, making the Diet Coke shaped cake was Paul’s idea. Paul will be my commander after Lt Col Buckler leaves. I guess starting in mid-May, you’ll be seeing me call him Major Gifford. 🙂

I offered making a Diet Coke cake, but it seemed to gross everyone out.

I really wanted the gray-colored icing to be more silvery, but I was limited in my resources. I ordered some silver food coloring from a British retailer (only 5 Pounds! Which comes to about $11 U.S.!) Someone more professional might have been able to hook up her food-quality airbrush and spray it on, but I wasn’t that lucky. I mixed in the coloring into some white buttercream and ended up with a white sparkley icing…not gray at all! Hence the addition of a little black coloring to make the gray tone. The picture doesn’t show the subtle sparkle that well.

Underneath? One layer of white cake, one layer of devil’s food, the cake was trimmed to look like a half-cylinder on its side.

More cake pics here: http://picasaweb.google.com/vollmerdp/CokeCake

Enjoy!

While I’m Having a Blast With My Two Weeks’ Tour…

08. March 2008 · Comments Off on While I’m Having a Blast With My Two Weeks’ Tour… · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

…here’s Dave.

I’m almost home, dear! You’re doing great!

Fit to Fight…and Throw?

06. March 2008 · 2 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

So…here I am on my 2-weeks tour. No, not in the picture above, I’ll discuss that soon. For all intents and purposes, I’m a member of the 28th Operational Weather Squadron during this tour. I follow their schedule, meaning I go to their staff meetings, weather shift change discussions, briefing about sexual assault (which was this morning) and I attend their physical fitness sessions…otherwise known as “PT”, which is the USAF abbreviation for “physical training”.

So here’s a generic picture above of what I had in mind when I imagined squadron “PT”. By the way, this is a picture of a Warrior Run at Minot AFB from last summer…I have to admit that looks a lot like Shaw AFB now. This picture has no connection to my unit or my base, but it’s a good representation of what USAF PT looks like these days.

Monday’s was a good time–the squadron commander led the calisthenics session and I’m still sore in my legs from the flutter kicks! Then we did a 2 mile run…not quite as in-formation as pictured above, but the group of us did start out together. We ran at our own pace…so over time we spread out.

Today, however, we had a different leader for calisthenics who led us in a billion push ups and many core ab exercises! I know I’ll feel it in my tummy and chest tomorrow!

Then I was surprised when we divided into two teams and a Frisbee was produced. Time for Ultimate Frisbee!

Oh no.

I’m lousy at team sports. Remember, I like to run. I also enjoy swimming. I last played Ultimate in 1993 or 1994 and I was lousy then, too. It was a requirement for AFROTC Field Training, so as a Cadet I played it routinely. It’s hard to digest at first, but over the years I’ve accepted that I’m not good at this and if I’m called upon to play, my best contribution is to merely not throw the disc.

I guess I’m just not that aggressive. But I’m also really really bad at throwing the frisbee. So after the first few plays where I proved that assertion, my teammates took my advice (I was pointing to my teammates who were open and could also catch the disc).

But I’m a good defender…I enjoyed getting in the faces of those on the opposing team who are looking for someone to throw the disc to. I can get quite annoying and I think I was able to affect some pretty good distractions.

I caught two passes in the end zone, which resulted in scores…so long as I don’t have to throw it afterwards, I don’t think I’m bad at catching.

I definitely got a really good workout!

Thanks, Shreveport Times!

03. March 2008 · 2 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags:

Our friends Suzy and Andy alerted us this afternoon that the Secretary of the Air Force’s AIM Points web page points to a Shreveport Times article about Air Force Cybercommand being featured as the first “Above All” commercial. It then launches into an interview with the Deputy Director of Public Affairs about how the blogosphere is paying attention to the new ad campaign.

Read the article and enjoy! I really truly didn’t expect this!

Don’t You Hate it When…

29. February 2008 · 4 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

…you buy ice cream and your freezer freezes is SO hard you can’t enjoy it?

Yesterday I bought a pint of Ben and Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream at the commissary. It’s VERY rare for me to do this — I last had this over a year ago! So put it in the freezer, and I fell asleep last evening before I remembered that I had it.

So tonight after my microwave lasagna dinner I figured I’d have some.

Hard as a rock.

Pleh.
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