A Muddy Day

I went over to the PX yesterday to pick up some more tea and remembered as I walked into the MWR building that they were closed. The NCOIC for the PX was up at Liberty restocking. It didn't take long for our soldiers here to practically empty out the place. Since I was already there at the MWR tent, I sat down with the other guys there to watch The Fantasic Four (we get all the movies before they are released to dvd and sometimes when they're still in the theater. But they are . But wouldn't you know it? Once the movie got up to the part that I hadn't seen yet (the other day I started it but the dvd was scratched too badly to finish it), the power went out and stayed out for over an hour. By the time it came back on, it was time for dinner. I ended up talking to two guys from Bravo Co. who were both heading out soon. One was coming back from the hospital in Baghdad and then to one of the other FOBs. The other guy was headed to Taji. They both started joking about how small their FOB was. The guy coming back from the hospital told me how he went 12 days without a shower when he first got here. At FOB Row, you get a shower every 3-4 days, but every time he went the shower was out of water, the generator was dead, or the pump was broken. He said after a while he just forgot about it until someone told him that the place was finally operational. Now they have 2 backup pumps and they get their water from our FOB.

Today is going pretty well. The removable spout we use to pour gas from the cans into the generator is missing. I'm not too sure how I will be able to fill it up without spilling half of the gasoline now. The generator's still full right now, so we have a little time to locate it before I have to get creative. Oh, today they served lunch for the first time ever. It was just hotdogs and hamburgers, but it was nice to have something to eat in the middle of the day besides MREs or jimmy deans. I'm not sure if this is a permanent thing or not, but I can hope.

The ground just outside of the internet cafe' is slightly flooded, and by that I mean moist. They are dredging the small canal that runs through the middle of our FOB, so I'm thinking that is the cause of the muddy conditions around me. It's really weird to see mud in the desert. I'm actually waiting to see it rain here. I've been here since the middle of May and have yet to one rain drop. I'm told that it does in fact rain here, just not very often.

SPC Schreck