Well, the mythical rain I'd heard so much about finally came today...sorta. It rained for about 3 minutes as normal rain and another five or six as light rain early this morning. So, what we ended up with was enough rain to mix with the moon dust to make mud but not enough rain to wash everything down and clean it of accumulated dust - the worst of both worlds. Fortunately, except for a few puddles, the mud isn't too bad and is already starting to dry out to begin the dust cycle again.
It's not too hard to figure out I am not a Naval Academy graduate but rather received my commission through NROTC at the University of Memphis. I have been trying to tell all of the Army guys here at my unit that they can shout "Go Army, Beat Navy!" to their hearts' content but for me, it's just another football game. This last week leading up to the big game yesterday was the last straw as I received any number of videos and e-mails bashing the USNA. Well, after months of taking it as the only Naval Officer on the staff, I finally decided to embrace it all and took up for all of my fellow Canoe-U officers. Last night I wore my "Fly Navy" sweatshirt with pride and watched, with some sympathetic embarrassment I have to add, the Midshipmen of the Naval Academy absolutely destroy the Cadets of West Point 38-3. I have to say, today has been quite subdued around here. Thankfully, both this unit and I will be able to watch next year's game at home.
Lastly, speaking of football again, Troy lost their final game of the season to Florida Atlantic and so it will be the Owls instead of the Trojans meeting my Tigers in New Orleans. It is a tough defeat as the only other Troy losses this year came to ranked teams and now they share the Sun Belt championship with the Owls. So, I suppose it's just as well I won't be home in time for the bowl game after all, but nevertheless I sure am looking forward to catching the remaining college bowl games during my R&R leave over Christmas.
Only a few weeks now and I'll be seeing my family for the first time since July - whoo hoo!
Cheers, Pearl
