Run Away! Run Away!!

Today was much like any other day, but today I was doing laundry. I went down into the laundry room and much to my dismay, the lights were out, so it was very dark. I carry a INOVA LED flashlight on my dog tag chain. I turned it on to see if I could find the light switch. I found a light switch and flicked it on but no luck. As I scanned the area with my little light I spotted a rather LARGE Camel spider at eye level no more than a foot from my face. I was taken aback, but it did not move. The spider was about 3-3.5 inches from pincers to tail. This is the biggest one I've ever seen in real life. The stories about these spiders is enough to scare anyone silly.....most of the myths are urban legend. They apparently aren't spiders, but solpugids. Anyway, I dropped off my laundry and scurried up to my room to grab my camera to capture this Kodak moment. I'm just glad these things aren't living in my room.

Heading into another Flight Suit Friday...Now only 18 more to go. Wooohooo!

Thanks for your support and for stopping by. Love, hugs and kisses to my family.

Zoom, Zoom, Zoom

Another week is zooming by. I've been meaning to take a picture of the crescent moon, but by the time I remember, it's high in the sky. I will try again tomorrow. I found out that I may be switching jobs in September....but I 'll know about the middle of Sept. This week was filled with coordination meetings and taking a buddy to the airport. He was relocating to a different place in Iraq. Things are still going well and I have plenty of coffee. The Wife and Kids are doing well. Both of my daughters started school after I came back off of leave and they are having fun and doing well in school. That's the mid-week report.

K, J & C, I love and miss you!! Thanks for popping in.

Another Saturday!

I would have posted more this week but I've been busy and my Internet has been down. Oh, well. I finally got a picture of the statue Lilith, the first person to bring music to Iraq over 4,000 years ago. The statue is in a small pond/fountain, but it hasn't been used as a fountain in quite a while.

Another Flight Suit Friday down and I should have about 19 more remaining. One of my buddies is heading home shortly and I am very excited for him. You see his Individual Augmentation (IA) was only 6-months long whereas mine is 9-months. I got to take R&R leave while he did not. But all the same, I'd be happy to skip the R&R leave and go home after only 6-months in this place. Normal NAVY deployments are only 6-months and we usually get to visit great places during our journey. Last year on the USS Ronald Reagan we went to Brisbane Australia, Singapore, Dubai United Arab Emrites, Kuala Lumpur Maylasia, Hong Kong and Hawaii. Here we don't get to goto any different places, except Iraq, although the historic culture here is interesting.

I've been here in Iraq now for more than half of my 9-month deployment and I am always learning new things. Just the other day, one of the guys I work with told me about a PX (Army Exchange) that is much closer than the large PX on Camp Liberty. It's located on Camp Striker and it only takes about 10 minutes to get there from my FOB...it used to take me 30 minutes to get to the Big PX. I couldn't believe he kept it a secret all this time. Not that I visit the PX all that often, but being able to make a quick trip is easier than traveling all the way across the base.

That's about all for now from Iraq. Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers and Jeers

Sorry it's been a week since my last post...I've been a bit busy with the job. We've been busy beating the bad guys down as part of the President's Surge Plan.

Cheers:
This week my group received a package of over 90 different DVD's and Music CD's from OPERATION DVD sponsored by AMVETS. What a great organization. The folks I work with have been enjoying these DVD's thanks to the kindness of the folks at AMVETS.

Last night I went to bed about the same time the sun was rising so I took this picture. I hope you enoy it. It's surreal that this beautiful calm sunrise was just another day in the war zone. A place where lives are lost everyday fighting for the ideals of freedom.

Jeers:
There was an article in the July 21st edition of the Stars & Stripes about how over 580,000 servicemembers had their personal information disclosed to include names, social security numbers, addresses and medical files. First off, why does some no-named company, called SAIC, have my personal information? "Oh, were really sorry about that." In the last 4 years, I've have my PERSONAL security information disclosed by Defense Department sub-contractors knuckleheads at least THREE TIMES. What about the Privacy Act of 1974? Thanks Mr. Kenneth C. Dahlberg for safe-guarding my information entrusted to your company! I am over here defending freedom and you just made my life harder. It takes a lot to recover from Identity Theft. The DOD/Government needs to take action to ensure this doesn't happen again; how about not using my Social Security Number! By the way, my wife received a nice form letter from SAIC and YES my information was disclosed. Great! And to think, the DOD trusts these guys with NATIONAL SECURITY and INTEL information.

Other than the above rant, I am in great health, I've been exercising everyday, and I've been getting enough sleep to keep me going....oh, yeah, I also have plenty of great tasting coffee to keep me happy too! The last few days I've been enjoying Starbucks Italian Roast. I don't need anything at this time....thanks for all the offers.

K, J & C, I miss you and know that we'll be back together soon. All my love.

Cammoflage

One of the things that I have been involved with, from GeoCaching to this assignment, is camouflage. While I was home on R&R, I saw that US companies are using camouflage to hide things in plain sight. See for yourself, The picture below has something camouflaged...let see if you can spot it. (We were Geocaching near this site by our home). My uniform is camouflage, so that if need be, I can blend into the environment over here. Can you imagine if eyesores all over the US started using camouflage?

Well, another Flightsuit Friday down and only about 21 more to go before I am outta of here. I have re-synced back into my groove and things are well. Until next time....