gear ratio

the army is an enormous system. we are all small parts. each part is important.

that last bit is complete crap. the part i play is like a tiny gear wheel, that's made to spin every now and then, but isn't really connected to anything.

now, if they'd just let me not spin at all, i'd be most satisfied. i'm extremely satisfied with how my day in the army just went. hell, normally i wouldn't be home yet...

i arrived on base (in orange) around 4am. once the second-in-command was ready to let me through, we'd already begun having a laugh at mutual acquaintances. i went to say hi to a neighbour of mine who was guarding - because of my overalls she started trying to give me the phone number of "a really nice guy" she knows. that only started bothering me when i realized she was serious.

i performed my ablutions (which reminds me of something i'll leave for the end of the post, so that you can savour it) - meaning that i brushed my teeth and shaved. then i went to bed.

i woke up at 8am. then 8.05am. then 8.07. this went on until i finally got out of bed around 8.20. the kid and i went to the cafeteria so that i could get myself some tinned ice coffee, and at 8.30 we arrived at inspection, along with a group of other people from our unit.

they wouldn't let us in. this is the first time during my entire service that when somebody gave us a time, they actually meant to start at that time. we said "fuck it", and went back to the cafeteria.

when the inspection was over, our TL found us and sent us back to our office. shortly afterwards he joined us, about a minute after spot arrived. he was pissed. he gave us a speech about how the head of our branch noticed that nobody from his team had arrived, and about how embarrassed he'd been. then he cancelled our "team building" exercise, and left in a huff.

not only do i think that he took that way too seriously, but i also think he was a real dick about it. if his attitude towards us is based on how the rest of the unit sees us, then his attitude sucks. it's not like the kid and i have ever really let him down. in fact, our biggest problem with the army is that it blatently refuses to challenge us.

i lay back down on the bed, but after about a quarter of an hour listening to spot and the kid discussing what had happened, i got sick of being on the base and left.

i bussed home, watched the third episode of the 4400 while waiting for hot water, had an incredible shower, brushed my teeth, and climbed into bed with my beautifully bound edition of the complete chronicles of narnia (i'm on the magician's nephew).

i'm guessing that i fell asleep around 11.45am, and i just woke up about fifteen minutes ago. nobody outside of our team knows that i wasn't on base today. as i said - my gear wheel isn't connected.

the light's all messed up right now, there's a dust-storm going and everything's yellow. i'll be staying indoors then.

back to ablutions. WARNING: The following contains Too Much Information.

something that's intrigued me for years, is that my body handles them according to need. i only really started paying attention to this during my basic training - if i'm in a place where the facilities aren't decent, then i simply don't need to go. this generally holds for about 3 days at a stretch. the rest of the time, i'm fairly regular at twice a day.

now to continue doing nothing.