13 August 2007: Third time's a charm

It turns out that third time is a charm. At least it is when it comes to command visits. The group commander arrived today. My team’s first order of business was to clean up our office. It was in a bit of disarray. Although the commander didn’t stop by today, the office looks much nicer. We expect to see him tomorrow. I definitely have my briefing ready. I had plenty of time to get it together.

With the commander’s visit came a return of the heat. We were sweltering again today. It’s unfortunate. Our cooler temperatures lasted just long enough to spoil everyone. I knew it was too soon for it to get a little cooler around here. We’re do for at least another month and a half of this weather.

Overall, Monday wasn’t much to brag about. It was mostly just the “jump through the hoop” stuff that always accompanies a command visit. As the day came to a close, I braced myself for something I knew was coming. My intent was to go for a run. It wasn’t in the cards. Just as our end-of-day meeting was wrapping up I got asked what I was doing for supper. Damn! I got “invited” to have supper with the group commander. That, of course, meant to go eat supper right then (I always eat later after my workout). What could I do? I joined him for supper. We weren’t alone. Also present were a couple of sergeants major, the XO, the operations officer, and another battalion commander. With all those people present it was impossible to have a meaningful discussion. Therefore, it was one of those “nobody can leave until the commander leaves” events. That meant lots of idle chit-chat about things like baseball, NASCAR, and football. Unfortunately, it also meant several boring “this is tough but let me tell you about Desert Storm” stories. I had to just smile and force a laugh from time to time. I didn’t share any war stories.

I tried hard to let the food settle so I could go put in a late workout. The only thing that happened is I got tired. Instead of working out I was asleep by 2300. We’ve got a full schedule on Tuesday. I need to use all of my planning skills to figure out how to squeeze in a run. It’s a tough assignment.