Time flies

It’s hard to believe, but yesterday was already my birthday. Fun stuff. Actually, it was a pretty good day. It started off with a video call on the webcam to Deeanna and the kids. They had made a cake for me, and sang happy birthday. Dasha was very concerned about how I was going to eat it- was I coming home for a day, or were they sending it to me? Then, yesterday afternoon several guys “surprised” me with cake and a pot of homemade borshch. It was delicious (although when one of the cooks randomly wished me a happy birthday, I knew something was up). October has been a good month thus far. I’ve been out on a few more patrols, which have been productive, although they’ve been short, and we’ve always returned to the COP to sleep. I’ve also gotten several items of mail. I got a package from Heather, from the mayor and city of Eagle Mountain, along with several letters from the kids, including Tommy’s Christmas wish is (wishes). As far as the team goes, the two replacements are both gone, and I am now with Scott and SSG D, which is good. It’s just better being with teammates. Mr. Baird is on leave right now, which is good for him. He is a great team leader, and he works hard to make things as efficient and logical as possible, which isn’t always easy where the Army is involved. He should get back in a couple weeks, but then SSG D goes on leave, so I don’t know that we’ll ever have our full team together. Crazy. Actually, Team Bronco the only time we were all together was a couple of nights in Orgune back in September. I never had thought of that. That could well turn out to be the only time that the four of us are together. We’ve really had quite the transient team, when you start to think about it.
One thing I have been doing is Christmas shopping. Hopefully the kids like what I’ve gotten. Tommy sent me an email yesterday informing me that if Santa doesn’t bring him a set of drums then I have to buy him one. He’s quite obsessed with them. Actually, I think I only have one more thing to get for Justin, and then finish up Deeanna’s shopping, and I’ll be mostly done. Deeanna will have to get some of the fillers together, but it should be a good Christmas, especially if Santa comes through, which he always does. I did buy myself a pair of astronomical binoculars. The stars are so bright here at night, that I decided it would be worth it. And they’ll be nice for camping trips and looking at the stars back home.
The engineers have continued working on improving Zerok, and they have also been building a new road, which is good. Yesterday one of them did us a favor and installed a new light fixture for us. Ours was falling apart, and we had to tape the light tubes in, to keep them from falling out. Exciting.
Well, with November around the corner, I’ll try and write again soon. Now that I’m on facebook, I haven't updated my blog as much. But I really think these last few months will fly by, with the holidays and then are replacements arriving and handing over the equipment and, more importantly, the job.

Another month gone!

Well, it’s a General Conference Sunday back home, and it’s been a few days since I wrote an entry…surprising how time flies. Tons of stuff has changed in the last week. To start off with, two more of the guys on my team Chief and Sgt. D both went to Bagram. That means that I am now with two new team mates- Sergeant A and Lawerence. Sergeant A is a staunch Utah fan, and a BYU hater, but he knows the job, which is good. It is a little tough to have your team change so much, but what do you do. But things should stabilize once everyone gets back from leave. Something else that happened this week is that I got back on a serious study/workout schedule. I’m doing a couple hours of Arabic/Iraqi and reading Harry Potter 4 in Arabic. I’m also reading a military history of Afghanistan from Alexander the Great to America’s invasion in 2001. It’s amazing how much you can do when you work 8-10 hours a day and have nothing else to do. There’s rumor that they might put in satellite TV, but nothing so far. The food has continued to impress. Last night we had BBQ ribs and chicken wings. Tonight we’re having steak marinated in non-alcoholic beer. (they don’t allow any alcohol in country, for obvious and entirely non religious reasons.) Another crazy thing happened this week, and I’m not sure that anyone noticed, but it is now OCTOBER. It’s hard to believe, but last time General Conference was on we had already been at Fort Lewis for over a month! I started doing some basic Christmas shopping on the internet, mostly to try and keep things simple for Deeanna, this year. Deeanna and the kids went down to Lyman to visit her parents. In other news of life here in Afghanistan, still no mail. Apparently, our unit forwarded our mail to Orgun-E, but then OE forwarded it to the wrong COP. Trying to get mail from the Army can be terribly annoying. Trying to get a straight answer can be like talking to Pinocchio in Shrek the Third. Prince Charming asks him where Shrek is and Pinocchio responds, “Well, I definitely don’t know where he’s not…unless that’s where he isn’t.” BYU continues to win. I’ll be very impressed if they can win out, but they have a couple very difficult games left.