Thanks to Lisa for reminding me that I forgot to continue updating my blog. However, shortly after that reminder, my Internet went out for a few hours, then I had to go work, SO I forgot again for a minute. "Minute" = a few days. :)
Our Internet has been going out quite frequently at the camp lately. Frustrating for sure. I haven't had the time to troubleshoot it because I usually just fall asleep by 9-10pm.
This post is pretty boring, or will be, I can tell you that right now. It is basically a timeline of my trip from Iraq to the US to give you an idea of what I went thru and how my sleep patterns got kinda messed up. The return trip was worse though.
I forget exactly when I arrived at the terminal the night I left Iraq, but I can tell you the flight didn't depart until 2:30am and we landed in Kuwait around 5:30-6am - did not sleep on the flight. It was too loud and uncomfortable. I checked in at the Kuwait base and waited for about an hour to figure out what I was supposed to do or get done. Finally, I was directed to a tent to drop my stuff off and sleep if desired. The tent had 8 or 9 bunk beds and all the bottom beds were taken, so I grabbed a top bunk (was not given sheets, towels, pillows at this time) and tried to sleep around 9am. I used my backpack as a pillow.
After trying to sleep twice, I got about 3-4 hours of broken sleep in that morning/afternoon. Got a bus ride to Kuwait International Airport around 9pm to catch the 1am flight to Frankfurt, Germany. No problem, easy navigation. The flight took about 5.5 hours and I don't remember getting any sleep on this flight, I slept approximately 1.5 hours on this or the next flight.
After arriving in Germany at 8am, I had 5.5 hours to kill before my 1:30pm flight to Philly. Since I could not go to sleep and didn't have time to leave the airport and come back, I just roamed the shops section of the airport for 5 hours - Sitting, walking, "shopping".
The flight back to the States took about 8-9 hours (Left at 1:30pm Germany time, arrived in Philly at 4:30pm EST). Again, I don't remember which flight I got sleep on, but the total sleep was about 1.5 hours between the Kuwait-Frankfurt and Frankfurt-Philly flights.
Upon arriving in Philly, I was picked up by one of my best friends (good man, Jesse) and dropped off at home. I dropped my things off, hung around for a little bit, then went over to my other best friend's house (Andrew) for the night. Finally fell asleep at 11pm - while we were still hanging out and talking, something they've gotten used to me doing. ;)
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Six Months Completed
I'm going to start by apologizing for the months I skipped with no blog post. Next, I'm going to apologize because I didn't record any of what happened that might be of interest in the time in Iraq before I went on vacation, so I can only remember a few things. There really wasn't anything that interesting except for the rocket that landed nearby, but I'll get to that later.
In the week prior to leaving the base, I started going to the gym with Peter and/or Anjaz almost every day. It was real nice to actually be doing something active other than climbing T-walls (which can be fun). Working out at the gym consistently means that I might eventually be able to wear the form-fitting Under Armour shirt that I had bought out there. The shirt accentuated the size of my stomach and, unfortunately, I cannot hold my stomach in that long. ;) It's pretty obvious where I gained 15 lbs in that 6 months in Iraq. If you don't believe me, Adnan will vouch for the fact that I shouldn't wear that shirt just yet.
I've been so exhausted lately, it's been hard to recover memories that long ago (1-2 months ago), so I'll end this post here...
Oh, right, you are probably saying, "What about the rocket you mentioned?! What happened?!" The night before I left, I was just chillin' on my laptop in my room with a music channel playing on the TV when I thought I heard some alarm sound going off outside and a voice on the loudspeaker. I started thinking, "That's not the normal 'there will be a controlled detonation...' voice." As soon as I thought that, there was a loud explosion and my trailer shook. Now, this is something that is normal with a controlled detonation, except that this time wasn't a controlled detonation. I can usually tell the difference, but it definitely makes it easier when there's a voice on the loudspeaker urgently saying, "Incoming incoming incoming, take cover, take cover, incoming incoming!" which, upon immediately muting the TV, jumping up and going outside, I found out was what was being said over the loudspeaker. Apparently, the rocket landed in an office and blew a hole in the roof and one wall. Thankfully no one was there when it happened. I would make a guess that it was approximately 200-300 meters from our camp, or ~600-900 feet away. I could smell the smoke from the explosion.
Yes, there has been an increase in attacks from what I noticed in the past month, but I'm not worried. It's still not bad and the attackers still aren't very good at causing destruction.
Anyways, the next post will continue my adventure to this land called "America".
In the week prior to leaving the base, I started going to the gym with Peter and/or Anjaz almost every day. It was real nice to actually be doing something active other than climbing T-walls (which can be fun). Working out at the gym consistently means that I might eventually be able to wear the form-fitting Under Armour shirt that I had bought out there. The shirt accentuated the size of my stomach and, unfortunately, I cannot hold my stomach in that long. ;) It's pretty obvious where I gained 15 lbs in that 6 months in Iraq. If you don't believe me, Adnan will vouch for the fact that I shouldn't wear that shirt just yet.
I've been so exhausted lately, it's been hard to recover memories that long ago (1-2 months ago), so I'll end this post here...
Oh, right, you are probably saying, "What about the rocket you mentioned?! What happened?!" The night before I left, I was just chillin' on my laptop in my room with a music channel playing on the TV when I thought I heard some alarm sound going off outside and a voice on the loudspeaker. I started thinking, "That's not the normal 'there will be a controlled detonation...' voice." As soon as I thought that, there was a loud explosion and my trailer shook. Now, this is something that is normal with a controlled detonation, except that this time wasn't a controlled detonation. I can usually tell the difference, but it definitely makes it easier when there's a voice on the loudspeaker urgently saying, "Incoming incoming incoming, take cover, take cover, incoming incoming!" which, upon immediately muting the TV, jumping up and going outside, I found out was what was being said over the loudspeaker. Apparently, the rocket landed in an office and blew a hole in the roof and one wall. Thankfully no one was there when it happened. I would make a guess that it was approximately 200-300 meters from our camp, or ~600-900 feet away. I could smell the smoke from the explosion.
Yes, there has been an increase in attacks from what I noticed in the past month, but I'm not worried. It's still not bad and the attackers still aren't very good at causing destruction.
Anyways, the next post will continue my adventure to this land called "America".
Friday, September 25, 2009
Remembering The Blog
I didn't forget about you guys, really. I just forgot about the blog. My apologies!
One month, no updates, and I forgot to write down the interesting things that have happened in that time, so bear with me while I journey around my memories for the details.
Actually, in the last couple weeks it's been hard to do anything without being interrupted/distracted by someone here regarding work. I need to hide to get anything significant done.
I'll start with the thing everyone is probably thinking about. "When are you going on vacation???"
There have been a lot of things going on here lately, between increased activity from the outside (mortars, etc), an accident, network-related problems (my job) and the future.
Oh right, vacation. Some of you wanted to know when I'm coming home.
The answer --> I don't know. :)
It'll definitely be some time in October, but I don't know if it will be the first week or middle. But there are a few things I want to do when I get home and can't wait!
1. See family and friends.
2. Play hockey & volleyball.
3. Eat a real Philly cheesesteak.
4. Eat artichoke and beef fondue.
5. Drive my CAR on a SMOOTH road, with the windows down, and not have to worry about all the dust that could get inside.
So what has been going on in the life of Gavin in Iraq?
I'll start with the typical / expected details:
I'm burned out at work. I work too much and the results don't end in a fix much of the time. If I had the time to learn about the backend equipment and software better, I could possibly fix things up a little without relying on others to do it. It's not that the work is hard anymore, I understand a lot of it. It's just that there are a lot of things going wrong that are beyond what I work on and I don't want to mess with it until I know I won't make the bad worse. There are fixes, but they either take too long to do, are temporary, cost too much, or we're not allowed to do it.
A week ago a helicopter crashed in/near one of the housing areas. I did not see the damages done, if any, but I heard that four people were killed. :(
In the next 3-4 days following, in probably unrelated incidents, we saw a large increase in attacks on the base. The "incoming" alerts and anti-mortar guns went off at least 4 times a night and I noticed at least 7 on one night. There were also a few during the day.
On one of the days, there were a number of soldiers wearing body armor.
On the bright side, I met a really talkative (not in a bad way) contractor who happens to have a lot of contacts for other contracting jobs all over the world. He gave me all kinds of info on jobs and said he could guarantee me one job. I have to find out a lot more on the details, but I am liking the sound of the job. It would place me in Africa, working 4 months at a time, approximately 40 hours a week, making good money. I worked 5 months here at an avg of 75-80 hours a week, so 4 months at 40 hours is not bad at all!
Even if the Africa job doesn't pan out, there are a lot of other possibilities. I'm also going to speak with a guy here who had offered me a job and see if he still has something available. I wouldn't mind staying here if the pay was better.
One month, no updates, and I forgot to write down the interesting things that have happened in that time, so bear with me while I journey around my memories for the details.
Actually, in the last couple weeks it's been hard to do anything without being interrupted/distracted by someone here regarding work. I need to hide to get anything significant done.
I'll start with the thing everyone is probably thinking about. "When are you going on vacation???"
There have been a lot of things going on here lately, between increased activity from the outside (mortars, etc), an accident, network-related problems (my job) and the future.
Oh right, vacation. Some of you wanted to know when I'm coming home.
The answer --> I don't know. :)
It'll definitely be some time in October, but I don't know if it will be the first week or middle. But there are a few things I want to do when I get home and can't wait!
1. See family and friends.
2. Play hockey & volleyball.
3. Eat a real Philly cheesesteak.
4. Eat artichoke and beef fondue.
5. Drive my CAR on a SMOOTH road, with the windows down, and not have to worry about all the dust that could get inside.
So what has been going on in the life of Gavin in Iraq?
I'll start with the typical / expected details:
I'm burned out at work. I work too much and the results don't end in a fix much of the time. If I had the time to learn about the backend equipment and software better, I could possibly fix things up a little without relying on others to do it. It's not that the work is hard anymore, I understand a lot of it. It's just that there are a lot of things going wrong that are beyond what I work on and I don't want to mess with it until I know I won't make the bad worse. There are fixes, but they either take too long to do, are temporary, cost too much, or we're not allowed to do it.
A week ago a helicopter crashed in/near one of the housing areas. I did not see the damages done, if any, but I heard that four people were killed. :(
In the next 3-4 days following, in probably unrelated incidents, we saw a large increase in attacks on the base. The "incoming" alerts and anti-mortar guns went off at least 4 times a night and I noticed at least 7 on one night. There were also a few during the day.
On one of the days, there were a number of soldiers wearing body armor.
On the bright side, I met a really talkative (not in a bad way) contractor who happens to have a lot of contacts for other contracting jobs all over the world. He gave me all kinds of info on jobs and said he could guarantee me one job. I have to find out a lot more on the details, but I am liking the sound of the job. It would place me in Africa, working 4 months at a time, approximately 40 hours a week, making good money. I worked 5 months here at an avg of 75-80 hours a week, so 4 months at 40 hours is not bad at all!
Even if the Africa job doesn't pan out, there are a lot of other possibilities. I'm also going to speak with a guy here who had offered me a job and see if he still has something available. I wouldn't mind staying here if the pay was better.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Blog vs Gym
Blog 1, Gym 0.
Yes, I was thinking, "I have time to go to the gym tonight!" as I sat down to check my email real quick before going. Yet there was something about a bed, lying down, and being on the computer that just made me rethink my desire to hit the gym. Or maybe it was just because I felt bad for my readers/fans ;) and felt like updating the blog for once.
The gym can wait. It always has. Kinda like me and a girlfriend.
So, what do you guys want to know about the past month+ that has gone by without an update from the dust bowl?
I made some new friends, female and male. Awesome.
I will be going to the runway to take a tour of the aircraft and get some pics and all, should be good times! (Ok, yes, I know I've been saying this for about a month now, but something always happens - someone said I'm just not meant to go there and have my picture taken around cool stuff)
I will be taking vacation sometime soon, hopefully. Where to is still being decided, but I'm pretty sure that this first vacation will be back home. Next will be Europe.
Other than the 80-100 hour weeks I've been putting in, there are some hopeful things to come. Granted those hopeful things are work related and I need to free up some time in order to do those things...and that would put me back up to the 80-100 hour/week range.
I really don't mind doing most of the work (as long as I'm successful and not wasting time or doing things wrong/sloppy as that's a pet peeve of mine). I enjoy climbing trailers/walls, but my hands get tore up when I do that (and dirty). Soft skin vs rough terrain doesn't bode or end well with my soft skin. Rips my hands up so quick.
I'm trying to go swimming twice a week and would like to incorporate the gym somewhere in there, at least twice a week. The swimming pool has a scale like you would find at the doctor's office - with the slider, not digital. I think it isn't calibrated correctly, because last week I was about 76 kilos (167 lbs) and this week I was 82 kilos (180 lbs). Now I know my stomach has gotten larger since I got here in April (not the rest of me), but I did NOT gain 13 lbs in 1 week. I was eating lighter meals too! I'm going to go ahead and blame liquid retention again. I need to go sweat it out or something.
Now I understand why girls hate scales so much.
Actually, my reason is quite different. I won't go any further with that or I might get in trouble. ;)
Our lead field tech, Habib, is leaving sometime in the next few days to go home and get married. He'll be gone somewhere between 1.5-3 months. Depends how long his marriage lasts. Oh that was meannnnn. Sorry Habib, even though you'll never read this, I just don't think trying to eat arms or break necks is attractive to women. :P
Habib is a good guy as long as you're on his good side. I've been on the other side for a bit now, but I've been trying to get back on his good side. It's kind of hard to explain the whole situation and it has a lot to do with his beliefs, lifestyle, work ethic, determination, and though process.
He thinks I don't do much work because I'm multitasking working the field, service calls, customer service, and backend stuff. He only pays attention to the field work.
It's all good though. I've been learning to deal with some of the craziness he puts me thru.
Work is going ok, minus the tools and equipment that always seems to disappear from our truck and the Egyptians deny taking things (but somehow end up with some of the things I find in their truck). I taught some of them the word "Cleptomaniac".
Speaking of those kids, I'm gonna get some video of them working or saying things. I'll put em up on Facebook or Youtube or something sometime. Maybe even here.
Ok, this post is long. To summarize the rest:
Mongolian night is the best dinner night by far.
I got sick one day and didn't go to the doctor as people said I should have. It was my day off when I was sick, but I took the next day off as well to sleep in and rest/recover.
I am kind of worried what will happen to the customer service side of things when I go on vacation, since many people just email me directly. I shudder to think of what might happen when an American with 10 years of customer service experience turns it over to nationals with barely any CS experience.
Lastly, I miss skating. I miss hockey. Oh, and I miss family and friends!
Yes, I was thinking, "I have time to go to the gym tonight!" as I sat down to check my email real quick before going. Yet there was something about a bed, lying down, and being on the computer that just made me rethink my desire to hit the gym. Or maybe it was just because I felt bad for my readers/fans ;) and felt like updating the blog for once.
The gym can wait. It always has. Kinda like me and a girlfriend.
So, what do you guys want to know about the past month+ that has gone by without an update from the dust bowl?
I made some new friends, female and male. Awesome.
I will be going to the runway to take a tour of the aircraft and get some pics and all, should be good times! (Ok, yes, I know I've been saying this for about a month now, but something always happens - someone said I'm just not meant to go there and have my picture taken around cool stuff)
I will be taking vacation sometime soon, hopefully. Where to is still being decided, but I'm pretty sure that this first vacation will be back home. Next will be Europe.
Other than the 80-100 hour weeks I've been putting in, there are some hopeful things to come. Granted those hopeful things are work related and I need to free up some time in order to do those things...and that would put me back up to the 80-100 hour/week range.
I really don't mind doing most of the work (as long as I'm successful and not wasting time or doing things wrong/sloppy as that's a pet peeve of mine). I enjoy climbing trailers/walls, but my hands get tore up when I do that (and dirty). Soft skin vs rough terrain doesn't bode or end well with my soft skin. Rips my hands up so quick.
I'm trying to go swimming twice a week and would like to incorporate the gym somewhere in there, at least twice a week. The swimming pool has a scale like you would find at the doctor's office - with the slider, not digital. I think it isn't calibrated correctly, because last week I was about 76 kilos (167 lbs) and this week I was 82 kilos (180 lbs). Now I know my stomach has gotten larger since I got here in April (not the rest of me), but I did NOT gain 13 lbs in 1 week. I was eating lighter meals too! I'm going to go ahead and blame liquid retention again. I need to go sweat it out or something.
Now I understand why girls hate scales so much.
Actually, my reason is quite different. I won't go any further with that or I might get in trouble. ;)
Our lead field tech, Habib, is leaving sometime in the next few days to go home and get married. He'll be gone somewhere between 1.5-3 months. Depends how long his marriage lasts. Oh that was meannnnn. Sorry Habib, even though you'll never read this, I just don't think trying to eat arms or break necks is attractive to women. :P
Habib is a good guy as long as you're on his good side. I've been on the other side for a bit now, but I've been trying to get back on his good side. It's kind of hard to explain the whole situation and it has a lot to do with his beliefs, lifestyle, work ethic, determination, and though process.
He thinks I don't do much work because I'm multitasking working the field, service calls, customer service, and backend stuff. He only pays attention to the field work.
It's all good though. I've been learning to deal with some of the craziness he puts me thru.
Work is going ok, minus the tools and equipment that always seems to disappear from our truck and the Egyptians deny taking things (but somehow end up with some of the things I find in their truck). I taught some of them the word "Cleptomaniac".
Speaking of those kids, I'm gonna get some video of them working or saying things. I'll put em up on Facebook or Youtube or something sometime. Maybe even here.
Ok, this post is long. To summarize the rest:
Mongolian night is the best dinner night by far.
I got sick one day and didn't go to the doctor as people said I should have. It was my day off when I was sick, but I took the next day off as well to sleep in and rest/recover.
I am kind of worried what will happen to the customer service side of things when I go on vacation, since many people just email me directly. I shudder to think of what might happen when an American with 10 years of customer service experience turns it over to nationals with barely any CS experience.
Lastly, I miss skating. I miss hockey. Oh, and I miss family and friends!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
I Will Survive
"It just so happens that your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive." -*-Princess Bride quote-*-
I am around, I am alive. I haven't taken a day off (partially my choice so I wouldn't have to deal with as many complaints later on) in over 3 weeks. The last 3-5 days (I don't know how many have gone by like this), I've worked ~16 hours each day.
I'm tired. -_-
I was going to twist the "I Will Survive" song (if that's even the title), but I don't have time...running out now. More to come. Hopefully soon, because that means my brain is untangling and isn't like a spiderweb with broken webbing.
I am around, I am alive. I haven't taken a day off (partially my choice so I wouldn't have to deal with as many complaints later on) in over 3 weeks. The last 3-5 days (I don't know how many have gone by like this), I've worked ~16 hours each day.
I'm tired. -_-
I was going to twist the "I Will Survive" song (if that's even the title), but I don't have time...running out now. More to come. Hopefully soon, because that means my brain is untangling and isn't like a spiderweb with broken webbing.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
A Little Excitement (Hopefully) Never Hurts.
FYI, the title means "(Hopefully) Never Hurts", not "A Little Excitement (Hopefully)".
After an exhilarating 3 days of thick dust-fog, it started to clear up only to find a C113 (I think) had crash landed on the runway right near our NOC (office). It wasn't a terrible crash, landing gear probably malfunctioned or something. It did catch fire though.
The next evening, I was dropping a coworker off for dinner and an MP (military police) flew past us with his lights going. Dropped Imran off and the MP had stopped only about 40-50 feet away from us searching the ground with flashlights.
Turns out, as Imran told me later, a mortar had landed in that area and they had closed the DFAC (chow hall) early because of it. It had landed maybe 10-15 minutes prior to us arriving.
I hope no one got hurt. I never heard whether or not there were injuries and don't think there were. Was I scared? Naw. Kinda would like to see a mortar land somewhere. Would be a cool experience, though I'd hate to be a target of any shrapnel.
Two weeks of bad dust storms on the weekend means I've had to miss going swimming on my day off two weeks in a row. The week before that, the Egyptians were working all day, so we didn't go. I'm getting lazy. Sleepy. Zzzzzz.
I'm trying to eat lighter or less often or both until I start doing something active again. This whole no activity and lots of eating thing doesn't bode well.
I have to be careful climbing (as much as I'd like to see how fast I can scale a wall and get on a roof) because of the bursitis in my shoulder. It doesn't bother me, but if I tweak my arm like I did last week, it not only doesn't feel good, but it doesn't sound good either. :)
Wow, I think this post just made me look like I was becoming fat, lazy and falling apart. Thanks brain.
After an exhilarating 3 days of thick dust-fog, it started to clear up only to find a C113 (I think) had crash landed on the runway right near our NOC (office). It wasn't a terrible crash, landing gear probably malfunctioned or something. It did catch fire though.
The next evening, I was dropping a coworker off for dinner and an MP (military police) flew past us with his lights going. Dropped Imran off and the MP had stopped only about 40-50 feet away from us searching the ground with flashlights.
Turns out, as Imran told me later, a mortar had landed in that area and they had closed the DFAC (chow hall) early because of it. It had landed maybe 10-15 minutes prior to us arriving.
I hope no one got hurt. I never heard whether or not there were injuries and don't think there were. Was I scared? Naw. Kinda would like to see a mortar land somewhere. Would be a cool experience, though I'd hate to be a target of any shrapnel.
Two weeks of bad dust storms on the weekend means I've had to miss going swimming on my day off two weeks in a row. The week before that, the Egyptians were working all day, so we didn't go. I'm getting lazy. Sleepy. Zzzzzz.
I'm trying to eat lighter or less often or both until I start doing something active again. This whole no activity and lots of eating thing doesn't bode well.
I have to be careful climbing (as much as I'd like to see how fast I can scale a wall and get on a roof) because of the bursitis in my shoulder. It doesn't bother me, but if I tweak my arm like I did last week, it not only doesn't feel good, but it doesn't sound good either. :)
Wow, I think this post just made me look like I was becoming fat, lazy and falling apart. Thanks brain.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Build a Sand Castle.
I'm sorry, the title is a little misleading. Read on.
On Mon, Tue, Wed and Thu, I was out in the sun working/hiding in the shade every 2-30 minutes. Some might say 2 minutes in the sun, 30 minutes in the shade. I scoff and laugh at that! It was more like 4 minutes in the sun.
Just kidding. The actual time spent in the sun or shade was anywhere between 2-30 minutes at a time. Yes, I was working, not just supervising. I get too bored supervising.
Monday was fine. Myself and three Egyptians set out to dig trenches thru the dorms area.
No, not WWI trenches. These were 6-10 inch deep trenches so that we could lay 1 inch cable conduit in between the dorms in order to provide Internet service to the troops in the dorms.
Digging wasn't a problem. I enjoy digging, somewhat. I always loved shoveling snow as a kid, teenager, college student. I prefer shoveling snow. It's an excuse to work out some muscles.
The problem was getting under the sidewalks. The dirt was packed hard and we could only dig a few inches under it before having to use a sledgehammer to hammer a metal pipe thru the rest of the way. This process took about 45min to an hour for each of 8 sidewalks and was very tiring.
Oh and yes, 105-115 degrees at midday, you better believe I was drinking fluids. I was going thru about 1 bottle of water an hour (32oz or more) plus a Gatorade or energy drink here and there.
On Wednesday, I almost injured a couple of our guys when my tired arms tried swinging the heavy sledgehammer at the pipe to force it thru underneath the sidewalk and it slipped out of my hands (ok, I missed the pipe because I was trying to show the guys to hit it dead on instead of on top). The hammer flew over the sidewalk and landed a couple feet past it. Luckily the two guys behind me were paying attention and dodged it (barely). We had a laugh, as I'm sure the few Airforce guys at a bus stop did too.
The Egyptians are crazy workers. One of the guys who dodged my sledgehammer toss (no, I wasn't pretending to be Koopa either) was swinging the hammer and ended up slicing his finger somehow and was bleeding all over, but insisted that he not stop working. I argued with him a bit and made him come to the bathroom and clean it up, then to Housing to get bandages. It wasn't too bad, but it had been bleeding pretty bad.
Anyways! Today I was pretty dehydrated. After all that liquid, I was still dehydrated. I didn't even have to go to the bathroom any of those days until evening, even with drinking what I think was easily over 200oz of liquid. No wonder I am gaining weight - liquid retention!
I slept till about noon. Fun stuff. Tomorrow is supposed to be over 115 deg. I should be fine though.
Posted picture below, farmers tan - Arm vs Stomach, Round 1:
It must be the lighting in the bathroom or the angle the picture was taken, but to me the tan looks darker in actuality than in this picture. Maybe I had the settings on the camera incorrect. Who knows.
On Mon, Tue, Wed and Thu, I was out in the sun working/hiding in the shade every 2-30 minutes. Some might say 2 minutes in the sun, 30 minutes in the shade. I scoff and laugh at that! It was more like 4 minutes in the sun.
Just kidding. The actual time spent in the sun or shade was anywhere between 2-30 minutes at a time. Yes, I was working, not just supervising. I get too bored supervising.
Monday was fine. Myself and three Egyptians set out to dig trenches thru the dorms area.
No, not WWI trenches. These were 6-10 inch deep trenches so that we could lay 1 inch cable conduit in between the dorms in order to provide Internet service to the troops in the dorms.
Digging wasn't a problem. I enjoy digging, somewhat. I always loved shoveling snow as a kid, teenager, college student. I prefer shoveling snow. It's an excuse to work out some muscles.
The problem was getting under the sidewalks. The dirt was packed hard and we could only dig a few inches under it before having to use a sledgehammer to hammer a metal pipe thru the rest of the way. This process took about 45min to an hour for each of 8 sidewalks and was very tiring.
Oh and yes, 105-115 degrees at midday, you better believe I was drinking fluids. I was going thru about 1 bottle of water an hour (32oz or more) plus a Gatorade or energy drink here and there.
On Wednesday, I almost injured a couple of our guys when my tired arms tried swinging the heavy sledgehammer at the pipe to force it thru underneath the sidewalk and it slipped out of my hands (ok, I missed the pipe because I was trying to show the guys to hit it dead on instead of on top). The hammer flew over the sidewalk and landed a couple feet past it. Luckily the two guys behind me were paying attention and dodged it (barely). We had a laugh, as I'm sure the few Airforce guys at a bus stop did too.
The Egyptians are crazy workers. One of the guys who dodged my sledgehammer toss (no, I wasn't pretending to be Koopa either) was swinging the hammer and ended up slicing his finger somehow and was bleeding all over, but insisted that he not stop working. I argued with him a bit and made him come to the bathroom and clean it up, then to Housing to get bandages. It wasn't too bad, but it had been bleeding pretty bad.
Anyways! Today I was pretty dehydrated. After all that liquid, I was still dehydrated. I didn't even have to go to the bathroom any of those days until evening, even with drinking what I think was easily over 200oz of liquid. No wonder I am gaining weight - liquid retention!
I slept till about noon. Fun stuff. Tomorrow is supposed to be over 115 deg. I should be fine though.
Posted picture below, farmers tan - Arm vs Stomach, Round 1:
It must be the lighting in the bathroom or the angle the picture was taken, but to me the tan looks darker in actuality than in this picture. Maybe I had the settings on the camera incorrect. Who knows.
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