Things have been busy at work. It is likely a result of my
being out of the office for several days last weekend. Had a lot of catching up
to do, answering emails, doing reports, etc… I went to FOB Stone partially as a
follow-up to my platoon sergeant’s visit, but primarily to perform a contractor
audit. I just observed the general order of things the first day, but the next
two I really got into the audit, annotating the discrepancies. The new
contractor site lead had been trying to fix a lot of problems that existed from
the previous supervisor. Previously, customers essentially ran the post office,
coming and going as they pleased, walking directly from the front of the post
office to the back operations area (and vice versa), picking up their
individual mail. These are all no-go’s, and of course everyone was complaining
about the changes (or rather corrections) being put in place. There were
elements not associated with the post office that thought they made the rules!
Believe me, I put a stop to that.
I’ll explain something, so you get the idea of how mail
distribution works. Individuals from a unit are designated by their commander
to be mail clerks. These personnel pick up the entire unit’s mail from the APO
and then stage it from their own unit mail room. Think of the APO as the
Walmart distribution center, and individual Walmarts as unit mail rooms.
Anyway, previously mail clerks could come by the APO anytime during the day to get
their unit mail; this is called mail call. The APO was shooting themselves in
the foot. They had to be available at all times to escort (and I use that term
loosely) the mail clerk through the operations area. When the site lead
shortened this by a single hour, you’d have thought it was the end of the
world! He is now shortening it to a four-hour block (from the previous 7), so
we will see how that pans out. I told him he should do one hour, which is what
Shindand does, and we are a much larger operation. We get it done too.
So that was my extended weekend. Also, the morning I was
packing up to return to Shindand a bookshelf fell down onto my back. There was
no real light, just a sliver though boarded up windows. I saw a change in the
shadows and heard something move, and bam. OUCH!! It wasn’t the sturdiest piece
of “furniture” (or necessarily very heavy) but nothing had happened in the previous
several days, so I was caught unawares. I am still store; I actually went to
sick call yesterday to get it looked at. It is always a good thing have it
annotated with the medical folks in case something more serious comes of it
later. Anyway, I have 800mg Motrin on an 8-hour cycle for a few days, then to
as needed, along with no physical activity. I’ll go back to the clinic if it doesn’t
get better.
While at Stone, I put money down on an Afghan rug. It is a
nice one, and I figured this is one of those ‘once in a lifetime’ things.
Besides, I have a lot of hardwood at my house, so a good rug will make a nice
addition. I just need to remember to head up to Stone again and pay it off!
I ordered some new shoes for my upcoming trip as well as
some new underclothing and socks, all of which came in this week. I will be
putting in my leave form in about a week, the first step toward the whole
R&R process. My next goal is in sight – the end of June when I get on the first
of several planes to go to Europe.
And on that note, until next time…
No comments:
Post a Comment