frustrations of a leasing tenant

why do they insist on needing the money in the form of a money order? is my check not good enough? what do i have to do to prove that i am more than able to provide monies to pay rent on an apartment. apparently, for them to be satisfied, i have to wait in line twice at the h.e.b. and go to a cash advance place where they tell me i have to have over 600 dollars in cash to get a money order. in addition, my bank, which is in good old minnesota, does not allow me to take out 600 dollars from an atm machine. i have to do it over a period of 3 days. that is right, count them...3 days. and to beat it all, my debit card will not act as a debit card...it will only act as a credit card. of course, the h.e.b. will only allow the use of debit card, no credit cards. so i have to pay over 6 dollars in atm fees just to carry around a large sum of money to get a cashier's check to pay the apartment people exactly what they want and how they want it because...once again, my check is not good enough for them. and to top it all off, i have no more days of permissive leave to take. i have to try to take care of all of this in off duty hours. whoohoo. that means nothing will be open and i will run into every road block imaginable, but that is ok...all for the american public in my pursuit to protect their grand freedoms as part of this nation's superior air force.

The DRIVE and ME

So, I tell you, it is dangerous to leave me in a car by myself for 22 hours. Things like this can happen...dangerous, very dangerous...

American Wonderings

San Antonio or BUST!

So, I have made it to the bustling city of San Antonio, TX. It took me 3 days with 22 long hours of driving and 2 stopovers. Aunt Marg and Uncle Darrel were kind enough to allow me to stay at their humble abode on Friday night, they furnished me with a fine meal and comfortable bed. I was extremely grateful. Day 2 brought new old friends into the picture. Friends from COT are always great to see! We had a rousing night of cards and dashed hopes because the Officer's Club failed to be open. But we had fun anyway. Day 3 was spent driving thru no man's land of northern TX...what is up with the concept of frontage roads :)! I am going to post a few videos that I made concerning my musings along the road (basically I had to do something with myself, very dangerous to leave Lindsay alone in her car for 22 hours). Be sure to look for them...

The FIRST week

I have spent the last 5 weeks in Montgomery, AL at Maxwell AFB attending a course fondly known as Commissioned Officer's Training (COT). I was one of about 110 students, ranging in ages from 22 to late 50s. We had 2d Lieutenants (O-1), all the way up to a Lieutenant Colonel (O-5). I attended this course with fellow nurses, lawyers (JAGs), health care administrators, chaplains, etc. All of us had one thing in common, we had been commissioned as officers prior to attending this course. And as time went on, we had more and more in common. Including sleep deprivation, bad food in our stomachs, sore muscles, bruises on our bodies, and increasing awareness that we needed each other to get through the next month.
Of course, the first week was HELL on earth. 20-hour days to get everything done, etc. We all experienced moments of "What did I get myself into?" We had our initial physical training baseline and manuevered an assault course with obstacles and walls to transcend. Looking back, there were fun parts, but it was not fun at the time.
To give you a taste of what it was like, here is a story:
I am standing at attention and Capt Lasso, our squadron commander, demands to know who is chewing gum (of course, me) and proceeds to say, "Either spit it out or swallow it." I swallowed it... where was I supposed to spit it, on the floor? As if that wouldn't have opened me up to a bunch of criticism. He then came about 3 inches from my face and said, "Ma'm, was that you, do think chewing gum is very professional and holds to having a military bearing?" To which I replied, "No, sir." I had an ulcer the first week.

Climbing Ladders in Trees

One fine November day...The boys wanted to play some basketball...so, what do you think they did? Peter, himself, climbed into a tree and with the help of all of us holding the ladder cut the branches free that his mother did not want ot part with so that Andrew could throw his favorite free throw...it was a good day and no one got hurt. The best part about all of this is that Jacqueline (who had a 7 week old baby at the time) held up the ladder more than anyone else...isn't it ironic...yeah, I really do think, it's like rain on your wedding day...