Life is good

We are having a cool front move in. It was only 109 today. I could actually tell it was a little cooler than the usual 115-117 range. The trade off is the dust. When the dust flies, it is thick enough to actually block some of the sun, but then you are left with that sandy taste in your mouth. Oh well.

I had a really great day yesterday. Probably the best I had since I left Chicago. Another doctor and I went shooting last night. We shot the 50 caliber gun that sits on top of the humvees. Man, just the size of the bullets is amazing. They’re huge. I was mowing down bushes and trees. If John Wayne used this instead of his rifle, his movies would have been over in 15 minutes, with no one left standing. No trees or buildings either. You can’t stand too close because just the air pressure from when it is fired can almost knock you over. Those are some big guns. I also got to play with the night vision goggles. Those are really neat. I can’t believe how well you can see at night with those things on. It’s almost like Superman looking through things with his Xray vision only it is night time. I felt like a real Army man last night.

I was so wand up after shooting, that I found an old package of microwave popcorn. I shook off the dust (everything is dusty over here). I went over to the hospital, used their microwave, half burnt it, but that’s ok, it still tasted pretty good. I picked up a cheap movie, “Hancock” at one of the local shops. The quality wasn’t t too bad. It didn’t quite fit on the TV screen and occasionally you see a head stick up once in a while, but hey, for 2 bucks I can’t complain much. Anyhow, I got some NA beer (that’s the only type they sell down here) and I watched the movie with my burnt popcorn and NA beer. I didn’t know that Becks makes one, but it wasn’t bad. I enjoyed it so much that I actually stayed up past my usual bed time of 8 PM, all the way to 10:30 PM. Watch out, I am starting to become a real partier now. Life is good, it is the simple little things that counts.

The other good news is that the violence is down.I don't know if it is the surge, or maybe just the fact that people are tired of all the bombs and violence. Probably just a multitude of reason. When I talk to the soldiers who go outside the wire, they say they see the difference. They used to have 15 -20 incidents a day of snipers or IEDs or whatever. Now it is down to just 2 or 3 a day. I guess that is one reason why I am not so busy, but that is ok. It gives me more time to post on my blog site.

Tom