Pass The Brass

My ops are based. My new laptop was givin me some issues that turned out to be malicious or just plain mean software that didn’t agree with my OS, so I had to reformat which was a bummer, but at least it’s all werkin’ now. Only thing I really lost was a game I had installed back in the states and left the disks there. No big.

So things are heating up here…I mean in the way of weather. Oh and of course our newest TTP’s are freakin sweet, but I can’t mention those due to OPSEC and embarassment. I’ll just put out two words…Battle Buddy. If you’ve ever seen Gunner Palace, you might get a hint. Personally I find a sick humor in the whole thing, but that could be viewed both ways and might even have a negative influence on my image. Not that I have a pretty one, but I’m tryin to polish it after that last incident…the one where I was shat upon. Yah, that was no fun. I still repress those memories. *shudder*

Life is better now that I have nestled into my Pink Floydish status of being “Comfortably Numb”. Things aren’t any better or worse. Same ole, same ole. But at least now I can say to myself EVERY DAY…that there’s only 5 months left. 5 MONTHS!! That means we’re more than half way done with this thing! WoOt!! I look forward to getting off of work at around 7 in the evening and walking across the lot to my ‘88 Pontiac Grand Am Coupe. As I ease my weary body into my Mossy Oak seat cover I start up the engine and blast my ear drums to Kingdom come as I drive to my sweet new barracks complex to go lay down in my room on my mink blanket and have my music playing softly in the background…no generator, no annoying room mate who stinks…no dust pumping through my AC to corrupt my lungs…just good ole American air.

Speaking of lungs n stuff. I figure it’s gonna take a good month’s worth of Idaho-Air to fully clear my lungs of this Irak atmosphere. And maybe my bowels will return to normality as well. *crosses fingers* (ihopeihopehope)

Ah man…Papa Johns pizza at midnight…plenty of bee double ee double are you ens…and Sonics..oh and gun stores, I love those. Can’t wait to get all that back again.

So that’s enough for tonight…hopefully my dreams tonight are filled with sugar plum fairies and such.

“I’d like you to do me a favor. Look around you…take everything in…leave no mental stone unturned. Can you do that for me? Then…I want you to imagine what your life would be like had you been born blind.”

I leave you with your thoughts.

*massive sigh*

Well, when I pulled in the other night at about 2330, I had a fresh outlook on Irak. “Hey, I’ve had a nice break right in the middle. I should be starting totally fresh now. Hell, I can even come back with lessons learned. I should know how to handle stuff with experience now instead of for a first time.’

Well…as anyone who has ever deployed before can probably tell you, that mentality didn’t last too long.

Due to the fact that I arrived so late the night before, I didn’t go out that day which was perfect ‘cuz it gave me time to get all my gear set back up the way it was…mission ready. That day was good for me. It was a slower incorporation into the Irak lifestyle. Good way to come back, not just dropped right into the heat of things(it’s happened before…not so much to me but others). Day one ends with no hang ups.

The next day we have a 0300 wake up for mission, so that’s a bummer. But we get out on mission and do our deeds.

People who know me know that I have a “Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde” kinda personality. But it’s not so much the same Dr. as you may remember him from the stories. The Dr. is a bit different now. But I can honsetly say I have never had such a sheer dive into depression as I did the first mission back here in Irak. All the cautions I had about returning with this “fresh” slate and being able to handle the “horrors” of Irak with a stronger psyche…sadly…were all for naught.

Never in my life have I been dropped so quickly into a depression so deep as that day. It was as if I completely missed the rope bridge and fell completely into the abyss. Surrounded by darkness, I was swimming in a pool of my own despair. I was afloat in a vast sea of death and retention. I was adrift…forever to sail the lost seas until I was commited to Davy Jones locker…forever a guest of the Abyss…ok ok ok so it wasn’t really THAT bad, but it was a pretty quick drop into a very down mood = a bad day for me.

So here I am back into my good ole “original” psyche of how much this place sucks. GRANTED…IT CAN BE WORSE. I know that, I admit it and I’m not saying I have it so bad that I might as well be dead. It’s not the conditions that I live in…it’s the mentality of this place. THAT’S what get’s me.

But there is solace for my miserable self in this vile “Pit of Despair”. Once your in it, you just slither into a comfortabel niche in your own filth. Like swine in mud, I am comfortable. But like the Princess and the Pea I hate life.

Well they finally nuked the silly sidewinder!

I’m sure you’ve found plenty of news feeds on it…I’m kinda late on this one. But PTA’s got a fun little discussion goin on. Join that one all of you intellectual types!

It’s closing time ladies and gentlemen…that defining hour that every man and woman comes to at least once in their lives…whether to actually keep on keepin’ on…or go to Canada(No Janet, there’s nothing wrong with Canada,I SWEAR.)

I am in my final hours here in the good ole North West and as sweet as this little break has been, I still have not developed that sadist outlook of actually wanting to go back, but alas(incoming cliche), Duty Calls! So I return to thee Sand Pit to resume my official duties as a keeper of the peace. But I do not return as I was before, no. I am a changed man. I return as a man who went fishing once and caught a few little fishies, and I also got to see Over The Hedge, and I ate half a gallon of ice cream/fudge/chocolate/whipped cream/marshmallowy goodness, and am bolstered in my relationship with my best gal. Yes, I am a new man with so much more life experience now that I feel I may be of even more importance to my unit. I have so much more to offer(of course they all may feel a little differently.)

Let’s talk about goals accomplished and those failed; There’s some things that have been substituted and I’m actually okay with that.

First Meal: Well…seeing as I didn’t get the “pleasure” of visiting Kalifornia, I didn’t get my official “First Meal Back In The States” goal. When I fly back I like to enjoy a delicious Carne Asada Burrito from El Asador(con Queso) but I didn’t get that…instead my first meal was…um…well let’s see….oh yah…a microwaved hot dog at a Serviceman’s Center. BUT IT WAS FREE!! And the deliciousness of the food was more than outweighed by the pleasure of being in the company of the kindest volunteers ever. These people made me feel at home immediately(even though I was on a 10 hour hold over in Miny-Apples). So all thanks and gratitude go out to those kind folks over there. You guys rock!

The “Do Something On Leave” Goal: Um…I played the part of Sound Man at one of my moms 5th Grade school plays and got to take my guns out for a little RnR out in teh woodsers. Didn’t make Six Flags Magic Mountain as planned, but I’m allright with that.

Planned(unplanned?) Dates: Accomplished. Granted I wasn’t really myself for the major part of her stay, but I eventually broke out of my self conscious shell and expressed exactly what was on my mind and ended up strengthening our relationship 10 fold. Jame on the other hand probably thinks I’m a deadbeat for playing the part of the ogre for the most of her stay and I feel like a doofus for that, but I eventually came to myself and things got better.

Planned Events: Birthday’s - Janie’s: Made it by 4 hours. WoOt!! I’m an uncle again! Mine and evryone else’s: Missed…da-gum. Graduations - Missed by location and lack of time! Except for Road Warrior’s, I made his grad party anyway. So congratualations to Jamie, Dizzles, Road Warrior, and anyone else graduating from anything.

Alchohol Consumption: I’m a lightweight…I’m just gonna leave it at that.

Computer Problems: Fixed…sorta. Replaced is more like it. By the way..that brand new MP3 player I just got…quit werkin on me. I have the worst luck when it comes to these things.

House Fixations: Um…we got the pantry reshelved and painted. All I did was carry the old shelves outside. Go me! Chad did the rest. Go him!

New Movie Catch Up: I saw two movies. X-Men III and Over The Hedge. I missed Silent Hill by about a week or so. So one comedy and a action/science fiction flick. Not too bad. Jamie tried to get me to watch The Notebook but I stood my ground. And then Jeremy tried to get us to watch Brokeback Mountain but we won that battle too. And extra special extra was watching Donnie Darko for the first time. That was a freakin sweet movie.

And lastly(but only cuz it’s the best,)Makin’ It Home In Time For My Nieces Birth: Accomplished by 4 hours! That’s freakin awesome! All thanks go to God on that one.

So overall, I accomplished most of my goals. I’m satisfied. But most importantly I am “rested and relaxed”.

So until I arrive in Bag-Dad…Peace Out.

I don’t know what it is, but for some sadistic reason, everytime I talk to my dad he likes to keep asking me what day I fly back. I think he’s just confused and thinks that I am actually looking forward to it.

Before I went on leave I had been hearin’ from some of the other guys about how they felt near the end of their leave. I heard about how some dreaded the day…but I also heard how some were lookin’ forward to returning. One can only imagine why.

I feel the way of the former in that I dread the day I return to that pit of sheol. But also like the latter, I feel like I need to get back to my brothers in arms. I feel like I owe them my presence. Just the thought of AWOL pisses me off. How anyone could be so cowardly and selfish to leave all these men and women to save their damn selves. How can you get so selfish? I would never. Not to mention, then I couldn’t ever go back to the states, and I’d have to live in Canada or something….and who would wanna live there?

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Right now I’m at my one week mark on leave, and although I haven’t done anything “major”, I’m still feeling somewhat satisfied with how my leave is going. Some good news for myself and anyone who reads this stuff; I replaced my latop. Now, instead of being a whole year behind the power curve, I’m only 6 months back. Sweet dude! Funny story behind that one.

Ya know how when something is broke and you get so aggravated and when you go and show someone…it works. And then you just lose it and end up spiking the dang thing right then and there. Well this went somewhat similar to that.

Scene: Local Best Buy
Time: Um…noon…ish?
So I walk into Best Buy and take my laptop over to the Geek Squad(read, super intelligent beings who know everything about computers). I bust out the laptop and give the guy my sob story and even demonstrate how my computer does this flicker every time you try to turn it on. The “Geek” then tells me that they can try to run tests and stuff on it for about 200+ greenbacks. I thought that was a bit pricey so I gave the guy an offer he couldn’t refuse. I simply said no thanks. He then told me that it was a pretty good chance that the motherboard was fried, seeing as the computer was constantly subjected to jolts of static electricity(read “Irak sux becuz they don’t ground anything!”) So after hearing that my mom-board is BBQ, I decide now is as good a time as ever to update my tech. So I simply go and browse the other laptops for a new piece of hardware. I pick out a sweet HP aimed at Multimedia. This laptop being not unlike one that a friend of mine back in Irak just picked up. So now I can finally prove that I DID get one. Nuther story, that one.

So I’m back at the counter and purchasing my sweet new laptop and my old Dell(RIP) is sitting on the counter next to me. As I’m talking with the “Geek” about my new laptop, my bro decides to mess with my Dell(RIP) and flips up the top cover and presses the power button…the screen flickers to life and windows proceeds to load up.

I’m sittin’ there staring at the screen in complete disbelief. “How the hell’d you do that?!?” The reply,”I just pushed the button.” This is where that first line comes in…how something won’t work until everyone else tries it.

I swear there was an angry Iraki spirit inside my computer and it just recently died due to fresh air. They strive on the smell of poo-gas in the air 24/7 so this one was choking since the day I arrived in country. And it died minutes after I showed the “Geek” how my computer didn’t work. I hate it when that happens.

After the screen boots up, a set-up screen pops up and says that the computewr had been running at higher temp’s than were alloted the poor CPU. Granted it is hot in Irak but it wasn’t that hot it my room. I can only guess that it was due to a build up of dust on the cooling fan. Although I have yet to take the stupid thing apart and clean it.

So thus ends the story of my broken laptop. I now have two. One Dell and one HP. One old and one new.Hey that rhymed.