When It Rains, It Pours

I posted a couple months ago about how mail works over here in Iraq, which is really a "best effort" extension of how it works back home; the military post offices here collect mail from us and inject it into the mail system at home, and from there we wait the requisite time for delivery. Priority Mail, for instance, takes 2-3 days normally, so if we use it over here, it is however long it takes to get to the US, plus that 2 or 3 days. Getting mail from the US to here works the same way, only in reverse, with mail addressed to my ZIP first getting delivered to the Army, then flown here by them or a contractor on a best effort basis.

I mention all of this because I got four packages today, some of which have postmarks from two weeks ago!!

So, without further ado, the first package I got was:


Shoelaces. I opened this one on the spot at our supply office, since I got an email that an order came in. Yes, I really got a plastic envelope with two sets of shoelaces in them (bootlaces to be more precise). The Army set up this system to replace uniform-related stuff in country that wears out and ... (ok, I think no one cares about the shoe/boot laces).

I took the laces and went back to my housing unit, where I discovered my roommate, Bob, had picked up my mail for me - the other three packages, which I did not know were waiting for me at this point. He reminded me as I gleefully started cutting them open that he recently carried a large metal pole for some distance, which was currently providing us Internet (I knew I would not live that one down for a while ...). I assured him that if these were what I thought they were, I could repay him in spades!

So, the second package was:




SALSA!!! Yes, like the "precious" One Ring from Tolkien's classic, I knew it immediately when I saw the lids of the iconic jars Tonya picked in which to "can" them. I spent a few minutes telling Bob the importance of what I held in my hand, the history behind Tolteca, and how I could not get this salsa even when I was in Maryland. I guess if you are outside of driving distance from Tolteca, you might as well be on the moon if you are trying to get salsa there. Yet, here was a jar, in my hand.




The verdict: it was still good! Obviously, I did not have a reference dish of salsa to do a more scientific comparison, but really, it tasted great. I guess I don't necessarily want to know if there's supposed to be a difference when you perform the canning process if I can't tell as I'm devouring it. Still not convinced himself, Bob took a taste:


... and score another one with the broad side of the chalk for Tonya and Tolteca (but I'm still not forgiven for the metal pole incident). In all, she sent 12 of the jars, which hold a reasonable sitting's worth of salsa (probably about 2 dishes in the restaurant), and rationing it out I go through about a half-jar at a time.

The third package was another bag of chips from Tonya, pictured to the left in the next photo. That brings my stock to three bags, which each supposedly have around 220 chips.

The fourth package was yet another huge surprise ... a birthday party kit from Kathy!


Yes, that is a cake in the middle of the box, and the jar to the lower left is frosting. There are a couple of containers of "drizzle" in there too, which I guess is supposed to go on top of the frosting from what I read of the instructions. There are plates, candles, and little confetti, all emphasizing that it will be the "Big 3-0" for me in a couple of days. I'm leaving it as sealed as I can until Friday, when I will decorate a little, borrow a lighter from the smokers next door, and do a field-expedient birthday celebration!

One of the best parts of the kit was the DVD with pictures of Kathy and Matt making the cake - there are a few pictures of John feeding Matt lunch and getting him ready for the hard afternoon of quality testing (what other expertise does a guy with cheeks like that have?), then the lunacy of baking a cake with a 17-month old is chronicled in a series of pictures of Kathy and Matt working at the island in her kitchen. There were about a dozen prints, which I taped to the wall by some of the other pictures.

There were also Kathy's classic baked goodies in with the kit, which did not make it quite as unscathed as the cake and the salsa:


The Oatmeal Carmelitas on the top shelf and the Poppy Seed Bread on the bottom right didn't get mushed, they got baked more! It has been around 105-110 here for the past week or so, and the postmarks on the boxes indicate they've spent at least two in transit. I didn't see anything wrong with the OCs or the bread, so I put them in the fridge to firm up a bit. Bob thinks that aside from sticking to the bag a bit, they're going to make good midnight snacks (we are flush with things like microwave popcorn and small candies, but these are a meal!). The Pumpkin Bread on the lower left made it just fine, albeit a bit warm, so it's going in the fridge for a bit too.

Whew! What a great birthday I'm going to have in a few days!! Thanks Tonya and Kathy!

P.S. By the way, thanks for making the runs to the Post Office, John ... I noticed the customs forms mostly seem to have your name on them!

The Message Bean

I got some good news about a week ago - from a bean plant:

The bean plant

"A what?" you ask? Yes, I didn't type that incorrectly. It was somehow written on the side of a bean seed, so when the bean sprouted, it exposed the text. I started watering it about three weeks ago, and it took around a week for the sprout to break ground, then a day or two for the husk to show with the message. Here's me with my new bean plant (it still brightens up the Engineering area even after it's delivered its message):


So this blog entry has actually been about 4 months in the making. Tita, Autumn and Matt sent me this bean plant back in December, when it was pretty cold out here, so I left the plant in the shipping materials (a can with a removable top) for a warmer time. After I had been back from leave for about a month, I stumbled on it, and eventually made it into work carrying it in my cargo pocket. It did really well under the fluorescent lights and the indoor air, which is a bit warm now despite the air conditioning. It's only the beginning of the heat - it's rumored to reach 120 degrees out here, which is basically like Palm Springs if it were on another planet.

The bean plant has garnered quite a following in the office, being the only real plant there. There are people (of course), rats, roaches, and various insects, but this is really the only plant. The first encounter with someone usually involves the bean's backstory, and I get a rash of daily status seekers, all looking it over to see if it has been attacked by insects, burned by the nearby copier, or even some who wonder if it is still there (I think they're plotting its doom). In any case, I'm sure going to miss it when it's gone. I guess I know how Tom Hanks felt about that volleyball in "Castaway" ...

Oh yeah, the message. Tita, Autumn and Matt wanted to let me know: "I love you"!

Gate River Run 15k Pictures

At long last, pictures of the 15k. First, a team picture of the folks from my unit who ran:

Top (Left to Right): CPT Beau Biden, MAJ Steve Willey, SPC Gully, CW2 James Richards, CPT Kim Lindgren, CPT Brian Nichols, SFC Charles Kosiek, CH (LTC) Ken Brandt, CW3 Porfirio Alequine. Bottom (Left to Right): SPC Nathan Siebach, LTC Robert Fink, CPT Tim Drake, 1LT Michael Olsen, MAJ John Herholdt.

Most of the pictures looked like the ones below, just without me in them. Notice the sludge on the road (it's also caked on the backs of our legs):

Gotta smile if you notice the camera!

Gate River Run 15k

Well, there are plenty of better ways to start a day than walking to a bus stop in intermittent pouring rain at 5:45 AM, especially when the bus is taking you to where you will run 9.3 miles!

I got up this morning to the sound of rain roaring on the tin roof of my trailer, moments before the alarm went off. My roommate, awake from the noise and never without a pithy comment, wondered aloud if the race would still be run. Even if there was a chance of it being run, I had to go - the first 300 finishers got a free T-shirt ... you can't turn down a F-R-E-E T-shirt! I got a raincoat and headed out.

At the bus stop, there were only around half of the people from my unit that signed up to run. Not a good sign. After confirming with the race organizers (some were at the same stop) that the race was still on, we passed the time thinking of ways to remind our friends how wimpy they were to let a little rain turn them away. I think it's somehow going to involve the T-shirt and some gloating, but there's always superimposing people's heads on pictures of turtles and sloths.

The beginning of the race was at a favorite starting point for races on Victory Base - a Z-shaped lake that has a 5k perimeter. This race actually ran on one side of the lake to begin with, then the other three at the end - 5k and 10k races aren't too hard to hold on base, but 15k required a creative route. Unfortunately for us, most of the area around this side of the lake was plain dirt, with a really fine and dessicated top layer of dust that turned into a VERY foul mud by the time we got there (think peanut butter, stickiness and all). It didn't really rain on us that much, but the damage was done to the unpaved surfaces, and we all waded through it to get race numbers and some last sips of water. When the race announcer told us some of the course would be unpaved, you could hear the collective groan - we were going to be slimed just by running on the roads, let alone through unimproved goat paths. I guess they had to get 15k somehow.

I started in the back, letting the herd pull ahead before working my way forward - there were more than 300 people here, and I just had to beat that 300th person to get my prize. It was nasty the whole way, especially as I passed people (we would splash the more watery sludge on each other), but it was only for a moment each time, and it wasn't enough to get the inside of my shoes wet. We ran around smaller lakes than the Z-shaped lake, over bridges, and even around what's known as "Signal Hill", the choice hill for antennas (we have a couple of ours up there ... it's a good thing we didn't have to run UP the hill). As we came around the end, I jogged in at 1:14:35 - about 8:00 per mile, just like I'd been running on the treadmill since I got back from LA.

I felt the excitement as one of the volunteers at the finish line handed me my voucher for a T-shirt - there were only 300 of these pieces of paper to be had, and I was going to redeem mine without any delay. I got to the table, and ...

"Sorry sir, we only have extra large size ..."

You have got to be kidding me! I smoked all those people over the course of an hour of running and all there was left was extra large?? I looked around and it didn't seem like that many people had finished, so I asked how they could have run out so soon - apparently, the T-shirts are the actual T-shirts given to finishers of the Jacksonville Gate River Run 15k, the namesake of this run and the US National 15k Championship, which is being held today in Jacksonville, FL in about 5 hours. The race organizers in Iraq, the 146th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, built this race to mirror the one they participate in back home (newpaper article here), and the race organizers in the US pitched in official race numbers and T-shirts! Wow.

I took my extra large and had to hand it to the 146th; just getting all the stars to align for this - in Iraq - was a feat, and I was glad I didn't roll over in bed when I heard the rain. After all, what's a little rain when a free T-shirt is at stake?

(I'll have pictures from the Public Affairs folks in a few days. They were all over the course, so there's bound to be one or two of me, plus my unit's group photo at the end).

Vitamin K

Today was the perfect day to go outside and get a fake tan of dust: we had high winds, and along with it, the ubiquitous fog of dust.

I wish I could capture it in a picture, but it really doesn't come out too well. The pictures that I thought would show the true nature of the dust come out looking like I took them in a cloud. The ones that show a gradient of visibility, fading into nothing after about 200 feet, end up looking like regular fog. Then, of course, there's no way to take a panoramic picture without some fancy Photoshop work, so here I am describing it to you. The high winds didn't help the communications links we were installing, though everything held up remarkably well.

I remember reading some literature in high school about the Dust Bowl era, and how the dust was affectionately called "Vitamin K" in one of the stories (it seemed to "season everything" including food). Those stories had at least a small feel of desperation and of resignation, they were set in hard times, and of course, the people in the story didn't give up despite their circumstances - that sounds just like this place! I remember dust in much happier times actually, namely trips to Joshua Tree National Monument, living in Cottonwood, AZ for a year, running in the hills of Daegu, ROK (South Korea), and even just the hills behind my high school in Claremont, CA.

In the time since I was in my hooch this morning, a thin layer of dust crept in and now coats everything, including the keys on the keyboard; in the time since I started typing this, it's begun to pour rain outside. Dust + rain = sludge ... ugh. Well, things could always be worse, so I better send this before the power goes out!