Clouds

Today an amazing thing happened—I saw a cloud. Actually, I experienced the cloud—it was very, very deep…

I went for run around 1700 (5pm for you non-military folk)… The sun was getting towards the bottom part of the day—almost daylight savings, rather the end of daylight savings time—no one ever says that it is almost standard time—and, there was a pleasant breeze out. So, a leisurely run seemed in order—around 8 miles; what the heck else am I going to do after sitting at my desk typing e-mails and reports all day, type a blog entry??

About 5 minutes into the run I notice that it gets a bit darker (those Oakleys really come in handy) and cooler—this isn’t normal. I look up, and, BAM! Clouds! Not a whole bunch of clouds, just a long thin line of intermittent white fluffiness high on the horizon. Seems the weather doesn’t change too fast, because that one little cloud hid the sun for almost ten minutes—in California that cloud wouldn’t have lasted for more than 30 or 40 seconds in front of the sun. Interestingly (some might say fascinatingly), the clouds were moving from the South towards the North. The prevailing wind here o the ground is most definitely from the North towards the South. What’s up with that? Maybe a meteorologist can explain it to me some time—but it kept my mind off the legs while I made my loop around the main side of base.

I wanted to take a picture when I started running and saw that cloud, but I generally don’t carry a camera with me when I am running. Actually, I should carry a tape recorder—ok, let’s get real, a digital sound recorder—because when I am running I often hear the most amazing things. One day, I am running down by the wadi (swamp) and I can plainly hear the soothing sounds of 50cal machine guns going off in the not too far distance (Marines practicing on the range; nothing to see here; move along…). This is soon accompanied by the sight and sound of a pair of CH-46s (helos) flying low and directly overhead. Then, the coup de grace, an F-18 flies high over the base—the Sound of Freedom is loud! Normally when I run I think about all kinds of things, but at that point I couldn’t hear myself think—so, I stopped; thinking, not running. As the cacophony died down I was able to have a moment of clarity where I realized that I was, in fact, not in Kansas or San Diego anymore—I was running in the middle of Iraq, in the middle of Al Anbar Province, not the friendliest place around. It was enough to make me miss the California clouds…

Anyway, I took a picture of the clouds when I got back from the run, but before I went to the gym to “get my swell on”. Check it out (n.b. it just looks like I am pushing on my bulbous bicep to make it appear more massive).