I posted a few pictures to my facebook page and realized that not everyone would be able to see it.
As a part of grooming standards at the academy here, I have to keep my hair clipped to less than 3/8" all around. I've got my own electric hair clippers which I use bi-weekly to cut it down to 1/8". 1/8" is nearly bald, and my head shape isn't as weird as it was when I was growing up, either that, or I am far less self conscious. Anyways, I've been toying with the idea of shaving my head completely bald for the past few weeks.
Today I did it. I had nothing better to do, kind of like the time on my mission that I was stuck inside for a while during a period where they didn't want us outside tracting and I shaved my legs (ladies, I have no idea how you put up with that, my pants stuck to my legs for days. It drove me nuts.)
I don't think it looks half bad. I'm not afraid of looking like this again if I end up becoming more follicly challenged. It feels super weird though to touch up there and feel sandpaper.
I took some pictures of my apartment. I didn't clean it up on purpose to prove a point. It looks like blogspot cut off the right half of them, so if you want to get the full picture just click on them and they'll take you to photobucket.
This is my kitchen. On the left side, you can see my dishwasher up against the wall. It's about half the size of a normal dishwasher. It's not really worth running, but seeing as how I bought the soap for it, I'm going to use it until I'm out of soap. Then I'll probably just use it as a place to put clean dishes after washing them by hand. I bought a broom that I haven't used yet. I have a nice pan that is just like the one that came heavily recommended to mom by some random lady at Costco. It's currently dirty, I wash it when I need to use it. It does not go in the dishwasher. The far left is my stinky fridge. It smelled of death when I moved in, and it's gone down a few levels to merely puke. Well, at least maybe it doesn't smell so bad, maybe I'm just getting used to it. I think the vinegar and the baking soda have helped somewhat.
Here is my box collection room. I'm afraid to throw away decent sized boxes because I'll need them in 8 months when I leave here. The powerade bottle (partially filled with water) next to the shoepolish and rag is my boot shining station. A little water, a little kiwi polish and a lot of buffing get my shoes reasonably shiny.
This is my front door. In the corner I have a big box that I keep filling with trash. I'll get around to emptying it eventually. There isn't anything rancid in there, it's mostly plastic. This is also the area where I dump everything I'm carrying when I get home from work. My gym bag and towel are on the floor there, and I do not want to inhale any fumes from that in my bedroom when I'm sleeping.
Next 2 pictures are my "home office/dining room" I have space to put a bowl or a plate of food in front of my keyboard. The chair is the only place I have here to sit down other than on the floor.
This is my bedroom. That is an 8 dollar inflatable mattress from Walmart on the floor. It's actually not too uncomfortable, and it holds air good enough that I only need to put a few puffs into it every few nights or so. I blew it up with my lungs on my first night here, when it was 100 degrees in here at 11 pm. That sucked. Lightheaded and burning up.
Last is the bathroom. I looked at 5 or 6 different apartments before coming to this one. This wasn't even on my list, I just saw it as I was leaving a different nearby apartment. This is the only one I found with a washer and dryer already in the room. It has been a life saver! I do at least 1 load every day, usually 2. If I was doing this at a laundry room, even one on site, I would have shelled out a fortune so far, not to mention spending hours and hours away from my apartment keeping an eye on my laundry. It washes larger loads than you would think just from looking at it.
I'm doing pretty well. Today is Labor Day, and we didn't have any school. I went out and ran at one of the city parks that has running trails. 4.15 miles in 34 minutes. I ran through my mile and a half in 10:35 today which is putting me on track to come close to my goal of 9 flat before the academy is over. I have lost a considerable amount of weight, and I'm pretty sure it's going to continue when we start having to do PT in bunker gear. That reminds me, looking at the FD website, they show some of the cadets wearing bunker gear. They have first initial and last name across the bottom of the coat. I'm going to be A FOX. That ought to be worth a few laughs at my expense, even if I am a handsome man.
I just want to say that having to take care of myself has opened my eyes a little more. I already knew I was married to the greatest woman I ever could have hoped for, but she takes care of me, which is a big job in and of itself, and she keeps 5 kids mostly clean and usually out of trouble. I don't know where or what I'd be without her. She doesn't give herself a whole lot of credit, but she is really one amazing person, and I am the luckiest guy in the world to have her in my life. I am counting down the days until Thanksgiving, and I am excited to be able to provide a life for her that she has always deserved. I love you Jenn, you're awesome!
I'm not really supposed to post much about my new job, so I won't. I'll just say that I am getting along quite nicely, and I'm happy I came.
It's been rough being away from family, and I've been without internet for over a week until today. I'm really looking forward to video chatting with Jenn and the kids as soon as Jenn thinks about answering her phone.
I've been eating pretty healthy and I've lost quite a bit of weight.
I moved into my new apartment on my 11th anniversary, 8-14. Last year on 8-14 I was here in San Antonio taking the written test. I've missed my last 2 anniversaries, which means number 12 had better be pretty darned cool.
Anyways, I'm doing ok, and I might not be updating this much, since all I really do is work, and I can't blog about it. I'm on a strict diet, which means that eating at some of the cooler bbq places is kind of out of the question for a while.
I'm now in San Antonio, Texas. I've got a few days to prepare for the start of the fire academy on August 16.
On Saturday, the seven of us and Molly went to go see my Grandma in San Jacinto before I left California for good. We had a good time, the kids got more than too many stuffed animals, and we got chased by a pack of ducks.
These ducks were hoping for a handout and came right up to our golfcart. We went around their pond and they swam across to cut us off, still hoping for food. It was pretty hilarious watching them sprint-waddle up to us.
On Monday morning, I set out on a 2 day drive from Apple Valley to San Antonio. It's a total of 21 hours in a car. It was really really hard to leave, and it took a few hours for my red puffy eyes to get back to normal. I'm really going to miss my family, and my only hope in taking this job for now is that it will be worth the time I am spending away from them. I love all my kids and I love my lovely Jenn.
I drove through Lucerne Valley to Yucca Valley on the 18, and then down to Palm Springs on the 62. The rest of the trip was on I-10. Once I got across the Arizona state line I noticed that there were tons of highway patrol out. This wasn't meant to be a quick trip. The highways were pretty heavily patrolled until I made it to Texas.
In Tempe, I stopped at Chompie's, a New York style Deli that was featured on Man V. Food a few weeks ago. They had the big challenge that Adam ended up failing on the show, which is 12 Jewish Sliders in 30 minutes or less. A Jewish Slider is a delicious mini sandwich with a potato pancake, brisket, and jack cheese. I ordered 3 of them and downed them in 5 minutes. I think I might try for the T-Shirt and free meal next time I'm in the area as long as there are plenty of people there cheering me on. I don't think gorging myself all alone would be very fun. If I had driven through there on a Tuesday after 4pm I could have had all I could eat sliders and actually seen if 12 would be possible. Oh well.
I stopped by Grandma and Granddad Black's house in Mesa after I ate lunch. We had a nice chat, and I had a nice couch to sit on to give me a break from the car. Thanks for opening your home to me, I appreciated the break and the conversation. I hope I'll get to see you in November.
I drove to Tucson and stopped at El Guero Canelo, another Man V. Food restaurant. I had a Sonoran Style Hot Dog, which is a hot dog wrapped in bacon, and smothered with beans, mayo, jalapeño sauce, mustard, onions and tomatos. There is a lot of love in that soft bun for $2.39. I'm glad I made the small detour, it was probably the best hot dog I've ever had (by that I mean the best way I've ever eaten a run of the mill "Farmer John" style wiener, obviously kosher all beef franks or brats are better tasting sausages, imagine what a Sonoran style brat would be like...).
Normally I would have taken pictures of my famous food, but Jenn kept my camera in California. I guess I'll just have to go back :)
I stayed in Las Cruces on Monday night, woke up somewhat early and began driving the last 9 hours to San Antonio. As I drove through El Paso, the Mexican border was so close in one spot that I could see over the river border into Ciudad Juarez, and there was a hill covered in shacks. It's amazing how different life must be across the street.
There weren't any more foodie places to eat on the border towns along I-10. I was surprised with the scenery of West Texas. I guess the western part of the state up until about San Antonio is known as Hill Country. It was pretty. The hills were rolling, giving variety to the road, and the sky was vibrant blue with a multitude of puffy white clouds. I remembered that I do have a camera on my phone, but I don't have the capability as of yet to get the pictures off of it and on to my computer, plus, it's 1.3 megapixels and probably really blurry.
I got to my hotel at about 6:30 and now I'm here. I guess I'll write more when I have more to say.
Here's a crappy cell phone picture of the view from my car.
Last night, Grant treated Emery, Cam, Addie, Bailey, Molly, Ceri and I to a Mavericks game on Ebmeyer Charter Munchie Monday. Nachos, hamburgers and small sodas were a buck each. I think I won the most food downed award with 4 orders of nachos, 3 burgers and 3 drinks. Cam had 3 burgers and a nachos, Bailey had 2 nachos and 2 burgers, Addie ate 2 nachos and a burger. Emery picked at some nachos, but finished a whole burger.
The game was a blowout. It was 16-3 66ers in the 5th inning. We left in the 7th inning when the score was 16-8. The game ended up a 17-11 loss for the Mavs. It was still a fun game though. They played stupid songs for the 66ers when they came to bat, one guy had "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" which was pretty funny. They had a promotion where one of the 66ers had to strike out in order for the fans to get $1 beer. The kids got to run across the outfield chasing Wooly Bully in the middle of the 5th inning. After the run, Bailey, Addie and Cam all got him to sign their hands. Emery was mortified whenever the mascot was around. Emery had a great time when Wooly Bully wasn't around, and shook her stuff to the music in between innings.
Brad Ebmeyer was there, and I was talking to him while putting stuff on burgers and nachos. I lost track of which nachos were mine and ended up putting jalapeños on his nachos as well, which he no longer wanted. I'm sorry Brad :)
We all had a pretty good time, I hadn't been to a kooky single A game for probably 15 years.
We're going through a bunch of stuff getting ready to move. Jenn found these old coloring books that we let the kids color in at church. She said that she didn't order these books specifically, that they came in a large cheap package deal. The bookstore must have been dying to get rid of them.
I tried to describe them before posting the pictures, but my words won't do them justice.
Balding kids, bearded kids, mustachioed kids, and kids in jail. It's amazing these books couldn't sell on their own. I don't think you need to turn Paul into a child to get kids to color him in. If you're going to turn biblical prophets and apostles into kids, at least don't make them mutants.
I've had the chance to meet quite a few people in the last few weeks. Most have been very cooperative, a few have been a bit paranoid about how the information would be used, but until today, I hadn't run into the scum of the earth.
Last week at about 1:30pm, I was knocking doors, and saw a man loading a car out in front of a house that was on my list. I told him who I was, and asked him if he had a moment to answer a few questions. He told me "Not now, come back tomorrow, but earlier" I asked if noon would work for him, and he told me 1:00. I went back the next day right at 1:00 and no one was there.
I finally made it through my area today, and I started going back through all the houses that didn't answer their doors the first time around. As I was walking down the other side of the street, I recognized that man from a week ago, and called out to him. I apologized that I had missed him the previous week, and asked him if he had a moment to help me fill out my form. He got annoyed, told me that he had already filled it out, and what he wanted to do was show me the form that he had already filled in but forgot to mail. I explained that if the mailed form doesn't make it in on time, I am required to fill out a form with them. He started yelling that that was not what he and I had agreed to do, and that I needed to get the hell out of there. He said a few more choice words, told me that I had better leave, insulted me as I walked to my car, and demanded that I come back to him to take a flyer I had left at his door. When I continued walking to my car, he screamed at me, crumbled up my paper, and threw it in my direction. I just kind of laughed to myself in my car as I drove away. I don't know what would cause someone to blow up over something as trivial as the census, maybe a census worker ran over his dog.
Anyways, I'll have to get his information from a neighbor, at least the number of people who live there. I have a feeling he's there alone.
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