SPF100 anyone?

2008-08-21T16:45:00.000-07:00

Well, 2.5 months after my last blog entry...I'm home! I arrived on 9 Oct, had about a week off from work, went to Florida to see Adam for a long weekend (I don't recommend booking a flight 4 hrs before it takes off...long horrible story...) picked up my new '03 Roush Stage 3 Mustang while down there, and now it's back to work.

Plenty more I could write about, but now's not the time.

I would like to continue blogging since I've got plenty to share between my family, the Navy, cigars, card games, Twitter and my new Mustang, but until Connie is recovered from her surgery I can't see any kind of schedule that will allow me any time on a regular basis to do updates. We'll see, but I'm definitely not promising anything soon.

Thanks to those who kept up with me while I was depolyed.

2008-06-05T03:47:00.000-07:00

It's 120 degrees with a slight breeze.

2008-06-05T03:25:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I have seen water for a few hours in the past 6 months, but not much!

2008-06-05T03:20:00.000-07:00

The Marina 1/2 of the Marina Mall.

2008-06-05T03:15:00.000-07:00

It's been confirmed...I suck at blogging!

2008-06-05T02:34:00.000-07:00

Another month's gone by already? Well I guess it's a good thing that time at least feels like it's flying by.

It's pretty much a daily grind, comfortable in the 90's when I get up for a shower in the morning, 120 by 9 AM, 125+ by noon, 100 when it's time for a cigar at 8:30 PM. Luckily, our AC works fine and it's 70's inside.

So since my last update I've gone back into Kuwait City again, this time to the Kuwaiti Towers and the Marina Mall. The Towers were nothing more than an observation point, good for pics and that's it. The Mall was nice, what I would call 'upscale' with the decor and cleanliness and the Masaratis, Ferraris, Jags, Aston Martins etc parked out front. It was pretty much just window shopping for me especially after I saw the prices. A new PSP game that would cost $40 in the US was 19 KD (Kuwati Dinar) which was equivalent to about $75 US. A pair of regular Timberland boots was 48 KD or around $190. No thank you.

They did have 2 cigar stores though, so that's when the window shopping stopped and turned into REAL shopping! I escaped after spending only 20 KD. My wife should be proud! :-)

My buddy and I had lunch at an American Johnny Rockets and paid 11 KD for 2 burgers with fries and 2 shakes. Yup, $40!

Next week I'm scheduled for my R & R trip to Qatar where I'll have 4 days to relax, see the water (I'm in the Navy and haven't seen water in 6 months for crying out loud!) play on a jet ski, eat at a Chilis, and DRINK 3 REAL BEERS EACH DAY!!!!!

By the time I'm back from that, there will only be about 6 weeks between me and my family and that's broken up by the arrival of the first wave of the next det, departure of the first wave of my det, arrival of the second wave, and the pack up and move out of my wave. So with those little distractions I'm praying time will continue to fly by.

We'll see!

And this is what it looked like

2008-05-04T22:12:00.000-07:00

I kind of suck at this blogging thing don't I?

2008-04-30T11:48:00.000-07:00

So…it’s bee a while hasn’t it? Well sit back and get ready for story time.

Ever since my last post here, I’ve pretty much settled into a humdrum daily existence. Work like a rented mule all morning, walk ¼ mile to get lunch, walk back to my room, kick off my boots and blouse and cool the hell down. It’s funny I say that though, because up until about Apr 20 we had stayed below 100 F. And as with so many things, as soon as I heard on the radio that “Every day from here on out that is below 100 F is a gift”, it returned to 100+ daily. Back on the first day of spring it was 111 F, but then we got another month of tolerable weather. 4 days ago it was 122 F.

One nice thing happened in that time frame as well. The guys from Annapolis that are down in AJ had bought me a cigar as a congratulations after Joyce’s birth and just never had an opportunity to get it to me. So once we met up they gave it to me, a Gurkha Estate Churchill which is infused with Luis XIII cognac. Talk about YUMMY! So that re-sparked my interest in cigars, and since I didn’t have to worry about stinking up a house, I visited my favorite cigar web sites and started shopping! In a matter of 3 weeks or so, I’m set for cigars for the rest of my deployment. :-)

About 3 weeks ago, we had a thunder storm! With rain and everything! The first hour and a half or so there was only lightning, then we got the thunder and rain, then it went back to lightning only again. The whole thing lasted over 3 hrs and the storm had quite an audience. The bunch of us out watching it were like kids on the 4th of July.

“OOOOooooo!”

“Ahhhhhhhhh!”

“Ohhhhhhhhh!”

As for fun, I had my first trip out into Kuwait City in the early part of April. The city was fine, nothing special. I ate Lebanesefood for lunch and it was ok. The Science Center that wewent to was more like an elementary school field trip destinationwith only a hand full of fish, reptiles and othercritters along with an IMAX show. Unfortunately theIMAX was sold out for all the morning showswith...school field trips! But it was nice seeing theGulf, the water, trees, grass... The second half of the tour was to a shopping place. It was a giant partially open partially notconglomerate of a shopping mall kind of place. Wefound out one interesting thing; over here there are no name brands. You want a yellow shirt, you get a yellow shirt, not aPolo or a Chaps or an Underarmor etc. Everything'sgeneric. The only things I got were a couple energy drinks(each sucked) and I tried an eclair and a weirdchocolate pudding....thing.... The eclair was reallygood!
On the ride back to base a cold/virus hit me like a truck. Two days later I felt crappy enough to get some drugs totry and dry me out and stop the coughing. I ended upin bed by lunch, didn't feel any better the next dayso ended up back in bed. I could manage tofunction some the following day, so since I only work 1/2 day onSat I stuck it out while I still felt like crap. In the mean time, partly due to the coughing that keptme awake and partly due to general stress I'm sure, Istarted back with my insomnia that weekend. I went3 nights with less than an hr of sleep each night,then asked for drugs to make me sleep. The docthat's here with me who was also with me way back whenI was in Bethesda doesn’t like using Ambien (thebestest go to sleep drug there is) because it canbe addictive. So she put me on Trazadone. Thefirst night I took it at 8PM and didn't fall asleepuntil 2AM. Next day I took it at 6PM and was asleepby midnight. The 3rd night I took it at 5PM butwe had a huge hicup here on our little piece of thisbase...a power line was cut accidentally and we lostpower to our barracks. No AC. So I started settingup my bunk in my office where we still had power, andby 1230, as I was sorta dozing/almost asleep, I waswoken up with news the power was restored. So, up andback to my cool comfy bed and asleep around 130. The next night I got to double my dose and hoped that I’d fall asleep twice as fast. So I planned for falling asleep in 3 hrs, but alas I was up until 2AM again. I didn’t take any the next 2 nights due to duty and my day in AJ. Check that story below!

Just this past weekend, I was really in a bad mood. The previous Sunday I had had duty which means I got to spend my one day off a week in the clinic from 7 AM until 10 PM. Follow that with a full week of work followed by a Saturday duty (we normally have Sat afternoon off) lead to a long week. In the middle of the week I found out that my Sunday was again being taken away from me in that I had to attend a defensive driver course so I could drive normal cars/vans while here in Kuwait.

I was soooooooo overjoyed…. Not.

Luckily, I was going with 2 other people who are at least fun to hang out with. At least that was something. Once we got there, we got an overview of the day; 10 min video then 2+ hrs of driving on the obstacle course.

Well that didn’t sound so bad after all!

During the video, some Army guy was telling us what we were going to do and why we were learning how to negotiate each obstacle. In the background, there were 2 cars; some generic Pontiac looking car and…….a Mustang GT! Well the video wasn’t over by more than 1 second before I stood up and declared “The Mustang is mine!”

“Sorry sir, we don’t have any Mustangs here. Only mid sized 4 door sedans and SUVs.”

Damn. Oh well.

Well actually, SUVs? Well that could prove to be fun too. :-)

I got placed in a car with Jeorge the instructor and a Navy LT. Cool, no significant wait time between obstacles.

We started with the rapid lane change. It’s a slalom course that mimics weaving in and out of 5 cars in adjacent lanes. Jeorge would tell us how fast to do it, tell us when we were up to speed (I wasn’t wasting any time by looking down at the speedo so that was good) and it was our job to maintain that speed through the course. We were doing this in a Yukon by the way. So I got to go through about 4 times at faster and faster speeds each time with max speed being about 50 kph.

Next was…..drum roll please….backing up in a straight line! We had to go once while looking over our shoulder (easy), once while using one side mirror (also easy) all while accelerating in reverse. The last method was…different; backing up without looking at all! This didn’t seem like a very good idea to me. The technique is called ‘tactical backing’ and you’re supposed to line up some part of your dashboard with an object in the distance in front of you and just keep those points lined up as you go backward.

Well I didn’t exactly follow directions and lined up a point between two radio antenna. It was like lining up a gun site and I figured it’d work. Nope, too much room for error. I killed the last cone on the drivers side 3 times in a row. Poor cone……… Then I did it as instructed and lined up with just one of the antenna and did it just fine. Frankly, I ain’t never doing that again.

Next we had off roading. Get up to 50 kph, drive 2 wheels off the pavement onto the dirt (about a 4 inch drop), straighten out, check the mirrors then turn the wheel just right so that the tread of the tire hits the side of the pavement instead of the side wall. Apparently its easy to get a blow out when the side wall hits first. After the 2 wheels off scenario we did all 4 wheels off in the same way.

4th evolution was backing into a parking place in VERY tight quarters. We’d pull up next to the spot perpendicularly, cut the wheel hard to get as much of an angle as possible, aiming the back of the truck toward the space and pull up as far as you could without running into the ‘wall’ marked by cones. Then you crank the wheel in the opposite direction and pray you’re in position to only have to make minor adjustments to get into the spot. I did it first try and was glad we only had to do it once because quite frankly, that was boring and I saw a vehicle on the other side of the range with smoke coming off the tires so I wanted to get over to that one!

And sure enough, that’s where we went next! :-)

So how do you make smoke come from the tires? Well I figured we weren’t going to learn how to do brake stands, so the other option is locking up brakes. And that’s just what we did. Jorge would give us a target speed and when we got into the cone chute, which ended in a lane-ending cone wall with a right and left lane approx 1.5 to 2 car lengths from the end of the chute, at just the right point, he’d yell ‘brake right’ or ‘break left’ and it’d be our job to lock up the wheels and then let up just enough to regain steering control and drive through the lane he indicated. This was pretty fun, especially since it took the Yukon nearly all of our running start room to reach max speed which was very quickly followed by severe braking, so that made it even more fun.

The 6th event was the one I was looking forward to most, the regular slalom course. For this, we traded in the Yukon for a GM made Kuwaiti POS. And do make it even more fun, we did it forward AND backward AT SPEED! So we started out by doing about 40 kph, no big deal and only so-so fun. Once through the course we’d stop about 40 feet from the last cone so that the line of cones was about 3 feet away from the side of the car if you drew a line from the end of the cones toward the car. Now the challenge really began. We were supposed to keep our hands at 9 and 3 and just turn the wheel smoothly through the course while looking from side view mirror to side view mirror negotiating the cones. Try number one went perfectly except my hands didn’t stay put on the wheel very well…at all. No problem, I had quite a few more runs to make! So once we were through in reverse, it was onward in D once again…a little faster. :-O

Now the routine was this; forward through slalom, backward through slalom, forward through slalom then evasive steering. So once back at the end of the slalom it was over to the same course we did the brake locking drill on except there was no braking involved! Same speeds as with the braking drill (up to 75) only it was swerving into the lanes adjacent to the cone wall instead of braking and driving gently into the lanes.

First time through the evasive steering, no big deal, only doing about 50. The next round through the slalom was noticeably more fun and quite frankly it got more and more fun as the rounds proceeded. See, while you’re supposed to maintain the given speed, I kinda failed that part…my speed seeeeeeemed to increase. Was it just my imagination or was it the fact that by the end of the course the weight of the car was gaining sideways momentum with each turn and it just felt like I was going faster. We’ll see……. ;-)

Backward on try two went better as far as hands staying on the wheel went, but the final cone in the line failed to move out of my way and it died in a crumpled heap under my tires. Oops! I had my arms twisted around as far as they could go, but it wasn’t far enough and I never got turned far enough to see, and thus avoid, the final cone. Oh well.

Forward through the course again, faster and faster! By this point, Jeorge stopped telling me how fast to go and just told me to ‘keep it at this speed’ when he felt I was going fast enough. Silly Jeorge! :-D

I think I went through the whole series of slalom/backward/slalom/evasive steering once more before the REAL fun started.

The next to last lap, during the evasive maneuver part, I anticipated the lane just before he told me which lane to go into, and of course I anticipated WRONG! So what did I do? Well I did as I was told of course! Within the 1.5-2 car length gap we had to switch lanes, I swerved left just enough so that when I snapped it back right I went into a perfect fish tail! While Jorge and the LT in the back seat were thrown somewhat violently to the left I managed to still steer through into the right lane without even nudging one cone. Damn I’m good! Before Jeorge got ‘if you aim for the wrong lane, just keep going into that lane….that’ll be fine’ out of his mouth, through quite a large smile, a good solid “YEHA!” escaped mine! And luckily, LT was laughing his ass off in the back seat. J Good to know some people still like getting a little rowdy now and then.

The last time through the evasive steering went fine at 75, but was nowhere near as fun as the slower 70 kph run a minute earlier. :-D

So the last times through the slalom were bound to be the grand finale of the day, right? Oh yeah! When I cleared the last cone damn near sideways, I looked down and was doing 60. 60 was fun! Backward one more time as fast as I could manage before the last slalom run. It wasn’t as fun as I was hoping, it was actually pretty hard at whatever speed I was going at (I’m guessing 30ish). But when it was time for the last forward run….well you’ve heard of ‘letting it all hang out’ right? :-)

Jeorge, by the way, had stopped telling me what speed to maintain. Apparently I wasn’t doing it anyway, so he gave in and let me fly.

I wish there was a video of my last run. ½ way through the course, I wasn’t ‘slaloming’ anymore and was straight up drifting through the cones getting very close to completely sideways through each cone, snapping it around the next cone in line only to traverse 170 or so degrees as I drifted through the next slot. And what did the speedo say before I applied the brake to end my day? Just shy of 70. :-D If only they had had the Mustang!

So we were done for the day, and not surprisingly, we were the first car done. I went up to the safety officer’s tower to watch my friends and struck up a conversation with him. He started it with “I almost radioed Jeroge twice to tell him to make you slow down, but it looked like you were under control even at those speeds, so I let you go.” My response?

“Good choice!”

So my lost day off turned out to be not so bad after all.

For the last of this forever long entry, I’ve got to tell you about my first full-on sand storm. I left my second job at quarter to 1 this afternoon for the 15 min drive back to VA. As we reached the end of the base road, off to our right was a visibly darkening roiling cloud of sand. It stretched for about 500 yds across and more than 150 yds high and it was moving toward us, in the direction of the road we were about to turn left onto. Not long after we were on the main road, the sand storm was next to us, on the driver’s side, about 400 yds away. It was moving faster than we were. Uh-oh.

As soon as I realized that, I told the guy driving he’d better punch it. I didn’t have any intention of getting trapped out on the road where who knows what damn fool Kuwaiti driver might be cruising along like it was nothing, only to end up imbedded in out vehicular arse.

We got up to speed and started getting past the lead edge of the storm. We weren’t going Mustang Cobra fast, but we were challenging all 4 cylinders to be sure.

We made it off the main road and onto the base road by turning left toward the storm. That’s the way the road goes don’t’cha know! But after 150 feet it turns back right so we are again along side the wall of billowing sand. We have to drive ridiculously slowly on this road because it’s full of potholes and rocks and dirt speed bumps. By the time we get to the gate, the lead edge is on us and everything goes orange as the sun is blotted out. We creep forward as visibility drops from about 50 feet to 30 to 20 to 15 and turn further left yet again to get onto base proper. So were does that put us? Why right in the middle of it all of course! By this time, the orange tint to the world is a dirt brown tint. And what do you have to do before getting onto base proper? Get out of the vehicle!!!! Before you get onto base you have to check your weapons. This was going to be fun. Yeah, fun like getting sand in your everywhere at the beach except it’s getting into your everywhere by 40-50 MPH wind. How’s that picture for you?

We get back into the vehicle coughing and sputtering and are allowed through. The road through this point is a winding one with Jersey barriers jumping out in front of you every 30 feet to ensure no one can get past the guards in any haste.

Well maybe they could if they went to the Scott drifting school, but I digress! ;-)

We had to stop twice because visibility dropped to ½ the hood of the car! We felt like we were in a Stephen King movie let me tell you! It was trying to eat us, I’m sure of it!

We made the 3 min drive back to the clinic in 12, arriving safe and sound.

I wonder what’s in store for me tomorrow?

And just because I know someone will like them

2008-03-23T05:20:00.001-07:00

And here you see why you don't want to be too close to a helicopter landing or, as in this pic, taking off.

Kuwait from another angle

2008-03-23T05:13:00.001-07:00

The top 2 are on a drive to another base. So how far do you think you can see? Don't ask me 'cause I don't know either! The posted 'suggested speed limit' is 40 kph. Average speed in reality: 140 kph. Really. Some day I'll capture a 10-20 second video clip of the fools driving and you'll seeeeeeee. The bottom picture is what you can see out the passenger side window. I just KNOW you wish you were here with me now don't you? ;-)

Remember back a few posts ago I said something about people live here on purpose? I just don't get it...

Pictures as promised

2008-03-23T05:04:00.000-07:00

Top is the temp in the shade; 97 degrees fahrenheit (thank you dictionary.com).

Next 4 are my other office...in the double wide trailer. See? I told you my desk was a deep freeze!

Walking salt lick

2008-03-22T22:37:00.000-07:00

So yesterday we had some more mandatory fun. Burgers, steaks, dogs and wings, horse shoes, volley ball and soccer. This was the first time I've been outside for any length of time in the middle of the day. With that, I got to get a small taste of just what the heat can be like over here. I'll have to go to work and use a good internet connection to upload pictures, but when I do you'll see just how comfy it was...in the shade.

Have you ever heard of playing horse shoes with 3 shoes instead of 2? I don't know where some of these people learned how to play, but I corrected them and we played a singles and a doubles game of which I won both. :-)

Volley ball actually was kinda uneventful, not enough people haning out at one time to make good teams.

So after living through the sun and wind and sand, I was almost as salty as my wife! (that's salty in a good way) See, even with all the activity, is 'seemed' like I wasn't really sweating. Since it was as hot as it was, sweat evaporates almost immediately leaving behind...salt.

If I were back in base housing in Annapolis, the whole herd woud've been visiting to get a taste. (there's a herd of deer on base)

Pictures to come.....

10 do's and don'ts

2008-03-22T21:50:00.000-07:00

Before any of us are allowed to go on a tour of Kuwait City or go to Qatar on R&R, we have to attend a cultural awareness class. I attended what could have been a very informative 2 hr class that turned out to be a ranting lecture by someone who obviously felt that what he was saying ws falling on deaf ears. The gentleman teaching us, "Tom", maybe just wasn't in a good mood or it was that time of the month or whatever, but the class sucked. What I did get out of it was the 10 do's and don'ts: (we didn't get a real explanation for any of them, so we were left to just nod and consent)
1- Do not initiate cross gender conversations unless absolutely necesary
2- Do not stare at the opposite sex and avoid eye contact with veiled women
3- Do not take pictures of women, especially veiled women, even if they are in the back ground
4- Do not show affection in public
5- Do not wear tight or revealing clothing
6- Men do not shake hands with women unless they initiate it
7- Do not go into a Mosque unless with a Kuwaiti local official or tour guide
8- Do not lose your temper in public and do not publicly embarrass anyone
9- Do not use profanity; maintain a calm tone of voice and mannerisms in public
10-Do not cross your legs revealing the soles of your feet or shoes

Now, having met 1000's of indestructible young male Marines, Sailors and Soldiers, I can assure you than many would have the immediate response of "Yeah, right...I'm an American and I'll do what I want. Hell, these people owe us for saving their ass back in the 90's so I can do whatever I want."

I'm afraid this is the ugly truth for many, and thus opportunities to see Kuwait are few and far between and are chaperoned by senior enlisted people who WILL "turn the bus around and go home" as soon as one idiot steps out of line.

Some explanation I did garner from the class was this: Kuwait is a fairly conservative country, and while there are plenty of people who are following a looser interpretation of Islam/The Koran, most adhere to a more traditional way. Family is very important and when it comes to male/female interaction it is very controlled insomuch as if a woman isn't your mom, sister, wife or daughter, you've got no business talking to her. It's a far cry from daily life in America, but guess what? This ISN'T America.

In addition to the 10 rules, if we were ever to find ourselves a guest of a Kuwaiti, showing hospitality will be a big part of the interaction. When offered a drink, accept graciously. Unless you're alergic to it or have a religious reason for not drinking (Mormon/caffiene), as Tom put it "You signed up to die for your country, so for the sake of keeping the American/Kuwaiti relationship, drink it even if you see something floating in it!"

And lastly, I didn't get any explanation about the feet thing.

With any luck, in mid April I'll get an opportunity to go out and see the city and then I'll be able to tell everyone what it's really like. :-)

Oops...too much at one time

2008-03-17T13:08:00.001-07:00

Well, it looks like I went overboard. you'll have to go on to the next page to read all about Haji!

Taste of home

2008-03-17T11:27:00.000-07:00

Honey, I can get a special price just for me on a new Harley! :-D

Not a cloud in the sky

2008-03-17T11:19:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, this is at about quarter to 5 PM. You can look directly at the sun most days and because of all the sand/dust in the air, this is what the sun looks like. A white ball.

Where I work and the RLB

2008-03-17T11:11:00.000-07:00

I'm in the one with the airconditioner...um I mean the one with the stairs and the blocked up window...err the one with the rocks out front...oh never mind.

The immediate area around my RLB (relocatable barracks)

2008-03-17T10:55:00.000-07:00

Top is our outdoor lounge area, middle is our crecent moon inn, except we can't put the crescent on the door because that would be like us changing the crescent our our out-houses to a crucifix (I bet you can see how well that'd go over eh?), and the bottom picture is meant to show a snow drift. Oops, I mean a SAND drift! Silly me......

All mine

2008-03-17T10:49:00.000-07:00

And this is where I spend the majority of my off work time. What do you mean jail cells are bigger? How would you know? :-O

My office.....please try and contain yourself.

2008-03-17T10:42:00.000-07:00

You wish you had a desk this cool....I know....don't be jealous!

And now, more pictures!!!!!

2008-03-17T10:29:00.001-07:00

I just figured out how to make panoramic pictures. This is one of the areas for shopping on base.

And this is where the majority of the folks here live. In tents.

Have good connection....will type.

2008-03-17T09:39:00.000-07:00

After many good intentions and a couple of trys even, I have a solid enough internet connection in my RLB to allow me to catch up 100%. (...and the crowd goes wild!!!!!)

The last of the items I previewed that I need to tell you about is Haji DVDs.

It seems that no matter where Americans are sent around the world, we always come up with a nickname for those whose country we're in. For Kuwait, the locals (and everyone else even if they aren't locals but are employed by whoever it is that employs the employees who do all the 'menial' jobs on the various bases...cause pretty much none of them are Kuwaiti, they're from India or Bangledesh. Go figure.) are referred to as Haji. Unlike some other eras, there is no malice or negative connotation with the title, and some are even propogating the rumor that calling someone Haji would be accurate if they've made the pilgrimage to Meca so even if they haven't done so yet referring to someone with that title is nice and respectful. Believe it if you will, I have no idea if it's true.

Anyway.....

We also use the term when referring to items that are ...questionable in authenticity. How many Rolexes have you seen for $30? Is an Ipod and an ipod and an I-pod all the same thing? Who's to know! I've spelled thiags rong evrey onece in awile....... maybe someone made a mistake at the factory and THAT'S why it's $45 instead of $250. Sounds plausible to me......... :-O

One other thing about shopping in general, especially from the people who are selling at a table outside the PX, is all prices are negotiable. If you've never haggled over the price of something WITH someone who wants to haggle back, it's very......interresting. All the vendors will try to catch your attention like a verbally challenged carnie. Imagine if you will a very heavy Indian (as in India not as in Native Americans) accent beckonning:

"Sir, come see. I have good price just for you."

Meeeeeee? Little o'l me? You're going to make a special deal for me? You mean I don't have to pay the price on the tag? WOW!!!! Today's my lucky day!!!! Where can I buy a scratch ticket before my luck runs out?!!!!! Show me what you've got to offer me Haji, if it's (fans of Gallager say it with me now) ON SALE how can I say no?!!!!

So maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe, it IS a real Rolex, and he's just giving it to me at the super-reduced-special-for-me-only price of $25! (you notice it got cheaper as I approached the table right? ;-) I do try to provide the sense that you're really there ya know!)

So now that you've got the idea, I told you all that to tell you about:

Haji DVD

Little did I know when I accepted this post in Kuwait, that I would learn what very few people around the Earth probably know; DVD's come out in Kuwait first! Sooooooooomehow, a movie that has it's premier on any given Friday is available on DVD in Kuwait on Sunday!!!! Isn't that amazing???!!!!??? Sometimes, we even get SPECIAL EDITIONS of very recent movies. Did you know that ORIGINALLY the latest installment of Rocky (we know it as 'Rocky Balboa') was printed with labels naming the movie Rocky VI? And I think we might even be a special test market too, because we can get full seasons of TV shows that I've never seen or heard of even being ON DVD and sometimes, like when writers go on strike, we miiiiiiiiiiiight even get the first 1/2 of a season on DVD before the second 1/2 of the season has aired!!!! Isn't that cool!?!

We're special.

I'm sure of it.

Now with all of this, you're probably thinking that we have to pay an arm and a leg for the privelege of being first in the world to get all of this good stuff. Well....you thought WRONG!!!!!!!

Not only do we get all of this special treatment, but we get any 6 movies we want for $20!!!!!!!!

There is a draw back though. (You knew it was comming didn't you? Nothing could be this good. Right?)

We get the DVD's so early in they're production, that the boxes haven't even been made yet, so we have to settle for a proof of what will become the cover of the box when you poor sots FINALLY get to buy what I already had the chance to buy 3-6 months earlier. And it comes in a recloseable baggie too. And the baggie hardly ever rips the first 3-4 times you open and close it.

You're jealous aren't you? I knew you would be! (So this is what it's like when one of 'those people' say "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful!")

I wonder if the guy at customs knows about the special circumstances surrounding our special-ness when it comes time to bring our special DVDs home?

HMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........................

How many of you know who Paul Harvey is?

2008-03-13T02:24:00.001-07:00

Because it's now time for....

The rest of the story.

So here I am in lovely VA, making the best of things. I've got 1000's of hours (litterally) of recorded TV and movies to entertain myslef with, I've read 3 books, been to the gym once (just found it Monday), have played bingo twice (every Tuesday at 1900, try to win $25 (or $50 for the cover all) in AFES gift cards. And with about 30 people playing and 7 games a night, I figure it's just a matter of time until I get mine! :-) ), will get around to Texas Hold'em on Fridays if I can get back from my second work locale in a timely manner...ever..., have played lots and lots of The Spoils with my friend (note this isn't plural) Jason the Army guy, watched a chinese Jet Li movie with both English and Arabic subtitles at the same time and have thus far avoided the temptation of eating Pizza Inn or Mickey D's or Subway (free food is the way to go and a few of the deserts are really really good), found the library and have discovered there's a third phone I can call home on!

Not too shabby eh? :-)

So let me tell you about my second work locale:

The double wide

The second clinic I cover is Ali (that's the short version of the name anyway). The clinic there is attached to the fire house and is really nothing more than a military version of a relocatable double wide trailer. There isn't a physical therapy space, but there are 2 scary looking tables that I can put patients on (as long as they're no more than 250), and a perfectly good deep freeze I can use as a desk. You know thet kind that's basically a GIANT cooler...the floor model that opens just like a cooler? Yup, that's my desk. The area is also storage for immunizations and various wraps and splints and orthotics, which I might actually use so I can see why those got dumped...I mean placed there, and the sterilizer and it's instruments in various conditions depending on whether or not they've been cleaned.

This is where I work 2 days as week.

Not only are the conditions as I've described, they haven't really kept me very busy, so I sorta feel like I'm wasting at least some time whenever I'm there. Of course I make the best of it as I do with most everything, and have out done myself almost every time I'm there at each of the 3 different size boards on Minesweeper. Have you ever played Minesweeper on a lap top with the touch pad mouse that can't have the "tap = click" function turned off? Well let me tell you....every time I'm about to set a new world record time for finishing a board the stupid mouse pad mistakes a touch for a tap and instead of flagging a bomb I set the damn bomb off!!!!! It's so damn frustrating!!!! Then I remember that I could be working instead and reset the board to try again. ;-) Oh, and I've discovered Sudoku!!!! There was a book of them in the "take it if you want it" bucket at the front desk of the double wide, so I did. And now I'm hooked!

So that's pretty much Ali. I'm working on getting my hrs changed so I'm only there for 2 half days instead of 2 whole days, so I can use my time more efficiently and maybe get out of working Saturday afternoons by increasing the number of patients I see during the week. :-)

Well that's all the time I have at the moment, but I intend on getting the last bits caught up later today after I go to the gym again.

That is if I can find it in a dust storm and the current dust storm doesn't become a sand storm.

Ciao!

By popular demand

2008-03-12T08:20:00.000-07:00

Well by heavy innuendo at least....from my wife......

Baby by phone

Star date 2/22/08, a day like no other.

By 1230 my time, the day was just starting. Back at home, my beautiful wife was headed to the hospital to have our second baby, that which would be Joyce Marie Rohrer. Unless you've been through it, you can only imagine how slow time can move when you're 1/2 way around the world and your wife is having a baby without you. But let me not start this blog entry on a downer, just leave it at, "oiy! what a day!"

So the plan is set, friend on board ready to take pictures and do video for me, hourly updates by phone, and sometime around 1700-1800 my time, Joyce would be here.

Call #1 was from me to Connie. Time to leave for the hospital and get it all started.

Call #2 was from the hospital. All checked in, ready to go, pit via venous puncture entering an upper extremity through a plastic tube. (she was being induced)

Call #3-it'a around 1530 my time, and nothing's happening yet.

Call #4-an hour or so later and we have contractions. Not big ones, not too close together, well at least not close enough or big enough for...well...you know...

Call #5- another hour gone by and things are progressing. Connie's on the birthing ball focusing through the pain, concentrating on the job at hand, probably wishing things would move a little faster. Not me though, I was fine...really....no worries from here.... :-)

Call #6-it's somewhere after 1800, the contractions are coming hard and fast. Connie's not really talking to her helper, our friend (and my special person!...another story...) Mikelle. After seeing the video, Mikelle is helping as much as she can, not that anyone can do more than try and say the right things and just be there.

Call #7-It's time!!!!!!

"Scott, she feels like she needs to push! Oh my god, she's crowning!"

The next few minutes are pretty much a blur.

I'm in my room, alone. I'm listening to quite a commotion in a hospital room where my wife is about to give birth. There's a momentary break from grunting and Connie gets the phone and says my name.

"I'm here honey, you're doing fine. We've done this before and you know what to do."

"AAAAAAHhhhhhhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" This is the sound my wife makes when she's pushing and it also sounds strangely like me when I'm in the epiphany booth thinking or reading. (if you don't get it, I'm not explaining it)

Lots more commotion....lots of voices....everyone's saying Connie this or Connie that.....you're doing fine.....good job....things of that nature.

The gruntingyellingpushing noise from my wife subsides and I think I probably said something encouraging and that Joyce was almost here and she could do it or something like that.

"AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyaaaahhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

A distant female voice is heard to say "that was the shoulders...one more push and she's out"

Hunh? Wait a minute..... She just crowned 3 minutes ago, she's pushed twice and the head and shoulders are out??? Did I miss something??? It doesn't work like that! You have to push for a while, grunt more, you know?

"AAAAAAAAAaaarrrrrrrrrrrrruuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!"

"It's a girl!!!!!!"

From there Joyce was placed on Connie's belly, she's in tears and so am I. In the next few moments Connie cuts the cord herself and Joyce is officially on her own.

After all is settled down and the refs go to the instant replay (ok so there were no refs and it was Connie viewing the video of the birth) it was figured that from the urge to push to Joyce's entry into the world only 5 minutes and 18 seconds elapsed.

Even though the hospital doesn't allow video of the birth, things happened so fast that no one bothered to worry about a video camera running off to the side! :-D So we've got it all for posterity and I got to see the whole thing in living color via DVD about 10 days later.

Thanks to Mikelle for all the pics, video and all the commentary I was hoping for. I knew I picked the right special person! ;-)

To my wife, whom has been called a 'pioneer woman' (that's a compliment by the way) and who was viewed as a 'good German girl' by my late Nana, who once again went completely natural, no drugs of any kind, induced (that makes the contractions hurt more by the way) and pushed out an 8 pound 11.6 oz beautiful baby girl in holycraprecord time, thank you for doing all that work without me and doing it so damn well! Good job honey. Bravo Zulu! :-D

Lets not do this again. OK? ;-)

And there you have it, my daughter's birth via phone.

The good news is....time IS flying by

2008-02-29T22:41:00.000-08:00

Two weeks since my last entry??? Not possible....someone must've messed with my calendar.....

No?

Hmmm....guess it's been 2 weeks then! :-O

So back a few weeks ago there was discussion about me leaving the upscale living (didn't know it was that upscale at the time though) of AJ (that's the base I was at) and taking up a new post as the sole PT provider at camp VA. It was eventually decided that it would happen, it was just a matter of when.

So the happy day to move out of the tents and into a real building came, Sunday 17 Feb. What had been planned as a precision military movement was dashed for the "first come first served" method of military movement. I went from being scheduled to be the first to move in to who knows where in the mass of movement. Yeah. Eventually I get to my new digs, but only after the people in charge of the building find out that I'm only going to be staying there for a night or two then leaving for VA. They didn't like that idea at all...

After a few "high level conversations" it was decided that since I was there with all my stuff, I could stay. So stay I did. I moved into a nice sized little slice of the open bay barracks having been assigned as the guy in charge of the open bay. The perk with that assignment was I got my own slice of the room instead of a bunk mate to share the slice with. :-) Not much to work with mind you, but it was twice as much to work with as anyone else in the room with me. It's good to be the king baby!

Knowing it was short lived, I didn't bother unpacking more than the things I'd be using day to day. So while I was there I made the best use of my ammenities:

3 big screen/flat screen TV's to chose from.
30-40 phones to call home with (for free).
High speed wireless internet.
Movie theatre across the street.
Hot showers 15 feet down the hall and INSIDE the building.
Bathrooms right there too! INSIDE!!!

Good stuff all.

Well, come Monday night I get the word: "How long will it take you to pack up?"

"An hour or so" I say.

"OK, good."

And that was that. No time was set, but the inevidible was closer.

Next morning at 0710, "Hey, did you hear we're leaving at 0730?"

"Um, no."

"You might want to check on it then...."

See there's this other person who was supposedly going to VA as well and we had been sharing info as we got it in an effort to thwart the unbelievably poor communication we were surrounded by.

Moments later I actually got the official word, we're leaving momentarily.

I laughed.

"Um, no, I'm not going anywhere yet. A) I said I'd need an hour to pack up. B) The person who's going to be sliding into my job needed to be trained how to work the computer at the very least, and that was going to take an hour or two as well."

"Oh. Well can you be ready by 0930?"

"No. Maybe 1030 it we're lucky."

"Oh. Ok. Let us know when you're ready."

"Deal."

Come 1010, I was packing my pillow into a sea bag and was 10 seconds away from being done.

Any guesses what happened next?

"Hey doc, never mind, we'll leave tomorrow instead."

Pick any string of 4 letter words having a minimum of 12 words and you've paled in comparison to that which I chose to spout off at that moment. My parents raised me right but sometimes I can get a liiiiiiiiiiiiiitle bit foul mouthed when pushed. I mean really....finish this phrase:

"He swears like a ________"

See what I mean?

Come to find out, it was no one's fault at all and if you're one of those people who believe things happen for a reason, you'll be with me on this next part-

A sand storm was rolling in and the roads had been closed.

If I had answered with "yes sir" and just done my best to get ready and leave instead of doing the right thing by my replacement, we'd've been out on the road when the sand storm rolled in. Thanks, but I think I'll skip a trip in a sand storm and wait until the roads are clear.

Anyway, I decided the rest of the morning was going to be devoted to email and checking to see if the PX had any new games for my PSP. (they didn't)

I finished the afternoon giving more direction to my relpacement, better preparing him for his new job. At least that was a plus. (my cup is 1/2 full my cup is 1/2 full my cup is 1/2 full.....)

So the plan now is to depart at 0730 the next morning.

0715 rolls around and my neighbor (in the next bunk) says through the privacy curtain "hey doc, we're going to push it back to 0800." Cool. I'll get breakfast after all! :-) 0800 rolls around, and me and my moving cohort are standing by with about 300-400 pounds of gear....waiting.

I say "any bets we don't leave until 0930?"

"No way, he's just talking to ******* and will be here in a minute."

"You think so eh?"

"It might be a few minutes, but we'll be outta here by 0830 I'm sure."

......................................

......................................

......................................

(How'd you like my blog representation of time slowly passing? :-) )

0950 and the vehicle is here and ready to load up us and our gear.

"Ok guys, just one stop and we're off."

Unbefreakingleavable.

So we practice (what am I saying...practice? I've been doing this for nearly 14 years....I'm an expert at...) hurry up and wait.

1030 arrives and we're actually pulling off base and heading toward VA.

yeah

So I get my first sights of Kuwait.

I can't believe people live here on purpose.

Flat, brown, dirty, windy, dusty, littered, construction everywhere, sheep/camels/goats and ferral cats roaming about.

Add to that the drivers who make a concerted effort to top the stupidest drivers in the world and you've got Kuwait. (at least the part I saw)

These drivers are straight up ignorant. We were told that the greatest risk we'll have while here is driving. More people are killed in car accidents than in convoys to Iraq. Speed limits are merely suggestions. Lane markers are for wusses. Breakdown lane/shoulder/ditches are for driving in the wrong direction. Crossing the median and 3 lanes of traffic going 140 kph (about 90 mph) so you don't have to wait for an exit is common. And don't forget the camels/goats/sheep and cats. Christ, this place doesn't have wild or loose animals wandering about, they have road kill in waiting. Add to that passing way too close to oncoming traffic to the point that said oncomming traffic has to pull into the breakdown lane/shoulder/ditch, and this is irregardless of hills or curves mind you, and you've got thousands and thousands of people just biding their time waiting to smash into something/someone. They're not bad drivers. Bad drivers turn without using a signal. Bad drivers make lane changes without checking their blind spot. Bad drivers talk on cell phones (without hands free features) when they should be paying attention to the road. These guys are straight up ignorant.

I'm stepping off my soap box now. Thank you for your attention. ;-)

So I make it to VA in one piece only having been shocked by the traffic about 4 times.

OH! Wait!!! I forgot something!!!!

Before we left AJ, I had my first opportunity to carry a side arm! :-D It's the rule here. Leave base only with a gun. AND bullets! :-D But you can't put the bullets into the gun.... :-(
So knowing that, you KNOW what I was thinking on that drive......now don't you? :-D :-D

2 magazines
15 bullets in each magazine
30 less ignorant bastards endangering my life on the road! :-D Sounds like a plan to me!!!!!!!!!

Unfortunately I didn't fill out the right paperwork so I only got to imagine it. Yes I'm kidding....there's no such paperwork. And no, that doesn't mean ther is no paperwork to fill out to get permission to whack ingoramouses (that can't be spelled right! ig-nor-aim-us-es), that means we're not allowed to whack....them....at all. If I were in charge....... :-D :-O

Ok, back to the story------

I make it to my destination. See, I had heard nothing but great things about VA. I knew the 3 officers that were here and really like each of them. One I was stationed with at my very first duty station 14 years ago, one I work with back in MD, and the other one I had some dealings with while we were in Pendleton so I got to know her some and she's really cool! With that and the fact that I got a real room to stay in instead of an open bay barracks which I ohly had to share with one person (normally the room housed 4 with it's 2 bunk beds) and I was really looking forward to getting here and getting settled in.

I bet y'all are laughing right now aren't you? I can hear you. "You believed what?" "When are you going to learn?" "Ha ha! Got you again didn't they?" "Sucker!"

U-huh...I hear you....

My room? I'm the third in the room.
Amenities? Um, no.
High speed wireless internet? Well, compared to the connection I had on base in Annapolis it's high speed....
Movie theatre? 20 chairs and TV. They do show new release DVD's though. Invincible was playing...
Gym? Yup...it's....right....um....over there....oops no...that's not it....it's around here somewhere.
Chow hall? Take a right out of the building, walk past the fire station, when you get to the 72nd pile of sand take a right and watch for the cement Jersey barrier that has the dirt on it. The chow hall's (hehehe..I just accidentally typed chow hell! LOL!) a quarter mile on the other side of it.
Showers? Instead of walking on the chow hall side of he fire station, walk on the other side and look for a box with a set of stairs leading to it. If you get there before the Army, you even get warm water!
Toilet? 3 to choose from including one with lights and all with in 150 feet.
Phones? 2.
TV? 1.

Now on to the good stuff.

Now that I'm done with that, lets compare work.

AJ: 0730-1130 (lunch) 1300-1530. Sat 0730-1130.
VA: 0730-1130 (lunch) 1300-1700. Sat 0730-1130 (lunch) 1300-1600.

Duty in AJ: once a month.
Duty in VA: once a week plus semi-regular chow hall watch counting the number of people who come through one of the 2 doors.

So now you can see my upside. :-)

Thank the gods that I've found someone to play The Spoils with.

I'm not quite done yet, but I'm done for now.

For those of you who pray....hit me with a few ok? ;-) Thanks! :-)

Tune in next time (not sure when that'll be but....) for:

The clinic that looks like a double wide trailer
Estim machine made by Zenith
The Haji DVD store
and best of all:

Baby by phone

2008-02-18T19:41:00.000-08:00

This one could be called "Sand Fog" or "Watching footprints dissappear". Which do you like better?

2008-02-15T01:33:00.000-08:00

Either way, both titles are referring to the dust storm we've got going on now. Visibility is somewhere around 400 feet and it pretty much resembles fog. But, it's sand.

Around 8:30 this morning I went over to the next building to excrete my first bottle of water, and noticed that instead of being able to see for what might be miles over the flat terrain over here, I could only see about 2 blocks away, then it looked like a haze was swallowing up the further buildings. Hmm. So this is a dust storm.

About 3o minutes later, looking out my window I noticed that the building that's about 150 feet away was only partially visble. Damn. Everything on the other side of the building is swallowed by the sand.

By 10:00 the dust/sand was finding its way into our building. We could taste and smell it. Oh joy. It's outside...inside, and I'm gettin a headache.

Then lunch time rolled around. Well there's no way I'm not eating, so off I go. Things had changed a bit out there; wind. Holding onto my cover, squinting to the point of closing my eyes completely (open for 1 second, walk 10 feet, open again, repeat) I made it to the 1/2 way point of reaching the chow hall. Here I'm between 2 rows of buildings that run parrallel to the wind. What does this create? A huge wind tunnel. I'm talking lean forward, point your face straight at the ground, open your eyes and look up long enough to make sure you weren't going to run into anyone/thing, and drive on.

Now since everywhere you walk here you're walking on sand (95% at least), everyone leaves foot prints. But today, in the wind tunnel, there were no foot prints to be seen. When someone walked past me and I looked up to ensure I wasn't going to run into someone behind them, I noticed it, no foot prints. I really wanted to turn around and see if my foot prints were dissappearing behind me, but I thought better of it as my stomach was telling me to hurry up.

So, that's a dust storm.

Yes, a DUST storm. Not a SAND storm. I hear sand storms are rare here so I'll keep my fingers crossed that we miss out on seeing one first hand. I've seen video of them though and if you're of the mind to, I'm sure you can google a video of one. The one I saw showed an orange/brown cloud coming closer and closer until everything turned brown like a sepia picture, darker and darker, until it turned into night. So much sand that it blocks out the sun.

Sound like fun to you?

I think I'll leave the fast pass for someone else...

Some paint and chip paint, some strip and wax (the floor you perv!) I get to sweep the desert

2008-02-13T07:04:00.000-08:00

Yes sports fans, it's true. Monday mornings everyone gets together for a FOD walk and general clean up around camp. This includes, much to my surprise and astonishment, sweeping the ground. Not that the 10-50mph winds don't do that enough, or the rotor wash from the helos for that matter, so us lucky folk get to man the brooms and shovels to put that nasty sand back in the desert where it belongs, away from our....tents.

Can you imagin the look on 30 people's faces when we were told to start sweeping sand in the desert? Or a collective "What did she say? She didn't say.....did she?" Yup, she did.

Well that was monday, and a great start to the week it was!

Now remember back when I mentioned surf-n-turf Wednesdays? Well it's already here again and this time I visited the galley that had lobster tails instead of crab legs. Now, being from New England I've had lobster more times than any 50 people you know who aren't from New England. I've cooked it...bake stuffed it...boiled it. I've had lobster pie, lobster rolls, lobster newburg and lobster in various mixed seafood dishes as well. Lobster, no matter how you slice it, is yuuuuuuuuummy and something to look forward to.

I was 3rd in line waiting outside the door when they opened the place. The 2 in front of me didn't seem to care that much that lobster and porterhouse steaks were waiting for me. They were chitt-chatting and casually picked up their tray and silverware as I exercised self control to not tell them (they outranked me) to get a move on damn it, I'm hungry and lobster and porterhouses are waiting for me.

A very long 6 or 7 seconds later I was withing nose shot of supper. MMMMMMMMMmmmmmm!!!!

Then I could see the steak, somthered in onions and mushrooms, grilled just a bit longer than it needed to be, but looked pretty not bad compared to last week's T-bone. And what was right next to the steaks? A pan about 12" x 24" rounded up with lobster tails. The shells were split so the slightly seasoned meet was jumping right out at me practically calling my name.

"One of each please."

And the nice middle eastern man put one of each on a plate for me.

The steak actually fell apart a little bit and revealed a juicy interior that actually had small parts with color one shade closer to pink than brown! OMG!!!! Not quite medium (freaking well done by my grilling standards quite frankly, but I digress) but not the cooked to death steak I had last week. Oh happy day!

I added some seasoned green beans (seasoned with....bacon...don't ask, I didn't) to my plate and scurried off to one of the hundred or so unoccupied tables.

Without hesitation I forked my lobster and whacked off a chunk. Put the scrumptions morsel into my mouth and found out that you actually can #^()*&^ up a lobster!

What the hell did these no-brained (bleep bleep bleep bleep bleep bleep) SOB's do to my lobster?!?!

I was crushed.

I will not forgive them.

I think I need to learn some of the local dilect so I can...ehem...properly express myself next time. What do you think? :-O

I ate it of course, because hey, I'm in the middle of a freaking desert ya know.

The steak was passible.

What do you mean salsa night has nothing to do with food?

2008-02-09T04:42:00.000-08:00

Well as I suspected, I've settled into a boring routine. Go to work, eat a so-so lunch (of the 3 galleys that are available the one near work is regarded as the least appetizing..yeah) work some more, call home, eat a so-so supper (this allows time for digestion so I can hit the gym on a non-full stomach) work out, shower, go to bed/watch something I've got recorded on the lap top or PSP.

All was going according to plan last night (Friday) until I got out of the shower and back to my luxury tent (at near 9PM) ready for bed.

"Get dressed we're going to zone 1 for salsa night" one of my tent mates says.

"No thanks I'm going to bed."

Blah blah blah...peer pressure...blah blah blah..."c'mon team player"...

Crap, looks like I'm not going to bed IAW my SOP.

Once we get there, there are 200-250 people (mostly watching) crammed into a room the size of an average basement. After realizing that this is no fut, we make our way to the pool tables in another part of the building. In 3 games I end up comming in second repeatedly. ;-)

On our way out we check in on the crowd and it has swolen to an even larger amount and the dance flor is PACKED with sweaty people who look like they just got out of the gym. With that, the temp in the room was probably 15-20 degrees higher than the rest of the building. Not my cup of tea!

Luckily outside it was nice and cool, just right for jeans and a t-shirt.

The only other thing to report is that I may be moving to one of the outlying bases since we're short in my specialty and one of the areas is completely without my type of service. But since it's only in the talking phase (something I brought up the day after we arrived...pointing out that we were short a tech and had a spare here filling another billet so it all made sense to me, but did anyone care at that time? Of course not. Silly me, you think I'd know better by now. :-O) who knows.

Tomorrow is my first official day off in 4 weeks, so maybe I'll have something fun to talk about after that.

Stay tuned!

Wednesday = surf-n-turff

2008-02-06T07:51:00.000-08:00

I had heard about it months before I got here. Wednesday is the day everyone has supper at the galley. Well, tonight I got to see just what it was all about.

Grilled T-bone steak, fried shrimp the size of cocktail shrimp, Alaskan king crab legs and New England clam chowder.

The crab legs were surprisingly good. Since there's no way that they weren't frozen I thought they'd be lousy. Wrong! Not bad at all! :-) Didn't go with the shrimp since I'm avoiding fried foods thanks to my last cholesterol check being just under 250.

The T-bone on the other hand...poor defenseles T-bone...got the crap cooked out of it. The flavor was really good and it was as tender as a tenderloin but the only way they're cooked is well and dry. Poor steak never had a chance.

As far a work goes, I had my first full day today and got to see just how things have been run. Let's just say that I'm fairly confident that I'm going to look really really good to those that matter once the change over is complete. Since I can'at know who's reading this, I'll refrain from talking bad about anyone.

It also looks like I'm the most senior person in the directorate (under the Chief that is) so I'm probably looking at a greater leadership position than I bargained for. And if my oppinions of some pan out, I'll have yet another great opportunity to show those that matter that I've got all my stuff in one sock...if ya know what I mean!

Lastly, I've even got 2 straight days in the gym so far and yoga to try tomorrow! With all this food around, and good food at that, I might have to start 2-a-days. :-O

TTFN

Finding my way around

2008-02-05T05:42:00.000-08:00

So far, so good. I'm done my indoctrination and have started to get acquainted with my new work space. It's small but adequate. I'll have one other tech with me and one therapist. It appears that they see about 2 patients every hour which is more than manageable by just one person so it looks like I'll either have plenty of time for one-on-one with my patients or time to tackle other things.

Up near where I'll be residing I've found there is a movie theatre that shows movies that are about 2-3 months old, so no worse than the good old Strand back home. And we don't have to pay either! :-)

Not only that, but twice a week I can get back into yoga (try not to be too jealous dear!). I'm not sure what kind it is yet, but if it's anything like I did in Oki, I'm there.

So until I get to move into the new diggs some time next week, I probably won't have much to report. But of course if anything note worthy does happen I'll be sure to let y'all know.

bbdt bbdt bbdt, that's all folks!

2008-02-04T06:59:00.001-08:00

My final destination...sort of. The base isn't in this picture but this is Kuwait City at least.

2008-02-04T06:58:00.000-08:00

Assuming my camera was pointing in the right direction, that's Bagdahd down there.

2008-02-04T06:57:00.000-08:00

100's of triple bunks in what used to be a baggage claim area.

2008-02-04T06:56:00.000-08:00

What did you notice first about this sign??????????

2008-02-04T06:54:00.002-08:00

Guess I forgot to take any pictures of our stop in Ireland, but this is the holding area in Germany.

2008-02-04T06:54:00.001-08:00

Standing by to stand by before we leave California.

2008-02-04T06:51:00.000-08:00

I know this is a lousy picture, but hey...it was 0300...no light! If you can't make it out, this is 500+ sea bags waiting for the 18 wheeler.

2008-02-04T06:50:00.000-08:00

I have a gun and it's loaded! Look out cardboard, your days are numbered!

2008-02-04T06:47:00.000-08:00

Plastic weight loss suit be damned! Try one of these for a while. But hey, if it keeps me from dying a horrible death by means of chemical/biological/radiological warfare, I'll suffer!

2008-02-04T06:46:00.000-08:00

36+ lbs of body armor. Aren't you jealous?

2008-02-04T06:44:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not, this is the chow hall...er tent. (Camp Pendleton)

2008-02-04T06:40:00.000-08:00

24 man SEAHUT. What do you think...4 stars or 5?

Once upon a time at 2:30 AM...

2008-02-04T06:38:00.000-08:00

Thursday, 31 Jan, 0230: Get up in the holyfreakingcrap cold, pack up the last items that need packing (anything used during the night pretty much), drag 3 full sea bags out to the parking lot (approximately 200-220 lbs total), clean out our wonderful, now former, dwellings, supervise the youngsters cleaning out their dwellings and report all done.

0330: Everyone outside (from the one warm room we all congregate in whenever we don’t have to be anywhere specific) to load around 600 sea bags and 200+ suitcases into an 18-wheeler for transport to our departure site. Ever get handed an 80 pound bag from someone 5 feet tall? Or 6.5 feet tall? I wouldn’t recommend it. Either your killing your back bending over or trying to stay upright as it crashes down on you.

0500: Everyone to the busses for the 2 hr drive to the Air Force base we’ll be flying out of. And does my bus have any heat? Do I need to answer? I didn’t think so!

0730: 30 lucky junior people get to load all of the sea bags and all of the suitcases into the plane. Sometimes it’s good to be management ya’ know? J
While they’re doing that the rest of us are hanging out in a converted hanger. A couple TVs, various books and magazines (some from 1996, but hey, National Geographic never goes out of date now does it?), plus plenty of room to sit around playing cards or watching DVDs on lap tops. We get PB&J for lunch provided by some VFW and DAR volunteers, then head out to our plane.

1300: We’re all standing in one of 4 lines on the outside edge of the runway.

1330: We’re all standing in one of 4 lines on the outside edge of the runway. Well most of us are anyway…some have decided lying down is a better idea.

1350: In a very fine military fashion we march in a single file to the plane. After getting settled in it dawns on me, we never went through a metal detector, had anyone look through our carry on bags, and didn’t have to separate any liquids or gels. Hmmm…
This becomes very obvious when we start getting the announcements from the air crew. Mind you, this is a civilian plane with a normal civilian crew and all the normal plane amenities except alcohol. Instead of the normal “pay attention to the video so y’all can survive a crash” we get “please stow all fire arms with the muzzle pointed toward the outboard, butt toward the middle of the plane.” Hmmm…

Nothing very eventful from lift off to our first stop in Maine. Unfortunately the video player died so Bourne Ultimatum was a no-go. Most people either slept or played video games. Our in flight fare was a choice of chicken or pasta, both got decent reviews.

In Maine, lots of people partook of a real Maine lobster roll. Many even went back for a second one even though they were $11 each. I’ll take the $4 cheese burger thanks. After the 2 hr layover for fuel and a change of flight crew we were back in the air.

Once we were at cruising altitude lo-and-behold, they served us more food! Our choices were chicken or pasta. Apparently when a new crew checks in they bring chicken and pasta with them.

About 3-4 hrs into our movie-less flight, the captain decides we need to make an unscheduled stop at a Jiffy Lube in Ireland. Seems he didn’t like the dropping oil pressure in one of our engines…

Ireland here we come!

I’m not sure how long we were there between the time change and dozing intermittently, but after what seemed to be about 3 hrs someone was kind enough to think about our grumbling bellies. The airline was kind enough to give us all a 10 Euro voucher to eat at the one and only eatery in the place, a coffee/sandwich shop.

After ½ of us get our chow we hear “flight blah-blah-blah (I don’t remember what it was) departing. Everyone report to gate 14.” Most of us ignore it figuring that there’s no way we’re going to be left behind and we were hungry damn it. Within 10 minutes, “last call for flight blah-blah-blah. The flight is leaving immediately. All passengers report to gate 14.” By this time I’ve got my food but there are at least 50 people who haven’t gotten theirs yet. Within minutes they’re all clamoring onto the plane so my guess is they didn’t get to eat after all. Luckily we ate in the order of lowest rank to highest rank, so it’s just the officers that didn’t get to eat and who cares about them anyway? :-0

So off we go leaving Ireland behind. And what happens once we’re at cruising altitude? Why they feed us of course! This time our choices are chicken or pasta. I think I see a pattern here. After not long at all we touch down in Germany for our scheduled flight crew change and fuel and restocking of pasta and chicken. We’re all pretty excited to see what there is to see at the German airport and we were scheduled for a 1.5-2 hr stop.

Well, it we didn’t get what we were expecting/hoping for. Instead of checking out the German shops and restaurants we get put in a military holding building used by the US. Bummer.

But they do have a gift shop featuring lots of alcohol, chocolate of every kind imaginable including hot chili papaya chocolate (thanks, I’ll pass), steins of all shapes and sizes and prices, soccer paraphernalia, Ramstein (a big German heavy metal band) and naked lady lighters, mouse pads, pens and decks of cards. I decided to buy a set of mini steins/mugs, a couple of energy drinks I’ve never seen before (Dark Dog and Rhinoceros) and some guarana Mentos. With the understanding that we’d be starting death by power point as soon as we got to base I thought it’d be a good idea to have something to help me stay awake! The Mentos suck but work well! In addition to all of these goodies there are 4 foose ball tables, lots of phones, internet access and CNN.

Well, 2.5 hrs after we arrived, we were still there. No one was telling us anything but a rumor started circulating that there were 100’s of bunk beds behind a wall and we weren’t leaving today after all. ½ an hour later someone’s thinking about our stomachs again and arrangements are made to get our next meal off of the plane and into our bellies. We set up a bunch of tables and get ready for…wait for it…chicken or pasta! But this time we just get handed one of them without knowing which one we’re getting so it’s like Christmas! J

Shortly thereafter it’s confirmed, we’re not leaving tonight. Turns out that you can’t easily change your landing time in Kuwait City, and since we had a delay in Ireland and missed/would have missed our time, we need to wait for a new time to land the next day.
Sure enough, there are 100’s of triple bunk beds behind the wall. No showers mind you, but at least there were mattresses and pillows. Oh, and blankets…zebra, leopard or tiger stripes! “Bow-chica-bow-wow” can be heard all over the place.

6 hrs later and its 0400 Saturday morning Germany time, 2 hrs before we’re scheduled to take off. We pick up after ourselves and wash up as best we can then slather on the deodorant. After all, for most of us it’s now been 48 hrs since our last shower and we’ve been in the same clothes for 40 hrs. We get off the ground and head for the desert.

I don’t know who planned it, and don’t know what I’d do to him if I met him, but sure enough instead of a proper breakfast type meal we get….yup…for the 4th time in I’m not sure how many days/hrs…chicken or pasta.

Now I know you’re curious as to what I ate each time so here you go: Chicken, none, pasta, pasta.

So we finally make it to Kuwait International airport 36 hrs after we left California and 54 hrs since the last time we put on clean socks and drawers.

Once we’re filed off of the plane we get bussed to a holding area to await our luggage (under a desert cammo tarp). Once that’s ready to go we file on to yet another bunch of busses. Anxious to see our new surroundings we naturally pull back the curtained windows and get ready for the 45 min ride to base. Don’t you know that was a no-no! Before the last curtain was pulled back, someone with a gun quickly jumped onto the bus and told us to close the curtains so that no one enroute to base would see that these busses were full of Americans! Gee, isn’t this supposed to be a fairly safe part of the Middle East? Guess you can’t be too safe, so we all go to sleep instead.

So finally, we make it to our new home for the next 6 months. After unloading all of our gear and finding our new tents, we all get back together to find the chow hall. Now, there was a headline in one of the military weekly news papers that said “Deployed troops are gaining weight on deployment for the first time in history”. And let me tell you, I’ve found out why:

The chow hall here is ENORMOUS and stocked with everything you could want. The main line has 2 entrées and the fast food line has 2-4 items along with other fried sides. From there it’s a Jenny Craig nightmare! Salads, fruits, juices, Pepsi AND Coke products, coffee/tea/hot chocolate, a dozen different cakes and pies, Baskin Robbins ice cream or soft serve, every kind of cookie I’ve ever heard of, doughnuts, pastries, jello-ish looking stuff with other stuff in it, puddings and more. You have to see it to believe it.

Now that I’ve settled in to my tent and have gotten familiar with my new surroundings, its really not bad at all. The tent has heat (and I thought deserts were hot?) and real foam mattresses (I bought a pillow since none was provided). We’ve got a gym that’s open 24 hrs a day, as is the Starbucks, KFC, Hardees, Subway and Burger King. Pizza Hut closes at midnight however.

I’ll be in my tent for a couple of weeks then move in with my newest crop of 59 friends in the open bay berthing near the hospital where I’ll be.

Well that’s about it for now. I’ve got a bunch of pictures, so if I can figure out how to do it, I’ll post them along with a short description.

Take care out there!

I made it!

2008-02-02T21:49:00.001-08:00

After what will undoubtedly make for a wonderful post, I am here. Since I'm sharing computers at the moment I don't have time to post the full details, but I'll write them up later and then copy/paste them so I can be quick about it.

Stay tuned!

Saving lives one manequin at a time

2008-01-29T18:41:00.050-08:00

3 days later and this is where I stand: (after thought...this one is kinda PG13 or not for the squeamish...maybe)

Face blown off and you can't breathe? I'll keep you alive by making a hole in your wind pipe so you can breathe. Yes, just like you've probably seen on some TV show at one time or another.

Lung collapsed? I've got a few choices of ways to let out the pressure to let you breathe easy. All involve a sharp implement through your chest/ribs. Sound like fun? :-)

Missing a limb or two? Artery pumping out blood like a fire hose? Straight to a tourniquet baby! No problem.

Need some fluids to keep you out of shock? There's this cool new stuff that expands in your blood stream keeping you alive longer. Where in your body are you going to get this? Straight into your sternum! (breast bone)

Bleeding badly but don't need a tourniquet? How about a pad made from chitosan? Even though this stuff was first (as far as I know) sold as a weight loss supplement because of it's binding properties (it'd bind to stuff so it wouldn't get absorbed/digested) someone found out it'll bind to blood really well making a barrier to keep your blood where it belongs...inside of you!

Chitosan failing? No problem! I'll dump some cool powder into your wound that will duplicate what used to be done in the olden days. You know, heat up a metal rod, jam it into the wound and burn it shut! Yup, chemical cauterization.

Fallen and you can't get up? I know half a dozen ways to help you up or at least drag you somewhere. :-)

And what am I supposed to be doing durring all of this? Firing an M4 machine gun at the enemy with the idea that the quicker we kill them the less work for me to do!

Well this one wasn't as much fun as melting or imitating a hibernating bear now was it?

Tomorrow (Wednesday) we'll be setting up and packing up for the trip which is set to get under way with loading up 500 or so seabags Thursday at...0330. Yes, that's 3:30 AM for you non-military types. :-)

I don't imagine I'll have either the time or anything worth while to write about, so don't plan on anything until I get to an internet connection is southwest Asia!

Hasta-le-bye-bye! "-)

My impression of the Wicked Witch of the West

2008-01-26T15:39:00.050-08:00

Well shooting didn't go as well as I had hoped. The sequence is 2 shots in 4 seconds, repeat, 4 shots in 8 seconds with a magazine reload in the middle, 4 shots in 10 seconds with a swap from strong hand to weak hand in the middle. This is done at both 3 and 7 yds. Then back at 15 yds we do 4 in 8, repeat, 8 in 20 with a reload in the middle, 8 in 20 from kneeling position.

So I'm in the first group, lane 7. I'm blasting the crap out of this target's chest from both 3 and 7 yds. It wasn't as good as I did on the simulator, but it was still good enough to get me the highest rank, expert. But then came the 15 yd line. The line coach (the guy standing next to/behind us making sure we don't do anything stupid) wouldn't let me stand the way I wanted. Since I shoot righty but am left eye dominant, I stand with my left shoulder facing the target and shoot across my body. I'm most comfortable standing so that my outstreched right arm is pointed directly at the middle of the target's chest. But for some reason, I was made to stand directly in front of if so I had to stand a little more twisted than is comfortable. So from the 15 yd line, instead of blowing a hole in the target's chest I shot the crap out of his left side. Being uncomfortable and going a bit too fast led me to a score of 171. I also, probably due to stress, didn't adjust my aim and kept shooting for the middle but hitting the left. So, on to try two. (180 is minimum passing)

For try 2 I ensured I was in lane 1. This way I could stand all the way to the left and be more comfortable. Again 3 and 7 yds = lots of holes in the target's chest. from the 15 yd line I still was fading to the target's left but I took time and adjusted so I got more into the left chest and less in the left side. My final score was 199. Not fabulous but ok.

Today we got to learn about the suit we wear if chemical/biological/nuclear weapons are used against us. I'll get pictures up sooner or later, but suffice it to say it's big, bulky, hot, rubber booties and rubber gloves topped off with a gas mask and a hood to make sure no heat escapes. :)

And what were the odds that the warmest day of training is this day? 100% of course! Even though it didn't quite hit 70 (I don't think) after putting it all on it might as well have been 100. After making sure the equipment we were issued for training purposes (not the real stuff) fit, we proceeded with the drill; 8 minutes to get it all on. But they changed up the order of how we put the gear on in that they hit a siren which only goes off if it's necessary to get into the gear. In that case, you put your gas mask on first instead of 4th. Putting on all the gear while trying to see through fogging lenses and without my glasses (my training gas mask didn't have the special glasses holder in them) proved a bit more difficult. In 7 min 52 seconds, my partner and I were sealed in our own personal ovens! So what next? Why a forced march of course!!!!! :)

Around the block twice we marched. Probably not more than 1/2 mile, but let me tell you my pulse must've been around 150 and all the perspiration and moisture from my breath, was building up in my mask so much that I was breathing it in along with my air. And breathing through this thing is like breathing through a snorkel. Not difficult, but not normal either.

So we finished our jaunt and got to lose the gear. I dumpped out enough sweat and moisture out of my gloves and mask to overflow a shot glass. Up until then I hadn't been using the camel back (Twenty First century canteen) at all. But after that fun I filled it up and drained it and filled it up again. Needed a shower and change of uniform too! What fun!

With that over, we finished our day with how to move patients in and out of different ambulances and how to talk over radios in the field.

For the next 3 days we'll be doing Tactical Combat Casualty Care. Real Corpsman stuff. For the officers and people who've already had the course, they get 2 days off with overnight liberty (bastards) while those left behind condense into 2 duty sections and play the straw game...suck it up.

Yes dad, I know.... ;-)

More when I can-

Must...fight....stay...awake....

2008-01-25T08:12:00.048-08:00

Another day of "death by power point and video". We learned land navigation and how to find spots on a map and how to convert compass readins to headings on a map so you can succesfully get to where you need to go. I was grouped together with (don't know who might read this so...) two people who did well after I explained to them how it all worked. (was that a nice way of putting it?) After that we did a personal pace count. This is a drill where you walk normally along a 100 meter stretch of ground to see how many steps it takes you to get there. Once you've walked the distance once you about face and go back. Average the two and that's your pace count. It takes me 62.5 paces to cover 100 meters walking normally over even ground.

The afternoon was all about sexual assault victims advocates and how the system works when someone is assaulted in that way. The Navy has a great program to take care of the victim in this circumstance and the information is very important. However, since important material is covered OFTEN, it is a struggle to keep awake and pay attention when you're hearing the exact same thing for the 20th time.

The highlight of yesterday was our barbecue. 2 guys took point and collected money from those interested, bought and cooked $500 worth of ribs, brats, kielbasa, steak, chicken, tri-tip, corn, home made potato salad and coleslaw, beans...the works. And it was a great success. 70 or so people took part and we stuffed ourselves full to the brim. When it was winding down and it was time to stark taking care of the mess, lots of us stayed there to clean, sweep, mop, do dishes and all that. It's amazing how much people are willing to help when they aren't ordered to do so. There must've been 12 of us first classes that stayed and cleaned up. It was a good time.

Today is live fire day on the range. I leave in an hour to see if I can duplicate my results from the simulator earlier this week. So keep your fingers crossed for me!

If I can I'll post my results later today.

Untill then....

Today I'm a hero. The bear is dead.

2008-01-23T15:18:00.050-08:00

It worked! Sleeping on my belly with some less than optimal use of my sleeping bag liner and not using any zippers for more fredom of movement allowed my 17 would be assassins to sleep more soundly, fall asleep more quickly and avoid frequent bouts of waking due to sonorous eminations. I actually got a few votes for president and a hearty round of "you da' man!" I now feel much safer from friendly fire. :-)

Since then, I've gotten to tour a good size chunck of Camp Peldleton by way of visiting a branch medical clinic to refill my antibiotics for my ear. Holy crap is this place huge! And, I've gotten to play with the things that go BANG, if only in a simulator. But even that was a blast. We shoot from 3, 7 and 15 yards, 12/12/24 rounds respectively. We don't get to see a running score but if you're quick you can look into the corner of the screen and see where you hit. The target you're shooting at doesn't change so you can't adjust your aim based on a previous shot. After the first 2 rounds I had only seen 3 scores that weren't 5's (bulls-eye). Unfortunately, the guy running the computer accidentally cleared our scores when we finished the second round, 1/2 way through the shoot. So we got an officialscore from the 15 yard line only. Of a possible 120 I got 115. 5 shots weren't bulls-eye's. So even if I did only that well at the closer ranges that equals 230 of a possible 240. It was really cool to have the instructors tell me "nope, you don't need any more training Doc. You're good." So now we just have to see how well the simulator translates to the real thing Friday. Keep your fingers crossed for me! :-)

Other than that, I'm convinced that the cooks here are in cahoots with cholesterol medication making pharmecutical companies. Pizza and wings, hot dogs and hamburgers, ribs and 'crabby cakes' (I imagine imitation crab stuffed deep fried....things), meatballs and chicken nuggets, lasagna (with undisguised leftover meatballs on top and leftover hotdog roll/garlic bread. Since they had leftover hot dog rolls for garlic bread, I knew we would soon see hamburger rolls in another context. Sure enough, lunch today was crabby patties or pork barbecue. At the end of the chow line, there were the conspicuous rolls. Funny thing about the pork though, was that instead of being served by a form of ice cream scoop as usual, some one grabbed a mellon baller instead. I could have EASILY (more believable for some of you than others) made it a one bite apettizer without even trying. Thank god my wonderful wife once mentioned PB&J is never far away as all the ingredients are readily available at each meal. You just need to take a few minutes to knead the peanut butter or else you get a spurt of oil followed by a clump of completely unswallowable peanut...stuff. Mmmmmm mmmmmm good! :)

When I was reading the welcome aboard package about this place and the info on their web site, they made it very very clear that we would have virtually no contact with people who weren't on my side of the barbed wire. How untrue this has become! Luckily, the non-functionality of cell phones had been greatly exaggerated (or there's been a mysterious atmospherical event allowing cell signals through) and all of us have connections in at least 50% of the base. Instead of praying that we might be able to get a trip to the exchange, since it was left up to our OIC (officer in charge) to set our liberty policy (what you can do when you're 'off the clock'), she's decided to let us roam free as long as we have a buddy, sign out and back in letting someone know where we're going and are back by 2000 (8PM). It like being 13 again! :-)

So all's going much better than I expected.

This morning however, we awoke to cold more intense than I would have thought possible for "southern California". There isn't a thermometer anywhere around here, but one of the guys was shocked to find ice crystals in his toothpaste. Needless to say, I decided to try out the gloves, ski cap and cold weather jacket we were issued that 1/2 the people here had been wearing daily since we got them. I don't know what the Navy put in this jacket, but what looks and feels like nother more than a wind breaker, no lining of any kind, must've held in my body heat because unlike 5 or 6 people standing around me in formation this morning, I wasn't shivering. :-)

Since then, our day has been "death by video tape." 3.5 hrs of 80's (complete with mullets) videos about the law of armed conflict and what we can and can't do to prisoners etc. Of all the days they picked to get the heat working in that room they pick the day we would have been struggling to stay awake due to content alone! I guess there's just no pleaseing everyone eh?

While we're here, one person is in charge of scheduling fun things to do in the evenings. One thing Sailors are famous for is playing spades. So tonight there will be a spades tournament. When the LT in charge asked if anyone knew how to run a card tournament, I had to fight back a big smile. "Well Sir, I've run a few. As a matter of fact I've run about 90-100 events and awarded well over $100k in prizes too." If I could have taken a picture of his face at that moment, Funk and Wagnells would have used it to illustrate "holy crap!" And when I told him I have a program on my lap top that can run and score a tournament, he couldn't write my name down fast enough. So it looks like I'll be doing that tonight.

Lastly for now, with our available liberty and one of my friends from Okinawa stationed here, it looks like I've got someplace warm, dry and homey to visit too! Thanks Jenn :-)

Take care all!

I've been lied to....that NEVER happens!!!!

2008-01-21T13:51:00.050-08:00

Well lookie lookie...I found a computer I can access while here at Pendleton. Only have a few minutes though, so here's an update:

Sunday we traveled by bus down the coast through Malibu and some other "famous" type place with gajillion $$ homes on the bluffs overlooking the ocean.

When we got here, the driver of the lead bus bottomed out his rear end while pulling into the compound. You should have heard the jokes about "all the nurses on the first bus." hehehe

Upon getting settled in, I found myself in a 24 person plywood "SEAHUT" that really is just a big shack. No heat, 2 flouresent lights and lots of cots and foot lockers. Luckily, there are only 18 of us in there so we've got a little extra room to spread out.

Unfortunately for all my roomies, the sleeping bags we're in are the mummy type and are rediculously (did I spell that right?) narrow. Why was this unfortunate for my roomies? Because I was pretty much forced to sleep on my back. And you know what that means, don't you Connie? In the AM I was informed by a half dozen guys that I was the big bear in the hut. I was king snore-er! I've since found out that I can probably sleep on my belly, but you really can't go from back to belly if you start on your back because there just isn't enough room. Can't bend my knee or even get remotely near what would be considered my "sleeping position".

Revilie was at 0500 and we had an hour before chow. Since most of us showered the night before, fearing a hot water shortage as we had been warned, we had plenty of time to square away the mess we made the night before trying to keep warm by staying in the rack but putting things away that we used to entertain ourselves.

The sleeping bags are rated as "intermediate cold". No specifics on what temp they're good to. Since it got down to the 30's and pretty much everyone was covered up so that you couldn't identify who was who, they were kind enough to issue us sleeping bag liners today so that we'll be warmer tonight.

So far chow as been bad for my cholesterol: pizza and wings, eggs and fried potatoes, beans and hot dogs.

As far as the plan for the next few days/weeks, it appears to be a bit different that we were told originally. We'll have a day of small arms training, 1/2 day of things that go BOOM training, 3 days of combat medical training, a day and a half of admin stuff, 1/2 day of land nav and another 1/2 or full day of make up.

At the moment, I'm waiting to use the small arms simulator and everyone that's coming out so far insists that "all the sights ar off!" LOL!!

If/when anyone reads this, could you please "reply to all" to the email I sent out letting y'all know that I was doing this? I've got internet access, but not email access....yet. :)

More when I can!

One last thing...36+ lbs

2008-01-19T19:17:00.000-08:00

Ah Saturday, the first day of the weekend and we get to sleep in late since we don't need to get fitted for our gas masks until 1100. Oh happy day! Then I've got the rest of the day to do laundry, pack, return movies and go buy some travel food.

You don't really think it was that easy, do you? Of course not...

1045: Meet in the parking lot to load up in the van.

1050: Standing by to get fitted.

1105: "May I have your attention please. We're running about 20 minutes behind, so it'll be a few more minutes before we get to your group. (then to the 10 people sitting around that aren't from our group) "Give me 3 more."

1140: Me- "Hey Chief, we're not all going to get in there all at once, so how about we let people make a run to the chow hall since it closes at 1230?" Chief- "Good idea. Anyone want to eat?" Nope. Well it was a good idea anyway.

Speaking of lunch, do you know what goes in a Ruben? I do, and I love them! And guess what was on the menu for lunch today? Rubens! How'd you guess? :) When I got my grilled delight to my lunch table and gave it a closer look, know what I found? 2 hunks of corned beef that when put together were about = to 3/4 of a deck of cards, a melted piece of American cheese (I think) and less sauerkraut than I leave in the bottom of the can when I use sauerkraut at home!
And no Thousand Island dressing. Anyway, back to today...

1150: Chief- "Hey everybody, they want us to come back at 1300."

1155: Back to the barracks. Luckily I had time to return movies and get snacks, so it wasn't time wasted (like the last hour had been).

1300: 12 of us go to the fitting area and what we were told was a gas mask fitting turns out to be a full CBR suit, kevlar helmet and body armor. I start with the gas mask. Once it's on we're seated and get a clear plastic 1/2 bubble over our head/shoulders so they can pump something into the air around us and measure through a tube if any of it is getting into the mask. No problem. 10 minutes later my mask passes. I ask the guy running the machine what all the numbers mean that he wrote down during my session, and he replies "It meas you pass." I say "I pass? What do you mean I pass? Does it keep out the nasties or doesn't it?" He says, "Well there's always a little that gets in and this one is within limits."

Within limits????? Um...I think zero is about as high a limit I'm willing to go to!

So I say, "Uh-huh...and what's your name? I think I'd like to leave it with my wife so she can find you if this thing doesn't work!" He chuckled, but only a little. :-O

Next was a fitting for a kevlar helmet. The nice head measure-er measured me and as I asked what size I was he said, "Wow! You've got a big head." I said I didn't know they came in that size. Turns out 'wow' = extra large.

From there it was on with the biggie; body armor. 36 pounds of protection from collar bone to groin.

After that I got to try on what resembled fire fighter pants and coat. Really big, big enough to fit over the 36 pound body armor, but not heavy at all. With gloves and booties I'll be a virtual Great Wall of China to CBR nasties.

The rest of the day went to plan; laundry, packing (I did a great job honey, now that I mailed back 20 pounds of stuff!) and gathering up all my stuff.

Tomorrow it's on to the bus to get down to some real training.

Until I get internet access again...sayonara!

And for my next trick...

2008-01-18T20:48:00.000-08:00

Well, since I'll be incommunicado for the next 2 weeks or so I thought I'd give y'all an idea of what's in store for me. Remember, this is the plan and we all know how much one of the Navy's plans can be counted on! :)

Day 0: Get there and move in to my new diggs with 19 of my new closest friends. No heat, no insulation, no phone, no internet, hot water iffy. Sleeping bags and cots provided.

Day 1: Paperwork of course. The 6 lbs of paperwork I'm carrying around isn't enough don't you know.

Day 2: Get our spiffy new uniforms and listen to people tell us about what we'll be doing when we get there. Lastly, we'll get the gear we'll be using during training.

Day 3: Land nav. This is where I hope to not repeat my woodland adventure of 30 years ago. Not sure how many landmarks we'll have when we're surrounded by gazillions of specks of sand, rattle snakes, scorpions and deadly spiders. Yeah! :)

Day 4: More death by powerpoint (modern slide show) including listing our "hometown news source" so all the good things I do can be written about and sent home for friends and family to fawn over.

Day 5: Nuclear/Chemical/Biological warfare brief and learning how to wear the gear that keeps us from being harmed by such nasties. Well, except for nuclear stuff...

Day 6: Day one of keeping people alive in combat.

Day 7: Day two of keeping people alive in combat.

Day 8: Day three of keeping people alive in combat followed by how to talk over a radio. (breaker breaker...)

Day 9: Things that go BOOM!, driving AROUND the things that go boom and how to use little things that go BANG.

Day 10: Actually using the little things that go BANG.

Day 11: What to do if the bad guys get you and how to deal with things that shoulda gone BOOM but didn't.

Day 12: I'm leeeeeeeeeea-ving...on a jet plane..can't wait till I come home again.... :)

After 2 days of sitting around, Charlie Foxtrot paid me a visit

2008-01-17T19:23:00.000-08:00

The plan: Meet @ 0945, get paperwork, go to medical appt @ 1030, get final medical clearance, attend a series of MANDATORY briefs from 1230-?.

What really happened:

Meet @ 0945, arrive to get paperwork @ 0950. Can we have our paperwork? No. "It's too early. You can have your paperwork at 1010."
OK, no biggie, wait here or wait there, what's the difference? Right?
Get paperwork at 1010, leave for medical.
Arrive at medical @ 1020. I'm first in line since I know I've got a few things to get done here that I thought were ok, but this place want's annual medical requirements (things you need to do once a year) done no more than 6 months ago so that no requirements will be required while over there. Ok, I can accept that and it even makes sense. So I'm first in line to ensure I can get chow before the MANDATORY briefs.
First off, vital signs. No problem.
Next, anthrax vaccine. Can you say ou-freaking-ch?
Then, time to see the provider.
I find that my provider is already looking for me, so I find him and we get started. Great!
Except for one thing...
The questionaire I filled out Monday isn't in my record.
10 minutes later and after talking to 3 people (one very condecending who really wanted it to be my fault that the paperwork was missing when it wasn't) it's determined that I have to return to the other side of base to get another copy and fill it out again. Because these brain children don't have a copy that I can fill out here. It's the first crucial piece of paperwork but it's not kept on hand where it's needed. Brilliant eh?
It's 1100 and I'm off to get what I need and get back as fast a possible.
1115 and I'm back. There's only 4 people from my group that aren't done but only one provider left at this hour. Christ all mighty......
Luckily, 2 considerate providers take 2 of the 4 of us so we can get done in a reasonable amount of time. I'm still last.
I get to tak to my provider, and the first question: Have you done you're (other paperwork related to talking to one specific person who goes over your family history, personal medical history etc. Something that takes 30+ minutes)? Didn't know until today that I'd need to do it, but since I do have to do it again I get "come back at 1300 to have it done."

Um, see a problem here?

It's now 1200 and I'm not going anywhere until I eat!

Reach the galley at 1210, eat and get back to the van at 1219. The galley's 2 minutes away and it took another 2 minutes to get through the chow line. No, I didn't taste a thing. :)

1230 I'm there for the first brief so at least I'll get one of 4 done as it's been decided that the unmissasble MANDATORY briefs can take a back seat to getting medical clearance. But does the brief happen on time? Of course not! Talk about this and that and blah blah blah, and now it's 1250 and I'm leaving without receiving any of the MANDATORY briefs.

1300 and one other guy and I are standing by for out appt. But did anyone tell the person we had our appoint ment with that we'd be ther at 1300? Of course not! She already had someone booked for 1300. :)

1345 and now It's my turn. Within a few minutes of getting started with this paperwork, "Did you get your hearing test?"

Nope.

1400 and I'm in the booth.

1415 and I'm done.

Minutes later I'm back, but she's finishing up with someone else, so it's back to waiting.

By the time I'm done it's just after 1500 thanks to her very, very, very thourough appointment.

Am I now done? No.

Remember that provider I saw 4 hrs ago? I still need to finish up with her. But is she here? Hell no! 1500 = quitting time you silly!

Luckily there's another provider (one of the nice ones that took 1 of the 4 of us way back when) is still here so she agrees to finish up with me. But she's seeing someone at the moment, so stand by.

When I'm finally done, it's 1520. But am I done? No.

Back to find someone (one of the 2 approved persons) to sign on my bottom line and state for the record that I really am done. But where the hell is one of them?

My compatiriot through all of this is still here and knows where to find one of them. Sure enough he's there and I get signed off. Thanks Chief Morse. :)

It's now 1530 and I'm done.

Back to the processing station where the brains of this operation are and the other 198 personnel leaving with me are walking out. So much for those MANDATORY briefs!

And how do we top off this fantastic day? The power is out. No finishing this evolution for me! Come back in the morning to do the last step. Luckily, I had to be there at 0800 anyway so it's all good.

And what's in store for tomorrow? A brief letting us know what to expect when we get to our training site (30 minutes maybe) followed by...nothing until 1100 Saturday!

Freaking brilliant eh?

It starts

2008-01-15T12:23:00.000-08:00

Stop #1 = processsing. For this week I'm listening to briefs, getting shots, medical check ups and dental check ups, ordering my gear and getting fit for a gas mask. Oh, and doing lots of sitting around! Thank goodness for free wireless internet and cable TV! :-) And instead of an open bay barracks like I was anticipating, I'm in a one man room sharing a bathroom. NICE! Not only that but it's like a motel so housekeeping comes by to clean up too. :-) Thanks for the $28 per day NHCA.
With that and the galley just across the street and plenty of transportation available, this is sweet. Connie thinks they're just being nice because next week the real stuff starts...

testing...testing....

2008-01-15T12:02:00.000-08:00

Since I'm off on a new type of adventure and there are a few people who'd be interested in how I'm doing, I figured this'd be easier than sending tons of email. These first few posts will just be me figuring out how to use this thing. :)