THAT day though, about the fourth post down in the "arch/engineering" part of the job listings it said "Concrete Lab Manager on the Kwajalein Atoll". I kind of thought it was a hoax. I read on. It said in quotes "Ben you have the certifications we want, and its a dream location, we want you Ben". I googled the "Kwajalein Atoll", and just looked at pictures that day. It looked like an island that was really a runway and not much more. I'm thinking "who cares, if its a runway island.....its in the south pacific....and the pay is really good", so I start the application process that day. It took a few days it turns out, to complete the online application for the construction company. They wanted copies of certificates, of resumes, of...well ...of all the stuff I hadn't had to deal with.....ever.
So last night, 5 days after I accepted the job offer 6000 miles away, David, from the COA meetup group had a get together for me. It was kind of nice, also kind of hard to talk to everyone.
Its pretty cool to have good people in your life.
The worst of all this is that I've had to find a home for my best friend, Benji
I actually cried a lot about abandoning this little guy. He found his way to me 5 or 6 years ago. He wouldn't let me touch him for a month even though he ran around with my two other best friends at the time - Guiness the great dane, and Champ the crazy mutt from next door. They both left in different ways, but Benji remained. He' been my buddy for 6 or so years. He's a little more "cat-like" in returning affection, but he still does and I get sick at the thought of "Abandoning" him. Even though Catie will love him and treat him like a little prince, and her ferrets will entertain him, I still feel pretty crappy about leaving him. Maybe worse I feel crappy that I may not feel so crappy once I set my mind to it.
I haven't really bought into any of it, this whole "go earn too much money on a beautiful island in the south Pacific" thing. I mean, the application process was long, the first two interviews were a few days apart. I called to get the email address of the engineer from the second interview to thank him for his time, and the HR rep said that one of the owners would be calling soon to talk about lab equipment. "So after 4 is ok?" she said. I fully expected a call in the next few days, and when it didn't come I felt good, relieved even, in the idea that I wouldn't have to find a home for my best friend, or leave some really great people, or leave a great girl who I'd been struggling to get to know. I was kind of happy to click back to reality. Of course, that's when he called and offered the job.
Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Tetanus, Tuberculosis screening.......not to mention a physical...oh and can you recertify for the "field tech level one" you have that expires in Feb?
That leaves me here, in a nice room at a Best Western in Albany NY on December 18th. This kind of makes it serious. Amy said I should check the company out, get a vendors license and all or something. She did bring me back to reality, and I googled them as much as I could to satisfy myself that they were legit. I had a few scary thoughts between then and now, but started to quit worrying when I remembered how broke I am and no one would go thru this much trouble to take the $5 in my checking account. Then they told me that they would fly me to NY to take this recertification rather than let me wait until it was available on the 8 or 9th in my home city Cbus. Apparantly, they want me out there before the 8th or 9th. So they spend $1300 to send me to Albany NY to take this test I hope I do well on tomorrow. This means I really am leaving my best friend, and the other best friends, and the girlfriend I was hoping to become best friends with.
12-19-14-
I'm sitting in the airport in Albany waiting on the trip back home (thru D.C)
I've done too much research about the Marshall islands in the past week or two. I knew about Diego Garcia, the Phillipines, Guam, Puerto Rico... but not about what we did in the 1950's to the Marshallese. Its all fairly depressing. White men suck. I'm going ahead with this with the part of the quote "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." Even if I'm not so much a believer in God the rest of the quote applies, it also relieves me of all guilt...well not about Benji.
I'm nearly positive I'll get the recertification, despite it being so much harder in NY than in Columbus Ohio. It all means I'm going .....to the islands 6000 miles away on the other side of the international date line. I'm not really anxious, or apprehensive, its just plain strange to think about. One moment I was sitting at work in a city I've been all of my life, a months later, I'm going to be on an island in thee middle of nowhere . This island is nearly the best definition of the "middle of nowhere".
12-20-14
.....I keep trying to find more blogs or websites that will help me figure out what I should bring. The HR person from SJCC sent me a checklist and a website to help a bit and it did. I'm starting to really look forward to this. Like it will be a totally healthy thing to shake my life up a bit, and of course the improved resume and knowledge will not hurt a thing either. There is also the fact that my pay is going to basically double..........and I'm going to an incredibly gorgeous place. I am still...the luckiest guy I know.
12-22-14
Went to the lab today to pick my coworker, Ryan's brain. I met Ryan thru my sister. He was a friend of hers thru church. He's 26 or so now, but when this started he might have been 21. I'm not sure how I thought of him, but I had a moving job for the autistic school that I did side work for. I called my boss Reggie that day too, to ask him if his son might need some extra money. I told him I could pay his son "$30 an hour for maybe 5 hours" to which Reggie replied "I'll do it, the hell with Andy for that money". That is where Ryan and Reggie met, helping me with a side job. It wasn't a week later that Reggie told me he was needing more "technicians" when I suggested Ryan, he immediately said "he's hired". Ryan and I have been there together nearly 6 years, he took the lab manager part, and began his college education geared towards getting a civil engineering degree, and I toward as many national certificates in the field as I could get, and field work. I've never really wanted to be in the lab, not because of the type of work, but because it was inside. I don't like being inside....
Ryan kind of hooked me up with much of what I will need to succeed in my new position, all of which I will have to read up on. Reggie is using me as an excuse to have a get together for us tomorrow at "The Crazy Mule", where ever that is, after work. I'm going in to make sure my side of things workwise is as complete as it can be. Reggie has been joking around about me "not taking him with him" and how he was going to explain to his wife tonight where he could be if she wasn't "holding him back". I did some more electronic "paperwork" for SJCC, to make sure I wasn't holding up the "onboarding" process as they like to call it. The HR lady, Lori , keeps commending me for keeping my side of the paper work going.
I met with the guy who used to do my taxes before I realized it wasn't that complicated and shouldn't be THAT expensive. He didn't really tell me anything I didn't know, but for some reason I needed the security in his answers before I wrote "EXEMPT" on my W-4 form. We talked for about 5 minutes, maybe 8 about taxes. The rest of the hour was about travelling and dogs and MMA. He told me he had been diagnosed with lymphoma nearly 2 years ago. I don't know, he is a very out of shape, large guy, more so than when he had did my taxes 15 years ago. He talked about his diagnosis and how it made him take the mostly "no expenses spared" cruise to Alaska with his wife. Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan and a train to Denali. He said it was part of his "bucket list" mainly after the doctors had ran him the "probabilities of survival" of his lymphoma. 85% if he makes it 2 years, which he was nearing. He said he wouldn't go back to Alaska again, after I asked him. I only asked him because I thought it was so beautiful up there. It's a completely different beauty than the Caribbean, but I would go back up there, if I had the choice, but would probably try to avoid the kayak thing for extended periods, but I can't see doing it on a cruise ship either. We talked about the Caribbean, which he had only seen from a cruise ship. He told me that the Caribbean cruises were mainly about partying, not so much about beauty, because "once you've seen one island" the rest are mainly the same. I guess that's true......when seen from a cruise ship. I may never know.
12-23-14
I can't seem to sleep so well lately. I wake up at 3 or 4 am and start thinking about all there is to do before leaving. The longest tenant at my 5th avenue place told me he was getting married this coming weekend, and that his new wife and him would start looking for houses in February. He's been there 5 years, so there is going to be some work needing done and I hate to dump that on my sister, but there's not going to be much of a choice given the timing.
12-23-14
I found this looking for blogs on Kwaj tonight....
The island is small, we're talking 1.5 square miles in area. You can bike from one end to the other in less than ten minutes. Bikes are the main mode of transportation and they rust after a few months being in such close proximity to the salty sea. And, if you've never attempted this, it is a trick to ride a bicycle piss-drunk. But funny to watch people wreck. As you might have guessed, we have a lot of alcoholics and we're proud of it. We have cookouts on the beach and a couple of clubs to party in. Most everyone is friendly, I mean, on an island this small you don't want to piss a lot of people off, so it's a good time had by all. Another great thing about living here is there are no bills and no taxes. Housing, food, internet service is provided. So, you pretty much save everything you earn unless you really can put away a lot of alcohol. And I mean a lot considering alcohol is not taxed and a big bottle of Absolute runs you like $10. Now you see why we're alkies?
...well as long as I can get them to play some serious ultimate before the whole drinkin thing takes place....or maybe surfing.
12-16-14
This may be strange, going from a place where I can hide and be nearly anonymous, to a place where hiding is going to be a bit more difficult. I'm looking forward to shaking up my life. None of the blogs I've read have been too bad.....
12-31-14
I can't say things here are going to end close to the way I was hoping, but, there is only so much control
I am completely, at this point looking forward to this. I've spent the last few days visiting people but mostly being responsible by getting legal forms, many of them, filled out, witnessed , initialed and notarized. The responsible guy would have had this stuff done and filed a while ago. I guess I've never been that guy. My friend John helped me out there today. I had wanted to come see his place anyhow, and especially before leaving for so long. He's got what he called an "old warehouse" in one of the suburbs. It was more of a historical turn of the century landmark that he had a shop and an apartment in. I was impressed. It's exactly what I envisioned myself having had I lived near downtown Columbus, but there are no building like this in Columbus. 3 stories, metal trusses, brick walls with huge doors, and huge half round windows. Pretty damn cool. We had lunch, or, rather I ate and he had some tea....but he told me about "bareboating" in the great barrier reef. He had done it the first year with his son who was living in Australia at the time. The second year his daughter really wanted to go, and bring some friends. He told me it was a catamaran around 40'. I couldn't believe they would let some guy from (wherever) Ohio take a $300,000 boat out around the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. They spent a half of a day with him then let him loose the first year with just his son. The second year he had more trust as a returning customer that didn't destroy the boat and just let him go (with 5 twenty year olds). When I asked him the cost, thinking it would be around 5k, he told me it was half of that. I would completely love to get some of the good people in my life out on that catamaran!
An old friend Lauryn called me this morning. I knew she was kind of desperate because of the time and the time she spent explaining her troubles. She needed some help moving stuff out of her studio. I spent a few hours, 2 days before moving to an island 7000 miles away, helping someone move. I can't believe I said yes. I am a sucker for anyone needing help though. Ok she did pay me and I'll admit I needed it.
On a side note, I am so thankful for winning this lottery! WHO get's this lucky in life? Hopefully, I can and do return the Karma given to me on this one and on the rest of my life, even though its not plausible given the amount I need to return, and the time I have left.
Jan 3--
Debbie, former half parent to Guiness (my now departed Great
Dane), picked me up at the airport in Honolulu at around 3 pm. That meant I had been up for 15 hours since
Hawaii is currently behind Ohio by 5 hours.
She had already asked me to go to a wedding at 7pm, and I had been
invited by a local girl, Tiffany, to a cookout at her sister’s house that
started at 4pm. Tiffany, while a Hawaiin
native, had been doing a residency in Marietta Ohio for at least two
years. I’d met her thru a “Meetup” group
in Columbus called the Columbus Outdoor Adventures, which I was an organizer
for. She had finisher her residency and
was home for a spell before taking a job at a hospital in California. Debbie and I got to the cookout, despite
having google and the address, about an hour late, but the food was still out
and plenty of it. Tiffany, after
introducing us to everyone (at least 25 of them), started explaining the
food. I can only remember “Sticky Rice”
and octopus that was caught earlier that day.
There were many dishes and Debbie felt bad for bringing grocery store
Sushi and Fruit, but we didn’t really have time to prepare things. We stayed about an hour and got “leighed(sp)”
by Tiffany’s parents, who happened to have a few extra non organic ones laying
around. As her mother put it around my
neck she said a woman must “leigh” a guy and giggled, which seemed to embarrass
her daughters.
We stayed about an hour at Tiffany’s sisters. I told Tiffany that we couldn’t come because
I didn’t want to show up eat and run.
She insisted we come and that others would be coming and going and it
would be no big deal. Off to the
wedding. The wedding was one of Debbie’s
grad students. They were probably both
near 30, and an extremely attractive couple with a large group of equally
attractive friends. I forgot to mention,
we had stopped by a thrift store and picked out an “Aloha” shirt as Debbie
called it, for me. It was very Hawaiin,
but not too gaudy. They had a drink at
“the wedding” in a punch bowl with rum on the side if you wanted to add it, but
it was great the way it was. Ginger,
pineapple juice, mint leaves. I’ll have
to say the wedding wasn’t really a wedding but an exchange of vows and a
gathering of friends. They were
hippies. Not hippies in the traditional
sense that you could pick out from a distance (ie unkempt hair, unfashionable
clothes, etc), but once the vows started, it became obvious. Maybe I’m just cynical. They had a friend there that was a (I’ll
screw this up) “makahulu” or “mukuhulu” dancer, which Debbie told me is a huge
deal in Hawaii, and she thought the girl (around 30) looked too young to be a
makuhulu. It was about the dance, a
deeply traditional Hawaiin dance to bless the couple. I’m fairly certain the couple didn’t really
know how significant her dance was, or at least the groom didn’t. He kept smiling and kind of awkwardly raising
his eyebrows cheesily while looking at her dance. Plus, he couldn’t say the name of her
title/dance any better than I can remember it.
We met another former grad student of Debbie’s there too, Erin. We talked about playing Ultimate, and told
him we would be playing the next day at a park near 12th avenue and
invited him. We skated out of that
nicely odd wedding around 9ish to go to yet one more party.
Debbie had kind of mentioned it earlier, but didn’t think
she, let alone me, would be able to stay awake long enough to make to a third
party at 10pm. It was her climbing
friends. Well, they don’t really climb
together anymore since the Hawaiin government made it illegal around 3 years
ago, after a rock fell on a hiker (the rock had nothing to do with a climber or
climbing) and killed her. That group of
climbers, led by Debbie, has been lobbying for years to get the climbing
reopened in Hawaii. They had success, as
Debbie told me in a few weeks at certain spots, and after various paperwork was
filled out, some would be allowed to climb.
There was a pig at the party that I didn’t get to see. Debbie had told me about this wild pig that
the movie crew filming the TV show “Lost” had basically befriended,
domesticated, fed and when they left abandoned. The climbing community became the pig’s new
friends, after feeling bad for the pathetic little guy wandering around unable
to feed itself. So Debbie’s
friends, and , an American who had married a
Japanese girl pregnant now with their 4th child, took this pig home
and it’s now a bit of a family pet.
We arrived back at Debbie’s apartment around midnight, at
which point I had been up for 25 hours straight along with 5 beers in the last
7 hours. We both crashed hard.
Debbie’s apartment was the nicest place she has had yet
since she’d moved back out there. 2
bedrooms on the 11th floor of one of the many apartment buildings in
downtown Honolulu. On the south side she
had two sets of very large sliding windows, one of which opened up to about an
18inch wide by 12 foot long balcony that wasn’t really good for anything. The north side was the other side of the
building that had sort of venetian windows that she never shut. The sliding windows on the south were rarely
shut for that matter she said. The
apartment spanned the width of the building with the kitchen and living room on
the south side, bedrooms on the north.
INSERT PIC
I didn’t wake until around 9am, which was too early, but the
sunshine reflecting in wouldn’t let my eyes stay shut any longer. She had gotten up a few hours earlier and had
been working on her computer. She made
us some waffles while I tried to text my cousin Seamus and give him an address
to the field we would be playing ultimate in later on. Seamus was stationed on Oahu for 3 years in
the Army. He told me he had 5 or 6 others
to play with us. Tiffany had 5 or 6
also she said, and Debbie’s one backed out.
It was kind of cool to think 4000 miles away from home and all that was
familiar to me, I would be playing ultimate with 3 good friends, who had
brought other good people out. We had a
blast.
There were some completely new people, some completely non
athletic people, some who played well, and some who played excellent. It was a great mix of guys, girls, young and
old. Two games in about two hours and
everyone was spent. Tiffany’s group
headed off one direction, Debbie, Seamus and his two buddies and I headed to
the Kona brewery to get some burgers and beer.
I am proud to say the youngins
(Seamus, Jones and Wade) were too wore out to be much fun at the restaurant. Seamus just kind of kept staring past me like
there was a tv back there, but it was just wall.
Debbie dropped me off at the airport at 5:45am this morning
so I could resume my flight to Kwajalein thru Majuro. My two 50 pound bags went thru the
agricultural screener. I can’t imagine
how that thing works. I checked in, left
the bags and waited around until gate 12 opened. I kept eyeing people as they arrived at the
gate, keeping an eye out for possible Frisbee players. There were a lot of sort of boring older
white looking men, a large percentage of overweight and or older people and a
lot of native looking people. Not too
many prospects. Then I realized not all
these people were headed to Kwajalein.
Many were going on to Guam, the Philipines and New Zealand.
I’m sitting on the plane now wondering what Majuro will be
like. Debbie’s friends that joined us
later last night at the restaurant kind of gave a wincing look when I told them
I would be going to the Marshal Islands.
The guy, Chris, agreed after I told him I read something about the “armpit”
of the Pacific. When I told him I would
specifically be going to Kwajalein he told me “oh, you’ll be ok, that’s a nice
one”. So I guess I’ll be ok. Its good go know. They passed out customs declarations sheets
to everyone but those of us heading on to Kwajalein. I guess since it’s a US military base there
will be no customs.
I’m still looking very much forward to this. Looking forward to shaking my world up. Everything will be different. I won’t know a soul. The weather is opposite. It’s a small island 3miles by ¾ of a
mile. No cell phone, no car, no familiar
friends, and coworkers. I guess I like
to go big when getting out of my comfort zone.
1-11-15
Its been 6 days. I can completely say the food rumor is false, but then again, someone told me the food this year is better than the food last year. There's a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables every day and then the rest of the stuff, which isn't too bad either. My lab tech, Ray, and I have gotten along well, in spite of our differences. By differences I mean he has a new dodge charger, I have a church bus and a prius, he has two kids and an ex wife, I have or had an awesome dog, he thinks there's nothing to do here because there are only two bars (even though he's not much of a drinker he says), I can't wait to get off work to explore. Those sort of differences are fine because he can take my grief, and we get along well. That's so important because we will be working side by side for the next month at the very least until things really get rolling out here. Here's Ray....hardly at work--
The lab isn't too bad. We spent a day cleaning it up after it was unused except for storage for at least 6 months. The Marshalese workers were using the microwave and the oven, which I was never really able to clean up. There was about ten pounds of rice in there, 2 of which were in he microwave. Ray also found a 2 inch cockroach and practically ran thru the wall trying to get away from it. He's a ninny when it comes to bugs and spider webs. There is a rumor that they are going to put us in rooms, 4 guys to a room with no dividers. If that happens I will be sleeping in the lab. Its got A/C, its kind of remote and its also next to the best surfing on the island. I think Rays' buddy, the cockroach left with the rice, and the spiders are kind of small and feeble, so it will be perfect. I've spent most the workweek, and will continue to, learning what they already think I know, and getting the labs credentials back with the national accrediting agency (AMRL). There is an engineer back in Colorado for San Juan who is helping me with that. This concrete and soils stuff is incredibly boring, but I've actually enjoyed a little forcing myself to try and master it. It must be I like challenges.
Its the weekend now (Sunday morning) which is Sunday and Monday out here, since we work Tuesday to Saturday. Things were pretty routine this first week. Get up around 4am, try to talk to people back home since its 11am there, go run two miles if I feel like it, ride the bike a quarter mile to he cafeteria that opens at 5:30, eat too much breakfast food (fruit and veggies too), get to the safety ...I mean "safety" meeting at 6:30, hang out for a half hour, listen to the guy talk, which goes something like "well, we're basically going to be doing the same thing as yesterday, Greg will be working on the batch plant, you guys will continue working on the equipment shed, and the mechanics will continue......" blah blah blah. Then we head off to our air conditioned lab and begin the ten hour day. Lunch comes at 11, we leave at 5 minutes til, Park the newly acquired truck in a designated parking spot, ride the bikes a quarter mile to the cafeteria, eat too much, talk, then head back to the truck and back to work at noon. At 4:50 we head back to the designated parking spot, ride bikes to the cafeteria or in my case to the Kwaj lodge where I change into shorts and tennis shoes and head to the cafeteria, eat a little then I head to the gym. I ask Ray what he did last night and it seems he either talks on the phone (Vegas, which is where he's from, is only 4 hours difference) or watches a streaming movie on his computer. That's pretty much what I hear the rest of the guys do too, but they are older (55 to early 60's). I've been just going to the gym, then going exploring. I did make it to the surfing spot out by our job site, and talked with some people there. They told me I have to join the "surf club", which I'm not sure what that means. There's a nine ft board for sale, but its expensive enough that I'm going to wait a little bit to shop around before I put that kind of money down. I need to buy a bike too, as the one they loaned me expires in 3 weeks. The bike will be another $300 it seems. I'll get better pics of a gaggle of bikes today, but here's a typical modified one-
1-11-15
Its been 6 days. I can completely say the food rumor is false, but then again, someone told me the food this year is better than the food last year. There's a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables every day and then the rest of the stuff, which isn't too bad either. My lab tech, Ray, and I have gotten along well, in spite of our differences. By differences I mean he has a new dodge charger, I have a church bus and a prius, he has two kids and an ex wife, I have or had an awesome dog, he thinks there's nothing to do here because there are only two bars (even though he's not much of a drinker he says), I can't wait to get off work to explore. Those sort of differences are fine because he can take my grief, and we get along well. That's so important because we will be working side by side for the next month at the very least until things really get rolling out here. Here's Ray....hardly at work--
Its the weekend now (Sunday morning) which is Sunday and Monday out here, since we work Tuesday to Saturday. Things were pretty routine this first week. Get up around 4am, try to talk to people back home since its 11am there, go run two miles if I feel like it, ride the bike a quarter mile to he cafeteria that opens at 5:30, eat too much breakfast food (fruit and veggies too), get to the safety ...I mean "safety" meeting at 6:30, hang out for a half hour, listen to the guy talk, which goes something like "well, we're basically going to be doing the same thing as yesterday, Greg will be working on the batch plant, you guys will continue working on the equipment shed, and the mechanics will continue......" blah blah blah. Then we head off to our air conditioned lab and begin the ten hour day. Lunch comes at 11, we leave at 5 minutes til, Park the newly acquired truck in a designated parking spot, ride the bikes a quarter mile to the cafeteria, eat too much, talk, then head back to the truck and back to work at noon. At 4:50 we head back to the designated parking spot, ride bikes to the cafeteria or in my case to the Kwaj lodge where I change into shorts and tennis shoes and head to the cafeteria, eat a little then I head to the gym. I ask Ray what he did last night and it seems he either talks on the phone (Vegas, which is where he's from, is only 4 hours difference) or watches a streaming movie on his computer. That's pretty much what I hear the rest of the guys do too, but they are older (55 to early 60's). I've been just going to the gym, then going exploring. I did make it to the surfing spot out by our job site, and talked with some people there. They told me I have to join the "surf club", which I'm not sure what that means. There's a nine ft board for sale, but its expensive enough that I'm going to wait a little bit to shop around before I put that kind of money down. I need to buy a bike too, as the one they loaned me expires in 3 weeks. The bike will be another $300 it seems. I'll get better pics of a gaggle of bikes today, but here's a typical modified one-
