Running Commentary

It was beautiful, blue-skied, sun-shiny day yesterday. But, the way you know you are alive in Iraq is that you are complaining. So, what to complain about on a beautiful looking day--keeping in mind that the last two weeks have been dusty, dusty, dusty, and when we were able to run we would say, "wouldn't it be nice to have a clear day without dust--sunshine, blue skies?" So, the problem with a non-dusty day is that it is FREAKING HOT!!! Get two minutes into a run in these conditions, even at 0530 in the morning, and you are dealing with some serious sun! A physical force--you can feel the photons pushing you back as you run into the morning sun! So, now I look for Goldilocks days: not too dusty, not too hot, just dusty enough!

Running water is an issue as we get into summer too... serious effort being put into water conservation on base: real combat showers and laundry. Check out the pictures (notice the improved cleaning hours!):

Note that my electric razor head broke last week, not a few days after my post on saving the damn thing from the sink. Perhaps it had to do with being stuck in the drain? But, think about this, if the lack of a drain stop is what broke my razor, the lack of drain stop is now forcing me to shave with a blade, but with the lack of drain stop the water basically has to run while you shave--I am using more water than ever now!

the laundry is odd now. Minimum has changed from 1 to 25; maximum from 20 to 28... so now there is very little margin for error when bringing clothes into for laundry... the fact is, I barely have 25 items of clothing--a pair of socks counts as one item--no cheating! Luckily Mom has sent me dust cloths--I can throw a couple of those in the bag when I need to make sure I get to my quota!

This week we had a wonderful video teleconference with the mucky-mucks back in the US; we used words and phrases like "theater maturation continuum", "scrutiny of perfection", and "inculturation"--none of which actually means anything in general or in the more specific area of combat medical care and force health protection (I know, one of them isn't even a real word--far be it from to to say anything!). I keep thinking that the next meeting I attend will be the one the wins the war, but i hasn't happened yet!