"Mother, mother ocean...."
Apr. 28th, 2005 12:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tspencer227So here we are back at it again. The soft sound of the ship slumbering around me, along with the gentle cradle's rock of the waves against the ship are conspiring to put me to sleep, so I won't be up for too much later tonight.
Life has indeed begun to return to normality- well, as normal as is possible when living aboard a floating, nuclear powered airport, that is. Everybody is too tired and worn out from maintenance, drills, and watchstanding to really be able to put up too much of a fuss, which is good- there'd be plenty to fuss about (like always) if somebody worked up the extra effort required.
I was passing through the hangar bay this evening just as the sun was starting to set, and found myself drawn towards one of the giant doors that we use to move airplanes between the flight deck and hangar decks. The edges of the horizon were just starting to be tinted with feather- like touches of pink and deep orange, and as I watched, the sun descended onto that brilliant canvas in an explosion of reds, blues, purples, and yellows stretching as far as the eye could see. In that instant before the last rays of daylight vanished to make way for the evening, life here seemed to slow down for just a few heartbeats. The roar of tractors moving equipment quieted to a dull drone, people jogging in the hangar seemed to be slowing down their strides, and for a bried moment, a hush fell over everybody who was running around doing their various jobs. It was as if we were being welcomed back out to sea with a vivid reminder of what we'd been missing these last long weeks while we were tied up at North Island, "Building 76", as the sailors on the Nimitz were calling us derisively.
It's moments like that I live for- a breathtaking sunset watched from the hangar deck, a brilliant, inky- black starfield seen from the fantail, watching dolphins and sea lions play in our wake as we maneuver out of the harbor, as if seeing us off. Times like those make most of the rest of it worthwhile. Granted, it's nice being on land, but there's not really a whole lot for me back in San Diego. I've got my overpriced apartment, my car that's being worked on, and what else? Not really a whole lot- I had a more real friends in Virginia and Charleston, and outside of my coworkers, there aren't really that many people that I hang out with on a regular basis. I don't know if I've gone and gotten boring in my old age or what, but I guess I'm not as interesting, charismatic, or spontaneous as I once used to be. Maybe moving back to the East Coast in a couple of years wouldn't be such a bad thing after all....I feel a bit like I don't quite fit in out here in this strange world called California. I enjoy being out here, but something feels slightly... out of place sometimes. Or maybe it's just me.
Life has indeed begun to return to normality- well, as normal as is possible when living aboard a floating, nuclear powered airport, that is. Everybody is too tired and worn out from maintenance, drills, and watchstanding to really be able to put up too much of a fuss, which is good- there'd be plenty to fuss about (like always) if somebody worked up the extra effort required.
I was passing through the hangar bay this evening just as the sun was starting to set, and found myself drawn towards one of the giant doors that we use to move airplanes between the flight deck and hangar decks. The edges of the horizon were just starting to be tinted with feather- like touches of pink and deep orange, and as I watched, the sun descended onto that brilliant canvas in an explosion of reds, blues, purples, and yellows stretching as far as the eye could see. In that instant before the last rays of daylight vanished to make way for the evening, life here seemed to slow down for just a few heartbeats. The roar of tractors moving equipment quieted to a dull drone, people jogging in the hangar seemed to be slowing down their strides, and for a bried moment, a hush fell over everybody who was running around doing their various jobs. It was as if we were being welcomed back out to sea with a vivid reminder of what we'd been missing these last long weeks while we were tied up at North Island, "Building 76", as the sailors on the Nimitz were calling us derisively.
It's moments like that I live for- a breathtaking sunset watched from the hangar deck, a brilliant, inky- black starfield seen from the fantail, watching dolphins and sea lions play in our wake as we maneuver out of the harbor, as if seeing us off. Times like those make most of the rest of it worthwhile. Granted, it's nice being on land, but there's not really a whole lot for me back in San Diego. I've got my overpriced apartment, my car that's being worked on, and what else? Not really a whole lot- I had a more real friends in Virginia and Charleston, and outside of my coworkers, there aren't really that many people that I hang out with on a regular basis. I don't know if I've gone and gotten boring in my old age or what, but I guess I'm not as interesting, charismatic, or spontaneous as I once used to be. Maybe moving back to the East Coast in a couple of years wouldn't be such a bad thing after all....I feel a bit like I don't quite fit in out here in this strange world called California. I enjoy being out here, but something feels slightly... out of place sometimes. Or maybe it's just me.
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Date: 2005-04-28 08:28 am (UTC)I feel ya. This California girl actually wants to move to Vermont :)
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Date: 2005-04-28 11:45 am (UTC)the weary nights never worry me,
but the hardest time in sailor's day
is to watch the sun, as it dies away."
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Date: 2005-04-30 02:10 am (UTC)California girls suck...and not in a good way. Either that, or I'm totally going about things the wrong way. I can't figure them out for the life of me, and it's starting to get a bit frustrating- all the rest of my friends have found girlfriends or are hooking up with somebody on a regular basis, and here I am left with a phone book full of numbers from girls that won't call me back. :(