Decommissioning

I reported to my first ship, the USS Benjamin Stoddert in February, 1990. I worked in the mess hall for three months, and made one deployment in 1991, standing three-section watchstander duty (which is worse than port and starboard duty, imo). It was an older ship, and it was decommissioned in December, 1991.

It's something only a crewmember can understand, having worked onboard, watching a ship, essentially die. I get a little worked up at times like those. I don't really remember much about the ceremony, I just remember being on the pier for it.

I've also been at the commissioning of a ship, my brother's, the USS Port Royal, in Savannah, in the summer of 1994. It's a very inspiring ceremony, and dad and I enjoyed it. So I've seen both sides.

Today, I said goodbye to an old, reliable friend. My old 1999 Chevy Cavalier finally went belly up last week. We'd spent over a thousand bucks fixing it last month, and the starter and battery cable it would need required another 900+, which we weren't willing to spend.

So this week, we cleaned out my car, took a few pictures and took off the license plate on the back and the custom UTEP front license and sold it for 300 dollars. That car took me a lot of places-- we saddled up and drove to Levelland, Hobbs, Big Spring, Clarendon, Midland, Odessa to broadcast basketball games in 1999, to Woodward in 2001 and Clay Center in 2002 for jobs, to Manhattan from 05-09 to see my girlfriend and to Alabama last year for a new life. Lots of stories, countless burgers and gatorades, and 133,000-plus miles. I didn't get all maudlin or anything, but it is the end of an era.

This week, we bought a new red Honda Fit for the wife. She really likes it, and has already named it Scooter. I get her Honda CR-V, which does have cruise control. It took me about an hour to reprogram the radio stations. So I go from being a Chevrolet man (1990 and 1999 Cavalier) to being a Honda man.