Fr. Jonathan’s Quarters

This is the building I live in.  My front door is the one on the upper floor, between the two bicycles (i.e. under the steam, in this picture).

     The front door can be locked, but never is, because my next door neighbor is the squadron Physician Assistant.  There’s no hospital nearby so if there’s a crisis they come get him in the middle of the night.  He’s concerned that he won’t hear knocking on the outer door.

     The inner doors to our separate rooms are locked, though.

     The door to the front, with the note and the water bottle on it is his.  The note just has his name on it, so that when people come looking for him they know which room is his.  The door to the left is mine.

     If you step into the outer door and turn to the left, you see….

    …the bathroom which we share.  The sink on the right is mine.  The doorway past the sink actually has a door in it, but you can’t see it from this angle.  On the left, past the door, is the toilet, and then the entrance to the shower.  You can just see the edge of the curtain in this picture.

     The shower is big (about ¼ wider and 2 ½ longer than the one we had on Large Street in Ft. Hood – a comparison that will only make sense to my wife, Becky).  The floor in the shower is bigger than a bathtub.

    If you are one of the first to shower in the morning, then the water is HOT, HOT, HOT (it will burn).  If you’re one of the later ones, then it is comfortably hot, without having to add much cold water to it.  There’s no tub.

From the front door, if you turn to the left, there is the kitchen.  There’s no stove.  As you can see, there IS a two-burner hot plate.  I think that is not standard equipment, but the P.A scrounged it.  Someone had thrown it out.

     There’s supposed to be a microwave on the shelf where you see the pitcher, but the P.A. says it disappeared when the last chaplain moved out – possibly the movers packed it by mistake, not realizing it belongs to the room (i.e. to the Army installation) and not to the occupants.

    The hot pot you see on the counter is mine – works great for heating soup, boiling water, etc.

     Don’t know whether the toaster belongs to the room or the P.A.

     This is the view of my room from my door.  This is the “living room” portion of the room.  

     The sound system you see on the entertainment center was scrounged by the P.A.  The CD player and tape deck work, but the radio tuner does not.  Someone just threw it out.

     The chair at the desk is actually a rocking chair, as you can see if you look closely.  I don’t sit in it, and would cheerfully get rid of it.  Who wants a rocking chair at a desk?

    In the lower right corner of the picture you can see the arm of the recliner.  It is actually a very comfortable chair.

     The fridge is going to go away.  I don’t want it.  If I have food to store I’ll put it in the kitchen fridge.  This little brown fridge takes up too much space in the room.

     When I got here it was running, but there was no food in it.  The freezer box was ¾ filled with ice and the door could not be opened.  I defrosted it and left it unplugged, and now it just serves as a sort of corner table.

    Some of that clutter is gone now.  I was in the process of packing my “war bags” and some of that “Army stuff” is now packed, and stored in a wall locker at the office.  The devotional candles have been stashed out of sight, too except the one that’s in use, by the crucifix.

     If you step in the door, and turn right, you look into the “hallway” between the “living room” and the “bedroom.” 

     The room was actually intended to have two occupants.  It is basically divided into thirds.  The front third of the room was the “front bedroom” and is now the living room.  The center third of the room contains two large closets and the adjoining hallway.  As you see, the closet for the front bedroom/living room opens off the hallway.

   CPT Claude’s room is similar, indicating that originally the two “apartments” held four people who shared the kitchen and bath area.

    The chest with the PT clothes piled on it has now been tidied up.  The PT clothes are in drawers and the chest is in my office, holding go-to-the-field stuff.

     As you can see, the bedroom is absolutely dominated by the full-size bed.  The closet door opens up right to the edge of the mattress on one side, and on the other side, at the foot of the bed, the edge of the mattress is right against the room’s heater/air conditioner unit.  (Due to the kind of heater, that is not the fire hazard you might think.)

     The bed looks better now, because I got a full-size blanket that covers the twin-size sheets, so you can’t see that they can’t be tucked in or snugged up tight, because they’re too small for the bed.  I haven’t completely made up my mind whether to get full-size sheets for the bed, or trade the bed in for a twin, so that I have more space in the bedroom.  I’m leaning toward option 2.  Some of the twin beds on post also have drawers under them, which would help me to stash stuff out of sight, too.

    This is a view of the bedroom closet, with it’s L-shaped shelf.

    As you can see throughout the room, I’m not too tidy, but I’m not being unsanitary, either.  Actually the room is neater now than it was when the pictures were taken – as I’ve mentioned above. 

     I sweep and damp-mop the room once week, and keep the dirty laundry bagged.  All the clutter is at least “clean clutter.”  The walls really need to be washed down too, as you can get very dusty brushing against them.  However, that’s a low-priority project for me.