General this week...

The ACAP program that Thak is going through (it is the one that prepares people to get out of the Army) has changed a bit since I went through it. It actually isn't a big load of crap anymore in at least a couple ways, and I'm glad Thak went through it. He heard briefings from the El Paso Police Department and the US Border Patrol, and it got him thinking, especially the Border Patrol one. He talked to the recruiters and asked if he might have a shot at getting hired as a mechanic for the Border Patrol, and then gave his credentials, military and civilian, and they said, "Oh yes. Someone with your background and licensing would probably be hired on the spot." The really cool thing is that the pay is WAY better, like about 50% higher, than any dealership shop in town. The other really cool thing is that it is a federal job, and we could buy back Thak's years of military service to have them credited for federal retirement. He'd still have to do at least 20 years with the Border Patrol before he could draw federal retirement (that would still only make him 55 then, so that's definitely not bad) but if he did choose to retire then, and he had bought back his Active Duty time, he'd be paid pension on not 20 years, but 34 years. That's definitely an attractive proposition. Oh, and everything the recruiters said is true. Thak asked about it at school, and one of the diesel instructors said he had a couple students get hired on by the Border Patrol, and the pay they received was right in line with what Thak was told he would be starting at, so these recruiters were not full of BS. USA Jobs also has dozens of listings for Border Patrol mechanics in this area.

The more we think about it, the more we see that the Border Patrol is probably the best option. The long term plan, tentatively, assuming that is the route that ends up working out for us, is to stay in El Paso until Erin finishes Elementary School, then transfer to the Miami sector, which is also really big and always needs mechanics. It's feasible, and our whole thing is not being stuck here forever, but the Border Patrol is everywhere, so we won't be limited to only the desert southwest, if this is the route we end up going. Thak has written an excellent resume. I just don't see how anyone in the whole country who needs a mechanic or a shop supervisor wouldn't jump at the chance to hire him. I hope this Border Patrol thing pans out, though. It's definitely the best option. Federal job, benefits, decent hours for the most part, no holiday season slump like the private sector... I don't see a downside.

In other interesting news, we did not have our appointment with Alyson last night since she was at a birth, but she'll be available on Sunday as kind of a make-up, so we'll probably go in then. The really cool thing is that the birth she was attending was on post!! Wow!! That is freaking cool. It's extremely uncommon in the military, to do anything but a hospital birth. If the national percentage of non-hospital birth is roughly 1%, I would estimate the military's percentage as 0.1%. I guess it's just because hospital birth is free in the military... and probably more so because military people tend to be more conservative and conventional, less likely to do something like give the mainstream practices the big screw you, and do things the way nature intended. It's unheard of, practically. While I heard that the birth center in Savannah had a few military patients, I never met one in the year I was seen there, and I met a lot of people in the cumulative hours I spent in that waiting room. In nearly a decade with the Army, I've never met a military wife who's had anything other than hospital births. To do a homebirth in post housing is nothing short of revolutionary. I don't know her, but that's one cool mom who Alyson was with last night. I may be planning a homebirth, but I live off post in a civilian neighborhood. Doing it on post takes it to a whole new level. Big big props to her.

Also, another fun outcome from last night was that we met one of Alyson's colleagues who backs her up if she has two women go into labor at the same time. Of course, that event is very unlikely, and has never happened in all Alyson's years of practice, but there is a first time for everything, and we know we're definitely capable of being the first to do some of these things! (Orren is the only baby ever born at the birth center on Christmas Day, and the birth center has existed for now 30 years!) Anyhow, just in case we create another of our famous firsts with this baby, and I do go into labor when Alyson is attending another birth already, I'm glad to have met LaVern, and to know that I like her. I'm sure I'll meet everyone who has any possible chance, no matter how slim a chance, of being part of this birth, along the way.

That's one of the best things about going the birth center route. (Yes, this time, we're doing a homebirth, but we are still seen at a birth center for at least some of our appointments, so the style of care is similar to what we have received previously. The only difference is the location of the birth.) When you go to a birth center, you get to meet everybody who would ever possibly turn up at your birth. Obviously you know all the midwives and their apprentices if they have any, but you also meet every nurse, every lab tech, every medical assistant... every single person you run any chance of seeing while you are in labor, you know. By the time you're a few months in, you're on a first name basis with everyone there, and they all know you, too. That's probably the best part. I'm used to the people I rely on for care, remembering who I am. That's another thing that really weirded me out about the OB's office. She would ask me the same questions every single time, and look at my chart ten million times to realize I had answered them already, and would even forget what things SHE had done. When I talk to other people who have gone to OB's lately, they report the same thing. It's just not what I'm used to. I'm used to being familiar. Why on earth would I trust someone to get me through something as significant as a birth, if they can't remember who I am? Simply, I won't. I've always had better, and I'm so glad I have better again. The more I see of Casa, and the people who run it, the better I like it.