On stuff...

Ok so I've been trying a lot harder to read my scriptures regularly…hard for me but I'm getting better! And then yesterday I had the startling revelation that confirmed to me what I've heard so many times before. There really is something in there for everyone.

 

I've heard it said that it helps to "liken the scriptures to ourselves" to better understand a scripture. I didn't even have to do that, this was tailor-made just for me! Read on:

 

This is from the Acts 10:13 "And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat."

 

YES! That answers so many questions for me lol. This is my new raison d'être. Watch out world!

 

In other news, I have a new gripe. Why does it always seem that as soon as I leave the States to come back here, everything cool with the weather happens? Before this most recent trip, the last time that I was home it was nothing but sunny blue skies the entire time. I made the most of it but I wanted something different, I even packed a coat! Then not 3 or 4 days after I leave, Colorado had the first of a long series of spring snow storms! The airport even shut down for a few days!

 

But what prompts my latest round of revulsion for Aeolus and his twisted sense of humor/neglect was the email I received from one of my sisters in Colorado a couple of days ago. She said:

 

"Thanks for the note, it cheered me up. Our first day of fall we started off with... SNOW... and we're on a storm watch as I write this, supposedly 2-3 inches of snow gonna fall before morning. Sunday it was 92 degrees. NINETY TWO. Monday night it was almost freezing…."

 

COME ON!

 

This is on top of what happened the very night I arrived at my base at Balad, we had the first sprinkling rain of the season. It was one of those nights that you can only experience in the desert where the dark night air just has this electric, magical feeling. The lightning flashes would light up the inky black rain clouds, and for a brief second, illuminated the silhouette of a C-130 taking off, it was impressive. As soon as the storm drew nearer, the deep rolling thunder washed over the base…I just loved every minute of it! I am most definitely a weather person. What ruined it was that some of the more odd-sounding thunder turned out to be a helicopter crashing nearby...needless to say that put a damper on my enthusiasm.

 

So here I am. It's a lot cooler than it was when I left but its still 100+ degrees. What I wouldn't give for some snow right now…

I was reminded again today about where on Earth the dumbest specimens of the dumbest species of birds live. Pigeons, right here in Iraq.

I was riding in a bus from Camp Liberty over to another part of this massive base to try to catch a chopper ride up north today, it was quite a scenic drive. Saddam built quite an impressive lake with a peninsula stretching out into it topped with an interesting looking palace. There are also fancy guesthouses scattered along the shore and lots of canals with gaudy footbridges passing over them.





Well the bus was cruising alongside one of the canals and I noticed in the distance, perhaps 200 feet away, a pigeon flew off of the roof of a building on the opposite side of the canal. He skimming the tall reeds that grow in scattered bunches along the sandy banks, then he veered over and skimmed the surface of the water as he pushed himself harder and faster. I must have watched for about 20 seconds or so and just as I was beginning to think that even a clumsy pigeon has its graceful moments, he started to slide closer and closer to the bus.

I didn't even think anything about it until he was about 20 feet away, still furiously flapping his wings, seemingly to keep pace with the bus. Suddenly, he banked sharply to the left and flew straight at the side of the bus and POW! His feathered corpse bounced off the side of the bus, down to the sidewalk, and then skipped into the water.

I swear he did it deliberately. There is no way he could have NOT seen the bus. And it isn't even hot, I can't understand why a pigeon would be suicidal. Ah well. Enough of my tired musings.

Hello, Goodbye!

On the eve of my last day outside of Fun-Land for the next who-knows-how-long, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. Lately I have been finding myself out at 0200 driving down dark country roads, miles from anything or anyone, my body seemingly trying to catch up to my wandering mind.

It has been an absolutely wonderful three weeks of R&R and this taste of “life” seems to make it more difficult than ever to go back to my adopted reality of 90 hour work-weeks, dust, heat, idiots, etc. But I had a lot of time to just sit and think about things, especially the future, and through all of my good times coupled with the quiet times over these past few weeks, I have come away with a renewed sense of optimism and gratitude for how blessed I am.

I am especially grateful for the intangible things to which I give credit for everything that is good about me; the God-given talents and abilities, but most of those are pretty personal and boring for everyone else anyway. I just feel so lucky to be alive right now, it’s like Gordon B. Hinckley was always saying about being optimistic, “There is no better time to be alive!”

I’m pretty sure he was speaking of things on a higher level than I am right now, but we both obviously love life. I was wondering what it would be like to take an old pioneer and toss him on a jet-ski, or take one of the guys who ran a silver mine in the lost canyon in Salida and send him down the 500 foot zip-line that goes over his old mine these days. It always blows my mind to cross the Rockies in a matter of hours, in the comfort of my truck with music, A/C, and good company. How great is it to be alive?

I keep saying it but this was such a great vacation and it was just what I needed. I met some new friends (and some old ones again), I went camping a bunch of times, played with lots of little kids, went swimming, hiking, climbing, shooting, ziplining, and just drove for hours with no particular destination in mind. It was wonderful!

But the time has come and I need to pack my bags and get ready for my 20+ hour nap on the plane back to Dubai. Yay. Let me know who wants souvenirs!

Over the past few years I had almost completely forgotten the wonder of high-speed internet without bandwidth restrictions, OPSEC warnings, or IT Nazis. It is nice to have access to Youtube and other similar websites, I'm uploading a bunch of stuff.

In other related news, my sister and brother-in-law and their herd of kids came up to visit for the long weekend. In spite of being a little tired I canceled most of my plans and bummed around playing dogpile and rediscovering the joy of kicking a big rubber ball in a big field. I hadn't been on playground swings in years and my friend Jessie and I even caught a random high school football game. It was quite a weekend.


Here I am getting mugged by a 7, 5, and 2.5 year old. Vicious!

Random

I heard this song once and thought it was awesome...still is.

R.I.P

It is always a terrible tragedy to lose something precious to you, especially if you have been through so much together. So much sweat, hard work, thousands of hours spent together through thick and thin. This weekend I lost my dear friend...


Fare thee well, my Casio G-Shock G2300B-1V Tough Solar watch.






For the next 6 months it will be patiently keeping time on the bottom of Deer Creek Reservoir. The alarms that I had set for 0400, 0620, 1800, and 1840; all very important times in my regular day, will sound faithfully as the wrist-less timepiece forlornly calls out in the inky, cold darkness to a master who will no longer wake or act on it's urgent message of punctuality, well-being, and productivity.

Sometime after that, the ML2016 battery will be completely drained of its power and the display will dim and then in an instant, time in 29 cities across 27 time zones will cease for the watch and it will go dead until the day comes when it's rechargeable solar cell is once again exposed to the sunlight.

Oh happy day.

ps This is just a bad guilt trip lol