Day 80

Today was cold! In fact, when I went to the office, I saw a cold
Pumpkin sitting outside. I felt bad, and I was in a hurry, so I told
her she'd get a reward if she was still there after I took care of my
DVs. And sure enough, she was still there! So she actually got a can
of cat food this morning. Hopefully it kept her warm and out of
trouble today!

Today went remarkably smooth with regard for my itinerary, with one
exception. Traffic was really bad coming back from a meeting, so they
ended up getting on their helicopter 40 minutes late. I felt a bit
bad for the helo crew, because it's really boring waiting for people.
I have first hand knowledge of this! But they eventually took off and
went to their meeting. When it was time to come back, it was dark,
and helos kept landing! I think we ended up with 6 helos in the
soccer field! I've never seen it that crowded, so it was kind of
crazy to see. But after that, everything went according to plan too.

Brian O'Neil is the newest guy in our office, and we went to get a
pizza tonight. I just wanted a change, and to get out of the office
for a bit. It worked out well, because the pizza shop is much quieter
than the dining facility too. So that was nice. Maybe I'll try to do
something like that once a month. We'll see how busy I get in the
future. Not much else to report I guess. I am going to sleep now!

Day 79

Well, today was another sad day. My schedule was only marginally
affected, but a suicide bomber went into a mosque during their
celebration (today was Ashura, a Shiite holiday), and blew himself up,
killing 54-ish people. Simultaneously, another bomber killed 4 people
in Mazar-i-Sharif, up north. Very sad day.

While my group had too much down time, there wasn't much I could do
about it. They ended up scheduling a couple meetings on their own, so
that was fine with me. They went off and did their own thing and met
up with me later. I'll take them to breakfast tomorrow morning to
start off the day.

I got a letter from Grandma today, and also a package from Emili! So
that was wonderful. Emili sent me the name-tapes for my new uniforms,
which was great. Unfortunately, I got back to the room and I tried on
the tops to the new uniforms and they don't fit. Everything is a
large, whereas I am not. I already wanted to go to Bagram to get the
cold weather gear, but now I'll take back this box of uniforms and try
to get sets that actually fit. I just don't know when that will
happen. Maybe next week sometime.

Tomorrow will be bittersweet exciting for me, because I have my first
pair of Blackhawks coming to land and pick up my party. It's strange
to find myself on this side of the aircraft, and I would kill to be on
that side instead of where I am. I am not a people person, but I can
certainly fly sideways and backwards. Sigh. Well, I think it's off
to bed now. Until tomorrow.

Day 78

Today was a bad day.

1) It started off good, with a hot chocolate in the office. That's
always nice.

2) But then things took a turn for the worse. All of my planned
meetings with Afghans were cancelled. So apparently they are claiming
tomorrow as a religious holiday, but wikipedia says that holiday is
today. So I think some shennanigans are going on here. I think that
because the Bonn II Conference was today that they decided tomorrow
will be the holiday. Extremely frustrating.

3) I was in a car accident today. No one was injured, but one of our
cars hit a Carolla in a traffic circle. We didn't stop, but he gave
chase and rammed us with his car. So he was pretty mad, I would
expect. We eventually stopped, and a very large crowd gathered. Not
fun. I stayed in the car with the driver, but everyone else got out
with their guns. Not good.

In a snapshot, that was my day. I don't remember the meals because
they weren't that memorable, and I just want this visit to be done.
Hopefully things will go well tomorrow. Good night.

Day 77

Well, I definitely enjoyed my lazy morning.  I got up and talked to Emili on Skype, which was great.  Then I watched Species, a movie that came out a long, long time ago, and I never got around to seeing it.  I thought it was interesting, but not necessarily for the plot.

The afternoon wasn't too taxing, except I found out certain Afghan leaders wouldn't be available for my trip.  So that was not such good news.  I asked for some substitutes, and we'll see how that pans out.  I think they just got more free time on their hands.

Around 6:30pm, I helped unload a van full of luggage and put it in the appropriate rooms.  Apparently, Rose's group was running short on time, so they dropped the people off directly in front of the dining facility, but that left us to unload all the luggage.  These people didn't travel light!  Ridiculous amounts of stuff.  I certainly hope I don't have that much stuff to take home!

Then I helped Thurmond with his trip.  His visitors were catching a helo to fly to an event.  But they were running late, etc.  Par for the course.  So we had a millionaire (maybe billionaire) running in his multi-thousand dollar suit, to go find a toilet before he got on the helo.  Almost comical.  Hopefully he's a good sport.

That's about it for today.  Nothing really good, nothing really bad.  Another day to cross off the calendar.

Day 76

Another day down.  Phew.

So I went to work, made myself a hot chocolate, and did some minimal work.  There wasn't much for me to do, because I'm waiting on the Afghan government offices to get back to me.  Ehh.

After lunch, a couple of us from the office walked to one of the Afghan shops on our compound.  It actually had the best stuff I'd seen to date.  Clothing, back packs, shoes, etc.  I even found lots of Arc'teryx gear, or so I thought.  There was a jacket that looked sort of like an outer shell, with a fleece that zipped inside.  I tried it on, and it felt ok.  It would definitely keep me warm.  The shop owner wanted $85, and I offered $50.  He came down to $80, so I moved on.  Only upon doing my research later did I discover that it couldn't have been an Arc'teryx jacket.  Some of the features just weren't right.  So I'm sure it was just embroidered properly.  So that was interesting.  Even though it's a knock-off, it's probably worth $40 or $50.  So we'll see how the negotiating goes in the future.

But eventually I found myself back in my room because I needed to change into PT gear for volleyball.  However, a local Afghan cleaning guy asked me if I'd help him (this is what I assumed his gesturing and Afghan-speak meant).  Apparently, the middle bathroom stall was locked, but no one was in it.  Because the walls go all the way to the floor, going over the top was the only options.  So I scaled the stop of the toilet stalls, dropped down into the center stall, and turned the lock.  And again.  The lock just spun around and around.  So I was stuck in there for a second.  Another Afghan asked me for a knife, and he jimmied the door open.  So I don't think I'll be using that stall anytime soon.

Volleyball wasn't nearly as fun as it had been the last couple times.  Basically everyone sucked but me.  And if your teammate doesn't read you well, and does his own thing, it just isn't fun.  So I don't know who won how many games or anything, but I guess it was exercise.  In fact, my shoulder hurts pretty bad right now, so I took a motrin.  My serve is powerful!  It even made people yelp when it hits them!  Ha ha.

I had one Afghan engagement firm up today, and it unfortunately conflicted with another meeting.  So I had to scramble to find a new idea, but I solved the problem quite masterfully, if I do say so myself.  Well, I hope everyone at home is enjoying these posts!  I am excited because I can sleep in a bit tomorrow and relax for the morning.  Good Night!

Day 75

So today wasn't too bad.  I had a brief panic when the plane sat on the runway for half an hour, but they eventually took off.  So that was good.  Off to another RC!

When I checked my email this morning, I had a vacation reservation and plane tickets!  So I think my vacation with Emili will be fantastic!  We're both really looking forward to it, and it will be a heavenly break from this.

I did come across this picture today, which is AWESOME!


Tattoo


My evening finished very nicely.  I went outside, and I was calling for Pumpkin, but another big cat came over and was very vocal.  I was petting him when a Steeler fan walked by and asked what Panda was doing over here.  So I guess he's well known too.  He is black with big white patches.  I gave him a couple treats, and I was sort of squatting down.  He crawled up onto me, laid down across my legs and arm and started purring!!  He was so adorable.  He even looked up at me and meowed a few times, and I could see that he has very nice teeth.  He would also rival Helo in terms of size, so this is a BIG cat.  But he seemed quite healthy, and I imagine he's a favorite around here.

I think that's it for tonight.  Tomorrow we have the volleyball court reserved, so maybe we'll get to play.  I think it'll depend on who comes out.

Day 74

Quite a long day today.  I started work at 6am, and finished at 9:30pm.  Cold and dark at both of those times!

I have a visit going on, and I'm doing my best to be on top of things.  I so far have anticipated 95% of their requests, which has them pretty happy.  It's an interesting group, and I'll talk more about it later.  But I ran them hard today, so they're probably all passed out about now.  They have an even longer day tomorrow, so that'll be interesting.  Hopefully they can handle it!

I had a really cute interaction with Pumpkin today.  She followed me from our secure area, through a turn stile, and out towards the road.  I sat down on a bench to wait for people, and she came over and was weaving in and out between my legs.  Very cute.  She also jumped up onto the bench and sat next to me for a while!  I think she knows who her buddy is :)  She spent about 20 minutes with me, which was pretty cool.  I know people get upset about leaving their buddies, and I'll be sad to leave her too.  I'll have to pass the treats on to someone else who loves her too!

I think that's it for tonight.  Very long day, and tomorrow starts early too.  Good Night!