Augment, Spring 2005

When we got to the airport, I ordered a pizza and scarfed it; it was delicious. It’s odd how everything tastes, smells, and looks better when you’re in a good mood like that. It’s like a high no drug can match. The flight was awesome. International flights offer free booze. I pounded about three Jack-and-Cokes and passed out into a dream-soaked slumber.

Because of the long flight and crossing the date line, I got Wednesday over again. I flew out of Narita and arrived at HNL the same day! Even though it was an 8 hour flight… awesome.

Thursday and Friday were supposed to be muster days. Everyone else mustered but me. Dallas and I bumped into one-another at the rec center at the computer room…

Dallas (with a smile on his face): “So, where you been, man?”

Me: “Playing golf.”

Dallas: “Chief was like ‘Where’s Fish?’ and I just made some shit up about medical.”

Me: “Thanks for covering for me, man. What they got you doing?”

Apparently they had them muster just to move some shit around in the barracks, what a waste. They just muster you in the Navy sometimes to keep tabs on you and make sure you’re not out shooting heroin or some shit.

I was out playing golf, I think I was okay.

I was staying in the on-base hotel again for a few days, partying and golfing. I was out partying on Friday night the 4th of March. I was at a club in Waikiki called The Wave. Doctor was there with Chuck. It was good to see him again. Chuck introduced me to this chick SmellyCrotch, who I ended up seeing for awhile while on augment. We never banged, but did everything other than fuck. She was mildly annoying and our relationship never took off. We fell asleep listening to Jack Johnson’s “In Between Dreams” CD one night, and woke up with it still playing “Banana Pancakes.” A few good times.

On March 12th I moved up to Kunia with Rook in a spare bedroom that was being used by JewishGuy.  He was a dude who had transferred to our boat after being on the Greenville. Apparently he was getting some anti-semitic flak from some of the other people. They sent him over to us and I got along fine with him. JewishGuy and I liked to bitch about the boat a lot. It got old when one time we were standing by maneuvering, bitching about stuff and Pastry comes by…

Pastry: “JewishGuy! Do you ever stop complaining!?”

He was genuinely annoyed and that’s when I realized that there were more fun people to hang out with. JewishGuy was a first-half augment guy and so I used his room until…

I met back up with Gamecock and Hokie. We decided that it was time to get a place together. It was a good arrangement because all three of us were on different boats. That way, someone would always be there at the house. Also, we could come home and just hang out and be friends without feeling the need to bring work home with us. We actually made a rule that once you cross the threshold of the door and walked into the kitchen, no more talk about work.

We looked on the internet for listings, I made some phone calls and found a place. It was the first place we went to look at and Gamecock blurts, “We’ll take it.” He just wanted to get settled in someplace. He was a second class now, Hokie had just reenlisted, so we were all flush with cash and desire to get off base. It was shortly after signing the lease that I decided to trade in my faggoty Jetta and get an ‘old man car’ — I bought a Nissan Altima.  It was a 6-cylinder and actually had some balls.  I loved my new car!  Here’s why I bought it…

While I was staying at Rook’s in Kunia, the water pump on the Jetta went out. I had heard a squeaky something for some time and didn’t think anything of it. In an effort to save some money, I tried to fix it by myself with the help of one of the coner augment guys, CarNerd. He told me that he was a car guy and seemed to help out quite a bit. It was quite a project, and CarNerd was kind enough to come hang out for the weekend and drive me to the parts store when I needed to. I got the new pump in and went to tighten down the timing belt, but didn’t put enough tension on it. A couple starts later and the timing belt had slipped a couple of notches.

The timing was all off, and one morning I sputtered through the gate at PH, pulled it into the parking lot of the Mini-Mart on base and later that afternoon had it towed to the dealership. At the dealership, they had it up on the lift as I was signing the papers for an Altima. They actually had to lower it down so that I could get my shit out of the trunk and haul it into the Altima. Me and the Altima spent many good years together (until spring of 2008 in fact).

That was one of the few times in the Navy that I felt a financial pinch. I signed the lease at 1130 Ilikala Place in Kailua on the 22nd of March and traded in my car on the 25th.

Lots of good memories in both the car and the house, but the timing of both coming into my life at the same time almost bankrupted me.

 

Quote of the month for March 2005: “I love being in the Navy when I’m not actually in the Navy.”