Well, it’s been a while since I’ve updated this thing and quite a bit has happened since last I wrote. So this could be a doozy…guess we’ll find out. First off, for those of you who may not know, I was on 3 different continents in November, the majority of that time being spent in Weatherford, Parker County, Texas, US, North America, Earth, ad infinitum. I had a good time and between visiting family, friends, and studying for some certification exams I needed for work I stayed insanely busy most of the time. Thanks to those who were able to make hanging out happen and to those who couldn’t I’m sorry I didn’t get to see you. Seriously. It was my intention to visit with everybody I’ve known since I was born but less than a month just didn’t turn out to be enough time. The plan, as it stands right now, is to stay here until I’m done with this place which is probably going to be August or September, it all depends on how my financification is going at that point. After that I will see you all and not have to rush it because I’ll never have to come back to this place again (at least that’s my hope and dream). Barring not getting to see everyone though, I’d say my vacation was a pretty big success. Although would like to offer one bit of warning: If you do a European vacation then make sure you have at least some semblance of a plan. The whole impromptu thing didn’t work out as well as I’d hoped and involved a lot more backtracking and expense than I really expected. I went from Spin B -> Kandahar -> Dubai ->London -> Edinburgh -> London -> Paris -> London -> home…all in a week. While I had a great time and saw some amazing things (every bit of London, the Louvre, The Eiffel Tower, Edinburgh Castle, etc) I also got a lot of great pictures and vides…however I was a big idiot and took all the pics off of my camera and put them on my computer at home so I don’t have them up here. I did upload a few to facebook though so here they are:
This is the city of Edinburgh:
If you couldn’t tell, that’s me with the Eiffel Tower:
This is me in the largest collection of scotch whisky in the world:
In other news, I’d like for everyone to take a moment of silence for a friend who left us quite suddenly while I was at home. I hadn’t known him for very long but we knew each other very well and we were very close. I’m talking about Gary, my beloved beard. I shaved him off and immediately regretted the decision. I’m a monster. I will say though that his death probably did some good. I’m fairly certain at least 47 families of birds now have homes because I dumped Gary’s remains outside. It’s kind of like he was an organ donor but instead of using it as organs they used it as building materials…thank God we don’t do that with people because that would make some pretty disgusting (although possibly tasty (ah cannibal jokes, they never get old)) houses. By the way, if anyone ever doubt you when you tell them I have ADD just point them to that last paragraph; all doubts will be removed.
In other other news I’m officially back on base and have been for a few weeks now. Everything is pretty much as I left it with a few small exceptions. The first being that the DFAC is now labeling their food as to what level of performance it is on the following scale: high performance, medium performance, and low performance. It is in no way useful. I’m also pretty sure that their calorie counts are WAY off. I say this because they have an eggwhite omelet with cheese listed as having only 90 calories, whereas an egg white omelet with cheese, bacon, ham, pepper, etc is also 90 calories. To quote Pete from O Brother Where Art Thou? “That don’t make no sense!” So I just eat what I want regardless of it’s performance. I’ve also coined a new phrase regarding the DFAC. Instead of telling people “I’m going to the DFAC I’m going to start telling people that I need to DFACate. I think the allusion is accurate considering the quality of the food. We had Xmas lunch today, which actually wasn’t too bad. They even had a swan ice sculpture (no, I’m not making that up).
Also new to Spin B is the addition of road signs. That’s really awesome. Never again will I forget which of our 2 roads I’m on because now they are labeled. That being said, I’d really like for someone to send me a GPS so that I can use it to navigate the base. Please make sure it has the newest maps Afghanistan maps on it. I really would hate to get lost because of some stupid, outdated map.
I think that’s pretty much everything. I’ve decided that since I’m probably going to be here for a while now I’m going to go ahead and get my tiny living area the way I want it so I’ve ordered a few things, both practical and decorative so I can enjoy my stay at Hotel Tent a little more. Pics to come in the next blog once everything comes in. Until then. <insert some kind of rhyme involving amoritizatoin, pasicfism, and poultry>.
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