Day Two: Navy (in)efficiency

Although today's schedule originally had the afternoon off (well, scheduled time to complete online training that I've already done) they did some rearranging of things and moved some the medical and dental screenings from the next two days up to this afternoon. I was impressed today by a demonstration of Navy Efficiency at its finest. About 100 people got through their screening interviews in about 3 hours. During that 3 hours, I managed to get a spare pair of eyeglasses made, and they had them done in 15 minutes. Yep, that's right, a quarter of the time that it takes Lens Crafters. And they were free! I did pass my medical screening (although in the interview process, I got the idea that if I'd expressed more doubt about my level of fitness, I might have been descreened. But one has to maintain one's integrity.) The key test is being able to walk (not run) around in hot weather with 30-plus pounds of armor and equipment, which I feel fully capable of doing. I'm not in that bad of shape! Although I do plan on visiting the gym this afternoon to try to ease in to that level of activity. There was only one main problem with the highly efficient way today went: that leaves absolutely nothing left for me to do for the next three days. Lots of other folks have some medical things they need to fix, and a bunch of shots that everyone will get on Friday, but I got all that done before arriving, including the necessary shots. I suppose I could ask for the time off, but then I'd have to pay my own way back across the country if I wanted to spend those few days at home. Still, it's tempting. Alternately, I need to look around for who I know who lives near Norfolk that wouldn't mind a guest for a few days. I do have enough to keep me busy. A lot of the group spent a week at the Navy's Electronic Warfare school in Whidbey Island, and gave me some of the course material to look over to "catch up". And I brought some research and reading material from home, expecting some of this "down time". So I won't be completely bored. But I do wish that I could have stayed at home one more week since I actually did read my orders and do the necessary things that not everyone else did. In any case, I'm one day closer to heading across the pond, and by extension, one day closer to coming home. The last two days have gone relatively fast (keeping busy does that). I hope they continue to fly by.