Kwajalein Atoll.......

June 6, 2015.

I think my new conversation starter around here is going to be...." how do you deal with this transient lifestyle?". There are so many out here who have worked in really cool places, done really cool things all over the world, but I wonder how they deal with so many superficial relationships. Or is it that they do develop connections with people, and I just don't know about them. Maybe I'm just homesick. Maybe I was just so grounded with great family and relationships with good friends back home that I took things for granted.

Ok the other thought is, and it sounds a bit egotistical maybe, but I'm getting stronger. I mean, at 40 I thought I was stronger than at 30, then at 44, after being introduced to crossfit, I thought there was no way to top that. Now, after being out here for 5 months, doing these simple workouts at work, surfing, playing Frisbee twice a week, and riding my bike 40 miles a week, and keeping an attitude geared to better health, I think 50 is going to actually top all the rest.

June 7, 2015

This has to be the busiest, most draining weekend I've had since being out here.

Sunday evening two boats of us went to Bigej. It's pronounced like Fiji, except with a B. Our boat had 3 girls (friends of Lee's) Kacie, Monica, and Darlene, and Lee, James and I. We had a total of maybe 9 beers. I took only two, since I rented the boat. The other boat with 7 people had two cases, plus multiple six packs of mixed type drinks. We left Kwaj and headed north on the lagoon side of the reef (the ocean side was closed to boat rental boats probably due to big waves) at 1 pm. Bigej, I heard is a pig farm. Its not noticeable by looking at it or by any other of the senses. It just looks like this Palm tree infested island with a great sandy beach running the entire 1 mile length of the west side of the island. The water is a turquoise as it gets with the sandy bottom extending way out into the lagoon. There are some coral heads, but where we anchored the boats it was mostly just the kind of water people dream of being in.

I guess the point of the alcohol count I mentioned is that I ended up having only 3 beers over a 5 hour period that we sat out there anchored in the afternoon tropical sun. I tried to hide from it after about an hour of kind of playing in the water. It felt like I had had ten beers when we finally got back to our quarters that night. I was so tired I couldn't sleep. Maybe its my age, but the sun completely takes it out of you out here.

And here are some pics from the last week.