A week full of Mondays...

Well faithul followers, it has been a little past a week since we last met. Since our last encounter I have traveled thousands of miles to a little paradise the Army likes to call "Southwest Asia". Quaint little place full of foreigners, sand, flies, random smells and bland chow hall food. The silver lining in all of this is that the weather is actually perfect...around 70 degrees daily here. the part where the silver lining gets ripped from it's cloud and stomped on is in about six months when this number will almost double.

Kuwait was a nice place to transition from the garrison life I enjoyed in Kansas to the 24 hour military one I will lead for the forseeable future. It had sand, bland chow food and foreign workers with the dirtiest of glances. Personable people, just have some unlikeable employment choices...we would all be a little disgruntled too I think. They did have a movie theatre, internet cafe and starbucks, so no one really complained much while we were there. We were there for about four days training up on what to do if our truck flips over and making sure we can still shoot our guns. We finally got a flight on a plane and were ready to get out of there and get settled in up north. The bad part was we had been up all day and we were scheduled to fly all night, in body armor, with guns and bags in hand...can't exactly put your neck pillow on and doze off now can ya? Long night...long, long night.

When we arrived here we were met by our co-workers and whisked away in buses to our transient home for the next week or two: a long, foam covered, bay tent with the most foul smelling bathroom you have ever smelled...but it is the only one I have ever seen that was inside the actual tent! This was a nice surprise, but not something I will enjoy when I move to my permanent CHU. A friend gave me some carpets, a television and a refrigerator for my room...I love good friends like that...it makes all the difference don't you think? So I should move into my new room in a couple of days and have internet pumped into it in a week or so. I can't wait to see my girls! I miss them so much and am lost without them.

My work days have been ranging from 12-18 hours for now. Hopefully when we finally take over responsibility and make some much needed changes my work day will shorten significantly...hopefully.

We have a USO here. This is a place where soldiers can go to unwind after work. They have books, games, tv and movies. They also offer free drinks and computer access as well. If you ever have extra cash and want to give to something that soldiers really need and use...give to USO. Look it up on the internet, they are in every airport possible, use volunteers almost exclusively and really care about us. Snif, snif.

I have taken photos of where I have been so far, but it will be another week or so until I can get them on here...I am CHU bound though!

I love you all and thank you for your prayers and thoughts as always.
-jerm