It has been more than two weeks since I last posted on the blog. There is a remarkable difference between being at sea and on shore when it comes to writing. The period after returning to Seattle consisted of readjustments, doctor’s appointment and getting back in the groove at the office. Doctor’s appointments results so far is good news after last months bleeding with one more test to go. I have not made a firm commitment to the Samoa trip due to these tests and waiting for results. My mind alternates to wanting to go and not. I told the command on the Ka’imimoana that I would join them but overlooked my scheduled doctor’s appointment.
Readjustment consisted of everything from the weather, reuniting with L to daily activities at the office. In all honesty, I do not know if I can sit in the office day in and day out, week after week and year after year. I miss getting underway; feel the rocking and rolling of the ship on open seas and the next port call. The best part of the 40-hour office environment is going home to the wife and weekend with the kids. What part of readjustment is there since I did not return from combat and not exactly in a military environment? It is just getting back into the routine that I left several months back. When I lived alone, I recall my calendars were left to the month I left and if it were a long tour, it would be nearly six to seven months behind. Sleep is probably the major adjustment I encounter. Sometimes I do not get to sleep until three or four in the morning. I am grateful to have shore and use or lose leave built up. There is sick leave but reserve it for doctor’s appointments and in case I go under the knife again like I did six years ago. When I was in the Navy, readjustment was a big topic especially for sailors who returned from sea after six months deployment in the Western Pacific. The Iranian Hostage Crisis extended many deployments to nearly nine months to a year. Unlike the Navy though, there are no programs in NOAA to help personnel with readjustments. The agency does provide employees with counselor contractors but issues are all lumped in one basket, very few if any counselors have personal experience with separation endured from life at sea while the one-shoe fits all mentality prevails.
I attended class this week before Thanksgiving. I thought of riding the bus to downtown Seattle but changed my mind when told the school will validate parking and I can get home in 30 minutes during peak rush hours. The bus consists of one-hour trip each way at $3.50 a trip! Thirty-five unreimbursed dollars will buy me a tank of gas every ten days or so. Not much of a bargain or an incentive to use public transportation. My preference for such would be light rail or subway. The last two sessions will be in Bellevue so that will consist of driving.
When we move to Newport Oregon, it is going to be interesting to see how they will conduct training. I am sure there will be orders cut, per diems allocated and airline tickets or mileage paid to get us there. I am not opposed to the move to Newport but in my opinion, it certainly will not save NOAA any money. I am sure it will be tele-video or on-line and that route encouraged as furthering justifying the frivolous move. I am not a fan of self-paced on line courses as I learn very little from it but again I am not pursuing a certificate either. You think training scenario may be interesting, wait until Hawaii-based ETs have to fly from Newport to Honolulu. Providing the city subsidized airline still flies to Portland in 2011. It was not wise selection strategically and logistically but someone will win praises and accolades to enhance their career. It is a nice small town and I will not disparage it. It will be home for us until retirement arrives. When L and I visited Newport last August on our way back from San Francisco, the people were very friendly and we could not buy ourselves a soda. We may not live in Newport but elsewhere in other nearby communities. Nevertheless, I am not going to jump to conclusions and start looking for a place in Oregon because who knows what the situation will be like come July 2011. The new facilities may not even be done or if so, not fit to our specs but signed off by some eager bureaucrat wanting to tell the higher ups that everything is done. I have been working for Uncle Sam too long and know better. You take it one day at a time. There are many things in Newport that pertain to us exclusively that are not available on a large scale or minute details that are overlooked when others determine your fate for you. These include ethnic grocery stores and restaurants as well as available interpreters at the hospital. L and I are starting application to bring her son to America.
We do have concern about public schools in Newport as one elementary school was shutdown and Oregon appears to have problems funding their public schools in rural areas. The public school epidemic is nationwide. State of Oregon kicked in 19 million dollars to help lure NOAA to Newport. I am wondering if there are Newport citizens thinking the 19 million should have been spent to improve or keep their local school open. In addition, there will be few if any kids that look like her son or have anything in common with him. Much like his mother, his new friends may not be from the same part of the world but being an immigrant in this country is one thing they have in common and a friendship will endure. One of the options L and I were talking about was home schooling him. It appears when the selection committee voted to choose Newport, diversity and multiculturalism was the least of their concerns. We will have to make it, search for what we need while spending much time and money at Mai’s Asian Store. Mai has offered to help us and use her connections.
One major item that Newport has over Seattle is the availability of fresh fish at a low price. Tuna purchased directly off the boat! We bought an 18-pound tuna for $36! We can find the same tuna in Seattle, though not as fresh and prices are from fifteen to twenty dollars a pound!
It is nice going back to ethnic grocery stores in the Seattle area. I went back to the usual stores in downtown, Rainier Beach, and Georgetown districts. We have those in Edmonds and Lynnwood too! Uwajimaya in downtown Seattle is a large Japanese supermarket that offers Asian foods as well as goods and Japanese books and music. On King Street is Fuu Liin, a Chinese osoba (noodle) restaurant that has the best ramen and fried rice on the West Coast. The store in Rainier Beach, Vegetable Bin, is a small Polynesian Deli where L buys her taro and various Samoan items. Georgetown is home to Maruta Shoten, a real Japanese grocery store with a deli consisting of the best sushi deli in town. I buy items there that Uwajimaya seem to have forgotten or overlooked. Because of its authenticity of a grocery store I would find in Japan, I make an extra effort to go there as well as supporting smaller mom and pop businesses, which is disappearing in mainstream America. It is happening in the ethnic communities as well as you see large Asian supermarkets but I have to hand it to them. Ranch 99 grocery chain took over a dilapidated empty K-mart mall and turned it into a thriving business center for the Asian and immigrant community. H-mart, a large Korean grocery chain, took over an abandoned Mervyn’s and turned it into an Asian mall along with its large department store like supermarket and soft goods retail outlet. We usually get items not available in smaller stores. Nevertheless, I am grateful that businesses are willing to take the risk and build up what could be deteriorating situations, make it successful, and maintain qualities to the neighborhoods. There is a section in Edmonds that is “Koreantown.” When you drive along a stretch of Highway 99, majority of the marquees are in Korean or Chinese.
Thanksgiving was uneventful as our original plans fell through and we made Samoan Oka, which is a Samoan form of sashimi. It was delicious and on Friday, Black Friday that is, L, and I went to the Navy Exchange and did Christmas shopping for ourselves. We bought ourselves a Nintendo Wii along with the Beatles Rock Band set. If not for the Beatles Rock Band, I probably would have never considered buying a game console despite Nintendo Wii’s popularity with the older generation. L and I were up until two in the morning playing bowling, baseball and hitting soccer balls with our heads. So now, we have a Ninetendo Wii, Wii Fitness board along with the Beatles Rock Band including Ringo’s drums and Paul’s Hofner bass. Most of the younger folks would probably view it as a “geezer” set. Do not count us old ones out yet, remember long before many members of the “Nintendo Generation” were born, there were Donkey Kong, Tempest, and Missile Command along with unforgettable classics like Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-man. I was cool back in the 80’s as we had a Colecovision as the ex and I played Zaxxon until wee hours of the morning. It replaced the Coleco Pong game and I no longer needed to borrow my younger brother’s Atari 2600 or play Centipede with him on his brand new 5200! Before the Wii, I remember shooting ducks or guiding Mario with the NES system. L had much fun, as this was her first full exposure to the video game world aside from watching her stepson blow up zombies on his Xbox 360 and reluctantly allowing her son to play video games with my son in Apia several years ago.
Her participation of “Black Friday,” buying nice clothes, jewelry, and watch showed me the “Americanization of L.” I used to boycott that day but she wanted to see the insanity for herself.
Yesterday, November 27, I met L that night in Pago Pago, American Samoa seven years ago. What a long strange trip it has been, but a wonderful and unforgettable one. I am looking forward to more years with her.
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