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pecuniumMay 10
Moved again. With luck (and we could use some of that) we won't move again until the word come to pack our bags, we're going home. I don't think we can move much further north. The drive here was not too bad. I am no longer (finally) a driver, so I could look around with leisure, as from a bus.
Well not quite. Apart from a few moments in Cp. Virginia, I have never been really scared. On the other hand I am never completely comfortable; anyone might be a threat, and so everyone is a suspect.
It's uncomfortable, the wondering, the nagging apprehension; which rises to minor fear; whenever something out of the ordinary persists for more than a few moments. I can't tell if I am not scared, or if I have gotten so used to persistent anxiety that I no longer notice it, and what I might have called fear in the past, is now merely a heightened sense of alert.
Here we are free of General Spears (being no longer in his division's Area of Operations [AO]) and so we can wear our boonie caps, but the blouse is still required. The past few days have been hot, so hot the Blackhawks winding up are nice to hear. They send a small breeze through the tent.
I am in a tent about 45'x 15'. There is one other who sleeps here with me. The rest of us (and there are now only 22, we are an independent entity until we get orders for home,. May that day be soon) sleep in a building I have yet to see.
Chief Dearing and I sleep here because we have about $500,000 worth of computers here, and unless we want to strip the tent bare every evening someone has to guard them.
On the up side, there are real showers (somewhere, and I am told they have hot water) access to the internet (which you already know) and, sooner or later, some work for us to do.
On the downside, we are eating three MREs a day. It is sort of humid, so the 90s we have for temperature are more enervating than they would be at home.
The task we have is work for which we were not trained or equipped and we may be doing it until December. Also, we are in a general support role. We are here to monitor a geographical area, so we are not attached to any particular unit. We have to make nice to whomever happens to be using this base, and if that should change we have to negotiate again for what we need.
There are also flies. This is nothing new, Al Sahra had flies, Dogwood had flies, Bushmaster (nee Rams, and thought of as Dustmaster) had flies. Here they are not as bad as they were at Al Sahra, where one day I slew more than a score; with my bare hands.
Such are the small victories we can claim.
On the road we drove past thousands of acres of stubby wheat. Here the plants include a very unpleasant dandelion. The flowers are abundant, and the flower's base (which becomes the seedhead) is a wall of spikes. They will, casually, pierce the leg behind a pair of trousers.
The fauna are birds, insects; and other arthropods, dogs, the occasional cat and (to judge by the chittering, some sort of squirrel.
I've seen a dead scorpion, others have seen a different sort of live one. Centipedes run through our tent (until a boot smears them to paste) beetles and moths come and go, and mosquitoes.
I am in the embarrassing position of having injured feet. The only real therapy (given that I am in a combat zone and a couple of months of light duty after aweek or so on quarters is not an option) is to wear sneakers.
So I am in desert camouflage, and running shoes. It makes me feel as a child playing dress up.
No one has given me any real grief about it all things considered.
Moved again. With luck (and we could use some of that) we won't move again until the word come to pack our bags, we're going home. I don't think we can move much further north. The drive here was not too bad. I am no longer (finally) a driver, so I could look around with leisure, as from a bus.
Well not quite. Apart from a few moments in Cp. Virginia, I have never been really scared. On the other hand I am never completely comfortable; anyone might be a threat, and so everyone is a suspect.
It's uncomfortable, the wondering, the nagging apprehension; which rises to minor fear; whenever something out of the ordinary persists for more than a few moments. I can't tell if I am not scared, or if I have gotten so used to persistent anxiety that I no longer notice it, and what I might have called fear in the past, is now merely a heightened sense of alert.
Here we are free of General Spears (being no longer in his division's Area of Operations [AO]) and so we can wear our boonie caps, but the blouse is still required. The past few days have been hot, so hot the Blackhawks winding up are nice to hear. They send a small breeze through the tent.
I am in a tent about 45'x 15'. There is one other who sleeps here with me. The rest of us (and there are now only 22, we are an independent entity until we get orders for home,. May that day be soon) sleep in a building I have yet to see.
Chief Dearing and I sleep here because we have about $500,000 worth of computers here, and unless we want to strip the tent bare every evening someone has to guard them.
On the up side, there are real showers (somewhere, and I am told they have hot water) access to the internet (which you already know) and, sooner or later, some work for us to do.
On the downside, we are eating three MREs a day. It is sort of humid, so the 90s we have for temperature are more enervating than they would be at home.
The task we have is work for which we were not trained or equipped and we may be doing it until December. Also, we are in a general support role. We are here to monitor a geographical area, so we are not attached to any particular unit. We have to make nice to whomever happens to be using this base, and if that should change we have to negotiate again for what we need.
There are also flies. This is nothing new, Al Sahra had flies, Dogwood had flies, Bushmaster (nee Rams, and thought of as Dustmaster) had flies. Here they are not as bad as they were at Al Sahra, where one day I slew more than a score; with my bare hands.
Such are the small victories we can claim.
On the road we drove past thousands of acres of stubby wheat. Here the plants include a very unpleasant dandelion. The flowers are abundant, and the flower's base (which becomes the seedhead) is a wall of spikes. They will, casually, pierce the leg behind a pair of trousers.
The fauna are birds, insects; and other arthropods, dogs, the occasional cat and (to judge by the chittering, some sort of squirrel.
I've seen a dead scorpion, others have seen a different sort of live one. Centipedes run through our tent (until a boot smears them to paste) beetles and moths come and go, and mosquitoes.
I am in the embarrassing position of having injured feet. The only real therapy (given that I am in a combat zone and a couple of months of light duty after aweek or so on quarters is not an option) is to wear sneakers.
So I am in desert camouflage, and running shoes. It makes me feel as a child playing dress up.
No one has given me any real grief about it all things considered.
