Today is the first day of being called up . The Wife and I drove the couple of hours to the armory in temps hovering around 0 degrees without windchill enjoying some of the scenic winter vistas the Iowa highways offers: lots of cars in the ditches, Dept. of Transportation workers shoveling deer chunks off the road, and random very elderly citizens driving their sports cars slower than 50 mph on the interstate. On arriving at the armory, I hunted down the supply sergeant to get the other 2/3 of my uniform issue. He was busy and was going to have me wait a couple of hours, but when I mentioned I still couldn't wear the new ACU uniforms, since I was pantsless at this point, he remembered that the pants had come in a separate box. About two hours before our conversation. Fortunately, everything fits reasonably well, and as soon as the State can dig up a goretex ACU shell for the winter jacket, I'll be good to go. In the meantime, I need to stay out of the wind. Otherwise, the high point of the day was loading bags containing all of our issue gear onto trucks for our next station. Pretty soon, the thrill of seemingly endless briefings will begin. I won't have any problem staying warm, but I probably will staying awake.
