The wind is continuing with gusts that threaten to rip the tin roof off our B Hut. It’s blowing this fine dust into and through every crack and crevice and in some scenarios making the air in some rooms and buildings thick with a talcum powder like dust hanging in the air. I knew Afghanistan would be hot, but I didn’t know about the wind thing. Hopefully this is a late spring phase thing and it will end soon.
We moved into our new B Huts in one evening. Not because that’s how we wanted to do it, but because that is how events unfolded. I believe I mentioned last week something about how this would go. Ed and I were down at the shop when one of the stay-behind SF guys saw us and asked us if we were going to move today. I said soon, but we were waiting for the word. He said he had just seen our POC and he had moved into his new location today. Ed and I were dumb-founded but knew this is how events worked around here.
Last week our POC told us we would probably move this week, although nothing was certain. I had done some minor prep-work in organizing some of my acquired items and throwing a few things away. I grabbed a couple of boxes and made the attempt to be ready when the big day came.
Ed and I found our POC and he confirmed that we needed to be out of B Hut 55 and into B Hut 51 tonight as 55 was scheduled for destruction tomorrow morning. We received this confirmation at 1600. We had another couple of hours of daylight left, the temperature was in the 80s and the wind had died down to 50 mph so moving should be pretty easy. Fortunately, Ed and I possessed a little bit of fore-thought and brought a few tools with us from the shop such as screw gun, drill, tape measure, etc. We eye-balled our new digs and made an initial mental image of how we wanted to arrange our large luxury plywood apartments. They were completely bare. By contrast, our small rooms had a carpet on the floor and shelves and furniture that we had constructed to fit in the space desired.
As you can imagine, taking the carpet from the room that has all your stuff in it and putting it in a new location with nothing in it requires displacement of your stuff, but not into the new place yet. For whatever reason, we started on my room first. We began taking my shelves down and removing the furniture into our POC’s former, now vacant room. I know I’ve been here a little over six months, but I have a lot of stuff! Once we finally got down to the bed and the wardrobe (armoire) remaining, we began pulling my Hajji carpet out from under these by tilting and rocking them. The carpet is 2 meters X 3 meters in size and was larger than the room floor. In the new room, the carpet is smaller than the room with at least a foot gap from the edge of the carpet to the wall on all sides. Naturally I couldn’t just put the carpet down; we had to sweep and vacuum the floor first.
My door in my new location is 42” wide and opens toward the inside which is opposite of my former room with a 28” door (nothing here is standard). Having the wider door is a blessing, although opening inside forces arrangement issues. It took Ed and me about 3 hours to move my room 80 meters. That does not include assembly or arrangement of items and furniture. We were running out of light and the wind was picking up. Since we were now experienced and possessed an understanding of the undertaking, we attacked Ed’s room with fervor.
Although Ed has not been here as long as I have and has been back and forth between here and Iraq, he is no slouch when it comes to acquired goods. His forte of acquired objects are books and miniature military models. I didn’t fully realize how much he truly had until we started trekking this stuff down the walk without dropping it or having it ripped from our grasp in the gale force winds.
We moved Ed in just under two hours. This was mainly because of our veterancy from my move and because we were running out of time and placed more focus on the task at hand instead of hypothesizing about furniture arrangement. It’s a damn good thing we weren’t drinking beer or this may have taken a tad longer!
When I talk about furniture, it is all 2x4s and ¾” plywood with the only exception being the particle board armoire with mirror on the front. All other items are built by the design team of Craig and Ed. My bed sits 32” off the floor and is made of 2x4 legs and frame with a ¾” sheet of plywood residing on the top. I have a 16” x 16” night stand that stands 42” tall and a desk that has a 20” x 30” top and stands 30” tall. These heights may seem strange to you, but they have a purpose. The bed sits that high so my plastic 3-drawer PX purchased organizers will fit underneath along with my fridge and some other stuff. The night stand is that high so my alarm clock is at eye level with me when I am in bed. The furniture, obviously being designed by me, is user friendly, practical, and matches the interior color of my room. What more could a geographical bachelor ask for?
Anyway, we didn’t finish putting stuff away and organizing our rooms the way we wanted them until just after midnight. I will tell you the extra 34 square feet of floor space I gained are incredible! I’m not sure what to do with all this room. I have actual space to move around. I no longer have to go outside to change my mind! Also gone is the seven foot high ceiling. I now have a vaulted ceiling which starts at 7’ high and goes to 10’ high. Yippee, this is indeed living the high-life!
Would you believe it, we finally got the GWOT Trot running shirts. How long has it been, 6-7 weeks? They are OK shirts and thankfully made of 100% cotton. The graphics on the front and back are fine and are tan in color. Nothing exciting, but as those of you know who have been following this tempestuous issue know, I have been impatient. Craig D asked me to get him one of these shirts even though he didn’t run the race. I’m not sure why, maybe he just wanted some type of souvenir from this Garden of Eden. It would seem strange to me that he would wear the shirt from a race that he did not participate in, so I may have to slightly modify the shirt thereby allowing him to wear the shirt with pride and not feel the slightest bit guilty about not running the GWOT Trot.
We got mortared last night! Actually it was after midnight so technically it was this morning. I am now 80 meters and 7 feet from the Giant Voice speaker and it was so quiet announcing “Red Alert” and “Incoming Rounds” that I only opened one eye to look at the clock instead of leaping off my bed like it was on fire. Now that Ed and I have a 5” wall separating our rooms, I merely knocked on it from my bed and asked him if he thought we should move to the bunkers? It was unclear if the rounds had already landed or not. It’s even more difficult to tell with jets taking off, loud speakers blaring, and the hiss of air being pushed though a 4” gash in a 10” diameter hose that is connected to our thermostatically controlled heat pump.
Ed and I decided to remain where we were and make a concerted effort to listen to the next iteration of babbled announcements over Giant Voice. 30 seconds later we were pleased to know that we had made the correct assessment as Giant Voice told us essentially “Rounds Complete” and to “Stay where you are”. Later, we learned that two mortar rounds had landed on our island and once again, no injuries. In seeing the devastation that our mortar rounds cause on buildings, trees, and people I find it difficult to believe we have not had any injuries in the last two attacks. The Taliban must be using crappy mortar rounds that are mostly duds. I also haven’t heard and felt the horrific explosions like I did in Iraq.
I have been watching these absolutely black rain clouds collect on the mountain ranges to our West. They appear to be heading right for us every day, but somehow follow the mountains around our plateau and leave us hot and dry. No doubt the winds play a solid part in forcing the impending monsoon away from us and preventing a portion of Tacoma-like weather. Maybe one of these days soon when the winds die down, the rain clouds will make their way over this portion of the Gobi and provide us with some shade and humidity. I don’t recall any other time in my life wishing for rain.
Our Memorial Day preparation was essentially nil. This weekend was like any other here except that we are not currently busy and have quite a bit of time to sit around and find things to do. To that degree, I have been really organizing my crap in preparation for that day to depart the confines of this atoll. Ed and I have also been going through the equipment and tools at the shop and office. We have been cleaning, organizing, inventorying, and removing stuff that we don’t need. With the exception of a few U.S. personnel being killed this weekend off-base and having the pass-in-review at 0330, this weekend was uneventful.
One unique feature about being here is the level of copyright infringement that is being conducted. By way of example, I was given a copy of the movies 300 and Shrek the Third. Obviously neither of them are on DVD yet as they are still in theaters. Most of these copies are performed by enterprising Hajjis who actually take a video camera to the movie and film the movie that they paid to see. They then make copies and sell them for $3 at the local bazaars. Those are generally terrible movies as you can imagine complete with someone in the audience that talks or coughs. I have thus far not watched Shrek the Third, but did watch 300. This was a high quality copy and I was very impressed with this movie. If Shrek is of equal quality then my two free movies will seem quite worthy.
This week’s picture is of my desk in my pristine colossally humongous lair. As you can see I have my foam board of family pictures and notes and to the bottom right of the board is my Oregon Scientific weather station. I have a book shelf to the right of my desk and to the left is my laundry bag and chaise lounge (for when I feel like sun burning myself). Just behind my laptop on the left corner of the desk are my coffee / tea cup and my hot water pot. Notice how my furniture matches the wall? It’s that designer touch. I know.
Whoa, I had to severely edit this week’s edition. Once I finally got going with the writing, there was no stopping me. I’ll have to move a couple of items to next week or just cut them out altogether. I kind of feel like a movie director and editor in deciding what stays and what ends up on the floor. Oh well, next week is filled with those kinds of things that are no-brainers. I’ll no doubt expound some more on our weather trends, vacillate about intermittent email connections, and exacerbate my loathing for plastic utensils. I think it’s gonna be fun; you should tune in.
Until next week…
Craig
No comments:
Post a Comment