It's that time again

Wow... I don't think I've gone that many days without blogging since I started blogging almost eleven months ago. We've been a little busy. You see, it's that time again...


Today the packers came and packed about half of the first floor of our house into cardboard boxes. Actually, I need to correct myself. The packeR came. Yes, they only sent ONE packer. At least he was a young and energetic guy. [Flashback: When we were moving out of housing in Monterey, CA, they sent ONE packer who was like 85 years old and moved about as fast as ES getting out of bed on a school day. That was the beginning of a very BAD moving experience for us.] Our packer today was pretty efficient and got the front room, play room, and family room packed. He still has the kitchen, laundry room, and garage to go on the first floor. Methinks they're going to need a least ONE more packer to come if they're going to get the three bedrooms and two bathrooms done upstairs in time to load the truck on Friday. [Update: Our packer just left for the day, and he said they're brining 4 packers tomorrow. That should do.]

The timing worked out pretty well. The estimated date of delivery for our HHG (household goods) in Virginia is the same day we expect to arrive in Virginia at the end of September. Good thing we finally got orders and scheduled our HHG shipment when we did, eh?

Yesterday we took LW's car to the Matson terminal. The Navy only pays to ship one car for us. Just before we leave the island, we're going to use the Navy's dime to ship my car to Baltimore. For now, we're paying $1,072 out of pocket to ship LW's car to Seattle. [Aside for anyone else planning on doing this: The Matson commericial office is right next door to the Military Vehicle Processing Center (VPC), you go down the same driveway.]

So we're now a single car family. LW needs the car to take the boys to school, so I am riding my bike to work for the rest of our time in Hawaii. It's not too bad. It's only 4 miles from our house to the barge in the shipyard. It'll be good exercise for me, and with the way the afternoon traffic gets around here, I'll probably make it home faster than driving my car.

We've got plane reservations to fly off the island to Portland, Oregon on 9 September. We'll drive across country from there, and the Navy will pay us mileage and a daily allowance for food and lodging. The SATO people (military travel agents) were pretty quick. I turned in my transfer package on Friday and received my travel reservations on Tuesday, and we received exactly the flight we had asked for.

It's kind of weird thinking about the fact that we've been in Hawaii for over a year already. Where has the time gone???

One year and two days ago, the Mighty MSP arrived in Pearl Harbor.

Reunion on the Pier
This photo marked the end of 10 months
of living apart from my family as a geo-bachelor.

One of my favorite photos of the Mighty MSP in Hawaii.
22 August 2007

It doesn't seem like that long ago that we were a sea-going submarine. In between our arrival in Pearl Harbor and our entry into the drydock for decom in December, we had several short underway periods to participate in exercises off the coast. I feel like I've had two tours of duty on the MSP now, just because being on a sea-going boat is so different from being on a boat in the shipyard. It was more fun when we were going to sea, but we have enjoyed the fact that being in the shipyard equates to more time with our families.

Back on the topic of PCS Moves... ES is 7 years old. When we arrive in Virginia, we will be moving into his 6th house. LW keeps saying someday she would really like to have a move that is NOT all the way across country. Since we got married, we went from Groton to Monterey to Groton to San Diego to DC to Pearl Harbor and now back to DC again.