Well, I’m back. I don’t have time to post much right now, because I have about eighty zillion things to run out and take care of. That tends to happen when one expects to be enlisted in the Air Force for a minimum of four years, with a challenging and exciting job with full pay and benefits, and ends up back at home two months later with nothing to show for the experience but three E-1 paychecks and a lifelong knee injury. Yay. Anyhow, here I am. Sorry to be so brief for now, but I just had to let you folks know I’d returned. I’ll be back later tonight with a more thorough account.
That said: howdy; it’s nice to see you all again; and whatever the reason behind it, it’s damned good to be home.
Wow, what happened? I find real-life stories so much more interesting then glossy of-of-course-everything-went-according-to-my-big masterplan-glossy commercial-stories.
Not *that * serious a knee-injury I reckon, then? Sorry, couldn’t help it. Welcome back man, looking forward to hearing the SD on your recent adventures, and you have my symphathies.
Indeed. Seems I have more issues to wrap up than I thought. You’d be surprised how quickly certain arrangements fall apart when you’re not around to troubleshoot. Couple that with nightly lightning storms that are wreaking havoc with internet connections in the Roanoke area, and you can see why I’ve not been back. Furthermore, job-hunting is annoying; job-hunting in torrential rain is moreso. But anyhow…
Long story short, I apparently have a condition known as Patello-Femoral Syndrome. From what I understand of it, it means that my kneecap is abnormally loose (which is true; I’ve always been able to dislocate it at will), and extended periods of strenuous activity – such as running three miles daily – cause it to grate against the femur, wearing down the cartilege and causing swelling and intense pain. I worked through it for three and a half weeks without saying anything, but I finally succumbed to a sudden burst of agony that caused me to faceplant in the middle of the running track. I crawled off the track, was immediately surrounded by IDMTs, and was taken to Wilford Hall Medical Center, where it was determined that I should be assigned to Medical Hold. So, I sat and rotted in the 319th TRS for a month or so while they made the decision to discharge me and sent me through out-processing, and now, here I am. Fun stuff.
Since my condition was technically pre-existing, they tried to hit me with fraudulent enlistment, but I was forthcoming with all medical info to both my recruiter and the MEPS, so they were out of luck on that count. Still, according to the ADS guy who briefed us on VA benefits, I’m not eligible to file any sort of a claim. So, it’s back to yon job hunt. The current plan is to see if the local Cox center is looking for bottom-tier Tech Support dweebs. Waiting tables has gotten me used to a customer-service mindset, and I’m eventually going to finish up my Comp Sci degree, so I might as well work in a semi-related field in the meantime and try to save up some cash.
But, who knows what the future holds. For right now, I’m just glad to be back.
Thanks for the Reader’s Digest version . . . again, sorry things didn’t work out.
And, I sympathize: knee problems suck. My knees have never kept me out of the military – probably because I’ve never tried to join the military – but I have a thing where the kneecap on my left knee pops off every single time I bend my leg. Audibly, even. Usually it doesn’t hurt, but every now and then the repeated popping results in it not re-seating correctly, which results in pain and swelling, which results in a short course of some OTC NSAID like Aleve. A runner, I will never be. Welcome to our club.
Good luck with all of the life-back-in-order stuff!
Sorry to hear about the knee man. That really sucks.
On the job front, if you are interested in getting a tech support job I can probably give you some assistance with what you need to know to get in the door. I’ve been doing support for years and have a decent idea of what they will probably want you to know. Right now I do fairly high level support on multple OS’s (including AIX. Man I hate AIX) You meantion that you are working on a Comp Sci degree so I might not be able to help (I don’t know what you know and you might know more than I) but if I can do anything just send me an email.
