Fatigue cubed

As I write this, Janell and the girls are (hopefully) sleeping near the south rim of the Grand Canyon, a few hours from waking up, packing up, and once more hitting the road eastbound. Tonight they stop in Gallup, NM. I'm looking forward to hearing from them again. It's remarkable how much that daily contact makes a difference, and when it's not there for a few days, I feel disconnected. I'm so spoiled. I'd never survive on a submarine (for many, many reasons). It wasn't too long ago that email wasn't available on ships either. In fact on my last cruise (98-99--yes, it's been a while), we had one computer in the ready room for 20 officers to share. Needless to say, time for a LTJG was very limited. Plus, internet access was notionally available but practically unsuable. We were using dial-up in the hangar back on the beach! I guess you don't miss what you've never had. So now I'm spoiled, like when you first get broadband at home. You never go back, right Joe?
Speaking of maintaining contact, I was going to write yesterday, really. After sleeping in, I had a slow afternoon followed by another long watch that went into the "wee hours" of the morning. I was planning to write a little after watch. But just as I finished the watch, I learned that I was on the flight schedule for a 0800 brief this morning! I needed to get to bed, so, no blog yesterday.
After about 5 hours of sleep (definitely less than desired for crew rest--the scheduling process didn't quite catch that one last night), I briefed for this morning's log run. I'm sure that term paints a picture of a lumberjack running in place on top of a fallen tree in a lake during some hick festival in northwest Oregon. Not quite. In this case, log is short for "logistics". For us, a log run is a flight dedicated to moving people, parts, and mail from one place to another in the strike group. We had a couple decks to hit, including the cruiser that is out here with us. It was nice to deliver a couple hundred pounds of mail to them, and bring several folks back from there to our ship (leaving a "small boy" is always a good thing in my book).
Unfortunately, I wasn't the only one who was a bit tired at the brief this morning. The day Alert 30 crew was briefing at the same time. CO was the HAC and one of our newest young pilots was the copilot. The new guy had been up until 0200 last night, for the sole purpose of solving the Rubik's cube that Bill send to me recently. The cube has provided a great deal of recreation for guys in the ready room over the past week. I've left it sitting out at the duty desk, and the ASDO's and schedules petty officers have especially enjoyed the challenge. They even went on line looking for hints and tips to solve it. A few pilots have also attempted the task, but none with the fervor that this particular guy has shown. For the past four or five days, it has haunted him. Finally, around 0200 last night, he solved it. And then the CO walked into the ready room after handling a possible rescue (that didn't happen) last night, and caught this guy up way too late for no good reason when he knew he had a brief in the morning. Big oops. Needless to say, the CO wasn't too happy about it.
Fast forward to this afternoon. My flight was complete, everyone on the alert crew got some mid morning naps and were feeling better, and now, the Rubik's cube comes up again as we are standing around in the ready room joking about the earlier "incident". One of the AW's took the now pristine cube and rescrambled it in a matter of seconds. The poor JO's heart sank as all his hard work was erased. As we laughed about how the cube was no fun if it stayed like new, one of our ground maintenance division officers walked up, picked up the cube, and as he casually explained some paperwork he had brought to me to be signed, he solved the completely scrambled cube in about 2 minutes! Without hardly looking at it! I stood there with my jaw hanging open for a moment. A small crowd quickly gathered as we realized what he had just done. The challege went out from someone who hadn't witnessed the first feat. The cube was quickly rescrambled and the stop watch set. Sure enough, once again in 1 min 51 seconds, without hardly looking, he solved the cube. Mind boggling.