Back in the Saddle
Well, now it seems I have a reason to post anew. It's been sometime, but now that I'm linked on Blogalicious, I'll need to keep this up so I don't end up "On the Bench". Mark has graciously provided me the letter "C" to work with, so without further ado:
Canada - temporary home of the Crowley clan. Despite all the complaining as you read through my other postings, this has been a fantastic duty station. My mission since coming here has been to pass myself off as a native Canuck. I have succeeded beyond my wildest expectation, perhaps too well. I dress and speak like a Canuck, have a Canadian child, now write defence, colour, organisation and say "prOgress" and "prOcess" with a "long O sound" without even thinking about (rhymes with boot) it. I'm never going back to American beer again and truly believe Tim Horton's kicks Dunkin Donuts ass any day of the week. I know the words to "O Canada" by heart in both English and French and am enrolled in French language training through the Canadian Maritime Forces. Thank goodness we have the Olympics, World Hockey Championships and other events so I can cheer on the Red, White and Blue.
Carl Yastrzemski - Number "8", the man we call "Yaz". Oh, how many times did I imitate that stance (I was a lefty batter - which helped). I'll never forget that final game and the slow trot around the stadium. In college, when he published his biography, he came to the BU Bookstore for a signing. I waited in line a couple of hours to get him to sign a book for me and as a gift to my brother, I even got him to sign a copy of the Impossible Dream album (story of the 1967 Red Sox). I can almost hear Jess Cain singing out loud the "Yaz Song".......
Clive Cussler - Favourite "summer reading" author. Most of what I read is history, but I can't help snapping up every book Clive puts out and reading it cover to cover in one sitting. Sahara was such a huge let down, because I had an image of all the main characters burned into my head and McConaughey, Zahn and Macy weren't even close. Can anyone name the other Cussler book to make it to film? Fairly forgettable movie with Jason Robards and Alec Guiness as the only headliners.
Cochrane - as in Father Cochrane. My senior year homeroom teacher at Boston College High School (no affiliation with BC - and "we" came first). Although I generally look upon my entire H.S experience fondly, it is Father Cochrane that has stuck with me the longest. Every Tuesday and Thursday, we were given a "word of the day". These words were not obscure by any means, but not words often used in conversation. Once given a word, if ever we were to hear the word used in conversation, we had to yell "FOUL". It became a game of sorts and I can still remember all 62 words to this day. Late in my senior year, when dedicating the groundbreaking of our new gymnasium, a little old lady, widow of the graduate who had left a large sum of money for the creation of the new gym made the mistake of using one of the words in her speech. A chorus of "FOULs" resounded loudly from the crowd and the poor women was so taken aback that she nearly fell over and had to be helped to her seat.
Connecticut - home away from home. We still have a house there in lovely Salem. Maybe we'll return again some day if the Navy sees fit to send me there, but for now it will remain rental property. As it's been empty now for 7 months, the income stream has dried up, so if you know anyone looking to rent a nice raised ranch on 1+acres of open land in a quiet cul-de-sac, conveniently located just 30 minutes from New London and 45 minutes from Hartford at rush hour, please let me know.
Clinocardium Nuttali - also know as Nuttel's Cockle. Subject of my Master's Thesis and most resilient of creatures. Never having taken a biology class beyond freshman year of H.S let alone a marine biology class and given my only experience with tending marine creatures was a single goldfish at age 9 that lasted all of three weeks before getting flushed. I ventured from OSU (Oregon State) to Newport, OR to speak with staff at the Newport Bay Aquarium. They were quite helpful, provided me an unlimited supply of bivalve food and an open invitation to come get filtered seawater to stock my tank. They suggested that to best ensure success in my experiment, I would need to acclimate the cockles to their environment for some period before doing my experiment. For six months I "cared" for my subjects in their chilled 50 gallon bio-environment. I fed them once a week as advised and conducted a complete change out of the their seawater twice a week (a 5 hr round trip to the coast and back with 7, seven-gallon containers). Even when I conducted the experiment, I was so paranoid these things would die before I could kill and dissect them as planned (morbid isn't it). Well, after I finished my experiment, because it involved radionuclides, we had to store the system to allow it to decay prior to disposal. The water was fairly easy to dispose of and was separated off, but the sediment had to be stored and disposed of as bio-waste. Eight months later, after I have long left OSU, I get a call from my lab assistant, describing how they found a lone cockle in the sediment when they went to dispose of it. You guessed it - still alive and perfectly happy. And to think I was worried they would die off if I didn't change their water every 3 days!
Coaching. Let's just say that my organized team sports experience growing up consisted of 2 1/2 years (broke my wrist) of little league/babe ruth baseball. That's it. Don't get me wrong, I loved sports. I played pick-up versions of every sport imaginable and developed some skill as an intramural sports geek (broomball rules!), but I never had much experience with coaches. Now I have kids. In the past two years I have organized and coached the Grade 4/5 basketball team, started and coached a school swim team, coached three different little league baseball teams and even became assistant coach of my son's hockey team, a sport I had never actually played until this past year. A lot of work, but no better way to spend quality time with your kids than to be on the field, court or rink right alongside them.
City of Corpus Christi (SSN 705). What can I say, the most demanding 4 years of my life, but an experience I'll never forget. It was real hard saying good-bye when I walked off the brow for the last time in Guam. Although I have another 5 years to kick around in the Navy before I can move on to a second career, I will never again serve aboard a submarine. I will do everything in my power, though, to get aboard for rides whenever possible as it is an experience you just can't describe.
Christmas - okay, a gimme, but definitely the number one holiday in my books. I don't know about you, but I still believe in Santa :-)
Captain (Star Trek) - Complete with picture of Willaim Shatner. Taking a cue from Mark, this is the first "random" article that came up starting with "C" on my Wikipedia search. I guess it would be a bit more interesting if I actually watched Star Trek, but I don't, so that's that.
Well, rather long winded, but that's me. You know the drill, provide a comment on one of the issues above and I'll send you tour very own letter to work with on your blog.
Canada - temporary home of the Crowley clan. Despite all the complaining as you read through my other postings, this has been a fantastic duty station. My mission since coming here has been to pass myself off as a native Canuck. I have succeeded beyond my wildest expectation, perhaps too well. I dress and speak like a Canuck, have a Canadian child, now write defence, colour, organisation and say "prOgress" and "prOcess" with a "long O sound" without even thinking about (rhymes with boot) it. I'm never going back to American beer again and truly believe Tim Horton's kicks Dunkin Donuts ass any day of the week. I know the words to "O Canada" by heart in both English and French and am enrolled in French language training through the Canadian Maritime Forces. Thank goodness we have the Olympics, World Hockey Championships and other events so I can cheer on the Red, White and Blue.
Carl Yastrzemski - Number "8", the man we call "Yaz". Oh, how many times did I imitate that stance (I was a lefty batter - which helped). I'll never forget that final game and the slow trot around the stadium. In college, when he published his biography, he came to the BU Bookstore for a signing. I waited in line a couple of hours to get him to sign a book for me and as a gift to my brother, I even got him to sign a copy of the Impossible Dream album (story of the 1967 Red Sox). I can almost hear Jess Cain singing out loud the "Yaz Song".......
Clive Cussler - Favourite "summer reading" author. Most of what I read is history, but I can't help snapping up every book Clive puts out and reading it cover to cover in one sitting. Sahara was such a huge let down, because I had an image of all the main characters burned into my head and McConaughey, Zahn and Macy weren't even close. Can anyone name the other Cussler book to make it to film? Fairly forgettable movie with Jason Robards and Alec Guiness as the only headliners.
Cochrane - as in Father Cochrane. My senior year homeroom teacher at Boston College High School (no affiliation with BC - and "we" came first). Although I generally look upon my entire H.S experience fondly, it is Father Cochrane that has stuck with me the longest. Every Tuesday and Thursday, we were given a "word of the day". These words were not obscure by any means, but not words often used in conversation. Once given a word, if ever we were to hear the word used in conversation, we had to yell "FOUL". It became a game of sorts and I can still remember all 62 words to this day. Late in my senior year, when dedicating the groundbreaking of our new gymnasium, a little old lady, widow of the graduate who had left a large sum of money for the creation of the new gym made the mistake of using one of the words in her speech. A chorus of "FOULs" resounded loudly from the crowd and the poor women was so taken aback that she nearly fell over and had to be helped to her seat.
Connecticut - home away from home. We still have a house there in lovely Salem. Maybe we'll return again some day if the Navy sees fit to send me there, but for now it will remain rental property. As it's been empty now for 7 months, the income stream has dried up, so if you know anyone looking to rent a nice raised ranch on 1+acres of open land in a quiet cul-de-sac, conveniently located just 30 minutes from New London and 45 minutes from Hartford at rush hour, please let me know.
Clinocardium Nuttali - also know as Nuttel's Cockle. Subject of my Master's Thesis and most resilient of creatures. Never having taken a biology class beyond freshman year of H.S let alone a marine biology class and given my only experience with tending marine creatures was a single goldfish at age 9 that lasted all of three weeks before getting flushed. I ventured from OSU (Oregon State) to Newport, OR to speak with staff at the Newport Bay Aquarium. They were quite helpful, provided me an unlimited supply of bivalve food and an open invitation to come get filtered seawater to stock my tank. They suggested that to best ensure success in my experiment, I would need to acclimate the cockles to their environment for some period before doing my experiment. For six months I "cared" for my subjects in their chilled 50 gallon bio-environment. I fed them once a week as advised and conducted a complete change out of the their seawater twice a week (a 5 hr round trip to the coast and back with 7, seven-gallon containers). Even when I conducted the experiment, I was so paranoid these things would die before I could kill and dissect them as planned (morbid isn't it). Well, after I finished my experiment, because it involved radionuclides, we had to store the system to allow it to decay prior to disposal. The water was fairly easy to dispose of and was separated off, but the sediment had to be stored and disposed of as bio-waste. Eight months later, after I have long left OSU, I get a call from my lab assistant, describing how they found a lone cockle in the sediment when they went to dispose of it. You guessed it - still alive and perfectly happy. And to think I was worried they would die off if I didn't change their water every 3 days!
Coaching. Let's just say that my organized team sports experience growing up consisted of 2 1/2 years (broke my wrist) of little league/babe ruth baseball. That's it. Don't get me wrong, I loved sports. I played pick-up versions of every sport imaginable and developed some skill as an intramural sports geek (broomball rules!), but I never had much experience with coaches. Now I have kids. In the past two years I have organized and coached the Grade 4/5 basketball team, started and coached a school swim team, coached three different little league baseball teams and even became assistant coach of my son's hockey team, a sport I had never actually played until this past year. A lot of work, but no better way to spend quality time with your kids than to be on the field, court or rink right alongside them.
City of Corpus Christi (SSN 705). What can I say, the most demanding 4 years of my life, but an experience I'll never forget. It was real hard saying good-bye when I walked off the brow for the last time in Guam. Although I have another 5 years to kick around in the Navy before I can move on to a second career, I will never again serve aboard a submarine. I will do everything in my power, though, to get aboard for rides whenever possible as it is an experience you just can't describe.
Christmas - okay, a gimme, but definitely the number one holiday in my books. I don't know about you, but I still believe in Santa :-)
Captain (Star Trek) - Complete with picture of Willaim Shatner. Taking a cue from Mark, this is the first "random" article that came up starting with "C" on my Wikipedia search. I guess it would be a bit more interesting if I actually watched Star Trek, but I don't, so that's that.
Well, rather long winded, but that's me. You know the drill, provide a comment on one of the issues above and I'll send you tour very own letter to work with on your blog.
posted by Paul Crowley @ 8:26 PM
1 Comments:
At 6:06 AM,
Mark said…
The other Cussler book turned novel is Raise the Titanic!, which was as forgettable as noted. I did not see Sahara, but have to agree that the casting didn't come close to matching the descriptions in the books. And as we got them in every book, it's hard not to have it in mind.
Post a Comment
<< Home