Welcome to Montgomery!

Montgomery is cold.  I underestimated just how cold it is.  But it may be unseasonably so right now.  According to the news, there is a severe snow/ice warning for much of the South, including Montgomery, from tonight through tomorrow.  Apparently flights in and out of Montgomery were being cancelled, so I’m glad that I got in early.  And I hope the rest of my COT classmates arrive safely.

Tonight I’m staying on base at a really nice Air Force Inn, with cable TV and my own bathroom.  That’s all going to change come tomorrow when I move into the COT trainee dorms, so I’m really enjoying it tonight.  I didn’t have a reservation, but thankfully Maxwell has a lot of rooms because it’s where the USAF Air University is; virtually all of academic Air Force instruction takes place here, and every airman or officer in the Force comes through Maxwell at some point.  I rode to the base in a cab with four other servicemen and women who are attending other training programs over the next days or weeks.

Unfortunately, the dining hall is closed and I don’t know my way around the base—also, did I mention it’s freezing outside?—so my only option for food tonight is a protein bar that I’d forgotten was in my work bag.  Nothing says welcome to Montgomery like a Zero Impact Pumpkin Supreme bar!

After wolfing down that bar and catching the end of the Packers-Eagles game, I’m settling in for a night of studying.  I want to make sure I have a handle on the basics of military customs and courtesies before I report at noon tomorrow.  Of course, I’m sure I’ll screw up.  And I’m sure I’ll get yelled at for it.  But that’s just the way it goes.