But Baby it's Cold Outside

A Side:

Burrr... that's all I have to say, brrrrrr. I've talked about this before, but it gets cold in the desert. That is to say, in the land of the perpetual sun, it can get damned cold. This morning it was 37 degrees F. Yes, 37F. How do I know it was 37F? Did lick my finger and stick it in the air? Did I pick up a frozen pup-cicle? No, I checked out The Weather Channel homepage of course ;)

Surprisingly, TWC (as the weather people in the bizz call it)lists a number of Iraqi towns/ cities/ provinces. While it doesn't list my exact location, I can make a pretty well educated guess as to what the temp here is within a few degrees.

So why am I bitching so much about it? Well yesterday morning V and I left for the gym and dang near froze our cahones off. Luckily for me, I have my PT sweatsuit, but for poor V, he left that stuff at home. He packed it up because in his words, "I'm going to the desert, I'm not going to need that stuff!" His shivering would suggest otherwise.

But he did try to remedy that. A month and a half ago, he ordered a replacement sweatsuit. The pants came in about three weeks ago. The top still hasn't come in. He finally called them today and was told, "They're on extreme back order." WTF? Couldn't you let him know that when he ordered it? Or maybe drop him an email saying there's a shortage so expect delays? Apparently not. Yeah, AAFES sucks as much online as they do in the store. No surprise there.

Luckily for him, the Army came to the rescue. I know what you're saying, the Army? NO WAI!!!! Yup. At Riley, they issued us these really hi-tech polar fleece jackets. He's now using that until his jacket arrives (when ever the fudge that might be). And let me tell you, he's a heck of a lot warmer than I am. The PT jacket doesn't stop wind at all. Cuts right through it. It's better than just wearing the shorts and shirt, but it's not as good as that fleece.

Anyways, we're not freezing our tookus' off but that's not the end of our problems.

B Side:

Our higher command headquarters has told us that we need to turn in the majority of our vehicles soon. We have a fairly large size team, including the Army folks. Our headquarters, which is suppose to be a joint Army/ Air Force/ Navy/ Marine command but seems to be mainly run by Army folk, has decided to just leave us around 4- 5 vehicles. Which means some of us will be riding on the hood, the roof and/ or if they give us cars, the trunk (or boot, for our English readers).

Another alternate suggestion was to buy us bikes and let us get around like that. Bikes as in bicycle. Yes, the Queen song is playing in my head as I type. Which leads me back to topic A. It was 37 FUCKING DEGREES THIS MORNING!!!!!! I'm freezing my ass off just in the truck getting to the gym, freezing my ass off walking the quarter mile to the gym... I think you get the point.

I hope they don't do this. In the spring/ fall time, this would fine. Heck, later in the day when it's in the mid 60's this would be fine. But for early morning, basically pre 9am, this is going to be bad. It's bad because of the hypothermia it might induce, it's bad because of the crazy fucking jundii drivers and it's just bad on a safety standpoint. We don't run on these roads because of safety reasons, but they're contemplating letting us bike. I don't fucking get it.

Which leads me round about to this thought. Both Heather and I love the state of Vermont. We think it's one of the best places in the country, period. The state is just beautiful, the people are awesome and Burlington has to be one of the best cities in America. The syrup is hands down better than anything on the planet (that includes the stuff from our Canadian friends; sorry, but true), plus they make an ice cream out of it. Yes, maple syrup flavored ice cream. I made the same face you're making right now when she first told me of it, but I swear, it's the bomb!

Heather has spent more time in this great state than I due to the fact that she got both her bachelors and masters degrees from Burlington College and Goddard College through distance learning. In the course of this distance learning, she would have to make periodic trips up the campuses. For Burlington, she spent four days there, for Goddard a week. She'd spend time during the summer and during the winter there. Compared to the deep south, the summers are very nice and mild. 90 degree heat feels like high 70's- low 80's to us accustomed to blazing heat.

*BTW- We laugh, very loudly, when northern folk come down south during the summer. You can readily identify them because you can actually seem them melting, like the wicked witch of the east, while they're outside walking. It's a funny sight that I'm afraid someone will start charging us to view because of the high entertainment value of it. I always laugh when weather people talk of "heat waves gripping the north" and the temps are only like 91F! LOL! Don't worry, I get my come-uppance next paragraph.*

However, the winters... well, the winters can best be described as "taking a bath in cold water filled with ice cubes while in the middle of the Artic... naked." Yes, it gets very cold there. It routinely dipped into the negative double digit numbers while she was there during the winter months.

What this is leading me to is this: we both want to move there when I retire out of the military. But we're both super pussies when it comes to the cold. Heather less so than I, because she's originally from Ohio, so she's use to snow, cold ass winds and generally long bleak months of no sun. Though after thirteen years of living below the Mason- Dixon line, she's become soft herself, while I'm from South Carolina, land of perpetual sun, warmth, beaches and good times, aka I'm a reptile who loves the heat.

Also a limiting factor is Heathers cold urticaria. She's allergic to the cold. This is an actual medical condition, much like some people are allergic to the sun/ water/ *insert other environmental condition*. This is medically documented. Unlike my own natural aversion to cold, and Letos aversion to water (posted e-props in the next post to the people who tell me this reference), she could possibly die from it. So, any kind of serious thoughts of living in this beautiful, albeit cold, place will have to seriously include wtf we'll do with her for the super cold times of the year.

So, as you can see, the weather has been on my mind a lot as of late. Next major topic for discussion: do I want hot cinnamon or sour Berry/ Strawberry/ Raspberry lemonade Ice Breakers?

-M

Ohhhh- oh, the wind will come
Blow- oh, answer echo's answer

Happy Day After Thanksgiving

Rather than spending my day elbow to elbow in shoppers, I spent the day cleaning up the house and knitting. Mike may actually really get a pair of socks before winter's end. Maybe.

I was completely unimpressed by "The Family Stone."

Yesterday, we had Thanksgiving Dinner at Cracker Barrel with dozens of elderly and military patrons. Predictably, the boy didn't eat much of anything. He would have been happy with a slice of ham, and some mashed potatoes with peas in them. After dinner we went to see "Enchanted," which was cute.

The boy also realized that indeed a hoodie is not a coat.

Happy Holidays.

Happy Thanksgiving!

For lunch I had:

-turkey (not too bad, but not my famous turkey)
-ham (decent, but not my dads)
-mashed potatoes (instant, not real =/)
-roll
-fried cheese sticks with marinara sauce (my love of the fried cheese knows no bounds; for this one food, I am very thankful)
-candied yams (yummie)
-some kind of marshmellow pie with chocolate swirl thingy
-ice cream (I'll update what it is later, only because it's the best damn ice cream evah!)
- sweet tea (if it's not sweet, then it's not tea; unsweet tea is dirt flavored water damn Yankees!)
-sparkling cranberry grape cider
-Mt Dew

Dinner:

-turkey cutlet (they were out of the real stuff at 1900)
-roast beef (was pretty good)
-mashed potatoes (still instant =/)
-roll
-candied yams (yummie)
- sweet tea (see above)
-this chocolate pie with chocolate shavings on top that I really love
-A&W Root Beer
-tea

Did I over eat? Damn skippy. Will I have to work out more? Damn skippy. Was it worth it? Most definately. My two previous days of working out were in preperation for this. =)

Funny thing. We took our terps over with us to enjoy the feast that the amreeki (am-ree-key= arabic for American) chow hall had to offer for lunch. One of our terps got (for both lunch and dinner): a piece of turkey, french fries and cheese sticks. That's it.

We tried to get him to go get some other stuff, some more traditional Thanksgiving fare, but he refused (politely) and all of us (him included) kind of laughed at the situation and food choice. Some of the food had ham/ bacon in it which is taboo for Muslims, so that's understandable. Otherwise... /shrug.

I approved of the cheese sticks of course =)

Back to watching the Packers kick the shit out of the Lions, woot!

-M

Help me baby Jesus, help me Oprah Winfrey!

A Side:

The Lt continues to alienate himself with us. Remember how I told you, in the Dane Cook post, the Lt wanted to increase our work day to a 12 hour day? Well, he didn't get a 12 hour day, but he did get an increase of 2 hours.

Yes, an additional 2 hours a day, 6 days a week. We all agree that he's a retard. If there was a reason to increase, say we knew our workload was increasing substantially, then it would be merited. But there was no need for this. We're pretty damn productive with the time we have. He's just increasing it to increase it. He has yet to give any of us a reason why there was a perceived need to increase it.

We now start an hour earlier and get off an hour later. What that means is that V and my morning workouts will just about be eliminated. Either that, or my calls home will. While Heather and I do talk a good bit during the later part of my day through IM and email, I still love to hear her voice in the morning. Even if it's her just repeating what she put in her emails.

It's just... frustrating to say the least. I look for ways not to be around the Lt anymore. Whatever it takes, I try to distance myself from him. He won't chill the hell out, relax and get into a normal groove. When I am around him, I try to ignore him to the best of my abilities. I turn on the "wife ear" and go from there.

Every married man has a "wife ear". It's when you tune out about 99% of what your spouse has to say, listening for the part where you either a) hear your name or b) need to give an opinion. When you hear one of those two, that's when your brain disengages the auto-conversation drive and you're back at the helm.

And before the ladies start to give me crap about it, I know women have the "hubby ear", so don't go acting all indignant and holier than thou! ;)

B Side:

I figure I had best fess up about this now, rather than be outed about it later. Last week, I resubscribed to World of Warcraft.

*GASP!*

Yes, it's true! But, for pretty good reasons!

A) There's absolutely nothing here to do besides work.

B) I'm bored out of my skull!

We do have TV here, AFN (Armed Forces Network). Only thing is, it shows TV programs from last season. Basically, everything that I watched last year is being played currently like it's new. On top of that, not everything that I watch is on. AFN only has 10 channels of programming. I'm very glad we have that because it only use to be like 2 channels of programming a decade ago.

The one thing that is current are all the sporting programs. They do show a couple of NFL and college games live, but because there is an 8 hour time difference, I can only catch the first quarter or so of games before I need to hit the sack. But that's ok, because a little bit is better than nothing.

So, besides TV, that leaves books and video games. I've been reading a lot, but I can only read so much. Same with video games. I brought the best the PS2 had to offer, about 6 really good games. I'm going through them, but I still want to do something else.

Two of the guys here play WoW, so I got the discs from them and reinstalled it. Took forever, but that's ok. I had fears about reinstalling it, mainly the fear of becoming a WoW addict again. But this time is going to be different. With the way my schedule currently works, between work and working out, at the end of the day I might have about an hour to play. That's if I even decide to play. So far I've only logged about 9 hours on a new character on their server. The majority of that came on my day off last week when I had a chance to just sit and play.

I figure that my chances for relapse are significantly lower this time around. Two reasons:

1) My connection. I'm playing over a satellite, which means that I have pretty bad latency. 1.5- 2.5k ms latency to be exact. That's pretty standard, and it sucks. It takes about 3- 4 seconds for me to finish casting spells, even instant cast spells.

2) Time difference. Even if my connection wasn't crap, I'm 7- 9 hours ahead of my two previous servers. I can't raid with them even if I wanted to. The times they start, I'm asleep, then I'm at work. So even if wanted to get back into raiding, I can't.

I'm enjoying this new found casual freedom. I'm finding it much much easier to just turn it off and go do different things. Last night I logged in just long enough to finish a quest that just had me run to a few different places, pick some flowers, make some potions and then I logged off. It took maybe 45 mins, but once I was done, I just logged off. Simple as that. No pressure to keep going, no need to keep leveling, no need to "just get this last thing done"... it was nice.

I'm determined to keep my play style casual. Like I said before, I'm not sacrificing real life for this damn game again. As dorky as this sounds, Luke Skywalker said it best. To be able to know the dark side, you have to have lived it and served it, then you know its power and how to defeat it.

Yes, I'm paraphrasing the farm boy, but he had it right.

BONUS:

Speaking of WoW, my friends found this and I can't help but post it here. It's pretty damn funny and it fits with the B topic. FOR THE HORDE!!!

-M

I'm thinking about my doorbell,
when ya gonna ring it?
when ya gonna ring it?

Against the Wind

A Side:

It's friggin' windy today. It started with overcast skies and cooler temperatures this morning. All day long, it's been a bit cooler, a little more tolerable. But the wind... the wind has been incessant. On our way back to our living area, when V and I went to the truck, it was blowing at a steady 15- 20mph. Enough to where you leaned just a little bit. When we got into the truck, as soon as we opened the doors, the doors acted as funnels and all the wind whipped into the cab.

Along with the wind came the ever persistent "moon dust" as we call this nasty sand here. I know I've talked about it before, but this sand is very fine, more like flour than beach sand. But it was blowing all into the cab, into our mouths, trying to get into our eyes (thank goodness for our sun glasses), but just overall being very annoying.

With all this wind kicking up the moon dust, the sky is extremely hazy. Usually you can see about a mile with no problems. Not today. Visibility is pretty limited. While I enjoy the overcast weather, this wind can go back to Iran/ Saudi Arabia/ Kuwait or where ever the heck it came from!

B Side:

It just struck me that I have yet to introduce my ferocious guard dogs. We have seven of the meanest dogs living outside of our compound. When I say mean, I'm talking killers! Of course they're nice to us, because we give them some scraps occasionally and we also let them live in our compound. In return, they keep out other packs of dogs and any of the wandering Iraqi's that might get too close to our fence line.

Below is a picture of all of them. One of them is hiding under the slab to the left, but don't be fooled! He's the sneakiest of them all!





You can click on the picture to check out the rest of them. They're too damned cute. I spend at least 30- 45mins of my day just petting them and messing around with them. I let them chew on my fingers, sniff me and just be pups. Most of the time I have about three to four of them following me until I bend down, rub their bellies, play with them a bit and love them as much as I can. Lord, why did you curse me with only two hands???

They're mangy mutts, but they're my mangy mutts. Most of us on the team feel that way. We're super protective of them because they do nothing but bring us joy, smiles and laughter. Woe be to the first jundii, contractor or idiot that harms these dogs of ours.

-M

Against the wind, I was running against the wind
I'm older now, but I'm still running, against the wind

Dane Cook, where are you????

A Side:

I really need him here right now. He's the only one who would be able to come back with the truely funny comebacks and quips to combat the rampant stupidity that continues to plague us. The latest installment of "WHAT THE FUCK IS THE LT THINKING?" comes to me via my roommate V. Apparently the Lt recently touched on the subject of maybe switching to 12 hour days. Yes, you read that correctly, 12 hour days. His justification? "Everyone else in the AO (Area of Operation) is doing it."

Wait, did I hear that right? Did he just use a statement an angst ridden teenager, who fails to get their way, would use? If my mother was here she would've ripped him a new one. I tried to use that a few times with her when I was growing up and she would just go to town on me. She wouldn't hit me or anything (she wasn't like that), but she'd use superior reasoning skills to show me what a dumbass thing I had just uttered. I love her for it because it prepped me for my current job back home of teaching new recruits.

Every now and then they utter that, or they use the reasoning of, Well if this other squadron is doing it, then we should too. I come back with a nice lesson on core values and what scum bags the other squadron leaders must be to permit that. By the time I'm done, they see themselves as keepers of the law, maintainers of the righteous. Plus, it ensures less problems down the road because they want to keep that self image, so they enforce the rules more. They get into less trouble, I don't have to fill out as much paperwork. It's a win- win baby!

But back to the Lt. Fortunately for him, Sgt H (our only female on the team) was there in my mothers place and she very firmly, but very politely, told him what a dumbshit he was for even suggesting it. Not in those terms mind you. When you tell an officer what a dumbshit they are, you have to word it very carefully. Lots of sirs/ ma'ams, lots of logic and just using the same type of voice as you would with a petulant 3 year old does the trick. Seeing as how she has two young ones of her own, she knows exactly how to do this, and she did.

B Side:

I wrote the above post this morning and it's now the afternoon. Motivation and energy are loooowwwww. Going to the gym in a little bit, then it's time to start my day off routine!!!!! Mainly playing game, suring the web, having a Mt Dew, maybe IM'ing with the misses... sounds fun right?

One thing of note before I leave. Today I had to fill a hole in the wall where our cable from the satellite comes in to the switch room. Along with these two cables, there's some pipes. It's just this two foot wide section, by about ten inches tall. I had to use this expanding foam, but in the process managed to get it all over my right hand.

It reminded me of the time that I got some superglue on my fingers, except this stuff continued to be sticky for around ten minutes. I kept opening and closing my right index finger and thumb together. Then, I went to wash the crap off and it just wouldn't come off. I spent around twenty minutes washing my hands with soap and a scrub pad. On top of that, I've spent most of this afternoon eating away at the crap, constantly spitting the shit out everywhere I went. I'm now missing like a layer of skin from my right index finger and thumb. Totally sucks.

Of course if I had left my finger and thumb glued together, I would've had a great time tonight! ;)

-M

I don't want, anybody else
when I think about you I touch myself

Slack Ass

A Side:

Yeah, that's me. That was partly due to work, working out and just not having much to write about, so I didn't write. But, I come back offering new material and a renewed sense to include you guys/ gals on all the mundane shit that goes on here.

So, our Lt made it back after being lost after like 20 days. He wasn't lost in the technical sense, we knew where he was, but was like one of those Greek stories where the hero keeps trying to make his way home, but is delayed or diverted some how. Except our Lt isn't a hero, and the Lord was doing us all a favor keeping him out of the way.

Because as soon as he was back, the very next day, he started in on his retarded shit. He wanted to go to our warehouse and look for something that wasn't there. He took our Col with him, and in the process they decided to poke around in my comm area. There they discovered just a vast warehouse full of useless and useful stuff. Useless- tons of broken computers and computer equipment that the old team just kept. Why? Hell if I know. Useful-things like cable identifiers, office supplies, new computer equipment that was just stored there and we didn't know.

So of course, now he's all, WE GOTTA GET IN HERE AND ORGANIZE THIS PLACE, NOW NOW NOW!!!!!!11111!!!11!1!!!1111!!!!!!

This is something that I was trying to do since the first week we got here. Lt told me not to worry about it, "we gotta take care of us first." Uhmmm, HELLO MCFLY! THIS IS US! The Col also asked me why we hadn't been in here yet to really account for all the stuff we have. I pointed at the Lt and repeated what he had said, ie the Lt effectively told me to stay out of here after repeatedly telling him we needed to get in here. It felt nice to be able to point that out.

Another side effect of him coming back is that he's managed to piss off about half the team just through stupid suggestions and comments. He's back for less than a day and already most of us are wanting him to "take another trip" and just get the fuck out of our hair. Instead of letting us do our jobs, make the decisions and run things the way we know they need to be run (the Air Force made me an NCO for a reason, just like everyone else on my team), he keeps trying to manage us with his limited capabilities. He already admitted to us that he has had no interaction with enlisted folk back home for most of his meager 3 years in so far. He works mainly with civilians. He has no interaction with the enlisted at all. He enjoys this, for me it sends warning signals.

On top of that, all of priorities come from the view point of his career field. He has no clue wtf comm, medical, services or anyone else needs. He doesn't understand our processes, so he attempts to fit us into his limited mold. It's the ole square peg in a round hole.

Overall it's his attitude that he knows anything and everything. For some, that's confidence. For him, it's cockiness and it rubs me the wrong way something fierce. I'm doing my best to just stay away from him, let him do this or that while I continue to try to get the needed work done. There's so much I want to say, but can't find the words to express it. I'm developing stress reliefs, things I didn't have before, and it makes me glad. I can vent more too. V listens, Heather listens of course, but I mainly vent to a few select people who I know will 1) keep the bitching safe but 2) might be able to change certain things within their limits. As they say, constructive bitching is the best bitch of all.

B Side:

To piggy back on the above topic, I was thinking lately about my love hate relationship with the Air Force. I love the military. I love what we do. At the same time, I hate the military and what we do.

I love the people that it attracts. The smart, dedicated, hard working individuals that make this nation proud. It also makes the workplace a better place to be. At the same time, I hate the individuals that it attracts. The lazy, self serving, dumb shits that think the military is a free ride, who do nothing but try to milk the system for all it's worth.

I don't know. I've been this way for ten years now. There are times when I really like my job, then times when I totally despise it. I know all jobs are like this, I know everyone feels this way, but this seesaw battle has been going on for as long as I've been in. I could cross train into another job, but there isn't another job that I'm interested in. Well, there are, but most of them involve being away from my family for long long periods at a time, which doesn't appeal at all to me. If I were single, I would jump at those chances because I wouldn't have to worry about the time I spent away.

My family doesn't hold me back. They encourage me in everything I do. They motivate and support any of the dumb things I want to do, which is exactly what family is suppose to do. The crux of it is, I love my family and I'm a family guy. I love to come home with them there. I don't want to be an absentee father/ husband. I want an active role in my family other than someone who breezes through every few months for a little while, then I'm off again. That's just not me, its not how I was raised.

Of course that runs contrary to military life and I know it. First hand right now especially. But that just goes back to my love/ hate relationship. Of course, if I was on the "outside" (how we refer to civilian life), I don't know wtf I would be doing right now either. So, here I stay, because I don't have a fucking clue as to what I want to do with my life still. It's so sad that I still don't know. I wonder when I will know. I've prayed to God a lot, I've read countless books, I've polled tons of people, but still the answer refuses to reveal itself.

I do know that I'm tired of working for shitty management. That extends to supervisors, senior NCOs, junior officers and more senior leadership. I'm tired of having my judgement questioned because of the amount of stripes on my shoulder. I'm tired of having to do shit work. I'm just tired and I don't know a way to fix it.

Yes, all of the above happens in the civilian sector too. That might be why I go into business for myself when I get out. We've had a few ideas on what we want to do after I get out (@ the 20 year mark), so I'll continue to let them roll around in the head and see if they become feasible at a later date.

BONUS C Side:

So, one of the things I've been doing to pass the time is working out. It's a common thing to do during deployments, and seeing how I have a year here, it's the perfect time to start remaking myself from the fat slob I became from the WoW time.

I hit the gym, with V, twice a day. I get up at 4:50, call Heather for about twenty minutes, then finish getting dressed and we head over to the gym for an hour. Later in the afternoon, around 5:30, we head back over to the gym for another hour.

Yes, twice a day for an hour each time. In the month since I've been here, and started this routine of two a days/ six days a week, I can already start to see some marked changes. One, I've lost a good bit of gut, and the love handles are more like love pinches. The top of my pants around my waist don't have a lip. You know that lip from where your belly and sides push the material down over your belt? Yeah, that's going bye bye.

I've also added a good bit of muscle mass. Enough to where my buddies here are starting to come to me for workout tips because, in their words, "whatever you're doing is working pretty well". It's compliments like this that help fuel me on.

Now I'm not a total compliment whore, I don't crave the attention like some gym rats, but a little bit of validation does help a person. It does help a persons ego just a bit. No one is immune to this, we all like to know that the hard work we put into a project is not going unnoticed.

Ok, so I don't want a bunch of dudes checking me out, but we're all looking to make improvements here in our physique, V and I are just going about it with more devotion than the rest.

The next part that has played a role in this is my eating habits. I've just about quit sugar altogether. I've just about stopped drinking sodas, I don't eat candy and I don't keep shitty snacks for me to munch on. The one exception to this is Friday, my day off. I allow myself two sodas and an ice cream cone for the day. It's my reward plan. So far it's been paying off. I keep reading studies that say if you can cut out one soda a day for a year, you can lose up to ten pounds just from that.

Well, I'm doing my best to try to keep sugar to a minimum, eat healthier (god I hate veggies, but they're good for you =/), and, more important, enforce portion control. The Army loves to just pile on food. They give you more food than you actually need. So I've made it a point to be pretty verbal in telling them exactly how much I want of a certain food. One scoop only or one serving a certain kind of meat. One of this, one of that. Not the two, three, FOUR servings you want to try to give me at once.

That's something that we've lost control of in America. People have started to recognize it in the past few years, but it's something that we really need to come to grips with if we want to stop the fat problem. It's something that I would like to bring back with me and try to get the family to do.

The boy already practices this, but it's not from a healthy eating perspective, more from the fact that he has a tummy condition which doesn't let him eat a lot. It's always been a struggle to get him to eat. I hope it changes, but for now it's still a pain in the ass. The wifey (pronounced wee-fay) and I do like our Chinese buffets, BBQ, fast food and generally other kinds of foods-of-death.

She's already recognized the need for change, which is good. She's been trying to institute change back home. I'm in an imposed change. There's no Burger King, Pizza Hut, Popeye's Chicken, Subway or anything else here to test/ tempt me. It's just the chow hall, with their perpetual monotony of the same bland food.

Eh, that's enough for me right now. I think I've created a long of wall of text that even the most die hard reader of the site will be going, THANK GOD IT'S OVER!!!, but I had a lot to write about and it was like an explosion that had to happen. Sorry for the hiatus. I'll try not to let it happen again.

I'd also like to welcome our international readers from Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, India, Jordan, Malaysia and Cambridgeshire UK! Hope these ramblings make sense to you ;)

-M

Take a chance cause you might grow
Take a chance you stupid hoe

Nerdery Part 2

Saturday night began the adventure of several short and the odd tall beings - online Dungeons and Dragons night with some of the people I met playing World of Warcraft. We created the characters a few weeks ago but had been too busy to come together to play.

Thus far, our first adventure together has been a lot of misadventure which included a monk and a paladin swinging wildly at a tireless zombie, a proud female dwarf falling flat on her face (I seem to have some trouble with horse drawn carriages) and a wild carriage ride (halflings should not be in charge of steering horses, particularly those carrying dwarfs).

In spite of our bumbling performance it was a lot of fun and I look forward to finishing this adventure and many more adventures to come.

Retail Therapy

I called my grandmother, at her request, to let her know I made it back okay.

She immediately started in on me about what I took. The two in charge of the estate told me repeatedly to "take whatever you want" and "take whatever will fit in your car" and "if you want to get a trailer, do that." So I took a few things...(see the previous post).

Now, I supposedly took two quilts (no, I took the one J put in my freakin bag for me to take) and why didn't I take the wooden shelf the bowls were on and "everyone is getting after" her for me taking the freakin table.

I called one of the people supposedly getting after her. I told him I only took one quilt. His response was that he wasn't mad at anyone and really didn't care. Basically, he is unhappy with the way the estate is being handled. The woman is barely in the ground and people are being told to come ransack the house. They are saying they will just auction or give to charity whatever people do not take. So if anyone is getting upset that anyone is taking anything, that's too bad in his opinion. They should not say to take things if they do not really mean for you to.

I was very upset over this. I do not like being made to look like a thief. That was certainly not my intent. I was just rather happy with the things I had to remind me of my grandmother. She was the only one in my family I continued to have correspondence with after I left Ohio at age 19 to search for greener pastures - pastures with no family in them.

I talked to the above family member, my mother-in-law and my husband. They all shared the same sentiment - which amounted to, it is yours now and tough titty (my mother-in-laws words...tough titty /snort).

After these conversations, I went out to deposit my work check and stopped by the mall. I got a new purse to go with my new work clothes. The purse I was carrying was a bit out of season (spring flowers) and the wrong colors for my work clothes. I love red and happen to generally look good in the color. I also needed brown shoes to go with some of my new work clothes. Now that I'm being moved back to the administration building, I won't be wrestling angry teenage girls and can wear something other than Crocs or tennis shoes.

We left in the early morning chill of November in Ohio. White and red flowers still bloomed brilliant against the dying grass in her front yard. I stood outside the fence a moment, absorbing the details for the last time.

The mountain tops of Southern Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee were ablaze with the brilliant colors of fire. Blood red vines twisted around the rock faces on either side of the highway. Swirls of leaf storms battered the windshield, restless as ghosts, as speeding semis stirred them from their final resting place.

As if in a ship, traveling through the galaxy, we passed many worlds. Truck World. Flea World. Trader's World. Dino World. Burger World. Mattress World. Fabric World.

It seemed my great grandmother would live forever. I knew, of course, that she wouldn't and I could see time whittling on her.
At the constant urging of the family, I brought a few things home:

She spent a lot of time crocheting. She won numerous awards at the local fair for her needlework. I intend to have this doily framed with a nice mat so that I can hang it on the wall and preserve it.

I also took an afghan she made. I had one that was purple and white striped when I was young. I believe my mother kept that one.

I also took a quilt that my great aunt made for my great grandmother. Each tiny stitch is hand sewn.

Finally, I took the table that she kept her phone on. My grandmother swore it was part of a set - and is likely upset with me for taking it in spite of being told over and over again to take what I wanted because they intended to auction off everything left behind - but aside from being the same color, it looked nothing like anything else in the house. The legs were different from the 4 pieces in the living room. And the knobs were different from the desk. So I took it and the four soup bowls on top of it.

All the leaves are brown...

A Side:

It's getting cold here. No, you didn't read that wrong, it's actually getting cold here. Just in the mornings though. The Arabian Peninsula and the US are on the same lines of latitude (the lines on a globe that run from side to side, not up and down), so we share the same seasons. When it's fall/ winter in the states, it's the same here.

Now, specifically, it gets cold at night. During the day, it still gets pretty warm, about 85F. The reason it gets so cold at night is there's no trees, clouds or vegetation to soak up the suns rays and keep the heat. So the heat dissipates pretty rapidly, so that when I go to the gym in the morning, it's quite brisk. I'd say it's only probably 55- 60F, but for us that's cold! Plus, seeing how I'm a Southern boy, I start to get cold at those temps anyways. ;)

Don't worry though, I have my trusty Air Force PT jacket. One nice feature about this jacket is all the grey on it is reflective material. Means I can wear this out at night/ dusk without having to wear a reflective belt also. All of our PT gear has that reflective stuff on it. Neat feature.

Bad thing about this outfit is that the entire sweat suit outfit swishes when you walk. You sound like you're wearing a corduroy suit. It's annoying as hell... swish swish swish everywhere you walk. Don't even get me on running. Or multiple people wearing this running all together, like squadron PT (45+ people)... *cringe*

B Side:

Yesterday was a pretty good day at the end. First, my unit sent me my Blackhawk 9mm holster. To borrow a phrase from Napoleon, it's "sweeeeeeet!" It replaces the cheap ass Army issue holster which didn't fit properly, trapped body heat enough to make my leg sweat all the time and the securing strap for the gun was very ineffective. This on the other hand, it's really nice.

As you can see from the picture, the leg area is more exposed. That means less heat build up. It also weighs A LOT less. It's like you're not even wearing a holster. Also the locking mechanism is very secure. Once you put the gun in, it snaps in place and just will not come out. I've shaken it vigorously up, down, all around and the gun just won't come out. I'm very impressed. I owe my deployment managers many many thanks. I also owe my commander many many thanks for making sure I got one too.

Secondly, the Air Force unit we belong to out here sent us replacement ballistic glasses for the POS ones the Army gave us (notice a trend?). They sent us a really good pair of Oakley's! Again, sweet! These are my first pair, so I'm treating them like gold.

Ballistic glasses make sure shrapnel fragments don't take our eyes out. Regular glasses would simply shatter/ break when hit with tiny fragments moving at insane speeds, but ballistic glasses don't shatter. They're designed to take the impact. Sort of like shatter proof glass in automobiles. It will spider around the crack, but not shatter. I like my eyes, so this is a good thing =)

Not much else. I'm pissed that I can't see the Colts- Patriots game tonight. We get to see live games, but there's a 9 hour difference. So the game I want to see comes on at 4:15pm EST, which is midnight here. Sucks to your auntie!!! (bonus points for naming that quote)


-M

Teardrop on the fire
Fearless on my breath

What we here is a failure to communicate...

A Side:

If you remember Tuesdays post, and truthfully how could you forget seeing how it's right below(?), you will recall how I talked about how the terps aren't allowed to drive on base, at all. As soon as I wrote that, the next day as V and I were heading to the gym, I spot one of our terps driving one of our trucks. Grrr.

So, I called our guy, fellow military member on our team, and logged the incident. Then today, as V and I are rolling to get our grub on, we spot a group of our terps all around a car. Except this car belongs to one of our terps. As we pass by, we see them get in and head off. GRRRR!!!

Again, I call our guy, log the incident. About a half hour later, I get a call from him and he asks me to write a memorandum for record about the incident. I agree, and we start to head back to our living area to do some work. Not more than ten minutes later, I get a call from another one of our guys who says in a hurried/ excited voice for me to get that memorandum out ASAP! I tell him I was on my way to write it when he called, then we hung up, I write it, he picks it up about fifteen minutes later.

In case you didn't know, the military loves paperwork. For anything to happen, for any kind of discplinary action to start, you have to have the paperwork. We call it a paperwork trail. In my current job back in the states, teaching incoming students, the sooner you start the paperwork trail on a bad student, the sooner you can kick them/ reclass them to another career. Same thing applies here.

On Tuesday, the terps got a briefing stating again the rules that they're suppose to be abiding by. One of those that was restated was, NO GOD DAMN DRIVING! I mean, it's not hard. Don't drive. But apparently, they just can't follow that.

The terp I caught driving today has been warned three times since Tuesday. Apparently this was the last straw. While I can't say positively, 100%, that he's been canned (because I haven't talked with our guy yet), the word on the military street is that he's gone.

And I can't say I have a problem with that. The rules have been stated. You've been briefed multiple times, yet you continue to break them. You're gone. I'm not saying I'm a total hard ass, but when you tell your employer, multiple times, that we treat you "lower than a dog", well... that kind of reduces the likelyhood that I'm going to give you a pass or two on things.

If my dog could talk, she'd tell them a thing or two. As much as I love my dog, she's still a dog. I don't let her jump on me, don't let her get on the furniture, she doesn't get table scraps (except when my parents are there, /sigh), she has a small defined sleeping area, she only eats once a day and only one type of food... I think you get the picture.

So when these guys say that we're treating them like animals, well that just pisses us off. We try to treat them just like they're one of us. We depend on these guys. They do a lot for us, at great personal risk, and we understand that. We try to make sure they have everything they need here, within the limits that have been defined.

So to have these guys say that we treat them like dogs... that's just insulting at best. I don't get it, and I probably never will. Some people will just never be happy I guess.

B Side:

The sad news continues. Yesterday Heather found out that her great-grandmother died. Yes, her great grandmother. She was in the 80's neighborhood. That makes my son her great great grandson. Strange to say that at times. Right now she's traveling up to Ohio to attend the funeral on Friday.

She was a pretty cool lady. I got to meet her right after Heather and I were married, actually after the boy was born, and she was a feisty lady then. She was really nice to me and made me feel right at home. I felt more at home with this stranger lady after an hour than I have with my own grandmother my entire life.

We also visited her for a few days in the summer of '05 as part of a trip up to Vermont when Heather received her masters, and then last December, over Christmas. She was still lively, but a bit more run down when we saw her last. Crazy thing? She was still driving! Her insurance company still insured her, and stated that they would insure her until the end because she had a spotless driving record. Wicked cool.

Heather was pretty close to her, but kind of lost touch when she moved down to SC to go to college. She got back in touch after the boy was born and would trade correspondence with her every now and then. We knew her health was declining so that's why we had made the two trips when we did, because we didn't know how long she had left.

So, here's to great grandma. She was always generous, warm hearted and a really nice person. I'm truly glad to have known her.

-M

But there is one promise that is given'
I'll meet you on Gods golden shore