Life is what happens when you're busy making plans

OK, so get this: My original plan for the military was to go to move to Idaho in December, go to my training in January, and I'd be back home by the middle of May.

And the Army said "HA! Try this on for size, bucko!"

After spending an inordinate amount of time on the phone with my unit, my employer, and a multitude of other people, my plans have been revised.

I'm now headed out to an entire different class that my unit felt would benefit them. 92A, or a glorified Medical Supply Clerk. I leave on the 27th of this month. After that class, I go to 91W training (That's Health Care Specialist, for you people who don't speak Army). My four months of training has now been stretched to five and a half.

There are some good and bad things along with this. First of all, I'll have two new different MOS titles, pushing my old MOS to third on the list. That means that any unit looking to call up an MP will most likely skip over me. If I do get deployed, it'll be as a medic, not as an MP. Also, with three different jobs on my military file, I'll look damn good when I go in front of a promotion board. The number of units I can transfer to will get larger, and the jobs I can do will allow me to get a job anywhere in this country.

However, I'm most likely going to miss Christmas with my family. My first Christmas as a married man is going to be spent on a military base away from my wife. I gotta say, that flat out sucks. Second, I was planning on having a laptop computer when I went to training so that I could email and do a few posts. Having my schedule pushed up has tossed me into a financial loop, to say the least. I was able to find a used laptop today for a decent price, but the chances of having it up and running in a week are damn near nil. And it's an ooooooooooooooooooold computer (Pentium 166). There are no guarantees with it, and just getting a power supply for it might be a problem. So there's a damn good chance that I will be incommunicado for five weeks, starting on the 28th, and possibly after that.

But honestly, the good outweighs the bad. I've spend the holidays away from family before, I can do it again. And getting paid Basic Allowance for Housing while I'm away will help our finances quite a bit.

So I guess this is notice that I'm going to be rather scarce for quite a while. Also, if there is anyone out there who has a laptop computer they're not using, perhaps you could spare it for a soldier? I don't need top of the line, I just need something that will reliably get me to my email and this blog. I'd pay shipping.

I'll keep everyone updated until I leave. I need to go start packing!