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.
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