All Said and Done

The packers and movers came through like locusts carrying paper and cardboard and tape. In three days these harbingers of life changing events wrapped, packed, and strapped into crates every item that we elected to maintain ownership of in our Japanese house hold.

Three days.

Of course, we did throw away a TON and a half of trash. Seriously, 3000 pounds of Troxel trash has been given final rites and laid to rest at the Bremerton Transfer Station. We also gave away about 12 car and truck loads to the Goodwill.

We expect to see our stuff around the middle of October. It will be like an early Christmas as we watch all these boxes unpacked.

The Last Pair of Johnston & Murphy's I'll Ever Own

These shoes were 10 months old when I finally had to accept that the "Great American Shoe Company" had sold me the equivalent of a Payless Shoe store reject. The split in the sole occurred within the first three months; the separation of the shoe from the sole began around month six.

These shoes were worn at best, every other or every third day, as I have a very favorite pair of brown Santonni's that I wear more frequently. By the way, the Santonni's still look brand new.

Good bye and good riddance Mr. Johnston and Mr. Murphy. Apparently, these shoes weren't made for walking.

Moving Part E, Subsection 1.6-54

I've been doing my best to cope with the reality of the moving process. I know that one would think this would be old-hat for someone who has actually been living in Japan for four months, but in reality the sight of everything boxed and bagged has been amazingly tumultuous. Perhaps it's the reality that there is no "home" to come back to anymore; all these years of traveling have always brought me back to Lilah and the elevated view of the Port Washington Narrows. And now tomorrow will bring my last official day as a home owner and my first official day as a landlord.

There is also the entire introspective process that has accompanied the sorting and sifting of a lifetime of junk carefully accumulated and stored until now. One might call it an archaeological process that has involved the unboxing of early primitive attempts at being me. There's stacks and stacks of Army photos, the facinating timelapsed photography of "the growing of the hair", the random writings of a would be poet, the primitive facial jewelry, the tight jeans, the loose jeans, the ripped jeans, the designer jeans... a veritable time-line in denim if you will.

There were boxes of books, and bills, and magazines, and college homework. Whatever possessed me to hold onto these things has been lost over the years between then and now. But the affect has been realized in the stark reality of leaving.

The Pups have handled the process fairly well. Calla and Chase have been poked, prodded, and cut. They've had blood drawn and important bits removed. And through it all, they've been absolutely the best. Here in the hotel room Calla is munching on some kibbles from her portable hiking food bowls while Chase is reveling in the enjoyment of a very rare instance of lying on a bed (hey, it's a hotel!). We've reconnoitered the champagne bucket to serve as their water bowl and their new international flight approved kennels are waiting for me to tuck the puppies in for the night. So goodnight all.

Lilah in Action

Since I've been back, I've had an opportunity to attend 3 of Lilah's soccer games, 2 with her Poulsbo team and 1 with her Pendergast team. The photos below are from her Poulsbo team, and while Lilah looks like every bit of Beckam's match, they lost this particular match. However, last night they rocked and brought home the gold with a 8 to 4 victory!

Of course, like any sports model, Lilah is making this stuff look much easier than it really is.

She got the mad skills.

And she even doubles as a fill-in goalie.

So, in all honesty, this is yet another one of those self-serving posts. It kind of displays my need for a new camera, it definitely displays my affection for my wife, and it certainly displays Lilah's affinity toward soccer. Does this appeal to the masses? Neh. But I'm okay with that.

Case of the Missing Prius

I've used Ebay for a number of years now. Not as a professional seller mind you, but to get rid of a few things here and there, to buy a hard to find such and such, what not. So, when I listed the Prius on Craigs List I didn't think much of it. And two days ago we sold it to one of the only two people who responded to the ad. A free ad, I might, umm... add.

So, we're packing. And we're packing... and packing. Today we finished our long term storage shipment. As Lilah said, everything that's left either goes with us or goes to the trash. A true en"lightening" experience; on Saturday when we made a dump run in our rented Uhaul, we disposed of a ton of trash... literally.

Anyway, not everything has been thrown away. Some of the cleaning turned up some long un-developed insta-matics. Enjoy these pieces of history--

Jason in JapanThe 1000 word version

What Ever Happened to Christopher Kirkwood-Watts?

On the way home from work tonight it suddenly occurred to me: what did happen to Christopher Kirkwood-Watts? Or Lori Sprague? Or Lori Eigenfield. Of course, my first thought was that Chris probably kept his maiden name thus making it simpler to track him down--and really, how many Kirkwood-Watts could there be? There's also the fact that with only one typical spelling for Christopher I need not confuse myself with Lori versus Lauri... or was it Laura?

I met Chris in Denmark; we were both Rotary Exchange Students during the 1988 and 1989 school year. His parents were English teachers in El Paso Texas and his hyphenated name seemed rather avant guard at the time. He was a better chess player than I was and introduced me to the Guccio Piano opening as well as the Italian Variation. The Lori's were from mid-West states. Least ways I think Lori Sprague was from Michigan and Eigenfield, maybe Illinois. I met my first Mormon in Denmark--he was fascinated with Jim Morrison and drank all the time; never having met a Mormon before I didn't know how far from his flock he was. All in all there was a couple hundred of us who maintained fairly close friendships during this adventure... I had the best of intentions of keeping in touch. These days I'd be happy to remember more than the small handful of names that I recall.

I guess I'll know when I make it rich and famous and the dear friends from my past begin to find me; I will welcome that day. Obviously I'm not there yet. The only consistent comment-teers on this blog are my mother, my aunt, my wife, and a few fellow bloggers. The likelihood of Mr. K-Watts, or the incredible burping Margot--a Kiwi from Down Under (she was about 4 foot nuthin' with a belch you'd expect from Andre the Giant), or Gerry from Georgia, or even my cousin Manley whom I haven't spoken with in about 20 years--the likelihood of any of them stumbling across our blog, AND taking the time to read enough to know that the author is none other than me, AND THEN taking enough time to leave a comment... well, let's just say I won't be staying up late tonight hitting refresh on the comment page.

I guess in the end I accept I'm no Chris Stevens ala John Corbett; perhaps I should pontificate less and just take more pictures. Meh.

Another Day, Another Bon Odori...

This past Friday was the SRF-JRMC summer festival party, a.k.a. Bon Odori. And man, do these SRF people know how to throw a party!

There's so much color! Sure beats black tie...

There were a ton of kids and family members at the festival, a far cry different than life at PSNS where one visit every five years is allowed, but kept very formal and limited in attendance.

This above is Commander select Rachel Clouser. She's a reservist who's working for SRF while her husband is serving here in Japan.

The above is LCDR Rodarte's kids and the below is his wife. Rodarte is the deputy project superintendent for the carrier program office.

Our comptroller (read money man) for SRF was hard at work flippin burgers.

Kano san (San is a Japanese honorific) is an MLC (that's a Japanese shipyard worker) who is working for me.

The above is Mr. Dennis Foye, Chief Engineer and Planning officer.

The above is the president of the SRF-JRMC association (right) and a member of the Yokosuka city council.

Above is Bill McDonald, he's the new PSNS detachment director at SRF; below is Bob Posey (Left) of NNGN and Doug Carson, my PEPM Mentor on loan from PSNS.

Above is Jim Manning and his wife, both of Bremerton also here on temporary duty. Below on the right is Ai Suzuki, my bosses secretary.

Above is the Captain's secretary, Wada san and below is Captain Douglas (right) who is enjoying the festivities.

As I said, this was quite the Ho-Down. There might have been 1000 people, 10 food booths, another 10 refreshment booths, games, goldfish (yeah, i don't quite understand either).

I'm on my way back to Bremerton on Tuesday. I know they say you should never announce your vacations because someone could be staking out your house, but I say, that's a really long trip to steal government furniture. Anyway, that's all for now.