It happens even here.

Last night, another officer and I went to a local vendor (a "Haji Shop") to look for DVDs. Honestly, I was looking for CSI episodes and struck the motherlode. Anyhow, I'm perusing the goods, when the vendor (a Turkish fellow) says to me, "Sir! Hello sir! Do you remember me?" Now, it had been a full day, I wasn't exactly tracking, and I suppose my face showed it. The vendor saw that and repeated, "Sir, I am Ahmed, CJ's brother! You remember?" To which I finally replied, "Oh, from two or three years ago?" At which point, this dude lights right up, "Yes! Yes! You remember!" "Um, actually, I don't, I have a twin brother you see..." So Paul, CJ and Ahmed say hello, for what it's worth. AND I picked up eight seasons of CSI for $40, which isn't bad. Naturally, if any of the DVDs don't work, I can bring them back to be recut....

Things are shaping up around here for near and long term plans. Near term, I met with some folks today and I think I can tackle the next month for the four or five companies involved with little to no hiccups. Long term, I have to decide if I'm sending anything via connex or not. At this point, I'm thinking to send all of my extra stuff home via USPS. First, because I can claim the postage on my travel voucher and get it back, second because I want it sent to my home, not Camp Atterbury, and lastly because I don't want the customs apes at Atterbury pawing through my stuff.

Hey, Carl and Sarah, thanks TONS for the package!! Used the mug this morning, and I think I have a new favorite mug. This one is nice!

Folks, that's all the news here from my end of the world.

Enjoy!

Weekend of Firsts!

Hello everybody! True to form, this has been an excellent weekend. Actually, Sunday was a good, good day. Basically I slept late (0630), drank some coffee, read a book, skipped a briefing (the LT just reads the slides anyhow), grilled steaks (later that day) and PT this morning kicked butt.

So, the firsts. I think I posted a month or so ago that I was tired of grilling meat that had no flavor, no prep, nothing. As a result, I had ordered a pound of kosher salt and some steak rub from Penzy's. Unlike other online merchants (ie, Target, et al), they ship to APOs. THEN, last week I scored some decent steaks at the PX. Last night we cooked them up. The result was very, very good! The salt did the trick, as it usually does and the rub is just fantastic on top of all that. It was good to be back at a grill, fussing over steaks. So, the experiment worked! The other first - just went over my own body weight on bench press, which for a guy with my build, is kind of cool.

Work-wise, things are progressing well. Odd thing, I get into these emotional ruts, where I just don't want to be here at all, work through it, write or watch DVDs or read a book - basically change things up a little - and life gets better. Currently, I have three or five relatively decent sized balls in the air that I continue to juggle. My intent is to concentrate on one of them at a time, until I get rid of them altogether. This includes, of course, the LAST ESSAY I need to write in order to be done with Phase 2 of ILE. I might, just might, have to do this in the evenings. We'll see.

[rant] One fact of life, to which I've resigned myself, is that those celebrities who visit Iraq seldom make their way far enough north to see us here in Mosul. While this shouldn't surprise anyone, I'm left to wonder why any politician would make his way all the way here just to ignore US troops. Oh wait, that's right, now I remember. Obama was never in the military. So, if visits determine votes, it looks like Dane Cook will carry the "stationed in Mosul in 2008" demographic. [/rant]

That's the update for this morning. Life is progressing inexorably to that date in September when I will go on leave!

Enjoy!

It's Friday Already?

We have been very busy this week. Not "frantic" busy, but busy enough that I'm not counting the minutes as they pass. That's all good, but it also means that my already rather long Master To-Do List gets longer. Folks 'round here tell me to grow accustomed to that state of affairs. To be honest, leaving loose ends for my successor to tie up bothers me, hence the need to get the list done. I know, I know, we don't RIP anytime soon, it's the intent I want to maintain though.

Apparently, according to my Bride, my brother made his way to Evansville to pickup the truck. Just so it's somewhere in writing, the truck has a Rhino liner in the bed, in-dash CD player, AC, cruise control, V6 engine and still looks pretty decent (for an eight year old vehicle). Paul, have fun teaching the girls to drive a stick! Oh, the tires are new too.

So, last night I went and did the Turkish dinner thing with some folks who had invited several of us from Badging. Normally I beg off of these, as being polite, charming and witty after dealing with ten hours of "can I please have this" and "why can't I have that" is an effort. But, I needed to go and so I went. It was good. Food was great, company was great and we all had a pleasant time. I watched two guys play two, almost three rounds of backgammon inside of ten minutes. These guys are cutthroat backgammon players! They don't even stop to count the little points while they're moving.

Unfortunately, I've not been writing for pleasure as much as usual. Oddly enough, I can tell. One viewpoint of why to write is here. Enjoy the article!

Short post, I apologize! Like I said, this has been a full week. So much so, I am looking forward to Sunday, just to catch up on projects I've had to let go for immediate need items.

Enjoy!

Sunday Reflections

Greetings once again from Mosul, vacationland of the north! Today is Sunday and true to form, it's time for another post. Why do I mostly post on Sundays? Easy - the contractors who work for me get today off. This means nobody is here to be screened or printed or pick up a badge, or arrange for a badge, etc. I can sit in the office, literally, all day and not see a single soul. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a good day. Why? Because the other six days of the week, my door is a revolving door for all sorts of requests from the mundane badging type to the incredibly unique (yesterday, I turned travel agent, went to the transportation yard to wave my oak leaf around and get a Turk on a convoy to go back to Q-West...not something I've ever done before). So Sundays I do no PT, usually clean the office, restock my supply of bottled water sitting inside, clean the CHU, catch up on projects that I've had to set aside thanks to folks walking into the office and asking odd sorts of favors. Like can I help a Turk get back to Q-West, that sort of thing.

Here's what I need you all to do before reading the next section. Look to the right of this post at the links. I should - should - have a link to Kim's blog. Click on that and read her latest post. When you're done, hit the "back" button and keep reading.

SO I was talking to Kim on the phone yesterday morning (more about phone calls later) and she mentioned this yard sale thing my mother-in-law (MIL) was going to do with her. My bride, the love of my life, knows how much I abhor conducting yard sales, which is perfect, as she likes doing them. It's like eating olives, so there's a balance. Anyhow, Kim was mentioning how hot it was going to be and that sort of thing. Not wanting to miss an opportunity, I replied with, "OK, so do that, then wear some hiking boots, jeans, a t-shirt, a long shirt, go to the garage, grab my old kevlar helmet wear that too..." Kim responded with, "I get it, I get it." And we laughed about it. Honestly, the only way I handle this heat is I don't really have to be out in it all day long. Aside from that, I drink all the freaking time, I mean all the time, I'm in good physical condition (this is key, by the way), and there is almost NO humidity. I'll happily take 120 in this environment for 95 in Evansville, any day. Any. Day. The humidity in Evansville is horrendous. It's bad enough that while I like living there, I would not have chosen to live there.

Before I forget, this is an excellent article on COIN and where it fits in our spectrum of professional skills. Be advised, it doesn't place COIN on the same pedestal as the rest of the Army. Granted, it's important, but his thesis, in my opinion is accurate.

A quick note on phone calls, as that seems to be a topic that's on my mind. The difference between here and Evansville (which is in the Central Time Zone) is eight hours. That is to say, when it's 0800 here, it's midnight the night prior in EVV. When it's 1600 here, it's 0800 the same day in EVV. Evansville is eight hours behind me. As I've outlined in the past, my day usually starts at 0530 or so when I call Kim. I work, or am on task with something vaguely relating to the military, from 0800 until 1800 or so almost daily. Given also that I'm not the only dude on this base with family on a different continent, and getting a working phone line either DSN or via internet, can be a chore at times. Usually Kim and I get pretty decent reception through the internet most mornings, but we've had pretty cruddy connections too. Calling Kim daily isn't a chore or a duty, it's what I do. I made a commitment almost 17 years ago, and that's what takes priority on calling home (never mind the fringe benefits associated with that effort). I will not stay awake past 2200 to call (can't really get out easily, as I've tried) and I most certainly will not roll my butt out of bed at ungodly hours to do so (ie, 0300). Folks, I live and die by email. I can chat on yahoo or Skype, I've done that with folks in the evenings, which works wonderfully for me (lower bandwidth than calling, so it's easier to do reliably). Phone calling is not an easy task, trust me, between the time difference and the duty day's hours (which have extend to 2100, from time to time). I will answer all emails, trust me. Yahoo chat is far easier than trying to get a spawar phone in the evenings, or a DSN line (which is not always available) or talking via internet.

Off the soapbox.

Anyhow, life is going well. This afternoon I'll either jump into database work, or work on a research paper for ILE. Likely it's going to be the paper, as I have a hankering to get it in the can. That's my day!

Enjoy!

Beginning of Wisdom?

This week has been progressing well, I think. I've actually been completing things on the "to do list", which is nice. Instead of randomly going at it, I took the slide that I briefed last week of "all the stuff I'm going to accomplish this week" and stuck it in front of me on the desk. This way, I figure it's a focus help. Plus, I decided to get more into the game and really worked the GTD piece of my uber-list and have been working off that too. It works for me.

Commander and I were reflecting earlier today, figured I'd share some of the observations here. When I first arrived in country, and even before that at the mobilization site, I was all about "soldiers are like this" or "soldier are like that". Really, it's not about soldiers, as much as it's about people in general. We've begun to notice that all the dumb stuff we whine about back home (ie, "brigade did this dumb thing" or "brigade has that silly plan"), is the same on active duty, and in the Regular Army. The leadership in the RA feels just as mercurial as the leadership in the ARNG. And honestly, they're really not all that much better than we are. Sure, they do this stuff every day, and I'll give them credit that they deploy on an every other year cycle. For all that, the quality of soldier isn't dramatically different than the quality we bring with us. Please don't misunderstand me, my intent isn't to tear down the RA and say they're some low quality soldier or some such. Quite the opposite. My point is, they're not that much better at this than we are. People can give me countless examples for and against this entire point, but I see it daily. So, the beginning of wisdom...people are people. Large organizations are all fraught with the same leadership issues. Soldiers are soldiers, regardless of who owns them. Higher HQ are no better or worse deployed than at home (ie, they all do the same things, make us wonder, "why did they do that", etc). And ultimately, most people show up day in and day out with the intent of doing the right thing, based on their understanding of the situation at hand.

Have I mentioned that I am married to the coolest woman in the world? Package arrived yesterday with TWO COLORS of Propel powder in it!! TWO! Purple and Red! I intend on doing a blog entry that reviews the various and sundry drink mix powder packets (mit Bilder) sooner or later.

So...four weeks until I get my leave date. Then, maybe another four, maybe another two until I go home on leave. What this tells me, in simple terms, is that in two weeks, I MUST purchase the anniversary present and have it sent (For the record, I'm working with a handicap on this one. See, normally, I could poke through Kim's stuff to make sure I don't duplicate previous gift efforts. In this case, I don't have that luxury, so I must rely on my really lame memory of what I think she might have in, around or in the dresser), the wine kits I intend to start and rack while on leave, and whatever else I think I need to get my butt home. Essentially, I'll need to pack one of the duffel bags with as much extra crap as possible. The rest goes into boxes and the footlocker, which I send home at the end of October.

Speaking of wine kits, I have my eye set on the Sangiovese these folks sell. I cannot remember if I've linked them before, I think I might have though. The plan, for those who are late in arriving to this here blog, is to make a batch of the Sangiovese, and rack it to secondary before I am done with leave. Also I will do a Merlot and a Cabernet and blend in the secondary. THEN, in January (follow me now), I get a Sangiovese, Pinot Noir and a Merlot from Kamil, and do two batches of a Tricorno. How freaking cool is that? Naturally, this will require new equipment (BIGGER FERMENTERS, ARR, arr, arr). Sadly, that means I'll have started 15 gallons in September and another 15 in January. Oh, and the 15 from September should be ready to clarify and package when we get back in December, not to mention drink. Got to fight the deep fight when it comes to making wine. Now, should any of you have any concerns at all about us having not enough wine in the rack, feel free to get us some. If you're not, that's cool, since I packaged 15 gallons last December. Most of it should still be there. Should. I plan on competing all three of those batches too.

That's the update for now.

Enjoy!

Milestones...or Has It Really Been That Long??

Hello everybody! This has been a tough week. One of the soldiers in the section helped me out by giving me a cold, so I've had the sniffles all week. Today is the first day it seems to be lifting. Between Airborne (excellent stuff, by the way), more Sudafed and literally drowning the cold (no shortage of free bottled water), it seems to be working. And today is Friday, which means one more week is close to being done. As much as I'd like to truly enjoy the journey, the cold, hard fact is that I miss being home and hanging out with my wife.

On to the milestones. Yesterday was the 10th, which officially is the 7th month of the deployment. Pretty cool. Five to go. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm kind of stoked about that. Milestones...let's see, it's 3 weeks and 3 days until my anniversary. That's right, we'll have been married 17 years come August (I'm pretty sure my math is right on that one). I figured this one out the other day and keep thinking, "wow, Kim's put up with me for a long time!"

Thanks go out to lots of folks right now too! The Third Reformed Church's 3rd - 6th grade class, you guys are awesome!! Thanks for the pictures and letters, I owe you a real written response! Be warned, my handwriting is marginally better than my father's....but not by much. The Shaker Messenger Store, thanks for the soups. I'm more than a little nonplussed, as I have access to legitimately great bread, and can scare up a hotplate, but I'm short on the appropriate sized kettle. However, I see this as a challenge. I figure, once September or October hit, I'll be jonesin' for some decent soup and so I have a few months to scrounge said kettle. Good thing I know the Turkish Godfather. Last milestone: according to this, it's eight weeks until the Boilermakers take the field again. Now, for those who know me, this is an odd statement. Everybody knows I don't follow sports. Being over here, it's almost as if anything that reminds of home or good memories becomes something we latch onto, and so for me it's the whole college football thing. Who knows, I might actually follow the season this year. Here's the evil plan: get a TV, have it in the office, hook it up to one of the several AFN satellites on the rooftop and viola, college football Saturdays in the comfort of the office! Or even better, since we're eight hours behind on some of that stuff, I can very likely watch it on Sundays, which means NO INTERRUPTIONS! See, this gets better all the time! Nothing like a late Sunday morning, some nonalcoholic Bitburger Pils and a college football game.

For those of you who might be wondering, I do find it interesting that the Iraqi government is calling for a timetable on withdrawal of US forces here. Honestly, I'm not so sure the GOI understands how really fragile the current level of stability really is. My very limited perception on this whole scenario is that the GOI is like a 16 year old kid asking for the keys to the family car in the middle winter in Michigan (read, "deep snow") and saying something like, "no honestly, I know exactly how to drive in snow." NB: I believe both Paul and I have used this line in the same circumstance. Between an overconfident GOI and possibility of a Democrat in the White House in 2009, I can see this region descending back into the chaos it knew in the past, once we begin to significantly pull out of Iraq. It is what it is. Before we descend into arguments over politics, let me make my position clear: I am in 100% agreement with the philosophy outlined by Robert Heinlein in his book, Starship Troopers (awful film, excellent book, he'd never have approved that film were he alive..here's a very good treatment of that whole philosophy). I am under the impression that Obama Barack has never served in the military. If that's true, in my opinion, he has no business being President of the United States. Period. I fail to see how he can better show that he is able to place duty and honor and country before himself outside of military service. That, dear readers, is the distilled essence of my political views. I realize they are unreasonably narrow in some cases, I'm willing to accept that limitation.

That's about it for now. Coming out of the head cold tailspin is nice, needless to say. I could write about all the stuff here on my desk, but why? That's boring.

Enjoy!

Another update! When I viewed my own statistics on this here blog, I realized that two or three updates a week would up my total for the month considerably. I'm concerned about finding enough to tell on here which doesn't 1. violate OPSEC, and 2. bore / frustrate / shock the readership. Some thoughts on the first one. Acknowledging this has been stated in the past, my section controls access privileges to this base. As a result, we talk to a lot of Iraqis and other people who work here (like, all of them). Not everyone is an angel and not everyone is a saint, we get plenty of both. Naturally, the interesting stuff, the really "sexy" stuff centers around those who are less of a saint. You know, the former Republican Guard, former Ba'ath Party folks who think they're now past all that, and so on. Some of those are in process still, no surprise there. That's what makes life interesting around here. That and employers (like AAFES), who can't seem to tell us where all their employees are. That's a comforting thought. See, to the military mind, personnel accountability is way high up there. To someone like me, "losing" people simply is unthinkable. Usually that sort of situation receives the reply of "How the &*#@ do you lose your people??", then I usually follow up with, "No, never mind, don't tell me. Just find them. I'll be back in three days, please have them found by then."

The 3ACR's priest is back from leave. The priest who had been here as a substitute was great! At one time he was in the OHARNG, which means he has a personality outside the military. The "normal" priest we have is fairly vanilla. I'm fairly certain he's a good man, but the substitute, well, he preached with personality. He was a real mensch. Reminded me of Fr John, honestly. So, now we're back to the vanilla homilies. I think I need to end up as a deacon for no other reason, than for folks to hear more homilies that aren't vanilla, kindergarten level, regurgitations of the readings. I was really happy at Holy Redeemer between Fr Jason and Fr Paul...then I deployed. Since then, the last month was the first time I've seen a priest who wasn't Philipino, AND one who could make the message of the readings really come alive. Kim would say I need to really watch what I say about who preaches how, and I'm certain I mostly agree with her...to a point...sort of. I really have a very hard time with dumbed down, watery messages disguised as homilies. Church tradition and the writings of the saints are so full of great stuff, why bother with "acceptable" preaching?? Most of the saints we revere today we're exactly agreeable people in their time. Keep in mind, Christ offended people, not by being rude and crude (Diba, take note), but by being the Son of God and preaching the Truth. It's really that simple. Challenge us! The message of Christ is going to be a stumbling block for many and that's OK - heck, the Eucharist was when Christ first practiced it, and He certainly didn't make it any more palatable at the time! Thus endeth the rant. Needless to say, I was less than impressed with Father's message this morning. I know, I know, we don't go for the message, but the Eucharist. It's still nice to have a priest, who can stand up there and say things like, "God doesn't love us with a cheeseburger love".

The focus here is the key to getting through it all. Most of the time here, I've existed only in the "now" and been mostly happy with the flow of things. As stressors build, as some of the really dumb stuff continues, the challenge to me is to continue staying in the "now" and focusing on results instead of the minutae of daily existence. So, knowing that, I'm looking to shift my focus back to the now and not be so wrapped up with what is or is not. I know I need to write more on my own, just to take my mind off things. Plus, I think a few nights of nothing but gaming or just vegging out watching DVDs would help too. Anything to set the day aside and let it go is good. Thanks to Kim and some others, I have plenty of DVDs. I picked one up this week on Amazon for like $5 including shipping. Got to like that!

Goal this week: roll out of bed early enough to lift M-W-F (which I have been doing), talk to Kim (ditto) and run T (which I have not been doing). And to focus on positive things.

Enjoy!

Alright, time to update y'all back home. This has been an interesting week.

We continue to try and educate the infantry, and we're not being successful. Not sure what it is, to be honest (not using pictures, probably). I normally would think that a Major telling them, three times, "your battalion exec signs here" would suffice. I know, it's not outside the wire and it's not kicking in doors. For all that, these folks aren't helping me to help them. I've finally broken down and told their Ops guy. We'll see what happens. Note this is the same unit, whose misguided LT I had to set straight about combat arms and active duty time, so I suspect there's some underlying prejudice about the Guard and such.

Oh, I lost my temper in a most spectacular manner yesterday with a friend of mine over something pretty stupid. That was fun. Not real happy with myself over that. I've apologized, but it's still something I'm frustrated with myself about.

And then we had the air conditioner drama. That was an illustration in typical contractor BS around here:
AC in my office had been on the fritz for 5 days. I'd been able to nurse it along by turning it off every night, when I left for lunch, that sort of thing. Awaan (DPW contractor) came to replace it, so there was a shiny new one on the wall. Guy asks me to sign the paper, since it was installed. I look at the AC, and the power cord not only didn't reach the fuze, but it wasn't wired in. No electricity was going to this shiny new AC unit. So, essentially, it didn't work.
So I tell him, "No, I will sign your paper when the AC works."
Him: "But it does work."
Me: "No, it has no power, so it doesn't work."
Him: "We are not electrician."
Me: "OK, go get one and f*****g fix the AC. THEN the AC will work and I will sign the papers."
Apparently, he can understand English when I do what he wants. He then grabbed one of my linguists, made his case to her, she translated to me. I answered her with the same message, "Hey, as soon as the unit has power and is running, THEN it works. Period. I'll sign all sorts of papers for him then."
Linguist: "You're not happy about this?"
Me: "No I'm not happy. The job is not done."

I then walked into my sergeant's office and handed him my pistol ammo. After that, I didn't trust myself to keep a calm head. The kicker here is they get paid by the Army for each service call. This was one call, that they turned in to two. According to a soldier in our unit, they did this to a couple dozen soldiers on the post that day.

Here's what it's boiled down to for all of this: Do it right. Attention to detail is the key to success. The measure of success is in the follow-up. The Colonel was right.

Oh, for those of you following Bama-bama-bo-bama, you'll enjoy this one.

Please pray for my patience.

Enjoy!