Monday, June 18, 2007

Smoke 'Em if You Got 'Em

I got called on a problem at work late last night and I worked at my desk here at home for most of the day on this one problem. Just after lunch the techs were replacing some hardware on the computer which was going to take about an hour so there was a lull in the activity.
I said "Smoke 'em if you got 'em" and promptly started giggling. Now I rarely giggle and when I do it usually involves large quantities of tequila but today I giggled. There was another guy on the call that had been on all night as well and he giggled too - everyone else on the call must have thought we were smoking pot because they just didn't "get it".
I learned one thing during my two years in the Army and that was the concept of "hurry up and wait." We'd run twelve miles and when we reached our destination, we'd have to wait for forty minutes before our next activity began.
I helpfully suggested to my drill Sargent after one such run - "why don't we walk some and then we could arrive in a more timely fashion." The drill Sargent looked at me as if I were a leper and said "NOW THAT'S A GOOD QUESTION TRAINEE, WHY DON'T YOU GET ME 200 PUSH UPS WHILE FORMULATE A PROPER RESPONSE!!!" Not sure why but all drill Sargent's spoke in "ALL CAPS"....as if the person to which they were speaking was on a cell phone with bad reception. I made several other suggestions and I always got the same response. Now I'm not the sharpest tool in the deck, but after about a thousand push ups, I determined that my drill Sargent didn't like my suggestions. It was not rocket surgery - so I got the message and stopped suggesting.
So today when we got a lull in the activity and said "smoke 'em if you got 'em" this story came rushing back. I know that to the folks on the call that were not giddy with exhaustion failed to see the humor but for me and another tired vet on the call, it was quite amusing.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please consider sharing

Email Signup Form

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required