With our requirements for this underway period completed, Loren and I launched 702 from the ship early on Tuesday morning for the 30 minute hop back to Atsugi. Even though this was only a short 5 week deployment, there's a been lot of transitional acvtivity on the homefront that I've missed. I left for deployment from the front door of our hotel-room abode at the Navy Lodge and returned to the on-base house that we'd been assigned in mid-March. Charlotte was stuck (for the umpteenth time) with the task of 'catching' all of our wordly possessions in my absence as they arrived on our doorstep a few days later. More importantly, little Reese has already grown what must be at least another foot taller than she was back in February ...and is babbling like a little creek! Other older and more experienced parents are always warning me that kids "grow up fast". I can verify that there is probably no better way to gain a fuller appreciation for this sentiment than by the painful process of getting to sit in the 'parenting penalty box' for odd months at a time out at sea and then observing how she's changed in the interim. As much I dislike this aspect of the job, it does make the time that I have at home with Charlotte and Reese a lot more precious.
It'll only be a short pause before we're back underway in a few weeks, but for what it's worth, I've never actually been in Japan during the Cherry Blossom season. (I've always been out on deployment). Cherry blossom season is a finite period in late March/early April when the cherry trees suddenly bloom, then fall away just as fast as they appeared. The Japanese tradition is to sit underneath a cherry tree with your closest friends, drink a lot of saki and just take in the view. (No, I'm not making up the saki part. ...This is the only other culturally endorsed form of public drunkeness that I've ever heard of besides Oktoberfest).
Over the next 2 weeks we've got a new pilot arriving, the Cherry Blossom Fest here on base, (featuring the Base Air Show this Saturday), BADMAN Week (an annual, week-long intra-squadron sports competetion -- what we like to refer to in the military as "Mandatory Fun": you WILL show up and you WILL be happy about participating, OR your fitness report will reflect your piss-poor attitude about it). In addition to those, we have a detachment NATOPS evaluation and the looming spector of the fact that we've got a lot of work to do on our aircraft in the remaining time in-between. ...It's going to be an action-packed "operational hiatous" to say the least of it. I'm convinced that this is all a scam put on by the Navy -- we're always inundated with work when we're at homeguard, so everyone is continually eager to get back out to sea where they can actually get some rest!
But none of that matters right now. I'm just enjoying the great feeling of finally being back home. I woke up this morning in my own bed listening to the sound of a light snow falling on the cherry tree behind our house that's just starting to blossom. ...And the pitter-patter of tiny feet in Korean-made slippers...
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