New Post

Well, I am back finally from deployment. I am trying out a couple of new services that Blogger is offering. (New for me that is.) For example I am writing this from my email, and there is a new mobile phone post function... Though with the new smart phones, why not just email your post in and get over the 160 character limitation of the SMS.

At any rate, it's great to be back and I look forward to writing more.

Cheers,
Josh

New Post---- Unbelievable Enough As It Is

Well, I am about four weeks from the end of my deployment to Afghanistan. Of course much has happened since the last post to this Blog.
So this last year in review;
2009 started with a great night featuring much good company and cheer with the Nakajima's. The friendship that we developed with them will remain even as time passes.

Work continued, and as I continued to learn how to manage major capital improvement projects I was struck how much I still don't know. But boy was it ever interesting to learn how to make things happen.
So in January I received orders to transfer to Gulfport, MS. To the 22nd Naval Construction Regiment. So the intent was to get close to Kristin's family and best friends from college. And it was the job that I wanted. I should have been suspicious because everything was lining up perfectly.
Sometime in February I got a call from the Detail er. It's never a good thing when the Detail er calls you... LOL

So there was an issue with PCS money, and the bottom line was that I lost my orders and would be going to the 30th NCR instead. The 30th is located in Port Hueneme, CA, which is the same base that we lived on when I was in NMCB Five.
Kristin was disappointment, but at least we were going to a location we were familiar with and we even had several friends still in Port Hueneme.

So in May, amid a whirl-wind of working at closing out my projects, building a turnover binder, and training my replacement, we started the massive sojourn of moving from overseas back to the States. We decided that we would not go directly to Port Hueneme. I had not taken a single vacation in the three years that we were stationed in Japan. I deserved some time off.

Off to Seattle we went. We spent a wonderful three days with the Bowsers in St. Mary, WA up by Everett. It was great to see the kids and watch Ronan reconnect with Sarah Bowser who was born four days before he was. We also had dinner with Sam Wirsching and his family before flying out to Gulfport, MS to visit with Heather, Kieth and company.

Gulfpot was a great visit. We were all able to visit with friends and family. I was able to see Tim James, one of my coworkers and best friends from Japan, Kristin was able to see al of the girls and even a new addition. We picnic ed out on the beach, swam in a pool everyday, and had a very relaxing time before renting a car and driving up to Shreveport for a week.
Shreveport was everything that I recalled. Hot, muggy, and .... wel that's about it. We stayed with Kristin's mother, Connie, and had a chance to visit Rourke and Mel, and their kids Erin and Haylee. (I remember them when they were babies.) During the time, we drive up to Bentonville, AR to visit with Tim, Vicki and their two kids. We spent a day out on the lake, hung out around the pool, and generally relaxed.

The next stop on our tour of the country was a visit up to my family. We flew into Spokane, and after picking up our rental car drove to Michael's house which is 15 minutes from the airport. During that visit we had the opportunity to hang out with Rebecca and her new boyfriend Jeff (As well as his two boys), Mom, Dad, Randy and Erin. Of course we spent plenty of time with Michael as well.
After spending a week up there, it was time to start our final let down to California. We had much to do before I had to report into my new job at the 30th.
So we flew from Spokane, to Seattle, then on to LAX, from there we flew to Oxnard. (That will be the last time that I ever fly into Oxnard again.)

We picked up the rental car, and immediately went to go pick up the car that we had ordered while we were back in Japan. we had bought a 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI. So it was back into a diesel with us. Full nav system and multimedia package.
It was ready and off we went to the hotel.
We ended up staying in the old BEQ on Point Mugu NAF until we could get into base housing at Port Hueneme. It was interesting staying in there with two little boys and two adults. But we got through it and moved into our new/old house, which is two driveway entrances down from the house we previously lived in.

I reported for work, and after four weeks, we deployed to Afghanistan.

And that, I will save for another post.

~Josh

Quick update

Last weekend, my friend Mike Gabiga, and I embarked on an attempt to finish a grueling 72km endurance race. I decided to participate in this race at Mike's behest because he had attempted two other times and wanted to have company, and someone in his relative physical fitness. (At least I was able to provide decent company.)

We actually did not make it past the first checkpoint in the race, which was 22.4 km into the course. I found the course to be vertically challenging. Our elevation changes were impressive, with one ascent rising over 800m in close to 1 km in horizontal distance.

At any rate, I carried about 7 liters of water in with me, and drank most of it before we reached the 1st checkpoint. When I found out that there was no resupply of water at that location... well I went ahead and tapped out. There was no way I was going to hike another 22 km with less than a liter of water in my Camelback.

So that was our attempt at the Hasegawa Cup.

~jp

Hasegawa Cup

 

 

 

 

These are some picture of the Hasegawa Cup, which is a 72km in 24 hour extreme cross country race. We were able to take a few pictures before Mike's camera battery died.

~jp

I couldn't let this pass without sharing

We were cleaning out the baby's new room and I found my over night bag from my time in Iraq. The back pack is impressively large as you can see.

New Post.... As unbelievable as can be

Well, I have waited about a year to post on the old blogsite again. Do I have a good reason for waiting so long?
Not really.
Sure, work has been pretty intense this last year with a huge range of experiences and types of work I have been doing during that time.
Let's see, how can I update all of the people who have kept up with my site, or still look from time to time?
I guess the best way is just to go ahead and jump into it.
The last time I wrote on this blogsite, I was about to go off to Huntsville, AL for a contracting class. Enroute I took a couple of days of leave and was able to watch a Georgia Tech Football game, and catch up with friends from school. The class on the other hand was terirble. It was Construction Contracting, which is one of my technical profeciencies, and the level of teaching was terrible. But I was able to get my contracting warrant from the experience and that is a big deal in my community. Well, it's a big deal anywhere, because it put me in the group of people who can legally obligate the government in an agreement. It's been pretty interesting. To date, I abligated close to $3.5 million in contraction actions.
The next big thing that happened is that my supervisor, LCDR Mike Comstock went to Iraq for 6 months. That left me as the only military in the Facilities Engineering, Acquisitions Division (FEAD), with a new PWO and base CO both of which felt that having a military person in change of this very important division of the public works department was crucial. So I stepped up and became the acting FEAD officer. That was a very trying time, as the entire division was understaffed, the work was ramping up, and the demands of my bosses continued to increase. To tell you the truth it was exciting, and while I can't say that I did a great job, I kept it all afloat and juggled the balance of executing construction which I was responsible for, and providing the leadership for the people who work the Division.
During this time Kristin and I found out that she is pregnant. (Still expecting as of this writing.) I was promoted, and commited to another five years in the Navy. (There was a healthy retention bonus in it as well.)
Now for the recent past; In June I changed jobs. I moved from the FEAD when LCDR Comstock came back from Iraq and became an Assistant Public Works Officer (APWO). This means that instead of executing construction projects, I am the person who works with the customers to coordinate and drive their requirement for a project in the first place. So far it's been pretty easy compared to running the FEAD. (Knock on wood, as I rap on my head.) Working with the different people on base is a lot of fun, and educating them on the hazards of trying to get facilities projects executed in the militay realm. It's been very interesting, and I am sure will continue to be interesting.
In the last month, I have been able to go to Hawaii for a Junior Officer's conference. That was interesting and all said and done actually productive. The senior management in the Civil Engineer Corps is still very concerned with the retention of junior officers and there was much talk about that. Right now it doesn't look like there are enough people to fill the future ranks of middle and senior leadership. Time will tell how the retention strategies work in the long run.

Ronan is doing great, he is very verbal and active. We have had him in swimming lessons for most of the summer, and he seems to love playing in the water. That is great. He is actually starting an active, organized preschool this fall. He's very excited about that because they get to do so many really neat things.

Kristin is about to give birth. I think within the next couple of weeks.

I am doing quite a bit of outdoor adventuring. I am going to climb Mt. Fuji next week, and the second week in October I am going to do a 24 hour, 72km hike up in the hills west of Tokyo. Thatr promises to be an interesting thing. Who knows if I will even finish the hike in 24 hours.

Besides the endless computer problems that seem to be plaguing our house, that is about it for right now.

I will update again in the near future, I promise.

~Josh

Against all Odds, Another Post

Well, it has been a few weeks, so I thought I would go ahead and write another post.
It has been pretty hot here in Japan. The temps have not gotten into the 100 degree range, but you throw some 90% humidity into the mix, and you want to do nothing that involves walking around outside. (Unless it's early in the morning or late at night.)

I know it has been much hotter State-side, so my heart goes out to those that were affected by the heat wave. (Remember that global warming is nothing but a figment of our imagination.)

Work has continued to be a fairly rough endeavor every day. I am learning how to be a Contracting Officer right now, and that entails learning three seperate computer systems. I have made a few mistakes, and then people criticize me and expect me to be all ashamed. The look on their face when I look at them and blink then say, "So?" is priceless. You know the T-shirt that says , "Does it look like I give a damn?" comes to mind. If I could get away with it, I would wear it. Maybe I'll get a white one if I can find it, and wear it under my uniform.

Seriously people, it's not like I don't care, but with everything else going on at work, getting all of my contracting actions exactly right in the system does not jump to the front of the stove so to speak.

That's about all I have on that.

Later peeps.
~jp

Finally a new post

I know it has been along, long, long, and even longer time since I have posted last, but I do have a good reason. Sort of. I have been working. The work has been getting pretty extreme. Not in the sense that I am jumping out of airplanes, or diving to the bottom of the ocean, or patrolling the streets of Baghdad with my trusty M-4, but inthe sense that I have been working 12 - 14 hours day trying to keep from drowning in the quagmire that is work right
now.

That being said, Rebecca and Peter came to visit us this last couple weeks. It has been the longest time that any of our family has been here to visit us. A couple of months ago, my cousin, Will Perry, came to Japan to study his martial art and he spent a aevening with us, and we drove up into the northeastern suburbs of Tokyo to hang out with him. It was interesting.

But while Rebecca and Peter were here, I actually took a couple of weeks off. So we took the opportunity to go up to Gotenba, hang out at Fuji-kyu Highlands Amusement Park, Go to Thomasland for Ronan, and of course sit in the Oonsen and drink beer.

The next week we took the train up to Tokyo, where we stayed at the New Sanno Hotel, which is a very nice military hotel located in central Tokyo.

It was great because hanging out with the Lines crowd is always the best! Of course Kristin, Ronan and I have not had a chance to really explore Tokyo at all, and doing with visiting family is all the better. We ate great food, we saw some pretty cool things, and overall is was fun.

Well, I need to get back to work. Later people.

~jp

Spring has sprung

Well, almost. We thought we were there last week, and then it was hovering around 0 degrees Celsius at night this week. (But for some reason it didn't seeem as cold as it was earlier in the winter.) I suppose that just goes to show, that if you think it's cold, you are going to be cold.

At any rate spring is just around the corner here in the Kanto Plain area. So I changed the color to more accurately show the feeling of the season change.

Another item of note, I have updated the photo album. There are pictures of the trip to Hakuba on the Album site. The link is in the side bar to the right.

~Josh

Ronan, making friends

The main lift from the room

The Happiest Little Boy int he World

March 3rd Yakitori Sale

Quite the month

This Feburary has been quite the month. The Seabee Ball committee had a very successful fund raising event. (Selling Yakitori at the main gate from 3pm on Saturday afternoon until we sold out at 1200 am on Sunday.) It's almost like taking candy from a baby, hitting up all of those drunk kids for munchies on their way back onto base. The one we held on the 3rd was very successful, raking in about $600 after all expenses were paid.

Then on the 19th, Kristin, Ronan, and myself went up to Nagano Prefecture to play in the snow for a couple of days. It was a beautiful trip, from getting on a train in Zushi, riding up to Tokyo for the first time, to getting on the Shinkansen (Bullet Train), and taking that up to the city of Nagano. It was a good trip. Most of the Navfac wardroom came, so there wasn't that much in the way of family time, but we had a good time none the less. The resort we were staying at had Oonsens (Hot springs), and karaoke. So Kristin went to her first Oonsen, which she admitted to being kind of apprehensive about. (We Americans are not used to walking around naked in front of other people.) But it turns out that she loved it. I think in the two days we were there she made three visits to the Oonsens. Of the two I have been to, this one was not that great, but after a day of skiing it felt really nice.
I also tried out karaoke for the first time. It a little different here. You don't go to a bar and get up on a stage, or in front of other people and make a fool of yourself. You get to do it only in front of your own party. So basically you rent out these big booths with the sound system and monitor in them. They typically have a couch in them and a phone to call the waiter for more beer or food. I was there with Mike G. and Wayne L. from work. These guys are pretty avid karaoke goers, so they jumped right in and started singing. I spent a lot of time flipping through the book, thinking to myself, "I am not drunk enough for this." I only sang one song, but by midnight everyone in the room was singing along with whatever song was up there. It was a good time.

A couple weeks after that a tragic even happened. The bases Operations officer passed away in his sleep. He was only 39, and it hit everyone pretty hard. Drew was a great guy. Very friendly and gregarious. He will be missed.

This last weekend, March 3rd, he held another Yakitori sale. This one made even more money then the last. I think we brought in about $1000 after expenses. The weather was warmer, and I was cooking. That had to be the difference. I was cooking.

At any rate that's it for now. I'll post a couple pictures of the Nagano trip and getting set up for Yakitori.

~jp

Noodle Junction in Yokohama

This is a Google Earth shot of the rest area in the middle of the interchange. What you can't see is the fact that there are about 3 layers of highway spiralling down from the top level. Very interesting.

~jp

Crazy Rest Area

During the trip to drop LCDR Velasco's bike off at the shop we ended up on the wrong side of the Yokohama Bay Bridge and decided to get off of the freeway to eat something and get going in the right direction.

This Rest stop is in the middle of this rats nest of interchanges and elevated highways. I'll post a Google Maps shot of the area. It was very interesting.
~jp

Kid in a Candy Store

This is my supervisor, LCDR Velasco doing one of the things that he loves best, dreaming about his next bike. We recently drove up to Yokohama after loading his 1200cc BMW into his minivan to drop it off at the BMW shop. (It was not running at the time.)

While we were there we purused the sales shop and he fell in love with this little lady. He said he pretty much had his min made up about the bike when he left there.

~jp

Another Photo Update

Please look to the right of the main body of the site, and you will note the link to my photo album. I'll change the date when ever I add photos. Please feel free to leave comments under the photos as well as on the blog itself.

~jp

Gotenba '07!

Hello everyone! This weekend we went up to Gotenba. It was a great time. The food and drink were splendid, and company was fun, and I think for the most part everyone had a good time. All of that for under $200 for the three of us.

Something new for me was the onsen, which is a hot spring system. In this case it's not natural, but there are plenty of natural Onsens in Japan. It was a new experience to say the least, and it was very relaxing.

It was something like 8:30 or 9:00 the night we got to Gotenba, we had already gone to the Outlet Mall and we had just come back from our eating, drinking and other revelry.
We paid a mere ¥1000 per ticket and then we went up to the hotel that is part of the resort area we were staying on.
We checked in at the door and went up several flights of stairs to a locker room where there were lots of naked Japanese men wandering around with modesty towels on. (These are basically hand towels that you can drape over your groin region as you walk around.) After being shown an empty locker by the old lady who worked in the locker room (That was pretty weird, but you shrug and carry on.), we got undressed, locked our stuff up and went into the next room. This next room was basically covered in stone and marble tile with sit down shower stalls lining the walls. There were a couple of small pools on one side of the room and one large pool next to the outside wall, which was all glass looking out onto another pool which was outside on the roof of the hotel building.
So sitting on our little stools, we showered and made ourselves clean. Then we walked through another door outside. It was just a little chilly to say the least. But we made our way to another pool of hotwater and sighed as we sunk into the water. How nice it was. The pools themselves were pretty large, with enough perimeter length to accomodate about 15-20 people. Everything was steaming and with the sides lined with rocks, there was the sound of gently flowing water as the recirrculated and reheated hot water flowed over the rock facade as you would see in a natural setting. The perimeter of the pools were also lined with the rocks.

There was also a cold pool you could dip into once you were good and hot, and there was a sauna you could sit in to further your relaxation. We did everything. I sat in the hot tub for about 45 minutes, sat in the cold tub for 5 minutes, then jumped back into the hot tub, then went into the sauna for a while and then into the cold tub for another 5 minutes, and finally back into the hot tub for 30 minutes before calling it a night. It was very relaxing.

So if you are ever in Japan, I recommend visiting an Onsen.

~jp

Penguin Love

This is Ronan enjoying some quality time with some fake penguins in Hawaii. He certainly looks like he is enjoying the weather and the company.

~jp