Linda

Yesterday, my Aunt Linda passed away after nearly 2 years of fighting cancer. Though she is finally at peace after some grueling times, my heart is still heavy for her family and for me.  Linda was not only my aunt, but my friend.

Linda welcomed me to live with her and Mary twice.  First, I lived with them when I was a crazed grad student trying to graduate a semester early and plan a wedding.  The second time was when I was a crazed pregnant lady working in DC every other week.  I will always be grateful for the roof over my head, the yummy meals, the sparkling conversation, and the tolerance of my late nights, early mornings, pregnancy hormones, and other oddities I brought with me to their home.  

I will always be grateful to Linda, too, for teaching me to how to be an officer's spouse.  As Linda followed Mary's many assignments, she saw the dos and don'ts of other officers' spouses and passed on that wisdom.  I hear Linda in my head every time politics, religion, or money comes up at Jip's functions, reminding me to stay out of it and keep everyone guessing about my stance.  Linda is who taught me how to appropriately tip the baggers at the commissary.  I watched and learned as Linda prepped for each move, preparing not only her home, but herself by making contacts at the new location and solidifying the old ones, as you never know when you'll be back!  Linda was a model for "semper Gumby"--always flexible.  Linda put herself through college and grad school and found a career that meshed pretty well with the military lifestyle--I have yet to do the latter.  And, Linda always understood when the military prevented us from being somewhere we really wanted to be at the time we needed to be.

Linda also taught me a lot about the domestic arts.  She taught me the lost art of hanging wallpaper--using real paste!!  I have several meals in my repertoire that I learned from her just by watching.  I will cherish my handwritten recipe cards for Lilian's Dunker Rusks and the family goulash.  

Linda was a good daughter, Mom, partner, and aunt.  And she was a great friend.  I always felt taken care of and loved, even when hauling boxes of Christmas decorations out of the basement. I will miss our 8:30 cups of tea while watching NCIS.  I will miss our games of Words With Friends that we have been playing with thousands of miles between us.  I will miss Linda.

This was taken in September of 1949.  Linda is the one seated on the ground, not looking at the camera.

Linda (in the middle), Aunt Nanci (on the left), and my Mom (on the right)

Linda and RJ about a month before we moved to Japan.

Linda meeting Ryleigh for the first and only time in April 2012.

Detachment date is approved

My Commanding Officer approved my proposed transfer date today.  As it stands right now, we'll be flying out of Japan on October 3rd.  It looks like we'll be flying out of Yokota Air Base on the Patriot Express, which is the government contracted flight.  It'll take us to Seattle, and then we'll go from Seattle to San Diego on a commercial flight.  With the approved date, we can now work on the many other details of our move--household goods pickup and delivery, express shipment pickup and delivery, lodging in San Diego, etc.  We'll keep everyone posted as our plans solidify. 

In other random news, there's a newly refurbished playground over near the middle school that RJ and Ryleigh got to go test drive today.  Part of it looks like a pirate ship.  Very exciting...

RJ has been Mr. Question lately.  Mr. Emotion has also been tagging along sometimes, too, like today when we started crying after he asked why the sidewalk was being demolished by the new barracks building.  I explained that it was being rebuilt to allow for cars to go from the street to a new parking lot.  "Why does it have to be replaced?" and  "Why is the impact hammer tearing it apart?"were followed closely by "I'm so sad.  How are the people going to go down the sidewalk?" (tears flowing).  Oh, the joys of a tired little boy who wants to understand everything around him.

Ryleigh's vocabulary is expanding quickly.  Besides some of her favorite words ("No!", "upstairs," and "apple juice."), she's now repeating many of the new terms and words we tell her and also coming up others on her own.  "Chicken," "Ryleigh picture," and "cupcake" are some new terms she's been throwing around.  She's a quick learner.  She'll be forming sentences before we know it!

That's about it in the random news department.  Have a great day!

-Jip

Sequestration Is Becoming Reality

Sequestration is finally becoming a reality in Yokosuka.  

Last week, Jip had to hand out the letters to his US Civil Service employees to let them know they would be furloughed.  Starting in July, they will only be allowed to work 4 days per week and will be paid as such.  It was one of the worst tasks Jip has had here.

The schools on base have announced that they will be closed the first day of each week in September as part of the budget cuts.  But even worse, they announced they are cutting all middle school sports. The decision to cut sports apparently happened on the DC level, so the base and parents are going to try to fight it, but it will be so sad if they don't succeed.

The commissary will be closed every Monday starting in July.  

And, lots and lots of other things--gyms are closed or have reduced hours, programs for single sailors are being scaled back, the library has reduced its hours, etc.

But, at least our base brewmaster (the enlisted club has a craft brewery in it--cool, huh?) has a sense of humor.  He just announced his latest creation--Sequestration Extra Special Bitter (ESB).  I hope the ESB helps people with their sequestration bitterness as much as the brewmaster wants it to!!

Brush

Ryleigh discovered there is an upholstery brush on the vacuum cleaner.  She was oh so proud of herself as she brushed her hair with it while I tried not to remember what spills that brush has helped me clean up.

Zushi Fireworks 2013

We again went to Zushi Beach to enjoy their annual fireworks show.  There had to be well over 50,000 people there.

We packed a real picnic this year, unlike last year when we grabbed McDonalds and it got cold while we searched for parking.  We again searched for parking this year near the beach, but finding none, we parked at the Ikego Base Housing and rode the train.  

The kids enjoyed some sand time.

 

 

Then the fireworks began while Jip and RJ were in line for the restroom.  Here's the opening.

 

In case you aren't feeling up to boring fireworks videos, here are a few pics.

 

And, if you are feeling in the mood for boring fireworks videos, here's the first three minutes of the finale.  

The kids are exhausted and Jip and I got our exercise in, as we walked back to Ikego, just over 2.3 kilometers.  I had Ryleigh in the backpack, but poor Jip ended up with RJ on his shoulders for over half the journey.  Still, it was a great night, and we all should sleep well!