Rainy day update

Hello hello,

It is a day full of clouds and periodic drips. Ah, Japan is a grab bag of quirks, and as it is with any new adventure, knees get skinned. We are doing pretty well. I have been here a little over a month, Maggs a bit under, and taking strides to make our icebox of a house homey. It is funny; we can get a cell phone that will double as a shaver, but still wake up in a fog of our own making. It seems that this island full of little people fail to value the need for insulation. Yesterday morning I checked our indoor thermometer and was taunted with a 38-degree greeting. Not the end of the world, but it does make it that much more difficult to get out of bed in the morning. We are taking Japanese classes once a week, and are also learning how to cook without an oven. We have a wok and a stovetop….we are yet to go hungry. For all of you who have lived on a base, or grew up in a military household, you know the perks of base life. The creature comforts of stateside life are all available at the commissary and usually at a fraction of the cost. We have a gym to work out in with an Olympic sized pool (oddly enough on the second floor), and a full weight room/machine room where you can sweat under watchful eyes coming out of your own flat screen. If woodworking is your thing we can use the base's tool room full of the newest line of Home Depot's finest. Maggie has already gone in with plans of furnishing our place with shelves and bookcases of her making. So when all of you come over for a visit, you will surely be wowed by her creations.
As for work, my diving career began in fifth gear. I pretty much climbed right off of the tarmac and onto our dive barge. We worked right through Christmas, diving mostly on battle ships. I have been in the water twice. Distilled down, I am an underwater janitor. You can check the PLU records, but I would say with an archer’s accuracy, that I am the first one to use my History degree in this way. The Navy contracts us to clean the props, routers and running gear. Occasionally we run what I call an underwater Zamboni over the hull to get rid of hard-shelled sea critters. But the Zamboni is not put in the water all that frequently due to the fact that it is a pain to move it around. The ships go into dry dock for all of their big maintenances. Because of this, it is important that the running gear is sparkly clean when these giants come out for all eyes to see. Our cleaning has practical purposes too. Clean running gear makes the ships that much more stealth-like for when they are out at sea. Truth be told, it is pretty awesome being under an 1100 foot boat. The Kitty Hawk has four 27-foot props with edges that you would not want to cuddle up to. Yes, the water is chilly, and no, the visibility is not so good. But I like the challenge, and it allows us to live abroad for a year or two.
Unfortunately though, our diving has gone from fifth to first. And yes, that’s been as jarring as it sounds. We were given 10 days off for working on Christmas. I would have been happy with the steak lunch that we barbequed in-between our morning and afternoon Christmas dive, but the vacation was nice too. Now we are working half days and waiting for the next ship to come into port. I am sure that a year from now I will welcome the short days. But now I am itching to keep busy.
All right, my fingers getting as tired as your eyes, so I will leave the rest for another blog blurb. I hope all of you are doing well…know you are missed. Do us a favor and turn up the heat in your homes a degree or two for us. Right now we are opening the fridge in order to warm our hands.