It has been an interesting last few days. The middle of last week saw a couple of days with straight rain, mostly a good downpour, but with some scattered drizzle on occasion. It was also cold, which made for miserable conditions. Even though we have a lot of rocks all over the ground, there are areas that are a little bare, so we get muddy patches, which I have to walk through (there’s no short way around). I have to be careful in these areas, especially if I am wearing my PT gear (not regular uniform), because I am wearing my tennis shoes, and the pants are black, which shows splashes of “ick” real easily. Afterwards, we kept the cold, lost the rain, and gained the wind. And when I say wind, I really mean wind, not to the point where you have to lean into it to stay upright, but it was pretty close. Remember, I do not have any of extreme cold weather gear, so I do suffer some in cold conditions, even if I am not actually outside that long. The wind finally died down to a great extent yesterday. We still have some gusts, but I am glad the endless wind is gone for now. I included a couple pics of a rainbow that presented itself after the rains. It was a pleasant sight.
Our generator quit last night about 2200. I had gone to bed around 2130, and it was comfortable in our tent. Woke up feeling like it was rather cool in the tent, and it was only half an hour later! I don’t think the actual temperature inside the tent was much warmer than that outside, and the differential was probably due to the wind. I can tell you it felt like it was in the 50s in the tent! I went to our “mayor’s cell” to let them know something was wrong, so they could put in a work order. One of my Soldiers ended getting up around 2245 because of the cold, and got the generator started. Glad he is mechanically inclined! So now, the air is blowing, which is warmer than the temp outside, but it was not as warm as it usually is. Looks like the heating element part of the system is kaput! Then the generator stopped on its own again this morning, right before I was due to get up, so I stopped by the cell to put in another work order while on the way to work.
Remember the fiasco I faced when I first arrived in dealing with getting mail to Chaghcharan? Well, had the same issue this week; several days of cancelled flights due to weather. We have another scheduled flight, and hopefully this one will go out. I do not want to wait until the next regular flight, which is not for several days. At least this time, no one got on me about what I am doing to get it out! I still let everyone know the status of course, but it seems they understand there are no real alternatives, and we just have to deal with it day by day.
Found out last night that BG Hildner, 13th ESC Commander (my chain of command at Ft. Hood) passed away here in Afghanistan on Friday. His death is apparently from natural causes, but an investigation is still being conducted. He is the highest ranking American to die in the Afghanistan conflict. I met him a couple of times back home. I liked him; I found him to be intelligent, considerate, and caring of the troops. He just received his star right before I deployed.
I finished a couple of books this week, and have started a couple more, so working on three at the moment. They are “The Charlestown Connection” by Tom MacDonald, on my Kindle, “Middle of Nowhere” by Ridley Pearson, and “Intent to Kill” by James Grippando. I am rather enjoying them all. I finished season 4 of “NCIS” the other day. Started season five last night. A little disappointed with the fact it was a shorter season (by 6 episodes) than the rest, so it won’t take as long to watch. I will start season 4 of “24” today. Will likely get through 4 episodes, and then get into “Intent to Kill.”
One other item on my agenda today is to make a video for a friend of mine who teaches middle schoolers. They adopted my platoon and sent us some stuff during the holidays. The bracelets and keychains in my last posts pics are for the kids as well.
Until next time...
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