16 OCT

Real quick week. They are flying by now. I said last week that I was in to T minus 7 weeks, but that was wrong, I have 31 days until I leave this base and then about a week and a half of travel before hitting the U.S. Many of you may have heard Murl and I are headed to San Diego for a few years for our next tour.

Not much at all to report here. People don’t talk much here about more troops or the Afghan elections…that stuff is all over the news, but not much to talk about it here. The biggest thing going on in my life is over 200 people moving into my neighborhood that was once a quiet little wooded FOB that we called home. There have been murmurs of it for months, but nothing concrete. Well about two weeks ago, it got real concrete real fast. The French took over a U.S. base in Kabul and the displaced folks (GA National Guard) needed a place to call home. Problem is, there was really no room in then inn. After re-setting up tents that we set up twice and disassembled, taking out the base recreation room, chapel, store, mail room, and moving a lot of people around, they think they have room for all of these people. How does it affect me? Hopefully soon, one of these fine folks will take my job and I’ll lose my office. I will be able to stay in my room until just before we roll out. Lines will be longer to use the computer and phones, and the gym will be more crowded. All in all, it just makes the place more crowded and less pleasant to be at.

Watched Game Day broadcast from the Parade Grounds Sat night and woke up early to watch the LSU/UF game. I think we all know how that turned out, but there were some promising things I saw in the game. I cannot express how nice it is to be able to watch live football, especially the Tigers, while over here. With the bye week this week, I’ll have to watch the Saints game instead of LSU.

We celebrated the Navy birthday this week. Nothing big, but they made us a cake and hung up a ton of decorations. We have been burning scrap wood in the evenings and sitting around the fire. It is really starting to cool off here. Still getting hot during the day, but only up to the high 80s/low 90s. At night, it is probably dipping into the 60s. The fire pit is our escape from all of the new people clogging up the gym and slowing down the internet.

If you cannot tell, I am most definitely ready to pack my bags and start my journey home.

Have a good weekend. God bless.BMP