My poor thumb

I have a bit of a reputation for hurting myself. I don't know where it comes from but it's followed me my whole life. When I was a kid I was given the nickname Crash because of my habit of smacking into walls. There was also the years (yes years) that I sang "All I Want For Christmas Is My Three (yes three) Front Teeth" After the falling incidents involving a cupboard and a van.

On ship they might have learned of my ability to hurt myself the day I cracked my forhead open and cut my chin. Or the day my eye lost a fight with a bungee cord.

Now there's my thumb. I cut it last week maybe and skinned it not an hour later. Now the poor thing got sliced on my new cutlery.

In the military we have an accident report to write out after an injury. The form is called CF 98. Now I may be going out on a limb but the name CF Kleinty-Eight may be going too far. I have never broken a bone and my stitches count is only at two (excluding wisdom teeth surgery).

Moving and Sailing

Two nights ago I slept in my very own bed. I've missed it now for over a year AND I'm buying icecream today. This is the life. I get to enjoy the apartment for a whole weekend before I go sailing for 6 weeks. But it will be nice to come home to a home, complete with roommate and beer.

I went to Edmonton 2 weeks for the move. The Oilers winning and the Esks losing would have made the week even better. Who wouldn't want to be on White Ave. when the Oilers win the Stanley Cup. As for the footballs side, I am a Stamps fan so obviously I wanted them to win.

My second real game of golf was great except that we played through a thunderstorm. "This will pass over" as we see lighting flash.

I also went with the sister to pick up her car. Great car! I want one. And she was good at driving it to. Good for her for getting a standard. I know more girls than guys that drive standard and I heard it's hot. Now I could only imagine the patience one needs to teach someone to dive in Toronto. You know who you are and thank you.

So between the billiards and roof top party and everything else the week was awsome. Thanks everyone!

So much responsibility

I am now the holder of the Damage Control Locker keys. What does this mean? I don't know. I went to work one day without keys and left with keys. The last holder of the keys is on course and so unavailable for a turnover. I know I have to lock and unlock the lockers containing valve spanners, saws, plugs, wedges and respirator wipes at the appropriate times and I'm sure there's mustering and such involved.

For civi folk: turnovers and mustering are two very important things.

Turnovers happen on an ongoing basis. Whenever you pass responsibility over to someone else for anything you give that person a brief on actions already taken, responsibilities, expectations, and what to do if...

Mustering is a useful verb. You could muster the ship's company for a brief. You could muster the damage control lockers, ensuring everything is where it should be.

Whitehorse - *@#! Ya!

WUPS #2 - complete
Yes! I don't want to do work ups anymore. I have combated more fires than I care to think about. I was only "injured" once putting out an engine fire. I guess that's not bad odds. Too much of the breathing in of the smoke.

We didn't keep a quote of the day board but I do have a favorite: "Cox'n, I need one man undressed" durring a fire ex. One could ask, for example, for one man dressed in bunker gear (fire fighting gear). I guess one could then ask for another man undressed. Makes sense to me. I didn't see any streakers.

I also have to say that Whitehorse is probably the funnest mess that I've been a part of. (Civi definition: A mess on the ship is where you eat/socialize. I belong to the junior ranks mess) I'm glad that I got to sail with you all. Safen up and keep that flats pass handy!

There were no helicopters flying over my head or big frigates to save this time but I did help some casualties on Yellowknife. Well, to be honest, I had a bit of a rest and relaxation with fire hose in hand but if it was real I would have been right there in the action.

I tried my hand at attack team leader complete with red helmet, radio that didn't work and THE TIC CAM (Thermal Imaging Camera Camera) I'm glad my nozzleman knew what he was doing because I don't think I've ever been so nervous in my life. I can't imagine how I would feel if there was actually a fire. Practice is required.

Today it was back on Edmonton to use my superior skills of cleaning strainers. It's good to be home.

I'm moving to Victoria! Now some of you may be thinking, "Haven't you been there for almost a year now." But I'm actually moving to Victoria. I'm going to find myself a real live place to live and the queen is going to move my stuff from good old storage unit U7 to the island. I'm going to miss not paying for anything like utilities and cable and living a 10 minute walk from work. I'm not going to miss wearing sandles in the shower and a "kitchen" consisting of a microwave, toaster oven, and a small fridge with a freezer that isn't cold enough for icecream. Can you imagine. I haven't had icecream in my fridge for 10 months. Insanity.

I'm also temporarily moving ships again. Off to Whitehorse for another set of workups. That's that intensive training period that I just finished with Edmonton. This time I have my A ticket so it will be a bit different for me but the idea is still the same. Lots of cleaning, wake up calls at stupid hours of the day. We're going to San Fransisco so hopefully we'll have time off to enjoy it. This is the last of the 6 reserve ships on this coast that I've been on and the fourth I've actually sailed on.

Stupid squirrels

I nearly ran over a squirrel today with my bike. Yes, my bike. I just bought street tires so I was going really super fast but I swear, if I had those big trail tires on I would have squashed his tail. Would have been better if it was a bird though. I was nearly shit upon by two birds this week and the geese have resumed pissing me off by waking me up at 6:00 instead of my usual 6:30. Plus they make noise durring my precious 20 - 30 min snooze time.

I took my fitness test last week. Eleven push-ups! When I left for basic in summer 2004 I could do the required 9. Leaving basic I could do 10. One day I'll do a one million push-ups.

I caught crabs in Prince Rupert

Yes, and you can even buy t-shirts with this catchy little slogan on it. We sailed up to Rupert last weekend to show off our boat and I went crabbing with my uncle. I could get used to that. It was an all day evolution from the buying of the fishing licence to the eating of the fresh caught food. We probably caught 40 but only kept 9. I liked the one who didn't like buddy's leg on his head while chilling in the bucket so he just cut it off.

I have my A-ticket now! I know all of you would be excited if you knew what that was. It means I'm now qualified to stand watches by myself and I can get a long term contract and I don't have to spend every waking hour "studying". I've never been a very good student but this was a painful procedure. Imagine getting ready for a huge test but you don't know when it's going to be.

I am becoming quite educated in the sewage treatment plant though. Two black water spills (sewage, luckily it was treated) and a grey water spill (water from sinks, showers, laundry ect.) all within a couple days of eachother. I wonder why more people don't want to be engineers up to their ancles in shit.

Weeks of Work Up Fun!

I just finished my first set of work ups. For all my civi friends (those of you who aren't in the military, more specifically, the NAVY) work ups is a few weeks where the ship's company learns a crazy amount of information, does lots of excercises and evolutions, and we're being evaluated to see how well we do.

We did lots of fire, flood, and man overboard excercises. Don't worry mom, they were all simulated. The ship is very safe. Except for all the bungee cords of course. Who knew that you should wear CSA approved safety glasses to take out the garbage. I may have gotton a minor black eye in the incident.

I was recently asked by one of my sister's students if hampsters power our boats. Now, you may be thinking this is the future of the Canadian NAVY but I guess we're still old fashioned and still use diesel engines, on my boat anyways. So if something goes wrong it's the engineers to the rescue! I like to think we're super heros. Our team of highly trained professionals can make potatoes float, toilettes flush, and catch candy in our mouths: well, some of us.

Work ups was a challange. Long days. Sleep is always interupted by bong bongs (fire alarm) or shakes. (On the ship we don't use alarm clocks so you get shaken, or woken up) Being evaluated always adds stress too. It's like playing a hockey game with refs who can't make up their minds what the rules are and are always getting in the way.

We kept a record of things during Edmonton Workups. Most come from within the engineering department but we had some great input from other sources too. Some may be a bit confusing. I'll try to explain some of them.

"Eating a dead hooker would not stop me from eating bacon" -Pigs eat the hooker. You eat the pig
"It feels like there are two monkeys in my head and only one banana" -Saturday morning in Seattle.
"I love it when you put your fingers into it"
"I've turned over a new valve"
"I had a fluctuating boogie"
"Somebody get me some water - I can't dry swallow"
"I like it in the hole" - the Z-drive compartment of course
"it was quiet as a bell" -How quiet is a bell?
"This is where it gets really cool" -durring a stability lecture and the ship is flooding
"Quit being such a fucking baby" -after a discussion about the duties of the harassment advisor
"Don one on"
"A friendly hug is OK, a friendly grope is not." -First aid lecture
"It's time for a progrep report"
"If you were a girl would you wear that?" - Said to a girl
"46 hours left. No less than that, 47"
"I'm only working here to pay off my implants"
"I'll put it ini my mouth" "I'll put it in my moth"
"Put it back in Ponath"
"This is not your Daddy's yacht, Princess"
"Ensure you visually touch every line" -very specific instructions
"What would you rather have: A million dollars or Ponath's head full of nickels"
"Dog semen . . . do you know what that tastes like?"