Living Out of a Bag

The horror - a blog post with no pictures!  I must remind you that our iMac is packed in a box on the way to the US so adding pics is a little more challenging right now.  I'll fix that real soon though.

It's that time again.  Like many deployable sailors, for a significant part of my Navy career, I live out of a bag.  Whatever I can stuff inside a Navy-issued green sea bag, that's what will sustain me for that six month (or longer) deployment.  Actually, we're able to take more gear than that but you should never let the facts get in the way of a good sea story.

Carol and the boys get a small taste of this kind of living when we move.  What to pack and what not to pack.  What toys do they want to play with for the next couple of weeks that won't take up too much space?  Some items to pack are no-brainers - laptop, iPod, camera, underwear, etc.  But then there's the stuff that's not so obvious that you should take with you - chargers for your electronics, USB adapter to transfer pictures, movies loaded up on iPods and laptops to keep the kids entertained, proper uniform items to check into the new command.  Other things like birth certificates, report cards and other school paperwork to register the kids into the new school.  There's also the fun stuff like goggles and sand toys to take advantage of the beach for the next ten days.  They are on summer break after all.  I remember prunes being an important item on previous moves when the boys were just babies.  We want the boys to poop, right?  And then there's the stuff you need to bring along if you wanna get funky - Barry White music, etc.  I won't go into detail here cause I'm thinking it might not pass Carol's editing.

So all of our stuff is packed away and we're now living in a hotel for the next couple of days.  My replacement arrives in Busan this weekend.  It'll be a fast and furious turnover all the way up to the big change of command ceremony on 25 June.

Another challenge while on the road - eating.  Carol is not proud of the fact that she had 3 buffet meals yesterday - the Seacloud Hotel breakfast buffet, the Party and Play buffet at the BEXCO for lunch and the awesome D-Maris seafood buffet at our farewell dinner last night.  I hope I can fit into my summer whites for the change of command ceremony this coming Friday.

Real time update:  Carol just said, "Man, why didn't I pack a lint brush?"  I'll add that to the pack list for the next move.  Gotta go.  Jake just flooded the bathroom.