Home again

 I am on the struggle bus today.  I enjoyed the heck out of USVI despite working.  I will for sure go back and vacation, Dennis would love it.  I would 100% pick it over Hawaii. The last two weeks have both gone by super fast and at a glacial pace.  We would be talking about something that happened that morning and if felt like it was a week ago.  

As said in the previous posts, Florida remains a shithole.  Despite that, I am thinking about putting in for a job in the Jacksonville District.  It is a Realty Specialist job, fully remote.  I am a little concerned that it could turn into a hybrid or worse but since it is advertised as such I am not sure how difficult that would be to convert.  I hate writing resumes but I need to get on it, the job closes soon.  

Last week turned out to be great.  They demobilized us on Saturday and told us to give the FEMA people who needed to get back to NC a chance to get flights off the island before we attempted to make plans. By that time we had to push our departure date to Monday.  That gave us Sunday to 'finish up'.  I asked if I could just not log time and go enjoy the island and was told to keep it on the DL.  Me and a coworker took a snorkel charter to St. John Honeymoon Beach and another island that sounded like Las Bambas but I couldn't be sure.  The water was a perfect 87 degrees, I could have stayed in all day.  The first stop had tons of turtles, a sting ray and a reef shark!  My mask was leaking so I had to go back to the boat to get another one and if I hadn't done that I wouldn't have seen the shark.  No one else saw it so I'm not sure they believed me, lol.  After the first stop they opened the bar and we had a couple of painkillers.  They are not my favorite but they were 'free' so I managed.  I think the nutmeg they put on the top was a little off putting to me.  The second snorkel stop had a lot more reefs and we saw another stingray and a nurse shark.  I wish they had a photographer like the charter in Maui because all I got was a crappy video from another snorkeler that is not great.  However, it did capture the nurse shark.   

I am so sad about leaving all the cats behind.  Little twin was hanging out on my patio regularly, mama cat was pretty close by too but she was a lot more skittish than Spooky and the twins.  The kitten was pretty feral but I think I could have gotten him tame if I had another week.  He started coming up to my patio door but ran off when I opened the door.  He hid under the bushes on the other side of the sidewalk so I made sure and put food out for him there.  Bob and Grey Goose were in more common areas and I know they got fed from people as they walked up to their rooms.  FYI I didn't name the last two, the golf cart driver that drove us around the property told me their names.  I am really sad about getting them used to eating at my door and just abandoning them.  I hope the next person in my room is nice to them.  

Monday was an incredibly long day.  The girl I have been working with and I were on the same flight out of STT so we rode in my Jeep to the car return/airport.  Our flight was supposed to leave at 1150 but they asked if we would move to the 1045.  We were like, sure.  So they asked us how much we weighed and weighed all of our luggage 😱 After swimming at an island that sounded like la bamba I wasn't sure that would be a great thing.  It was a tiny 9 passenger Cessna 402.  The seat next to the pilot was a passenger seat.  It was a little concerning.  When we landed I looked them up though and they have a great record. Only one crash and it only had the pilot in it.  He had to open the window to get any air and give hand signals of some kind, they started one prop and it sputtered and just kind of stopped so he had to start it again. I was like dude, what about the other one?  Eventually they got them both started and it was interesting.  The islands looked beautiful and you could see the reefs from the air.  It was a 40 minute flight as opposed to the 25 minute flight we had on the way over in a slightly larger aircraft.  It added to the experience.  Once we got to the San Juan airport we stopped and got lunch.  I was connecting through Houston, she was going out of Chicago.  We were both a little sunburned from the day before and not looking forward to a 5 hour flight.  I was stuck in the middle seat so I sprung for an upgrade and got a window seat.  I took a advil pm and slept about an hour and a half.  The layover in Houston wasn't as long so I grabbed a $20 sandwich that was really bad and I didn't end up eating, and a soda.  The day started at 9 and I ended up getting home close to midnight.  I took Tuesday off and teleworked yesterday.  

I still haven't done any grocery runs so I am scrapping by on what I have in the freezer and fast food for now.  I need to go Sunday and get stocked up.  We are still number one on the rotation if we get another disaster but FJ was supposed to be up next the last time but passed so he wouldn't miss halloween (stupid excuse if you ask me) so if it happens after 1 November he has first choice.  Something tells me he didn't enjoy his deployment as much as I enjoy mine so he might not go back.  Either way it adds a layer of the unknown for me.

Now that I am back it looks like I am going to have to suck it up and help my cousin move after all.  I don't want to but I don't want her to have to drive back and forth to SD in a moving truck by herself either.  I would really like it if I could just pay to have her moved but that is $4K I just don't have to throw away.  My old body is going to be screaming for a break by the time the holiday comes around and my 2 weeks off I have planned to burn up my use or lose.  

Last night Dennis went to a meeting at the fire station and called me in a panic.  He didn't get much out because I heard a tiny little mew in the background.  I just asked him where he was and told him to hold on I had to get dressed cause I had just gotten out of the shower.  It was after 8 pm so our options were limited.  It was such a tiny baby!  Dennis said he almost ran over it.  I wrapped it up in a shirt and he went to look for mama cat or other kittens but didn't find anything.  The poor baby was starving and tried to nurse on the towel, my ear, my lip, my shirt, you name it.  I obviously didn't have anything to feed her so I suggested we take her to my friends urgent care that stays open until 10.  If nothing else they would have someway to help us feed her.  We got her in and she was scream mewing at this point.  A young couple came out of a room because they knew it was a tiny kitten.  They almost ripped that little thing out of my hands and asked if they could take it. The clinic staff said they were good pet owners so we handed her over to them.  We tried to get her to eat something but she wasn't interested until they gave her some left over mac and cheese so her name is Roni.  My friend wasn't working but the one that was said she would hook them up with what they needed to get her fed. She was just the cutest little thing, all velcro claws and tiny teeth.  I just hope she was the only baby and we don't find more when it's too late. 

OK.  I need to get my travel voucher done so I can get my card paid.