On the road again - or - the final frontier

So there I was...

...in the great outdoors, the snow falling, sub zero temperatures, waiting once again to fly.

Well I am in Alaska. This is my first time here on the job anyway. You might remember Jelaine and I actually went to Anchorage in March to see our friend Kalli, but this time I am in Fairbanks. Haven't gotten to see a lot, but I have only been here since Wednesday. I am excited about trying my hand at cross country skiing. I didn't really think there was anything to it but after talking to an avid skier yesterday and hearing his story of crashing and burning yesterday on a 5K course here I have changed my mind. I plan on going tomorrow or Monday. Check back with me to see how it went. I am sure it will be an adventure.
So, I am here to fly and I have actually gotten to fly once already. It was a short flight, 5.1 hrs (I know you might not think that is short but for us it is) but you should have seen the view. Yesterday's flight was one of those that really reminded my why I love flying. I have told some of you this but much of my desire to fly and eventually travel to space comes from this feeling I have of being closer to God, the higher in altitude I am. I know that seems trivial but it is true. The splendor of God's magnificent creation is more evident when you are able to take more of it in at once. Creation declares to glory of the Creator! I hope to have a few pictures at least to show of the mass expanses of mountain range and glacier. I also hope to come up close and personal with a few of His living creatures out here in the final frontier.
Well, on another tangent, I ran into a fellow astronaut hopeful up here. No, I literally ran into him...ok, I walked past him in the hotel not noticing who it was till he said hello after he past me. It's OBIE!!! Obadiah Ritchey! He was my perpetual Astro partner at the Academy. So we won't mention how we were the dumbest two astro students there, and how due to his love of coffee and our shared fault of procrastination we were always staying up all night until the last minute finishing our next project. But we made some killer cover pages, you gotta give us that. Here's a picture of us! If you wanna learn more about him, here's a link. http://www.obadiahritchey.com/ He often refers to himself as my Id. I can't completely agree, but it is sometimes hard to deny.

Anyway, enough babbling, I'll check in with you all soon I hope.

Blue skies and God's speed!
Kilroy was here!

Traveling post..

So there I was...

Standing in an airport in Germany, reading Justin's tale of wedding travels when i was inspired to write my own quick blog about military travel. So here it is.

I arrived at Offutt at 0800 Sunday morning on what was supposed to be a 4 day weekend to sit and wait for 4 hours. Got on a C-17 and traveled to Gandar, Nuefundland (sp). Basically this is the Eastern edge of the western world. Sat there for two hours. Got back on the plane, flew 6 hours to Ramstein, Germany (where I am now blogging from). Will be here for 4 hours as long as they get the plane fixed and our new crew gets here on time. Then we will board and travel another six hours or so to our next destination. It will be Monday evening before we get to our somewhat final destination.

The good part about military travel is that they let you sleep on the floor so you better believe I bring my Therma-rest, and sleeping bag and crash. I also got to read this great book (Future Grace by John Piper) and spent some great time reading 1 Corinthians.

Anyway, not much of a post but since I haven't blogged in ages something is better than nothing right. You guys are awesome. Hope to see most of you around New Years if not before.

Kilroy was here!

Once in a lifetime opportunity...almost.

So there I was...

...on my way to work, but running about ten minutes late. I'm listening to the morning news and weather and stuff on the radio when I hear them say something special is about to leave Offutt. They are giving the play by play every few minutes. "It should be departing within ten minute," "it's now moving into takeoff position..." All I can think is, I hope it takes off this direction as I hurry my pace to work.

Well, ten minutes from work they tell me that it has departed to the East...meaning I don't have a chance of seeing it. "Well," I think to myself, "I am sure it comes through here every once in a while, I'll catch it next time I hope."

WRONG!!! The next thing the radio tells me is that this is only the second time it has had to stop here on its way back home. Where is home you might ask? WEll, its Florida...more specifically Kennedy Space Center. And if you haven't guessed it by now, it was the shuttle piggie-back atop a specailly fitted Boeing 747. I missed it, because I slept in 10 minutes too long.

So next time you better think twice about hitting that snooze button, you never know what you might miss. Until the next time I will look longingly at the pics someone else managed to take first hand. Hope you enjoy it too.

King of the Road...almost

So there I was...


...riding down the highway at 70 mph, wind on my face, smell of summer in my nostrils, and nothing by my motorcycle between me and certain death (ie. the pavement). "What's this?" you say. That's right, you heard me. Jelaine and I now own a motorcycle. It is going to need a little bit of work to get it all cleaned up and riding like a gem, but it commands the road already!

She's a 1999 Honda Shadow Spirit 1100cc. The best part is it only has 3900 miles on. Can you beleive that? Of course that did cause a problem today when I was in an intersection and killed and then the battery didn't have enough juice to start it again.

I mean, I have ridden it three time since I bought it and that make my riding experience a grand total of 5 times. Does that make me crazy? I mean buying a 600lb bike after only having ridden twice before? Oh well, it sure is fun. And I have to practice a lot so I feel comfortable enough to take Jelaine for a ride the next time she is home.

Next step: Biker Boyz. It has quite a ring to it don't you think? Fat chace though huh? Well at least "E" will join me, and I bet Scotty will too someday.

Anyway, let me know what you guys think. Jelaine and I are super excited!

Kilroy was here!

Random Weekend Fun...

So there I was…It was Friday evening, I had jut gotten back from Crossroads (college and career small group at church) thinking I wasn’t going to have anything fun to do this weekend.

Boy was I wrong! It started with mowing. I know this doesn’t sound fun but after mowing and doing a little thatching raking of the grass, I got to play with the sprinkler system. Justin can tell you how much fun it is to play with a new sprinkler system. We put ours in, in October right before the first freeze so I haven’t gotten to use it till this weekend. I tested it and checked everything out and it is soooo cool. Only problem is that it runs at 0400 every other day so when I sleep with the windows open. (I bet you guys in Texas didn’t know you could do that without dieing in your sleep from heat exhaustion) anyway, it wakes me up cause it is loud when it is getting started and pushing the air out of the lines.

Wow, that was a lot of talking about a sprinkler system. Oh well. The weekend just got better though. I went with my friend, Ben, to go trap shooting! It was awesome! I have never been before. He has a semi-auto pump action 12 gauge shotgun. You can only load 1 round at a time on the range but it is cool. The best part was that I beat him. His gun, he’s gone several times before and I still beat him. We shot two rounds of 25 clays and I got 13 the first time and 15 the second. I think better than 50% is pretty good.

Well, Sunday was great too! We had a great message at church as always! Have I told you how awesome my church is? One of the assistant pastors has a blog. If you wanna check it out right now he has this great blog about how he explained justification by faith alone at a home school graduation ceremony. Its pretty amazing how he can turn such an important truth into a simple and effective illustration. http://www.irishcalvinist.com/

After church I got to go test ride a motorcycle. It was a 2000 Honda Shadow Spirit 1100cc. That is a big bike for me considering the only other one I have ridden was a 250cc in a parking lot for two days. I’m not going to lie, it was scary. And to top it off, those of you who ride, know that carry someone on the back makes riding harder. I carried the 220lb owner behind me as he taught me how to ride. I know that is not a picture you don’t want to try to imagine…so don’t! J Anyway, I think I need some more practice before I go buying my own, but for some reason no one wants to let a guy who’s only ridden two bikes, borrow theirs to practice on. Anyway, here's what it looks like...but it is gray on the side and has saddle bags...vote on whether I should get it or not.

Well, this is a long blog, but I wanted to tell you that I am flying 6 of the next 10 days so I am going to be busy for the next few weeks. Catch you soon though.

Kilroy was here!

PS: If you've made it this far, go check out Jelaine's blog. That's right, she back from the land of the dead and has a story to tell about her recent amazing accomplishment.

Warning: Graphic Material Below!

First of all, I want to warn you all, this is not my usual lighthearted blog. Instead it is an atempt to share my recently aquired knowledge of a horifying reality. You may choose not to read below if you would prefer to remain ignorant on the process commonly know as partial birth abortion.

To begin, I will tell you that the actual term for the proceedure is "Dilation and Extraction for Late Second Trimester Abortion" As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words so I will give you a few, but before I do that I would like to note that these pictures were requesitioned by a
Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), and have been approved as accurate by no less than two professionals.

http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/Levatino_on_illustrations.pdf

http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/Bowes_letter_PBA_illustration.pdf

These men support the facts that prove the unborn babies experience extreme pain throughout the proceedure. (Prior misconceptions say that the anethstesia given to the mother prior to the proceedure kills the baby....this is simply untrue).

In short, the baby is pulled feet first from the womb, then stabbed in the back of the neck and the brains are removed through by suctioning them out. The depiction below shows this clearly. A complete procedure is available here: http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/Levatino_on_illustrations.pdf (but once again I want to warn you of the graphic proceedure ahead of time.

I know this may seem a bit extreme, but until yesterday I had no idea what it involved. If more people, including mothers who were thinking about this proceedure, understood the pain they are putting their baby through, they would be less concerned about their own ability to choose and more concerned about, at the very least, providing a humane alternative. I mean we give dogs and cats more respect and concern than we do the unborn. There is even a Congressional Statement supporting the need to inform the mother of the pain they are causing their children before the process can be completed. http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/Fetal_Pain/SAP.html.

If you still want more information, try starting here. http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/ There are a lot of documents linked from this page. I pray this was as sobering for you as it was for me. Its not about choice or life folks....lets just start with humanity and then go from there.

New Official Sport...

So there I was...

Talk into another hairbrained scheme by one of The Boyz and loving it! That's right...this time it was "E". Although I think it all started with Scooter, but that's another story. Anyway, E started bowling in a PE class, and since he never blogs, you wouldn't know it but he now owns his own shoes, 3 balls rolley bag that holds 4 balls and two towels...oh and a wire brush for his shoes. He also bowled 3-over 200 games this week. His best has also out shot my fluke 248 from years ago. Anyway, I decided to take it up and now own my own shoes, bag and ball. I just got them this week actually and only bowled 2 games with my new ball but it is awesome. So, I figured I would share with you all my awesome ball and at the same time since three on the boys as well as Laura I believe already have thier own equipment, and I know the other two boys at least enjoy the sport I could unofficially name bowling the sport of The Boyz. I will wait until we have an opportunity for at least a majority vote on the subject before making it official.

Anyway, the real reason I blogged was to show off my bowling ball so here it is!

I plan to catch up with all your blogs this weekend so stand by to stand by.

Kilroy was here!

And now...Little know facts with Armand II - or - A three hour tour

So there I was...

Stranded on a tropical island paradise, beginning to understand the meaning of island fever. No really, you can get tired of a beautiful place like this.

I know I shouldn't be complaining, but when you are told you are going to be some place a max of 25 days and you are still there 2 weeks after that deadline, you start to wonder if you got on the S.S. Minnow by accident.

But this blog isn't for complaining it is intended to enlighten you on a few interesting facts. Fact Number 1: In the military there may actually be an allowance called Island Pay. I tried looking it up, but was unsuccessful. But how strange is that. I mean, I understand hazardous duty pay, and family seperation allowance and I love Military tax exclusion zones, but island pay? Here lets send you to a tropical island and since it is such a hardship, we'll give you extra money. I just want to say thank you to everyone who is paying a little extra in taxes this month for my island pay. :-)

Fact Number 2: The Brits really have this uniform thing down. They actaully have uniforms with shorts. This makes total since when you are in a place like this. The funny thing is, they just look like Scoutmasters in good shape. The shorts for the battle dress uniform are almost exactly like our old boy scout shorts with the exception of fewer pockets...they are just as short though. And the khakis have a khaki shirt and shorts. The only other thing they are missing is long socks. In fact, they don't wear socks at all. Just penny loafers. And to top it off they have berets. It is awesome! Most people here would laugh at me for saying that, but I would totally wear it.

Fact Number 3: The Cobra Ball's so called "stealth wing" is not actually stealthy, or maybe it is but since the rest of the plane isn't, it doesn't really matter does it?

Fact Number 4: Philipinos have an awesome way of popping backs. I found this out when getting my second 15 dollar hour long massage. What they do is lie you on your stomach and then a little philipino woman tells you to relax as she stands on one side of your body and grabs the oposite quadracept in one hand and holds the associated shoulder against the table. Then she pulls your leg up and back across your body toward her. I know this sounds quite uncomfortable but when you think your leg can't go any further back all of a sudden every vertibre in your back releases with a syncronized *CRACK*! It is amazing.

Well, I had a bunch more fun facts but they have slipped my mind so I will write again when I think of them.

Till then...

Kilroy was here!

Two in one week...what is going on?

So there I was...

Blogging for the second time in one week. I hope you guys aren't too overwhelmed. Make sure and read the last one if you haven't already. Things are still going well here. Today I was actually productive. I worked hard and put in a pretty long day. In the end it was a good day though. Not a whole lot to say other than that.

On another note though. I was trying to keep up on my current events and found an article I think you will all find quite interesting. Just take a few moments and check it out. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,253918,00.html

Anyway, hope you are all doing great. I hope to catch up on everyone elses blogs tomorrow.

Blue Skies and God's Speed,
Armand II

The "Footprint of Freedom"

So there I was...

...stuck in the middle of the Indian Ocean on a tropical island paradise with nothing to do...

Did I say stuck? Well that might be stretching it. Ok, yes, the Air Force did send me here without warning or even asking whether I wanted to go or not. And yes, I don't get to leave until they tell me too, and even if I wanted to, I would have no means of leaving because they control all modes of travel in and out of Diego Garcia B.I.O.T. But I guess I could be a lot worse off.

Did I say nothing to do? Ok, so that was just an outright LIE! Since I have been here I done the following (in no particular order):

Snorkeled 5 times
Swam in the pool
Windsurfed once
Ran on the island (Running a 5k tonight to get a free T-shirt)
Played in a beach volleyball tourney for a free T-shirt
Sailed twice (recieving a legitemate sailing license)
Watch out Scott, I am going to be ready for that sailing trip from New York in no time)
Deep Sea fished twice...with another trip in the making (the second one got cut short due to
inclement weather so the next trip is free)
Toured this cool Satelite tracking facility
Visited Turtle Cove (A protected area of the island for sea life)
Eaten freshly caught and cooked/grilled fish at least 6 times (two were the fish I caught, to
include: Grouper, Snapper, Jobe Fish, Sweet Lips, Bonita Tuna, Yellow Tail Tuna, another
kind of tuna, and my favorite: Whaho (sp)

And to answer T3s question, if there is such a thing as to much fresh fish, I am getting pretty close.

Oh and lets not forget the 1 hour massage for 15 bucks. (I plan to get another one of those)

Well, I am sure I am forgetting something but my time is just about out and this guy just showed up next to me with a huge waad of tobacco that is stinking up the whole room and making me sick. :-) (random...)

Oh, I guess I should mention that we've flown a few times to.

I only wish my wife...and maybe the boyz were here to share it with me.

Kilroy was here!

Flawed "Diamond"

So there I was...

...not home 24 hours from my last trip when Diamond decides to break her leg. Yeah, you heard me. She decided that it would be a good idea to slip on her way up some wooden stairs. The dumb part is that she was at the same house on the same stairs she had been on for the last 2 weeks. Anyway, she was running back up the stairs when she lost her footing or something and slipped in between two of the stairs (since wooden stairs don't have a vertical backing between connecting one to the next like indoor stairs do). Needless to say she plummeted about 6-8 feet down to the snow packed frozen ground.
She did quite a job too. For you medical types, she gave herself an oblique fracture of both the Ulna and the Radius in her right foreleg. Basically she broke clean through both bones in her forearm. I immediately picked her up and could see it was bent while she screamed bloody murder. I call it a scream because her whine is so high pitched it might as well be a scream. I carried her inside where my friends also have a min pin and when she heard Diamond she decided to join in the misery. It took us about two minutes to get them to stop.
Well, long story short, I took her to the pet emergency room, they knocked her out, took x-rays, splinted the break, and gave her pain meds, and I spent my entire tax free from my trip to the desert. Oh, well, that's life I guess.
Anyway, now you know why I haven't blogged since I have been back. Here is a picture of her in her cute pink splint...it has hearts, but you can't really make them out.

She is getting around much better the last few days, but the vet is going to put an even longer splint on on Friday so that the joint above the break will be immobilized too. Apparently, since the emergency vet was a girl, and couldn't have been a boy scout she never learned that both the joint above a below a break must be immobilized for proper healing. (J/K!)
Kilroy was here!

Sleep when you are tired, Eat when you are hungry, Fly when you're told to

So there I was...in the desert.
If you don't know where, talk to Jelaine or "E", they'll fill you in. But after a day of in processing and getting settled in to a room (lodging is long trailers lined with small rooms, each room with two bunk beds and two small metal wardrobes), I asked "What do we do now?" And as the title eludes, this is the answer I got: "Sleep when you are tired, Eat when you are hungry, Fly when you're told to." Sounds good to me!
Actually that's not far from the truth. I wake up at midnight, (I work nights here), eat breakfast, go fly if I am scheduled to fly or study a little if I'm not. I work out, check email, take a shower, and then it is time for lunch. Then I have the rest of the day to read, go to the BX, see a movie (which I haven't done yet) or any number of other things...pretty much free time. At about noon I eat dinner. Then I get ready for bed, read some more and am asleep by 2pm. Not to bad, huh?
It's also very cool here...literally, even the desert cools down in the winter. That parts really nice. Well, I think that is enough info from me. I hope everyone is doing well. Jelaine is posting this blog for me since they won't let me access it here so if you want to comment, you should send me an email instead. armand.fondren@gimail.af.mil.

Blue Skies and God's Speed,
Kilroy was here!

Now you see me, now you don't...

So there I was...

...minding my own business, trying to plan for a local flight, unsuccessfully I might add, when out of nowhere I get asked THE QUESTION: "Are you ready to go?"

"Uhhh...What...Uh, I...uh, I guess so, why?"

Well, I wasn't supposed to be going anywhere, but someone else could go so now I am going. Now you might ask when and where I am going and I would love to tell you, but I'd have to kill...no really...I mean it this time. :-) So, anyway, I wanted to let you all know now that I finally started posting again it might be a little while till you see another post from me. I will not be in Omaha for an indefinite amount of time starting very soon. That's about all I know at this point. So, if you get the chance, say a little prayer for me, and Jelaine, and my family...mom is worried of course...that's what moms do best!

BTW, Jelaine, "E" and I missed the rest of you at New Years. We had a great Christmas with family and friends. We only wish it would have been with the boyz too!

As I like to sign off at work:

Blue skies and God's Speed,

Armand II