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…)

Bah, at least you can go down to the store and buy a new one. It’s just one of those days — actually a rarity for what that’s worth. Bunch of little stuff ruthlessly self-destructing today. A couple of other things that shouldn’t bother me are, and another situation is complicating itself. Wah.

Anyways, speaking of work…so I’m standing up on top of the conex today that Mr. Satellite Dish is perched on. This is shortly after the ladder decides to slip in the loose rock. I made it onto the conex instead of the ground, but Mr. Shin is all swole up and generally unpleasant to associate with. I’m watching our locals dig a trench. They have these really trendy blue uniforms except for the foreman, who has the Green Uniform of Command and A Nifty Hat of Managing. An Uzbek shovel consists of your standard shovel head with a tree stuck into it. By that I mean not the standard size stick you might expect to see in the states but a big knotty, irregular length “hey let’s cut this one down it’s sorta straight” type of handle. They had a backhoe dig the trench and now are getting the leftover dirt out. Two guys carrying a stretcher type object made of wood are functioning as wheelless wheelbarrow totin’ guys. In this trench, one of the Shovel Engineers (no, really they don’t know about that kind of silliness, he’s just a laborer) is wearing a jacket. Not a regular jeezI’mcold jacket, but a dressy kind of jacket. Now I don’t know the difference between a sport coat and suit jacket, nor do I really care. But is either one of those appropriate for trench digging? (more…)