05 April 2006

Tactical Loading

I've never had to pack up my entire life before. The closest I ever came to that was the week preceding my indoctrination into the Navy, and even then a lot of my stuff was left at home since College City is only a short commute from Hometown. When fraternity life didn't work out, I was back home during the first week of school, thanks to some heroic help from my uncle and some of his buddies, who were paid handsomely in beer for their assistance. The only other time I've even come close was when I went to England; that was two and a half months, and I took all that I needed in a seabag, a big duffel bag, and a medium black ALICE pack. Coming back, it took those three, plus an Israeli paratrooper satchel.

I've been going through my CDs tonight. I own very little furniture; a couple of CD/DVD/video racks, a papasan chair and ottoman, a book case, a little table, and a desk chair. I have a standing floor lamp, two lava lamps (stop laughing), and a few knick knacks I've picked up over the last few years that I can use as decorations in the new place. At any rate, I've been going through my CDs, packing them up. I can't find the case to Chant II, and it was skipping the last time I played it, so it may be time for a new copy.

I have a lot of old videotapes, and nowhere to store them. I'll be taking a selection of them down with me, and all of my DVDs; but I'm going to want to take both racks with me, which means that there's going to have to be some serious shifting. I have fifteen Xerox paper boxes: good, sturdy, corrugated boxes. The problem? Nine of them are filled with books. One of them is filled with CDs and videos. I've decided that out of my nine boxes of books, and my bookcase, I'll be taking one Xerox paper box full of books. One. The rest can come later, of course.

It's been noted by people who know me that I'd make a good logistician. I'm good at both tactical and administrative loading. Don't know the difference? Okay, here's an example. During the initial months of World War I, the Brits, the French, the Australians, and maybe the Greeks (if I remember correctly; I haven't studied this in a year and a half) attempted an ill-fated invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula. Part of the problem that the Alliance ran into was that their gear was administratively loaded; for example, the artillery was on one ship, while the caissons were loaded on another. Generally speaking, tactical loading is more practical, but administrative loading allows you to store more cargo.

I'm pretty good at both, though my mind is naturally geared toward tactical loading, especially tactical loading for quick offload, setup, and use. For example, aside from furniture, I'm pretty sure that all of the items that I take down to California will be either boxed or bagged, organized, and loaded neatly into the vehicles for quick unloading and setup. They'll also be labeled. It sounds simple, but I've helped people move before, and you'd be shocked how haphazard some people are about it. I'll take my ALICE pack, which will ride up in the front seat with me, loaded with everything I need for about four days, save for food and water. Two backpacking trips to England, one with a massive seabag, another living out of an ALICE pack for two weeks, will teach you how to tactically load your gear in a hurry.

I should probably get back to trying to find where to move stuff around. There's a lot to do tomorrow. For those of you who have the access, encouraging E-Mails and telephone calls are most welcome.

Thus saith the Fly.

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