Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Winding Down
Well, our replacements finally arrived two days ago. About 10 days short, but better late than never, right? They have been sitting in classes the last two days experiencing the fun that is PowerPoint presentations. Death by PowerPoint as some would call it. This generations version of a slide projector. Anyway, tomorrow we start what we call left seat/right seat. This is the term used to describe them riding around in the passanger seat observing what we do and asking questions. We'll do that for a few days and then we'll do right seat/left seat, which as I'm sure you can figure out is them driving around while we observe and critique.
10 days is hardly enough time to train these guys. It's kind of like trying to drink from a fire hose. You'll get some of it, but most of it will blow right by. I'm sure these guys are anxious for us to get out of here so they can start doing there own thing. I just hope they use this week to listen to what we have to say and don't act like know-it-alls. If I here one guy say "I know", that will instantly conclude my training session. "You already know?", "Great, here's the keys good luck". Even if they really do know, in my opinion, you just keep your mouth shut and open your ears. That's just how training works. We'll see. I think it will go well from the few conversations I've had with some of the guys so far.
I'll be home soon!
10 days is hardly enough time to train these guys. It's kind of like trying to drink from a fire hose. You'll get some of it, but most of it will blow right by. I'm sure these guys are anxious for us to get out of here so they can start doing there own thing. I just hope they use this week to listen to what we have to say and don't act like know-it-alls. If I here one guy say "I know", that will instantly conclude my training session. "You already know?", "Great, here's the keys good luck". Even if they really do know, in my opinion, you just keep your mouth shut and open your ears. That's just how training works. We'll see. I think it will go well from the few conversations I've had with some of the guys so far.
I'll be home soon!
Monday, February 8, 2010
Bored
I was bored tonight, which is a good thing, so I emailed our meteorologist out here and got the weather statistics for my entire deployment here and I figured I would share them with you all. (I know it's not really that interesting, but hey, at least a month didn't go by in between posts)
The average temperature for the deployment was 81 degrees. The hottest month was August with an average temp of 100 degrees. The hottest day that month got up to 124. The coldest it got that month was 89. The coldest month, was January, with the coldest day reaching 28. The hottest it got in January was 68.
So as you can see, although the summer was extremely hot, there are still seasons here and it actually gets pretty damn cold. Personally, I was lucky enough to work the night shift the entire deployment, thus not having to subject my body to most of that extreme heat (although nighttime was no picnic either).
Lastly, back in January I talked about them moving Dave to Philly or Richmond. His family chose Philly, so he is at the Moss Rehab center, which I beleive is part of Albert Einstein. I'll be stopping in there to visit him when I get back home.
The average temperature for the deployment was 81 degrees. The hottest month was August with an average temp of 100 degrees. The hottest day that month got up to 124. The coldest it got that month was 89. The coldest month, was January, with the coldest day reaching 28. The hottest it got in January was 68.
So as you can see, although the summer was extremely hot, there are still seasons here and it actually gets pretty damn cold. Personally, I was lucky enough to work the night shift the entire deployment, thus not having to subject my body to most of that extreme heat (although nighttime was no picnic either).
Lastly, back in January I talked about them moving Dave to Philly or Richmond. His family chose Philly, so he is at the Moss Rehab center, which I beleive is part of Albert Einstein. I'll be stopping in there to visit him when I get back home.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
I SUCK
I do. Haven't been keeping up on the blog. For a bunch of reasons I guess. None of which are because I'm too busy, so really no excuse. Things have remained pretty much the same since I last checked in. Just grinding these last couple months out. We did get some slightly bad news today. The guys/gals that are relieving us were supposed to be here on the 5th. They're not coming until the 12th now. Apparently something to do with ice storms in the states. I have been told that this will not affect our departure date. Just the amount of time we have to train the new guys. I hope this is true because I made reservation to go to Rehoboth Beach on Mar 12/13th to visit the Dogfish Head brewery. They are unveiling a new beer that weekend.
One of the reasons I haven't blogged as much is because I can never think of anything to write about that I think people would be interested in reading. So I spend some of my downtime trying to come up with ideas, and I came up with this one awhile ago, and wanted to wait a little closer to the end to do it. Here goes:
STATISTICS FROM MY DEPLOYMENT
Total days in Kuwait: 270
Toiletries:
Rolls of toilet paper used: 4
Tubes of toothpaste: 3 (brushed twice a day)
Tubes of toothpaste received in care packages: 78
Toothbrushes: 2
Bottles of Shower Gel: 4 (Once a day)
Bottles of Shampoo: 4 (Once a day)
Loofah: 2
Bars of deodorant: 2 (Once a day)
Laundry Detergent: 4 (Once a week, 2 loads)(50oz containers)
Fast Food:
Taco Bell: 4x
Burger King: 4x
Great Steak: 3x (Their cheesesteaks are the worst, but their burgers are pretty good)
Subway: 3x
Pizza Inn: 7x
All of those places are not good tasting and I visited these simply for a change from the DFAC. The DFAC serves the same food every Monday, every Tuesday, etc..
Work Related:
5k's worked: 44
5K's ran: 1
Calls for suspicious packages: 12
Actual suspicious packages: 2
Times I fired a weapon: 0
Times I drove a Humvee: 0
Celebrities met: 4.5
Men supervised: 13
Amount that are younger than me: 1
# of days I checked Facebook: 270
Thats all I can think of for now. If there is one you'd like to know, let me know. I will cover the weather in the next one.
Go Flyers!
One of the reasons I haven't blogged as much is because I can never think of anything to write about that I think people would be interested in reading. So I spend some of my downtime trying to come up with ideas, and I came up with this one awhile ago, and wanted to wait a little closer to the end to do it. Here goes:
STATISTICS FROM MY DEPLOYMENT
Total days in Kuwait: 270
Toiletries:
Rolls of toilet paper used: 4
Tubes of toothpaste: 3 (brushed twice a day)
Tubes of toothpaste received in care packages: 78
Toothbrushes: 2
Bottles of Shower Gel: 4 (Once a day)
Bottles of Shampoo: 4 (Once a day)
Loofah: 2
Bars of deodorant: 2 (Once a day)
Laundry Detergent: 4 (Once a week, 2 loads)(50oz containers)
Fast Food:
Taco Bell: 4x
Burger King: 4x
Great Steak: 3x (Their cheesesteaks are the worst, but their burgers are pretty good)
Subway: 3x
Pizza Inn: 7x
All of those places are not good tasting and I visited these simply for a change from the DFAC. The DFAC serves the same food every Monday, every Tuesday, etc..
Work Related:
5k's worked: 44
5K's ran: 1
Calls for suspicious packages: 12
Actual suspicious packages: 2
Times I fired a weapon: 0
Times I drove a Humvee: 0
Celebrities met: 4.5
Men supervised: 13
Amount that are younger than me: 1
# of days I checked Facebook: 270
Thats all I can think of for now. If there is one you'd like to know, let me know. I will cover the weather in the next one.
Go Flyers!
Friday, January 8, 2010
Counting down the Days
Not much new and exciting going on out here. It has gotten a little bit colder, but not much. Temp is in the low to mid 70's during the day, and the 40's at night. I expected a little more rain, but there hasn't been much. I finished my college classes up. They went pretty smoothly overall. Hopefully I will follow up on that when I get home. Last week, I told you about meeting the football players, particularly about the guy behind me having a picture of Brian "The Boz" Bosworth getting trucked by Bo Jackson. I ended up bumping into the guy the other day and asked him how it went, and he said The Boz was really cool about it, and signed the picture "Bo Knows The Boz". Our relief should be getting here in a month to do turnover. It's all down hill from there.
Update on Dave
: The newest on Dave, is they moved him from ICU to a regular room, and are on there way to moving him to a rehabilitation center in either Philly or Richmond. He is still in a coma, but has shown improvements. In the accident he had injured his jaw and had to have it wired shut. Lately, he has been breaking the wires. They think it might be from yawning, but they aren't sure. They also said it appears his eyes are tracking movements, but they aren't sure if he sees people or just a shadow of them. His therapist asked him to kiss a picture of his daughter, and he did. They did an EEG which did show some slight improvements. They are planning to do an MRI which should shed more light. It has been awhile since they have done one. Last time, they were having trouble distinguishing blood from actual damage.
Update on Dave
: The newest on Dave, is they moved him from ICU to a regular room, and are on there way to moving him to a rehabilitation center in either Philly or Richmond. He is still in a coma, but has shown improvements. In the accident he had injured his jaw and had to have it wired shut. Lately, he has been breaking the wires. They think it might be from yawning, but they aren't sure. They also said it appears his eyes are tracking movements, but they aren't sure if he sees people or just a shadow of them. His therapist asked him to kiss a picture of his daughter, and he did. They did an EEG which did show some slight improvements. They are planning to do an MRI which should shed more light. It has been awhile since they have done one. Last time, they were having trouble distinguishing blood from actual damage.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Kuwait Stinks!
Seriously. It smells terrible. Hard to describe other than reporting the need to breathe through the mouth.
Anyway, today we got a visit from some former football players. It was quite the motley crew. The group seemed to be comprised mostly of great college players that somewhat flopped in the NFL. The tour is officially called The Tostitos Salute to the Troops Bowl tour.
They were split of in groups of 2-3. I set out to get some autographs and maybe a couple pictures. I was wearing my Eagles t-shirt.
The first table I came to was Brain "The Boz" Bosworth and Tony Casillas. Tony, from the Cowboys, immediately began to blast on me for the Eagles shirt, and spoke of how Dallas was going to smash the Eagles next weekend. The Boz seemed kind of weird. He was talking about "we" gotta get paybacks for last year. I thought he only played for the Seahawks, but I might be wrong, so I just nodded and smiled. He was pretty intimidating sitting down with a smile, so I can just imagine how he was on the field. The guy behind me in line had 3 pictures of The Boz getting trucked by Bo Jackson, he wanted him to sign. If you know the circumstances of that, you'd know why I didn't hang around to see how it went.
The next table was Tommy Bowden and Bruce Smith. They were both pretty quiet, didn't say a whole lot. Little bit of small talk. Bruce Smith, by far the best NFl'er there, was sure to remind everybody that he was the odd man out in this crew by wearing his Canton Ohio polo shirt.
The third table was Joe Washington and Barry Switzer. Joe Washington played with the Skins, and Switzer coached the Cowboys, so again, I caught a bunch of crap from those two. Coach Switzer just looked at me, and then turned to Joe and said "God I hated the Vet". Joe agreed and talked about how one time he saw the Redskins mascot get beat up by Philly fans. He also asked if it was true about the judge in the basement. Switzer said it was the most intimidating place he ever went. Joe said he was living in Baltimore now and asked where I lived. I told him Delaware, and he asked me if I had ever heard of W.L. Gore. I told him that my Mom worked there. He talked about how impressed he was with the company as he had done some work with them in the past. He also noted that they made him the best pair of football spikes he had ever played in.
The last table was Tee Martin, Rocket Ismail and Ty Detmer. Ty, the lone Eagles fan out of the group welcomed me with open arms. He quarterbacked for the Eagles for a few years, and for the most part did pretty well.
I told him about the crap I was catching from the other players, and so he told me to ask coach Switzer about the 1996 game when the Eagles beat the Cowboys, ending a 5 years drought vs. the Cowboys. Switzer was fired the next season. Switzer didn't hear us, but it was fun anyway. Ty said he loves watching the tape of the interception at the end of the game that Troy Vincent ran back for a touchdown. He said he loves when they pan to Jerry Jones. He said the look on his face is priceless.
The Rocket and Tee Martin didn't really say much, but were both pleasant.
Overall it was pretty cool. As I guess most experience when meeting celebrities, I wish I was able to hang around and talk to them a little more, but it was good just to see they were taking the time out to come here for a visit.
Anyway, today we got a visit from some former football players. It was quite the motley crew. The group seemed to be comprised mostly of great college players that somewhat flopped in the NFL. The tour is officially called The Tostitos Salute to the Troops Bowl tour.
They were split of in groups of 2-3. I set out to get some autographs and maybe a couple pictures. I was wearing my Eagles t-shirt.
The first table I came to was Brain "The Boz" Bosworth and Tony Casillas. Tony, from the Cowboys, immediately began to blast on me for the Eagles shirt, and spoke of how Dallas was going to smash the Eagles next weekend. The Boz seemed kind of weird. He was talking about "we" gotta get paybacks for last year. I thought he only played for the Seahawks, but I might be wrong, so I just nodded and smiled. He was pretty intimidating sitting down with a smile, so I can just imagine how he was on the field. The guy behind me in line had 3 pictures of The Boz getting trucked by Bo Jackson, he wanted him to sign. If you know the circumstances of that, you'd know why I didn't hang around to see how it went.
The next table was Tommy Bowden and Bruce Smith. They were both pretty quiet, didn't say a whole lot. Little bit of small talk. Bruce Smith, by far the best NFl'er there, was sure to remind everybody that he was the odd man out in this crew by wearing his Canton Ohio polo shirt.
The third table was Joe Washington and Barry Switzer. Joe Washington played with the Skins, and Switzer coached the Cowboys, so again, I caught a bunch of crap from those two. Coach Switzer just looked at me, and then turned to Joe and said "God I hated the Vet". Joe agreed and talked about how one time he saw the Redskins mascot get beat up by Philly fans. He also asked if it was true about the judge in the basement. Switzer said it was the most intimidating place he ever went. Joe said he was living in Baltimore now and asked where I lived. I told him Delaware, and he asked me if I had ever heard of W.L. Gore. I told him that my Mom worked there. He talked about how impressed he was with the company as he had done some work with them in the past. He also noted that they made him the best pair of football spikes he had ever played in.
The last table was Tee Martin, Rocket Ismail and Ty Detmer. Ty, the lone Eagles fan out of the group welcomed me with open arms. He quarterbacked for the Eagles for a few years, and for the most part did pretty well.
I told him about the crap I was catching from the other players, and so he told me to ask coach Switzer about the 1996 game when the Eagles beat the Cowboys, ending a 5 years drought vs. the Cowboys. Switzer was fired the next season. Switzer didn't hear us, but it was fun anyway. Ty said he loves watching the tape of the interception at the end of the game that Troy Vincent ran back for a touchdown. He said he loves when they pan to Jerry Jones. He said the look on his face is priceless.The Rocket and Tee Martin didn't really say much, but were both pleasant.
Overall it was pretty cool. As I guess most experience when meeting celebrities, I wish I was able to hang around and talk to them a little more, but it was good just to see they were taking the time out to come here for a visit.
Friday, December 18, 2009
The lone rogue post
Yes, this has what the blog has evolved into. Lone rogue posts. Whether it be lack of motivation or excitement, I just haven't had much to write about I guess. Things here are good. We are now considering ourselves on the "home stretch" as we near the last 70-80 days left here. The consensus around here, for the most part, has been "can't wait to get out of here". Believe it or not, there is actually a waiting list of guys who came out here with me, who would like to stay another year. I think the economy plays a part in most of those guys decision to extend another year. Maybe they don't have a job to go back to, or this one pays a little more, either way, to each his own I guess. Not this guy though. Actually, I'm the only guy on this mission that didn't volunteer for it. I guess technically, by joining the Navy I did, but everyone else said, "Please send me on this mission", while I was the recipient of "You are hereby ordered". So yeah, no extensions for me.
The weather continues to be the same over the last month and a half. Low 50's with the occasional shower. It may dip into the 40's before I leaves here, and I'm sure we'll get some more rain as well. I'm sure none of you in the states feel bad considering the snow and what not.
College is going. I have 2 research papers due next week. 5-8 pages each. One is on Learning Environments, and the other on the Tokyo Sarin gas attacks a few years back. I can't procrastinate on those like I have on most of my other assignments. Overall the classes are going great though. Once those papers are in the classes will be done. I haven't looked into next semester yet.
I got to talk to my Mom on Skype the other day. It seemed like she enjoyed it. She happened to stop by my house while I was talking to Christina. You know I snapped a picture right:
I'm pretty sure my Mom wont be as "excited" as Christina was about me posting her picture on the blog, but at least I didn't put it next to some creepy guy like I did Christina's.
The weather continues to be the same over the last month and a half. Low 50's with the occasional shower. It may dip into the 40's before I leaves here, and I'm sure we'll get some more rain as well. I'm sure none of you in the states feel bad considering the snow and what not.
College is going. I have 2 research papers due next week. 5-8 pages each. One is on Learning Environments, and the other on the Tokyo Sarin gas attacks a few years back. I can't procrastinate on those like I have on most of my other assignments. Overall the classes are going great though. Once those papers are in the classes will be done. I haven't looked into next semester yet.
I got to talk to my Mom on Skype the other day. It seemed like she enjoyed it. She happened to stop by my house while I was talking to Christina. You know I snapped a picture right:
I'm pretty sure my Mom wont be as "excited" as Christina was about me posting her picture on the blog, but at least I didn't put it next to some creepy guy like I did Christina's.
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