The new cool table

It is midrats again where this phenomenon occurs. I once again build this coolness out of, this time, a rag-tag group of contractors. Here you will find the Earl of Sandwich, a charming hypochondriac fellow with a fixation on building the perfect sandwich, methodically with all the trappings of OCD. God bless him. That's okay Earl, I can play. We had a competition the other day. He created a double-decker egg affair. Won in the breakfast category. But the Earl is onto something, with this sandwich ritual. I like the BLT, I have weened myself off of the biscuit. The Earl and short-timer Bob the Skoaler find my excessive use of tomatoes upsetting.

Let us give thanks

Another stunning day. After a walk this morning I waited in line for entry into the north DFAC. As I was waiting in line, two ranks filed on to the gravel parking lot, formed up. Someone yelled "Kentucky ADT!" Sure enough, elements of my old Kentucky home were on the ready. It wasn't until I entered the serving line did I realize that they were volunteering as servers (augmenting the KBR folks). Good on you, Kentucky.

The KBR staff was dressed in pilgrim and Indian attire. The dining hall was filled with a lot of spirit and excellent decorations. Life size pilgrims, Indians, and turkeys. Egyptian officers were posing next to these statues for photo ops. While at the salad bar, Rick, a shipmate of mine, asked me to join him and another sailor at their table. It was great to catch up with them. Both of them are ready to turn in, but stayed up for the Thanksgiving pageantry.

This is the lunch meal- my breakfast. I am more accustomed to the intimacy of the BBQ DFAC tent, which was closed today. Now I understand why. A lot of manpower goes into this Thanksgiving production.

The snow globe

The mountains around me are dusted with snow, a truly beautiful sight, and particularly clean and clear after the rain we had the day before. All this viewed from the Pink Tactical Girl Bike. I returned splattered with mud, which added to the fun. I thought that I would do a few free weight reps on my way back to the B hut. There was an admiral, doing his reps, with man-sized weights, hopefully he didn't notice that vertical mud stripe that ran up the seat of my sweat pants. I'd rather be outside doing something than contracting a case of ringworm in the gym.

Josephine Tey, or Gordon Daviot, or Elizabeth MacKintosh

I am surprised to learned that I am enjoying this mid century Scotish mystery author, Josephine Tey, one of two pseudonyms used by Elizabeth MacKintosh. I have been quite obsessed with her work. I read a few chapters before I turn in. I started Brat Farrar (1949) last night, and recently finished Miss Pym Disposes (1946). Fiction has found a place in my heart over here.

That 4-1/2 hour difference

I operate on ZULU (GMT) time, but often coordinate with friends/events that operate on local time. Local time leads ZULU by four and a half hours. I have two alarm clocks at my bed side, one that I have printed with a Sharpie on the clear plastic face "LOCAL" and the other that is a ZULU clock. This morning I was having dreams, which I generally never remember, I was watching an imaginary music video with the Beach Boys singing Surfing USA. I realized that if I am having a dream of this caliber, I must be over sleeping. I rushed to the shower, letting the non-potable water sting my eyes as I endeavored to clean my body, I even made time to blow dry my hair. Back at the fabulous B-hut, I started to dress for the day, slipping on my watch I realized that I was incorrectly operating on local time. I had three and a half hours until I needed to report.

Gainful employment

Happiness is gainful employment. In this last six month stretch of my deployment, I am finally put to work in a capacity aligned with my background experience. In addition, I will have learned some professionally relevant things by the end of this tour. Although a mobilization is indifferent in regard to my personal fulfillment, it does help that I feel positive about what I am doing. Purpose.

The winter gear, the hours, the walk

Last night I unpacked the light grey padded winter coat, I call it the Michelin Man jacket, others like Staypuff. It's a nice coat in these conditions because it protects against the cold winds.

I am still struggling with trying to work these long hours. My supervisor amazes me, she must get 5 hours of sleep a night. I am not quite there. 14 hours seems to be an average work day. I find it extremely difficult to be at a desk for this long.

I am venturing out on my morning walk with shorts and a sweatshirt.

Settling in, again

I have been back for a couple of days. The weather here has been rather cold, accompanied by some rain, though this morning there are clear blue skies. I was admiring the austere beauty of the mountains, dusted with snow.

I have begun working in the same workspace with my colleagues, which was a departure from my previous state. The conditions are better, this will help me through the next six months. Many of the folks, mostly junior officers, have moved on. It is amazing how quickly personnel switched out in this context.

For the first time, I had lunch with many of my colleagues yesterday. It was rib day at the BBQ DFAC. A thrill, of course. Generally it was a pleasant affair, however, I still contend that dining with those whom you work can be a bore. There is a vein of bitchiness that I am not too fond of in my work group. Keeping a professional distance will be difficult.

I was vaccinated for H1N1 yesterday. This was compulsory.

Thanks to the positive home influences, I have been able to enjoy my double packets of Emergen-C. A care package that I had sent myself from Florida contained skin lotion, Emergen-C and some greens replacement powder. The spirulina enhanced powder is tasty, it reminds my of Schav, a sour green soup that I used to chug when I was in high school. Acquired taste.

I remember the morning that I sent that package to myself from beautiful Long Boat Key (Sarasota) Florida. I was in my uniform, on my way to the airport, but I needed to catch breakfast and the post office on the way. An older white affluent resort neighborhood, Sarasota has a lot of patriotic residents. There was a lot of "thank you for your service" as I was standing in line at the post office. And because this older generation just says what they want, one man beheld me in my ACUs and said "look at you in your little outfit!" Thanks, Bub. It was well intentioned. But when people did say their thank you's, it made me twinge with a bit of emotion. It was difficult leaving the U.S. to willfully go back to Afghanistan for another six months.

Ft Hood Tragedy

As I am standing by for my flight to Afghanistan, I am disgusted by the the news of the shootings at Fort Hood. What a disgrace that this was done by an Army officer (with an Muslim name, I might add), in a deployment processing center. Authorities have indicated that this was not a terrorist plot, though I am sure the terrorists are delighted by the news of this event. Apparently Major Nadal Hasan was having a bad day because he was being deployed again. Thanks for sharing, Sir.