Crazyness

I was kind of stuck on what to title today's blog. Well as a default I just put in what I did. My reserve weekend was pretty uneventful, but the days were long. Friday began at 4:30 AM, and went until 9:30 PM - a fairly early evening by comparison of what I am used to. Saturday went from 4:45 AM until 11:30 PM - more like what I am used to. And Sunday went from 5:00 AM until 10:30 last night. I am feeling a bit run down today. The weekend was for the howitzer sections to be certified as a section. That is, does each member of the section know how to perform their resepective jobs with an emphasis on safety. It was also my first weekend as an evaluator and not an evaluatee. I gained a new perspective on just how fortunate I was to have the section I had. I evaluated three different sections and none of them passed the entire certification process - although one did on their retest with another evaluator. They each worked hard, and well together, but it was the little things that added up. Forgetting to write something down here, not getting all of the forms down, not performing the actions in the correct sequence (and it does matter on some things), or not performing the actions correctly. I don't think I was overly critical. I know I allowed something minor slip with just a minor comment - if it was not a safety issue. But I never received feedback from the sections that I worked with. And I know I was not the toughest evaluator out there. "The Man" in the battalion (that is all I will refer to him as here) is incredibly nit picky - and he does not miss much. He was my evaluator 2 out of the 3 years I had to certify as a chief. After seeing how it is done from the other side I have a new appreciation (and I told my former section members this in person) of what exactly they did, and how well they did it . Especially last year where we scored and 858 out of a possible 883 points. Other than the tedium of certifying, retraining, etc. it was an overall nice weekend. A long drive (150 miles), gorgeous weather, low intensity, good pace of artillery fires (once the sections passed they emplaced and fired rounds), and I got to pull the lanyard on a couple of fire missions on what could possibly be my last field weekend. And the highlight (for me) was meeting another Christian in the battery. He is a new kid, assigned to us from the local college R.O.T.C. program. I did not get to know him much, but being the only Christian in the unit can get kind of lonely. Well I am going to wrap up for today, but I did want to let you all know that my son with Asbergers will be able to go to a school that can better provide for him next year. God moved mightly and quickly in this case. I fully expected this 'fight' to last, maybe even into (or through) the next school year. Not much else to report. Thank you to each of you who pray for me. I don't know what I would do with out them. Please continue. :) Matthew 15:21-28, esv And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” And he answered, “It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.” Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly. [5]