Alright. I'm a very patient person. Sometimes. And I'm sorry for continuing to fuss. But GOOD GRIEF! We live about 2 hours from the beach and about 3 hours from the mountains. I'm a big believer in hopping in the car and taking off on a Sunday drive to go do some sight seeing. Maybe find a little State Park where we can all do a bit of hiking and take some pictures. Especially this time of year. I would love to drive out to the mountains and get some pics. How. Ever. Billy's confined to a 50 mile radius while on duty - which apparently means all the time. In order for Billy to go outside of this invisible 50 mile Army Bubble, he has to get permission from his command. So last night he gets the papers to fill out for a potential upcoming road trip and you would think he was applying for the adoption of a third world baby. (I have a friend who adopted such a baby and I know all the paper work and hoops she had to climb through and I'm not belittling her experience in the least. It was a very lengthy process that required a lot of patience and I admire her dedication to the task.) Hence... he had to take this online Personal Owned Vehicle Risk Assessment Test in order to submit his other 12 documents of paperwork. "Do you plan on wearing your seat belt?" "Do you plan on consuming alcoholic beverages while driving?" "Do you plan on making rest stops?" "How often do you plan on making rest stops?" "How many hours of sleep will you get prior to making your trip?" "What kind of vehicle will you be driving?" "Will you listen to the radio in your vehicle?" "How about making conversation with your wife?" "Do you like to chew gum when you drive?" OK... well the last three I made up... but they have to be kidding, right? He has to answer all these questions and then this online system rates the risk level of the trip outside the 50 mile Army Bubble. As if he would answer, "Yes, I plan on getting blasted drunk and then driving down the interstate with my whole family in the car just to see how far I can go without getting pulled over." High Risk - yes. It just seems ridiculous. Really. Just another thing I've got to contend with.
So here's my question... there are 60-some thousand soldiers at Fort Bragg. Do you mean to tell me that not one of these soldiers ever leaves the Army Bubble without getting permission first? Oh I'm sure they do. I mean, how can anyone have any fun? If we want to take a day trip to the beach, do we really have to ask permission 14 days in advance? I'm really hoping we do not understand this rule completely and there is some sort of discretionary policy that allows soldiers to go out on their days off. But who knows. A couple weekends ago (before Billy got in the unit) everyone from Billy's unit got called in for a formation in the middle of the night because there was a soldier who got in trouble with hitting his wife or something. If we'd been at the beach, how would we have made it back for his formation? I'm going to try and get some answers on this. Otherwise, I'm going to feel like a prisoner.
Oh and our little baby giant is back. Much louder thumps and more often. Apparently the marines are in town for some training so we had to get out the big guns.
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