For the second week in a row, I was out of town for a conference. Generally, when my wife travels for work, she flies and stays in decent hotels. I'm a mid-level state employee, so when I travel, it's usually in a state vehicle and the accommodations are what you'd expect. This week, I was at Camp Ripley and stayed in an 'officer's house' on base. It was ... Spartan.
As long as the bed is comfortable and the shower has hot water, spartan works.
Some might even suggest "Spartan" as desirable descriptor for warrior accommodations...or warriors generally.
Interesting place for business travel lodging, though.
We leave tomorrow for a week in Estes Park, CO. The Stanley Hotel is not far from where we'll be staying; I'd love to be able to run a Big Wheel around the hallways there 😉
Certainly. And the business travel was for a leadership conference for MN's Veterans-related institutions and organizations:
...so I'm sure the location didn't strike many of the attendees as strange.
Also, I've been told that the house was an upgrade over the maid service quarters that were initially arranged.
A friend, upon visiting me at Camp Pendleton, asked if I lived in "Marine prison." The barracks was five levels high, with the cells (erm, "rooms") accessed via open catwalks that formed a quad around an open courtyard, and which connected my quad to two other identical quads. All the furniture was powdercoated metal. I explained that we lived in a newer barracks that was much nicer than the Vietnam-era buildings we formerly occupied.
Speaking of Spartan - my only experience with staying on Marine bases was Quantico. We used their live-fire ranges for our crew-served weapons certification (apparently nothing like it in the Tidewater area). My whole detachment stayed in 2 steel quonset huts for a week or so. Basically, one long open space: two rows of steel-framed & 'springed' bunk beds down either side of a central aisle with high school-style lockers between and a common head area with an open shower (10 shower heads along the walls), maybe 6 toilets, & trough-style urinals and sinks.
You guys sure know how to live.
Sounds like your standard barracks, there.
Or our accommodations at Grafenwoehr, except without the handy showers and latrines.
I have a limited frame of reference, but I certainly didn't mind - this is a good example of what I mostly lived in for 3 years:
Then they sent me to school at the Amphibious Base at Coronado and set me up in the BEQ/BOQ which was basically a hotel.
Then I lived off base with my new bride in an apartment in VA.
Then in converted shipping containers - the lego blocks with window a/c units sticking out the sides stacked on the oil terminal (that's me on the far-back right).
And finally in what amounted to rental townhomes in Bahrain, alternating with weeks/months back on ships with the coffin racks (see above).
I have no regrets about not joining any of the arms services.
I had the cheaptoy signal on over at the FMD post, and shipping containers is where you pop up!?!
?
Ha! Sorry about that. I'm at my mom's this weekend, so I've been pretty distracted do I missed it until now.
At the same time, Total Wine is effing awesome and Woodbury is of shitty, shitty drivers.
I'm torn. On the one hand, selection & prices are awesome there. On the other hand, makes it kinda tough on the local purveyors.
How long are you in town for? Any free time?
The main criticism I have of the place is the relative lack of local brews, which should not be an issue with the current state of Minnesota brews.
But, man, they have Wisconsin prices there.
We're here until Monday, but tomorrow is rocket day and Sunday me and my wife are going to dinner for our anniversary.
Happy anniversary, cheaps!
Those conex boxes are pretty familiar. Spent some time living in cans in the Sandbox in between rotations out to FOBs, where accommodations varied considerably. Other than on the hood of my truck, I lived in a Yugoslavian-built hydroelectric dam, a border patrol station/diplomatic station, a large bunker at an airfield, and a camp built for Korean laborers who were building a highway for Saddam.
Two years ago I toured the USS Wisconsin while headed out to the Outer Banks. To maximize our time inside the ship, my buddy & I headed as far belowdecks as we could go, so that when she closed we could see stuff on our way back up topside. It absolutely blew my mind that they crammed 2911 sailors & Marines aboard her during WWII – 990 more than she was designed to carry.
I'll be in Honolulu over Veterans Day weekend this year. I'm hoping to get out to Pearl to visit the Mighty Mo' and pay my respects at the Arizona memorial.
My uncle (who is about cousin-age relative to me) used to ride boomers out of Groton a fair bit. He was an attachment, so his berthings aboard the boat were usually, uh, creative.
Now that he's a Senior Chief I expect he berths wherever is closest to a reliably-maintained coffeemaker when aboard. For the last few years he's been stationed up in Canada, though.
spent yesterday in LA for work. Up at 3:50, home at 1:00 a.m. (had dinner with the Boy and a couple of old friends, then my return flight was delayed). I'm so excited to go to the office today for meetings....
Had the radio on post-game last night. They awarded the "stars of the day" to the grounds crew.
Also, did I hear Gladden advocating restraint regarding Kinsler's concussion?
Sure, Kinsler isn't a Twin
wait, what? The National Guard in Minnesota is doing airBnB now?? Are budgets that tight?
TK was on Reusse's radio show Tuesday, and said he didn't have any suggestions about how to get Sano on track, basically, that he needs to mature and figure out what he wants his career to be. No one else can do that for him.
This sounds promising. This bit came as a surprise though:
It'd be nice if the Twins organization would mature as well and not try to put a guy in a position he's not capable of playing and not create a culture of "toughing it out".
I understand the Twins wanting Sano to continue to put the effort in every day and to stay in shape, but it seems like what he's doing isn't being appreciated. Tom Brunansky is the only Twins player to hit more home runs through age 23 (80) than Sano has thus far (41). And Bruno had more than twice as many PAs. (Killebrew hit 53 through age 23, but he was 25 when the Senators moved to Minnesota). Also, his career OPS of .837 is almost identical to Kent Hrbek's through age 23 (.840) and better than Morneau (.818), Killebrew (.807), Bruno (.791), David Ortiz (.779), Carew (.754) and Gaetti (.718). Of Twins players with at least 100 PAs through age 23, the only player with a better OPS than Hrbek's is Mauer at .870.
David Ortiz? What did he ever amount to? He could never hit to the opposite field anyway.
Dude's got an ops+ of 110 in a year in which he's had some injuries. Just, ugh, let the man do what he does and smash the hell out of the ball.
“I hope that the time in New York is well spent and that he stays focused on what he needs to do,” Twins interim general manager Rob Antony said. “That’s not the easiest place to maintain focus.”
Good grief. How many days does this guy have left?
Just imagine how many WS titles the Yankees would have if it was easy to maintain focus there!
What a condescending tool. At least he didn't say the Dominican was a tough place not to go drunk driving
One of the oddest things about Twins management this season is that they claim to want to rebuild with young players, yet they constantly look for reasons to criticize and tear down their young players, rather than trying to increase their confidence and build them up.
Another Pek free year. 🙁
That doesn't bother me as much as it once did because I've accepted that every year will be a Pek free year for the rest of time. Sadly, I can't see any scenario where he isn't done.
#sadtrombone
Haven't seen it posted here, but KG retired today and then it was also announced that Pek is done for the year (at least).
Buxton robs a 3-run homer from Cruz. I think this kid might be a 6 or 7 WAR player soon
The power he's shown this month makes me think the Trout comparisons might not be too far off. He's been worth 1.5 rWAR in half a season, which means he could have been worth 3 rWAR in a season many fans considered him a bust.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I enjoyed the Twins pitching better back when they walked half as many batters in a game as they do now. Or fewer.