Good to go for another year...

[alexpgp]

The flight surgeon went over the results of my physical, performed a few more exams, and pronounced me "qualified in accordance with Air Traffic Controller standards." I'm good to go for another year, it would seem.

I didn't get much sleep last night, as I was kept awake by my burbling abdomen until wa-a-ay past my normal bedtime. I honestly don't know if it's a result of having returned from the cruise (change of food), or of having gotten a flu shot (with everything that entails), or a combination.

Whenever I get a flu shot, my mind goes back to those adventurous days of youth, when I was a boot at Parris Island, standing buck naked, in formation, along with everyone else in my platoon in a very large room in the Navy dispensary. They ran us through a gauntlet of corpsmen holding air-operated injection guns, so that by the time they got through with us, we were pocked with subcutaneous blisters filled with vaccines of every type.

The next day, I had enough of a reaction to all that excellent stuff coursing through my young pink body that I earned one day's "light duty" (which disappointed my senior D.I., I think, as he was hoping I would be of use in a side bet he had placed with the senior D.I. of another platoon, related to the respective performances of our units in "close combat" exercises).

Yesterday's injection was done the old-fashioned way, using a syringe, and I suppose I feel well enough right now; in any event, there's no use dwelling on it. Upward, etc.

I just got a call a few minutes ago regarding a short assignment tomorrow, which is also A Good Thing™.

Cheers...

Comments

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

You must be particularly sensitive to vaccines. I didn't react much to all the Army air gun shots except for a bit of short-lived soreness in my arms, and I've never had any kind of reaction to flu shots.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I was having such a grim day til I read this. The image of all those naked young soliders runing the gauntlet of injections and being covered with pocks - oh I should laugh but it really made my day.

Nice new icon!

[eastexpert.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday, Alex!

Another year of things nobody can predict. Hope they will be good ones.

Great upic! :)

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the kind words.

One of the guys who works for my old employer likes to play around with Photoshop, and one day, he created a montage of everyone in the office wearing an ascent suit (an unusual company picture, to say the least). Later, he created a similar montage of all the space-to-ground interpreters. The result is kinda neat! (And I don't think anyone is going to mistake me for an astronaut!)

Cheers...

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

I don't know - you do look a lot like Neil Armstrong in that pic ;)