A Kandahar Christmas

We celebrated Christmas here with a small pizza party on Christmas Eve.  During the party, we watched A Christmas Story, the movie about a young boy who dreams about getting a BB gun for Christmas.  We also had a white elephant gift exchange.  I ended up stealing a nice wood serving tray with an assortment of dried fruit from the person sitting next to me.  That person ended up getting the gift that I wrapped, two cans of macadamia nuts fresh from Hawaii.  I ended up sharing all of the dried fruit with everyone at the party and the serving try disappeared so someone got some use out if it.

On Christmas morning, we all got together for coffee and donuts and watched Elf with Will Ferrell.  This is the first Christmas in an awful long time where I was not celebrating with family.  I have to admit, it was kind of lonely here, knowing that everyone else was home with family members having a good time.  Nevertheless, I kept a stiff upper lip and soldiered through the holiday knowing that my being here allowed many of my colleagues to be home with their kids.  And, after all, it is the children who help bring the magic to this holiday.

It is getting pretty cold around here.  Not New England cold but cold for here.  It is in the high 20s overnight and creeps into the 40s, maybe 50 degrees during the mid-afternoon.  We’ve had a lot of fog and dust that has reduced visibility as well.

I’ve started back up with my running again.  I got busted by the base MPs for running with earphones in, listening to music while running around the airfield.  For safety reasons, folks are not allowed to run on the roads here with headphones on.  Anyway, one of our MPs “pulled me over” while I was rounding the east end of the airstrip and made me take off my earphones.  I don’t mind running without them, I just prefer to listen to music or podcasts while running.  I guess I’ll go without from now on or keep to the treadmill if I want to listen to something specific.  So, this week, I ran around the airfield once (7.8 miles) and went out for two - 30 minute runs as well.

With so many folks home on R&R this week, it has been pretty quiet on the work front.  The only real excitement came today, Friday, my “down day.”  As with most Fridays, something pops up that causes me to be at work, besides, what else is there for me to do?  This morning, someone used the men’s room in my office building.  Apparently, the water line to the sink was frozen.  Well, this person left the faucets in the sink wide open when he departed.  A couple of hours later, our cleaning staff noticed that the large conference room on the ground floor of our building was covered with water!  Sure enough, the frozen pipes eventually thawed out and with the faucets wide open, water flooded the entire first floor of the building which includes a conference room, bathrooms, and a server/electronics room.  Three of us spent a couple of hours, armed with squeegees and mops, cleaning up the water and recovering wet equipment.  I think we escaped this devastating end-of-year flood without much damage.

We are all looking forward to New Year’s Eve around here.  They tell me that in the city of Kandahar, they celebrate like they do in the Big Apple except they drop a pomegranate instead of an apple.  Pomegranates are the big money crop here (after poppies).  Someone else also said that the Taliban were planning a shadow celebration, they’ll be dropping a human head.  Just kidding!

I guess it’s time to go change out of these wet shoes and socks!  Until next week…

Is Running a Marathon Really Rest and Relaxation?

Despite spending a total of 34 hours in the belly of an airliner, which transformed my ass into the shape of an airline seat, my three-week R&R was fantastic!  I spent the first four days with my beautiful bride (and Mikey the Rottweiler) at our place in New Hampshire.  Besides getting a lot of much-needed rest, Terry and I enjoyed Manchester’s Christmas Parade and saw a great production of the play “A Christmas Carol” at the city’s Palace Theater.

On Sunday, Dec 2^nd, we flew to Washington to visit Corey and Katrina in Northern Virginia.  While there we also got to spend time with our good friends, the Chickos and on Tuesday, we drove to Baltimore to visit my sister Robin and her family.  We all got to see our niece Tess and her school basketball team win an exciting game.

Then it was off to Hawaii!  Terry and I stayed at the Hale Koa, an Armed Forces Resort located right on Waikiki Beach while our son and his family (Chris, Marissa and little Charlotte) stayed with Marissa’s parents at their home on the eastern shore of Oahu. Besides getting to spend some quality time with family, the principal purpose of the trip to Hawaii was to run the Honolulu Marathon with Chris, Marissa and Eric, who is a coworker of Chris and a close friend.  Here is pretty little Sha-Sha in here new dress!

So, on Sunday, Dec. 9^th, the four of us, along with about 25,000 of our closest friends got together at 0500 on the streets of Honolulu for a restful and relaxing 26.2 mile run!  It was still dark at the beginning of the race which made the fireworks display awesome!  Here is a bad photo of us just before the start.

What makes the Honolulu Marathon so much fun is that they don’t have a registration limit and you can actually walk the entire distance before they close the course.  So, no one was in a hurry but we were all determined to finish!  We made the obligatory stop at the statue of King Kamehameha on Waikiki Beach to have this photo taken.

At one potty break at about mile 16, a woman, who was in the long porta-john line,  passed out and Chris went to render aid while Eric ran for the nearest ambulance where paramedics decided that they would finish their sandwiches before coming over to help the woman.  That is where Chris and I posed for this shot.

About six and a half hours after we started, all four of us crossed the finish line together.  It was an awesome experience and the first marathon for Chris, Marissa and Eric.  I am really proud of their accomplishment.

After a few more celebratory Mai Tais and some great meals in local restaurants, it was time for Terry and me to return to Manchester.

I spent a few more relaxing days at home with Terry then it was time to get back on that plane.  It was very difficult to leave Terry and home in order to come back here to KAF.  Nevertheless, I made it back safely and was met by a small mountain of work including over 1100 emails!

Until next week, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

Countdown to R&R!

Okay, so I didn't post anything on Friday!  I could hear every complaining from here.  I guess I'll try to make up for it by posting now.  I only have about 40 hours before I am wheels-up and on my way home for a three-week break.  The trip home will be long, about 35 hours in all.  I have a 3-hour flight from here to Dubai, a 9-hour lay-over in Dubai, then a 14-hour flight to Washington DC.  I have a six-hour layover in Washington where I hope to link-up with Corey and go eat some breakfast.  Then finally, I have the 90 minute flight from Washington to Manchester.

Our Thankgiving celebration here at KAF was unspectacular.  About 20 of us piled into 3 diferent vehicles and drove to a DFAC on the other side of the airfield.  After waiting in a 30 minute line, in the rain, we made it into the DFAC to enjoy our turkey dinner with all of the fixings. Here is a poorly-cropped shot of me with a mouthful of food near an authentic-looking turkey decoration hanging from the ceiling.

I tried to Skpye with Corey on Thanksgiving Day.  He was celebrating Thanksgiving at Mom & Dad's house in GA.  Unfortunately, I didn't get the timing right.  I wanted to amaze them with our ability to communicate with video and sound over Corey's cell phone from thousands of miles away.  Well, Corey had a weak cellular signal from their house but we finally made it work for a few minutes on the day after Thanksgiving.  That was all worthwhile!  Chris actually tried using his cell phone to Skype with me first.  He called me from his police car one Sunday morning and it worked pretty well, both audio and video!  Modern technology is amazing.  In some respects we are living with technology that most folks back in the 60s and 70s thought of as science fiction.

I am talking with Terry almost every day through Skype.  We've discovered that the best time for both of us is 7:00 am here in Afghanistan while it is 9:30 pm the night before on the east coast of the U.S.  I just have to schedule the calls so that they aren't interupted by any alarms going off!  And, it would be nice if the fighter jets delayed their take-offs until after I am done.  The noise tends to interfere with our chat!

Finally, here is a picture of my colleague Kevin and the young fellow we call John, who is from Sri Lanka.  The company John works for has the cleaning and maintenance contract for the buildings on our compound.  John wanted me to take this picture so he could send it to his family back home and show them who he worked for.  He is a great guy and, contrary to the photo, is always smiling and humming a song.

Okay, get ready for a three-week lapse in posts to this blog.  When I return, I may be able to post some more pictures of my time with family!

Killing the Enemy

I’ve killed four of the enemy already today and it is still only 10:30 AM.  This week, our maintenance folks turned the HVAC units for our office building from AC to heat.  That’s a good thing because the morning temperatures are now in the 40s.  But, this is an arid environment and in the afternoons, despite being a comfortable 70-75 degrees outside, the inside of the building gets pretty warm because of the abundant sunshine.  The afternoon warmth causes us to open the windows and doors to get the cool comfortable breezes flowing through the offices.  Well, opening these windows and doors allows the enemy to infiltrate our workspace.  Those damn flies are quite a nuisance.  So, as I have been working a few hours already, these Taliban infiltrators have been buzzing around my workspace, trying to drive me crazy.  As I type this, there are two or three of the enemy still probing my perimeter.  At the end of the day the body count stood at 12.  A few of the victims were female so I was able to prevent the potential birth and subsequent recruitment of hundreds! 

I had a busy and productive week.  Two day trips by Blackhawk helicopter out to sites where we have Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) to meet with the new commanders there.  I went through training in Indiana with all of these new guys so it was good to see them again and welcome them aboard.

Our small group here at KAF celebrated Veteran’s Day with a little cake and coffee after one of our meetings.  I made all of the folks who had ever worn a U.S. military uniform stand up to be recognized.  We gave our vets a big round of appreciative applause, and then we dug in to the cake.  It was a chocolate cake with white frosting.  One of the DFACs made it for us.  Here is a picture of the cake and of me taking a stab at it to begin serving.

Finally, just before sitting down to finish this post, I completed my longest run before the marathon.  I ran, on a treadmill for three hours!  During that time, I was able to log 18 miles.  So, now I consider myself ready to complete the Honolulu Marathon on Dec 8^th with Chris and Marissa.  I am really looking forward to that.  It goes without saying that I am excited and anxious to begin my R&R and be back with my wonderful bride and see my kids again.  This week I have to hit the shops on base for some little gifts to give everyone.  You know: samples of water from the Pooh Pond, maybe some extra fine Kandahar dust to share with folks, just a little something to represent my experience here.

18 Days!

Only 18 days until I am wheels-up on my first R&R from this place.  I am really looking forward to it.  Close your eyes and picture me in an airliner seat with a Heineken in each hand and a smile on my face!

I was having supper with a colleague this evening saying how crazy I must be, trying to get ready for a marathon while being deployed in a war zone.  We have a mental health professional coming for a visit soon.  maybe I should see him?  What do you think?  Even though it is a Friday, again another "day off," I've spent most of the day working.  I did sleep in until 0800!  But, I have another busy week to prepare for.  I'll be traveling on a couple of day trips by helicopter, and we are preparing for a Veteran's Day celebration for Sunday.

I'll be running in a Veteran's Day 5km race Sunday morning.  I am going to try and run a long 17 miles later in the day around 4-5 pm so I'll take it easy in the morning race and just try to stay loose.

After having my Yahoo email account for over 12 years without problem, I think my account was attacked by a Trojan horse this week.  Now I've seen emails come my way with strange links in them and I recognize them as being bad.  So, I've been careful not to open them and delete them immediately when I see them.  I don't remember ever opening a link like that in the past but, my account just sent out a bunch of these emails in the past 24 hours.  If you received one of these emails, I apologize.  I guess I'll have to change my personal email address.  If you want to get in touch with me from now on, use my gmail account: Richruns2@gmail.com.

Sorry this is a short post.  I guess I've just been too busy to really plan and create an entertaining post for this week.  18 days!

The Highs and the Lows of this Job

The high included a nice flight by U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter out to one of our Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) to participate in a change of command ceremony.  The weather was great and I really enjoyed the ride out and back.

The low had to deal with a sewage backup on our compound.  I am responsible for the facilities on our small compound to include all the buildings and everything associated with them.  Well, as I sat in the DFAC to enjoy my lunch today, I received a call from one of our employees that the bathrooms in our buildings were all backing up and not draining.  Lucky Me!  So, I wander back to the compound, call the plumbers from one company who discover that the compound septic tank was beyond full.  That required a call to yet another company to come bring the infamous SST out.  SST is the acronym for $hit-$ucking Truck.  On my second call to the company that runs these SSTs, I was told that they had a problem with emptying the trucks, that the facility to empty them was having trouble and all the trucks were full.  Okay, I made signs to put on all the bathrooms asking folks to use the porta-johns on the compound.  Finally, about 4 pm, the SST showed up and we were back in business.  It’s a crappy job, but somebody has to do it! 

What a week.  Again, Friday morning rolls around and, since I have no real reason to get out of bed, when the alarm went off at 0530, I just turned it off and rolled back over to continue sleeping.  I finally got up at about 0830 to start the day, thinking that I have all day to go out and get my long run in.  As I was sitting on an outside staircase, waiting for the SST, I was yawning and our Chief of Staff walk by and said: “why don’t you go to bed?”  I told him that I don’t know why I am so tired today, and he said it’s no wonder you are tired when you are putting in 80+ hour weeks.  Busy days and marathon training make Rich a tired dude!  Good night!

Get That Dust Off My New TV!

I want to start this week’s update off with saying how proud I am of my wife’s recent post on her blog.  She made a great statement about why we should also honor our local police officers; the men and women who work every day to make our streets and communities safe.  Go check it out at :Switzerland and Beyond .

This week, as with all the others, seemed to fly right by.  My first R&R is only 4 ½ weeks away!  I also passed my two-month mark here in Afghanistan.  Some days it seems like I just arrived, and on others it seems like I’ve been here forever.  I am finally beginning to see the change in seasons here.  The days are shorter and, while the dust is cooler, it still tastes the same when I am running around the base and a big MRAP passes in a messy cloud of brown, gritty haze. 

I am having a decent week of running with one exception.  I was not able to get the 16-miler done that I wanted to run this morning.  I woke up before 5 am and had to take a colleague to the other side of the airfield to catch a helicopter flight.  I planned to start my run when I returned.  Well, even though I had a cup of coffee with me, my body kept telling me to get back in bed, so I did.  Next thing I know it was 9 o’clock and I was hungry!  Okay, I thought I could adjust and go out in the afternoon and get the mileage in.  Well, I figured I would run two laps of the 8-mile loop around the airfield.  Bad plan!  At 3 pm the sun was shining and it was above 80°F.  I made it one time around and called it a day.  I guess my body needed the rest.  I will still be able to get the 36+ miles I wanted during the week, just won’t get a real long run done.

I guess the highlight of this week was the installation of a television in the office.  That’s a pretty big deal.  I noticed that we had a TV antenna attached to the side of our building.  So I tracked down the cable feeding off of the antenna.  I discovered that it came out of the ceiling in the conference room next to the wall just opposite from where my desk is located in the next room.  So, after some trial and error at trying to extend the cable through the ceiling, we simply drilled a hole through the wall and ran it into my office.  My office-mate, Kevin and I put our meager funds together and went to the PX to buy a small, 21” flat screen TV.  Now, as we enjoy that first cup of coffee in the morning, we get to watch the end of all the stateside night games like Thursday, Sunday, and Monday night football as well as the World Series games right there at our desks!  Don’t worry taxpayers; you are still getting your money’s worth out of us!  We aren’t wasting all of our time watching the thing.  I refuse to watch all of the talking heads on the various news channels until after the elections!  But, you never know; an occasional soap opera or Judge Judy show may be in our future!

A little Art, Food Fun, Running, and MWR

The Embassy in Kabul has featured one of RC-South’s (my organization here in Kandahar) own. Skip Rohde was a State Department District Stabilization Team member in Maiwand District, Kandahar Province.  Skip spent one year in country advising Afghan leaders, military officers and State Department staff. An accomplished artist, he would often take out his sketch book during meetings and encounters with local Afghans and do portraits of them.  See the video that features Skip Rhode’s art work at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWjY9FlnJ8I

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the DFACs here on the airbase.  Well, I was just introduced to another blog that deals specifically with our DFACs.   Just DFACs Ma’am is a pretty humorous blog that really gets to the meat of DFAC eating here on KAF (pardon the pun).  Enjoy it at this link: http://justdfacsmaam.wordpress.com/ 

I had another good week of running, capping off a 34 mile week with a 14.5 mile run this morning.  As I set out, the sky was overcast and it had just rained, for the first time here in Kandahar!  The low cloud ceiling held in all the noxious mix of fumes from the local trash incinerator, the pooh pond and all the vehicle exhaust which made the air pretty raunchy.  As time went by, the sky cleared and the breeze kicked in to cleare the air.  The rain kept the dust down so it turned out to be rather nice with temperatures in the low 70s when I finished up.

Terry knows that I have been working on little projects to help raise morale and provide some leisure-time activities here at our little compound on the base.  Called Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) by the military, these items have been well-received by the folks here.  Terry actually sent me horseshoes and a dart board!  The next few pictures capture some of the work.

Two new treadmills!

An elliptical machine and stationary bike.

The dart board Terry sent to me!

A little TV lounge we created

A Half Marathon and the Pooh Pond

This week sailed right by.  The job is keeping me so busy that I seem to lose track of time and don’t know what day it is sometimes.  Keeping busy also makes the time here pass faster which is a good thing.  It just means that I’ll get home that much quicker!

So, today is Friday, my day off and yet I had to work today.  My goal for the day was to get a 13 mile run in and to go out and take some pictures of our famous “Pooh Pond.”  Well I awoke at 5 am and was on the road running at 6.  I decided to make this morning’s run a full half-marathon distance of 13.1 miles or 21.1 km.  I took my time and ran the distance in about 2 hours and 15 minutes which means I am on a 4:30 marathon pace.  It is pretty neat to run around the airfield because I get to see a wide assortment and variety of aircraft taking off and landing.  From small helicopters to large cargo jets to commercial airliners, this place is always busy with aircraft coming and going.

Now for the Pooh Pond.  The infamous Pooh Pond is actually an open sewage treatment pond.  When the wind is blowing in the right direction, it really adds to the ambiance of this lovely place.  People over the years have placed humorous signs and various things along the edge of the pond, as the pictures will show.  I thought of starting the Pooh Pond Swim Club as something to do in my spare time but, alas, I have no spare time, yet.  When I do, I’ll probably volunteer to be president of the club.  Our uniform will consist of gas masks, hazmat suits, and Speedos pulled over them!  Okay, here are the pictures of the Pooh Pond:

Cooling Off!

The weather is cooling off here!  While the air remains dry and dusty, the temperatures are dropping.  Afternoon temps climb into the 80s, but the early morning temperature has been in the 50s making for comfortable running.

This has been a crazy-busy week.  I rely heavily on John, my right-hand man.  John does a lot of work for me here.  He is our duty driver and all-around handy man.  We always have people flying to and from the airbase and John is usually the guy that drives these folks to and from the departure ramp, about a mile away.  He also ensures that all of our vehicles get serviced every couple of weeks and performs many other routine services around here.  Well. John was ill this past week and had to miss work for about three days.  So, I had to take up the slack and perform John’s duties as well.  Nevertheless, I was determined not to kill myself and made sure I got enough sleep and was able to get up early in the mornings and get my runs done. 

Tomorrow, here at the airbase, they are running the Army Ten-Miler Shadow run.  The Army Ten-Miler is an annual event at the Pentagon usually run by about 25,000 participants every year on the first weekend in October.   I’m guessing that we will have about 600-700 runners participating here.  This week I only ran three times but got in some good mileage.  I ran 6 miles on Monday, 8 miles on Wednesday, and 4 miles on Thursday.  With the ten-miler tomorrow, I will have completed a 28 mile week which is about where I should be at this point in my marathon preparation.

It is sad that I have not been able to take many photographs since I’ve arrived.  The only pictures I’ve taken so far have been with the small camera.  I have not yet had the time or opportunity to pull out my Nikon and actually go out for a photo shoot.  As you can understand, there are a lot of restrictions on what and where you can take photos here on the base.  I don’t want to get into any trouble, but on top of that, I have not had the spare time.  Hopefully, after they fill another position here in my office, I’ll start having a little more free time.  I did receive some prints from Shutterfly of 20 of my favorite photos.  I put some 2-sided tape on the photos and decorated the wall in my office with them.

If any of you want to send prints for me to have and put in my hooch or office, please do!

Finally Scored Some L.S.D.

That’s right; I was finally able to get a Long, Slow, Distance (LSD) run in this morning; the first time since arriving in Afghanistan.  I woke up at 5 am, even though Friday is my so-called day off and hit the road at 5:45.  I ran in a counter clockwise direction around the airfield and made it about ¾ of the way around when I hit the one hour mark, then turned around and returned to my little compound.  In all, I covered about 11.3 miles in exactly 2 hours so ended up running about a 10:30/mile pace.  The air was a cool 65 degrees and relatively free of dust.  Earlier in the week, on Tuesday morning, I ran all the way around the airfield.  This was the first time I had tried this.  I was a little uncertain of the route because there are quite a few twists and turns.  The total distance around the airstrip is 7.8 miles which took me about an hour and 15 minutes.  So given everything I had going on this week, I have to say, it was a pretty good week of running.  Let’s hope I can build on this and get ready for Honolulu in December.

In other news, Ol’ Dusty is no longer my primary vehicle.  For certain operational reasons, I have switched to a Toyota Land Cruiser.  I guess I’ll call this vehicle, New Dusty.  New Dusty and I spend quite a bit of time together and I have the radio tuned to 97.5 which is the Armed Forces Network’s Country and Western music radio station.

On Wednesday, I made my first trip “outside the wire” and travelled by helicopter to one of our bases where we have a Provincial Reconstruction Team.  It was a pretty warm day, and I had to travel in my full set of protective gear.  I went out to see how our folks were doing with regards to their quality of life and to see what I could do, if anything to support them.  I learned a lot on the trip, met some great folks, and have an improved plan to help them out in the future.  I hope to get out to all of the sites we support here in the southern part of the country as I get the opportunity.

The final piece of good news is that I was able to receive some new fitness equipment for our folks here.  We received two treadmills, two elliptical machines and two stationary bikes.  This afternoon I have to assemble all of these machines so, picture in your mind a tired father of about 40 kids assembling toys on Christmas Eve and you’ll have an idea of my life later today!

This last section is where I am going place my count-down clock.  59 days till my first R&R and only 326 days remaining in country!

New Hooch!

One month ago today, I left the U.S. to begin this little adventure.  So, I guess it is fitting that I finally moved into what will be my permanent residence here.  The room is small, about 90 square feet (8'x11').  It has a twin bed with 4 small drawers underneath, a double-door wardrobe, two small night stands, and a plastic storage thing with about six drawers, a small flat-screen TV and a DVD player.  I took some photos of the room before moving in and I'll be taking some afterward so, next week I'll post the before and after pictures.  After moving all of my stuff over to the room and finding a place to put everything, I went over to the PX and bought a few small carpets, and a night/reading lamp.  I also grabbed a folding chair but I am actually using the chair to put the laptop on.  I need to fashion a small desk so that I can sit in the room and work on the laptop without being hunched over, but that will have to wait.  Now, instead of having my own bathroom, I have to wander down the hall a bit in order to shower and shave.  No big deal.

My running has suffered again this week.  While I think I am doing well at getting 8 hours of sleep every night, My days are so busy that I am realizing that they are a work out in and of themself.  I did get out four days for runs of 30-60 minutes, but didn't get the required long run in yet this week.  I had every intention of going out this morning but, since it is Friday (our only "day off") I decided not to set the alarm.  I slept straight through to 9:00!  I must have been tired.  Well, by that time the sun was high in the sky, traffic was kicking up dust all around the base, and I had to get my gear packed and move into my new hooch.  I know what it is like to run marathons without having the proper training under my belt, and I can do it, but its not fun.  I may be able to get out Sunday morning and go for 10-12 miles.  Folks around here are allowed to show up for work later on Sunday mornings.  So, "in shala" I'll get 'er done on Sunday.

The final piece I want to share this week is what I call "DFAC Roulette."  The dining facilities (DFACs) here are all run by the same contractor.  However, the food served in them the can vary greatly.  There are seven different DFACs on the base.  They go by names like the Monty, the Independence, the Far East, the Luxemberg, Northline, and Niagra. Some are within walking distance.  You need a vehicle in order to get to some others.  So, the question at meal time is: Which one this time?  The DFAC closest to us is actually the least favorite of the six.  The Independence is know for its Sunday morning omlettes.  The Monty has a killer sandwich bar.  The Far East, as you would suspect, has some great oriental food and pretty good Indian curry dishes.  The one that is the farthest away, has soft-serve ice cream machines!  Wouldn't you know it, that I have to travel the farthest, just to get my ice cream.  So, tonight I got a ride with a friend in the office next to me and we went to the farthest one.  It was steak night there.  I ate fried scallops, sweet potato, corn on the cobb, tossed salad, and a piece of cherry pie.  No ice cream tonight, just didn't have the room.  Mark had both the steak and the ice cream!

That's it from my end of the world this week.  Like I said, I'll get some pictures of the hooch posted in next week's blog.  Bye for now!

Me and “Ol’ Dusty”

As I type this, I am suffering through a nasty head cold so this may be a short post.  It started yesterday afternoon.  I thought I would take some Nyquil when I returned to my hooch at the end of the day.  Well, when I got back, I discovered that I didn’t have any Nyquil with me.  Prior to leaving the U.S., I had grabbed the Zzzzquil rather than the Nyquil.  So, I slept but still have a severely runny nose, watery eyes and am sneezing all the time.  This morning, I walked over to the PX to see what kind of cold medicines they had.  I bought some stuff similar to Sudafed PE, took a double dose and am waiting to see if that is going to help dry my sinuses up.

I’ve named my truck Ol’ Dusty for obvious reasons.  The dust around here does not let up.  We had two evening dust storms this week.  Every morning, I have to use the windshield washer to clean off the overnight dust that had collected on the windshield.  I took Ol Dusty to the wash rack this week to knock off some of the nasty stuff.  Of course, the road leading away from the wash rack is not paved so clean vehicles coming off the rack are immediately coated in the stuff.  Here is a picture of me and Ol’ Dusty.

My son Chris will note that I am sporting the Wiley-X ballistic shades and the Oakley boots he gave me.  These items are quite necessary around here.

I had a pretty good week of running until this cold hit.  I was planning on running my weekly long run of ten miles this morning but, the cold and work got in the way.  Some of you may have seen my Facebook post after Saturday’s race.  It was billed as a five-miler but the evening before the race; the base MP’s disapproved the route.  So, I went out thinking I had to run five miles.  Instead, right at the three-mile mark, the route turned right into the finish line.  They had shortened the distance of the race to 5km or 3.1 miles.

The meds seem to be drying up my sinuses so I can at least function.  This afternoon, I scrounged some much-needed office supplies from a unit that was closing its doors here.  Flashbacks of my old supply sergeant days.  Anything I can do for the folks here and in the field pays off.  The DFAC also had a surprise dessert - blueberry crumble.  As my family well knows, I love blueberries.  So, this was probably the highlight of my day!  Even though I am sure the blueberries came from a can, it sure topped off the meal in fine fashion!

Finally, I should probably mention something about the recent killings of U.S. diplomats in Lybia.  The loss is a tragic reminder of how dangerous a world we live in.  My thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the victims and I must also emphasize how much I love and cherish my family and friends throughout the world.

Till next time...