Been A While

I am sorry that so much time has passed since the last update. I am still here in wonderful Afghanistan. There have not been many changes with the exception of several new rules on the FOB. I would go into detail and give my opinion, but you never know who will read this and make things that much harder on me.

Other than the soldiering issues that I had, things are going pretty good. I am staying pretty busy and getting a lot done. Some weird things have happened too. There was a snake in the dining facility a week or so ago. I guess it took quite some time to get the snake, a cobra, out where they could kill it and get rid of it. Of course there are still hundreds, if not more, lizards running around. They are everywhere you look. There is no getting away from them. I cannot tell you how many I have caught in my office. They are on the walls in the dining facility as well. There is a wall that I walk past at night and they are covering the wall. Last night I took the time and counted 25 on a 16 foot long wall and there were many more, to many to count. I said forget it and went on to my room.

The lizards are not the only thing there are plenty of. Mosquitoes of course, but there are these HUGE beetles that are all over as well. It gets worse when it rains, but it is bad all the time. I have never seen a bug that is this big in my life.

I was going to tell you it was boring here, and I still can. It was not there for a week or so ago, it would have been a really boring blog entry. We were directly attacked with small arms fire (guns aimed at us) and a few rockets twice in a week. The first night they hit a guard tower, which has since been rebuilt, and shot at us with machine guns. No one was hurt and the tower had to be rebuilt. That is one reason that I was waiting to write. I did not want to come here and say we have a tower that is destroyed and out defenses are weakened, attack now. That would have been crazy. A couple nights later we were hit with a couple rockets, but no real damage and no one was hurt in that either. That was the first time since this FOB was built in 2006 that it was directly and deliberately attacked. I hope it does not happen again, but I am sure it will with the elections coming up soon. Ramadan is ending soon was well. Ramadan ends and then it is time for the elections. I just with that it would cool off some here. I am over the heat and do not need any more of it.

I am not sure if in the last update I gave on my goal to lose some weight, but I am currently down 25 pounds and I have been for some time. I cannot seem to get the ball rolling to lose the last 25 and reach my goal. But one goal that I am getting closer is getting a Harley. I have been watching online and I am hoping to get a Harley VROD when I am home on leave. I have found a few that I really like on eBay, but I have not pulled the trigger yet. Hopefully it will work out for when I am on leave, speaking of which, will be in early November when I head home. I cannot wait to get home and see my wonderful daughter and get to go deer hunting in WV. Those will be the trip highlights.

Well, I hope this gets some of you up to speed on the events over here. I do have one request. We lost a friend, brother and Soldier a few days ago. This is someone that I knew personally and that makes it a little harder to accept. Please pray for his family that they have the comfort they need.

To all of you out there that support us, thank you and God bless you!!