Some Smiles You Can Hear...

Rocky and I have a running joke that it is impossible for her to ever have a boring day. I think that the other day I took a page from her book. The day after I posted my last blog our base was attacked by some local baddies, We had multiple rocket attacks (more than 5 less than 10) there were a few reports of some minor injuries, scratches and bumps but nothing too serious thankfully. I was on my way into the PX, when I saw the first explosion. They were all very close together, it’s funny we have had a couple of minor attacks this year but nothing that showed as much effort as this. It reminded me of Ballad back in ‘03 during my first deployment. That kind of thing happened almost everyday, it is not as though we have become complacent, but it did catch us off guard. I was almost late for work due to the fact that I was locked inside the PX for over two and a half hours. Oh the Drama! There was another attack last night but apparently it was only a single pop shot which as I said is more or less a common occurrence. Needless to say I will be very excited to be at home and with the woman I have fallen in love with in my arms. This woman is so quickly becoming the most important person in my life. Everyday I find myself staring at pictures of her and thinking how I am the luckiest man alive. I don’t know if you have ever heard someone you care about smile it is the best sound in the world. And yes it is an audible sound.
In other news things at work have gotten very interesting, Hard Hat is a little more crazy every day. And I honestly think that if he doesn’t figure out whatever it is that is distracting him, we might all be in for a world of hurt. The guy is so excitable, he freaks out over every little thing... And he really, really, doesn’t like bugs... He freaks out when ever one gets into our truck. Which seems to happen a lot, hmmm maybe I should consider closing the hatch while I’m driving.... grin.... nah! Hard hat also has incredible control issues, he can not stand to not be in charge, and although he out ranks a lot of the other E–5's he has been riding around as not much more than a lackey for the past week or so. I think that has to do with some poor decisions he has made professionally. In the Army we have lot’s of Creeds, A Soldiers Creed, An NCO’s Creed and others, the first line of the NCO Creed is... “No one is more professional than I, I am a Non-Commissioned Officer.” It isn’t very nice but when ever Hard Hat starts getting out of control I whisper that into my headset, It appears to calm him down, but for all I know it could be just infuriating him further, sigh oh well. Dolph is back at work, his back isn’t much better but I am thankful that he is around, I have also started talking to a new guy on my shift, He is a funny guy, 23 and has a sense of humor that matches mine to a tee. We will call him Brudder (sounds like brother) because that is our little running joke. He is from California City which is very close to my home town, and so we joke that we’re family. All in all I am starting to enjoy working with some of the people in my team, so at least we have a little but of sunshine...

Riddle Me This…
The answer to the previous riddle is..
The Doctor was the little boy’s mother…

And I will try and find some more riddles for you all soon

A Confession Of The Heart...

I apologize that my blogs have been so far and few between, there does not seem to be enough time in the day. I work constantly and I spend my free time balancing a budding relationship with the most amazing woman I have ever known and that fleeting temptress known simply as "sleep". Today I nabbed three uninterrupted hours, Wahoo!!! The funny thing is that it doesn't bother me. I have always tried to be as honest in these blogs as is humanly possible, And I have been avoiding talking about this relationship in some fear that by talking about I would somehow jinx it. I think I am over that fear or at least nearing the crest of that mountain. If you aren’t aware Rocky and I started talking while I was in Hawaii. We talk everyday and I can honestly tell all of you that I have fallen in love with this beautiful Southern Belle. She is originally from the south, She has very recently moved to Washington. She is a Pediatrics Nurse, and she gives her full heart to everything she is involved in. She is about three years my junior (I was told once it is rude to tell people how old a woman is... or something like that.) She is the kindest sweetest and most honest person I have ever met. She has a magnetic personality, and a grasp of sarcasm that can be both brutally honest and incredibly hilarious at the same moment. I could literally write about her forever, I will leave you with that for just now. As for things around here, I think we are all suffering from short timers disease, you know that attitude you get right before the end of some horribly long task that you have to complete? In high school we called it Senior-itis. It isn’t that we are getting complacent, all though if things keep going the way they are I am sure that is a very real possibility. The Man with the Big V-8 hurt his back recently and is now unable to work with us, another friend of mine I don’t think I have mentioned him before, but we will call him Dark Man because he looks like the spitting image of Dolph Lundgren. (Dolph also played the Russian that wiped the mat with Rocky Balboa) anyway his back has been hurting him as well and he went in to the TMC today so he probably will not be working with us for a little while either. Twerp/Trouble, or what ever name I am calling her now, is actually heading for home the day after tomorrow. She has had medical issues the entire deployment and they are finally doing something about it. Apparently we have somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 some odd days until we are back in Washington, the actual date would be confidential but since no one seems to have any clue as to the exact date it isn’t a big deal. There are a multiple of rumors that put us boots on ground as soon as the last week in Sept and as late as the second week in Oct. I have decided that I will probably not know until I am already there. It was a very freeing decision, although I swear to you if these knuckle heads do not stop counting down the days I am likely to lose it. Yes I realize I had like a sixty day countdown for Hawaii but that was different. I had one date they have like 6 so every time some one mentions how long we have left it completely contradicts the previous persons tally and usually starts in hour long debate. Sigh. On the bright side my Ops guy fixed the problem I was having with my laptop and now I can rock out with my Itunes when ever I like. Random side note I have had the oddest craving for a broccoli and cheese omelet recently. I had one while I was on leave and have seriously been craving one like a freaky-deaky Pregnant woman. I dreamt about the stupid thing... how odd is that??? Our new responsibilities have proven to keep us busy, I am starting to think that the dispatch operator waits until we sit down for a meal before she sends out a call that we are needed to investigate something immediately. Last night was pretty funny because we were all about finished with midnight chow and we were sitting at a table Jaw jacking (I love that saying) when the radio began to squawk. My entire team stood up in unison as if we were a fire team responding to a fire. We looked very professional... grin. I hope that life is treating you all well, and that I will be home soon to enjoy life with you...

Riddle me this...
The answer to the previous riddle is...
The Morning Dew...

And today’s riddle is as follows...

A man and his son are driving in car one day, when they are hit by a drunk driver. The man is killed instantly. The boy is knocked unconscious, but he is still alive, he is rushed to the hospital and will need immediate surgery. The doctor enters the ER looks at the little boy and says “ I can not operate on this boy, he is my son.” How is this possible????

Just A Quick Note

So my laptop is currently being worked on ( I am having a problem with my Itunes and one of my ops guys thinks he can fix it, even though he is taking his sweet arse time doing it, I really miss my laptop!) and I haven't very much time. I want you all to know that if i do end up going to Camp Anaconda it wont be until August and as of right now that doesn't look very likely. I am working a ton right now and have next to no time to up date my blog I promise I will do it as often as time allows, Because we are low on personnel (emergency leave, injuries and three classes have wiped almost 15 people from our normal routines) we no longer have down days. Which let me tell you is no bueno! I really haven't done much more than work recently, i have been watching the first three seasons of Lois and Clark The new adventures of Superman, And talking on the phone to Rocky every chance I get. I found out that I might be back in the States as soon as Sept 25th which would be awesome as that is about two weeks early!!! nothing is set in stone yet, and as I am sure you are all aware by now in the Army things change on a daily basis, if not an hourly one. My heart and prayers go out to Ducky and his wife as he recently had to go home to be with her due to medical issues. I also hope the Man with the big V-8 gets better soon as we miss him at work.
In other news I am nearly out of riddles if anyone knows of any websites where i can find more I would appriciate the address... hope to hear from you all soon

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

First and foremost I want to wish my mother Happy Birthday!!! I was going to say which birthday it was but I am pretty sure she would not appreciate that too very much. I hope you had a great day Mom. And now back to our regularly scheduled rant. Every once in a while I start to think that God’s sense of humor is directly linked to my state of well being. We are working a three on, one off schedule. Which is really about as ideal as we could hope for, except for the fact that each day we have to come in two and a half hours earlier than the previous day. Which means when we get off of work we have about nine and a half hours before we are due to be back at work. Needless to say sleep is becoming a high commodity in low supply. The past couple of days have been uneventful for the most part. We have had our fare share of little miss-haps. Two days ago we had something pierce the front driver side tire of one of our brand new ASVs . We have these very cool run flat tires so luckily we weren’t stuck anywhere. I really need to get run flat for my car back home. Now I don’t want you to think this is one of those little nails get stuck in the tires type of piercing. What ever this was it put a fair little hole into the sidewall of the tire. Anyway another little miss-hap happened last night do you remember a couple of months back one of the Hummv’s threw a belt, and tore all of the other belts? Well our new hummv’s only have one belt, but in true 528 QM form if that one belt goes the entire vehicle is dead in it’s tracks. While we were trying to fix the truck we broke a bolt that anchors one of the pulleys. So that truck is now completely dead lined. Deep exaggerated sigh. I don’t know if I mentioned it previously but while I was on leave the entire unit was split up into these tiny 3 man teams. My three man team consists of myself Tennessee and an NCO I have not worked with before. This guy... wow to say he is high strung is like saying Pinocchio was just a normal puppet. (See it’s funny because marionettes have strings, Well I thought it was funny… I don’t have to explain my humor to you. humph!) Anyway the guy is very tense. He also has feelings for a friend of mine, which puts me in a very amusing position. He really cares for this girl but do to work restrictions can not pursue her the way he would prefer. I think I am going to nick name him “Hard Hat” as he has an amusing habit of bumping his head repeatedly ( last night he managed to hit his head over 6 times three of which were hard enough to make him actually bleed... So I heard from a little birdie that I might be headed up to Anaconda (Or Balad as it was known when I was there during my last tour in Iraq.) If I do end up going that way it will be sometime next week and I will be there a little over a week or so. The official reason is to get the proper training to operate the ASV’s, The realistic reason is that they need to send a few of us to go up there to pick up some more ASV’s. I believe I will be flying up there and Driving back… Oh the fun!!! I will keep you all up to date on things as they develop...


Riddle Me This:
The Answer to the previous riddle is
Leaves...
And today’s riddle is as follows:
I am emeralds and diamonds, lost by the Moon; I am found by the Sun and picked up soon,
What am I???

The Story Thus Far

So First and Foremost I should apologize for not posting sooner, a lot has happened in the time that has passed since my last post. A friend of mine back home recently left this world. I am not going into any more detail but suffice to say that her death caught us all by surprise. I have been literally burning the candle at both ends, as I said I missed a lot of training while I was in Hawaii. In the spirit of always being on the top of my game I have been trying to catch up with what ever I missed. Which means I have bounced around a lot. I am now the Gunner/Driver in an ASV which is a lot of fun. There is a lot that I can not actually talk about. Suffice to say, I am having all kinds of fun. Rocky and I have been talking a lot on the phone. Which has truly been the high light of my days. I am now on the night shift. Which for the most part is a good thing. Yesterday was a truly long day as I had to suffer thru a couple of briefings during what was supposed to be my sleeping hours and then work on top of that. I wanted to tell you all something that happened on the flight from Dallas to Kuwait that I forgot to mention. After about 4 or 5 hours there was an announcement over the PA system that they were looking for anyone who was a doctor. I got out of my seat and went and found one of the flight attendants, I informed them that although I wasn’t a doctor I did have some EMT training, They told me about a guy who had been vomiting profusely since take off, The guy was hard to miss he had been sprinting to the bathroom pretty much since take off. I talked to him and deduced (he he he such a good word.) Any way it sounded to me like the guy had a severe case of food poisoning. There was really nothing I could do as I had none of my med stuff with me. Some medic I am. I basically told the attendants to make sure he had plenty of water and some sodium crackers when he thought he could keep them down. I am such the hero.. LOL So things around here are as stupid as ever, The Invader is very high on my list of people I would really like to run over with a large 30,000 pound vehicle. Unfortunately I actually am in a position to be able to do just that. As you are probably aware we do not get along. Living with this kid is a constant reminder of why the Dali Llama lives alone on a mountain top. He separated our room which I was opposed to in the beginning, but the idea grew on me. P-Dale and the Brownie are doing alright there relationship is definitely going in the right direction. Brownie has some unknown issue with me which I haven’t figured out. I am sure it will blow over in time. Lets see RFG, Barbie, Trouble and the Mexican are all doing fine. They are all equally as excited as I am to be out of this God Forsaken country. The other day I received an email from some girl whom I haven’t spoken to since the third grade. Apparently my name stuck with her over the years and she came across me on one of the classmates web sites that I have an account with. Apparently I an unforgettable, even after almost twenty years. (I was in third grade in 1988) In other news I am a complete spaz, the other day as I was getting off work I had my IPOD and a Red Bull in the same pocket. ( I have no idea why I would do such a thing.) Anyway as I was pulling my Rucksack out of the back of the truck a corner of the ruck punctured the Red Bull and the IPOD was floating in Red Bull in seconds. The commercial says that Red Bull will give you wings apparently Red Bull gives your IPOD massive system failure. I now am in the possession of a 285 dollar paper weight, sigh. I do really have the worst luck with electronics. I do want to thank everyone for sending me emails with your concern, I really do love the fact that you all enjoy reading my random rants. And I promise that it will not be so very long until my next post.

Riddle me this...
The answer to the previous posts riddle is as follows
A bullet in a revolver...

And today’s riddle is...
Walk on the living they don’t even mumble, walk on the dead they mutter and grumble.
What are they?