As some of you know already, my NG unit has been placed on alert as of October drill 2008. If you didn't know, you do now. :)
Anyway, every time I have had to share the news, the same question comes up, "So, what does this mean?" Well, I'm gonna tell you now the best metaphor that I have been able to find. Imagine that you are driving down the highway and see a sign that reads, "Construction Ahead". Well, this is your "alert order". Once you drive down the highway some more you will either encounter an active construction zone or not. Well, my alert order works the same way. I don't know if I am going anywhere or not. Only time and travel will tell.
As my commander has told us, "we don't know we're not going, so we're going to train like we are."
Saturday, January 31, 2009
NG - On Alert
Torhs at Bruins - Championship Game
I had initially planned to give a full game overview of my team's performance, my performance, and overall highlights to the game. Unfortunately, I cannot give this to you at this point in time. Suffice it to say, I don't remember all of the details that I wanted to give.
So, for a brief back-story, the Tohrs completed the regular season with only a single loss (which was to us). And as we had expected, we met again for the final game.
The game was not nearly as close as I would have predicted. The first period was pretty even. The period siren rang and we were up by a point. Something happened at this point in time and we turned on the pressure. From the second period to the end, the closest they ever got to a comeback was down by 2. As you can imagine, we were overly excited that we were able to pull out the championship from the perceived favorites.
This leads to a conversation that I found to be interesting. After the game was over, we got our championship t-shirts and got out of our equipment. On my way out of the facility, I talked to the league coordinator. He told me that when they were assembling the teams at the start of the season, they had anticipated our team's win. I found that interesting at first, but found the next comment to be even more thought provoking and counter intuitive. The statement was made that if they would have had a short bench, we would have had a more difficult time taking them down.
So, think about that. If they would have had less players, they would have been more difficult to defeat. Odd concept, but if you look thru the season, it does hold water. Unlike our team, every player did not attend every game of the season. Therefore, the core part of the team that did attend, was very strong. However, when you add in the "stragglers", it breaks the cohesive nature of the team. Well, they had a full bench and we won, I don't have a hard time not thinking about the alternative outcomes of what could have been.
That night, after Angel and I finished dinner, we went to chill at the house of one of my teammates. It is a damn good thing that I don't start work until 10AM. It was well after 3 by the time we left his place and we still had a 1/2 hour or so drive in front of us. The important part is that we were safe and I did make it to work the next morning.
We're Still Alive
Everyone who periodically checks in with us, I apologize. We have been quiet for a while again. According to my login, my last post was in mid October. I have half written messages that need completing, I have more Driver's Rant articles on the table, and I also have much catching up to do. However, in the grand scheme of things, there haven't been many earth shattering occurrences during this latest quiet time.
I am not going to get in-depth on each topic that I would like to catch-up with here. However, here is a quick run-down of the highlights:
Of course there is a story that can go along with each event. A couple of them have already been started and I may get around to writing about the others. Time will tell.
However, you may be asking yourself, "What has come about that I'm finally getting around to doing some writing again?" Well, that would be a fine question. I am patiently waiting for an OS installation to complete on my new server. My old server finally kicked the bucket and I'm working on creating its replacement. I'm sure I've noted in the past (around the time we had the lightning strike) that my server wasn't in very good health. Well, I was correct and I neglected to build the replacement server before it went belly up. Thankfully, I know now that I didn't lose any data, although, it was a grave concern at the start of this process.
Speaking of building my server. I can't say how frequently I'll be returning here to put up additional posts. Ever since my unit was placed on alert, it seems that my priorities have changed. I have found much motivation to tie up loose ends that didn't seem so loose before. I have been working on a website now for what feels like almost a year, and I still don't have it complete. I have placed much pressure on myself to get this project completed. This is so that in the event that the mobilization order comes down, I will not have to tell him that the project will have to wait until I get back. I have other projects and things that I would also like to start/continue to follow this one. Therefore, my time is even more at a premium than it was before. I am not saying that I won't get around to it, because I would like to, though, time will dictate the results.
