Technical Difficulties

Sorry I have not posted since the very icky ladybug entry. A few things came up–I’ve been swamped trying to get ready for a little trip I’m taking soon (ah the logistics of single parenting!), Easter Bunny duties called, and as of a couple nights ago my hard drive suddenly, and with no warning whatsoever, bit the dust. That last part is the kicker. Funny thing is, last time K deployed, my computer died too. It’s like they know and like to toy with me, damn computers! Normally, the lack of computer is an inconvenience, but when you really only communicate via computer with your soldier, it becomes a bit more critical to have one available.

I’m currently using my kids’ computer which I’m grateful is available but just isn’t my own set up and so is uncomfortable to use. Luckily I backed up everything a little more than a month ago, so having the disk failure is not a total loss, but if my Apple go-to guy can’t recover my data, I’m still going to lose a bunch of files which makes me very sad. The nice thing is that because I purchased Apple Care when I bought my laptop, the new hard drive is free. I’m trying to avoid buying a new computer just yet, so I hope this all works. Everyone please cross their fingers that I’ll get everything back.

It’s going to be a few more days before I can post again, FYI. The kids and I are doing well and trying to enjoy the beautiful Spring weather through our collective allergies. Ah, balance, you are tricky. I hope everyone else is having a good start to their Spring! Take care and see you in a few days. Thanks for your patience.

Read Full Post »

Coming up for air

Did I mention that traditionally February kicks my ass? Sheesh. Sorry for the long break! The last few weeks have been the perfect storm of Winter blahs, kid wrangling, and freelancing mayhem. I had three jobs come together all at once (which I usually try to avoid like a trip to Chuck E. Cheese) and so very few kid free hours to do them in (I do need to sleep after all). Pretty much everything non-essential got shoved over so I could attempt to make a living along with, you know, living. So, I apologize. The good news is that I’ve been keeping a list of all the things I want to catch up on here and it’s kinda lengthy (some even have pictures to go along with them!). The bad news is that I am still in the midst of working so it’s going to be just a little longer. When it rains, it pours as they say. At least the Winter blahs seem to be abating with some really gorgeous early Spring weather. My favorite!

Just to update you on K’s status, training is over and he has made it to Afghanistan safely—I heard from him yesterday morning. It was just a quick email to let me know his internet connection was spotty at the moment but as soon as he could, he’d email again. I am guessing it’s going to take about a month for us to get into some sort of communication groove. He’s got to get settled into his new “home” and build a rhythm with his job, plus, you know those bad guys are going to be active with the break from Winter, so my expectations are low for how often we’ll hear from K this early on.

In the meantime, I juggle. I don’t feel quite as overwhelmed as I did just over a week ago, but I’ve still got a lot to finish up before I can sit down and write the way I want. It’s coming though! I have all kinds of things in my head just waiting to make it to the screen. Won’t be long, I promise!

Thanks for your patience!!

Read Full Post »

Acronym of the Day

Welcome to Military Jargon 101.

Today’s acronym, OPSEC, stands for “Operation Security.” I’m guessing you all have a pretty good idea what that means without me going into detail. The closer we get to K reaching his deployment destination, the more important it is to not give out a whole lot of…well, any…specific information (on those extremely rare occasions I even have it). Around here, OPSEC means that I will not be breaking news via this blog. If something important happens either to K, Uncle Fungus, or any other member of their company, family and close friends will be alerted in person first before I post something here—if I post anything at all. It also means that even if I do know something specific about what K is doing, it will be told after the fact and only with permission. While I seriously doubt terrorists are lurking around my little corner of the blogosphere, I don’t want to get K in trouble with his commander and I would prefer not to take chances. So, you are more than welcome to ask questions, but I cannot guarantee that I will be able to answer them or answer them in a timely manner, but ask anyway because it might be something interesting.

My own mission, of course, is to share my experiences here at home and hopefully enlighten and help others either understand this lifestyle (if you can call it that) or get through their own deployment. That said, I’m practicing a lite version of OPSEC myself. You’ve noticed I don’t use full names around here. That is because there are way too many crazies out there and many of them would love to try to take advantage of a family not at full strength or potentially vulnerable. Soldier’s families are not exempt. Specific locations of where any of us are will generally not be given out. I want to protect my kids as best I can even though this is a public blog so whatever measures I can take, I will. Just to warn you, there may be times when I edit comments to keep specific info off the site. And there you have the Gainfully Deployed OPSEC rules and regulations.

I told everyone I would be writing up some info about the current (and general) situation in Afghanistan that K will be walking into and I still plan on doing that. In the meantime, if anyone else is interested in researching on their own, one of the sites K recommended is Small Wars Journal. He also suggests reading up at at the BBC’s site as well as the New York Times (FYI: there may be articles you have to register at the site to read). If you’d like to read blogs by soldiers in the field (or their family members), Milblogging lists many such blogs (including mine). I welcome any other suggestions from people who have found sources that are reliable and informative and not prone to sensationalism. Tall order, I know.

Finally, you’ll see a badge over in the right-hand column linking to the Gainfully Deployed fan page on Facebook. If you haven’t already, but would like to, please join. That is where I’ll be posting my links on Facebook to new posts moving forward and I will probably post links to other sites of interest there as well. The fan page is public, but my Facebook profile is not, so please keep my own OPSEC rules in mind when commenting on Gainfully Deployed’s fan page.

That’s all the adminning I have at this time. If you see me inadvertently breaking my own OPSEC rules, do not hesitate to point that out. I am inherently tired and sometimes let things slip even when I have the best of intentions. Thanks so much!

And now, time for a snow day. Maybe we’ll even get snow.

Read Full Post »

Poll Dancing

Sometimes I think I have too much to say and I spend a lot of time self-editing/censoring and thinking about how I want to present it and too little time actually writing it down. I’ve been thinking quite a bit about how to both keep motivated to write here, and what types of things to write about. I have some ideas, and I would love some feedback from the readers who will have to suffer through my posts. That’d be you.

So here is a poll for you to check the box for what you’d like to see here on a regular basis. You are also more than welcome to write in something deployment related you’d like to know about that maybe I haven’t touched upon. I’m open to suggestions, and I’m curious as to what you are curious about. You may pick more than one item and you may also add your own suggestion. You may only vote once, however.

Please do vote! I want this to be beneficial not just for me, but to everyone out there who would like to know more about life during a deployment. I can always use the guidance and I would rather have some concrete subjects than sit around flailing about not knowing what people would like to know.

So thanks in advance for participating.

Read Full Post »

I’ll be back

I know it’s been too long since I last wrote, but I will be back regularly after January 2nd. We had a more chaotic Christmas than normal (and planned) and I’ll explain it all when I get back. With all the work to make Christmas happen, I really needed a long break to relax and reset my brain for the coming months as well as enjoy this last week with K before he heads out for the long haul. In the meantime, I want to thank everyone who has been coming by to read my ramblings. It means very much to me to have an audience. I also wanted to wish you all a very Happy New Year. I hope 2010 is a satisfying and fulfilling year for all of us.

Read Full Post »

Rollercoaster days

I’m a little behind in my writing this week. K. and I were preparing for our last weekend away for a while so life got…well, nuts. Trying to fit in the regular events of the week along with babysitter interviewing, working with Monkey, and a myriad of other things like food shopping, bill paying, and meeting with teachers pretty much filled my days and nights. So I’m going to try to tackle what’s been going on in a few posts over the next couple of days so I don’t put everyone (including myself) to sleep with one gigantic post. You have been warned!

Read Full Post »

Admin note on Comments

Just wanted to let people know I changed the setting on having to register to comment. You should now be able to leave a comment without registering. Hopefully that will encourage people to participate when they feel the need, and I’m crossing my fingers WordPress has a handle on spam comments from the Russian contingent. I still will have to ok comments before they post, but I don’t usually let them sit, nor do I plan on editing any of them. Like I said, it’s more to keep the spam out than censor anyone. Also, I have set things up so you can rate posts. At the bottom of each individual post, you will see some stars. Click on them as a means to let me know you agree, disagree, love it, hate it, or whatever. While I don’t expect every entry I write to warrant a comment, if you feel like something has moved you to speak, please do. If you have questions, please ask them. I will answer them as honestly as I can.

Thanks so much for reading. I hope you continue to stop by often. There is a new post below, so don’t miss it!

xo
m.

Read Full Post »