Irate Customers

One reason I chose Animal Medicine was to not have to deal with people as much. I don't really like talking to people that I don't know too well. The majority of the customers at the vet clinic are easy going and I can get through the day easyily with talking just to them. But then you have the hypochondriacs that are in here every week with some new problem with their pet. A problem that we have informed them that the medicine we give will take at least 3-4 weeks to heal the problem completely. They either stupidly stop giving it after a couple of days thinking it has cleared up, or just forget what we tell them. I hope maybe it's just Navy personnel that do this.

As the only military person at this clinic all thngs have to go through me, so when I am out running errands and someone asks for the manager, I get called in to lend my ear to a screaming client. We are pretty remote and small here so ordering and getting supplies is usually a difficult task to do properly week after week. When a required item is not on the shelf people scream and complain thining that the higher their voice the higher probability that the desired item will materialize in thin air onto our shelves.

The other main argumentative topic is quarantine procedures. Any animal coming from out of the country needs to be quarantine for 6 months unless the proper procedures are taken to clear them. 99 people out of 100 either misread the instructions, get bad instructions from an out-of-country clinic, or just dont care and wind up with a six month quarantine. During this time the animal must stay on base usually in our kennels because the majority of people like living in town. Well 6 months in a kennel can be costly and people are just looking for someone to scream at for this. Enter Me. Even after proving our side of the argument over and over some just don't think the rules apply to them. Their cat "cost a thousand dollars and shouldn't be subjected to a kennel." It takes every bit of my Christian upbringing not to slap these people upside the head and tell them they should of thought of this before bringing the pet.

I don't know if being a vet is for me knowing I will have to deal with these people for the rest of my life. In the real world I'd probably get sued for some of the things I would say to these people. All that because I love working with animals.....hmmmmmm

Softball (27SEP06)

having only three teams not out to sea takes a toll on everybody. Where we used to play three nights a week we now only play once. It makes it hard to get going after seven days of rest. But like last week we had the fire department and security to go up against.

The fire department came out first this time and the whole game we were playing catch up. everytime we would score they would come around and score a couple more. Finally in the sixth inning we got more up than they did and was able to hold on for the victory 17-14. The security game was bad from the start. Our hitting carried over into the first inning and then went cold. But the hitting wasn't the worst part, we had many brain lapses on defense and made costly errors resulting in at least 7 runs for them, digging an even bigger whole for us. But like the champs we are we kept battling back and eventually took over. It came in the bottom of the last inning when we were down four. Two home runs, a couple of walks and a two run walk off hit is what we got from the top of our lineup. This was one of the ugliest wins I have been apart of, but in the end it was still a win.



Season Record: 6-1

Poker Time in Sas-VEGAS

Sasebo's second poker tournament was held last night. This one was a free entry and the list filled up pretty quick once again. Going in with the experience of only two previous poker games with actual people I wasn't anticipating being there very long. But learning from the other two I made less mistakes and played big when I had the cards and folded at the best times. Last time I was the second person knocked off of our table and after the third person left ours I was feeling pretty good I had made it that far. After an intermission we returned and I kept on with my winning ways letting the other players beat each other out. I played one good hand where I took over the chip count and that boosted me into the final two. The other guy coulnd't seem to get good cards at all and had to keep folding. Finally he was forced to go all in on a hand that contained nothing. I moved onto the Final Table with a grin on my face. I hadn't planned on doing this well.

As the last of the other table winners made their way to the final table I was pleased to see two of my friends had made it as well. The bad news was it was now time to go against them. Two guys fell out within five hands. The next hand I thought I had a decent hand but my buddy had a better one and beat me off of the table. I couldn't be bitter about it since I made it this far so I took a small consolation prize and ended up watching my other friend win the whole thing. 5th place out of over 50 players is definetly better than my last two outings, hopefully I can move up the next time we play with what I learned from this game.

Softball (21SEP06)

After the typhoon we have had some incredible weather. The days have been just perfect in a sense with sunshine and a slight breeze. Perfect for anything outdoors, and of course that means softball. Coming off a two week hiatus I was glad to get back on the field.

This is the time of the year where all the ships go out to sea for several months right before the holidays so they can justify staying in port for the last two months of the year. So the only teams here are us, security and the fire department. So there was no confusion on who we would play in our first night back.

The first game was against the fire department and we came out of the gates fast with an 7 run first. But in true fashion they came battling back and by the third it was a game again 9-8 in their favor. We scattered runs over the next few innings as did they. But the sixth we opened up like we did in the first and went ahead for good 17-14.

It seems all last season when we played back to back games, we never had two really strong outings. This night was no different. Everyone who hit well in the first game seemed to die down in the second. Fortunately for us Security was in their slump again and we only allowed 3 runs the whole game. And as in true winners fashion we mustered up enough runs over the entire course of the game to squeak out a second victory for the night



Season Record: 4-1

Third Times A Charm

Well one finally hit. The first two since I've been here avoided us but tonight Typhoon Shanshan went right over us. The gusts got over 100 mph but I didnt get to see any trees flying or anything. The base pretty well prepared for it by tying down anything that could blow away.

It lasted for a bout 4 hours and the wind was loud banging against the poorly constructed window in my room. I guess it takes a typhoon to learn that your window isn't as well sealed as you once thought.

The storm brought about casualties as debris took flight and found people out for a stroll down in the Miyazaki Prefecture on the southern part of Kyushu as well as lifting two train cars off their tracks. At the time I wrote this, 5 had died and dozens injured.

The Picture below is of the storm, the arrow points to Kyushu (Sasebo). The heart pretty much went right over us

Working on 0 and 3

For Typhoons that is.....We are currently under a weather watch for typhoon Shan Shan coming up from the south. The last two serious warnings both missed us by a great distance (0 for 2). The first one just brough a little rain and the second one brought about one of the nicest and sunniest days of the summer. So we'll see if the navy weather team is right on this one as they say its supposed to hit Sunday morning. For once I hope they are wrong because I am supposed to catch a flight to Camp Zama for a combatives class next week on Sunday morning. Usually when they are serious about a storm they close down the roads to everywhere, the airport included. But I'll still have to pack tonight, just in case we have a chance to fly out. The base has already said that they won't have anything opened or running for Sunday so I hope it hits or else it will be pretty boring. I just looked at the radar and it seems to be on its way. Today started with rain but now it's beautiful outside, it must be the calm before the storm.......

"You meet people who forget you. You forget people you meet. But sometimes you meet those people you can't forget. Those are your friends.”

A New Season

The softball leagues here are divided up by the seasons and we usually play 2-3 seasons a year. We started the fall season this past week and just like last year we started out with a loss. Alot of the ships are out until Thanksgiving so that leaves about 4 teams here to play and our first one happened to be the fire department. Of course they brought thier big guns and gave us our first loss of the season, though it wasnt by much that we lost.

Last night we had a double header against the USS Harpers Ferry and Security. Being a ship and usually their regular players are on a work rotation some of them can't make all the games and thats what happened last night. We mercy ruled them 19-4 in three innings. The second game we kept up the heavy hitting and beat the always good security team. And as usual this one was close, 15-12.

In Okinawa there is an annual softball tournament that is held for all the bases in the Pacific. I got invited this year to be apart of the Sasebo Base Team. We are taking our full team plus some of the heavy hitters from other teams in our league to make a complete All-Star team. Aside from the thrice weekly games we have been having practice every other night to prepare.




Season Record: 2-1

Right Back To It.....

It was good to get back on the softball field after a month long vacation. To say the least I was a little rusty. The bats felt heavy and I was scared I ws going to throw my arm out it had been so long. Saturday we had a Labor Day tournament with all the ships that were in. Our first game was against a newly developed team who I think was out there for the fun of it as most of them hadn't grasped the idea of softball. We won 23-1 after two at bats. The next game was against the fire department. They had recently hired two new guys who both played semi-pro baseball and greatly improved their already semi-dominant team. They beat us 8-3. The third game was close but at the end we pulled ahead and won by 10. That game put us up in the Finals matchup against the unbeaten Fire Department. Just like the first game their hitting was too much for us to overcome, and they beat us for the first place trophy. We took second.

After the game we were informed that there was a visiting ship coming in and wanted to get some games in. The USS Blueridge could field two teams so ours and the Fire Department took them on. They brought their mouths but forgot to bring any game. They lost all four games by at least 5 runs. I think their only goal after the start of the game was to see how many of our players they could anger. Fortunately we just let the batting do the talking and played how we play, and sent them away bruised and beaten.