In Case You’ve Noticed
Yes, I dredged up some older posts from another board. I started to get a little confused on which had been posted where, and didn’t want to leave stories untold, or worse yet told twice. I’m getting short and need to clear out the story queue before I go, because that will become an adventure too.
In a nutshell: I start out of here 1 January. Will spend a few days in Dubai with friends, doing a dive or a few, and a little bit o’ networking if I can. I’ll come back to that.
Post-Dubai it’s on to Uzbekistan. Marriage, new family, old cities and long paperwork await. Plan to check out Bukhara, Samarkand, and a few other places. I would like to go to Moynaq, where the Aral Sea used to be, and the boats still are. I have another idea or two, and it will simply be nice to hang out with friends again, some of whom I have never been able to hang out with in the first place. Should be about a month’s worth of travel there. I am sure antics will abound.
Then we head to Thailand to hang out on the beach, burn to a crisp, swim and dive, ride elephants and watch the antics of poo-flinging monkeys. I am trying to get some folks to break out of their molds and stop by to visit. Would be nice, but I don’t expect it to happen. You lamers! 
Looking for a couple of months here I think. Mid-Feb to Mid-April.
Depending on the next job situation, at that point we’ll head back to Uz, then I will move on back towards the USA. I hope to time it so that I have some time to spend, but it will be time to get back to work. Where will I go? Dubai would be nice, and that’s where the server and system level folks are at. That would be more like a real job, and more longer-term sustainable, since Guli could be there, even if maybe not all the time. Don’t know the visa issues there. Anyway, that’s my main hope but they only have so many spots, so I have some other irons in the fire. I expect I’d probably end up in Bagram, personally. I’d be working with some folks I already know, so it wouldn’t be too bad of a situation. I think I will be crossing Iraq off my list. I have a couple of other possibilities but as always, who really knows? That’s getting to far down the line to be so definite.
Beyond there, it all gets rather vague. There will some period of time for visa paperwork for Guli. If we have good options, like say Dubai, we might not come back as soon. Other options will be shorter, but I do have certain fiscal goals I want to achieve first. I think also I would like to take a good three trips before going back to the real world where that stuff is more difficult to arrange. Currently (‘cos this changes!) I am thinking Africa, with a combo dive trip / safari thing, Egypt, and Russia / Crimea. We’ll see how it goes. Anyway, that’s the short range plan, the long range theory, and an extended range thought that will almost certainly change.
And then one day, it’ll happen: a post about something as exciting as mowing the lawn!
