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- Sep 9, 2008
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Bump for Update One:
Well, I'm halfway around the world (just about literally, depending on
where you're reading this) but I'm still probably 2-3 weeks away from
getting to my "final" destination and taking over my job.
One of the things I like to do when situations have the opportunity to
suck pretty badly is to imagine that it's going to be hellishly
horrible and miserable, so that if it does completely stink then my
expectations are met (hooray!), and if not then it's a bonus b/c it's
Better Than Absolute Zero (TM). I've found that God definitely honors
that. To provide examples from today:
"Yippee! Even though I'm in a place where it's below freezing, it's
just BARELY below freezing. And the Army gave me such a nice warm
sleeping bag to lay in my diesel-fuel-heated tent! Yippee! Even
though I'm sleeping in a tent with 20 of my closest friends, at least
I get the bottom bunk! Sweeeet! And they helpfully provide a poop
machine where you sit, separated by a thin, not-quite-the-right-size
curtain and 12 inches from a fellow excreter on a raised platform
above a euphemistically-called 'open holding tank' for the resultant
droppings---this way, you don't have to stick your butt onto the
frozen port-a-john seat outside our tent that someone has, shall we
say, 'impressively and explosively splattered' with their own bowel
movement just previously. Awe-Sum! And while the chow may be
described charitably as 'almost perfectly adequate', it's
all-you-can-eat and 24/7, so they even help me with my jetlag!
Huzzah! Yeah, they said not to use personal credit/debit cards on
base because they've had a 'minor but widespread problem' with
people's numbers being stolen and utilized elsewhere while you're
defending mom and apple pie from the bad guys--but they cheerfully
help you set up an 'Eagle Cash Prepaid Card' that you can load up from
your bank account and use at any of the military facilities!
Terrrrrrrr-ific!"
They do attempt to take care of you here, unless you're the Army--in
which case, you volunteered for it, sucker. We are here for another
1-2 days, depending on when they can get us a flight, so they have a
"restaurant" on base where Navy, Marine and Air Force guys can scan
their ID cards for their allotment of two local beers per 24 hour
period (again, unless you're Army, where the motto seems to be GFY).
I probably won't partake, but it's good to know that someone cares
about making sure the people who'll be in a war zone in 24 hours have
some leftover-Soviet swill to imbibe on before they head along on
their way--so they've got that going for them, which is nice.
And they have a 24/7 MWR (Morale, Welfare and Recreation for you
civilian types) tent that has wifi hookup, some computers,
ELECTRICITY!!!!! and a big screen to watch movies. They just finished
up watching an 8mm tape (just like on the submarine!) of Django
Unchained, which I might try to see before I leave here. As an
oh-by-the-way, I think I'm getting old---I am at a table with 19 other
soldiers/sailors/Marines/airmen and their laptops, and 17 of them are
playing some kind of shooting game.
That said, I've already been able to sit down with two guys and help
them get things off of their chest, to be able to pray with them about
family problems (two of my good friends were served with divorce
papers the week we left, one on Friday before our Sunday flights, and
one had to get in loco parentis proceedings for two of his kids) and
to use my usual charm and wit to encourage and exhort. Thanks to all
of you for being the foundation I can use to pour it back out on
people--and for not serving me with court orders before I left. You
guys are the best.
If this is boring, sorry--PM SlyPokerDog and he'll ban me for spam. (But it won't be an IP ban, muhahahaha). If you have questions you'd like me to answer, fire
away
