Sorry, faithful readers (all two of you), I have been silent
for a little while. Not because the pace
of operations has increased or anything, I just find my days filled with
stuff. I normally don’t get back to my
room until about 7:30pm or so and I like to climb into my rack (Navy for “bed”)
by 9:00, read a little and fall asleep.
Lately I have had softball practice or games many of those nights or
some minor kerfluffle must be dealt with and my precious 1.5 hours disappears.
It has been an eventful couple of weeks in some respects. One cool thing that demonstrates what a small
world it can be was a meeting I had with good friend and former colleague John
Lewis. He was traveling through Kuwait
on his way back to Afghanistan, where he is an Army Reservist currently helping
train the Afghanis in Special Forces tactics.
It was nice sharing a few hours just talking about life, the Army/Navy
and home. He gets back to the States a
little after I do, we’ll share a beer once we are both home again.
The other thing I promised was pictures of the outlying
areas, so here they are. Because I like
to drive, I have to rely on my passengers to take pictures so they may not be
EXACTLY what I wanted, but the one of the camel is pretty neat. Melanie and I had an in depth discussion on
one hump vs. two and which type is native to where. This is a dromedary, or a camel with one hump
and it is native to the region. I don’t
know why it is in the back of that pickup or where they are going, that is the
first time I have seen anything like it.
The other picture shows one of the tent camps in the desert, I’ll get
some better ones, I promise. I also
included one of my first dust storm, the wind was blowing across Saudi Arabia
and if it blows long and hard enough it picks up sand and carries it across
Kuwait. It was like a very yellow, foggy
day except the fog leaves a fine gritty coating on everything and gets in your
eyes. I am told it wasn’t that bad, on
really bad days people wear dust masks and goggles.
One thing I really wasn’t prepared for is how cold it can
get here. The past week has been what I
consider to be bitter cold. The nights
get down to around 40, and with a steady wind it makes for a very uncomfortable
walk to the bathroom, shower, work, the gym, the galley (Navy for “dining
facility”), or the softball field. I had
some long johns on for a couple days and a jacket each and every morning. Of course in 2-3 months the heat will kick in
and we will wish for these cold days, but right now it is downright
unpleasant. In typical Army fashion, the
A/C is always on in the berthing (Navy for “where I sleep”) so I sleep under
two blankets wearing my sweatsuit with the hood on. Now I know some of you Northerners are
scoffing at my bitter cold comment, but I am in the desert where it gets up to
130 in the summer, this cold was not what I signed up for.
So I missed yet another major event, Shannon’s 9th
birthday party (and in two days I will miss her actual birthday). It was a first for the Brown house; a gaggle
of Shannon’s buddies came over and had a slumber party. This is one of those things I would have
loved to take part in as her little friends crack me up. I don’t know that Tracy got much sleep as she
and Shannon had to take a nap the following day to recover. Patrick has to give a speech at school on the
meaning of the inauguration (because he is President of the student council and
all), another thing I would like to help with.
The Patriots have moved on to the AFC Championship! This is where the time difference really
kicks my butt, as their game against Houston started at 12:30am here. Their next one on Sunday starts at 2:30am,
but I am committing myself to watch the thing, no matter how tired I will be
the following day. The Super Bowl is
different, it is a big event here just like it is at home and I already let
folks know that they will be allowed to sleep in the next day. We’ll rearrange schedules for those that have
to work but are big fans of one of the teams in the game, which just shows you
how we prioritize things around here.
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