**This is very delayed. I might’ve forgot to post it, I’m supposed to wait >24hrs after they leave port… and here we are probably 3 weeks after, ha. Whoops!

Brief stop for…. commodities? On Monday, Brian’s boat was in port for a quick re-stock before they leave for a long time. Of all days it happened, we were having a tropical storm side swipe Hawaii. Also, COVID cases are really high in Hawaii. However, the captain really pushed for us to be able to see them. So, with vaccination card in tow and mask on, we went to the docks and saw our sailors.

It felt like a whirlwind. We spent ~2hrs together. I was SOAKED and turned my heated seats on on the way home (yes, in Hawaii). There was no avoiding the rain with all the wind. We were surrounded by 50 of our closest friends *sarcasm*. But, I wouldn’t miss an opportunity to see my husband. I didn’t even get a selfie of us, but I took this of him as I was leaving. He’s carrying two bags of goodies and a bag of uniforms.

Hopefully that’ll help him get through the next few months. He didn’t ask for much because he didn’t want to stress me out, so I guessed. He got graham crackers, coke zero, Aloha Drinks (it’s a hawaiian juice, basically hawaiian punch but different flavors), more cards, other drink powder, mints, gum, chocolate, I feel like there was more but I am spacing. For the uniforms, I had to drop them off at the uniform shop to get those silver bars sewn on the collar. Thank God for the workers there who know their stuff, because I brought the pin version of the bars in and the two uniforms and said I need the patch version of these sewn on, and they knew what to look for and what to do. So they did that for me. Brian was borrowing another set of these from a friend, and didn’t ask me to go get more sewn for him because he didn’t want to bother me too much, but I just guessed he’d want more. I think he’s adjusting to having a wife to help him. I felt that he should return the other set, too. They’re called coveralls, or informally “poopie suits”. They’re the “we’re getting our hands dirty and no one is going to see us” uniforms, typically. Brian was going to change into their more formal green camo ones, but “I figured I was only seeing you”. Whatever that means!

Here’s another fun thing about the uniform. You can barely see it, but attached to his belt is a personal radiation detector. It’s supposed to monitor how much radiation he’s being exposed to. It’s called a TLD, thermal luminescent dosimeter. Here are some first hand accounts about it. And here’s a huge paper about a study done about their exposure rates. (It’s low).

Brian has only good things to report about the command climate. He says there can be some communication issues, but communication is really difficult in general anyway, particularly with all the craziness always going on. He has assured me it’s nothing unusual or crazy so far. He keeps telling me how much sleep he’s getting because it’s a big concern of mine, and he’s doing ok.