Long days and great weekends.

     The last few weeks have been pretty hectic.  At least as far was my work goes. Mondays and Tuesdays have been very long as our office has been working till around 1900. The rest of the week days are usually till 1730 to 1800. We are expected to make mission while still working at 50% man power so that's why we are working such long hours. I hate it and so does my family; it feels pretty terrible to only have 30 minutes with my boys before they are going to bed. I'm also so burnt out mentally at the end of these long days I just want to sleep or lay down. Talking all day on the phone actually is pretty mentally exhausting and afterwards I don't feel much like talking anymore to my wife's dismay. I realize this but I still can't help the feeling sometimes. 

    This weekend was pretty great though and was a true refresher for my mind and spirit. on Saturday we woke up at 0600, dressed ourselves and the boys and got on the road to Galveston by 0715. By 0945 we were on the beach and having fun! Oren immediately splashed around in the shallow waters and helped my dig razor clams from the beach. Ryker, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with the water and was content picking shells off the ground, being pulled in the wagon and eating snacks under our small canopy. We stayed on the beach a few hours having fun and watching our boys laugh and talk. After eating some sandwiches for lunch we packed up the beach stuff, took a baby wipe bath, changed clothes and headed to Moody Gardens. We only bought a pass for the aquarium portion but that's all we needed. The boys were in awe from the moment we stepped in the door; they've never really been in such a building before much less around such giant tanks of water creatures. Every window we passed they oohed and ahhed and each sea creature. The jellyfish dark room was a favorite along with the penguins and seals. The whole walk about only lasted about 45 minutes but the boys loved every second and so did my wife and I. BethAnne and I are a little spoiled when it comes to aquariums because for a few summers we would go to the Atlanta Aquarium a few times during the season. The Atlanta Aquarium is the largest one in the U.S. and either the 2nd or 1st largest in the world. (Conflicting information on the internet between Atlanta and the S.E.A. aquariums being larger)

    I've doubled down on my commitment to starting a podcast by networking with a few of my Army buddies to conduct interviews on along with reaching out to a prominent member of the College Station community to be a guest on the show and investing in quite a pricey microphone for improved audio over the Yeti Blue mic that I currently have. It's good but I really need a dynamic mic that won't pick up the road noise that's close to my house. The Yeti mic is unbelievably sensitive and will pick up motorcycles from, and I kid you not, over a mile away. I haven't come up with a concrete name yet, but I want it to be relevant to my podcast goals, short, and memorable. Kind of a hard thing to do I guess. My name doesn't carry much weight so I'll leave it out for the moment.  

    BethAnne is getting into succulent plants currently which is a very nice and pleasing hobby. The plants look nice and are small enough to move in and out of the house daily. Watering is pretty minimal and it's very obvious when something is wrong with the plants so a remedy can be found quickly. She is fortunate enough that there is a local resident who sells and grows these succulents for a fair price along with free personal advice from time to time for beginners! 

The Ass-Chewing Cascade and Podcasts.

      The first month or so of being back in the office has been a crazy transition. I was expecting to come back to the same situation but almost everything was different. My team's production was down almost 60% and my Station Commander got a DUI so there was an internal promotion for his spot. On top of that, the entire battalion/brigade is not doing so well for recruiting numbers, even compared to other battalions or brigades in USAREC. 

    This has caused what I call "The natural cascade of ass-chewing". Here's how it goes: My brigade commander reports to the USAREC commanding officer, a two-star general, who was undoubtedly not pleased with the sudden drop in numbers. On top of that, there is usually a policy that the brigade with the lowest production gets a mandatory ass chewing once a month/quarter for being at the bottom. If you're above the bottom 20% or so then you're good but you don't want to be lower than that. My brigade commander probably got an ass-chewing for being at the bottom and having an overall lower number than usual for our brigade. This then trickles down to my battalion commander out of Houston. Houston battalion normally is a great big producer of bodies for the Army because it's densely populated area and it's in the south where people like the military and don't mind working hard for a living. Due to the recent winter storm and a few other factors, our battalion is not doing so hot. There is a widespread lack of manpower within the battalion to add to the grim situation. More people on the phones means more chances of contacting someone who may be interested in the Army!

     Any how, My battalion commander didn't like his bottom of the barrel ass chewing as we were two spots away from rock bottom. This in turn passed down to my company commander: a vegan who was OCS and not prior service. If you've been in the military you'll understand why that is funny and not desirable. He mandates tons of phone calls that don't make sense and hours that are unreasonable. I also was chastised for asking for more manpower when the battalion commander and the company commander came for a visit. I have many qualms with my commander about various things but when he is in our office we almost always have a candid discussion about one thing or the other we disagree on. I find him both slightly bothersome and entertaining to interact with. 

     I have been seriously contemplating starting a podcast. I have a genuine interest in getting to know people and how they look at life and how they have lived. I have loved podcasts almost since the inception of a podcast on the apple music store. I remember fondly downloading them onto my Ipod when I was in high school wondering why the store didn't charge people for hours of great content. I have a laptop and a great microphone for doing it. I have all the software for editing and reaching out to people via Zoom or Teams to get a conversation going. I think that maybe I'm a little scared or intimidated. I think maybe I still worry about my image on social media. I find myself making excuses such as "they won't want to be interviewed by a nobody" or that I am not special enough to have a podcast. I mean, even if nobody listens to it, I think I would be satisfied having done it. I will send an invite to someone this week, and I have a few in mind, to interview and do my first ever podcast. Hopefully during work hours! I'll say it's for recruiting but really it'll be for me.