It is no homework Thursday! Which is not as cool as you would first think. Tomorrow, I was supposed to have the Flying Fundamentals exam, but it is a half day tomorrow in celebration of Memorial Day Weekend. Except, it is only sort of a half day. We can only do half a days work, and then we have to do a bunch of base activities for "wingman day." And if that wasn't the best way to start the weekend, our exam was pushed to Tuesday at 0600 and only 4 people will be able to do the sims tomorrow. So, a fake half day versus having to study extra over an otherwise perfectly good 3-day weekend. Chock that one up for a loss. This week was kind of busy, and kind of not.

Something hilarious happened this week though. I was in this simulator, going through the flight and learning to do these outrageously slow 30 degree banking turns. I am on the 4th one or so and finally reached the prescribed heading. So, I level off and wait for further instruction from my instructor. And then I wait a little longer, but he says nothing. Awkwardly, I readjust my heading, thinking maybe it is not perfect enough. Still nothing from the peanut gallery. I wait a little longer, struggling to keep my aircraft level, since the sim is not so good at trimming and staying on a proper altitude and heading. Still nothing. So, I wiggle around in my seat so I can see behind me to the sim desk.....my instructor is asleep. Like, passed out chin to his chest asleep. Unbelievable. And, I have no idea how to react. The guy is a retiree and has been working the simulator program for who knows how long. I am not sure if it was a condition he had from being so old that he just randomly falls asleep, or if my flying was just that boring. Anyway, I make some noise and clear my throat and finally after a couple attempts at that, he wakes up. Then he continues on like nothing happened, just picks up right where he left off.

Crazy.

Yeah, so long week for everyone I suppose.

Shadow is suffering from our long days as well. He seems to be overly excited all the time and always in dire need of attention, even if we take him for long runs or walks. But I suppose being alone for most of the day is pretty boring. Hopefully, in a little while he will be properly crate trained and we can let him out in the yard for longer periods of time during the day so he can play with his toys and run around more.

Shadow's training is coming along fairly well. The only real problem we are having is that housebreaking. He just doesn't seem to be able to understand that one. He has learned a variety of commands and is very proficient at fetch now. We are even moving on to more complicated commands like "go to your mat" and "leave it."

Today, I was talking to someone who also has a puppy. He was saying that having two puppies is actually easier to deal with than just having one. I find that interesting. It makes sense, but two puppies running around sure seems like a lot of extra work. Definitely something to consider.

It's Saturday morning and I have been awake for over two hours. Why, you ask, would I wake up at 7 on a Saturday morning. Well, if your class gets in trouble for some nebulous act that we as a class still do not know and have not been told what we actually did, well, if this happens, your class gets to paint the local high school's stadium bleachers on a perfectly good Saturday morning. Unless of course this Saturday morning is rainy, and then you get to drive out there and wait for half an hour before someone decides that the weather man is most likely correct and it is going to continue raining for the rest of the day.

Anyway, rescheduling and slow, uninspired decision making have been the theme of pilot training so far. Neither of which I am particularly fond of, but I guess that's how it goes. If you ask me, it should be stopped, but apparently, that is only a personal opinion and some people enjoy the poorly organized and inadequately led side of the military.

So, now for something less riddled with cynicism and sarcasm. I had my first graded sim yesterday. It went...well, interesting, but I guess well, since I received an excellent on it. I guess all you really have to do to get good grades on the first couple sims is show up and not have your flight suit on backwards. This is a good thing, because I had absolutely no idea what was going on. I mean, I knew I was supposed to be flipping switches and going through the checklists and blurting out random things as prescribed. But knowing that and knowing what is going on are two completely different things. It was good though, I now know that there are way to many little switches and that I should probably memorize not just what I have to say, but also where exactly all the switches are and in what order I have to flip them.

So far, what I have learned about being a pilot is that chimpanzees have more friendly training but learn very similar things. Maybe, if I was given a banana every time I flipped the switches in the right order, then perhaps it would make me feel equal to a chimp. However, seeing as bananas could get expensive, I don't see that happening in the near future.

Feels like a rough week this week. Mostly because by the time I am done I feel like a zombie. Today, my eyes are tired and I have been battling to stay awake for the last 2-3 hours in a class with an instructor who is rather uninteresting, even if he does a good job explaining things. I feel like I should be doing hard core studying in the evenings, but my eyes hurt so much I am actually closing them intermittently while typing this. Anyway, I got off a little earlier today than was originally scheduled, which means tomorrow will be longer. So, I gotta do some house cleaning. Maybe that will also help me wake up just a bit.

I am currently trying to force myself to study. Tomorrow at 6am is the Systems 2 exam. However, all I can think about currently is that in less than two weeks it will be Josh and my 1st anniversary. We are going to Houston to celebrate. It is in 11 days. And somehow between now and then I will have finished 3 exams, 4 or 5 sims, and 4 blocks of instruction. How am I ever going to concentrate enough for that to all happen successfully?

In any case, I better get back to studying, the review for this class is in 2 hours.

We spent most of today digging holes for a fence. We are finally putting up the fence that we got last month from one of the houses that the base is demolishing. Beneath the sketchy top layer of soil is even more rocks, mostly limestone type stuff, thankfully. So, it broke apart eventually, but it was slow work. As luck would have it someone down the street was also putting up a fence and had rented an auger, which we borrowed to finish the last three holes. We definitely should have started with the auger instead of borrowing a friend's shovel and post hole digger. But, it was good to get in a long day of hard labor. It is a break from the endless hours of classes and computer slideshow classes.

The third week of UPT consisted of that -- seemingly endless hours of classes and CAI's (lessons on a computer in something similar to power point format). I have 3 1/2 weeks left of phase 1 (the academic heavy portion). Josh is washing back two classes and finally started flying again this week. He has 4 flights before his first checkride and I have my second Systems test early Tuesday morning. Needless to say, we will be studying most of tomorrow (after we finish putting up the fence in the morning). We are hoping the fence gives the dog a little more time to play outside and makes him happier. Housebreaking the dog is getting to be pretty frustrating. He doesn't seem to quite get that he shouldn't poo everywhere. Not sure if we should punish him more or what, but hopefully he starts to get the idea soon.

The first group of USAFA '09 graduates tracked this week (track meaning going to the second training aircraft, which determines what type of aircraft is flown upon graduation). And next week the last group of '09 graduates start pilot training. It is kind of crazy that we are all really that far away from our days as academy cadets and we are really living our dreams.

So, wow, what a week, and it's only Wednesday. Shadow, as we have named our new pup, is a very good puppy. Fortunately, he is not crazy. He is still a lot of work, but it could be worse. Today (the 3rd day we've had him), he has had no accident in the house. He did puke, but that was just showing me that hot dogs are not a good doggy treat. I gave him a bath today. I have no idea why he doesn't like water, aren't dogs supposed to like water? In any case, the bath will be at least a weekly occurrence, so he will eventually get used to it. Also, there is dog hair all over part of the house. We don't let him in any of the rooms, so no problem there. But in the back room and hallway it is getting pretty bad. Or maybe I just really dislike dog hair. Oh well.

As for UPT. It is going well. It seems really slow right now. But that is fine, I am sure if it was any faster, I would be struggling. Today, I had the Systems 1 test. Passed that. Yesterday, we had our first set of Sims. Not much to it this time, just flipping switches and figuring out where stuff is. Four more weeks of Phase 1 left (Phase 1 is the academic portion of UPT).

We got a puppy yesterday. I can barely believe it. A couple found two puppies tied up and left for dead in the middle of nowhere and was asking for people to adopt. I told Josh that he should convince me that it was a bad idea to get a puppy. But he only came up with reasons it could work. So, we now have a 4 month old puppy.

It is a black lab. We named him Shadow. It seems to fit. The dog is mostly very quiet (especially for a puppy) and like a shadow, follows us around and lays down nearby. So far, he likes the door mats, so we got him one of his own. He does not like the crate, though he doesn't whine too much when we put him in there for bedtime. He stops after 15 minutes or so. Hopefully, that will get less and less. It is interesting learning how to train him. As an officer we have learned so much about communication and getting people to follow you. But dogs do not understand what we are saying. We are figuring out a whole new way of communicating, mostly by gestures and tone of voice.

Also, Shadow loves to sleep. For a puppy that seems odd, but there is no way I am complaining. Best puppy ever.

Josh got a flight and a simulator ride today, which is awesome. They are finally getting him spun back up. He should wash back this week or next. He is a little too far behind to stay with his current class, and he is fine with that. He even knows a lot of the guys in the flight he's washing back into. Well, back to the real world and studying. Systems 1 test on Wednesday and my first simulator (sim for short) tomorrow.

Interesting time of the year. The UCI (Unit Compliance Inspection) is messing up the scheduling for our class. We finished 2 and half hours early today, because our instructors had to go off and pretend to contain a simulated fuel explosion. This will probably be painful later this week or next when we have to make up the stuff we couldn't do. Right now, it is nice to relax a bit, and get some extra studying done.

Long day today. Mostly, the academics seemed to grad on endlessly. All morning we had power point classes, then the FACT test, and then another power point class. Kind of brutal. Not sure if I remember much of anything from the last class. By then I might have been completely gone. But, it was our first Systems class.

FACT is the fighter aircrew conditioning test, which I definitely failed. Apparently, I am too short for those machines. I did well on the lower body and endurance stuff, but the weird arm curl and bench press machine thingies did not work very well for short me. But, apparently, it is completely meaningless for me anyway, since I am also too short to fly fighter planes.

Today, we got our first delivery of Schwan's. We are hoping it will be a good way to deal with neither of us having much time to make and clean up from dinner. Anyway, dinner is over and now it is about time to study. The long days, long study sessions, and lack of free time is really refreshing. I know it will all one day be useful and I will get to do what I love.

Well, the first week is over. With all the seeming snags along the way, it still ended up to be a pretty decent week. Aerospace Physiology is mostly interesting. We just finished the survival part. And I did really well on the exam. It feels much nicer actually doing classes now. Most of them are pretty interesting, or at least entertaining. And even if it a totally boring instructor, I still learn at least something from the class. Our class as a whole seems to be meshing well. There is always those few kids that make you want to bang your head against the desk, but life is just like that. And the cool people in the group make up for the annoying ones.

Next week will be long, but it doesn't seem like it will be as brutal. Class seems to end at 5 each afternoon, which is a huge plus. The FACT test is Monday, and then Thursday we have the last aerospace phys test. The FACT is a fitness type test to make sure you are strong enough to handle a fighter jet. Even though I am not going to be flying those, I am pretty sure I am still supposed to pass it. So, that might be the thing I am a little concerned about. But really, there's nothing I can do between now and then to get better at it. So, I just have to give it everything I got when I do it, and see how it works out.

Another big thing this week is we start our Systems classes. Meaning, we learn about the aircraft systems. I think it is pretty neat that I finally get to learn about the plane I'll be flying in just 5 1/2 weeks. More on all that later. For now it is bed time, as the ground drug trials we are taking this week have started kicking in and I feel the no-go pill starting to work.