We’re having that Tacoma weather thing going on right now. Rainy with highs in the 40s; you know the kind of late winter, early spring days. It is difficult to see the mountains surrounding us because of the cloud cover and the fact that most of the clouds seem to be hovering around the mountains. It would appear that the mountains are being deluged with snow while we are getting the wetter variety of moisture falling from the sky. While I really do not mind the rain, it is causing discontent in our vehicles.
Our most recent batch of vehicles all came with sunroofs. Only two have factory installed roofs which mean the remaining are Hajji installed. On the surface this may not seem such a bad thing except all the Hajji sunroofs leak. Not one or two of them, but all of them. And by leaking I mean a virtual faucet on full-tilt flow. I really do not know how they have captured the ability to direct all the external water and rain into a channel that runs under the sunroof lip and into the front driver’s and passenger’s seat, but they have. It must be a gift. We would be better off walking in the rain as opposed to riding in our vehicle. Why not use the vehicles with the factory installed, non-leaking sunroofs you ask? Great question! Those, by a random act of divine intervention, were the first vehicles we dismantled and the interiors are completed removed. We never considered an inability to stay dry inside and therefore wound up leaving ourselves the leaky vehicles to drive.
Our vehicle purchasers specify vehicles with sunroofs because of the ability to pop the electronic goodies out through the roof for better connection when needed. This is pretty essential when trying to send and receive information from desolate locations, so the locals are only too happy to add the sunroofs to the vehicles we want to buy (they really don’t know why we want sunroofs). They also do not understand that white plastic film that vehicle manufacturers put on body panels and such prior to shipping. The locals must think it is some kind of added protection and leave the plastic on the outside and inside of the vehicles. As an example, we have a 2005 white truck that has a sunroof. The white shipping plastic was left on the outside of the vehicle even when the sunroof was installed (this no doubt facilitates our leaking problem) and has been collecting moisture and dirt and other assorted debris between the plastic and the paint. I’m sure you guys can imagine what the exterior of our two-year-old truck looks like. I have been removing the plastic here and there, but the sun and elements have fused it to the paint and removing the flapping shards is not as easy as you might think.
It is wonderful to have an internet connection in my room; however, it really sucks between 1800 and 2300 local. Everybody and their brother are online during those times and it simply bogs down the ability to send and receive email and make calls via VOIP. I feel like I have transported back in time when I purchased my first dial-up internet connection late in 1997. On a good day, we would be screaming at 11kbs and be thinking: “How could it get any better than this?!” How cable has changed me. I cannot even open email most evenings because the connection is so slow that my browser refuses to open. It knows it can’t show me anything for a while so it doesn’t even try.
My super 220V, 1.6 cubic foot, $40 fridge is too small! I easily have three cases of beverages in my room and can only seem to cram 14 bottles or cans of beverages in the fridge at one time. It’s a little frustrating. I’m feeling like a stock boy in a supermarket because I am constantly restocking my fridge (and by constantly, I do mean daily). I’ve also been playing with the temperature control. When it was 20 degrees outside (and when I didn’t have ice trays), I had the temperature setting at low. Once the ice trays were added, I turned up the dial to freeze the water. Unfortunately, this also froze the upper row of beverages as well. Back down went the temperature dial and now my ice doesn’t freeze. Couple that with increasing outside air temperatures and I have had to slowly (notch by notch) turn up the intensity in chilliness. It’s a balancing act that I have yet to perfect. I’m currently considering getting another super fridge to put next to this one. I am rationalizing that I could use one for beverages and one as a freezer. We’ll see what happens.
One of my teaser items from last week was random acts of kindness. When Brian N was here, he called it: “Paying it forward”, and in other words what he meant was doing a good deed for someone now would reap you a kind deed in the future. I like the idea and it kind of falls in line with my upbringing, so I have been making a concerted effort at random acts of kindness. This notion is fundamentally flawed in a place like this. These damn foreigners do not seem to understand the program. They violate your personal space, rarely hold doors open, run in front of your vehicle at the last second to cross the road, and other things like walk on the wrong side of the sidewalk. I know this is Afghanistan, but Uncle Sugar owns this slice of heaven we call Bagram and we have instituted American policy here. These other nations (with the exception of the Brits and Aussies) are freeloaders using up our taxpayer dollars just so they can say they contributed to the Global War On Terrorism (GWOT). I’m getting off-track here, so I’ll return. The locals are generally easy to deal with and are normally very gracious, but even they rarely perform a kind deed for us interlopers. Nope, the random acts of kindness thing only seem to work among other Americans. We seem to get it. A quick smile, assisting with heavy or cumbersome items, offering the entrance through a door first, and myriad other kinds of things. It’s as simple as Dobbie throwing my laundry in the dryer because he happened on the scene before me. He doesn’t expect anything in return. I thank him, but also know that I will have a future opportunity to assist him in some way. It just works.
The more time I spend around the Egyptians, Koreans, French, Polish, et al, the more I become jaded. Why are they here? Where’s the French PX. When’s the last time the Frenchies put a Mirage in the air? How are the Egyptians helping us with intelligence collection? Where’s their version of Q-37 Radar? When do these other nations man the gates and perform security? The only ones I see doing that are us and the Afghanis. At least the Koreans have a partnership with us regarding their DFAC, but after dining there once, I have had enough Kim-chi, Bok Choi, and dog to last me the next 20 years. Anyway, it wouldn’t be as frustrating to see all these other nations if you got a feeling that they were actually contributing.
We have geckos here. The truth that I have discovered is that they are not green, do not speak, and do not pitch GEICO Insurance. Our variety of gecko is tan in color and about four inches long. They do not scare off easily as it seems they believe they blend so well that you cannot see them. They also can run across walls and ceilings and prefer a little sunlight every now and then. We have one that lives beneath our cabinet in our shop. This gecko is currently missing most of its tail and comes out in sunny spots every other day or so. You can walk right up to it and stomp your feet, snap your fingers, take pictures, and call in an air strike. It twitches, moves a few inches, and then resumes a motionless pose. We have yet to name it and are considering something local that means strong-willed, ambivalent and or unafraid. My pick for a name with these connotations is Hillary.
I finally got a hair cut. Yeah, it was like two weeks overdue. I felt shaggy, unkempt, and well, kind of like a KBR contractor. As you read in last week’s novella, I was having difficulty in getting my follicles trimmed. I ultimately decided to be standing at the door of one of the barber locations the second they opened for business. It turned out to be the quickest three minutes of my life. Although, I was asked a question this time that I have never been asked before and that was: “Would you like your beard trimmed?” Uhh, no, thanks. I must have looked shaggier than Osama to this guy. I’m not sure how I feel about someone trimming my goatee, but since I can do that myself, I will.
I made a 20 inch by 30 inch foam board for my room and bought some stick pins to place pictures on. Pictures like Kris, the kids, some of you folks, and few of interesting things here. I have asked Kris for oodles of pictures since I left and finally received a few, but none of her. Yes, I know what she looks like, but it would be nice to have a decent picture of my bride here on my wall. She says she always takes the pictures; hence she is not in them. Our son is a star photographer and has offered to take pictures of his mother as much as possible. I can only assume the reason I don’t have any is because Cole has not taken pictures of Kris that she wants to send me. I’m sure he snaps photos every now and then of Kris when she is still in bed, making dinner, folding laundry, and things like that. Those are fine with me, but I need to convince the editor to send them. The bottom line is that I have four pictures on my board.
The extremist who decided to blow himself up when V.P. Cheney was here has really curtailed our ability to import barley pop. That coupled with the change-over in personnel that is currently underway means we missed having some hop soda on St. Patrick’s Day. Surely I broke out a little whiskey and celebrated, but I would have absolutely liked a couple of German beers to celebrate an Irish day of good will. You all understand of course.
I did get quite the surprise on St. Patrick’s Day! Kris sent me a box of foodstuffs that included prepared corned beef. She timed it to arrive on Saint Paddy’s Day! She finally used the food sealer for food instead of sealing face lotion, dryer sheets, or oatmeal. I was planning to go down to the DFAC for dinner and see what they had, but opened my box from Kris before doing so and was elated. I raced down to the shop, threw the beef into the microwave along with some noodles that she sent, and in a couple of minutes later was overcome by a wondrous aroma! I ate the whole package by myself. Fortunately she sent other packages, but made the quantity in each package more than enough for one, but less than two. This whole food experience made me forget about the beer. Now if I could only get Kris to send food like that weekly…
The picture I attached this week is of Craig D and me hamming it up a little in the shop. We were finishing up one of the vehicles and placed a camera on a table to capture this indelible image. Obviously you can tell the type of vehicles we work on here.
Check back next week as I divulge my study into beverage can sizes here, enlighten you with frank talk about privacy, and mystify you with the cost of cleaning a Port-a-John.
Craig
No comments:
Post a Comment