..and He returns

[americanineu]

Wow, I don't update *nearly* enough these days! A lot of it is not having a home phone, ergo an internet connection.. (which will *theoretically* change in a month or month&1/2) So much has happened.. As you know, My car crapped out right before going to Italy.. I was pedaling My bike around Brunssum/Hoensbroek/Schinnen for a while, but it was getting FAR too cold for that- especially at 5am, when I go in for PT (more about that shortly).. so I bought Myself another beater.. 210 euro, which is about 260 dollars. It's a Nissan Micra-- 1986!!! Eighteen bastard years old!! But it got a fresh APK inspection the day before I bought it, so aside from a squeaky steering wheel, a hood that doesn't like to open, and a slightly surprising oil leak somewhere around the oil pan, it's just fine.. of course the cassette deck doesnt work, and the radio portion only gets one station (BFBS, which is what I listen to anyway) in clear weather in the right parts of town.. But I've got My cd discman and little speakers for the other times, so I'm content! I'm no longer the only American in My section, but it's ok, because one is an Air Force guy, and the only other Army guy is one I outrank. Anyway.. about PT.. I *somehow* managed to sleep through a scheduled PT test.. so as punishment for that I am giving "remedial" PT to the people who failed PT tests.. the bad part is it's 4 days a week at 0530am.. plus the usual Monday 0600am PT with the company, so I'm doing PT 5 days a week with far less sleep than before. My own fault, so c'est la vie. Also, because of this, I was considered a "PT failure". This means that I have to take diagnostic PT tests weekly (pt tests that just dont count officially) and a record PT test after 6 weeks.. I also had to take a PT test today (Friday) and the worst part is that I *had* to intentionally miss the run by a few seconds.. because: pt "failures" (cough-cough) should be showing improvement up to the actual record test.. in other words, if I exceeded in My diagnostic today, but then passed the record by only a few points, it wouldnt look good and hence I would still remain "flagged". Ehh.. whatever. I coasted in as late as I could, but even then I almost passed the run.. Anyway, I'll update more Monday hopefully, so I'll talk to you guys soon!

always,
Tom

(love and miss you pet!!)