There is a chill in the air and I love it! Finally after a seemingly endless summer, the tingling sharpness of fall weather has arrived and I could not be happier about it. After a few chilly mornings marked by a biting east wind, today was the first real bit of autumn weather of the season and I have been beside myself with excitement all day. I woke up around 0300 to start my day and immediately felt the difference in the air as I stepped outside and walked through the rocks to the shower. And then as the dawn began creeping over the horizon I could see the dark, grey, gloomy clouds covering the whole sky and I got goosebumps and butterflies all at once.
The first flight of the day was pretty exciting for me, it was so awesome to be up skimming just below the clouds over the famous "Red Desert" that makes up the western portion of the Kandahar province. We landed at our destination and shut down for little while. I even got to talk to a pretty girl with a gun for a bit before we headed back. As we took off and headed back, the wind had kicked up so in addition to the low and ominous (but perfectly beautiful to my eyes) cloud ceiling there were thick clouds of dust rolling off of the landscape and turning the mountains into islands. The pilots opted to go low-level to keep the ground in sight and we skimmed along buzzing fields, camels, and little mud-hut villages until we got to back to our base. What a great morning!
We were delayed for a few hours due to the deteriorating weather but continued on with the day's work after the visibility climbed back up above minimums. What a great day all around.
I am also extremely happy to have my roommate back from his R&R. At the moment he is the only member of our original team besides myself still here. Everyone has quit or finished their contracts and gone home. Ever since I stepped off the plane from R&R I have been running a million MPH trying to manage training all of the new guys, ordering new equipment, flying every single mission every single day on top of all of the normal administrative tasks that I've taken on myself to accomplish for the shop. But now that my roommate is back I'll actually be able to stay on the ground for a day, perhaps even sleep in for a few hours someday, maybe even make it to Church! It's good to have a familiar face around and know that I can depend on someone without any worries.
So far October has seemingly gone by in the blink of an eye but at the same time my recent R&R feel like it was years ago.
I spent a wonderful month at home during September and I got to see my family and old friends, and even made a few new ones. All the blind-dates were interesting, especially where one girl proclaimed in an odd tone that if I were ever lucky enough to spend the night at her apartment, that I would wake up to her farting on my head. I have absolutely no idea what kind of vibe I was giving this girl that would inspire her to tempt me with such an offer but it most definitely was not intentional. During this R&R the lesson was reinforced in my mind that truly good girls are hard to find. I've been lucky enough to know a number of them over the past few years but dumb enough to let them all get away. Getting older and wiser is both harsh and fun.
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