Keeping Your Ear, errrr Nose to the Grindstone

I'm sitting here on radio guard. The mosquitoes are flying around freely, and would be too much a match for even the Nose to take on. I have Washington, our company supply guy, and possibly the drollest of individuals to serve a late night shift with. R&R is a week away for me, and it almost seems, at this point, that it will never come.
Keep you nose to the grindstone.

I'm not sure if anyone even knows what the saying is or where it comes from. A google search came up with a story that's origin was even in question. My friend Adam and I used to say this saying all the time. Not even sure what it meant. But we used to say it, and I'm about to have a Rick James moment, we used to say it just to say it. "keep your ear to the grindstone." Of course we would substitute different body parts instead of say the nose, we would use cheek, or chin, anything went really. This place has been the epitome of that saying, despite the fact that the saying was in in promt to times of hilarity when we use it, and this place is definitely... well definitely not funny in the same way, more of a sad, tragic funny this place is.

Soon we are moving to our new home, a small, dirty, nasty little place. None of us are really looking forward to the move. We have to learn a new area of operation, along with the medial task of moving ourselves from our cozy barracks here, to what is going to be an overcrowded goat fuck. Leave can't come quick enough.
Keep your ear to the grindstone.

Some things I'm looking forward too in the next week. Moving up to this new base, no longer having the luxuries of this bigger base. Looking forward too moving into our new barracks which, might not be too bad, but unfortunately we will be trying to fit 5 platoons into a 3 platoon space. We still have to wait for the Cav guys there to move out in two weeks. So living will be, intimate to say the least.
Keep your chin to the grindstone.

My 2 am guard shift is nearly three quarters up, and I've killed nearly 20 mosquitoes which has definitely slowed my thought process down, and probably kept me off track. Just happened again. I'm not even listening to the story that Washington has been telling me for the last half hour. He's still talking about gangland.
My ear is currently on the grindstone. and bleeding

I can't really shore up any details on the whole Nose to the grindstone. It's a pre 15th century saying, and I'm no rocket surgeon, so I'll let the college grads figure that one out. Jeri you have 8 more days, so be sure to keep your mind to the grindstone.