Circadian Arrhythmia

Not much exciting to write about today. I'm sure you've seen the news about the British sailors and marines who were seized by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy. Can't say much from this end beyond what you've seen in the news.

I flew some more folks to and from the CDG today. Another early brief. Ugh. My circadian rhythm is anything but rhythmic. I've made greater than 6 hours shifts several times in the past couple of weeks. Hence the boat-life mode of sleep, eat, fly, repeat. If you don't sleep when you can, you won't sleep. Sometimes I can get a little out of control... After I finished writing two nights ago, I finally got to bed around 3am. I set my alarm for 11am but neglected to slide the OTHER little switch to ON. So when the phone rang soon there after I was a little confused when the clock still read 3. After clearing the blur out of my eyes, I realized it was 3 PM! At this rate, cruise will only be 3 1/2 months long. The following morning I had a 0700 brief. Then this morning I had a 0600 brief. Now tomorrow night I'm briefing at 2030 and flying till midnight. Gotta love it. Semper Gumby. To their credit, Ops really does try to keep us on a somewhat consistent schedule. It just doesn't always work and I didn't help myself with my marathon nap. (obtw, I thought I was being cute and original with the title of this entry. Apparently, it's an actual medical term for exactly what I'm doing to myself! However, the defenition refers to: "a chronic steady pattern comprising one- to two-hour daily delays in sleep onset and wake times in an individual living in society"-- this doesn't apply to me as I definitely don't live in society!! I can certainly relate with the guinea pigs, err.. voluneers, mentioned here: "Researchers have placed volunteers in caves or special apartments for several weeks without clocks or other time cues. Without time cues, the volunteers tended to go to bed an hour later and to get up about an hour later each day. These experiments appeared to demonstrate that the "free-running" circadian rhythm in humans was about 25 hours long.")

The NCAA Regionals are in full swing and my long-shot Saluki's couldn't hold it together for me. It was a close game against the Jayhawks, but Lisa was right. Unfortunately, I had USI going to the Final Four, so that's going to sting a bit when the final points are tallied. Otherwise, day one went well for me. Memphis had me on the edge of my seat in the last couple minutes (the only part of the game that I actually watched) with a nail-biter ending including a mysterious missing second off the clock thanks to some creative refereeing. Oh well, TN would've thrown it away regarless. We'll see how Friday works out.

Yesterday, one of our first class Petty Officers re-enlisted in the Navy. For some under-manned rates, the navy offers a re-enlistment bonus, enticing highly skilled and well trained leaders to stick around for few more years. AT1 received a TAX-FREE bonus check for over $32K yesterday! Not bad. Many folks work their career timing so they can re-enlist during cruise when our pay is tax free in this "combat zone". Unfortunately, not all rates get bonuses for re-enlisting. Some jobs are already over-manned, such as mechanics. Typically, the higher the technological skill level in a job, the harder it is to hold on to people. Makes sense. It's nice to see our hard working sailors earn a little (or a lot) extra cash. Just wish we could offer it to everyone.