(Actually a bit out of date. Count is down to 14 days at this point.)

Sooooooo . . . issue one: got new job.

Issue two: New job means a modest relocation from Alabama to the blessed and holy land of Alaska, where summer temperatures never rise above the sixties and the money is good. Looks like I'll be headed back to Alaska again (fourth trip this year, counting job interviews and such) in about 30 days. Can't wait.

So my current enlistment was all set to run out in August, and I was all set to roll directly into a better paying and presumably less irritating job (can any job outside of the fast food industry be more irritating than the military?), but there were a couple hiccups in that plan.

Looks like I'll be on the gov't payroll until the end of this year before shifting back to the whole glamorous one-weekend-a-month jackassery until next August (one year extension).

I passed on the big bucks ($15K re-enlistment bonus) in favor of less contractual obligation to the National Guard and all the idiocy that goes with it. Hopefully this was a good call.

Now if the job situation would just sort itself out. Hopefully I'll know something next week. End of the month was early time frame for a hiring decision . . .

ETS Countdown: 87 days. Damn.

ETS Countdown: 212 days.

Be inside six months pretty soon. Liberating feeling to say the least. Re-enlistment still seems extremely unlikely.

ETS Countdown: 277 days.

Re-enlistment Prognosis: Dim.

Some days I love my job.

Nothing new going on.

So things change, things stay the same, but get exciting all the same.