Time flies... or swims

It's hard to believe I'm nearing the end of my first week at my new assignment. I've definitely been keeping busy learning all the new things I need to do, and as I've said many times before, being busy makes time go by faster. And that's a good thing.

I managed to locate the pool today, and it's quite close to where I live and work. I'll definitely try to squeeze regular trips there into my routine.

I keep bumping into fellow sailors with my organization who are stationed here, and the staff of my Army group has also been very welcoming, so I certainly feel part of the team already. Hopefully I can live up to their high expectations!

Care Package Backfires

Some time a few months ago, a loving relative sent me a can of Slim Jims. I had been slowly going through them, enjoying them.

When it came time for me to pack up and move last week, I noticed that there was a lot of empty space in the Slim Jim can, and used it to pack a few of my items, one of them something Very Important. Of course, over the days following, I completely forgot about it.

That is, until today, when I began looking for that Very Important item. One for which losing it would potentially cost me a lot of money and maybe worse. Something Not Good To Lose. I was having something close to a heart attack when I couldn't find it, and was calling my old office to see if I'd left it...

Until, finally, I was meticulously going through every item in my room, and I came across a heavier-than-it-should-be can of Slim Jims. What relief! All is well in the world again.

Mail Call

Today's highlight was receiving a lot of mail! Most of it, of course, was stuff that I mailed myself from Balad. Interestingly, some boxes sent last Tuesday arrived at the same time as some boxes sent Thursday. Of course, not all boxes sent Thursday arrived. So I get to look forward to more mail later this week.

I did also get a mini care package (thanks, Slu!). Speaking of which, I really don't think I need anything else, but if you are dying to send me some nice-to-haves, then contact me for my new mailing address.

I'm already staying very busy and enjoying the new base and new job. Some things are better here, some aren't as nice, but on balance, I think I prefer being here. We'll see if that assessment lasts beyond the first week.

Chameleon Boots

I mentioned yesterday about the lighter color of the dust here and how it shows up as white splotches on my boots. As the days have passed, my entire boots have appeared to become lighter in color. In fact, comparing to others, and to some "brand new" boots at the PX, it appears they're actually closer to the original color now. It seems the darker color that they had been was due to the darker sand at other bases. That's a nice camouflage effect.

I tweaked some settings to try to make email posts read nicer for you. If they worked well, this post should be formatted nicely. Unfortunately, most previous posts might appear with paragraph breaks removed, and text run together in a single paragraph. But who needs paragraph breaks, anyway?

I got all my email accounts up and running, and already am working on some crisis management tasks. It's good to be needed! Although I am already missing the more direct involvement I had with the troops at my old job. I'm still doing good things, but mostly from a comfortable desk.

As a final note, the College Football season started this weekend. I watched (tape delayed) Navy defeat East Carolina. It was an exciting game. I was also pleased to see that Army lost their opening game. No doubt this is an example of how the rest of the season will play out. There are a few West Pointers on the staff here, and I've been given due warning of bad things to come when Army loses in December. Note that I said when, not if.

Besides being the lone Navy fan on the staff, I appear to be alone in my support for the NFL's Denver Broncos. Currently I've identified Seahawk, Patriot, and Redskin fans. Fortunately nobody around here is a Raiders fan, and I plan to keep it that way!

Bright lights, watch your eyes

Back on submarines, when operating at periscope depth at night, we would always turn the lights out, or at least way down, so that the officer using the periscope could let his eyes adjust to night vision, in order to better see out the scope. Whenver anyone would need to use a flashlight, such as to find a pencil, or even when we went deep and they turned the normal lights back on, they would always call out a warning, "Bright light, watch your eyes." Because if you take night adjusted eyes and suddenly expose them to very bright lights, it hurts.

One of the most noticeable differences between Al Asad and Balad is the color of the sand. It's a whitish color, kind of like chalk. And it has a very fine, dusty consistency as well. Others have referred to it as "moon dust." The biggest effect of the sand is to make things very bright, especially when leaving my trailer first thing in the morning. It also seems to get on everything, and unlike the other dust which blends into the boot color, is definitely noticeable as splotches on boots and uniforms.

Another reason that some people refer to the dust as "moon dust" is a fact of the local topography. Unlike the very flat terrain around Balad, there are actual terrain features visible, including a large plateau nearby which gives us the impression of being in a crater.

As a final note, I'm using an email interface for this post, which in the past has done odd things with formatting and links in the right-hand margin. I may try to play with a few settings, or perhaps even change the entire blog teplate, depending on how well it works out. If you don't see the links to the right... scroll down!

Camp Cupcake

The second time was a charm with my flight, although I had to stay up all night for the early check-in and then short flight. The aircraft I rode is a C-23 Sherpa, a boxy little aircraft that makes you wonder how it can fly. But it does have a nice accelleration rate... annoying when you're sitting sideways in a cargo seat with nothing to support you. I am now at a base called Al Asad. It's in the western portion of the country (Anbar Province) and the U.S. Marines are in charge of this area, so I'm seeing a lot more marines around the base here. I'm told the marines nickname this base "Camp Cupcake" because the conditions are so "posh" compared to other bases. That may be true, but it's still a step down from Balad. Then again, Balad was Air Force territory. Living conditions are similar to how they were at Balad, with 1/3 of a trailer to call my own. Except this time I have two bunk beds in my room (that I occupy alone). Lots of horizontal surfaces, I guess, but I miss the headroom when I'm sitting on the edge of my bed putting on my boots. The DFAC is bigger, and with a slightly wider selection (and I'll be able to get stir fry every day instead of just once a week) and I can walk pretty much anywhere I need to go. I still don't have my official email accounts set up, and the network blocks lots of sites such as updating my blog (24 hours) and my google mail account (during working hours) so I'm forced to use the MWR machines, where I endure a long line and 30 minute time limit. Blog updates might not be as frequent in the future as they were in the past. I'll spend the next day or two resting up and hopefully getting my email set up, and then it'll be back to work.

Bumped

I checked out of my room, hauled 200 pounds of stuff on and off various buses to get to the air terminal at a very dark hour of the morning, and was finally sitting on the plane relaxing and preparing for my flight to the new base when everyone found out there was a change of plans, and the plane had to go elsewhere. So I had to do the reverse, hauling all my bags on and off various means of transportation to my office. No place to sleep, but it doesn't matter, as my follow up flight is even earlier... early enough to just stay awake for. Since I had already said my goodbyes, and wasn't even supposed to be here, I decided to skip out of all the meetings today. I did catch a nice afternoon nap in a borrowed room, and grabbed not just one, but two movies at the base theater, since the new base won't have one. (I highly recommend Invincible.) So we'll try this again. Maybe tomorrow I'll have more interesting news!