Blonde Moments

I'm glad that I got to go to the remote site and get "eyes on" to some of the issues there.  It's one thing to know it intellectually, it's quite another to experience it in person.

I'm just going to show you the fun stuff... Like this sign for the entrance to Afghanistan...

This is lovingly called a "jingle truck".

An old soviet tank.  Repurposed.

Delicious lunch.

Me in the MRAP getting ready to go.

Travelling in style...

The toilet.

The kids get AC.  How lucky.  Unless it's blazing hot or freezing cold under that tarp.

Heh.  Not really. 

But, being one of only two females at that site that I visited, well, it could give a girl a big head if she let it.

It's very hot out there.  Summer days average about 125 degrees.  Now, imagine wearing your kevlar and standing all day in that heat.  With no porta-potties. 

Yeah, that's what my people are having to do.  I'm going to be submitting a report to my bosses about the conditions there.  The guys are troopers, but, the working conditions... ugh.

And it takes forever to get anywhere here in theater.  Two days to get out there and two days back.  I only really had 1.5 productive days on the trip.  Got to see a lot of my people though, which is good. 

Oh, another really important, life changing event.  Hannah was accepted into Interlochen.  It's a boarding school in Michigan.  Not sure how I'm going to pay for it, but, I'll do what it takes.  I'd do the same for Ethan if he were of that mind, too. 

I'm on my way to do a couple of site visits tomorrow.  We'll see how the internet access ends up.

I spent from 10am to 6pm in meetings today, stopping only for lunch in-between.  Wait, I didn't count the 8-9am meeting.  Sigh. 

Sundays used to be my no-meetings day.

We have warnings everywhere not to drink bottles of water if the cap isn't sealed. 

However, it appears we need warnings for leaky bottles, too.  One of the military guys was talking tonight and suddenly stood up, wondering why his pants were all wet.  A good bit of the water had dripped onto his pants and it had finally begun to soak through.

Good times, good times.

I was at the PX today (it stands for Post Exchange - where you get sundries) and saw a compilation video from the Science Channel called "Essential Space Collection". 

I totally had to get it.  It didn't matter if the lines were way back to the coolers in the back of the store.  (They weren't but they COULD have been) 

It's got programs like "Starship Orion: The Future of Space Travel" and the like.

How could I resist?

Yeah, my friend called me a total geek.