Hello there too all of you crazy blog readers. I am sorry that it has been so long since I have last come to you with another exciting adventure. It has been a busy few months for me. Coming home, meeting my daughter and actually being a father, trying to settle in. Whew I am exhausted.
Today I am once again playing Mr. Mom. My wife found a job shortly after I got home and on my days off, I take care of little Samantha (Who is not all that little anymore). But she is asleep in her little swing so I thought I would get a blog done while she slumbers. I have a lot to tell you about, but it will all have to come slowly. Just like when I left to go to Iraq you got small bits in order. That is how it is going to happen again.
So I am going to take you all the way back… Back… Back to when we were getting ready to leave.
The new unit has arrived and we are for the most part done with the TOA (Transfer of Authority). There were a few major bumps in the road to getting the new unit up and going, but it is done. All that is needed now is for a lot of paperwork to be done and then the official transfer day will be upon us. And then there will be nothing but CHUcation. That is the word we have come up with for the “vacation” time that we will have once the hand over is done and we are waiting for our flight to get the hell out of here. Luckily for me I wont have to really worry about all of that. I am on flight one so I will be out of here within a week. I don’t have to wait around for the TOW. I don’t have to worry about being bored to tears during CHUcation. I just have to wait for the flight. And waiting I am.
I have been waiting for 4 days already and boy am I ready to stop waiting. W have already packed up all of our stuff. Our large boxes of toys are gone. And my internet has been disconnected for over a week. Now what to do, what to do? I still have my computer and a ton of movies on my hard drive so that is keeping me somewhat entertained. But I can’t take this all much longer. It is times like now that make me sure of the fact that I would never make it in jail.
On a happy note, we don’t have to move out of the CHU’s and into the nasty hot tents. We were all worried about that, but all the tents are full with Uganda troops. I might later have to talk about them. But for now I will leave them out of this.
Days later…
Well my time here is at an end. I am sitting at the freedom tent. It is the last tent/building that I will be in prior to getting on a plane, and then it is off to Kuwait. Oh boy am I excited. We have all been up for about 30 hours. Some of the guys have gotten little cat naps in, but I have never been very good at sleeping in a chair, and I am not about to lay down on the hard floor. I would rather just stay awake and count every second until that bird lands. Today’s flight will be the same kind that bought me the final leg into Iraq. A wonderful Airforce C-130. Just thinking of it makes me want to break out into cadence. But really I am all too tired for that. Another few hours and I will be on the ground in Kuwait. I here propellers. Maybe that is our bird.
Back To The Sand
Monday, October 18, 2010
Friday, September 10, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
My Good Bye Song
Now it’s time to say goodbye to all the Iraqis
S T I… I cant wait to get out of here.
N K Y… Why? Because I hate this country.
I-i R A Q.
Stinky Iraq…
Stinky Iraq..
I hope I never come here again…
That’s right folks I am just about out of here. I should be home in less than a month. The date of our return is still unknown, and as always I could not say if I knew it, but it is getting close. Today is my last day of net access in my room, and most of the websites that I like to visit are blocked at work, so this is it until I get home, or maybe Kuwait.
I would like to put out my thanks to everyone that showed such support for me while I was out here. It really helped me to get through my time.
A brief on my distant time line.
Maria Sam and I will be in So Cal from 21 October through the 5th (or so) of November. If anyone will be in the area and want to get together let me know. I know for sure that I will be at Disneyland on Saturday the 30th of October. I know it will be busy with it being the weekend of All Hallows Eve, but of well. If nothing else I know I will be at the Main Street Flag Pole for The flag retreat that day. It is either at 1630 or 1730, but which I am not sure. If you are around see you there.
So until later here is a list of things that I am looking forward to when I get home.
.
Things I look forward too.
Seeing Maria – I really miss her.
Meeting Samantha – She will be 8.5 months old by the time I see her. Everyone keeps telling me to not get upset if she does not want to be around me at first because I am new. Sure, that won’t bug me.
Green Stuff – You don’t know how weird it is to not have ANYTHING green around here. We watch tv and grass is shown and you are like “What the hell is that stuff?”.
Being Barefoot – I am not barefoot here unless I am in bed or sitting at my desk in my room. Other than that I have something on my feet.
Shower Stuff - Okay this one has a few things to it…
Being barefoot in the shower - I would rather cut off my feet then go into the shower here without shower shoes on.
Touching the walls and curtain - Most of my time in the shower is spent worrying about not touching anything. I mean think about it, how many nasty people are there using these showers.
Dropping the soap – At home if you drop the soap you pick it back up. Here if you drop the soap you hope that you have enough suds on your body to finish washing with. The soap goes in the trash.
Towels – I cant wait to hang a towel up for real and then when I go to use it again it is fully dry because it was hung up on a towel rack and not on a little hook I made in my room because there is nothing else.
Red Robin – The plan is for this to be my first meal home if we get home early enough in the day. Avocado bacon burger, Garlic Fries, and freckled lemonade. OH BOY!
Walking around naked - I know it is a weird thing, but when the only time you have clothes off is when you shower your body cant breathe. I want my body to breathe. And don’t worry, I will keep the blinds drawn.
American toilet paper – I am so tired of wafer thin one ply sandpaper.
My cell phone – Okay so really I don’t miss my cell phone. I like people not being able to get a hold of me. When there is a problem at work in the middle of the night and I am not there, they have to think long and hard about coming to get me. Because it will take at least an hour for them to come all the way down to my CHU and wake me up and then I have to go all the way back. And then they have to deal with how upset I am because they did not remember to flip that one switch that would solve the problem. What I do miss is the ability to Txt my wife and my friends and my parents any time I want to. I love to txt. And more than that I can say hey look at that. That is cool. I think I will take a picture of it and send it to everyone so that they can see it too. I miss that.
Did I mention Green stuff???
Music – It is not that I don’t have music here. I have over a gig of music. All kinds of music. But what I don’t have is the ability to get away from people and sing to my hearts content. Do you realize how much better you can feel after belting out a verse of “Go The Distance”, It’s a small world, or Toes. Well I just don’t get the chance out here. If I am home there is a good chance that my roommate is asleep. If not then the guys that live to the left and right of me are. At work I am told to shut up and be more business like (um hello we kill people here) and if I just walk around and sing there is a good chance they will put me in a padded room. It is so bad that a girl came up to me the other day to ask me why I was singing “Walking round a winter wonderland” while walking to chow. I did not even know I was singing. I need to sing.
My truck – OMG I could go on for hours about my truck alone. But I will just name a few. Lets start with the ability to go faster then 30kmh. That is the speed limit here on base. I can sing while I drive. Did I mention I want to sing? And I can go somewhere. ANYWHERE in my truck. And sing along the way.
Clothes – I miss clothes. All of my clothes. I don’t want to wear my uniform anymore right now. Enough said.
I want to see my house – My wife moved while I was over here and I have only seen through the pictures that my wife sent my new home.
All of you – That’s right, I miss all of my friends. Well friends I am coming home.
Back to AMERICA???? Not soon enough.
Back To The Sand
S T I… I cant wait to get out of here.
N K Y… Why? Because I hate this country.
I-i R A Q.
Stinky Iraq…
Stinky Iraq..
I hope I never come here again…
That’s right folks I am just about out of here. I should be home in less than a month. The date of our return is still unknown, and as always I could not say if I knew it, but it is getting close. Today is my last day of net access in my room, and most of the websites that I like to visit are blocked at work, so this is it until I get home, or maybe Kuwait.
I would like to put out my thanks to everyone that showed such support for me while I was out here. It really helped me to get through my time.
A brief on my distant time line.
Maria Sam and I will be in So Cal from 21 October through the 5th (or so) of November. If anyone will be in the area and want to get together let me know. I know for sure that I will be at Disneyland on Saturday the 30th of October. I know it will be busy with it being the weekend of All Hallows Eve, but of well. If nothing else I know I will be at the Main Street Flag Pole for The flag retreat that day. It is either at 1630 or 1730, but which I am not sure. If you are around see you there.
So until later here is a list of things that I am looking forward to when I get home.
.
Things I look forward too.
Seeing Maria – I really miss her.
Meeting Samantha – She will be 8.5 months old by the time I see her. Everyone keeps telling me to not get upset if she does not want to be around me at first because I am new. Sure, that won’t bug me.
Green Stuff – You don’t know how weird it is to not have ANYTHING green around here. We watch tv and grass is shown and you are like “What the hell is that stuff?”.
Being Barefoot – I am not barefoot here unless I am in bed or sitting at my desk in my room. Other than that I have something on my feet.
Shower Stuff - Okay this one has a few things to it…
Being barefoot in the shower - I would rather cut off my feet then go into the shower here without shower shoes on.
Touching the walls and curtain - Most of my time in the shower is spent worrying about not touching anything. I mean think about it, how many nasty people are there using these showers.
Dropping the soap – At home if you drop the soap you pick it back up. Here if you drop the soap you hope that you have enough suds on your body to finish washing with. The soap goes in the trash.
Towels – I cant wait to hang a towel up for real and then when I go to use it again it is fully dry because it was hung up on a towel rack and not on a little hook I made in my room because there is nothing else.
Red Robin – The plan is for this to be my first meal home if we get home early enough in the day. Avocado bacon burger, Garlic Fries, and freckled lemonade. OH BOY!
Walking around naked - I know it is a weird thing, but when the only time you have clothes off is when you shower your body cant breathe. I want my body to breathe. And don’t worry, I will keep the blinds drawn.
American toilet paper – I am so tired of wafer thin one ply sandpaper.
My cell phone – Okay so really I don’t miss my cell phone. I like people not being able to get a hold of me. When there is a problem at work in the middle of the night and I am not there, they have to think long and hard about coming to get me. Because it will take at least an hour for them to come all the way down to my CHU and wake me up and then I have to go all the way back. And then they have to deal with how upset I am because they did not remember to flip that one switch that would solve the problem. What I do miss is the ability to Txt my wife and my friends and my parents any time I want to. I love to txt. And more than that I can say hey look at that. That is cool. I think I will take a picture of it and send it to everyone so that they can see it too. I miss that.
Did I mention Green stuff???
Music – It is not that I don’t have music here. I have over a gig of music. All kinds of music. But what I don’t have is the ability to get away from people and sing to my hearts content. Do you realize how much better you can feel after belting out a verse of “Go The Distance”, It’s a small world, or Toes. Well I just don’t get the chance out here. If I am home there is a good chance that my roommate is asleep. If not then the guys that live to the left and right of me are. At work I am told to shut up and be more business like (um hello we kill people here) and if I just walk around and sing there is a good chance they will put me in a padded room. It is so bad that a girl came up to me the other day to ask me why I was singing “Walking round a winter wonderland” while walking to chow. I did not even know I was singing. I need to sing.
My truck – OMG I could go on for hours about my truck alone. But I will just name a few. Lets start with the ability to go faster then 30kmh. That is the speed limit here on base. I can sing while I drive. Did I mention I want to sing? And I can go somewhere. ANYWHERE in my truck. And sing along the way.
Clothes – I miss clothes. All of my clothes. I don’t want to wear my uniform anymore right now. Enough said.
I want to see my house – My wife moved while I was over here and I have only seen through the pictures that my wife sent my new home.
All of you – That’s right, I miss all of my friends. Well friends I am coming home.
Back to AMERICA???? Not soon enough.
Back To The Sand
Sunday, August 15, 2010
The Lights Aren’t On But Everybodys Home
This is a picture of my door. As you can see it is daytime. This was taken at about 1630 a few days ago. It was about 123 degrees out on this day. Now you may not find this picture weird, but think about it. It is that hot and my door is open. Is there a problem here. The answer is of course that the power is out… AGAIN!
This is a prety common ocurance out here. And it always seems to be my area. There are about 7 different power zones in my LA (living area) and for some reason the one that I am connected to seems to have massive problems. Either the Genorator dies, the fuse blows, or the people that are paid what I am sure is a huge amount of money to keep the system running are just plain asleep at the job.
We have at least 3 power outages a week. For the most part they really are not that big of a deal. Most of the time the power is off for only a few minutes. Just long enough for me to start to get a little warm. Most of the time my laptop does not even burn through the whole battery. And I am sure that you know thoes batteries don’t last all that long. The day this picture was taken was not a normal quick power outage. It was one of the bad ones. The bad ones happen once or twice a month, and last for hours. Todays power outage started at about 10am. By the time I came home from work the inside of my room was 138 degrees. So we decided to chill out side. Two hours after I got home the power came back on but it took another 2 hours for the AC to cool the room down enough that we wanted to go inside. Outside there is shade and a breeze. Inside the floor is so hot that it heats the room. By 0600 the next day the temp insid the room was finaly below 80 degrees.
So now today I am sitting at work. Thinking about how nice it will be to get back to my room after work. It has been a long boring Sunday. My roommate walks into the office 12 hours early for his shift and I instantly know why. “Powers out!” Gosh I sure love this place. I guess I will work late tonight.
This 2nd picture is of My Roommate SSG Dick sitting in his chair, My Buddy SGT Gholke squating, and Me. Looking at this pic I think you can just feel how hot we are.
Back To The Sand
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
262800 Minutes
Where has the time gone. Oh that’s right it has been here the whole time creeping by, driving me nuts. I can feel the second had on the clock move with every tick. Count out every minute of the day. And that is how I got the title to this blog. For you not paying attention there are 525,600 minutes in a year. So you cut that in half and you get…
Okay so you are all getting the point? I have been here 6 months. And what a fun 6 months it has been. Okay so fun might not be the right choice of wording. I am not saying it has all be terribly bad. I have been to worse places, and have spent harder times in my time in the ARMY. But still, 6 months out here has been a long time. But I am happy to say that we have less than 3 months left in this rotation. And even better news is that I have been told that we will get at least a year and a half back in the rear before we move on to Afghanistan. I was expecting at the most 12 months so that is good. But that time will come soon enough, so we shall leave it for later.
Since I have been in country 6 months, that means that Samantha is now 6 months old. I am shocked and amazed every time I see her on skype or in pictures and videos that Maria sends. She is getting so big so fast.
She is already 2 feet tall, or long. The pictures of her are from her first month of life and then now at 6 months. What a change.
We are at about the point of time in which we need to all get away from each other. We still get the job done, but if you are around the same people every day you really start to hate everything about everyone. The smallest things set people off, and it almost feels like a lot of the people out here are really trying to mess with other people. Add to that the heat of the day and things can go bad quickly.
And speaking of the heat did I mention that it is getting hot out here. Yet we are all starting to really get accustomed to it. It does not feel nearly as bad as it did last month even though it is just as hot. Las night I went for a walk and thought “gee it is nice out here.” And it was 110. I knew that it was hot and I did break a sweat, but it was almost pleasant. And then last night in my room I turned off my fan because I was cold. I look over at my clock and it is 80 in my room. That is crazy. I am the kind of guy that likes it to be in the 50’s when I sleep. And I was cold in the 80’s. WOW!
On my blog about the sandstorm Rae asked “So when the sand storms come like that do you all have to go in? Do you know when sandstorms are coming?”
It all matters on what kind of storm it is. If it is a dust storm, it is hard to tell when they are coming in. The distant horizon is always hazy and dusty. So you really don’t see the dust coming in. But the sand storms like I pictured are much easier to see. The one that I took photos of I saw 8 miles in to a 10 mile loop. I had time to jog the last 2 miles back to my room find my camera, get a drink and then took the pics. But I got them at the last second. Right after I took the shots I closed my door and within about 20 seconds could hear the sand hitting my room. With both storms you try to stay inside as much as you can, but I think you all know that it is not always possible for us. Some days you just have to eat the sand. And I really do mean that. Today was a light dust storm and I walked my mile to and from chow through it. My food was wrapped, but the dust finds a way in. You kind of get used to it. I just hope it is not hurting my teeth too bad. I have only been stuck out once during a real bad sand storm. And we just kind of hunkered down. You put on goggles and a face wrap and hope it passes soon. But it can be really dangerous. The sand can cut your skin up some times.
The joys of the desert.
How is your running going? If you look at my Running to Disneyland you will notice that I am almost to California. Less then 20 miles to the border. I will be there soon.
Well for now that is all.
Back To The Sand
Okay so you are all getting the point? I have been here 6 months. And what a fun 6 months it has been. Okay so fun might not be the right choice of wording. I am not saying it has all be terribly bad. I have been to worse places, and have spent harder times in my time in the ARMY. But still, 6 months out here has been a long time. But I am happy to say that we have less than 3 months left in this rotation. And even better news is that I have been told that we will get at least a year and a half back in the rear before we move on to Afghanistan. I was expecting at the most 12 months so that is good. But that time will come soon enough, so we shall leave it for later.
Since I have been in country 6 months, that means that Samantha is now 6 months old. I am shocked and amazed every time I see her on skype or in pictures and videos that Maria sends. She is getting so big so fast.
She is already 2 feet tall, or long. The pictures of her are from her first month of life and then now at 6 months. What a change.
We are at about the point of time in which we need to all get away from each other. We still get the job done, but if you are around the same people every day you really start to hate everything about everyone. The smallest things set people off, and it almost feels like a lot of the people out here are really trying to mess with other people. Add to that the heat of the day and things can go bad quickly.
And speaking of the heat did I mention that it is getting hot out here. Yet we are all starting to really get accustomed to it. It does not feel nearly as bad as it did last month even though it is just as hot. Las night I went for a walk and thought “gee it is nice out here.” And it was 110. I knew that it was hot and I did break a sweat, but it was almost pleasant. And then last night in my room I turned off my fan because I was cold. I look over at my clock and it is 80 in my room. That is crazy. I am the kind of guy that likes it to be in the 50’s when I sleep. And I was cold in the 80’s. WOW!
On my blog about the sandstorm Rae asked “So when the sand storms come like that do you all have to go in? Do you know when sandstorms are coming?”
It all matters on what kind of storm it is. If it is a dust storm, it is hard to tell when they are coming in. The distant horizon is always hazy and dusty. So you really don’t see the dust coming in. But the sand storms like I pictured are much easier to see. The one that I took photos of I saw 8 miles in to a 10 mile loop. I had time to jog the last 2 miles back to my room find my camera, get a drink and then took the pics. But I got them at the last second. Right after I took the shots I closed my door and within about 20 seconds could hear the sand hitting my room. With both storms you try to stay inside as much as you can, but I think you all know that it is not always possible for us. Some days you just have to eat the sand. And I really do mean that. Today was a light dust storm and I walked my mile to and from chow through it. My food was wrapped, but the dust finds a way in. You kind of get used to it. I just hope it is not hurting my teeth too bad. I have only been stuck out once during a real bad sand storm. And we just kind of hunkered down. You put on goggles and a face wrap and hope it passes soon. But it can be really dangerous. The sand can cut your skin up some times.
The joys of the desert.
How is your running going? If you look at my Running to Disneyland you will notice that I am almost to California. Less then 20 miles to the border. I will be there soon.
Well for now that is all.
Back To The Sand
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