The best kind of wake up call...
To my great surprise, I got a wake up call this morning from M.! He was able to call at 5:30 (it's actually an hour later there). M. says that calling out this week has been rough....the number of soldiers wanting to use the phones at any given time (except 5:30!) just far exceeds the number of lines available. Yesterday, he actually had access to the phone itself, but just couldn't get a line out: too much traffic. So, he got up early and headed over to the phones this morning to find that 6:30 is a really unpopular time at the communications trailer: score! It was so good to actually get to talk to him, even for just a few minutes.
Without further ado, the latest details from the desert: first, they don't know when they will be able to leave their current location. So, for the time being, the days consist of roughly 50% downtime. Given that much of the day goes unoccupied, it sounds like boredom has been one of the bigger obstacles...and people are starting to just get on each other's nerves a little bit. Fortunately, he was able to break the time up a bit by getting out of the tent and walking around camp...and he wound up running into the lieutenant from my post that we had Christmas dinner with last year. (Not the one that hit his car...the other one!) It's been awhile since I'd seen her around...she apparently asked how I was. M. says he held up his left hand and said 'She's married!' which is true, very happily true! Which reminds me...earlier this week in an e-mail, he mentioned that his wedding ring is actually fitting better downrange. Hmm? Why's that? Well, apparently, it's been pretty hot, so he's sweaty, and all the grit is stickin' to the sweat and voila: it's apparently stuck on his finger even tighter than before. Sand: mix it with a little sweat and it's magic! To be honest, it does sound just a little uncomfortable...grit under a ring? Keeping it stuck on? Hmm... On the other hand, as long as he can see an upside to having all that sand in the air, well, I'm all for it!
Without further ado, the latest details from the desert: first, they don't know when they will be able to leave their current location. So, for the time being, the days consist of roughly 50% downtime. Given that much of the day goes unoccupied, it sounds like boredom has been one of the bigger obstacles...and people are starting to just get on each other's nerves a little bit. Fortunately, he was able to break the time up a bit by getting out of the tent and walking around camp...and he wound up running into the lieutenant from my post that we had Christmas dinner with last year. (Not the one that hit his car...the other one!) It's been awhile since I'd seen her around...she apparently asked how I was. M. says he held up his left hand and said 'She's married!' which is true, very happily true! Which reminds me...earlier this week in an e-mail, he mentioned that his wedding ring is actually fitting better downrange. Hmm? Why's that? Well, apparently, it's been pretty hot, so he's sweaty, and all the grit is stickin' to the sweat and voila: it's apparently stuck on his finger even tighter than before. Sand: mix it with a little sweat and it's magic! To be honest, it does sound just a little uncomfortable...grit under a ring? Keeping it stuck on? Hmm... On the other hand, as long as he can see an upside to having all that sand in the air, well, I'm all for it!
posted by Molly Murphy at 10:14 PM
2 Comments:
I am hooked on this site! I could really get used to following these adventures...true to life with on site reporting and only a little bit of editing. What could be a better source for the truth for downrange activities?
Keep up the good work, M. and M. You've got fans in FB, GA!
Even a little bit of news is great! We're thinking of you all the time. At least you two are only 1 hour apart in time zones! The blog will be great to relay the news. Thanks, M & M.
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