A different title than expected...

Originally I had expected to title this entry "Holy hell in a handbasket..." but now that I am writing it, things have changed. To be truthful I didn't really feel up to writing. My depression has been hitting me hard this weekend. It's either that or exhaustion, or both. Yeah, probably both. I should just leave it at that and just talk about what I had originally intended on talking about. So here I go:

I have had so much happen to me this past week or so. I finally got to experience my first patrol. We stayed near Miami and Key West so it wasn't that big of a deal. Except we kicked ass. I got our first SAR case. We were out doing boardings and I sent my boarding team over on this one boat and they radioed back that they were knee deep in water and the boat was sinking. They were able to get the water pumped out as long as they stayed up on plane or had some speed going for them. I was able to talk our commanding officer to letting me escort them in to a safe harbor instead of waiting for the station. That boat never would have made i if they waited so it was a good thing I knew the area.

On our second go round we had an all day long affair with a sailboat. I had the watch with the CO and he wanted to board a sailboat. As we were in the middle of a boarding I spotted one and he said keep an eye on it cause it's next. It turned out to be one crazy case. The boat was registered in a foreign country, owned by a guy in France, ran as a charter out of Florida and had some shaddy as characters on it. One guy gave us 4 different names for himself, 3 people were being smuggled and one guy had a warrant out for his arrest. There is alot to this story I can't really say but the bottom line is that we had multiple countries and agencies on this guy. He eventually got arrested. Go us. It was a HUGE deal for us to be the one who found this guy.

We also stood by for security for a boat race at Juniper Inlet. That was awesome. At first I was out on the small boat standing security while the other agencies got on scene. It was kinda funny because when I got there, there was alot of people in their boats getting way to close and by the end of it, they had all moved out of the area. Haha. We sure told them haha.






We were supposed to go back out this weekend but with Sandy coming through they let us stay in port. Which was good because I was not looking forward to the beating we would have taken if we were out there. At one point it was calling for 35 foot seas. Yeah, screw that. But in a way I had my own storm I had to weather. I had my first duty as a qualified inport ood. Now that was were the "Holy hell in a hand basket.." was coming from. An hour into my watch, the stantion holding the brow had completely sheared off. So I had to untangle that and find a way to secure the brow and the lifelines so nobody fell over. I also had to suck in the stern of the cutter because that was a major factor in why the stantion broke (too much tension). All the while there was three different sets of workers on board and alarms going off constantly. Not to mention it was pouring down rain every time I had to do something.

The darker the color the bigger the waves.

I called the captain about 6 times before things were all said and done. Thankfully I had my OPSbro as my jood so he helped tremendously as well as a kick ass break in jood. We went non stop from 9 to about 4. In between the chaos we had to call everyone and change our status to B2. Which means no drinking and be ready to roll out in 2 hours. Yeah I had a long list of stuff to pass to the oncoming ood. I was so exhausted that I laid down to take a nap at 4 or 5 on friday and I didn't wake up until 11 on saturday. Yup I was tired.

A favorite "Me-ism"...

"You grow from those who are there to support you and feed you, but your strength and determination will come from those who want to see you starve...." 

This is one of by better quotes. I say it because it is true. The last couple years I have been fed well and I'm so grateful for it. I remember a time not so long ago that I was being "starved" and it's hard to go through life when your being stomped into the ground.

Not anymore. I have grown beyond what I could imagine. Thank you for those who have supported me. And thank you for those who haven't. If not for you I wouldn't have anyone to rub my success in there noses.

I can relate...

Dear mailman...

Dear mailman, you are an asshole.

That is all.

Going old school...

My 80's peeps knows this one!

Adding...

I'm going to start doing something a little extra to my blog. I am always saving random pictures that I like on my hard drive. I want to start sharing them on here instead. One: it saves some space on my computer and Two: It gives a better idea on how I'm feeling at the time or what I like.

I find I am not always able to get up the desire to type, but I always have the desire to view pictures. I really need to start working on that. I fear my depression is creeping in on me so hopefully posting pictures or sayings or little tid-bits here and there will help.

Bumping...

Ok so I am sitting in my truck at Walgreens and this guy gets in his car beside me and he opens his car door not once but three times hitting the side of my truck. I roll down the window and said "Seriously?" His response was "Oooohhh I bumped your truck" I said "yeah, you did. Maybe if you lost some weight you wouldn't have to open the damn door so wide". Then he said "A bump isn't going to hurt your truck so just chill" So I was like fine. As I pulled out of the parking spot I made sure my brush guard made contact on his car. I yelled out the window "Don't worry it was just a bump" and then drove off. I hate Miami.

That's not gonna buff out...

So this weeks rant is about some jerk off deciding to hit my truck in the parking lot. A multi-million dollar marina an you still have some asshole who hits your truck. My truck had been sitting in the parking lot since Sunday and on Tuesday I went to go to the store and noticed a white streak down the side of my drivers side door and rear door.

I called the security and he came to look at it and then called the West Palm Beach police to right up a report. The security guard was going to let his supervisor know and try to look through the video footage. The only bad thing is that the camera was pointed on the passenger side of the truck. The camera on the boat was two spots down from where I was parked. Dammit!! I still need to get an estimate and I'm waiting for the security to tell me something. The security guy said Rybovich may even pay for it. Yeah, we'll see...

 So the next day I told the rest of the crew what happened. I was also up on the bridge and I look out to my truck. Wouldn't you know some guys are leaning up against it. As I am looking out I say "What the?!? Get your grubby ass hands off my truck." I get up and step out side and yell "Hey! Do you mind not leaning up against that truck!?!". They instantly got off it. Everyone else on the bridge just looked at me. What? I didn't want them scratching up my truck anymore than it is already. One of the guys said to me "It's a truck". No it's my truck. I told him so and added "It's a 2011 and it looks like an '09!" Haha. Meaning that ever since I got here people have been dinging it up and just plain being asshole and not respecting or caring about anyone else. Either way, I can't wait to get out of here.

Just a head's up to the next clown who decides to "tap" my truck