Zonked

I do not understand how sitting in a vehicle, talking or not talking (usually the latter.) and riding around all day can be as tiring as it is. Although if you take into account that I am wearing at the very least 45 lbs of gear, averaging about four hours of sleep a night and enduring the stupid Iraqi Sun. Because for some reason the sun feels different here, which could be due to the fact that after spending almost a year and a half here, I am pretty sure it is out to fricassee me alive. And then if the day’s events unfold similar to today it all seems very clear. I went to bed around 0130 this morning after watching Walk the Line (The Johnny Cash Bio flick) and woke up at about 0545 to start the morning routine... Shower, shave and brushing my teeth. I sort of over slept yesterday and so I had to make sure I was ready extra early this morning.

Every morning we go through the same routine: be at the pick up spot at this time, meet the rest of the crew at shot gun at this time. And move out to our designated positions at this time. (Forgive me for being so vague, but I realized that some of that information could be dangerous in the wrong hands) This morning the routine changed slightly when my hometown friend threw a kink in the works. The long and short of it is she didn't want to be stuck in a vehicle with a rather annoying individual and she used her feminine wiles to get what she wanted. (Basically she said she had girly reasons to be somewhere with closer access to the restrooms.) So we ended up working the shift together in our little Hummv. As I have mentioned she is from my home town. That would be Palmdale, Ca. for those of you playing the home game.

For simplicity sake we are going to nick name her "P-Dale", it is also how we refer to each other when ever we are with in the same vicinity so she might find it amusing. Because no day is uneventful while she is present I was pretty sure today would be very entertaining. And man was I right. After responding to a perimeter sensor alert (part of the normal humdrum of my new job, it usually means a cat or dog brushed against something.) "P-Dale" Intended to turn around and head back to the half way mark, but much like most intentions this one did not pan out as planned. We got stuck... really, really stuck... I don't mean that we pulled into a little mud and spun the tires. We sunk into swamp/quicksand mud all the way down to the axle. and there was no spinning what so ever the tires were locked, luckily we have radios and were able to get some help, after a lot of grunting and a nice cold mud bath, (As if it's some kind of surprise, I managed to fall in the swamp mud.) We were able to be pulled out. Other wise we had a great day. I think we both got to know each other a lot better. We talked about her boyfriend (here in Iraq with her) and our memories of back home. And we talked about how insane we both are, and how well we hid it. I hide it well don't you think?

Random Must Buy Book of the Day.

Dean Koontz's Velocity. Great book... I finished it today while doing Laundry and really just thought it was a great book kept right on the edge of a very uncomfortable bench, At least I think it was the book that had me that way it could just be how uncomfortable I was on that bench. Shrug ... Just read it people... Man I am just Zonked