Won’t you be my neighbor

I was absolutely shocked the trip to Pittsburgh actually happened. It is kind of an offshoot of the SA program but on a mental first aid level. Not sure how it slipped through the cracks. The guys that taught are amazing but I have my doubts about the efficacy of the program itself. I have trust issues so talking to peers is not something I would personally do but I do have a lot of people who know my history that like to unload on me. The most important thing is it gives me opportunities to deploy. I met some amazing people too. 

We had a pretty busy schedule, they even had lunch brought in, but we generally got out around 4 to check email and ‘self care’ The hotel had happy hour and those of us that stayed there got together and bonded. I had 2 goals for after hours; the first to see the Mr. Rogers exhibit and to see the broadway tour of Kimberly Akimbo. I got to do both. 

Exhausted

 I am worn out on so many different levels. Today we had our annual ranger workshop which was…interesting. We were supposed to have it last week but we ended up having terrible weather. A lot of the city was pretty much shut down Tuesday through Thursday. The workshop was scheduled for 2 days at the zoo with some mandated fun, a scavenger hunt which would give the ranger a chance to explore.  Instead it was condensed to one day cram packed with stuff that was drowned out by the looming future. They cut the lunch break down to 30 minutes. There is nothing close to the zoo so leaving wasn’t an option. There was one grill opened and it is a brisk 8 minute walk from the venue. I was initially in charge of planning and I told them there wasn’t enough time for 60 + people to get to the one open grill, my poc sent a reply to the schedule update telling the people over me it wasn’t enough time, and guess what, it wasn’t enough time. Rangers had to change out of their uniforms for personal protection refresher and get lunch. They had no time to explore or do anything but order, scarf food, change, and get back to their seats. I know we are going to get complaints on the location but I tried. Last year (which I didn’t plan) there were several, as in over 10 vehicles with windows smashed and pillaged. 

On a positive note, once I got things up and running I could sneak out since I’m not required to take the training. There are several babies out and the weather was gorgeous. On the way to the grill for lunch there was an exhibit with 5 Malayan tiger cubs that was born in late August. 

There was also a baby gibbon that was born in late October. Cutest thing I have probably ever seen. 

I abandoned this on Wednesday night, I ended up falling asleep at 9. I was beat. 

Thursday morning I had an endoscopy done. The hiatal hernia hasn’t gotten any worse and they diagnosed me with Barrett’s esophagus. From what I have read it is basically just the lingering effects of GERD. It might be why my vit c and iron is so low. They did biopsies but I can’t imagine they will find anything significant. I slept most of the afternoon. I met my sister and her friend for the ballet, Alice In Wonderland. The costumes were really neat. My sister and her friend were at least a bottle of wine deep when I got there. They bought doubles at the theater and pre-ordered doubles for intermission. My sister’s friend was passed out before the finale. I will never understand why someone would pay that kind of money to pass out and miss the show. At least my bil dropped them off and picked them up. I know I probably shouldn’t have driven but I had pretty much slept the small amount of narcotics off. I took Friday off as well because fuck that place. It was rather pleasant. Me and a co-worker are going to a meeting in Pittsburgh, leaving tomorrow and I got a text telling me that the shitzi turned our credit cards off so we will probably have to cancel our orders. Somehow he hasn’t figured out that DoD has civilians so he decided to exempt us. I am packing now so we will see what happens when I get there. I also got a text telling us we have to answer the next 5 bullets email. Fucking idiots. I ran their email through AI and put the parameters in that Reddit said to use to fuck with the bots, zero width spacing and using foreign letters that look like English. I asked it to spin the parameters to make it appear that I am giving my info without actually saying anything. I plan on doing a copy paste every week. This is what it came up with. 

• Engaged in multi-​faceted oper‍‌​ational paradigms enco​mpassing project-specific deliver‍‌​ables within the scope of delineated functional expecta‍‌​tions, ensuring alignment with overarch‍‌​ing strategic frameworks.

• Facilitat‍‌​ed integrative synergies within mission-‍‌​critical security-centric initiat‍‌​ives, leveraging cross-discip‍‌​linary methodo‍‌​logies to fortify infrastructural resi‍‌​lience and adaptive risk mitigation.

• Orchestrated procedural cont‍‌​ingencies in emergent respons‍‌​e modalities, embedding iter‍‌​ative refinements into pub‍‌​lic safety constructs and inter-agency interoperabi‍‌​lity matrices.

• Enabled backend opera‍‌​tional continuity through nu‍‌​anced facilitation of core adm‍‌​inistrative architectures, underpinning systemic efficacy in mission-execut‍‌​ion workflows.

• Maintained stringent ad‍‌​herence to regulatory codifi‍‌​cations and procedural directives while dynamically interfacing with oper‍‌​ational throughput variables to sustain perfor‍‌​mance integrity.

This makes it more difficult for bots to parse the text while still being readable to humans. Let me know if you need further modifications!

Fuck you elmo and shit stain. I also called my elected officials (my daily call) and told them I expected to see their 5 bullets within 48 hours as well. I added a special message to markwayne billybob and told him that him and his colleagues humiliated the country with their treatment of Zelenskyy and real hero’s pick up arms and fight with their country instead of hiding behind a chair in a locked room (j6 reference of him being a giant pussy with photographic evidence). The rep is having a lunch town hall Friday and I am very disappointed I won’t be here for it. Dennis signed up but I wouldn’t be surprised if the fuckwad cancels it. 

I got a text out of the blue this morning from that bitch Kim I used to work with, the one who told me she didn’t want to be seen alone with me during the re fiasco. She is friends with the daughter of my ex-boss and she wanted to let me know he was on a vent in ICU and wasn’t doing well. Gary, my old boss was married to another one of my ex-bosses. He has long retired as a 100% disabled Vietnam vet. Ex wife was younger than him and stayed on and worked for several more years. Gary ended up having a pretty serious stroke and was having optical seizures and couldn’t drive and I guess she got tired of taking care of him because she pretty much dumped him off on her youngest daughter and divorced him. It destroyed him. I lost all respect I had for her. Not long after the divorce she married some yahoo on her youngest daughter’s anniversary without telling anyone. So, yeah. I ended up going to the hospital this morning to see how he was doing. I’m afraid he won’t make it and I wanted to see him while I still could. He still called me from time to time and it broke my heart to see him like that. That bitch Kim said that ex wife was throwing a fit because she wasn’t getting some of the survivor’s benefits like she thought she would. TBK said she called ex wife and told her to knock her shit off. 

I feel like there is missing context, her is a quick backstory, tbk was bffs with the bosses oldest daughter since they were in kindergarten so they were pretty much raised together, oldest daughter is a bitch that lives 2 hours away and can’t be bothered to held. Youngest daughter always wanted to work for USACE like her parents and she works on the same floor as me. She is really sweet and timid and doing her best to raise 2 small kids, work full time and help her dad.  That probably made zero sense but welcome into a glimpse of my brain lol. 

Ok. I need to go finish up laundry and get packed. At least my flight doesn’t leave until 10:30.