Guilty?

Interesting case, especially if you are into court tv.

Food

Thank Cheney for KBR (a subsidiary of Halliburto), civilians have taken over the chow hall and I can eat again. The pies that the army used to throw away are now being consumed, they are using the fryer and I have chicken tenders again, the Coca-cola is freshly stocked in the cooler. On a side note someone in the platoon has a Foreman grill that we have been using, I will purchase one when I get home strictly for grilled cheese sandwiches.

Funny shitter quote

Someone had scratched into the wall, "I love Jim Bean".

Someone else added to it, "I love Jim's Beam".

Shit I have to put up with

The snow has fallen, and the worst is yet to come. We had to break out the snow chains and 4 low, somtimes that didn' help. There are no paved roads in Paktika province, so the snow on the roads turn to mud around midday. Some mountain passes are impassible but we attempted anyway (sometimes the voice of reason goes unheard). My truck ended up with a flat about an hour out from the FOB we were using, it was dark out and snowing and the tires have these nifty run-flats so we rolled back as is and changed the tire the next day. The FOB we were staying at has excellent food so a lot of us wouldn't mind being snowed in there but when we got word of a snow storm, we returned to our lovely FOB where at least I have a bed.

Thanksgiving

Three days before Thanksgiving apparently something happened to the well on our side of the FOB, either the well had dried up (which was one rumor being spread) or that part of the well had collapsed and dirt was sucked into the pump and it broke. Now the one thing going for the this FOB is the water (ie showers and actual toilets). The food here is the worst in Afghanistan, sometimes I can't wait for a long mission so I can go to another FOB to eat. Apparently the cooks refuse to cook a lot of the food (in most cases boiling food in a bag) and give a lot of it away to the locals and they throw away a lot (if they open a box of whatever and take one thing out and not use the rest, they have to throw away the whole box because they can't put it back in the reefer and it happens all the time), so we eat the shitty easy-to-heat-up meals (meatloaf, BBQ riblets, general tso, pot roast, burgers and hot dogs are the options and I know I'm a picky eater but this stuff is barely palatable) and they have been caught cooking themselves gourmet meals in the back.
On another note I had Thanksgiving off, so I spent the night before playing Halo with some of the guys until about 3 am. I was awoken by my roommate around 8 saying that they delivered mail that morning. I got all excited because I've been awaiting packages from my wife and some gear that I ordered. Well to make it short I didn't get anything. The mail comes to Afghanistan in Bagram Airfield (BAF) and gets put into a connex box. We've had some bad weather so a bunch of flights have been cancelled to this FOB. The mail in the connex gets tossed in and all the older stuff is in the back, apparently thats where mine still is. The engiqueers who run the FOB gave us the PRT the first meal time of 1430, pretty early dinner for me considering that lunch usually ends at 1330 which is when I usually eat lunch (if I'm here). Maybe I'm just bitter, maybe I like to complain, I guess any situation could always be worse. Well after my early dinner, which was decent (they broke out the baskin robbins ice cream they usually throw away), I played some more Halo and just waited for the right time to call my wife and use the internet. Well the internet and the phones went down and then a NIPR ban went into effect so all communication to home are a no-go. Well things did get better, a rumor went around that the water came back on and I ran to the showers to see if it was true. All the KBR (civilian contractors) were in there taking showers so I ran back to my room to grab my towel and told other guys along the way that the rumor was true. So to make the story short, I took a dump, a shower and did my laundry, it made me happy. Well anyway on this day I'm thankful for my family, they meet every year and I'm glad they can eat and laugh together. My brother who is on active duty and his wife are able to make it home this year, my other brother is in Korea enjoying his turkey day and I'm here hoping that next year I won't be working.

All my recent missions have consisted of HA (humanitarian aid) drops. We convoy out to different districts and villages, give out flour, beans, blankets, coats, boots, and little stoves. The crowd gets pretty hectic but its not like anyone gets trampled. They try to organize it so that each family gets a few of each item. I look at these people and I become thankful that I live in a modern world and have grown up with so much, I see 4 year old girls running around with no shoes and there is frost on the ground. It's starting to snow up in the mountains and soon the taliban will go back into hiding before it gets too cold, soon the conditions will get too bad for us to even leave.
Well its friday and the internet is up and the ban has been lifted (maybe) so I can be writing this right now. Soon I will be leaving for a big thing thats coming up, we'll be doing more of the same just farther away, I'm happy because I'll eat better for a little bit.

what can I say?

It's october now and a lot of people are saying its the "hump" mark. Well the downhill slide is probably going to be the longest part. I've had my two weeks at home and it was the best two weeks of my life, reason: I got to spend just about every minute with my wife. Now I'm back and watching everyone else go home for their leave and it makes me feel like I should have waited, but then part of me says you went home at the right time, CT in aug-sept is the best part of the year.

I've been eating up any free time I have playing Elder Scroll: Oblivion (this game is the bomb yo), watching dvd's of The Office or Arrested Development. A lot of people are into Kevin Smith movies right now, so I'll sit and watch some with them. Yesterday I was able to get a copy of Clerks II, a funny movie with memorable dialogue, "You never go ass to mouth!", "There is only one Return and it ain't Of The King, it's Of The Jedi."

As for this country, I've been here six months and this is what I have to say. Being here has made me less tolerable. Now from my point of view I am only dealing with one province and 90 percent of the people are pashtu, who are a traditional (stubborn) people. I've told everyone back home it might as well be two thousand years ago with Christ walking around except they have tractors now which they use mostly for transportation. The women here are still oppressed and I'm sure they get beat. I love dogs and I watch puppies get beat and spit on. We are trying to help them with medical aid and supplies yet the taliban that are caught in are area have the same supplies (are we just re-supplying the bad guys?) I have other stuff to say on this which I probably shouldn't write about. Apparently this country has been in a bad drought the past fifteen years, yet I can't picture the desert out here any different, with the mountains its like it belongs. well times up.

Funny shitter quote

"I wish I was
where I was
when I wished
I was here."