New tfo content - the CIVFOR list! I haven't yet got around to separating all my reasons for getting out into major topics (each with its own dedicated entry). I started this list on the last underway, and it didn't take long to balloon. This isn't even the page I'd conceived on May 24. That will be as good, if not better. I just have to write it.
Yesterday's duty day was about as sweet as they get. Out of the twenty-four hours...I spent roughly 22½ hours on watch or in the rack. I needed it - badly. After Thursday night's drunken slog, and the accompanying mid-Friday-afternoon awakening, I was up late again the following night. I got only two and a half hours of sleep before having to get up again for duty. One of the hardest things for a submariner to do is re-acclimate from the eighteen-hour underway schedule to the twenty-four-hour rotation used by the rest of Planet Earth. And the chemical content of the various beverages I've consumed over the last five days has not helped in that quest.
I made a brief mention of the Irish late Friday night. Today I learned more about why the Irish rule harder than Judge Dredd did in that lame movie many years ago. They had an opportunity to speak directly (via referendum) on the proposed Lisbon Treaty, which is really just the old EU Constitution dressed up in the easiest way to bypass the will of the people - especially the will of the French and Dutch people, who rejected the original Constitution in 2005. Despite the ardent support of the full Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament), the people of Ireland rejected the attack and affront on their sovereignty. In doing so, they defended the policies that have enabled their nation to become one of the fastest growing in the Union, and an attractive destination for foreign investment and emigration. If I had a Killian's, I'd raise it to the people of Éire, but I'll have to settle for toasting them with a Boston Lager instead. Erin go bragh!