A post of stray dogs, flat tires, and Greek Chinese food

Hello everyone,
I know it's been a few days since I last posted, and I do apologize for that.  I'll update you here as much as I can, and yes, I know I have to get pictures up of which I speak.  I'm working on it.

Wednesday involved open PT in the morning, where Mitchell and I shot basketballs (because I don't like to PT), and then he and I, along with a few people from the Port Operations department and the rest of the base, went to do a COMREL project for an orphanage on the far side of Chania.  It was set up 60-some years ago, and is overseen by the Greek Orthodox Church (I think).  It's only for girls, and they support the girls until they get married, then the girls usually repay the help by donations and volunteering and such.  It was a very nice story.  The building itself was pretty old, but could have been in much worse shape.  Mitchell and I took it upon ourselves to paint the walls and trim with white paint, while others started on the metalwork in red.  We started about 0900, then broke for lunch at 1200.  The lunch didn't get there till almost 1300, probably because we were running on Greek time.  Greek time, for those who don't know, means that a Greek person will get around to whatever they need to do when they feel like it.  No Wifey, I am not part Greek, at least not that I know of anyway.  Lunch wasn't the typical lunch that we would think about.  It consisted of a lot of baked goods, croissants filled with cheese, spinach pies (which I absolutely tore up), and a few other items.  They also brought chocolate chip cookies, which I demolished as well.  I MIGHT have been a bit hungry.  So one of the guys who works with me in Port Ops decides to give me other stuff to try, and of course I eat it.  There is now a joke going around Port Ops in that I'm their Chia Pet.  We finish painting around 1430, clean up, and head back to the base.  As we were leaving, we noticed that our car had a tire that was going down, so our guide navigated us to a service station where I could refill it.  We got back to base safely, and everything was fine afterwards.

So about the stray dogs... there are more stray animals over here, both cats and dogs, than I've ever seen in my life.  It breaks my heart, because a lot of the dogs are very cute (Wifey would say they're smooshable, which they indeed are), and it seems like it's just an everyday occurrence to Greeks.  There are also about a million cats around.  Mitchell has made friends with one at the hotel, but I keep telling him that it's going to turn into a situation like the movie Strays.  (Google it, it's incomparable.)

For dinner, Mitchell and I go into Chania again, and eat at another fantastic restaurant along the quay.  I got a Greek salad and a four-meat souvlaki.  The Greek salad was tomatoes, cucumbers, a couple pieces of lettuce, some onions and some olives, all tossed with some oil, vinegar, and herbs.  Apparently the Greek dressing we know and love from Farm Grill in Newton only comes from Farm Grill, and not really Greece.  In any case, it was quite good, and Mitchell and I made it back to our hotel without getting lost again.

Yesterday was no PT (which I was happy about), and a pretty uneventful day at work.  It wasn't nearly as hot as it had been the first three days here, and that was quite a relief.  Temperatures had topped out around 35C (that's all I know, the thermometer in the car doesn't read in Fahrenheit), and that's hot.  For dinner, we decided to walk across the street from the hotel to the local Chinese restaurant.  I figured that was pretty exotic, as the Greeks have Greek food down pretty much to a science by now.  I had hot and sour soup, and sweet and sour pork.  Mitchell had some sort of crabmeat sweet corn soup, and a spicy beef dish.  I was quite pleased with my meal actually, and Mitchell took some of his home.  So if you're traveling to Greece, Chinese food is safe.  We came back to the hotel, had a couple beers, and that was that.

Then came this morning and PT.  I don't run, I don't like to run, and I don't like anyone making me run.  That being said, it was calisthenics followed by a run that was probably close to two miles.  When I do athletic activity, I play soccer, and I'm the goalie.  If I play golf I walk, but it's much easier to walk three or four miles vice run two.  As we're running, I'm falling back towards the end, and I'm okay with that.  I appreciated the guys back there to give us support, but I just needed to get through it, not hear someone say "You can do it, man, just kick it out and catch up to them."  Ummmm, no.  Just let me avoid a heart attack at my own pace, please. 
After not dying from the run, I showered and went to work, and I actually did some work today!  I cleaned off a small trailer with old buoys, lines, and other floating things, and sprayed them off with a hose.  I then sprayed the trailer off.  And that was it.  It took all of about 30 minutes to do, and then I was bored.  One other thing I had to do was be a witness for some counseling chits.  (Some background here:  if you mess up, or if you do something good that someone wants to document for you, they write up a chit and give it to you, and you sign it, and that's that.  It then goes in your record for the command, but not in your service record.  If all my counseling chits were in my service record, it would be a very thick binder.)  Unfortunately there was one negative chit, but the rest were meritorious chits for helping paint the orphanage on Wednesday, and I was fortunate enough to get one as well.  I was very pleased about this.  Unfortunately the Navy doesn't make a habit of giving out meritorious counseling chits, and they are something I will definitely take back home with me.  In any line of work, whether civilian or military, we should do a better job of recognizing the good work that people do for us.  If we do that, we'll continue to get good work done for us, and it makes us feel a little better too.
The day was done, so I went and did laundry.  However, on the way to get the laundry out of the car, I noticed that the left rear tire was flat.  This was the tire that had gone low on me the other day, so I had to do my best NASCAR impression and change the tire.  I actually had it done in about 15 minutes on my own.  Not bad if I say so myself.  The laundry took a little while to do, but it got done, and Mitchell and I went back to the hotel. 
Not much else going on besides that, and here I sit in the lovely Cretan evening.  Life could certainly be a lot worse.