God's Sense of Humor

If you haven't read yesterday's entry, go ahead.  I'll wait.  (You really need to just read the first paragraph).

Finished?  Good.  So, I write yesterday that there are no April showers here.  As a matter of fact, we've had quite a few dust storms and 100+ degree days.  Yesterday, in fact, we had another dust storm.  But about 30 minutes after yesterday's post I hear something odd.  It wasn't explosions of incoming rockets (which I'm sad to say isn't an "odd" sound here; it's kinda normal) or anything of the sort.  It took me a second to figure out what it was.  It was rain on my metal roof!  Rain!  Can you believe it?

This morning it was about 20 degrees cooler than it has been in a couple of weeks and it lightly sprinkled on and off for most of the morning.  Fortunately it didn't rain enough to make mud again but just enough to beat back the dust a little bit.

I'm not arrogant enough to think that God reads my blog and takes specific note of what I write.  But I do know He certainly has a sense of humor about things!

Cheers, Pearl

April

The rhyme is "April showers bring May flowers."  I don't think little Iraqi kids learn that rhyme, or if they do, it certainly doesn't make any sense to them.  April has brought dust and heat and little else.  Last week was our first (for the rest of the summer I'm afraid) week of consistent 100+ degree days.  On top of that we've gotten a handful of dusty days again.  I can't say I'm going to miss this place in any way.  When I look at the weather back home and see highs that are less than our lows I just have to wonder what makes people build a "civilization" in a place like this?

On better news, Griff is aboard (I wonder what the Army equivalent of "aboard" is - I need to ask) and is soaking things up like a sponge.  Tomorrow will be his first day "in the seat" with me there like training wheels to make sure he stays upright.  He's very eager and I think the Regiment is going to really enjoy having him here.  Hopefully by next week I won't even need to be his training wheels and will just be an infrequent consultant over the next couple of weeks as I begin the packout process and he fully takes over.  It's kinda cool to be taking stuff out of the office and yet kinda weird as well.  But, it's definitely time for me to be heading home so I don't mind the weirdness factor.  17 more days in Iraq and 23 days until I'm back with the family.

Whoo hoo!

Cheers, Pearl

Sandbags

The sandbag is a ubiquitous part of any military installation.  Designed as a simple expedient to building fortifications of any scale, they are also used as door stops, simple dams, bases (on our softball field), and countless other uses.  And the sandbag is so very simple.  All you need is some bags, a few shovels, and a few Soldiers to do the filling.  Or so I thought.  My step-father was an artilleryman in Vietnam.  He was assigned to a small firebase just one mile south of the DMZ for a little over a year.  When he first arrived at his outpost, he spent many weeks filling sandbags.  How unfortunate he wasn't an artilleryman today.

This afternoon, walking back from lunch, guess what I saw?  Yes, sandbags, but they weren't being filled by troops, they were piled high on three flatbed tractor trailers driven by contractors!  You got it, there are one hundred and fifty thousand or so Soldiers/Sailors/Airmen/Marines in this country and we have contractors filling our sandbags.  Don't get me wrong, I'm glad some poor PFC isn't out there in 100+ degree heat, but still, contractors filling sandbags?  No wonder this war has already cost us over $500 billion dollars!

Cheers, Pearl

He's here!

Here's to the most important man in the Navy - "GRIFF"!

I met Griff in person yesterday and also spent this evening with him as well (I hijacked him to a meeting - I'm sure he'll thank me later)!  He has the rest of a week to finish a class (seems like forever ago when I was going through and learning about my job here) and we will begin officially making me unemployed starting Monday.  He seems like a great guy and I'm sure he'll be able to roll right into the Regiment without a hiccup.

One side effect of telling the folks in the Regiment about my relief being in Baghdad (I'm going to wait until next week to begin introducing him when he's able to be around full time) is the number of people who kid me about making sure he passes muster before they "approve" me leaving.  It feels really nice to have the friends I've made here over the past nine months rib me about not wanting to let me go because it means I have become a real part of the family.  I am so very excited about getting to go home but there is definitely going to be a part of me that will miss the Soldiers here very much.  I suppose the one constant in the military is change and unfortunately leaving old friends comes with the job.  (But that doesn't take too much shine off the fact that I'll be back home in 28 days!)

Cheers, Pearl

Dust

I'd intended yesterday to post about the dust storm we had Thursday and show you some before and after pictures.  Unfortunately, rather than clearing up, yesterday was bad too.  But today was a little more clear so here are some pictures of our last few days.

This is normal.

This was Thursday and Friday (same location and time of day - early morning).

And this was in the afternoon.  The color has not been retouched; it really was this eerie orange/yellow color.

I've been thinking about a topic for one of my last posts and I've decided one will be "Things I Never Want to Do Again."  Live in (or visit) a desert is definitely on that list!

Cheers, Pearl