Filling my days with happy

I'd say about 33% of each day is now spent working on redeployment and preparing for garrison operations. If my life existed in an Army vacuum, and the Army was THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERED (which, shhhhhh, don't tell them it's not), then I would never, ever want to be in garrison. I would want my command to be downrange where you can work your mission and avoid a vast majority of the OER bullet whoring that takes place on stateside military installations (not that it doesn't occur in Iraq, but at least it is less a waste of everyones' time). Of course, the Army does not exist in a vacuum, and let's face it, Bacardi Limon isn't legal here, and my wife wouldn't like Iraq, so garrison it is.

It really isn't all that bad, the whole garrison thing. I suspect it is similiar to civilian jobs - all of your real work can be accomplished in about 25% of the day, but then someone develops ridiculous projects that take another 25% of the day, and the other 50% is the part in the middle during which you are trying to make nothing look like something important. That's the Army garrison.

Planning the return to garrison involves an awful lot of PowerPoint. I've almost become indoctrinated to the degree that I like the clean and colorful nature of a good PP checklist. It helps bring an OPLAN to life. Everything is better with embedded Excel. Who doesn't like four hour readiness briefings? Okay I'll stop now.