ALIEN ROBOT SPIDER ATTACK

June has ushered in a whole new hunting experience for me. This all started after a late night party ended. We were toasted so my non-drinking neighbor was handlin the wheel. Me and my partner in crime were deep in a conversation about some song that was played at the party. That's when we noticed a giant crab creeping across the street. We hollered at the driver to stop so we could inspect and somehow this inspection turned into a capture when I hollered "get em!" it's crazy how the mob mentality kicks in without question once you toss back a few. Either way we rustled the crab into a bucket and tossed it in the trunk. We were on our merry way and discussing how he could be bait, or if it was edible. Needless to say we forgot the crab in the trunk and did not remember until late the next day. The same accomplice from the capture was sitting in the car as I ran back in my room to grab my MP3 player. When I came back he was yapping about an iguana climbing on the car or under it. I got out and looked around the car and didn't see anything so he explained that something was scratchin around on the side of the car. That's when it clicked...THE CRAB!!! We stepped around the back of the car like we had a mobster in the trunk and slowly lifted the lid. Those crabs are much faster and stronger than they appear. We slowly lifted the lid and stared around tentatively. No crab in sight! So we poked around slowly in the trunk. Still no crab! At this point I thought my buddy was drunker than I thought that night and still may have been feeling the effects so I dismissed the whole thing with the idea that he probably dropped the crab before it made it in the trunk, and he just was trippin in the car. Well...a week later I heard some scratching in the car and I know I was not trippin or drinkin. I popped the trunk again and then looked through the whole car thoroughly. Still no crab! Now we were both trippin and talking about the ghost Houdini crab that escaped from the trunk. Looking closely there were a few spots where the crab could have pushed through into the car. The next day as I drove from work the crab crawled sideways from under the seat with both claws up and waiving menacing peace signs at me. I almost sh!t myself. These crabs are not the nicest looking crabs in the world and they also bear a very close resemblance to alien robot spiders. It is hot as hell in Cuba and even hotter in my closed car. These crabs are tough as hell!! I looked these crabs up and found out they are edible and the only thing I need to do is feed them cornmeal and fruit for about a week to purge out all the crap they've eaten prior. They are actually a big food item in St John. So the hunt was on... we found out they freeze in place when you shine a bright light on them and the male crabs have a giant pincher that they use to fight and flip other males. The females are the really pinchy ones. That giant claw is more for show than purpose, they actually slow the males down a lot. But the females have two smaller claws that they weld with the dexterity of a shaolin ninja. We decided to do drive by body snatchin missions on a particularly rainy night. We'd spot em from the car, hop out with a towel and a bucket. The easiest way to catch em was to toss the towel on the big claw and grab the crab from behind while keeping the claws occupied with the towel. We got more than a few dirty looks from passing drivers. The natives always laugh at us mainlanders. I didn't care. Now I have a cooler full of crabs that are strong and noisy as hell. They sh!t all over the place and I have to dip them in water at least once every two days so they can hydrate their gills. It seems as if they all syncronize escape efforts at midnight every night. I'll be sleep then I'd see claws and legs reaching out through the makeshift cage I made to go over the cooler. They make sooooooo much noise! It sounds like a 6 pack decided to do squat thrusts in my cooler. I'm thinking about making a pen outside for these guys...I utilized my CRABHAWK again and caught up a whole mess of blue crabs. I added the pic but they went straight to the pot after that shot. I can't wait until this weekend. I'm going to cook up their land cousins and report on the flavor...

May blues

I believe I will officially state that the fresh appeal of GTMO has worn off. I've backed off of the fishing a wee bit. No spectacular pics this time. I had the most fun ever actually catching crabs with this contraption called the crab hawk. It's like a crazy reverse mouse trap. The spring holds it open until you reel it up on your line. Everybody in my office bust out laughin when I pulled it out the envelope. I had to laugh too...I mean it is called the CRAB HAWK. My fishin partner was shrieking like a hawk the whole time I was explaining how it worked. When I got out on the water it was another story completely. We had all but given up on a few good fishing spots because we couldn't keep the crabs off the bait. That got my wheels turning and I started looking up crab pots and stumbled upon this thing. It was only $20 so I went ahead and bought it. It is kind of cheap looking but it made my day. We caught a whole mess of crabs. I figured that even if it broke today it still paid for itself in good times and the amount of crab caught would probably cost the same. That same day I finally caught a shark... two to be exact. Not quite Jaws but a good start. They were so small I just tossed em back. I'm still after that 200 pounder. I did catch a 5 ft eel that I could have sworn was a monster. Eels roll into a ball when you get them on the line. I just knew I had a massive beast coming in. I realized that a pretty streamlined fish can feel heavy as hell when it's rolled in a tight ball. I was happy though because I had only been catching bait sized snappers until that point.

Fishy Advisory

There have been substantiated reports of several missing fishes filed from the beginning of February through April. All fish are advised to stay at home and be especially wary of free food. Scientist have concluded that this phenomenon may be abductions by two legged aliens in floating saucers. They have not figured just how the abductions occur but they believe it has something to do with a "lucky hat" found at the scene of a recent homicide. This hat has been seen near the areas where the alleged disappearances have occured. There are also unsubstantiated reports of fish refusing to swim because they are paralyzed with fear. Fish of Guantanamo Bay are encouraged to know several large members of the species have escaped by the use of brute force. This method of escape is being investigated but is not considered viable because the aliens seem to have compensated and are abducting members of the fish race with renewed vigor in April. For the sake of your life all fish beware of the lucky hat...

The all nighter

Hello again. I started April out with a bang. I got a team together and we decided we would spend all night on the water. If you look at the pic you already know who the big fish award goes to. All in all we caught about 35lbs of fish for the upcoming fish fry. 20 lbs of that was my one lunker. Turns out fishing for snapper is alot like fishing for catfish. I read that they regularly eat crustaceans but I catch the big boys on fresh fish heads exclusively. I guess they get picky as they age. Catfish are the same way. You can catch a small cat on anything from soap to rotten corn but to get the lunkers fresh native fish is the way to go. I'm still formulating a plan to catch jaws. Since they are supposedly able to detect one drop of blood in a million gallons of water you'd think that was an easy task. I have put all types of chum in the water with no luck yet for my toothy foe. I have to specialize and go out by myself to play the wait game with the sharks. So far I haven't found a fishing partner that patient yet. I have limited time here in Cuba so I'll keep my lines wet as much as possible for the next few months...

2nd GTMO Lunker

It was another one of those nights. Can't sleep went fishin. I traded in my G-ride for a heavy Chevy. At least now if I wanted to I can go more than 23 mph. Either way I took my new used ride out to the pier. Since I have windows and doors now it makes it a little harder rollin out but I figured a way to get my 7ft rods in the car. I just roll down the window and stick em in that way. Either way I got out and the fish just weren't biting. I was trying my hand at artificials but they were not havin any of it. So I went to my old fallback (natural bait). I found out that these little rock hard animals stuck to rocks make damn good bait for little fish. You have to pry them up with a knife though otherwise you'll have no luck detaching them. I looked them up and they are called copepods. Also another good bait is sea snails.You can find them crawling over rocks too. They pop up easy though, no tools required. The only thing is with the snails they are hard as hell. You'll need some wide grip pliers and a slab of concrete to get them out that shell. Once you pry the copepods up you can cut them out of the shell kind of like scooping out an avacado. I put my loadof escargot on a small hook and jigged around some rocks I could see from the shore. Then of course I got my first bite. I pulled in a little nipper called a squirrelfish. Now I had some real bait!. Of course I pulled out the Lunker buster and tossed the whole fish out far into the surf. After about an hour of reeling in and tossing in different spots I figure the big boys wouldn't come in this close to shore due to the humongous lights above. So I relocated to a different spot at another beach. My little bait fish had been beat the hell up and he was no good as live bait anymore so I cut him up into four chunks. The best part to use first is always the head. The head pumps out the most blood on a fish since the gills heart and most of the viscera is tucked right behind it. SO I tossed the head out into the surf and took the next cut and tossed it out a little further down the beach. What's cool about this spot is the locals have set up pvc rod holders jammed in the rocks. Now I don't have to worry about my rod flying into the ocean like before. After a little wait the fellow in the cooler lit into my little rod. He didn't put up much of a fight though. A couple of runs and a few head fakes then a hard lug in. I knew he was big from the feel of the rod but he came in easy. After that the crabs destroyed the rest of the cut bait. The head is also good for them too. They can't munch through the head like the rest of the soft flesh. I loaded this guy up and headed in. I didn't weigh him but he felt like a solid 12 lbs. I'm now a certified threat on land and sea. All fish better beware because I'm still on the prowl...

March Madness

March has been full of firsts for me. I snorkeled in the ocean for the first time in my life. I made about five open water dives and I caught a lot of weird fish. One thing about saltwater. You can never guess what the hell u might catch or when u might catch it. I have included a few pics of the weirdness I have encountered here at GTMO. That fishy fellow hoppin out of the cooler was an especially funny story. I decided I wanted to go fishing. Nothing out of the ordinary. It just happened to be 1in the morning. I hopped out the bed with visions of fish dancin in my head. I had to catch the tide going out so I was in a rush. Needless to say I left a few crucial things. First of all, I forgot the ice. You never go fishing without a cooler of ice. It is one of the most useful things you can bring. It keeps your drinks and bait cold, and once you do catch some fish it keeps em fresh if you don't have a livewell. After about 3 mins in ice most fish(except catfish) pass out since they are cold blooded. Well either way I didn't have any ice. I also forgot a lot of important tools. Needle nose pliers (for plucking hooks out of toothy mouths), multi-tool (Gerber for us military folks), Kabar (for real ornery fish and anything else that goes bump at night) and nail clippers (quick snip fishin line). Well all of the above items are metal. All of my metal items happened to be drying off on the shelf. Saltwater does a number on metal so a good rinsing in fresh water and oiling needs to be done after every trip. Either way I left damn near everything I needed. Of course this night would be the night I needed all of those items. I broght my usual rods. The Lunker Buster (Penn Levelwind) and my bait fish yanker(light spinning rod). Well of course everything worked out bass ackwards. I caught a eater size snapper on my heavy rod. I learned before (the hard way)that fish tend to bite the hell out of you when you stick you fingers in to retrieve a hook. Since I was without tools I used what god gave me. I bit the line off (I know ewwww). Right as it popped loose my lil rod shot off the deck like a rock out of a sling shot. I made a sad attempt to grab it but it was gone in a blink. I had that moment; you know when you debate whether or not you feel like jumping in to get it. I probably would have but I didn't even see it. Whatever grabbed it took off in a big hurry. At that point I was pissed to the inth level of highest pissedivity. And then that fish had the nerves to get out in the surf and completed an aerial display to rival that of the Blue Angels. I just muttered under my breath things that I can't write. Well I had almost had enough fishin that night but I couldn't give up yet because out of four casts I had hooked into two fish in the span of thirty minutes. Any fisher will tell you thems is some damn good fishin odds. So I loaded up my Lunker buster and tossed it out past the waves. In about 5 mins I felt a faint tug. I figured damn another bait stealer cleaning off my hook. So I started reeling it in. The tugs didn't stop so I figured I caught a brave lil reef fish or somethin. I say he's brave because the hooks I put on the lunker buster are pretty big. They usually keep the lil nippers at bay and off that rod. Either way I reeled him in. Then a miracle happened. That wasn't a lil fish. I had snagged the line from my other rod. To make it even better it still had Mr Aerial Acrobatic Fish on the other end. I pulled it in and dragged the rod end out the water. Then the fight was on! That toothy feller in the cooler gave me a great show complete with airborne head fakes, tailwalking, and a couple of good runs. I pulled him in and that was enough action for one night. The next problem was getting that hook out of his mouth. One look at those teeth and I cut the line on that one too. I tossed him in the cooler and he got to thrashin around like a wild banshee. I figured I'd cool him off so I stopped by the ice machine on the way home. Nedless to say he did not appreciate the ice treatment. I had to snap a pic. That fish had been out of water at least 15 mins and he still wanted a piece of my finger. The next day I went out on the boat and caught the rest of the fish pictured. I got a new fishin bud. We are on the same wavelength when it comes to fishin. March has been fun. I also got my dive certification. My next class is underwater hunting (AKA spear fishing). You can't be a real angler until you hop in the water and beat a fish at his own game...

THE BEAST

24 Feb 2010

This will go down as the day I caught my first GTMO lunker. What's crazy is that I almost didn't even go. Sam was leaving Saturday and we had been talking about fishin since I came here. I was put on a maintenance detail on the other side of the island that was supposed to last 7 hrs. We started at 0830 and was headed back by 1030. You know what that means (Fishin time!) Just by chance I bumped into him at the ferry and it was on. We gave the fisherman’s shake and planned it out. We stayed on the water about three hours. The wind picked up a little so it was slightly choppy. He was catchin a couple of Lane Snappers intermittently but none of em were keeper size. I sat out there for 2.5 hrs with not so much as a nibble. I always say go big or go home so I had 5/0 circle hooks with a 100 lb wire leader 50 lb trilene line and all heavy duty snaps and swivels with a 2oz egg sinker. Basically a big-time Carolina bottom Rig. He caught one more of the lil ones and I was like "man give me that lil fish, he bout to be bait". I snipped his tail off and slid the hook in. Nothing brings the big boys in like fresh blood. I tossed it out on my big levelwind rod and let it sit. In the meantime I worked various spoons and jigs on my light action spinning rod. While I soak my bait I always work on my topwater skills. It's not like fishing is 100% action. Gotta pass the time some kinda way. We had about 20 mins to bring the boat back without a penalty fee. I had just said "lets pull the anchor and head back". No sooner than the words came out of my mouth the drag on my big rod started hollerin. I grabbed it and the fight was on. I thought I had a shark the way the line was peeling out even with the drag set high. I knew it had to be a monster. I loosened the drag because I thought the line might snap. He takes off like a torpedo again stripping about another 40 yards from my reel. It takes a bad ass fish to bend my power stick rod, but that rod doubled over like I caught a Volkswagen! I told Sam “shit I might run out of line!” My reel looked like it had about 50 yds of line left so I had to play hard ball. I started taking up line about 1 foot at a time. I had to slow him down so I set the drag a little tighter and tipped the rod to get him up out the deep. The longer he stayed down there the greater chance he had of entanglement. It took me about 25 minutes of yoyo wrestling with that fish to tire him out. He got up to the boat and we proclaimed in unison "shit, no net!" One look at that mouth armament and we decided lipping him wasn’t a good idea. So Sam reached out and grabbed him by the gills with a towel wrapped around his hand. Sam wrestled him in the boat and that fish was mad as hell. I thought he was tired but he got his second wind when we pulled him out the water. He flopped so hard I could swear it looked like a midget doin jumping jacks. It took another 10 mins to get him in the livewell. We got him to the Marina and we got big fish honors of the day. A little Filipino guy told us he’d fillet it for us if he could keep the head (said it makes a damn good soup). That sounded fine to me. Now all I have to do is figure out how to fry this fish when my only cooking utensils consist of a spoon and two plastic bowls…

8 March 2010 Been a while

I couldn't write for a while because my wi-fi decided to give up the ghost. Therefore I had to wait an entire month to get crappy expensive internet service. Seems like SCSI has cornered the market here so no amount of complaining will get those guys to improve the internet service. But I can get you up to speed in pics. I got my G ride (MULE), I think of it as my very own mini Hummer.It has a whopping V2 engine and tops out at about 23 mph. I be rollin hard like the G that I am. I also procured a brand new used celly (doesn't work more than half the time) and most importantly I caught my first Monster. This place has some sights to see and I fully intend on seeing all of em. and I'm workin my way around the island takin pics catchin fish and takin names. Feb was busy for me. I started my diving classes, verified my tackle strength on a beast and generally had a good ol time. Take a look at the pics and see for yourself. The capture of the beast will be in a separate blog because I wrote it but left it at work so I have to retrieve it and paste it in here. By the way that fish is in a blue full sized wheelbarrow...

2 Feb 2010 Aced the test

Took the test this morning and aced it. I'm still not done yet. There is a hands on driving portion I have to take in 2 days. I wish there was a accelerated course for folks that have experience. On the other hand it never hurts to brush up on the basics. You always think you know eveerything until somebody shows you a different way to do it. For anybody on the way in you can download the study guide and get a head start before you come down. The test is pretty easy if you are ok with a map and can recognize most flags used in the Navy. Went and picked up some tackle today. Talked with one of the locals and he said to use wire leaders instead of mono. You can catch some fish here that have a pretty good set of choppers so to keep the breakoffs to a minimum wire is the way to go. Still haven't picked up a rod yet. That Penn slammer I was eyeballing disappeared so I have to wait now. Should have went with my first mind...

31 Jan 2010

Day two was much better than the first. I got up when the light shined through the window (which was too late for breakfast). The galley (DFAC for us Army folks),from what I was told is the 2nd best in the world. I won’t say yes or no to that statement being true because I only ate dinner there. My other two meals I stuck with places I know very well. Can’t go wrong with Subway and Mickey Ds. I whipped out my little strip map bestowed upon me by my Navy amigo from the day prior. I did a little dead reckoning with my handy watch compass and figured out that I probably could leave the compass and go with terrain association. So I plotted a beeline to the NEX (Navy Exchange) and gave it a walk thru. I then realized that I did not feel up to hauling bags around all day so I strolled to the Dive shop. I was very disappointed to find out that the only fishing equipment the dive shop has is a spear gun. I don’t think I’ll mess with that just yet. The Marina looked pretty far away on my map so I decided to try the bus. Since I wanted to familiarize myself with GTMO I took the bus headed in the opposite direction from the dive shop so I would get a little tour in. When I got to the Marina I saw some nice skiffs and pontoons. I walked in and asked the guy what I needed to do to get rollin in one of em. He said “ye gwat te go tu der Liberr und git de stud gide” . I guess there is a test to take before I can get my license. Of course I whipped out my TX, NC, and SC license and he said “dat no guut ere”. So I planned a trip to the library later. You would be amazed to find how many Jamaicans are here at GTMO. I thought I would be seeing Cuban people everywhere and I would need to brush up on my spanglish to communicate. I guess I’ll have to learn Jamaican which I think is just a broken dialect of English. After snapping a few pics I had a seat on a bench and broke my brand spanking new camera with the humongous LCD screen by sitting on it. Now I see why it was on sale. Large LCD screens don’t take much abuse before they crack. All of the functions are viewed on the screen and I guess Kodak didn’t think you needed a viewfinder on a camera with such a huge screen. Now I’m stuck with it though. I figured out it still works I just can’t see what I’m shooting though. So if my pics look a little off center that is why. I just point and take a whole crap load of shots and hope one turns out right. I looked down the hill from the marina and figured it wasn’t that far from my room after all. A little walking never hurt anybody. Good thing it’s mostly downhill though. I’ll be riding the bus coming the other way because I think it will be a little different on the way back. Going down the hill I saw the Iguana crossing sign. I was wondering where they were. I hadn’t seen one yet. But on my stroll I discovered I just hadn’t been looking hard enough. They are actually everywhere. Being that they are green they tend to blend in with the grass but when you walk by and see the grass hop up and run you probably just spooked an Iguana. I heard they are pretty darn tasty fried or grilled but I don’t think I’ll experiment here due to the 10K fine for anyone that harasses or kills an Iguana. That would make one expensive meal. My day ended with me finally going to the NEX and picking up some running shoes since I left mine at home (duh). I have not worked up the will to run around yet but now I know that I can if I so decided (which is really the important thing). I also spotted a nice Penn baitcasting levelwind rod and reel combo. I was worried about the NEX not having real rods and only the usual stuff but I guess at a place like this you sell what sells the most. I didn’t see one Zebco 808 which is my rod of choice at the chain stores. It’s cheap sturdy and gets the job done. Just not for a very long time. I wanted to buy it on the spot but I’ll pace myself. Now I need to focus on finding a “real” fishing partner. That would have to be someone just as nutty as me when it comes to fishing. The kind of person whose only concern when coming to GTMO was how long it would take to get on the water. Well it looks like the Grammys are on and I see Beyonce wigglin around on the stage so I gotta end this one so I can glue my eyeballs to the TV for awhile.

30 Jan 2010

My 1st day in Cuba was pretty hectic. I’ll just say you should make it priority number 1 make sure somebody knows that you are coming. You just might end up feeling a little orphaned in a foreign country if not. Good thing I have an extra loud voice and most people can hear me complaining all the way down halls. I just happened to meet a Navy good Samaritan at the terminal who conveniently had a truck, because 3 duffel bags full of the heavy @ss gear is pretty hard to drag down a mountain and swim across a channel with , which is just what I would have had to do if he had not shown up. I had a warm and fuzzy feeling about things once I got the low down from him about all of the cool things that Gtmo has to offer. I’ll try to take them one by one as I experience them so we can all get the GTMO experience at the same time. I don’t any shots because I was too busy trying not to end up spending the night in the jungle to take pics.

29 Jan 2010 Escape to Guantanamo Bay

Ever heard of the Movie "Harold and Kumar's escape from Guantanamo Bay? Well I never thought I would be fighting to get TO Guantanamo Bay. CRC is at best a horrible experience for all involved. Man that place is an equal opportunity employer for the non deployed, broke, and incompetent of the US Army. If idiocracy had a minority Ft Benning has utilized affirmative action to the utmost extent. I have to digress from my usual witty fishy banter for a moment to recognize the triumphant failures of common sense in this place. Of course I can't divulge any great military secrets, or share any classified info (my job's not that important anyway)but I can definitely take pause to reflect on my experience at the Conus Replacement Center. I don't even know where to start. Must be the effects from the PTSD I incurred while assigned to that place. Truth be told I've been in Iraq with mortars falling like rain but this experience has taken a toll on my nerves. I guess I'll start with the Cadre. It seems as if the job requirement is that you must have a combination of, or one significant area of expertise in the following areas: Overweightness, rudeness, ignorance, incompetency, lack of ever deploying, or all of the above. I don't fault the cadre because it seems as if the job may have been forced upon them as a cruel joke. Who else would assign individuals to a location where they would have to deal with retired and active senior officers, NCOs, DOD Civilians/Contractors on the way to deployments, (if you didn't know Senior Officers and Enlisted are quite critical of everything by design)when they obviously are seriously ill equipped for the job.
It's as if the assignment gods decided that since these people can't, won't or just have never deployed we are going to make them deploy by association. As a customer service subject matter expert myself I can attest to the facts that the odds are overwhelming against them to think that they will be able to handle that kind of mission. I even made new friends here. Anybody knows that suffering through hard times together brings people closer. I made four new BEST friends. We call ourselves the disgruntleds. I know if a few more hours would have passed there could have been a postal situation (we would have wrote home about our problems LOL. It may even be a training technique designed to reduce your nervousness about your upcoming deployment. I have never in my life met so many people that can't wait to go put themselves in harms way. I asked one of my fellow disgruntleds and he said "I'll go anywhere and do anything as long as I can escape this hell hole" (btw he's going to Afghanistan to fight the War on Terror. Most likely he'll be enduring extreme freezing conditions, firefights, IEDs, and a whole gammut of other unpleasant things.) I won't really get into the details of what happened but lets just say I'm always right. I'm not the type of person to say "I told you so" (I just let you know before we disagree). I could go on but I'm just glad I escaped...

24 Jan 2010 Survivng CRC

First I have to give a shout out to my peeps. I was just playing about only missin my boat. I miss my number 1 fishing partner (miss Olivia) and my future getthenet tech (Fatboy), and last but not least the Commanding General of all nonfishing activities (Misses). CRC is hurryupandwait at it's finest. I won't complain much though because I have definitely seen worse. The rooms aren't that bad. It's just 4 to a room and the mild scent of feet and Fritos wafts gently through the air. You hardly even notice. My only complaint was one of my roommates (whom I have yet to identify)turned the heat up to the hell setting. I had to break down and tell em "sh*t it's hot as f**k in here!" I guess everyone agreed because no one complained as I turned it down. I think it has been on the same setting the whole time and no one wanted to change it so we all just roasted in silence until my courageous intervention. I felt a great sense of accomplishment after vanquishing the heat monster. The next day was death by powerpoint until lunch time, after lunch they played an amateur video with shots of various people going through different stations set to an epic movie ballad. The music was so suspenseful and I awaited in awe for a great action sequence or explosion to take place but the screen only showed soldiers and contractors gripping and grinnin and going about there day in a exceedingly normal fashion. I never understand why people believe a video will be great if you replace the sound with music contradictory to the actions on the screen. Of course I had to make a little time for my addiction. I have tucked a few fishing magazines under my pillow for some late night fun. I can't wait...

20 Jan 2010 I miss her already

Well most folks would think I had a death in the family. I knew this time would come. I just was not ready to separate. Today has been the hardest yet. Sometimes I wonder is it worth it. This job is separating me from the love of my life. It's been hard watching her go off with another man. I sure hopes he takes care of her the way I did. She is awesome. I can hear her voice, that deep growl at the crack of dawn. We wake up the neighbors regularly with all the ruckus in the wee hours of the morn. I'll miss tucking her in and buckling down her covers on cold nights. The way she glowed in the morning sun. I would catch guys staring at her with envy in their eyes as we passed by thinking "where did he find her?" A lot of old guys would just wink with the tip of a hat and I'd know they wish they were young enough to be in my position. I'll be ok, I keep telling myself it's just a few months. Being absent will make the heart grow fonder. I sure hope that's true. All I have is these pictures to remind me of her beauty while I'm gone. Man I'll miss that boat...

10 Jan 2010 Planning

I told my folks I'd be leaving soon. I guess if you have to deploy this is the place to go. Seems like GTMO is a lovely place (outside the prison). I'll have to judge that for myself when I get there. I'm debating if I should bring my own fishin rod or get a new one at the local shop there. If the local PX/Sports store is anything like the ones here in the states there will be a limited selection of rods. I also don't know how quick the mail gets delivered over there so I better take care of this before I roll out. From what I've read everything comes in on a barge. So that is priority number one. I'll handle the small stuff like Power of Attorneys for the Misses and updating my last will and testament later. Old Fidel might get it in his head to knock me off. Gotta make sure that will is updated. I can't wait, I got visions of tarpon, snook, and barracuda swimming in my head. Maybe I'll even catch ole Jaws himself. GTMO here I come!