Day 224

Today was so so. My very last full day in Kabul, so that's kind of
nice I guess. I'm going to miss a lot of the people here, because we
were all in the suck together.

I first woke up and had breakfast with Senator John Kerry. He looked
about the same as 2004, but I've definitely lost hair! I got another
picture with him, though it was on my phone and not as good. Still,
it was cool to say hi again.

Then I had time to kill, since Sundays are sleep-in days. So I
watched the first half of The Man in the Iron Mask. I've seen it
before, but it's still a good story. Then I went to the office for a
bit, worked out the Fitrep issues, grabbed a lunch, and checked out of
a few places. I had to turn in my bullets today :(

But then I came back, finished the movie, watched some Star Trek, and
then it was time to head to Eggers for the bananas foster french
toast! Actually, I brought my hard drive, and me and 3 of the mission
commanders watched The Last Samurai on their tv in their office. We
paused in the middle to get french toast. But then we had popcorn, so
it was a complete movie night (though very early!) But it was good to
see some of the PSD guys before I left too. Completely unplanned, but
I ended up having a sort of leadership chat with the Army SFC in
charge. I disagreed with a method that was used (micromanagement),
and I let him know. I was polite, but if he keeps that up, he'll be
hated by everyone (that doesn't already hate him). So yeah. A
generally interesting night.

Oh, and I made an impulse Ka-Bar purchase. But I checked our flight
for tomorrow, and we are booked. So things look good for us to make
it to our first destination and get to the brief on time. After that,
it depends on how organized the Navy is down in Kandahar. But we're
leaving here early, so I should pack up and get some rest. Good
night.

Day 223

Another day of sheer boredom. I did a couple checkout things, but
then sat around the room most of the day. I hooked up a new router
for my old roommates, I bought a scorpion in plastic, and I watched
Star Treks, and Hudson Hawk. Extremely boring day.

But only one more full day in Kabul, so that's a good thing. Now if
only the return home was simple. Good night.

Day 222

Another day about done. I ended up having a wonderful sleep in the
dvq room here. It was quiet, dry, comfortable. Fantastic. Lonely,
but comfortable. I should only have about 9 lonely days left now?
Something like that.

I got up and played in the dodgeball tournament. We did better than
last time, but still didn't win the whole thing. Unfortunately for
the guys on the opposing teams, I tended to hit people in the crotch
by accident. One time, the guy was just standing at the back because
he was already out. He should have been paying attention! Oops.

Then I went and got a boxed lunch and brought it back to COL Millner's
office to eat. After that, I mailed a box home, and also a patch that
someone wanted from a trip a while back. Better late than never? I
think I've now mailed all that I'm going to. Tomorrow I will try to
consolidate my stuff and pack more efficiently.

Then I watched the PSD enlisted guys play volleyball for a while, and
at the end the officers jumped in and played too. It was fun, but
never as good as I'm hoping for. The afternoon saw me clean my 9mm,
and watch Sherlock Holmes. Nothing too exciting here. Just killing
time, really. Maybe tomorrow I'll hit another couple things on the
checkout list. Good night.

Day 221

Another boring day, for the most part. I did a couple checkout steps,
which took all of about 10 minutes of the day. Then I was pretty much
a bum all day.

I managed to ship off another big black box, but I only got 56 pounds
in it this time. But hopefully that makes it home too, since it has
nice things like my new suit in it. I then went back to the room and
just packed for most of the morning. Doug and I went to Eggers for
lunch, and we got burgers, soft cookies, and real ice cream. It was
delicious! But then we came back and I went to the office to check on
my Fitrep. COL Millner was basically done, so I just checked for
typos and grammar, and then I signed it. I think I need to carry a
copy with me, but we're unsure of who gets the original. So we'll
figure that out soon.

After lunch, I continued to pack and consolidate. Then I slowly moved
my bags over to the DVQs. I have a room here until it's time to
leave. So that was about my day. Time to have a nice comfortable
sleep now! Good night!

Day 220

Today was ehhh. The first day without a job. I am going to make a
terrible retiree someday. I went to the office early-ish, so I could
use my computers for a bit. Then I went around and did some checking
out steps on the checklist.

I got in an argument with one of the new Chair Force officers today.
She, for some reason unknown, is pushing extremely hard for me to turn
in my blackberry now, even though we don't leave until Monday. She
thinks the new Action Officers are crippled in their job because they
don't have blackberries. Which is false. They are crippled because
they haven't asked for more help yet. So we are disagreeing at the
moment, and possession being 9/10 the law, I still have my phone.

After lunch, I played 2.5 hours of volleyball, and it was lots of fun.
I definitely worked up a sweat, and I did pretty well. I have some
brush burns to prove it too! I also did a standing back flip on the
court, and it was much higher than even I expected. So I still got
it!

Throughout the afternoon, and continuing this evening, I watched The
Living Daylights. I know it's Timothy Dalton, but it's still among my
favored James Bond movies. I think I must just like classical music.

That's about it for now. I've been working on packing and
consolidating and whatnot. I think I'll still end up traveling
heavier than I had hoped, but it'll be ok. At least I get to dump a
bunch of it in Kuwait. Good night.

Day 218-219

I am exhausted, and that's after an exploration of energy drinks over
the past couple days.

My Distinguished Visitor was General Martin Dempsey, the Chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff. If anyone is unfamiliar with his position,
he is the highest ranked military person in the United States. So
he's kind of a big deal.

I had a good program lined up for him, and things went well enough.
The only bad thing was that he tended to go very late into the
evening. For the first evening, he went an hour and a half longer
than the hour we had scheduled for the meeting! So we spent a very
long time waiting for him to be done. And last night, he was invited
to late tea with the Afghan Minister of Defence, so it was another
late evening. For the last couple days, I've been getting up at 5am
and getting into bed around 1am. And last night I didn't even make it
back to my base! I slept at Camp Eggers.

But he seems like a nice guy, pretty down to earth. And today at the
plane, we took a group photo with him. However, the best part was
that he wanted an individual picture of me with him, as well as Sam
with him (she was the personal security mission commander for this
visit). So I was pretty happy about that! Of course, the picture was
taken by his photographer, and I have no idea how I'll ever see that
picture. But I'll cross my fingers.

As for energy drinks, I discovered that I like Monster drinks. The
first day I had one at lunch, and I felt pretty wired! The second day
I had a Monster after lunch, but then needed a Mountain Dew around 8
or 9pm too. This morning I drank something called a Pitbull with my
breakfast. It's been rough, but I'm glad it's done.

And so now I'm done. I thought I'd be much happier about being done,
but I'm mostly sad. Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited to come
home, but I completely lack a purpose right now. I don't exactly know
what I should do. The other crappy part is that people are moving
into my desk, and because I was out most of the last few days with the
visit, she's nearly completed her transition. I'm going to get in
there tomorrow so I can have some computer time, but it's ridiculous.
I've been forced out of my own desk! And the other new Action
Officers are trying to get me to turn in my Blackberry now, so they
can have it signed out to them. I won't turn it in until I am going
to the airport, because this is really the only way to contact me
since I don't have a desk anymore. They can suck it up or go fly a
kite. Not in the mood.

Well, I think I'm going to crawl into my sleeping bag with some tv
shows or the Kindle. After about a week, I finally made it through
the first chapter of the first Harry Potter book. Hopefully I can
pick up the pace at some point. Tomorrow will probably be a day to
shop, pack, take care of some checkout stuff. All easy things. Good
night.

Day 217

Lots to say, too late to say it. More to follow in a couple days...

Day 216

An interesting day, with lots of good, mixed with bad.

I basically started off my day taking a trip with an advance agent and
the PSD teams down to a location where my DV will be visiting for a
few hours. It's a pretty secure place, which is a good start. I was
picked, along with 3 other people, to jump in a truck and drive to the
top of a mountain. So that was pretty crazy. The roads were muddy
and not so good, but we make it up there. The views were pretty
amazing, though my phone camera didn't do it justice.

Then we came down, talked a little more, and then had lunch there.
They made gyros, and it was delicious! It was almost like a normal
food! Very tasty. And on the way out, our point of contact grabbed
me an entire box of Clif bars. So that was pretty cool! Now I have
some snacks for the trip back.

After that, we drove back, which was pretty uneventful. I then walked
people over to the Embassy to talk about our arrival and departure
with the DV. Nothing was too unexpected, and it'll be even easier
than originally planned. Then I came back to the office.

I had to talk to this woman (note that I did not use the word lady).
There is an entity that is trying to insert itself into our itinerary,
and assert themselves as the experts on how to do this certain backup
movement. I got an earful because I was pushing back against her
recommendations. But I don't think she realizes that I'm going home
quite shortly. Anyhow, I argued back, and it wasn't very pretty for
either of us by the end. But I think she's still upset because she
lost the helicopter argument with me. Long story, but I won, suffice
it to say. And I am pretty sure I'm going to win this one too, which
probably ticks her off. So that was the bad part of my day.

The good news is that most everything else is lined up and ready to
go. So I don't anticipate any show stopping changes at this point.
I'm crossing my fingers at least. So that's it for today. I got 2
letters from Grandma today, which was nice. One of them had been
returned to sender for some reason. But I enjoyed reading it all the
same! I'm going to settle in with some Harry Potter on my Kindle now.
Good night.

Day 215

Another day of my life I'll never get back. Ok, so it wasn't that
bad, but it wasn't that great either.

My day did start of on a funny note though. I woke up and realized
that the two key errands I needed to take care of yesterday slipped my
mind. I needed to pick up my laundry, and I needed to buy a bar of
soap. So a shower early wouldn't have been very productive. I ended
up watching a couple episodes of Star Trek: DS9 to kill time and then
I went out. I got the laundry with no issue, but then I had to hunt
to find a store that was open at 9am on a Friday (Afghan day off).
Eventually I found some, so that was good. Then I came back to shower
and change.

I had some advance agents arrive today, so I went over to Camp Eggers
to go over plans with them. It was pretty productive, if not a little
confusing. And we're using a ridiculous amount of manpower and
vehicles for this visit. I thought my last one was bad with the head
of NATO! But at least the days go by, and the visit will start soon.
Hopefully I can survive unscathed!

After that I got some dinner at Eggers, which was a pretty decent
hamburger, jello, and cookies. Nothing like eating healthy! But
tonight was also Navy Night. I didn't really know what that meant, so
I went over to check it out. Apparently, it means a clubbing scene.
Extremely loud music, dark room with strobe lights, glow sticks, etc.
I am not in college anymore, and I didn't enjoy that when I was in
college either! I was pretty much a stick in the mud, and I left
early. I guess I just don't understand the charm of having to yell at
the top of your lungs to say hello to someone you can barely see. Oh
well.

But I'm back in my room, ready for bed. I am going out tomorrow to
recon a location, which should be a good trip. Plus, I arranged
helicopters to meet us there, so I get to check those out. Don't
think they'll let me fly it, but you never know! Good night!

Day 214

A very wet day, all things considered. I came into work today, and
made some changes to the itinerary. Then I made some more changes,
followed by more changes. I feel like nothing very real comes from
what we do here, but at least it'll be over soon.

I showed up for the volleyball tournament tonight, but it was
postponed for a week. I think the ceiling in the gym was leaking, and
wet basketball courts are not a good recipe for volleyball. I hope I
don't have any conflicts when they've rescheduled, a week from today.

I'm just blah. I need to get home and achieve a balance of normal
again. Counting down in days now....

Day 213

Another day down. I made some good refinements to my itinerary, and I
got some guidance late tonight. So things are mostly coming together.

I am finally starting to look forward to the end of the time here. I
have started shipping things home, taking my stuff out of the desk so
the next person can move in, and I picked up a check-out sheet. I'm
mostly day dreaming about being back in the states, and all the fun
things I want to do. And while I would expect a dog to have an
excited reaction to seeing his owner after a long separation, I have
no idea if the cats will react to me at all. But I suppose we'll see
soon enough!

Not too much else to report. I'm nearing the end of Dracula, and it's
getting pretty tense. I hope Mina will be ok, but I'm a bit
pessimistic at this point. Lucy didn't fare so well. Off to read!
Good night.

Day 212

Another day down. This morning was pretty uneventful, just the basic
catching up on the work from emails that arrived in the night. Around
lunchtime, I went and got the new guy from his room and we all went to
lunch. After that, I started the check-in process with him. Because
he didn't send me his orders in advance, he will be waiting around for
a room for a while like I did. But that's ok, he'll manage.

This evening we had our farewell. I got 3 medals, and there was much
rejoicing. Afghanistan Campaign Medal, NATO Medal, and Joint Service
Commendation Medal. So that was neat. I don't really like being the
center of attention, so my remarks were quite short. I told everyone
to bring me their pets in 4 years.

One more day down. Good night.

Day 211

An uneventful day, which was good. I don't really recall what I did
in the morning, except that it must not have been that exciting. I
took a nap at my desk after lunch (non-intentional), and then I read
Dracula for a while.

We received a new Action Officer tonight, a Marine named Capt Ho. So
I got him dinner, a badge, and put him in a room. I'm sure there will
be lots of questions coming from him tomorrow. There is such a
nightmare of paperwork to check in, it's ridiculous. So I'll be
trying to navigate those waters while also planning a big visit. I'll
manage somehow.

I also volunteered an hour of my time tonight to talk to the newer
Action Officers about air stuff. I know all the systems for arranging
air travel for people, so I broke it down as simply as I could, and
they all took notes. It'll take them some time to learn, but it'll
come. Hopefully some of what I said sinks in soon. But they were all
thankful, so that was nice.

Tomorrow is my farewell, along with some other guys. I don't want to
stand up in front of people, but hopefully it'll be short. I think
we're just doing some pizzas in the garden, so that's good. Small is
good. Well, I'm going to read for a bit until I fall asleep. Good
night.

Day 210

I woke up this morning, and I thought I'd be pretty productive. I
skyped, showered, got ready for the day. Then I watched the movie
Meet Joe Black, and I thought it was a pretty decent movie.

After that, I carried my first Gorilla Box to the post office to mail
home. As it turns out, I managed to get 60 pounds of crap in it, and
the shipping was $46. Not too bad, all things considered. It was a
heavy box. One more to pack up at some point.

I had a nice lunch with a PAO friend, Abby. She's going away in about
a week, so it was a sort of farewell. She's the tallest girl I've
ever seen. Her life will be complicated when she goes home, as a
divorce is pending.

Oh yes, AND WE WERE UNDER ATTACK MOST OF THE DAY. From our office, we
heard automatic gun fire, numerous explosions, etc. We actually took
an RPG to the wall closest to us. The whole ground and building
shook, and it was pretty tense. I think we also took a mortar round
too. There were so many explosions...

The base support group was making food deliveries to offices, so we
ended up getting food around 8:45pm, so we were pretty starving. But
now we have the all clear, so we can go back to our rooms, provided we
wear our body armor and helmets. Hopefully tomorrow is less eventful.
Good night.

Day 209

Another day down. And a fairly uneventful one at that.

I went to work, and was the first one there. I had hot chocolate, and
snacked on jelly beans all morning. There are some very creative
flavors out there! II worked on my itinerary for my last visit, but I
had a hard time getting in touch with people. Eventually I got
answers, but not necessarily the ones I wanted. The good news is that
anyone military will work around this guy's schedule.

I only have about 2 weeks left, so please don't ship any care packages
out here. There would be a chance of missing me as I head home.

I want to thank Dee for the wonderful Krispy Kreme donuts! They
survived the trip pretty well, but they didn't survive me (smile).
They were delicious. I was very surprised to get them, and it was an
awesome package. Thank you!

I'm currently sorting through boxes, and I'm going to try to ship a
bunch of stuff home. Hopefully I can eventually leave Kuwait with
only a backpack and a bag of clothes. So we will see.

I think I'm going to crawl into bed and read for a while. Good night.

Day 208

Another day down. I started the day by going into the office pretty
early. Today is normally a sleep-in day, but it was my turn to
retrieve the Afghan cleaners and escort them into our building so they
could clean. They were quite noisy, so it made it difficult to watch
The Jackal. Oh well.

Then I went and played in the dodgeball tournament. We didn't win,
nor get second. But..... we got 6th! Ha ha. Same place as last
time, but at least there were 8 teams in it this time. We did better
than before, but it still wasn't that great.

Then I changed and went with Pam over to Eggers. They have a Bazaar
on Fridays too, and I'd never been. I found a nice gold tie that
might go with my suit, so I bought it for 5 dollars. It doesn't seem
like a super high quality, but this is Afghanistan after all.

My laser I ordered is out for delivery in Baltimore, after being out
for delivery in Chicago yesterday. So that's a step in the right
direction I think.

What else? I am working on a pretty high level visit now, and
hopefully it will go smoothly. A few moving parts, but I'm sure it
will be fine.

Well, a normal day tomorrow, so I'm going to get some sleep. Good night.

Day 207

Another day down. My important visitor today was the head of NATO,
Mr. Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Pretty high level DV if you ask me. I
think it went alright, with the exception of the two cars we broke
today. We crashed one of them into another of ours, and the first is
not drivable at the moment. The other car's transmission sounded like
it was going to fall on the ground. So they need some work.

They wore me out today, but I'm glad it's over. They may even be in
Brussels soon too. So now I have one more looming visit. I think
once I get through that one, I'll have about a week to do the checkout
stuff and finish packing. Only about 17 more days until I leave this
place, and about 24 until I land in Baltimore!

The link below is my attempt to post pictures from the King's Palace,
and across the way, the Queen's Palace. They both looked wonderful
until the 80's when the Soviets destroyed them. Now they are ruins,
and you can see the destruction. It's pretty interesting, and I was
lucky to get the chance to see them in person.

https://plus.google.com/photos/116642578319244436674/albums/5730435980866608961

I think that's it for today. I'm playing dodgeball tomorrow morning,
so wish me luck!

Day 206

Unfortunately, I had a visit arrive late last night, and I forgot to
post to the blog. All is well, and hopefully he'll be out of my hair
shortly. More to come later...

Day 205

Another day, and it felt like it was just full of meetings the whole
time. I have quite a headache now, and I had to take a giant
Ibuprofen.

I started trying to pack up some of my stuff at the desk, but I'm a
pretty awful packer. So I'm sure I'll eventually get it back to the
room, but it wasn't in a condition to transport tonight.

Well, I'm going to sleep now. Good night.

Day 204

Today was a pretty busy day. I basically started out going over to
the Palace and having tea. We had much to discuss with the next
visit, and there were plenty of questions to ask and answer. I'm not
sure how much I helped, but I had tea at the Palace.

From there, the driver decided to come back to Eggers instead of
dropping me off at my place. So I was held hostage for a while. But
I had a burger, hot dog, and cheese cake for lunch, which was all very
good. Sometimes changes are good.

From there we drove to the King's Palace and we walked around in it
for a while. I took some pictures on my phone, and hopefully I'll be
able to post a link to an album if they ever finish uploading. But
the sheer history is amazing. Today they are ruins, and you can see
bullet holes in everything, walls and floors have been bombed out,
it's a nightmare.

After that we drove over to the Queen's Palace, which is in slightly
better shape. Still not so great though. I took pictures here too.

When I returned to Eggers, I had a hot chocolate, killed about 20
minutes, and then walked to ISAF for a meeting. The meeting was
actually productive, and we had all the right people around the cafe
table. Nothing like doing work in a super secure Dutch cafe. Ha!

Long story short, the girls in the office decided to get me a cake for
my birthday. So when I made it back for PME (late), they had a cake
prepared. Everyone sang happy birthday, and it was sufficiently
awkward. I hate being the center of attention, and all the pictures
taken make me look ridiculous. Hopefully they never get out to the
actual internet.

Long day, bet time now. Good night.

Day 203

Today I woke up in the DVQs, which wasn't too bad, but I had to get up
early to let some advance agents into their rooms. But I went into
work early and sort of just visited with the other people who also
came into work early. Not too much going on.

I think things went pretty normally today. Just minor tweaks and
things for the upcoming visit. I think everything will go fine, but
there are lots of concerned people. I am going to the Palace
tomorrow, so that's kind of neat. My first mission and my last will
take me to the Palace for the big guy.

I also got a package from Cheryl today. Thank you so much for all the
cat food! I've never seen so much in one place before! The cats will
feast on the good food and treats. The cats of ISAF thank you!

Rob Bowlus and I walked to Eggers tonight because I thought they'd
have the banana fosters french toast, but noooo. Apparently we eat
Thanksgiving dinner on Easter, and not french toast. Haven't they
heard of the parable of Jesus and the french toast? I believe he took
a loaf of french toast, and divided it endlessly among his french
toast loving followers. I guess the Pashtu translation of the Bible
leaves some things out.

But then we watched We Were Soldiers. It was a pretty well done
movie, and it made me pretty upset. It reminded of my days of being a
Casualty Assistance and Call Officer at USNA. Very sad, and I hope no
one ever receives a telegram on my behalf. Well, I think it's bed
time. Good night.

Day 202

Today is my birthday. The only cool thing is that I'm 2^5 today. Or
as I'd prefer to enter it, 2, Enter, 5, y^x. Unfortunately, that only
makes sense for a very, very small subset of people. But I digress.

I took the day off, which was nice. I also had/have a DVQ room last
night and tonight. I cranked the temperature down really low, and got
under the covers last night. The pillows are wonderful, and it was
the first time in a very long time that I slept until my alarm went
off. It was wonderful.

I had a massage, and it was definitely one of the better ones. Then I
came back and I watched the movie Salt. It was pretty good, I
thought. And then I got a boxed lunch to go, and I came back and
watched Zombieland. Pretty good movie too. Then I played volleyball
for a couple hours. It was a pretty good day for it, but there were
so many people. But everyone was safe, and no one landed on their
heads today.

Dinner at Cianos with the group, and back in the room here now. I did
get a package from Beth and EJ yesterday, so thank you very much!
Snacks are always good, and the card was pretty cool too. And I also
got a package from Mom and Dad today too, so that you guys too! Some
easter treats were in there too, along with a card that indicated a
gift was being sent to Baltimore. You know, I think I can milk this,
and make my birthday stretch out at least a month long. I also got an
email that said Lauren bought me a digital book of the first Harry
Potter. So I will have to investigate how to retrieve that, and then
I'll have some light reading! Thank you Lauren!

I think that's about it, really. I might watch some Star Trek next,
but it'll be a pretty uneventful evening again. Good night.

Day 201

Today was pretty much a waste of time. I met with someone about my
upcoming trip, but it was only minimally helpful. I submitted all my
air movement requests, though I'll have to modify them in a couple
days. But at least I did something. Other than that, I sat around
all day and did nothing. Pretty sad really. I am feeling pretty
depressed at the moment.

But I'm in a DVQ room for a couple nights, which will be nice. I
don't have snoring, smelling, annoying roommates in here, and I can
set the temperature to whatever I want. So hopefully I'll actually
sleep well tonight. Oh well. The time is slowly going by. Only a
little more than 3 weeks until we leave this place. A month from
tomorrow, I should be back in Baltimore for a night. Good night.

Day 200

Hard to believe I've been away from home for 200 days now.  And it doesn't get any better out here, either.

In any case, today was pretty dull.  I did some basic work for the visits that are on the ground now, and some for the upcoming visit.  I have another meeting tomorrow to look at some of the details.

My only nice break in the day was walking to Eggers.  I went to their PX and bought a second Gorilla Box.  These are just huge black plastic boxes, in which I can ship home all the things I won't need for the transit home.  Hopefully, after I turn in my issued gear, I can be down to just a bag and a backpack.  We will see, I guess.

Well, not much else to report here.  Good night.

Day 199

Today was much better than yesterday.  Sometimes the sequences of days make me feel bipolar.  I think some of the days out here are the closest I've ever had to depression, and then there are days where I am very happy.  I'm ready for stable though.

I forgot to mention that I got a package from Emili yesterday, which was great!  Cadbury Eggs, Cliff Bars, cracker snacks, and a birthday card (haven't opened yet).  So that was very nice, and I look forward to the treats.  And today I got a package from Emili's mom, which sets the bar pretty high!  She sent homemade fudge, other chocolate goodies, and a card too (waiting to open too).  So I have a very nice stash of quality snacks!!  Thank you all!

I think I first noticed the quality in the dining hall declining when they haven't had anything green on the salad bar for a while.  No lettuce, no cucumbers, etc.  And we apparently ran out of Gatorade, so we are serving three different flavors of Tang now.  Traditional orange, pineapple, and mango.  Interesting choice, really.

Anyhow, here are a few pictures I wanted to share.  I've been meaning to, but I hadn't uploaded them from my phone.  Enjoy!

The Kabul Rainforest


Our Office Buddy


Shadow at my Dorm

Day 198

Today was probably the worst day I've had in Afghanistan. I can't
even describe all the things that went wrong with my visit. But here
are some of the highlights:

- The helo planners moved my flight times EARLIER at midnight last
night, so I found the changes when I came into work.
- The helicopters took off without my DVs because they thought they
were at breakfast.
- I had a C-130 break while at a FOB today, so the party there was
stranded for an extra hour.
- The Generals don't like the itinerary and two of them just decided
they aren't going to RC-N. This means that if I didn't change things,
it would have fallen squarely in the "Fraud, Waste, and Abuse"
category, for which there is an explicit paragraph that outlines how
it's bad to do that, and whatnot.

They are not happy people, and they are a pain in the rear to work
with. I think we'll all be quite happy to send them on their way in a
few days.

Today I would have driven the hour out to the range to put some holes
in targets with a very large gun. Good night.

Day 197

Today started out fine, but ended up pretty poor, I'd say. The party
that is coming soon just isn't high enough ranked, so they aren't
getting the flight times that they wanted. So I'm having to work
around a bunch of changes. Oh well.

I did stop and give Panda some treats today, and he then crawled up in
my lap and was ridiculously affectionate. It made me smile, and I
gave him some good attention for a while.

I sat in on a video teleconference for another visit I'm working on,
and that one is likely to get out of hand too. There are too many
hands in the pot, and I can see it being a nightmare. Luckily, my
only part is really arranging helicopters and helping with the ground
movements.

It rained a good bit again tonight. Welcome to the Kabul Rainforest.
At least it helps keep the dust levels down a bit. Well, off to bed.

Day 196

Today wasn't too bad. I think I've been dealing with a cold for the
last couple days. Yesterday I was miserable, but today was a lot
better. I am still congested and have a cough, but I at least was
mostly awake and didn't just want to sleep the whole day away.

I watched a really good copy of Inception this morning, and it is
still a very good movie. It makes you think, and sometimes I wonder
if I'm in a dream. Maybe we all just wake up when we die. It's an
interesting thought, anyway.

And whoever said Afghanistan is a desert was wrong. It's more like a
rain forest here. We had torrential downpours today, and I saw some
of the largest bodies of water I've yet seen in this country!
(puddles) I actually had to dig out my rain coat, even though it's a
different pattern. I thought it was more important to stay dry than
to match. Tim Gunn might disagree, but I'm sticking to my guns!

We went over to Eggers tonight to listen to one of General Allen's
cultural advisors talk to our PSD team. He talked about greetings in
Afghanistan, manners, general respect for people, etc. These are
principles that I think most of us follow at home. However, it's
harder to keep these in mind when so much of the country seems bent on
killing us all. I'm sure it's a few bad eggs, but we form our
doctrine around those bad eggs. So it's a balance we have to strike
that keeps everyone unhappy.

Some significant changes to itineraries today, but nothing I couldn't
handle. Hopefully tomorrow isn't terrible. Good night.