Doesn’t Anyone Listen?
I am beginning to think that brain tumor aside, I went crazy long ago and have been in fact having full conversations with brick walls instead of people on numerous occassions.
Issue number one: my combat action badge submittal was returned again. Despite the fact that several doctors have now established a connection to an explosion in Iraq affecting the general condition of whatever marbles were rolling around in my dome, there are simply those who prefer to believe what someone tells them instead of the paperwork in front of them, such as statements, manifests, and other proof. The nice thing is that the Veteran’s Administration might actually look at the paperwork one day, long after I am out of uniform. They will also be paying the tab on the brain problems that were exacerbated by the incident, so I suppose it is only fair to give them the honor of bestowing anything else that goes along with it.
Issue 2: I think someone, perhaps my First Sergeant, perhaps Xenu, perhaps whatever karma-punishing element there might be in the universe, has it in for me. For some reason, I just have trouble finding good help these days. Our unit has recently fallen into a little bit of a staffing problem as the Big Army figures out how to right itself from a little mess it made when it combined some jobs, got rid of a few others, and brought in civilians to make up for missing Soldier positions. The qualifications I hold have thus become a bit of a hot commodity in this little bubble in the market, but I appear to be federally controlled and not getting any pay raises for the things I get to deal with and the swapping around I get to do. I was just told yesterday that some of the things I have been chasing and in fact reenlisted for, such as deployments and courses, are now a liability because I can’t go away for too long without a backfill that the Army has yet to provide. While this should not affect my return at the end of the month to complete the course I was so rudely ripped from earlier in the summer, it does make the next two and a half years a little daunting. For the past two years I have been trying to weasel my way around staying in my current position, but the karma-gods have combined themselves with the brick walls until now it might be too late. I had better go to this course at the end of the month; it might be my last escape for awhile.
Issue 3: My Soldiers seem to have put their common sense into a lovely, carved, wooden chest, locked it, and then buried it somewhere, and now have apparently lost the treasure map. This isn’t that much of a surprise, actually, as I already knew this about them, but conversations in the past week have sometimes gone past trying to talk to the brick wall and resulted in my beating my head against it instead. I am starting to wonder if this isn’t part of some dastardly plan on the part of my command to get a few giggles at my expense as I try to figure out not only why, but how my Soldiers come up with some of the things that come out of their mouths and the things they do.
Luckily, I go in the middle of next month for the doctors to determine the status of my headaches. With a little luck, these experts will assess my situation and can perscribe me something helpful to deal with the still-present pain.
Like a nap.