I spent the last week wondering what I would do during my last “free” weekend home. Technically, this isn’t my last weekend home since I will be here next weekend, but next weekend is Friday the 13th, reporting day! You would think that it would be any other day, but it’s just not so. I kind of feel like the dead guy who wants to live just a little bit longer, to take care of a few more things, or to say that special word to that special person.

But, I digress. This Saturday, I spent some good time with my family. We went to a huge community garage sale in a wealthy, gated community. It was here that I picked up several Tom Clancy books and a genuine US Army duffle bag. My wife, on the other hand, went wild with baby stuff. Our daughter is definitely spoiled rotten.

Then, in the afternoon, I installed the surround sound system that has been sitting in the corner for the last few years. I found out that it is so old, that it is not compatible with the TV, DVD player or anything else that I had. I purchased a new Sony DVD player that upscales the signal to 1080i (High-Definition) and it was also incompatible with the Audio/Visual system. So, I trotted back to Circuit City and bought a Sony A/V system (6.1 channel). I’m not an audiophile and I hate remotes, so this makes an interesting partnership. The TV remote is kind of stupid. I have to plug-in codes to make it operate the DVD player. The DVD remote can control the TV out of the box and the Sony A/V remote will work the DVD player. A big confusing circle jerk. I guess if you have the A/V stereo remote in your hand, you’ll win. This took almost all day.

Who has time on the weekends to do this kind of stuff? With one weekend a month for the reserves, that leaves me a total of six days a month with my family (on four weekends per month). Remember, in my civilian job, I travel and am away from home, so I try not to use my weekend time to make home repairs.

Tomorrow, we will pack up everything and see how it fits. Then, I will pack up most of my stuff and put it in the attic to keep it out of the way and so that I can find it when I return.

The only things left to do is sort out what goes on the plane with me and what will get shipped in the connex container.

I have just about all of my loose personal ends finished thanks to the generosity of my Boss and my Company because they both gave me the time I needed to really take care of everything.

If I get everything packed, perform the storage ritual for my motorcycle and get the garage cleaned up, then I’ll do some flying before I leave. My goal is to break 100 hours before I leave. I have a little over 95 flight hours now.