Shaken and Mistaken
Two quick stories to kick off the weekend:
(1) SHAKEN... Our First Noticeable Earthquake!!! On Wednesday night, after we put Josh down in his crib for a restful night's sleep, Nicki and I retreated to our upstairs tatami room to talk and so I could do a few things on the computer. Suddenly, the computer desk started moving back and forth slowly, then everything started to move back and forth rhythmically. No doubt... it was our first observed quake in Japan.
Having lived the past eight years in San Diego - and since Nicki is a Native Californian - we were pretty used to being vulnerable to earthquake activity, but we rarely felt them if they were below a certain magnitude. According to the USGS Earthquake website, this one occurred officially at 8:35 pm and was about a 4.7 in magnitude (on the U.S. Scale), which is actually fairly small compared to others we've felt. I think what made this one different is that the epicenter was only about 30 kilometers away from us and it lasted longer than some we've felt before.
Anyway, it didn't make much news even here, but I figured I'd share.
(2) MISTAKEN... identity. I heard a good story the other day, which hopefully I can retell without getting too many of the facts wrong. Periodically, the admiral has a stand-up meeting with all of us in the command to award sailors and occasionally civilians for jobs well done. During the meeting he also welcomes new sailors and civilians onboard and he typically talks to them and asks a few questions. Earlier this week, we had such a meeting with the admiral and he mentioned one of the new guys in particular, saying that they had already met. Apparently, the admiral was in Starbucks wearing a jacket with a chief petty officer (CPO) emblem on it. The new sailor on base also happened to be in Starbucks at the same time. Being new and eager to impress, the sailor saw the CPO emblem and said confidently, "Good morning, Chief." The admiral looked at him and said (I'm paraphrasing here), "Oh, I'm not the Chief, even though I'm wearing the jacket. I'm the admiral."
For those of you outside of the Navy (including myself) who may not be aware of ranks within the Navy organization, another way to think of it is this: Imagine being the new guy in the mailroom at Microsoft. You try to be proactive and say "good morning boss" to the first guy you see that comes down to the mailroom wearing a nice tie, thinking that it's your immediate supervisor. Then it turns out that it's Bill Gates.
Needless to say, the new sailor's face must have turned about seven shades of red when he found out he was speaking to the man in charge of our entire Pacific forces instead of a CPO. Wish I could have been there to see the conversation.
(1) SHAKEN... Our First Noticeable Earthquake!!! On Wednesday night, after we put Josh down in his crib for a restful night's sleep, Nicki and I retreated to our upstairs tatami room to talk and so I could do a few things on the computer. Suddenly, the computer desk started moving back and forth slowly, then everything started to move back and forth rhythmically. No doubt... it was our first observed quake in Japan.
Having lived the past eight years in San Diego - and since Nicki is a Native Californian - we were pretty used to being vulnerable to earthquake activity, but we rarely felt them if they were below a certain magnitude. According to the USGS Earthquake website, this one occurred officially at 8:35 pm and was about a 4.7 in magnitude (on the U.S. Scale), which is actually fairly small compared to others we've felt. I think what made this one different is that the epicenter was only about 30 kilometers away from us and it lasted longer than some we've felt before.
Anyway, it didn't make much news even here, but I figured I'd share.
(2) MISTAKEN... identity. I heard a good story the other day, which hopefully I can retell without getting too many of the facts wrong. Periodically, the admiral has a stand-up meeting with all of us in the command to award sailors and occasionally civilians for jobs well done. During the meeting he also welcomes new sailors and civilians onboard and he typically talks to them and asks a few questions. Earlier this week, we had such a meeting with the admiral and he mentioned one of the new guys in particular, saying that they had already met. Apparently, the admiral was in Starbucks wearing a jacket with a chief petty officer (CPO) emblem on it. The new sailor on base also happened to be in Starbucks at the same time. Being new and eager to impress, the sailor saw the CPO emblem and said confidently, "Good morning, Chief." The admiral looked at him and said (I'm paraphrasing here), "Oh, I'm not the Chief, even though I'm wearing the jacket. I'm the admiral."
For those of you outside of the Navy (including myself) who may not be aware of ranks within the Navy organization, another way to think of it is this: Imagine being the new guy in the mailroom at Microsoft. You try to be proactive and say "good morning boss" to the first guy you see that comes down to the mailroom wearing a nice tie, thinking that it's your immediate supervisor. Then it turns out that it's Bill Gates.
Needless to say, the new sailor's face must have turned about seven shades of red when he found out he was speaking to the man in charge of our entire Pacific forces instead of a CPO. Wish I could have been there to see the conversation.
posted by Unknown | 10:06 AM
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