A Delicate Balance

Greetings from Southwest Asia!

Now that I've gotten some sleep, I can write something that makes sense. I am well...I'm well rested, I've unpacked and am settled into my dorm room, and I've started my training program to learn my new job. The food here is decent and I'll be getting plenty of exercise.

I'm glad to finally be here! I don't know whether I've let on or not, I've been wanting to do this for many years since I joined the AF Reserves and I'm thrilled to be part of it! Dave can attest to how many times I've come home from drill weekends bubbling about a deployment opportunity I'd heard about...

I promise pictures soon, but I want to wait till I have a chance to get my room a little more worked out.

Obviously I'm not going to be giving specifics about what I'm doing here (except that I'm doing weather work), but I'd like to share funny stories that give an idea of what life is like here.

The first story is about my first night's sleep. After I landed, I couldn't sleep right away, I had to do some paperwork. Then I needed to switch mattresses and do some rearranging to make things a little more spacious. Then I could make my bed and fall asleep. I was so tired my eyes were closed before my head even hit the pillow! I had slept 2 hours in the previous 40.

I woke up about 5 hours after I fell asleep because I had to go potty. So I got out of bed, put on my shoes and had to walk out the door to the latrine. Imagine walking out your home's front door and then going to your neighbor two houses down to use their bathroom. Don't get me wrong, my room is nice, the bathroom facilities are nice....but it was such a distance! And I was SO TIRED! It's about a 90 second walk in each direction.

Could I hold it? I tried to go back to sleep but couldn't unless I went to the bathroom. So I did, and I didn't have a problem getting back to sleep.

So here's my delicate balance. It's important to stay hydrated but I don't want my bladder to disrupt my sleep like that. There must be some perfect amount of water to drink for that.

I've taken for granted how easily I can slip out of bed in the middle of the night and use the bathroom and get back to sleep in 1-2 minutes!

A chamber pot crossed my mind, but the thought of walking the filled chamber pot 90 seconds to the bathroom in the morning grossed me out. Ewwww....

And I'm leaving you with that thought. You're welcome!

Fatigue: 8 Jan 09 1915Z

(wrote this on the plane about 6 hours earlier)
Fatigue: 8 Jan 09 1915Z
Not since Timmy was a newborn have I felt this tired. My hair looks
like death, and my face has broken out like a teenager's! I've
swollen feet and fingers, and the odor of...um...others...have
dominated my nostrils since Italy (I'm near the lavatory).
I took off from Baltimore about 14 hours after I awakened on the
morning of the 7th.
7 hours to Germany. 2 hours on the ground.
1 hour to Italy, 3 hours on the ground.
I've been in the air between Italy and my final destination for about
2 hours now. I land at my final destination in about 3 hours.
Let's do some math and he how long I've been awake: 14 + 7 + 2 + 1 + 3
+ 2 = 29 hours
(my record is around 48 hours, give or take, fall 1998).
I'm at "stupid tired" now...it's taking me forever to type this, in
fact. I've already flipped a full coffee cup all over my legs.
On a good note, one of the senior NCOs who used to be in my
flight...who's now stationed in Germany at the base we stopped
at...met us in the passenger gate area during our 2 hour stop. It was
wonderful to see him and his wife again.
It's been over 10 years since I was last in Germany and the windmills
all over the hilltops were quite the sight. Those didn't exist when I
was there in 1998.

"Are You in the REAL Army???"

At the gate in Omaha, a little boy (7-8 years old, I would guess) came
up to me and asked,"Are you in the REAL Army?"  My answer was
"Actually, I'm in the Air Force". And I pointed to my uniform where it
reads "U.S. Air Force". He said "Cool!" and returned to his parents.
I had to resist the tempation to explain to the child the crime of
inpersonating a military member. Or tell him that I'm in a fake
Army. :-)
(Smile! That was meant to be funny!)

Saying Goodbye

I had to say goodbye to my boys this morning.
Surprisingly, no tears...so far.

Disaster Cake

This is a Pre-Birthday cake for Timmy. We're going to do cake and a couple gifts tonight, mainly so Mommy gets her chance to sing "Happy Birthday" to her almost-4-year-old. Dad plans to have a few friends over for cake and ice cream closer to Timmy's actual birthday on the 26th.
But the cake! Where do I begin??? First the icing base coat fills with crumbs, making the icing layer appear all mottled. Then the spray-on yellow square has some bleed off. Then I run out of icing before I can really finish Spongebob. I had planned to dress him, at least.
But look on the bright side: I don't think there's any doubt in who that is, right??

Preparing the Boys

This not a rigid amount of time but I think it's a good estimate...90
days in theater, plus some travel time on both ends. Jacob will have a
new responsibility: adding one number on the left, subtracting one on
the right...every day till I come home.
With Jacob's affinity for numbers this will be really good for him.