I can relate to the bottled water. It is the same way in India - when I travel there - absolutely no tap water, no raw veggies, no ice, no fruits with the skin, no wonderfully smelling foods from food stands.
Sorry to hear about the hacking chest stuff. But you explained something else...that I never thought about. Whenever I come back from travelling all over India - I usually come home with a horrible hacking cough that takes forever to go away. I thought I was sensitive to the pollution. Maybe it is bacteria and viruses that I have no tolerance for... I never thought about that...
Quote:
No one sleeps soundly here, no matter what.
That must really be rough... A friend of the family went to Iraq shortly after the invasion and he mentioned how it was tough sleeping - and he stayed in the Green Zone! He mentioned that you hear the sounds of war in your sleep even during those rare moments when it is relatively quiet.
As for W - hopefully understanding why she is acting the way she is will help you detach. It really isn't about you. It is about her inability to figure out what makes her happy and going after whatever that is. If she had the capacity to do that - she would sit down with you and tell you what she needed from you instead of ploughing forward with a D. With time as this travels from your head to your heart - you will detach - and it will hurt less. The sad truth is that you and the D are just collateral damage associated with W's unhappiness.
Hey FLTC I used to sleep with my 9mil at cond 3 and we practiced to go to cond 1 from a dead sleep cause next door were our allies whom we trusted as much as a Katrina area house insurance policy. Therefore outside of the wire was considered a vacation.
Honesty I am not doing supersecret stuff but there are reprecussions if various peoples do get wind of the details. As any govt secret they will but not on my account. I just fix boo boos.
Quote:
He mentioned that you hear the sounds of war in your sleep even during those rare moments when it is relatively quiet.
We'd hear the mortors and car bombs, open one eye, think "()* to be you" then fall back asleep.
I used to get up at 3AM make DOc coffee with 97% caffeen, deliver it to the most nasty, most often mortored and shot at post defended by Marines so by 4:30am they would be wired and I could go back to sleep with sugarplums dancing in my head. They called it 'Doc Coffee' and bad guys paid for getting up early in the Morning. We loved it. Breakfast anyone?
The thing is anyone can take a situation and label it two ways thus my Marines and myself decided to make it fun even everything around us really was nasty. I have photos of my guys smiling with sweat in a dust storm while on patrol. They took care of business when the muj knocked but afterwards it was time to enjoy those Cuban cigars, visit the guys who got their purple hearts, and write to my D13. (after we cleaned and preped our gear)
Most folks think it's horrible and by most standards it is howver if one looks at the Reenlistment rates and the number of servicemen volunteering for return trips they put another label on it.
When you get back please keep posting
"All I want is a weeks pay for a day's work" Steve Martin
Ahh. You're here like clockwork. Michelle: You are wise beyond your years! AG, you are just plain wise and give great advice. It's funny, the locals here can drink the local water and nothing happens. For us on the other hand, instant 20 pound weight loss. It's the weird bacteria that people build a tolerance for over time. A local Shiekh gave a birthday bash for our general. Although they brought rice and lamb in huge tubs that looked like galvanized wash tubs, not even a chance I would eat it! AG: It really is funky creeping crud (along with the "burn pit" here, where they burn all the trash included tons of plactic plates from every one of the four dining facilities. No EPA here! Is that a baseball under my armpit????)
Hill, welcome back. Good luck. I've been running stairs here in a local soccer stadium. Make the calves scream!
W. had been asking for a month if I was looking for scholarships for D17. I had applied for a bunch, but needed to fill out the Federal Financial Aide paperwork by March 1st. It required the 2007 Income tax return forms. when I emailed her, she siad it wasn't done yet. She sent the 2006 return today. No words, no hello, just the Tax return! Had I not done the tax return if she needed it, can you imagine! I would have my fingers cut off like a local found smoking by al Queda!
FLTC, the stories you must have to tell! keep you and all you guys in my prayers)))))))))
i found the perfect nickname for the person who used to be my H: the borg. His mind has been taken over and he has no recollection of that awesome person I married. That person is long gone and will have a small place somewhere in my mind, we had good times.
The person in front of me is a husk, a shell of what he used to be, he doesnt' want me back nor I want him in my life in the shape he is in.
I have given it my all, and if some day my kids demand the truth they will know that their mom went down fighing, that she forgave horrible stuff, that she always had her arms open to their father but that he chose to rewrite history and left.
Be not afraid...I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten Joel2
30something 2kids survivor of S, MLC, A, D I have peace in my heart, at last.
Where ya' been? The sand is hard to keep out of anything, even closed rooms. I come back every night to my CHU (Containerized Housing Unit) to find a layer of dust on everything! How about that name CONTAINERIZED HOSUING UNIT. It's basically one half of what is like a big shipping container, but it's not so bad. It's roomy enough for one. At my rank, at least I get my own half!
Here's 10 thinks you all at home can do to simulate being in Iraq! Enjoy. Let me know how you do!
1. Sleep on a cot in the garage.
2. Replace the garage door with a curtain.
3. Six hours after you go to sleep, have your wife or girlfriend whip open the curtain, shine a flashlight in your eyes and mumble, "Sorry, wrong cot."
4. Renovate your bathroom. Hang a green plastic sheet down from the middle of your bathtub and move the showerhead down to chest level. Keep four inches of soapy cold water on the floor. Stop cleaning the toilet and pee everywhere but in the toilet itself. Leave two to three sheets of toilet paper. Or for best effect, remove it altogether. For a more realistic deployed bathroom experience, stop using your bathroom and use a neighbor's. Choose a neighbor who lives at least a quarter mile away.
5. When you take showers, wear flip-flops and keep the lights off.
6. Put lube oil in your humidifier instead of water and set it on "HIGH" for that tactical generator smell
7. Don't watch TV except for movies in the middle of the night. Have your family vote on which movie to watch and then show a different one
8. Leave a lawnmower running in your living room 24 hours a day for proper noise level
9. Have the paperboy give you a haircut.
10. Leave a lawnmower running in your living room 24 hours a day for proper noise level
