Thankful for free stuff and accommodating mules

The 50-Acre Sandbox scores

Happy Thanksgiving from the 100-Acre Sandbox! We have a continual revolving door of people here, and there’s a limited amount of stuff we can take with us. As a result, when people leave, they tend to unload stuff. Many of the people come who come in with a whole bunch of food and stuff never wind up eating it because the cafeteria has so much. Since we’re not allowed to pack out food, a lot of it winds up on the free table. There’s one of those on each floor of each apartment building.

The free table’s not limited to food, but anything a person might want to unload. Beyond food, the most common items are books and cleaning supplies. I scored three bottles of Clorox bathroom cleaner and a couple James Patterson books recently. I’ve also scored a cooler, a couple big storage bins and an amazing drying rack. The latter’s been an awesome find and I really hope I can take it with me when I leave, but I suspect the reason it was left on the free table was that it doesn’t fit in the shipping containers.

One of my teammates left a couple weeks ago and I grabbed a bag of stuffing and French’s Onion Crisps  to put on top of green bean casserole. I knew Thanksgiving was coming up and for whatever warped reason, I thought I might use them. That was stupid because our cafeteria makes an awesome Thanksgiving meal. Fortunately, I recognized a couple days ago that I wasn’t going to use the stuff. I figured I’d give it away.

On Tuesday, I was at work and sent a note to a friend in our 50-Acre Sandbox a little farther north. They don’t have a cafeteria there and put on a potluck instead. During my first tour, I spent Christmas up there and made mashed potatoes, so I figured they’d be doing something fun. In messaging my friend, I mentioned that I’d thought about cooking and even had the crispy onions that go on top of the green bean casserole. She responded that she’s been shopping and had been unable to find them and their potluck was going to be crispy onion-less.

Well, we can’t have that! We have a regular flight between the sandboxes, and I know where to get the list of people taking that flight. I didn’t know any of them, but we’re all colleagues, so I picked one (there weren’t many!) and sent a note asking if I could send a little package through him. All I can say is we have awesome people here because he agreed. My friend had showed me a list of things they couldn’t find up there, and cranberry sauce was on it. Before I dropped off the package to the nice mule, I ran by the store and grabbed two cans of Ocean Spray cranberry sauce.

The community potluck in the 50-Acre Sandbox is no doubt thankful for their windfall, just as I am every time I find fun stuff on the free table.

I’m also thankful that I had an amazing Thanksgiving meal and didn’t have to cook or clean up. The cafeteria here, which seems to have its own supply from French’s and Ocean Spray, puts on quite an amazing spread. My Turkey Day lunch was salmon, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and, of course, turkey. So much that I didn’t even bother with the desserts, which, as I understand it, involved chocolate-covered strawberries. I’m debating going back for round two for dinner, but unless I get ravenously hungry in the next two hours, it’s not going to happen.

The only downside of having an amazing cafeteria to cook and serve food to you and then clean up is that there are no leftovers. Friday is the day for turkey sandwiches, but that doesn’t happen here. It’s a small price to pay, though, for all the good stuff we have.

Never ever have I been to Camp Lejeune

It’s almost three weeks since I returned to The 100-Acre Sandbox, and my countdown has officially begun. I am doing two tours here and arrived on September 15 last year, but because I took home leave in the middle (which I didn’t have to), I returned in late October. We have to say a full calendar year, but, because of transportation considerations, I did not leave right on that anniversary date. The next ride home was September 26 and that “bonus time” doesn’t count towards the second year, which instead begins the day I return. Then, those transportation considerations mean that although I touched down in the sandbox on October 19, 2022, I won’t leave until October 30, 2023. So now that we’ve made it into November, I’m officially down to less than a year. Considering I really never thought I’d be here for two years in the first place, it seems weird.

Most people who stay here for two years don’t like the second year as much as the first, for any one (or combination) of a variety of reasons. My plan is to buck the system and have a great year, but in some ways at the mercy of the sandbox gods on that. So far, though, all has gone according to plan. While I didn’t really think I’d finish two whole tours here – that was based on my experience from last time, not a desire to bounce out early – my first year was fantastic and the obstacles towards my next step are falling away. I got promoted, which made landing my hoped-for next post attainable and then I landed it. Can’t ask for more.

But you know what? Stuff I haven’t asked for is also falling my way. My onward is set now – I am going to Antananarivo, Madagascar to work in the HR section. This was the long-term plan set while I was in Minsk – I went to grad school (again) to get the degree so I’d be qualified to do it. That paid off, and, as an aside, I might not be paying it off: I took out a student loan to do it, knowing I would qualify for my employer’s tuition reimbursement program. By taking a rough post and promising to stay in my job for another three years, Uncle Sam promised to contribute $10k towards my tuition. I’d just gotten the note that was official when Biden also threw out his promise to cancel up to $20k in loans. My entire loan was only $13k, so if his plan gets through Congress, my remaining $3k should be covered. Too bad I can’t get the time back, too, but I’ll take the money.

While I will still need to go to the HR training my employer runs, it looks like it will time nicely for when I leave here, as in starting the very next week. Since I will also need to take French, starting the “tradecraft” classes before my home leave can set it up to where I can take a long break before starting French in February 2024 or so.  It is a long time in the future, and I am signing on for three years in Madagascar. Right now – on paper anyway – I know where I am supposed to be for the next five years. In this gig, that’s unreal.

Where I plan on being for the next year, at least when not at work, is on the pickleball court. We finally have both indoor and outdoor courts and a lot of people have come out to play, from all over the place. We have a lot of people from several different hiring mechanisms, like multiple federal agencies, security contracts, administrative contracts, facility-type contracts – and people from all come out to play. And different levels, too. We have cafeteria workers lining up against the ambassador. We’re all over the place.

One guy has spearheaded it. (Though it helps a lot that both the ambassador and the No. 2 are totally into it – and very good.) The guy organized our first tournament last weekend and we had 40 people participate as players and then we also had volunteer line judges. Others just came out to watch, too. It was really a fun night. I’m pretty bad as a player and my team didn’t win any of the four games we played, but it was wholly fun.

I had tried to sharpen my skills while on home leave, playing at the senior center with Zippy. That’s $2 well spent, that is for sure. I came close to buying my own paddle while there but held back, mostly because last time I was in the sandbox, I did a lot of boxing and subsequently bought boxing gloves, which have not been touched since I left here last time. I probably have a better chance of using a pickleball paddle again so I should look into that.

Home leave was mostly medical visits, but I also was able to attend my cousin’s wedding at the Biltmore. It was in a giant atrium and the colors were changing so it was beautiful. Bonus – I got to try on a Stanley Cup ring! My cousin’s new father-in-law had one from the Bruins’ 2011 championship. I asked how he’d gotten it and he said, “I made them a lot of money.”

So that (meaning the wedding, not just the Stanley Cup ring) capped a highlight of home leave. Another was visiting Latitude Margaritaville in Watersound, where I’ve been considering buying/building for retirement.

The other home leave theme seemed to be Camp Lejeune. Seriously, what is up with this lawsuit, or whatever it is? I have no idea what TV station Zippy watches – the one with Gunsmoke, I guess – but I swear every half hour, there was a voice coming over asking me if I’d been in Camp Lejeune between 1953 and 1987. What the heck is this? I mean, ALL the time. And I had never heard of it.

Now that I am back, I am STILL getting hit with this stuff. My Microsoft email populates with an ad asking me the same thing – was I at Camp Lejeune? They’re not quite as annoying as election ads, but they are certainly as constant.

No, I was not at Camp Lejeune before 1987. I was at the Biltmore in Asheville in 2022, though. Now please stop annoying me!