It's like Groundhog day and Daylight savings in one!

One of the benefits of steaming west is that the ship occasionally crosses time zones.  Time at sea is a really curious concept.  Take for example that it's very easy to several days without ever seeing the sun.  Sheesh, some of the cave dwellers who maintain the nuclear plants way down deep in the bowels of the ship don't see the light of day for months at a time.  If you've ever read "The Hobbit", Bilbo's description of Smeagol-turned-Gollum matches those poor souls pretty well (I'm sure a few of you cheated and saw the movies, anyway).  Even for those of us who still need an occasional dose of UV radiation, going 4 or 5 days under constant flourescent illumination can really mess with the circadian rhythm.  The first effect is that I stay up later and later each night that I don’t see the sun-as if my body is seeking some kind of nocturnal equilibrium, always seeking the necessary time for sleep but never finding it.  Getting out to fly during the day really helps.  It's amazing how just a few hours of sunlight can reset that internal clock.  Flying at night on a regular basis can really mess you up.  We pretty much become completely nocturnal at that point.  Up all night, sleep all day, 180 out from the rest of the ship.  The near constant 1MC (loudspeaker) announcments and aircraft catapults and landings during the day make this a very frustrating arrangement.  Foamy ear plugs are a night pilot's best friend--just don't miss the alarm that was supposed to wake you up for your next brief.

At home, there is a certain routine to things:  you get up, shower, make coffee, drink coffee, drive to work (while drinking coffee), do some work, drink coffee, do some more work or go flying, have some lunch, go to a meeting, drink a Diet Coke, do a little more work, drive home, have dinner, clean up the kids, put them in bed, sit around for a couple hours surfing the net while Janell watches 24, go to bed, repeat.  On the ship, there is absolutely NO routine for pilots.  Don't get me wrong, the Navy lives on routine.  We have bells that ring every 30 minutes to set the schedule for goodness sake.  But for pilots, our "routine" on the ship is driven by the flight schedule, which is driven by the Air Plan, which is driven by an Air Tasking Order, which is written by Captains and Colonels, Admirals, and Generals somewhere else who assign the tasking for our airwing.  Anyway, my point is that every day is different: the time I go to bed, the time I get up, the time I fly, the time I do paperwork, the tim I work out, even the time I eat!  They serve 4 meals a day on ships: the standard 3 plus a midnight meal called Midrats (midnight rations, for those who care).  I usually catch 2 out of the 4 on any given day (sometimes 3).  Anyone who knows me can tell you that unless I'm scheduled for a 0700 brief, Breakfast is not one of my standard meals (especially since it's served from 0500-0730).  I find it very difficult to get out of bed to make breakfast just for the sake of getting breakfast.  Ahhh, but the pastries made by CS2 Franklin ALMOST make it worth it.  I usually just stay up late enough to catch them coming out of the oven fresh.

There was a point to this rambling diatribe.  Oh yeah.  Time zones.  Tonight, I get an extra hour of sleep!  That is a great thing.  Especially since it's now about quarter to 1 and I have a meeting at 0830 tomorrow morning.  The funny thing is, even though no two days are the same, after about 3 or 4 days, they all start to bled together and just seem like the same day over and over.  It's an odd oxymoron.  Whenever things seem to get boring, though, I just think of poor Gollum down below, watching the dials and gauges of his Precious, keeping it safe.  Life could definitely be a lot worse.