downtime misery

kuwait life

so i'd been hoping to post earlier than this, but technical difficulties kept me from doing so.  i had at least gathered in my head an idea of what i was going to post, but unfortunately our connection here is pretty limited.  i can't even access youtube!  how will i ever survive?  at least plans are in the works to open up the bandwidth, so maybe things will improve.

so no theme song to listen to this time, but if you care, google-fy 'vision of disorder - downtime misery.'  i don't even know if it's on the youtubes, as a lot of the music i listen to isn't, but it's pretty sweet... if you happen to like music that makes your ears bleed.

i had thought that my pre-deployment training was specifically designed to make everyone want to get to a warzone as quickly as possible, but then i got to kuwait.  now i'd spent a year there before, so i knew what i was getting into.  120+ degree heat and gusting winds does suck, but not as bad as not having any wind, so i could deal.  i just didn't expect to spend 3 days waiting for a plane.  but at least i had a relatively cool tent and lots of green bean coffee, a luxury i knew i wouldn't have here.

and then i got to afghanistan.  it made kuwait look like a model of german efficiency.  now i understand the demands on the mobility air guys here, but you'd think someone would've thought to expand the pax terminals by now.  it was like the wild west, which is odd considering we've been here for almost a decade.  but, i managed to get a few hookups, and even some for two soldiers who were left hanging, and got down to my little corner of afghanistan in short order.

and now my week of having nothing much to do but drag my bags around, sleep, eat and hunt for internet access has turned into a frantic effort to inventory equipment and figure out just what it is exactly i'll be doing here.  one bit of news, not only do i get to play commander and sign for all of our property, i get to be the personnel guy too.  so it looks like i'll be a one man ALOC, so i'll have to work on my battle cry, a la my friend alicia.

so it's just about time to try to finish my inventories before the deadline to sign the property book (3 days for me, 30 days is the rule in the states).  and it's mail day, so i'll be busy.

so i probably won't have time to push out another post today, as i'm going to be pretty busy.  i'll probably restrict myself to posting on sunday, at least until i'm in the groove.  plus, i need a wireless keyboard, as my touchpad on this laptop is super sensitive and my meaty hands keep eating paragraphs whole, which is pretty frustrating.

one thing before i go though: wapo is reporting 2 american soldiers have disappeared and may have been captured by the taliban.   hopefully they manage to find a way back to us safely.




it is well that war is so terrible -- lest we should grow too fond of it
- robert e lee -