What Is An Expat?

So day before yesterday I’m hiding out in my office. It’s the 4th day in a row that I have actually been busy. I go about 3 months filling up my day working and working (on the internet) and working (visiting) and working (wandering) and it’s like all of a sudden people realize they have computers and problems and an IT guy. Hey! A match made in heaven! Of course, as always it was all silly stuff, but that didn’t stop me having to move back and forth across camp all day long. It is a definite change to go from “I make myself busy doing things” to “I am very busy, how am I going to work in those other things?”

Quick side trip here: I do more before 9 AM than you do ALL DAY! That’s because, you know, your 9 AM is my 9 PM. Ha. Sigh…this is a tough audience.

Anyways, earlier in the day I had been conversing with some folk, and we talked about getting off base, even if there isn’t much to see. Even if there isn’t much to see, there aren’t endless seas of tents and this crappy rock surface to see. That works. So later a party unrelated to that conversation pops his head in the door and mentions going to the airport, do I wanna go? Can I get a Hell Yeah? Oh well, I don’t even know if Steve Austin still wrestles anymore. (more…)

http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/UZXX0019_f.html

Last night I stopped and looked at the sky as I do on occasion. Just sat and watched little twinkling lights fly around in the sky. Don’t know if you can see it there, but there’s a couple of planets showing up fairly brightly. I’m not sure which ones they are, other than assuming one must be the planet Venus. It’s very bright this time of year. There are quite a few lights out in the camp, but there is still quite the view to be had. It’s not as good as being totally away from civilization and seeing gajillions of stars, but it’s pretty good.

I discovered mountains today! Down south there’s a whole range of ’em! (more…)

(not that I’m actually going to get into the anatomy parts mind you, it’s just a phrase)

I may or may not have previously mentioned the shower situation here. You’ve got a tent with curtained off showers in the center, and metal mirrors and sinks bracketing them.

So the other night I wander in for some gettin’ o’ the clean. They had the heaters just blasting, it must have been at the very least 80 degrees in there, contrasting with the upper 30s and rainy we’d had all day. I noticed it because well, it was really hot in there, and the past few days previous the heaters had been off.

Off to the shower: I put the shampoo and soap up in the metal shelf that serves as a holder. I do the cold water test — turn on a bit of water to check the temperature. Certainly don’t want the massive cold water shock. Well, as it turns out, at least I was smart enough to develop a procedure on that…IT FAILS MISERABLY! Obviously it didn’t come out ice, but it was close enough. (more…)

So I commented earlier on the general lack of grass, due to the way the boys in brown are destructive to vegetation. In a manner sure to offend all you golfers out there, the only grass I’ve seen on this installation is on the bunkers.

I missed out getting pics of all the Christmas decorations at the end of last year, but trust me there were a lot. I suppose when you work 8 hours a day and even get days off, you have time for that kind of thing. Anyways, here are a few other “we have community spirit” type things. (more…)

I half expected to see someone I knew here in some way or another. I figured it’d be somebody I’d recognized but didn’t know all that well. I’ve been off active duty about 10 years. Imagine my surprise when I run into one of my old roommates! The funny thing is that we don’t work in similar fields, have like schedules, or anything of the sort but I run into Larry probably every other day now. He is a reservist and will be rotating out sometime soon. Given the situation, I wonder how long it might be before he gets called back up. Guard and Reserve – that weekend a month and two weeks a year don’t seem like much, but if you get called up it can really impact your life. Actually, the other can still be a pain in the ass too, but it’s a comparison thing. (more…)