Hola

Doing 95-100 hours a week, scarcely time to sleep. Been at it since May, aside from 30 awesome days spent bumming around Colorado.

 

The grind continues to get old, blah. Thought I'd throw a couple of cool pictures up here.

 

The adorable little munchkin in one picture is the niece of a friend who came over and wanted to watch cartoons. Little kids are so gnarly!

 

The other is a crater from a rocket that hit pretty close to me. The management tripod are my bosses and the safety officer, good guys all around. But yeah, Ka-POWWWW!  and then the *ting ting ting* of rocks, dirt, and metal raining from the sky all over me. Honestly though, the only thing that scares me is that after this and all the other rocket attacks, been blown out bed before, I just don't care anymore. I went home that night and slept like a log. I think it's almost time for me to come home...not quite yet though lol.

The dark days of summer

In a purely mortal context, the tragedy of life is death. Not necessarily for the dead but for the living through the loss and emptiness that comes with the absence of something that was once loved. Fortunately it's been awhile since anyone that I know has died but unfortunately in the space of just a few weeks we've lost both of our beloved pets that we adopted. Hardly a tragedy in the grand scheme of things but nonetheless a loss felt by our entire shop.

Mashka, our adorably sweet little kitty who charmed everyone she ever came into contact with, she disappeared several weeks ago. I can only assume that she was killed by one of the packs of jackals that roam the open areas of the base at night. She was an amazing hunter and would regularly bring gifts of dead rats, mice, even rabbits half her size to the terminal for us. Such a gnarly cat!

Dayzee, our spazzy rock-eating little wild pup with a husky-like tail and what seemed like a permanent caffeine fix, she disappeared several days ago and we think that she wandered into one of the animal traps that the military has set out to catch the jackals and was killed. I'll miss her insanity. All kinds of dogs chase bicycles and cars, how many dogs get to chase helicopters every day?

The bond that develops between people and animals is usually forged a bit deeper in the face of adversity and for us over here the adversity tends to be the stress of the seemingly unending hours spent under the hot sun, the rocket attacks, going for months or years without seeing family, the list goes on. There is also something therapeutic about the unconditional love of an animal; watching how much a dog loves a spirited game of tug-o-war or just being chased, or having the cat drape herself over my neck like a furry, purring scarf as I sit in my office.

I've always loved animals, there is something soothing about having a cute furry little pet with its own often zany personality. Just for the few months that we had the pets out here, morale improved, stress was down noticeably, and everyone had something in common to laugh at. There are hundreds of soldiers that fly through here daily and it was always amusing to watch the cat weave her way in between them all, hopping up on shoulders, climbing on rucksacks, and watching everyone bend down to give her a scratch as she wandered by.

Always the most pleasant of passengers, Ms. Dayzee

Mashka, always in search of more food and a warm neck. Keeping Kendall warm

Work is a little bit more boring these days without a dog to spend a few minutes playing with when I have a few minutes to spare, it sucks. I miss my pets!!!

More of my life in pictures

My humble home. We don't have a lot of space in our living areas so we do everything we can to maximize what we do have. A couple of us got together and built these custom beds last year, its a big wooden frame that we attach the existing bed frame to and makes it into a loft bed, leaving enough room underneath for a comfortable desk and bookcase.

It was pretty interesting for the first few months that we had them, every time there was a rocket attack, either the sirens or the explosions would wake my roommate and I with a start and we'd almost knock ourselves out on the ceiling trying to get out of bed and onto the floor. Plus my roommate also has some crazy PTSD from his wild Army days so he's always having some crazy dream and popping up in his bed and slamming his head, he wonders why he wakes up with a headache all the time. He's since moved out though so I've got a big room to myself now. Lucky me!
This is the newest addition to our growing mascot section, lil Ms. Gnarls, otherwise known as Daisy. She's a typical little Afghan mutt that some GI's dumped off on this side of the base because someone was going to catch and kill her on the other side. Now she hangs out on the flight line all day and charms all of the passengers. She loves to ride in cars and gators, chew on water bottles, and nip unsuspecting people in the butt.

And the last guy I suspected that I would run into out here in Afghanistan would be my football coach from high school and the German league. He's running a container yard out at some FOB on the edge of the Helmand river valley.