Block leave, and the silliness leading up to it

Well, here I am at home for a week and a half, on block leave. It's good to be home and see the family. I'm also picking up the laptop that was purchased for me, getting some more music that was here at home, but not readily available to email, and getting some other essentials before we head to the big A.

The last few days before block leave, after the Mortep, were kinda silly/crazy. We had a couple of days of rest and refit combined with weapon turn-in, footmarches, and briefings. There was a good Easter service on Easter Sunday that Chaplain Darden gave. I had a chance to watch "The Ringer" and "Accepted" during this time frame, mostly because the mortar section is pretty on-top of things, and we clean our weapons and our area fairly frequently (most of us, anyway). The Ringer is pretty funny, and the source of the "When did we get Ice Cream?" quote that the others in the mortar section have been tossing off. Accepted is the source of the "Ask me about my weiner!" line, and that was pretty funny too.

The Monday before we got on the buses (a technicality, really. We got on the buses at about 11:50pm on that Monday, but weren't supposed to leave until 12:01 on Tuesday), we had a six-mile footmarch at 0500. I'm pretty sure that the purpose behind it was to get everyone sweaty so they would need to change uniforms. We were constantly told to wear "fresh ACU's and a fresh haircut" for the trip home. We were also told "no alcohol on the bus ride home" and I know some people violated that rule too.

Our six-mile footmarch was only notable for one thing: the CO somehow became motivated at the end of the footmarch and we sprinted about 400-500 meters at the end. That wasn't too bad (I've come a long way since the first footmarch back in February. Primarily I know now how to adjust the IBA so it isn't excrutiatingly painful on my shoulders), and I only ended up with one blister, on my outside left ankle. About an hour later we turned in our weapons and other sensitive items at the company CP.

Now that I have the laptop, I should be able to update the weblog pretty regularly, either at Camp Shelby, or in Afghanistan, as long as I have access to some kind of internet. I'll also be able to think more about what I'm gonna write, so things shouldn't be as disjointed in the future. Up until now, I've sat down with a time limit, and just written what came to mind as I went through. With the laptop, I'll be able to format my thoughts and get things down before I actually post. Let me know if you don't think the quality of the posts goes up, because in that case I can use the spare time for other stuff.