Goodbye Joel and Grandma

Man I’m glad we pre-packed almost everything! After waking up the girls early and getting them baths and getting Joel in the shower and eating breakfast we made it out the door by 8:20 am. We still had to stop by Wal-mart to get a few more items on the list though and all said it was 0930 before we pulled up in front of the AFA prepatory school.

Oh, when did we go from this to this?

We first waited in the line I call ‘Sign your life away’ line. Although I doubt Joel could sign his life away to them since he’s only 13.

I’m not sure what all was on the paper, I saw him circle his lunch choice and his emergency phone numbers, name and that’s about it. There was something on there to memorize though; I’ll get to that later.

While he waited in the sun we stood in the shade and watched the cadets move forward. At one point a Col. came up to him and asked him what he liked best about CAP (emergency services) and what he’d like to do. Joel replied that he might like to go here to the academy and the Col. told him to get a pennant from the gift shop and put it over his bed so he can see it every morning when he wakes up, great advice I think. Anyway it was finally Joel’s turn to step up. He was instructed in his SOP to say, “Sir/Ma’m this is basic candidate Carberry reporting for duty as ordered sir.” He kept stumbling over ‘candidate’ because usually they say ‘cadet’ but I think they wanted them to know that they need to earn that status. He said it without a stumble when he needed to though and signed the paper.

Then he went to the ‘We’re going to rifle through your bag to see if you brought any contraband’ line. (Fortunately the line wasn’t as long as the name I just gave it.) Most of the parent’s had stepped aside at this point (including me) But, I noticed that his binder was out and thought I’d tell him where it should go. I told him to put it under the strap of the duffle bag so he could have his other hand free to carry the canteen and uniform, but he just rolled his eyes at me (see later.) As I was leaving him an officer came around and yelled, “Every 30 minutes someone will yell at you to hydrate, do you know what that means?” “It means you pick up your canteen, take a drink and put it back down, any questions?” (There were some ‘yes sirs’ and ‘no sirs’ in between that.)

It wasn’t really hot out, but the sun was already beating down and the 3 jugs of water they had were being continuously filled, good for them, we don’t want fainting cadets before they get inside. Here’s Joel at the bag check table telling the cadet that he has no contraband (soda, candy, cell phones, games, weapons.)

Some cadets had filled their canteens with soda, but that got poured out at this point.

The next table was for medical, but since he has no issues he was directed to the next line.

This was the last line and no parents were permitted past this point.

This was the ‘Stand right here and we’re going to yell at you’ line.

The cadet officers were drilling the candidates on proper Uniform insignia placement and just yelling in general. One cadet didn’t know the paper and was told that he’d better have it memorized before the line moved or he’d have to go to the back and start all over. Joel dropped his garment bag on the ground (or it slid off the duffel bag) and was yelled at, “Is that your uniform? Show it some respect, pick it up off the ground, now!”

Then when they said double-time into the building he didn’t have a good grip on the binder (see, what did I tell him) and it fell. They yelled at him to pick it up and his canteen fell, then he was yelled at to pick that up. By this time he was at the end of the line and they were barking that he’d better get in that building pronto. For those who think this is too harsh…….we yell at him too sometimes (so he’s used to that) and sometimes a little slacker conduct can be expelled by the use of force. I’ll bet at graduation he’ll be standing a little taller and walking a little more clipped in formation.

During the week at encampment they will be doing PT, drilling, and taking classes in moral leadership, aerospace education, CAP studies and taking tours of the AFA.

After dropping Joel off we went by Focus on the family to eat and play around.

The kids went on the 2 story slide, played in the puppet theater, the airplane, the play land and watched a Veggie tales movie.

Bethany did 3 scavenger hunts and won three Adventures in Odyssey tapes. Hannah proved she can go to Camp What-a-nut.

We ate some ice cream and I really ought to know by now to get one for them to share, it’s way too much. We stopped by the gift shop and got James Fathers day presents (a jazz CD of Christian favorites, a 3:16 mug and another jazz CD.) Then we headed home to pick up James and get my mom’s luggage.

I think she remembered everything (she was also packed the night before.) We got back in the car and drove to the airport. With hugs all around she left for the terminal and actually got into Houston 30 minutes early (a tailwind I guess?) Though the whole week went by way too fast, we were glad we got to: play the Wii, read books, watch movies, go to the tea shop and candy shop, go to the museum, play tennis, go to Focus, see Joel off at camp, see Grace’s birthday, go to the park and go to Amazing Jakes. I wish the car thing hadn’t happened, but we had fun in spite of it.

On the way home we stopped at the Aurora history museum (James had never been there) and saw the history of Aurora. Their new exhibit on presidential elections opens up Tuesday, but we got a peek in that room too. Here is an old apple computer.

Here is the first computer James ever owned (it made him feel really old that it was in a museum.) This is the computer that he learned to program on.

Here is a 1985 mobile phone and my phone on top of the case.

Not only is the other phone huge, it has a cord attaching it to the battery.

We went to eat and then went home to watch Battlestar; we had 2 episodes to watch. All I have to say is…’What the frak?’ Are you kidding me that I have to wait 6 months for another .5 season, are you insane? Is Kara going to kill Sam (she said she’d kill anyone that proved to be a cylon.) Will Ty and Adama be buddies again? Did the robot cylon broadcast Baltar’s message of slavery to the others? Is this all a dream, it better not be, people will be pissed if they pull a Dallas after waiting 6 months (mainly that’s me that would be pissed.) Who is the final cylon??? Argh, I hate you BSG writers and producers!

Anyway, a great day and Happy Flag Day.