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!