This Year

So I'm quickly approaching 365 days here on the atoll (I can feel Lisa smiling at that fact), and I was looking back and thinking about the past year.

> Kwajalein Atoll diving: This place has so much to see, I'm grateful I had the opportunity. Sharks, rays, turtles, eels, dolphins, various fish, coral reefs, anenomes, ship wrecks & ships sunk in battle, planes shot down or dumped after the war, giant clams. The dives and the history that goes with it is truly amazing.

> USAKA Fire & Emergency Services: Not quite what I had in mind. Simply put, way too slow a department to keep me happy. That isn't the departments fault by any means. The opportunity to get certifications didn't pan out to the extent I wanted, but I did earn a few very important certs. Financially, the time here has been great. Not my-god-I-never-want-to-leave great, but just about where I was planning on being after spending some serious DOH! on my vacation. This department certainly has some things to work on (as I'm sure most departments do). Kwaj station living conditions are pretty bad, Meck station is horrendous (in a condemned building), and Roi is... cozy. But the apparatus & equipment, for the most part, is pretty nice.

> Lisa: I don't think any one person has had a bullet just to themselves before. She has been really amazing. Being away from her has been very tough. We were apart for our first holiday season, birthdays, marathon, MFT licensing, anniversary, a nephew being born, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but I hope she'll forgive me since she got her own bullet! Missing all that sucked and I'm looking forward to being there for the second go around (except the marathon, I don't wanna!)

>John y Judy: I was blown away when my big brother asked me to be his Best Man. I was honored and I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

> Mom and Russ: What is the greatest sign of a mother's love? No, it's not childbirth, or the years of teen angst they put up with, it is being willing to go to the DMV for hours on end to straighten out a paperwork nightmare so you can sell your truck. The sign of a brother's: taking care of, adding things here and there and then selling said truck. Trust me, this stuff may not seem like a big deal, but I was so fed up with the DMV Bulls#!t, I was ready to dump it in the Atlantic.

> Timing and Opportunity: Words taught to me by a very good friend. And a theory I'm still working on mastering. Now, in the waning days of my tour on Kwajalein Atoll, I'm mulling the timing and opportunities awaiting me back in civilization.