So Kurt's new ship is getting to be rather a pain in the tushie. The poor guy has to leave the house by 4:45am to make the 5:10am ferry to Seattle, since his ship is currently in drydock there. And his commanding officer has decided that every day the guys (there is only one woman on the ship, so I'm not being non-politically correct here) have to stay until 3pm each day, whether they have work to do or not. The problem with that is if Kurt misses the 3:45pm ferry back from Seattle (which gets him home around 5pm), then he has to wait till 4:40pm and he won't get home till 6pm. Fridays are really bad for the ferries here -- everyone in Seattle apparently owns a weekend home on this side, and they all get out of work around lunchtime. So everyone wants to get on the ferries to enjoy their weekend over here. Anyone who works in Seattle and lives over here is pretty much screwed on Fridays, and lots of people choose to drive the 100+ miles just because it would get them home faster than taking the ferries on a Friday!!
This Friday we don't have to worry about that, however. Kurt's got duty tonight, which means he stays overnight on the ship. That's no big deal, although I miss him when he has duty. But he has duty just every six days, instead of his previous ship where he had duty every four days at one point. And it ends up working out for us this weekend. For one thing, he doesn't have to battle getting on the ferry to get home when it's packed with people going to their weekend homes. Also, he has to work tomorrow since it is September 11th -- but since he's already there, it works out for us. And that's one less ferry trip he has to make. It's expensive, I tell you!! It's $8 each way, and that's with discount coupons!!! Then on Sunday the new school year theme returns because he's got orientation, just like we had when we were freshmen in high school. Orientation for the ship has to be held on the weekend due to the reservists, and they only work weekends. Fortunately, the Navy is compensating him by letting him have both Monday and Tuesday off, so we still get a weekend, just pushed back a bit. And then he'll only work three days and have another weekend!!
We have run into a small snag, however. His ship is supposed to return to its homeport, just north of Seattle, on Monday the 20th. This means that he'll be underway at least on Monday and possibly Tuesday as well. My due date is September 23rd, which is that Thursday. And if I go into labor while he's underway, he won't be able to get off the ship in order to make it to the hospital to be with me!! Military wives have babies without their husbands all the time, but it would be so frustrating if my husband was still in the Puget Sound and not even deployed elsewhere and he couldn't get to the birth!!!! Of course, Murphy's Law being what it is, and me being prone to Murphy's Law, I have the sneaky suspicion that the baby will want to make his appearance that week. Naughty baby. :o)
Autumn really has arrived here in the Northwest, and I am loving it. We get sunshine in the morning and then it clouds up a bit. The temperatures are in the upper 60s or lower 70s, and it's been forecasted to rain this week. I am certainly hoping for that! We need rain! Plus there's just something about the rain falling during the autumn months, where there's that crisp tang in the air and the raindrops just patter down.
Can't you just feel it?!