Still Alive

In a week's time I am leaving home again. This time it is to change my Military Occupational Specialty (MOS). 5 months in Augusta, Georgia, while my wife births our daughter here in Texas. I am not paticularly happy with the situation, but she IS, so I guess thats whats important.

My family seems to be doing its usual ups and downs, which for once, I am not along for the ride. This is good, stability is good. A new job is good, a new kid is good, right? All this new and good stuff, you'd think I would smile more. I don't. Its ok though, as long as she does.

I am excited that I will be starting a new phase in my life. Pissed that I was dumped unceremoniously from my last one. Truth be told, I really do feel like the last 2+ years of my life have been a tremendous waste of time for me, in all phases of life. I am actually worse off then when I came here, in many ways. Better in some too.

In short:

Dear Texas,

Thank you for the opportunity you have given my family to grow. We are grateful for the life and support Diana has developed here. In the interest of keeping a happy home, please give Daniel back the things you have taken from him, namely a life, friends, music, a clean house, a burgeoning career, a knee, and good barbecue.

Love,

The Prestons

A-salma-fuck you

Alright, down to meat and potatoes. The internet is up and running in my room, so I have (a little) less censorship and certainly more availability.

I havent been able to blog because the internet is scarce these days, and I have to pay by the minute, for now anyway. Combine that with Big Brother watching me, and it adds up too: not much to say, and not willing to pay to be watched to say it.

But for those interested, I have made it safely into the heart of Mosul. We have taken over some very challenging work, and I look forward to being able to make a difference. Those that know me know I have had some professional issues lately, but I am hoping it will blow over. It doesnt look good, but false hope is better than none. We may or may not get internet in our rooms eventually, but again, it is heavily censored, so pictures are an iffy subject. I have to get them approved before i put them on the internet for "security" reasons. I think BB doesnt want pics of IEDs exploding up on Youtube, but I dont get paid to think.

I hope you all are well, and I will write more when I can, this just cost me $2.12

Austin

Last weekend, der frau and I went to Austin to check out the capital.

It was HUGE!!!!!

And I spent all day walking, which was great! Sorry the pics are fuzzy, cell phone camera......

We also went to the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum, which was very lame.

A good weekend, this weekend I am brewing, check out Sarges Tavern for beer stuff.

I can sorta ride my motorcycle again. Since I can bend my knee about 100 degrees. I just have trouble shifting.

Diana had training for being a substitute teacher, which I think is great.

Should be a hard week for me, since I will be acting as 2/3 ACR Rear-D 1SG for two weeks. I can handle it, but it will probably be a headache.

ADD post #317

Im not all on track right now, so I will just give you the finger as I go down the list:

Diana's home! 4+ weeks apart felt like an eternity. 16 hours home, and we're squabbling away, just like the good old days. Ah, I missed her! She doesnt realize, nor do I think most folks do, how an injury can change your perspective. Its for the better that I become more proactive in our lives, even if it means she has to take a few steps back in the power department. Shes too stressed. Thats no way to live, IMHO. Being hurt has taught me a great many things, not the least of which is the importance of staying busy. I love idle time, but filling your life with fulfilling things is vey important. We all are going to die someday, soon in the cosmic sense, why not live your life without trepidation or regret? She'll learn. If it costs me a nut, she'll learn.

Speaking of hurt. I am off crutches! I now sport a highly stylized mahogany cane, sans robot brace. I didnt realize that I had forgotten how to walk, and this was made painfully clear after my therapist corrected me. My knee is now throbbing and sore, the most discomfort I have felt since surgery. But I am healing veyr well, and we are ready to bring the hurt. I welcome it with open arms, because it brings me one step closer to being healed.

Speaking of healed, I have been fortunate enough, through judicious use of personal skills, and Preston innovation, to secure a win-win situation for myself. I reveal to you: MY MASTER PLAN (wholly contingent on my recovery)
- My old unit is foaming at the mouth to get me back. All I have to do to be allowed back, is get down to a P2 (no running) profile. My PT says i will be back to trying to run in late Sept early October. Those that know my situation know that this puts me very close to another timeline. If I go, I face career progression and money, in exchange for another tour.
- If i do not go, I am promised/guaranteed a promotion within the year, as well as AMPLE time to get my computer certs, and attend schools. This puts me in a veyr good position, because when the dust settles in 18 months, I will be very close to the end of my service (should I desire)

So, if I go, money and a bright future in the Army, if I stay, education, and a bright future in the civillian sector. Win win. What would you do/ hope for?

Speaking of beer, my Octoberfest is settling nicely, though it is a bit darker than I wanted. Diana and I are going to Austin this weekend to see the town, and buy more supplies. I was thinking of a rasperry hefeweisen to celebrate the fall/winter harvest, but also have a fiending for an American amber pale ale.

What would you brew
?

BEER!!!!!!

I am going to relay, to the best of my ability, my very first partial mash experience, concluded abuot 20 minutes ago.First, some disclaimers:- I am on crutches from a nasty motorcycle wreck, this hindered my mobilities somewhat.- I brewed alone. (what is a?) my SWBMO?? was away for the week- I made many mistakes, some I will admit to, others, I hope you will point out so I may learn from them.- By now I am a bit ****faced off of my blarg batch of bockbier (if you could call it that)I received my missing yeast this afternoon at 3 o clock, and immediately smacked the pack of Wyeast 1005 German Ale, and set it in the fridge.In the meantime I set out about warming two pots of water (2 gallons 180 degree sparge and 5 quarts 168 degree mash water. Time passes and I see the yeast packet rising, signalling a "GO" to me, so I tie the grains in the provided muslin bag. Maintaining a steeping temp of 152-ish, i soak the bag for an hour, checking temp and stirring the bag/liquid every ten minutes. By now the house is filled with the amazingly sweet aroma of steeping grain. I am in awe.When I go to move the bag into my collander for sparging, it sticks...... the bag has burnt to the bottom of the pot. After some scrambling, an spatula-ing, the bag releases, along with maybe 1/8 of its grain-guts, which i leave in the bottom of the pot, thinking it harmless.I then sparge with 2 gallons of 180 degree water, bring the wort to a boil, and mix in my dry malt and a packet and a half of German Spaltz hops. (maybe 1.5 oz)I boil for 45 min, stirring regularly before adding my 4 lbs of liquid malt and the rest of the hops packet, which i then stir, return to boil, and let cook for another 15 min. I then took the pot of wort and placed it in an ice water bath, cooling to room temp (about 70 degrees).I then added the wort to my primary, added my pitched yeast, and rocked the bucket back and forth on a skateboard, while covered without an airlock.After 10 minutes of rocking out, I added an airlock and set it in a homemade evap cooler with a reg temp of 70-ish, where it sits now.- When placing the airlock in the fermenter, the gasket punched out, and fell in. I saw no choice but to stick my sanitized hand in and get it back.- Did leaving the burnt muslin bag portion in the pot, was that a bad idea?-What about leaving the grain-guts?and the kicker-------My wife neglected to tell me that my thermometer had a protective sheath, which I discovered at the end, which insulated my readings by 10 degrees. Meaning my temps were hotter than I thought (thus the burnt bag)How bad is my brew gonna be?I finish with saying that I feel born again. Brewing extracts is NOTHING compared to the zen satisfaction I felt after todays 8+ jour brew session. After breathing in the hops, and the fresh wort, all beer tastes different now, even my own extract concoctions. Good or bad, this batch is mine, and I WILL NEVER DO ANYTHING LESS THAN PM AGAIN!!!!!Thanks for your input!!!SG - 1.060

Hi Mom! Bye Wife!

So I am sitting here listening to Neil Diamond, waiting for Ragingmom to arrive in Killeen, and I realized I havent updated in a bit. (Sweeeeeeeeet Caroline.........)

I have been feeling a lot better. A LOT better. I had my staples removed, so now I have virtually no pain all day. It itches a bt though. I tried to bend it yesterday. Nope, not happening. So I am in for some excruciating physical therapy on Monday. But its the road back!

With any luck, well, there are a lot of things that are possible. I could deploy, but its doubtful, maybe a few months after they've left. I might get to do a different job, which is what I would like.

Diana leaves tomorrow, and will be gone for 3 weeks. It will be weird, not having ze schneehase around, she has been around all day every day, kinda my rock through this all. But she has to go fight some demons of her own. Goodluck honey, I will miss you. We finished a bockbier, should be drinkable in a few days. What do you guys think of this for a label?

I will be starting classes to become Microsoft Certified fairly soon. I guess of all the things in my life, getting trained officially in computers makes the most sense because I am always on them. Hell, last night I set my computer to stream media over to my Playstation 3 so I could watch "borrowed" movies on my TV without having to burn DVDs. I have been bugging Diana to get a second computer so I can rig this one as a Linux box. I am a computer dork, I admit it. But a cool one. I ride motorcycles and brew my own beer, so fuck the Geek Squad. Overcharging cock weasels.

Here are the gruesome accident photos I promised!!!!This didnt stop bleeding for a long time. I will let you guess what the chewy white stuff is.

An overhead view of the collateral damage.
My first time seeing my leg post-op. It was a sick pale-yellow and twice its normal size.
Quite possible the coolest scar ever. Fuckers didnt even need to make it. Turns out the only needed to operate on the PCL, which is arthroscopic, not open. oh well, these photos were taken with a camera phone!!!!